by Aleron Kong
It was also awesome that he had found a new quest chain! And he had already completed the first two links! Cha-ching! When he had gained both his Profession and his Specialty he had been told to “honor” them if he was to progress. Richter had thought it was just hyperbole. These new secret quests proved him wrong. He realized that he really shouldn’t be surprised. Again and again, he was shown that words were not just idle wind in The Land. They had power. He resolved to pay closer attention to such things in the future.
Then he turned his attention to the items he had collected before running like a bat out of hell.
You have found: Psi Crystal. Durability: 10/10. Item Class: Scarce. Level: 10. Weight: 0.9 kg. …
You have found: Psi Crystal. Durability: 10/10. Item Class: Scarce. Level: 15. Weight: 0.9 kg. …
You have found: Psi Crystal. Durability: 10/10. Item Class: Scarce. Level: 12. Weight: 0.9 kg. …
Richter called Alma down to him and touched her with all three crystals. The blue-white light within the jewels flowed into his familiar, and she launched herself back into the air with a cry.
Know This! Pure psychic energy can enhance the characteristics of your Psi Dragonling. Each level of your Psi Crystal equates to 1 Psi Point. Current Psi Points available: 41. Any unused Psi Points will be lost after 24 hours. At her current evolution, Alma has the following advancements available.
Name of Enhancement
Traits
Cost
Natural Armor II
Current Armor: 4
Increase the natural armor of your dragonling by +1
20
Natural Attack I
Current Attack: 5
Increase the melee attack of your dragonling by +1
10
Flight Speed II
Increase Flight Speed by 10%
20
Convert to Ability Points
Allows the Purchase of 1 Ability Point
20
Chameleon I
Your dragonling’s body will change color by 10% to match the surrounding environment
20
Convert to Characteristic Points
(Size, Race, etc adjustments still apply)
Str 5, Agi 33, Dex 34, Con 13, End 18, Int 73, Wis 73, Chr 18, Luc 18
Allows Purchase of one Characteristic Point that will be added to base value
10
Darkvision I
Gives Darkvision with a radius of 50 yards
10
Weak Psi Poison
Your dragonling’s teeth and claw will now exude a psi poison. This does minimal damage but makes concentrating more difficult. While the poison is active, the target is also more susceptible to psychic attacks.
10
Richter was tempted to purchase Natural Armor II, but Alma needed more offensive capabilities. If she had them, maybe he wouldn’t have had to take a three-minute beating during the last fight as a distraction. It was time for his girl to get an upgrade. He bought Weak Psi Poison, and the description in the prompt changed.
Minor Psi Poison
Your dragonling’s teeth and claw will now exude a stronger psi poison. It still causes minimal damage, but the penalty to concentration is markedly increased. The target may suffer from profound paranoia. While the poison is active, the target is also more susceptible to psychic attacks.
20
The chaos seed read the new prompt. The minor version of the poison apparently made it hard to concentrate and caused paranoia… Richter was surprised it didn’t cause the munchies too. Still, the fact that it could increase the chance of mages to miscast made it worthwhile. He purchased the next rank, and the table changed again.
Psi Poison
Your dragonling’s teeth and claws will now exude a stronger psi poison. The poison now causes a slight amount of health, mana and stamina damage. Chance of spell misfire increased and now there is a slight chance for spell backfire.
40
Total Psi Points Remaining: 11
Richter dismissed the prompts and focused on the run. He felt a profound sense of relief when the three of them finally crested the last hill, and they saw the trees. They were barely a mile from the entrance to the valley! A check of Alma’s feed showed the leading edge of the goblin army was only two hundred yards back. Richter had been worried that their pursuers might slow when they got closer to the trees, but as he continued to scan the scene through the dragonling’s eyes, he realized with a sinking feeling that wouldn’t be a problem.
Just as he had feared, the slowest of the released prisoners hadn’t yet made it to the safety of the trees yet. They were spread out over a quarter mile, from the riverbed to the mouth of the valley. If the sun hadn’t risen, the goblins might have missed the former captives. With the sky lightening, however, if the prisoners weren’t seen immediately they would be seen soon.
“Sion!” he called out, worry in his voice. The pain of having sprinted three miles was horrid, and his stamina bar was getting close to bottoming out.
“I see them. Keep… running,” the meidon sprite responded.
“They’ll be killed!”
“Keep running!” Sion shouted. “Trust the… Hearth Mother.”
Richter kept his gaze on the prisoners for another few moments. If they didn’t make the tree line, they would be dead as soon as the goblins caught up with them. His jaw firmed, though. Sion was right. He couldn’t keep making the same mistake of trying to do everything himself. He had to trust his allies. His arrogance that he knew better than anyone else had caused deaths in the past. The chaos seed wouldn’t make that mistake again.
They kept running.
The ground lit up with the red glows of his traps, easily seen by the entire war party thanks to Richter’s position as Scout. Damien and Sion ran well clear of the hidden snares and made it to the tree line. About twenty sprites were outside of the trees hurrying the prisoners along. Richter ran into the trees, following the icon that showed Hisako’s position. Yoshi was with her.
“We have to help these people,” Richter gasped as he stopped running. “The goblins will be here in minutes!”
“Peace,” Hisako said soothingly. “Peace and calm. They are already safe. We did not sit idly by while you were in harm’s way.”
She quickly filled him in. After the strike team had left, she had sent sprites to observe the encampment from afar. One of those sharp-eyed sentries had seen the prisoners making their way along the riverbed. Once they were spotted, a group of fifty sprites had run forward out of hiding to help the captives. It was a risk, but a calculated one. If the captives were effectively hidden by the river bank, then the sprites should be as well. All of the captives had been brought safely back to the woods. Hisako had already cast mass healing and cure disease spells. Apparently, some of the captives had even asked for weapons so that they could join the fight.
“Then why did I see-” Richter began, but then it clicked. It was a trick. Hisako had figured out the same thing that he had. There needed to be an enticement for the goblins to rush towards the tree line. She had given it to them. The chaos seed had no doubt that the “stragglers” outside of the trees were prisoners that had volunteered to fight. They were risking their lives to draw the goblins into a trap. After seeing the conditions the captives had been kept in, it was not difficult to imagine the anger they must feel. Some of them were most likely scarred for life, but others would probably sacrifice anything to spill the black blood of their former captors. Richter also had a feeling that the weapons and armor of the slain goblins would be put to good use soon.
Hisako smiled faintly at seeing the light of realization in his eyes. Her joy was short-lived. The peal of a goblin’s horn stopped any further conversation. It was so loud that without looking Richter knew that the goblins had crested the final hill. The sounds of dozens then hundreds of screaming goblin voices rose into the air. Hisako looked at Richter and said, “It is time.”
CHAPTER 37 – D
ay 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The “stragglers,” who had been moving with exaggerated slowness, picked up speed as they made their way back into the trees. They still played into the image of wounded captives, though, limping and struggling. It was like blood in the water. The goblins howled and rushed forward, eager for slaughter. The sprites outside of the trees also played into the deception. They shouted in alarm and started firing imbued shots into the goblin horde while they backed up. Seeing as how there were only a dozen sprites visible, though, their attack looked like they were throwing pebbles at a green avalanche. Though a few goblins fell, the overall effect was minimal. The only deaths were actually caused by the fallen being trampled by their comrades who surged over them as they thirsted for blood.
A specific sequence blasted out from a goblin horn. The goblins advanced. The group was entirely comprised of scouts and fighters. The sprites hidden in the trees readied their shots. Hisako had already noted ranging landmarks, and every sprite awaited her order, just inside the tree line. If the goblins had stopped for even a moment, they might have spotted their hated enemies, but they were blinded by bloodlust.
The lead edges of the enemy advance crossed a large rock that was two hundred and fifty yards away. Richter knew that the sprites could fire accurately at that range, but still, the Hearth Mother waited. Hisako watched as the goblins passed the two hundred yard mark, but still she held. Another two seconds passed, then, with a face that could have been cast from steel, she completed a quick casting. A high-pitched whistle shot through the air, and over three hundred bow strings launched as one.
The first volley was not imbued, and neither was the second or the third. The arrows were nearly invisible in the early dawn light. In the space of seconds, almost a thousand arrows sailed through the air. The goblins at the front of the pack had time for a moment of terrified realization before arrows plunged into their chests, limbs, necks and faces.
The opening salvo of the battle claimed the lives of almost one hundred enemy soldiers and injured almost twice that number. Hisako nodded to Yoshi, who raised a sprite horn to his lips. In contrast to the squealing clamor of the goblin horns, this instrument let loose a pealing note that sounded like the lilting call of a bird. Ta-Rii, Ta-Rii.
All of the anger, hatred, and bloodlust the goblins had been feeling was replaced by fear as they saw the distinctive blue glow. From birth, the green-skinned soldiers were told stories of the evil forest rats and their horrible magic arrows. Seeing hundreds of imbuements at once was like seeing their worst nightmare made real.
The goblin commander ordered shield units prepared with a curse. Centuries of battling the sprites had proven what tactics worked against the sprites and which didn’t. Time and again, goblins had been able to win battles if they could close the distance to melee range and overwhelm the sprites with superior numbers. Heqht-jo also knew that as destructive as the imbued arrows could be, each sprite had a limited mana pool. If he could get them to waste most of their magic against the shields of his forces, then he could crush them. Some goblins would most definitely die while that was happening, but that was what battle fodder was for.
The shield units rushed to array themselves in front of the goblin army. If they had advanced further forward, the shield bearers might have saved those at the edge of the sprites’ attack range, but the fate of those closer to the tree line was sealed. This was why Hisako had waited to give the order to strike. She had needed the goblins well within her people’s attack range. Heqht-jo knew that as well. He left the advance team to live or die based on their own strength rather than waste more valuable units.
The sprites powered their shots for five seconds, the standard attack time indicated by Yoshi’s horn blast. Years went into training sprite archers. Those countless hours paid off as they released as one. The shots flew forward, and the cumulative detonations echoed through the valley with a massive BOOM! Goblin scouts and fighters from the first attack wave screamed in terror as death fell from above. Dirt, bodies, and waves of magical force flew this way and that. A cheer was taken up by the combined forces of the Mist Village and Hearth Tree. The battle ground to an early halt as the forces on both sides glared at one another over a field of bodies.
Heqht-jo gritted his teeth. The other truths that all goblin commanders learned were that one, you did not attack sprites entrenched in trees, where their cursed Woodcraft ability tilted the odds in their favor, and two, you must never let them ambush you. He had failed to keep both of those things from happening. It occurred to him that retreat might have been the most prudent course of action at that point. True, the prisoners would be lost, but they were simply a means to an end. More could be captured, and it was unlikely the sprites could defeat his forces once they were fortified. Most importantly, the artifact would be protected.
The thought did not last more than a moment in the goblin’s mind. He would not be defeated. He would not bear the insult of losing his prisoners. He would not allow himself to be defeated in battle, at the hands of sprite no less. It would lower his rank in goblin society. He would kill them all! It didn’t matter if it cost him the life of every soldier under his command. That had always been the racial strength of goblins. More could always be bred. No, he would attack and sacrifice every prisoner. Besides, he thought with a smile, he had the Bloodstone.
Heqht-jo looked to the Druid at his side, “Protect them.”
The Professed Druid, Radg-or, adopted a cruel smile and began chanting. Green light surrounded his left hand, and his right rested upon the Bloodstone. A red glow ignited behind his eyes, making him look like a demonic creature. The goblin shield units arrayed themselves at the front of the warband and awaited the order to strike.
Radg-or drew heavily on the mana pool of the Bloodstone and not for the first time he wished he could command its full powers. Without Blood magic, however, he was severely limited in his manipulation of the sanguine item. The Druid definitely had offensive spells, but the Bloodstone didn’t extend the range of his spells. Still, the thousands of points of mana it contained would be put to good use, immediately. He cast Soldiers of Stone.
Liquid stone welled at the feet of every green-skinned soldier. It quickly flowed up and over their bodies. One or two began to panic, but many had fought with the Druid before and knew what to expect. The fluid grey rock flowed over the bodies, clothes, armor and weapons of every goblin in the AoE, covering them from head to toe. The rock disappeared a second later, however, sinking into the goblins’ skins and armor. The skins of the goblins adopted a grey tinge and the hide, leather and metal armor grew gritty in appearance. This was just a side effect of the spell. The exact effect was that each goblin’s natural and worn armor had an increased by +10. For the next twenty minutes, the goblins truly had become tanks.
“What spell was that?” Richter asked.
“Soldiers of Stone,” Hisako replied grimly.
Radg-or slumped slightly at having channeled such a large amount of mana into the spell, but he nodded at his commander.
“Forward!” Heqht-jo bellowed.
Two hundred and fifty goblins marched towards the tree line in formation. They moved slowly at first but soon began to pick up speed. Yoshi blew into his horn a second time, Ta-Rii, Ta-Rii. Three hundred lights appeared again, and the goblins broke into an orderly run. Five seconds later, the sprites released another volley.
The goblins stopped abruptly and raised their shields. Those in front held them vertically. It did not have the fluid perfection of a roman legion, but their round shields still stopped a large number of the arrows. Some of the arrows struck home, and others caused the goblins to buckle under the assault, but the injuries were minimal. The entire contingent started moving again.
The sprites fired a second imbued volley with similar results. Yoshi gave an order, as did Terrod and Caulder. Both men moved their melee fighters forward. All of the Mist villagers stared at the goblins coming towards them with a mix of d
read, anger, and urgency.
“Trust in your comrades!” Terrod called out.
“For Lord Richter and the Mist Village!” Caulder shouted right afterward. All of the soldiers responded, “Raaa!”
Seeing an enemy they could attack, and one that was half their number no less, the goblins gave an excited scream and rushed forward. They kept moving forward in their controlled run for the remaining one hundred and fifty yards. They stayed wary of another sprite volley, but holes still appeared in their formation. The goblins couldn’t be held back when there was the chance to spill red blood. Each goblin felt an almost sexual pleasure at the deaths they were about to cause. Then they triggered Richter’s traps.
The chaos seed had spread the web traps of the assengai spider queen in a line at about a hundred yards from the tree line. The biggest problem would have been if the goblin commander had only sent a few goblins forward at a time. It would have been a complete waste if only a few goblins were caught. That didn’t happen here. The war cries of the second wave became pleading cries of pain.
Each trap had created its own type of hell. The Tranquilizing Web Trap shot sticky strands in every direction. Richter had hidden two of them, and they were both triggered at almost the same time. The webbing was as bad as glue, trapping every goblin within fifteen feet of the traps. To make matters worse for the entombed goblins, the webs were full of a sedative. Within seconds, the cries of the goblins faded away as the scouts and fighters all lost consciousness. They were the lucky ones.
The goblin that activated the Razor Web Trap disappeared into a bloody, black mist. Soldiers of Stone had greatly increased the natural armor of the goblins, but it still wasn’t enough to protect against a rapidly expanding mass of impossibly sharp, metallic strands that would put Hellraiser to shame. It shied away from the reinforced mail of the goblins and failed to penetrate shields, but there were hundreds of thin wires shooting forward at the speed of an arrow. Dozens of goblins had their bodies pierced, leaving chains of impaled enemy soldiers. Any movement caused the razor webbing to rip larger holes into the goblins. Even those that avoided initial injury found it impossible to escape the AoE of the trap without slicing their bodies open.