Ethria- the Pioneer

by Aaron Holloway

  “Tol’geth, take charge of the infantry, will you? All you have to do is kill anything that attacks, and stop them from getting at us” I pointed at myself and the archers. “While we snipe them out as best we can. Deal?”

  “I know how to fight, I’ve done this many more times then you have, wizard.” I was taken aback by the words. I had known he was powerful, of course, and I suppose logically I should have known he had been in wars or at least large-scale skirmishes before, but I had always assumed leading people and organizing battle was not really his cup of tea.

  “Tol’geth, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to insult you. Of course you know more than I do. To be honest, I'm stating obvious things that a five-year-old who plays with toy soldiers could figure out. You put the ones with the shields and swords in front, and the archers behind. Dude,” I looked at me and met his eyes. “I'm just nervous, I talk when I’m nervous, talk and…” I lifted my staff “...light things on fire. Or, at least now I do. Anyway, you get what I'm saying, right?”

  Tol’geth nodded. “You don’t mean disrespect. You speak plain, obvious truths to fix them in your mind. I know … someone else, that does that.” He said a sad look crossing his face, flashing bits of rage along with it. “I understand.” The large man put a hand on my shoulder. “I will take charge of the front line. Stay here, guard our rear, and support us. Yes?”

  I nodded, oddly comforted by the fact that the large man had laid out a plan. Even though it was the exact same plan I had come up with a few seconds before, and every medieval general in the history of the world since the discovery that throwing rocks could hurt people had ever used. Put the range people behind the melee people. Simple, yet effective.

  We took up our post, shielding our friend's flanks as they butchered the enemies main force. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but someone had to do it. I kept glancing from the unmoving forest back to the fight taking place just a few hundred feet away, The cavalry unit had gotten away from the mass of undead reavers, but they had lost nearly six of their original twenty. Most of those where the more lightly armored and less experienced squires.

  Eventually, as the enemy force was encircled and whittled down, by the cycle charges of the remaining calvary that kept them distracted, and the infantry who brutally cut them down in a methodical almost industrial display of coordinated violence, I saw the massive hulk of the wind and fire elemental shrink to around the size of a human, and follow Ma’vone Traser into the fray. The creature cast fireballs hurled the inky black creatures into the air on gusts of wind, and on occasion it simply held them down and burned them with its body until the undead stopped moving.

  Occasionally a handful of the creatures would smarten up, and start attacking the infantry in earnest rather than taking the occasional swipe in self-defense. When this happened Ma’vone stepped in and hurled them away from the line with powerful wind shears that emanated from his staff.

  It felt odd just sitting back and watching the forest while a battle raged behind me. Eventually, I got bored enough with the guard duty that I pulled up my Spell List and read the description of my new spell.

  Time Lords Inferno 2

  School/Type

  Cost

  Casting Time / Durration

  Cool Down

  Type: Fire,

  36,000 Mana

  5 Min / Instant

  1 week, will lesson with higher-ranked Enchanting skill.

  Effect

  REQUIRED: At least 1 rank in Enchanting skill. This spell creates a massive explosion of heat and fire dealing 100 D 4 damage + fire skill. Will 1/2 damage every 15-20 feet out from explosion. The explosion will on occasion collapse in on itself in an implosion dealing 50 D 4 damage + Force magic skill. There is also the unlikely possibility, that further effects will be manifested.

  ADDITIONAL EFFECTS DISCOVERED: Glowing Sun: If enough material is consumed by the implosion, a small, nearly self-sustaining sun will be born that will die over the next 24 hours.

  “Hey, Ailsa?” The fairy poked her head out of my satchel.

  “Yeah?”

  “On the spell names in my Spell List, there are sometimes numbers after the spells. Up until now, they’ve always been 1. But now with Time Lords Inferno, I got a 2. What does that mean?” The fairies eyes glazed over as she read through what I was talking about. The fact that she had complete access to my character sheet rarely came up, but when it did it was almost always situations like this where I needed another set of eyes to help explain things.

  “Ooooh! Cool! You learned your first Tier 2 spell! That's great!” She sounded genuinely happy for me. “Hay! Tol’geth! Rayid just got his first, second-tier spell!”

  “You have ascended to the second level of power in your magic? That is great news!” Tol’geth yelled and raised his sword in a solute. A few of the other soldiers followed suit.

  “Aaaand, what does that mean?” I asked as politely as I could while biting back frustration.

  “Most spells are Tiered spells. Tier one spells are relatively weak, easy to learn, and you can generally keep casting them over and over. They are considered battle magic typically. Tier two spells are, well, in a war, they are considered something like the artillery weapons you showed me a few nights ago when we were watching that documentary about world war two.”

  “Ah, so the numbers I'm seeing are the magic tier the spell belongs too. How high do the tiers go?”

  “They don't end. Though the most powerful spell I’ve ever seen was a tier five spell cast by one of the court queens. It split a mountain range in half.” I whistled slightly.

  “Who pissed her off?”

  “The elemental lord living in the mountain ranges heart. He had promised her a gem if she did something, she did the thing, and he reneged.” I nodded knowingly.

  Never renege on a promise to a woman, particularly if it involves jewelry. Or dinner. Or, well anything really. I thought as I listened to Ailsa finish the story.

  “She could have done a lot worse with that same spell, she held it back and shaped it in such a way as to disperse the damage though. It was a measured response really.”

  “So, that was her pulling her punch?”

  “Basically, yeah. Do you remember what I said about Epic magic?” I nodded. “She spent nearly twenty years saving enough mana to cast that single spell. Tier four is where you start getting into Epic territory.”

  “So, when I get to Tier Three…”

  “It’ll be like, a battery of artillery. Or one of those massive bombs your people called M.O.A.B.s. At least with regards to battle magic. Remember, magic can be used for a lot more than burning things and causing destruction.” She chided. I nodded my understanding. Lisander had shown me that with her impressive library, and the portal magic she and Salina had been using.

  We continued to talk about different types of spells and spell tiers for the next few minutes as I continually scanned the forest, and the battle behind us slowly came to a conclusion.

  ---

  In the end, there was no third wave of creatures, despite numerous reports from rangers and soldiers to have spotted their movement in the forest. The battle itself ended when the last two dozen or so of the creatures seemed to smarten up all at once, and broke through the infantry line encircling them, charging back into the forest in a full retreat. They moved faster than our archers, or the calvary could respond, running on all fours and crashing through the forest.

  After Commander Trasers reorganizing of the troops into a defensive position, I spent about an hour tending to the wounded troops alongside the sun-priest applying my Cure Light Wounds spell at his direction. I learned a lot, and the man wasn’t nearly as pompous as I had originally thought. Sure, one of his gods was literally named Dominus, which sounded far too similar to the word dominate, for my little liberty-loving heart. But the man himself was remarkably humble, kind, and skilled as he moved about the injured, treating burns, bites, cuts, and occasionally needing to clean up a wound
where the soldier had lost an arm or a leg.

  He had a spell for that named “Amputate,” it was simple and acted basically as a fire hot knife. It cauterized as it cut, stopping bleeding. Then the old priest would mumble another spell, or prayer, or something, that would encourage new growth in the limb.

  One man, who had lost his “good fishing arm” had been assured by the old priest that it would regrow given time and proper treatment. Whether it took a year, or a month depended on the man's faith, and how closely he followed the priest's instructions. My time working with Micheal, that was the sun-priests name, and the handful of water witches really hit home just how important people like them must have been to places like Laketown. Magical knowledge might be hard to come by, but faith? Well, that could be cultivated anywhere.

  Once we found that the work was nearly finished, and I was about to start peppering the theologian with questions about divine magic, a messenger came and summoned me. I examined what I had learned briefly, I had gained 1 skill point in ‘mundane healing’, and 2 skill points in both biomancy and light magic which brought me up to novice rank at skill level 6. I pumped my fist in excitement at the new skill and skill level, probably confusing the priest, and then swiftly followed the messenger.

  We convened another impromptu council and took stock of our losses. “We lost nearly thirty men, mostly infantry and almost all of them from the militia recruits that we had taken in to pad our numbers. We also lost a handful of elven scouts, and almost half of our calvary, seven of the squires, and one knight.” Knight-Commander Traser said giving an accounting to us now that he had the full picture.

  “That's a sizable chunk of our forces.” His uncle commented shaking his head. “We might need to retreat. Fighting through that forest?” He pointed at the thick underbrush that at places reached above most men's heads. “The entire way to the ruins, being harrassed, ambushed, and led astray by false trails? Even with the skilled guidance of our elven allies, we would lose half of what remains if we are lucky.”

  “I agree,” Li’anin said, her arms crossed under her chest. “There is little hope of getting through to the ruins in strength sufficient to take it, and hold it against counter-attacks. Let alone delve into the lower parts of the structure to confront the witch in her lair.”

  “If her lair is even in the lower caverns. We might face her directly when we arrive at the base of the ruins, beaten, bloodied, and exhausted.” Lord Traser sighed and shook his head again, looking down at the map on the small traveling table we were all circled around.

  “But there are no more forces available.” The Knight-Commander explained to first his uncle, and then the group. “A victory here will allow us to relieve the siege at the north-western twin. The cutters are dealing with their own incursion of goblin raids, that the remainder of the elven forces are assisting with lest the woodsmen be overrun.”

  “We could seek help from the border forts south of the Marshwood.” Suggested a knight behind Lord Traser. “They could have a hundred lances, nearly two hundred fighters a horse, here within the fortnight.”

  “They would take far to long. By that time, Laketown would be under attack again. If not fallen to whatever monstrosity this necromancer can think to create. We must stop her before she has time to build her forces and form anything truly nasty. She thought us a weak target, easily taken by little more than goblins. She underestimated us, that's the only reason we even have this chance to stop her now.” The young commander explained. The knight nodded his understanding and stepped back behind their mutual Lord.

  “We could always seek aid from the Horse Clans.” Suggested an elf behind Li’anin who I recognized as Ste’rill the male elf ranger from when we had first crossed over into Lo’sar and the Great Wood. “I am sure they would look poorly on a necromancer anywhere near their summer stomping grounds.”

  “Most of them have gone north of the river early. They were having the same trouble the rest of us were, missing children, goblin raids, and the like. Laketown took their tolls over the bridge to Hunters Hollow nearly a month ago, where do you think my uncle's steed came from? No, there will be no help found there.” The commander explained. “We are on our own unless we seek to empty all of Laketown of men, conscript them, put spears in their hands and hope to use them as monster fodder.” He pounded the small table in frustration.

  “This witch has chosen the perfect time to send out her minions and chose the perfect way in which to do it. If it weren't for you wizard” he looked at me, and everyone's eyes followed his. “We would have been caught in that trap, between hammer and anvil, completely unaware, and all died. The entire region would be overrun with undead, and the Twins and Lo’sar itself would be facing not just goblins in their siege, but thousands of these creatures rather then the hundred or so we face now.”

  I put up a hand to stop him and any others from interrupting what I said next. “Uh, no. That is completely untrue. You all helped yourselves. All I did was a bit of classy magic that made the rest possible. If it hadn’t been for your cousin, Commander, we still would have been caught in that trap despite being prepared for it as we were, which was also due to your actions and the advice of your uncle.

  “If it hadn’t been for you yourself Sir Traser, the men would have broken and run, and even Tol’geth and I would have been overwhelmed. If it hadn’t been for your uncle's brave exploits and your quick wit to take advantage of the opportunity he created by his daring, the center would have broken, and we would have lost many more then we have.” I looked at each of them in turn.

  “And those are just the brave deeds I am aware of having spent my time to one side of the battle, or with my back turned to it. No ladies and gentlemen. What I did was contribute very little to the success of this battle. Despite the light show I put on. However, I might have a plan that would allow us to continue onwards towards the goal.”

  ----

  The forest burned more quickly, and far more easily, then I had anticipated. The cold had dehydrated many of the grasses, and plants. While the lack of wet snow that generally provided a protective layer for the underbrush from wildfires allowed the entire thing to catch light almost as one. The dead leaves littering the forest floor made excellent kindling, and dried, hibernating or dead foliage that was slowly losing its green kept the fire alive long enough to catch the trees alight. In short, the entire thing went up like a matchbox covered in kerosene, exposed to a flamethrower.

  The army had backed onto the gravel pit, the rocks now having cooled from the fiery rampage of my sun child. I and the elven rangers, supported and protected by squads of the fully trained men-at-arms who guarded us from ambush, prepared the edges of the forest. This would be a mundane fire, not a magical conflagration. We wanted to remove the barriers to our path, not ruin the area for regrowth for years to come. Though I had vague memories of how I might have been able to accomplish that if we wanted.

  Only once was someone ambushed while working, and it was when I was stupid enough to try and run into the bushes to go to the bathroom. The creature jumped on me, snapping its keenly sharp teeth for my neck. Before I was able to blast it with a force bolt, a fountain of black blood-drenched my armor, as one of the knights, Sir Barristan I believe his name was, cleaved the creatures head from its body.

  “You should be more careful lad.” The old grizzled knight said as he helped me to my feet. “Even a magic-user can still die if his throat gets ripped out, or a dagger put in the right place.” I nodded, and spat the putrid liquid from my mouth, trying not to wretch. The knight was kind enough to lead me out of the forest by hand, and then dump a large bucket of water over me, clearing most of the viscera away.

  “You, are by far, one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever met!” I said as I embraced the man, still soaking wet, with the creature's blood running off me in rivulets.

  “Ugh! Wizard, get off! You will ruin my armor!” He said as he pushed me back to arm's length. “You’re welc
ome. Now, can we get back to work?” I nodded, bent down and started building the fires.

  When finally I lit the thing with a Jet of Flame, the fire spread faster than a galloping horse. The heat was so intense that even I felt it nearly fifteen feet away. The army was ordered back another dozen yards, as I watched through squinting eyes, as the forest of nightmares that could have been, turned to ash and coals.

  ---

  Hours later, the sun was soon to set, the fires had moved on, and the coals between us and the ruin had cooled enough to walk over. Nothing stood in our way, the ruin, a tall three-story complex built into the side of the mountain out of stone, flanked by two large towers on either side that rose an additional three stories, lay bare. If I squinted hard enough, I could even see the entrance to the main building.

  As the fire had been burning, I met with Ma’vone. I was shocked to find that the boy was only 13 years old, and had taught himself nearly everything he knew about air magic from the few books his father could import from the Twins. The boy had been talking with Ra’thin’ax ever since the elementals awakening.

  When I asked why the air elemental had not either returned to his home plane once the summoning had run out, or had been consumed by the fire, I got a long dissertation from the boy on the mixing of magic and how air and fire where both ephemeral magics, lacking true physical substance, but both dealt directly in the case of fire, and nearly directly as in the case of air magic, with the energies of the elements we used. There were actually several useful insights that the boy discussed with me at length that helped in my own understanding of fire. I even gained one rank in the skill as we talked.

  When I looked at the now intelligent air elemental with a sun for a heart, it just shrugged and said, voice cracking like fire, and rumbling like thunder in a storm “The lord of air left it up to me. I could go back, and become what I was, or stay here with my creators. I chose to stay. This world has fire, which is part of me now. And, I find you, meat creatures, interesting.”