“No-o-o-o!” Drawled the elf. “Buu-u-usia is gree-ee-dy!”
“Orbit!”
“Best elven wine?” Trouble snorted loudly, running a hand through the knapsack and taking out a bottle. “Right, we have better wine than you have, even off-season!”
“That is divine wine!” Hissed Malice, whose full name had now been revealed to be Blazing Malice. “Divine mana regeneration for a day at least! Give me a sip!”
“Ros, want some wine?” Inquired Trouble, ignoring the Sleepless.
“Yes,” I agreed with a sigh. “Guys, let’s get back to business, shall we? There, they’re dragging something else in. Maybe it’s another chest…”
“Divine wine?” Yelled Bom, already having managed to take all three of the ancient trunks. “Don’t you dare open it, Kirea! Have you lost your mind?! We’ll sell it! We still have a clan to form!”
“Clan?!” Asked a slew of voices in choir, one of the voices my own.
“Give me a sip! Please!” Malice wouldn’t leave Kira alone, having retrieved a glass from somewhere. “Just a little bit! I saved your lives during the fight!”
“With what? Magic that didn’t work?” Kirea snorted. “Ros, come drink wine! Bom! Kaylen! Doc! Cray! Orbit!”
“I ha-a-a-ave!” Joyfully announced Orbit, fishing two bottles from his bag. “Oops…”
One bottle slipped from atop the Kolyvan’s head and flew down. And, coming into contact with stone, the bottle shattered into splinters. Ruby drops on divine wine flew in all directions.
“Aa-a-a-ah!” Came Bom and Malice’s cries in unison.
“We have lo-o-ots!” Waved the bald elf casually.
“O-o-oh…” I said, jumping from the back of the Kolyvan and taking the bottle from Trouble. “Well… let’s do it!”
Sipping wine straight from the bottle, I hardly had time to swallow when I felt a heavy armored hand on my shoulder.
“Ros… friend!” Boomed the Baron with feeling. “I’m always in the way of attack… and there’s a regenerative property to the wine. And in such a zone of danger… let me have a drink? Huh?”
“I’m the doctor! I’m next!” Said Doc, standing behind me.
“I hate it when the Sleepless beg!” The Baroness hissed. “Shame on you! Give it here!”
She was already standing next to her brother and taking the bottle out of his hands. The bald elf tried to resist, hanging on his sister’s arm with his whole body.
“We should all drink!” Said Whisper, who had come out of nowhere. Looking around furtively, he added: “While the others aren’t back yet! Pour a hundred grams for everyone! Do you have any more such bottles?”
“No! We do not!” Bom yelled, rushing to Kirea. “Orbit! Don’t even think of giving her the bottle! I am here collecting flowers like a moron, and you casually drop a bottle of divine wine onto the stones, huh?!”
“Millions of… millions of coins,” whispered Doc behind my back, as if in a delirium. “Ros… I only recently wanted to save a hundred for a special occasion! And here we’re talking about millions! All thanks to you, Ros!”
“Stop whispering behind my left shoulder like the devil!” I growled, giving the bottle to Doc. “Drink and give it to the Baron. Bom! That’s enough. We showed the bottles— now we have to share.”
“Mhm…” Vaguely replied the doctor, taking a quick gulp and immediately giving the bottle the Red Baron, who instantly grabbed the bottle. “Millions, Ros! And the scroll was already learned! Which means we have ten percent of almost fifteen million!”
“Yes,” I nodded, picking dry bits of grass from Kirea’s hair. Trouble no longer resisted my monkey-like affections. “Just don’t think, Doc, that it will last forever! Got it?”
“Oh,” the Baroness murmured, taking another solid sip of divine wine from the bottle and ignoring Orbit, clinging to her legs. She had taken the bottle, but couldn’t get rid of the elf— and so she jumped from the mammoth with him. “You, Ros, are a genius! Immediately spotted the problem. You only have to go to a couple of locations, go through a couple of epic battles, find a few treasure chests… and your faithful companions instantly get used to the good life. And they start whining every day! We want adventure! We want adrenaline! And gold! And dragons! And places where no one has ever been! We all would like that. But it’s like that every day! But it’s necessary to protect the clan, the village, the caravans, to chop wood, gather herbs, make potions. And that’s boring. Right now they’re here… and everyone is happy. All those who got here. And the rest are sitting on the mainland, pouting. And then the whole crowd begins to weep— why, oh why didn’t you take me? The Baron is better than me? And why did Malice get such a unique spell, if I am a much better mage!”
“Who’s better than me?” Indignantly asked malice, carefully taking the bottle of wine out of the Baroness’ hand. “Who is?! Zeus or something? Screw him!”
“I’m just making an example,” said the Baroness with a bitter sigh, looking at Orbit, who had detached himself from her legs and was now trying to retrieve the bottle from Malice. “And very often, not much time is left for the adventures. And then you have to choose. By the way— the magic mirrors are still on. So everything we say and do is heard by all of the associates in Barad-gadur. But they can’t say anything, because I’m tired of listening to grievances. But you may send them your greetings.”
“Hey, Zeus! Fuck you!” Malice screamed, showing a bulging middle finger to the chest of the Red Baron.
“What did you show me just now, dearest?” Asked the Baron.
“Not to you! To the mirror on your chest!”
“So, Ros, if it’s true that you want to establish your own clan, remember— it’s easy, only at first. Until the moment that the clan grows to monstrous proportions and you realize that you have to designate which of your teammates goes with you and which one stays to do the paperwork. And then comes the eternal squabble… timeless resentment, eternal laments… damn! How I’d love to just drop everything and leave! Ros, will you take me as a counselor into your clan? I won’t ask for much!”
“Hey!” Said the worried Red Baron, stepping between me and the Black Baroness. “Baroness! The hell are you doing?! Are you offended because of the sulking Hypos and his team? Why, I’ll pull out their arms myself! And pull out their eyeballs! What have you got to worry about? Here, drink wine! It’s divine! Got it for you with difficulty!”
“With difficulty?” Said the outraged Doc. “I gave it to you!”
“If anyone else is dissatisfied with the Baroness’ leadership— they’ll be sorry!” Loudly shouted the Baron, grabbing Malice by the shoulders and shouting right into the mirror fixed on his chest. “Found the best time for it! We’re trying to survive out here, and you’re throwing around your qualms! And stop putting requests in the clan chat asking the Baroness what to do with a cargo of sugar beets or a hundred barrels of young wine! Or about who will replace Kolyvan or Sullivan in the transportation of the creeping tundra tree! Sort it out yourselves! Have you gone mad?! Give me a break!”
“I already feel your pain,” I confessed.
“How much?” Mewled the Baroness, moving towards me.
“Not that much!” Said Trouble indignantly, wedging between us. “Shoo!”
“Ros, by the way, you still haven’t kissed me on the cheek as promised,” remarked the Baroness, laughing and ignoring Kira’s attempts to move her. Kira’s legs drew a furrow into the ground, but the Baroness didn’t even move a millimeter. She was even a little amused by this, it seems…
“I’m a family man,” I sighed, pulling Kirea towards me. “I’m not allowed to kiss Baronesses… Oh! They brought something! A heart?”
“The heart of the guard,” nodded the Baroness, glancing at the two warriors, who were carrying an orb interlaced with vegetation, pulsating and emitting a faintly green glow. Bom paused in collecting something from the ground and looked on, obviously trying to figure out the price of such an artifact.
“I love the eyes,” said the Baroness. “Very… special, with particular qualities... let’s see...”
With a leap, the head of the Sleepless made her way towards the treasure, the luminous eye of the guardian filled with anger and rage. Eyes… she was right, there. An eye on the top of Barad-gadur, and eye for the ship, and now an eye from the old guardian of the mythical jungle. I hope she doesn’t need the eye of the Great Navigator…?
And about her prior statement, “the time will come, and you will understand…” I already understood. It was enough to throw a glance at those comrades around me. Everyone had some special ability, some special passion.
“Shipping to Sullivan!” Ordered the Black Baroness. “Everyone! In five minutes we start again! The same formation! The main goal— getting to the rocks at the end of the jungle! One pterodactyl should be redirected to the Architects squad— find out where they are, what they are doing, whether they are safe. Let’s move! Fire up the aura!”
The Baroness continued to give orders, and I quickly climbed back aboard the Kolyvan and stared into the distance, clutching to the crossbow. I saw the rocks far ahead, several cliffs hovering above the mist over the jungle. Was it really there, what I was looking for?
That legendary armor…
If so, the goal was already in sight. What remained was getting to it, and remaining alive.
Five minutes later the raid squad moved forwards again, relentlessly stomping over the green shoots, which were already beginning to sprout out of the ashes. Behind us, trees were already growing. The Outland healed fast. And soon, it would send its legions towards us again… The lull was only temporary.
Again a meat grinder of a battle… but only with vegetables. The jungle, nature itself, rose up against us. Powerful wall after wall of jungle stood before us, thick braided vines bristling with acidic juice from the blows of swords and axes. The front ranks of soldiers became sticky, bubbling yellow figures, continually healed by the mages as they walked on a ground covered with poison. For a quarter of an hour later, we moved relatively slowly, meeting no worthy opponents aside from a couple of strange slugs and a sloth with orange nasty eyes and tentacles for legs.
Finally, the vegetation opened to a view of the serene surface of water.
A river… we had come to an open space with a rapidly moving river, with turbulent flows of water. This area was truly designed for all races… but the achilots, sitting atop one of the beasts, were not overjoyed. They were, like all of us, looking intently at the rapidly approaching river, and the dark shadows of all shapes and sizes flickering within it.
The river was clearly inhabited. To swim through it? To create a boat? One large, or several small ones… but it wasn’t worth breaking up the brigade, so not worth it.
“Baron! A crossbridge! A dwarven one! Build!”
“Got it! But it’s enough for no more than a quarter…”
“I know. Build!”
“Yes ma’am.”
The order of the Baroness was quickly followed— the frontline soldiers had already set foot on the strange grayish-red sand, which rustled angrily under their feet. Under the sand were several mounds with tails that I already was familiar with. But what I hadn’t seen before were the strange growths on their backs— translucent, filled with some kind of viscous substance.
“Sand rays!”
“I see them! Everyone! Do not pay them attention! Malice! Paralysis!!”
“Clear!”
“They’re active!” Came a hoarse cry from the frontlines.
A great white light with gray zig zags flashed over the beach.
“A dwarven miracle,” enthusiastically shouted Ul.
The earth shuddered and something manifested at once over the water, a monstrous steel construction. There were long vertical beams, rails, steel arcs… a bridge! The Sleepless had constructed a giant steel bridge, able to withstand the weight of a couple of trucks and a freight train all at once. The bridge was three kilometers long, give or take a few. With the heavy rumble of steel, the structure collapsed into the water, raising huge waves. The sharp steel cut into the ground and we felt the impact, even through the water.
But the width of the river was about four times the length of the bridge— far, very far ahead, the flooring simply broke off, hovering above the water. And malicious water dwelling creatures were already attacking— we heard the gnashing of metal, as though someone was trying to tear and chew through the beams.
Only the Baroness was clearly unbothered by this, nor by the insufficient length of the bridge. Through the screeching of a dozen paralyzed sand rays came the calm voice of the head of the Sleepless:
“Everyone! Slow down your pace! Malice! Three double Nebulas to the middle of the bridge!”
“Got it!”
The mage raised both arms behind his head and six bright sparks flew out of his clenched fists, and took to the sky among the birds and pterodactyls. The sky responded to the call immediately. A strange rustling reached our ears and transformed into a loud roar, as though from a high-voltage power line. Several clouds flew to pieces, and balloons filled with a bluish glow collapsed right onto the bridge. The metal structure was enveloped in a blinding veil of blue lightening, hissing in the water and making it boil.
I knew that, in Valdira, some fish and other inhabitants are able to talk. But I didn’t know that they are able to scream. Among the surging waves and clouds of steam, hundreds of bodies were swept up, and then lay motionless on the water surface. Countless lines of small gains of experience ran across my screen. And another electric Nebula was already falling from the sky…
We came to the bridge half a minute after the falling of the last Nebula. The steps of the warriors echoed on the thick metal. They walked through the mist that had risen from the evaporated water.
From the height of the Kolyvan I watched closely the surface of the water— it was carpeted with the dead remains of river monsters. There was everything… but especially impressive were the eyeballs, staring angrily up at us. In some places, the water was tainted light green or brown. Apparently, some monsters had been filled with poison or acid. These weren’t good conditions to swim in— achilot or otherwise. But now, many of the bodies had already been carried away by the water, and had disappeared somewhere around the bend. I could hear somewhere in the distance a distinct and menacing rumble… perhaps, a waterfall?...
“Everyone! Accelerate three times! Drass! Monitor the condition of the bridge. Use a veil of rust resistance. All! Prepare explosive potions! Use only acid and poison, and only when I say!”
“Done!”
“Ready!”
“Clear!” Responses came one after the other as we stomped over the bridge right to its edge, and the structure assumed a golden glow.
“Kolyvan! Explosives and poison! Drass! Put up a massive electro-resistant field!”
“Done!”
No sooner had the water been cleansed of venom and clouds of acid, that a dark body flashed again through the water, moving towards the bridge.
“Eye! Upstream! Look out!”
“Damn it!” Screamed the angry Baroness. “Beasts! Well, here we go! This is war!”
I looked to the left, up the river… and saw a gigantic wave that reared and rushed straight towards up. Behind the wave we could see a thin bridge, stretching from shore to shore. The bridge wasn’t as strong or powerful as ours, but it was much longer. The wave, which had originated at the bridge, contained clawed and spiked river creatures. Another couple of minutes, and the whole company would be upon us…
“Everyone! Run! Forwards! We need to pass the center of the strike! Whatever the cost! Now!”
“Go-o-o-o!” I screamed with everyone, fueled by a sudden fury towards the Architects. It was all their handiwork! I caught a glimpse of a blue-green flash on the bridge. They had conjured a tsunami! Bitche
s! They sure found the right time!
“Eye! Begin the plan “AntiArch!” The first blow— their caravans and shipyards! Put the clan citadel under siege mode! All recruits— inside! Main forces— inside! Anyone standing in the way must die! Follow the plan! If they want a war— they’ve already got it! Everyone! Forwards, faster! Explosive potions— begin! Archers— free fire! Poison, acid, explosives!”
“Yes ma’am!”
“Malice! Send them a tsunami! Two in a row!”
“I won’t have time to intercept their wave!”
“I know! Fine! But we can weaken the blow to our bridge! Baron! Scroll! Throw the web of Hegra over us!”
“Got it!...”
I received the next arrow from my assistant and threw a glance to the left. The huge wave continued to rush towards us, climbing higher and higher. We’ll be hit soon…
“Eye! We see movement next to the Architects bridge! Something very large! Looks like a river guardian! Silhouette can be seen vaguely. He’s attacking their bridge! Breaking and demolishing them like matchsticks! They’re trying to keep him down!”
“Eye! Clear! Keep watching! Protection! Raise your shields! Spikes! Everyone! Brace yourselves! Maximum protection! Healers be on guard!”
F-f-fah! F-f-fah-h-h! F-f-fah!
These sounds merged into a single hum. A dozen black spots rushed towards us.
Sh-h-hah! A thin bone arrow hit into the shield near my shoulder. Some more hits sounded, and I heard a loud swearing of someone nearby. Doctors quickly sent healing magic to the victims. There was the anguished roar of a couple of animals.
The Way of the Clan 6: World of Valdira Page 5