Clenching my hand at the memory of the burning Ætherscope, I saw Halcyon talking animatedly with Donovan while cutting through the center of the village, both of them so deep into a conversation about magical theory they didn’t notice me pass by.
I gradually circled the village, double checking the ditch that we had dug out around the village. Seeing the defenses soothed my heart, realizing how imposing they would look from the other side. Anyone bearing ill intent would have to ford their way across the river, scramble across nearly four feet of Tribuli, and then claw their way up a five-foot berm of dirt to get into the village proper. A task that would only get more difficult once the ground became soaked with water and blood.
My feet slowly led me towards the militia yard, where I saw Aldwin, Caius, and Drace sparring with one another.
“Hey, Lyr,” Drace greeted me with a wave as Caius and the Bann faced off hand-to-hand. “You guys finished already?”
“Not quite yet,” I replied with a shake of my head. “Nerves have been getting the better of me. Jenkins decided it’d be best for me to take a bit of a break.”
“I know what you mean,” Drace said with a sigh. “I’ve been nervously excited all morning long so far.”
“Ha! I think that’s an apt description.” It felt good to laugh and have some of the stress bleed away. I cocked my head towards Aldwin and Caius still sparring with one another. “So, you guys just tendering Caius up today?”
“Heh. If anything, I’d say Caius is tendering us up now!” Drace chuckled, a grin spreading across his face. “He’s learning fast and I doubt he’ll have any problems with his touch attacks now.”
“Perfect!” I was happy to hear that Caius was progressing well. I could only imagine how frustrating Friday had been for him, trying to keep up with the rather nimble spiders.
“Aldwin is just showing him a few pointers for his hand to hand work and teaching him a few abilities.”
“Abilities?” I asked curiously. “Which ones?
“Nothing too crazy, just Shoulder Tackle and Kick,” Drace explained. “Good for getting some quick distance between you and an enemy, or disrupting an attack. I use them all the time.”
“Shit! I saw those available to me when I hit level 10!” I exclaimed, stepping closer to Drace. “When did you learn them? Can you teach me?!”
Drace’s eyes opened wide at my sudden flurry of energy. “Y-yeah, calm down! Aldwin taught me the shoulder tackle maneuver yesterday, and I just picked up ‘Kick’ back on Friday while we were dealing with the spiders. Surprised you haven’t learned it already actually.”
“I tend to lean more towards punching things, rather than kicking them.” I began stripping my tunic off as I motioned towards an unused part of the practice field. “Mind if I work on Alteration too? My mana takes a bit more time to regenerate now.”
“Hm? Yeah, that’s no problem, man,” Drace answered waving the question away as he followed me onto the field. “Wish we had a few days to do nothing but catch up on skills. My skills are… everywhere.”
“Fuck, don’t you know it.” I was in full agreement with Drace. “So, how do you want to start?”
“Hmm…” The warrior paused as he looked thoughtfully at me. “Let’s start with ‘Kick’ first.”
I gave Drace a thumbs up, motioning for him to proceed.
“So, the first thing you have to do is make sure that your non-kicking leg is planted firmly into the ground.” Drace began to explain as he indicated his left leg. “When you kick, you’re going to want to kick through your target, like you’re trying to break a door down…”
***
“Lyrian!” Natasha’s breathless voice echoed through the air as she jogged towards us.
“We found them!” Constantine added, quickly following on Natasha’s heels. “Three or four hours out from Aldford.”
Finally.
Aldwin, Caius, Drace, and I had spent the entire afternoon sparring under the hot sun, each of us trying to work past the crushing stress that gripped our hearts. The handful of skill increases in Unarmed Combat, and Alteration helped take the edge off of the stress away, but a single careless thought would bring it crashing back down.
“What are we dealing with?” I asked, my mouth suddenly dry. “Is it… bad?”
“I… don’t know.” Constantine shook his head with a grimace. “Not our worst case scenario, but not good either, it looks complicated, better yet, fucking complicated.”
“Great…” I let out a deep breath, feeling the stress in my stomach curdle into nausea. Beside me I could see Aldwin, Caius and Drace visibly tense too. “How many are there?”
“In total we have a little over a hundred adventurers coming our way, my guess is around a hundred and thirty or so. They definitely know without a doubt Aldford is out here,” Constantine started to explain. “Thing is, I think that the Adventurers have split into different factions within the group and that it’s not all happy within their camp.”
“What do you mean?” I asked Constantine. A divided camp between the Adventurers would certainly make our problems easier to bear.
“Well, we’ve noticed that there are three different groups within the Adventurers ranks,” Constantine explained. “First, there is a rather well-equipped group of about fifty that are obviously running the show. They’re all wearing leather armor with decent looking weapons. Their primary job seems to be to keep any roaming creatures off the group.”
“The second group,” Natasha chimed in, taking over for Constantine. “Seems to be a go-between, between the first and third group, roughly twenty of them. They show quite a bit of deference to the better-equipped group while treating the third group like, well, prisoners.”
“Which is what I think the third group are,” Constantine said softly. “At first glance both the second group and the third group are roughly geared the same way, in the same sort of threadbare clothing we all started in. But damned if the third group looks rough. Just in the time we were watching, we saw a handful of stragglers beaten for falling behind the group. I don’t know why they’re doing it, but it’s definitely been brutal.”
“I don’t understand,” I hissed slowly shaking my head. “Why bother with prisoners? Especially if they’re Adventurers? I’m not saying it’s the best option, but why not just kill them and have them respawn back in Eberia? I’d be loads easier than dragging them along and torturing them.”
“I don’t know. Lyr, but on top of all that almost all in the third group are walking wounded, which means that they haven’t eaten in at least a day,” Constantine continued. “There are quite a few that are actually being carried by others, simply because their wounds won’t allow them to walk.”
“Fuck,” Caius spat. “They’re intentionally keeping them weak.”
“Did you notice any leaders in the mess?” Drace asked, nodding at Caius.
“Not too sure,” Constantine answered with a shake of his head. “Soon as we had a decent count and direction of travel, we decided to head back and report.”
“Sierra said that she and Amaranth would keep pace with the Adventurers,” Natasha said, cocking her head towards the south. “We have plenty of time to get ready for them.”
“Okay.” I exhaled another deep breath, feeling the stress bleeding away now that the moment of truth had arrived. I looked around at everyone, finding them all looking back at me. “If they’re dragging that many prisoners, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re not coming here in peace.”
“Inform the villagers and make sure everyone has something sharp or heavy on hand.” I began to call out orders. “Split anyone able and willing to swing a weapon along the defenses inside the village. Those who can’t, have them hunker down in the Town Hall.”
“Make sure that there are a pair of Militiamen to anchor each side of the village, Jenkins and Shelia can decide for themselves where they need to be.” I motioned for everyone to start following me back to the heart of the village. �
��Aldwin, Caius, Drace, Halcyon and I will meet them outside the village, on the other side of the river. Until we can figure them out, I don’t want them any closer to Aldford than they need to be.”
“Where do you want us?” Constantine asked, indicating Natasha and himself.
“Back out in the field,” I replied. “See if you can meet up with Sierra and Amaranth again. I want the both of you covering our flanks. If they send out any scouts to flank us, I want to know.”
“And if they attack us?” Constantine spoke softly. “Or look like they’ll attack Aldford?”
I turned my head to look at Constantine, steel in my eyes. “Then kill them.”
Chapter 35
It only took an hour for Aldford to ready itself for war. Weapons and sharpened tools were passed out to grim-faced villagers, each taking positions along the village perimeter. We checked and rechecked the Tribuli filling our defenses, reaffirming our confidence that none could pass without paying a heavy price in blood. Instructions were given, with various contingencies depending on the situation. Everyone knew what was expected of them.
All that was left to do was wait.
Standing under a pair of tall, widely branched trees just outside of Aldford, the five of us watched the sun trace across the sky as it began its inevitable descent on the western horizon. Closing my eyes, I could sense Constantine flanking outward to the east, with Sierra and Amaranth doing the same in the west.
“I see them.” Aldwin was the first to break the silence as he pointed. “There, coming around that distant batch of trees.”
Eagerly, we all followed his gaze. From this far out, the Adventurers appeared to just be a single blob moving in the distance. The blob slowly grew larger as the distance shrank, becoming somewhat more distinct.
My familiar closed the link with a mental acknowledgment, leaving us watching the mass of Adventurers slowly begin to sharpen into distinct humanoid shapes.
“Amaranth tells me they’ve sent out scouts to flank us,” I told the group. “They’re keeping track of them right now, but won’t hit them unless they’re a threat.”
“Good,” Aldwin replied somewhat uneasily, as he watched the advancing horde. “Gods, there are so many of them. We would have been caught completely unaware…”
“I expected more,” Caius whispered softly. “A hundred or so isn’t that bad.”
“Probably easier places to go much closer than here,” Halcyon suggested.
“Too bad the majority of them are likely assholes,” Drace said pessimistically.
“This is far enough,” I spoke confidently to the group, motioning for us to stop. There was no way that the arriving adventurers would miss us where we stood. Our presence here was a challenge. They would have no choice but to approach us if they wanted to get any closer to Aldford. “Game faces on, everyone.”
We watched the approaching horde grind to a halt a bowshot away from us, milling about as their ranks came to a halt. Looking closely at the first few rows of Adventurers I could make out from this distance, my eyes easily picked out a number of different races from within the crowd.
All the common races were thoroughly represented, humans, elves, dwarves, along with countless half-breeds of every kind imaginable. I caught the sight of a handful of feline, lupine and saurian races intermixed throughout the crowd, bringing an exotic touch to the travel-worn mass. A few other feathered or furred races stood out, but at the moment, I had no frame of reference to what they may be.
The longer I watched the group, the more details my eyes drew out. Echoing Constantine’s earlier observations, I quickly noted the differences between the two groups of poorly geared Adventurers. Some merely looking dirty and ragged, while others wore scraps of cloth that could barely even be considered clothes anymore, dried blood evident on the few scraps that remained.
I could feel the weight of their hungry eyes as they watched us, afraid to make a move, but unwilling to back down after such a long journey. It was a crowd driven by momentum more than anything else, and now that they had come to a stop, they looked around aimlessly, unsure of what to do.
As the Adventurers settled, my attention focused on the armored Adventurers that gradually appeared at the head of the crowd. All wearing matching sets of tan colored leather armor, covering everything except their heads.
A row of Adventurers parted ahead of me, a brightly armored human striding confidently out towards us, immediately standing out from all the other Adventurers. Even from this far away I could see his armor glitter in the fading sunlight. His long black hair billowed in the wind as he walked towards us, the leather clad adventurers falling in line behind him.
As he approached and his features sharpened in my vision. I revised my earlier guess, marking him as a half-human of some sort. His skin was far too unnaturally pale to be either a human or an elf and I noted that he lacked the typical pointed ears elven kind normally had.
What are you? I kept my face impassive as the armor clad man approached, watching him intently. On closer inspection, I could now see that the armor was a finely crafted suit of antique looking chainmail, made in a style that my mind couldn’t quite recognize. A rather ornate looking sword, complete with jewels stuck in the hilt, hung at his waist. The man rested his hand on the pommel of the blade as he and his entourage stopped a short distance away from us. And why are you dragging so many prisoners with you?
The man’s gaze silently measured us, his eerily gray eyes roaming over our weapons and armor before focusing on Aldford nearby. Seven leather clad adventurers stopped an arm’s length behind the man, my gaze shifting momentarily to identify the motley group as being a pair of half-orcs, a trio of humans, an elf and a dwarf.
“Well… fuck.” The man frowned as he looked at us, his eyes carefully looking at our faces. “This is an annoying surprise.”
“Uh. Nice to meet you too.” I frowned looking at the Adventurer standing in front us, caught a bit off guard. Out of everything that the man could have greeted us with, I didn’t expect him to simply curse at us as if he spilled a glass of milk.
“In other circumstances, it might have been.” The man exhaled with a huff, shaking his head. The rest of his entourage carried hard looks on their faces as they carefully assessed us, unsure of what kind of threat we posed. “I’m guessing you guys either have Isaac, Killian and the others tied up somewhere in that village, or you killed them, and they’re back in Eberia.”
I felt Drace stiffen beside me, and let out a short laugh that echoed through the air. “Those were your guys?”
Halcyon and Caius couldn’t help but echo Drace’s chuckle.
“Isaac, Killian, and the others are all dead, likely in an Eberian prison too,” Drace said bluntly, not bothering to keep the acid out of his voice. “They got a little uppity with us, killed a pair of guards, there was some fire involved. In the end, it turns out Isaac can definitely not fly.”
Those must have been the Adventurers they encountered on their way here. I noted, remembering the shortcut they took to climb up the ridge, and the subs
equent fight at the lift system that had been still under construction.
“Knowing them, I can’t say I really blame you. They can be rather, excessive, at times,” the dark haired man ground out slowly with a sigh. “What’s done is done. Unfortunately, though, that might make this next part a bit of a pain.”
“How about we take a step back,” I said, watching the man carefully. “And you tell us who you are and what it is exactly that you want?”
“You’re right.” The man nodded in agreement. “There is no reason to lose our civility. You can call me Graves.”
Ascend Online Page 39