Kyran smiled. “They will play their part, never fear, Chief.”
He beckoned the party forward and introduced each of them in turn to Wynak and Limeira. The young ogress gravitated immediately to Aiken, who leaned into her caresses, clearly enjoying the attention she lavished on him.
“Kyran,” said Wynak, “Before we begin, I must ask you to hand over the food you promised in exchange for our aid.” The old ogre looked uncomfortable making the demand.
Kyran nodded agreeably and withdrew the knapsack of holding from his inventory to pull out the stacks of worg meat the party had scavenged.
You have removed a stack of 1,700 stacks of worg meat (1,700 kg) from a knapsack of holding.
The meat, all of it immaculately preserved in the extradimensional storage of his inventory, made a goodly pile after being stacked onto the sled that two of Wynak’s ogres brought forward.
Wynak stared at the pile and sighed. “With your permission, Kyran, we will take this back to our camp now.”
“Kyran—” began Adra, before Kyran waved for her to silence.
It had not been part of their original agreement, but Kyran saw no harm in allowing the ogres to secure the food before the battle. He trusted Wynak; the old ogre seemed the honourable sort.
“Of course, Wynak,” replied Kyran.
The old chief nodded in relief, and gestured for the two ogres to haul the food back to their camp.
“Good. Are you ready to begin then?” asked Wynak.
“Almost,” said Kyran. “Before we start, it is best your men meet the other four members of our party.”
Wynak nodded. “Where are they?” Of the ogres, only Wynak knew of the wyverns.
“Up there,” said Kyran, pointing into the sky above them.
Limeira, who had been following the conversation, stared upwards, her face scrunched in confusion. When she saw the shapes circling high overhead, her head whipped in Kyran’s direction. “Are those...dragons?” she asked, her face whitening in shock.
“Mountain wyverns,” he corrected.
“How?” she asked in astonishment. “Are you a druid?”
“Of sorts. But come, let’s get ready for our assault. I will explain all later.”
Game Data
Kyran’s Profile (Class Data)
Name: Kyran Seversan. Race: Elf.
Player type: Advanced player, free agent.
Combat level: 27. Civilian level: 30. Health: 300/300.
Stamina: 500/500. Will: 1020/1020. Essence: 1200/1200.
Attacks: 44.2 (slash), 55 (psi wave), 68.9 (shock bolt).
Defences: 37.7 (physical), 30 (psi), 30 (spell).
Class: Jade wild druid (rank II, apprentice).
The wild druid is a psionic-magic hybrid with class abilities focused on beast mastery.
Class traits
Incompetent summoner (-1 summoned creatures): Current limit = 0.
Wild tamer (+1 tamed creatures per rank): Current limit = 7.
Class skills
Beast bonding (70.7), body control (44.9), light armour (24.0), psionics (49), telepathy (55.1), air magic (68.9), earth magic (68.9), supportive magic (68.9), spellcasting (61.2), water magic (51), nature lore (24.0).
Class abilities
Wild shift: Druids can shift into a beastform.
Beastform: Druids can learn the beastform of a befriended creature. Known beastforms: 1/4.
Other skills (0 combat and civilian SP available)
Fire magic (43.4), longsword (10.4), telekinesis (26.5).
Commander (16.0), governor (8.6), mage lord (48.0), scrying (14.4), travelling (14.4), feudal lord (14.4).
Vassals: 2 of 165.
Combat abilities (1 AP available)
Beast bond, rank II: Beast befriend, beast bless.
Air magic, rank II: Shock wall, haste, shock bolt.
Earth magic, rank II: Oil slick.
Telepathy, rank II: Psi wave, mass sleep.
Supportive magic, rank II: Cure wounds, magic shield.
Spellcasting, rank II: Delayed casting.
Beast bond, rank I: Calm beast, beast bond, extend bond, enrage beast.
Body control, rank I: Mind-over-matter, boost speed.
Telepathy, rank I: Mind shock, confusion.
Telekinesis, rank I: Teleport (self), hold, teleport (object).
Air magic, rank I: Blend, truesight, shocking hands.
Fire magic, rank I: Flaming hands, fire dart, fire shield.
Water magic, rank I: Water armour, slippery ice, ice wall, freezing hands.
Earth magic, rank I: Barkskin, grasping roots, earth tremor, poison ward.
Supportive magic, rank I: Restore health (self), restore health (others).
Civilian abilities (6 AP available)
Commander, rank II: Invigorating aura.
Scrying, rank II: Improved scrying.
Travelling, rank I: Show portals, travel (self).
Scrying, rank I: Show hostiles, basic scrying, detect scrying.
Nature lore, rank I: Show plants, gather plants.
Commander, rank I: Inspiring, shared sight.
Governor, rank I: Detect truth.
Mage lord, rank I: Channel essence, channel novice spells.
Equipped items
Heir’s mithril scale armour (32 armour, +8% commander).
Elven mageblade (35-40 slash damage, +8% longsword).
Bone shaman necklace (+2% earth magic).
Tamer's bracelet (+8% beast bonding).
Wyvern eggs x 4.
Ability: Cure wounds
Skill: Supportive magic.
Description: Allows a caster to enter a healing trance and mend the damage an ally has sustained from a wound. Warning: the ability of the caster to repair a wound is dependent on the wound’s severity and the caster’s skill.
Rank: Apprentice.
Cost: 80 essence.
Execution time: Variable on wound severity.
Range: Caster’s touch.
Healing: Repairs the wound sustained by an ally. Healed ally is afflicted with the recovery debuff.
Debuff: Recovery debuff duration is dependent on the caster’s skill and wound severity.
Ability: Beast bless
Skill: Beast bonding.
Description: This ability draws on the power of the caster’s mind to strengthen the caster’s tamed creatures, increasing all their body attributes.
Rank: Apprentice.
Cost: 80 will.
Execution time: 10 seconds.
Area of effect: Tamed creatures.
Duration: 10 seconds x skill.
Buff: All body attributes (strength, constitution and dexterity) increased by 0.5% x skill.
Ability: Mirrored selves
Skill: Air magic.
Description: Creates three duplicate images of the caster that move in concert with the caster, mimicking his actions. The images cannot deal damage.
Rank: Apprentice.
Cost: 80 essence.
Execution time: 5 seconds.
Buff: Each mirrored self can sustain damage of 2 x skill before being destroyed.
Duration: 10 seconds x skill.
Ability: Shock bolt
Skill: Air magic.
Description: Fires a charged bolt of electricity that may additionally stun the target on a critical hit.
Rank: Apprentice.
Cost: 80 essence.
Execution time: Instantaneous.
Range: Up to the caster’s direct line of sight.
Damage: Inflicts a maximum of 1 x skill of air damage to the targets.
Debuff: Target is shocked (stunned) on a critical hit for 2 seconds. Can be resisted.
Ability: Magic shield
Skill: Supportive magic.
Description: Creates a protective bubble around the caster that blocks incoming attacks (does not block psi damage).
Rank: Apprentice.
Cost: 80 essence.
Execution time: 5 secon
ds.
Buff: A maximum of 10 x skill of damage blocked (spell may be applied to self only).
Duration: 10 seconds x skill.
Chapter 25
24 Octu 2603 AB
Demons, like divines, have a hierarchy of their own. On the lowest rung, are the imps, enslaved and abused by their own kind. Above them are minor demons, only slightly more sentient. At the very top are the demon overlords, akin to the gods themselves in power. —Gunta Helman, demonologist.
The party was hidden in a concealed ravine downslope of Gnarok’s camp. It had taken them nearly all morning to work their way into position. Discipline in the young chief’s camp was lax, and both sentries at the entrance were asleep.
Even so, Kyran had not taken any risks and had made certain the party took every possible precaution as they sneaked into position. It would have been foolish if their plan came undone because of a careless and avoidable error. Safely concealed from the camp, they waited.
A little later, the tramp of marching feet signalled the approach of Wynak’s warband. Good, thought Kyran, he is right on schedule. Weaving strands of essence, Kyran cast shared sight and separated his consciousness from his body.
Closing his eyes, he stepped into the mind of the wyvern mother and peered through her eyes. The wyverns, flying too high to be marked by the naked eye, spiralled over the camp, waiting for Kyran’s call. With their sharp eyes, Kyran had the perfect eagle’s eye view of the field.
Through the eyes of the wyvern mother, Kyran observed Wynak’s forces appear at the bottom of the slope leading up to Gnarok’s camp. Moving smartly, the warband dropped into battle formation, the ogres forming a single line of twenty.
Despite the ruckus the warband made, it took the two sleeping sentries a goodly while to notice. When they did, it sparked a frenzy of motion within the camp. Kyran waited until he saw Gnarok’s own warband assembling in front of the camp before opening his eyes. His vision blurred momentarily as his sight swapped dizzyingly from the wyvern mother’s to his own.
“It’s about to begin,” he whispered to Gaesin, Adra, and Mirien, who were crouched beside him. “Get ready.” Not waiting for their responses, he closed his eyes and borrowed the wyvern’s sight again while he cast his own protective spells.
Kyran has activated mind-over-matter (+40 strength, dexterity, and constitution).
Kyran has cast boost speed (+40% speed).
Kyran has cast barkskin (+26 natural armour).
Kyran has cast magic shield (shield strength: 689 HP).
Kyran has cast mirrored selves (3 images, image strength: 138 HP).
Kyran has cast beast bless (+35% to body attributes of 4 wyverns).
“Gnarok,” he heard Wynak shout. “Show yourself!”
Two figures separated themselves from amassed ogres and marched to the fore. One Kyran recognised as Gnarok, the other, a bent over and shambling figure leaning on his staff for support, Kyran didn’t know. But from Wynak’s description, it could only be Nekuhr, the chaos warlock. So Wynak had been right—the old warlock would not stand aside from the battle.
“What are you doing here, old man?” Gnarok shouted.
“I heard a little elf defeated you and came to see for myself.”
“Well, as you can see, I still live,” said Gnarok, his voice shaking with anger. “So you can crawl back to your hole now.”
Wynak laughed. “Where is your worg pack, Gnarok? I don’t see them,” he said, disdaining to answer Gnarok’s taunt.
Nekuhr intervened before Gnarok could reply. “Why are you here?” the warlock asked coolly. “The Balturra tribe is no concern of yours anymore.”
Wynak turned stiffly to the warlock. “Stay out of this, Nekuhr. This is between the pup and me.”
“I am no pup!” growled Gnarok. But both Nekuhr and Wynak ignored him, their eyes locked on each other.
“You are mistaken there, Wynak,” said the old warlock, chuckling. “You abandoned your people. The Balturra tribe belongs to me, now.”
Gnarok’s fists clenched impotently as he swung to face the warlock. “Now, wait a second, you aren’t—”
“I will not surrender the tribe to your foul magics!” said Wynak, his voice iron.
Nekuhr cackled. “You’re too late,” he replied smugly. “Gnarok has pledged himself. His warband bears my mark.”
Wynak’s face turned ashen. Kyran’s own face paled. If what Wynak had told him about the chaos-marked was true, then their plan might already be in shambles. How could Gnarok be so foolish as to pledge himself to demons? he wondered.
His eyes snapped open. The party, he saw, had heard the old warlock’s words as clearly as he, and their faces had whitened too.
“Change of plans,” he whispered rapidly. “Gnarok’s warband is your target now. Take them down as fast as you can. Don’t hold back. Gaesin, begin your summoning.” The three nodded curtly.
“What about the warlock?” whispered Mirien.
“Leave him to Aiken and me,” he replied grimly. Closing his eyes, he peered through the wyvern mother’s eyes again.
Wynak had recovered from his own shock. “You fool!” he said, turning slowly to face Gnarok. “Is what he says true?”
“What of it?” said Gnarok, his face falling into confusion. “My men are stronger and faster now. We can—”
It was all the confirmation Kyran needed. Drawing on his will, he activated delayed casting, then began channelling weaves of air.
“Idiot!” whispered Wynak, his voice frozen with fury. “You have doomed yourselves.”
Gnarok scowled. “Nekuhr is right. The tribe is no longer your concern.”
“That is where you are wrong, Gnarok. You have proven yourself unfit to rule, and it is time I took the tribe back.”
Gnarok sniggered. “With what? The pitiful old men behind you?”
“Yes,” replied Wynak evenly. “Now come out and meet me, and we can end this.”
Gnarok fell silent, and Kyran began to fear that they had miscalculated. Their entire strategy had hinged on drawing out Gnarok from the camp, both to prevent civilian casualties and to separate his warband from the warlock.
Once Nekuhr was isolated, the plan had been for the party and wyverns to overwhelm his defences while Wynak held Gnarok at bay.
Kyran could no longer afford to concentrate the party’s attacks on the demon worshipper though. Chaos-marked, each of Gnarok’s ogres represented nearly as grave a threat as Nekuhr himself. But he still needed Gnarok’s forces to charge Wynak.
Only this time so that the two threats were separated. They would be stronger together, he feared. “Brother,” he said, reaching out towards the jade bear hidden in the rock beneath, “attack the warlock when the battle begins and encase him in crystal. We need to disable him while we deal with Gnarok.”
“Yes, Kyran,” Aiken replied.
The weaves of Kyran’s spell completed.
Kyran’s spellcasting (shock wall) has been completed. Spell placement has been deferred by delayed casting.
He was ready. Now only to wait and see what the enemy did. Nekuhr, his eyes roving over Wynak’s forces, was staring at the old chieftain with a puzzled frown. “What are you doing, Wynak? You were never a fool. You know you cannot prevail here.”
The warlock’s words roused Gnarok from his meditative silence and, though Kyran was sure it was an unintended consequence, appeared to instil the young chief with renewed confidence. “Nekuhr is right!” Gnarok said, throwing back his head and laughing uproariously. “You cannot win! I will grant you your wish, Wynak. Today you die!”
“Wait, you fool!” Nekuhr hissed. “That is not what I meant. Something is amiss. We should—”
But Nekuhr had chosen the wrong tack. The young chieftain had been affronted one time too many already, and the warlock’s latest disrespect only served to push him over the edge.
Snarling in rage, Gnarok spun away from Nekuhr. “Charge!” he bellowed before galloping down the slope himsel
f, his warband at his back.
Kyran tightened his hand on his sword. It had begun.
✽✽✽
The ground trembled beneath the steps of eighty trampling feet as Gnarok’s band lumbered downslope in a single broad line, forty ogres across.
On the bottom of the slope, Wynak’s forces braced themselves, seemingly undaunted by the towering mass of fury hurtling towards them. At Wynak’s shouted command, his warband, legionnaires one and all, grounded their tower shields and crouched behind them.
Legionnaires, Wynak had told Kyran, were heavy infantry shock troops, and while the old ogre and his men had been unable to carry away their armour into exile, they had managed to retain their arms at least. Even given the disadvantageous terrain and disparity in numbers, Wynak was sure his men would hold Gnarok’s charge.
But that had been before Wynak had known Gnarok’s ogres were chaos-marked. Now, Kyran knew, the old ogres would need help fending off the younger ogres’ charge. He waited until Gnarok’s warband was midway down the slope, and past Kyran and the party’s own position, before acting.
“Now, brother,” he whispered to Aiken. The bear slipped through the earth, then surged upwards.
“Go!” Kyran shouted to the rest of the party. Snapping open his eyes, he rose out of the ravine himself and released the weaves of the spell he had been holding at bay.
Kyran has delay-cast shock wall (length: 35m, chance to resist: 6%, duration: 69 seconds, damage: 6.9 HP per second), 20 ogres stunned, 2 ogres resisted.
Kyran has entered combat. Shared sight lost.
Kyran grimaced. The shock wall had snared only half of Gnarok’s warband. In a bid to encircle Wynak’s forces, Gnarok had spread his own line too widely for Kyran to entrap them all.
Yet the shock wall served its purpose, and the entire left half of Gnarok’s line crumpled as the ogres within were flung into the air and held helplessly aloft by the field’s surging currents.
Sovereign Rising (The Gods' Game, Volume III): A LitRPG novel Page 33