Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  “Just so we’re clear,” I growled. “We all just met yesterday, before we tentatively decided to work together, for the time being. Am I remembering that right?”

  “I know!” Breena squeaked happily next to me. “They’re already getting along so well with you! I’m really impressed, Wes!”

  “That’s it,” I snarled. “This has been an utterly horrible meeting of minds, and I’m tired of civil conversation. We need to get started on killing each other right the hell now, or my eyebrow’s going to develop yet another nervous twitch. Give the order for your music-video extras to march and lead them, so that we can all begin solving our problems with violence. And you—” I glared at the one called Virtus—“You look like you’re sitting this one out. Since your asshole ex-boss can’t get in range fast enough for my needs, tell me what the hell is wrong with his men, assuming his soldiers are all men. Not that I’m going to care either way in a few very violent minutes.”

  “We’re ancient warriors lost to time itself,” Virtus clarified. “If fielding all-male armies has recently become politically incorrect, we never got the notice.”

  “Virtus! Stop talking with the enemy!”

  “Your enemy,” the first, and increasingly agreeable skeleton corrected. “The contract just expired, so we’re all off duty right now. You want to try and illegally fire me and have your battle after hours, that’s your prerogative.” He turned his armored head to look back at me. “We’ve all undergone some Descents. And Tovius, my ex-coworker who still somehow thinks he’s always been my boss, followed the lie that undergoing multiple Descents was the fastest way to strengthen our units.”

  “You’re the only one that doesn’t believe that, Virtus.”

  “Yes,” the first skeleton said bitterly. “And I should have come to that conclusion much sooner. I might have been able to save our company if I had.”

  Their conversation hinted at all sorts of intrigue, but I was out of time to appreciate it. The first, loose row of monsters had entered the battlefield.

  "Wait for it," Eadric said cautiously.

  "I know," I grouched. "I was there when we planned this whole fight."

  "Good," the dwarf grunted with the nod. "So you were there when we went over you not charging into the middle of them this time?"

  Happy place, Patient Me warned. Just go to your Happy Place every time one of them talks.

  Ill-fitting helmets on heads suddenly shook as the first haphazard line of un-living warriors stopped advancing. Their heads all swiveled in my direction. I heard air suddenly, inexplicably sniff through their nasal sockets. The leftmost one in line held up a bracer-covered forearm.

  "Earth-man," the thing said. "Earth-man noticed."

  "Earthborn," Tovius rasped from behind his troops, and I heard surprise in his voice. His head swiveled over to where Virtus was still standing. "You didn't say he was from Earth!"

  "I didn't ask," the other soldier replied. "Shouldn't you have sniffed him yourself?"

  "Sniff me?" I said, seriously creeped out. "What the hell is wrong with you things?"

  "Earth-man," the lead skeleton repeated.

  "Earthborn," another one in the column behind repeated. "Bonus," it added.

  "Bonus pay!" another shouted excitedly.

  "Vengeance!" a particularly decrepit troop in the back shouted.

  "Get him and bring me his head!" the caped skeleton shouted. "I told you our contract wasn't up, Virtus! Don't let him get away!"

  "Will someone please..." I started to ask, then shook my head. "Never mind. Today's not going to make any sense no matter how many questions I ask. Ready?" I asked everyone behind me.

  "Ready," Weylin nodded.

  The semi-organized mass of skeletal troops surged forward, brandishing spears and short swords in my direction. I gave one final count of three, and then I snapped my fingers and we began to take them apart.

  Until now, most of the spells Breena had taught me had depended on me acting in the moment, seeing my opponents and correctly guessing where they were going and what they were doing right then. Sinking Earth and Friction Slice, for example, were incredibly useful spells if the enemy was already within range and I didn't have to wait for them to hurry the hell up. But if I wanted to plan an ambush, they all had casting times, bright flashy effects, or other flaws that would prevent me from getting off more than one surprise spell.

  Breena's new series of spells fixed all of that.

  Snapping my fingers activated the Scattered Shards spell she had shared with me from the Earth Ideal. Thick, brick-like shards of stones suddenly popped up from the ground, stabbing into bony feet with loud cracks. Several monsters in the middle row fell straight down, which made the rest of their bodies vulnerable to the spell. As that happened, I took a deep breath and let out a careful sigh, and the Air spell she had just taught me engaged. Burdened Breeze caused an air current thick with tiny grains of matter-dirt, tiny pebbles, plant specks, whatever was around- began whipping through the air at head-level. That particular spell had taken a gut-check to decide to cast. I had no idea whether any of my incoming enemies would even need their heads to fight, and for a moment they didn't seem too bothered by the attack. But then their eye sockets and mouths filled visibly with dirt and plant matter, and the tiny pebbles began to leave cracks on their bones. The monsters' heads started to lean forward, as if they were overburdened, and they tried to hunker down from the incoming pebbles.

  The suppressed troops, to their credit, still tried to pick their way through the hazards, and then one of Eadric's carved totems landed among them. Something invisible pulsed out from it, and several inches of ground, including the thick shards from my spell, suddenly began bouncing into the air.

  More troops tumbled off their feet. More bones cracked.

  "Pull back!" their commander shouted from behind them. "Get out and go around the effect!"

  "Good plan," I said. "That's something a group of mages never would have prepared for: you just walking out of their trap."

  When the first monster finally worked its way out of the initial effect, the second trap sprung.

  Scripted symbols on the nearby ground suddenly came to life. A thin blue fire covered the ground, and skeletal feet began to crack.

  "I thought fire was tricky for you?" I asked the robed wizard.

  "Creating a corpse-melting conflagration on the spot is tricky," Karim admitted with a nod. "But maintaining enough heat to warp, and not melt, bone upon contact is much easier."

  "And even if he could, melting the bones outright is bad," Eadric grumbled. "Their metal armor would have melted first."

  "Right, I think I remember that from a physics class somewhere," I nodded, appreciating again the fact that my mind had enhanced from Rising and that whatever was still in my head could no longer inhibit my ability to think when it really mattered.

  "Gonna start firing now," Weylin said as he carefully pointed and loosed an arrow. He chanted a word my mind-screen didn’t translate, fired, and chanted again as he shot.

  Heavy-tipped arrows began to smash into visible bones everywhere. They seemed to fly faster and land harder than Weylin's arrows had before, and through my link with him I realized his chant was a personal spell affecting his own marksmanship.

  Through that same link, I also realized that some of Karim's symbols were starting to make a little more sense, and I thought I had just a hair of understanding for how Eadric created different magic objects by carving them in different ways. The thought made me grin, but I filed it away for later.

  "So," I asked as I directed my Shocking Digits spell into the heads of ten skeletons trying to form a shield wall, causing the already-damaged skulls to explode into bony shards. "Is it always this easy, being a mage on a battlefield?"

  Karim shook his head.

  "No. It helps that we are an entire unit of magic-workers. But things will be different if we grow overconfident. Or if the enemy does not need to walk across the ground to hu
rt us." His eyes suddenly narrowed as he looked at the monstrous red-caped centurion.

  "Or if the enemy is a magic-user as well."

  The enemy leader had begun to wave the phalanges on his free hand through the air.

  “Bastard Earth-boy! You think your world is the only one with great magic?”

  A black light flashed from his hand, and the blue fire that the healthiest troops were struggling their way through suddenly vanished.

  “Damn,” I swore. “But why did he wait to do that until now?”

  “Mana is expensive for most of the dead,” Virtus supplied, still standing out of the fight. “He basically just tossed out a portion of his pay. And food.”

  “Shut up, Virtus!” the monster snapped. The monster reached behind him and pulled out a short spear from his back. "Kill them! Bring me the Earthborn's head."

  "Do you ever get tired of being so popular?" Weylin asked me as he fired another bone-shattering arrow into an undead soldier.

  "Believe me, I hate all of this publicity," I answered dryly as I cast a Friction Slice into the most poorly armored group of skeletons I could find.

  The spell tore through them, but I had to take note of just how much damage these things were able to take. They had already been hit by massively eroding wind, sharp rocks, numerous weighted arrows and finally a literally burning ground. The fact that many of them were able to stand at all was impressive, and they gave no indication of wanting to retreat. I had to remind myself that Avalon had mentioned these creatures had undergone at least one Descent, making them to be stronger than all of the Horde we had fought earlier, except for the Mongrels and howlers.

  But, I realized, they were still off balance. Dragging themselves forward. Having trouble staying in formation.

  "Since we're running low on mana anyway," I said quietly to my companions, hefting my mace and shield, "anyone mind if I take of advantage of the wreck we have in front of me?"

  I felt my intent convey through the link we shared, and this time I got no complaints.

  "Go ahead and strike while the iron is hot," my dwarven companion said, hefting his own warhammer. "Just don't break any gear we can use."

  "I'll make an honest effort. Ready?"

  "Go," Weylin said. "I'll try not to shoot you both in the back.”

  We darted forward. My Air magic let me cover ground much faster than Eadric did, but right now that was okay. The skeletons saw me coming and struggled to make a shield wall, finding the process difficult. Many of them had arms that were now too long for their shields. I got a brief impression that they hadn't practiced this formation since their bodies had changed.

  Knocking away a few spears with my shield, I exploded among them and began to exploit their bad discipline. My bum rush knocked the soldier just ahead of me right off of his feet, and then I quickly swung my mace into the head on my right. I heard a crunch as the monster's already-taxed vital guard gave way, and the entire skull exploded not a second later. The body dropped to the ground. As it did so, I swung my heavy, balled weapon into the upper leg bone of the other monster next to me. Again, I overpowered whatever passed for an undead thing's vital guard, and the limb shattered apart. I kicked hard at the fallen skull with a stone-toed boot and felt the head separate from the neck.

  Then the second row was upon me and I had to start giving ground. Spears, swords, and bony claws clacked off my round heavy shield, but every now and then a blow would make it past to my shoulders and chip just a bit at my vital guard. I kept backing up though, and when the once-disciplined monsters fell out of formation I would charge back in, smashing at the most breakable parts I could reach. This time I also pushed out with my shield, shoving and maneuvering my way around enemies just like I had done back when I played Heroes Unbound on Earth.

  I was thankful that mimicking a video game could actually help in real combat, instead of getting me horribly killed.

  Three more already battered skeletons fell to my attacks. Four more attacks deflected off my armor, stone-enhanced skin and Karim's wards. Two other attacks nicked through all of that to sting my legs. Leg armor, I reminded myself. Really need to invest in some leg armor.

  Then I heard Eadric slam into the monsters at my back, and it was all over. We both wore armor and had magical protection. We started the clash with our vital guards full, and used the best weapons for damaging our poorly-fitted opponents. And finally, even taking their one or two Descents into account, we were more powerful.

  By the time we cleared our area of enemies, a quick look told us that Breena, Weylin and Karim had finished mopping up the stragglers. Breena had used a new spell from the Water Ideal that let her damage enemies and knock them off of their feet by erupting small geysers from the ground. Then, after enough of them had been knocked prone, she flew up high over them and began to rain icicles and small pebbles of hail all over the group. Combined with Weylin's arrows and Karim's arcane bolts, that was enough to clear the field of all but a few half-broken stragglers crawling pitifully through the ensorcelled ground.

  "That," I panted. "Went really well." I turned to Eadric, who was stoically ignoring a few minor bruises and small cuts. "How long do we have until our opponents get smart enough to use ranged weapons?"

  "One or two more encounters, max," Virtus volunteered. "The only reason you haven't run into it yet is because ammo is surprisingly expensive to preserve long-term. And Tovius is a cheap bastard."

  "Say one more thing," the gaudier commander hissed. "See if I can't have you executed by now."

  "Doubt it," the other skeleton somehow snorted. "Even if the mace-wielding murder-child and his band don't kill you, you're going to have trouble explaining how you lost your entire unit."

  Tovius snarled again, and then pointed his javelin in my direction.

  “You! Earth-man! I challenge you to direct combat!”

  “Denied,” I responded dryly. “Prepare to kill him with ranged attacks.”

  “You have no honor!” the ancient warrior hissed. “Come fight me!”

  “You just attacked me and my group with more than ten-to-one odds,” I replied. “You gave us no chance to surrender, offered no real explanation for your aggression, rejected my own demand to withdraw, insulted my Steward—” that part accidentally came out as a growl—“and implied that you are currently holding hostages, beings that are legally my subjects. All while hiding behind a contract that according to him—” I pointed to Virtus—“has already expired. You are guilty of war crimes, and war criminals don’t get honorable duels. Prepare to kill him with ranged attacks,” I repeated. “Actually, hold up,” I suddenly raised my hand. My eyes turned back to Virtus, who had stayed out of this entire fight. “Is there any benefit I’d gain to killing him by myself, in ‘honorable’ combat? Anything at all?”

  “First claim to his spoils,” Virtus said with a shrug. “His armor and whatnot.”

  “You know, I’m not really anticipating that big of a fight over gear,” I replied. “We’re five people, and we just killed at least eighty. Everyone on my side is walking away from this with at least two full suits of whatever the hell they want to wear. With the possible exception of Breena.”

  “Yeah,” Breena piped up. “My standards for fashion are pretty high. I’d have to check if any of that gear is still in season. And doesn’t make me look too big.”

  Wow, we really are bonded, I thought. She didn’t even miss a beat with that line.

  “Tell you what,” I said to my personal fairy. “We could probably cut an inch or two off that guy’s cloak, and you could just experiment with it. Maybe you could bring back snuggies.”

  “Snuggies? Those blankets that grown-ups on your planet wear, to get around not being allowed to wear real robes? I love those! Bestest Challenger ever!” she declared as she beamed at me.

  “Alright,” Eadric grunted. “This is getting weird.”

  “Agreed,” Weylin nodded. “Can we just kill him now?”

  “You would
also get his leftover magic, and access to his spirit bank,” Virtus added thoughtfully.

  “What?” My head snapped around. “Spirit bank?” My eyes narrowed. “Is that really a thing?”

  “He’s been hoarding most of his mana,” Virtus confided. “Even if you couldn’t use it for your own reserves, you could probably power a ritual or two with it.”

  “I can do that?” I asked suspiciously. “Avalon, can I really do that? Use his walking-dead magic to help power your systems?”

  “Query confirmed. Raw mana has no real nature and can be used to charge planetary rituals.”

  “How much mana are we talking here?” I asked. “And why can’t I just take the mana for myself by killing him the normal way?”

  “He’s likely to destroy his token if he thinks you’ll kill him outright. But you can get him to place it somewhere else if he thinks he has a chance of living.”

  “So it’s on a necklace he wears, that he can break before we blow him up right now?”

  “No, he’s probably already holding it inside his fist,” Virtus replied. “He’ll likely agree to dropping it though, if you agree to the duel.”

  “Alright,” I said as I looked back the current commanding idiot. “Are you willing to do that?”

  “Give your word of honor that I will go free if I kill you. And that your friends will not interfere with our duel.”

  “That’s it?” I asked. “You’d really trust just that? Why?”

  Recent experiences had made more cynical. Go figure.

  “Because outside of your planet, Earth-man,” the creature spat, “there are consequences for breaking vows.”

  “Really?” I asked, cocking my head.

  “Usually,” Virtus confirmed with a nod.

  “He’s right,” Breena added. “They can mess up your mana somethin’ fierce.”

  “Huh,” I said finally. “That’s… most of my concerns, actually.” I looked back at Virtus, my former-enemy-turned-unpaid-consultant. “Unless he’s really, really good and I can’t take him in combat.”

  “He’s not,” Virtus shook his head. “One of the worst in the company, in fact.”