“B-B-But the rebels are traitors!” the older trooper shouted.
“Whatever you think we are, the civilians in Homehold and Silverton aren’t combatants,” I answered. “And they pose no threat to the Emperor. Yet, he was still willing to let them die at the hands of an undead horde. Tell me, how is that glorious?”
It was working. My gambit was paying off.
All around me, I saw the faces of the Legion troops quickly fill with doubt. That or, like the war mage, they were realizing that their suspicions had been right all along.
These men weren’t pure evil like the Emperor. Some might have been corrupt, some might have even believed they were fighting for the right side, but even the true believers couldn’t say that the ‘rebel scum Champion’ didn’t conduct himself with honor.
This, I thought, would go a long way to aiding the rebellion. A lot further than merely killing the entire squad, anyway.
One by one, the legionnaires began sheathing their swords. Even the drunk Captain Pernicus – though still under the sway of my silence spell – seemed to realize that their Emperor might not have been quite as great as he used to think.
All sheathed their swords except for the older trooper.
“Nonsense,” he growled, then he glared at his fellow legionnaires. “Come on, boys!” he shouted. “Let’s take him down for the glory of the Empire!”
No one moved a muscle.
The war mage knocked his fist into the older trooper’s shoulder. “Alright now, if you want to fight him so badly, go on and do it yourself.”
At that, the older trooper lowered his head. He muttered under his breath as he slid his sword back into his sheath.
“I can send word to my friend to let you out of these woods without being bothered by his illusions,” I said. “Ride back to Homehold or Silverton or wherever. All I ask is that you remember that this rebel is no monster.”
The war mage smirked. “Alright then, lads,” he bellowed. “Let’s head north once again. If not for this man, we’d all have starved in these woods, or else been hounded by spriggans and goblins.” He walked up to me, peeled off his gauntlet, and offered me his hand. “Rebel or not, you’re a fair one, Champion.”
I shook the war mage’s hand. The rest of the Imperial troops couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.
And yeah, I liked it that way.
“What’s your name, pal?” I asked.
“Erhoff,” the war mage answered. “And you?”
“You can call me Earthman,” I said.
Erhoff grinned his grizzled grin, then turned back to the men. “Alright boys, let’s move out,” he said.
*****
I pointed them in the right direction then, in just a few minutes, the legionnaires were gone.
Pandora appeared by my side, chuckling. “Look at this, the Earthman has become a politician,” she said.
I laughed along with her. “I’m just hoping to inject a little rebel sympathy in the rank and file,” I said. “By the way –”
As always, Pandora knew what I wanted before I even said it.
“I’ll teleport back to the cottage at once and tell Corvus to let them pass,” Pandora said.
She kissed my cheek then vanished as she teleported away.
Just as Pandora left, Layla climbed down one of the trees and joined me. She was smirking. “That was a wild gambit, Earthman,” she said.
I sat down on an old tree stump and laughed. “Yeah it was,” I said. “But I think it was worth it.”
“They could return,” Layla said. “With greater numbers.”
“Or they could go back among the rest of the Imperials and whisper about their one interaction with a rebel warrior,” I countered. “If they come back, Corvus Gavrus will have them walking in circles again. They’ll be no threat to us. And even if they did somehow stumble upon us, I’m sure you could drop half of them quite easily perched up in one of these trees.”
Layla’s smirk was as mischievous as it was alluring. “These arrows of mine do seem to get eager back there in the quiver,” she said. “There’s worse fun to be had than putting one through an Imperial’s eye.”
Shortly, Pandora appeared again, teleporting back to our location after speaking with Corvus about letting the legionnaires pass. Though she’d teleported a decent distance, she wasn’t nearly as exhausted from casting the spell as she would have been just a short time ago.
When I mentioned this, she just smiled. “My connection with the mysticism school is greater than it had been when I was younger,” Pandora said. “I wonder if there’s an explanation for that?”
Either way, neither of us were complaining about it. Pandora’s magical skillset seemed to be improving every few days. Not long ago, even a mild teleportation spell would have left her spent. Now she was teleporting almost casually.
Layla led us deeper into the woods. Darkwood Forest certainly earned its name. The deeper we went, the thicker the canopy overhead became, and precious little sunlight got through the dense canopy of leaves above us.
“This is nothing,” Layla said. “In the heart of Darkwood Forest, there are creatures that have never even seen the sun.”
Before long, we reached the first wood elf village. I heard it before I saw it, the quietly creaking walkways and ramshackle wooden structures constructed high overhead, in the trees. There was lots of movement up there, with the short and slim wood elves coming and going, with the various buildings connected via rope bridges.
“The forest accommodates the wood elves,” Layla said when she caught me looking up and admiring their little village.
I could, however, see why so many wood elves ditched villages like these to work in Silverton. Given the hardscrabble nature of Darkwood Forest, it couldn’t have been easy living up there.
“How do we get up there?” I asked.
Layla laughed. “We don’t,” she said. She thrust her finger upward, toward the village. “Earthman, when you gaze up at that settlement, what do you see?”
I shrugged. “I see people that are probably living a hard life.”
Her grin grew wider and her amber-golden eyes seemed to sparkle. “Exactly,” she said. “But more importantly, you see people who don’t appear to have anything worth taking.”
Chapter Five
When I pressed her about what she’d meant by that last comment, Layla had only grinned at me and answered, “You’ll see soon enough.”
It was another long walk, deeper into the woods. The farther we went, the more scarce the sunlight became, until finally it was limited to intermittent shafts of sunlight that broke through the canopy like spotlights.
When I looked up toward the dark ceiling of the forest, I saw those circular patches of light, glowing a garish shade like little silver suns.
“Did the wood elves cut holes in the canopy to let some sunlight in?” I asked.
Pandora and Layla shared a knowing chuckle. “You were right, sister,” Layla said. “He’s no ‘idiot’ Earthman, after all.”
Just outside of those shafts of sunlight, now and again I’d spot sturdy, squat buildings up in the trees. In contrast with those ramshackle shacks I’d seen before, these were made with far more skill. There were no creaking floorboards, for one. Also, you had to look right at the buildings to see them, as they appeared to have been built to blend into the forest.
Again, unlike the rough-looking wood elves who’d inhabited that first settlement, these squat buildings were manned by well-fed, sharp-looking wood elves that gazed down at the forest floor. Each one had their bow in hand, and they didn’t look like they’d hesitate to let some arrows fly.
“These are garrisons,” I said. “Aren’t they?”
Layla nodded. “Small garrisons, yes,” she answered. “As you know, there are many vicious creatures that prowl these woods. Many might be poor souls that had been corrupted by the Fairy Mother but, alas, we still must defend ourselves against them.”
Almost o
n cue, we heard a slight rustling in the leaves overhead, off to the east, I thought, but judging which direction was which had grown difficult in the woods. At first, I attributed the noise to a strong gust of wind…although I hadn’t felt one.
“Quiet,” Layla said, then turned toward the source of the sound. She lowered her voice. “The wood elves often speak through code, using the trees. There may be enemies.”
Both me and Pandora cast detect life spells to get a better look. Sure enough, we saw glowing white auras in the distance, hidden among the trees. They were closing in fast.
“WEREWOLVES!” a wood elf archer shouted.
“Werewolves!?” Layla said, perplexed. “There haven’t been werewolves in these woods for ages!”
I drew my axe then prepared an ice spell with the Soulguard. Yeah, those glowing auras looked like werewolves, alright.
Even from a distance, their shapes were long, lanky, and fearsome. They came bounding toward us on their hind legs, snarling, and within moments, I didn’t need the life detection spell to make out their numbers.
Above us, the archers manning the small garrisons let their arrows fly. All but a few arrows hit their mark, but the werewolves were stout creatures, and most of them easily shrugged off the shots.
“There are thirty of them,” Pandora growled as she unsheathed her dragontooth daggers.
“Make that twenty-nine,” Layla said, right before she fired an arrow right through a wolf’s left eyeball, making it fall dead to the ground.
The closer they got, the more gaunt they looked. These werewolves were desperate for food, that much was easy to see, and the wild hunger was obvious in their dark eyes.
Well, if nothing else, this meant I’d get to try my newer skills against a new enemy. I let out a roar, hurled an ice storm spell at the middle of their number, and threw myself at them.
I’d aimed my ice storm spell quite low, so that the blast caught them in their knees. Five wolves immediately howled in pain as their legs instantly became frozen. I rolled in, axe in hand, and buried the blade into the nearest wolf.
The one beside me could hardly move with his frozen knees, yet he slashed down with his savage claws regardless. I blocked that blow with the Soulguard then took his head off with my axe.
ONE-HANDED AXE SKILL INCREASED +1
DESTRUCTION SKILL INCREASED +1
WAR MAGE LEVEL 14 REACHED!
A half-dozen more werewolves were roaring at me. I prepared a TK force bomb and hit them at once. It didn’t kill any of them, but it did scatter them, sending all six flying back into the trees.
Pandora was doing the same. She’d extended her fairy wings, and now she was flying about fifteen feet in the air, well out of their reach. She hurled down TK blasts, shattering lupine bones and battering them into submission.
Still, this was no easy fight. I fortified my speed with a spell then quickly backpedaled, as the ravenous wolves showed not even the slightest hint of fear. In a way, fighting the werewolves was like fighting the undead, as they seemed to have little, if any, sense of self-preservation.
They closed in around me. I hacked and slashed with my axe to hold them off, but cursed myself for my rookie mistake.
I had to remind myself that I was a war mage now. Yeah, my melee skills were still awesome, but throwing myself into an incoming horde of werewolves had been stupid. I just as easily could have thinned their numbers from a distance.
I tapped into my mysticism skills and employed my short-distance teleportation spell, putting some precious distance between me and the wolves.
Layla’s eyes suddenly glowed brightly as she wielded her green magic. At once, ten or so monstrous tree roots roared up from the soil like giant snakes. They whirled and slammed against the wolves, shattering their ribcages upon impact, then coiling around their broken bodies before crushing them to death.
Soon, there was only one wolf left, and this motherfucker was clearly the alpha of his pack.
He was taller and broader than the rest, with a streak of gray hair down his back. He roared, snarling and snapping his jaws as he sprinted toward me.
Overhead, the archers loosened their arrows, with a dozen hitting the alpha right in the chest, not that it fazed him.
He leaped at me, growling, and I growled right back at him as I channeled an ice storm spell into the Soulguard, charging the gauntlet with the frozen magic.
As the werewolf fell upon me, he bit his sharp teeth into the Soulguard, which easily absorbed the impact.
The werewolf growled, snarling as it looked into my eyes and locked his jaws tighter around my enchanted gauntlet.
I smiled. “Surprise, doggo,” I said, then unleashed the ice storm spell while he still had his teeth locked onto my fist.
At once, the ice magic rendered the werewolf’s head into a block of ice. The wolf didn’t have even a moment to whimper as the ice took hold, freezing his head solid. The wolf backed away in confusion. When he did, I raised my axe and brought it down on his skull, shattering his frozen noggin into a hundred pieces.
CRITICAL STRIKE!
Then, it was over. Thirty werewolves were slain and scattered across the woods. Pandora knelt down and inspected one, tapping its long, grisly teeth with the tip of her dagger.
“Layla, you said werewolves hadn’t been in these woods for ages,” she said.
Layla nodded grimly as she joined Pandora in inspecting the corpse. “That’s right,” she said.
I looked around at the scattered corpses. “I’m not familiar with werewolves in this realm,” I said. “But even still, this seems like a pretty large pack. And it didn’t seem like they’d come here on purpose, necessarily.”
Pandora nodded in agreement. “The Earthman’s right,” she said. “These creatures were desperate for food. The question is, where’d they come from?”
Layla nodded. “And how many more are out there?”
There was a large tree off to my right. Seven wood elves wearing strange black armor came climbing down the trunk.
Just looking in their eyes, I could tell they were deadly shots with their bows. Their captains stood before them, wearing that same black armor, which appeared to have been constructed from the exoskeleton of some large insect.
“Hingar!” Layla said to the captain. “What do you make of this?”
Hingar nodded respectfully to the Mananymph. “I’ve no idea, my lady,” he answered. “I’ve already sent scouts to look for more, but as of now, we appear to be in the clear.”
The captain turned to me, eyeing me suspiciously.
“This is Gamelord,” Layla said to break the tension. “He’s a friend.”
“Is he?” Hingar said, still eying me up, like he’d have no trouble whatsoever firing an arrow at my chest.
I tried not to bristle or show my frustration. These wood elves lived in quite a hostile environment, and I didn’t blame the captain for being suspicious of me.
I extended my hand to him. “Nice to meet you, Captain Hingar,” I said.
He stared at my extended hand but didn’t accept it.
“Hingar,” Layla said as she put a hand on his shoulder. “Surely, you’ve wondered why there have been fewer hostile spriggans lately.”
“Aye, I have,” Hingar answered.
Layla nodded to me. “This Earthman managed to slay the Spriggan King not long ago,” she said.
He looked at her in disbelief. Layla gave him a quick rundown of the battle outside the forest, including the Siege of Silverton and my duel against the Necromancer. Though he was suspicious of me, he clearly trusted Layla’s word.
He turned to me and accepted my hand, shaking it eagerly. “Welcome then, Earthman,” Hingar said. “You’ll have to forgive my people in advance. We’re not quick to trust outsiders.”
I nodded in agreement. “And I don’t blame you at all,” I said. “Hopefully, at some point, I can help you guys figure out why thirty-something werewolves just happened upon your land.”
&n
bsp; “I’m sure the reason is nothing good,” the captain answered. Finally, he offered me some semblance of a smile. “Come now, I’ll show you to the city personally. The woodfolk will be happy to see that Layla has returned.”
*****
The city of Woodhaven made my head spin.
Nestled in the deeper parts of the woods, the city hung aloft between towering, vertigo-inducing Darkwood oak trees.
Easily three times the size of any California redwood, these towering trees were more than strong enough to support the sprawling, hanging city.
“We never use the wood from a Darkwood oak,” Layla explained. “Not a living one, anyway. From time to time, elderly Darkwood oaks will topple over, blessing us with their thick bark. One fallen Darkwood oak provides enough wood to last us for years. Decades, even.”
This section of the Darkwood Forest had a thicker canopy than before, giving the impression of an eternally midnight sky overhead. However, the city’s many roaring magical torches dotted the sky like a panorama of stars.
“We use illusion magic to light those torches,” Hingar explained. “We dare not risk having so many actual open flames near our home. We spark true flames only to cook and hammer our armor.”
Gaining entrance to the city would be no easy feat for even the most robust invading force. Razor-eyed archers were posted around the city, so scaling the tree trunks themselves would have invited certain death.
There were great wooden stairways, however, glowing golden in the illusion-born magical light. These stairways were guarded by towering wooden walls, spiked at the top, with numerous guards milling about the wooden battlements. As the gates opened for us, I came to admire the construction. I thought about the undead horde that had fallen upon Homehold. If they’d have breached the gates to these towering wooden staircases, they’d have a literal uphill fight. There were wood elf guards aplenty manning the stairs, with various interior gates to serve as buffers for any hostile force that might try to charge up the stairs.
I laughed. “Holy shit,” I said to Layla and Hingar. “If the Empire were stupid enough to invade, you guys would be able to hold them off for months or years.”
Monstergirl Quest Book Three Page 4
