#
We fell into file behind Weylin, who led the way to where he believed the elf tribe lived. We kept quiet as we traveled, and to our surprise the woods stayed quiet with us.
Something’s spooking the wildlife, I asked privately through the mindlink. Is it us?
I don’t think so, Weylin answered. I think there has been battle in these woods, and the creatures have all learned to hide from it.
Really started to worry about getting greeted by an arrow here, I mentioned. You sure we shouldn’t announce our presence or something?
Since no one else is making noise, I am beyond certain that we shouldn’t be making noise either, the elven songcaster replied. Or at least any more than our large group is already making. But they should not attack with me in the lead.
Should not? I asked. Or will not?
Weylin didn’t immediately answer, and I realized I needed to let it go. No point in making everyone else worried about something we can’t really change.
More time passed, and we began to see signs of passage. Branches and shrubbery snapped until they resembled crude paths. More claw-marks, these much smaller than what Weylin had found earlier, started lining the trees, as if something had tried to climb up them in a hurry. Then we began to find antler horns that were the wrong shape to fit any type of Woadlands deer, and then we found small bodies with arrows sticking out of them.
Horde bodies.
I looked down at the Horde Wretch that was probably missing the antler we found earlier, and swore.
“I’m getting real tired of seeing these guys,” I muttered.
“Guess you shouldn’t have let them form a fan club after you,” Eadric grunted unhelpfully.
“It’s not a fan club, it’s a hate group,” I retorted, then looked back down. “These bodies haven’t disintegrated yet, which means they’ve been killed recently. Do these arrows look like they could have been used by the same elves we’re looking for?”
“Arrows tend to just look like arrows,” Weylin said dryly. “But yes. It’s likely the village has engaged the Horde.”
Which meant there were Horde Pits in the Woadlands again. Fantastic.
We now had the potential for a third Tumult on our hands. And unlike the Hoarfolk, Horde didn’t need a whole lot of time and resources to pull it off.
I gave myself a moment to feel frustrated and overworked, then pulled myself back together.
“New plan,” I announced. “Weylin, I think speed is more important than etiquette right now.” He nodded in agreement. “Let’s try and see if we can get there quicker. Everyone use what magic you can to make us run faster. Breena, Val, I want you two to use your magic to look ahead whenever you can. We may already be walking into a fight.”
The Horde was a lot like cockroaches in a person’s apartment. For every one seen, there were dozens more back in their lair. The best scenario would be for this to just be a scouting party, but it was likely that the elves were dealing with a full attack.
I was right.
Breena had risked flying upward for a higher vantage point, dimming her light as much as possible. She reported that about a hundred misshapen humanoids were trying to set certain trees on fire. That was all the confirmation I needed. Weylin began his speed song, Karim wrote his veiling script into the air, and the tattoos covering the Gaelguard flared. For my part, I drew Carnwennan and tried using the dagger itself to scribe veiling runes as well, activating its shroud function at the same time. It seemed to work, because I was able to extend the veil out to cover over a dozen people easily, hiding and silencing them.
We took advantage of that to run like hell.
Foliage scattered and cracked under us as we dashed forward, trusting in our magic to keep us hidden and hale enough to dash through the forest at full speed. With Breena scouting, Weylin was able to pick a path reasonably free of dangerous ground, so no one took a dirt-nap despite running at a full jog through an old-growth forest.
We saw the terrain change about a hundred meters ahead. The space increased between trees. All of the foliage became more organized, their placements more practical. A few more meters and we saw the trees ahead of us suddenly tighten close together, forming a wall in front of us with only a thin pathway leading through the middle of it.
The ground in front of that opening was riddled with Horde bodies.
They had trampled a small wooden gate before they died, and then more had apparently died trampling those bodies. Most of the dead were the child-sized Ilklings and the slightly bigger Wretches, but I saw two dead Mongrels as well as a scattering of another type of Hordebeast I didn’t recognize.
My mindscreen didn’t trigger any messages when I saw them, so I figured that I’d need to see a live one to learn something.
Judging by the sounds of combat further in, I knew I’d get that chance.
We ran past the wall of trees, noting that they were in fact, somehow grown together to form a wall. I didn’t have time to figure out how that worked, but I did note that no Horde had been able to climb up them. At any rate, the violence inside the tree wall took back my focus.
At first all I saw was a flurry of shapes and flames. That was enough for my instincts to kick in, because I had summoned and thrown Toirneach before I even realized I was saving a small child’s life. The enchanted axe had blasted through one antlered Wretch and two of the oily Ilklings that were chasing a small, sobbing, pointy-eared girl. My eyes caught focus on her own tear-filled orbs, and she pointed a trembling finger to the violence behind her, still crying too much to talk.
A body from behind me nearly bumped into me, and I cursed myself for getting distracted. I kept running forward so that I wouldn’t get in the way of the rest of my team, but the Gaelguard were already reacting like the elite warriors they had always been. Alum barked a few commands as they ran past me, giving me the barest of nods to make sure he had permission, but I’m not sure he saw me nod back. Two of the guard split to deal with stragglers but the remaining eight lined up in a row and charged toward the largest nearby knot of Hordebeasts, hurling hatchets and javelins before they slammed into the monsters and tore them to shreds. When they were done a few seconds later, Alum turned to me again.
“My lord, I suggest you take Breyn and Ama with you to secure the stragglers, and leave the rest of us to deal with the main melee. I know time has passed, but the villagers should trust our tattoos.”
That made sense, so I nodded back. I would have sent Weylin with them but the truth was I needed his help in saving all of the isolated groups even more.
“Go,” I commanded in agreement. “We’ll reinforce you when we can. Breena, be on the lookout for wounded. Val, you still have Ball-ee, right?” A squeak came from her bag. “Good. Listen to see if Breena needs your help for saving lives.”
She gave me a firm nod, and then both of my groups were off.
While I had been talking, Weylin had rushed forward and scooped up the elf-child in his arms. He had managed to calm her enough to get slightly more information on what was happening, and then he placed the child in one of the trees inside the village. I saw the little girl scamper even higher up, and then I was running, slamming into the next rampaging Hordebeast and bursting the Wretch to pieces with my dragon strength. Teeth roared alongside my pumping adrenaline, as we attacked silently, slaying rampaging monsters and scooping up running children, parents, and grandparents. Since Breyn and his friend couldn’t use the mindlink with us yet, I had them gather and protect the rescued villagers while the remaining six of us went back to hunting. We tore our way through several more packs of weaker Hordebeasts until we came upon the first real challenge, a dozen or so haphazardly armored Mongrels wielding giant machetes and axes, facing off against a smaller group of elven warriors wearing fluted leather armor and wielding light blades. The elves were holding their own despite being outnumbered, darting between the larger apebeasts and slicing their unarmored legs and arms. But that changed the next mom
ent when over a score of Hordebeasts, the same type as the bodies outside the gates, came charging at their backs.
They were between five and six feet tall, still smaller than the Mongrels but much larger than the Wretches. Their bodies were covered in coarse fur except for their hands, which still dripped the disgusting Horde oil. They wore padded armor, carried small shields and short spears, and Horde oil adorned their shields and spears much like the Woadsap had been used to enhance our own weapons and armor. Their heads were a weird cross between cat and dog, whiskered like a cat’s but with a longer, canine snout.
Warning, my mindscreen suddenly chirped. Foreign contaminant detected. Contaminant is new species of Hordemonster, designated as species Miscreant. Species appears to excel at group combat. Recommend that the Challenger engages and destroy before contaminant overwhelms current world.
The mindscreen’s description was accurate, as the Miscreants were charging in the most tightly held formation I had seen a Hordebeast use yet. They began to rush at the unprotected rear of the elven warriors, which would take the pressure off the Mongrels and allow them to properly surround each individual elf.
We didn’t let that happen.
As we charged, I opened both palms for a moment to fire off all ten of my finger bolts, striking ten Miscreants straight in the face. They spasmed and went down, bodies jerking and smoking. Bolts flew from Breena, Weylin, and Karim, knocking down six more, and then we were within the melee, slamming into the back of the Mongrel pack.
I had put away Carnwennan at this point to fight with Toirneach and my new woad shield. I slammed into a Mongrel that had caught an elf warrior by the throat and freed the elf by slicing off the Mongrel’s arm a split-second later. The freed elf looked at me suspiciously, but then he heard Weylin call out something in their language, so he merely nodded at me and sprang back to his feet.
Dick, Teeth muttered, apparently offended by the elf’s suspicion, but I didn’t have time to soothe his ego. I slammed my axe down into the wounded Mongrel’s head, cleaving right through armor and skull until my lightning-enhanced weapon overpowered the creature’s vital guard and fried his brain. I ripped my weapon free just in time to take a giant machete on my shield. I winced from the impact, then braced and pushed, matching strength with the next ape monster snarling in my face. He growled at me, confident in his larger size, then shouted in outrage as I slammed him away and into another Mongrel fighting Karim behind him. Karim’s spear burst through the unarmored stomachs of both monsters, and I followed up with two decapitating swings from my giant, crackling tomahawk.
By now the rest of the combatants had spread out. I saw Eadric shrug a machete off of his shield, smash his hammer into the Mongrel’s knee, then flip his weapon around to slam the hook end into the Mongrel’s belly as the Hordebeast stumbled to its knees. Further away another elf went down to another Mongrel’s blow, clutching his chest as he fell. The wounded warrior futilely tried to crawl away to give his vital guard time to arrest the wound, but the Hordebeast looming over him stepped down on the elf’s knee with a loud crunch. The Mongrel bellowed as he raised his axe over his head, but a shape faced next to him and sliced through the back of both of his knees. The monster fell to his own knees with a howl, and the black-haired shape kicked off of his chest to slash one blade across his throat and thrust the longer one up into the Hordebeast’s open mouth.
By then the combat was over. I looked around and saw at least four elven bodies on the ground, with three of the remaining elves talking to Weylin in hushed, urgent tones while pointing to me and keeping their weapons drawn. The mindscreen hadn’t translated their words yet, so I ran with Val and Breena to try and save the four elves still bleeding out.
That was kind of the miracle with vital guards. Provided a person (elf, human, whatever) had Risen at least once, they had a good chance to avoid dying from infection or blood loss, at least to a single wound. Half of the Mongrels still on the ground were slowly bleeding out, and could have been saved if there were any nearby Horde willing and able to heal them. But the vital guard of the four elves before me had been exhausted completely. They would die without medical attention.
I knelt next to one body, that of a blonde-haired woman whose partner was desperately trying to halt the flow spraying from her leg. I quickly cast my signature water spell, giving her enough vital guard to arrest the bleeding on its own, then I rushed to the next dying elf to repeat the process. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Breena do the same with her Wood and Water magic, and to my relief we managed to reach all four wounded in time.
“You should not let him fool you,” an elf arguing with Weylin said as my mindscreen finally finished translating. “Earthborn have come to our aid in the past, only to stab us in the back when we least expected. There are no more Challengers.”
“The hell?” I shouted angrily, briefly remembering what the other Woadfolk on Avalon had told me, about Malus Members posing as Challengers, with captured fairies forced to pretend they were Breena. “Forget it. We don’t have time for this. Breena!” I shouted. “They think we’re fakes! Fix it!”
The elves arguing with Weylin suddenly stopped. Apparently my imposters weren’t as bad-tempered and abrasive as the real me. But then Breena fluttered into view and glowed brightly, showing that she was clearly more powerful, and a different breed than any sprite-folk captured by the Malus Members.
“Now let’s get back to work,” I growled. “I have a team of Gaelguard trying to engage the main body of Horde. Is there anyone else we need to save first, or can we help them and wrap this up right now?”
“Gaelguard?” The senior-looking elf blinked, but when Weylin whispered urgently to him he snapped back into focus. “If you came from the same place they attacked,” he began, looking behind us and nodding, “then you likely saved everyone you could. We need to hit their main force now, before they steal any more of our young or sprite folk.”
“Sprite folk?” Breena blinked. “They have been stealing fairies again? Why are the sprite folk here in the village?”
“The remaining fairies are now either guarded directly by Lady Titania herself or by any local village able to take them in,” the slender warrior told Breena grimly. “Every unprotected fairy has been rounded up and taken by the new Earthborn—” he gave me another dark glance—“and their Horde allies. Your people have been hunted almost to complete extinction, Holy Fairy. Along with the children of many races.”
Update on new factions complete, my mindscreen informed me.
The local elven population views you with distrust, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
The local Woadfolk population views you with distrust, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
The Stag Lord views you with distrust, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
Mother Glade views you with distrust, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
Lady Titania views you with resentment, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
Great Pan views you with sadness, based on rumors regarding your death as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers.
The Woad Princess views you with resentment and anger, based on previous racial conflict as well as the actions of individuals posing to be Challengers, and finally your failure to appear until now.
“Fuck that,” I growled, hearing Teeth speak out loud with me. “Lead the way so we can finish this.”
The elves blinked again at my tone, but the next moment they were darting toward the loudest sounds of combat. We followed them, until we reached the site of the main battle.
By now, I had been able to take in most of the details of the village around me. The town was a strange mix of single-story bui
ldings with arched roofs, large trees hollowed out at the base to become homes, and fortified-looking structures built directly into the tops of the largest trees.
The elves seemed to be doing their best to herd as many of their people into the last and safest type of building. Women that looked to be mothers were clutching sobbing infants and screaming children, doing their best to drag their families into the safety of the higher elevation, while leather-armored elven men and women hung from nearby tree limbs, firing arrows into the mass of monsters below. At the base of the tree were more warriors wielding long spears and light blades, fighting a loose formation that still kept a path free for a handful of noncombatants still rushing for the safety of the tree forts. Closest to the base of the tree was the corpse of a young red-haired man in shiny but poorly constructed armor, completely covered with arrows. My best guess was that he was one of my imposters, and that he had tried to bluff his way past the soldiers and to where the children were kept. The fact that the elves had killed him on the spot meant that previous false Challengers had done the same in the past, which meant that in the last fifty years I had grown infamous from other people enslaving women, children, and sprite-folk in my name.
I raged. The dragon in me grasped for control, and I let him.
“YOU WRETCHED FUCKS!” I bellowed, my teeth growing and itching. “YOU DARE USE MY NAME FOR THIS?”
Fire and Air magic surged through my legs, and I leaped high into the air.
Below me were a mass of Wretches, Miscreants, and Mongrels that were beginning to overwhelm the elves guarding the base of one of the tree forts. I saw two Mongrels rear their hands back to toss torches they were holding, and decided they’d never get the chance. I hurled out the Fireball I had been storing right behind them, scorching their hands and catching the center mass of the Horde throng at the same time. The blast was powerful enough to kill over a score of Wretches and Miscreants outright, and as I hurtled through the air I followed the attack up with several Friction Slices. The Air spell wasn’t as devastating, but I could cast it faster, and now the spinning blades of air crackled with lightning and fire at their edges. The discs cut through Horde like saw blades, and then I landed in their midst.
Woad Children (Challenger's Call Book 3) Page 31
