A Mage Prepared

by Thomas Whipple

  I do not even have to warn off Timbre because she sees or smells they are catkin and doesn't attack. Seeing that she is still ready I talk to the trio. "We are here to help, please stand to the side though." They all hone in on my voice in the room only lit by my Wisp. I can see the panic in their eyes when they see my human looking round ears. The father, at least I think he is the father of the younger one, seems to process the words first and grabs the other two. He turns to his right and sees Timbre crouched there ready to strike. Startled by this revelation they all stumble backward. The small family ends up clearing the door in the other direction by falling on their butts and scooting back. A few moments later they are followed in by two more humans, one is a Pikeman and the other a Rogue. Level 14 each, but we have the element of surprise. Already pointing my new staff at the doorway and charging a Water Whip I release it when the second one becomes visible through the door. As planned, Timbre expertly takes the second enemy down. My spell impacts with a hard wet slapping sound, staggering the first attacker. "Azzaria, focus on the second one with Timbre." At the same time I cast a Mana Barrier on myself and start lobbing Wind Slashes at my target.

  I am not using fire spells now because I do not want to set the building on fire. Thankfully the surprise attack has our opponents off their game so we are giving them a beating. The rogue that Azzaria and Timbre are working over goes down after a few seconds of being mauled and shot, but my opponent the pikeman gets a jab in on my barrier. After the first one I start using the active skill in my staff to deflect his strikes. When he is down to half health Azzaria and Timbre ambush him from behind. He was busy trying to kill me and unsuccessfully dodge my spells and didn't realize his partner was gone. That ended the fight pretty quickly. Usually does when Timbre gets her fangs into the back of your neck. I turn to the three catkin "Please clear the bodies off to the side. I am going to take a peek outside while we wait for Dolan and Hildre to get here."

  Putting words to actions I step over the pikeman and poke my head outside to asses the situation. The building is close to the main entrance where I can see the two guards that were stationed there on the ground. They aren't moving so I'm assuming they are dead. The village doesn't have a wall or gate so it's a good bet that there are human soldiers all over right now. I take a second and confirm this with Thia, who is still scouting from above. She says there aren't that many though. The soldiers are working in teams of two to capture villagers and then haul them off. I tell her to follow and see where they are being taken. Looking the other way I can see a few more soldiers heading away from me. Hearing someone coming from the back I turn my attention inside again and point my staff at the door to the forge. A couple seconds later Dolan comes in followed by Hildre and I lower my staff. "Dolan, Azzaria and I will go take out any that we come across and send any villagers we find here. Please organize everyone here" I tell them as I turn to Azzaria. Before I can say anything there is a crash from next door. It's from the alchemist shop that Enora works.

  I bolt out the front, Azzaria following with Timbre, and see the source right away. In the street there are two human soldiers rolling around in pain. A quick use of my skill tells me that they are almost dead. Azzaria and I run up quickly and finish them off, her with the sword from her hip and me with an Earth Spike through the back. Looking at the front door of the shop I can see that it's open and standing there looking like a geriatric on a stroll is Enora. Tilting my head around to see if there is anyone else with her I find no one. I open my mouth to ask her if she did this to the soldiers, think better of it, and ask something else. "Can you help over at Dolan's shop? Azzaria and I will be sending those we find there and helping out as we can."

  "I'll grab a few things and head over there." With that she turns back to her shop and goes back in. Seeing what happened to the soldiers here I don't worry about her.

  I buff up again before Azzaria, Timbre, and I all head off toward where I saw the other two soldiers heading earlier. We weave in and out of the houses not located on the main street and tell a few people that we run into to go to Dolan's or barricade themselves in their home. A little while later I hear a scream nearby and we run to find the source. Running into a house with a broken front door we hear the sounds of a scuffle in the back. We follow the sounds to a bedroom and look into the open door. There we can see the back of a Human soldier that is crouched over a woman on the bed. He is holding her down and trying to tear her clothes off at the same time. The woman is fighting but it's obvious that the soldier is stronger. Facing away from the door he doesn't see us or hear anything over the struggle.

  I hate rape more than anything. Just looking on the scene I am filled with a roiling pot of molten steel. Seeing a raccoon tail from under the woman's struggling legs reminds me of the little girl I spoke to yesterday. This only fuels the rage to new heights and the pot boils over with so much rage I feel my mind go a little foggy. Before I know it I have dropped my staff, and drawn my dagger. My left hand is already burning and I use it grip the assailant by the back of his neck. With a thought and application of mana the dagger also lights on fire.

  Everything after that is a red haze and I'm not sure what happened exactly. When I come to again I am holding the remains of the dead human soldier. His corpse is bent over backward and I have the burning dagger plunged into the back of the soldier, just under the mail portion of armor. That is not the most disturbing thing though. I must have been there a while because my left hand that I used Burning Palm on to hold the soldiers neck is now holding the spine. My burning palm had been working at it long enough to actually char all the flesh around the neck. I pull out my dagger before dropping the corpse. Sheathing the dagger I look down on the dead soldier for a second. Should I feel bad that I brutally murdered that guy? I don't. Maybe I should, but all I really feel is satisfaction that there is one less person like him in this world. I look up to find Azzaria holding the woman who was on the bed as she cries. Azzaria looks at me with a little concern in her eyes. "I'm OK now. Seeing what that guy was trying to do, I just snapped." At the sound of my voice the crying woman looks up at me and I can see that it's Nira.

  Seeing her a cold dread fills me and I look around "Where is Zia?"

  She sobs a little more but gets out "There were two of them that broke in. The first one took Zia while the other said he was going to have a little fun with me first."

  With conviction in my voice I respond to her. "Don't worry Nira. I promise to you on my goddess Gwydia, that I will bring her back to you." Both Azzaria and Nira give me wide eyed looks before I hear a weird chiming.

  You have sworn on the name of your Patron. Gwydia approves of the manner and goal you have set so you will not be struck down. You have automatically accepted the divine quest Sworn to Protect as a result.

  Sworn to Protect: You have sworn to your Patron and she has given her blessing. You must retrieve the little raccoon girl Zia and reunite her with her mother Nira. Time limit: 1 year. Failure: Time limit passes or Zia killed. Reward: ????, Penalty for failure: ????.

  Struck down? O shit. I should be more careful what I say. Looks like Gwydia is with me on this though. I wave away the message and the two women are still looking at me weird. "I didn't get struck down, so I guess she agrees with me."

  Azzaria nods at that but Nira still seems a little shocked. Eventually she recovers enough to say "Gwydia?"

  I look her in the eye "Yes. My patron is Gwydia. Right now though, you need to head over to Dolan's shop. I assume you know where it is. I'll make sure you get there but we need to hurry so that we can find your daughter." She gets up and we all head back to Dolan's. Half way there I get a message from Thia. She has found where they are taking the captured people. Wagons with cages just past the tree line to the east and a little north. Knowing where they are going gives me an idea. I tell Thia to look out for Zia and I finish escorting Nira. After that I lead Azzaria to the North East of the village. A few minutes later I turn the corner of a house only t
o take a dagger in the shoulder. It was aimed right for my neck and I was lucky to see it coming enough to try and dodge. It was way too fast for me to dodge completely, but I was able to move enough to avoid a possibly fatal strike.

  From around the corner come two rogues wielding a knife in each hand. One already has my blood on it. I stumbled back when I was stabbed and quickly raise a barrier around myself. The first one, the one that stabbed me, steps forward to attack again. Too bad for him I was ready this time. Pointing my new staff forward I cast one of my new ones that I haven't used much yet, Buffet. Instantly a blast of air rockets forward from the head of the staff. I am actually surprised at how strong it is. The force of it picks up the rogue in front of me and flings him into his buddy who just rounded the corner. They both fall onto the ground in a mess of limbs, and before they even come to a stop from the force of my spell I have a fireball building in my hands. I overcharge it while funneling all the anger and hate still left over from the encounter with Nira's attacker into the spell. Just as they start to recover and get their feet under them I release the spell.

  The fireball streaks through the air and impacts that closest rogue in the chest but the intense yellow flames expand in a sphere that catches the second one. Both are now blazing and screaming. I'm a little worried that it will draw attention. I turn to Azzaria and say "Let's finish them off and see if it brings anyone else." We both unload into the flailing rogues. I fire Wind Slash over and over as Azzaria releases glowing arrows into them. I notice that my air spells are not only cutting the soldiers, but fanning the flames that are all over them too. I will need to experiment more with combining my spells to greater effect. A few seconds later they are dead and I loot them real quick, not even paying attention to what I dumped into my storage.

  "Timbre, hide around the corner in case someone comes. Azzaria, you and I will hide on top of a house nearby." We all go to a building off to our right and Timbre crouches down behind some crates that are there. Azzaria and I use them to climb up to the roof. Looking over the peak of the building we have a good view of where we left the bodies of the two rogues. Once settled in, Azzaria pulls out her new dagger and casts a heal on me. I nearly forgot about the stab wound in my shoulder with everything that happened but I remember now that I feel the pain recede. Looking at the wound I can feel a tingle as I watch the skin knit together. "Thanks" I tell her before we both turn back to the ground. Then we wait.

  We didn't have all day so after a few minutes I was getting ready to call it and start moving again when Thia arrives overhead. "Two humans are heading your way" she tells me. "One is heavily armored." That last part is accompanied by an image of a man in full plate armor accompanied by a woman in leather and carrying a bow. I relay the information to Azzaria and this time she is the one to set a plan. "You are better against archers than I am so why don't you take her. I got a new Skill that lets me pierce armor though it does reduce damage a little. I will use that and Timbre can keep him distracted until you can finish the archer and help out. First though, cast fog so we have some cover." I'm impressed. It's a good plan. I cast my buffs on Timbre and myself and a minute later when the two targets come into view I hit the area with Fog. I use Identify to get a sense of what we are dealing with. "We got a level 16 Long Bowman and a level 18 Heavy Knight" I whisper to Azzaria. Thia then lands on my shoulder and we both start slinging spells at the archer.

  Out of the corner of my eye I can see Timbre race in at the armored foe and blind side him with a shoulder check. Unexpected, the blow knocks the knight down in front of the archer as Timbre continues by. Taking advantage of the situation I launch a fireball right into the two of them. They both take damage, the archer more than the knight. Next I start in with the Wind Slashes. I want to level Air magic since it is the lowest elemental magic that I have, and I really want to get Lightning when I get Air magic to level 5. As I learned from earlier it's also increasing the damage the flames are causing, at least until the archer rolls to put the fire out. She gets up but is taking the full force of magic from both Thia and I. She is cut all over and just as she pulls out an arrow from her quiver she is paralyzed by Thia's Zapp. We finish her a second after that when my Wind Slash catches her in the throat.

  Turning our attention back to the knight I see Timbre darting in and out of range of his sword. He also has a shield on his left arm now that he is using to deflect Timbre's teeth and claws. The fog is keeping him from stopping Azzaria's arrows though. Every few seconds I can see a silvery shimmering arrow streak in and pierce the armor the knight is wearing. It's obvious that they aren't going in that deep but she is still able do damage. Timbre darts in but this time the knight was able to anticipate the direction, catching her with a shield bash to the face as she comes in. He follows it up with a slash to her side. Timbre yelps and rolls away into the surrounding fog with him following her. Worried about her I raise an Earth wall between them to give her time to recover. When the wall goes up the knight turns around and starts looking around with his shield up and held close. Anyone can see that he is more wary now. He probably noticed that the archer is down.

  Glancing to the health bar in the corner of my vision I can see that Timbre took a good amount of damage, about one fifth. I recast haste on her to help out and then use Earth Spike on the knight. The ground in front of him shoots up to slam into his chest plate. The initial hit doesn't do much damage but it does slam him against the wall behind him. Looks like Thia's attacks are doing well since metal isn't much for stopping electricity. This reminds me of the effect Wind Slash had to fire and gives me an idea. I start casting Water Whips multiple times and the water in the air condenses down to thins strands. The whips strike out at the knight and drench him with water. They seem to be working with the electrical attacks from Thia to chip away at his health, increasing the damage they do. After taking a few more shots from all three of us he has determined our general direction and starts running toward our building. He is down below 50% on his health but is tough and multiple levels above us. Half way to us though Timbre has finished circling the wall. She chases him down and he never sees her coming. When she reaches him and pounces on his back the force smashes him into the building we are standing on. The house shakes a little as Azzaria and I run to the edge.

  We are just in time to see the Knight spin around with a vicious back swing of his shield that flings Timbre to the side. She rolls away but is largely undamaged. Now that we are looking down on him we start up the barrage again. Azzaria with armor piercing arrows that start striking joints, and Thia with lighting that is complimented by my Water Whips. It's working and his health is dropping quickly, but he isn't just standing there either. He digs his hand into the wall and starts to climb. Half way up I use Buffet to knock him down and then we are able to finish him off. His hand claws at the wall one last time, still trying to reach us, and falls still. "That guy was tough."

  "Knight classes are usually tough but are not fast and only do a moderate amount of damage. It's the high health and defense that makes them such a pain to deal with. A Heavy Knight like him is even more focused on defense than others" Azzaria tells me.

  "Good to know. Lets get moving again. We have lost enough time here already." When we get down off the roof Azzaria heals Timbre back to full before we get moving again and we are at the edge of the village a little later. Soon a couple swordsman arrive with a couple wood elf women over their shoulders. They are level 14 and 15, but don't see us until it's too late. Azzaria catches one with a roots spell and Timbre surprises the other by pouncing on him and ravaging a leg. Thia uses screech, making both of the humans release their captives and then we just pummel them. It doesn't take long to finish them off and then we carry the two women to a building nearby to prop them up. They are both starting to come to when three of the village guards show up. "Hey guys, we have a couple that we saved here." When they get closer I can see one of them is Grondar. When he gets close enough I ask "What happened around here Gron
dar?"

  He looks a little relieved when he sees me and Azzaria then answers. "It's good to see that you two are OK. I don't know how, but a group of human soldiers found our village and brought a subjugation team to collect us. They usually send their new recruits on these missions to get them some experience. They will take everyone they can and then retreat. After that they will come every few years to do it again."

  "They are set up in the woods that way" I tell him, pointing into the tree line North East of here. "Grondar, can you have one of your men guard these two in a nearby building while the rest of us catch whatever soldiers come this way?" At a nod from him he turns and gives orders to a wolfkin man that is wearing heavy looking chain mail. The wolfkin goes in a nearby home and makes sure it is clear before leading the two women we saved in. He stays there and closes the door. From there the four of us catch any of the human soldiers coming from the village. We end up saving five more people doing this before there is a horn from the trees where the humans' wagons are. Hearing it I send Thia to see what is happening. The human soldiers that start coming out of the village now are not dragging anyone else with them. A minute later Thia confirms my suspicions that they are now in retreat. I ask Thia to see if she can find Zia, and a little later my fears are confirmed. She is already in one of the cages and they are moving out.

  We have thinned out their numbers by catching those leaving the village and more guards have joined us, but we are unable to follow the wagons because of the soldiers still in the village. It takes an hour of fighting, but we finally get a message from a guard telling us that the village is clear of enemies. At this point the wagons are a good ways out and the number of soldiers that are with them makes me nervous. I need help if I am going to get the rest of the villagers back, including Zia. I'm antsy and want to get started following the captured villagers, but I force myself to calm down and follow the rest of the guards to the gathering that was called at the town hall. When we get there, Azzaria and I enter with Grondar to see that all of the council is already there except for Serin. Before anyone can speak I say "We need to go after them."