by J M Hamm
I considered myself fairly used to combat at this point, no expert, but experienced enough to know I wouldn’t freak out. This time I couldn’t set aside the feeling that I was completely outclassed by whatever I was about to go up against.
I didn’t need to win, though, did I? I wasn’t here to slay the bad guy. My plan had only ever been to get in and get out. A little chaos sowed over the battlefield was as likely to help as it was to hurt.
I kicked up a plume of sand and rock as I ran towards the cliff. The beach was little more than a long, thin strip of grassy sand and I quickly reached the base of the cliff and leaped upwards.
The height of the cliff was about twice the length of a football field. It was made of yellow-orange rock lined with swirling strata. Multiple outcroppings held withered trees and yellow, lifeless grass. The rock of the cliff itself was brittle and easily broke off in my hands, making climbing difficult.
Numerous handholds crumbled into dust under my touch before I began creating spikes of energy and slamming them into the cliff wall. I was able to anchor them deep enough that the soft rock could support my weight. Once I had two alternating rows of spikes created, scaling the rock face was as easy as climbing a ladder.
From there, it was a matter of seconds before I was swinging my legs over the top of the cliff and looking down on the other side. It was like I had climbed into another world, a world of conflicting extremes.
I stood above a sweeping valley with high cliffs on two sides. A meandering river ran through the valley, dividing vibrant forest from rolling hills of grassland. The trees were large and had curling trunks from which grew twisting, pointed branches that exploded into tiny green leaves. Amid the sea of leaves were large blooms of white petals that gently swayed to a chill breeze that flowed over everything.
Roughly fifty meters above the valley floated a sphere of dense energy that was so black it looked like a hole drilled into the sky. It absorbed not only light, but the life of everything around it. The eldritch energy was wild and turbulent and spun through the valley like a twister before it was slowly drawn upwards into the sphere.
Nothing could be seen through the surface of the orb, even my sight couldn’t pierce the thick shell of energy. Despite that, I could sense life, or some twisted perversion of it. Something was growing inside.
I looked away and rubbed at my eyes as spots swam through my vision. Looking at the sphere was painful, as if I were staring directly into the sun.
Below the orb was a small area of dead trees that had drooped and split open to reveal swarms of beetles that crawled through black pus that flowed from dead wood onto cracked and barren earth. The ring of death was still small and surrounded by vegetation that still clung to life.
The trees at the edge of that divide had leaves that were slowly turning brown, some crumbling into black ash that drifted up and filled the sky above the valley. Bark was slowly sloughing off to reveal blackened trunks riddled with gnawing insects.
On the northeast side of the valley a ring of metal barricades had been constructed around the remains of an overgrown building. Dirt and vegetation had filled the building and burst out from swollen walls. Soon it would be nothing more than an oddly shaped hill, completely hiding the architecture that was its skeleton.
Muzzle flashes followed by rapid barks of gunfire drew my eye. The peacekeepers had retreated behind large metal barriers that stood in front of a rounded courtyard. A blue haze surrounded their location like a thin, permeable wall. It was too far for me to see individuals, but I guessed there were at least fifty of them.
A horde of creatures surrounded the building on all sides. There were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Even more amazing than the number and variety of the monsters was the way they were segregated. The creatures ranged from humanoid to giant quadrupeds and even included winged serpents and floating tentacle abominations — yet they all grouped together like tribes unwilling to intermix.
Each of the larger tribes contained a leader, and these creatures were the only exception to the segregation. There were thirteen of them, and each was massive and vaguely humanoid. Their features and limbs were hooded and hidden under flowing red robes. Smaller, human-sized figures clothed in brown or green robes surrounded these monstrosities.
They had yet to attack, but were instead standing behind their armies as if unconcerned by the growing body count. They stood gazing outwards, their smaller attendants defending them and occasionally attacking barriers with bolts of green lightning.
A line of death surrounded the overgrown building, but monsters were beginning to pour over the metal barricades as peacekeeper troops fell back into the courtyard. Telvy had beaten me there, and I could see her covering the retreat of a group of a dozen black-armored Peacekeepers.
I guess she didn’t go back to the Yorktown, after all.
Her long red hair flowed behind her like a rallying banner. Chains hummed as they sliced flesh like razor-sharp whips. Some of the larger creatures would hold out for a moment but would wail in pain as her chains wrapped around their limbs and slowly sank into thick hides before slicing through bone and sinew.
It was a masterful, and terrifying dance.
A group of robed figures bombarded her with streams of green fire. She easily deflected or danced through the attacks, but she was slowly being driven back into the courtyard. Once the soldiers she was covering had passed through, the archmage joined them behind the shimmering blue wall of force.
A black, buzzing fog filled the air above the sheltering Peacekeepers. The cloud circled the perimeter of their defenses, and the shifting haze made it difficult to make out any details on the other side. The cloud had a strange way of moving, shifting from one direction to another rapidly. Occasionally, it would take short pauses where it had almost no movement at all.
The swarm seemed unable to pass through the blue forcefield and fizzled into smoke and ash upon contact. Larger beasts would charge the wall of energy as well but would be quickly cut down by spells and bullets before they could make contact.
It seemed a solid defense, but the Peacekeepers had been driven back and were now forced to be completely reactive. Without a counterattack, I feared they would lose a battle of attrition.
Once their barrier was gone, they would be quickly overrun. I had no way of knowing how long they could hold the forcefield, but it if it was powered by mana, they would run out of resources eventually. If I reached them, I could reinforce the shell with a nearly limitless amount of eldritch energy, but my own focus and concentration would eventually waver as my mental fatigue increased. No, defense wasn’t the answer.
The only thing I could do was cut a line through the horde of beasts and then retreat with whomever I could convince to go with me. Even if they could win a protracted battle, there was still the growing sphere of deathly energy.
I didn’t want to be around when that thing finally hatched.
Chapter Fifty-one: Ave Maria
I followed the ledge of the cliff as it gradually angled towards the northeast. I stayed low, trying to stay behind the sparse vegetation and sporadically placed rocks. This slowly brought me closer to the courtyard, but there was still the problem of an army of creatures between the Peacekeeper encampment and myself. There were gaps where the different breeds of abomination refused to mix, but I couldn’t see a way to slip through those narrow openings without being detected.
The area around the battlefield had been trampled flat. Even the grass had been ground down to nothing but dust. There were no trees or rock formations large enough to provide cover. A stream that had broken off from the larger river cut through the northern half of the horde, but just getting there undetected would be impossible. Even if I could, I had no guarantee that I wouldn’t be noticed as I tried to swim against the current.
There was no clear shot to the courtyard, and a growing number of beasts were congregating around the area. Different species would occasionally engage in short sk
irmishes to determine which of them would be allowed to attack the Peacekeeper defenses. The losers would scurry off, biding their time.
It became a constant rotation of infighting followed by challenges and posturing that were inevitably followed by an earth-shattering charge against the glowing blue forcefield. Each time these attacks would be broken by a deluge of fire and lead.
Whatever faults I had with the Peacekeepers, I couldn’t criticize their accuracy.
Despite this, the attacks showed no sign of slowing. It was an unending cycle as more beasts would take the place of the slain. Each wave destroyed was added to a growing mound of corpses. It was as if the horde was content to entomb the Peacekeepers in a mountain of sacrificial flesh.
Even for mutated, eldritch infested beasts it seemed unnatural. Their survival instincts had been overpowered by a mindless bloodlust. There had to be more to it, some motive I wasn’t seeing. This single-mindedness only aided me, as it kept the thousands of unfriendly eyes pointed away, but I still felt uneasy.
I wasn’t being watched and had the element of surprise, so it would be a test of their speed against my own. Some of the quadrupeds and smaller humanoids were quick, but I was capable of explosive bursts of speed when required.
There was even a chance of assistance if I could get close enough to the courtyard — though I was uneasy to put my safety in Sebbit’s hands once more.
If only the mindless beasts were the only thing I had to worry about. The red-robed giants stood as silent sentinels. They peered down on everything before them with unmoving attentiveness. Each was ringed by a group of thirteen mages.
What I needed was a distraction.
It would have to be big. My eye slipped down to the pocket of energy I was using to carry the dungeon core. I had intended to use it as a threat — a way to get Sebbit to back down. The idea seemed foolish now. The captain was way too by-the-book to give into what was essentially a terrorist threat. Besides, it couldn’t be a bluff. I’d have to truly be willing to go through with it.
If I wasn’t sincere, he’d see through the ruse. I wasn’t sure if it was skill or Skill, but the captain was impossible to lie to.
I’d have to be willing to blow up Tiller as well. That wasn’t really an option if saving the cocky son-of-bitch was my only goal. It was time to stop thinking, and just act. Let the chips fall where they may.
I formed a plan. It was monumentally stupid and not properly thought out, perhaps, but it was all that I had.
I jumped from the cliff.
For a tiny moment, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to feel the unbridled joy of it. The sky was behind me and the ground raced up to meet me as the wind flowed over my face and brushed back my hair. It was exhilarating.
It was also brief.
I was trusting to nothing but chance that I wouldn’t be seen before I landed, but that was the smallest worry on my mind. The drop was more than enough to kill me, or at least the old me. Rather than risk shattering every bone in my body I fabricated two wings from pure eldritch energy that sprung from my back and curved outward to catch the air.
The wings bore large, black and red feathers and were modeled after the kingfisher’s — a form I had become all too familiar with. They were big enough to fit on a single engine Cessna, and almost entirely rigid. They looked the part but lacked the strength or articulation for true flight.
They were enough, however, to slow my descent as I softly spiraled downward. I looked below to the horde and its masters, but nothing turned to stare up at me. I had either gone unseen or ignore.
As I broke through the top of the forest canopy, I dismissed the wings and fell the rest of the distance. I hit the ground with a heavy thud that turned into an uncontrolled roll. It was painful, but after a quick check of my status screen I was convinced that I was unharmed.
Who needed x-rays and doctor visits when I could just summon a hallucinogenic display involuntarily implanted into my head by an invading alien civilization? Progress.
Before I continued, I scanned my surroundings for threats. Who knew what kind of scavengers would be attracted to a battlefield this size?
I found nothing.
Nature was never still. Even when you couldn’t see anything, the signs were always there. At least, before that day I’d never seen their absence.
I could hear the tremble of the earth as thousands of feet marched across it, and the shouts and howls were a ringing vibration that shook my skull. There was nothing else. No skitter of tiny claws on bark, or the rustling of leaves as creatures fled through the underbrush. No birdsong filled the sky — only the angry buzzing of millions of flying beetles.
Everything else was gone or had bunkered down and feared to show itself. This absence filled me with more dread than any number of visible threats could have. I’d seen what the ecosystem had become, and it was at its most dangerous when you didn’t know what to expect.
If it was true that no scavengers waited to clear the battlefield, then something else was waiting — something worse.
I didn’t have time to worry about what I couldn’t see. I quickly sprinted towards the battlefield but stopped before I passed the tree line. It was the last cover I’d have, with more than five-hundred yards of empty space between me and the rear line of the attacking horde.
Assaulting the horde directly was pointless, there were too many of them. I needed to take down the generals. The red-robed giants seemed the obvious candidate, but I was hesitant because they seemed too obvious.
The closest of the giants was standing his vigil behind a group of green-skinned humanoids. They looked like spindly goblins and were dressed in tattered garments made from untreated hide. They held simple weapons, mostly clubs or short javelins with stone spearheads. Some of their number were much larger, at least three times the size of the other goblins and twice as wide at the shoulders.
They were ferocious, battling even amongst themselves to reach the front of the battlefield. The largest would casually trample the others as they charged forward. One such creature even carved a path through green flesh, swinging an oversized stone club back and forth like a scythe cutting down wheat.
This casual slaughter of their own people, combined with the segregation of species, told me that whatever was controlling this army had a tenuous hold at best. There was some influence overriding primal instincts and free will, but it was fallible. My only chance was to disrupt that influence.
The entire time I’d held the dungeon core I had been slowly venting energy so that it wouldn’t build up too much pressure. I decided to close this vent and slowly contract the pocket, allowing the pressure to build unchecked.
I quickly felt the energy pushing against me. It struggled against my control as it grew stronger with each second.
This was incredibly dangerous and was akin to holding an armed bomb without a visible timer. Luckily, I didn’t have to hold it myself. Instead, I conjured a Shadow Doppelganger and slowly passed the core to it. It was a slow process, as I had to be sure to keep the orb encased in a thick membrane of eldritch energy.
As soon as the process was complete the doppelganger shot forward faster than I could keep up. I followed behind as closely as I could, concentrating on keeping my makeshift explosive encased. If I failed to contain the energy it would either harmlessly disperse or violently expand before I was ready. Either option would likely lead to my death.
I could already feel the membrane beginning to degrade.
I conjured an illusionary sphere around myself that matched the color of the dirt beneath my feet. It wasn’t a perfect illusion, especially with the speed at which I was moving. My hope was that the screaming shadow flying like an arrow towards the nearest giant would be distraction enough to make my camouflage effective.
Before the doppelganger crossed half the open field, bolts of green lightning and streams of jade fire filled the sky. I ordered it to dive closer to the ground. My clone flew low enough that its toes almo
st brushed the earth, and a thick cloud of dust rose up behind it. This covered its advance somewhat but wasn’t enough to stop a stream of green fire from passing through the shadow.
I cursed, shifting all my focus into the duplicate, and lying my true body as close to the ground as possible. The line of fire had evaporated the left leg of the shadow from the knee down. A layer of green flame still clung to the stump of the illusionary leg, despite having no possible source of fuel.
The flames slowly climbed over the rest of the leg, threatening to engulf the shadow completely. Rather than continue the attack, I ordered the doppelganger to crash into the dirt. I had it mimic thrashing and screaming, as if it were injured. Its howls were the death throes of a mournful creature.
This only drew more attention, and some of the horde couldn’t help but turn towards injured prey. The entire time I slowly crept forward being careful to stay as low as possible.
I’d been fishing enough times to know that live bait was the most effective. I’d let the worm dance for a bit before I set the hook.
Before long hundreds of the goblins were charging towards my downed doppelganger. The green fire was continuing to consume it, but I sacrificed what remained of the leg and ordered the creature to crawl away. It screamed in feigned agony the entire time.
The watchful and hungry gaze of thousands of bloodthirsty beasts didn’t notice a small, black ball slowly rolling towards the circle of robed mages. As the orb got further from me, my controlled lessened. The membrane of eldritch energy became unstable and began to swirl and expand under the mounting pressure.
I fought to keep the thickness consistent as the pressure continued to grow increasingly difficult to contain with every inch it moved. Soon I would lose control completely and it would spin out of my grasp.
As the horde reached the downed doppelganger, they tore it apart and looked around in confusion as their meal quietly evaporated into harmless mist. With raging shrieks, they began to fight amongst themselves. Stone and wood broke bones and teeth. Blood flowed freely as claw and fang tore into flesh. Screams pierced the chaos, and nothing noticed a small ball as it continued forward.
