Cleansing Fire

by D. L. Harrison

Gwen asked, “Why check kingdoms then?”

  I replied, “I could be wrong, they’re alien and who knows how they think. They could take over one kingdom with all six ships to ensure slaves and gathering of resources. Take over the castle, protect it with their ships, and then start breeding in the castle. We can’t be sure until we look. I just… I have a feeling it’s the first one, they’re in hiding somewhere. It’s just a guess though. Maybe because of what they did here, they didn’t want word getting around of their existence when they had a kick ass city ship, now that they just have six troop carrier shuttles or whatever they’re called, they’re going to want to hide more.”

  Cassie nodded, “For all we know, when on a planet they dig underground. They could go to the mountains like the other evil races.”

  It was almost useless to speculate, we’d either find them or we wouldn’t.

  “Also, looking at the kingdoms will tell us that at least no one is suffering for our mistake, not yet anyhow.”

  Gwen nodded.

  “How about that massage?”

  I snickered, “Is it my birthday?”

  She laughed but gave me a look. She liked my honest appreciation of her looks, and how attracted I was and how much I loved her, but I guessed I was pushing it a bit too far that day…

  We were all in the ship the next morning. All of us looked tired, we’d drank too late, and stayed up even later when we got to our beds last night.

  Gwen sighed as she took one last look around, we probably wouldn’t be back for a while, until our next beach day vacation anyway. This kingdom was a tropical paradise.

  “We need to build a house here, like we have one in the Glade and Southern Kingdom. But when we have time to build it.”

  I nodded in agreement, we didn’t really have the time in that moment. A day off was reasonable, but those evil bastards were out there somewhere.

  “It’ll take a few days for me and Dan to build a mansion on the beach.”

  We shot off to the west at one gravity of acceleration. We doubted they were on the shore, but still did a circuit of the full continent. The continent had a circumference of about twelve thousand miles. We went a little over the speed of sound, which made it a fourteen-hour trip. We also had to pay very close attention, or we’d miss them if we all blinked at the same time. Still, six bright green ships should stick out. So would a burning city.

  To give an idea of the problem, even in our fast ship it would be impossible to realistically do a full out detailed search. If we circled the island and then zigzagged in a search pattern every five miles, we’d cross the continent six hundred times. Our miles flown at that point, would be one million eight hundred thousand, which would take seventy-five days of time, not counting rest. With rest we’d be looking at over a hundred days. There was also the matter of five miles being a good distance change in our grid, if the ships were tucked in another valley up against a mountain, they could easily be missed from mountains being in the way, unless we luckily flew right over them.

  And that assumed they were even still on that continent, which I doubted. Still, it was something we had to at least try.

  So yeah, we planned to circle the continent, and then methodically fly from kingdom to kingdom in a twisted crooked route that would cover them all going east to west. That would still take us days of effort, if not a full week, but it was far more in the realm of possibility. There were maybe seventy kingdoms on the continent, a handful of them were a million or so in population, but most of them were a hundred thousand or less.

  The good part was we’d have a fairly good picture of things when we were done, and where we might want to go next.

  Steve said, “Hold up, I think I saw something.

  We were in our third day, Gwen and I were both watching out the front from the front seats, while Steve and Dan looked left from their seats, and their ladies next to them looked right. We figured with two of us on each directional view we’d have a better chance.

  I started to dump some speed as I circled around to the left.

  “By the city?”

  Steve said, “Nope, about two miles west of it, in the mountains. I may be seeing things.”

  Dan chuckled, “I saw it too.”

  Lara asked, “How many?”

  Steve shrugged, “More than three?”

  “We’re cloaked?”

  Gwen patted my knee, “We are.”

  We went back to the city, and then I turned us west. I could make out the small green dots two miles away. They’d be hidden from the ground, no one in the city could see it, but at a thousand feet we got lucky and found the right angle.

  “Nice catch. Looks like all six of them. Let’s take a look at it, then we can plan.”

  The ship moved forward, it only took a minute to go a couple of miles, I didn’t go all that fast.

  The six ships were hovering just a foot over the ground in the hills, right outside a goblin cave. Their mana shields were up, and they had two of their armored guards standing by the ships’ open doors. There were about twenty goblins out on the surface, with the same type of fortifications we were familiar with from the island when we first arrived on this world. I bet the small human city saw goblin raids every twenty years like the elves had back on the island.

  “Huh, why had I assumed if they got slaves, they’d pick a human town?”

  Gwen shrugged, “I hadn’t considered this either. Probably because they’d enslaved humans, elves, and martens before.”

  It was pretty apparent the quadrupeds had invaded the caves as well. We weren’t watching long before one without armor left the cave, and went back on the ship for a few moments, before heading back underground.

  “Ideas?”

  Dan replied, “Cloak, sneak in the ships, and blow them up. Then invade the caves and remove all the aliens.”

  I nodded, “That will work for the first one, then the other five ships will button up, maybe take off. How do we sneak onto all six? After that, we can kill the twelve guards up here, and invade the caves.”

  Cassie sighed, “I have an idea, but it will take about ten hours to set up.”

  “What’s the idea?”

  Cassie grinned, “I’ll enchant six journeyman gems with an EMP spell, six hundred mana should be plenty, I didn’t use much more than that on the big ship. I can also program in a delay of say… ten minutes? I can trigger them out of sight right on the ship, then when we recloak the ship, fly near there, and we can cloak our group. That way triggering or casting won’t interfere with the cloak, it will already be done and counting down.

  “Then we just sneak onto the six ships and hide the gems inside them one at a time, without decloaking, and they should all go at once. Once the small ships are dead we attack the soldiers and then clean out the cave. We can always blow up the ships later, but I’d rather tear them apart instead, and keep the large gems inside. We should strip the ones out of the armors and batons too if we can.”

  “Great plan, but the gem sheets? We can’t use them, even if they are powerful.”

  Cassie shrugged, “I’ve been thinking about the gems in our packs the last three days, we have a lot of them, and they’re way beyond even grandmaster level. So yes, as they are we can’t use them, but what if we took one to a jeweler. How many grandmaster gems do you think they could get out of them if they were cut down?”

  “Oh… you’re a genius.”

  Calling her a genius was much more attractive than calling myself an idiot.

  Why didn’t I think of that?

  Cassie winked, “I’m guessing with just two, maybe three of those sheets, we’d get over a hundred of them. More than enough for full grandmaster level equipment for us all, with enough left over for the ship. Of course, unless we run into master level gems, we’ll still be stuck with our expert equipment for twenty levels through master, but we can deal with that. If we get all the armor sheets, along with the large crystal in the ship and smaller crystals in the batons, w
e’ll be more than set. That’s twenty-four sheets and twelve large crystals just on the surface, besides the six much bigger ship crystals. Who knows how many more guards they have below guarding their people? They’d be worth thousands of golds each, many thousands. If we ever needed large amounts of gold, we could just sell one, or even cut it up first and sell the grandmaster gems.”

  Yeah, I was pretty sure we’d all be wealthy enough to live like kings. Not that we would, but I couldn’t deny the appeal of just not worrying about money. I’d already been fairly secure just with our gem stash, but the wealth Cassie just revealed was one that would last us for thousands of years. All during that time we’d be finding even more.

  “Alright, find a place near here, or do you want to go to the human city and rest?”

  Gwen said, “I think we could all use a hot bath, and a bed. Cassie can enchant in comfort too.”

  Steve interjected, “Good plan all around. Riches, bed, hot baths, good food.”

  I laughed, “Fine, city it is.”

  It would also give us a close respawn point, just in case. I didn’t say that out loud though, I was being too much of a pessimist lately. The war had really done a number on my head. On the good side, I was used to leading now, and was pretty good at it. At least, none of the others had an issue with it, or with my decisions in battle.

  I turned the ship, and headed for the human settlement…

  Chapter Seven

  I’d refined the plan just a little bit since yesterday. Me, Dan, Steve, and Lara were cloaked by Lara about three hundred feet out from the goblin cave, on a small hill’s ridge. It was an excellent position to provide cover fire if anything went wrong with the plan. Cassie had already activated the gems behind this hill before we recloaked. Her and Gwen were sneaking on the ships and delivering the packages. If for any reason they were caught, the three of us would launch a withering storm of suppressive fire to afford them an easy escape.

  Shit happened, and all it would take was one of the guards shifting their feet at the wrong time, and to simply knock into Gwen or Cassie as they snuck on or off a ship. There wasn’t much room to sneak by the two guards. It was also another reason why they went alone. Two people had a much better chance to sneak than six of us did, even cloaked.

  Fire blasts were blinding for the second they were active, surrounding the enemy in white hot fire. It hadn’t taken me long to consider the idea if I could cast a twenty thousand mana fire blast every ten seconds, then I could also fire a two thousand mana fire blast every second. Smaller damage amounts, but it would be great for removing the enemy’s ability to see.

  Of course, I wouldn’t do that during the normal fight, because we’d have trouble seeing them too. I was however considering a ten thousand mana fire blast every five seconds. That meant I’d have a reserve of ten thousand available mana at all times, instead of just emptying my available mana every ten seconds.

  It seemed prudent, even seconds could count heavily in a fight. Mana management was important, even at our much higher levels.

  Anyway, after they’d planted the stones, they’d rejoin us on the ridge. For all we knew they were already here, since we were cloaked separately, and we couldn’t see each other. Regardless, the signal to launch the attack was the EMP blasts, with the small ships falling to the ground.

  Conveniently, with all their doors stuck open. Not that a closed door would stop Dan for more than a second.

  It wasn’t much longer, before the mana shields on the six small ships winked out, a short moment later, the ships fell a foot and clanked on the ground.

  I sent a fire blast for forty thousand damage, while Dan and Cassie sent fire and lightning to finish off their shields with another combined sixty thousand damage. Steve and Gwen finished the two of them off with an arrow and bolt glowing with magic. That was our free surprise attack, and the guards in all six ships had been standing close together.

  The other ten guards separated as they moved apart and fired in our direction. We were far away, and while powerful they had to aim since they used tech and not magic. Still, ten blasts were sent our way, and it would only take three to take down my shields.

  In short, we all ducked down behind the ridge. Dirt and heat blasted around us, but none of us were hit except with raining dirt and small pieces of stone. We also knew the rods could fire every three seconds, so I stayed under cover until the next shot, then popped up and fired a fire blast.

  The one I aimed at took forty thousand, the other one was far enough away it only took thirty-two thousand on its shields. I was back down behind the ridge long before the three second fire cycle for the enemy was complete. The others had also attacked, and I presumed one more was dead.

  They fired again, and I peeked over the ridge for a second. I chuckled as I ducked back down. The third one had died, the one I hit for full damage. More than that, that one and the other two dead ones were stirring and getting to their feet. Steve was awesome.

  Sure, zombies were vulnerable to fire, and those rods shot out the equivalent of magic fire, but their mana shields were regenerating as well.

  Another incoming blast, and my five second wait was over, so I popped up and nailed the fourth one with degraded shields. The shield died, as did the enemy. Four down, six to go. I stayed up long enough to see Dan and Cassie hurt the next closest pair. Gwen and Steve also attacked, given my attack didn’t go towards those two, they doubled up on one of them to finish them off. Five down, five to go.

  As for the goblins, they’d all ran into the cave. I was fine with that, they just couldn’t hurt us anyway.

  Their turn to fire, and the ridge was hit again, that time by only two. The other three must have fired at the three undead.

  I was disappointed to see when I jumped up, those three undead were toast. Back by the big city ship, we’d killed those two, and the mana shield had a couple of minutes to recharge before the battle had started, but the twenty or so seconds since the battle started here obviously hadn’t been long enough to make them sufficiently strong enough.

  Regardless, I sent another fire blast, and finished off the sixth one that Dan and Cassie had damaged in the last round. The two of them started on the next pair, and Gwen and Steve finished off another from that pair. The battle was going like clockwork. Seven down, three to go with one’s shield degraded. I glanced at the goblin cave, no more quadruped warriors had come out of the cave. I wondered why. It would have been their best chance, to overwhelm us, but they were obviously sticking with their charges and sacrificing their twelve surface guards.

  I ducked back down.

  They shot at us again, but I waited for the second enemy shot and my full five seconds of regen before I popped up and finished off the odd one out. Cassie and Dan did their thing, as did Gwen and Steve. That left one still alive.

  The battle was over, what was the point in keeping a reserve? With a thought I send out a second ten thousand mana fire blast, and the forty thousand damage was enough to overcome the last one’s shield and end his life.

  Congratulations! Twelve quadrupeds have been killed and six ships destroyed! You have earned six hundred and two thousand four hundred and twelve Experience Points!

  I was guessing two hundred per quadruped and a hundred thousand for the ships. Not bad. Still eight hundred thousand away from level thirty-four.

  Twelve sets of armor, each with two sheets, and twelve rods. We took the time to loot. We knew we couldn’t touch the rods, but from a distance and carefully we cracked open a rod with magic and pulled the gem out. Once the first one was finished without blowing up, the rest went quickly. We each had four sheets and two-cylinder shaped crystals, all capable of storing a hundred thousand mana. We couldn’t really use it, but like Cassie said, we could have them cut up.

  Just at that point, we had enough to most likely cut three hundred and sixty grandmaster gems, each.

  Then we raided the dead ships, and we took out a gem holding a million mana from each
. That stone was ten times bigger than a sheet, which meant another six hundred grandmaster stones just from one of them, each, since there were six ships. They were also shaped the same as in the big ship, just a lot smaller. It was the shape of a cylinder, not nearly big enough to earn the appellation of column. It was ten times the size of the small cylinders in the rods. By size I mean area in volume.

  Lastly, we retrieved the journeyman quality gems. We’d probably never need EMP again, but we could cleanse the enchantment and use them for something else. If nothing else, they were worth a good bit of gold on their own.

  We also expected there to be at least as many guards in the caves, if not more.

  In short, we’d have to hold onto it all and hoard it, and only cut what we needed to enchant, or sell for gold coins. We could literally flood the market and make the grandmaster gemstone value tank. None of us wanted that. We even discussed it, and decided when the time came, we’d have one cut in Southern Kingdom, one in Western Kingdom, and one somewhere else on the continent. Just to spread things out. There were a lot of kingdoms, and all within reach with our ship. We figured if we needed a fourth cut up, we’d go somewhere else.

  We’d save the rest, including the ship stones. Who knew, in a few hundred years maybe we would become powerful and knowledgeable enough to use them with magic? In that moment, it was just too complicated and overwhelming to even try it. Even Steve had given up on the power smaller stones idea, he’d tried and failed to add it to a smaller stone in a grand enchantment. The gem grades needed to match in a grand enchantment, or the connecting magic field would fail.

  It would be like trying to fit a small marble snugly inside a large round swimming pool.

  The ships were garbage at that point, even if we returned the stones all the electronics were burned out. Regardless, we ripped the things apart, or Dan did with control earth. We didn’t really find anything of value, except perhaps the raw metal.

  Gwen said, “Let’s finish these things off, this world doesn’t need more evil races.”