by Trey Myr
I felt bile rise in my throat at what I could only term an execution. I’d killed humans before, when I helped Marjory and her brothers fight off the raiders, but that was a spur of the moment decision, and they were already attacking innocent travelers. And as soon as that fight was over, I had to hurry and get the dwarves on board to take them to a healer, which meant that by the time I could stop and think about it, enough time had passed to blunt the impact even more.
Attacking the half asleep guards felt completely different. I knew they were bandits and murderers. That they participated in the attack on Gerald’s Rest and helped slaughter the townspeople. But attacking them like this still felt somehow wrong.
“They would have done the same to you, “ Mable’s hand on my shoulder brought me out of my brooding. “They did do the same to Gerald’s Rest.”
“We need to move now,” Marjory added. “We won’t have the element of surprise for long.”
“You’re right,” I answered, and managed to pull my focus back to the battle ahead of us. I brought the Swift down to a landing, and the three of us disembarked accompanied by all of my Shapes, except for the single Deckhand needed to operate the flight lever.
There was no sound from the ruins as we approached, and I sent one of the Deckhands to drain the raiders’ vim while the Sailor opened the door.
The entrance led us to a large room, about twenty by twenty meters with two corridors leading left and right from the far side of it. The smooth walls were once painted a light green, and it was a testament to the old-worlders' skills that hundreds of years later I could still see remnants of the color. It was impossible to know the room’s purpose, since any debris remaining from whatever furniture once filled it had been cleared away by the raiders.
The three of us entered the room behind the Sailor, Marine and two of the Archers, and immediately ran into a pair of raiders coming out of the right hand corridor, presumably to replace the guards. Unfortunately, they saw my Shapes before I entered the building, and before I could give the order to attack they ran back inside.
“Intruders!” I heard from the direction the raiders ran into “Wake up! We have intruders in the camp!”
“Blast it!” Marjory cursed. “I was hoping to get deeper in before we were discovered.”
“Not much we can do about it now,” I said. “I’ll set the Deckhands to guard the left corridor so they can’t come and surprise us from behind, and we’ll head right after them.”
“Works for me,” the dwarf answered.
The corridor was wide enough for two people to walk side by side, so I sent the Sailor and Marine to lead the way after the still shouting raiders, followed by two pairs of archers, then Marjory and myself, with Mable bringing up the rear.
The corridor stretched for ten meters before taking a turn to the left, and I could see two doors on each side of it. Unlike what I was used to seeing in old-world ruins, all of the doors within my sight were intact and looked relatively new. And whatever purpose this building, and the rooms behind the doors, were used for by the old worlders, the raiders had obviously transformed them into bedrooms, since angry looking raiders were starting to spill from them and into the corridor.
The raiders had clearly just woken up, and while they were all armed, they were unarmored and still confused by our sudden attack, a fact that we didn’t hesitate to take advantage of. Marjory opened fire just a few seconds before my Archers and Longbowman, and the four raiders who came out of the nearest two rooms were cut dead before they could reach us.
The raiders from the further rooms, however, had enough time to get their wits back, and rushed back into their rooms, only to come out a few seconds later bearing large wooden shields, and began to approach under their cover. My Longbowman fired at one of them, and while the shield stopped the arrow from piercing his heart, it had enough power to punch through and I could see the raider’s eyes widen in fear at the arrowhead which stopped scant centimeters from his heart.
Marjory’s cannon was even more effective, and a single lead ball was enough to splinter another raider’s shield and, to judge by his painful groan, at least bruise the arm it was strapped to.
The rank I Archers were far less effective and were forced to aim at the raiders’ exposed legs, which they missed more often than not.
There wasn’t time for more than one volley before the raiders closed in enough for melee and my Sailor and Marine ran forward to engage them.
Up close, I could see that these raiders were a lot better armed than the ones I fought when I met Marjory. All four were carrying large wooden shields and swords that looked to be of decent quality and had been recently sharpened.
The sword and shield combination gave the raiders a slight advantage over my cutlass wielding Sailor, but the Marine was holding its cutlass in one hand and its short club in the other, and had the added advantage of wearing armor. The raiders were also forced to come at us in twos, since the corridor was too narrow for all of them to reach us at once.
After a few seconds of combat, I could see that the raiders were far from being well-trained fighters, and my Sailor was easily parrying its opponent’s sword. A trained soldier would have used his shield to crowd his enemy and push his weapon out of position, but the raider seemed to be unable to do more than use it to block the sailor’s attacks, leaving the two at an impasse.
The raider facing my Marine was in a far worse situation, since my Shape seemed to be fairly skillful in wielding its two weapons. It used its cutlass to parry the raider’s sword, and smashed its club down on the shield, using its greater than human strength to great advantage.
Of course, my Shapes also had the advantage of ranged backup, and as soon as the Marine had forced the raider to drop his guard, my Archers fired at his exposed chest and head, and he stumbled back with four arrows piercing him.
His replacement didn’t fare much better, and by the time the second raider was down the third had had enough and was slowly backing away from us, which left the one fighting the sailor alone. With the Marine joining in, the hapless raider didn’t stand a chance, and was dead before his traitorous companion was more than five meters away.
Left alone, and with my Shapes approaching him, the raider broke and ran, but before he could take more than two steps, Marjory’s shot slammed into his back and dropped him.
It only took us a couple of minutes to kill the eight raiders, but I knew that the delay was enough for the rest of them to be better prepared, and that our way forward was going to get harder. I had my Shapes drain the vim from the dead raiders, and we checked their rooms to ensure that we weren’t leaving any enemies behind us, and moved deeper into the ruin.
I expected the raiders to ambush us around the corner, and sent the Sailor first to spring it, but the Shape turned the corner without coming under attack and the rest of our raiding party joined it, only to find that the corridor ahead of us was completely empty. It stretched for forty more meters before turning left again, and was completely identical to the one we’d just left, up to and including the regularly spaced doors on either side.
All of the doors stood ajar, and as we moved cautiously forward, we checked every single one of them when we got to it. The rooms had all been converted to bedrooms for the raiders, and each had two crude beds, a pair of storage chests and little else. There were some individual nick nacks here and there, such as a crude statuette standing on a shelf or a small potted plant.
I hadn’t noticed it when we entered the building and in the rush after the fleeing raiders and the fight after it, but while the boarded up windows prevented any outside light from entering the ruins, there were small pieces of crystal embedded in the ceiling of both the corridors and rooms that provided a pale light, strong enough to see clearly by. I’d seen such small pieces of crystal in the ceilings of other ruins before, but I’d never seen them working, and could only guess at their purpose before.
We didn’t search any of the rooms we passed,
and only gave each of them a quick look to ensure they were empty, but we still had to be cautious and were moving slowly. Still, it took us only a few minutes to cross the corridor and reach the next corner. Once again, I sent the Sailor to lead the way, and once again there was nobody waiting behind the corner to attack us.
We turned into the corridor that must have been at the back of the building, and once again there was little difference between this stretch of corridor and the last. The part of it that was still standing, at least, since about thirty meters ahead of us I could see the beginning of the ruined part of the ruins, where the collapsed floors above us were completely blocking off the far side of the building.
We crept forward, still checking every room and finding them all empty, until we reached what must have been the middle of the corridor, if the building was still intact. As soon as my Shapes approached the doors, a thunderous sound erupted from the left hand door, and a bolt of lightning smashed into my Sailor.
The concussive force of the lightning slammed the Sailor into the Marine, and threw both of them through the right hand door and into the room beyond. The sound of thunder in such an enclosed space made my ears ring, completely deafening me, and I could feel it when the damage done by the bolt forced my Sailor to dissipate.
It was very fortunate that I didn’t need to speak in order to command my Shapes, and as soon as I realized what happened I ordered the Marine to leave the room and rejoin us, expecting the raiders to capitalize on their surprise attack and charge us. I also ordered the Deckhands I left guarding the exit to run and rejoin us, since I had a feeling that while leaving the other part of the building unguarded was a risk, I would need all the Shapes I had to deal with the entrenched raiders.
Whoever was in command of the raiders, however, clearly preferred to let us come to them, and when the seconds started to stretch with no attack coming, I was frantically trying to think of a way to charge into that door without getting hit by more lightning bolts.
I was racking my brain for a solution and coming up blank when I felt Mable’s hand on my arm. My ears were still ringing, and I couldn’t hear anything she said, but when I looked at the serving girl she pointed at herself and mimed walking towards the door, then pointed at the Archers and mimed them following behind her. I must have looked confused, since she pointed at the shield belt around her waist. My eyes widened in surprise when I understood that she was volunteering to walk first and get hit by the spell, trusting the shield to protect her, and letting the Archers get into a position to attack the raiders.
I shook my head wildly at her, trying to make her understand that I had no idea if the shield belt was strong enough to protect her, but she shot me a determined look and started to walk towards the door, leaving me with the choice of either following her plan or letting her dangerous gambit go to waste.
There was, of course, no real choice. I sent the Archers and Longbowman to follow Mable, and ordered them to attack whoever was in the room. Unfortunately, I had to actually be able to see the person casting the lightning bolts before I could give them an order to target them specifically, which meant exposing myself to attacks from inside the room.
Letting Mable walk in front of the door was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, and I could barely restrain myself from grabbing her and holding her back. I could see her shivering in apprehension when she approached the spot where the Sailor was attacked, but she didn’t hesitate for even a second. As soon as she reached the door, a second lightning bolt erupted from inside the room and slammed into her, smashing her through the opposite door. I had no idea if she’d survived the spell, and no time to check. The lightning spell would need time to recharge itself from its wielder’s vim, but I had at most a minute before it would be ready to fire again.
There were three options for what we were facing. It could be a warped, either human or animal, with an air alignment and a mutation that enabled them to throw lightning bolts. It could be a spell artefact, like the shield belt that hopefully protected Mable from the attack. Or, and this was the most likely option, it could be one of several air aligned Shapes. The Impundulu , a rank III air aligned Hawk Shape, could easily be the source of the spell, though its rank IV version, the Thunderbird, was too large to enter the building. An air aligned Magus Shape of all ranks was another option, as well as numerous others.
Not knowing which of the options it was meant that I had no idea how many lightning bolts they’d be able to cast. A human with a spell artefact would be spent after two such attacks. A warped might be spent, or might have between one to eight more spells, depending on their age. An Impundulu would be able to cast ten of them if it was at minimum vim after its rank up, or forty of them if it was maxed out, and a Magus could conceivably cast up to hundreds of them, depending on its rank.
Which meant that we had to take whatever it was out as soon as possible, and hopefully before it could charge up another lightning bolt.
I sent the Marine and Deckhands through the door first, followed by the Archers and Longbowman, and then by Marjory and myself. The room beyond was about the same size as the room at the entrance to the building, but had staircases going both up to the second floor and down into the basement. I couldn’t spare the attention for more details, since there were at least two dozen raiders waiting for us inside.
They were waiting just beyond the entrance, and engaged my Deckhands and Marine in melee as soon as my Shapes entered, which forced my Archers and Longbowman to wait outside, severely limiting their ability to fire.
The bigger problem was that while my Shapes seemed to be holding their own against the raiders, I couldn’t identify the source of the lightning bolts, and as soon as the spell recharged it would probably be enough to dissipate the Marine.
I’d wondered why the raiders didn’t attack after the first lightning hit my Sailor, but I had to admit that their plan had very neatly stripped us of the advantage of fighting in the narrow corridors, and transferred it to them.
“We need to push them back and get in there,” I told Marjory. The dwarf had already started shooting into the room, and the heavy lead balls she fired were smashing shields staggering raiders, giving my Shapes opportunities to strike back at their opponents, instead of staying on the defensive.
“They’re limited to attacking the melee Shapes now,” my gunner pointed out. “If we go in, they’ll be able to get to us and the Archers too.”
“The caster is still there, and we can’t assume their vim is exhausted after those two bolts.”
Marjory grunted her acceptance, and fired at the raider facing the Marine, staggering him and letting the Shape push back and advance. It wasn’t much, but it cleared out just enough room for me to enter. I looked around the room, but couldn’t see anyone who looked like they were the spell caster. What I did see almost immediately was that the stairs up into the second floor had collapsed, and from the looks of it, not recently. The bulk of the raiders were located between the entrance and the stairway down, and as soon as they saw that I wasn’t a Shape, every ranged weapon in sight was being aimed at me.
I rushed outside just in time to avoid a barrage of sling stones, crossbow bolts and darts, and sent my Longbowman to replace me. The rank II Shape was intelligent enough to aim at anyone holding a ranged weapon, and its powerful longbow easily pierced through whatever scraps of armor the raiders had time to put on.
We pushed the raiders back step after step, and a couple of minutes later all of the raiders’ ranged support was down and all of my Archers were inside the room. There was still no sign of the caster, and I sincerely hoped it meant we were dealing with a human and an artefact, and that they were now out of vim and had escaped downstairs.
Marjory’s concerns weren’t unfounded though, and once we were further in, the raiders managed to flank us and reach the Archers. The difference between the rank I Archers and the rank II Longbowman became immediately apparent when the Longbowman used its bow as a quarterstaff
and started fighting. It was about as good in melee as the Deckhands, and could keep its attackers at bay and even land a few hits. The Archers, on the other hand, could do nothing more than try to avoid the attacks, and by the time Marjory and the Marine killed the raiders off, all three Archers were dissipated.
Even with the loss of the Archers, the tide of battle had turned in our favor, and between Marjory and my remaining Shapes, the last raider was cut down not long after. With the battle over, I left Marjory to guard the stairway, and ran to the opposite room. I hated giving the caster time to recharge their vim, but I had to see if Mable was OK.
The serving girl was lying next to the far wall. It looked like the lightning bolt hit her hard enough to send her flying far enough to hit the wall, and she’d just crumpled there. I ran over to check her, and could immediately see a large bump on the back of her head. She didn’t respond when I called her name, but I could see her chest rise and fall steadily with her breath. A quick check showed bruises on her upper back, but none of the burns I’d have expected to see if the lightning had broken her shield. It appeared that her vim was enough to keep the shield active while the lightning hit her, but had run out when she hit the wall, thought it probably softened the hit enough to prevent any broken bones, or worse.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more I could do for Mable at that point. She definitely wasn’t coming with us downstairs, but we also couldn’t spare the time to get her back on the Swift, since whoever or whatever was responsible for the lightning bolts was still at large. Thankfully, the room we were in was used as a bedroom by the raiders, and I transferred her to one of their cots and arranged her body as comfortably as I could before heading back towards Marjory.
“How is she?” the dwarf asked quietly.
