Up until this point, we’d done our best to keep the movements of our raiding unit as quiet and subtle as possible. Working from ambushes to minimizing magical usage. But now that our target was in front of us, Rieka had decided it was time to pull out the stops.
Two of the student-mages that had come with us were fire-focused spellcasters, and they worked along with the three wind mages to unleash a firestorm over the campsite that turned night into day and set fire to many of the tents.
I wasn’t paying very close attention to the tumultuous chaos that enveloped the camp, though. I was working with the sole other earth-aligned mage to loosen the rocks of the hillside while Kassandra and a water mage helped us by pouring water into the cracks we formed in the stone and then flash-froze it.
So the opening salvo against the camp was a massive wall of flames that washed over the camp, setting off screams of surprise and fear, only for those screams to be drowned out as the entire western half of the camp was buried in a massive rockslide that followed right after it.
“Go!” Valda roared, her deep voice carrying over the frightened noises from the enemy camp. “Push through the camp and destroy everything you can along the way. Make straight for the cave mouth and hole up there!”
Her soldiers gave an echoing roar of triumph before leaping from cover amongst the trees and charging in through the lingering cloud of rock-dust after the rumble of the slide began to calm.
“After them!” Rieka barked at the student-mages. “Establish your targets, anyone not on our side is to be put down with prejudice! Once we get into position, begin forming defenses!”
The wolfish princess punctuated her statement by lashing out with her spell rod, a sparkling, crackling chain of lightning striking out with the speed of a scorpion's tail to slam into a half-dressed enemy warrior’s sword. The metal weapon exploded a moment later, sending white-hot shards of metal in all directions while Rieka flicked her rod to send the coiling chain out to hit another opponent.
My eyes and ears ached with the loud sounds and bright flashes of light that followed our charge through the enemy camp. I didn’t let the disorientation slow me down, attacking anything that came at me and my girls as Valda’s wedge of warriors pushed deep into the side of the camp.
Spells flew over my head, ravaging the tents and striking down anyone who was not directly engaged with our melee troops. Rather than leading the charge, I let the professionals do the line fighting and interjected where I needed to in order to keep them from losing momentum.
My girls were glorious and deadly in the fighting that followed. Kassandra launched spears of ice with pinpoint precision, her and Jane being the only two who risked shooting into the hand-to-hand fighting. Jane would send scything blades of wind into openings where two soldiers would step apart, or gusts of wind to upset balance when folk clumped up too tightly.
Rieka continued to lash the enemy with her lightning, using the tremendous power of her spells to shatter formations and blast enemy groups apart when they tried to rally to slow us down.
Shayla plied her light magic with devastating precision. The scything beam of coherent light raked the enemy lines and buildings several times, and once it struck someone who had to have been a commander, given his elaborate fur cloak. But besides the deadly beam attack, Shayla sent brilliant spheres of light out into the fighting, laying out an ever growing network of illumination to prevent the enemy from flanking our group.
Valda alternated between barking orders and plying her flaming sword with deadly precision. The lizard-folk swordswoman was right in the thick of things, supporting her soldiers and guiding them to tear down and destroy everything we came across.
The sole exception was something that had come as a last-minute decision by Rieka. Three of the Ironclaw soldiers peeled off as we passed the largest of the crude tent-buildings, diving inside to quickly ransack the building for any information they might have.
The idea had been simple enough, and something that Jane had suggested. Following the ‘fancy hat’ logic that the person in charge had the most fancy looking hat or outfit, she’d reckoned that the largest and most elaborate of tents was probably the command tent and might hold important information. So it had been decided to detach a small group of soldiers to grab everything in that tent for later perusal while we were loud and destructive elsewhere.
Given that this was a very straightforward fight with defined battle lines, I was fairly redundant in my role as a guardian for my girls. I know, some folks might find that emasculating or annoying, but I honestly was quite happy. It was reassuring to know that the Ironclaw warriors were proving more than up to the task of protecting the student-mages.
That’s not to say that the Ironclaw forces made it through without losses. Despite my and the girls best attempts, the enemy brought down half a dozen of our fighters in the running battle, either from feigning injury, getting lucky, or an almost berserker-esque desire to take their opponents down with them. Of those six-ish casualties, only two proved to be immediately fatal as the Ironclaw warriors closed in to support their injured fellows, applying emergency first-aid and getting them moving towards the cave at the center of the camp.
A roar of challenge came from one of the nearby tents and a large man wielding a gleaming, two-handed sword of immaculate forging slashed through the side of the tent to force his way into the flank of the line once we’d passed. The tent was half-collapsed and actually burning, which is why I guessed the soldiers had passed it by without clearing it.
I didn’t hesitate to step in, as the main line of the Ironclaw fighters had already passed the tent. That and the way the man’s wild eyes were turning towards the nearest of the student-mages told me his intentions.
My clothes had long since been banished into my Dimensional Pocket to prevent issues. The only clothing I had on was a wide belt that had Kassandra’s dimensional pouch tied firmly to it at the moment, with shifted natural armor covering every inch of my body instead of clothing.
I only had to alter my legs slightly with Shape-Shifting from the feline-styled back legs before I was flying through the air at the big man.
He saw me coming and brought the sword around in a broad, sweeping chop. It was clear that he intended to cut me in half while I was airborne, but the carapace armor on my back split and a flick of the diaphanous wings altered my direct trajectory into a spin that carried me up and over the blade of his greatsword before they folded away safely once more.
Slamming shoulder-first into the man’s chest, I was already aimed with my back towards the ground because of the spin. I didn’t hesitate as my scale-armored shoulder rode his collarbone up into his throat. Both hands wrapped around his head as my weight carried him backwards and to the ground.
I felt a crunch under my shoulder, and I wasn’t sure if it was his neck, jaw, or ribs breaking, but the body was limp under me when I landed on top of him.
Rolling off the dead man, I snatched his extremely fancy sword from limp hands as I went by. The heavy weapon vanished into my Dimensional Pocket for now. I could stuff it in the pouch on my waist when I had a moment of breathing room.
I took only a moment to check the man’s belt and take the pouch and dagger from it as well before darting back into the line protecting our troops.
“Good work, Traveler,” grunted one of the lizard-folk warriors as I fell in behind him once more. “Sorry we missed that one.”
“Happens to the best of us,” I replied, darting my left arm forward and shifting it into the scorpion-tail configuration that I often used.
The curved barb at the end of my arm-tail darted over the top of an enemy shield and buried itself in the throat of a barbarian warrior who had been turning to shout orders to another. The distraction cost the man his life as I ripped the barb out of his neck in a gush of blood.
No poison for you, so it’ll be a slower death, I thought grimly as my arm contracted back to normal. The lizard-folk warrior I’d just been talking to gave me another curt nod before pushing forward with his kite shield, knocking the dying man onto his back while swinging the point of his war-hammer into the man beside his erstwhile opponent.
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“Fall back to the sacred cave!”
The order came over top of the clash of battle and I whipped my head in that direction just in time to see a man with his upper body covered in red and yellow paint gesturing with a staff in his right hand as he shouted.
A second later, Rieka’s crackling chain of lightning lashed through the air. The shaman—since that was the image his garb gave me—tried to block the snapping spell with his staff only for the wooden tool to explode as the chain connected with it.
Moments later, the man’s charred body was launched into the darkness as the other end of the chain found him with a sharp crack when Rieka completed the spell.
That’s my good girl, I thought with a savage grin as we kept pushing. Always off the one giving orders or wearing the fanciest hat.
A chuckle bubbled up as my mind, the incorrigible thing that it was, supplied me with an image of how Rieka might react to being called a ‘good girl.’
Don’t go thinking about your lovers on their knees during a fight, Liam! I reminded myself firmly as I tucked that mental image away. Time to worry about celebrations later when this is all done!
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Despite Rieka rapidly eliminating the shaman, it was obvious that many of our enemies had the same idea. The resistance got stronger the closer we got to the cave mouth, as more than a few of the enemy warriors had the idea of using the cave as a fallback point to ensure they couldn’t be picked off by the various and sundry spells flying about. Thankfully, there were answers to that.
“Ice Storm!” Kassandra called, whipping her spell rod into a circle and conjuring hundreds of needlelike shards of ice as long as my hand before bringing them down in a wide circle on the ruined doorway. The spell acted like a blast of magical buckshot and shredded several of the enemy where they stood.
“Static Burst!” Rieka followed it up with, channeling for a moment before launching a snapping ball of lighting into the opening, eliciting screams and yells of surprise as the lightning orb found metallic weapons and armor to jump from, racing through the enemy ranks and rebounding often.
“Liam, with me!” Valda called and I stepped up to her. “Rieka, you have command here. Keep the students safe and fall back if you must!”
Rieka didn’t respond verbally, instead my princess channeled another snapping bolt of lightning into the tunnel, this one as thick around as my thigh and ravening in its intensity.
No more screams or yells emerged from the shadows after that, only the foul scent of scorched meat.
“Be safe, Liam,” Shayla murmured as she was the closest to me. My moth-winged artist bent to pull me into a quick kiss, her soft antennae bopping me on the cheek and forehead as they stroked my face during the kiss.
Separating, she stepped away and turned to put her back to the entrance of the tunnel even as the soldiers pushed past to join the rearguard that was forming a new combat line in a rough half-circle around the cave entrance.
“Keep me posted on things changing up here,” I ordered them.
I got nods of assent from Kassandra and Jane who moved to support Shayla while Rieka was giving orders to several of the student-mages while a water-aligned caster worked to heal those injured that were present.
Knowing my princess was focused on her duty, I didn’t stop and distract her. Instead, I used my Contact Contracted Companion to send her a brief mental message.
Love you, Rieka. Be safe out here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
Rieka’s eyes snapped to mine a moment later when she received the mental communication and she gave me a sharp nod before focusing back on what she was doing.
I took one last second to ensure that all four of my girls were empowered. They each had Ward Companion on them—something I promised myself I’d train more to be better able to guard them—and I had used Grant Power to give them access to Mana Reservoir as well. There wasn’t much more I could do to protect them other than complete my assignment and return quickly.
Moving on auto-pilot, I hurried over to join Valda and the three companions that she had with her, whom she was briefing as we prepared to enter the dark tunnel ahead of us. There was scattered light in the tunnel, mostly from fallen torches burning on the ground, but enough of the expanse was locked into shadows that I was sure it wouldn’t be easy going in there.
“—to follow the Traveler and provide support,” Valda was ordering her companions, two males of her kind and one smaller female. “All of you have dimensional bags, make sure they are within easy reach.”
The trio nodded silently, though the female turned appraising eyes my way as I stomped up to them. I wasn’t sure if her look was because of what she’d seen me doing so far, or the fact that I was clad from the neck down in natural iron scales.
“Everything we collect is going to be set aside for Liam to go over and ensure it is safe. He will be able to identify the equipment for us and remove anything dangerous. Do not touch anything in here until he gives the go-ahead,” Valda continued.
“Keep yourself from brushing the walls and try to step where I step on the floors,” I interjected as I let my armored scales fade back into my body and replaced them with thick curly fur around my waist for modesty while shifting my legs into those of a goat for speed and balance. “The ancient humans have a habit of layering traps within traps in these places.”
“I remember from the briefing,” grunted one of the males with a firm nod. “I didn’t get this far to be taken out by some long dead monster thinking it was clever. I’ll be careful, Traveler.”
“Good,” Valda said with a nod of her own. “I picked you three because you have had experience fighting in enclosed spaces and are seasoned enough to know not to talk about what you see.”
“Of course, princess,” said the older of the two male with a firm nod of his head while sheathing the longsword he had and drawing a war-hammer from the back of his belt.
“Just hoping we get to keep some of the prizes,” murmured the female lizard-folk with a hopeful smile. “If I have an enchanted sword, then I know I’ll win the tournament of arms next year.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said before pulling a large lump of white chalk from my Dimensional Pocket ability. It was the only thing besides the greatsword currently in the space, as I’d entrusted everything else to Rieka to hold onto.
The look in my princess’ eye when I’d whispered to her that the burlap bag I’d given her had my pistol in it told me she thought I was insane for leaving the weapon with her, but knowing she had my dad’s old Colt Python helped me accept having to leave the girls in a fight like this.
Still don’t like stepping away from them, I grumbled internally before turning to look back at the battle line the Ironclaw warriors were preparing as a thought crossed my mind.
I didn’t have to squat down to press my hands to the earth, or anything so flashy. I just pressed outwards with my Manipulate Element power and gave the odd asphalt-esque ground a wrench.
The stone surged upward, startling more than a few of the warriors into leaping back in surprise. Though they were quick to recognize what I’d done when the waist-high barricades finished forming in a matching half-circle where they had all been standing before.
“Thank you for that, Liam,” Valda said, her tone amused. “But next time, let me warn them first?”
She was teasing me to try and help me relax, but I didn’t want to relax right now. I did not like leaving the girls behind like this, but my logical side also told me that this was the safest spot for them, especially with an indeterminate number of the enemy forces still hiding within the complex below us.
“Make sure someone is watching the tunnel while we are gone,” I grunted. “If this is anything like the other ruins I’ve been in, there will be enough offshoots and turns for someone to hide in and slip past us to get back out.”
“Already taken care of,” Valda said with a nod as two more of her warriors with shields and short spears took up position to either side of the damaged door.
“Then let’s stop stalling and get this over with,” I said, blowing out a long breath through my nose while trying to force calm on my mind.
The sooner you complete this, the sooner you are back with the girls. They can handle themselves and will call for you if they need you, I reminded myself and took another long breath before blowing it out slowly. The only issue will be that you will leave Valda and the others behind until you reverse the Tunnel to Contracted so you need to get back to them too. So many folks to look after and not enough copies of me to do it.
I smirked at that, the ridiculous thought helping to bleed some of my worry away.
I wonder if there is some power in the future that would let me duplicate myself? I’m sure that there aren’t any ways that might go wrong… though the girls might die of excitement if suddenly there were three of me to harass and play with.
Restraining a laugh at that thought, I nodded once and opened my eyes to meet Valda’s intense gaze.
“All right, one human-era ruin speed-run, coming up.”
I wonder how many of the student-mages are going to have an over-inflated sense of their own strength after this fight? Or how many will be willfully ignorant of their own shortcomings based on how much Liam and the girls did in the fight?
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