79 Chapter Seventy-Nine – Bringing in a Big One (1/2)

Briggs looked over the scattered dead around, causes of death quite apparent by the arrows left sticking out of them. Wolves seemed to be a majority of the corpses, targeted by archers ensconced along the steep hill above, and others likely waiting in ambush below.

The whole place had been trampled flat by a very large number of people, and fallen corpses, hacked apart for meat before being thrown aside, showed they'd made at least one stupid attempt to get up that hill.

A huge, fresh gash running along the top of it seemed to have destroyed the sniping positions, but he didn't see any native dead hereabouts… or rather, traces of them, as they certainly would have been totally ripped apart.

”So, what the heck made that?” he asked aloud, gripping Endure uncomfortably.

”I remember reading about a spell that summons a massive pendulum axe from above, ripping down the line of a foe. Looks like they might have Summoned one, but it didn't do what they expected,” Sama spoke up, watching Tremble flit about and start the corpses burning.

”Like someone told them what to expect, and they were looking for it,” he grunted.

”Yeah, the manifestation period is pretty long compared to normal Casters,” she agreed. ”If you see it coming, getting out of the way isn't terribly hard.”

”They have moved off south,” Estemar noted. ”I do not know of anything in particular in that direction, we are far out in the wilds. There might be tribes of natives here-?” he hazarded, thinking and watching bodies starting to burn with misting fires.

”Elven lands. They're just roaming around looking for a fight at this point, maybe trying to track the rangers as they withdraw,” Briggs mused.

”Who'll lead them right into an ambush, if they can. Those people deal with invading raiders all the time. This is just a question of scale,” Sama agreed.

”You think formal military is here already?” Briggs asked, astonished. ”That's pretty impressive…”

”Elven civilization. Think how much magic they have laying around for stuff like this. They could do anything from teleporting to Wild Rides to Wind Walking to get here, pumped up by Valences from the citizenry.”

”Yeah, and they have the lifespan to work on long projects, too,” he agreed thoughtfully. ”Okay, so, they're maybe a couple hours ahead of us, that's less then ten miles for certain in this terrain.” He pointed at the hill in front of them. ”Zip up and survey, ya masked swordswoman.”

She favored him with another toothy smile, and did just that. Estemar stepped up beside him to watch as she ran up the side of the hill as if it were level ground.

”Castle walls don't seem like much of a defense anymore, Master Briggs…”

”They never were. Too many ways to get around them once you figure magic into the equation. They're only good against dumb grunts with no access to higher powers.”

”I'd heard that there were Wards protecting the home I grew up in, and the Chapterhouse of the Order, but I see now how necessary they were, beyond the walls…”

”Aye, especially when you're talking about the ruling class. You need Interdiction to stop things like teleporting in, ghosting through walls, or people Summoning in stuff to kill you. You need Stillflight to stop things from flying over and dropping bombs on you. You need some sort of reactive effect to stop long range spell bombardment, and you need something in the ground to stop burrowers underneath you.”

”That effect she is using… Cloudstepping Sandals?” he asked, watching the small figure atop the hill, looking south above the trees.

”Aye. And she's coming down fast.” Rather then running back down, she simply leapt off the side, and instead of plummeting down, rather slid down the air, carrying herself away from the slope of the hill and back to their position. It didn't really stop her momentum, but the way she tucked and turned in the air turned the skidding fall into a graceful work of art.

She did two turns around a tree, turning vertical momentum into horizontal, and ended up right before them, hopping off a trail of clouds and back to the leaves and earth with a perfectly straight face, as if she did it all the time.

”There's a fight starting to the south. We need to hurry.” Without another word, the two young men hopped up on a Disk, and she touched it before sprinting off. It and Forge zipped along after her, maintaining the same distance from her as they glided along afterwards.

”Hoi! Give a fellow a hand!” called out a wee voice, and Briggs looked back, to see the brownie Mikle waving from atop the alchemy cabinet on Forge. Briggs politely extended out Endure, the brownie latched on, and he calmly circled it around to drop the little fey on Sama's shoulder, where he promptly made himself at home, standing in the Masspack on her back with her golden hair draped over him, grinning excitedly as she skated through the forest.

”What did you see, Sama?” he asked grimly.

”Black clouds from Summoning magic, you can't really see them through the trees here, unless we get to a clearing.” Her voice was all business now. ”I've the feeling they brought in some reinforcements.”

”Warp demons?” Briggs frowned. ”We can probably handle the little shits, but anything sizable is going to be dangerous. Any idea whose?”

”All depends if it's a secular or united warband. They could have any of them.”

”Mmm.” Briggs made sure Reach was in hand, in case there were any surprises along the way, while Estemar made sure of the position of his shield.

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”Ugh. What happened here?” Briggs swore, as they dashed past a clearing. All the grass was dead and moldering, the air smelled of rotting blood and pus. At the center of it was a mound of skulls piled high.

”Blood sacrifice. I'm guessing Riggibuhl. Look at that trail of rot.”