Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

Things were going astonishingly well. It was hard for Princess Kristie Rantha to keep the grin off her face.

She was a Warlord, and she was heading for yet another big fight.

She was a warrior, and she had been getting some nice savage and well-deserved combat in.

She was a power-leveler and the sweet, sweet Karma was coming in nicely.

She was a Gear fanatic and the upgrades and Investing were continuing every day…

She made a mental note that they were running low on goldweight and she’d have to have Ryin go looking for some Energized Metal. It was no surprise that they could run through the stuff far faster than they could mine it through normal means. Even the impressive amount of looted goldweight they’d earned today was going to be absolutely gone in a week if everyone got a fair share… although she had already floated past her Fuzzy that they should be making Healing items everyone could share and use, rather than a bunch of minor baubles that would result from everyone getting their ten goldweight each, or something.

And she’d found her Fuzzy! She grinned and tried not to grind her hips for him, or let out a whoop of happiness at the fact.

She’d never really understood the attraction between her mom and her dad, who never seemed to get tired of one another, and the inherited memories she shared with her mother and sisters didn’t really seem to explain it. She didn’t have the same attraction to her father or brothers, of course, rebelling at the very thought.

But now she had a Briggs of her own, and the world was just So Perfect right now!

All that nice burning Source Presence washing over her, all for her! She had to focus not to chew on her lip, feeling the flow of it moving past her, pushing her along, even as she sort of led it where she wanted to go.

Whether anyone liked it or not, her Briggs was going to stand on top of this island. He was a King Among Men, not just a King OF Men, like Borelean was. People were going to flock to him, come to him, and follow his dreams and ambitions. If people tried to stand in his way, they were going to get inexorably ground down, worn down, and trampled flat, even if Briggs took no direct action.

Moving against a powerful Source was the very definition of fighting against the river and trying to run. You could do it if you were VERY powerful, but it was going to be exhausting, frustrating, and unless you could dam and stop the river, you were probably going to lose in the end.

And she’d fucking see that anyone who tried to dam this river earned a yard of steel in their guts, too. That was HER job, as it was her mother’s!

She could absolutely feel it. She had incredible influence over her Fuzzy, she’d felt it the instant their eyes met. Hagspawn and Hagchild, she had gender dominance over him. He was literally born to find and obey his Hag.

He was also a Source, a King Among Men, who could crush Destiny and Doom, Fate and Luck, under his heel and forge a totally new path. The leaders and warlords of the Forsaken, who ruled them better than Null or Void possibly could.

She was at once the strongest determiner of the course he could take, and the biggest boulder he could drive along that course, crashing through everything before him, the target-caller and the weapon all in one.

Maybe a Void Brother would have been better as the target-caller. Well, no maybes about that. Even Mom had remonstrated the lack of Void Brothers being able to seek out the real hidden threats and make a truly better world. Nulls were rocks, and Voids were knives. They could do their best, and do it with enthusiasm, but there’d been no sign of Voids among the Isparians, whatever branch race of humanity they were. They’d ALL had at least some minor magical ability, which ruled out Voids and other Forsaken.

Indeed, the Hag Curse, and the Rantha Curse that derived from it literally creating the Ranthas by stripping the magic from them was likely the only reason they were Forsaken at all.

Knowing she could manipulate her Briggs without real effort was paradoxical, because he knew he was being manipulated and likely wouldn’t really care, trusting his Hag to be his best advisor and greatest weapon, as he was her rock and best tool and fuzzy Fuzzy!

She’d kill any idiot who was a threat to her Fuzzy! She knew it, and he knew it, too!

That necessarily included all the undead fucks who thought the living were just raw materials and dupes to be manipulated, and soooo many of the other creatures who thought killing women and children were perfectly acceptable battle tactics.

Ranthas LIVED to give those things what was coming to them! Mess with a Hag, you get the shank!

Yanshi was now clear of the undead. They’d been totally surprised when a bunch of living Isparians, Aun, lugians, and even a trio of gurogs had come crashing into their little strongpoint and put them down to ash, clearly not expecting the level of competence and power of the Weapons that had been used on them.

Or the Mass Imperils and Mass Vulns. Those had really done a number on the bastards! The undead tendency not to Buff ahead of time and keep them going with the slow mana renewal had definitely hurt them when they couldn’t Dispel the magic, or get the counter-Buffs up in time…

The NPC’s had once again been asked their names, and then offered Bunita’s hilt. Every single one of them had taken the hilt of the Claymore of the Lost Light and been freed from their slavery, both from the undead and from whatever had forced them into that status in the first place.

She had been watching the Stoneholders who had watched each and every one of those poor bastards take the chance to be free, and knew she was going to find some new Knights of the Lost Light among them.

Valus would be happy with them, if only He could see them now.

Speaking of which…

-Ryin, how’s your weather control?- she /asked the Lady Magos, who looked to be in quiet meditation, but in reality was ranging out ahead of them with her Detects, fingering and charting every single Spawn point and hidden creature of non-Good or magical nature, which basically meant all of them. Kris had set the information in her Visual File as an imprint over her own night vision, as had the Mick and Briggs, who were quietly directing efforts to either clear the path ahead or Seal the spawn points behind them, as appropriate.

-It’s not midnight, I can Surge for Control Weather if required,- Ryin /replied calmly, conversation having no effect on her magical scouting duties. -What do you have in mind?-

-You gave these Gotrok chuckleheads a taste of Silver lightning from Heaven. What do you think they will think of an entire storm of the stuff, complemented by multiple Call Lightnings?-

-You want me to bring a Storm of Wrath upon them?- Her /voice was only a little dry, more amused than anything. -You know I don’t like winning battles with magic unless it’s a magical foe.-

Kris agreed with that mentality. If fighters were irrelevant to the fight, martial knowledge would collapse and flounder, as it had among the paramounts before the Fall, and such had cost the people greatly. If you wanted great fighters, people had to fight, and they had to know the fighting was necessary!

In the end, everything came down to the damn infantry, and that’s where it should be. Spellcasters slaughtering armies from a distance was a nasty, nasty thought, and Kris knew the Stoneholders were very, very unnerved by just how fast Ryin had slaughtered all those extremely tough undead enemies. Even knowing it was the one enemy she was absolutely the best at taking out, watching five hundred, then thousands, of undead get absolutely mowed down by magic was a huge wake-up call for them.

Warriors kill individuals, Casters kill armies. That had never really been the case with Isparian War Magic, which STILL had more killing power than almost any warrior with a Weapon… at least, until those warriors got their mitts on Power of Ten Combat Feats and Techniques!

Now, the fact had been shoved in their faces, and the warriors here were pondering just how relevant they were with her around.

Briggs was listening in, because she wanted him to. -Enough Lightning to break their Formations and shake their morale will be fine. Slaughter the Summons as you like. The rest, I’ll call them out in ritual challenges. Won’t be hard, they are cowering behind their Summons, pretending they are warlords and generals.

-It’s time to feed them their teeth and show them the lies of their own martial ability, especially since we bring True Death with us.-

Kris nodded grimly at her Fuzzy’s steely tone. -Fuck up their morale, and then stab them where they think they are strongest. They haven’t been pursuing power or Levels, they’ve been playing overlords with their pathetic armies of Summons.-

-Paint the ones that be Evil,- the Mick /joined in acidly. -They be having blood on their hands and glorying in it. It be time for the rabid dogs t’ be put down.-

-Amen to that,- Ryin /murmured, a flicker of thought tracking the Scout teams who were using this opportunity to Seal all the Spawn Points the Summoned Lugians had sprung from, all across the Linvaks. The Gotrok would not be able to raise this kind of army again, not without something breaking the vivus Sealing each point they came from.

Hundreds had quietly been Sealed already, done in stealth and quiet, with most of the sentries and Summons not in the area.

The main lugian force had already come over the hills from Baishi and was camped en route to Mayoi, with some Hea shamans and hunters along to provide magical support and Healing for them. Estimation were ninety percent Summons, ten percent living Gotroks. They’d be up before dawn and at the walls of Mayoi within two hours after that.

Kris was definitely going to reach them before then.

-Are we hitting the camp, blowing through and making for Mayoi, or avoiding it and letting them come to Mayoi under clouds burning with Silver lightning?- Kris /asked reasonably.

-Master Ben Ten will be a wee bit upset if he and his students be not allowed t’ join the fun,- the Mick /pointed out.

-Blow through it, kill some Summons, outrun them when they try to catch up,- Briggs /stated, and this time his Voice rose. “Gentlemen, the lugians have already come out of the Linvaks and are camped several miles from Mayoi, intending to reach and attack it in the morning. We are going to Summon up a storm, blow through their camp, and move to Mayoi to reinforce its walls.

“The goal of our eventual fight is going to be challenging the living Gotrok there to individual duels. If they refuse, we are going to punish them with the Wrath of Heaven.”

There were murmurs and heads nodding at that, glancing Ryin’s way.

“Every Summons we Burn down is one more soul freed from this system shackling them to slavery. You are doing a great and Good thing by freeing them from that slavery, both from their living kin and the system itself that is locking them to a hollow mockery of life.

“We are going with the Blessing of Heaven itself, and you are going to feel what it means to have Thunder in the soul and Lightning in your heart when it comes time to do battle!”

There were rumbles and shouts of excitement. They’d felt the power of the Haste spell crackling over them all, they’d felt their hearts pound when Endure beat a rhythm and their Warlord uttered commands… and then they’d felt the Trembling Song make them feel like they could do anything, overcome any foe, or die with a smile on their lips.

Lightning was crackling and Thunder was rumbling, they were on their way!