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

I could tell the Shades were fascinated by the vivus, as well they should be. It was probably as bright to their senses as fire, but coldly repellent at the same time, alien and hungry.

The big fellow, who was wielding a very functional spear of classic design, stepped forward to kick at the mists with his abyss of a leg. The unwhite mist ignited at the contact, and he hurriedly danced backwards, digging his toe into the grass to snuff the unwhite flames.

The woman glided up next, equally curious... and the instant the smoke she was floating on met the mists, they ignited, billowing up around her hungrily. A thin shriek that seemed to come from far away escaped her lips as she dropped to the grass, throwing herself backwards and rolling about to extinguish the flames that were beating at the blackness she was composed of.

They weren’t magically powered or anything, so they were put out fairly easily by rolling and beating against the grass, the shades of the males only able to stand there helplessly, lest they catch on fire, too.

They weren’t undead shadows, as such were spiritual creatures, incorporeals, and these four were definitely material, but the negative energy they were made of was undeniable.

I murmured a Detect Undead Cantrip, directed it for range as I peeked out from behind a nearby tree.

I got a partial ping, as if they were part undead, part something else that definitely was not human. Infused with essence of another plane, possible negative elemental, Shadow essence, or something similar.

In any event, not something that should be living on the Prime. Shades was the most likely choice.

Detect Evil was a rank up. I wasn’t going to take a chance on being judgmental and summary killing if these things didn’t deserve it.

Ah, yeah, these things were a swirl of Purple-Red, nearing metallics, probably bounded in some severe racism or something similar, as that hue seemed to pop-up with all the opportunistic racists. You had to earn that color, it wasn’t natural, so their beliefs were earned and validated and they’d taken actions in support of them that had resulted in bloody slaughter. You don’t get anywhere close to crystallizing beliefs without fighting for them.

They’d definitely killed for their beliefs, slaughtering those not like them with perfect belief that they were right and clear to do so, regardless of circumstances, because their enemies were not them. Deserving such fates was not even part of the process.

But there were four of them, and if I was reading this right, they were also Copper, Silver, Gold... and maybe Air Gold level Casters on top of it all. If they could Heal themselves, it was going to require one-shot kills to get them, which meant maybe Vulning... and I’d lose any battle of attrition, when it came down to it. I certainly wasn’t going to win any fisticuffs without an appropriate weapon. Given the way they looked, I was guessing it would take magical Weapons to hurt them...

-Such a thing is standard among your enemies?- Mira piped up, mental eyes wide at the notion of Damage Reduction. It seemed new and novel to her. She was used to damage ablation, as that was how the Protection array of Life Magic spells worked. But reducing a percentage of incoming damage was not the same as Damage Reduction... or Resist Elements, both of which nullified the first X amount of incoming damage. Life Protections did better work against high-end damage, Damage Reduction against low-end damage.

Against 200 points of incoming damage, Damage Reduction was worth nothing, reducing 50% was everything. Against nickel-and-dime or environmental damage, Damage Reduction was much superior.

Of course, what might be DR 10/magic elsewhere might be 100/magic here, who knew?

Of course, if they stacked, Life Prots in front of Resist Fire would have magnifying effects. Stacking on pure Protection from Elements would also be nice, but those were Caster Level based and with the sheer amount of damage thrown around here, would be burned through quickly.

Still, they’d be a great no-sell on a sudden attack, right? Tanking some huge opening volley without a single scratch...

Well, something to worry about in the future. Now I just had to survive these four, or kill them. My biggest problem here is that most evocative war magic was like the exact opposite of stealthy. It had a light show, it drew a direct path back to where it was launched from, and it detonated loud and bright so as to attract everyone’s attention.

I could turn invisible once more, I could run like the dickens if needed, and I could probably get away with my better nightvision than they had, but I didn’t want to dare the range of their magic. Repeated no-miss Drains, and I was toast! I didn’t have any current protection against that crap, and I couldn’t counter-Heal fast enough or enough to stop them!

That said, hiding from them was totally possible. They were highly unlikely to notice my Disk as long as it stayed down and covered in the night, and all I was going to do was not get close to them. I could also Jaunt far enough to get out of their line of sight if needed, and hide from that point.

Another thing I needed, Death Wards against that Draining shit. I didn’t much care what they called it, Draining the life from something magically was necromancy, even if it was a totally viable tactic. Sucking away stamina or mana wouldn’t kill anything, although likely it would be very uncomfortable, but siphoning out or canceling life was the definition of necromancy! Mira was a bit surprised to realize that negative energy was the impelling force behind that, the same energies that animated the undead...

On the other hand, if I could pull it off on them, their mana pools became a resource for me in a sustained fight, especially if they couldn’t Drain me back... which I did not hold out high hopes for. I’d have to stay at range.

Mira’s information indicated that Drains and Harms could work on the other side of cover, too, as long as you had a lock on the target’s life force. They were just nasty pieces of work as far as spells went, like ranged Inflicts with more killing power!

As such, I just could not chance it here. If they were smart, each of them could cast Harm Mana, destroy my mana pool, and I’d have the resources of a Three Caster to try and fight them with.

Nah, just not gonna happen. I was just going to follow them and see what they did. The only way I could possibly do anything was if they split up.

Their whispery voices communicated in a sibilant speech I didn’t recognize, reminding me that I needed to take Polyglot soon. It wasn’t Necrus, felt like human origins with something alien stirred in.

In time. All things, in time.

After they finished conversing about the vivus, and pointing out that it was Burning at the other crater, they floated and trotted down to inspect the other site and what it was doing to the magic there. After a few minutes more of inspections, they turned and went back up the hill, and right to the olthoi nest.

Ahhh, well, now I knew why the numbers of olthoi weren’t all that high. These things had been coming by regularly and killing them!

They paused before entering, and I winced to see them perform that most intelligent of operations... Buffing!

All of them put on some Force Armor, and Protections against Acid and Piercing. A few spent mana on Stat or Skill Buffs, the male characters also Enhancing their spears and shields, while the floating female seemed to be Enhancing her fists.

Then they floated unafraid into the little nest, prepared to do away with all the olthoi they found in there.

At most they’d find decaying circles of whiteness for all of them. I waited outside as I tracked them with Detect Evil, staying at the edge of the spell’s range, before following them down the slick stone ramp very carefully, indeed.

They’d moved out of the room after several minutes looking around, obviously familiar with the place and perhaps a bit nonplussed by the way the olthoi stuff had been Burned off the walls.

I considered the implications of that.

Okay, small numbers of olthoi meant a new nest, which made sense with a young queen and only a handful of servants, relatively speaking. So, these Shades come in, prepped to deal with the olthoi, slaughter them and the queen, and then... depart?

A short time later, more wandering olthoi come in and investigate, find the olthoi here dead, and the nest empty. It’s still an ideal place to nest, so off they go, and soon enough another olthoi queen comes back with an entourage to resettle the place.

Circumstances repeat. Anyone who comes through the Portal still dies to the Summons, if they aren’t prepared, which they undoubtedly are not. Who from Ispar is ready to face a massive beetle-thing with spear-picks for arms walking on two legs?

The Shades would be nonplussed to find that none of the Summons were there, however, leaving the place truly empty. Possibly also indicating that some incoming humans got through here?

It all meant... did I dare to kill them? If they were clearing out what historically was a fast-breeding species, they were doing a good job, and unless I could somehow divert the arrival point to somewhere that was actually safe, the only thing I could do would be to camp this place myself and deal with intruders.

That... actually isn’t impossible, I considered coolly. I had nine Levels at Nine of Karma I could absorb and process while doing nothing. I just needed to range out enough to get my Naming Karma in.

I was on massive Karmic overload on the Isparian side of the equation, and could only gain a Level in abilities a day regardless. It would restrict my explorations, as this area now became basically incredibly important to anyone new arriving, a potential deathtrap if I wasn’t here.

I was in a unique situation to serve as a guardian where it wouldn’t hurt me, only delay me some... and the fact was, when I got strong enough, I could put down some Wards and Glyphs and other things that would do the job of providing warnings to me, and also have the Teleporting ability to get back here with great speed along my Lived-Line.

It was just a period of time away at this point, and I didn’t want to waste Levels shooting straight to Nine in Sorcerer and having to pay Nine prices for my Levels after that. That was horribly inefficient, even if this place was a Karmic fountain.

Of course, if I could Seal and conceal the place, the only way out being accessible from within, that was a completely separate matter, was it not? That would just require the ability to Shape Stone long enough to make an alternate egress and close this way in. If they wanted to blast or dig it open, that would be a something else entirely...