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

“I think we found our conflict zone,” Kris murmured, pointing ahead. Maneuvering through the trees over the swamp waters was a bit more difficult now with the Wagon, restricting where we could go easily, but up and down movement was generally not a problem, we only had to worry about width.

“Even my nose can smell the blood,” I agreed, surveying the area ahead. “Look at the Summons. It’s basically a demarcation line...”

“Too much ground cover. What are you looking at?” She craned her head, but there were a lot of trees and reeds in her way.

I flicked up a Disk from Valence and stepped over onto it, the Wagon moving over and settling in just above the water, an extension of a reed cluster, Camouflage on the job. “There’s a line of Summoned undead stretching off to the west, and a line of mosswarts across our path.

“On the other side is a whole lot of nasty-looking froggers, including some the size of ogres we haven’t seen before, and very not frog-like. It looks like the Burun subdivide into warrior and crafter subspecies.”

Kris’ eyes narrowed. “That usually means a leader or shaman class, controlling the warriors.”

“Not represented by the Summons, but yeah.” I touched her with the Invisibility, and she didn’t resist with her Null, fading from visible sight. “Ten minutes,” I reminded her, knowing it wasn’t needed, but showing I remembered, and would renew it if needed. Detect Time, on the ball!

Quaver tapped my Disk, I let it take control, and she hauled me after her as we went up to see what could be seen.

The Summons were still scattered and erratic, set more as ‘random encounters’ than as a battle line, but as the scarring on the trees and ground attested to, there was a lot of fighting going on here, and the Summons had been pulled in to participate, making me believe that Casters on each side had some means of controlling their own.

The drudges... had not? Maybe? Of course, the drudges had struck me as instinct-following idiots, so there was that.

There were bodies, too, although not many of them. That indicated that the dead were either hauled off for food, or the living weren’t risked much in these fights. I didn’t know how fast these things could breed and fight, after all, but living people weren’t Summons, and didn’t come back when killed.

There were also living spotters, gliding around mostly submerged in the water and muck, keeping track of the Summons, attempting to identify the scouts on the other side, maybe send Summons after them.

We found the corpse of one of the big hulks about the same time as we saw the first of them in a Summons position.

Its Assay level was in the 160’s, a pale-bellied thing with tree trunk-sized ape-like arms it was resting on easily, over a head taller than I was, and clutching an axe worthy of a Jotun in one of those mitts, size doing what construction did not. The paler front of the creature gave way to a toad-like mottling that looked like gray-green scales of some kind. That layer of protection was probably at least four inches thick by the look of it, spread across the back and sides of its arms, shoulder, legs, and torso. Backstabbing the thing would be like trying to backstab a smiting pelt. It had stumpy legs, squat and stable, with claws to grip the ground and keep it even more unmoved.

It didn’t look related to the burun Summons around it at all, but the Assay clearly called it a Guruk Fiend and indicated it was the same overarching species. Soldier ants among the ants, as it were.

-Vulnerable to cold,- I /noted to Kris.

-Ah, that explains the freeze-burns on all the vegetation,- she /nodded. This section of conflict had razed a lot of the plant life in between, rendering it open ground with a lot of dead tree trunks in the way, the latter both blasted with cold and burned clean through with fire magic, presumably used against the undead and the mosswarts.

Another sign that Casters could control Summons and make them use their power intelligently.

-On the flip side, they are probably going to interpret the death of that old mossie and the undead patrol as some of these burun getting through and going ham on them.-

-And probably wondering why they didn’t find any tracks?- I /sniffed. Kris didn’t leave any with her lightfoot, and I was mostly on Disks or Flying low. -Or why there wasn’t a signal raised?-

-A foul ambush and unclean frogger magic,- she /replied easily. -What do you think we should do?-

-The mossies lost a Cynic. They have to inflict the same on their enemies, or lose ground. There’s probably going to be a deadly raid fairly soon, which we don’t want to get in the middle of.-

-Ah, the war drums, right. That should mean there’s a bunch of these things just out of sight, what with the mossies announcing their intentions.- She tilted her head. -Are those bone horns?-

Hey, look who had just acquired perform Ranks and more musical sensitivity. -I think so. Hmm, they don’t match the rest of the music.-

-I’m thinking the undead are displaying readiness to fight, too.-

-None of the undead Summons I could sense were below a Revenant in power, which is a 60, slightly above the little burun I saw,- I /informed her

-There’s motion over there.- I turned my head to where she was looking, Devilsight giving us nightvision like the day. -Most of those are Summoned. There’s scores of them.-

-Conjured armies moving to go to war, harming nothing but each other and the environment. Although I don’t think they are going to be satisfied with that, what with losing one of their leaders.-

-Oops. Perhaps they shouldn’t have attacked me so vehemently after I startled that scout.- She didn’t /sound too apologetic.

-Accidents happen in war. There’s no Good side here, and that Cynic was a solid Ruby. You EARN that, it’s not ‘natural’,- I /told her.

-You know what? That does make me feel better. What about these things?- She /indicated the burun and guruk shifting through the swamp ahead of us, grunting and calling out to one another in deep, croaking tones.

-Brown-Purple-Green. Very tribal, very savage, as you might imagine.-

-Aye, and the leadership always tends to be worse than the common population, I know, I know.- Probably had seen a whole lot of it, given Viamont back on Ispar. Grandiose dreams of conquest aren’t part of the average person’s ambitions, while those seeking power over others were naturally drawn to government.

Fwoosh!...

Water vapor and air condensing into utter cold had a singular noise to it, and the shimmery magic reflecting through the crystals in the air was visible at a great distance. Croaking calls rose violently in response as the fighting started off over thataway, and the forces spread out here shuffled somewhat in that direction... but not too far.

-Time to move!- Kris /exclaimed, heading back out of the area of conflict. -We’ll swing by at speed while they are busy, check out the Sawato town down at the far end of the swamp.-

I drew a long arc around the battle line here, centered it somewhat, and imposed it over the map. She glanced at it, and made a face.

It probably was centered on Sawato. I had the feeling ‘Swamp Town’ was going to have a whole new meaning.

Blasts of fire were roaring in the distance, and I didn’t miss the shadows moving through the waters less than a hundred yards from us as a multi-pronged attack came in... led by three of the Cynics, who didn’t look very happy.

Well, we accidentally started something. I had no doubts all three forces involved had taken advantage of what had happened to the humans here, so I didn’t feel very guilty getting them to fight among themselves.

-There’ll be plenty of guruk here to test yourself against in the future,- I /reassured the princess, who looked a bit mopey as we made it back to the Wagon.

That did cheer her up. -Okay, fine, we’re going to swing wide of the fight, race on past, and see what we see.- She didn’t look optimistic on finding anything important, as the croakings that were ringing out could be heard for miles now, clear as drums.

Definitely a language of sorts, indicating positions and conflict. The blazing colors and distant rolling booms of fiery explosions were joining and overwhelming the blasts of cold, and soon enough both forces would be starting on this side, too.

------

The battle had well and truly gotten rolling by the time we headed back, scouts stumbling across one another, fighting erupting, and magic started flying back and forth rapidly.

The Cynics were a cold and deadly force in the middle of the fighting. Looked like one intelligent one and the two Summons from the town under his command, compelled to stay and fight instead of returning to their positions.

He was doing the Vulns, Imperils, and Healing, while they were throwing the War Magic and mixing it up with the massive guruks without any hesitation. The powerful, hulking creatures had great difficulty landing a solid blow, while the old mosswarts were hammering their broad chests with powerful punches, or unleashing point-blank blasts of cold that froze their thick hides to brittle solidity, then shattering them.

The burun behind their meat-tanks were trying to concentrate magic on the old mosswarts, which left the mosswart shamans there free to concentrate their own blasts of cold on the burun, while the elder Cynics basically tanked the incoming fire magic, or dodged it completely.

The mosswarts pressed in with fanatic zeal, much more impressive than any of those free landspawns we’d met on the way coming down, and even the Summons were stronger and tougher, grown and evolved with magic and built up by the fighting... and, I was pretty sure, many of them choosing to be bound as Summons to protect their people, coming back again and again to die in their defense.

I even saw one of the mosswart/cat-headed fat Buddha statues bouncing forwards, three sections spinning as it tanked the burun magic and literally stomped them flat into the mud. Four guruk converged on it with huge cleavers and massive clubs to beat it down, ignoring the spells of the lesser mosswarts as they tried to stop the advance of the statue.

The mosswarts ignored the destruction of the statue, which likely could be rebuilt and re-empowered fairly easily, concentrating on expending magic on the burun backing the guruk heavy melees, opening a path for their Cynics and the more powerful mosswarts following them, who were far more dangerous.

I also saw a jet-black burun in the back of their forces, clearly croaking out directions, giving orders, and sending off spells here and there, including Healing its own forces and commanding the guruk trying to stop the Cynics. The mosswarts also seemed to be trying to make it in that one’s direction.

We didn’t see how the battle resolved, instead zipping on by in the rough direction of the next Sho town here. Given the swamp territory about it, they’d probably been famous for their rice, but we’d see what we’d see when we got there.