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

“It will break me out of Invisibility,” Princess Kristie warned me.

“I will erect an Illusion of vegetation in a half-arc around you, which should keep you and the zefir out of line-of-sight of its fellows. The eyes of the Summons are unimportant. If they are far enough away from their Summons, they might get one round of attacks before having to fly off, and if they use fire or lightning, you can mock them.”

“And I should be able to dodge the rest,” she agreed after a moment. I tensed just slightly as a whisper of killing intent filled the air, but Quaver was still sheathed, so no sourceless red glow. “Find me a target,” she purred.

I fed her my Detect data, she glanced at it, and was in motion in seconds, closing in on the nearest one. I overlaid it with my Vatic Gaze, and the only one of the five zefirs in that flock without the telltale glow of Summoning magic stood out fairly readily.

The Mick was watching through the mental windows of both of our eyes, paying closer attention to where the other zefirs were, although Kris’ tremblesense was up and out and her very keen awareness of the terrain and air about her was absolutely surreal to experience and try to process for the uninitiated. She also had a wider hearing range, a nose a bloodhound would approve of, and saw above and below visible light. Processing her sensory feed was a trip and a half, and I could tell the Mick found it both a bit overwhelming, and the fact it didn’t discomfort either of us a wee bit disturbing...

Kris cut through and between the flitting Summons who were responding to the screeches and subtle gestures and positioning of the real zefir, its hateful little inkface lit with reddish eyes and mouth that somehow highlighted the fact it had needles for teeth.

“Hateful little faerie shits,” mumbled the Mick, and Kris and I both agreed completely.

Hissss… just a blur of sourceless red light, an iajitsu draw, serene and cool, time and moment, harmony and ruthless killing intent blending together, and in mid-flutter Quaver chopped its head clean off. The Sound Bubble her Sword emanated stifled its final shriek even as she popped into visibility.

There was kind of a still moment as all four Summoned zefirs about her froze, turning to look at the human who had suddenly popped up in their midst. Way back here, the Mick whistled low in appreciation.

-Dodge and stealth!- I /told her, changing the plan to suddenly surrounding her in a thin stone cone with my Dawnstopped Shape Stone, cutting off their view of her.

Fire and lightning blasted into the stone a couple seconds later, sending real pieces of it flying, but there was nothing inside.

The Summons paused for just a second to study the results, and then started winging their way back towards the ruins of the nameless village a quarter-mile away.

The Mick hissed, because Kris was thirty feet away in the lee of a charred tree, completely unseen by the departing zefir entirely. The only thing remaining was the dead real zefir, its body starting to Burn vivic with eager, hungry haste.

The narrow shell of the cone flowed down, covered its body up, and there was no sign of anything there at all.

“Incoming!” the Mick whispered unnecessarily, looking at my Detect Evil III feed. Another small flock was heading this way, attracted by the multiple spells going off, and perhaps feeling the Summons heading back to their spawning points.

Kris, just a part of the landscape at the moment, Quaver resheathed and waiting with bloody Ruby eagerness, watched them come in with us… especially the one that was real.

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There were a bunch of the flocks around the town, but we were patient and wary. The Mick had just the knack of long experience for choosing what angle to attack at and where to move from target to target, and we trailed along after Kris as she slid through the scorched landscape like a ghost and eliminated her targets.

Ten of them were dead before a response came from the ruins of the cottages nearby. Something had noticed all the Summons returning to their spawn points, and we could hear the suddenly coordinated buzzing of their wings pick up.

-The little shits finally realized something was up!- the Mick /grinned, even as we all, Invisible or simply so good at hiding she wasn’t there, found cover against a cloud of buzzing black wings shooting in our general direction from the town.

There were no signs of the real dead, covered up by Shaped stone and being converted to Land-food.

The hot purple light of the Shadow Flyer in charge was hard to miss in the Detect Evil, its raging Amethyst malevolence dwarfing the lesser zefirs and the hollow programmed nastiness of the Summons entirely.

A whole lot of magic was emptying out of the damned faerie things, fire and lightning pounding everything as the wretched pixie-things shot everything that might be a target. There were three other real ones in this swarm, but it was plain the Shadow Flyer was in control and command.

Not that it was doing any good. The deranged thing was shrieking and buzzing around like a mad thing, looking for an enemy and driving the whole flock into a frenzy that was going after anything that moved… except nothing was moving, they’d long made sure of that!

We weren’t moving, either, and furthermore were Invisible, staying close to the ground as they buzzed around savagely above us, lighting stuff up, and then moved on in frenzied haste to attack the whole lot of nothing that was still around and taunting them.

The Mick had actually been run into by a couple of the Summons, who just shook their heads in puzzlement and zipped away, not realizing they’d hit something alive, or not caring since they couldn’t visually verify it. Summons, not your first choice for tactical assessment!

-That were surreal,- he /muttered, having barely restrained himself from snatching at the ones that had impacted his chest. That likely would have started a real chase which might well have ended with him dead… although I could re-Invisible him from thirty feet away if needed.

-Next target?- Princess Kristie /inquired crisply, as if we all hadn’t just avoided death by swarming shadowed hell-pixies.

The Mick laughed, looked at the ground and nearest flocks, the big swarm rampaging all over the empty area we’d been through. -Why don’t we play it sneaky and hit them from the other side, now? Surely there would have t’ be more than one group involved, if it’s seen nothing so far.-

-Sounds perfectly logical to me!- Kris /agreed, and we were up and off and trotting for the far side of the ruined town, shifting between the flocks moving uneasily and slowly towards the area their leader was zipping around madly in.

----

Since the spawn areas of the Summons were nearer to the town, abandoning the town meant the Shadow Flyer didn’t notice more spawn points were being reoccupied as flock leaders died.

I was using illusions of vegetation to cut off any sight of Kris’ Ruby strikes from the other flocks, so they had no clue what was happening, never seeing the eye-catching crimson stroke, easily mistaken for a flash of fire, finish off its target. Bring up the cone of stone, shelter her from kneejerk attacks, and I could either drop her into a hole below it, or she could duck out the back during the spells, using Hide in Plain Sight to totally bollux them up with a Stealth mod in the +30’s.

Either way worked, and the Summons, losing their target, just winged their way silently back to their spawn points as their default programming took over.

Nicely reliable that way, they were.

Eventually, the Boss did become aware that no other flocks were wandering around the area. Its frenzy reached a new and crazed height of wild buzzing and spells flying in every direction, which we watched safely from the distance.

Half the night hadn’t even passed yet. We had plenty of time.

“I’d say a nice diversion would be useful, but the whole damn flock would go out after it,” Kris murmured as we watched the agitated and erratic movements of the flock around the ruins of the cottages. Anything left standing was getting pummeled flat in the excitement of the flocks.

“Wait fer it.” The Mick crossed his invisible arms and grinned. “They’ve a lot of mana, true enough, but they have their limits, too. Some of them have already spent it all.”

“They are actually that stupid?” Kris was pleasantly surprised. “That means we only have to worry about being swarmed and covered head to toe in hell-pixies.”

“Everybody’s dream way to die, I’m sure,” I added drolly. “I presume they are vicious but not nearly as dangerous with their natural weapons, Master McMikal?”

“Aye, like having a hawk or something clawing for yer eyes and face and throat, but nowhere near as dangerous as their magic. Ye’ve an idea?”

“There are only four real ones left, but they are inside the concealment of their flock. I think I should be able to kite the crap out of them, and use the Summoning programming against them.”

“How so?” Kristie asked keenly.

“Well, if I Emerald Shard the real ones, they instantly become paralyzed, and I become visible. The rest will immediately come racing for me. If I go Invisible and get out of the area, they get nothing… but they leave the paralyzed one behind on the ground as they come rage-buzzing for me.”

“And even if it still retains control, it will probably direct them to chase you, not even thinking. So if one of us is close enough, we can walk over and coup it instantly, rinse and repeat!” she nodded in approval.

“Are ye going to be able to get away, lass?” the Mick asked carefully.

“I can Fly. Yes.”

“Ye… can fly?” His invisible eyes swelled right up.

“Aye. Basic Valence III spell, first one I picked, for situations just like this.”

“Damnation. Then Highness should take the first ones, and likely the second. Ye can throw two of the new Shards, aye? If we take out the last two together, while the Summons all chase after ye, then they are meat on the plate as soon as they lose sight of you.”

“That’s the general idea. Bunita should pop the Flyer, as you’re basically guaranteed a kill with Crushing Blow going off.”

He grumbled as he considered the wild chaos of the fourscore Deranged Shadow Zefirs. “I’ll be learning that stealth trickery fast, damn if I won’t!” he swore, not liking the feeling of having nothing special to offer at this time.

“Broad and deep, Master McMikal,” Princess Kristie instantly refuted him. “Six months isn’t going to hurt you, and you’ll be standing taller than you ever have in your life, without leaning on magic Gear to be useful.”

His unseen grin was fierce. “Then ye just be about showing me what I’m going to be learning, lass, because standing here like an old man is getting me twitchier by the second!”