Siege State

It took just over an hour for the salve to purge the last of the sandscale venom from Sesame’s system. Once he was cured, and fully healed from sleeping, Tom woke him up, and the party carried on.

Darius explained that the sandscales were notorious for the lethality of their toxins in Horizon, but also quite rare. They used the venom to coat arrows and daggers, and reserved them for hunting the most dangerous threats in the Grounds.

The rest of the group recovered their mood relatively quickly. They had spent three weeks fighting their way through the Deep, and endured the siege of Wayrest prior, so the Proving Grounds, while an entirely new kind of danger, were not impossible for them to adapt to.

Rosa was still uncharacteristically quiet. Tom knew she was worried about her parents, but he could sense her dislike of Darius too. She seemed to have settled on ignoring the latter, and throwing herself into training her control skill to avoid thinking of the former.

Now that they were once again on the move, Tom revisited his musings on Hunter-Gatherer. He had noticed the lizard a second earlier than the previous attacks. He had obviously caught something through Hunter-Gatherer, but with the adrenaline and chaos of the subsequent fight, his impressions had been muddied.

He thought back, carefully picking at his memory. As they had been riding, he had been sweeping the area with the skill. It was locked to his field of view, even though the sense was separate. All he had been able to feel through it was the usual background tones of the grass, with the regular, intermittent flashes from small animals as they moved about.

Then something had changed. He frowned, remembering. For a moment, it felt like something was condensing. No …coalescing.

It reminded Tom of when he had happened to catch a wood essence forming in the Deep. He and Val had been tracking a boar through rough terrain, and they had stopped to try and figure out the best way forward. As they were pondered in the middle of the dense brush and trees, he just so happened to be pointing in the right direction to catch a small eddy forming in the ambient mana.

Normally, Hunter-Gatherer couldn’t detect ambient mana, as it was below the threshold for concentration for the skill. This eddy had stirred it up though, concentrating it. Within a few seconds, the eddy steadily increased in strength, and an essence formed in its middle.

What he had felt when the lizard attacked was similar, yet different. As with the essence, he had felt something concentrating, but it felt like it was both life and mana.

It made no sense. How did a living being diffuse its life-force? By its very nature as a corporeal creature, it should be contained to its form.

Tom continued to think on it, but unfortunately made no headway. He instead turned his full attention back to scanning with the skill. Hopefully the next time there was an attack, he would be able to glean more information.

They rode for a few more hours, until the sun was high in the sky, beating down upon them directly. It made Tom feel exposed. He had become used to having a canopy sheltering him.

The road through the Grounds played odd tricks on the mind. The unchanging landscape of dancing grass made minutes seem like hours, then hours seem like moments. Only the slow passage of the sun as it crawled its way across the heavens was a reliable indicator of time.

Tom was riding near the front of the column, behind Eli now, when the sun was reaching its peak. He was just about to call a consensus on lunch when he noticed an irregularity with Hunter-Gatherer.

Ahead of them, in the grass, there was a strange area registering to his mana-sense. The area was large, and the mana within it almost perfectly spread. It almost felt like there was just more grass in the area than there should be.

Tom noted it as unusual, but ultimately it was unremarkable. But just as he was about to turn his attention elsewhere, the patch of mana stirred.

He watched closely as the mana in the patch of grass began to coalesce. His attention was fully recaptured.

It was like an essence forming, except that within the large patch of grass several eddies had formed instead of one. Each of them were drawing mana towards a central point.

As they gathered, Tom noticed something even more unusual. Life was being drawn in as well. His earlier assumption had been right.

He watched intently as the mana drew in towards a central point, seemingly ferrying the life along with it, all condensing into forms that were growing more and more tangible and defined by the moment.

Tom frowned. It was almost like…

He shook himself, abandoning the thought. “Sprites! Up ahead! At least five!” he called.

Everyone snapped into action, drawing weapons and readying skills. Tom could see through Sus and Sol as the forms of the sprites coalesced in the tall grass. As they emerged from the plains onto the road before them, the rest of the group’s mounts adjusted to meet them.

They were grass sprites, from the looks of them. They were incredibly tall and thin, with many short, spindly legs branching from the very bottoms of their torsos, and varying numbers of long, whip-like arms. Each was composed of long, fair strips of sere brown material, which gleamed alternately in strokes of beige light.

They were utterly alien. Their forms suggested their movements would be a kind of skittering, but they instead flicked forward in erratic, short -almost overlapping- teleports. They had no eyes that Tom could see, but he could feel the menace rolling off them.

Vicious as all sprites, then, Tom thought to himself with resignation.

It’s all good! Sesame sent. They look flimsy!

Tom sent reassurance and agreement back down the bond, but privately, he reserved his opinion on their durability. Sprites could be surprising.

Darius pushed forward on Granny, sword drawn, though to his credit, he did not move past Tom, Eli and Markus at the front. The sprites continued jerkily flickering forwards, their long bodies swaying like stalks.

Rosa raised both hands, and twin lances of fire struck the leading sprites. They made no noise whatsoever at the damage, instead flickering around, back and forth, in a tiny area, before disappearing altogether.

Tom watched through his owls as the two damaged sprites appeared behind them, directly next to Rosa, Meri and Tanya, as he waited for the remaining sprites to close.

“Behind!” he shouted, but Meri had already noticed the sprites attempting to ambush them, if not through her Senses Ideal, then certainly via one or another of her familiars. Her mount wheeled around, the greatwolf stepping nimbly, and she began firing arrows directly into the nearest creature.

They did no appreciable damage whatsoever. Several of the arrows missed the thin, wavering bodies completely. Meri let out a snarl of frustration.

Tanya shied away from the fighting, back towards the frontline, putting Rosa and Meri between her and their attackers.

The sprite nearest Rosa lashed her with its arms, several in a row, quicker than thought. Rosa cried out, and the pain in it dragged at Tom’s heart. Before too many could strike her, Coal disappeared, subsumed, and Rosa burst into smoke and reappeared next to Tanya. The smoke left behind from her teleport also caught the sprite on fire courtesy of her Where there’s Smoke passive.

As Rosa mount materialised again, she was already drawing her bow. The sprite that lashed her discorporated as she flared the flames eating it with her control skill. Simultaneously, she cleared the smoke at the destination, so as not to suffocate Tanya, or block the frontline’s view. Then she fired a single arrow at the sprite battling Meri, and this time, it certainly did damage.

Rosa’s bow was custom made for her by Scriber, and this, along with the enchanted arrows, which she’d filled with Fire mana, the sprite died in a single strike.

The remaining sprites had reached the front line. Whip-like arms speared and lashed at them from various angles. Darius’ shield blocked them for an instant, rebuffing them, and then dropping. Sesame roared, but the chips of obsidian did no damage. Markus’ lion’s mane flared with light, and Tom felt strength rushing through both Sesame and himself. They charged.

Tom struck out with his spear, Silence mana giving it a wavering, slightly opaque coating. He hit the sprite dead in the centre of its body. It discorporated, dying.

Tom felt let down, almost. Sesame mirrored the feeling, along with a good bit of confusion.

Was that it? the bear sent. Wow, they’re weak.

Tom agreed. He turned to the sprite fighting Markus, who was having trouble with it. He had only the Ideal of the Team, and while he was a proficient fighter, he had no skills to help him in combat directly. Another spear thrust killed it. Eli had already dispatched his sprite with his Ideal of Blades.

Tom turned, finding Rosa begrudgingly allowing Darius to heal her. He nodded approvingly. Tom had noticed that he had hesitated during the fight, seemingly wanting to charge in with the frontline, but had ultimately decided to throw his shield then tend to Rosa and Meri. He was learning.

“Well…” Markus said, and his lion, Coro, released a disparaging roar via a bored yawn.

“Glad they weren’t stronger, at least,” Eli remarked.

“Fire takes care of them well enough.” Rosa gave an incredibly satisfied nod. “And you will be pleased to know I have been offered an uplift, Tom Cutter.”

Tom smiled, pleased for her. Darius moved off to check Meri. “Congratulations! Which skill?” he asked, happily playing into her fishing.

“Ember Soul, of course. Now, leave me be. I must think on my choices.”

Tom was happy to leave her to it. She would come to him if she wanted a sounding board.

Darius gave the rest of the group a quick scan for injuries, along with everyone’s mounts. He distributed some more healing, and then everyone remounted and moved out.

Tom quickly found himself thinking about the sprites’ manifestations. They were highly unusual.

In the Deep, he had seen several sprites, of all different varieties, manifest. Although sprites were, by nature, more energy than substance, they still did have a corporeal aspect to them.

They were not regular beasts, however. They did not eat or sleep. They were ambient mana, tied to the environment, given sentience once it reached a high enough density. When inactive, they would go dormant, their mana spreading into the environment slightly.

Every time one woke, the mana in the area would stir and flow towards its corporeal shell. That shell always appeared to be filled with their life force, which Tom could sense through his skill. The mana would rush in and fill it like a container.

Here, he had felt both the mana and the life-force rush inwards. Was it because the grass sprites were particularly incorporeal?

No… the more he thought about it, the more he thought that was the wrong conclusion. The lizard attack had felt similar. It was as though the creatures here in the Proving Grounds were dispersing their life force using their mana, spreading it out around them.

Tom’s guts told him he was on the right track. He was still not sure why the creatures here would do this, though, but he was fairly sure he was correct. Perhaps it was to avoid detection, or to detect prey, or both. Maybe they even subsisted partially off the mana, or life force of the grass. He couldn’t say.

What he was sure of was that he would have a much easier time detecting any ambushes now that he knew what to look for. He just had to keep a particular eye out for any eddies or swirls in the mana. Any attack would be preceded by an area jumping above the ambient levels, and into Hunter-Gatherer’s sensation range. He just had to be quick enough to catch it.

The satisfaction of understanding, of a problematic knot teased out, warmed him. And just like that, his wisp pulsed brown.

Tom blinked. He had not expected to get an uplift. He’d keep it to himself, though. Rosa would go on about how he was always trying to upstage her. He’d save the information to hassle her with later.

He pulled over his wisp.

Uplift threshold reached.

Skill Three (Consummate): Hunter-Gatherer (Passive (Sensory)).

Can sense nearby life force in the caster’s field of view. Can sense nearby concentrations of mana in the caster’s field of view. Allows caster access to an inventory in the caster’s World Wisp. Generates and places naturally occurring, mana-infused objects into the caster’s wisp inventory at random intervals.

Uplift Option One:

Can sense nearby life force in the caster’s aura range. Can sense nearby concentrations of mana in the caster’s aura range. Allows caster access to an inventory in the caster’s World Wisp. Generates and places naturally occurring, mana-infused objects into the caster’s wisp inventory at random intervals. Caster can manually deposit existing, naturally occurring, mana-infused objects they can sense within their aura range into their inventory.

Uplift Option Two:

Can sense nearby life force in the caster’s field of view. Can sense nearby concentrations of mana in the caster’s field of view. Allows caster access to an inventory in the caster’s World Wisp. Generates and places naturally occurring, mana-infused objects into the caster’s wisp inventory at random intervals. Caster’s sensitivity to both life-force and mana is increased.

Uplift Option Three:

Can sense nearby life force in the caster’s field of view. Can sense nearby concentrations of mana in the caster’s field of view. Allows caster access to a large inventory in the caster’s World Wisp. Generates and places naturally occurring, mana-infused objects into the caster’s wisp inventory at random intervals.

Tom’s choice was easy. He selected option two.

His life and mana sense was limited to his field of view, but it was stronger the closer an object was to him, dropping off the further away it was. Still, he could sense the life and mana of things far further out than his aura range. He would much rather that than to sense things everywhere around him. He could simply turn to take in more information, and he had his familiars to provide other information about potential threats to his sides or behind.

He had to admit that being able to grab objects like natural treasures and essences and put them in his inventory with his mind, once he’d sensed them, would be very useful. Currently, he left many things he sensed untouched. It was not worth it to constantly be deviating from his path. Knowing that there were objects that he was leaving behind rankled against his sensibilities though.

Oh well, he thought. He’d just have to deal with it a bit longer. If he could get the uplift offered again later, perhaps without the aura range limitation, he would consider it.

The third option, the larger inventory space in his wisp, would be nice, but ultimately wasn’t a consideration. He had a massive amount of storage between his wisp and his ring already. Though more was always good, it was also greedy, in this case.

Happy with his selection, Tom turned back to the road, and the grass, and eager to put his newfound sensitivity through its paces.