The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (17 page)

Death
of an enemy Champion: -100 Fighting Spirit points for enemy forces for the duration of the battle! +50 Fighting Spirit points for allied forces for
duration
of battle.

He finally felt like the battle was going their way! The only real question was… when would he stop making stupid assumptions? The sudden absence of a particular sound caught his attention, and he realized he could no longer hear the angel’s sword banging upon the enemy wizards’ magic shield. Turning his
head he saw the cherubiae raise his crystal sword in salute to Hisako.

“Good luck, Daughter of Light.”

The angel faded from view, its time on this plane done. Large cracks could be seen in the black shield that the mages had huddled behind. The disappearance of
cherubiae created an unspoken cease fire
. The remaining bugbears broke off their attack on the remaining sprites, backing up towards their casters. Their large shields were dented from blocking imbued magic strikes. The sprites broke off to form around Hisako and Richter. Yoshi stood in front, both swords glowing softly blue in the darkness.

No one spoke at first, and the two groups just glared daggers at one another. Richter took the opportunity to drink several mana potions. Something about this particular piece of land tickled his memory, but he stopped thinking of it when the female caster said, “Hello Hisako. It has been a long time.” Her voice was a sultry syrup. The kind of tones that
everyman thinks he wants to hear.

“Hello, Modara
,” Hisako replied with venom in her voice. Richter looked at her surprised. He hadn’t ever thought he would hear such vehemence coming from the kind and matronly sprite. Her face was a mask of stark anger. Richter looked back at
Modara
who seemed amused by the Hearth Mother’s fury. “You will not escape this time!”

Modara
just laughed. She held up her staff, “I think you might be overconfident, or do you not recognize what I am holding?”

“I see your new bauble,” Hisako said in the same tone as before. “I also saw how much you strained to keep the angel at bay. There can’t be much mana left in it. You WILL die!”

Yoshi spoke up, “Let me take her head now, Hearth Mother! I know what this whore of darkness has done.”

“Watch how you speak to your betters fool! I will drink the fluid from your eyes,” she spat back at the
sword adept
. Turning to look at Hisako again, she resumed her previous languid tone of voice, “You are quite right Hisako. I have used most of my reserves, but I have enough for one last spell.”

Modara
raised the staff in the air and shouted an incantation. The sprites started firing at the mass of bugbears, but they huddled behind their shields. Braced by their massive strength, the shields protected them from harm. The two casters were behind the warriors, and the fighters seemed content to let
Modara
finish casting her spell. After a few seconds, she let loose a shout and thrust the staff into the air. Dark streamers of energy plunged into the ground between the two groups. The earth immediately started rumbling, and then a bony hand shot up, followed by another and another. That was why this patch of ground had seemed significant. It was where Richter and Sion had burned the bodies of the goblins they had killed cleansing the forest!

Modara’s
laugh rose into the air. “You really should be more careful where you put a mass grave!”

In no time at all, dozens of skeletons had climbed out of the ground. The sprites started firing at these new enemies, and the first volley dropped several, but the Dark mage had not been sitting idle. He finished his spell and dark tendrils wrapped around each skeleton. Whereas before the sprites’ imbued arrows had caused the skeletons to collapse, now they caused much less damage. The defenders would have been overrun, but Hisako saved them again.

The Hearth Mother raised both arms in a “X” in front of her face and then spread her arms wide. A large gold panel like the ones she had cast before flashed into existence. This was much
larger however,
and covered two dozen yards in width and ten feet in height. She gave a second and a third shout, each magical yell starting with making another “X” and ending with an open armed stance. The shield became more substantial and glowed brighter at the end of each of her movements. The golden panel was a formidable defense, but the strain of such a large shield was clearly telling on the Hearth Mother’s face. Richter could see the bugbears had joined the skeletons, and all were beating against the wall of light.

Modara
laughed again, “How long can you last Hisako? And just how are you going to kill me after my minions rip you into little pieces? Hahaha.” Hisako didn’t answer, the stressed look on her face did that for her. Richter knew she couldn’t last much longer. Both enemy casters began firing dark beams of energy at the shield. The impact points of their blasts created a fine series of cracks that grew by the second.

Yoshi spoke up, “The Hearth Mother cannot fight on her own. Form up! We will send these evil creatures to the hell of their choosing.
Foresuto
No!”

The sprites responded, “
Foresuto No!
” Richter translated the phrase silently, ‘For the Forest!’

He readied himself to fight. He wasn’t concerned about his own life; he would be reborn. The thought of the sprites
dying
though, filled him with horrible guilt. He couldn’t even think about what would happen to the villagers once the fighters were dead. He knocked an arrow to his bow and prepared for Hisako’s shield to collapse. The sky began to lighten as the
assault continued against the gold plate, making it even easier to see the wide spread cracks. It wouldn’t be much longer.

Wait, lighten?! The sun was coming up! Richter accessed the town
interface
and checked the mana available. 517! With his personal mana pool he was over 800! He began to laugh. First the sprites, then the bugbears, and then the casters, started to stare at him. The only person that didn’t seem to notice was Hisako, who was fully committed to their defenses.

Modara shouted, “Do you think the sun will save you
idiot? You’ll be dead before it is fully up!”

Richter held up his middle finger. “
Modara
,” he paused to make sure he had her attention, “you’re fat.” She looked at him with utter shock on her face, then her expression twisted into something truly ugly. She screamed in rage. The magical attack from her outstretched hand grew thicker and darker. Richter just laughed evilly, and then threw his hands up above his head. He cast
Confusing Mist
.

Thick mist shot out of his body in all directions. It penetrated the golden shield and continued on. Visibility was soon zero for everyone present. He concentrated this time, and mentally focused on making the mist permeate to the boundaries of his domain without leaving a clearing in the middle. As the mist flew faster and faster, he selected all of the sprites and gave them immunity. He also thought of Alma giving her immunity as well. The skeletons had continued to pound at the shield, but the bugbears had stopped in confusion and the two streams of black magic had stopped as well.

Richter moved to Yoshi, “We need to retreat with Hisako. Tell everyone to be as quiet as possible so that we can
loose
them in the mists.” The
sword adept
nodded and spoke quickly to the other sprites. All shouldered their bows, and Sion came to stand next to Richter. Alma alighted on his shoulders hissing at the enemies on the other side of the golden shield. A glowing
grey
orb was also floating thirty feet away. Richter shouted, “Futen!”

The orb flowed towards Richter, “Yes, my Lord?” The remnant’s deadpan voice sounded even stranger than normal against the screams of outrage and bloodlust coming from their foes.
Modara’s
voice rose above the others as she threatened the bugbears with painful deaths if they let Hisako flee.

“We need to escape. We are going to run as silently as possible. Lead them off in another direction by imitating our voices.”

“As you wish, my Lord.”

At a nod from Yoshi, Richter picked up the Hearth Mother and began running. They quickly reached the range of her ability to maintain the shield, which shattered to golden pieces. She cried out at the spell
backlash
and lapsed into unconsciousness. The fragments dissipated before striking the ground. As soon as the wall was down, the skeletons and bugbears surged forward. Blasts of black energy shot in their general direction. One caught a sprite in the shoulder throwing him to the ground. The brave fighter didn’t make a
sound however
and regained his feet quickly. Yoshi moved to support him, and they all continued forward. The increased agility of the sprites let them outstrip the bugbears and skeletons.
After a minute, voices issued well to the left, and the sounds of pursuit followed it. Once again Futen’s ruse was working.

They ran for another five minutes until there were no sounds behind them. Stopping to assess, Richter looked at Hisako. She still had not regained
consciousness
, but she didn’t seem to be in any distress. He waved to two of the sprites and whispered furiously, “Take the Hearth Mother to the meadow. Stay there and protect them all.” He carefully handed over her body. A thought occurred to Richter, and he spent a few seconds giving immunity to the sprites that were guarding the villagers and all of the villagers he could remember.

Sion came close and asked softly, “What do we do now, Richter?” Yoshi and the other sprites looked at him as well.

He looked at his best friend, and the other fighters with a harsh glare, “We kill them all.”

Yoshi made eye contact and nodded once. Bows were unlimbered, and the fighters walked back towards the distant sounds. There was more blood to be spilled. Yoshi separated the remaining sprites into three teams. The order for the other two groups was to find pockets of attackers. They would fire and retreat, using the concealment of the mists for protection. Richter advised all of them about the properties of his spell.

“They won’t be able to see you unless you get too close, within five or ten feet. Once you attack though it negates the enchantment for a short while.
Also,
if you imbue an arrow, they may be able to detect you despite the mists. If that happens retreat until they lose sight of you, and then attack again. They ALL die!” The sprites had no objections. They had lost treasured friends and comrades.

The final group was comprised of Yoshi, Richter, Sion, Daniella, and a fifth sprite named Red. Richter guessed it was because he was wearing a red shirt. When Daniella had asked what their mission was Yoshi had simply said one word, “Modara.”

They all moved off into the mists following the distant sounds of shouts. Richter had handed out his last mana regeneration potions to his group. They drank the potions on the run. Each group separated from the others as they ran. Being able to see through the mists meant
the sprites could move much faster than the bug bears
. It wasn’t long before Richter saw blue flashes in the distance to his left, followed by shouts of pain. Thirty seconds later a similar scene unfolded to their right. Yoshi didn’t pause. He kept running with the rest of his party right behind him. They passed two more pockets of enemies, but still the half human didn’t slow. He wanted the Death mage.

They finally found the hooded caster at the boundary of the village. She and the black robed mage were surrounded by five skeletons and three bugbears. The rest must have gotten lost in the
Confusing Mist
. Richter expected Yoshi to rush in, but he waved them to stop once they had found their quarry. The
mages
would most likely already be gone if not for the trench. Bugbears on the other side were bringing up another
make shift bridge
though. The casters would escape in mere minutes.

Yoshi turned to Richter, “We need to remove one of the casters quickly. If we imbue our arrows, they’ll see us and I don’t think we can stand against both Modara and the Dark Mage. Do you have a way to take one out quietly?”

Richter thought for a moment going through his skills and spells. Nothing came to mind except… He pulled an arrow
out
his bag of holding with a smile. Yoshi looked at and then smiled in return.

Arrow of Stun. Chance to stun target for 3-5 seconds.