Before It Begins

I wouldn’t call the air sweet but it’s no longer sour now that the poison has been wiped from existence. The fine dust that remains gathers on the floor and the walls. I’ve been told that it’s now only as dangerous as common dust, and the coughing fits surrounding me no longer have the same desperate heave to them.

Most people are already back on their feet, the poison cleared from their systems by the healer and I. They wander about the large room, checking in with each other, or looking into their stalls and checking for damage. There shouldn’t be much, apart from the healer’s room there hasn’t been much fighting here.

The talented chef is already frying up some food at her stall, focused on the task. Most others are the same, brushing up the white dust, or busying about with whatever tasks they can find for themselves.

Even so, nothing can quiet the sobbing that spreads throughout the room as the families and friends of the dead, weep over their corpses. There isn’t a single adult among the dead, each corpse a small thing, one no more than an infant.

“Are you okay?” Nel asks, clutching at my hand.

“I hate it.” I reply, closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths. “I should feel… sick or sad, but I just feel angry. Frustrated that I couldn’t stop this.”

She nods slowly, her eyes focusing away from the corpses.

“If it helps stop Paskel from ever doing this again, then be angry.” Nel whispers. “I can’t help in the fight, I’ll take care of things here, just make sure that he dies and that you come back safe.”

“One of us will see the bug dead, and he won’t take another life.” I say with a brief nod.

Thresh finishes with the last of her projects, handing out the completed packages filled with stirring magic. The warriors taking them are tasked with clearing away the last of the poison, but most quietly grunt, hiss, and growl as they hear the sobbing. Everyone else is wanting to lose themselves in their work, and the soldiers are no different, but unfortunately for them, there’s nothing around for them to kill.

They take the magical packages, which I presume are meant to explode like the poison packs that the gremlins were using. The soldiers move out in small groups to get about their tasks.

Red makes a return with a number of other warriors, most lining up for treatment from the healer.

“How are we?” I ask her as she approaches.

“The gremlins stopped harassing us when someone came down to clear away the poison. Their leader must’ve realized that they failed.” She says. “Local forces have established a strong defensive line at the entrance, I don’t expect we’ll be attacked again today.”

“Any casualties?”

“A few wounded, most still need to be treated for the poisoning but nothing concerning.” She replies. “Everything is under control.”

“Thank you for your work.” I say, looking around the room. “We’ll still be ready for tomorrow’s assault?”

“We’ll be ready.” Red replies firmly. “I hope you’re not getting cold feet.”

“Not at all.” I reply, looking over to the parents mourning their dead children. I should feel more horror at the sight than I do, but the most I can feel is an overwhelming frustration feeding into the rage that’s forever flickering in my heart. “Quite the opposite.”

“Good. I’ll get back to my soldiers, then.” She says, checking through the room. “With your permission we’ll be sweeping the colony with the help of the locals, checking for gremlins and traps.”

“Permission granted.” I say, and she quickly gives a salute before joining her soldiers in line for healing.

Most of everything she mentioned has already been sent in messages, and I suspect that she came by to check on us more than simply reporting to me. Either that, or she’s trying to help cement my position by reporting to me while so many others are watching.

“Kyra. I… I don’t want to save that beast. Paskel.” Adler asks, approaching me with a weary Vii at her back. While not all that much time has passed, everyone has been working themselves to the bone, and neither can disguise the weariness in their eyes.

“That’s good, because we’re not going to save him.” I reply, meeting her eyes and trying to understand her. It’s not been but a few days since she’s spoken with Misty and reinvigorated her desire to save wild beasts. Her eyes, while glazed over keep returning to the corpses and weeping parents.

Is this enough to change her perspective on things? Or is this just a moment of passion disconnecting her from her ideals?

“I… Kyra…” She whispers, clenching her teeth.

“You think that you should want to save him?” I ask. “That you should be the one trying to find a better solution?”

“Yes.” She replies. “I know that we can’t save him, but I should be wanting to try. Instead, I want nothing more than to see that bug crushed. It’s not… This is not who I want to be.”

“Adler. What would you do if you had some perfect means of making Paskel a good person?” I ask.

“I would do it.” She replies without thinking. “That’s not the problem. I’d do it, but I wouldn’t want to. I don’t like this.”

“That’s normal.” I reply. “It’s normal to get emotional and doubt yourself sometimes. Just as it’s normal that you can’t fully live up to your ideals. The world is shit, all we can do is the best that we can do. Give in to your anger, or try to follow your ideas within reason. You get to decide for yourself.

“Either way, we are crushing that bug. So the only real question for you is, are you coming with us to see him dead?”

“I’m not abandoning this fight.” Adler whispers, her voice hoarse. “Is everything…?”

“No bad news so far.” I reply. “We’re still on schedule for tomorrow. We just have to try and ensure that Paskel will be home when we come knocking.”

“That guy sucks.” Vii whispers. “We’ll kill him. He won’t get away.”

“He is more of a bother than we were expecting.” Says the local lord as he walks up to us, his clothes still stained in blood. “You have my thanks for your assistance.”

“We’re in this together. We couldn’t exactly abandon your people, the poison was affecting us all.” I say. “I was a little surprised to see you carrying that beast liver in, how did you get involved with that?”

“The same way you were involved with healing the poison, I imagine. We have others to lead our warriors, and there was nothing more to do here but wait for others to do their work. Some days we can do more for our people by lifting something heavy rather than sitting about waiting to give out unneeded orders. More so when most orders can be given via messages.”

“I guess that’s so.” I reply, thinking back to my own role in the defence of this place. Red was better suited to ordering our soldiers and I wasn’t needed to assist in the fighting, aside from the healing, I was helping Thresh get what she needed. Not exactly the role of a leader.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t much time to spare on small talk today.” The lord says, looking sadly over to those mourning over on the far side of the room. “So, I’d like to ask, what are your plans now?”

“Our non-combatants will be staying here, helping your people get everything back together. Our alchemist will be making some potions to support us for tomorrow’s assault on the city, though, so I’d ask you don’t distract her.”

“You’re still going forwards with your plans for tomorrow?” He asks. “In that case, is there room in your plan for more warriors? I think our soldiers need a chance to get some vengeance.”

“I’ll talk with Red and Bessy about it, but I’m sure we can manage to fit your soldiers into our plans.” I reply.

“Good. Send me a message when you have more details, I’ll have some soldiers ready to join you. These gremlins cannot be allowed to continue like this.” He says, heading towards the mourners and gathering people to prepare for a funeral.

“Okay, so what do we have to do?” I ask, looking to Adler, Vii, and Nel.

“You have more mana batteries to charge, and class to attend.” Nel says, rubbing at her temple as she looks over a number of notes on her screen. “I’d also suggest working on your Skills further if you’re close to a breakthrough in any way.”

“I’ll polish out my defences Skills, I guess.” I say with a long sigh, suppressing a coughing fit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Your warriors can use the new rifles?” I ask Red.

“They can.” She replies, glaring down at me. “Are you certain of this plan?”

“It’s a good plan. You agreed.” I reply.

“I agreed thinking that I’d be leading the initial charge.” She says, peering down at me. “Can you explain why you’re determined to do this?”

“You do still trust me?” I ask.

“Yes.” She replies easily.

“Good. There are two good reasons and one shit reason why I’m leading this attack.” I say, leaning against the table. “First, if Warren is there, I need him to let down his guard. If I’m not leading this force to greet him at the gates, there’s a good chance that he’s going to act outside of our expectations, and screw us over.

“Second, if their dumbass King comes around, I’m confident that I could surprise him and take him out with a good annihilation bolt.” I say, slowly shifting around my packs. The dense mana batteries in them make them frighteningly heavy, but today I’m not focusing on speed.

“And the shit reason?” She asks.

“I want to see the bug dead with my own eyes. If someone dies off-screen, you have to assume that they’re not dead.”

“You’re being reckless.” She says, ignoring my nonsense.

“I am.” I say, meeting her gaze and refusing to flinch away. “We all are. This isn’t the first time we’ve done something so dangerous, and it won’t be the last.”

“I’ll be with her.” Eshya says, standing next to me.

“Two idiots are barely better than one…” Red grumbles. “Fine. We’re as ready as we’re going to get. I’ll get to position.”

She pauses at the exit to the room.

“Don’t die before I can get there.” She says without looking back.

“I won’t.” I say, glaring down at the map and the lines we’ve scribbled all over it. We’re going to have to destroy it before we leave.

“What are your thoughts on this?” I ask Eshya.

“It’s a good plan, and it’s going to be one hell of a fight.” She replies. “We have back ups for everything that can go wrong. It’ll be more than fine; it’ll be fun.”

“We’ll, I’m glad you’re going to be enjoying yourself. What about you Vii, you’ve rather quiet?”

“I just want to write it all down.” She says, scrawling in her little red notebook. “This is a proper battle. A real battle. I get to record it, write it down for everyone that comes after. People generations from today will read the words I write down today.”

Her hands tremble as an excited smile rises on her lips. Her eyes are wide open with an excited fervour.

“I’m happy to be here.” She says, scribbling down more words.

Are all my lovers completely insane? Nel seems to be the only one with a decently normal response to all this.

“It’s almost time.” Eshya says, her hand resting on her sword.

“It is.” I say, using my fire magic to set the map alight. It’s been a while since I used the magic for something so simple. “Let’s make this work.”

I walk out of the network of roots that we’ve made into a home. A home that we must abandon. The people have left, and in the place of our belongings we’ve buried awful traps. A few soldiers work to activate the traps behind us as we leave.

Under the glowing lights of the lake above, shining through the thick forest canopy, I see my army standing at the ready. The stronger of the freed beasts, the vampire lizards, Rare, Shy, Lui, Slan, Korgan, Arn, and others. Before all of this, the most I’ve led was a class project, and now I have a small army ready to fight by my side.

Lakesh stands ready at the head of the formation, my second in command for this venture.

“We’re ready, commander.” He says. “Any adjustments to the plan?”

“No, everything is as planned.” I say, strolling before our forces, every eye focused on me.

Leadership is a strangely fragile thing, they look to me for guidance, because others do. Because I act like I’m the leader, and I pretend that I know what I’m doing. It’s enough, but if I can’t lead them well, then another will try to seize my place. Rightfully so, too.

My soldiers aren’t standing in a tight formation as with the armies in the old movies, everyone here has space to move, fight, and cast around them. It seems a bit unprofessional, but I’m not going to question the expertise of my experts.

“I hope you’ve all taken a moment for yourselves, because there’s no toilet breaks from here.” I shout, earning a few nervous chuckles which I let slowly become silent.

“We… aren’t able to defend our home.” I say. “The wood weavers are constantly working to tear our walls down, while Paskel and his sort are trying to kill us every chance they get. Our enemies are not weak; but neither are we.

“Today we’re charging into a trap, and we’re going to make them regret inviting us into their walls. We aren’t fighting today to seize their city. We aren’t fighting to protect our home. We’re fighting today to kill as many of their people as we can, and we’re going to keep killing them tomorrow and the day after. We’ll hunt them in the forests. We’ll sneak into their city, and slaughter them as they sleep. We’ll attack from the skies, from water, and from beneath the earth.

“We’ll slaughter them until not a single one of their kind is still standing, and only then will we be safe. Only then can we take back our home.”

The soldiers have quieted down, and the birds and beasts dare not interrupt.

I have no confidence in my speech skills but I can tell that they’re all as bloodthirsty as I am. My words need not reach their hearts, my words need only resonate with the hatred and rage already burning inside them.

“Look out for each other, stay alive, and show our enemies no mercy.” I say. Adler’s expression is dark, her ears flattened. If even she is ready for blood and war, then my army has the right spirit.

“Let’s go.” I say, stepping into the forest. “Ah, Eshya, you know the way, right?”

She quietly chuckles at the question, pointing me the right direction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 2899 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 50/97%

Offense: 50/70%

Mana sense: 0/97%

Recovery: 0/44%

Gluttony: 0/34%

Misc.: 0/44%

Efficiency: 100/100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Reactive defence

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Charged casting (Annihilation)

-Mana form flow fixer

-Branching magic

-Swimming