Through the Gates

Knowingly walking into a trap has a way of making your stomach twist about into knots while your mind spins through a thousand worries at once. I’ve doubted my plans enough that I’m sure I understand every possible flaw, and my entire command team has worked hard to build countermeasures for everything that might go wrong.

At a certain point, there’s nothing left to do but cut that gordian knot of obsessive worries and start moving. We’ve plotted and we’ve planned. We’re as prepared as we could be, so there’s nothing more to do but get to the killing.

Birds screech in frustration, fluttering about as we trample over the smaller ferns and cut through the larger. Eshya clears us a path while watching the map carefully, the rest of the army follows us making similar paths through the thick forest. There is no subtly to our movement, we gave up on the idea of stealth early on in the planning when I was told it’s nearly impossible to keep an army hidden.

At least being so blatant ensures that the wild beasts give way to us, the more aggressive sort nowhere near our travel path. We made sure to avoid their territories since we can’t afford to waste time fighting them.

“Wood weaver, underground 10 metres ahead.” Our scout reports, and I quickly shift my mana form around to favour mana senses so that I can get a look.

There’s a faint energetic glow of cast magic coming from the ground ahead, thin trails through the roots guide down towards a larger clump of movement below. The magic still stirring inside the mage beneath the ground. I can’t see as clearly as the scout can, but hopefully it’ll be enough.

“I’ve got this one.” I send to the officers group chat, while pulling mana away from my senses to flow into one of my special annihilation bolts.

Focusing on that faint spot, I let the completed spell swirl about inside me, gathering more annihilation mana from my talent. I let it build until the point where it stops growing and let it loose.

The magic flows out of my hand, gathering into the long single dimensional bolt before rushing away from me. It moves with a speed between a fast throw and a slow arrow. Though that’s referring to Earth standards of course, since with the right conditions both those things can be very fast out here in the wide universe.

The magic cuts through the earth, leaving a trail so infinitesimally small that it’s impossible to see before making contact with the glowing magic under the ground. The wood weaver dies, or at least stops casting, and I see nothing more of it.

“It’s done.” I say, and Lakesh nods my way appreciatively before waving the soldiers to keep moving. There’s more than symbolism to me leading the charge right now. My magic is rather effective at disarming traps, so long as a scout is able to point them out for me.

I draw the mana from one of the batteries I’m carrying with me, letting it slowly digest while we continue. I didn’t use too much mana on this casting, there’s still a long way to go before this day is done, and we’ve got class tomorrow morning.

“Specialist slayer group ahead.” The scout reports, giving us a little warning before we come across the faces of a few familiar warriors. Considering what we were requesting they wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing before accepting the offer.

“You have them?” I ask the insectoid warrior at the front. His shell reflects the light strangely making him rather difficult to focus on.

“Here.” He says, handing me a bag which I’m sure is glowing with enchantments. I move a little mana from my defences to my senses to get a look at it, the rest still invested into my musculature which is what let’s me carry the heavy batteries.

“When I take them from the bag, we’ll have five minutes?” I ask, the man.

“If you’re in the city.” He replies. “If you open it here, we’ll have seconds.”

“Got it. Thank you.” I say, letting him fade away and take leave. His group wasn’t interested in directly participating in the assault, but he seemed rather keen on hunting the gremlins that dare leave the city.

Like with so many other slayers and soldiers, the attack on the lords colony inspired them more than any pile of coins or currency could ever do. Teams like his are out here for revenge and even without directly supporting me, they’ll make our war that much easier.

I carefully pass the bag along to our own specialists, those with a competent skill at sneaking around. I recognise Shy among them, the tall girl with rounded animal ears, she gives me a quiet nod before focusing back on the forest around us.

“Together.” Shen whispers, crawling among them. For today she’s chosen to assist our stealth group. I pretend not to see Eshya’s slight pout.

I breath a sigh of relief and get moving again.

It’s surprisingly easy to move with as much invested into my strength, perhaps the mana invested into my nerves is assisting with my coordination. Developing as fast as I am, I’m going to have to look at making a few more changes to my categorisations, perhaps add some pre-set mana distribution patterns that I can easily swap between.

A thought for tomorrows lessons.

A flash of white stone walls shines through the thick trees, and an incoming message flashes through my mind.

“High level threat approaching fast from ahead.” The scouts report brings us to an instant stop. I gather together a dozen small annihilation bolts, looking for the threat coming to us.

“Welcome.” A loud voice booms through the trees towards us. “You’re on schedule, good.”

“Warren?” I ask, without letting my guard down. The ‘traitor’ surprises me by walking out in front of my army with his arms wide and a smile large on his face.

“No need for the panic.” He says, “I’ve taken control of the guard, there aren’t going to be any problems.”

“I hope so.” I say.

“Stand down, but be ready.” I send. Most of my warriors don’t have the power to do anything to this particular enemy, so I’ll have to be the one fighting him when it comes to it.

“Paskel?” I ask.

“He’s in his home. I have a few people watching him. His mages live close to him, I’ll point them out when we get close.” He says, turning around and leading us to the wall.

“You’re coming with us? That wasn’t part of the plan.” I say.

“This is a better plan.” He replies, and I resist the urge to just blast him away. I have a plan for what to do if we have to fight our way in. I have a plan for if he doesn’t show up, or if he tries to fight us the moment he sees us.

I never thought that he’d offer to lead us through the city, so obviously I didn’t plan for this.

That said, it’s not that difficult to figure it out. I’ll just keep my magic trained on him the whole time so I’m ready for the moment he turns on us, and he will be turning on us. I can’t have fucked up our plans that much.

We crush the last of the ferns in our way and escape the thick forest, laying our eyes on the tall stone walls of the gremlin’s city. I spare a little mana for my mana senses to try and get a peak at the mana moving through the massive fortifications.

The enchantments are half dead, but that’s half more than I’d like them to be. Getting through them without an invitation would be quite the challenge, as it seems that the stone is at the lower edge of crystal stage mana density. Not something you can easily kick down.

I don’t really understand the mechanisms of the enchantments that I’m seeing, active or dead. From what Ria’s said, enchantments are written unique to each enchanter, but she has read enchantments before, so there must be some sort of trick to it.

Regardless, the walls are thick, enchanted, and dangerous. I doubt it’ll be easy to get out through here when the doors close behind us, though I do have a few tricks that might work.

“Open the gates!” Warren shouts to the gremlins on top of the wall. “They’re with me.”

The little grey creatures follow his orders, standing at the ready or rushing about as they hear his shouting.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” I ask Warren, as we lead my forces through the large gate. The stone doors open outwards, mana burning through the enchantments to move the stone. The people who built this place must’ve needed a fancy gate like this for some reason, either that or they were extremely wasteful. The etchings that haven’t yet faded suggest that the latter is more likely.

“I’d be happy to answer any questions you want.” Warren says, turning a wide smile my way. I can’t see anything fake within his expression, but then again, my instincts aren’t perfect.

“Your king, Loekan; he’s a gremlin, right? Grey skin, short, all that?” I ask.

“Yes.” He laughs at my question. “He’s a gremlin, but don’t mistake him for any of the fodder you’ll find around here. He looks the same, but he’s his own thing.”

“Okay, so why aren’t there any others like him? You’re not a gremlin, Tkarn, Paskel, you’re all sorts of different species. With this city, surely he could help his own people to grow stronger.” I say.

“He gives them the chance to try.” Warren replies, shrugging as his attention turns to the nearby gremlins. They watch us suspiciously, running about the wide clearing this side of the gates.

“Few ever grow to become truly strong.” He finishes. “There are some who work under me that I have hope for. Unfortunately, the King only really wants those with powerful talents, or those who can become powerful enough to compete with said talents.”

“So he doesn’t care what a person is so long as their powerful?” I ask.

“So long as they’re powerful, and smart enough to bow to him.” He says this with a resigned sigh. “You’ll get to know him yourself in time, so long as you don’t get yourself killed instead.”

“I’m sure.” I reply, considering the third option. Who really needs to know what a dead king was like?

The city streets cut long slow curves through the ancient architecture, only blocked by the more recent additions of wood and grey stone. The cobblestone used to pave the roads is filled with similar enchantments as on the walls, and while some have failed, those that are keeping them in good condition must still be active as none have been replaced or broken beyond reason.

The buildings haven’t held up near as well, the enchantments seem to have been tampered with and changed over the years while expansions have been made from that same dark wood that fills the streets. While the bones look majestic, the wooden shanties built atop make it more of a slum.

A good city fire would clean this place up rather nicely, I think.

The largest building near to us seems to act as either a well gated barn, or a pen for dangerous pets. I can’t see much of what’s inside, grasses and ferns growing so thick that I’d be sure it’s some sort of overgrown garden if it wasn’t for the vicious growling coming from within.

“Beasts.” Warren explains. “They’re let loose if anyone breaks into the city.”

“They don’t kill your own people?”

“They do.” He replies with a slow nod. “But those who can’t survive don’t deserve to survive. Please don’t look at me like that, I didn’t make these rules, I just have to live by them.”

“You don’t.” I reply. “You could join my side. We do things a little differently.”

“A tempting offer, but the King has something you don’t.” Warren replies easily.

“What’s that?”

“Overwhelming strength.” He replies, watching the doors close behind us. “This way.”

“I think you underestimate us.” I reply, watching the gremlins around us. There are a few other species around, but the grey skinned gremlins are the majority here. There are so many of them that even weak as they are, I know that it’ll be a bloody fight when they take up arms.

That is what we came here prepared for, however.

Only a few of the gremlins don’t bother to look our way, focused on some task that’s not immediately apparent. The way they intentionally avoid looking at us, is suspicious in itself.

They’re the ones to keep an eye on. Warren’s forces are going to surround us and either kill us or recruit us, meaning that those gremlins are the ones following his orders, perhaps even leading the others. I’m at least 90% sure of it.

“This way.” Warren guides us, the same direction that we’ve planned to go. It might actually be a good thing to have him with us, it should prevent him from surprising us from out of nowhere.

“Set the eggs.” I send the message to my stealth specialists.

It’ll take roughly five minutes to get there, so the timing should be perfect. I just have to hope that our Skilled sneaks don’t get caught too early.

We walk through countless darkened houses reduced to skeletons of their prior selves, the alleys running between filled with enough trash to make disappearing too easy. What might make it harder is just how many gremlins there are hiding in each shadow.

“From here it’s all Paskel’s people.” Warren says. “No one else intrudes on his territory.”

The insect couldn’t make it clearer without setting up heads on pikes. The buildings and streets are overgrown with massive mushrooms, most are more bulbous than flat capped, and worst of all, they’re already openly releasing clouds of green dust in the air.

“That’s poisonous, isn’t it?” I ask, looking at the thick green haze in the air.

“It’s not powerful and only as mana dense as the air.” Warren says. “Though, it does stink.”

“Well, that’s not all so bad.” I say stepping into the haze. It smells like sour farts and tastes even worse. My soldiers don’t hesitate to follow me. “Let’s get to work. Which building is Paskel hiding in?”

“It’s deeper in. I’ll get you to him.” Warren says. “Today, he dies.”

“His people too.” I say, watching him closely.

“I won’t stop you, some of them have been too deeply influenced by the maniac.” He says.

I watch the time, we have only a few minutes before chaos falls.

“Let’s move quickly from here.” I say, moving at a jog as Eshya follows at my side. She’s been quiet this whole time, but her bloodthirsty snarl says it all as she draws and cuts down a gremlin that crawls out of a nearby window.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 2945 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