War

In war, no one can survive alone. This cannot be more clear than in the sight before me. It’s as if the whole cavern has been filled with pure madness.

The forests have been torn and sundered, entire patches of the canopy have been shredded to nothing, trees have been torn down, some with sharp blades or saws, others with such force that those splinters cover either torn end, and the roots and earth beneath have craters inside their craters.

The creatures of the forest battle openly, slaughtering one another in a chaotic melee. Beasts near to dead try to retreat only to fall victim to those waiting in the trees to catch them by surprise. The winners feast on the losers, protecting their meals with the same viciousness they used to earn them.

Masses of gremlins try to sneak through the chaos, inciting more in their paths, but even they are troubled by the current state of affairs. Strays are picked off by the beasts, but the group doesn’t even try to protect them.

While this might have been a successful tactic when the forest was peaceful, now it makes them seem easy targets. The few grey skinned gremlins I see are quickly slaughtered by the beasts around them. Even those creatures that would mostly curl up and hide are actively hunting now that their homes have been torn asunder.

Even the lakes are caught up in the blood frenzy, the massive whales struck by smaller shadows attacking from blind spots. The larger beasts do not so easily surrender, joining the violence themselves rather spectacularly, their thrashing attacks deceptively fast, and forceful enough to inspire massive swells in the lake.

The swells form into waves, crashing against the forest and washing in through the trees. The beasts too near to the lake are caught by the water and dragged in, quickly succumbing to the aquatic beasts in moments.

Unmake it all. Annihilate until all is quiet.

“What the hell is going on down here?” I ask the twins as they stand by my side. Our guards for this operation.

“War.” Leai cheerfully replies. “It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

“Well, I’m interested at least.” Eshya says, drawing her sword with a keen smile.

“How have we had no casualties?” I ask, watching as a large ape is shoved into the water by a group of purple locusts. A large black limb reaches out from the lake and pulls the ape down as the tide washes it’s feet out from under it.

“Good commanders.” Leia says. “Red and Lakesh have been keeping us alive. Without a place to rest, even we get tired and slip up.”

“It’s good to know we have talented commanders then.” I say, following them as we head together down the stone ramp.

A few beasts stray up the path, trying to pass us, most are either too weak or wounded to survive the chaos. They likely think that they have a better chance in the ruins above. Unfortunately for them, they have rather bad timing.

This road only allows for one way traffic, and they’re in my way.

I cast my signature magic into the masses that climb up towards us, quick bolts of annihilation cause explosions to tear off limbs and destroy hearts and heads. My accuracy isn’t perfect, but I am trying to develop some method of tracking for it.

Eshya stands close to me, ready to deal with any beasts that manage to slip through. We know each other well enough not to accidentally catch each other in our attacks, and our specialties help further.

Vii flies closely overhead, watching the skies as she blasts back a few birds using her wind magic. She’s not quite as strong as the rest of us, but at least her wind talent does go some length to bridging the gap.

The twins ahead of us easily deal with the enemies that elude my magic. Their pressure magic strengthening the potency of their attacks as they crush limbs and skulls with an almost casual ease. They’ve grown significantly stronger since last I fought with them, which is both calming and irritating.

The world doesn’t wait for us, our allies and our enemies are learning and growing more every day. How much more dangerous will Loekan and his gremlin hordes become in a week? A month?

I can’t afford to be wasting my time. If I don’t end them quick, they’ll end us.

As we make our path down towards the forest, I go over the plan again in my head.

I’m the bait. My job is to lob around my magic and make my position clear while I look like an oblivious idiot. Red’s words.

The twins are here to keep me alive, with the help of Eshya and Vii. A rather small guard considering the circumstances, but this is meant to be a trap, so it has to be enticing.

Red is leading her own strike team nearby, somehow keeping a low profile, and when we’re attacked, she’ll take out the offending enemy. That’s the vague idea of how things are meant to proceed, but we’re ready for any number fuck ups.

There are countless different approaches that could be taken in eliminating me, or at least hurting me, and it seems almost certain that someone is going to make the effort. If they don’t, then we go on the offensive instead and keep pushing at Loekan until he’s forced to respond.

It’s most likely that we’re going to engage with some of Loekan’s remaining elites. While it is possible that Loekan himself could show up, it’s not particularly likely.

Red and Tkarn left me with a list of notes on the remaining forces that might be fielded against me, and I’ve quickly added the lot of them to my kill list. Their descriptions now giving the murderous parts of my mind more accurate phantoms to toy with.

Paskel was a troublemaker, I don’t think there’s anyone who’d dare say otherwise, as it seems even his allies hated him. Even for his stealthy capabilities the actual stealth expert in Loekan’s forces is a different person. A magical creature that lives in shadow, no one has seen her true form, and no one’s sure exactly what it does for Loekan, or just how dangerous it is.

What they do know is that she’s called Irip, and she’s apparently a close confidant of Loekan. Most creatures without solid physical form depend on magical attacks, so assuming she’s the same we have to keep some mana in our minds as we keep our mana senses open, ready to see any incoming spells.

Shadow or magic, she can be unmade. Sundered from existence, bit by bit. Her soul made less than ash.

Next enemy of note is someone I’ve dubbed ‘Paul’. He’s a learned mage, which isn’t to say that you’ll find him gazing through books in a library, rather it’s to denote that he has no natural talent in magic and has had to pick up magic through effort and tools instead.

He’s difficult to miss, a massively fat ape, with patched hair. Tkarn once saw him dislocate his jaw like a snake to shove a gremlin sized beast down his gullet. If I’m going to guess, his size is a choice determined by his magical career.

Fat slowly roasted, made into living pork crackling and eaten alive by rats.

Eating gets you mana, fat can be altered to better store mana. Two plus two, the fat ape is storing enough mana to blast this entire cavern apart. Though, unlike me he can’t release it all in one go. Unless he decides to commit suicide, that is… which, now that I think about it, could prove an issue.

Next is a pair of insects that go by Roach and Beetle, because I’m not very creative and I don’t speak bug. They’re the most dangerous in open conflict and can work together frighteningly well.

They use their bladed limbs and fast speed to eliminate their enemies, but that isn’t to say that they’re delicate. They have late-stage liquid development and have extremely efficient and effective shielding techniques. In other words they’re a terror on the battlefield.

Exoskeleton pealed away, flesh beneath charred and salted. I wonder how insects scream.

Giant, who as his name suggests is a rather large fellow, hits things and they die. That’s it.

It isn’t that Tkarn doesn’t know much about this particular elite, rather there isn’t much to know. If he shows up, we should be able to see him coming from a mile away, so it’s doubtful he was chosen as an assassin.

Warren, the final elite of note, is an unlikely contender. Our scouts have reported that he left the city shortly after we did with a large force of his own. We were expecting him to be leading an attack force, but he just disappeared and hasn’t returned.

Either he’s decided to run from the cavern entirely, which isn’t likely since the lord has people watching the various exits and they’ve seen nothing, or he’s keeping his head low for now.

The way he used us to get at Paskel rather than attacking his rival directly shows what sort of man he is, and I’m willing to bet that he’s going to show up again when he’s sure of the winning side, if not directly seizing the victory for himself by taking out all the rest of us while we’re vulnerable.

All that aside, there’s still the wood weavers and lesser warriors among the gremlin horde that are genuinely dangerous, especially if they catch us unaware or if they’re in a large group.

I dodge to the side as the corpse of a bone spur bunny flies at us. It caught an annihilation bolt to the face mid-flight, but that wasn’t enough to kill its momentum. I’m glad they understand the spirit of meal, or in this case mana, delivery, I just wish they were a little less violent about it.

I pick up the body and work on draining it as we continue into the forest. I’ve seen no magic directed at us just yet, but with the chaos unravelling around us, it’s difficult to be sure if something is aiming for us or is fighting a separate battle of its own nearby.

The ground is covered in flesh from both the destroyed plants and the dead beasts, though more of the former than the latter as the trees have more flesh to give. Roots, branches, and bones lie scattered haphazardly over the battlefield, providing enough trip hazards to give a health and safety professional an ulcer and a few more grey hairs.

Partly in respect to those professionals and partly because of my respect for the enemy wood weavers, a good 40% of my attention is directed to the ground at my feet. I don’t remember the path to our base being this hilly, and I also remember a few more trees, but war destroys more than just the soldiers fighting.

I mightn’t be the best navigator, but I’m fairly sure that this place is beyond the point of recognition to any of the others as well. The only way to tell where to go from here is to follow the tags we’ve placed on the others.

A loud hissing directs my gaze up to a massive snake which is leaning down from the trees above that are bending under its weight. The snakes body is about as thick as my own, but it extends out around countless other trees. Its massive head is crowned with a tuft of feathers that shine gold in the low light.

The beast almost perfectly a snake, no extra limbs, or strange features as far as I can see. If you were to see this back home, you’d think it a massive mutant, or new species, not an alien from another universe. It’s almost a pleasure to see something so nearly familiar, but I don’t think it’s as happy to see us.

Resigning myself to killing the beautiful beast, I lift my hand and throw an annihilation bolt at its stationary head. The snake isn’t eager to let itself die so easily, dodging the spell and weaving its way into the trees surrounding us. Not to retreat, but to flank us.

A few purple locusts harass it as it’s distracted with us, but the snakes scales repel the attacks, as it keeps its focus locked on us.

“This is unusual…” Leia says, staring up at it. “That’s a powerful beast, usually it wouldn’t hunt this far out. Do you think something happened to its nest?”

“It seems the whole dungeon has been turned on it’s head.” I say. “Is there some poison in the water making everyone want to kill each other?”

I throw another spell at the snake, aiming for where it’s wrapped around a tree. My aim proves true and my magic seeps into the scales before exploding with a violent fire. A small chunk of charred flesh scatters from the impact point.

I didn’t put my everything into the spell, but even if I did, I’m not certain the beast would be dead.

Vii follows up, throwing blades of wind at the wounded flesh while I aim to break down it’s defences one spell at a time.

With a thunderous snap the snake has clearly had enough. One of the trees that its wrapped itself around is snapped in two like a twig as the snake launches itself right at us.

“Mine!” Leai shouts, launching herself at the beast with a blast of magic. Her kick lands on the snake’s nose with enough power to almost bring a stop to the larger beasts charge.

The much slower beast makes for an easy target, which is conveniently right in front of us. Eshya charges in before I can, lifting her sword high and slicing down at the base of the snake’s skull. Her sword slices through the scales and halfway through the flesh before getting stuck at the spine.

Leai isn’t wasting a moment and is beating on the snake’s head, keeping it from recovering while Eshya takes a follow-up swing.

With a perfect aim her sword glides into the gap from her first cut, slicing through the tough bone and stilling the snake. It’s not yet dead, but I don’t think it’s recovering from this.

I start pulling the mana from it as I look around the battlefield. A few other beasts are coming closer, hoping either for a bite of the dead beast, or a chance to take us out while we’re distracted. If we were fighting alone we might even be in trouble, but as a group we can watch one another’s backs.

The snakes vertically slit eye blinks as I step closer, the iris is shifting about trying to focus on me, as the creature struggles to hold onto life. Unless it has another trick up it’s sleeve, its fate is to be the fuel for my next fight.

Even while draining its mana I don’t turn my focus away from my surroundings, and the ground is as always my greatest suspicion.

It’s for that reason that I see the magic stirring at my feet. A large spell from deep below, moving the roots beneath me in a terrifyingly familiar way. I dive away from the source of the magic, screaming at the others as I stumble on the remains of a root.

Messaging Red for support, I throw myself as far from magic as possible, but even that’s not enough. Or more precisely, the magic isn’t the only danger.

A titanic force splits the ground beneath my feet, not through magic but by sheer violent force. A massive arm thrusts up out of the dirt beside me, I dive away, but I still can’t escape.

The giant pushes his arm up far enough to free his elbow, and easily slams his hand down around me. As the massive, filthy fingers wrap around me, the magically crafted hole finishes forming, releasing a pair of insects, quickly followed by gremlin wood weavers and soldiers.

I activate my annihilation defences, turning into a handheld blender as the battle starts with a bright spray of giant blood.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 2647 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 60/98%

Offense: 20/84%

Mana sense: 20/100%

Recovery: 0/65%

Gluttony: 0/61%

Misc.: 0/81%

Efficiency: 100/100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst