Mark of the Fool

Chapter 857: A Path that Ages You

“And the wind rose when he called upon it.” Merzhin’s voice echoed through the sky.

Uldar’s divine power flowed through his soul.

Ahead of him, the other Heroes fought Ravener-spawn in a sky filled with the monsters.

Blood-draks and blood-hydras.

Spear-flies and hives-as-one.

All swarmed around them.

All screaming for the Heroes’ blood.

But the Heroes weren’t about to oblige them.

On Merzhin’s left, Hart Redfletcher blurred, the Saint's alert eyes could barely follow him. Any Ravener-spawn coming within reach of his blades died.

On Merzhin’s right, Cedric was doing much the same.

Every strike from his morphic weapon or axe made for less Ravener-spawn. His mouth whispered miracle upon miracle, while a twitch or slight movement of his body cast spells.

He filled the sky with holy light and explosive force magic, crushing Ravener-spawn by the number.

But—for all the Champion and Chosen’s devastating moves, these were merely a distraction.

All the while, Drestra and Merzhin were preparing the finishing blow. Floating above the Saint, Drestra’s draconic form twitched, casting Control Winds. She drew in a deep breath, flame glowing in the depths of her throat.

Merzhin raised his hands higher. “When the wind answered him, he guided it against the invading ships that had cometo Thameland’s shore. And he said, ‘begone invaders! The wind brought you to my land, and so let the wind turn against you now! But let it harm none of my people!’

Divine power exploded from him just as Drestra unleashed fiery breath into her tornadoes. The might of Merzhin’s miracle melded with the dragon’s spell and fire breath; flames burned hotter and brighter, her whirlwinds growing stronger.

As one, it all exploded: magical and divine winds spread among Ravener-spawn surrounding the Heroes, bringing fiery death to the monsters.

Every monster touched by the flames melted away, their bodies instantly turning to fuel, stoking the fires. Roaring winds lashed their kin, bathing them in the inferno: flesh, bone and blood monsters turned to ash.

The burning wave of death kept spreading, lighting up the skies.

Spear-flies and hives-as-one died.

Blood-draks and blood-hydras died.

They were incinerated in droves, leaving only clouds of ash drifting down onto Och Fir Nog. Far below, Merzhin could see fae pointing toward the cataclysm in the sky. Most fled to hidey-holes and burrows.

While the braver ones merely stood, pointing and gaping.

“Got ‘em.” Cedric took a deep breath, that’s another bunch that won’ b’gettin’ t’Thameland.”

“Yeah, but there’s more of ‘em. Look over there.” Hart pointed to the south.

In the distance, a fire cloud was emerging from a fleshy dungeon-crater—being spawned from a dungeon core—rising to fill the air…suddenly it vanished.

“What? That was the same kind of fire swarm we fought!” Merzhin cried. “But where’d it go?”

Drestra snarled. “I think I saw some fae over near the fire cloud.” Her reptilian pupils narrowed to slits. “I think they took those Ravener-spawn to Thameland.”

“Shite!” Cedric swore. “Feels like no matter how bloody many o’ them things we kill, there’s always more gettin’ through t’ our homes!”

“At least Alex’s plan seems to have worked,” Hart rumbled. “There’s less Ravener-spawn than there was before. Seems they’re slowing down.”

“But not slowing down fast enough,” Drestra’s voice crackled. “There’s still thousands spawning throughout Och Fir Nog. Too many for us to completely get rid of.” She looked at Merzhin. “Can you sense anything? Any sources of divine power?”

The Saint shook his head, his frustration rising like bile in his chest. “No, nothing at all.”

“Shite!” Cedric swore. “Then we gots t’keep lookin’.”

“Calm,” Hart said. “Alex and his summons are out there looking too. We’re going to find it.”

Aye, but when?” the Chosen snapped. “If we don’t…” He paused, lowering his voice. “Nevermind. Jus’ worried, that’s all, an’ I ain’t happy ‘bout bloody Aenflynn gettin’ one over on us. Anyway, never mind ‘im fer now, let’s keep lookin’.”

“We will find it,” Merzhin said. “We will.” He looked up. “Traveller…Hannah…Carey. Please guide us in our journey around these strange lands. Guide us to where we need to be.”

“Aye, spare some help for us,” Cedric prayed too. “Come on, let’s start teleportin’. The longer we take, the longer folk gotta hold out. An’ I don’ wan’ t’ keep ‘em waitin’. I’m sure they ain’t havin’ a real good time right now.”

Kybas was having the time of his life.

“Don’t worry, he’s Harmless!” the little goblin cackled as Harmless lunged at a bone-charger.

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The half-grown, titanic crocodile’s jaws clamped on the Ravener-spawn’s bone-armoured skull, then bit down.

A sharp crack followed, the monster’s skull split.

Harmless shook the corpse around for a bit before tossing it against the tunnel wall, and lunging for another.

All the while, Kybas—and a line of wizard-warriors—cheered the familiar on, enjoying the sight of him wreaking havoc on the monsters coming at them.

Watchers and Generasian volunteers were in the tunnels beneath Greymoor, defending them.

Kybas stood among the mercenaries and wizards, all doing their best to hold back the tide of monsters. The creatures were everywhere, but Kybas had little fear, after all, he’d spent years, and lots of coin, love and time raising his familiar. A familiar that killed monsters.

And killing monsters at the moment, Harmless most certainly was.

Still far from fully grown, the young crocodile outweighed even the largest bone charger, and was much stronger, and would have been much stronger—even if he didn’t have Kybas’ enhancement spells coursing through him. Watching him fight the attacking spawn, was like watching a giant trampling a child’s sandcastle.

His lashing tail cracked spines.

The spawn’s sharp teeth and claws slid off his force armour and reinforced hide like rain.

And every snap of his jaws shattered bone, and severed limbs.

The croc spit out half a chitterer, sending the creature’s twitching corpse rolling along the ground, coming to rest beside a certain swiftling, who was doing what he did best.

Hunt monsters.

“By my fae ancestors, remind me to never get on his bad side!” Ripp shot through the legs of charging Ravener-spawn, his magical blade flicking all around him, opening dozens of wounds in the creatures’ hides.

Kybas only laughed in response, casting a spell and conjuring a strange, fungal-puffball to his right hand. The goblin’s laughter grew louder when he cocked his arm back, planted his lead foot, and hurled the puffball deep into the tunnel.

It exploded in a cloud of spores.

Every Ravener-spawn caught in its radius stopped, blinded by the thick dust, sneezing, hacking, gagging.

Soon they began flailing, panicking and gasping for breath as heaps of mushrooms erupted from their bodies, covering their skin, growing from their eyes, filling their mouths and throats, stopping their breaths.

By the time the hapless creatures had stopped moving, they’d turned to piles of multicoloured fungus.

Kybas laughed even louder at the sight before catching his breath and warning his familiar. “Remember Harmless, those aren’t the tasty ‘shrooms that you like! But I’ll give you all the delicious mushrooms you want after this is over! They’ll make you grow even bigger and stronger.”

Ripp paused, staring at the giggling goblin as he finished off another Ravener-spawn. “...remind me not to get on your bad side either. I’ve fought in the hells, but I have to admit, you’re scaring me!”

The goblin’s laughter grew even wilder as explosions from above ground shook the tunnels.

“Give them another!” Professor Jules shouted. “I want them turned to ash!”

“Launch!” Watcher Hill echoed the command.

Wind whipped across the battlefield, dispersing ash, dust and billowing smoke. Many of the moors around the Castle had been flattened to ash blackened craters.

But still, the Ravener-spawn kept coming.

And, the defenders of Greymoor punished them for it.

Another chaos bomb released from a ballista, arched through the air to land among a horde of Ravener-spawn swarming from the south. It hit the ground.

Another sun turned night to day.

Another mushroom cloud rose above the land.

Professor Jules grit her teeth, wavering against the shockwave, watching the horde be obliterated to nothingness. She glanced down at the crates lining the wall. So far, they still had plenty of chaos bombs left.

Plenty…if this were any normal battle.

“More coming through the smoke!” A spotter cried. He was flying above the Research Castle’s central keep with three other spotters, each watching one of the four cardinal directions. “And there’s another titan with them…no wait! Two! There’s two this time!”

“Another horde from the east!” shouted another spotter, tension in her voice. “This one has three of those big air-shooters coming at us!”

“Northern horde’s getting closer and they’ve got spear-flies coming in from above.”

“A petrifier just got in range of my true seeing! Petrifier and Hunters approaching the west wall!”

“I want that petrifier disintegrated!” Watcher Hill shouted. “Summon monsters to eliminate anything in the sky!” She looked at Professor Jules. “Permission to bomb the eastern horde?”

“Granted.” Professor Jules scowled at the oncoming monsters.

“Launch the chaos bomb to the east!” Watcher Hill bellowed.

Another launch. Another explosion.

Disintegrating beams struck the petrifier as it entered the range of the Watchers on the wall, the creature vanished with an abrupt shriek. Fireballs exploded among the Hunters that were accompanying it, wiping out the screaming creatures.

Summoned air elementals and other flying monsters swarmed through the skies, attacking and shredding swarms of spear-flies.

The Ravener-spawn were being kept at bay. For now.

“How do you think things are looking?” Professor Jules asked Watcher Hill.

“Well. For now.” The Watcher’s response was clipped, her eyes searching for potential threats. “The number of Ravener-spawn coming at us has dropped significantly: we’re going through less chaos bombs than I’d expected, and our mana’s holding out…so far, so we’re fine. As I said. For now. If those Ravener-spawn keep coming at us and increase suddenly, we could get into trouble. Is it time to use the circle yet?”

Professor Jules looked back at the summoning circle in the courtyard. “Not quite yet,” she said. “I want to play that card only when we’re out of chaos bombs. It’s hard to predict how it would interact with the explosions. The chaos essence inside it could cause catastrophic results if it’s caught in one of the blast radiuses.”

“Right.” Watcher Hill nodded. “Then, it will be kept in reserve.”

As she spoke, the central keep’s main gates burst open.

“And speaking of reserves…”

From the open gateway marched dozens of Watchers: fresh reinforcements called through the teleportation circle at the university. Their cloaks whipped in the wind, their staves clicking against the courtyard stones as they marched forward.

Their eyes were looking straight ahead.

“Right on time,” Watcher Hill said quietly before announcing: “Reinforcements have arrived!” she called, her voice echoing through the Research Castle’s courtyard.

A cheer answered her.

Tired Watchers raised staves and swords, relief filling their eyes in anticipation of their comrades joining them.

A moment later, the air shimmered beside the Watcher captain, then the bald, one-eyed form of Gemini—leader of the Watchers—appeared.

Watcher Hill immediately saluted. “Leader.”

Gemini saluted in return. “Watcher.”

“Gemini, I’m glad you’re here,” Professor Jules said. “We have things in hand. For now. But they could turn at any moment.”

“Our forces are tiring. We could use a watch change,” Hill added.

“Consider it done,” Gemini said.

“Gemini, could you do something for me?” Professor Jules asked. “Well, two things, actually.”

“Of course, professor,” Gemini said.

“First of all,” Jules began. “I would like a group of Watchers teleported to Luthering. We haven’t had anyone to spare until now and if things are dire there, I want anyone still alive teleported here, to the Research Castle. Sir Sean Swift and I haven’t seen eye to eye lately, but still, I wouldn’t want to see him and his soldiers overrun there and left to die alone.”

“Of course, it will be done,” Gemini said. “And the second task?”

Professor Jules looked to the south. “I want someone sent to Registrar Hobb’s office. The old devil might be able to be convinced that defending Greymoor falls under the terms of his pact. This land is university property and there are students here.”

“Of course,” Gemini said.

Professor Jules sighed, looking at the oncoming hordes.

Here she was, fighting the servants of a god…while hoping that a devil might come to their aid.

‘The moment I met Mr. Roth, I lost control of my life,’ she thought. ‘I swear, if I live through this, I am never leaving my lab again. I think I’ve shortened my life by at least ten years walking this path.’’

“Archwizard!” the engeli hissed. “We’re coming to the end of the path. I do not sense the divine trail extending any further ahead.”

Alex held his breath.

He prayed to the Traveller that he was right.