Cheep!?
Chapter 159
As Niko flew over the wall that tapered to an almost sharp ridge at the top, he could see the war preparations in their fullest extent. While the various mines, barriers, and other obstacles were intended to slow down the enemies outside of the wall, within Riizen proper combatants marshaled together awaiting the order to move through the gates, and while their organization wasn’t quite what Niko would call perfectly disciplined, they were clearly assembled with the intent of remaining in units.
Beyond that, the buildings nearest to the walls appeared to have been repurposed to a series of outposts with additional forces within. Temporary constructions spanned between them, acting as more and more layers of defenses, though Niko didn’t miss the fact that there were many traps ready to be set in the event that the defenders actually had to fall back. While the wall was certainly a formidable structure, the forces of Riizen didn’t appear to be resting on their laurels and counting on the wall to provide all of the defense.
“Do you see the others?” Skye asked Niko mentally, “We should still get some kind of food, but I’d like to know where they’re at.”
Niko nodded, trilling lightly as he began to scan around in search for their companions. They were either manning the wall, or were skirmishing on the open field. He expected that Ronald, Thokk, and Stella were most likely part of the former group, and shortly after beginning his search, he found them once more not far from where they’d left them on B2.
Pointing them out, Niko said, “Let's get some food and join them. Might be that we have new orders, too.”
After landing and finding an essence depot – all things considered, it was more like a rapidly moving mess hall, essence rich food supplied to combatants in need – and having some of their regeneration and needs kickstarted, they returned back towards the frontline.
The Dawr advance was steady, albeit slow, in spite of the obstacles placed before them. They no longer amassed chaff to run towards the defenders, preferring instead to march with their towers and bombard with siege engines from afar. Which explained the crash of stone and explosions he heard in the distance.
Niko came up beside the large form of Thokk soon after finding his own window port that he could open after unlatching the heavy lock on their side. "How are they doing down there?” Niko asked the group.
Ronald barely looked up, his face a mask of concentration with traces of concern around his tight eyes, “Mithel, Dachna, Charlotte, and Sasha are near the front. Dachna’s baiting attention away from Mithel, but they’re having a heck of a time staying ahead of the Dawr response.”
“Are they alone up there?” Skye asked, dismay clear in her voice.
“No, there’re others,” Stella answered with a shake of her head, “But they’re all being harassed. Dachna’s lure might be a wee bit too effective.”
Niko shook his head at that, knowing firsthand how potent the Lure was even if you knew it was coming. “Have the Dawr hit the mines yet?”
“A few. Though not many.” Ronald said shortly, before explaining, “The siege towers are almost there. The Dawr catapults have crap for range, but they set off some of the mines. They know there’s some traps, but they haven’t slowed down all that much all things considered.”
Just then, Niko heard the loud crash of something exploding, and looked over to see a scattering of beasts in the immediate aftermath of one of said trebuchet impacts. He cringed at the sight, noting immediately that one of their numbers hadn’t escaped the area. Niko didn’t avert his eyes, instead steeling himself. They’d see worse by the time this was done, for certain.
“Damn.” Ronald grit his teeth, “Bant’s arse, crap range or not, it’s still a catapult.”
The others all eyed him at that.
“What? Oh.” He shook his head, “Right, maybe shouldn’t say that anymore. Sorry, force of habit.”
“Oh, I don’t know, might be that we can come up with fouler and it’d work better.” Skye said with a joking tone, “Festering arsehole that Bant is.”
“Maybe we don’t instigate any deific entities' wrath right now?” Stella suggested with a thin-lipped smile.
Niko shrugged, “Well, it’s not like they’re not going to try to kill me any more than they already are.”
Stella looked unconvinced, but chewed her lip and replied, “If you say so…”
Ronald moved forward, slapping his hands onto the frame of the port they looked out of, alongside Thokk suddenly rumbling. Niko looked up to see Dachna and Sasha dodging red streak after red streak of energy. Sword slash after sword slash lit up the intervening space between them and the warlord instantly, and Niko felt his heart leap up into his throat. Any one of those attacks could be maiming, if not fatal outright, and Niko was watching them pour forth like a volley of arrows.
Yet, Dachna and Sasha were hardly helpless. From this far away, their forms blurred so much into shadow that they were nearly an indistinct and difficult to detect mass of shadow. Niko knew they were there, but his awareness continually tried to slide off of them as Sasha darted around. Other shadow blobs appeared and split off from her, likewise dashing away and in other directions. That alone lifted much of the pressure from them as the Warlord began to immediately send additional strikes at the shadow clones.
Then dozens of flecks of gleaming essence blinked into existence, demanding attention even for how small they were. Niko found his eyes inexorably drawn to their presence, following the wisps as they spun about, corkscrewing or bee-lining around and between the shadows. Even knowing that it must have come from Dachna, he still couldn’t fully pry his eyes from them. His Aether Sight gave no real insight to them, either, each one somehow even more appealing than they normally were.
In the shuffle, Niko had completely lost track of which shadow blob was the real one, and watched as the clones drew a significant and disproportionate amount of attention from the approaching Dawr army. Under the sheer weight of firepower, three of the dozen or so clones dematerialized, but even that much would have meant they’d done their jobs. Another set of seven darted ahead and in the path of the army, forcing the Dawr to slow even further or risk hitting their own lines with friendly fire.
Then the lights took on a malevolent red gleam, and Niko felt his blood rush in his veins. Anger filled him at the sight of the essence formations, and even from so far away, he felt his muscles tense at the sudden desire for violence. He clamped down on the invading force within his mind, but couldn’t help but be shocked at how effective it seemed to be. Worriedly, Niko looked out across the battlegrounds, noting that he wasn’t the only one who seemed affected. Luckily, those that appeared to have noticed the pattern weren’t close enough, but they were tense, and looked like they were struggling to stay in place.
The Dawr line did not have that luxury. Tens of the goblinoids broke rank and ran at the gleaming orbs with reckless abandon. The shadows, clad in the swirling specks of light, charged into their midst, dodging and weaving between enemies with incredible finesse. Blasts of fire, ravening shadow, and bursts of wind rained down with arrows and other attacks intermingling all the while at the red sparkles. In seconds, the Dawr were tearing into one another, trying to hit both the sparkles and the shadows, and failing utterly. They didn’t seem to spare even a single thought as to whether or not an area of effect attack was a good idea or not, even in the midst of their own allies.
In fact, every time they harmed one another, they seemed to grow even more incensed, to the point where a few Dawr actually struck one another outright.
Niko was impressed with how effective the strategy was, but he wasn’t the only one. The warlord screeched out, voice buffeting his own army with a wave of essence as the Rage Lure – at least, that’s what Niko was calling it – worked its sinister magic. The Dawr didn’t fully pull themselves out of it, though, a testament to how persistent Dachna’s pattern was. The warlord took one step forward, and somehow crossed the distance to the first of the shadows instantly. He gutted the construct with crimson blades, shattering it and the surrounding Lure particles in one strike. Then, he looked outwards at the two shadows farther away, both ready and able to retreat at a moment’s notice.
He slashed twice, but these strikes weren’t red. They were a glowing white, and Niko realized what he saw was their after image. The physical force of the strikes had already crossed the distance before he could even process what had happened. Both shadows he was aiming at were suddenly split in half down the middle, from head to hip.
Niko paled, feeling his heart drop down into his gut as he watched the scene unfold.
“No!” Ronald shouted, voice tight as his body suddenly shimmered with force.
“It’s not them!” Skye shouted, “Just their clones!”
Niko didn’t dare look away, instead searching for what she’d seen. Sure enough, neither of the ‘bodies’ that the warlord had struck bled. Only dissipated into shadows. Niko felt relief rush through him, shortly replaced with still more worry as the warlord spun and darted after the other shadows. It took him the work of less than five seconds to kill the other shadows, and even from so far away, the warlord was a raging bonfire of active, bloody essence. It felt like a battleground all to itself, a series of conquests ranging from effortless to Olympian in their difficulties. Somehow, Niko could taste the steel, blood, and heady bliss of victory in the image the Dawr Warlord’s essence conjured.
Yet, for all that, none of the shadows proved to be the real Dachna and Sasha.
With a frustrated screech and orders dispatched, the Dawr army reformed, but that hadn’t been the only front of the battle. Niko noticed that smoke rose from the back of the army's ranks, and distantly could see the trailing forms of the aerial squadrons. With a wide-beaked grin, Niko gave a distant nod of approval at their antics. The aerial units hadn’t let the distraction go to waste. Hopefully the owl and bat had done a number on the Dawr’s trebuchets.
“Where are they?” Stella asked with confusion.
“I see them… I think?” Thokk rumbled, frowning as he gestured down with his snout, “Thirty meters out, they’re moving back with Mithel and Charlotte.”
Together the Wyldwalkers all looked down, leaning over the port and noting the shadowy mass that was much harder to see, especially given that it was almost perfectly matching Charlotte’s own shadow. In fact, if Thokk hadn’t noticed, Niko wasn’t sure he’d have picked it up. The essence that came from it was mingling with what Charlotte put off naturally.
‘Of course she learns a new trick after I improve my sight…’ Niko inwardly groused, but couldn’t help but feel glad for them. Were it not for that, he doubted they’d have gotten away from the fight unscathed. In fact, Niko was convinced that the warlord would have a fierce vendetta against their entire team before too much longer.
While amusing, the possibility was genuinely concerning. They’d done well so far because the tier five hadn’t invested enough to come and personally kill them, up until that most recent altercation with the shadows. And with that demonstration, Niko wasn’t sure that they could actually deal with the warlord. Niko hadn’t really tanked damage all that much with his newly reformed Az-Phorus body, and while he had dealt with little attacks such as the arrows that had pierced his hide previously, those weren't anywhere close to the threat level of the tier five Dawr warlord. He didn’t even feel much more than a mildly dull ache from said injuries, and none of them felt especially worse whether he moved around or not.
‘I’m probably still not durable enough to tank a tier five, though,’ Niko thought to himself seriously, ‘Might be able to flee from one, depending on if he can fly.’
Hopefully they wouldn’t have to find out.
Less than a minute later, the rest of the group ascended the wall and joined them, with Mithel and Charlotte looking excited, and Dachna and Sasha both appearing mostly fine. If he didn’t know them, Niko wouldn’t have noticed that both were slightly out of sorts, but he could hardly blame them.
“Good job,” Ronald said proudly, “I’m glad you guys got out of there alright. How are you doing?”
“Bloody fantastic,” Dachna said, holding a hand out even as it shook, “I’m still shaking. Did you see us trick him? Hah!”
“The rage lure attaching to my shadows was quite handy.” Sasha nodded, practically purring.
“No, no, the fact that you can split and control so many shadows, and hide us?” Dachna made a sweeping motion, “Stage sweep, just perfect.”
Niko smiled at the display, “Glad that it's working great.”
“Especially since we might need to use it against him again,” Skye pointed out while grinning widely, hiding what Niko thought was concern, “Luckily, we should be much better off over here.”
Mithel waved her hands frantically and made an incomprehensible noise while pointing. Niko was confused, up until he realized she was gesturing out to the battleground. She seemed far too enthused about whatever she’d set up on the approach. That alone gave Niko high hopes for whatever she’d engineered.
The first of the siege towers and Dawr frontline walked over the line of prepared traps and mines, explosions of fire and bursts of electricity intermingling just as frequently as shrapnel from grenades and the like. It did damage, but not nearly to the scale that he was expecting.
Niko wasn’t the only one with that thought either, it seemed, “They’re tougher than they look, I guess.” Ronald’s gaze and confused frown searched the Dawr forces. Niko had to say that the majority of the traps there weren’t anything special, though the grenades were much more damaging than much of the rest. Considering the majority of those came from Stella, he supposed that made sense.
“It’s nearly ready!” Mithel said, her palpable excitement was contagious, with Charlotte’s antennae dancing with frenetic energy with her eight eyes all focused on the scene in front of them.
Trusting Mithel’s penchant for destruction, he watched the rest of the traps on the first fourth of the battleground set off. Heat, electricity, and water saturated the air and Dawr, with plentiful cones of shrapnel cutting into defenses and wounding tens of goblinoids. Even the Champions had to pick parts out of their tough bodies in order to properly heal, something they couldn’t do much more than a few passing sweeps for.
Then something more happened. The electricity, heat, and moisture suddenly started rolling through the air, essence pulling the various components into several specific locations on the ground. Before the Dawr could do more than take notice of the locations, several deeply embedded capsules exploded upwards. Even with Niko’s Aether Sight, he couldn’t determine all of what happened, but he could get a good idea. The heat and electricity fed immediately into the process, kickstarting some kind of chemical reaction. The moisture in the air pulled downwards into the cells, mixing and further catalyzing whatever was happening in the melon-sized capsules.
Beside him, Mithel’s patterns seared into his vision as essence coalesced in them, seemingly acting upon the traps even in spite of the distance. What was more, there was no trail leading to her, not that Niko could see. It was more as if she were simply in two places at once, as far as her essence was concerned. Whatever she’d figured out how to do, Niko couldn’t even begin to parse through.
What it accomplished, though, was far more abrupt and visible. She enhanced the reactions, empowered them, and pushed what promised to have been already a potent and violent event into something well beyond that. The many capsules erupted a purple-violet liquid mist at such high pressure that the Dawr nearest were thrown from their feet. Plumes of the material went upwards tens of meters, but in no location did it seem to be especially thin. It was clearly superheated, the explosion and then rush of steam indicating such, even if it cooled nearly instantly. Electrical sparks jolted into the fog, and in the blink of an eye it began to condense, heavier and heavier.
Some shamans nearest the capsules conjured wind in response, trying to blast the fog away, but it had grown heavy enough that it rained down upon more of them in droplets. Those droplets hissed as the goblinoids they impacted screamed in pain, skin and muscle being eaten away visibly. A few of the champions took near direct hits, and not even they were capable of shrugging off whatever Mithel had cooked up. Worse, as it dried, a sticky, web-like substance seemed to suck up the remaining moisture and soupy liquids, rapidly expanding and gumming up movement.
In no place was that more obvious than with the three siege towers that were caught up in the chemical reaction. One of them, the one most beaten down by the ballistae, groaned and creaked, before outright listing to one side as the acid utterly shredded through the material it was made out of. The tower came tumbling down, regrettably forwards towards the wall. Niko could hear many Dawr within scream as it fell in seeming slow motion, and winced at the impending crash.
A quake rattled through the branch and into Riizen, though not nearly with the gravitas that Niko had expected. Nevertheless, half of the upper portion of the tower was more or less intact, but the entire bottom half was a mess of acid, webby strands, and completely destroyed wooden beams with metal supports protruding like exposed ribs. The other two siege towers ground to a halt as complicated mechanisms struggled with acid damage and webbing seizing their innards. That didn’t even begin to touch on the wholesale death that was happening, as Dawr inhaled the concoction that then turned into webbing within their lungs.
Niko was equal parts horrified and exuberant that it was so successful. He was also certain that this would be a war crime on Earth on many, many levels. Niko glanced at Mithel then, to see that she looked pale.
Then the webbing caught flame, and it erupted in a flash fire. The sonic boom blasted outwards, catching Niko off guard as he flinched in the face of the sudden explosion. The fire burned hot and high, and any Dawr who had been in the thick of it were suddenly very crispy. The shaman’s prevented the acid from having approached the middle of the army, but even so, they were caught off guard by the sudden heat searing their ranks. That was corrected quickly, but few goblinoids in the middle ranks didn’t have burns.
“Great Mother, that was terrifying,” Skye said, swallowing hard, “Remind me not to piss you off.”
Mithel tried to say something, but Niko could see that she was struggling with the sight, “This… it was supposed to do it in the other order.”
“What?” Ronald frowned, “What order?”
“It was supposed to metabolize into webbing first, then turn acidic. I don’t even know how it did it the other way around.” Mithel swallowed hard, “That’s a little… too effective.”
“Well, keep in mind that they want to pick their teeth with our bones,” Skye said, but her tone changed to be slightly more gentle as if she realized that had come off a bit callous, “They’re the enemy, Mithel. You don’t have to worry about them. They won’t return the favor.”
Niko trilled at Mithel softly, a conciliatory noise. She glanced at him, seeing him nod slightly at her. She breathed in deeply, even as Dachna braved getting closer to the giant arachnid to pull her into a side-hug.
“You did good, my love.” Dachna rubbed her back and whispered to her. She clasped his hand on her shoulder to the sounds of cheers across the wall.
“I know it bothers you… But do you have more of them?” Ronald asked, braving the sharp look Mithel and Dachna gave him, “They’ve got two towers left, and after that, they’re forced to do this the old fashioned way.”
At that, Mithel stopped for a few seconds and drew in a deep breath. She looked out at the still-burning husks that were the first three towers, two of which might be saved. The shamans were desperately trying to put out the fire that wreathed them, but between what Mithel had done and the now enthusiastic efforts of the ballistae on the walls, none of them thought they would succeed.
She shook her head, “I don’t have anything I think would work a second time. We can use some things when they’re closer, but…” She paused, eyes wandering over to the ballistae. “Actually, I guess we do have some options.”
She quickly explained her idea, simple and to the point. Strapping flasks to the ballistae bolts would probably work out just fine.
Niko nodded, “I like that better than throwing explosives by talon for sure, yeah.”
Cheep!?
Chapter 159
As Niko flew over the wall that tapered to an almost sharp ridge at the top, he could see the war preparations in their fullest extent. While the various mines, barriers, and other obstacles were intended to slow down the enemies outside of the wall, within Riizen proper combatants marshaled together awaiting the order to move through the gates, and while their organization wasn’t quite what Niko would call perfectly disciplined, they were clearly assembled with the intent of remaining in units.
Beyond that, the buildings nearest to the walls appeared to have been repurposed to a series of outposts with additional forces within. Temporary constructions spanned between them, acting as more and more layers of defenses, though Niko didn’t miss the fact that there were many traps ready to be set in the event that the defenders actually had to fall back. While the wall was certainly a formidable structure, the forces of Riizen didn’t appear to be resting on their laurels and counting on the wall to provide all of the defense.
“Do you see the others?” Skye asked Niko mentally, “We should still get some kind of food, but I’d like to know where they’re at.”
Niko nodded, trilling lightly as he began to scan around in search for their companions. They were either manning the wall, or were skirmishing on the open field. He expected that Ronald, Thokk, and Stella were most likely part of the former group, and shortly after beginning his search, he found them once more not far from where they’d left them on B2.
Pointing them out, Niko said, “Let's get some food and join them. Might be that we have new orders, too.”
After landing and finding an essence depot – all things considered, it was more like a rapidly moving mess hall, essence rich food supplied to combatants in need – and having some of their regeneration and needs kickstarted, they returned back towards the frontline.
The Dawr advance was steady, albeit slow, in spite of the obstacles placed before them. They no longer amassed chaff to run towards the defenders, preferring instead to march with their towers and bombard with siege engines from afar. Which explained the crash of stone and explosions he heard in the distance.
Niko came up beside the large form of Thokk soon after finding his own window port that he could open after unlatching the heavy lock on their side. "How are they doing down there?” Niko asked the group.
Ronald barely looked up, his face a mask of concentration with traces of concern around his tight eyes, “Mithel, Dachna, Charlotte, and Sasha are near the front. Dachna’s baiting attention away from Mithel, but they’re having a heck of a time staying ahead of the Dawr response.”
“Are they alone up there?” Skye asked, dismay clear in her voice.
“No, there’re others,” Stella answered with a shake of her head, “But they’re all being harassed. Dachna’s lure might be a wee bit too effective.”
Niko shook his head at that, knowing firsthand how potent the Lure was even if you knew it was coming. “Have the Dawr hit the mines yet?”
“A few. Though not many.” Ronald said shortly, before explaining, “The siege towers are almost there. The Dawr catapults have crap for range, but they set off some of the mines. They know there’s some traps, but they haven’t slowed down all that much all things considered.”
Just then, Niko heard the loud crash of something exploding, and looked over to see a scattering of beasts in the immediate aftermath of one of said trebuchet impacts. He cringed at the sight, noting immediately that one of their numbers hadn’t escaped the area. Niko didn’t avert his eyes, instead steeling himself. They’d see worse by the time this was done, for certain.
“Damn.” Ronald grit his teeth, “Bant’s arse, crap range or not, it’s still a catapult.”
The others all eyed him at that.
“What? Oh.” He shook his head, “Right, maybe shouldn’t say that anymore. Sorry, force of habit.”
“Oh, I don’t know, might be that we can come up with fouler and it’d work better.” Skye said with a joking tone, “Festering arsehole that Bant is.”
“Maybe we don’t instigate any deific entities' wrath right now?” Stella suggested with a thin-lipped smile.
Niko shrugged, “Well, it’s not like they’re not going to try to kill me any more than they already are.”
Stella looked unconvinced, but chewed her lip and replied, “If you say so…”
Ronald moved forward, slapping his hands onto the frame of the port they looked out of, alongside Thokk suddenly rumbling. Niko looked up to see Dachna and Sasha dodging red streak after red streak of energy. Sword slash after sword slash lit up the intervening space between them and the warlord instantly, and Niko felt his heart leap up into his throat. Any one of those attacks could be maiming, if not fatal outright, and Niko was watching them pour forth like a volley of arrows.
Yet, Dachna and Sasha were hardly helpless. From this far away, their forms blurred so much into shadow that they were nearly an indistinct and difficult to detect mass of shadow. Niko knew they were there, but his awareness continually tried to slide off of them as Sasha darted around. Other shadow blobs appeared and split off from her, likewise dashing away and in other directions. That alone lifted much of the pressure from them as the Warlord began to immediately send additional strikes at the shadow clones.
Then dozens of flecks of gleaming essence blinked into existence, demanding attention even for how small they were. Niko found his eyes inexorably drawn to their presence, following the wisps as they spun about, corkscrewing or bee-lining around and between the shadows. Even knowing that it must have come from Dachna, he still couldn’t fully pry his eyes from them. His Aether Sight gave no real insight to them, either, each one somehow even more appealing than they normally were.
In the shuffle, Niko had completely lost track of which shadow blob was the real one, and watched as the clones drew a significant and disproportionate amount of attention from the approaching Dawr army. Under the sheer weight of firepower, three of the dozen or so clones dematerialized, but even that much would have meant they’d done their jobs. Another set of seven darted ahead and in the path of the army, forcing the Dawr to slow even further or risk hitting their own lines with friendly fire.
Then the lights took on a malevolent red gleam, and Niko felt his blood rush in his veins. Anger filled him at the sight of the essence formations, and even from so far away, he felt his muscles tense at the sudden desire for violence. He clamped down on the invading force within his mind, but couldn’t help but be shocked at how effective it seemed to be. Worriedly, Niko looked out across the battlegrounds, noting that he wasn’t the only one who seemed affected. Luckily, those that appeared to have noticed the pattern weren’t close enough, but they were tense, and looked like they were struggling to stay in place.
The Dawr line did not have that luxury. Tens of the goblinoids broke rank and ran at the gleaming orbs with reckless abandon. The shadows, clad in the swirling specks of light, charged into their midst, dodging and weaving between enemies with incredible finesse. Blasts of fire, ravening shadow, and bursts of wind rained down with arrows and other attacks intermingling all the while at the red sparkles. In seconds, the Dawr were tearing into one another, trying to hit both the sparkles and the shadows, and failing utterly. They didn’t seem to spare even a single thought as to whether or not an area of effect attack was a good idea or not, even in the midst of their own allies.
In fact, every time they harmed one another, they seemed to grow even more incensed, to the point where a few Dawr actually struck one another outright.
Niko was impressed with how effective the strategy was, but he wasn’t the only one. The warlord screeched out, voice buffeting his own army with a wave of essence as the Rage Lure – at least, that’s what Niko was calling it – worked its sinister magic. The Dawr didn’t fully pull themselves out of it, though, a testament to how persistent Dachna’s pattern was. The warlord took one step forward, and somehow crossed the distance to the first of the shadows instantly. He gutted the construct with crimson blades, shattering it and the surrounding Lure particles in one strike. Then, he looked outwards at the two shadows farther away, both ready and able to retreat at a moment’s notice.
He slashed twice, but these strikes weren’t red. They were a glowing white, and Niko realized what he saw was their after image. The physical force of the strikes had already crossed the distance before he could even process what had happened. Both shadows he was aiming at were suddenly split in half down the middle, from head to hip.
Niko paled, feeling his heart drop down into his gut as he watched the scene unfold.
“No!” Ronald shouted, voice tight as his body suddenly shimmered with force.
“It’s not them!” Skye shouted, “Just their clones!”
Niko didn’t dare look away, instead searching for what she’d seen. Sure enough, neither of the ‘bodies’ that the warlord had struck bled. Only dissipated into shadows. Niko felt relief rush through him, shortly replaced with still more worry as the warlord spun and darted after the other shadows. It took him the work of less than five seconds to kill the other shadows, and even from so far away, the warlord was a raging bonfire of active, bloody essence. It felt like a battleground all to itself, a series of conquests ranging from effortless to Olympian in their difficulties. Somehow, Niko could taste the steel, blood, and heady bliss of victory in the image the Dawr Warlord’s essence conjured.
Yet, for all that, none of the shadows proved to be the real Dachna and Sasha.
With a frustrated screech and orders dispatched, the Dawr army reformed, but that hadn’t been the only front of the battle. Niko noticed that smoke rose from the back of the army's ranks, and distantly could see the trailing forms of the aerial squadrons. With a wide-beaked grin, Niko gave a distant nod of approval at their antics. The aerial units hadn’t let the distraction go to waste. Hopefully the owl and bat had done a number on the Dawr’s trebuchets.
“Where are they?” Stella asked with confusion.
“I see them… I think?” Thokk rumbled, frowning as he gestured down with his snout, “Thirty meters out, they’re moving back with Mithel and Charlotte.”
Together the Wyldwalkers all looked down, leaning over the port and noting the shadowy mass that was much harder to see, especially given that it was almost perfectly matching Charlotte’s own shadow. In fact, if Thokk hadn’t noticed, Niko wasn’t sure he’d have picked it up. The essence that came from it was mingling with what Charlotte put off naturally.
‘Of course she learns a new trick after I improve my sight…’ Niko inwardly groused, but couldn’t help but feel glad for them. Were it not for that, he doubted they’d have gotten away from the fight unscathed. In fact, Niko was convinced that the warlord would have a fierce vendetta against their entire team before too much longer.
While amusing, the possibility was genuinely concerning. They’d done well so far because the tier five hadn’t invested enough to come and personally kill them, up until that most recent altercation with the shadows. And with that demonstration, Niko wasn’t sure that they could actually deal with the warlord. Niko hadn’t really tanked damage all that much with his newly reformed Az-Phorus body, and while he had dealt with little attacks such as the arrows that had pierced his hide previously, those weren't anywhere close to the threat level of the tier five Dawr warlord. He didn’t even feel much more than a mildly dull ache from said injuries, and none of them felt especially worse whether he moved around or not.
‘I’m probably still not durable enough to tank a tier five, though,’ Niko thought to himself seriously, ‘Might be able to flee from one, depending on if he can fly.’
Hopefully they wouldn’t have to find out.
Less than a minute later, the rest of the group ascended the wall and joined them, with Mithel and Charlotte looking excited, and Dachna and Sasha both appearing mostly fine. If he didn’t know them, Niko wouldn’t have noticed that both were slightly out of sorts, but he could hardly blame them.
“Good job,” Ronald said proudly, “I’m glad you guys got out of there alright. How are you doing?”
“Bloody fantastic,” Dachna said, holding a hand out even as it shook, “I’m still shaking. Did you see us trick him? Hah!”
“The rage lure attaching to my shadows was quite handy.” Sasha nodded, practically purring.
“No, no, the fact that you can split and control so many shadows, and hide us?” Dachna made a sweeping motion, “Stage sweep, just perfect.”
Niko smiled at the display, “Glad that it's working great.”
“Especially since we might need to use it against him again,” Skye pointed out while grinning widely, hiding what Niko thought was concern, “Luckily, we should be much better off over here.”
Mithel waved her hands frantically and made an incomprehensible noise while pointing. Niko was confused, up until he realized she was gesturing out to the battleground. She seemed far too enthused about whatever she’d set up on the approach. That alone gave Niko high hopes for whatever she’d engineered.
The first of the siege towers and Dawr frontline walked over the line of prepared traps and mines, explosions of fire and bursts of electricity intermingling just as frequently as shrapnel from grenades and the like. It did damage, but not nearly to the scale that he was expecting.
Niko wasn’t the only one with that thought either, it seemed, “They’re tougher than they look, I guess.” Ronald’s gaze and confused frown searched the Dawr forces. Niko had to say that the majority of the traps there weren’t anything special, though the grenades were much more damaging than much of the rest. Considering the majority of those came from Stella, he supposed that made sense.
“It’s nearly ready!” Mithel said, her palpable excitement was contagious, with Charlotte’s antennae dancing with frenetic energy with her eight eyes all focused on the scene in front of them.
Trusting Mithel’s penchant for destruction, he watched the rest of the traps on the first fourth of the battleground set off. Heat, electricity, and water saturated the air and Dawr, with plentiful cones of shrapnel cutting into defenses and wounding tens of goblinoids. Even the Champions had to pick parts out of their tough bodies in order to properly heal, something they couldn’t do much more than a few passing sweeps for.
Then something more happened. The electricity, heat, and moisture suddenly started rolling through the air, essence pulling the various components into several specific locations on the ground. Before the Dawr could do more than take notice of the locations, several deeply embedded capsules exploded upwards. Even with Niko’s Aether Sight, he couldn’t determine all of what happened, but he could get a good idea. The heat and electricity fed immediately into the process, kickstarting some kind of chemical reaction. The moisture in the air pulled downwards into the cells, mixing and further catalyzing whatever was happening in the melon-sized capsules.
Beside him, Mithel’s patterns seared into his vision as essence coalesced in them, seemingly acting upon the traps even in spite of the distance. What was more, there was no trail leading to her, not that Niko could see. It was more as if she were simply in two places at once, as far as her essence was concerned. Whatever she’d figured out how to do, Niko couldn’t even begin to parse through.
What it accomplished, though, was far more abrupt and visible. She enhanced the reactions, empowered them, and pushed what promised to have been already a potent and violent event into something well beyond that. The many capsules erupted a purple-violet liquid mist at such high pressure that the Dawr nearest were thrown from their feet. Plumes of the material went upwards tens of meters, but in no location did it seem to be especially thin. It was clearly superheated, the explosion and then rush of steam indicating such, even if it cooled nearly instantly. Electrical sparks jolted into the fog, and in the blink of an eye it began to condense, heavier and heavier.
Some shamans nearest the capsules conjured wind in response, trying to blast the fog away, but it had grown heavy enough that it rained down upon more of them in droplets. Those droplets hissed as the goblinoids they impacted screamed in pain, skin and muscle being eaten away visibly. A few of the champions took near direct hits, and not even they were capable of shrugging off whatever Mithel had cooked up. Worse, as it dried, a sticky, web-like substance seemed to suck up the remaining moisture and soupy liquids, rapidly expanding and gumming up movement.
In no place was that more obvious than with the three siege towers that were caught up in the chemical reaction. One of them, the one most beaten down by the ballistae, groaned and creaked, before outright listing to one side as the acid utterly shredded through the material it was made out of. The tower came tumbling down, regrettably forwards towards the wall. Niko could hear many Dawr within scream as it fell in seeming slow motion, and winced at the impending crash.
A quake rattled through the branch and into Riizen, though not nearly with the gravitas that Niko had expected. Nevertheless, half of the upper portion of the tower was more or less intact, but the entire bottom half was a mess of acid, webby strands, and completely destroyed wooden beams with metal supports protruding like exposed ribs. The other two siege towers ground to a halt as complicated mechanisms struggled with acid damage and webbing seizing their innards. That didn’t even begin to touch on the wholesale death that was happening, as Dawr inhaled the concoction that then turned into webbing within their lungs.
Niko was equal parts horrified and exuberant that it was so successful. He was also certain that this would be a war crime on Earth on many, many levels. Niko glanced at Mithel then, to see that she looked pale.
Then the webbing caught flame, and it erupted in a flash fire. The sonic boom blasted outwards, catching Niko off guard as he flinched in the face of the sudden explosion. The fire burned hot and high, and any Dawr who had been in the thick of it were suddenly very crispy. The shaman’s prevented the acid from having approached the middle of the army, but even so, they were caught off guard by the sudden heat searing their ranks. That was corrected quickly, but few goblinoids in the middle ranks didn’t have burns.
“Great Mother, that was terrifying,” Skye said, swallowing hard, “Remind me not to piss you off.”
Mithel tried to say something, but Niko could see that she was struggling with the sight, “This… it was supposed to do it in the other order.”
“What?” Ronald frowned, “What order?”
“It was supposed to metabolize into webbing first, then turn acidic. I don’t even know how it did it the other way around.” Mithel swallowed hard, “That’s a little… too effective.”
“Well, keep in mind that they want to pick their teeth with our bones,” Skye said, but her tone changed to be slightly more gentle as if she realized that had come off a bit callous, “They’re the enemy, Mithel. You don’t have to worry about them. They won’t return the favor.”
Niko trilled at Mithel softly, a conciliatory noise. She glanced at him, seeing him nod slightly at her. She breathed in deeply, even as Dachna braved getting closer to the giant arachnid to pull her into a side-hug.
“You did good, my love.” Dachna rubbed her back and whispered to her. She clasped his hand on her shoulder to the sounds of cheers across the wall.
“I know it bothers you… But do you have more of them?” Ronald asked, braving the sharp look Mithel and Dachna gave him, “They’ve got two towers left, and after that, they’re forced to do this the old fashioned way.”
At that, Mithel stopped for a few seconds and drew in a deep breath. She looked out at the still-burning husks that were the first three towers, two of which might be saved. The shamans were desperately trying to put out the fire that wreathed them, but between what Mithel had done and the now enthusiastic efforts of the ballistae on the walls, none of them thought they would succeed.
She shook her head, “I don’t have anything I think would work a second time. We can use some things when they’re closer, but…” She paused, eyes wandering over to the ballistae. “Actually, I guess we do have some options.”
She quickly explained her idea, simple and to the point. Strapping flasks to the ballistae bolts would probably work out just fine.
Niko nodded, “I like that better than throwing explosives by talon for sure, yeah.”
