Day 134 / Infestation
"Scouts. Report."
"Sir!"
Garret happened to be standing guard with Annika when a whole squad of rangers marched out of the woods, returning from their mission. Evidently the information they had was important, because a voice behind Garret suddenly called them to attention. He looked over his shoulder and saw that their hero and valkyrie had decided to pay them a visit in person.
"The way to the city is clear, Sir. We didn't see a single monster on our mission."
The squad leader had to pause for a moment to let out a violent sneeze, then continued.
"Without resistance, the column should arrive in a week, as scheduled."
That caused Lukas, who was inspecting an annotated map they'd handed over, to glance up, perturbed.
"Really? No sign of mamono activity?"
"Yes, Sir. Not a bit."
He furrowed his brow.
"That's disconcerting, but we'll take any good news we can get."
Then he pointed to the map.
"What about the city itself? What's this circle you've drawn here?"
"I was just about to get to that, Sir. There's some sort of magical barrier surrounding it, so we couldn't get close. The walls were empty, but beyond that, we didn't get a good look at the town."
Overhearing this, Garret and Annika both perked their ears up, listening in as hard as they could without making it obvious they were intentionally eavesdropping. No mamono and a strange magical barrier? Interesting…
"Hmm…"
Lukas studied the map and the surrounding terrain for a moment, deep in thought, before handing it back.
"Have your men get some food, then retrieve their tents and gear. We'll be sending them out again with some magicians to monitor the city and study the barrier until we arrive. They'll need to camp there for several nights."
"Sir!"
The man turned and repeated the orders to his charge. Once the rangers under his command had begun to hustle into the camp for a well-deserved meal, Lukas spoke again, this time to his divine partner.
"What do you think about this, Bryn?"
The Valkyrie was silent for a moment, thinking, before replying in her typical, composed demeanor.
"Plans will have to be adjusted to account for it. We may need to find a way to breach the barrier, then send a team through to destroy its source."
Lukas nodded, then turned back to the scout team's leader.
"We'll brief our officers on this new development. You will join us at the command tent in a half hour and present your report to them in person. Understood?"
The ranger snapped to attention and saluted.
"Yes, Sir!"
"Good. Dismissed."
Lukas returned the salute, then spun on his heel and strode away as the man hurried after the rest of his scouts. Brynhild walked with Lukas for a moment, before disappearing in a flash of light. Suddenly Garret and Annika felt a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Didn't anyone teach you that it's impolite to eavesdrop?"
"Ack! S-"
"Sorry, Ma'am!"
Startled, they jumped and turned around, hurriedly apologizing, but Brynhild just smiled an uncharacteristically mischievous smile.
"At ease, don't worry. If you heard everything, that saves me from repeating it. Mr. Fax, if we decide to send a team into the barrier, you may be the one chosen to lead it. Your performance in the arachnae's cavern marks you as one of our best candidates. Ms. Nyman, if we choose him, you'll likely be going as well. I want the two of you to take it easy over the next few days and ensure that you're rested up. Additionally, Mr. Fax, make sure Ms. Nyman has no… deficiencies in spirit energy. You might need it where we send you."
Deficiencies? Did she mean…? Oh.
"Yes, Ma'am. We'll do our best."
"Good. Finish this shift, then go relax. Your next two are hereby cancelled. We'll find someone else to cover for you for a few days. That'll be all."
"Understood. Thank you, Ma'am."
With that, Brynhild returned the salute the two gave her, then disappeared in another flash of light, leaving Garret and Annika to wonder about their future assignments.
"Leading a team to breach the barrier? You're turning into quite the soldier, Garret. Maybe you'll be an officer by the time this is over."
"I hope not…"
Commanding small groups was proving stressful enough as it was, Garret didn't know how he'd manage trying to command entire companies. Even if he could manage it, that would have meant that the crusade had dragged on far longer than initially planned… and he didn't like the idea of that…
Day 137
True to Brynhild's word, no one bothered Garret nor Annika for the next few days. Sure, they still had to help with the setup and teardown of their camps, but that aside, nothing interrupted their relaxing days or passionate evenings together. As the crusade moved along, more and more rangers were sent out to scout the area, monitor the city, or escort wizards to and from the newly established forward-camp. Bogged down by the nature of using ox-pulled or hand carts in a forest, a few men on foot could easily outpace the main column, so they'd arrive with plenty of time to do their duties before the crusade reached them. Aside from this coming and going, though, nothing of note happened until the end of the fourth day, when a pair of wizards teleported into the camp center. Upon arrival, they immediately made a beeline for the command tents to meet with their hero, valkyrie, and other officers. Some hours later, Garret and Annika were summoned as well.
Inside the well-lit, blue-gold tent, officers were, as usual, clustered around the map table, though this time, its faded parchment map had been replaced with pages of hastily, or sloppily, scrawled reports about the upcoming town.
"Ah, there they are. Fax, Nyman, please join us."
One of the officers spotted their entrance as they pushed through the tent flap and beckoned them over, stepping aside to make a place for them. Standing at the front were the two slightly dazed and very tired looking wizards that had teleported in. The trinkets and baubles that littered their robes rattled as one of them leaned up against the tent's left support pole, barely managing to will herself awake. Ordinarily this show of laziness, in front of officers and their hero no less, would have been grounds for disciplinary action, but Lukas apparently empathized with their situation enough to let it slide.
"Don't worry, we're almost done, but for the sake of our new arrivals, could you please summarize what you found?"
"Yeah, sure… I-I mean, yes, sir!"
The second wizard, while equally as tired and unmotivated, at least had the presence of mind to catch himself when answering their hero. Focusing on Garret and Annika, he took a moment to collect himself, sneezed, and then began his halting, somewhat monotone speech.
"So we, uh… The barrier covers the entire town and port like a sphere. There's no way in or out and it disintegrates anything larger than an ant that touches it. Teleporting doesn't work either, but we, uh…"
The man yawned, then let out another violent sneeze.
"Ah, sorry…"
Lukas interrupted their briefing to check on him.
"Are you alright, soldier?"
In response the man nodded weakly.
"Yeah… Yeah, sorry. 'Spells took a lot out of me, and there's a bug going around our camp. Just about everyone's got the sniffles."
"Nothing serious, I hope?"
"No, No… I don't think… Just a cold. Sorry, where was I?"
The wizard took an oddly long time to collect his thoughts, before finally figuring out where he'd left off.
"Right, right… So we made a spell that can get you through. It, uh…"
He cast a glance at their hero.
"Do they need to know the details?"
"I don't think that's necessary."
The man gave a relieved sigh upon hearing that.
"Ok, then all you need to know is… uh… we can tear a hole in it for a few seconds. Just enough to get a few people through."
The man fell silent, but clearly had forgotten something. After a minute of awkward waiting, one of the officers prompted him.
"And the barrier's source is…?"
"Oh, sorry... Um, for a barrier of this size, it's either a powerful device or a powerful person, but… We haven't seen anyone, so… the enchantment is probably fixed on an object. If someone destroys it, the barrier should disappear."
With that, attention turned to Garret and Annika. Lukas quickly dismissed the wizards, who shuffled out of the tent, no doubt heading for a long overdue rest, then posed a question.
"So? What do the two of you think?"
Everyone looked expectantly at Garret, but he, not doing well when put on the spot, looked at Annika, silently urging her to answer first.
"I can't fight large numbers. Us against a town ain't gonna go well."
One of the officer's tossed a short list of names onto the table, none of whom Garret recognized, aside from his and Annika's own.
"We wouldn't be sending you alone. Four others would join you – another swordsman, a spearwoman, and two wizards."
"Still ain't a lot…"
"Its all we can do. You'll have to avoid alerting the entire town."
Annika frowned upon hearing this, but didn't object further. Then it was Garret's turn.
"Mr. Fax? What about you? Do you think you'll be able to handle this?"
Absolutely not… But that wasn't an acceptable answer… He looked over the names and glanced at the reports again (nothing from which stuck out as immediately useful), before taking a deep breath and steeling himself. They wouldn't have picked him if they didn't think he could do it… He could trust Lukas and Brynhild in that… right?
"Yes, sir."
The answer brought smiles all around. Apparently, some of the officers (and their hero) were expecting him to protest.
"Glad to hear it. You've already had experience sneaking through enemy territory, that's why we chose you. It should be nothing you can't handle. … Mr. Rohm."
"Sir."
The officer addressed didn't salute, but he did stand at… almost attention, when he was called.
"I have other matters to attend to. Please brief Mr. Fax and Mrs. Nyman on the timings of this operation and ensure they get whatever supplies they need."
"Yes, Sir."
With that, Lukas strode out of the tent, a few of his officers in tow, and Brynhild disappeared again in her trademark flash of light.
Day 138
The next morning, Garret and Annika awoke early, as per their orders, and got ready for their hike. The two wizards who'd briefed them the previous night had teleported back to their camp to deliver the news, but unfortunately couldn't take them as well. Apparently they were just on the edge of single-person teleportation range, trying to take others with them would have cost a lethal amount of energy. That meant they had to walk, so Garret and Annika were currently loading their packs. Thankfully, they didn't need to take the tent. It'd be tight, but they were told they could share one of the wizards' ones at the forward camp.
As they were making their final preparations, someone rapped on the tentpole, and upon invitation, swept the tent flap back and took a seat.
"So I hear you're breaking into that town."
It was Rick. Somehow he'd found out about their mission, despite only a handful of soldiers being informed of it.
"I guess rumors travel fast. Yeah, we're leaving in an hour. If all goes well, we'll have that barrier destroyed just in time for The Order to siege the city."
The ranger laughed at the rumor bit.
"They've actually kept a pretty good lid on it, I'm just special. I hear things."
"Ranger training?"
"Something like that."
After their initial banter, Rick dropped his usual, cheerful expression to a dead serious one.
"I'm actually here to ask you guys a huge favour. Annika, can I, uh… borrow you for my scouting mission?"
"… No?"
Garret was likewise in agreement.
"Rick, you do know how dangerous our mission is, right? I'm not going in there without my partner. Besides, what do you need her for? Don't you have your own? "
The man sighed and stared at the floor, dejectedly.
"No… No, I don't. I don't want to get into why, but for the entire crusade I've been assigned spare people at random. That's the problem. With most of the rangers staking out that city, the rest of us have had to cover way more ground than usual, and… the woman who just got paired with me is likely the worst possible fit for a scouting mission."
Something about the man's pitiful expression made Garret want to reconsider, but he held firm.
"Well hopefully you can find someone else. Sorry, Rick."
He shrugged.
"Eh, don't worry about it… Good luck on your mission, you two. You'll probably need it more than I."
With that, he left, leaving Garret and Annika to finish their packing. Despite that, though, Garret's thoughts kept tumbling back to his request. As he stuffed the last bit of gear into his pack, he mulled it over one final time. Why couldn't he get this out of his head? He wanted to help him, yes, but he needed his partner for his own mission. … Well, Annika wasn't the stealthiest, and the mission was dangerous, so maybe… No. No, he wasn't considering this. He needed all the (wo)men he could get, and he doubted Annika would take kindly to him leaving her behind because he wanted to protect her from getting hurt. Besides! It wasn't even his decision. Unless Annika wanted it, he couldn't-
"Hey, Garret?"
"Yeah?"
"Do ya think you could make it without me? Rick seemed pretty desperate…"
… Well shit.
"Well… We're probably going to have to rely on avoiding conflict rather than fighting monsters head-on. But if we do get caught, we'll need every soldier we can get."
"Right, but…" She shrugged a shoulder, letting her armoured plates and underlying chainmail rattle. "I'm no good at sneaking,"
Garret sighed and sat down, facing his lover. For a long time he stayed quiet, arguing with himself in his head, before finally surrendering to the seemingly inevitable.
"… If you want to help him out, I won't complain."
The red-headed woman smiled a weak smile in response.
"Thank you, Garret."
"Just one thing before I go, then."
He leaned in, hugged her tightly, and kissed her on the cheek. It wasn't exactly warm or comfortable with her armour poking him at odd angles, but if they were splitting up again, this might be the last chance he got.
What the HELL had he been thinking?! Almost a full day of hiking later, Garret finally came back to his senses. As he and his squad of soldiers (now one fewer) trekked through the forest, pushing through underbrush as they followed the markings a ranger team had tied, he cursed his stupidity. Plate mail wasn't that loud, and they didn't know if there even were any monsters in the city, given how quiet the reports painted it as. He shouldn't have let her go… Frustrated, he kicked the top off one of the numerous mushrooms sprouting from the grass, sending it sailing into the brush. There was nothing he could do to fix his mistake now, though… they were almost at the forward camp.
The camp, if you could call it that, was nothing more than a line of tents between a pair of trees, camouflaged by natural bushes and cut branches. The small number of wizards here meant they didn't have enough manpower to repel any significant attacks, should they come during the night, so instead they were relying on not being found in the first place. Speaking of wizards, though… Garret looked around. Only a single pair were to be found, with the man leaning against a tree trunk (keeping watch?) while the woman rummaged through her pack on the other side of the encampment. The watchman spotted them and gave a lazy wave for a greeting.
"Hey."
The dim evening light filtering through the trees wasn't enough to really make out his features, but he was tall. Taller than Garret, even, easily several inches over the six-foot mark. As typical for a wizard, his robes were dotted with the expected array of baubles, and his sizable hat was nothing less than magnificent. He was clearly a veteran magician, far more experienced than the two assigned to Garret, if the number of trinkets were anything to go by. As their group approached, he took a step forward, then paused as he tried to stifle a yawn. Then a sneeze. Then another yawn, before gesturing towards the tents with a tilt of his head.
"'Evening. You're probably… pretty tired, so you'll be, uh… happy to know we've already sorted out the… the… the sleeping arrangements."
He pointed to the tents on the end of the row.
"Three to a tent. Those, uh… those last… two. Those last two are yours."
Then he sneezed again.
"… You ok?"
"Yeah, sorry."
He rubbed at his nose and after waiting for a moment, possibly for another sneeze, composed himself.
"We've got some sort of cold going around here. Everyone's got the… uh… there's lots of sneezing going on. We'll try to… try to stay away from you so you don't… get it."
Their conversation was interrupted by his partner, a rather pretty, blonde magician, who walked between them, making a show of playfully running her hand across his chest as she did, before circling around him and reaching down to clasp his hand in hers, gently tugging him towards her bedding. Her sultry look and desire-filled gaze left nothing uncertain about her intentions. At the same time, a moan of pleasure came from the closest tent, indicating where the rest of the wizards had gone. Seemingly having forgotten about the new arrivals, the wizard on watch let himself be lead away, despite Garret's protests, disappearing into a tent with his partner.
"… I don't like this."
A murmur of agreement came from the soldiers under his command. Everything about the man's mannerisms felt a little too 'off', but… The sun was about to set, and his group was exhausted from the rapid pace of their march. They'd need to rest before they could do anything, so he grudgingly made the decision that they'd camp here. He just prayed that his gut feeling was wrong this time.
Day 139
Garret awoke when a beam of sunlight shone through the open tent-flap and onto his face. He fumbled for a bit, trying to roll out of its way, but given his cramped situation, found little success. Resigning himself to his fate, he rubbed his eyes and sat up. A swordsman and his wizardess partner lay beside him in their borrowed (and extremely cramped) canvas tent. That was why they'd left the flap open – three bodies meant it got far too hot inside to sleep comfortably, otherwise. Thankfully, though the two were obviously romantically involved, they had avoided getting too amorous when Garret was squished against them, preventing a great deal of awkwardness. Letting his soldiers rest a little longer, he carefully extricated himself from the tent without waking them. A quick look around indicated no mamono, so he didn't need to keep a low profile. He stood up and stretched, cracking his back and neck.
Now that daylight had come, and he could see properly, he had to admit the camp had been set in a nice location. The dense brush that hid it did its job, albeit with a small opening in the center that allowed them to move around a bit and set up a small fire to cook. Likewise, the canopy of tree branches overhead was just thin enough to let shafts of light filter through, illuminating bits of dust, pollen, or other flecks, giving the place an ethereal air. Really, the only downside was the damp soil which, while leading to an abundance of lush moss and mushrooms coating trees and the ground, meant that they had to lay down multiple ground-sheets to prevent the moisture from soaking them while they slept. At least it meant water wasn't difficult to come by, as evidenced by the tiny spring-fed pool that lay a dozen meters or so to their left, barely visible through the undergrowth. While he waited for the rest of the soldiers and wizards to awake, Garret took it upon himself to get a drink and relax a bit. This place seemed peaceful, and the earthy scents in the air betrayed no hint of nearby mamono. Danger would come soon enough, but for now, in this quiet patch of forest, he could set his heart at ease. If only Annika had been here to enjoy it with him…
When he returned, he found he hadn't been quite careful enough when creeping out of the tent. His soldiers were awake, yawning and stretching in the secluded grove, with one of the other wizards lazily stirring at a pot of oatmeal that was cooking over the fire. He joined them in sitting on one of the nearby logs, and once their breakfast was ready, he and his soldiers hastily chowed down on the bland but filling meal. The magicians of the camp, by contrast, were far slower. They played with their food, barely managing to eat even half of it, and though Garret did his best to hurry them along, they still lost a surprising amount of time. At least one of the wizards, the man who'd greeted them before, seemed alert enough to be reliable.
"What's going on? Why is everyone so out of it?"
After the group had organized and begun to move towards the city, Garret asked this of the singular wizard that had come with them.
"I think everyone's just, uh… burnt out. Tired. We worked through the nights to figure out how to… how to… to make a spell to get you through that barrier. And this cold… no one's feeling good."
That answer didn't satisfy him. Garret himself had done his fair share of overwhelming exertions, and though it left him in a similar state, the way these men and women were acting wasn't right. He would have loved to investigate this and figure out exactly what was going on, but he didn't have the time. They needed to find a way to drop that barrier, so for now, he did his best to push the worrisome thoughts aside and focus on the current task at hand – trying not to trip over roots as they passed through a particularly overgrown portion of forest.
When they finally won free of the briars and thickets, they found themselves in a set of fields, similar to the ones surrounding the walls of Naton. Unlike those, though, whose grasses were regularly cut down by scythe, these were overgrown. The walls of the city were in a similar state, their worn grey stones covered in moss and a variety of fungus, contrasting the pristine Natonian brickwork he'd seen before. Atop the walls lay empty hoardings that, judging by the holes and signs of rot, hadn't been maintained in ages. Indeed, the city looked like it might have been abandoned a century ago, if not for the shimmering barrier that enveloped it like a dome, coming down halfway between them and the walls.
"I don't think The Order will have much to capture in this town…"
The spearwoman beside Garret commented, seeing the decay. Internally, Garret agreed with her. If the walls of the town were this run-down, what was the inside going to look like?
"Maybe everyone left. Could be an easy mission."
"No… Someone had to have made this barrier… no reason to keep it going if the town evacuated."
Theories and suppositions were tossed about, and though some were optimistic, internally, Garret tended to agree with the more negative ones. He didn't show this, however. Needed to try to keep moral up…
"It doesn't matter. We've got our orders, we're going to take that shield down. You said you can get us through?"
The camp wizard stared off into the distance, blankly.
"Hey. Hey!"
Garret shook the man's shoulder, snapping him out of his trance.
"S-Sorry. Yeah. … Yeah, I can pierce that. I'll open a hole, then wait for you to come back. If you, uh… if you can't destroy it and need to run, I'll let you out."
Given how unfocused he was, Garret didn't place any faith in his ability to do that…
"Alright, then… Let's get to it."
At least they weren't doing this at night… After the wizard had slashed a hole through the barrier, just wide enough for the soldiers to squeeze through, Garret and those under his command hurried to the wall and prepared their grappling hooks. The stone was slippery with moisture and moss, making it difficult to spot solid foot holds, even under good lighting. Additionally, they had to try to avoid catching their hooks on the rotting hoardings, since those obviously would not hold their weight.
Given the walls always being empty, the quietness of the town, and the short timetable The Order had given them, they had elected to undertake their mission in the early morning. That made the initial problem of getting over the walls easier, but would probably make things more difficult once they were inside… hopefully, if they kept to the back alleys, they could avoid being noticed…
After a few bad throws and poorly anchored hooks, they got a pair to stick and, one by one, began to scale the wall as quickly as possible, climbing up the ropes. Garret, as the leader, was first, and though he had a bit of difficulty, managed to get to the top without too much of a delay. Perched there, he crouched and shuffled to the internal battlement, carefully peaking over the wall to observe the interior of the city. His caution proved to be unneeded. Like the walls, the streets within were ominously empty and just about every building was very rundown. This was not to say that they looked structurally unstable like the hoardings, mind you. The houses and stores actually seemed pretty sturdy, albeit with their walls were covered by a myriad types of mushrooms feeding on the decaying wood. Despite that, the support columns seemed uncompromised, no roofs sagged, and he couldn't even spot any holes in the walls. Everything looked rotted and weathered, yet somehow still serviceable… strange.
"Well we won't find anything searching from up here… lets head in."
Once everyone had clambered atop the walls and taken a moment to rest, Garret gave the order, and they lowered their ropes to descend. Whatever was going on with the city, they'd find out soon enough.
Footsteps echoed on the damp cobblestone, seemingly mocking their attempts to be silent, but despite their noise, no one came to investigate. As they crept through the dusty streets, they encountered no evidence of anyone inhabiting the town. There were barrels or boxes of supplies here and there, now ruined by the damp and the rot, but nothing that would sustain a city's inhabitants. Where had everyone gone? Garret ordered them to break into a house, just to see what they'd find. Maybe a clue to the mystery would be found there. One of their wizards worked a spell to unlock the door, and they carefully cracked it open and slunk into the building.
The inside of the house was surprisingly pristine, despite its rotting exterior, and its air was far cleaner than the dust-filled streets. There were a few mushrooms popping up here or there, sprouting from gaps in the floorboards, but for the most part, it looked almost as if its inhabitants had just… vanished. Knives and (now rotted) food were laid out in the kitchen, albeit sloppily, in preparation for cooking a meal, and coats remained hung by the door. There were no signs of an evacuation… strange. The absence of people wasn't the only unusual thing about the house, though.
Garret wandered over to where he'd have expected a fire-pit to be, but instead found a strange four-pronged pipe apparatus there, a dimly glowing red crystal at its center, protected by a small cage of metal bars. The main pipe that the four split from bent and ran along the wall, where a spout (topped with a similarly protected blue crystal) branched off of it, then curved downwards and disappeared beneath the floor. Such an odd piece of equipment… and in a commoner's home, no less. The pipes themselves thrummed with magical energy, as did the crystals, but what were they for? Garret spied a valve above the blue crystal and experimentally turned it. A sudden gush of water was the result. Interesting. A set of dials by the four-pronged pipe begged similar experimentation and produced small flames from their tips when turned. Remarkably interesting…
"Hey. You ever seen anything like this?"
He beckoned the two wizards of the group over to him, who examined the pipes with great interest.
"No, nothing…"
The first one crouched by the pipes, tracing them to their entry point to the floor, and began to poke around at them. The second fixated on the crystals, carefully opening their cages, and working one of her mage-sight spells, no doubt trying to decipher the kind of magic used here. She quickly gave up and shook her head, massaging her temples.
"I'm getting a headache just looking at this…"
"Too much energy?"
"Well that, and it's incredibly complex. I can barely understand the magic being used here, it's far beyond anything I've ever seen. This must have taken decades to invent…"
Incomprehensible magical artifacts… The Order's mage guilds would probably love to study these in depth. Sensing an opportunity, Garret reached for one of the now-exposed crystals.
"Then we should a sample."
"No, wait!-"
The second he touched it, a bolt of energy shot through him, spasming his muscles, and tossing him back several feet, onto the floor.
"They're very volatile! Disturbing them without making them safe would be disastrous! … Are you ok?"
The woman extended a hand to help Garret up, but he remained seated, massaging his extremities, trying to get the feeling in his arm back.
"… Noted… So, how do we make them safe?"
The wizard-woman shrugged.
"No idea. I'd have to know the spell first."
Well that was unfortunate… but at least they could be studied once they captured the city.
"We move on, then."
The wizards nodded and rejoined their partners before heading out into the street. Garret waited another minute to make sure he really was fine, and took a few more deep breaths of the relatively clean air here, before following them into the dust outside.
… Just why was everything so dusty, anyways? Had the barrier sealed the town off from outside weather? No, he'd felt wind atop the wall. The city stood in a wood flanked by ocean, not a desert, so the area couldn't explain it, and the worst of it seemed to be confined to street level within the city walls. There'd been a little outside, barely noticeable as they'd walked through the fields or worked in the camp, but not much. It was a strange anomaly, seemingly confined to the city… and was very disconcerting. When something was different in the demon realm, rarely was it for the benefit of mankind… Garret didn't like it.
As they slowly progressed through the outer portion of the city, the mystery of the missing people showed no signs of being solved. They walked down empty streets, passed through deserted alleys, and took the occasional shortcut through abandoned houses, but for the first two hours of their operation, they didn't spot a single soul, nor did they find the source of the magic, despite looking through guildhalls, or really, any prominent piece of architecture. That meant they needed to head deeper, despite Garrets apprehension.
The outer portions of the city were extremely claustrophobic and haphazardly laid out. This made navigating them difficult, but eventually they found what looked to be a main (or at least, important) street, judging by the pipes that ran along its edges. At each house or alley, they split off smaller ones, which curved into the ground, no doubt supplying whatever magic those strange fire and water crystals required within their respective buildings. It was by following this road through several tight, winding bends, that they discovered their first hint to what had happened here.
After passing through a tiny park, whose trees and shrubs had long-since become overgrown, they heard a soft moan echo from a smaller alleyway. Garret shushed his soldiers, motioned for them to follow, and began to tip-toe down the dirt path, towards it. When they reached the rear of the house-line, they found the source of the noise. Protruding from the wooden wall was a partially opened tap, like the one they'd seen in the kitchen. It was trickling water, likely intended to be used for filling laundry basins, but those had been pushed aside, allowing it pour onto the earth. Planted in the center of the muddy puddle that had formed were two figures, intertwined in a 'loving' embrace.
The couple was monstrous, having lived in a place like this for so long meant that was a foregone conclusion, but even if hadn't, their appearances quickly removed all doubts. The woman's pale, milky-white skin and inhuman, grey, eyes hinted at this, but the most noticeable feature was the massive red mushroom cap that had grown from her head. Similar bits of fungus sprouted from her body, the tendrils of which had visibly worked their way under her skin, pulsing grotesquely as they absorbed nutrients. The man had been changed in a similar fashion. Though he lacked the massive mushroom cap of his paramour, his skin had likewise taken on that milky hue, and his back had gathered its own collection of parasitic fungi. The growths didn't seem to bother either of them, though. The man looked totally relaxed, supported by a soft out-cropping of white mycelium and the arms of his partner, and a perpetual, gentle smile graced the woman's face as she looked down lovingly, occasionally running her fingers through the mans hair as she nestled his head comfortably against her breasts. Oblivious to the world, they slowly thrust together, letting out quiet sighs or soft moans of pleasure as they did. Were they any other type of mamono, Garret might have thanked his good fortune for an easy pair of targets, but tales of this particularly horrifying monster had spread far and wide. A cold sweat dampened his brow as he recognized what he was looking at – a matango and her mushroom-man partner.
Damn, damn, DAMN! Garret immediately ordered his soldiers back and, once they were at what he deemed a 'safe' distance, addressed them.
"You all know what this is?"
Everyone nodded. Matango… a single spore could turn an entire village. Matango… they fed on you as well as your energy. Matango… they consumed your mind, your memories, your very soul, only leaving behind a mushroom-filled body to endlessly thrust into its 'lover' for sustenance. Stories and rumors like these abounded among the enlisted. Exaggerated or not, they were a great way for veterans to scare impressionable new recruits. Back in Northreach, it seemed like every other week, a new one would make its way through the barracks. Garret, personally, didn't know how much truth there was to them, but the amount of stories indicated a disturbing true nature – one he was not enthusiastic to find out about, first-hand.
"Then you know the danger we're in. We're splitting up. I'll go on my own, the rest of you, stick with your partners."
He quickly pointed them in the directions they'd be heading.
"You, go that way, You two, head left. I'll head up the middle. We need to find and destroy that device as quickly as possible, so don't bother attacking the monsters. If the barrier comes down, assume one of the other groups got it, and get back to the wall and out of this city. I don't want us here a minute longer than necessary, understood? Good. … Now Go. Go!"
The two groups immediately sprinted off, leaving Garret alone with the mushrooms. He looked over his shoulder at the woman who, after milking an orgasm from her partner, shuddered and released a cloud of spores… spores that were the same colour as the dust they'd been breathing in all morning. As if on cue, he sneezed. That wasn't good…
Stupid! Idiot! He'd killed them all! As Garret ran, he cursed himself for his blindness. The mushrooms in the forest and on the walls, the lethargy and distraction of the other wizards… He should have called off the entire operation the minute he'd noticed something was wrong. … But by then they'd likely already been exposed… he shook his head. Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! Fuck! It was only his second command and he'd just gotten his entire team killed. Granted, they didn't know they were dead yet, and there was still a chance they'd make it out, but… well… while it wasn't something that was common knowledge, Garret had heard rumors that there was no cure for a matango infestation. … Don't think about that, Garret. Just do your job while you still can.
"…Sorry, Annika… it looks like I won't be coming back after all…"
As he ran through the twisting, cobblestone roads of the city, Garret kept finding more and more matango. Sometimes they were isolated, single pairs occupying a back alley or small garden, but other times he stumbled upon grand orgies surrounding broken city fountains that had flooded the area. There, hundreds of pairs of mamono and their 'husbands' lay, scattered around the squares, blissfully unaware of the surrounding world as they gave love to each other under the midday sun.
There was a strange variety of body types in the crowd. Tall men were paired with short women, fatter women with slim men, young men with older women… Just about every possible combination was present here, and though the usual forms of shapely bodies with large breasts, or toned, athletic frames, were definitely the majority, there was a surprising amount of deviation from it. To someone who'd only seen a single 'shape' of manono or incubi before, this struck Garret as odd. Were matangos different in how they changed men? No, that wouldn't explain why some of them took forms that were, conventionally speaking, somewhat strange or ugly. … Those oddities didn't seem to diminish the enthusiasm of the couplings, however. If anything, it seemed to encourage them. At the edge of the orgy, a man slowly ran his hands across, and groped at, his wife's rolls of fat. Further in, a much older and mature looking matango took great pleasure in having her way with her much smaller, almost child-like husband. The different forms seemed to be enhancing their activities rather than getting in the way,… but how did they get like this? Sadly, as much as he'd like to solve this mystery, Garret didn't have the time to spare. Holding his breath and doing his best to avoid the lingering spore clouds the group was constantly releasing, he sprinted along the edge of the square until he reached a street on the opposite side and headed deeper into the city. He had to find the source of the barrier, that was their mission. … But with the city in this state, did that even matter anymore?
No matter where he went, more spores, illuminated by the sunlight, hung suspended in the air, slowly drifting around. They acted as an unpleasant reminder of what might be his fate if he didn't hurry, but despite pounding down street after street, and rummaging through every significant building he could find, Garret still felt no closer to his goal than he'd been at the start. Even the city's Mage guild, which he'd found entirely by chance, was empty of anything that could resemble the device he sought. He'd searched it thoroughly, and though it was full of rotting scrolls, books, and a treasure trove of corrupted magical artifacts, there was nothing here that could project a shield this big. Even amongst the literature, he hadn't found anything so much as looking like a reference to it. Maybe it had been created after the city fell? No, that made no sense… He kicked over a lectern in frustration, which in turn, upset an old alchemical lab table, sending its glassware and pipes crashing to the floor. He had to keep looking. Find some way to narrow his search. …wait, that was it! The pipes! He quickly scrambled back to the rear of the guild, where the books would be kept.
The library was dusty (proper dust this time, not misidentified fungal spores), dark, and had mounds of books or scrolls lying about, having been left there by disorganized scholars or his own initial search of the building. Despite the mess, Garret rushed through the maze of shelves, dutifully following the few markings that were visible to him via the light of his fire. Outside, it was impossible to discern the direction the mana in the pipes was flowing, but that was magic infrastructure! The mages here had to have some records, detailing the system. Commoners and blacksmiths certainly weren't going to be the ones repairing it if something went wrong, and it was such a massive project, it had to have taken years to build. That meant plans, that meant schematics. Infrastructure, City, Streets, Buildings, Fountains, Plumbing… Aha! After rummaging through several shelves, he found a cluster of books and scrolls about something called 'the city mageworks'. Grabbing them all, he quickly headed back to one of the few desks still in usable shape and began to search his finds.
The books turned out to be mostly useless, and he pushed them off the desk, out of the way. They were either too rotted to be opened without destroying pages, or were full of technical details and strange equations Garret had no hope of understanding. The only thing really of note there, was that every book had been penned by the same author, an 'Aleksy Grom', who Garret assumed was the creator of the system. The scrolls were almost discarded similarly when Garret opened them to find nothing but blank parchment. At the last second, though, he noticed that they were remarkably pristine for having been sitting in a rotting library. Something had to have kept them that way… Thinking back to a lesson he'd almost forgotten from his college days, he passed the flame in his hand above the scroll. As he did this, blue sparks sprouted from the parchment, forming temporary, shimmering words. Magescript. Garret smiled, a bit of warm nostalgia lifting his spirits. He hadn't seen this stuff in years, but it made sense it'd be here… a magic system this sensitive, they probably didn't want anyone reading about it unless they too were one of The Order's wizards or sorcerers. Sadly, this particular scroll proved as indecipherable as the books, but the next one produced grand results. Another pass of magic, another shower of blue sparks, and Garret quickly found himself staring at a map of the entire city. Here, the pipes were indicated by glowing lines, runes, and arrows, and they all converged to a location near the docks, on top of… something? The word that marked the conjunction was unfamiliar to Garret, and he couldn't quite grasp its meaning, but it had to be magically significant. Maybe that was where the city was getting its energy? And if the source there had enough to power whatever the city's mageworks was, it had enough to power the shield. His destination set, he tucked the map into his pack and began to run.
Like Naton, this city had been built with its rear against the ocean. The key difference here was that, while Naton's rocky coast, numerous shoals, and riptides made it difficult for ships to navigate, this city's shore was evidently suitable for a proper harbour. It wasn't getting much use now, mind you… The moisture from the ocean spray left everything persistently damp, which was like heaven for the matango. Just about every available surface on the ships, docks, and waterfront houses had been covered with either the miniature pseudo-matango mushrooms, or their full-sized counterparts. After being at sea for months on end, if the stories he'd heard were true, the sailors they were coupling with must have been happy to find a wife, but… if they'd known they'd soon have mushrooms burrowing into their skin, the men might well have reconsidered… turning his back on the infested ships, Garret continued along the waterfront, not even bothering to avoid spore clouds this time. With so many mushrooms around, the air was saturated with them. No point worrying about them or holding his breath, it'd only make what little time he had left less pleasant.
The pipes on the waterfront eventually lead him to a building that looked like it had originally been some sort of manor, though a stone tower jutting from the center of it marked it as unusual. Despite being rotting and decayed, it still maintained a certain grandeur. Its high roofs and central spire towered over the surrounding buildings, and its stained-glass windows, each of which depicted scenes from their scriptures or the town's history, remained wholly intact. The walls, made of rough, grey, stone were of course devoid of fungi, though the same could not be said for the wood-shingled roofs, which had a colorful array of mushrooms sprouting from them. This was where the map had indicated the source of the mageworks was, and if he were a betting man, Garret would have put money on something important being in that spire.
Getting in proved to be slightly challenging. The front doors were locked, warded, and surprisingly sturdy, despite the mold, so Garret made little progress trying to batter or blast them open. The windows would likely have been easier to enter, but… something about shattering a portrayal of his goddess, even if he was by no means a religious fanatic, still gave him pause. He'd do it, but only after he checked for other ways in. In the end, a locked but severely rotted servant's entrance around the back provided him with this. After a few good hits with his shoulder, he was able to break it open.
What would one expect to find upon breaking into a manor? Going through the servant's door… probably their quarters, a kitchen, maybe entrances to the dining hall or other rooms guests may frequent. That was what most people would have thought, and Garret was no exception, but while he was partially correct, there were some significant differences that surprised him. The first, wooden hall, while thick with spores and coated with fungi, was indeed a passage through the servant's quarters. Small bedrooms dotted either side, and Garret peered into a handful of them, spotting doctor's bags, nurse's gowns, priestess habits, and other assorted medical equipment. Strange,… maybe the lord of the manor was infirm and kept medical staff on hand? At the end of the hall, a doorway to the left lead to a kitchen that had been set up to feed a small army. Shelves and counters had been removed to free up more space for pot-stands and the mass production of soups or stews. Come to think of it, it didn't look like there was much space here to make anything else besides those simple (albeit extremely plentiful) foods. One would hardly produce dinners worthy of aristocratic guests in a kitchen like this, again, an odd quirk of the manor. Through the kitchen, a final door to the right revealed the reason for these changes.
Garret had expected the door to lead to a dining hall, but instead, he found row upon row of medical cots in a giant room that seemed to span the entire bottom floor. Here, spore clouds, illuminated by the coloured light streaming through the stained-glass windows, drifted to and fro, so dense that Garret could only barely make out the far side of the room. Just how much was breathing this air going to accelerate his transformation?
The place was clearly not how the manor had been originally designed, and the floor and ceiling hinted at how this alteration had come to pass. While sanded down, there were still rough patches where walls used to be, having been demolished to free up more space, and the thick pillars bearing the weight of the building were likewise abraded. In some places, he saw hints of the rooms' original purposes. A chandelier here, some hanging candles there, a carpet worked into the ground, a marble floor… Whatever they had been before, though, this entire story of the manor had been converted into a makeshift hospital. Rather than containing patients, though, its hundreds of hundreds of beds now contained mamono.
Slowly, Garret picked his way through the room, carefully edging around amorous couples or ducking under the sluggish arms of single matango. While languid, they still tried to grab him. In contrast to the town outside, where most matango bore their typical red-white head-mushrooms, in this manor, there were several species he'd never seen before. Some were blue, the brims of their caps wider with taller peaks. Some were entirely white and remained small, clinging to their host's head like a nurse's bonnet. Others were black with a frilly structure, dropping low, down the woman's back, almost like… like a nun's habit. Sensing a pattern here, Garret took a closer look at some of the mycelium beds below the women. After a bit of a search, he found what he was looking for. Rotted (but still recognizable) medical satchels, tarnished spell foci, and the occasional rosary lay partially enveloped by the hyphae, corresponding to the nurse, wizard, and nun-like mushrooms. Indeed, as he crept further into the hall, he noticed that the fungal growths on the most heavily infected almost looked like the clothes of their respective professions. … Almost. They were still mamono, after all, and were showing way too much skin. He doubted the nuns or mages of this town walked around with exposed breasts and genitals before its fall.
While the hall was interesting as a case study on the nature of fungal mamono, and how a person's vocation affected their transformation, Garret couldn't linger any longer. He hadn't felt any strange pulls of desire towards the mushroom-women yet, but he didn't know how much longer that would last. He headed for a door leading through what looked like the stone walls of the central tower, and almost immediately, felt his first indication that he was on the right track. The closer he got, the stronger he felt a familiar tingling sensation. Magic. Something, somewhere above him was projecting a presence so powerful that a magically sensitive person could pick it up through multiple layers of wood and stone walls. Likewise, below him an even stronger aura could be felt through the floor, though that one was… strange. It felt different. Primal. Its aura was unlike anything Garret had felt before, and didn't seem man-made. He wanted to investigate this, but the mission came first. Stepping up the stairs, he headed towards the only place he could imagine the barrier coming from.
At the top of the tower, the stone, spiral staircase led to a ladder that gave access to a trap-door in the roof. When he climbed it and tried to push it open, however, Garret found the door to be locked and warded. With the myriad of magical energies flowing through this city, there was no hope of trying to blast his way through it with brute force. It was doubtlessly well supplied of energy. Despite that, he gave it a try, first by pounding against it with his fists, then by sending a blast of fire at it. Pounding on solid wood, of course, did nothing except bruise his hands, but his fireball provoked a much more interesting reaction. Instead of the magic fizzling after struggling against it, like he'd expected, the space around the door rippled and absorbed it, snuffing it out instantly. Just what kind of ward was this? Before Garret could admire the complexity of the spell, it suddenly revealed an unexpected ability. A counterattack, materializing as a blast of force, exploded from it, throwing Garret from the ladder. Stars danced before his eyes as his head collided with the wall behind him, and the breath was driven from his lungs, leaving him gasping for air. Evidently, he wasn't welcome here.
After he'd recovered from the assault and taken a minute to marvel at the magical acumen required to make such a powerful warding spell, Garret decided to switch targets. He headed down the stairs, rubbing the bump on his head as he went. Likely the energy source powering everything would be even better protected, but he didn't have a lot of options here. He had to figure something out.
The stairs lead to a basement, storing decaying barrels of wine and boxes of supplies, then continued descending from there. Though Garret lost track, trying to count the number of rotations he made, by his estimate, he'd descended at least seven or eight floors below street level. Of course here, there was no dim light filtering through slit-windows, so he lit his way by producing a small but brilliant flame. It was by this light that, when he reached the bottom, he was able to make out the details and engravings on the massive pair of metal doors that barred his path. An ornate family crest took most of the space on them, having been carved into the metal, and around the edges, glowing, unrecognizable runes had been inscribed. Those runes were likely the source of the myriad, overlapping auras that hinted at even more powerful wards guarding the door, so Garret didn't bother trying his luck with a spell. Something told him he'd end up in much worse shape than just having a headache if he did. Instead, he pounded on the doors, shoved them with his shoulder, and as a final straw, kicked one with his boot. Of course, this did nothing, but it felt good. It helped him take out the frustration of being so close to his goal (probably), yet stopped at the last moment.
"Ah, there you are! We've been waiting for you. Come in, come in!"
Just as he had given up and took a step back up the stairs, a booming voice echoed from the room. With a loud, metalic groan, the doors slowly swung inwards, opening a path. He froze, considering his options. Whoever was in there had somehow remained sane, despite the rest of the town falling to the matango. Was there a colony of survivors? Or was it a trap? … Well if it was a trap, he was likely infested by the matango already. How much worse could things get? Steeling himself, Garret walked through the doors and carefully made his way down the hallway, hewn out of the bedrock.
The chamber in which he found himself, after traversing that damp and dripping path, was massive. Originally a natural cave, its walls had been chipped away to make room for a stunning array of pipes and other magical machinery. Soft hisses and rhythmic thumping echoed around, as they fulfilled… whatever their purpose was. In its center, a man-sized, green crystal lay, suspended in midair. The glow it emitted bathed the area with a soft green light, giving Garret just enough visibility to avoid the puddles and wires scattered around the floor. From it, adaptors feed into pipes that either connected to the myriad of machines, or descended into a gaping fissure below, the latter of which, periodically flashed with multicoloured lights. When he (carefully) crept to and peered over the edge, Garret saw what looked like a sea of raging storm clouds swirling between the jagged rock walls, crackling with red, green, yellow… all manner of different shades of lightning. The pipes descending from the crystal faded from view as they entered the magical tempest, obscured by the strange, electrified, clouds. Curious, Garret kicked a pebble over the edge, wondering how deep the chasm was. He never found out. When the stone reached the clouds, a shot of blue lighting arced out and shattered it with a resounding 'crack'.
"Please refrain from touching things. The equipment is quite delicate, and I don't think you want to find out what happens if a human falls in there."
Something told him it was nothing good. Backing away from the edge, Garret headed towards the voice, stepping over pipes and around the strange machines until he freed himself from the maze of industry.
"So, a fellow magician, eh? So good to have company, it's been too long! Welcome!"
When he found the man, Garret was treated to a sight that was impressive and disgusting in equal parts. The young and handsome looking wizard sat atop a mound of infested bodies – almost exclusively female. The matango at the top fawned over him, a pair clinging to his arms and occasionally running fingers through his long, black hair, or caressing his muscular chest. At his legs, another cluster of them had wrapped their arms around his waist and took turns servicing his prodigious erection, either by slurping at it, or occasionally pulling themselves up to mount it. Behind him, a final woman had draped herself over his shoulders, embracing him from the rear. Of course, that was only the top. The base of the mound held dozens of single, mushroom-women who, when they spotted him, reached their arms out, welcomingly, tempting him to join them. Garret made sure he kept a safe distance.
"What is this place?"
The man threw his arms wide, nearly knocking some of his partners over as he did.
"The source of the city mage works, and my grandest creation!"
Taking a moment to indulge in his own splendor, he gestured to the crystal and the machines laying around.
"It took me years to figure out how to suppress the surges and convert primal mana into usable energy, but now we can harvest the limitless power of the leyline nexus this city was built upon! Pure water and clean fire, supplied to every house, by my hand! No more water-borne diseases or smog-filled city! It's magnificent, isn't it?"
There was that word again. An unfamiliar word that Garret knew must bear some significance, but which he'd never heard before.
"It's certainly impressive... But what's a leyline?"
The man looked quizzically at Garret's confused expression.
"What, haven't you heard of them before? Leylines? The mystical strands of primal energy snaking across the world? The ones once thought to be the source of all magic?"
None of that rang any bells, and the man shrugged.
"Then maybe the knowledge was lost over the past hundred… wait, just how long has it been?! "
Distracted by the tangent, he made a gesture with his hand, and a glowing, magical, Rune-circle materialized, hovering in the air in front of him. After examining the symbols, the man recoiled, clearly shocked by just how much time had passed.
"Gods above… I'm an old man!"
"Well you don't look it, at least."
He smiled at Garret's remark.
"True, true. Ah, the wonders of demon energy. But wait! Sorry, we've gotten ahead of ourselves, haven't we? I'm Aleksy Grom."
Aleksy extended his hand, but Garret didn't take it. No way was he going anywhere closer to, or climbing up, that pile of mushrooms.
"Garret Fax."
"And you're here to…?"
"I'm investigating the barrier. It's unlike anything I've ever seen."
A half truth. Investigation was the first step, but Garret didn't think revealing that he wanted to deactivate it was the greatest idea… though hiding that from Aleksy didn't do much good. He furrowed his brow when he heard this response.
"Really? Hmm… I'd have thought you were here to destroy it. You brought a team of five other people and somehow managed to get them all through the barrier. The Order is the only place you'd find wizards of that caliber. …I think you're here to clear the way for an invasion."
He smirked at the startled look that flashed across Garret's face.
"Am I close?"
"How did you-"
He gestured to the monsters surrounding him.
"I've worked my scrying into the fungal network beneath the city. I can feel anything that happens within its walls… speaking of which, thank you for not killing my matango. I thought you'd attack them the minute you found them, but you held off. You're not as fanatical as the soldiers of my time, so maybe we can make a deal…"
There was no way he was working with an incubus, but Garret feigned interest anyways. If nothing else, it would get him more information.
"What kind of deal?"
"I'm not stupid. I know The Order wouldn't be this deep in the demon realm if they didn't have a hero with them, and I have no confidence in my barrier holding it divine energy gets involved. … But they're not stupid either. If the army around them were… incapacitated,… perhaps by a Matango infestation within their ranks, they'd pull back. I want you to plant that seed."
Garret crossed his arms, trying to hide his true feelings.
"And what's in it for me?"
Aleksy smiled, pleased at not being outright rejected.
"You've been breathing spores for a while now, there's no way you haven't been infected. I offer you protection. You know as well as I do that you have no future with The Order, an infestation is incurable. If they're smart, they'll kill you immediately. If they're not, they'll wait until symptoms show, then kill you. … But if you side with me and resolve that 'army' problem without getting any of my matango killed, I'll let you come back. You can shelter behind the barrier, find a nice girl… live your life here in peace and safety for what some might call 'forever'. … Again, though, I emphasize: the monsters here must not be harmed."
"You're oddly protective of them."
"I am. I put them here, it's my responsibility to take care of them."
When he heard that, Garret couldn't quite manage to hide his shock and anger. A betrayer! If the infestation in this city originated from him, then he was responsible for the deaths of an entire town! Catching Garret's expression, Aleksy addressed it.
"I make no excuses for what I've done, Garret, but trust me when I say this was all for the good of the city. I wanted to help Hafe's citizens, and I did. Now, I just have to protect them fr-"
He'd heard enough. The second Aleksy took his eyes off him, Garret interrupted his monologue with spell. Fire! He hurled a blast of flame, focusing the magic to speed it towards its target at a blistering pace. Aleksy didn't have time to react, so quick was its flight, but as expected from an accomplished wizard, he didn't have to. A foot from him, the fireball ground to a halt as it impacted with, then was enveloped by, a ward. Much like the one at the top of the tower, this one redirected the spell as a blast of force, though this time, Garret was ready for it. He saw the disruption in the air and twisted to the side, barely fast enough to avoid the magical onslaught. The initial attack foiled, Aleksy glared at Garret, a burning hatred in his eyes, and he finished the sentence he had been so rudely interrupted in.
"… from people like you."
With that, he started voicing incantations, Garret reached for his magic again, and the battle between mages began in earnest.
Fire. Force. Magic. The crackle and rush of fireballs, the concussions from force blasts,… the walls of the cavern reverberated with the sounds of combat as Garret and Aleksy flung spells at each other. Magical rune-circles illuminated the area with their soft blue light as they materialized in the air, exploding into omnidirectional force blasts a split second later. From amongst the machinery, flashes of Garret's fire cast harsh shadows across the ground as he scrambled over pipes and pumps, using them as cover from his enemy's assault. Unlike Aleksy, whose wards meant he didn't need to worry about dodging, Garret was spending nearly as much energy running as he was casting spells. Thankfully, the cover here was plentiful, and the speed at which a sorcerer could cast meant that even when he was caught in the open, he could usually toss a quick bolt of fire into any rune-circle that assaulted him, dispelling it before it could be triggered. On the defense, he was doing well. He'd been hit once by an unexpected blast, which tossed him across the room, but had managed to tumble when he hit the ground, avoiding serious injury. The problem was, so was Aleksy… Despite the explosions of fire impacting against the barrier, his wards showed no sign of weakening, and as an incubus, he had far more energy at his disposal than Garret.
There were ways you could fight wards to make them expend more energy and gain the upper hand. Many small spells were harder to defend against than a single large one, as were rapid impacts from different directions. In theory, if you focused on these weaknesses, you could exhaust a warded spellcaster's energy much faster… but that was just theory, and it didn't seem to take into account the changes made to an incubus' body. As Garret fought, he tried every trick in the book to get an edge. He splintered flaming spears into as many fragments as he could reliably direct, blasting them into the ward simultaneously (and then diving to the side to avoid the blast of counter-fire). He tried altering trajectories, so his blasts would impact on opposite sides of Aleksy. He tried detonating his spells early, so that the ward would have to shield against an entire explosion rather than just a single point of impact. Even just one of these tactics should have given him an edge against a stationary enemy, but in this battle, they did absolutely nothing. He was rapidly running out of strength, and his opponent didn't look even the slightest bit tired.
Sensing he was gaining the advantage, Aleksy intensified his bombardment of spells, his hands becoming a blur as he signed arcane gestures and chanted his incantations. Blast after blast detonated, sending an overwhelmed Garret sprinting from cover to cover, trying to outrun the assault. As fatigue crept up on him, though, his movements became increasingly sluggish. An explosion that he was a half second too slow for, tossed him against a pipe, driving the air from his lungs. He gasped and tried to crawl away, narrowly avoiding a follow-up blast, but by now he was moving too slowly to reliably dodge the increasingly frequent spells. A hither-to unnoticed circle exploded near him, sending him tumbling through the air and landing in a crumpled heap.
"Sorry, Garret, but you're the only one who's moving around here. I need your help, and you're going to give it to me, whether you like it or not."
As he tried to push himself to his feet, Garret suddenly felt another spell take hold. This time, rather than exploding, invisible bands of forced wrapped around his arms and legs, pulling him across the ground, towards the mound of matango. He struggled, twisted, turned, and even using a bolt of fire to try and disrupt it, but to no avail. All he succeeded in doing was bruise and burn himself as he was drug across the floor.
"You'll understand once you're an incubus that this was the best way. Girls, why don't you show him while you're having your fun?"
Suddenly he was tossed airborne, then thrust into the pile. His head landed on the sizable chest of one of the mage-matango, and before he had a chance to react, she'd wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly and trapping him in her cleavage. Captured like this, he felt numerous other bodies descend upon him, as the mamono clung to him, leaving him pinned between a bed of soft mycelium and a tangle of spongy flesh. With what little strength remained, he jerked and bucked, getting an arm free and trying to elbow his way out, but just as he began to make progress, the mage-matango loosened her grip. She gave him just enough room to let him raise his head, then blew a cloud of glowing, blue-green spores directly into his face. Suddenly, pulses of strange colours began to obscure his vision, and the world appeared to warp as the fight went out of Garret.
Before he completely lost himself to the hallucinations, Garret caught one last look at Aleksy. The man's 'partners' were attending to him, wiping the sweat from his brow which, evidently, had not been the product of exertion, but from how intently he'd been focusing. Too late, Garret realized he'd been fighting all wrong. He couldn't win through traditional means like exhaustion, he had to do something different. He had to break the man's concentration. As for how to do that,… well… now that he was nestled among them, he felt a hint at his answer. The matango didn't have wards.
Author's Note: Lets talk about reviews! Thank you so much for your feedback, especially the criticism. I think I've said this before, but a huge part of why I'm doing this fic is to get better at writing and storycraft. I can't get better if no one tells me what I suck at, so thank you for your inputs.
The Order being OP is intentional and actually is going to be something that will come up as a plot point in the third act (which we'll be entering in a few chapters). It is going to get dialed back a bit in the coming chapters, however, so hopefully that'll help this shortcoming.,
The lack of interesting stuff happening with monsters… I'll try to do better about that in the future. This is the problem with doing a human-centric story in the MGE universe. Most people are here for the monsters, but it's difficult to have them always doing interesting things when your primary interaction with them is combat. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll see what I can do in later chapters, but, well, no promises. I've got a pretty strict outline for how this story is going to go, and I'm not sure how much leeway I have to deviate without stretching it to like 50 chapters. Already this story (and even this chapter!) is too verbose and I'm trying to figure out ways to cut it down while still keeping my intentions of doing some exploration of the world intact.
On the topic of verbosity, this chapter is massive for what events actually happened. I was trying to describe enough environmental clues such that an attentive reader with knowledge of the MGE could guess what was going to happen before Garret figured it out. The downside of this is that I'm worried about having written too many long descriptions which, unless you were really in the mindset of trying to piece everything together in advance, lots of people might find boring. This was another experiment to see what I could do with my writing. If people liked it, great. If not, call me an idiot in the reviews or something and I'll try to condense things once I get to the next big plot point.
As for the monsters, I unironically love matango. Their design, their lore, it's all fantastic. Horrifying, yes, but interesting. The only problem is, it's difficult to do stuff with them as characters, since they basically just sit there and fuck you, lazily. I've got a few ideas for how to mix this up, but who knows how successful they'll be.
Alright, that's all I've got. Hope y'all enjoyed what I wrote, and…
Until next time, Sayonara!