Day 25 / Progress
With the town clear, the soldiers of The Order found themselves with several days of free time to rest and recover while they waited for a new directive. Their sergeants ensured they made good use of it, by having them scavenge the town's food and practice light weapon drills during the day, but never assigned them anything too strenuous. During their training sessions, Garret often found himself facing Eric in sword-on-sword or when grappling, a competition the two thoroughly enjoyed. By the end of their break, he was starting to feel quite comfortable using a blade as a secondary weapon. During the evenings, Eric and Aisha seemed to have made it a goal to finish their looted alcohol before they were forced to abandon it, leading to some rowdy nights of drinking. After two days, though, it became clear that even with Garret and Annika's help, they wouldn't succeed, so he started inviting other soldiers to join them. One of these nights, Garret spotted Nathan and offered for him to come. The man, in contrast to his previous, cheerful mood, had a somber air about him and quietly declined.
"Thanks, Garret, but I don't feel like drinking tonight. "
His change in demeanor surprised Garret and reminded him of Catherine's behavior before she… disappeared. Needless to say, he was not about to let that happen again, so when the man turned to leave, Garret caught him by the arm.
"Are you ok, Nathan?"
The man nodded and flashed a grin, his cheerful attitude quickly returning. "One hundred percent! Sorry, I'm just pretty tired. Been practicing spells."
When Garret didn't look convinced, he waved a hand to brush off his concern. "Look, I'm fine. No demon energy in me, no strange poisons, nothing. I just overdid myself, that's all."
If anything, the man's insistence just made Garret more suspicious, but eventually he let it go. "If you're sure."
"Garret, relax. I'm fine."
Day 30
Eventually, their respite came to an end. One of the wizards attached to their officers received a scroll of orders via teleportation and by the next day they were moving out again. There were more monsters in the plains than expected, and the border guards were getting bogged down, trying to move up. Thus it fell to them, apparently the best performing unit, to spread out and clear the small hamlets and prairie houses that dotted the plains. More accurate charts were quickly drawn up, and groups of four to eight soldiers were dispatched to deal with the settlements.
As part of one of the smaller groups, Garret and Annika had the safer assignment, but a lot more ground to cover. A ranger and spellsinger had been attached to them, and together they were to clear a bunch of farmhouses, leaving the hamlets to the larger groups. With only one incubus, and one monster (maybe two if the man's love life was particularly scandalous) expected per house, the assignment wasn't too dangerous for them. Perhaps because of that, they had been given a dozen different houses to clear as opposed to one or two hamlets for the larger groups. They had a lot of walking ahead of them…
Like usual, the spellsinger's songs kept them moving at a rapid pace and combatted their fatigue, so despite Garrett's tenancy to complain whenever he had to march, it really wasn't that bad. As they jogged through the fog-covered plains under the orange light of the morning, he couldn't help but admire the scenery. Sure, it was just grass as far as the eye could see, but it felt peaceful. Calming. And it gave him a lot of time to think about how he would solve his conflict with Annika.
During their down time, when Garret could stomach it, they had debated at length the problem of what to do with monster children. While both made good points and begrudgingly acknowledged that the other had logic to their arguments, neither had been convinced to change their view. Friction was inevitable. He wasn't going to back down, and she wasn't going to either, but they were partners and loved each other… there had to be some sort of way to compromise.
When they crested a hill, they spotted a little, wooden house, with a small, tilled field beside it; Their first target. Being farmers, the incubus husband and his lesser succubus wife were already awake and hard at work, tending to their crops. Everyone dropped low and the spellsinger fell silent as they began to slowly creep through the grass. Engrossed in their work as they were, the monsters didn't notice their approach until an arrow embedded itself in the succubus' chest, followed quickly by another. The ranger cursed, having missed the headshot he was aiming for, and everyone stood up and broke into a sprint. His wife's shriek caused the incubus to look up, quickly spotting the charging soldiers. Unlike the incubi in the town, he was unarmed, but that didn't stop him from running towards his wife, his 'love' no doubt preventing him from leaving her behind. Crops and tilled soil were trampled as the man sprinted across the field. Transformed as he was, he was much faster than your average human, but had been caught off guard, with the soldiers having a head start. They reached the body at around the same time, which went about as well as you'd expect for an unarmed man facing a foot soldier and ranger. After quickly making sure they were dead, the ranger pointed to the house.
"Why don't you guys clear that? I can't use a bow inside."
Garret and Annika nodded in unison and headed for the door.
The interior of the house was basically what you'd expect a typical farmhouse to look like. Lots of homemade decorations, worn wooden furniture, and only two rooms besides the kitchen. Clearly no one was going to be in the common area this time of morning, so they quickly headed for the bedroom. Inside there, they found exactly what both Garret and Annika had been hoping to avoid. The double bed held a snoring succubus girl, evidently enough of a heavy sleeper that the screams outside hadn't woken her.
"Garret!"
Annika immediately grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around, about to argue with him. To her surprise he shrugged and said.
"The house is clear, right?"
Her expression quickly morphed into one of confusion. Why was Garret playing by her rules now, without objection? His next words quickly clarified his stance.
"We alternate. This one is your house. I'll get the next one."
"Garret, I don't-"
"Do you want to race instead?"
Annika shook her head, unwilling to physically harm her partner to stop him, but knowing that, without armour, he would always be able to sprint faster.
"Could flip a coin."
"Garret this is… This is totally fucked up. We're leaving the lives of children to a coin flip, or to luck of alternating?"
He nodded, then raised a finger.
"Can you think of a better solution, Annika? I won't let them all go, and you don't want me to kill them. We compromise."
Annika initially shook her head but, after realizing it would probably be the only way to get some of what she wanted without destroying their relationship, reluctantly acquiesced. She hated herself for being this selfish, but she didn't want to lose him… even at the cost of a few children.
"Fine… We alternate."
On the way out the door, she grabbed a few sheets of parchment off a writing desk, along with a block of charcoal. She quickly scribbled "Clear" on the front of one of them, then flipped it over and wrote directions for how to escape on the back. Once outside, she pinned it over the door's window, hoping that the girl inside would see it, while dissuading other Order soldiers from searching the house again.
"All clear in there?"
"Yup, not a monster in sight."
As the spellsinger started her song again and the ranger began to march, Garret whispered something to Annika.
"You know the chances of her making it to the border are slim, right?"
She nodded.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that we gave her the chance."
"We probably just made an enemy for life, now that she knows The Order killed her parents."
"That's her choice to make. If she wants to waste her life on revenge, she can."
The discussion was about to turn into another ethics debate, so Garret let the issue drop. If nothing else, at least this made their working relationship less confrontational.
The next house was a similar fair, with a monster girl and husband working outside, though this time there were no kids indoors. It didn't seem like that was for lack of trying, mind you, there was a cradle that looked recently built with unused sheets folded in it in the bedroom, but it seemed that the happy 'couple' hadn't managed to fill it yet. Annika let out a sigh of relief once they found this out, before turning to Garret.
"This was your house. Next one is mine." She insisted, unnecessarily. Garret knew better than to try and weasel out of their deal by claiming 'no children doesn't count'.
A half hour later they arrived at a sod house, built into one of the small, rolling hills. The field outside looked like it had just been expanded, but there was only a single incubus working it. The ranger landed his headshot this time, and they proceeded into the house without incident. Inside, they found the whereabouts of the mamono wife. In the bedroom, a holstaur was breastfeeding an infant child. She scrambled backwards on the bed, clutching the kid to her, and shrieking from the fright of two soldiers kicking open the front door. Damn. Their comrades outside would have definitely heard that…
Garret conjured a quick ball of flame, while Annika leapt at them and forcefully covered both their mouths.
"Garret, you said-"
He let the fireball explode harmlessly against the wall with a loud bang, then brought his sword down on an imaginary enemy with a battle cry. The mamono seemed to understand what he was trying to do and bit her tongue to avoid whimpering.
"Listen, we're not going to hurt you, but you've got to leave. Wait a few minutes and run. If you make it across the border, you'll be safe."
The holstaur still looked terrified but nodded and let out a shaky 'thank you'. Garret hoped they'd be long gone before she realized what their presence meant for her husband. When they were back on the road, Annika tapped Garret on the shoulder and whispered her thanks in his ear. That had been Annika's house, and while the presence of a non-child monster meant technically, he'd be allowed to kill her, he knew there was no way the baby would survive more than a day without its mother. Annika would take issue with that.
"No problem. Just remember our deal…"
With three houses down, the group paused for a moment to catch their breath and eat lunch. Garret and Annika took the opportunity to perch themselves on the top of one of the hills, surveying the area. The sun was rising now, burning away the mist and illuminating the plains.
"Very pretty, eh?"
"Yeah… Not like the glaciers of Northreach. It's just a sea of green out there."
Annika chuckled at this.
"Very observant. Surely the name 'The Green Sea Plains' didn't give away any of that."
He laughed back at her good-natured teasing.
"Heh, I suppose."
She slung an arm around him and pulled him close.
"Sorry about what I make you do, Annika… But places like this are what we're trying to protect."
"I know you mean well, Garret, you aren't doing this out of sadism. …But I wish we saw eye to eye on this."
The fourth house was surprisingly large for a prairie house but had no one outside. The ranger and their spellsinger looked around suspiciously, suspecting an ambush, before deciding to hang back and cover the entrance to the house. Garret and Annika approached the front door slowly and cautiously. Every little sway of grass set them twitching. Were the monsters hiding in the field too? Or were they all still asleep? Had the holstaur they let go earlier warned them? Were they walking into a trap? The only way to find out was to slowly open the door.
The inside was more spacious than the previous houses they'd searched, with an additional room and a bit more furniture. Must belong to a 'lucky' man who found himself two 'wives'… They searched the inside, looking under the bed, inside closets, and behind chairs, but found no one. All the monster's belongings were here, though, so Garret doubted they'd fled or even left the premises. A flashback to the barracks reminded him of where to look. In the kitchen, 'hidden' under a sloppily thrown rug was a hatch to one of those basement cellars. When Annika pried it open, there was a shriek, followed by hushing.
"No, don't worry! It's them! They'll let us go, just quiet down before anyone else hears us!"
Garret peered over the hole and saw a kikimora, a kobold, their 'husband', and the holstaur (complete with baby) from before. He sighed and Annika let out a quiet "Oh no…". Then he ignited a fireball and cast it down at them.
"You had your chance to run…"
Relieved expressions turned to ones of horror as Garret threw fireball after fireball at them, the explosions amplified by the earthen walls containing them. Suddenly his vision flickered, and he heard the screams of children, before finding himself staring at the burnt remains of his victims back in the barracks. The flashback only lasted a second, but it was enough to cause him to stagger and bile to rise in his throat.
"Garret…"
"It's like we agreed, Annika… Every second house."
He looked down the hole again to see if anyone had survived, but only charred corpses returned his gaze. Seeing the corpse of the baby made his stomach churn, and he quickly had to avert his eyes. They're just monsters, Garret. Just monsters. You're fine.
The fifth house was home to a minotaur and her husband, with a pair of children playing in the common room. Fortunately, they didn't have to witness their parent's deaths outside, and Annika made sure they knew to wait until they left before trying to flee.
The sixth house was home to the lively family of weresheep. Unfortunately for them, their wool was highly flammable – a property Garret had no problems exploiting when he burned their triplets to death. Like usual, Annika didn't say much and left without a word after the job was done. When he was alone, Garret slumped against the wall and took a minute to collect himself. Just monsters. They were just monsters. It didn't matter that they looked, walked and talked like us, they were evil to the core. This was the moral thing to do. …Right?
Annika spared the children of the seventh house, and Garret used his sword to kill the baby they found in the eighth. In the ninth, they didn't find any children, but in the tenth, Garret lost his nerve. As they approached the house after killing the adults outside, they heard the shriek of a child. The scream caused Garret to stop in his tracks, and the faces of those he had killed rapidly flashed through his mind. No… No, pull yourself together, Garret. It has to be done! He stepped through the threshold and conjured a fireball… or at least, tried to. His thoughts kept drifting, and muffled, imagined screams echoed within his mind. Unable to concentrate, his fireball flickered weakly before extinguishing itself. With no other option, he ran through the kid with his sword, but, when she fell backwards, let the blade fall with her. He couldn't bring himself to pull it out, and quickly fled the house.
When his 'turn' came again for the twelfth and final house, with no sword and unstable emotions disrupting his casting, he shook his head and stood aside.
"You can have this one, Annika."
His partner looked surprised, but nodded and headed in. A few minutes later, she came out and signaled that the house was clear.
"You don't have to do this, Garret, I know it bothers you too."
When they were alone in their tent, back at the village, Annika brought up his hesitation on the last mission. He shook his head at her assertation, though. A soldier was strong. A soldier didn't have doubts. A soldier did what needed to be done. He couldn't let himself feel these things.
"No, it doesn't bother me… I'm fine. It's the right thing to do."
"Garret, I saw you shaking. You even left your sword behind."
She paused, waiting for him to respond, but he didn't. Garret kept staring at the floor, trying to shove away dangerous thoughts. Just monsters. They're just monsters…
"Come on, Garret, talk to me."
She stepped closer and put a hand on his arm. He flinched when she touched him and brushed her hand away.
"There's nothing to talk about, Annika. I'm fine."
He shook his head again, then kicked off his boots and laid down in bed. No weakness, Garret. You're strong. You can handle it. You're fine. … But was he really? After a moment of silence, he spoke again in a voice so quiet that Annika barely realized he was speaking at all. She was his partner and his lover. Maybe he had to be strong, but maybe… just maybe he could be allowed to open up a bit to her.
"… I just wish… I wish they didn't look like us… Some of them almost looked like a happy family…"
But they weren't a happy family! They were monsters! The husband was only there because he had been transformed, their children, only because of their mother's instinctive desire for unprotected sex. There was no family structure there, no true devotion. When he tried to sleep, nightmares kept waking him, horrible visions of half-burnt children repeating a single question over and over again: "Why?". He hardened his heart and steeled his mind, repeating this to himself over and over again. Their appearances were nothing more than psychological warfare – something to make The Order's soldiers less likely to do what needed to be done. It was all just one big illusion, right? There was no way this could be evil, right? Of course not. This was what was commanded of him by the Chief God, a flawless being of perfect morality! If he kept following her orders, he'd be ok. She'd reward him for this. Everything would be fine… right? Despite trying to convince himself of this, though, his sleep remained as fitful as ever. Maybe the nightmares would leave him once the campaign was over. He prayed that day would come soon… At least he didn't wake Annika this time, he didn't want to bother her with this.
Day 31
"Good job, everyone, the way for the border guards is clear now. The other battle groups managed to take their towns as well, so we can move to reform the crusade. Pack your stuff, I want us marching before noon."
Early next morning, their officers called the troops to formation and delivered that order. Apparently, everything had gone off without a hitch. Then, they dismissed the soldiers, sending everyone scrambling to pack. True to their timetable, they (barely) managed to get underway before noon, though regrettably, that meant they were forced to eat their only partially palatable dry rations for lunch - the cooking tents were long-since dismantled. As usual, the magic of the spellsingers kept them marching at a rapid pace once they set off, though it still took two days to reach their rendezvous point.
At the end of the second day, they crested a hill and saw a grand forest laid out before them, with an equally grand mass of soldiers camped out at its edge. Hundreds of tents were lined up in the shade of enormous trees that towered into the sky, and scores of watch fires dotted the camp's perimeter where guards patrolled to keep the crusaders safe from ambush. Made sense… the forest, while beautifully lush and almost supernaturally tall, provided a near unlimited number of hiding spots for potential ambushers.
"Beautiful."
Beside him, Annika admired the immense forest, but Garret was stuck thinking of what could be lurking in the shadows. It wasn't like the forest the alraune were in, these trees were big enough that whole forts could be built into the canopy. Elves, Mantes, Dryads, all manner of tree-dwelling mamono no doubt awaited them…
"Psst! Hey! Hey Annika!"
While they were milling around after setting up their tent, an extremely cheerful looking Aisha ran up to them and thrust a beautiful, white-glowing flower into Annika's hands.
"This is for you!"
In her own hat, her usual large feather plume had been likewise replaced with a particularly large bloom.
"Oh, it's so pretty! Thank you, Aisha! Where'd ya find it?"
"I think it would be easier to show you. Come, come! Eric and I found a whole clearing of them when we were patrolling."
Annika looked at Garret, who shrugged and decided to join them. It was getting dark and would no doubt be dangerous to leave the camp, but since it seemed a certain girl was set on it, he'd rather they have a mage along with them.
After about ten minutes of pushing through underbrush, they arrived at the flower patch their friends had found. Apparently, their excursion wasn't going to be nearly as dangerous as Garret first thought. Eric was waiting for them, as were a handful of other soldiers, all silently watching from the edge of the tree line. It seemed a few ranger pairs had shown up too.
In front of them, the entire clearing was full of the luminescent, white flowers that basked them in a gentle, glowing radiance. Above the plants, clusters of fireflies danced and darted, their speckles adding to the beauty of the scene.
"Wow…"
Even Garret was impressed by the spectacle. He'd never seen flowers like this before. A couple fireflies darted close to him and he held out his hand experimentally. A few seconds later, he felt something land in it, the tell-tale yellow glow coming a moment later, revealing what it was. As the little bug crawled around his hand, Garret couldn't help but chuckle at the strangeness of the name. 'Firefly'. It really produced nothing like his fire, why not 'glowfly' or something?
"Whatchya got there, Garret?"
Annika spotted him holding his hand out and walked over. The bug lit up again as it crawled around.
"Aww, cute! I think it likes you."
"Heh, yeah, well that's enough of that." Garret smiled and shook his hand, causing it to fly off. "It's a beautiful place though, isn't it?"
"Mhmm…"
She edged a bit closer to him. Around the clearing, he couldn't help but notice other couples taking advantage of the atmosphere to cuddle or kiss in the dim light of the flowers. Though his pride would never let him admit it, the ambience even had him feeling a bit romantic.
"Hey, Annika…"
"Yes, Garret?"
"Thanks for… Thanks for staying with me."
He turned towards her, as she looked at him, the glow casting soft shadows across her face. He paused a moment, then pulled her into his embrace. She returned it, hugging him back tightly. Sensing her approval, he moved in for a deep kiss. Even if they disagreed, even if they fought, he wanted to show her that he loved her and that that would never change. The passion with which she kissed him back told him that she was of similar mind, putting him at ease. When they finished, they sat against a tree, arm in arm, just enjoying each other's warmth as they gazed over the flowers.
"I love you, Annika."
"Love ya too, Garret."
He smiled and squeezed her against him affectionately. With her in his arms like this, his troubles seemed to fade. So long as she was by his side, maybe, just maybe, he'd be ok.
The campaign into the forest turned out to be both better and worse than what Garret had been expecting. There were the occasional pitched battles against tribes of mamono, particularly groups of corrupted elves, but they weren't nearly as intense as the one they fought in the town. The fact that the full strength of the crusade was crashing through the forest helped matters too. They had spread out to cover a larger range, similar to how they acted on the plains, but no matter where you were, there were always a dozen or two soldiers within view, ready to run through the underbrush to help if you were attacked. Whenever a particularly tough pocket of resistance was met, the crusade would flow around and envelope them from all sides, snuffing the lives of those who stood in its path. That part was far more successful than Garret had dared hope. The problematic part was that he hadn't quite expected the sheer intensity of the guerrilla warfare that got waged against them. Snares were set that, if you didn't notice them, would yank you high into the canopy in a split-second to be kidnapped by monsters lurking above. At night, stealthy raids on their camps were a constant occurrence, with the mamono often managing to steal one or two men before The Order could organize to hunt them down. The retrieval rate was also abysmally low for those who were dragged away. With so many hiding spots and such dense underbrush, the mamono just melted into the vegetation with their future 'husbands'.
Garret himself almost fell prey to this form of warfare. At one point, during the night, he had left his tent to relieve himself. As a courtesy to his fellow soldiers, he ended up leaving the camp, which proved to be a mistake. Getting out and doing the deed was uneventful, but when he looked up on his way back, he saw an enormous, feathered shape gliding silently towards him. He immediately shouted and conjured a pair of flaming spears, bracing himself to fight, but when she realized her ambush was ruined, the owl-girl quickly fucked off and fled high into the canopy. That little event scared him enough, though, to prevent him from leaving their well-lit military camps when it was dark for the remainder of their time in the forest.
Despite the troubles with the ambushes and traps, though, the crusade was still winning. Against a smaller force, they might have gotten worn down in a battle of attrition, but, though Garret hated to say it, they had enough soldiers that these casualties just didn't matter. It was scary as hell for an individual and terrible for moral, but the officers and priests managed to hold them together. The sheer number of bodies they had meant that even if they lost more than ten a night, there would be almost no impact on their actual combat effectiveness. The only thing that slowed them noticeably was when they came across areas under dryad protection.
Dryads… They were a far bigger problem than The Order had anticipated. Sure, they mostly lived within trees and rarely came outside, but, when fully grown, their trees were absolutely immense. The army, for all its numbers, had no means of felling them, short of stopping for a day or two to dedicate itself to that one, single task – a delay they could not afford when they were under constant attack. One of the officers approached Garret and the other mages to see if they couldn't burn it, but they just laughed.
"Sorry, sir, but have you ever seen someone light a bonfire? You need tinder for days, and lots of dry wood. That tree is going to be anything but dry, and with a dryad tending to it, we'd have to soak it in oil and expend all our energy just to get something started. Even then, it might not take!"
One of the more talkative mages put that suggestion to rest – something Garret was thankful for. A tree seven meters in diameter was not easy to burn by any means. Instead, they just marked the locations of suspected dryads on the map and resolved to send dedicated teams to them after, once they had recaptured their land.
They spent far too many days in that beautiful and terrifying forest for Garrett's liking. For every flowering grove or scenic clearing they found, they had two or more nights of terror, watching, waiting, and wondering if they were going to be the next soldiers to disappear. The attacks became less and less frequent, though, as the days went on. By the end of the second week of sweeping through the forest, only a few soldiers were being lost each day, and by the end of the third, that number was reduced to one or two. It seemed they'd either killed or driven off the majority of the monsters in the area. That just left the mountains…
When the powers that be declared the forest to be sufficiently safe (there was no way to root out every mamono in a timely manner), they pitched their camp near its edge. One day was given to rest, after weeks of bushwhacking, they needed it, and two more were given to prepare for the next phase of their plan. The supply wagons were reorganized, and soldiers were gathered into small groups to review the basics of mountain warfare. Always watch above and below you, stay away from edges, watch out for rockslides, etc. As someone who hailed from a mountainous, northern country, most of it was already well known to Garret, though he did pay attention when they discussed formations for fighting. While the 'survival' part of their instructions seemed like common sense, battle tactics were always useful. Surprisingly, they even caught a few glimpses of their hero, Lukas, during this time. He checked the status of their preparations in person as he distributed his orders to the other officers.
Day 56
"Mornin', Gents. Ladies. Let's get started." Early in the morning of the fourth day, the battle groups assembled, and their respective officers and sergeants briefed them on the task ahead. The mountains had been surveyed before the monsters took over, and only a small section had been deemed suitable for habitation – either by humans or mamono. The rest, while they might have the occasional cave, were too rocky, too step or too barren for any significant populations to set up shop. That meant they'd only have a relatively small area to sweep – a godsend if the plans Garret overheard were anything to go by. The difficult terrain and the myriad caves they'd need to search meant that even this small section would take weeks to properly clear. Unfortunately, that probably meant every mountain dwelling monster was probably concentrated in that area, too…
"… So that's how it's going to be. A vanguard will push through the valleys and mountain roads, while the groups behind it will comb the mountains for caves and rout out any monsters they find. Having recognized our performance on the plains, our hero and his officers assigned us to be in the advance party. Any questions?"
Like usual, no one did. Their orders were pretty straightforward.
"Excellent. Then, everyone, stand at ease. We'll be moving out shortly."
"Careful… Don't be fallin' now."
Though they had been spared the tortures of having to climb an entire mountain, the Northreach battle group had been assigned to advance along some paths at higher elevations – narrow, winding roads that could barely be considered passable. When the wind picked up, the ranger leading Garret's squad urged caution as they crept along the edge of a cliff. On one side was sheer rock, on the other was a hundred-foot drop, and the path between them was treacherous and narrow. A rock gave away when Garret took a step forward, causing him to shout involuntarily as he stumbled towards the edge.
"Got ya!"
Just in time, Annika grabbed him by his collar and pulled him back. It took him a minute of pressing himself as hard as he could against the stone wall for Garret to get his nerve back, but once he did, he nodded his thanks and continued creeping forward. Above (and below) them, other squads from their battle group moved along parallel paths, the ones above them occasionally showering them with rocks when someone's footing slipped. Fortunately, the monsters left them alone here.
When the terrain flattened out a little and became less dangerous, though, the battles began in earnest. With commanding views of the entire valley from these mountains, it was impossible for the crusade to remain hidden. The monsters were ready for them. Goblins skittered across rocks, lunging at soldiers from all sorts of odd angles, and orcs, in numbers far greater than what they saw in town, swarmed out from caves. Their numbers aside, though, these lesser mamono weren't too much of a problem. The truly scary parts were when oni and ogres joined the fight.
For ferocious monsters, they showed a surprising amount of restraint, refraining from sending men flying off the cliffs with swings of their clubs, despite being more than capable of doing so. When a man (or woman) was not in danger of falling, though, they showed no mercy, pummeling aside all defenses with their immense strength and shrugging off attacks, before grabbing their chosen quarry and dragging them away. The more lustful of their number didn't even leave the battle entirely. Ogres had the particularly unpleasant tendency to drag their men behind a rock for cover, rip their armour off with their bare hands, and mount them on the spot. They'd ride their men until exhaustion which, given their ferocious demeanor, didn't take long, before jumping right back into the fight to find another. In such a way, the monsters here followed the traditional expectation of not killing humans, only corrupting or kidnapping them.
The one saving grace to this was that the powerful mamono were few in number. Orcs and goblins were plentiful, but undisciplined – proper formation fighting could fend off or slay them, but if there had been more than a handful of Oni or Ogres present, they would have been in huge trouble. Instead, they slowly wore down their opponents. A cut here, a gash there, the occasional arrow piercing or spell-burn… none of these would stop a rampaging Oni on their own, but over time they built up, taking their toll and weakening them enough for the humans to eventually land killing blows. Slowly but surely, the soldiers pushed them back.
The battle was not without its cost, though. While there were almost no fatalities caused by desperate monsters defending families, there were a lot of non-lethal casualties. The men captured, even once retrieved, were in no shape to return to combat, having been battered and bruised by the not-so-tender ministrations of their assailants. The women, likewise, needed to be rushed to priests to prevent them from turning, taking them out of the fight. Others, by nature of what a massive club tended to do when it hit the body, were wounded or concussed. There was only so much their armour could do to soften said blows. That was how Garret ended up fighting on his own.
When their squad advanced over some uneven terrain, a high orc leapt at them from a ridge above. She swept the flat of her axe across the line with tremendous force sending several of them flying into a rock-wall with a loud crash. In response, Garret flashed his fire, burning a significant amount of energy on flame gouts and blazing spears. His magic wounded the monster and apparently convinced her that this squad was not worth her time. Rather than charge through the flames, and try to withstand the magical onslaught, she leapt away. Some other poor souls would have to deal with her. Unfortunately, though, the damage had already been done. Annika was dazed and confused, having struck her head rather badly, and two other swordsmen had broken bones. Though they still had enough people to be combat effective, the squad had to temporarily retreat and drag their wounded members to safety.
When they found shelter behind a crag, Garret helped his partner remove her helmet and check her condition. Her words were slurred, and she had a rather large welt on her head. She was probably going to need a priest to heal that concussion but was in no danger of dying on them.
"Are you going to be ok, Annika?"
"Yeah... I'm… I'll be… I'll be fine. Go."
Once he was sure she would be alright, he rejoined the rest of their squad and they headed back into the fray.
Several hours later, the crusade pushed on. Everyone was tired and bruised, but moral was high. The most intense fighting of the day was (hopefully) over, and once they reached the valley between the current and the next mountain, they'd be able to set up camp and get some much-needed rest. Here and there, small orc or goblin villages were discovered (then butchered), and occasionally a hungover oni who missed the initial fighting showed up, but that aside, the day's operations seemed to be winding down.
As part of the vanguard, Garret was one of the soldiers first to reach their objective. As they arrived, the individual squads of Northreach soldiers reformed their battle group and began to sweep through the brush-filled valley. Surprisingly, once off the mountain, they didn't encounter anymore monsters. The valley was completely empty… Strange. It was no matter, though, with their stopping point monster free, all they needed to do was advance a little way up the next mountain to secure their immediate surroundings, and they'd be done. Then he could finally rest and be reunited with Annika. When they advanced up the slope, though, they received an unpleasant reminder that the Mamono had no interest in making things easy for them.
"Rock slide!"
One of the soldiers spotted a stone crumbling and called the alert. Everyone scrambled to the side, avoiding it and the rush of earth that followed.
"Another one!"
Sure enough, just ahead of them another boulder fell, about to crush a soldier who hadn't moved fast enough. A flash of magic came from behind Garret, though, and it paused in mid-air, giving the man enough time to scramble out of the way and avoid a grisly fate. He looked back, wondering where that came from and saw Nathan a few paces away, hunched over and panting. Mentally, he took note of the man's work. He'd saved that soldier's life.
To their right, another boulder came tumbling down the mountainside, but wasn't close enough to them to be a danger. Three rock slides in the span of a few minutes, though? The soldiers looked around, bewildered. That wasn't normal, something was wrong here. Then they heard the skittering of many legs. From the spots where the rocks fell, cave entrances opened up and dozens of Arachne poured out from each of them.
"Retreat, retreat! Everyone, get the fuck back! Rangers, Mages, cover the soldiers!"
Seeing the ambush they had walked into, their sergeant shouted orders to them, trying to get his men to safety. Outnumbered and with mamono bearing down on them from all sides, they wouldn't stand a chance here.
"Look out! String!"
The monsters came to a stop, almost as one, and thrust their spinners forward, spraying thick shots of spider web over the fleeing soldiers. Garret quickly responded by throwing out blasts of fire as wide and as far as he could. He incinerated swaths of the falling thread, but there was only so much he could do… though he only needed weak blasts of fire, expanding them this much rapidly left him drained, and there was just so much of it. For every group he saved, another got caught in the thread and dragged away. Then, when he turned to help someone else, the people in the group he 'saved' got snared and dragged as well. The other mages tried to help, but force fields or energy rays, while better than nothing, were far less effective than dedicated flame magic. With this many monsters attacking at once, all they could do was delay the inevitable. Soon, Garret found himself alone and overextended, with everyone ahead of him captured, and everyone behind him having frantically scrambled away. Now the spiders only had one target in their immediate vicinity and both they and Garret knew it.
He turned to run, throwing blasts of fire as he did. He was almost out of energy, but he could still move! He scrambled over rocks as quickly as he could, pushing through his fatigue, not caring that the sharp stones tore up his hands. Thread fell around him and a piece landed on his shoulder. Before he could be reeled in, though, he managed to burn it and kept running. For a moment, he believed he could make it, but then he came to the edge of a short ledge and had to jump. In mid-air, he felt something wrap around his feet and yank them out from under him, causing him to tumble face first into the dirt. His head collided with a rock, hard, and the world went dark. The last thing he felt before completely passing out was the sensation of being dragged along the ground.
Author's Notes: See, I'm a man of my word. Firmly within the 1-2 month range, but updated none the less. Sorry about making you guys wait so long, I'm extremely busy. That's going to continue to be a thing for the foreseeable future, so I think this is how my update schedule is going to go from here on out. Damn, I was hoping to be able to stick to a 2-3 week turn around time when I first started this story, but that's clearly not going to happen. Anyways, enough of me complaining about my schedule, on to the commentary.
I didn't really have any sort of grand vision for this chapter, it was more of a utility one, moving the plot from point A to point B. I included the scenes of the house clearing because I wanted to continue to reinforce the idea that Garret is capable of doing a lot of terrible things if he thinks his orders/religion/philosophy justifies it, but that he isn't without second thoughts. Towards the last houses, as the weight of the children he's killed drags at his conscience, he has to fight himself to keep doing what he, intellectually, thinks is correct, but can't quite wholly believe. Sure, he 'knows' that monsters are evil and irredeemable (according to The Order), but... are they? On the surface, it certainly doesn't look like that. The other thing I wanted to do with this part of the chapter was to show how the conflict between Garret and Annika's philosophies got resolved... at least for now, and how Garret was not the only one forcing themselves to do something. Annika thinks of herself as a good person, and definitely doesn't want monster children to die, even if they are technically enemies, but her love for Garret pushes her to override that at least some of the time.
The battles that happen in this chapter aren't important to the overarching message and plot I have planned out for this story, so I skipped over most of them, giving a Wikipedia-style summary of what happened. They're important in that they occurred, and I thought were useful for doing a bit of world building (showing how battles might be fought in different environments), but really, the details don't matter too much. The only thing of importance was getting Garret away from Annika in preparation for the next chapter. If I gave them the same treatment as the village, we'd be here for years before I got the plot where I wanted it to be.
Ok, that's all I've got. Not too many big ideas to dissect, this chapter. I see we're about to crack 6,000 views, that's 6,000 moments of people's lives that I've wasted on shitty MGE fan fiction. What are you doing?! Go do something productive!
No, but seriously, though, thank you everyone for continuing to follow along, it's great to know people are enjoying this. Hate to leave y'all on a cliff hanger for the next 1-2 months, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Until next time, Sayonara!