Chapter 12:
Incense and Iron
Izuku was dreaming. As always, he dreamed of the comforts of home. Of cities with buildings of glass and steel reaching to the sky. Of hopeful and noble youth with visions of their future heroism with an optimistic glee filling their naive heads. A world with merciful heroes who fought not only to protect the innocent, but to restore the innocence to those who had lost it and fallen into villainy.
When he woke up it was to return to a world lacking all of that. The comforts of technology, like soft clothes and delicious food, was replaced by rags to wear and far too much meat. The hopeful and optimistic youth were replaced by quiet and despondent elders all around the camp. And those kind merciful heroes were replaced by strong, brutal warriors fighting against enemies incapable of mercy and undeserving of it in return.
Oh, how he missed the sanitary streets of Japan's cities, even as he became used to living among farm animals, including the horrifically smelling billy goats and chickens. And oh, how he missed the baked goods and hot drinks of vending machines. Instead, he was eating a plate of fish, cheese and eggs with enough protein to turn Stephan Hawking into Arnold Schwarzenegger overnight. And yet, he was as grateful for the meal as if it were mana from heaven.
With his belly full he started his day of helping out around the encampment.
He did his usual rounds of making arrows, working on the fence posts and loading Warriv's outgoing carriages or unloading the incoming ones. A quarter of a year doing this manual labor and eating little other than meat had turned his body into stone. Part of him thought he had way too much muscle mass for a twelve-year-old, as he was certain his birthday had passed during his stay but had no idea when. But a larger part of him liked the way he looked.
When there was nothing left to do for the day, he returned to the practice Isendra had assigned him. Electrocuting a sword in the ground with a five foot distance and inching further away as much as he could. By sundown he managed it from six whole feet away. It felt like slow progress, but Isendra corrected that notion.
"You are advancing far faster than I did." She said. "Then again, I did not have the advantage of your sensitivity to mana potions and had to wait much longer between practice sessions. In terms of actual practice time? I think we may be tied."
That actually did reassure him. He had so much catching-up to do that it was nice to know he was doing so quickly.
He went to bed expecting to dream of hot coffee and sweet donuts, but before the dreams could even begin, he was shaken awake. His confusion grew when there was nobody in his tent shaking him, and yet the shaking continued. It wasn't until the screaming started that his sleep-addled brain caught up to what was going on.
He flung the covers off of himself and ran through the open flap, eschewing armor in favor of remaining in his pajamas. Ash Bane was still propped against the side of his tent, and he snatched it up. His feet took him straight to the north side of camp where the telltale glow of fire lit up the night.
Kashya stood surrounded by twenty of her best archers, each firing the occasional arrows into the flaming hole in the north wall and he joined their defensive line.
Alexis filled him in.
"Some maniac strapped bottles of explosive potions to some feral carvers and had them sneak up to our defenses!" She explained. "Isendra and Flavie exited through the main entrance to try and take out any others that might be coming in from the east or west to take down the other walls with the same tactic."
The earth-shattering kaboom from the east told them that they had indeed planned to repeat the tactic with the other walls, and that Flavie or Isendra had stopped one. A similar kaboom soon followed from the west. The night was suddenly brighter from the new fires outside of the camp.
"Do not put out the fire." Kashya instructed from the center of the group. "It will slow their advance into the encampment, and with them forced into such a small gap we can take them out faster than they can advance."
It also cut off their vision of whatever enemies may be beyond the flames, and no sooner did he think this than one of the blue devils managed to charge through towards them into a hail of arrows.
"Preserve your arrows! Wait until you see them before shooting, and only at ones directly in front of you!" Kashya commanded. "And leave any large groupings to Izuku!"
He was already preparing a firebolt at the tip of Ash Bane as she said this, but it went uncast for several minutes as seldom few of the blue fallen made it through the gap and each was quickly mowed down by the archers. But soon the fire blocking their view cleared enough for them to see beyond the wall to the force they were up against.
"That's a lot of zombies." Izuku couldn't stop himself from saying aloud.
He wasn't the only one in the group to take a step back at the sight, just the only one to voice his fear aloud. But he and all of the archers stepped forward again and gritted their teeth.
"Izuku, you handle throwing fireballs into the throngs of undead. Leave any fallen or other threats to us." Kashya ordered.
Izuku obliged, hurling the patient firebolt forward and through the hole in the wall into a grouping of eight zombies just beyond. They exploded into a mist of bone and leathery flesh, down to their fingertips. But the many undead beyond shambled forward, unimpressed by the display of power. They lacked the ability to feel fear.
They entered the routine of battle. Izuku blew apart any groupings of zombies beyond the wall before they could approach, and the many fine women of the Rogues turned any fallen to pass through into pincushions, including one brave shaman that that kindly put out the fire for them with an icy gale before charging in and being fired upon by every single archer present.
The only time they changed up this routine was when an occasional skeleton, far faster than the zombies, charged through and Izuku rewarded it with an ice bolt to center mass.
The night dragged on like this, as the army of undead and demonic forces continued to come in from the north. It was to be a war of attrition, but not a very effective one. Izuku only needed to resort to a mana potion once during the slow combat. His natural mana recovery held him through for most of it. The fighting was so slow that he was even able to split his attention to the sounds of devastation and flashes of lightning to the east where Isendra was off fighting by herself. It sounded like she was handling things just fine, and no additional kabooms from suicide bomber carvers ever filled the night. It was nearly sunrise when the fighting finally stopped. By the dim light of dawn, they could see that the forces they were up against had dwindled to nearly nothing and Kashya sent out a handful of her own to pick off the remaining undead.
"The rest of you, spread out around the camp. Do a head count and estimate the damage." Kashya ordered. "Izuku, come with me."
They all abandoned the north wall to scour the camp while Kashya took Izuku to Akara's tent. There, they found the priestess and Cane standing over a fully prepared but barely used table of medical supplies. Less than a dozen rogues and caravanners sat around it, each was already bandaged from their burns and other injuries and some were even resting peacefully. They were all clearly the victims of the first blast that leveled the north wall.
"Report?" Kashya said to Akara.
"The only injured we received were at the very beginning of the attack." Akara said. "No enemies reached us during the entire night. If Cane was the target, they failed utterly."
"Any dead?' Kashya asked.
"One." Warriv said as he approached. "One of mine. Eric, the former stable hand. He was caught in the first explosion. Now he is with his departed horses we were forced to butcher and eat so long ago."
"Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, pardon the pun, but this was a rather pathetic attack." Deckard Cain observed.
"Not in terms of effort and manpower by the enemy." Kashya corrected. "They either severely underestimated us or severely overestimated their own prowess. What is Andarial playing at?"
Just then Mary and her squad of archers approached and saluted Kashya.
"Report." Kashya ordered.
"Just one other dead. No enemies got into the encampment save for the north entrance where we killed them. Nobody is missing. We are still taking inventory of any valuable possessions or artifacts, but everything seems to be accounted for." Mary explained. "We are also testing our food stores, the river and the well for poison."
"And what of the damage to the walls and other protections?" Kashya asked.
"Extensive. It will take at least three days to repair." Mary said. "The cleanup of the enemy bodies will take several more."
Kashya nodded.
"Then for the next week all hands we can spare are to focus on repairing our defenses and disposing of the bodies." She ordered.
None of this made sense. This demoness was ancient, powerful and cunning. If she had wanted to destroy them with this attack, she could have done far better. Hell, most of the zombies, skeletons and even fallen had been unarmed. Or poorly armed, but seldom armored. That didn't make sense either, as he had personally been in skirmishes with random rogue fallen and skeletons who were better equipped than that.
They must be missing something. If the goal wasn't to destroy the encampment, or to kidnap Cane, or to steal anything from them, then what was the goal? Intimidation? No. There was nothing intimidating about that battle. To tire them out for the real attack? Maybe, but with the sun rising they would be able to see such an attack coming for kilometers.
Was it to get some kind of reaction out of them? No, there was no urgency to go kicking any doors in or go on the offensive. The only obvious course of action for them was to rebuild, clean up and get back to doing what they'd been doing before. This would take them an entire week of labor. A week in which they would not be able to devote forces to other tasks, like reconnaissance and attacks on her forces. An entire week free of their watchful gaze and skilled counteroffensive.
"She is stalling us!" Izuku explained. "Andarial sent the attack to stall us. To destroy our infrastructure and tire us out so we can't interrupt whatever she is preparing for or currently doing!"
"So we gathered from your mumbling." Cane said in a deadpan. "You really need to do something about that habit."
Only then did he realize everybody had been staring at him in his moment of deep thought.
He couldn't help it. He blushed.
"Your reasoning is sound, and I believe you are correct." Cane said. "She is either currently attacking another settlement or preparing something big and needs the extra week uninterrupted. That is the only logical explanation for these events."
"I agree." Said Akara.
"As do I." Said Warriv. "But where does that leave us? What is our course of action?"
Kashya was staring off into the distance, deep in thought. When she finally spoke they hung onto every word.
"At risk of being rash." She qualified. "We should go on the offensive now. Attack her stronghold directly since she least expects it and least wants it. But we are all exhausted and we have already lost an entire night of time she was trying to stall for."
"Most of mine are fresh. You can send some of your best ahead." Warriv said, nodding pointedly to Izuku. "In one of my wagons. They can rest along the journey and be scouts for the battle to come. In the meantime, have your forces sleep for the day and prepare for the march."
Kashya considered this suggested slowly, but eventually nodded.
"But we are not enough, not by ourselves. We need more reinforcements." She thought aloud before pointing at Warriv. "You. Go south to the other encampment and tell word of our plan. If you leave now, you should arrive in time for them to send their forces at the same time mine leave."
Warriv nodded and marched off towards his people.
"Where is Gheed?" Kashya demanded.
"Right here, milady." Gheed said in an oddly serious and respectful tone from him.
"Head to the north encampment. Convince them to do the same. If all three of our forces combine for a triple pincer attack on the citadel, we can win." Kashya ordered.
Gheed looked hesitant.
"And how am I supposed to convince them? With my winning charms?" He asked in a sarcastic but illuminating moment of self-awareness.
"I will be sending you both with signed letters. Beyond that? Do whatever it takes." She ordered. "If you succeed then we shall reward you with an entire third of the treasury of the citadel. Which is also yours to convince them to join if need be. Loath as you are to spend money."
Gheed stood straighter at the promise of reward, but deflated slightly at the joke she tagged at the end. Still, he marched away to his small crew of traders.
"Izuku, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you who I am sending as the scouts." Kashya said.
Izuku sighed.
"I'll go tell my mistress." He said.
"Get Flavie to go with you while you're at it." Kashya ordered. "You three seem to work well together."
Cane interrupted him before he went on his way.
"Also, nice shirt. If you can find me the sorcerer who magicked it, I would like to meet them." The ancient man said with a frighteningly knowing smile.
Only then did Izuku realize he was wearing his shirt with the photo of All-Might. The one Isendra had warned him to keep hidden. To think, he had succeeded in doing so for all this time.
"I would very much like to meet the man depicted." Mary added.
"He is very handsome." Said Alexis. "Is he your father? You will have to tell me of him when this is all over."
"Please tell me he is a widower?" Another rogue, Delphi he thought, added teasingly.
Izuku was blushing again as he fled the group.
He made a beeline back to his tent to change before continuing to the south exit.
Walking through the gate he saw that Isendra was already there, along with other gathered rogues. They all formed a loose circle around something on the bridge covered in a blanket. Something human shaped. Several were openly weeping.
They held a funeral pyre for Flavie that very morning. They didn't have time to mourn or prepare a proper sending off for their friend and ally. They didn't say much either, for what could they say to honor the woman who gave her life defending them all?
Izuku and Isendra made to leave as soon as the cremation was done. They took up the back of a wagon heading east driven by one of Warriv's men, a gentleman named Mark. With a couple backpacks and all of the worldly possessions they had. Kashya was screaming her orders to the camp as they headed out.
"Pack up everything! Then get some sleep, we head out first thing tomorrow morning!"
Soon they were on the bumpy road towards a fight.
They set up two bedrolls in the back of the wagon and did their best to sleep through the ride. Izuku, being Japanese, had generations of ancestors who mastered the art of sleeping on trains and buses. Naturally, he napped right through the bumpy ride and was bright eyed and ready for the day when Mark woke them up.
"This is as far as I can take you." He said. "The wagon can't go through woodlands, let alone do so unseen. You both have your orders and I have mine."
They got up, packed their bedrolls and exited the wagon to find it was almost night and they were on the edge of the Dark Woods.
"Be safe." Mark blessed them before turning his oxen-dragged wagon around and heading back to the encampment. Or, more likely, someplace further away and far safer.
They had a quick evening breakfast and began their long trek through the dark in silence.
The night was made even darker by the unexpected overcast, but they trudged on without so much as a basic light spell. This was a clandestine mission, they needed to remain unseen and unheard and so they slinked on.
The clouds eventually parted to let down moonlight for them to see by and Izuku discovered the Dark Woods were beautiful and full of life. Sure, he heard the scurrying of rodents and hooting of owls for the entire trek so far, but it was much lovelier to actually see them. It was a great contrast to the lifeless wetlands of the blood marshes.
Around midnight they sat down in a clearing for a rest and lunch. A cool breeze blew through the woods as they did so. It was pleasant, but the smell of moisture it brought was foreboding.
"Please don't rain." Izuku whispered.
"It is not going to rain." Isendra assured him. "It is going to storm. We need to find proper shelter. Our tents will not do."
Izuku blanched at her weather forecast but didn't doubt her.
They scarfed down the last of their food and continued their journey east. Isendra seemed sure they would be able to find shelter, and Izuku assumed she knew of some abandoned buildings near the citadel or other. Failing that, hopefully they could find a cave, but the odds of either being empty of horrors was next to zero.
They found a small creak running eastward and followed it. Soon, the wind picked up and a single bolt of lightning streaked across the sky
"Wait." Isendra ordered, holding up a hand for him to stop.
He heard it too. The creaking of a tree swaying in the sudden breeze. That creaking turned into a crashing noise as something large and dark tumbled from above and into the water. Two similar crashes followed suit from behind them. Izuku couldn't see what they were in the pitch black of night, but he could smell what they were.
Gargantuan beasts. Likely a male and his two females. And they were all sopping wet.
"To me." Isendra ordered.
Izuku felt out for her and, grasping her hand, prepared to do the same thing she probably was.
Two wet enemies surrounding them on either side? That left them with either lightning or ice to take them out. Seeing as he was still mastering basic lightning magic, he went with an ice bolt to the one in front of them and put as much as he could into it in order to slow the beast down. When Isendra lit up the world with her circles of nova lightning he could see that he succeeded in freezing the beast in place, with ice growing up his legs like crystals from the water below. He could also see that it wasn't the run of the meal variety.
It looked more like a Tolkien tree person than a gargantuan beast. He was completely green with branches either outright growing from his body or placed there decoratively.
he was far enough away to safely toss a firebolt at without damaging them, so he did so. When it exploded against his face he went vaulted backwards, leaving his frozen feet behind where they remained in the river. his own weight and the force of Izuku's spell brought him down, and he screamed. Isendra pulled at his hand, and they climbed up the bank of the river as the two females rushed to their mate's aid, straight through where the two sorcerers had been standing a moment early.
Now that they were all nicely grouped and sopping wet, the mistress and apprentice bombarded them with ice spells. Isendra with a long, drawn-out blizzard spell and Izuku with a pair of ice bolts. Then, they cast duel firebolts that shattered the three frozen creatures into pieces.
The forest returned to being dark and silent after that. until another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, and with it's corresponding thunder the wind began to howl as well.
The storm was here.
"If we are lucky we can find their lair." Isendra reasoned.
They ran back across the creek towards where the trio had come from and, sure enough, not ten meters further they found a den, dug out of the earth and decorated with the bones of their prey. But it was raised, it was dry and it would protect them through the storm. In fact, it didn't even smell particularly bad. Just a little musky, like dog or bear hair. The beasts were surprisingly clean animals, spending their days grooming and they avoided relieving themselves in their own dens.
Every inch of the floor was covered in pelts, from wolves, bears, deer and cows. He wouldn't go so far as to call them leather, as they weren't properly tanned, but instead likely licked clean. In all honesty? With some incense the place would be perfectly livable. Fortunately, he had some from Akara.
"Our lightning and ice spells should be easily confused for lightning from the storm if anybody even saw it." Isendra told him.
Funnily enough, his mind had wandered directly to that same concern as he put down his pack and dug through it for the bottle of incense oil. Finding it, he took a rag and began wiping it around the walls of the den.
"What of the firebolts?" He asked.
"When lightning strikes dry foliage, what usually results?" She asked rhetorically. "But it was probably unwise to resort to fire. We shall wait and see. If an army comes to our doorstep, we will know."
Izuku nodded.
"I'll take first watch." He offered. "Seeing as you didn't sleep as well during our wagon ride.
His mistress nodded gratefully and put down her bedroll over the furs and he was certain she passed out as soon as she lay down.
The sound and smell of rain started outside, skipping past the usual drizzle in favor of a full downpour. It would make both their and Kashya's journey eastward more difficult from stomping through the mud. That was assuming it stopped by morning. If not, then the journey would be even more difficult, but part of him hoped it continued for the next two days.
The extra difficulty of the trek would be more than made up for by the cover it would provide them in hiding their approach to the citadel.
This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.
Prices:
$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.
$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.