(Path of the Dragon Mage: Nomad) 30. Skirmish (Patreon)

The bowmen knew their duties and released arrows on command. However, the shock of seeing such a large creature emerge from the sands won out. Most of the arrows hit – and out of those that did very few in sensitive areas. 

Species: Ratkin (Rat Queen).


Level: 34

Corvus grabbed for his mana needle. He had managed to scavenge all three from the earlier ratkin fights, but unless this was a decisive victory now, he would lose the needle.

He poured his mana into it anyway, stopping short when he was in danger of dipping into his reserves. 

The next volley of arrows landed true, peppering the rat queen's face. It gave an unearthly screech and shook its head. Arrows stuck out of its nose like a host of porcupine quills. It cast about, staggering half-blind in the bright sunshine.

It was not the only creature levering itself out of the hole. Smaller ratkin, from level ones the size of Corvus's foot to level ten's close to the size of a horse, were climbing free as well. All were dusty and disoriented. 

The arrows were doing nothing but annoying the queen. It was a waste of resources.

Captain Edmont turned to him. "You must fall back, my prince. My guards and I will cover your retreat."

He shook his head. "I'll attend to the queen. Have your men shoot the lower level—er, the smaller ratkin. They're half-blind from the sunlight, but that will change as the sun goes down."

Edmont hesitated, clearly wanting Corvus out of the way. But then he nodded and saluted sharply. 

"Yes, my prince."

Then, turning, he screamed out orders to his men.

Corvus turned his attention to Charm.
She was busy on the city side of the wall, breathing fire into the tunnel. Her mana was steadily dropping – nearly sixty percent already, and there was no lack of ratkin to kill. 

There was little either of them could do to stop the ratkin which were already under the city. The important thing was to plug this hole.

Corvus made a snap decision. He hoped that he was not making a mistake.

"Charm! Can you create a barrier within the tunnel? Move rocks in the way?"

Ratkin will chew through rocks, given enough time, she replied in his mind.

Charm raised her head from the tunnel to look around. Wisps of smoke poured out from between her teeth. Corvus suspected she had been munching on ratkin in between breathing her deadly light on them.

I'll need another source of processed mineral – ohhh, that'll do.

With a hop and a flap, she moved to a spot where a wrought iron fence separated the market area from the base of the wall. A precaution against sabotage. 

The stone covering her claws crumbled away to dust, and she ripped up the wrought iron bars like a child would a clump of grass. Only with more metallic screeching. Her draconic strength and her new metallic spell worked together to fold the bars over and over into a ball. Charm's mana took another steady drop, though she was not in the danger zone yet.

"Use my reserves if you must," Corvus said. "The tunnels must be blocked!"

The bowmen were raining down arrows with precision on the emerging ratkin. 

Captain Edmont had chosen his men well, and after they recovered from the initial shock, they shot smart. Every arrow was aimed at the larger leveled demons as they emerged. Since these were not as tough as the queen, the strikes were crippling if not instantly fatal. Corvus saw more than one arrow straight through the skull of a lower-level ratkin.

He wished Gwen were there with him. Archery was one of her general skills, and she had leveled it along with several sub-skills. While hunting, he'd actually seen one of her arrows curve around a tree to hit a target.

Well, this was only the initial skirmish, considering the ratkin were blinded by sunlight. It was the best of all circumstances for the defenders. Once night fell, the tides would turn against the city.

That was all the more reason to destroy as many of the demons as possible.

Corvus kept an eye on the queen. Fully emerged, she was monstrously tall, and the maddened higher level ratkin tied to her flail-tail even more so. But she was sun-blind, and her nose and face were riddled with arrows. She whipped her tail back and forth, coming nowhere near the wall, and mostly striking other emerging ratkin. 

Corvus was not about to interrupt an enemy while they were making an error. He waited, refilling the mana needle once his own mana could support it.

"Highness!" the captain called. "Our arrows are running low, sir. Please, you must leave!"

Corvus ignored the last request. "Send for more arrows at once." He turned to Charm, who by now had decimated the entire length of the wrought iron fence. She now had a spiky wrought iron ball the size of a small pony-cart and was rolling it back to the tunnel.

Other ratkin from her side of the tunnel – some showing horrific burns from super-heated air  – took the opportunity to crawl out of the unguarded hole. Those that staggered in her direction were cheerfully rolled over by the metal.

Traditional combat would have him and Charm flying together and flaming the ratkin from above… but splitting their efforts worked quite well. 

"I will need few more minutes," Charm said. "I plan to heat this before I drop it in the tunnel so they cannot simply chew through."

Likely, the ratkin would only tunnel around the obstacle, but it would take time. Any delay was acceptable.

More shouts drew Corvus's attention back to the outer edge of the wall. The soil was once again churning madly, and this time two more large snouts emerged: Two more queens, and one was a level 42.

Corvus turned with the order to shoot the queens on the tip of his tongue.

The agonized look from Captain Edmont stayed him, as did the sight of nearly empty quivers on his men's back.

Corvus swallowed. This section of the wall was already unstable. A lucky strike from one of the queen's flails might be all that was needed to topple it over. The newly emerged queens were half-blind but not maddened by arrows in their faces. 

A strong enough blast from the mana needle might affect the wall, too.

With reluctance – and extreme caution – Corvus put the charged mana needle away. Instead, he drew out his Wild Garden dagger.

"Hold your fire!" he called. 

The sporadic rain of arrows stopped and the men turned to him.

Again came the bolt of fear – memories crowding in of nobles staring, feeling helpless, useless, weak...

At once, Charm's presence pressed into his mind. Her support was silent and absolute. It gave him the strength to push the memories away.

Corvus coughed as if to cover the moment and said, "Reserve your remaining arrows for any ratkin which try to scale the wall."

"Sir," Edmont said. "One hit from those big ones, and the wall–"

"I know, Captain. It's a risk, but we need them to bunch up. You have your orders."

The man was not happy. None of them were. Corvus stared Edmont down until he looked away. The other bowmen complied too, though with annoyed murmurs.

Corvus stepped to the edge of the wall and looked down. The archers had been doing a fine job of sniping the larger leveled ratkin, but that left a mini-swarm of the smaller ones. 

Enough of them together could overwhelm a man. Right now the ground below the wall was crawling with rats.

Now that the arrows had stopped, more and more were pouring up out of the tunnel's breach unimpeded. They were gathering, all headed for the shadow the wall provided, if only to get out of the direct sunlight. 

A few had started to scale the wall. Corvus counted it lucky that the brickwork was free of vines or other debris to hide them. Though not many had made it far up, and those which had been under level 3.

The two new queens had fully emerged and were turning – hampered by their own kin who were clustering under their feet for the shadows their bodies provided.

Again, the ratkin were not as dangerous during the day. At night... this would be a different story.

Corvus glanced to the sky.

Where was Daffodil? He must have some control of the ratkin to direct them here. Therefore, he would know one tunnel had been found.

Now would be a very good time to strike this portion of the weakened wall.

The sky was a clear bright blue as far as his eye could see.  The large dragon was nowhere to be seen.

On the other side of the wall, Charm was breathing over the wrought-iron ball, stoking it to pink and white-hot heat. How she planned to get it into the tunnel, he had no idea. But he trusted her to do her work. 

He would, too.

The queens had turned, seeming to have sensed the wall, and were lumbering their way. Even the wayward queen with the arrows in her face had sensed the presence of her sisters and was doing the same. They would be within striking range shortly.

"Sir..." Captain Edmont said. "If you have a Talent, sir. Now is the time."

"I don't have an elemental Talent, Edmont," Corvus said. "I'm a hedge witch."

"You... what?"

Holding the dagger in a loose grip, Corvus said, "If the vines climb the wall, tell your men to keep well back. They don't know friend from foe." 

Corvus pushed mana into his dagger, until the sparkling runes lit like brilliant starlight. 

Huh. It looked a little like the shell of Starella's egg.

The three queens were side by side, using the brush of each other's shoulders to keep themselves on the straight track. The one in the middle started to turn to bring her flail around.

Corvus threw the dagger.

Ding!

You have gained a level in Throwing Accuracy

New Level: Intermediate 26

The dagger struck the forepaw of the middle queen, right at the joint between two toes, hard enough to briefly pin the paw to the ground.

Ding!

Rune Collection - Wild Garden has been activated

The queen's squeal could from the top of the wall. Vines erupted from the gash. Some sank inward to immediately feast on the blood and flesh of the queen. Others shot out to snare and tangle ratkins nearby.

Corvus ignored the gasps and curses from the men around him. His eyes narrowed as an idea hit him. 

He searched his pockets. Thankfully, his runes were well organized, and he found an extra mana-reservoir rune almost at once. 

He charged it with a thought, dumping his main mana well almost to zero. Then he cut his thumb with the tip of a bladed dart, attached the mana reservoir rune to the tip.

The bladed darts had independent mana reservoirs carved into the handle to activate whatever rune Corvus attached to the tip. He had never used it for pure mana delivery, though. Nor had he tried two reservoirs at once.

The meat-eating vines had grown with shocking speed. The queen he had struck was falling to it, sucked dry within moments. The other two queens might have gotten away if they'd seen what was happening, but half-blind, they hesitated.

Corvus aimed for a thick vine that had erupted out of the chest of the queen rat.

Activating the dual mana reservoirs, he threw.

The bladed dart stuck true.

Ding!

Remote mana reservoir (2) has been added to Rune Collection

A count-down timer appeared in Corvus's vision.

Remote Mana reservoir (1) exhaustion in 40 seconds... 39... 38...

Remote Mana reservoir (2) Queued pending prior reservoir exhaustion…

Sudden cheers broke out from the men around him.

Corvus jumped, startled out of reading his notifications.

Captain Edmont and his men were looking over the side of the wall, exclaiming in amazement as the vines shot out with renewed vigor, well-watered by the flesh and blood of the ratkin all around.

Corvus was sorely tempted to fill another reservoir up and use his mana reservoirs and Second Wind ability. But he was equally aware that this was only a skirmish. He had to save those emergency abilities for the fight to come.

The men gave another ragged cheer as the second queen was tangled in the rapidly expanding vines. She was brought down, thrashing.  The third seemed to realize that something was wrong and turned away, but not fast enough. The vines caught it around its terrible flail and crawled upward along its body, sinking in sucking thorns as it went.

Twenty seconds to go on the timer and something... very odd happened.

Alert!

Rune Collection - Wild Garden has absorbed enough flesh and mana to reach phase two. To cancel phase two, immediately remove sources of mana.

Phase two engaged in 3... 2... 1

At zero, the ends of the vines swelled into bulbous pods which expanded and blossomed before their eyes.

The flowers were as stark as they were gorgeous. A dark wet red color with vivid purple eyes. They rose among the devastated tangle of ratkin like victors taking a bow.

Then at once, they disgorged purple motes which were immediately taken up by the gentle breeze.

Where the motes landed, new, thin vines immediately emerged. If it happened to be an empty patch of land, or a scrubby knoll, the vines shot out, withered, and died within seconds.

If the mote landed on a squirming ratkin, the vines shot out and in. They consumed the dying creature and grew again.

Each mote was as deadly as one of Corvus's daggers.

The timer for the first mana reserve ended, and the second began with a count-down from forty-five seconds. 

At the end of the count-down, the blood-red flowers dried up and died. Their spoors continued expanding up and down. They were very, very lucky that the wall was enough to contain the breeze. The spoors were too heavy to drift over the wall, though some sprung to life among the brickwork, where the vines quickly died.

Soon the entire area at the base of the wall was crawling with a carpet of growing vines where there had once been ratkin. The soil stopped churning.

Charm let out a triumphant roar.

Corvus ran to the city side of the wall in time to see her roll the white-hot wrought-iron ball into a newly enlarged hole. Her foreclaws were covered in rock to protect her – though Corvus could feel lingering heat from where he stood.

The wrought iron was so hot it was nearly molten. As it landed within the tunnel, there was an ominous hiss of steam, and smoke began pouring out. 

Charm looked very, very satisfied with herself. The tunnel was effectively blocked.

"Breathing death on them is well and good," Charm said to Corvus, "But I like having the work done for me."

And so it was. XP notifications were still drifting in and Corvus knew that he had leveled up at least once. 

Setting the notifications aside for later, he glanced again to the outside of the wall. Without available flesh, the vines were starting to wither and die back.

"Sir?" Edmont's approach was tentative. He looked down. "That was... that was amazing, sir. How did you do it?"

"Old magics, Captain," he said. "And it was just the beginning. This was a small portion of one tunnel."

The captain straightened. "That may very well be, sir. But it was impressive."

Corvus was too drained to check his emotions. He smiled. "It was fun, too."

The sound of rapid boot heels on the stone had them both turn. The reinforcements arrived – each man with several full quivers on their backs. Better late than never.

"Have your archers shoot the stragglers," Corvus said. "Each one we kill now is one less worry for later."

"Yes, sir." The Captain gestured and full quivers were handed to the men.

A messenger boy approached. "Prince Corvus, the Princess and the Governor thank you for your report and request your return. At once, sir."

"Thank you." He nodded and the boy scampered away so fast it was clear he was uncomfortable being around the highly ranked.

There was a beat where Corvus waited, his hands behind his back as he watched the vines. There was no movement from below. He wondered if the tunnel had been abandoned or if the ratkin had diverted it somewhere else.

Finally, the Captain said, "Is there... something you need before you depart, sir?"

"No Captain, I'm only waiting for the last of the vines to die." Corvus nodded to the thorny field below. "I'm fond of that dagger, and I want it back."