Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 29: Breaking the Gnome Blockade (Patreon)

There was another gnomish wall blocking the exit from the tunnel, but it was twice the height of the last one. It was also much more imposing, making it clear that the gnomes had put a lot of effort into it.

It was practically a fort.

There were large, stable boulders at the base, and it was tall enough that Sam couldn’t see what was on the other side.

It was blocking the only way down into the cavern that held the gnome village and their potential route out of the tunnels.

With these defenses..., how many gnomes could be left inside?

The village hadn’t looked that large before.

Sam frowned as he studied the barricade and moved back again.

It wasn't going to be easy to break through that.

Hopefully, the gnomes would continue to hide inside their barricade while they came up with a plan.

It was much better to be the hunter than the hunted.

They pulled back far enough that it was safe to have a conversation.

“We’re going to have to get a little more inventive,” he suggested, looking towards his dad. “That wall can probably block my spells better, and we can’t see what’s on the other side this time.”

The wall was so thick that his new barrier-breaking spell might not cut all the way through it..., or if it did, it might not hurt the gnomes on the other side much.

He could use two of those blade spells, but it would take a little time to summon the second one and then he'd be completely out of energy, which was dangerous.

He needed a way to both break the wall and surprise the gnomes, without leaving himself too exposed.

What if there were more on the other side than expected?

They could retreat back to the cave, but that would put them back in the same spot they'd been in before, waiting for the gnomes to come to them.

It was better to keep moving forward and hope that they could break through.

“We’ll need to get through it somehow,” Jeric agreed as he patted him on the shoulder. “The last couple of fights were a bit lucky, and it’s good that you got so many levels. It’s no surprise it’s a bit harder now."

Jeric turned to look through the stone towards the gnomish wall.

"We must have frightened them by killing the marauders.... Now they've decided to fortify the village. Dealing with monsters at a similar level is always dangerous, especially if they're smart."

Jeric shook his head as he gave Sam a smile.

"That’s why your enchantments will be important going forward. It will make a difference.”

Sam nodded as his mind raced, thinking about what he could do.

If the wall was just what it looked like, he could probably break it open....

But if there were a lot of gnomes on the other side and the fight dragged out, it would mean consuming the auras he had gathered already.

If more gnome reinforcements came after that, ...things could get dicey.

It was obvious why combat classes leveled the fastest and also why they had the highest death rates.

They really needed a proper healer and more support if they wanted to do this. Their duo as a melee and caster was working out, but it wasn’t perfectly balanced.

They could have used a support caster to help funnel the mobs and control the battlefield, and then another support class to help erect defenses.... And another melee or two to work with his dad.

Sam frowned.

They definitely didn’t have access to that.

There was that Earth scroll in his belt pouch.... It still had that sense of being much stronger than it should be.

It could probably rip apart the wall, but he didn’t want to waste it if he didn't have to.

Making another one was an option, but he didn’t want to take too much time right now. Who knew what the gnomes would do when they found out about the last two battles?

They had already been building these walls..., if they built more of them, or if there were more than they'd expected, they couldn't give them a lot of time to prepare.

His talons clicked as he tapped them against each other.

“We’re just going to have to push forward and hope for the best.” Jeric shook his head, as his thoughts traveled in a similar path.

“At worst, we’ll collapse the tunnel and retreat. Save the Earth scroll for that.”

Sam frowned, his thoughts running quickly. He didn't like the idea of pushing through without more backup plans.

He wasn’t going to risk a blind fight where his dad could die again. What if they’d underestimated the enemy?

So, what could he do with what he had available?

Auras of Umbral Flame and Basalt..., the Earth mana, but he was planning to save that....

“I think I have an idea,” he said eventually, as his talons fell silent.

He needed a rock.

---

It took him about half an hour, but Sam was humming as he finished inscribing the last rune on the fist-sized rock he had chosen. It was filled with them.

Most of the runes were Fire, but there were a few Earth on it.

It definitely wasn't the prettiest enchantment in the world, since he'd had to rush through it, but overall he pleased with how it was turning out.

He just hoped that it worked.

There had been an idea in the back of his mind for a little while now, as he debated how useful it would be to infuse an aura into something like a spell scroll.

This rock was the result.

He had chosen it because it was the right size to absorb most of the energy from an aura.

After that, it hadn’t taken him long to purify it and inscribe it with a dozen runes, all of which were connected in a spiralling band along the surface.

Hopefully, the Earth and Fire alignment of the Aura of Umbral Flame would work with it.

He pulled out the aura and began to imbue the lines, his hand moving swiftly.

The taste of dark flame spreading beneath the earth covered the rock, flowing into the lines in shadowy wisps as if it belonged there.

The enchantment was crude, and the runes were not very stable. He could feel the aura twisting through them as if it wanted to escape, but he forced it to follow his will.

It only needed to stay in the lines for a little while.

This rock was a variant of what he had done on the spell scrolls. It wouldn’t last long, but it had a significant amount of energy inside, most of which came from the Aura of Umbral Flame, which was melting away in his hand.

When the aura was gone, he added twenty points of his own mana and aura to the rock as well, pouring all of it into a stability rune that was linked to the activation point.

It was even more energy than he’d put into his last barrier-breaking spell.

Stability runes were strange things. They could absorb a lot of energy, depending on how well they were drawn, and then they just held it there until something happened. They could be used to buffer unstable formations.

He was using this one for the exact opposite.

It was a power source.

Less than half an hour passed before the last runic line snapped into place.

As it did, the entire rock turned as dark as the salamanders’ hide, a scintillating ebony with slow swirls of flame that seemed to be flowing just under the surface.

The enchantment was terrible, but that didn’t matter if it worked.

He looked up at his dad, who was guarding the tunnel ahead, and nodded.

They waited just long enough for his energy to recover.

---

KrRRiiiiisssshhh.....

A crystalline blade of blue flames cut through the air, heading for the gnomish blockade.

It was the spell Sam had invented for the last battle, a condensation of twenty points of mana and aura.

He decided to call it Essence Blade.

It was the strongest spell he could summon and, with his current stats, it was about half of his entire essence pool.

Thinking of his mana and aura separately was fine sometimes, but it was simpler if he thought of them together as essence.

He had the feeling that his Essence Control would need to go up to a higher tier before he could put more than 20 points into this spell.

It was interesting that he could put so much more energy into this one than he could into Aura Bolt.

Maybe that spell had built-in limits, while his Aura of Crystal Flame didn’t.

The Essence Blade hissed through the air as it headed for the gnome blockade, leaving a streak of crystal blue flames behind it.

This time, he’d prepared it just around the curve, so the gnomes couldn't see what was happening. They’d probably noticed the light and sound as he summoned it, but they didn’t have much time to react.

The triangular spell sliced into the base of the wall, splitting the boulders in half as it left a sheer, molten trail behind.

As it cut inward, its structure began to collapse.

BbooOOOOOOmmMMMMMM!

A moment later, it exploded, unleashing all of the contained energy against the wall and the area immediately next to it.

It was an enormous blast that shattered apart the boulders and sent fragments of stone flying in every direction, but a lot of the energy was absorbed by the wall.

The giant stones the gnomes had used for the base began to melt from the heat, giant chunks falling away from them where the spell hit.

In the resulting gap, he could see gnomes moving as they gathered themselves. The blast had broken the wall, but it hadn’t harmed too many of them. It had only knocked them around.

They began pulling themselves up from the ground.

Basalt Gnome (Subterranean)

Basalt Gnome Marauder (Subterranean)

Basalt Gnome Warder (Subterranean)

There were two marauders this time, four warders, and a handful of regulars.

Sam stood there, watching them calmly from behind an Essence Shield, until the timing was just right.

As soon as the rubble settled, he was running forward, with his father next to him. Jeric's steps were sure and light, his attention focused on the gnomes.

Dust from the tunnel floor flew up around their boots as they slid to a stop fifty feet from the remains of the blockade.

A small, dark rock flew through the air, arching through the gap in the wall.

Sam's Strength and Agility made his throw extremely accurate, and perhaps Crystal Focus helped as well.

Unstable energies built around the rock as the runes reacted with the essence Sam had infused.

At the heart of the stone was a broken Fire rune, one that he’d deliberately drawn incorrectly.

The activation point and the stability rune with the 20 points of essence was at the end of the rune spiral. It was already pouring that energy into the other runes.

As each rune came to life, the energy flowed along that path towards the flaw at the center.

The sphere of dark flame swelled in size, wrapped in flaming shadows as it became more menacing.

CrruuUUUmmmMMPPPP.

There was a dull sound as all of that contained energy hit the center rune.

The sphere expanded and then expanded again, forming a second and then a third ring of dark flame.

With each expansion, the sphere doubled in size.

It expanded again.

In the end, five concentric rings of umbral flame formed, all of them hanging there as the rock finished its flight.

WhooooOOOssshhhh.

There was the sound of air being drawn inward, sucked into the sphere.

Then it exploded.

BooooOOOOOOmmmMMMMM.

BooooOOOoooOOOMmmm.

The sound of the first two rings barreling outward deafened the area, turning everything in the tunnel into a rolling cascade of thunder.

One after the other, the remaining three rings of dark flame blasted outwards, joining the first two in successive tidal waves of power.

There was a corrosive, biting energy to them as the darkness element ripped at everything around it.

Umbral Flame was normally a balanced aura, or the salamanders wouldn’t have been able to survive.

By feeding it into a flawed rune formation, Sam had turned it into something else.

An umbral fireball with a fuse.

There was a small, grim smile on his face as he watched it explode.

The darkness element in the Aura of Umbral Flame was what made it function. Darkness was an inherently unstable element that didn’t like other things next to it. When it found them, it tried to consume them.

Pouring extra Fire and Earth runes on top of that aura was adding fuel to a fire, especially when the central Fire rune was flawed and couldn’t manage the flow of energy.

The waves washed over the gnomes, ripping at their bodies as they were knocked across the interior of the fort.

The regular ones couldn't take it and they disintegrated in the wash of energy.

Yellow Earthen Shields from the marauders and wardens shone in the darkness, but it was hard to tell how well they were standing up to the blast.

“Now!” he shout to his dad, as he started to run forward.

They had to follow up on the blast while the gnomes were distracted, especially if there were more of them in there than they expected.

A crystal fireball formed between his hands, shooting forward into the mix and adding its explosion to the rest of the chaos.

It blasted outwards in a wash of crystal blue flame, casting an eerie light across the tunnel.

He was down to half of his essence, and he didn’t want to risk burning it all on one more big spell, so he held off on casting another Essence Blade.

Hopefully, what he'd done already was enough....

His dad ran next to him, keeping the pace easily. The hammers in his hand hummed as the air flowed past.

He was hoping that the double attacks had cleared out the inside of the fort, but when they arrived at the edge of the wall, he saw that the four warders had joined together to combine their shield into a smaller, stronger one.

It was gleaming with a brilliant golden hue.

Behind them, the two marauders were standing ready, mostly unharmed.

The runes on the warders’ heads were flickering weakly, as if they were on their last legs, but they hadn’t failed yet.

Another crystal fireball appeared between Sam’s hands as he compressed his essence into it, shaping it with quick gestures.

The gnomes started to respond. The warders' lifted their heads and stared straight at him, their blank, dark eyes locked onto his body.

If the runes on their foreheads hadn't been empty, they would have attacked in that instant.

Behind them, the marauders didn't have the same problem. They were still in excellent shape.

They raised their hammers and their skin began to flare with the golden gleam of stamina as they caught sight of Sam and Jeric.

KhiisssSSTtttt.

BooooOOOmmm!

Sam's fireball shot forward, slamming into the shield, which crumpled as it bent inwards.

After taking all the other damage, it was the final straw for it.

The following explosion ripped apart the four warders, scattering their scorched bodies across the ground, and slammed against the Earthen Shields around the marauders.

The shields buckled, but held.

Jeric was charged forward as the flames dissipated, following up on the opportunity. He slammed into the marauder on the right, his hammers singing as he drove it back.

As soon as the marauder moved, its Earthen Shield flickered out of existence.

It looked like they could only use them while standing still.

Perhaps that was the difference between Basic and Advanced for the shield, since Jeric could move in his.

The marauders must have focused on their Enhanced Physique, if they’d had the same option to upgrade.

The warders had been taken care of, but now they were facing two nearly full-strength marauders.

That meant the one on the left was all Sam’s.

Crystal Focus brought everything around him into stark relief, almost as if it were moving in slow motion.

His slitted pupils narrowed to thin lines as he focused on the gnome and pulled the spear off his back.

He couldn’t face a marauder one on one in terms of strength, but the enchanted spear was still a powerful weapon.

It already had one marauder to its name.

At the same time as the spear settled into his hand, ethereal crystal light billowed up around him, wavering at the edges. The flames licked at reality as he poured ten points of his essence into it.

Starting from his feet, his aura condensed into a twisting spiral of blue flame that wrapped around his body and the spear in his hand, outlining him in stark relief.

It was a nearly solid spiral of crystal flame, already condensed to make it faster to use, and as soon as it was formed, a crystal flame arrow separated from it, shooting towards the marauder.

A tenth of the energy went with it.

The marauder froze as it saw the approaching spell, raising its arms instinctively to summon its shield.

The shield was Stamina-based, rather than mana, but it didn’t seem to matter when the arrow struck.

The crystal flame arrow bit into the barrier like a drill, exploding against the surface, and it rippled as if a hammer had struck it.

Sam took advantage of the delay to show the marauder why it was a bad idea to stand still in front of a battle wizard.

The spiral of crystal flame around him split apart into a storm of crystal arrows.

They broke off one at a time, heading for the marauder.

KhiiiiSSSSTTttt...

KhhiiisSSTtttt...

Its shield held for the first three, and then it shattered to pieces.

One by one, the remaining six arrows ripped through it.

Two more started to form as Sam condensed them from new essence, but they weren’t necessary to finish the job.

The marauder collapsed, its body riddled with holes.

When it did, Sam turned instantly towards his father’s battle. The arrows hummed in the air as he launched them.

They exploded as they ripped through the marauder’s side and leg, sending it tumbling across the ground.

Jeric’s hammers slammed downward, finishing it off with rapid blows, and then he looked over toward his son.

His breath was coming in ragged gasps, but there was an air of confident satisfaction around him as he looked over the battlefield.

The gnomish fort had been broken and the enemies inside were defeated.

Sam let out a deep breath as he looked around, taking in the scene of devastation they had just caused.

He was down to only 6 essence now.

Even with the help of the Umbral Fireball, the fight had drained nearly everything.

His breath was also coming in rough waves.

If there had been just one or two more gnomes..., he would have been forced to use the spear.

Just as that thought crossed his mind..., a gravelly scream of rage roared up from below.

SCRRReeEEEEEKKKekkkKKk!

It was louder and deeper than anything he’d heard before, like an avalanche of pebbles shrieking through the tunnels.

A sense of looming danger crashed down on Sam as he spun to look towards it.

He'd forgotten a very important fact. From this side of the wall, the village was in clear view below.

Whatever was down there, it definitely wasn't happy with them.