A Soldier's Life - 297 - Yeah, Who Is Going To Do That? (Patreon)

Chapter 297: Yeah, Who Is Going To Do That?

“Blaze. Maveith. Let’s go.” I stood tiredly from the wall and stepped out into the rain. None of the clerics volunteered to come with us, but I could see Mynasha was tired. I addressed Glasha, “Keep your sight focused far afield so we are not surprised. Raelia, you can explode a fireball in the sky if she sees a threat to warn us.” I pulled my cloak around me and nodded to Blaze and Maveith. “Walk behind me with your glowstones,” I advised.

I led them into the woods, and soon, we arrived at the troll I had killed. While they inspected the troll, I walked the surroundings to make sure the missing troll was not going to find us. When I returned, I got the question I was expecting. Blaze indicated to the troll, “You cut the troll’s head off in one swing? How? It took you a dozen strikes to hack off the other one.”

I smirked, and the neck of the troll thudded on the ground between the head and body. The bloody stump mixed with rain. Blaze gawked for a while as the collector appeared in my hand. While the essence pooled from the troll’s body, Blaze squeaked out, “Really?” I knew he would put it together quickly. A major essence of healing formed, and I cursed under my breath, not at the essence but at being unable to harvest the troll Mynasha had killed.

“Yes, it only works once, and it takes me about half an hour to recover aether to do it again.” I put the white pearl with silver and gold swirls into my belt. I wanted to space out affinities.

Maveith’s voice echoed softly, “Eryk is how we survived the Shimmering Labyrinth. Without his magic, there is no way he would have rejoined you.”

“And the spear?” Blaze asked.

“A reward from the Shimmering Labyrinth,” I responded, looking over the bloody corpse. It was wearing rough hides, but the only sack appeared to be body parts for snacking on. “Maveith, anything worth our time?”

“I don’t know. Troll’s blood?” He replied. “Maybe the skin, but not worth our time, I think.”

I nodded, “I know troll’s blood is an alternate base for advanced healing potions. But it needs to be stabilized when it is collected. I do not have the solution prepared to do so.” I stood, “Let’s find the missing troll.”

I could tell Blaze had a dozen questions but wisely kept them for after we finished the last troll. Even with the rain and mud, it didn’t take long to find the trail with massive muddy footfalls leading us to it. It was under a massive pine, leaning against the trunk. I motioned my companions to wait and circled to approach it from behind and downwind. The troll was struggling with raspy breaths and oblivious to my presence.

At the last moment, it suddenly became alert, but it was too late; I took most of its neck. It quickly tumbled over, and I hacked away, freeing the head to make certain it was not going to rise again. Spookily, its wide eyes followed my first few sword swings. I took out two canteens, emptied the elven ambrosia, and filled them both with fresh troll’s blood. The blood would be in stasis in my dimensional space, so maybe I could utilize it in the future. I hated losing canteens, but healing potions were more valuable than water and elven whisky.

As I used the collector on the troll, getting and other major healing essence, I waited for Blaze to ask his questions. “Did Castile know?” He finally asked.

“Yes, I told her in the Shimmering Labyrinth.”

“Can you just do that to anybody?” He gestured at the troll.

“No. I have failed against mages with high aether resistance.” He nodded slowly, and I wondered how his mind worked. Was he replaying everything I had done since joining the company?

“So, are you like a god? Maybe Janus or Mars in the flesh?” He asked off-handily, hiding a smile.

“I considered myself more like Mercury. You believe in the gods?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Well, no. But your power—it is even more impressive than Mynasha’s.” I shrugged, but something clicked in my head at that moment. Mynasha had a strong affinity for convergence but used it to draw aether from the environment and ley lines. I had a strong affinity but used my spell form to milk essences. Was Mynasha an other worlder? Zyna had told me all the races had been brought to Desia from their homeworlds, so it seemed possible.

We searched the body from a distance with delving into its large sack of animal and orc parts. We all agreed there was nothing worth harvesting. Lets get back to the others and get the horses saddled. Maybe we can convince the clerics we have done enough. We arrived back at the cave to find Raelia standing watch alone. Well, that was not true because Glasha was using her scrying spell form. “Anything?” I asked her.

“No,” she replied, focusing on me. “Is the other troll dead?”

I studied her for a moment before nodding. She was either a good poker player or had not been spying on me. “We are moving out now. The stench is to much to sleep and I want to get away from the battle site in case there are others. We should go to Becar.”

Mynasha was up, “We can’t until the troll horde has been stopped!”

“You killed three trolls and four ogres, isn’t that enough?” I asked.

“I didn’t…” She started, but I interrupted her.

“You killed three trolls and four ogres,” I stressed. “The honor is all yours.”

Glasha said an unfamiliar word in orchish that silenced Mynasha and nodded at me. “Still, we need to scout the fort. We must know what happened to the warriors that rode ahead of us.” I groaned. If these trolls were out here hunting, wasn’t it obvious those warriors were dead? “I can scout from miles away, there is no need to approach the fort,” she conceded at my hard stare.

“Just because the mason only saw a dozen trolls, that doesn’t mean there are more. We could be walking into an army.” Seeing their stubborn gazes, I growled, “Move along the cliff, we leave now.” It was in the direction they wanted to go, and I was more worried about possibly losing the essence. Blaze understood what I wanted and helped get everyone moving quickly. Mateo was delicate in his walk, and Benito had his arm in a splint as they hung back, and they disappeared into the dark morning, the hooves and boots crunching the shale as they went.

The last troll gave a minor healing essence, and I pulled two minor strength essences from two of the four ogres. Benito and Mateo were secreted the strength essences when I caught up to them. After we cleared the shale from the cliff, we diverted into the woods, moving slowly in the graying morning. The rain hadn’t relented, but I decided to give everyone some rest under the pines.

I moved to Glasha, who was searching for something in her saddlebags, to ask about her fatigue. “How is your aether? Can you continue scouting?”

“It is fine. I have a deep well and can go for a long time yet.” She looked at me and I could tell she had questions.

“What did you see?” I asked. We both knew I was talking about me and not trolls or ogres.

After a moment of thought, she answered. “You have a collector? I can see why you wanted to keep that from me. Your crassness in the dungeon makes a little more sense now.”

We studied each other. “Is it going to be a problem?”

“Just don’t go showing it off to a warlord. They will find a way to challenge your honor to get it,” she tittered.

“My honor?” I questioned.

“They will say you don’t have enough honor to possess something so precious. Or that you were too selfish to own it. They always think of something if they see something they want. Some of the Caliphate clerics are the same.” She explained convoluted logic.

“So, trying to steal from me is honorable?” I said, shaking my head.

Glasha laughed, “Stealing? You need to spend time among our warlord elite warriors. Only then can you truly understand our sense of honor—doing what is right for the Caliphate and our people.”

“Do I trust you then to put my interest above the Caliphate?” I said softly, eyeing the other two.

“I will not threaten you to force you to become her First. But I would keep the collector’s knowledge from her just the same. She is young and—unpredictable.”  Glasha stated, returning to the group.

We kept to the woods off the main road but pressed forward to the garrison fort. Glasha stopped just before midday to alert us that one troll, three ogres, dozens of horses, and her people’s warriors were drawing carrion birds two miles away. A battle had been fought, most likely with the cavalry that had passed us, and they only managed to kill a single troll.

“It looks like they were ambushed by the terrain features. They fought valiantly for the Caliphate,” Glasha reported somberly.

I decided to go and scout alone and used the anti-scent powder before. With my earth-speak, I should not be surprised, and I was the fastest runner among us. I waited in the woods, studying the carnage with my spyglass.

The scene was horrific, as the ogres and trolls used blunt weapons on the warriors and mounts and then looked to have torn them apart. I assumed it was meant as a message to the next group that came down the road. It was a note saying we killed dozens of your people, and you only killed one of us. I didn’t leave the woods and returned to my group and informed them what I found. The clerics still were not deterred.

“A larger force will be assembled. That warlord was too anxious to gain honor and glory for himself. The next assault will be more organized, with the support of the clerics.” Mynasha stated firmly. Maybe she felt some guilt for not riding with them. If she had, she would most likely be among the dead.

We stuck to the woods and rocky cliff face until Glasha halted us. “The garrison fort and passage are just a few miles away. If I am given enough time to prepare, I can scout from here.” I waved her to it and ordered the horses watered and rubbed down and then resaddled in case we needed to run.

Glasha went through her pack and started using metallic dust on a rock to carefully draw spell forms in a large circle. It took her two hours to lay out the intricate workings, and I thought a strong breeze would wreck her efforts, but they remained undisturbed as she prepared.

She was using ritual magic to enhance her spell form for her scrying spell. He checked her work and called over Mynasha. “Connect a bridge of aether to me, Mynasha. Feed the spell form slowly, do not overwhelm it.” She nodded and disrobed. Blaze and Raelia did what they could to keep the others eyes off the spectacle. I didn’t move, wanting to know what Glasha saw in real-time.

I waited as the two orcs seemed to synch their wills together, Mynasha feeding Glasha’s spell for her. I activated my own spell form to watch the aether flowing in the air and through the runes. It was surreal, almost like a light show overlaying everything they were doing.

Glasha’s eyes were closed as she reported. “They have occupied the fort,” she said bitterly.

“How many?” A sweating Mynasha asked.

“Six trolls, unless there are more inside. No, seven. There is one sleeping on a roof. Ogres… Ten, but many look wounded.” I could see her face harden at something she was seeing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They have herded a number of citizens for food. They killed all the warriors, but there are maybe thirty women, children, and farmers from the surrounding villages.” She blinked rapidly and looked at me. “The trolls and ogres we fought were probably foraging parties.”

“We need to rescue the people,” Mynasha stated passionately. “They can’t wait the days for the warlords to gather and form a force to retake the fort. I don’t care about killing the trolls; we just need to rescue the people.” It was the first time I actually respected the cleric. She genuinely cared for her people. It was a fucking stupid idea, but at least I could respect her principle. I could understand why Glasha thought she would also make a good Supreme now.

“The only way to rescue the people is to kill the trolls,” I said, shaking my head, no in disagreement.

Mynasha smiled, “I hoped you would say that. We just need to draw the trolls to us. I can feel a ley line nexus nearby.” Yeah, who was going to do that?

© Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.