Wild Wastes 6 - ch 11- (Patreon)

Stepping through the siege shield, Vince pushed out with his Nullifier sphere, followed by his mana shield. Both of which encompassed his group without any effort.

“That felt strange,” remarked Canae. “Not bad… but strange.”

“It was strange,” Ynes agreed, though Vince noted an odd note to her voice.

He hadn’t had to deal with her penchant for wanting to be physically abused since meeting up with her again, though he imagined it was due to happen soon.

“It felt like a series of tiny nibbles running along my skin,” Renata offered. “Or when small animals work to get bugs out of between my scales.

“And since I’m thinking about that, I cannot begin to expand upon on how nice it is to be able to use showers and baths in human form.

“It’s much easier to clean with my human hands than dragon paws.”

“Oh, yes, that’s quite nice,” Safina agreed. “Though it hurts quite a bit when I shift into human form after having eaten as a dragon. I lose so many teeth when I shrink down, but the bits stuck between remain the same size.”

“That… yes, that does hurt when that happens,” grunted Renata, sounding as if she didn’t want to think about that.

“Are dragon teeth worth anything?” Vince asked as they began walking toward the fortress. “Like, could I give them to the Whites and tell them to make knives or axes out of them?”

“I… maybe?” Renata mused, sounding thoughtful. “Dragon teeth can certainly be tougher than expected. Able to cut through a great deal of things that you wouldn’t think they could.

“I never thought about it. I’ll have to collect a few teeth and give them to the Whites to see what they think.”

“Given how often we end up sparring for supremacy with one another, there’s always teeth around. I think there’s a full ranking fight in a few days,” suggested Safina. “We could—”

There was a deafening boom followed by something slamming into Vince’s mana shield.

Then a ball of fire rolling around the shield and moving upward as well.

Nothing reached Vince or his people.

Even the heat of the fire didn’t reach them, though it was obvious that there was a great deal of heat around them. The grass instantly blackened and some of the ground was kicked up due to the force of the explosion.

“Oh, it seems they were watching after all,” Sam pointed out then chuckled. “I thought maybe we’d just walk right up given how they’d been behaving.”

“Yes, their near instant response to fire on us belies their actual thoughts,” Dalia elaborated as the group started walking again. “They’re very aware of the encirclement, very nervous about it, and watching everyone in every direction.

“They didn’t wait to see if we had anything to say, offer, or do, either. They just opened fire. I have to wonder… just how far at they going to go?”

“Something stupid,” growled Ynes. “Very stupid. Whatever it is.

“Cornered idiots are the worst kind. They’ll try to do anything they think will work, even if it’s going to harm them directly.

“I got really sick of dealing with people like that. Really sick.”

Ah… yeah, I’ll have to take care of her later.

Whenever she brings up her past as… as… whatever they were called when they were used like slave soldiers, she gets weird.

That or she’ll need to beat someone to death, I guess.

Vince reached out with his left hand and put it behind Ynes’ neck.

He slowed his steps by a single pace, then resumed it. Pulling himself and Ynes to the back of the group as they walked on.

Ynes had slowed down with him but didn’t seem to outwardly change otherwise. Though he could feel her tree in his grove shuddering.

Slowly, Vince increased his grip on her until he felt like it was causing her discomfort. A slight amount of pain to refocus her.

The conversation around them moved from the Emperor, to the area, then to north america as a whole. Canae and Dalia were natives and answering questions for Renata and Safina.

“Thank you,” whispered Ynes as they closed to a hundred feet or so out from the seat of the Emperor. “Just… a moment longer and a touch harder?”

Doing as she asked, Vince squeezed roughly, causing Ynes to hold her breath. Then he released her and let go.

Ynes glanced over her shoulder at him and he could see her eyes weren’t glowing at all, but she looked quite pleased. Her needs for pain didn’t always align with her Dryad nature.

Nodding his head at her, Vince looked back to the fortress.

Just in time to see an artillery barrel swivel told them and fire.

He didn’t hear the boom this time, though the fire and flame of the explosion washing over the shield was heavier this time. To the point that he actually felt the spell quiver in place for a second.

“Reminds Red of when we stood there in front of Prussany,” Red groused. “Do you think the Emperor will learn faster?”

“Maybe?” Vince tried. He wasn’t sure.

The Emperor had always been a bit of a wild-card to Vince. He didn’t understand the man at all.

“Smells like Dragon-newts,” Renata remarked suddenly.

“It does,” agreed Safina. “Is the Emperor a Dragon-newt?”

“I don’t know? Maybe? He has mental abilities that are similar to telepathic or empathic abilities,” Vince reminded them. “Do Dragon-newts keep that from their draconic heritage?”

“Not usually no, but it can happen,” Renata answered as they walked. “ The scent is getting stronger. It’s more than one.”

“I wonder if that’s how they’ve held power… a dragon that made their line here. Then slowly bred further and further each generation until the traits that’d mark them as non-human got weeded out,” Sam murmured. “That’d be rather interesting. The genetic pool for Humans could be expanded in a comically diverse way, though it’d blend out everything from the other races.”

“It’s a definite concern,” Canae agreed. “We’ve had many councils about breeding requirements for the majority of our races.”

“Yaris has been very involved in trying to keep all races viable despite the fact that many people have human partners,” Dalia added. “It’s a bit… cynical… a bit draconian, ha… no pun intended, but it’s also needed.

“If the races are to remain, that’ll have to happen. Not everyone can just have a human partner. They’re working through a lot of plans to test and see what might work.”

Vince found the conversation actually rather fascinating.

“Hold there, villains!” called a voice from inside the fortress. It sounded amplified somehow.

“Oh, we’re the villains now,” Red hissed with a chuckle. “Red thinks we should stop being so casual with our approach. Even with white flags raised we get fired on.

“It’s time to stop being friendly. Isn’t it?”

Sighing, Vince didn’t want to answer that.

There was a fine line between what he wanted Yosemite to be and to not be, and part of that was being open to the idea of talking first. Even if that meant that sometimes he’d get fired on.

That and we didn’t actually wave a white flag this time, did we?

Kinda an oops on our part.

Vince came to a stop at the same time everyone else did.

“My name is Vincent Campbell, king of Yosemite and a lord of Legion. I’ve come to discuss terms with the Emperor,” Vince shouted out. “I’m happy to discuss it in whatever way you like, but it’d be good to discuss it.”

“The Emperor will not entreat with an usurper such as yourself,” replied the voice. “In addition, he would like you to know that the surrounding villages and towns had their citizens brought into the fortress for protection.”

Shit.

In other words… starving out the Emperor, starves them out as well.

But I can’t just leave him here either.

“I think it would be best to discuss terms with me,” Vince tried again. “Because I cannot stop the siege regardless of your hostages. Though we might be able to work out an arrangement of some sort to spare everyone.”

“The only arrangement he’s willing to consider is if you surrender yourself and your country to him,” answered the voice. “That seems unlikely to happen, however.”

It was followed by a large number of cannons, guns, bombs, and what Vince would swear were grenades, being shot, thrown, or lobbed at them.

The shield fluttered and shivered as the explosions continuously went off.

Heat and flame washed all over them.

“ Well,” Renata declared as soon as the onslaught ended. She turned her head and looked to Vince with a wide smile. “I guess that answers any questions we had about it.

“We can’t just blow it up unless you’re willing to sacrifice the hostages. Though if we just sit around and wait they’ll all die anyways due to starvation.

“It doesn’t sound as if they’re willing to talk about surrendering either so… what then?”

Vince let out a slow breath.

He didn’t feel like letting his happen. Either of those solutions seemed quite terrible to him.

Both of those seemed to be awful and wouldn’t be a full win for Yosemite.

“I could just go in there and kill him, that’d solve it,” Vince reasoned. “If my choices are let the people starve to death, surrender to the Emperor, or to blow it up and kill the hostages… I think I’d rather cut a path to the Emperor.

“Likely the best way to save as many people as possible. Wouldn’t you think so?”

“I don’t know? Hostage situations were always incredibly messy and didn’t end well very often,” Ynes admitted. “But… honestly… they usually want to negotiate for things.

“You could offer food and water for people. Argue that it’d decrease their needs while getting him what he wants.

“While it doesn’t do anything but stall the situation out… it does slowly whittle down the casualties. It isn’t that morale boost you wanted though.”

Chewing at his lip, Vince slowly shook his head. He didn’t have an alternative idea and this genuinely seemed like the best approach at this time.

“It’s a bold plan,” Safina affirmed with a sharp nod of her pretty head.

“Last bold plan I went with got me killed, but I still like them,” Renata offered helpfully.

“Well… then let’s be bold. Johanna, any chance you can handle the shield work? I’m… uh… I don’t think I can fight and hold the shields at the same time,” Vince confided, turning to look at the lovely goddess.

“I’d be delighted to. Thank you for relying on me,” she confirmed, though he knew she’d be collecting a payment from him directly later.

Not that he’d mind.

He awkwardly took hold of his spells and then ham-handedly tried to push them off toward Johanna. So that she could just pick them up from where he had them.

There was a surprised response that came through his connection to Johanna, followed by what almost felt like a mental grunt. Then the spells were in her possession and no longer being fed from his grove.

“That’s some heavy spell-work, Vince,” grumbled Johanna. “Ah, there we go. I lightened it considerably. I should be able to handle it just fine now. Interesting way you handled it though. I’ll have to get some notes from you later. We can talk about it later.”

Yeah… when you collect your price, I’m sure.

Drawing his sword, Vince unloosened the shackles that held down his tendency to lose control. Letting them start to slacken with deliberate control.

The expected sensation of a slow burning anger welled up from inside of him. Though it was no longer as mindless as it had once been.

No sooner than he recognized the change, than he knew the reason.

His father was alive, well, and recovering with his new found sister.

“Renata,” growled Vince. “After this, I need to visit my father, but also find my mother. Or her corpse, at least.

“I’m not going to hold out hope that I can bring her back to life, but… maybe I can have Zathira use her bones to at least let me speak to her.”

“Happy to assist,” Renata agreed excitedly.

Vince cleared his throat, then began forward once again. Steadily closing the distance on the massive gate of the fortress and it’s iron wrought porticullis.

Dalia and Canae rushed ahead to the edge of the shield.

The two Elves began putting a spell together between their gauntleted hands. The metal covered fingers clicking together once or twice as they weaved the spell back and forth.

A never ending stream of weapons fire detonated against the shield even as they went onward. Small-arms as well as explosive rounds.

Surprisingly, a never-ending wave of flame encircled the shield and covered it completely. To look anywhere inside the shield was to see only fire.

“You know you’re still feeding this spell, right?” Johanna asked Vince. “All I’m doing is holding it. Can you even feel a drain or anything?”

“I don’t think so. Though there was a brief flicker of something being absorbed,” Vince mused as they reached the gate.

The Elves at the front were close enough to touch it now.

They slapped the spell they’d been building against the massive porticullis that stood in front of it. A lot like they were molding clay onto a wall they patted and pushed at it.

“Okay,” Canae stated.

“We’re ready,” Dalia finished, both Elves then looked to Ynes. “Your turn, Ynes.”

“Yes, yes, gladly,” answered the Dryad. She skipped forward then placed her hands to the spell. It flashed a bright green and then began to glow brighter and brighter. “Okay! It’s going to explode. We should move back so it isn’t inside of the shield.”

Before anyone could move, the shield simply shrank. Pulling back into a smaller sphere. Pulling both Elves and Ynes in with it as if it were coraling them.

“Given how big that’s going to be, I’m afraid we’ll need to cuddle in close to make sure this doesn’t go bad,” Johanna growled out. She sounded rather annoyed.

Taking a step to the side, she plastered herself to Vince’s side even as the shield kept coming in closer.

In seconds, the entire group was standing atop one another. All of them squished in tight to one another. There was enough room to breathe, but that was about it.

“Uhm, who’s grabbing my butt?” Safina asked.

“Shit, sorry, I thought it was Vince’s,” said what sounded like Sam. “Though hey, nice ass.”

Raising his eyebrows, Vince couldn’t deny someone was indeed grabbing his rear end. Someone else had a hand on his privates.

“So how long are we playing handy-handy?” Sam asked. “Cause if it’s a bit longer, I’m going to try and find Vince. I’m not tender anymore from the last time he plowed me into the ground like a farm-tool and I kinda wanna get him all ready if you know what I mean.”

“Not lo—”

Before Johanna could finish speaking, the spell went off.

Vince had already assumed it was some type of bomb at this point and he found he was right.

It was indeed a bomb.

A very big magical bomb.

The explosion was heavy and actually shook the ground. It rumbled mightily and made Vince feel like someone had taken the earth he was standing on and was jerking it back and forth.

“Oh, that was -bigger- than expected,” Ynes murmured. She’d emphasized the word bigger and it happened to coincide with a firm and rough squeeze on his manhood.

Ah… the Dryad got ahold of me. Leave it to the Dryad to get the best out of a situation like this.

The shield that’d pulled them all together expanded back outward.

“Wedge,” Ynes stated with a sudden and firm tone.

Safina moved to the front of the group. She was flanked by Canae and Dalia.

Renata took Vince by the arm and pulled him up to stand behind the two Elves and took the spot to his left. On his right Ynes stepped into the spot.

Behind him was Johanna and Red.

“We’ll need four more Elves,” Renata said in an offhand way.

“Working on it,” Ynes responded and then laughed. “I’ve got a Snow Elf, Dark Elf, Winged Elf, and a very thin-blooded Royal Elf all in for transfers.

“Once that all goes through, I can get Dionara back as well. Then we’ll be balanced ratio wise.”

Everyone was staring at the smoke and dust that completely hid the porticullis and gate from view.

“Red wonders if your group would technically be twice the normal size at that point,” the Undead mused aloud.

“Technically, yes? But I mean… Vince is a lot to handle. Two Dragons, two Dryads, and six Elves feels like the bare minimum. Doesn’t it?” Ynes asked.

“Red… that… ah… yes, Red agrees. Red didn’t think about it, but does agree now,” admitted Red with a chuckle. “Red likes you, Ynes. You can be Red’s friend. Red already has a Dryad wife though, so please respect boundaries.”

“I will gladly do that, Red. Gladly,” Ynes promised. “Oh, looks like that door knocker spell worked out. Good job.”

The smoke finally cleared away and what was revealed was a massive hole.

A large section of the gate, as well as the porticullis, and what looked to be a second gate, had all been removed outright. An oval shape that was perhaps seven feet tall and five foot across.

It’d all been evaporated or blown inward, Vince didn’t know which.

Either way, it was just gone.

“Safina, if you wouldn’t mind?” asked Ynes.

The Blue Dragon wearing her Draconic Legionnaire’s armor pushed her hands out in front of herself. A swirling fog of magic shot out of her hands as if they were flames.

Rushing into the beyond she held that pose for several seconds, then stepped through the wreckage. Entering into fortress itself.

Not waiting, the two Elves joined her.

Ynes put a hand to Vince’s chest before he could push through.

There was a clack, followed by what sounded like small-arms fire.

“Contact just inside. A few guards,” Dalia reported once the gunfire died down. “They’re down and dead. We can move ahead now.”

“Okay, great. Renata first, then Vince, then me,” ordered Ynes. “And yes, Vince, we know you can handle yourself. That doesn’t change our protocol, now does it?

“Please be a good boy for me and I’ll make it worth your while.”

Oh?

Fine.

It doesn’t hurt me to listen.

That and Ynes is fun.

Different.

Unique.

“You really do like different,” Renata got out with a deep chuckle. “I’m so glad I’m different, too. Safina, too, you know.”

The Orange stepped through the gate and patted Vince on the stomach as she did so.

“Having fun thoughts about me?” Ynes asked in a purr.

Vince raised his eyebrows at that.

Then stepped through the shattered gate after Renata.