Book 2: Chapter 44: Friendly Visitors

  By the third day that week, the enemy started hesitating before throwing their main force into “easy” targets. Not because they were losing, not at first. No, they were still stronger, still had more troops, better supply lines, embedded anchor wards and spellcasters in damned flying platforms and all those many, many Cloud-Falcons.

  But they paused when they saw them. The Worldstriders, the Earthbreakers. And hesitation, as it turns out, was a luxury they couldn’t afford.

  Henry went out first. He stood near the middle of the Terraxum advance, calm as stone while arcane bombardments rained around him. When the ground started trembling with the Aeralith charge, everyone assumed he’d pull back. Instead, he planted one foot forward, slammed his halberd into the ground, and roared.

  The glyph-lines Alex had helped Devon etch into the sub-trench ahead of Henry detonated in sequence. An entire channel of the enemy's charge dropped six feet into a muddy death trap. Crushed bones, screams. Shields half-buried, flailing about as a hundred men and women were buried and trampled over.

  Henry stood unmoving as the dust settled. Helmetless, face blank and eyes hard. Someone from the Terraxum line whispered the word “Titan.” It stuck.

  Lance struck next. He’d been tailing a lead element of Aeralith soldiers through the woods near the forward basin, flanking them. When the enemy mages reached the sigil stones Alex and Devon had placed in a fallen tree, Lance was already there.

  Aether shimmered behind his blade. He raised it once and let it hum. The moment the enemy activated their channeling staves, the glyphs ignited. Anchor Wards.

  The ambient aether in the surrounding area locked into place, ending their spells before they could finish the casting. Many fizzled out, others backlashed from the energy overlaod. Half of them detonated on the spot, fire and blue-white arcs crackling through their own lines.

  By the time Lance stepped forward, the remaining mages dropped their weapons and tried to run. He dashed between them, cutting down mages likely a deathly ghost.

  And then there was Kate. Neck deep in a frontal engagement, arrows rained, spell-bolts flashed by in a dizzying light rave. Her attention wasn’t on any of that though, instead her eyes were locked on her target.

  She activated [Flame Blitz] in a single breath, fire wreathing her body in a phoenix halo, rippling with kinetic force. Then she was gone. A flash, a streak of emberlight cutting between spears and glyph-nets, headed straight for the enemy command squad. The officer didn’t even have time to call for a shield. Kate’s rapier took him in the chest, searing metal and flesh in a single lunge.

  She didn’t stick around after, she just vanished again, scattering condensed firebolts in her wake, sending enemy troops scrambling for cover. The with the death of their regiment leader, the command chain snapped, orders failed. The Aeralith formation crumbled like dried clay in the sun.

  By the time the Terraxum banners pushed forward again, the enemy had already begun retreating.

  Alex watched it all with a smile. The enemy forces weren’t blind. They too saw what Alex and his team were doing each day on the battle field. It wasn’t long that they heard the rumors and whispers from the other side too.

  “Don’t engage the squad with the Wind Mage woman in the silver cloak.”

  “The one with the halberd and water magic crushed a dozen men on his own.”

  “There’s one who rides fire like it’s a mount, I saw her melt through steel with her sword and dance through it.”

  “They don’t get tired.”

  “They don’t miss.”

  “They come for your officers first.”

  Terror crept in at the edges of Aeralith’s discipline. Officers began wearing glamours to hide their rank. Mages pulled out before engagements started. Units surrendered when the terrain turned in the Striders’ favor.

  They had become a symbol. And symbols… well, they were far more dangerous than steel.

  ***

  The following morning was far more peaceful, and cheerful than any of them had been expecting. The reason was simple, company with familiar faces.

  There turned out to be for more brains sitting in-between the scaled ears of Tom-Tom than Alex had given him credit for. He had thought that the little lizard would be forced to send them items through a courier at the front, just as the Merchants and Noble Houses had. But it turned out, the little guy knew how to play a bit of actual politics, because he managed to swing a “diplomatic visit” to them all the way at the northern front.

  What’s more, he brought along a friend.

  “Celeste, what the hell are you doing all the way up here?” Alex asked as he saw the woman enter their tent.

  She looked at him angrily and huffed. “Asked me to come didn’t you? Begged me in your little letter. Please great Celeste help us, please.”

  “That’s not what it said.”

  “Eh, pretty much the gist of it,” she waved her hand.

  “That is basically what you wrote.” Obby giggled in his mind.

  No it wasn’t. Like you even understand human communication anyway. Shut up.

  “Hey, Baba Yaga, did you bring any of your tea?” Garret called out from his bunk. His smile was back.

  Celeste grumbled under her breath but still produced a tea pot and some cups. Garret quickly got up and cleared the table, and the she got to work. The others gathered up quickly, especially when Tom-Tom started his transformation into Santa Claws, bearing yet more gifts for the team.

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  “You didn’t buy any mushrooms did you?” Alex asked once more, just to remove all doubt.

  The kobold shook his head, ears flapping. “No mushrooms. Promise. I get many aether pills, essence crystal, herbs and natural treasure, just like you say.” As he spoke, he began pulling items from a pouch and setting them on the table. From what he could see, the little kobold wasn’t lying.

  Rather quickly, the table was filled with small cases containing pills, various elemental essence crystals, aether dense herbs, tree roots, gems, rocks, monster parts, arcane beast cores, and more. It was all a mesh-mash of many different items, but all things that either one of the worldstriders, or Alex himself could use.

  “Wow, dibs on the air essence fragment,” Holly called out, picking it up before anyone can protest.

  “I call the crystalized-flare herbs,” Garret shouted.

  Lance dove in quickly after, “The petrified Earthenstag bones are mine.”

  “I call the—“

  It became a free for all as items were claimed and snagged. Within a couple of minutes, the near mound of items had dwindled down to a few base resources that had no specialized elemental attunement or secondary effect for cultivation. Alex happily took them all, as he had no need for either of those, just sheer quality and quantity of aether energy itself.

  “Nice work Tom-Tom. I have more for you to sell, and more gold as well.” Alex began emptying out the team’s new wartime gains, the loot they picked from the battlefields. He ended up handing Tom-Tom a few hundred gold pieces, as well as various armor and weapons, aether-slates containing cultivation gathering manuals, and fighting styles. All of it worth quite a bit, just not to them.

  They had already picked through the scavenged items and manuals. Some of them managed to snag a rather nice new aether-gathering technique, including Eric and Holly with a nice Wind Element attuned technique they found, and Henry who happened into a water attuned one.

  The rest they had agreed to sell, so it all went into the hands of Tom-Tom now.

  “I will sell, and bring back new items soon.” Tom-Tom said.

  Celeste by this point had finished brewing her tea and began serving it around the table. “Using kobolds as merchant hands is rather Aetherian of you Alex. Its well known that they have good noses for aether-rich items, and are typically used to find good deals.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Why do you think the kingdom keeps such good diplomatic ties with them? For their culinary advancements?” she laughed at her own joke.

  “It just made sense at the time,” he said.

  “We thought he was crazy,” Cole added.

  “Completely crazy,” Holly said.

  “Hmmm, maybe you noticed Tom-Tom’s special nose because of your own heightened sense,” Celeste eyed him questioningly as she finished pouring the tea and set down the kettle.

  Alex didn’t answer her right away. He thought over her statement, taking it seriously. I do sense and feel aether energy much better than everyone else. Not to even mention the aether sight ability I have. Am I really just extra sensitive to it?

  Obby’s voice entered his mind, giving a possible explanation.“You’re entire body is attuned to aether remember? That means all the organs, and parts of your brain connected to your senses. ‘Aether Sight’ might just be the name of the ability, but it could encompass aether smell, aether hearing, aether… touch? Who really knows, you flesh sacks have weird ways of interpreting the world.”

  That made sense to Alex. There were other instances of the ‘name’ or ‘definition’ of something in The System screens not really giving all the details.

  His [Demonic Descending Fist] was one such example. He had instinctively knew more about the technique than the basic flavor text on his status screen gave him, but there was even more hidden beyond that. How to actually handle the energy, the nuances to tapping into the power and not having it destroy his body. He had to learn all that himself, and he barely managed to understand enough to use only the first part of the technique, conjuring one ethereal fist.

  Even that was still tough, and left Alex exhausted after he used it each time.

  So why would his [Aether sight] be any different here? There was more to it than just his ability to see concentrated aether. He was already feeling more, noticing more, and perhaps even knowing when others had similar abilities, albeit unconsciously.

  “I think you might be close to the mark there Celeste,” he finaly said. “I’ll have to think more on that, do some experiments, and get back to you.”

  “Of course I’m right child, I’m me.” The woman waved her hand noncommittally, like she was that terribly interested in the truth of it anyway. “Not why I’m here anyway. Tell me what happened after the soldiers picked you up? How’d you end up in a damned war?” she asked.

  Alex and the others spent the better part of the morning explaining everything that had happened. Their travel, imprisonment. The political maneuvering, the vote, and Prince Kailan’s decision. Then all the battles that led up to that day.

  “Mmmm,” Celeste tapped her lips in thought. “All Adepts already huh? That’s rather fast, even with essence fragments and items. Heavenly System might be giving you a small boost. Its been always theorized that worldstriders get stronger much faster than others, but I assumed it was the extra quests it liked to throw at you. Might be more to it.”

  Alex leaned in at this point, curious. “Do you think we can get to Magus Tier before the Trial time limit?”

  “Magus Tier? Oh my, probably not, no. Took me ten years to do that. Then another fifty years to close in on Sage before… well never mind that. You might be able to reach late stage Adept in that time, but that’s about it.” She said, dashing Alex’s hopes.

  Everyone else looked just as disappointed, many silently sipped at their tea with sullen expressions. He was forced to move the topic to other things before morale started to take a hit.

  “Are you going to stick around here? I know its dangerous, but you could be a big help in teaching us how to further our skills.”

  Celeste shook her head before she began gathering up her dishes. “No, no, I’m of no use on a battlefield as I am now. I can leave some study material for you all, but that’s it. I will return to the capital with Tom-Tom to assist him for a couple days, then I will go back to Vrung’s Quarry. My home is there, not matter how bleak that may sound. I merely came because you asked me to, and I wanted to make sure you all weren’t dead yet.”

  “I see.”

  “Cheer up now, once you are all done with this mess,” she gestured about at the entirety of the northern front like it was a puddle of spilled milk. “Come back east to Vrung’s Quarry and I will help you all that I can. Or if you manage to entice me with a promise of real excitement, I might stick around, eh?” She winked at them all with the last statement.

  “Thank you, Celeste,” he said.

  “Bah, save that for when you know you aren’t dead for sure. Tom-Tom...” she looked about. Alex turned as well, finding the kobold was already at the tent’s cooking area, licking various ladles, spatulas, and other utensils.

  “Now I need to wash those again,” Henry said.

  Celeste waved her hand and made for the tent’s entrance once more. “Come Tom-Tom, we must get back to the capital.”

  The lizard scampered after her, giving them all a wave good bye, “Tom-Tom will bring more gifts later.”

  And then, with a swish of the tent flap and a gust of frozen wind left in their wake, the two were gone. Silence settle over the tent once more. Their friends were off once more, and they were still trapped in a warzone, knee deep in the suck.

  He looked at everyone at the table and gave a forced smile.”Alright, get showered, dressed and armored up. We need to be out at the trenches by dusk. We have a twenty-four hour shift ahead of us. Let’s see if we can’t make the Aeralith soldiers fear us even more.”

  That earned him smattering a half-hearted cheers and oh-rahs, before he got up and left their tent.

  The trenches beckoned, war called, and Alex yearned to pick up the phone.