Larkin was now walking with practically half an arsenal on his back, but found both the weight and the impact on his balance easy to manage - thanks to his Fighter Class. And as he thought about that he glanced again at Jorg.

  “What is the Shieldbearer Class, anyway?”

  That got another chuckle from Jorg who, Larkin couldn't help but notice, was basically having to jog to keep up with their pace. Though that didn’t seem to have any effect on his ability to talk.

  “If your accent didn’t give you away, that question would tell me you’re not from the north.” The Shieldbearer replied. “Anyone living in Rohag would know of the Class.”

  Larkin kept his face as neutral as he could - though he wanted to cringe at the ignorance he had just demonstrated.

  Hard to know whether any question I might have would have the same result, he thought grimly.

  Fortunately Jorg didn’t wait for him to give any response before continuing.

  “The simple answer is that it’s the Dwarven variant of the Fighter Class.” Jorg told him. “Though like all simplifications it leaves out a lot of nuance.”

  “We fight on the frontlines.” The Shieldbearer continued. “Our shields protect our allies while our axes smite our foes.”

  The Dwarf smiled fondly as he said those words, then his eyes narrowed and he added.

  “And it seems like I’ll be doing both shortly.”

  Looking up ahead, Larkin saw that Cezar had stopped and was gesturing Robiery to move further back towards him and Jorg. Beside her, Jasset had her bow ready and was scanning the skies.

  Larkin couldn’t see anything, but reckoned that this was a sign of the higher levels of the adventurers from Gavlim.

  And just as the villager staggered back to stand near to Larkin the upper layer of the woods in front of them seemed to detach itself and drift upwards. All accompanied by a heavy wave of discordant buzzing.

  There’s hundreds of them, Larkin thought instinctively. Before feeling a strange sensation, as though someone had just shaken up his thoughts. And he felt a sense of calm come over him.

  No, there’s maybe fifty. He corrected himself, taking a breath.

  It was still a lot, but he now moved calmly as he set his spear down on the ground, took a couple of steps to the side, and smoothly pulled out and strung his bow.

  And that’s the Calm Mind Skill doing that, he realised, without letting the thought interrupt his motions. It’s hella useful, even if the implications are messed up.

  As he was thinking, Cezar and Jasset started firing their bows. And while Larkin itched to do the same, he knew that the enemy weren’t in range for his smaller weapon yet. So instead he got to see the lethal accuracy of the two Classbearers.

  And they were absolutely brutal. Neither of them were firing as quickly as someone on Earth could with a rifle, but they were still blisteringly quick.

  Cezar in particular seemed like a machine. An arrow was placed to string, pulled back and fired, and then after a moment one of the monsters would begin to fall from the sky. Even as another arrow was being pulled back.

  Jasset would occasionally take two shots to kill one of the flyers, and would sometimes hesitate a heartbeat before choosing a target. But even she was scything through the waves of monsters.

  By the time that the Firestingers got in range for Larkin to start firing with his shortbow more than a score of the monsters were carpeted across the ground. But there were still many more of them descending upon them; at least thirty that threatened to crash upon the Classbearers - and Robiery - from three sides.

  That was until Jorg took a sharp breath and then gave a wordless cry.

  “Harggh!” He cried, raising his huge shield before crashing it down onto the ground in front of him.

  Larkin felt the hairs on his skin rise up at hearing that roar. It was as though a pulse of pure aggression was sent cascading out from the Dwarf.

  And the wave of flying monsters seemed to turn as one and rush towards the Shieldbearer; pushing each other out of the way as they fought against each other in their desire to approach the Dwarf.

  Which left Cezar, Jasset, and Larkin free to continue to send arrow after arrow into that densely packed swarm. Who seemed entirely indifferent to their fellows falling in their unnatural fixation on Jorg.

  Larkin also noticed that the Dwarf was now entirely covered by his shield, which seemed to have grown even larger to cover him. A film of pale blue light encased not only the surface of the shield but also curved around to form a protective screen around Jorg as well.

  The Shieldbearer seemed unwilling or unable to strike back at any of the monsters, crouching down as though weathering the storm.

  Despite all this, such was the press of monsters around the Dwarf that some of the Stingers were pushed away. And a few of them would seem to shake off whatever frenzy they were under when they were literally right next to the rest of the group.

  Larkin quickly dropped his bow and retrieved his spear from the ground and then leapt forward. An upward slashing manoeuvre took one of the monsters out of the air as it was turning to face him, and then Larkin darted forward to impale another one that was starting to move towards Jasset.

  And all the while the two archers continued reaping their deadly harvest of the monsters surrounding Jorg. It was only when there were fewer than a dozen of the Firestingers left that they seemed to recover from their single minded focus on the Dwarf. But by that time there were far too few to make it a hard task for the four Classbearers to put them down.

  Afterwards, Larkin took a look around and saw a heavy ring of dead Firestingers around where Jorg had been standing.

  “That’s some Skill!” He remarked to the Dwarf, as Cezar and Jasset started trying to retrieve their arrows from the corpses.

  The Shieldbearer gave an absent minded grunt as he inspected his shield with a critical eye - though it looked completely unscratched to Larkin.

  “Wild Challenge.” Jorg told him. “It’s a useful Skill against crowds of mindless monsters like these.”

  Once the Dwarf was satisfied with the state of his shield, he glanced up at Larkin.

  “It won’t do any good against the Queen though, nor any of her Enforcers.” Jorg cracked one of the muscles in the side of his neck. “Don’t suppose you’ve got anything that would be useful against them?”

  Larkin hesitated only a moment before shaking his head. His Null Mage ability would certainly help - or, at least, he had no reason to think otherwise - but that would only be the case if he was clear with how it even worked. And he was still hesitant to speak about his Class; it sounded special to him even if it was proving frustratingly difficult to understand.

  Instead he looked again at the monsters carpeting the ground.

  “What should we do about those?” He asked.

  Jorg gave a chuckle.

  “Leave those to the tin-tins.” He said. “Most of their work will be to gather all the monster corpses we leave behind. Far too valuable to be just left for some random folk to take for themselves.”

  The Dwarf snorted.

  “Better it go to the city than be taken by the local lords, too.” Jorg shook his head. “Mayor Harcort cares for the welfare of her people; she’s got that much of her father in her.”

  Larkin wasn’t sure how to respond to that. So instead he hurried over to try and recover his own spent arrows. Even in that short time he’d used almost half of the arrows in his quiver.

  Annoyingly, though all but two had snapped when the Firestingers had fallen to the ground. And he lost another one trying to extract it from the hard carapace.

  I guess I can see why they carry spares. He thought ruefully as he glanced over at Cezar and Jasset. Both women had bundles of extra arrows in packs on their backs.

  Even worse, though, a few of the monsters were still alive. Not enough to be a threat, but twitching with varying amounts of energy as they lay on the ground. Trying not to think too much about it, Larkin put the things out of their misery as soon as he saw any movement.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Though that led to a thought.

  “Should I be feeling bad about these monsters?”

  He muttered that aloud while staring down at one of the creatures that had smashed its head open by landing on the edge of a rock as it fell, but had still been erratically thrashing before Larkin had finished if off.

  But he’d forgotten about the keen hearing of Classbearers.

  “You’re joking, right?” Jasset called from a dozen paces away. “It’s our job to kill these things.”

  Larkin found himself blushing a little at the open scorn in the girl’s words. And that led to him trying to defend himself.

  “But they still feel pain, right?” He responded. “They don’t want to die either, I’m guessing. Just like any other animal?”

  The dark haired girl didn’t seem impressed by that idea either.

  “Regular animals don’t target humans for no good reason.” She retorted. “They don’t enjoy it, like monsters do.”

  Jasset’s mouth twisted angrily as she shoved a still-glistening arrow into her quiver.

  “Save your misplaced mercy.”

  The girl stalked away, leaving Larkin feeling like he’d been part of a different conversation.

  “I wasn’t saying I wouldn’t kill them.” He muttered. “Just that I didn’t have to feel good about doing it.”

  Looking up, he caught Cezar’s gaze locked on him. For a moment they exchanged a look, before the Branch Head gave him a quizzical smile and then spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Let’s get moving.” Was all she said. “The Queen will know that her sentries have died. We should try to get to Willow quickly.”

  The Ranger resumed the lead with Robiery next to her. Jasset was walking beside Jorg so Larkin found himself trailing the group.

  The idea that the swarm of monsters had just been a picket of sentries for the Queen of the Firestingers made Larkin wonder just how many monsters she might have at her disposal. And then that thought made him start to calculate how many he’d just killed.

  And I still haven’t got a level up. He pondered. While I got a bunch early on.

  He guessed that the levels scaled the higher they went. At least that was how it worked in computer games back home. And maybe also there was also the fact that he’d been in far less danger this time. The monsters had been so focused on Jorg that killing them had been pretty easy.

  Cezar set a pace that made him worry for Robiery’s stamina and the cottages of Willow appeared barely an hour after the attack.

  The Branch Head called a halt there, and gathered the others together.

  “The difficult part is going to be finding the Queen.” Cezar told them all. “She’ll be intelligent enough to know that we’re a threat to her.”

  After the devastation the four of them had made of the drones there seemed to be no arguing with that. But…

  “Could she just take off?” Larkin asked. “Fly somewhere else?”

  Jasset rolled her eyes so aggressively that it looked like it must hurt, but Cezar just shook her head.

  “Not if she’s old enough to start spawning.” The Ranger told him. “Which she clearly has.”

  Cezar frowned pensively.

  “When a Firestinger Queen gets settled then she’s there for life. Which tends to be a big problem for all other creatures that might be nearby.” The Ranger made a face.

  “But a young Queen shouldn’t travel through the Wards, either.” She added. “It would only be done if all other alternatives were worse...”

  Jorg filled in that brief silence.

  “The whys of it all can be worked out later.” He rumbled. “The problem is finding the thing.”

  It was Jasset who spoke up next.

  “Something as big as the Queen must have left signs that you can follow, right Cezar?”

  The Branch Head gave an easy nod.

  “Absolutely. The problem is finding those signs before we get swarmed by the hive.”

  An idea clearly occurred to her as her gaze moved to Robiery.

  “The initial report said that the local Wardstone was being attacked. Could you take us to it?”

  At the villager’s nod, Cezar gave a satisfied grin.

  “Drones won’t be able to defeat the defences of the Ward.” She told them. “The Royal Academy are rightfully proud of the Alchemical defences those things have. So it would have been her Enforcers - or more likely the Enforcers her mother would have given her - that would have done it. Which should be my starting point.”

  She nodded decisively.

  “Let’s go.”

  The five of them set off, though Larkin noticed the long look that Robiery gave his home before he turned away. And so he hung back to speak to Jorg, ignoring the irritated look that Jasset gave him.

  “What are the real odds that there are any survivors from here?” He asked the Dwarf in a whisper.

  He got a grim look in response.

  “Not ones I like.” Jorg replied. “It’s been long enough that the Queen will have fed more than once. But in cases like this any chance is better than none.”

  Larkin just grunted in response and soon the narrow trail they were travelling down forced them into single-file and the conversations stalled. With the occasional exception of some muttered exchange between Cezar and Robiery at the front, there was only the occasional rustling of branches blowing in the wind.

  He found himself contemplating Cezar as she led the way; thinking about her Class. She’d certainly been lethal with her bow but the Class must have more than that.

  She’s certainly confident that she’ll be able to find the Queen.

  His own Fighter Class didn’t seem to have anything like that. The only Skill that he had seemed to be all about ensuring he knew how to use the various weapons he carried. But then again, he was only Level Three; what would happen when he reached Level Ten? Or Twenty?

  Makes me wonder what level Cezar and Jorg are, he thought.

  Before he could get too distracted by that line of thought, though, they reached their destination.

  The trail headed up a hill that reached an almost absurdly sharp point. And embedded deep into the ground there was a dais of heavy stone. Which would originally, Larkin assumed, have held the pale green stone - or glass? - that was instead speckled across the hillside.

  Cezar just gave a small nod at the sight before turning her face to the ground as she started walking around the site. But Robiery had a stunned look on his face.

  “The monsters actually destroyed it.”

  He said those words as Larkin walked towards him, and there was certainly no denying them.

  “The Wardstone seemed invisible.” The villager continued in a soft voice, staring around at all the evidence of how wrong that impression had been. “I remember Spiri Gant threw a rock at it once. We were kids at the time. And the Wardstone flung the stone back at him so fast it almost hit him flat in the face.”

  A hiccup of some remembered emotion escaped the man as he found himself temporarily lost in his recollections.

  But Larkin had thought of something else.

  “Why is it all the way out here?” He asked, turning to Jorg.

  The Dwarf had followed him, there not being much else to do with Cezar still focused on the hill. He gave Larkin a mildly curious look and he felt the need to explain.

  “We’re off the main road and had to go through some tough terrain to get here.” He pointed out. “But that thing must have required a whole team to put together.”

  And the stone dais would have needed to be pulled all the way over here too, he thought.

  “Is there anything special about this place?” He asked.

  And got a surprised laugh out of Jorg.

  “In a sense.” He said. “But it’s the very things you’ve just said, lad.”

  At Larkin’s confused look, the Dwarf tilted his head.

  “Surely the politics of this isn’t new to you?” He asked. “The Royal Academy has never been popular in court, not given how old King Frederik died.”

  Jorg narrowed his eyes.

  “I had you pegged as being from Haugar.” The Dwarf told him. “You speak like you learned Calilean like you went to one of those fancy finishing schools.”

  Larkin, unable to think of a quick response to that, just gave a helpless shrug. And, fortunately, Jorg seemed more interested in giving the story than in quizzing him.

  “Well, King Harg might not like the Alchemists of the Royal Society, but he could see how useful their idea of stopping monsters from entering his kingdom would be. ‘Specially after the mess with the Alynchar and the Llochal.”

  “But that didn’t mean that he was going to just take the word of the folks in the Royal Society.” Jorg continued. “They were saying how sturdy these Wardstones were, and how easy they were to put in place, so King Harg, he decided to test them.”

  The Dwarf gave a cough, amusement mixed with something darker.

  “Gave the Royal Society a list of places to put the new-fangled Wardstones. And most of them were in places about as remote as this.”

  The Dwarf raised a hand at the steep peak where the Ward had been.

  “But they managed it, no one could deny that.” Jorg continued. “Not that they got the credit they deserved for it.”

  The Shieldbearer sighed.

  “I guess that makes sense, after the war.”

  Larkin frowned, not wanting to further reveal his ignorance about asking which war Jorg was talking about. Another question did occur to him though.

  “But the Ward was refurbished recently.” He objected, remembering one of the complaints that the major had raised. “If what you’re saying is right then why would they have to build here again?”

  The Shieldbearer just gave a cynical grin.

  “Because they worked, lad. And it turns out that the local lord liked having the Wardstone here, thank you very much.”

  Jorg’s thick lips narrowed.

  “Not that you see them around, of course.” He muttered darkly. “All that nonsense between the Mayor and Duke Gullonne doesn’t help.”

  Jorg turned around from that - to Larkin - perplexing conversation as Cezar approached them.

  “You got the trail?” He asked the Branch Head, who gave a pleased nod in response.

  “Looks like the Queen sent one of her mother’s Enforcers to do it.” Cezar said. “They’ll be easy enough to follow, that’s for sure.”

  She then paused and gave Jorg a significant look.

  “They’ll be on guard though.”

  The Shieldbearer nodded placidly.

  “Freshly made Queen, still accompanied by her old Hive’s Enforcers. Yeah, they’ll be cautious.” He agreed. “If anything starts stirring up a fuss, reckon she’ll hunker down and send everything she has available out to deal with it.”

  Cezar gave a ferocious grin.

  “Sounds like we’ve got a plan then.”