Grasping the falling tree with my mind, I braced myself and heaved with all my ntal might. I would’ve found the look on the carapace wolf’s face funny, except that it was so ugly. The splintered base of the tree slamd between its beady black eyes and pinwheeled up into the air. Bone and carapace snapped like green wood, and the monster flew back several feet, then collapsed.
Moaning with pain, it tried to push itself to its feet, but by that ti, blood loss was beginning to take its toll on the creature. It was out of the fight, but sohow still alive. God-damn, just how tough were these things?
Freed from imdiate danger, I looked for my next target. Ah, there! My hand twirled up, and I called my magenta blades back to my side. Another gesture, and they flew through the air and strafed the flank of the beast engaging Duncan in a duel of strength. Blood oozed from multiple wounds on its thick hide, but I was far from finished.
Rolling my fingers in a wave, I guided my flying swords through a graceful arc that ended with them lined up in a semi-circle, point first around the base of its skull. Then, flipping my hand palm-up, I closed my fist. As one, the impossibly sharp blades struck. Nerves were instantly severed, it suddenly collapsed. Duncan stumbled forward when the now paralyzed creature stopped pushing at him.
A loud crack caused to flinch, and I jerked my head towards the noise. Grace stood to the side of one of the carapace wolves with her gun pointed at its head. Right where I guessed the temple would be, there was a bullet hole. A proper bullet hole, not sothing that'd been created with magic. Illustrating the point, a thin trail of smoke wisped up out of the barrel of the weapon.
She moved again, turning the gun on yet another of the monsters and fired. There was no doubt now, she was using conventional bullets, although they appeared to be very large. Around the chamber of the gun, runes glowed red hot for a few monts. I think they were ejecting waste heat from so internal process.
While I loved watching my girlfriend kick ass, I had to do the sa, so I pulled my blades back and got ready to fight once more.
Five minutes later and the armoured wolf-bear things were dead. Before we took stock of things, I threw them as far as I could back into the forest so they didn’t stink up the path I was marking out. From there, we moved onwards, although now we had a novel new conversation topic!
“What the hell were those things?” I asked Eilian. “Why were they resistant to magic?”
“Most magical creatures are,” explained the obrec woman, placing her hooves carefully to avoid the entrance to a burrow of so kind. “As for what they were, well… I believe they were wolves once, from your howorld. At so point or another, they must have wandered into one of the magical realms and gotten trapped. Generations later, those things ca out. The realms tend to twist and corrupt any life that makes its way into their depths.”
“Wait…” I said slowly, glancing at the many people in our party who were both human and had been in my grove multiple tis.
Eilian saw my concern and chuckled, “No, it wouldn’t happen to them, at least not in a relatively safe realm like the Garden. If you were to leave them out in the arboreal void beyond the borders of a grove for a few years, they might start to run into problems, but otherwise they would be fine.”
“So… what, we’d grow planty bits like you lot?” Adam asked, gesturing between myself, Eilian, and Grace.
“Yes, my handso friend,” the obrec replied wryly. “You would grow… planty bits.”
“Cool,” he grinned, already daydreaming about the prospect. “What other realms are there? Oh, is there like… a water realm? Oh! Or a holy realm! I could grow cool angel wings.”
“I do not believe there is a holy realm, parsay— per see—” she replied, faltering as she stumbled over the niche words.
“Per se,” I supplied.
She shot a look of thanks. “Thank you. Uh… yeah, I think there’s more than one realm centred around water. Angel wings, on the other hand… these are similar to the angels the Donians worship?”
“Yes,” I said, replying for Adam. I doubted he knew who the Donians were, but I did. They were the crazy religious theocracy to our north that was founded by late dieval hardline catholics.
“In that case, yes, there is a realm that’d give you pretty white wings. The Donians have a few warlocks from there that they mistakenly believe are saints or so-such lunacy,” Eilian explained.
“Cool,” the boy grinned. “Maybe there’s a type of magic out there for too. Other than the angel stuff of course.”
“I have a feeling you’re already magic, sweetie,” Eilian winked, making a very obvious glance downwards. To my surprise, Adam blushed. Eilian giggled at the look on his face and said, “It’s a pity I’m bonded. You’d be fun.”
“Maybe,” Adam replied, sobering. “I think I’d be best with soone a little more…”
“Normal?” she asked wryly.
I have to admit, I was feeling a little awkward just standing here listening to a fairly intimate conversation.
“Sothing like that, yeah,” Adam agreed with a shrug. “I feel like I wouldn’t be entertaining enough for you queer folks.
“Dude, no,” Grace said, sounding surprisingly passionate. “You’re not boring or anything like that. I know many girls, straight, bi, or pan, who would love to take a crack at you. The alphabet mafia might like to talk shit about straights sotis, but it’s just venting. Being able to openly voice our frustrations is part of the healing process, even if it’s… yeah.”
“If you say so,” he mumbled, but there was a smile on his face as he said it.
Two days later, we exited the mountains and began to make our approach towards the moderately sized mining town of Neub. It was the closest settlent to Avonside of any note, so that was Dr Ross’ first stop. Neub would end up being the last stop a trade caravan would make before heading into the mountains, so we didn’t really have a choice.
The last ti the scouting team had left the mountains, they were much farther along the range, and honestly, hopelessly lost. Now, things were different. We spoke local languages, were travelling with two powerful mages, a warlock, and we had so very cool gear.
I just hoped the fact that Neub was marginally under the jurisdiction of the Graigarian Empire didn’t complicate things.
The town itself sat along an icy mountain river as it flowed down into the foothills. Farmland stretched out from the crumbling old walls but eventually gave way to a patchwork of woodland and hardy scrubland. In the distance far beyond the town, you could just make out where the foothills ended, and the vast grasslands of the northern Graigarian Empire began, fading into the atmospheric haze.
When we got close enough to see the architecture, I was fascinated. There wasn't a single straight edge on any building. All of them were circular or composed of multiple circles, as though Mongolian tents had evolved into stone and wood equivalents. Internally, I was already referring to it as the polka dot town.
Once we were on a road, we could start subtly looking at the people who made this place ho. There were two obvious groups. The main one, and by far the more nurous group, were the people who worked the fields, tended to animals, and wore simple, functional garb. If I had to guess, I’d say they were probably originally lifted from Mongolia or central Russia.
The second distinct group we saw were a half dozen people out for a casual stroll. Laughing, snacking on nuts, and shadowed by servants from the forr group, they were obviously the Graigarians. Despite being all over the place ethnically, their style was distinctly post-alexander — or hellenistic — persian. Sothing told that if it weren’t for the cold mountain air, they’d have significantly more skin exposed. They were also much more obviously wealthy. It was clear in which direction the wealth of the empire flowed.
Getting closer to the town, I noticed the walls weren’t as sturdy as they appeared from a distance. Still tall enough to stop a human from just walking through, many sections were crumbling, but others had gone lower and were now patched with log palisades. The walls were probably only there to make things difficult for monsters, with human attackers being a rare thing out here. The only vaguely military force that could threaten them out here were the horse-riding nomad tribes from further north, and so long as the gates were shut, the town would be safe from them.
“We’re about to change this place forever,” Dr Ross said quietly.
“Because it’s about to beco aware of its alien neighbours?” Duncan asked, head on a swivel. This was the furthest he’d been on the ring, and he was making the most of the sights now. Back in the mountains, you could forget that you were on a ring if you didn’t look up. However, it was impossible to ignore the upward curving haze-horizon that’d replaced the distinct line we were so used to back on Earth.
The older man humd in agreent. “Yes, but additionally, Avonside will undoubtedly beco an important town, and Neub here is the gateway to our ho. The number of travellers coming through this place will increase by many orders of magnitude.”
“Here’s hoping they welco the traffic,” Eilian mused, gaze tracking a local farr as they realised so very unusual people were walking past. His eyes almost fell out of his head when he clocked first Eilian and then as mages. Poor man looked like he was about to fall over from shock. Sohow, I didn’t think the impending attention would be to the benefit of folks like him — unless we did sothing to safeguard them. We would. It was what the order was founded to do, after all.
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