Serpentlord (Rise To Omniscience Book 9), page 12
“If I recall correctly, I was perfectly willing to be friends,” Katherine said. “It was you who didn’t want to get along. I distinctly remember you snubbing me at every chance you got, no matter how nice I was.”
“I was a bit of a brat, wasn’t I,” Sarah said with a chuckle. “I guess when I saw how beautiful you were and tried to compare myself to you, I couldn’t see why Morgan would choose me over you. I mean… look at you. Even now, you’re clearly still the prettier one.”
“But you don’t seem to mind,” Katherine said.
“My insecurities about Morgan are long gone,” Sarah said. “He brought me back from the dead and asked me to marry him. If I ever had any reservations, having someone do something as insane as that just for me is more than enough to get rid of them.”
Katherine looked down, her lips tightening into a line, but she looked back up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I know how you feel. I understand your pain. But trust me when I say this. You will find someone as amazing and selfless as you, and he will love you. You’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
“It’s been nothing but a curse,” Katherine said, though she didn’t remove Sarah’s hand. “Beauty isn’t all I am. It was what initially drew me to Morgan in the first place, the fact that my looks didn’t seem to affect him at all.”
“Your looks definitely don’t hurt,” Sarah said. “For most of my life, I was an awkward, gangly girl. Only after advancing, fighting, and growing stronger did I finally grow into the woman I am today. I know it doesn’t mean much coming from me, but I’ve lost a lot, too. So has Morgan. Still, neither of us have lost as much as you. I’ve never met someone so willing to sacrifice everything they hold dear for the betterment of their people. I see it, so does Morgan, and one day, so will a very special man.”
“You’re rambling,” Katherine said with a sniff, reaching up to wipe at her eyes.
“I don’t want Morgan to lose you because of me,” Sarah said, “And I want us to be friends.”
Katherine stepped back at that, finally breaking her contact with the younger woman.
“Morgan won’t lose me,” Katherine said, wiping away the last of her tears and forcing down her emotions. “But I think it’s going to take a little more time for me to forgive you. Irrational as it is, I can’t help but hate you right now.”
“I thought we were having a moment,” Sarah said.
“We were,” Katherine replied. “And now it’s over. Concentrate on the mission. Maybe we can talk again in a few weeks after I’ve had some time to come to terms with your return.”
Sarah let out a long breath but nodded. She hadn’t expected this to be easy but had been caught up in the moment. If she were in Katherine’s shoes, it would definitely take her some time to come to terms with her feelings. Today was a step in the right direction, and while Katherine hated her right now, there was still a chance that they might someday be friends.
A portal opened behind the woman in question, and she stepped through. Seconds later, Morgan returned as though he’d been waiting for her to leave before coming back.
“Did you hear all of that?” Sarah asked, turning to glare at him in mock annoyance.
“Can’t help it,” Morgan replied. “Sharp ears.”
“Did you already finish moving all of the soldiers into position?”
Morgan shook his head.
“I’d just finished transporting my fourth group when I realized I’d left the two of you here alone.”
“It’s sweet of you to worry about me, but I’m a big girl,” Sarah said. “I can handle myself just fine.”
Morgan gave her a sheepish smile at that, one that made her heart flutter. No matter how many times she saw him do that, she still couldn’t help it.
“Just go,” she said, waving him off. “We are on a timer, aren’t we?”
“I’ll be back to get you into position as soon as I’m done,” he said, then vanished, disappearing to a spot some fifty miles away to transport the next group.
Katherine had purposely spread them out so they wouldn’t have contact with one another. The soldiers had also been expressly ordered not to talk to one another about the locations of the caches they were going to protect.
Sarah waited patiently, keeping her senses sharp just in case the enemy decided to mount a surprise attack. It was also good to be prepared in case a wild beast showed up. Just because they were in a war didn’t mean that beasts would stop hunting humans, though Sarah didn’t think she was quite human anymore.
After what Morgan had done to bring her back from the dead, using the Essence of a god, she had been forever changed. She was still discovering how her new ability worked and how her mana, so very different than what she was used to, functioned. What she tried not to think about were the nightmares, the ones in which Octagon speared her through, destroying her core.
Those were the nightmares she hid from Morgan, the ones that made her wake up in a cold sweat. Despite killing that monster, he still haunted her, and even though she’d been able to hide her mental state from Morgan so far, she knew she’d have to talk to him about it eventually.
Thankfully, just being around him helped, his warmth and love gave her comfort, but…
Sarah jumped as Morgan returned, appearing from thin air.
“Sorry,” he said as she clutched at her chest.
“Not your fault,” she said. “I should have been more alert.”
Morgan looked like he wanted to say something else but kept it to himself.
“We’re ready to go,” he said instead. “The attack should be happening any minute.”
Sarah nodded, reaching out to take Morgan’s hand. As her surroundings warped, Sarah fought down her worries and fears, concentrating on the mission at hand. If they succeeded today, they could very well gain a major advantage in the battles to come, so she needed to concentrate and not screw this up.
17
Morgan appeared in the trees above the first supply cache, a small hollow dug into the side of a hill. It was well-hidden, a spot that most would easily miss. Well, unless you happened to know exactly where and what it was. He’d already warned the guards inside of the coming attack and had told them not to worry.
Like all the others, this cache was vital. This particular one housed enough grain – wheat, barley, and oats – to feed their massive army for two weeks. While that might not have seemed like much, feeding that many mouths for fourteen days was not an easy feat. If this cache were burned, it might not hurt them that badly, but if four or five were destroyed, it would be a severe problem.
If all their caches were destroyed, they wouldn’t only lose their food but access to medical supplies, emergency portal scrolls, extra bedding, weapons, and spare clothing. Thirty-six of their caches held enough food to sustain their armies for well over a year. Not all of them were the same size, and this one was actually on the smaller side. The largest cache held enough food for three whole months, and it was the one Katherine was by right now, along with Darv, the leader of Garrison Blue.
Morgan narrowed his eyes as he watched the surroundings tree line, noting some small movement in the underbrush. This attack would be simultaneous, so he and the others would need to act very quickly. He already had his next location planned, and after his next stop, he’d need to take Sarah from her second spot to her third before going to his, then immediately come back to transport her again before heading to his final destination.
The guards already stationed at the caches would be able to buy them a little time but not much, which meant each attack would need to take seconds. No fancy maneuvers. No big, flashy skills. Quick, precise movements.
His muscles tensed as he watched the group of trolls stirring. Although he could see them, his orders were clear. He had to wait for them to make their move before he could make his. The next few moments were filled with tense, agonizing silence. Then, the group of trolls burst from the undergrowth, shouting like morons.
If it had been him, he’d have moved silently. Despite knowing there were only two guards, they could still suffer casualties. A silent attack would have been their best option, but they chose to scream like idiots.
Morgan launched himself from his perch, vanishing and reappearing behind the group. A pair of Starforged spikes appeared above his wrists, extending six inches over his closed fists. He struck the first troll in the back, the blade punching through his spine and shattering his core. He spun around the falling troll, slamming his left spike into the side of the next one’s neck, then twisted, arm flashing as he sliced open the throat of a third.
He vanished, teleporting to the left flank of the group and ramming both spikes into another’s back, then stepped quickly to the right, a spike slamming through the back of another troll’s head. He moved so quickly that over half their number were dead in seconds.
By the time they realized something was wrong and started to turn, nine out of the eleven trolls had fallen.
Morgan launched himself forward, his fists driving into the surprised faces of the two remaining trolls. The spikes bit deep, killing them instantly, but his momentum drove him forward, his fists shattering their skulls and spraying their contents all over the place.
“Clear!” Morgan yelled, then vanished, appearing fourteen miles away at the next cache.
This group was already halfway to the towering tree that held important medical supplies, but seeing as they weren’t expecting much resistance, they didn’t even see Morgan coming as he attacked from behind once again.
Trolls fell in broken heaps, their corpses littering the ground and their blood soaking the grass.
“Clear!” he yelled again, teleporting away to where Sarah was supposed to be.
He appeared in the middle of a scene of carnage. Eight corpses were lying in shredded, bloody chunks, while two more trolls fell, their bodies riddled with bloody spears made of ice.
“Clear!” Sarah yelled, just as Morgan grabbed her, vanishing to their next site.
He barely paused, dropping Sarah behind the group that had already reached the cache before teleporting away again. Once, the rapid change of scenery would have bothered him, but that had been long ago. He barely had to orient himself as he appeared at the third cache, seeing the trolls ripping the ground open and preparing to attack the two soldiers standing beneath the faux grass.
The earth came alive as he used his Earth Mastery skill. Dozens of stone spikes extended from the ground, shredding troll flesh and causing screams of agony. Morgan was in the middle of the group in an instant, his spikes lengthening into full blades as he spun, slicing and hacking through armor and bone.
He looked down, seeing the faces of the guards peeking up. He gave them a quick nod before vanishing. However, this time when he showed up to grab Sarah, she hadn’t yet finished.
Four of the nine attacking trolls were still alive and had taken refuge behind some trees. They were exchanging shots with her, drawing out a battle they could not afford to draw out.
“Damn it all,” Morgan yelled, vanishing and appearing behind the trolls.
His blades raked out, removing one’s head and spearing a second through the belly. A third tried to run, but Sarah caught him with a frozen spear, the last one taking off into the trees.
“Wait here!” Morgan yelled, then shot after the running troll.
“Ambush!” the troll yelled, pulling a silver device from his pocket. “Abort! Ab- ack!”
Morgan slammed into his back, shattering the troll’s spine. The creature’s face smashed into a tree hard enough to shatter his nose, and Morgan’s follow-up punch was enough to shatter both his skull and the tree.
He leaned down, scooping up the device and teleporting back to Sarah.
“It’s not your fault,” he said, grabbing her and teleporting to her final spot.
Morgan got a brief flash of fighting before heading to his own final spot, where the guards were actively engaged with the trolls and trying desperately to hold them back.
“Hello? Taline? Did you say something?”
Morgan inwardly cringed as he heard a voice, disembodied and tinny, coming through the silver device the troll had been yelling into. It seemed that the troll who’d run had managed to contact someone. However, their warning didn’t seem to have gone through.
Morgan slammed into the final group of ambushers, his twin swords leaving trails of white light in their wake and painting his surroundings in crimson once again. He paused when he’d killed all but one, shoving a blade to the troll’s throat and holding up the silver device.
“What is this thing? Talk!”
The troll was really out of it – Morgan had hit him in the head hard enough to daze him – and he needed to be slapped a few times to bring his focus around.
“Thas’ a communicator,” the troll slurred.
“Taline, are you there? Are you in trouble? Did something happen?”
The voice came through again, sounding urgent.
“What happens if no one answers?” Morgan asked, pressing the blade harder to the troll’s throat.
“Alarm,” the troll said, still sounding woozy.
“Can you tell them that everything is fine?” Morgan asked, already knowing that it wasn’t likely.
“We all have different ones,” the troll said, starting to come back to himself. “Besides, I would never…”
Morgan wrenched the troll’s head to the side and slammed a stiffened finger into his neck. The troll screamed as he began wiggling it around, blood spraying from the wound.
“Where exactly is the troll on the other end of this communicator located?” he asked, placing his mouth close to the troll’s ear.
“I’ll never…aaahhhrrggg!” the troll screamed as Morgan pulled his finger free and drove a punch into his spine.
“Tell me now, and I’ll make your death a quick one,” he hissed. “And make sure you’re telling the truth; I’ll know if you’re lying.”
It only took him a few more seconds to get the troll to break and give him the location.
“Taline, if you don’t answer in the next five seconds, I’m raising the alarm,” the voice on the other end of the communicator said. “So, if this is another one of your stupid pranks, you’d better tell me right now!”
Morgan wondered if some deity of good fortune had smiled upon him that day. The only troll who’d managed to escape him seemed to be a pathological liar, so much so that the person on the other end of the communicator hadn’t immediately gone to sound the alarm.
He vanished, space warping around him as he traveled to the outskirts of a small village in the Brutal Bayou, the base of operations for this mission. He appeared in a small room, one that had dozens of copper wires hanging everywhere. There was a small table, behind which sat a haggard-looking troll, who was already reaching for a small silver device with a very distinct colored button.
Morgan grabbed the troll by the back of the neck and teleported away before he could utter a sound.
“What the hell!?” the troll yelled as he appeared in the clearing.
Then he proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach all over the ground, heaving and retching as the nausea of the teleportation set in. For those with a weaker Constitution or who were unused to this form of travel, it could be quite jarring.
A red-edged portal opened behind him, and Katherine stepped through, followed immediately by Sarah and Darv.
“We got them all,” Katherine said, looking tense. “Sarah told me what happened, though. Are we compromised?”
“No,” Morgan said, a wide grin spreading across his face as he pointed to the heaving troll kneeling at his feet. “In fact, why don’t I introduce you to the troll in charge of this entire operation?”
The troll looked up at that, his eyes half-focused and a trickle of something disgusting dribbling down his chin.
“Who… who the hell are you?” he asked, his voice gravelly and wet.
“Someone who is very pleased to meet you,” Katherine said, her wide smile predatory and terrifying.
18
“So, it seems that while our planning was excellent, we managed to stop the enemy from finding out about their thwarted plans through sheer dumb luck,” Elyssa said questioningly.
“Yup,” Katherine confirmed simply, though she seemed quite pleased with how this had all turned out.
“And who else knows about this operation?” Elyssa asked.
“Garrison Blue, who is currently working on counterintelligence, and the people in this room,” Katherine replied.
“In other words, no one who will give away our secrets,” Elyssa said, looking between her, Morgan, and Sarah.
She smiled then, grinning from ear to ear.
“I think I’ll call an emergency meeting of all the higher-ups and give them the bad news. Our supplies were all destroyed, and now, we’re going to have to make a desperate march to the Brutal Bayou to try and get some food.”
“That’s a march of at least two weeks, if not longer,” Katherine said. “Do you think the traitor will buy it?”
“Probably not,” Elyssa said. “But when I ask Morgan to go infiltrate the Arcane Kingdom to try and get some food so we can last until we make it there, the story sounds more believable. Now, have we managed to get anything out of our new friend?” She directed this question at Morgan, who shook his head.
“I made him comfortable in a dark cell about a hundred feet underground. He’ll start running out of air in about thirty minutes. I think that should be enough time for me to attend your meeting.”
Elyssa nodded, practically vibrating with excitement.
“I can hardly believe how well this worked out for us!” she exclaimed. “This could give us a huge advantage before the first battle even happens!”
She jumped up and down several times, letting out a few excited squeals before schooling herself.
“Okay, I got it out of my system,” she said, quickly sobering up. “No one but Katherine knows what happened, and I really hope you all can act because we’re about to put on one hell of a show.”
