Serpentlord (Rise To Omniscience Book 9), page 16
He would have to look more into this, as the idea of having an army of beasts at his back was incredibly appealing. Additionally, the idea of having beasts enslaved in this way made him feel sick.
Morgan gave himself a little shake, forcing the dark thoughts from his mind and turning back to the task at hand. His part of the wall was clear, and the soldiers would come through to do the cleanup. He didn’t know how Sarah was holding up, and despite his best efforts, he still found himself worrying.
Closing his eyes, he spread his concentration wide, fixing onto her unique signature, the gold-tinged blue aura that now symbolized her soul. She was fighting, that much he could tell, but against whom, he could not see.
A quick activation of his Rift skill later, and he was standing just a few feet behind her. Judging by the hulking troll standing in her path, Morgan thought he’d come right on time.
23
Sarah hadn’t really been having a hard time so far. Some of the trolls were as high as rank 50, but her own strengths weren’t just limited to her rank. She was at the Advanced stage and had inherited a portion of the powers of a fallen goddess. As such, moving through hordes of screaming trolls really wasn’t all that difficult until she’d come up against this guy.
Unlike Morgan, she was unable to get an exact reading of anyone’s rank, but one of the perks of her new Godly Essence trait was the ability to get an overall sense of someone’s strength, which was strange because, as far as she could tell, this troll shouldn’t be this strong. He was only in the low 40s, and yet, he was managing to fight on her level. Worse, no matter how many wounds she managed to inflict, it didn’t really seem to be doing anything to him.
“Just die already!” she yelled, summoning a hail of crimson and blue ice lances and turning him into a pincushion.
Dozens of the spears ripped through him, sending droplets of blood, chunks of flesh, and fragments of bone scattering in all directions. The troll staggered, yet despite the horrific injuries, it remained on its feet.
Sarah felt a small chill run down her spine as the troll with a literal spear through the eye advanced on her once again. It roared, its voice gurgling as it swung its mace at her, cracking the ice armor over her chest and sending her staggering back a few steps. For the first time since coming back, Sarah felt real pain, the taste of blood coating her tongue.
She threw a punch, the oversized crimson-ice fist driving into the troll and sending him staggering back. The crunch of bone was audible, and the troll’s arm dangled to the side. The creature didn’t even seem to notice, lumbering forward once again and pulling its mace back to swing at her.
“That’s it!” Sarah yelled, clapping her hands together and calling on one of her more powerful Divine skills.
Trueblood had many uses and cost a bundle and a half to use, but she simply couldn’t take any more risks. No matter what she did, this troll kept coming, so her only option was to destroy it completely.
A golden, red-tinged lance appeared as she spread her hands outward, summoning the power of the gods. The entire wall in her vicinity seemed to glow, the seemingly immortal troll recoiling from the intense light.
Sarah could sense Morgan behind her, but she didn’t turn, keeping her eyes locked on the monster before her. Her arms spread wide, both tips of the divine lance forming and flaring out, then slowly rotating, floating above her left palm.
The troll screamed one last time, and Sarah threw her arms forward, the lance streaking away and slamming through its chest. The troll was hurled backward, flying some forty yards away and knocking dozens of its comrades from the walls before the skill triggered. Bloody spines burst from all over the troll’s body, extending fifty feet in all directions.
The bloody needles turned into weapons, slamming into the bodies of other trolls and triggering a chain reaction. Glowing, golden light began radiating from within the monster troll, even as hundreds of its comrades were turned into pincushions from within, killing off more and more trolls as the skill traveled along the wall.
Finally, the skill reached its capacity and finished with its third part. The trolls all exploded, hundreds of beams of golden light flashing up into the sky and burning their bodies to ash. Massive gaps were blown in the stone wall as blood rained down around them, coating everything in a fine, crimson mist.
“Holy shit!”
Sarah turned around to see Morgan staring wide-eyed at the sea of destruction left in the wake of her skill.
“He wouldn’t die,” Sarah said with a shrug. “I had to do something.”
“Well, that definitely was something,” Morgan said, eyeing the dozens of gaps in the wall.
By that point, there was no need for her to keep going, as there were plenty of openings for their forces to come through and no real way for the trolls on the other side to make it across.
“What I don’t understand is why that troll refused to die,” Sarah said, still eyeing the massive level of destruction she’d managed to unleash.
A skill like that was no joke.
“It’s one of Strangler’s abilities,” Morgan said, frowning a bit.
He hadn’t seen a mark on him, which either meant it was hidden or that Strangler had managed to reach into the troll’s mind without his consent.
“To turn someone into an indestructible zombie?” Sarah asked.
“She takes control of their bodies and minds. They gain monstrous strength, and since they don’t feel pain, she can use them like puppets. Unless the head is cut off or the body is completely destroyed, they’ll keep coming.”
“Did you have to face one of these controlled creatures before?”
“Grace did,” Morgan replied. “And she told me about the experience.”
There was a loud scream from below then, snapping the two of them back to the present. While the walls themselves were pretty much clear, the inside was another matter. Thousands of trolls swarmed the area, surrounding Katherine’s forces on three sides and pinning them against the wall.
As far as both of them could see, there didn’t seem to be any more reinforcements. At the back of the mob, the final soldiers tasked with guarding the walls moved in to join the fray. Even from a distance of over three miles, Morgan could make everything out in stark detail, though Sarah was having a bit of a harder time.
“I think we may be able to turn the tide of this battle,” Morgan said, holding a hand out to her.
“Hit them from the back?” Sarah asked, reaching out and taking his hand.
The world warped and twisted for a gut-wrenching moment, and then they were standing twenty feet behind the enemy lines.
Despite having traveled this way dozens of times now, the nausea was still present. She didn’t throw up, but it still took a moment to get her bearings.
“Straight through?” she asked, reinforcing the armor on her chest.
“I don’t see why we have to,” Morgan said. “How much MP do you have left?”
“About half,” Sarah said, taking a quick peek at her status.
“Well, don’t you think this is a perfect place to test out your own little army?”
Sarah pondered that for a moment, before slowly nodding. She had a total of three Divine skills. The first, Trueblood, was the one she’d just used. She also had a skill called Ice Age, which was truly devastating – so much so that she didn’t even have enough MP to use it at the moment. The last was called Horde Creation, and it was the one Morgan wanted her to use right now.
The skill cost 5,500 MP, a massive amount, but her pool of power was massive as well. Even though she only had about half her MP remaining, that was still a significant amount. The Trueblood skill had cost her a whopping 8,000 MP – not that it was a surprise that such a powerful skill had such a high price – but in the 30 seconds it had been active, she’d regenerated over 4,000 of that, thanks to her high Wisdom, and now, a bit more on top of that.
“Alright then,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Stand back.”
Morgan did, taking several steps back as Sarah slammed both hands into the ground and activated her Horde Creation. Her MP drained out of her, flowing into the field of ice that spread out in a wave. It covered the twenty-foot gap between them and the soldiers, spreading over twice that distance across.
The ice was streaked blue and crimson, much like most of her skills, but like the Trueblood skill, the sheet of ice radiated a divine, golden light. Even as she watched, twisted humanoid creatures made of ice pulled themselves from the frozen ground, clutching swords, spears, bows, and lances, all made of frozen blood.
Several of the enemy soldiers, noticing the odd glowing light, began to turn. They were the first victims of Sarah’s skill. Screams of pain soon began to echo from the enemy as they turned to face the new threat of the icy soldiers. The creatures varied wildly in height and bulk, some standing as tall as seven feet, while others remained at three. Some were four or five feet across, while others were narrower than a foot.
As soon as the archers were summoned, they moved to the sides, pulling blood-colored arrows from their backs and unleashing volley after volley into the enemy ranks. The trolls began to fight back then, smashing through the constructed ice horde. They were brittle and shattered easily, but more and more creatures continued to rise.
Sarah stood straight, stepping back a few feet until she bumped into Morgan. She swayed for a moment, but felt his strong hands on her shoulders, steadying her.
“Thanks,” she said, turning back and giving him a grateful smile. “I’m not sure why, but using the Divine skills seriously tires me out.”
“With how impressive they are, I think the payoff is well worth it.”
Sarah turned back, watching her soldiers continue to rise. By now, there were somewhere around three hundred. Over thirty had already been smashed, their remains lying in fragments in the boggy ground. Her ice soldiers were merciless, ripping into the trolls with pikes and spears, driving the trolls back.
As soon as new soldiers formed, they moved to the sides, flanking the enemy and surrounding them in the same way they were trying to hem Katherine in. The icy soldiers continued to pull themselves from the ground for a full five minutes before the sheet of ice faded. The soldiers who’d already risen remained, but no more would join them unless Sarah used the skill again.
Unlike regular skills, her Divine ones had no cooldown time. But the exhaustion she felt was more than enough to convince Sarah not to summon another group. In total, somewhere around fifteen-hundred ice soldiers rose, and with their help, they began driving the enemy into a corner.
“They’re strong,” Morgan noted, still keeping her steady in his firm grip.
“They’re the same rank as me,” Sarah said tiredly. “Though they’ll shatter the first time they get hit. They’re powerful but brittle.”
By the time her last soldier had risen, over half her troop had already been destroyed. But for each ice creature that was shattered, two or three trolls had gone along with them. With Katherine leading the charge and the arrows flying from the archer contingent, the troll force was soon overwhelmed and began to surrender.
Sarah called orders to her creations not to kill those who were kneeling, as one of them had simply driven its spear through the eye of a troll when it had tried to give up.
While one might have thought that simply killing them without giving them the chance to surrender was a good idea, they knew they could make them break faster, especially when they saw friends and allies surrendering. If they showed no mercy, the trolls would fight twice as hard, knowing that no matter what they did, they’d be killed, their only way out being to kill the enemy.
While Sarah’s flock could die without consequence, the soldiers they’d brought along with them were another matter.
As soon as the first soldiers began surrendering, it was only a matter of time. Within minutes, what remained of the troll force was kneeling with their hands on their heads. The battle was won. The day – or rather, night – was theirs.
24
“Congratulations on a successful battle,” Elyssa said. “You managed to keep casualties at a minimum and opened the walls for our armies to pass through when we reach the border.”
Morgan stood back in the new makeshift war room that Elyssa had had erected for this meeting. Sarah stood beside him, and Katherine sat in a chair off to one side. The other leaders and commanders were present as well, all but Darv from Garrison Blue, who had remained behind with the troops as they rested and recovered from the battle.
“We lost over a hundred fighters,” Katherine said. “A whole tenth of our force. How would you consider that minimal?”
“Yes, when you look at it from the perspective of percentages, losing a tenth of your force does sound pretty bad,” Elyssa said. “But loss in war is inevitable. We have your reserves ready, as well as the sweepers you requested. We’ll send them to clear the minefield while you move deeper into troll territory.
“Shedra will likely have received a report by now and will be moving to try and shore up his defenses. We will not allow them a moment’s rest. He was caught off-guard by this attack, so I’m confident you can hit at least a couple of cities before he manages to mount a defense.
“However, knowing his tactics, I’d say he’s more likely to shore up his own defenses, rather than sending backup. He sees the trolls as fodder, a way to soften our forces so that they can more easily handle us. If that’s the case, then we may very well manage to get the trolls on our side before this is all said and done.”
Katherine let out a snort, but Morgan nodded in agreement.
The fight had been brutal and bloody, but with the three of them there, as well as the presence of so many powerful fighters, the battle couldn’t have gone much better. Especially seeing as there had been far more trolls than initial estimates had led them to believe.
“I’ll start taking the reserves over now then,” Morgan said. “They’ll be well-rested, so they can keep watch while our men get some food and sleep.”
He inclined his head to Elyssa and then left, Sarah coming along with him. Katherine remained behind to talk over more detailed plans with the commanders of their armies.
“You need some sleep,” Morgan said as they exited. “I’m going to make you a nice place where you can rest up here, and please don’t try and argue with me,” he said as she opened her mouth to do just that.
“I can’t just stay here while you do all the work. It just wouldn’t be right,” Sarah said as they strolled through the camp of bedrolls and half-pitched tents.
They were marching quickly, covering distances far faster than they normally would as Elyssa pushed their forces as hard as she dared. From what he’d heard, Shedra was still sending raiding parties, harrying them and trying to slow their advance as the World Beasts drew ever closer.
Beatrice and Malachi were working together to drive them back, though as far as Morgan knew, one of his remaining wives had taken over his duties to allow him to mourn the loss of Nadia.
“Yes, you can,” he replied, finally stopping and turning to face her. “You’re swaying on your feet. Also, last I checked, you can’t teleport or create portals. Unless you want to be constantly jumping back and forth with me, you’re going to get into this tent, take a bath, eat something, and get some sleep.”
As he spoke, a stone building rose from the ground, the furniture rising along with it. Sarah would have to set her bedding, but he didn’t think she’d mind. Sarah looked as though she wanted to keep arguing, but as Morgan reached into a pocket space, pulling a rolled mattress, food, and change of clothes out for her, she wavered.
“I’ll come get you as soon as we’re ready to start the next battle,” he promised.
Sarah hesitated, so Morgan used his trump card, the last one he had to play.
“If you don’t fight with me over this, we’ll have a nice dinner when we’ve finished taking the Brutal Bayou back in the Five Kingdoms. There’s a nice restaurant in the South that’s apparently been touted as the most romantic in all the kingdoms.”
A smile curled Sarah’s lips at that and her eyes shone slightly, the mismatched green and crimson still entrancing as ever.
“I’ll keep you to that promise,” she said, leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek.
Morgan smiled as she headed into the stone structure, a sheet of ice rising up to cover the entrance and give her some privacy. He was glad she was going to take the rest she needed and now that he could stop worrying about her, he could move on to doing what needed to be done. Making another few dozen trips back and forth was going to be annoying, and so was constructing adequate holding cells for the enemy soldiers.
Additionally, he was going to have to walk among his own troops. Talking to them, especially after a battle like this, was part of what it meant to be a commander, and although Katherine was technically leading the troops, it had somehow become his responsibility to do so.
“I’m not cut out for this,” he muttered to himself.
Despite the complaining, Morgan knew he would do it all. He had agreed to help the people of Faeland, and even if their entire continent were on the verge of collapse, he would assure they made it to the rendezvous point with Le’vine’s ships. He might not be able to save them all, but he would try his darndest, regardless of whether it was possible or not.
***
“Four cities ransacked and in enemy hands. This is unacceptable!” Shedra roared, shouting in the faces of his top commanders.
“But, sir,” one of them said. “I thought you wanted us to stay away so that it would soften them up for when they reached us.”
Shedra whirled, his hand flashing out and sending a bolt of corrosive energy into the gnome’s face. The poor man screamed in agony as his body burned and melted. The few who were sitting near him recoiled in horror, shimmying back from the growing puddle of gnome as fast as they could.
