BOOK 8. CHAPTER 6: HUNTING OBSIDIAN MERCENARIES

Fhesiah and Ophelia had picked an area for them to arrive, behind a nearby stone building and still hidden by Fhesiah’s foxfire flames. Jake used Reverse Summon, and then called all of the girls rapidly, each one appearing in her bubble of control for her illusion.

With his increase in level, Mana Control, and control over the void, he could cast Reverse Summon even faster than ever before. On the same world, even if it were larger than Highlands was, he should be able to do it within thirty seconds rather than several minutes. On the same battlefield, under ten seconds.

Looking around the corner from above the others, Blood noted, “The natives just said they weren’t closing Rifts, but these guys are preparing to move. Maybe they know we’re here in the area and are trying to escape from us.”

Ruby was excited to fight, and had her blood plate and dueling saber ready. She asked, “What are those red lizards they’re riding?”

Nessa looked over as well. “Those are the mounts native to this world, and many select them to become their non-combat mounts. Those lizards can cross even the lava, and those frills allow them to glide short distances. They can even catch a strong air current–the air above the lava lake causes superheated air to generate quite a bit of lift, and they can even get up to that temple above us. They can even hold air in a bubble in their chest and heat it up in an emergency to float slowly down.”

A non-combat mount was a lot like how Valora behaved in the first Tier, where she would disperse into motes of light from even a minor attack. Only a few classes in this Tier could have combat mounts, much like a beast tamer having a beast or another monster or summon-focused class. But anyone could store and use a non-combat mount, and it very much behaved just like it did in most MMO’s Jake played.

Jake looked over their enemies again. He didn’t think it would really take all that long to get ready. It seemed to be a large mixture of Grecian and Nordic warriors. While the majority were humans, there were also a handful of other races mixed in.

What Jake understood was that while they might accept nearly any mercenary willing to do their dirty work of collecting slaves and sometimes betraying the Alliance, they strongly preferred those that had a Grecian or Nordic Origin.

There was a smattering of satyr, minotaurs, and centaurs for the Greeks, and jotuns, dvergr, and bear-kin for the Nords. There were only a few of each, and aside from the two jotuns which were about the size of Bree, most of them didn’t seem all that formidable.

He could see several runic casters based on their staves, and most of them were dvergr, the Nordic Dwarves. Then, there were a handful of Grecian casters, with their odd magic-quivers. Wearing togas and having stored javelins and orbs that they infused mana into, they were able to throw lightning bolts, ice lances, balls of flame, or a few utility-focused spells.

Occasionally, another lizard and rider would arrive, and one had actually run right past their group, missing them entirely and showing the value of Fhesiah’s illusion. They were well over a hundred enemies now, but Jake was pretty confident. His party was on a whole nother level at this point.

Jake noticed that only some of them even carried any goods. At this level, every Adventurer should have a Storage Bracelet or Storage Ring, having no need to micromanage their supplies on the back of some beast of burden. He began to wonder why they would put anything on their backs at all.

He asked, “What do you think, can we wait for the Ravenwolf Clan, or should we just move? How long can you hold this illusion, Faye?”

“I’m good for hours thanks to our Hearth, husband. It looks like we can wait for now.”

Jake’s Umbral Gaze took some effort for him to try to view what was inside the rider’s packaging. At first, it looked like just a bunch of random, possibly stolen goods. However, what he found inside nearly each rider’s belongings made his blood run cold.

Living people were bound inside the larger trunks, and not joined to the Framework. Human trafficking was taking place and right in front of them. The girls collectively gasped as Fhesiah confirmed it with her Divine Sense, as she required focus to scan the contents from the distance they were at.

“How shameless can they be! Maybe…we can just target those riders first, and try to rescue them?”

Nessa frowned. “That could work, but this is dangerous. Antagonizing the natives in this way during conquest is an act of betrayal. They might…try to destroy the evidence.”

Tanda was outright angry. “How can they do this? We will stop them now, but how can we make them pay?”

Nessa grimaced. “Of course, recording this situation will be for the best–it’s a good thing that Fhesiah, Sati, Ruby and I can do this onto an information crystal, and I can use the Framework item as well. We can message the Sector Council, but the best they could do is probably ensure these people won’t revive here on The Burning Steps for now. The Guild itself won’t be punished–at least not with just this.”

Lia had a calm anger brewing, but she was focused on the battle ahead of her. “This is terrible. Should we maybe…let one of them get away? So we can see where they are taking them, or why? I understand they want slaves, but…could it be for something even more sinister than that?”

Jake grimaced. It wasn’t ideal, but their enemy’s goals could go deeper than just collecting people. “Faye could empty one of the trunks without them knowing, before we hit them? And we can let that one escape. Then we both target the riders, and protect the captured natives.” 𝙧аɴóΒЁS

Fhesiah was already in her kitsune form, so she was able to utilize her strongest illusions. “It’s risky, but I can try it. Especially if there is one with a trunk that hasn’t arrived yet, I can more easily single them out with my illusion.”

Jake nodded, that was a good enough plan, for him. “I’ll send Ira to find any approaching. Let’s get ready to attack at a moment’s notice.” He then prepared a few spells in his Hearth Bubbles, two runic barriers and a spear of flames. Combined with his Pyros and his shield that could move with thought, he would do well to both attack and protect at a moment’s notice.

And of course, Ophelia’s Sentinel Guardian would work to protect them as well.

Tanda readied her bow and arrows with restricting plant seeds, and Ophelia was ready to move on Valora. Avalara was ready back at their Refuge for Call Summon, and Bree and Bloodberri began building up their Auril, and their Runic Spells in the case of the latter.

Tanda then grew a sapling from the ground, and then grew a trunk out of it with her Plant Control and Rampant Growth. It lacked hinges, but it certainly had the correct overall shape. “Will this work well as a replacement? Most of the trunks seem a little different.”

Faye smiled as she stored it. “Nice, Tanda, it should work well enough. That’ll make it easy for me to swap it out with my Storage Ring.”

Eventually, Ira signalled Jake, letting him know it located a possible target. It was heading down the steps on a lizard with its cargo, the riders some kind of Nordic Dark Elves. The issue was, even if Fhesiah was able to hit them with an illusion, the stairs were in clear sight of the Battlegroup forming up.

As good as she was at it, she couldn’t really make several powerful illusions at once. Something able to trick the rider and freeze the lizard mount in motion to secretly replace the trunk wouldn’t have the desired effect against the large Battlegroup in another direction, and nor would it hide their large party at the same time.

They quickly communicated a plan in their minds, and then Jake spoke, “Looks like we need to hit them at the same time. Faye will hit the new rider as we are revealed.”

Bree cracked her knuckles, excited to go on the attack now. “Let’s crush these jerks!”

“Let’s do it.”

Jake sent a message to Timone, and then took on the state of the Monarch, enhancing Bloodberri and Ophelia. He then used Call Summon on Avalara as a dozen things happened all at once.

The large treant beastkin appeared in front of the formation, ready with her large tree club and roaring as she swung it down on the men in the front. The ground shook from her powerful swing crashing into the ground, and the rider and mount dispersed into motes of light. Her jungle started to appear beneath her from her Sublimation, and vines and plants began to whip out and attack those near her as she stomped through their formation.

Ophelia dashed in on Valora, blitzing through like a bolt of lightning and slicing three riders down before they could really react to what was happening, and her Sentinel Guardian shield speared forward like a flying valkyrie, piercing another.

Tanda launched several arrows in quick succession, targeting other mages and taking them off of their mounts with powerful wolf manifestations, while Bloodberri surged forward, their Twilight Monarch aura washing over the enemy. Sati’s flame darts struck several of them, lighting them on fire, and Ruby sent several blood blades, cutting into others.

A human man wearing a centurion-style equipment shouted, “Guild war enemies! Activate the barriers and form up!”

Another shouted, “Help those with the goods retreat!”

There were nearly fifteen riders with goods strapped down to their mounts and they didn’t wait around–they ran. But Tanda had targeted as many as she could in her first volley, and so did Ophelia on her charge. She then let out a vajrafire consecration, enhanced by the State of the Monarch.

Its powerful blast rocked nearly a third of the enemy forces, dispelling some of the mounts and destroying some of the goods. But her spell was powered by the flames of the divine, and so her lightning did not hurt the hidden occupants nor the trunks themselves with her intent.

Numerous warriors leaped down from their mounts, summoning their shields and forming a line in front of Avalara’s avatar. Others threw out special stakes that pierced into the ground in the distance, and those shot beams of light upward that met and connected, establishing a geometric, transparent barrier for those in the middle of the enemy’s formation.

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It was as if it created a transparent pavilion tent in the center of their forces, protecting them from Jake’s party. One of Tanda’s arrows was deflected almost immediately, showing its effectiveness. The barrier only shuddered lightly from the strike, and it was clear it took a bit more effort to destroy.

The glyphs or runes on the devices were powered by a substantial mana crystal, and they formed a shield that was nearly as strong as Hestia’s flaming barriers that Jake and Ophelia used. Considering this used almost none of their resources to activate, this seemed very useful.

The mages and clergy rushed inside the barrier, and immediately began buffing the Greek and Nordic warriors. More stakes landed in the ground, and they began emitting a debuffing aura instead that overlapped. A few warriors gathered around each of them, ready to defend them from being removed, and they tried to cover the last few mount’s retreat.

Fhesiah said in their minds, [I’ve successfully swapped out the trunk and retrieved the troll woman inside, as well as placed one of Nessa’s trackers on the rider. We’ll have no trouble following this one, if there even was a chance for them to escape Ira’s sight.]

Blood was charging in rapidly as she removed stakes from the ground with her telekinesis, but she noted, [So this is how they fight, huh. They try to defeat their guild enemies with money.]

“That’s okay. We’re ready with our own tools. Ruby, Nessa, focus on retrieving the trunks.”

Nessa’s lake washed outward from her feet rapidly like a wave at the beach, and then she jumped into it. Next, Ruby turned into blood, and joined inside. The two could nearly teleport anywhere the lake touched, their fluid forms able to move like they were in another dimension entirely.

Jake infused some of Fhesiah’s Qi into two items, and threw them. One was a small rock, but it grew rapidly as it rose high into the air. The other was a strange, dark orb, which released a ton of smoke, obscuring the enemy’s vision as it hit the ground instead. Both were special artifacts that Fhesiah had uncovered during her exploration in the Celestial Nexus, and Jake had merely enhanced them.

In between their other actions, the other girls also threw out some orbs, containing Jake’s upgraded mechanical snakes. These PvP versions unfurled shortly after hitting the ground, and slithered across the ground rapidly. They had been programmed to avoid and dodge enemies and uproot things like the stakes or other implements, as well as remove nets or chains from allies.

A soldier shouted, “What is this giant monster, a summon? Quick, use the banishing spells!”

Another added, “There’s barely ten of them! Use the nets!”

A few of the runic casters must have actually been some kind of runic priests, and they began casting their banish spells–but they would soon receive a rude awakening. A giant, monstrous sentient humanoid like her that could be an Adventurer was beyond rare, and they likely couldn’t even imagine that such a person even existed. Even if he had summoned her, she would resist the effect strongly as his permanent summon.

The shield users withdrew nets from their storage bracelets, and started to twirl them, causing Jake to chuckle. His party likely didn’t even need the countermeasures of the snake machines or dealing with their silly barriers and debuffs, but he both didn’t want to underestimate the enemy, and he wanted to test them out as they focused on recovering the natives.

Other than the Qi-powered items, nearly every Hearthtribe and guild alliance party should have these as a part of their usual kit in their Storage Bracelets or Rings. Jake had also reproduced several of the Qi tools he had, in concert with Ophelia, for the cultivators to use. Then, he had also created tools with similar goals that used runes, enabling just about anyone in Hearthtribe to use them.

They threw the nets at Bloodberri and Bree, and it was like when they landed, it must have really clicked how screwed they were as their jaws dropped. Their banishing spells, which looked like a static shock followed by wavy, dispelling winds, didn’t affect Avalara at all, as she was there as an Adventurer.

The nets against Bree were intercepted by vines, and then Avalara’s club smashed into another warrior who had got off his mount, scattering him into motes of light as Avalara roared again, her vines wipping into other opponents near her.

Bloodberri’s spiked, armored body just shredded right through the nets as she moved, and her axe with its extended hearthblade cleaved through a lone jotun warrior with two deadly swings after he was bested in melee. His axe had nearly flown out of his grip from her first attack, and was unable to bring it back in time for an effective block or parry of her attack.

More vines grew outward from Avalara and Bree, as they whipped and struck other warriors with manifestations of auril beasts, some managing to survive and receiving heals.

Bree then crashed into the other jotun, her fist followed by a twitch of her hips and her tail’s mace crashing into him sent him stumbling back. A vine wrapped around his leg, tripping him and sending him tumbling to the ground. With a leap and a laugh, she got on top of the armored warrior and pummeled his face with flaming punches until he dispersed into motes of light.

The enemy runic mages coalesced several grouping of runes, and Jake couldn’t help but chuckle at the time taken, the number and how many mages were required to establish the spell. Compared to his wives and him, they were horrendously slow. They were now at the level of mastery that Jake and his party were at in the end of the first Tier.

The spell formed into numerous magical missiles, shooting across the air like a volley or rain of attacks, and they tracked Jake and his party’s movements slightly.

He wanted to copy their runes and usage. However, the Framework actually blurred them to his senses. It disallowed him from stealing the other guild’s magical research in this way, but he could vaguely tell the shape of the formations that they were using, and he was kind of surprised. They appeared to be arranged like Valknut–three overlapping triangles.

Jake was a bit interested in these magic missiles, which appeared to use a neutral mana. He had been focused on elements, but there were times when enemies were strong against most. He doubted it’d be overly valuable, but it was another item to add on to the list of tools in his kit. Just knowing that a sort of magic missile spell made of neutral mana was possible, made it all the easier for him to research it for himself, or to have Zorina and Mysticus divine it.

The Greek casters also launched lightning bolts and fireballs at Avalara, by throwing their javelins or baseballs, which Jake felt was a bit interesting, even if strange. The magical attacks grew as they raced toward the rampaging beast, and she was forced to defend with auril manifestations combined with Jake’s Aura.

But their magical attacks were all ineffectual, Jake’s Aura deflecting many of the magic missiles, bolts of lightning and fireballs. The few that landed barely did anything to the giant beast woman, her vines and branches quickly regrowing from the damage caused.

Bree and Bloodberri also took the hits with barely any impact, their defenses from Bloodberri’s Twilight Monarch Aura and auril or nethril requiring powerful spells to even harm them.

The attacks from Jake’s party, in contrast, were deadly. The rock had grown into a gigantic boulder, and had fallen onto the giant magic shield, smashing and shattering what remained, as some of the stakes got uprooted and the shield weakened. The rock then landed on several mages and dispersed them and their mounts into motes of light. It seemed they had counted on their shield for their protection, and hadn’t been smart enough to get out of the way of the very obvious, slow attack–trusting their defenses.

More warriors with shields were preparing to throw nets and hiding behind their magical shield barrier, but Bloodberri’s axe then crashed into several of them, causing the magical barrier in front of them to be shattered.

Then, their snake coil smashed into them, and sent the few tanks flying away and into the casters behind the warriors. Her tail then surged to surround them all, shredding them with her bladed tail and crushing others. The debuff aura of the enemy hadn’t lasted long enough to really affect them, the snakes uprooting them under the cover of shadows.

Meanwhile, the less melee focused wives and Jake had been launching simple attacks, hiding within the shadows.

He used his fiery lance from his Runic Bubbles to tag a final fleeing rider, and a barrier to protect one of the trunks from some fiery area of effect the mages conjured. He had focused on sending spears of the elements rapidly, each one only taking two to three seconds to cast. Each was like a giant ballista bolt that exploded and killed a target with each completion. Wearing his hearthflames like a cloak, he kept them close to both dodge attacks but also protect the people inside the trunks.

A few of the warriors now held together with the Phalanx ability, a large white magical barrier established in front of their wall of shields. Behind them, a few mages threw their javelins of lightning or fireballs over them, or the runic mages cast more magic missiles.

Moving to recover a final trunk, Ruby covered herself in her bloodred plate as she appeared behind enemy lines thanks to Nessa’s lake. She dashed around the Phalanx with her saber, cutting into the squishy casters and archers with rapid swings of her blades. Wounds on her enemies mounting, she drew up the blood from the area and sent waves of dangerous, sharp knives and swords of blood out into the shield warrior’s backs. The various arts the vampire Fhesiah had fought were among those she knew how to use, and she used them with deadly efficiency.

As each target dispersed into motes of light, she managed to hold on to some of the blood and continue her attacks using it, and protect the trunk as Nessa recovered the last one across the battlefield.

And Bree’s giant fist followed by her tail then shattered the grouping of warriors, much like Bloodberri’s deadly axe. Joining the main battle, Fhesiah’s kitsune flames were sent out in a wave of darts, Sati joining her in setting as many enemies aflame as she could. Tanda’s arrows continued to pick off more targets, her deathly flame shots piercing through the defenses easily, and Nessa’s snakes of frost chomped down on unsuspecting targets as her blade flashed.

In all, it wasn’t a fair fight at all, the battle was trivial. Jake’s elite party of ten were just so far beyond them, that the enemy’s response was totally lackluster. Even the nets were laughable against Jake’s party, even if they were likely a powerful strategy when one outnumbered others. He could tell the nets had a magic dampening and draining effect. Combined with how a net could physically restrict an opponent, it would make even a strong warrior like Timone much easier to overcome for a group–if it landed.

He realized that this Battlegroup was likely lower-level among the Obsidian Blades, and with removing their anti-PvP efforts with his mechanical snakes and other tools, and overwhelming them with their own, they didn’t stand a chance despite their numbers.

Jake had some confidence that if they had simply hung back and buffed Avalara and Bree up and healed them, the two giants would have been able to defeat the enemy all on their own. The enemy appeared to have no means to deal with them, the casters not organized enough to cast a powerful group spell rapidly to cause significant damage or restrict their rampage.

This was the downside of the Grecian casters, in that their group-based spell-casting was poor. The plus side was their magical endurance and effectiveness thanks to the physical components taking part of the burden of spell-casting was a bit higher, and with little to no research required.

To be fair, many of the Hearthtribe casters might struggle to mount a significant defense against someone like Avalara or Bree, but he’d rate the dryad druids and the emberborn priestesses survival strategies much higher than these. Their teamwork for group casting was also often quite decent, using magic circles.

As the enemy numbers dwindled, some sought to destroy the trunks, but the shadows created by Jake’s artifact had already hidden what happened to them. Nessa had floated them across her lake over to Jake, and his shield and Ophelia’s Sentinel Guardian protected them. Jake had also shot out Pyros, piercing a few stray enemies with his pyrokinesis.

When the final enemy fell, Ophelia arrived next to Jake on Valora, the yellow and green longma whinnying in satisfaction. She too had enjoyed the PvP match and rescuing of the captives, as her lightning and hooves were deadly on their own.

Jake frowned. “We got them all before they could get away. I can’t believe how weak they were, though.”

Bree chuckled as she came stomping back, a satisfying smile on her lips. “That’s the difference between you and them. With two Trials and Divine Sparks enhancing you, superior equipment, training, coordination and even your race and size… is it that big of a surprise that you crush them so easily?”

Tanda nodded. “I think Mom and Dad’s party might have also been able to win too, but it wouldn’t have looked so easy.”

Jake knew the Ravenwolves would have spent more time kiting the enemy, their ranged superiority as their auril was replenished, combined with the guild’s countermeasures, just might have been enough.

He looked over the trunks in front of them. “So now we have these people. A total of fourteen people recovered, and Ira is following that rider we let get away.”

Fhesiah’s trunk occupant had been floating beside her, held aloft by Qi. The troll woman was asleep and sedated, but a quick flare of Hearthflames from Jake, and the effect was removed from her body.

Jake said, “So let’s see. Just how are they capturing these people?”

“And for what?” Nessa added.