Chapter 41

Our enemy was either reckless or overconfident, which was fortunate for us. After a few hours of consolidation they flooded into the tunnels in squads of ten, including the demon, and two sorcerers. Myta and Hati scoffed at the foolishness of it.

“Whoever is leading them should have either countered immediately, or waited. At this point their men are poorly rested, and now under strain from facing an unknown enemy. They’ll be tired, and incredibly on edge. Unless the men we’ve already killed were their dregs they are undisciplined and disorganized.”

“Ensu would be horrified.” I couldn’t help but smirk.

Myta raised her brow, but I waved for her to continue.

“Per our plans, we’ll hit the group with the lone sorcerer, as hard as we can. You’ll keep us covered, so that I can fight at my full strength, then we’ll see if we can raid the camp. Seizing supplies or eliminating the other sorcerer will be our goals. Then, we continue with whatever our condition allows.”

I nodded as she concluded. Nothing had changed, I was just a little nervous, and wanting to review. Ket and I would both be essential in hiding us, and she was also our most effective scout. Her ethereal nature made her even more effective at that than Denu.

I worried that we were leaning on the spirit too heavily, but she’d been amenable, and was easily bored. The hunting and stalking kept her entertained, and I supposed that was reward enough for her right now.

Passing out a ration of tak, I verified that I still had a fair supply. Most of it had remained with my goats, outside the tunnels of the ruin. I didn’t hand it out too often, however, so we should have plenty. Chewing the leaf would give the company a burst of energy, and keep them awake. It was safe enough, and not terribly expensive nor different to acquire.

Some people chewed it daily, to wake up in the mornings. I preferred not to lean on it so heavily. The plant was mildly addictive, and lost it’s effectiveness with frequent use. The minty flavor of my own leaf was a pleasant distraction from my stress.

We gave the groups a little time to drift apart, and then Ket began hunting. The corridors and chambers of the ruin distorted sound and the flows of mana, making it difficult to track things at a distance. It was an aid, as much as a hindrance, as we could be mistaken for one of the enemy groups when it came to noise. I let out my controlled presence as a bubble around us to mask our mana, while the cat spirit stalked ahead.

*Two rooms ahead, and then take the second exit on the left wall. That will lead you to your prey. This one’s escort has infused weapons and armor.* Ket’s report made sense. The earlier enemies we’d faced had provided our current, superior gear. They were probably the elite soldiers of the pure, and it made sense for such elites to be escorting sorcerers. I shared the news, and Hati grunted.

“If we back up to the last room, there’s a path we can take to get behind them,” she offered. Myta and I shared a brief look, before she replied.

“Take two squads. I need Esur with me to hide our mana, but you should be fairly safe from detection. If you approach first, wait for our attack.”

The sergeant nodded, then tapped two squad leaders on their shoulders. Her chosen crew then moved out with the quietest hustle they could manage. Our group waited for a few minutes, letting them gain some distance.

On a whim, I tried to see if I could track her, by her connection to us. The answer turned out to be yes, but it was far too confusing to be practical. Trying to pay attention to both the mana of the physical world, and the tether in the sea was hard enough. Doing so here, with the ruin’s distorting effects in play, gave me a splitting headache. Perhaps with more practice it could provide some practical value, but not now.

When Myta signaled us to move, my head was only suffering from a dull throbbing. I considered that a win. Ket didn’t return to us, instead opting to stay near the enemy, ready to silence the battle. I thought it was a smart move, just in case Hati accidentally engaged them first.

As though my thoughts were a curse, we heard shouts, and the ring of clashing steel ahead. Myta didn’t curse or panic just took off running forward along our outlined path. Our run through the tunnel was quick, and Myta engaged a formation of enemy fighters with bloody enthusiasm. Unfortunately we were stopped in a corridor, not a room so I couldn’t see much around the soldiers ahead of me. When I felt Ket’s sound dampening field enclose us, I knew something had gone wrong.

Wherever Hati’s group was fighting, it wasn’t here. Fortunately their conflict had drawn the attention of out target group, and we’d taken them from the rear. Myta had already killed several, but the sorcerer was not among the fallen. Now the corridor was choked with bodies, and the enemy were beginning to recover from the initial shock.

Myta tried to close with the sorcerer, who lashed at her with blades of air, invisible razored discs that cut through the backs of his own allies to strike at my vas. My heart was in my throat, as that form of attack was extremely deadly when executed properly.

My flame saw the attack coming, however. She blocked with her glaive, releasing a burst of her own pressurized mana to disrupt the technique. Too much mana, I thought at first, minor criticism given the circumstances. The wind blades had already been weakened by the anima of the men they’d passed through.

Then I saw her true intent. The blades were not disrupted, but merely knocked aside to spend themselves against the impervious walls. Which left Myta’s own attack, a nearly solid projection of liquid fire, relatively intact. The lance of fire passed between the two defending soldiers, who were staggering from the friendly fire. Bolstered by her will and intent, Myra’s spell passed through much of the enemy’s presence before dissipating, leaving more than enough inertia for the created fire to set the man ablaze.

The weakness of fire in terms of combat sorcery, was that it didn’t long outlast the spell that created it. A thrown spike of stone would still be an effective weapon, even when the mana that empowered it was dispersed. Had that liquid flame reached all the way to the sorcerer, his flesh would have boiled and burst away. Instead, he survived for several long seconds of screaming agony, before being cut down. I pulled in the remains of his spirit, even as he hit the ground.

The unit was disciplined, they didn’t immediately break in the face of the screams, or the smell of burning flesh. Instead, they tried to form an organized, running retreat. My vas was simply too fast for that to be effective, and they were cut down in short order. Then we were off and running again. Hati’s crew were still fighting.

This time, the fight went as intended. Hati’s group was holding a hall entrance while the enemy were in a larger room. There were bodies on the ground, but given their positions I thought them to be enemies. These Pure were carrying smaller weapons, and so two of Hati’s fighters with glaives were able to attack for each one of theirs.

Again we hit our enemies from behind, and these were not nearly so disciplined. Ket had maintained her muffling spell, and so we caught them utterly unawares. The combat was over in seconds.

Immediately, we moved again. There was no telling how many enemies might have heard that battle. We traveled toward the Pure camp for perhaps twenty minutes, before stopping so that I could look everyone over. We only had minor injuries, though many would have taken severe wounds without their armor. Hati, in particular, had a bruised thigh that might have meant a lost leg in poorer circumstances. I healed some cuts and bruises, and then we were moving again. We hit another target of opportunity in the way, and although it was no contest, it was clear at a glance who in our company had most advanced their spirits. Myta had expended a fair amount of her mana, which I refilled from my own reserves, and so she looked a little tired. Hati looked fine, and Denu looked as though she’d just gotten up from a refreshing nap. Everyone else was showing varying levels of strain.

The Pure ‘camp’ was a section of tunnels and rooms that they had occupied. And it seemed that they had now tried to fortify the area as well. Both their sorcerer and supplies were likely located deep behind their defenses.

Our scouts managed to find one cache of supplies we could hit with relative ease, and Ket lurked deeper into camp for long enough to confirm that a sorcerer was well behind their lines, along with two demons we hadn’t seen before. That confirmed our enemies were using the warded area for cover. There was no telling how many more demons or sorcerers might be lurking there.

So, we hit the supply cache, Myta leading the way again, with Hati and Jito flanking just behind. Though the enemy was wary now, their alertness was dulled by lack of sleep. The battle was brief, and brutal. We put down five guards under our veil of silence, and then made off with what crates of supplies we could carry.

I wanted to push, to take out another patrol or two while they were spread out and isolated, but I was disabused of that notion. Although the tak masked it, the men were suffering from battle fatigue. No matter how short our engagements had been, or how one sided most of our victories were, the fights were taking a heavy toll. And so we fled the area, before the costs came due.