Chapter 129: Can You Hear it?
It was raining. Elijah could feel the crackling of opposing Mana in the air, and yet it was overshadowed by the unrelenting downpour of water. Every part of him was drenched; he felt the coldness down to his bones, and yet he knew he could do nothing about it.
"I can smell them now," Aleksi commented, completely unbothered by the water. If anything, the giant seemed to stand a little straighter, showing high spirits. How Elijah envied that. "Half a day before we can see them."
"Your nose lets you see so far ahead?" Paul questioned, clearly intrigued as he quickened his pace to fall in stride with them. The other mages had moved away from horseback for the final stretch. Elijah had been offered one at the start, but he had declined, not desiring the chance to embarrass himself.
"The wind helps," the giant amended, though that was not enough. "The hygiene levels of the enemy don't make it harder either."
"I've walked with the main group for the past three days, my friend. Our men don't follow the highest of standards either," Paul countered, to which Aleksi could only shrug.
"His senses have been enhanced greatly through the years," Elijah explained, sending Aleksi a pointed stare. The giant understood perfectly, giving a small nod. Standard reasoning. "I'm an alchemist by trade, and Biomancy has granted me the chance to help this brute to make his attitude match his brawn."
"Ah, I see," Paul replied. Elijah studied the old mage's features, trying to spot any suspicion. With the bald top, the white beard and eyebrows, and wrinkles that matched Alin's, it was obvious the man had fought in the old war. He likely knew of the elixir used by Castilla, of the typical effects it granted, but was that enough to connect the dots? And, if that was the case, would that be a problem? "Alin was rather light on the details when talking about you, Elijah Ceade. Did you fight during the emancipation?"
Here we go.
"I—"
"Paul, please don't drag down the mood even further. The rain is already becoming rather bothersome," Tina interjected, cutting off Elijah's practiced lies. The white-haired woman, similar in age to all three of them but much more powerful in the magical arts, did not look happy. "Alin is a dear friend of mine, and I trust him. Elijah's not the only one on this field with pasts they'd rather not discuss."
"I'm just making small talk, Tina," Paul said, which did little to impress the other mage. "Mere banter before the battle begins."
"If that is the case, I don't believe you'd mind if I told your apprentices about the Night of Passion, as you have so fondly nicknamed it? Maybe these two wouldn't mind hearing about the adventures of a rather progressive—"
"Fine, fine, I see your point," Paul cut in, the old man turning a shade redder. For most in the pouring rain, that would be impossible to spot, but that wasn't the case for somebody who was completely dry.
"Is there any chance you could share the benefits of your barriers?" Elijah asked, noting the translucent shields that floated above Paul's head. Without any obvious effort, they managed to function as an umbrella for the mage, stopping any drops from reaching Paul's robes.
"Sorry, friend, but this is the limit," came the apology. "Any larger than this would cause my Core to be slowly drained, and I think we would both prefer that we are all ready at any moment."
Elijah couldn't deny that, though he would've still preferred to be dry in the meantime. Other than being uncomfortable, the water wouldn't negatively affect him, of course. He'd drunk some Firebloom to heat himself, stopping any chance of sickness, and Dawn's regular maintenance on his flesh made sure that he wouldn't be caught weak.
But, still, four days of walking had started to have some effect on him. His legs didn't appreciate it, and his mind couldn't focus conversation easily as he did his best to keep up the connection with the grass beneath his shoes.
'Our lord!'
'The lightbringer!'
'Heed his every word, comrades, for they are the truth!'
He'd grown tired of the endless praising within five minutes. Now, over a hundred hours into it, Elijah had grown numb.
At least the practice of keeping an eye on the surroundings had been a minor distraction. By having the staff take up most of the mental load, Elijah could establish a mental map of the surroundings. It didn't stretch out beyond a kilometer ahead, and it was rather rough on the details, but it allowed him to see the people who walked on the grass. Every step gave off a different ping, and the continuous rhythm allowed the staff to slowly but steadily isolate every person's tracks. Though it wasn't fast, and it wasn't anywhere near perfect, Elijah could just about identify who on the map would be seen as an ally and who would be seen as an enemy.
After all, the size of his work wouldn't allow too many personal touches.
'Somebody dropped their food,' Dawn commented. A golden ping appeared on the map, thirty meters west, along with a vision of a soldier bending down to pick up a cut of dried meat. The young face showed clear confusion when it disappeared beneath the grass, fingers not able to locate it. 'Salty.'
'Please don't steal our soldiers' food,' Elijah requested.
'But I'm hungry.'
'You ate an hour ago.'
'Yes. Now I'm hungry again.'
Unbelievable.
"Huh," Aleksi muttered under his breath. Elijah could see the narrowed eyes on the giant. "New smell."
"Foreign?" Elijah asked, shielding his face as the rain picked up in intensity.
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Too few to make sense."
Not good. Elijah checked the map again, fueling the grass with a burst of Mana to briefly increase the range ahead. Sights and anomalies flashed across his sight, wildlife creating too many false positives, but… wait. "Three kilometers ahead, on a hill fifty meters away to the right. Invisible."
Scouts, most likely using similar armor to the one seen previously. Except, this time they were on the ground.
"Should I sound the alarm?" Tina asked. Elijah could feel the Mana beginning to swirl in the air as the ancient mage stretched her mana veins. Every breath of hers made more Mana channel through her body than Elijah had in total.
"No," Elijah denied nonetheless. "There are only three of them. I'll silence them before our troops get within their range."
'Dawn.'
'I'm on it!
Dual-Channeling of [Accelerate Growth] and [Plant Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 49MP/sec
His legs began to move on autopilot, as his mind travelled through the root network of the grass. He felt the thousand-strong army around him walk, boots hitting the earth endlessly, but he pushed on until he was far ahead. Then, with a bit more discretion, he moved the focus to the hill, where he knew three of them were crouched.
Without making a sound, the roots slowly transformed, becoming more elastic in their composition before stretching out. Dawn worked on the coating in the meantime, using the standard fast-working paralytic, while making sure the top of the roots were sharp enough to dig through whatever metal was being worn.
"Can you feel that?" one asked in a hushed voice.
"Feel what?" another replied.
"That shaking… Call it in, before—"
'Ready?' Elijah asked in the same moment, Dawn sending a thumbs up in response. Without further hesitation, he released the restraints, letting the roots fly out of the earth and pierce the invisible foes through their feet.
He heard the brief gurgling as the paralytic stopped the lungs from working, and he could discern the arms flapping in a vain attempt to fight back. A useless effort, as shown by the thuds of three bodies falling onto the grass seconds later.
They were most likely dead at that point, but Elijah refused to leave anything up to chance. With a quick word, he made the roots pierce the heart of each person, consuming the lifeblood.
'You can clean up, if you want,' Elijah said, withdrawing his presence as the grass lengthened and dragged the bodies down under. The sound of flesh being torn apart briefly reached his ears before he returned to his physical shell. "They're taken care of."
"... The reputation of Biomancers doesn't do you justice, Elijah Caede," Tina commented after a moment. "I see now why Alin wanted to bring you with us."
"I promise you that my abilities are a pittance in comparison to your own," Elijah retorted. He meant it, and yet the ancient Mage seemed to take his words as a joke. "What?"
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"You slew from a distance of three kilometers, without breaking your stride," she pointed out, a smile on her lips. "Do you not find that impressive?"
When phrased in such a way, without delving into the requirements for such a performance, he supposed it could sound impressive. It didn't feel that way to him, however.
Tina, the so-called Pink Reaper, had killed thousands on her own, leaving trails of destruction and death wherever she walked. During the time of the old war, Elijah had heard stories about her and her habit of never taking prisoners. She had killed anybody and anything without mercy. Ruthlessness to the highest degree, though Elijah could not blame her for it.
The side he'd fought on hadn't taken prisoners either.
Before they had passed the hill, Dawn had already finished her work, leaving no trace of the scouts. No more of them got spotted in the hours after. Either the rain had caused the scouts to retreat to the main force, or maybe they were too good at hiding for Elijah or Aleksi to notice.
Either way, it was only at the final stretch, when the flames of bonfires and burning buildings could be spotted in the distance, that they knew they'd arrived at their destined battlefield.
"How many can you count?" Aleksi asked as they reached the peak of the last hill, allowing them to look down at the burning village. There was still a kilometre's distance between them and the enemy, but the commanders were already putting the soldiers into formation.
"Around a thousand moving around," Elijah replied, studying the information the grass fed him.
Six corpse piles inside the village.
It seemed the strategy of leaving nobody alive hadn't changed in the past decades.
Five decades ago, Elijah wouldn't have given it a second thought. Those that had been killed weren't him, after all. Why would he need to care about the affairs of others when his well-being was in check? But now he'd grown old, and his life didn't carry that same weight to him. He had other priorities. And seeing those piles… the grass let him guess the ages of those dead. Families had died, down to the youngest.
It made it easier to prepare for the assault.
As promised, Elijah and Aleksi stayed in the backline. They did not leave the hill, as the soldiers shouted in unison, as a thousand pairs of feet marched down, and neither did they move when the enemy forces replied with their own battle cries.
His stomach dropped when thunder revealed a sky full of arrows. Both sides fired at the same time, yet only one hit their mark. Paul, a mage of legend, showed off his prowess by projecting a mighty blue barrier over the top of the warriors. Against a stronger attack, something of such scale might've not held, but a hundred arrow tips could not penetrate it.
The same could not be said for the blast of fire which flew through the people a second later, incinerating a dozen of Elijah's allies.
'Time to fulfill our duties, Dawn,' he sent, closing his eyes while Aleksi watched over him.
'So many,' Dawn commented, as both of their minds stretched far into the grass. Blood had started to soak the earth, painting Elijah's vision red. Hundreds of bodies, running and fighting endlessly. The first wave from each side had met, and none held anything back. No pride could be found in these fields.
Dual-Channeling of [Breathe Life] and [Plant Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 89MP/sec
The first spell widened his sight even further, flashes of reality flowing into his mind as he altered the structure of the grass. With the map in place to let him tell foe from friend, Elijah expertly modified the patches where the enemies stood. The slick rain and mud, already offering little friction, became entirely frictionless. It was akin to balancing on an uneven floor covered in oil, worn boots offering no ability.
They began to tumble. Some dragged others down. It didn't matter, most falling one way or another.
Shouting could be heard, loud enough that it pierced through Elijah's mental fog. By the time a hundred had stumbled, giving his side the chance to pierce through armor and kill, the trick had been discovered. Orders came to stand their ground, to keep their feet in place. It helped, but not by much, as the inability to dodge became their undoing.
'That's weird,' Dawn commented from Elijah's side. He ignored her at first, in favor of undoing some of his work to let his side advance towards the village walls unimpeded, but then he began to feel it as well. 'This is nice.'
His Mana count had stopped falling. His Core's reservoirs had ceased to reduce in size. Elijah still pulled from them every second to fuel his work, but he was gaining as much as he was losing.
The dead.
Each blade that slit a throat, each arrow that pierced a heart, and each spell that made a man drop dead caused a surge in Elijah's powers. Without his orders, without his intention, the grass touched the flesh of the dead, absorbing the Mana present in the body and sending it through the roots to him.
Or, no, not just to him. The pulses travelled beyond, making the long voyage back to where Elijah had come from.
The Dungeon was taking its share of the bounty.
Now you wish to reap the rewards, I see.
Elijah let his mind wander away from the field, as he almost sensed the Dungeon's presence. It had noticed the energy transferred, and it had stretched its senses far out. It could see him, barely but still, and it knew of the potential harvest in front of him.
Like a beast, controlled by instinct and instinct alone, the Dungeon craved. However brief, it asked for more.
'A deal will be—' Elijah began to respond, mostly for himself, before a sudden pull on his body made him snap back to reality. "What?"
The word barely left his lips, his lungs empty of air from Aleksi's rough handling. The world spun around in front of Elijah's eyes. They were mid-air, their previous position engulfed in fire.
"They're quick," Aleksi commented. His voice reverberated, as green pulsed under the man's skin. Elijah could see the giant holding it back, trying not to reveal the elixir's effects, but only so much could be done. "Stay."
Elijah had no qualms about that, as his right hand searched through his pouches. His mind spun, trying to find the right vials. His fingers found the right label with perfect timing. A shimmer to his right, and the grass exposing the boots that the naked eye couldn't see, forced him to make his move.
He threw the vial at the empty air. It flew two meters before making an impact.
The crack of glass could barely be heard for a second before the screams of pain began. Liquid Fire covered the chestplate of the previously invisible rogue, the concoction's sticky nature making every attempt to be rid of it futile.
Aleksi returned a second later, faster than Elijah's eyes could process, and stomped the half-dead rogue's head into the grass. The giant had already been half-covered in blood by then, but the crushed skull only worsened his appearance.
"You okay?" Aleksi asked, Elijah nodding. "Good. Back to it."
The initial flame attack made him worry initially, but the duel two hundred meters down ahead culled those emotions The enemy mage, who'd penetrated the front lines to take Elijah out, had met Tina's wrath.
You fool.
The small torrent of flames, dancing around in the rain, meant nothing to the pink tidal wave. Elijah could only look on, as the yellow-robed mage got enveloped in the colorful flame. It'd barely lasted a single breath before the pink heat retreated and revealed that nothing had been left behind.
An optimist might've thought that the pink fire had physically pulled the mage along, but the burst of Mana entering Elijah's Core proved his assumptions. The difference in sheer power had been too much.
'Need help,' Dawn reminded him. With a deep breath, he slowed his heartbeat and rejoined Dawn inside the roots. He travelled inside the web without pause, looking up at the hundred ongoing fights and assisting wherever he could. Grass was made slippery for the warriors, the archers in the backline were assaulted with extract from Radiant Wailweed to blind and deafen them, and the remaining mages…
The sight forced him to pause. The main group was being dealt with by Tina, who took on a dozen of the mages by her lonesome, but three others were separated and fighting two of Elijah's allies. Paul's apprentices, to be exact. Elijah hadn't talked with them in the past days of travelling, as the youth had socialized with the soldiers instead of with their mentor, but he recognized their signatures.
One a velvet red and the other a royal purple, and both with a shared intensity normally only seen in hardened veterans.
Maybe the Affinities helped make that impression, however. Elijah had never seen a true Sanguimancer or a Summoner in person before. Maybe he wished he'd never have to see one. The former specialized in the manipulation of blood, after all, the most common strategy from those types being to forcibly pull out the blood of the living, and the latter sometimes used beasts of an… eldritch manner.
A black portal appearing midair, next to the enemy mages, and shooting out a toothed tentacle of monstrous proportions only proved his point.
An invisible blade cut it in half, nearly taking out the Summoner as well, but a shield of blood protected the students. Elijah saw his chance in the meantime, making the roots push through the dirt and pierce the calves of the mages.
The plants were dealt with instantly, cut into pieces, and made impossible to control, but the opportunity had been made regardless. The weaker paralytic made their senses slow, the reflexes not up to par. Maybe the apprentices sensed that fact, or maybe they'd had enough with the playing around.
"Devour," was said in unison, and a wave of power flew through the air. A dozen portals opened up simultaneously, each revealing a tentacle stretching out to grab anybody nearby, and several dozen enemies screamed in fear as their bodies were ripped apart, their blood harvested and used as ammunition.
Despite their weakened states, the enemy trio were still skilled practitioners. Their shields held for ten full seconds under the barrage of sharpened blood and eldritch nightmares, a few lucky strikes even hampering the attacks, but it didn't matter. A crack could be heard, and the enemy was figuratively and literally crushed.
Elijah didn't like how sweet the sensation of the influx of Mana felt. That second wave, from Tina finishing her own fight against the others, only increased the receptors in his Core. Even when he'd spent ten minutes in a constant trance, channeling his Mana with the same ferocity he would showcase in a Dungeon, he was still full.
More than full. Elijah felt his hands shake from the amount of sheer energy in his veins. Impure Mana, in need of refinement to be properly used, but still under his command.
How much?
Name: Elijah Caede
Affinity: Biomancy
Mana(Main): 698
Mana(External): 5433
The hand holding the staff tightened in its grip, as the four-digit number appeared in front of Elijah's eyes. Maybe the Dungeon's augmentation had been more extensive than he'd thought.
"And just like that, we win," Aleksi commented, after Elijah's eyes refocused and he could look out of his own eyes again. "Barely a scratch on either of us. A little different than how it was in the old days."
"You have about the same amount of blood on you," Elijah countered, looking at the torn outfit on the giant. The parts that hadn't been ripped were soaked red. Even with the endless rain from above, it couldn't wash away the gore. "We'll have to get you better armor when we get home."
"Eh. Do I really need that?"
"Something that can stay in one piece after a battle, then."
"If you're worried about wasting clothes like this, I could always—"
"Don't you even suggest it."
As the giant laughed, Elijah stood back up and began to make the trek down the hill. The enemy was dead, and some of their own had suffered the same fate, but many could survive another day with his help. Dawn was already at work, using the extra Mana to distribute healing through the grass, but he could see dozens that needed his direct involvement.
… Huh.
As Elijah reached the field, now having to look up at the village ahead, he realized one fact. He didn't know the village's name. Maybe that didn't matter, seeing as the villagers hadn't gotten the chance to flee, making the place a home for none, but… it felt wrong.
"Help," a soft voice pleaded, before groaning in pain. Elijah's deliberations faded at that, as he moved to make a difference for the living. Maybe that redeemed his ignorance a little.