Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

Laze soared high above the line of Pilish refugees moving in the opposite direction to the last group she'd overseen. Before, when she'd first met Tas and Macer escorting the civilians, it'd been toward the western coast – and the hope of escaping to the nation of Wirock. Now, people fled in the opposite direction, as fast and as far as they could get from the new invasion from the Depths. Multiple fort towns had come under siege since Nexin had battled what he called some kind of general – and had actually been injured in the process.

Nexin. Injured. It was practically unbelievable. But, apparently the general was significantly stronger than anything they'd faced before – including the one Nidina had fought. As strong as the leaders of the Ignitio had been, according to Nexin. If there were many more of them, the Pilish side was in a lot of trouble.

Thankfully, though they'd spotted another of the ones riding around on a throne of water, it'd kept its distance from the pair of Laze and Nidina. Like them, it seemed to be scouting for opportunities. For Laze, the opportunity was a chance to move the non-combatants deeper into Pilish territory, though she still kept her eyes on the numerous rivers cutting their way through the nation of nearby islands. They'd already run into an ambush of hangnails that'd burst out of a river as the civilians had crossed a large bridge, with only Nidina's quick reactions preventing a disaster.

The woman had single-handedly blunted the monsters' first assault so the Pilish soldiers could form up, and for Laze to join in. Nidina had been a terror of blades and wings – reminding Laze more than a little of El – amidst the small grey monsters.

For her part, Laze had directed from above, raining flaming arrows down on the monsters while guiding the Pilish soldiers to where they were needed most. The coordination had worked well, fending off the monsters, but only because no seawyrms had shown up.

Now, though, Laze had her eyes on the next bridge. This one was even larger than the last one where they'd been ambushed. And the water beneath it lay deep and dark. If she were the Depths, this was the last real chance they had to take this group before they reached the safety of Fort Bedrock. Aptly named, the fort was a massive, defensive beast of a city. Thick walls towered above the ground on all four sides, with no water within almost a mile in any direction. It'd be one of the easier locations to defend against the rank-and-file Depths – which is why civilians were being directed there.

"You've got that look on your face," Nidina said, the communication magic making it sound like she was right beside Laze, despite the distance. "I can see it from here."

"That bridge," Laze said.

"You're expecting an ambush too?"

"Yup. And there's enough water under there to hide seawyrms."

"Between the two of us, I think we can handle one."

"I think so too, but that takes me away from directing the soldiers from above. And if there's more than one seawyrm…"

"Not like we have another direction we can go if we want to reach Bedrock," Nidina said, the shrug audible in her voice. "Got a plan?"

"I wish El was here." Laze sighed. "Her coldfire is better suited for what we need."

"You want to blast the water?"

"I do. How hot can you get one of your shots? It won't be as effective as freezing whatever's under there…"

"Boiling it should work just as well," Nidina responded with a chuckle. "Let's see what we can do, yeah?"

"Yeah. At the pace the group is moving, they're about ten minutes away. We'll stir things up a bit first. I'll just let them know what we're doing first." With that, Laze took one more slow turn to get a look in all directions – clear – then dove down to the head of the line.

Seeing her coming, the Pilish soldier in charge of escorting the group – Essanati – jogged a few steps ahead to meet her, and gave a quick salute as he stopped. "Trouble?" he asked, getting right to the point.

"Not yet," Laze said. "The last bridge is another mile or so ahead of us. After the last ambush, Nidina and I are going to see if there is anything hiding under there."

"Should we slow down? Wait to see what happens?"

"No." Laze shook her head. "I didn't see anything from up there, but I don't want anybody sneaking up on you while we're dealing with things at the bridge. Keep the people moving, but have your troops ready for another fight. You can't get bogged down on this side of the bridge, so if it comes to it, we're going to have fight across."

"A moving fight is dangerous," the man said, clearly wary of the plan.

"It is," Laze agreed. "Problem is, I'm not sure why the Depths haven't started collapsing bridges already. I'm hoping they're simply not here yet, but if they are, I don't want to give them the time to get the same idea. If nothing else, it's best to get the people across and engage in a fighting retreat until we get to Bedrock."

"Makes sense," Essanati said with another salute. "Besides, you're in charge according to my commanders. We'll be ready for whatever comes."

"Good. One more thing. If seawyrms show up – and I seriously hope they don't – leave them to us Firestorm. Focus on the hangnails and moving the civilians across the bridge."

"Understood."

"Great. Oh, there might be some downward fireworks while we try to draw out anything under the bridge. If you see something go up, that's my signal we've engaged enemy forces, and you need to be ready for that fight."

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Essanati nodded, then turned back to pass commands on to his troops. With almost a thousand civilians and only two hundred or so troops, they were spread pretty thin.

One more push though, that should be all they need before this group is safe. And, hopefully El would be back soon with a plan to get Pycrin more directly involved. The reinforcements were desperately needed – especially the mobile Firestorm. It was practically a miracle they hadn't lost more than a few people total as prisoners, though there had been other casualties in the ferocious combat.

Laze shook her head. Problems for later. For now – bridge.

"Nidina, start powering up what you can do," Laze said, pushing power into her wings as she launched back into the sky. She pulled Felps's PIC from where she had it slung over her shoulder, and slipped it onto her forearm. She couldn't quite get her arrows to overcharge like Nidina and El could – or Nexin, but that was another story – so the portable artillery was her best bet. It tended to suck her Spark our of her body like a thirsty man drank water in a desert – which was why she was careful about when she used it – but it was the best tool for the current job. That, and there weren't any friendlies to get caught in the explosive radius.

"Oh, already working on it," Nidina said, and Laze spotted her with a veritable flaming tornado hanging below the horizonal woman hovering above the bridge. The air around her warped at the heat, while the flames snapped and twisted like a wild beast eager to break its leash. "Say when."

"When," Laze replied immediately, and Nidina let loose.

The recoil of the blast shot Nidina twenty feet in the other direction, but it was the point of impact Laze focused on. The fiery spear – the twenty-foot-long spear – hit the dark water and vanished beneath the surface even as steam shot into the sky. Then the real explosion followed, a sphere or orange expanding beneath the surface before all hell broke loose.

While the amount of water no doubt doused a significant portion of the flaming arrow's power, the eruption still blew water, steam, and licks of flame fifty feet into the air. Boiling water shot up only to rain back down, while the vacuum of evaporated water churned the surface into a whirlpool that rotated to the side of the bridge.

Knowing that wasn't enough, Nidina ignited her second arrow even as Laze took aim and released a ball of condensed flame from her PIC. Only the size of a grapefruit, the spinning fireball didn't have the same destructive potential of Nidina's arrow to dive deep, and instead erupted only a few feet beneath the surface.

This new fiery sphere grew to twenty feet, flash-boiling every ounce of water within it and creating a miniature tidal wave that only seemed to empower the whirlpool. A second arrow from Nidina – straight into the eye of the whirling water – turned the whole scene into something out of a horror story. There was a second explosion deep beneath the surface of the water, and then somehow the white, frothing water of the whirlpool seemed to ignite. Voracious flames swirled around and around, illuminating the bridge in an orange glow, even though it only lasted seconds.

And the bridge wasn't the only thing the fire shone light on – hangnail bodies and pieces of them reaching the surface only to be sucked back into the depths by the whirlpool.

"Contact," Nidina said calmly, a third arrow forming on her bow.

"Signal to the troops is a shop up," Laze said, releasing a second shot from her PIC into the water below the bridge.

"Got it," Nidina said, flipping in the air to launch a normal arrow towards the clouds high above. It didn't go more than two hundred feet before it exploded into a shower of falling ember trails.

That should let the Pilish troops know to expect a fight. The only question left was how much of a fight it was going to be. More hangnail corpses were already floating to the surface as Laze's second and then her third shots reached the water. Nidina's third arrow wasn't far behind, and despite the volume of water moving under the bridge, a second whirlpool had formed, and the surface of it bubbled from the dramatically increased temperature.

Even if the attacks weren't outright killing hangnails, the boiling water would have to be uncomfortable for the monsters. But, even after the barrage – and the casualties – no retaliation came.

"Hold your fire," Laze said, eyes scanning the water. The churning, burning surface made it difficult to see more than the occasionally bobbing body part within the froth, but… a shimmer of something reflecting the light. Hangnails didn't do that, which meant it had to be a seawyrm down there. And, just like that, the large serpentine body got close enough to the surface of the water for Laze to spot its entire fifty-plus-foot length twist around before diving back under.

"You see that?" Nidina asked.

"I did…" Laze said slowly, PIC still aimed at the water. Where would it come up next? The question hung in her mind for three seconds, five, ten… but she didn't get an answer. Had the attacks actually killed the beast – or at least injured it enough it had run off?

"Why isn't it shooting back?" Nidina asked. "We're within range of the water-spit."

"How many times have I asked you not to call it that," Laze responded without really thinking about it, all her attention focused on the water. "It's gross."

"Enough times you should've learned I'm not going to change," Nidina said, her voice likewise carrying the note of distraction. She had another roiling spear of flame ready on her bow. "You didn't answer my question, though."

No, she hadn't, because she didn't have an answer. Nidina was right; they were well within the range of the seawyrm's spit attack. And, in the few times Laze had fought the beasts, they'd only really backed down when they'd been injured through their mouths. That seemed to their one weak point – unless it was Nexin who was attacking them – with those sapphire scales acting as nearly unbreakable armor. Sure, the fiery attacks from Laze and Nidina could've heated the water enough it… what? Burned its tongue?

That couldn't be it. There was no way that hurt the monster enough to chase it off. Which meant it was still down in the water beneath the bridge.

Laze's eyes widened as she considered the implications of that. Seawyrms traditionally acted as beasts of instinct and ferocity, attacking until their target was dead, or they were too injured to continue. She'd pretty much ruled out the second, which meant the first should be playing out right now. Since it wasn't, that brought the rarer third situation to the front – when something else was controlling the monster's actions. That only happened when those strange humanoids were around.

Meaning Laze suddenly had to consider actual strategy in play here. She'd been worried about the Depths collapsing bridges, and they hadn't done that. Why not? And why would there be monsters waiting in the water, willing to die to the Firestorm attacks without responding?

Because they were a distraction, and the bridge was bait. As long as the bridge stood on the way to Fort Bedrock, the refugees would rush straight for it to get across to safety – taking them away from the overall safety of the center of the island to a source of water. Water that could be used to transport prisoners to Wirock and the rings.

"We've got to get back," Laze snapped, already spinning in the air and flooding power into her wings.

"What… why?" Nidina asked, but Laze spotted the woman immediately following.

"These monsters are just here to distract us. The refugees are the real target. They're going to get attacked."

As Laze streaked across the sky, she realized too late she was wrong.

The refugees weren't going to get attacked – they were already under assault.