Test Summoning: Apocalypse

Causality is quite the horrid bitch. Little things can make big changes somewhere down the line and figuring out how it all connects is nigh impossible. This was proving the case as Lisa's forces hustled down the catacomb tunnels toward the ancient cistern.

During the previous battle, the gang press encountered many cultist foes in small batches. Applying the old military adage "defeat in detail", wherein you win a battle utilizing overwhelming numbers, the gang was able to steamroll small groups of patrolling cultists throughout the tunnels.

Well, defeat in detail may not be the perfect adage here since the cultists only have a third of the personnel. They do, however, make up for it in superior coordination, training and a higher number of Advanced troops, so being able to whittle down their numbers when they were in small, easily crushed squads helped the key battle in the cistern.

Now? As we made our light jog behind the poorly organized mob, I didn't hear any telltale signs of fighting. The ground wasn't littered with the bodies of cultists nor were there discarded weapons to pick up and use. It was the sounds of huffing goons moving toward our destination.

"Some…thing…is…diff…er…ent," I huffed as we moved. While my conditioning had improved quite a bit over the last three months, I still wasn't exactly an elite athlete.

"Explain quick, we're getting close," Lisa rumbled without any sign of exertion. She was treating this like a gentle stroll.

"No…small…pa…trolls," I wheezed. We didn't have any advanced scouting this time since the people Lisa had available weren't strong enough to remain undetected. We didn't want to give away our presence, so we were relying on my advanced scouting. The cult was dedicated to protecting the ritual, so it made sense they would have everyone pulled back.

"We will have to rely on our numbers," Lisa blandly stated.

Shouts began at the end of the tunnel where it opened up into the larger cistern area. Our 10-wide column was beginning to file into the bigger opening and, in uneven lines, were holding their spears at the ready. With a shout, the first of the mob lowered their spears and charged down the incline.

We reached the top of the cistern and the battle had already begun. The cult, still predominantly armed with civilian clothing and equipment, was now slightly on the back foot. They had better numbers with their allies from the tunnels present inside, but they had a weaponry disadvantage.

That is until the six mages sprung into action. They noticed the mass flowing in and paused their casting over the silvery-white paint they would use to draw the ritual circle. They abandoned their effort and immediately began slinging spells. The Earth mage among them began forming spikes on the floor to disrupt the incoming spearmen. Afterward, the mage formed a protective dome over himself and the other five to keep them shielded from the battle.

Then magic began to fly. Lisa's side began firing bolts of flame, chunks of rock and blades of wind into the enemy forces. Their spells were able to reach the enemy due to the superior positioning at the top of the cistern slope.

The opposing forces, while smaller, had far more devastating spells. Each cast caused tremendous damage and put some goons out of the fight.

This time, though, Lisa's people were better prepared. The trusted lieutenants who helped with the preparations were directing the front-line fighters in the battle. They were pulling injured soldiers to the rear where a small field hospital was set up. Field hospital was a loose term since it was just a bunch of blankets the healers brought in and threw on the ground.

"Lizard, go help," Lisa ordered. She then pointed to a crate which was cracked open and filled with arrows. "Oliver, get to work. You two? Stay here and protect my investment." Both Void and Lia let out little growls at the orders.

When Lisa strode to join the fight, I gripped Tizek's arm. "Buddy? Just use Triage. Save your mana." I wanted to save his mana for our use in case Void or Lia was injured. He could always jump in if things were going badly and Lisa's troops were out of magic.

"Yes, my lord," Tizek responded and rushed to the field hospital. He quickly cast triage on a gushing wound which was then healed by one of Lisa's people. The healed goon returned to the battle. I was proud Tizek had pushed aside his hesitance to use Light attuned spells in public and stepped up when it counted.

I quickly strung my bow and looked at the lines of battle. They had fully engaged now and the flow of battle had stalled. Like before, Lisa's people were losing three to each one of theirs. The battle was bogged down and progressed slower since Lisa's side was more organized with a medic team while the enemy had more people.

Over the din of battle, I spoke to Void and Lia. "You two ready? I'm about to start firing."

Lia stepped out ahead and to my side while Void remained to my back. Lia pulled her greatsword and prepped to receive anyone who broke through. Void would use her Shadow Hold ability to disrupt anyone trying to come our direction.

I strung my bow then drew an arrow from the crate. My eye scanned over the scrum and looked for my first target. I saw a mage out in the front using his Earth ability to form small walls in front of his forces to help keep them protected.

I drew my bow and adjusted my shot. Then I fired. The arrow streaked over the heads of the soldiers and impacted the enemy's forehead. His head cracked back hard when the arrow impacted him. He was likely Advancement 2 from his reaction. The arrow hurt and if I were to hit him again in the head, it would probably kill him.

The attack did what I hoped it would. Maintaining the walls at his level took effort and with the new headache wasn't possible. A stretch of impediments crumbled to allow spear wielding goons to rush into the gap.

The battle had now shifted a little with my entry. It was my stamina pool, which regenerated fast but wasn't great, vs their mana pools. I didn't rapid fire to avoid taxing myself. The last thing I wanted was to push too quickly and build up grey earlier than necessary.

I took my time to make the shots count. Every time I saw a big spell starting to form, I targeted the caster and disrupted it. I even managed to outright kill a fire mage when the arrow lodged in her eye. While I was a fantastic archer, trying to recreate that particular shot in the chaos of battle wasn't something I could do without substantial luck.

I glanced at Lisa when I was taking a quick rest to let my stamina regenerate. She hadn't joined the scrum just yet. She was watching the mini-fortress housing the six mages on the other side of the fight. They had paused their preparations for the ritual to save their mana. Apart from the initial creation of the interferences by the Earth mage, they hadn't engaged in the fight just yet.

I noticed a cultist lobbing rocks in the direction of our makeshift field hospital. The attacker didn't have the angle to directly hit anyone, though it was disrupting operations as everyone had to duck. I launched an arrow in his direction and it thudded in his shoulder. The mage had to pull back to their little field hospital which was hidden behind a makeshift fortress an Earth caster set up.

So far, I was maintaining a sense of anonymity on the battlefield. My dark mahogany arrows were difficult to see in the scrum and, unlike flashy spells, I wasn't drawing attention to myself.

The battle was brutal. I was trying to focus on targeted shots while I watched people drown in magically formed balls of water bubbling around heads, blades of wind spraying innards around the room and flames cooking people alive. More were skewered by spears or bludgeoned by maces. All the while, screaming people were dragged from both sides to their respective medics to patch up and send back into the fight.

Lia's face was drawn away from the battle while trying to maintain her composure. The poor girl was shaking as she stood near me as a guard. Void, standing next to me, was breathing heavily. She had an iron grip on her rapier as she watched the ugly carnage. From the look in her eye, she was thinking the same thing the last time I saw this. How do these two sides have the drive and conviction to throw themselves into a meat grinder? A lifesaving income stream for family was a powerful motivator, especially in a place like the slums.

The battle's flow started to now move decisively in our favor. The kill to loss ratio, by my rough estimation, shifted to a 2-1 rate, which now put the attrition against the cult. I continued to work my bow and nail casters to disrupt the enemy flow. Our side didn't have a flow to disrupt since it was just an undisciplined mob pressing in and fighting dirty.

Then causality decided to be a bitch once more. I wasn't expecting him to arrive since he was passed off as just a sacrifice, but there he was. The seventh person arrived with a small cadre of reinforcements. The reinforcements, around 40 people, joined the fight and with their presence, the lines stalled into a stalemate once more.

The seventh began casting some kind of unknown spell. I could see him moving in a complex rhythm at the rear of the lines near the doorway he emerged from. Then I caught a glow in his eyes indicating he was a light attuned mage. I saw his lips mumbling like he was talking to someone.

Whatever spell he had cast was extremely taxing and he fell to his knees. He pulled a crystal out from his robes and pressed it to his neck. From it, his cracking, weak voice was amplified over the din of battle. "Capture the hairless one alive. He Who is Eternal commands it!"

Crap. That guy is talking with the squid? I recalled the scroll mentioning the sacrifice was a high-level mage. In my idiocy, I had forgotten that and was overly focused on the six performing the ritual.

I nocked an arrow and adjusted my shot to target the light caster. Now that he was weakened by his spell, I'd have an opening to cause some damage. "Jack! Kill the one who spoke! He's key to the ritual!"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Lisa didn't hesitate or ask questions. She started forming ice shards in the air and launched them in the mage's direction. I readied an arrow and fired.

The weakened mage was rocked by the ice shards. He seemed surprised someone on our side had enough firepower to cause damage to him. It made sense since we hadn't demonstrated anything beyond Advancement 1 grade spells.

My arrows, however, proved more a nuisance. The enemy mage was high enough where my weakened draw weight only left small puncture wounds in his skin. They proved a useful distraction though as he struggled to get somewhere in the open field.

He was then protected by a pillar of earth which erupted out of the ground, blocking our angle of attack. I observed to see a way around the pillar. I couldn't curve an arrow at this distance. Lisa also stopped her barrage since all she was doing was wasting mana on chipping at a rock.

I looked around the cistern for something. Then my eyes drifted upward to the tangle of pipes. The mage was fortuitously standing beneath the spot I had previously collapsed and fell out of. Oh, causality, I'm sorry for calling you a bitch.

I took aim at an ancient overhead thingamabob precariously hanging just above the spot and fired my arrow. The arrow flew true and hit a weakened wood support beam, taking the entire unit crashing into the pipes. The rotted joints of the piping couldn't hold the force of the mass suddenly impacting it and caused a cascade of piping and other wooden structures to crash down.

A crystal-amplified scream echoed from behind the column. "Defeat the hairless one and we can try anew!" A few of the cultists in the rear rushed to the tangle of wooden debris and started to dig at it. Based on the wheezing echoing through the crystal, the mage underneath wasn't long for this world.

My mind raced. It was apparent the squid had no means of direct communication from its side or it would have warned the sacrifice of our attack. This meant I couldn't go down this loop and we had to win. Any opening we gave the enemy meant they were given options to try to alter the future. The worst is if the now-deceased mage, based on the silence from the crystal, ran off and pulled his six compatriots, I couldn't be sure I'd ever stumble on them again. Worse, it meant potentially even longer loops.

The rock fortress pulled open and the six mages surged forth. The five with combat skills bore their full power on the hapless goons in Lisa's force and began cutting a hole in my direction. I had to pull back, and order Tizek, Lia and Void to come along with me, to reduce the enemy angle of attack. I couldn't afford to take a hit. Lia grabbed my arrow crate and dragged it with her as we pulled back.

"Press the six mages!" the low rumble of Lisa's modulated voice echoed out over the din of battle. Lisa, situated at the top of the ramp, began throwing ice bullets hard and flashed up a shield of water to intercept a nasty fireball. Steam ruptured and obscured the view of the battle. I was reliant on blind firing where I thought the mages were most likely located.

The pace of spell usage abruptly slowed and then, save a few flashes of red and overspray of rock from the direction of the six still-fresh leaders, stopped. The aggressive pace of battle exhausted the mana reserves of everyone involved. Based on how Lisa's medic team is also joining the fight directly, they, too, are out of magic. The battle was now down to a direct physical brawl with support from the heavy hitters.

Spearmen congregated around Lisa before rushing into the haze under the command of a lieutenant. Screams of the dying moved closer along with flashes of red and chunks of rock. Little swirls of steam marked the passing of concentrated air attacks which left trails of red mist in their wake as they took chunks out of the stone ceiling of the tunnel above.

In the panic and confusion inside the mist, five cultists emerged and sprinted our direction. The five were entirely indistinguishable from people we'd pass on the street every day. There was a white bear-clan woman in a sun dress holding a bloodied wooden axe. A beaver-clan woman with a 1kg metal war hammer was hot on her heels. To her other side were a pair of men with wood swords, a cougar-clan and lynx-clan cultist. The final, a fox-clan man, took up the rear with a pair of metal daggers. They had deranged looks in their eyes as they made a beeline in my direction.

"Oliver! Shoot the fox. Void? Hold the bear. Tizek? On me and support," Lia belted out. In the sudden press of the fight, she didn't flinch. She had time to mentally prepare by watching the fight and, unlike the surprise attack by Gerry in a prior loop, she found her footing. She was also better prepared since we focused on sparring and coordination during our downtime in the dungeons.

It was now my turn to follow orders. I grabbed an arrow from the crate and snapped a shot off toward the fox. The arrow streaked through the five and struck him in the thigh. He stumbled, caught himself, and continued forward at a reduced pace. I drew a second and fired close behind, hitting the now less mobile enemy dead-center in the chest. He pitched over and coughed up blood.

Lia took a few huffing breaths which I recognized as her casting First Strength. I could see the straps holding her arm protection flex slightly as her muscles bulged under the spell's influence. Void, meanwhile, caught the bear-clan woman in her Shadow Hold spell. The beaver-clan woman slammed hard into the suddenly unmoving enemy and bounced backwards onto her ass.

This left two who were on target to reach Lia. Due to their speed, I couldn't add an additional shot and pulled back slightly behind Void. Lia reached out a hand and sprayed the two trying to reach me with a cone of magical embers to their face. The two slowed their advanced to wipe away the painful fire involuntarily kissing their eyeballs.

Then Lia brought her sword to a low rear ready and, with impressive power, swung up with an angled slash and absolutely cleaved the cougar-clan cultist in half. The unarmored man was no more than Advancement 1 and just took the full force of an attack from someone 10% stronger than an Advancement 3 fighter who was also boosted by a strength enhancement. As the torso slid off from the lower half of the body, Lia continued her momentum into a spin and connected with the lynx-clan cultist with a right to left downward slash.

When Lia came to a halt, I caught a glimpse of her face. It was something I had never seen before. She had a dead look in her eyes and was extremely focused. It's like she vanished into herself and let her body go on autopilot. It was, frankly, a little terrifying. If we survived this, I'd have to get some private time to let her express herself over the battle.

The other two weren't sitting around doing nothing. The beaver-clan woman stood up and rushed around the still immobile bear-clan cultist. Lia had just finished slicing her second cultist in twain and wasn't in a position to readjust her sword to engage the target.

Tizek, recognizing Lia's vulnerable reset stance, jumped in and pummeled the cultist's hammer to the side with a punch of his buckler. The force of the deflection staggered the cultist to the side. Tizek capitalized on the opening with a flurry of punishing blows. He swung downward with his mace and glanced off the side of her head when she avoided the blow. The glancing strike pulled the weapon's handle into her shoulder blade, which reduced the impact force.

The miss didn't faze Tizek much. He punched out hard with his buckler and connected solidly on the cultist's face. Her thick beaver teeth folded inward into her mouth and her muzzle was crushed under the blow. Wavering, the beaver weakly tried to get her hammer up for a strike, which Tizek swatted away once more. He then brought his mace up for a backhand strike across the temple. I could hear the blow crack the cultist's skull over the dimming din of the battle beyond the clearing steam cloud. She rocked on her feet and toppled to the ground.

That left the struggling bear-clan cultist who was still caught in Void's Shadow Hold.

"Shoot her," Lia barked as she released one hand from the greatsword. I recognized she was getting ready to cast Flame Dart at the remaining cultist.

Now with the scrum clear and an open space to fire, I drew and took aim. Before I could release, Lia's Flame Dart streaked across the distance and impacted the cultist's chest. Her clothing caught flame from the strike and the fire splash washed over the rest of her body. It wasn't a huge attack, but being immobile and unarmored, the woman ate a good chunk of damage to her now singed chest. Void released the hold to avoid the blowback from her spell being disrupted from the enemy taking damage and the cultist staggered forward.

It didn't matter. I loosed a follow-on shot directly into the same spot. The arrow plunged into the weakened skin and sent her remaining health pool down to nothing from a critical strike to the heart. The cultist toppled over and thudded onto the stone floor.

We couldn't take a breather. My eyes glanced toward the dissipating steam to see Lisa, who had now lost her mask and was slowly fighting a withdrawing battle. She had a water wall ahead of her and she now held a sword in her hand, telling me she was running low on mana. She was moving slowly and showed significant damage to her face and body. Her armor was partially shredded which was showing her bare skin, blackened and blistered where her fur was burned away.

Along with her were two dozen of her people. I recognized they were all lieutenants. The rank-and-file had all fallen. They still outnumbered the enemy, though the momentum was decidedly against them.

The enemy was down to four remaining mages and six followers. The Earth mage and Light mage had both gone down, leaving the Fire, Wind, Water and Shadow mages. Three mages, Wind, Water and Shadow, were still utilizing spells. From what I could tell, the spells were weaker variants, indicating they, too, were running low on magic. The Fire mage was fighting with a mace.

My hopes the Fire mage was engaging in melee due to his lack of magic proved unfounded. His hand snapped up and an arrow of fire formed in the air then streaked directly at me. Lia, noticing the trajectory of the attack, stepped in front of me and lifted her greatsword to act as a barrier. The flames washed over the weapon and Lia held firm. She screamed in pain as she stood there getting bathed in the intense heat of the Advancement 4 spell.

Tizek jumped to action and immediately began pumping healing spells into Lia. She continued to hold firm as she sucked in air to stave off the terrible agony of the third degree burns to the face.

I noticed the Fire mage preparing to send another fire arrow our direction and I snapped a shot toward him. My mahogany arrow skipped against his hand which was enough to leave a gash and send his attack low. Lia, once more, stood in front of it to keep it from reaching me and a fresh wave of fire washed over her. This time, her damage was limited to the exposed gaps between her leather legs and torso. I could see the leather armor blistering as the defensive enchantments took the brunt of the attack. I was glad I splurged to enhance the armor's durability even though it chewed up the vast majority of the sale of my mug.

In the scrum ahead, Lisa pulled out a few more ice bullets from the air and pummeled them into the Wind mage. The Wind mage folded when the focused shotgun effect pummeled her body and one slipped in through the eye socket, blowing out the orb and then the back of the head. The Shadow mage followed with two spears rammed through his gut followed by a bash from a mace.

The Fire mage tried to form another spell which I disrupted with an arrow. He shouted something and pulled back behind the corner of the tunnel opening to the cistern. His people tightened up into a defensive wall while the last mage, the Water mage, started keeping attackers at bay with water tendrils.

Lisa and her people were tapped out on mana. They were trying to pummel their way through the last six defenders and the thrashing liquid tentacles. It was proving an effective block.

I noticed why they were putting up a defensive shield and why the Fire mage pulled back where I couldn't see him when a powerful glow started to form. It continued to intensify to the point Lisa's lieutenants were having to squint against the glow. The effect only made it harder for them to press.

Shit, the Fire mage is preparing something huge and plans to shoot it my direction. I briefly glanced back and noticed the next turn was too far away to run. I also figured Lia wouldn't be able to tank something like that. My mind raced for a way out.

Void, desperate, lashed out with Shadow Hold and paused the Water mage's attack. This gave some relief to Lisa's forces, though they were limited by the intensifying glow of the flames. The hold didn't last long when a cultist swung back with an elbow and hit the mage hard in the chest to break the spell. The blowback from the sudden breakage hit Void and she fell to her knees with a gasp.

I had to think fast. Then it hit me. I could curve my arrows. Sure, they lost a lot of power when I fired like that, but I didn't need power. I just needed to hit him. That required a lot of luck since I wasn't entirely sure where he was.

I moved to my side until I judged the peak of the glow was just behind the corner. I couldn't expose myself to a direct line of fire. I also wanted the wall to take the brunt of what I desperately hoped would happen.

I rushed forward until I was around 15 meters away from the corner and took aim. I knocked the arrow high on the string and canted the bow to the left. I had to be at this distance since the shot required precision. I couldn't magically curve the arrow in flight, that was a spell I needed to learn after I fixed my mana channels. I was relying on pure, everyday physics for this one.

I set aside my atheist tendencies and embraced the weirdness of this world. I prayed to fate, chance, causality, the Grand Creator and even the various pantheon Gods from the old story about the Six Heroes of the Star. Anyone who would listen.

I then loosed my arrow. The shaft spun as the arrow veered slight left and wobbled in the air. Its spin against the fletching began to pull it back toward the initial path of release. I held my breath as I watched it move, hoping it didn't straighten out and hit the corner. It then passed the wall and vanished from view.

An instant later, a massive explosion rocked the tunnel, sending debris toward us. Broken brick pelted Lia in the chest while Tizek remained kneeling behind her, pumping healing spells into her body. I heard Void yelp as she fell. I barely got to turn to see her face down, hands over her helm on the ground when I was struck in the noggin.

My head rang and I was down half my health. The helmets I insisted on everyone wearing saved my bacon. OSHA would be proud, or at least less angry at me since I wasn't exactly in a safe work environment right now.

I opened my eyes when a hand rested on my shoulder. When my sight returned, I watched my health bar start to rise. Luckily, I didn't have any grey or, worse, black. It was just a rock to the noggin. When the health bar reached full, the hearing I didn't realize I lost from the overpressure returned. I turned and saw Tizek blasting heals into me.

I turned to Void who was wobbling to her feet. "I'm full, thanks. Go heal Void, buddy."

Tizek silently rushed to Void and began topping her health. We needed to be at full strength in case the fight had more to go. I turned and saw Lia was still in her stance and prepared to take whatever came from down the tunnel.

I turned toward the tunnel and saw carnage. The brick walls, partially blasted in our direction, were glowing melted slag oozing liquid stone toward the floor. I couldn't see whatever remained of the Fire or Water mages who absorbed the brunt of the attack. The remaining cultists, who were in the direct line of fire, were also lying motionless on the ground.

Lisa's people comparatively speaking fared much better. Numbering 9 plus Lisa herself, they were slowly getting up from where they had gotten knocked over. They were protected from the blast behind the corner of the wall.

Lisa, ever the paranoid crime boss, systematically walked over and stabbed the last cultists lying on the ground to make sure they wouldn't get up. She then peered out over the battlefield obscured beyond the slope into the cistern. With a slump of her shoulders, she dropped her sword. "You lot, go down and see if anyone survived. Rescue ours if you can. Send the rest of them to the darkness."

I finally allowed myself to relax. We had won. We had done it. Unless something awful happened, we stopped the end. I was too tired and shocked to even weep.