Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

They had been in the mountains for hours before they reached Fort Benshin around midday, Tor was the only one that went inside while the caravan sat outside the walls. John could see the massive walls of the fortress that sat nestled in the crease where the mountains curved south on either side of it. The road they were on was one of two according to their map, this one ran through the narrowest part of the mountains to get through quickest, while the other ran the long way around the western coast. The orcs largest mountain city was between the two roads on the western side of The Tusktooth Mountains, while the eastern side of the mountains had fewer orcs but more monsters instead.

Jade was sitting with them today at the front of the caravan, with Rose and Dave in the rear passenger vehicle. The temperatures hadn’t really changed as they went south, and heading into the mountains would probably make it get even colder. They were all lucky they had already picked up winter clothes from their expedition north to save the researcher. It was now about the same as it was when they got close to the glacier that seemed to radiate cold.

When Tor came out he returned to his usual seat at the front of the caravan next to the driver. John poked their head out of the little nook the two of them sat in just behind the driver. “Did they have anything interesting?”

“Aye, there’s been sightings of orcs in the pass the past two weeks, but only a few more than normal.” Tor replied.

“Are there more of them east than we expected?” Jade asked.

“Not according to the reports from Fort Brokenfang, they’ve had sightings of many bands roving that side and there’ve been a few skirmishes where they tried to raid Delmar and Hanor.” Tor responded.

“So this side is still safest then.” John said.

He nodded. “That’s what we think, so we’re going to go through as planned, rushing to Indon before cutting west to Edolas’ territory.”

“Alright.” John said.

“I’ll let Rose know.” Jade said, grabbing her book for a moment and chanting “Nuntius” before beginning to repeat all the information to Rose through her short range communication spell.

It took four castings to relay all the information and by that time the caravan was underway further into the mountains.

The oxen pulled the carts up the incline as they climbed past the foothills into the mountain pass. The wagons had been slower than their own normal travel, but they were happy to ride instead of walk, especially since the oxen traveled further in a day, not stopping to make camp until it was completely dark. Magical lights were supplied by many people to see well enough to make dinner, and breakfast was done before the sun rose. Most of this was because of the winter day length, but it did mean Dave didn’t wake up until it was time to get into the wagon, eating his breakfast while they traveled.

The mountain pass was evidently fairly high up, higher than any of the foothills they had been on as they got closer, but it was still going to be way shorter than the peaks. John was looking at them as they rolled through. These mountains weren’t as tall as The Mindcap Mountains to the east, nor the Cascade mountains they grew up next to, but they were still tall enough to be a considered a real mountain range.

Since it was midday it meant they would likely reach the pass by nightfall and according to Tor it would take three days to get through. They would spend an entire day traveling the pass, and reach the smaller foothills on the other side by the night after. Jade thought it was a little aggressive of a schedule and that they would take even longer based on her estimates. Tor seemed to know what they were doing though, and they weren’t there to be guides just escorts.

John thought Jade was probably right, who better than her to estimate distance traveled, especially when she had spoken to Dave about exact time spent traveling.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, but they were still climbing higher and higher. The temperature had begun to drop as the sun started going down, and John was wondering how cold it would get tonight when they reached the pass and the sun was gone.

“I’m heading outside.” Jade said to them, Bec had spent most of his time running alongside the carts, he seemed to greatly prefer that to sitting in either wagon with Jade, so she ended up outside running along with him fairly often.

John nodded and scooted over to let her climb out to where Tor and the driver sat before she jumped down to walk alongside. They hadn’t been flying as much as they would have liked, they worried that it would seem too abnormal to see someone in silver blue full plate flying about on their own power. It made them uncomfortable to resist, but they figured that being treated like an oddity would make them feel worse.

It had been a while since either of them had reached out with their advanced senses, so John figured that while Jade was out running with Bec they could reach out and check what was nearby. Both of them had been practicing this while they traveled, unlike Rose and Dave’s sense theirs were both great at searching the vicinity. So they were taking turns doing this every hour to look for monsters in the vicinity.

There had been a number of small run ins, some boar, plenty of wolves, even a few bears. Dave was really upset when they passed a spider nest and tripped something causing some massive dog sized spiders to try to overrun them. The hippogriffs were fairly annoying and started showing up on occasion when they got to the mountains, and there was even a single griffin, but it didn’t seem to be doing well. None of these posed even remotely a challenge to them after all they had gone through, it was rather simple to run off most of the wild animals and those that didn’t flee died pretty quickly.

Closing their eyes the spoke quietly. “Hey Breeze, what’s going on this afternoon.” They took a long deep breath, slowly pulling in the air around them and letting it back out. With their eyes closed they followed the breath they let out as it mingled with the surrounding air. There was a buzz in their mind when the Breeze flew through the breath they were following and drew them in alongside it. Spiraling they rose into the sky together and John could sense the wind but not feel it made them long for the freedom of the skies. They noticed they could no longer feel the seat under them before dropping back down to it when they figured out they had started hovering.

Refocusing they returned their mind to the area around the wagons and started searching for the breathing of others around that weren’t part of the group. The found the now familiar breath of Jade and Bec running through the forest about 10 feet off the road to the west. The current part of the path was flat, so it was perfect for them to do this without being worn out by the incline. Further back Rose and Dave were found, speaking quickly, nothing John could understand, but the speed of breathing meant they were probably arguing.

All along the Caravan they could feel the breath of the various members of the Caravan, 27 members other than the four of them. Pulling out further they swung around in loops going further and further out, unable to search far behind them, they could instead sense further ahead since they were in the front wagon. There was single bit of breath ahead of Jade and Bec, it felt frantic moving away from them so it was probably trying to flee. On the other side at the fringe of their range John noticed a series of calm breathing all clumped together, there were six they could sense, but given the placement it was possible there were more beyond.

They held onto this feeling as they opened their eyes and climbed out behind Tor, “I’m going to check on things, but keep an eye out in case we need to stop quickly.”

Tor nodded and as John stood on the side of the wagon hanging off the edge they looked out in that direction unable to tell what was there due to the density of the foliage. Each of them had figured out their own way to notify the others if they found something, Rose and Jade could send messages, each slightly different, Dave would send his Echo to the other side to get attention. While John would use his spell to play a noise that no one from Tera would recognize but none of them would mistake for anything else, the sound of his computer starting up. The first time he did that it made Dave laugh so hard he fell out of his seat.

“Prodigium” John chanted before playing the noise in the area at a decent volume. The caravan had figured out it was some sort of warning, but since not every incent was a fight they didn’t react too much. It also seemed that letting them know it was a signal not to alert anyone watching them was a good idea. John checked the breathing of the six ahead and noticed two more, all of which seemed to have a slightly more exciting breathing than before.

Jade had drawn closer before joining them on the other side, and they heard her call out. “What did you find.”

“At first six, but now eight, calmly breathing in a small cluster.” John explained. “Southeast about 60 ft out.”

“18 meters, got it, I really wish you would learn it like Dave has been.” She said as she stopped and closed her eyes. The organ sounds that the four of them heard were quickly joined by the acoustic bass that Jade’s powers generated when channeled. Her eyes snapped open immediately, and she looked up with a concerned gaze. “I’m pretty sure those are orcs, big green, not at all like goblins, and tusks right?” She asked.

John nodded. “Probably is, tell Rose what you saw, I’m going to head into the forest and see if I can spot them.” They then turned back to Tor. “It looks like there's something up ahead, slow down so we have time to get the drop on them, and make some noise if something comes from another direction.”

“Aye, you got it lad.” Tor said, triggering a small twinge from John before they turned and jumped down off the wagon.

They started putting their armor on from their inventory in four main pieces before heading into the rocks and trees to the east in front of the caravan. John continued to sense the breath around, and found the other three coming from behind them trying to catch up. In the front there were now nine total that John sensed, and given their range they were pretty sure that would be all of them.

They got close enough to spot the first one of the orcs and tried to surprise them with a spell. It seemed they noticed at just the last moment as the orc threw itself to the side dodging John’s attack and turning to face them.

The orc took off at a sprint, axe over their shoulder as they approached John, it closed extremely fast and swung their axe at John causing them to throw up their shield in response to deflect the blow. Dave’s echo appeared in front of John it closed in on the orc, making two attacks and landing one of them severely injuring the orc.

An orc with fancier and semi-ceremonial looking armor stepped out from behind the trees, lifted its spear chanting and summoning a sickly green ghostly spear which appeared halfway between them. Both the caster and the spear approached John and the Echo, the Echo barely dodging the green floating weapon, while John easily moved out of the way of the main physical weapon the caster struck with.

Two more orcs sprinted out of the trees, roaring and brandishing massive axes which struck down upon the two of them, neither successfully hitting as armor and agility protected them both.

Jade chanted from somewhere behind them and a bolt of flame, larger than it used to be struck the first orc in the shoulder and knocked it down and likely out of the fight.

John didn’t have time to look back to see what was happening, another orc joined their companions from cover before slowly surrounded them, starting to work together to attack.

The newest arrival dodged one of Rose’s two blasts, but couldn’t avoid the second as the spell struck its exposed back.

The last four of the orcs streamed out of the trees, none of them close enough to reach John or the Echo, but all close enough to reach them or their friends in the next few seconds.

John’s hammer missed the strike they tried on the caster, flying through the air where its torso used to be.

Dave caught up with his Echo and first struck down the one Rose injured before swapping places with the Echo. He swung at the caster with his second attack dragging his blade across their exposed skin when they failed to dodge.

Angrily the caster turned and both their material and spiritual spear stabbed in Dave’s direction, one deflected with his sword, and the other by a tiny red gear that appeared when the stone above his head glowed red.

The other two orcs that had reached them each turned their axes on Dave and John, but neither was good enough with them to draw blood.

Jade blasted the caster, and somehow the orc managed to not lose his spell, but she did burn them pretty severely and drew their attention elsewhere. “Get the casters.” He ordered with a gesture from his weapon.

Rose turned her wands on the group “Quasso” and the sounds of terrifying whispers surrounded the cluster of enemies that were still moving towards them until they grew to an ear shattering pitch. Two of the four orcs dropped to the ground immediately, while the other two looked scared and scarred from the experience.

They still both charged towards the casters as ordered, Jade dodged the axe that came her way, but Rose wasn’t as lucky as it slashed across her torso through the magical armor.

“You’re going to die so painfully.” She cursed as she moved back to try to get some space without exposing herself to another attack.

This time John attacked one of the follower orcs, and managed to catch them with their hammer crunching leg with the force of the blow.

Dave’s echo ran backwards and with two strikes of its shadowy greatsword it cut both of those offending orcs down, Rose’s did actually die quiet painfully as it was cut nearly in two by a particularly strong attack.

The leader tried to pierce Dave twice again, but was unsuccessful as he jumped out of the way of the spear strike while the ghostly one struck his armor ineffectively.

Dave avoided the next attack that came his way as well, the axe embedding itself into the ground as he scoffed at them. “Wow, you guys are worse than those bugbears.” Which seemed to further enrage the orcs at the comparison.

John’s attacker who just had their leg crunched was upset enough to manage to actually strike them, though the damage was minimal.

No longer harassed by orcs with big axes, Jade put another burst of flame into the caster, and they watched as its spiritual spear flickered out of existence as they lost concentration.

Rose pointed her wands at both of the two remaining normal orcs, and dropped the injured one, missing the healthy one as he ducked in time.

Pointing their hammer at the leader they chanted a simple attack, “Purgatio” and watch the blue energy gather and shock the caster, knocking them out or killing them, John wasn’t sure.

Dave and his Echo both focused on the remaining orc, striking in tandem from either side and slashing nearly through the foe between their swords.

“So those are orcs.” Dave said looking them over. “I guess that's close enough to what I expected, a little uglier than I imagined.”

“I’m sure others have thought the same when observing you.” Rose quipped as she patted at her wounded shoulder and John headed over with some bandages to wrap up the wound. She nodded when they offered the bandages, and they began wrapping it up as she continued. “We should have time to recover with a rest, there don’t appear to be any in the immediate vicinity.”

“Plus you’ll get your spell back.” John added.

“Yes, that as well.” She confirmed.

“Why don’t you two go rest in the back for now, I’ll take Dave and keep watch up front.” Jade offered as she started looking around the area with her star speckled eyes.

John realized they had lost focus on their senses when they were struck and were going to have to wait a while to use it again, another reason to take a rest with Rose they supposed.

Jade and Dave headed back for the caravan front, caching their armor as they walked. The caravan hadn’t made it much further due to having slowed their pace so John and Rose barely had to go anywhere to catch the rear wagon when it came by. A few people looked at their injuries with questions in their eyes.

“A few orcs.” Rose said nonchalantly.

“Just a few scratches.” John said trying to be reassuring to those they were guarding.

One of the many passengers spoke up. “Thank you.”

John smiled and nodded before turning to Rose and speaking quietly. “It seems like were in orc territory now.”

Rose nodded. “It appears so, I wouldn’t want to run into too many more, especially those trained like the one with the spear.”

“Possibly a priest.” John said. “Judging by his skills.”

“I agree, it seemed like he was some sort of leader as well, which hopefully means there are few of them in the mountains.” Rose replied.

John simply nodded and leaned back, grimacing a bit when their shoulder hurt a bit from where the axe bit into the seam of the armor plates.

They closed their eyes, not to meditate but to wait and rest, perhaps a short nap would come, though the bumpiness of the wagon made that unlikely.

Eventually they did start to feel better though, and Rose seemed to do so it seemed as they saw her checking on her wounds with a satisfied look. She left the dressing on, but likely because of the large cut in her robe she would have to fix.

“Any sign of anything from Jade.” They asked her.

Rose shook her head. “She hasn’t said anything yet, should I ask?”

John shrugged. “If there was something she would have mentioned it, I’m probably just being paranoid. Though she probably doesn’t have her senses available to her, so I’ll have to do the one-hour check when it's time.”

“That’s fine, I’ll wait, and we can see what happens.” Rose replied.

“How do these mountains compare to the ones you grew up near?” John asked.

“The amount of snow covering them is starting to become familiar, though these are all significantly taller than those from upstate New York.” She replied. “I think our tallest is only about that all.” she said pointing to one of the average mountains in the range.

“So nothing like Giant’s Peak back in The Mindcap Mountains?” John asked. “That one kinda reminded me of how big Mt. Rainier is.”

“No nothing at all near that size.” She replied. “The entire Appalachian mountain range is much shorter in comparison to the mountains you would see out west.”

“Wow, cool.” John said thinking of the view of the mountains from back home, the cascades off to the east, the Olympics across the Sound. If they went far enough east into the cascades they could see the Rockies even further still. “I had no idea the ones near me were so much bigger.”

“I don’t know the historical geography of it, if people aren’t involved then history has little to interest me.” Rose replied.

John laughed, that was Rose, she was more interested in the people involved in a given subject than the subject itself.

They noticed she still wasn’t wearing the tiara that the temple had gifted her, though they weren’t feeling up to pushing her on that. Dave was already using the floating defensive stone, and it looked pretty cool when it activated. Jade had spent the first two days reading her new spells while they rode, and then she would then record the findings in the evenings. She was pretty excited when she got to use its special ability to blind the hippogriffs when they tried to dive bomb her, evidently it only worked on flying creatures.

At least she had succumbed to peer pressure regarding her hood, though she had partially covered it by tucking it beneath her robe, only resulting in an orange collar.

As they continued up the mountain onto another incline there was a message that rang into their head from Jade. “Orc ambush, get here quick.”

John immediately replied. “On our way.” before turning to Rose and explaining. “Orcs, let's go quick.”

She nodded and the two of them jumped out of the back and began running alongside the now stopping wagons.

By the time they arrived Jade and Dave were already fighting, Dave was face to face with a lanky orc with long nails that they were using as claws, wearing bones as armor.

He was surrounded on both sides with the more typical orcs with greataxes, but thankfully looked like he hadn’t been injured.

As soon as they were in range they saw Rose stop and fire off blasts with both wands each diving towards the two that had surrounded Dave. Neither were particularly good shots, one missed and one barely nicked the orc.

Two more of them ran out of the snow covered trees racing past Dave towards Jade just as John arrived in front of her. John easily blocked both blows and watched as another uniquely dressed orc came out, mouth covered with a wrapping but casting spells nonetheless as it pointed at John. They felt their body resist something that tried to effect them, everything going dark and quiet for just a split second before fading away. They then ran in nearly catching up to John, standing between where John and Dave were both engaged.

John planted their feet and yelled towards both of their attackers and the new caster that had appeared “Tonantem”. The blast heavily injured and tossed back both of the axe wielders, but the new unarmed caster was barely hurt.

One more came out of the rocks beside them and ran toward Jade only to be intercepted by her faithful guard as Bec stood in the way of reaching her from her position next to the wagon. The dog took a blow from an axe and John made a mental note to heal him later when things had calmed down. They knew Jade would pull Bec back if things got really bad.

Swinging its massive claws wildly it caught Dave exposed forearm with its offhand, drawing blood and a curse from him. “Ouch asshole.”

Jade blasted the one that just hurt her dog, heavily injuring it when the fire smacked into its face filled with Harley anger. “Bec, attack.” She called out gesturing to the same orc, and the dog blinked itself up into the orcs face and tore into their shoulder dragging them to the ground with their momentum.

Dave tossed out an Echo to stand near John, waiting for others to approach them. His main body tore into the clawed orc nearly slicing it to pieces as a single strike turned into two as he cut again on the backstroke.

Neither of the adjacent orcs were able to get a decent strike on Dave either between the cloak, defensive stone, halfplate and his natural agility.

Rose’s next two blasts targeted those two adjacent orcs, one dying on the spot while the other just looked mostly injured.

John’s group of foes closed in on them after being thrown back, one of the two more typical orcs managed to catch their leg with the axe. They were more hurt by the force behind the blow then the blade of the axe itself as their armor protected them. It felt like their knee tried to fold sideways and knew that was going to hurt for a day at least.

The face wrapped orc then tried to reach out with their hand and John felt a sense of unease from it and dodged to the side to avoid its attack as it joined the others to help surround them. Dave’s Echo was close enough to that one and attempted a retaliatory attack when it targeted John, but was unable to catch them with its blade.

A hammer attack took out one of the two that were thrown back earlier, finishing them off and bringing it down to two they had to dodge at once instead of three.

Seemingly in a blind fury the sharp clawed orc took four wild swipes at Dave, striking them with two of the four and bleeding Dave in multiple locations. John would have to heal the whole group after this it looked like.

After seeing that attack Jade fired off a blast of flame that caught them in the arm and seemed to take the wind out of their sails, dropping the berserking orc to the ground in a pile of snow.

Dave turned to his last attacker and cut them down in a single strike before swapping places with his Echo and finishing off the last of the axe wielding orcs with a second attack.

Now the last caster was pinned between John and Dave, Rose joined in by firing a pair of blasts directly into it in a quick one two succession.

John tried to end the fight with their hammer, but to no avail, but Jade had them covered with a final blast of flame that blew off their face wrapping revealing a mouth sewn shut.

“Woah, that's a little intense.” John said looking at it before checking over their own injuries. Dave, themself, and Bec all needed attention. John turned to Jade and called to her. “Send Bec over and tell everyone we need 10 minutes, I’ll heal everyone up, and we can get back on the road.”

She nodded and headed over to talk to Tor after sending Bec their way, Dave was already heading towards them. “Dave its healing time.”

He nodded and cleared off a rock to sit on while John prayed. “You got it.”

“I’ll join Jade for now, I’ll see you both in a bit.” Rose said as she headed over to see what Jade was up to.

“See you soon.” John said with a wave before starting their long repeating chant for the group heal.

Rose headed to join Jade and arrived as she finished talking to Tor.

“John said they need 10 minutes to do a healing spell, so we can head out after that.” Jade said.

“That’s fine, I’ll inform the rest.” Tor said as he jumped out of a wagon to head down the caravan.

“They came out of nowhere?” Rose asked.

Jade nodded. “They blasted a spell at us that Dave jumped in front of and blocked. After that we had time to call for help, and he got out in front of the wagon before they charged us.”

“I’m worried were more solidly inside the area of orc raiding territory, and that this will continue for a while. We should be extra vigilant from this point on.”

“Our senses will only work for 10 minutes ever 60 or so, so we can’t entirely depend on John and I scanning the area.” Jade calculated out. “We need to be more actively watching if that's the case.”

“We could have John do a flyover from the sky, checking along the road and heading back if he finds anything.” Rose suggested. “He said he had recovered his senses while we rested in the back.”

“I think that will help for sure, he can easily cover a lot of ground from the sky along this winding route.” Jade agreed.

Rose looked over where the three were surrounded by the windy blue lights hopefully this would bring them to the point where they could be ready for any future scuffles they might encounter this afternoon and evening.

She knew they would eventually run into orcs somewhere in the mountains, Light had shown her a few small scuffles with them, but when and where she was unsure. None of this morning's revelations were particularly enlightening, just people dodging attacks she couldn’t perceive well. At least one of them were when it was fairly dark, but she wasn’t sure how late in the evening it would be. If it hadn’t happened by the end of the day then she could be sure there would a night attack. Though even without that assurance she was fairly sure it was high probability, no predictions involved.

After a few minutes the three headed back over, Bec and John looked nearly as good as new, but Dave still looked a little rough.

“You might want to top off.” She said to Dave when he arrived. “I have a feeling we’re not done for the day.”

“Really?” He said before sighing “Bam.” He said slapping first his chest, before tapping both John and Bec.

Rose could hear the beat of Time as it thudded through reality, made audible by Dave’s channeling to imbue health to himself, John, and Bec. All this time traveling, and their time staying in Inns with the music ringing in their ears really solidified to her that only Aspect bound could hear it. She was slightly suspicious that perhaps significant religious figures might be able to hear it as well. At this moment however she doubted there was anyone in the caravan or even nearby that could hear it.

“Now that you’re healed up, John would you mind stepping out of sight and doing a fly over with your Breath sense to look for any more upcoming attacks? You can just come back when you find anything.” Rose asked.

John thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, I can do that, I guess ill be back in ten to twenty minutes.”

“Be careful and use the stone if you get into trouble.” Dave said lifting his own sending stone to remind John they had a matching pair.

“Got it.” John said with a smile before rushing off into the trees and Rose swore for a second she saw a blue blur covering John and trailing behind as he darted off into the sky.

They had Tor continue to wait while John scout ahead, which he was happy to do if it would prevent another ambush.

“There shouldn’t be this many orcs out this far east.” He said. “It’s not like its quiet to the west.”

Dave shrugged. “Man, things expanding their reach and attacking people has been the focus of our season, huge bugs, harpies, sahuagin, if the orcs are doing it too I’m not surprised.”

Tor nodded. “If that’s the case then I wish the Guardian’s had taken a better look at the mountains.”

“I believe they are a little distracted with watching the Mindcaps.” Rose said. “I suspect the Tusk-Tooths have been neglected as a result.”

He shook his head. “I would have sprung for more than one group of guards if I knew this was going to happen.”

Dave shrugged. “We’ll get you through, but yeah, might be best in the future.”

Jade nodded. “Yeah, we will get you all through safely.”

“I appreciate your optimism lass, but I know how bad orc raids can get.” His face scrunched into a scowl.

“What do you mean?” Jade asked.

“Orc prisoners aren’t treated well, If the worst happens getting killed in a raid is often better.”

Rose could read between the lines, they must use their prisoners for terrible purposes, and she was sure that the more feminine prisoners would be even worse off.

John returned with a big smile on his face, likely from all the flight, she laughed internally at how much happiness he got from it.

“What did you find?” Jade asked as he joined them from beyond the road.

“I think there’s at least one more group waiting in ambush, about 8 minutes flight head.” John said. “It’ll be a bit before we get there on the ground.”

“Will you recognize the scenery when we get close?” Rose asked.

John nodded. “Yeah, It’s after a few weird switchbacks.”

“Switchbacks?” Dave asked.

“The way the road goes back and forth as it goes up the hill.” Jade explained.

“It’s used when going straight up is too steep.” Rose added.

“Ahh, like a snake, got it.” Dave replied.

“Well then, we can proceed until John recognizes the vicinity, and surprise them instead.” Rose proposed.

“Aye, we can do that.” Tor said. “How far up is it.”

John closed his eyes to think for a moment. “Five or six switches, whichever ends up facing southeast”.

Tor looked at where they were. “That’d be five more turns then, we’ll stop there and let you four handle the unsuspecting ambushers.”

“Alright, let’s get moving.” Dave said as he pat John on the back.

She climbed into the front wagon again, this time John joined her. Jade had opted to walk with Bec, and Dave was sitting up front with the driver to make room. It was a quarter-hour or so before they stopped after the fifth turn as John looked out and confirmed this was the stretch the ambushers were waiting on.

Climbing out of the wagon they grouped up alongside the side of the road. “Which side are they on.” She asked John.

“They’re actually on the outside of the next bend.” He said as he pointed forward.

“So we should duck into the north side of the woods and creep around?” Dave asked as a suggestion.

“If we think we can be quiet enough.” Jade added.

“We won’t know until we try.” Rose replied. “Worst case we only get one attack off before they charge.”

“How many were there.” Dave asked.

“Six, three of the typical ones, and three others of various types, I couldn’t tell based on their armor or anything what they were, but they certainly looked different from the typical axe wielding orcs.” John answered.

“Are we ready then?” Jade asked.

Rose nodded. “I think so.”

Dave lead them north further away from the road until they reached a rocky drop off that headed back down to the previous switchback. “Should we just follow this then?” He asked.

John nodded. “Yeah, that would work, it should put us behind them eventually.”

“Now keep quiet, or else you’ll ruin it.” Jade said looking rather serious.

Rose nodded and made a conscious effort to remain silent as they began walking along the woods, the snow and trees made it difficult to be very quiet, but they all did their best.

Even with the mithral armor John just ran into too many things and kept catching branches and knocking them off due to their armors sheer bulk.

They ended up volunteering to stay further back behind the other three, with the intention of flying up to the group once combat began.

Eventually they did spy the top of one orc’s head and John stopped moving while the rest circled around to find a good angle to attack from.

Eventually though Rose saw their heads turn and note both their location and John’s as one of the orc spell casters pointed out yelling. “It’s an ambush.”

Rose took that as her queue to hit as many of them as possible “Quasso”. She managed to center it catching four of the orcs at once as the ear shattering whispers grew and they each tried to cover them quickly with their hands.

A one looked lightly injured, another heavily injured and, and two looked close to death as the spell quieted down, and they began running towards her.

Dave stepped out front with his Echo standing beside him, the first orc with an axe tried to run past Dave and caught a blade in its back dropping it to the ground.

The next two that ran out of the forest were a clawed caster, along with a spear wielding one, each ran towards the group. The clawed one dove at Dave with its claws one of which caught him in the leg and ripped it open. While the priest with the spear summoned a ghostly spear just like the one they fought earlier did.

Dave and his Echo both attacked the orc with the wild claws at the same time, but neither was able to hit their limber form as they smoothly dodged the attacks.

Dave’s Echo tried to catch the next orc that ran past, but missed as it closed in on Jade, she seemed ready though and sidestepped the attack easily.

Jade then fired back with a blast of flames that nearly took it out in one blow while Bec finished it quickly upon her command leaving her free of foes for the moment.

The last two orcs, one normal, one with bandages over their mouth both headed towards John but had no luck striking the flying blue fortress.

John brought down their hammer on the first one that approached them, but had their weapon pushed back by the orc’s axe instead.

Rose fired off both wands at the clawed orc, but that while heavily injuring them seemed to drive them into a rage.

Dave was then assaulted with four wild strikes, one missed, two struck his body and one caught him in the neck. He was left gasping for breath and bleeding all over the place as they tore up his exposed appendages. “Fuck, ouch, fuck, fuck.” He yelled as he tried to regain his defensive stance and failed.

Rose felt he was lucky that the other caster went for the echo, missing it once with its first attack but dispelling it with their second.

“Fine fuck it.” Dave said as time started tick-tocking around them, and she supposed he must have started channeling his abilities.

He swung in a perfectly smooth motion slicing the offending foe in half, then ran forward to engage with the caster with the spear cutting into them and causing them to lose their summoned weapon.

Jade and Bec both tried to help Dave take down that foe faster, but neither managed to catch it as its spear blocked both the flames and the dog’s teeth.

Meanwhile, John avoided two more attacks on Rose’s peripheral before the face bandaged orc dodged blue Breath energy that started to form around them.

Rose fired her first bolt off at the one which was immediately dangerous to Dave, blasting its face and knocking it out in one go. Her other bolt was sent off to finish off the most wounded attacker that John was facing leaving just one simple orc left on the field.

Dave stayed back and healed himself up while his Echo ran towards John, not quiet making it the full distance.

Jade fired off a bolt of flames and scorched the last one heavily, and after it made one last useless attack on John was blasted by blue coalescing energy from John’s outstretched hammer.

Rose looked over the field, reassuring herself there were none left standing she refocused on Dave who was breathing heavily and still bleeding from his limbs but no longer his neck.

John barely had enough time to rejoin them pouring a larger healing spell into Dave before darkness settled around them arbitrarily blocking out the ever waning sun.

Rose reacted quickly. “Run, any direction, get out of the darkness.” She yelled. “Choris Luminum” She chanted hoping it would brighten the darkness but to no avail.

She couldn’t tell what happened, but she could hear the sounds of blades clashing in on direction, followed by the sound of John chanting “Lucens”.

Jade chanted next “Flamma Manus” and there was the sound of the corresponding flames whooshing through the air, the noises of two orcs being injured rang out after

Rose ran perpendicular to the sounds of combat hoping to come out on the side where she could catch someone unaware before running into another orc which was approaching the darkness. Her wands shot up, one bolt going high over their shoulder the other slamming into their arm doing a little big of damage to the stealthy looking orc.

Trapped next to them, she yelled out. “Assistance please.” In her most urgent tone. Her magical armor pushed off the first scimitar strike but the second cut through and slashed up her off arm fairly well as she raised it to protect her face prompting her to yell in pain.

There was then the sound of a weapon striking armor, probably John’s.

“Fuck off, I’m busy asshole.” Dave yelled right before time beat twice rather loudly almost drowning out the sound of an orc screaming in pain as its voice got quieter before vanishing.

Another sound of crossing weapons rang out just before a crunching sound from back that direction followed by John yelling for them. “ROSE!”

“Rose where are you?” Jade yelled out followed by something muffled she couldn’t hear before there was a popping sound and Bec appeared beside her. Honestly Rose was more worried for him than for herself, the orc in front of her hit hard. Bec heroically jumped at the foe digging his teeth into its leg.

She reached out with her wand stabbing it into the side of the foe catching flesh and releasing a spell into them as payback for their first strike “Vampiricus Tactus”. She felt an icy coldness as the creature withered slightly, and she felt herself recover slightly, not enough though in her opinion.

“Bec run.” She called out, not wanting to stand here any longer she looked past the orc and chose an empty spot before relocating herself there in a quick flash. She then ran as quick as she could towards the sounds of her friends, catching sight of John as she did.

Behind her the orc pursued, a small dark landing just in front of her as she ran, right before a second caught her in the leg causing her to stumble and nearly fall. Suddenly she was very glad she took some of their health before fleeing.

Dave and his Echo leapfrogged, the Echo running, swapping places with Dave who then ran more before cutting at the orc twice and dropping them, to the ground, down a leg in the process. This finally dispelled the darkness that had taken over the space between them all showing her Jade, Bec, and the two other dead orcs, one of which looked like a desiccated husk.

“Rose I’m so sorry I had no idea there were three more.” John said as he ran over, apologizing over and over as he healed her.

“Stop, stop.” She said pushing him back. “Save your spells, the day isn’t over yet.”

He looked at her confused. “There’s going to be more?”

She nodded. “I still haven’t seen the opportunity for some of the visions I saw this morning, and while I would love to be wrong and say that I missed them its possible there will be more to the day.” He looked at her frustrated. “At least the wounds have closed.” She said to him.

“Relax bro, she's fine.” Dave said trying to reassure John.

Jade laughed. “Easy for you to say now, who's the one who cut down a massive orc badass in one go while looking frantically around for their sister.”

Dave blushed for a moment before drawing it under his control. “Nah, I was just tired of this bullshit and decided to end his day quickly.”

“Of course.” Rose said with a snicker. “I’m sure he dried out of natural causes, not some over application of divine Time powers.”

John laughed. “He actually timed it perfectly with a strike to the neck, I’m pretty sure if anything ever counted as a critical hit that had to have been one.”

“Oh?” Rose said surprised. “A classic paladin smite crit?”

John nodded. “Pretty sure, or at least the equivalent?”

“What are you all talking about?” Dave asked.

Rose smiled. “And entirely done by accident. If you get a ‘crtical hit’ then much of your damage is doubled, and if you were to smite after making such a strike, that would be doubled as well.”

“Wait, so my smites are better if I use them on sweet hits?” Dave asked. “Like neck slashes, chest stabs, or deep limb cuts?”

She shrugged. “If it works the way it did in the game, then yes.”

“Awesome.” He said with a grin.

“We should get back to the caravan and make sure they’re ok, before you two get some rest.” Jade declared.

John nodded. “Neither of you are at 100%, and if we need to fight again you’ll need to recover your spells.”

“I completely agree.” Rose nodded as she stretched and rubbed at the achy barely closed wounds.

Their walk back to the caravan went smoothly and Jade explained the matter to Tor before they resumed their way South along the pass.

Rose was glad they had time to recover, her arm was fairly scarred up at the moment, though she knew it would probably disappear by the morning. In the meantime, the feeling of skin barely healed over was annoying and slightly painful, definitely distracting. She was amazed at how adrenalin could help you focus mid-fight, when the lack of it outside a combat situation made any pain she wasn’t accustomed to unbearable.

She was paired with John again, it was the most practical combination most of the time, one melee one ranged, along with splitting the pair with long range senses apart meant she was often with John. Occasionally she sat with Dave when the senses weren’t important, but she hadn’t gotten to spend much road time with Jade, mostly for the safety of not having two easily injured party members paired up together. This time it ended up this way because they split the two injured parties up as well.

“How was your flight.” She asked.

“It was great.” He said with a smile on his face before it faded for a moment to a look of concern, only to be replaced again just as quickly. “Though it was a little weird using my senses while flying.”

“Really? How so? Motion sickness or maybe just making it hard to place things?’ She asked.

He shook his head, “No, nothing like that, it was just that when I did both I had trouble staying focused on what I was doing, feeling the wind so much made me want to get lost in it, flying up further and further until there was nothing but sky and wind.”

That wasn’t what she expected, but it was interesting nonetheless. “I see, so it worried you?”

His head wobbled side to side. “Sorta? Kinda? Not at the moment, but when I think about it later it does.”

“Temporary Mania.” She deduced aloud. “Euphoria along with lack of concern followed by confusion when it fades.”

“Is that a real thing?” John asked sounding confused.

She nodded. “It is, though usually perceived as part of Bi-polar disorder mania is a symptom not a disorder itself.”

“Symptom of what?” John asked.

She shrugged. “Could be many things, including things as simple and unsolvable as chemical unbalances.”

“Oh, so just like how being really sad can be a symptom.” John concluded.

“Indeed, depression is a symptom that sometimes presents all on its own. I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible for mania to do the same.” She explained.

“I wonder if that's what I’m feeling when I fly every time.” John said worryingly.

She laughed. “No, your typical descriptions of flying sound much more like euphoria than mania.”

“Ahh, ok, good.” He answered. “It would suck if flying was bad for me.” He said turning it into a laugh.

“I think you’re likely fine.” She added with a smile. “Many people who have mostly nothing wrong have symptoms of mental issues on a regular basis, most people are just poorly educated on the matter. It would be like worrying that having a stomach ache means there's something inherently wrong with you.”

“I see, thanks Rose.”

The two of them settled into a comfortable silence, though it was hard to be uncomfortable around John.

Dave felt the sensation in the back of his head that asked if he wanted to heal up after resting, and he internally nodded, feeling some of his wounds close up and return to at least a fighting fit state.

“Looks like it’s been long enough.” He said to Jade who was sitting next to him in the back wagon. Rose had claimed the front one before anyone could stop her and thus he and Jade were hanging out back here.

“Oh, the healing kicked in?” She asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, all ready to kick ass again.”

“Awesome.” She said with a huge grin, the kind only Harleybert’s can give without looking fake. “My spell recovery finished a few minutes ago, but I wasn’t sure about your healing.

“Man, I’m not looking forward to tonight.” He said. “I both do and don't hope that they jump us during my watch, so I can get it over with early and don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the night.”

“That only works if they only come once.” She said.

“Man Jade why you gotta dash my hopes, like taking candy from a baby and tossing it onto the pavement to watch that sucker shatter.” He complained.

“It’s fine, we’ll get through it.” She reassured him.

“Yeah I know, I just don’t like.” He quieted down to whisper. “Plus what if we let someone else get hurt during a fight, or before we get up.”

She calmed and gazed at him. “We’re going to handle it, and we won’t let them get hurt, we fought up small armies at this point” she reminded him. “This is no different, other than that the people aren’t in a town, they’re in a campsite.”

“Yeah, It’s just the lack of support ya know? No one can hold them off till we get there, there’s no safety net.” He explained.

She nodded. “Yeah, but there are a lot less of them, so it won't take much effort to watch everyone, I’m sure they can manage until we get to them.” She rationed.

“I wish I know how much longer we’re traveling for today, the mountains are so big the sun’s already dipping down below some of them.” He replied looking out the wagon and turning his head west to see the sunset.

“I think they wanted to reach a campsite they’re familiar with.” Jade replied. “One big enough for the whole caravan.”

“Ooof, yeah, we’re getting jumped for sure.” Dave replied sitting back down in his seat, trying to keep the conversation between himself and Jade.

“Don’t be such a pessimist.” She said slapping his shoulder causing him to feign pain and injury. She responded by sticking out her tongue and blowing a raspberry, and it calmed him down. It was like a reminder Jade was being Jade, shit would probably all work out, shit would probably be way more worrying if one of them wasn’t acting like themselves.

He got to rest in the back of the wagon all the way until they reached the campsite, no more ambushes, none by the orcs, nor on the orcs. His biggest worry was, if there were this many orc raiding bands out here, what would have happened if they came at them all at once, was that something they could even handle? It’s not like they couldn’t have, they just didn’t, and that scared him because that meant they could change their mind at any point and if they came in large enough numbers, people would die.

Arriving at the campsite they needed to figure out where to place their tent among the group campsite.

“I think we should place our tent near the road.” Rose suggested. “The likelihood they come from that direction is higher in my opinion.”

Dave shook his head, “Why come by road when they can ambush, we need to be over on the south side along the woods.” In his mind the north side seemed unlikely and west side opposite the road was pretty rocky, bad footing if you had to fight where you approached from.

“Lets just put it at the south-eastern corner and call it there.” Jade said from the cooking pot.

They started dinner quickly and Jade made some quick meat and veg kebabs and sent John to bed as soon as he ate. Meals while camping with this group were simpler and fast due to having to get to bed right away, they made such slow progress they needed every hour on the road they could get.

Since he was on first shift he got to watch everyone go to bed while he was stuck up on watch. Around the camp there were a number of people still awake, some just chatting around a more central fire where people would gather when their own individual group had mostly gone to sleep.

They had attached a large piece of fabric to the top of their tent like flag, in case people needed to find the guards in the middle of the night. Especially since once the snow got going everything looked like a white lump.

He had Jade set up an alarm with her ritual spellbook that sat around their tent and specifically didn’t include his Echo from the allowed creatures list so that he could set it off if needed.

Tor came to visit him 27 minutes into his watch, when there were fewer and fewer still awake. “You always seem to get first watch.” He stated.

“Yeah man, it gives me an excuse to sleep in.” He said. “I let the guy who always gets up early get last shift.”

“I see, well take care tonight, I’ll sleep with my axe next to me.” Tor said, slapping Dave on the back before heading back towards his own tent.

“Appreciate it Tor.” Dave said with a wave.

As everyone filtered away until he was the only one left he watched as fires died down to simple embers, barely lighting the pockets dug out within the snow. Their own tent had cleared away just enough snow to have a path between the tent and the fire.

As the temperature dropped without the sun the snow started back up again, and Dave shivered unconsciously. Even after 3 winters in New York he still despised the snow and the cold, he wondered if Jade could enchant magic foot warmers to put in your boots that would recharge every day.

The night become nothing but the dark, the snow, and the worry that orcs were coming. To the east he heard the sound of a twig snapping and felt paranoid as he got up and headed back along the road towards the sound. If Rose was right, and they were coming from the road he was going to end up eating his cape. Or at least stuffing them in his ears so he couldn’t hear the thousand ‘I told you so’ that would inevitably come.

He spawned his Echo behind him to trail along at the edge of their connection range so it wouldn’t get sent back just yet.

“Okay guys, let’s just get this started.” He called out towards the forest to the north-east. “We can start this fight now, and you can get to your regularly scheduled raiding and pillaging.”

Dave looked around and just barely spotted an orc before it ran out of the woods towards him.

He immediately sent his Echo to trip the alarm around camp, but it wouldn’t reach just yet. He was already armored and drew his greatsword, double-checking his cape and floating stone were both present. Three of them were headed for him, two at a sprint with the third in the center at a leisurely pace.

The first one reached him, he couldn’t block it completely as his sword only knocked it from his forearm to his leg, the axe blade biting into him.

The one who was strolling along lifted a big spear and with a quick hop launched it flying towards Dave. He could already hear time thumping in his head as the stone and cape both seemed to reach out to slow the projectile long enough that when it went past it ruffled his hair but didn’t reach him. This seemed to enrage the bulky massive orc who then drew a greataxe and hefted it over his shoulder before running to reach him and bringing its axe down upon him.

With all the muscle behind it that guy hit like a truck he could feel how out of place his shoulder was. Even lifting his sword was going to hurt for the rest of this fight if he didn’t do something about it immediately.

He was grateful when the third orc didn’t properly aim and skimmed their axe off his armor just as he caught his breath.

He forced his Echo out of range into the tent to shove it off of them as best he could, knocking it over would be even better. At least it would trigger the alarm, which then caused a sound to begin ringing back behind him where the tent was sitting. His first thought was to heal himself, and rather than a random amount he poured his entire Paladin pool into himself feeling most of that most recent hit heal up. The next thing he did was pop up a shield floating around him, one that would hopefully help him survive until the rest were up and could take them down.

Three more orcs ran out of the woods at this point, he was surrounded so they blew past him and one headed for a nearby tent. He shook it and ripped it open exposing two of their civilians in bedding screaming at the top of their lungs.

The other two headed towards the newly exposed heads of his friends who were looking over at them scrambling to get up as axe wielding orcs sprinted towards them. He was pretty glad to see the Echo managed to tip over the tent before vanishing, nice job Daveghost.

Rose stood, and waved her wands, a shimmer settling down around her before vanishing, he assumed it was her armor being prepared before pointing at the nearest orc and dropping an evil looking shimmer over their shoulders too.

Jade’s magical armor was conjured first as well, before teleporting herself past the nearest group of orcs before breaking into a sprint heading over towards the tent being ravaged by the lone orc with Bec teleporting along beside her.

John stood, and summoned his armor onto him, part of it arriving before he pointed at the closest orc and chanted some magic causing sparky blue lights to appear around them. Unfortunately the orc dodged and John stepped forward, shield and hammer in hand with only a breastplate on so far.

Even with the help of his floating shield he still took a strike from the big orc boss almost completely undoing his healing. Gritting his teeth and staying focused he managed to maintain his shield in spite of the distraction the damage provided.

Dave reconjured his Echo behind the boss but instead of attacking refocused on healing himself, dropping a big heal on himself “Curatio”. He was keeping up with the damage through healing, but that wasn’t going to last long if they didn’t get these three orcs off of him soon.

Seeing the dog and woman approaching them the orc that was ripping open a tent turned to face Jade and lifted back up his axe to charge them swinging it at her.

Dave watched as she took this hit like a champ, not even stopping her when it cut through her side exposing her bleeding side to the cold beneath her coat and clothes.

The other two ran towards John who had stepped forward and attacked them with his magic, Both easily able to hit him without his full armor. Both strikes looked particularly bad as they went for his unarmored legs and cut into them deep.

Rose pointed her first wand at the one she gave the black cursed ick to and blasted a hole through his chest in one go, it looked particularly strong, and he was proud of her for it. The second attack against John’s other orc opponent didn’t manage to one shot them, but it did some significant damage before she moved the witchy curse to the big guy in front of him.

Jade fired off a three blast spell at the orc that attacked her, two of the flames bursting into him and knocking him right out as the third hit the ground uselessly.

John swung his own weapon at the last of the orcs that hadn’t dogpiled on Dave and took them out of the fight as well, leaving just the three he had surrounding him. More armor appeared on John, covering his legs now looking a bit like Dave’s armor instead. He continued forward, reaching one of the side orcs that had Dave pinned.

The first of them turned to attack John who had snuck up behind him, the leg armor deflecting the blow. John smiled with satisfaction just in time to see Dave’s blade slice through the orc’s upper thigh drawing a scream of pain out of it.

The big guy let out a roar and the other two orcs looked energized from the sound before he tried to strike Dave just once and Dave dodged to the side successfully avoiding the attack.

The third of them also tried to attack Dave, but he was much more prepared, and even as they swung with all their newfound energy they still missed.

He refocused on cutting down the number of guys and went after the uninjured regular orc, his first strike missing but the second nearly taking their arm off.

Rose followed his lead, her wands went wide as she approached, and each bolt found their mark striking the two injured orcs and leaving just the big boss standing.

Jade lifted a tent post with her mind and threw it like a javelin, driving it into the side of the final remaining orc.

“Arma Spiritualia” John chanted, and his spectral blue hammer appeared and approached the last enemy together, two hammer swinging in tandem, unfortunately the orc blocked John’s attack, but the spectral one caught him off guard and cracked him in the back.

The orc swung with his axe twice, the first one at Dave resulting in a bad miss, before turning and swinging at John with the second. As he saw it heading way too close to John’s head, and he shifted from a retaliation strike to a disruptive strike.

John still took a heavy attack to the shoulder after Dave moved its trajectory with his sword, but it looked Like John was nearly out of the fight, his eyes were having trouble focusing, and he wavered on his feet.

Dave felt impatient and wanted to knock this guy out already, he channeled Time into him feeling everything slow down to about half speed and went to strike this guy, spending extra attention to hi even though it still failed. He attempted it again, and once again focused his time energy into striking true but only managed a decent hit not one in a critical location. He was going to smite anyway he decided, and channeled one of his bigger spells into the smite this time instead of a small one.

It wasn’t as spectacular as the one against the blade master orc from the last fight, but it was still satisfying to see this guy’s massive muscles shrivel slightly as he was forcibly aged towards death.

Rose missed both shots, he saw the orc dodging them both in slow motion as he watched.

Jade fired off another triple shot “Ardoris Radius” that ended up having a fourth blast arrive with it, she must have done an upscale. Three of them did hit the guy, and he got knocked around by each of them when they landed.

John didn’t continue armoring himself, seeming to stop at half armored like Dave and instead focused on swinging both the Breath and physical hammer at the last guy standing.

Both hammers reached this time and the combined force of the blow nearly killed the guy, but he pushed himself back up from his knees before going after John who looked weakest.

Rose screamed “John fly.” And he did, hardly needing any encouragement to do so he pushed up off the ground just as the blade came around below him enabling him to dodge the blow.

Dave saw no reasons to give the guy a chance to even get his backstroke attack off and stabbed his blade into the exposed back. He drove it in deep before climbing on top and pushed him into the ground pinned by the sword.

Dave’s heavy breathing continued as he looked around and saw no orcs were left standing, and only their party seemed to be injured. “We did it?” He asked between large breaths, his entire body ached as he felt the adrenaline all pour into his stomach prompting him to lean over and vomit next to the corpse.

John had already collapsed onto the ground and was laying there like he was going to make a bloody snow angel. “I’m going to cast a heal spell from here.” He stated. “So gather around everyone.” Dave pushed himself up and moved close enough to be within the range with Jade stepping in as well.

Rose shook her head, “I’m uninjured, I’ll go notify everyone of the matter and that we should be fine.”

Jade nodded. “Take Bec with you.” She said, gesturing to the dog and getting a yip in response before Bec trotted over to follow Rose.

John began his chanting, and this time he really seemed to have pulled out all the stops. The blue formed a much more distinct pattern around them, pairs of lines fluctuating between each being the large of the waves of the Breath symbol going back and forth. The organ music much more active, as though a second hand had been brought in to play two chords in harmony. Dave was too exhausted to think much more than about how cool it all was before it finished ten minutes later.

He felt mostly repaired but still sore, and Jade looked she was good as new as well, not counting the midriff showing from where the axe cut into her clothes, that would need repaired.

John however still looked pretty messed up, and since Dave knew his own shift didn’t have much time left in it, he decided to prop him up with a bit of a small heal before he could object.

Moving over to their campsite the three of them rekindled their fire as Rose and Tor were helping those whose tent was ruined get a new one set up. She soon joined the three of them, and they discussed how the rest of the night would go.

“How much longer is in your own shift.” She asked Dave, knowing she was next. “72 minutes.” He said.

“Alright, I’m going to take a quick nap then, the two of you should get to bed rather soon, you need to get more sleep before your own shift as well.” She stood right back up and headed into their tent, which she must have righted earlier while John was healing them all.

John nodded. “I think I will too, I’m tired.” Before going to bed as well.

Jade sat there with him. “I’ll go in soon.” She said to them as they left.

“You ok?” She asked him.

He nodded. “Yeah, I would have been screwed without all my defenses and healing though.” He answered.

“I wish we could have gotten there faster.” She bemoaned.

Dave shook his head. “You all had to get armored up, that takes time.”

“I think I’m going to recast my armor before bed if possible from now on.” She said. “It’ll cost a spell slot, but if something happens it’ll be worth it.”

“Not a bad idea. John and I can’t really sleep in the stuff, but I can get mine on in 5 seconds or so if I'm not doing anything else or 10 if I’m multitasking, and I know it takes John twice as long.” He replied. “You should make sure Rose does the same, I think hers is free she said.”

“Her magic is so strange.” Jade replied. “Some of its free and infinite, while others are super restricted.”

“I think it's because it's all borrowed.” Dave suggested. “Means you get stuck with whatever the terms and conditions say.”

“That’s so weird.” Jade said. “Plus I hate that she's borrowing from the same things behind those Grimdark Cultists from the attack on the capital.”

“Yeah, but I think she needs to learn that the hard way.” Dave said. “She’s being stubborn about it in a way that she rarely does unless she's dug in her fortifications and is prepared to die on that hill.”

“That’s not a good thing to learn the hard way.” Jade said. “What happens if she gets taken over like those we fought, where they were killed even after we captured them.”

Dave frowned. “I don’t know, we just have to pay close attention.”

“Echidna said for me to do so.” Jade said with a nod.

“Yeah, Hef said the same.” Dave added.

“I wonder if Typheus told John the same.” She thought aloud.

Dave shrugged. “Either way, we’ll take care of her, we just need to figure out how to get her to realize it on her own, with as little as possible damage.”

“I hate thinking that way.” Jade bemoaned.

He nodded in agreement. “It’s certainly not pleasant.”

“Ok, well, I’m going to bed now, I’ll see you in the morning.” She said before standing and heading towards the tent.

“Night Jade.” He said to her as she left.

The rest of his shift was thankfully silent, and he woke Rose after his time was up before handing her the sand clocks so she could set them before he went to sleep.

When Rose awoke Jade for her watch she was glad to see nothing appeared wrong, Rose just looked tired and Jade felt the exact same way.

“Anything I should be worried about?” Jade asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took the sand timers.

Rose shook her head. “No, nothing so far, and I hope yours goes the same.”

“I hope so, It’s been a long day, and I’d like to go back to sleep afterward without having an adrenaline boost.” She complained.

Rose smiled “Yeah, I understand, now, I’m going to bed.” She added before climbing into her bedroll.

Jade took the clocks and climbed out of the tent, wrapping herself around the middle with a blanket so she wouldn’t freeze where her clothes were cut up. She knew how to patch them really basically if she needed to, but she knew Rose would do a much nicer job of it. She would change in the morning and maybe Rose could patch them on the road today. Bec seemed to have noticed she got up, as he stepped out of the tent as well and climbed over to sit on her lap to get out of the snow.

“Yeah, It’s cold isn’t it.” She said as she scooped it up. “I know it isn’t the first time we’ve seen it here in Tera, but somehow it feels more real here compared to the glacier, maybe because of the mountains.”

She let go of the snow and began petting him, her hands warming in his fur. “I hope the weather is nice in Edolas, It’s further south but were still really far north of the equator, looking at the maps we’ve seen it seems like we’re somewhere solidly in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet. It must be a real ocean nearby not a sea, given how slowly the temperature has dropped even though were nearly into winter proper.”

Looking up, the sky was entirely clear, and she could see all the various stars, but unlike home none of them were familiar, and it really drove home the fact that this was an alien planet. On Earth, she knew all the northern and southern constellations, each of them coming and going with the months of the year, though the only thing that changed for her in the weather was the storm seasons.

She sighed before leaning down, curling over Bec and nuzzling her face into his fur, she was making the best of the adventure, but sometimes she missed her home island. That would have been the case even if she was still back in Washington with John, but at least then she could have visited. If it wasn’t for Bec things would be much more difficult, but at least she got to keep her best friend in the world with her.

Her watch shift passed as she contemplated things, but at least nothing else went wrong. She woke John who seemed rather rested at least and crawled back into her bedroll, still plenty of time before the winter sun rose.

She did feel a bit more rested by the time she had to get up to eat and pack. Changing inside the tent she used her inventory to get into a different robe. Looking at her winter clothes though. She realized she didn’t have more of those to change into for now and would have to just live with it until she could take them off to stitch them up.

Breakfast was porridge again, it wasn’t like they had time to make much, and especially not today, with orcs looming over them, they needed to get out of the mountains quickly.

She helped John clean everything up while Rose dragged Dave out pushed him into the back wagon with his bowl of food. Thankfully with their inventories Dave could just hold onto the bowl until tonight.

“So I was thinking Jade and I could both sit up front today, and use our senses rotating every quarter-hour.” John suggested.

Rose nodded. “It leaves our rear a little exposed, but given our situation, they’ve been lying in wait for us every time, so checking ahead twice an hour instead of once is probably best. But won’t it be rather strenuous? To use it, and then use it again as soon as possible half an hour later?”

“I think we can handle it, plus If it can help us stay safe today, then It’ll be worth it.” John said.

“You sure man? That’s a lot of channeling Aspects.” Dave replied.

Rose nodded. “What about you Jade?”

“That’s fine by me.” Jade said.

“Alright, If you’re sure, then the two of us will watch the back the old-fashioned way.” She replied.

Looking around at the caravan as all the wagons began hooking up with their oxen. It was a lot of pressure being responsible for all these people’s safety, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried about messing it up and getting people killed. She bumped John with her shoulder as a way of reminder herself that she wasn’t alone and that she wouldn’t have to do it all herself.

He turned to her and smiled. “We got this.”

“Yeah we do.” She said returning the smile and feeling like he was right.

Tor had finally gotten everyone lined up and was waiting on them, Jade and John piled into the front wagon behind the driver and soon they were off.

“Should we do a check now?” She asked. “Or should we wait a while.”

“I don’t know really, I feel like there has to be something more we can do to help.” John replied.

“Well, once we get going I’ll do a scan.” She proposed. “We can roll with it as things happen.”

She did start her check after what she thought was about ten minutes, expanding her mind she could feel everything around her. As the bass strings were plucked she felt the trees move in the wind, the snow heavy on the ground, and the crunch of the frost under the wheels as they rolled along the road. As Tor had promised, today would be crossing the pass, they did almost all the climbing yesterday and would likely begin their descent tomorrow.

She remembered Echidna saying that size was irrelevant and wondered if she could expand the scale at which she was looking, she wanted to zoom out and see more of the mountain. Dave had said that he could control the speed he experienced the time with the turn tables in his head so she wondered if she could do something similar, Time and Space were similar after all. What would she use to see more or less, binoculars, microscope, or telescope, everything her mind suggested used a rotating motion to zoom in or out.

Holding her hand like it was gripping a telescope or microscope knob she rotated it in her hands and felt everything shrink down beneath her. The mountains stood out individually, each massive peak covered with green and white carpets. Everything was so small though now, she couldn’t even tell where they were at. She tried to squint unconsciously and willed everything to be visible, but her head started to ache as soon as she did. She stopped immediately when the pain started, and the mental image returned to its zoomed out state where the trees themselves couldn’t be picked out individually, but the mountains could.

This meant it wouldn’t be helpful for her to zoom out unless she was looking for something big. She sighed and rotated her hand the other direction moving everything back down until she was back at the regular view. However, the ache in her heard didn’t truly go away, there was a small throbbing pain that felt like she strained something and was shocked when John shook her out of her focus.

“What’s wrong?” She asked him.

“Your nose started bleeding.” He said, leaning back just a bit when she put her hand up and felt the blood running out of her nose. “What happened?” He asked.

She grabbed a handkerchief and wiped away the blood, dabbing at her nose, trying to get it all. “Uh, I tried to zoom out, and that was fine, but then I tried to look at the details from the original zoom.” She explained.

“You mean you tried to enhance the image?” John asked with a laugh.

She rolled her eyes, she hated that he was right. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“And that made your nose bleed, it must be a bad idea, like how it's not possible to do with satellite imagery.” He said making the obvious movie and television reference.

She nodded, and regretted it as it caused her head to ache again. “Yeah, I think so, I wanna try again sometime, but I think I have to accept the resolution it provides me, unless it really want to suffer.”

“That’s cool though that you could zoom out, how much could you see.” He asked relaxing somewhat now.

“Uh, the whole mountain range, like each mountain covered in carpets of snow and trees. All the trees blended together.” She explained.

“Like a mini-map zoom?” He asked.

“Pretty much, I couldn’t see our caravan anymore, but I probably could have looked for something the size of a village.” She replied.

“That’s a big deal.” He said. “It’s like Dave slowing time down.”

“That was the inspiration.” She said. “I just wish I hadn’t tried to force it, my head hurts.”

“Well did you at least check the area first?” He asked.

She shrugged. “As best I could, it’s such a small area that I can see clearly.”

“At least there’s nothing right here, so why don’t you rest so you can get that back.” John said reassuringly.

“Ok, I’ll do that then.” She replied as she closed her eyes to the normal darkness.

“You awake there Jade?” John asked after some time had passed, her headache seemed to have left as well. “Yeah, I’m just a little zoned out.” She said as she opened her eyes, the sun was finally higher in the sky. “Has it been a half hour?”

“Pretty sure.” He replied. “I did a scan what I think was about 30 minutes ago.”

“So hard to tell without a phone or Dave.” She said patting her hip out of habit where the pant pocket she used to keep her phone in would have been.

He laughed seeing her do that. “Yeah, I keep checking finally stopped checking my pocket every day a few weeks ago.”

She nodded. “I still check every morning before remembering I keep it in my cache.”

“But yeah, I didn’t see anything when I looked, I wish I could have done it as a fly by.” John lamented.

“Well, lemme see what I can do.” She replied before closing her eyes again.

As the world expanded around her, she suddenly felt more, and this time she pulled her hand back from where the knob would be and rested her hand in her lap instead.

Someday when she was somewhere safe she would remember to zoom out further and further and see what the rest of Tera looked like, but for now she viewed the trees, rocks, and paths around them. Carefully she lifted her hand back to the knob in her mind and twisted it ever so slightly, the sudden jump in area wasn’t as dramatic this time, and she could still see the caravan. There was no way for her to see people at that distance though, she couldn’t see Bec walking alongside them or the individual drivers in front, just the oxen and the wagons. She turned back the dial until it felt close enough to normal again and just settled in to watch for the ten minutes she knew it would last.

When it ended she stretched before remembering and checking to see if she had a nose bleed this time.

“How was it.” John asked.

“I tried zooming out just a little, but I immediately lost track of anything smaller than the oxen.” She said. “So I had to watch at normal zoom, but I didn’t see anything.”

He nodded. “Yeah, It’s the best we can do.”

Between the two of them they were watching about a third of the time that the caravan was moving, they were both aware that meant that there were lots of opportunities for them to walk into ambushes.

It was really only a matter of time until they ran into more orcs, and unfortunately either of them were watching at the time when it happened. Jade had finished checking twenty minutes ago and was resting, while John wasn’t due to check for another ten.

“Kids, we might have trouble.” Tor said causing Jade to arch her neck and look out in front of the caravan.

On the road were a bunch of trees that were downed and purposefully dragged across the road from treeline to treeline. “A roadblock.” She said.

John nodded and chanted immediately “Prodigium”. Playing the old operating system sound above them at a decent volume, Rose and Dave would join them soon. “Let’s get out and look.” He said.

“Alright.” She replied and followed him out of the wagon. Bec came up to her immediately and stood between her and the barricade, his hackles up, just as aware as them that something was wrong.

Behind them, she could hear complaints from others while they waited on Rose and Dave.

“Well they got us out of the wagons.” Dave said. “We’re out in the open.” He said.

Rose nodded. “We should be prepared for an ambush at any moment.”

“We’re all armored right?” John asked, looking at Jade and Rose in particular.

“Yeah, I am.” Jade replied, while Rose nodded affirmatively.

“Well, let’s see how many there are.” Dave said, pulling his sword out and resting it on his shoulder.

She followed him and John as they headed up towards the roadblock looking both east and west for whatever they might be laying in ambush.

As they got halfway from the caravan she finally saw the first two, an orc with familiar long claws looking wild and dangerous, the other had a longsword that looked rather jagged and vicious. She remembered a similar one matching Dave for swordplay when they were ambushed with the sphere of darkness. The both ran towards them.

Knowing both were dangerous, but the one with the sword even more so, she reached out and grabbed a rock in her mind with a spell “Iacto”. She launched it their direction, but it missed the swordmaster orc she had aimed at. “Get read Bec.” She said.

John started running forward with his shield and hammer out, letting out a thunderous roar when he closed on them causing the air itself to shudder. Both were knocked off their feet and tossed over the rocked ground behind them coming up looking angry and bloody.

Now exposed in the center John was soon surrounded as orcs poured out of the woods with axes raised and charged him. Three started to surround him leaving space on one side as they attacked. She watched as his shield flew left, his hood moving right, and he took a quick step forward to avoid all three of their attacks.

After that though a much more dangerous looking orc came out of the woods charging at him. This one looked like the kind of champion they saw last night during the night raid. Neither of his strikes hit either, but John was now surrounded on all four sides by orcs. To make matters worse three more orcs followed out of the woods chasing past the cluster surrounding him and headed towards her, Rose and Dave.

Dave raised his sword to defend but each of them charged different individuals. Both of them had to dodge axes at the same time as she did, the sheer number of orcs present already as high as the largest ambush from yesterday but with three times as many skilled members.

Dave’s Echo was spawned next the to the largest of the orcs surrounding John, but he focused on his own foe first. The first strike nearly took the orc off their feet, but they managed to avoid the second strike as he retook his stance, still pinned in place by their greataxe threatening his movement.

To make matters worse five more came out of the woods and Jade realized this was going to be much more dangerous than any fight they had seen so far. One was of the face wrapped variety, and they reached their hand out toward’s Jade with a strange gesture. Her vision faded away, and she was left blinded, unable to see what happened next. She heard the clashing of weapons, armor, and the chanting of a spell from an Orc “Arma Spiritualia”.

The bite of steel interrupted her focus, the blade of an axe digging into her shoulder before it was pulled free. She screamed in pain and lost track of what was going on around her. Rose cast something, a few orcs yelled and then Rose projected as best she could “Tell them to run away.”

Jade was confused, had it gotten even worse, was it so terribly bad that Rose wanted the civilians to escape while they fought? Two clangs rang out, weapon on John’s plate armor.

“Well fuck me I guess.” Dave yelled, sounding very pained.

The darkness faded from her eyes just in time to see John get struck by claws, he was dodging weapons left and right, but three of the four surrounding him were abnormal. Dave had taken an attack as well, and while there were two dead orcs on the ground there were more present than when she closed her eyes.

She turned back to face the caravan “Nuntius” “Tor get everyone out of here while we hold them off, run, run fast, leave the wagons and go.”

She then looked back and seeing that she had two orcs on her with a third on Bec, wondered how she would get out of this.”Let’s jump Bec.” She said as she looked to the side past Rose and Dave before summoning Space and moving herself directly to her destination, Bec arriving next to her with a similar ‘Pop’ of displaced air.

Tor finally replied. “We’re trying lass, but there's more back here, we got a few out to run for help, but it doesn’t look good.”

Surrounded by orcs wasn’t the best situation, but they were doing pretty well on defense, their friends not as well though. It was only a matter of time until they were overrun unless they did something drastic to get themselves out of it.

Pulling up their new strongest ability John pulled in the power of Breath and felt it tingle in their fingers as they raised two feet off of the ground “Vocare Fulgur”. The clouds above grew dense and dark, and they felt the power of the storm raging through them before pointing at the space between orcs grouping near and attacking Rose, and one of the ones attacking Dave.

Lightning flew down from the sky and crashed into the place they indicated and John saw two orcs die instantly, a heavy wound left on the third one caught up in the attack. As they did this they summoned the winds to spin around them in a wild maelstrom that fed into the clouds above, and they swore they could see shocks flying through the winds.

Two orcs tossed javelins at them, one of them catching their leg, between the knee joints and drawing blood in quite a painful way. Struggling to maintain the spell they stayed focused. The biggest of the orcs battered his chest like a gorilla and yelled out. “For Rage.” Before taking a strike at John and missing. Dave’s Echo chose that moment to strike back, and got a decent cut in on the big orc.

Two orcs with axes attacked Rose and Dave, neither with any luck. Dave cut the one of them which he had already injured, and that took them out, before he turned to a stealthy looking lanky orc and slashing through him as well. “Clypeus Fidei” Dave chanted, and the red flying gear appeared spinning around him to keep him safe.

The orc with their head wrapped tried to reach out to touch Dave, but he pulled back in time, while the caster with the spear missed as well. The floating ghost weapon managed to strike successfully, lightly injuring Dave but not disrupting his shield.

One of the orcs chased after Jade, its axe falling short when Bec disrupted their focus.

Rose pointed her wands at one of Dave’s attacker’s but didn’t manage to take him down even when one of them bolts she fired struck.

Dave took a larger blade in his shin, and it looked like it got stuck, John worried that Dave was going to bleed out when he wobbled on his feet.

Jade was cornered and attacked again, another big blade cutting deep into her.

From behind them more orcs appeared, a handful of javelins flying at John, six of the big weapons flew past, many nearly striking them being pushed aside by the wild winds surrounding them.

Two claw attacks bounced off their shield as more melee attacks came again. A pair of sword attacks came down as well and John barely moved out of the way of them.

“Vortex Stamine” Jade chanted, teleported Dave back behind her way out of range of the orcs, barely standing under his own power.

Jade then yelled “Sick um Bec.” And John watched the dog attack but not reach anything with his teeth.

The winds surrounding John died down, but they pointed again with their lightning charged fingers and brought down a bolt next to Jade’s attackers and one of the multiple orcs that were attacking Dave before he vanished. Flying further up into the sky, now six feet from the ground they pulled in the winds again, spinning them back up until their defensive maelstrom had returned.

Three javelins and two larger spears flew towards John getting knocked away by the winds he had pulled around him and flying away landing in the snow.

From the edge of her vision she watched Dave heal himself and start to move forward to rejoin the fight from where Jade had deposited him at least 10 seconds away.

The orc with the facial bandages reached out for Rose this time, and she stepped away just in time, wary of way they were simply trying to place their hands on people instead of attacking.

The caster who was controlling the summoner armament moved it to try to stab John as well, but was unsuccessful, even as they threw one of their own spears at them adding to the wood staves landing on the ground.

Rose pointed both wands at the fearsome stealthy orc who was geared like the one she ran into yesterday and with the one strike that hit took him out of the fight.

From behind them more orcs appeared, javelins flying over her head towards John, Only one of the six hit, but it was enough to worry her, as she was the only one who hadn’t been hit yet. John and Dave had kept them off her or killed them quickly once they reached her.

Raising one clawed hand to point at John “Lucens” and a sickly green bolt flew at John flying past as the winds pushed it just enough to the side.

“Attack, Now.” The swords master yelled as he pulled out a javelin and catching John in the ankle, the weapon hanging out of the armor stuck in between the boots and pants.

Three more spears and javelins flew towards John at once upon their command and Rose wondered how long John could stand there taking hits before he fell. She only hoped he could stay there long enough until they took out all the remaining orcs. After that it looked like they needed to save the passengers and merchants.

Jade’s staff shot forth five bolts of flames, three of ended up falling off to the side but two of them struck the largest orc scorching him but not doing enough.

As soon as John’s winds started to die down they were spun right back up to keep them as protected as possible. Another lightning bolt fell from the sky upon his command striking three more orcs and removing two of them from the fight, one of which being the mute one with the strange touching attack. He then began rising into the air, now 40 feet up.

Rose’s heart dropped though when another volley of thrown weapons flew out and caught him in the armpit and turning her flying friend into a rag doll.

“No, no, not John.” She couldn’t feel her heart beat, her breath was catching in her chest.

“T̴̥͈̺͛̐h̴͈̪̽͆͌ͅā̵̺͎̞t̵͓̑ ̶͓͋͗͘i̴̢̔̈́s̷͎̐ ̶͇͓̍̔̈́n̶̝̆ơ̸̼͉t̷̜̺̹̆̽͌ ̶͇̱͍́̑̎o̷̡̩̽̃̐k̴͔̼͚̓a̸̝̕̕y̵̢̠̻̎̃̎” She felt her hands grow cold as she watched him fall towards the ground, a spear still stuck inside him. “J̷̧̚ͅō̸̳͉̼͚̭̥̰͛̽͘͝h̸̏͗͜n̴̡͊̽̃͂̔̊̕ ̵̟̟̒i̴̱̳̓̄͒͋̉s̷̞̗̳͖̹̱͌̒̾̽͘̕͠n̴͇̫̙͑̔̀̕̚'̸͉̋t̴͇̿̇̆̐͌̂͠ ̵̣͖̹͚̳͕̎̔͂̔͗̌̓a̴̬̲͖͍͙̠̳̍̑l̷̞̻̩̞̏̏̌̚͜l̷̺͚͕͕̰̥̏̅̀́͠͝o̶̤̣͔̙͍͔͌̂w̵̢̫͓͉̋̈́̉ḛ̷͒͂̂d̵̡̳̮̱̳̙̯̀̀̇̅͆͘ ̸̡̡͉͓̳͛͗̀̂̌͜t̴̞̉o̵͔̯͔̫̳̿͂͑ ̶̨̛̘̯̰̾͒ͅd̷̹̲̒͌͆̚ḭ̶̃̉̐̍̇͠e̸̘̒̊.”

̶̳̫̣̞̄̌͒̓̌͝

“Ņ̶̢̣̟̺̬͓̘͓̣̣̦̊͆͒̃̚͜ǫ̷̦̝̮͙̈́̂̈́̑͠ͅn̷̖͕͇̩̦̻̦̣̘̰͉̺̬͕͛̀̒̽͑̀̄̅̈͐́́͊̌͗̕e̵͇̣̭̺͙̫͚̠̓̐͊̑̾̀̎̑͠ ̷̳̽ở̸̖͓̘̤̯͔͚͖̹̫̹̌͛̋̀̌̍͊́̊̍͒͝f̸͈̺͋͋̑̆͝ ̶̨̙̫͕̳̀̀͌̽̐̈͆̊̈́͠ͅt̴̟̺̘̫͉̓̽͒̍̓͌̈̇̌̉̿̂̋̕̕͠͝ḩ̶̡͕̞͉̠̻̘̻̦̲͍͋̎͛́̂̑̿̒̈͘͘ę̶̻̰̠͕̤̩̞͚̯̥̭̜̑̈́͒͆͐͜m̸̢̢̨̠̼̻̮̏̍̉͂͑͆̆̇́̊̌̍̕͘͜ ̷͙̯̲̟̂ͅç̴̧͇̫̹̯̼̀̎̽̾a̷̧̛͍̻̯͉̲̜̟͔̣̒̋̀̍̍̎͘͜ń̶̛̪͙͇̯̩̥̎́̃̈́̓̔͐̅̑̓̋́ ̵̧͉̘̘͍̲̗̤̠̯͇͙̫̮̌̐̇̾̀̔̇̌̓́͂̏̉̚͝d̴̢̼̭̝̱̘̖̋̐̑̈i̴͖̥̲͈̞̥͕͙̜͎̳̬̣̻̐̉̅̈́̓͗͐͘͜͠͝ȩ̵̗̳̭͕̪̻͖͓̭̈͐̓͊̚ ̷̛̦͈̙̥̣̰̝͍̮̣̩͊̋͆͒̓͑̈́͗̃̅̾͌͝ͅb̶̞̘͚͖̞̯̹̼̥̫̍̂̓̌̒̈́̋̾͜͝͠u̶̗̫̟̣̎͌̏̆̉̅̎̊́̚͝ͅt̸̨̧̧̪͉̳̥͚̥̦̞̤̀̿̇͒̋̋̉̔̕͘͜͝ ̵̳͓̱̱̏̍̐̅͠͠e̷̢̬̮̮͙̙͕͇͈̬̣̒̌͆͊͌͒́̆͛̒̉͘͠s̵̱̔̽̉̐̌̀̒͘͠͠p̴̨̟̙͖̺͇̯̣͎̝̊̆̈́̆̀͊͒̀͑̀ȅ̸̡̨̛̤̣̯͈̝̹̮̺̥͈̮͐́̈́̀̈̑͌͋̑c̷̨͍͔͇̖̽̌̍̓̊͊͆̊̃́̄̐̚͘i̶̧͖̭̠̩̣͈̫̟̗͕̫̖͓̭̒̄̆͊͛̈́̆͐̋̐̀̾́̀̎̕͝a̸̢͔̞͔̳̗̱͒́̈́̉͐̍̈́̒͋̑̔̄͆͝͠l̸̨̯̣̰͔̙̤̼̹̺͔̲̱̞̘̏̇̎͒̃̋́̂̓̂̽͜͝ľ̷̢̖͇̻̥̜́́̓̓͊̒̽͆̊͂̓͘̚͝y̵̛̦̭̬͖̣̠̠̿̋͋͊̊̌ ̷̧͚̙̝̝͖̫̳̩̟͓̥̻̥̣̔̈́͂͂͌̐̽͝n̶̗̥̍̑͂ò̷̧̝̭̖̼͇̻͎͗̏͛͂̍͊̂͘͘͝ͅt̴̪̖̜͆̓͒̉̿͗͜ ̶̣̠͈̥͔̉̍̀̓̇J̷̛͕̲̉̆͆͊̈̈́͗͛̕͘͝õ̵̧̭̀͌̏̈́͛̄h̴̰̲̲̱͚̟̯͗̎̓̑̎̿̂̔̈́͂̇̒̃̌͠n̷̛̬͕̳̦̺̥͍͔̘͍̙͚̖̄͑̋́̆.” She screamed, she wasn’t sure if they were even words.

̶̳̫̣̞̄̌͒̓̌͝

“W̸̖͎͍̻̮̹̗͍̿͗̉̋͂̚̕ę̸͉̙̘͕͓̰̾̽̑̆̄͛̌̈́͘͜͜ ̸̧̤͖͍̰̩̹̪̝̥́̈͊̾̿͝s̵̨̛̭̥̫͇͉̬̻̰͖̱͆͂͂͗̔̀̀̍̓̐̚͜͝h̷̠̹̦̰̯͍͖̯̼͖͕̑͗͐̌̆͛̉̌̌̕ã̸͇̥̞̐̽̑̅̐̒̐͊̈́̅͘͠͝l̶̙͌̐̿̅̎̍͠l̸̢̳̻̯̟̖̤̰͙̼͓̃͑̔̊̽̈̔̕̕͝ ̵̛̻̦̀̓̔̿̓̽̈́̀̐̚̕͝͠m̸̛̜̀͂̾̄̌͛̀̅̑̄̈́̕a̴̢̧̱̳̩͚͙̙͎̰̗̋̉̇̌̔̽͂̆͐̑͌͠͝k̴̢͕̙͈̈́͒̽́͋͂͊͊̏̌ȩ̸̧̬̼̞̠̞̖̹͓͇̭͉̊̊͆̊͠ͅ ̵̪͎̑͗͌̊̕t̵͈̺̲̼̎̐h̷̛̞͍̿͊̓͐͛̒̓̃̇̄͝ȩ̶̢̛͇̬̠͔͎̳͈̮̻̮̟̈́̐̾̓͋̎̈́̿̾̀̈́̍ͅm̷̢̦̼̍̌̆̏̕̕͠͠ ̸̛̿̾ͅp̶̜͙͈̲̰͐́̎̃̓̊a̷̡̞̖͓̲̲̖͓͇̭̍͂̾̆̀̓̇͜ỷ̴̫̭͇̻̫̖͛̓͗̈́̆̽͝,̸̡͓̟͙̼̩͛̋̃̾ͅ ̷̺̣̀̃̑͂͆̊͝ẃ̷̧̰̅̄́̀̽̔̚͝e̴̳̦̗̋̄́̂̉̕ ̸̢̮̪̱͔̇̔̂̀̑̄͌̈̈́̚͠͝͠s̶̢̛̛̭̬͖̥̖̹̤͇̯̱͔͎͋̅̅͂͝h̵̟̠̆̔̄͒̐ͅa̴̧̨̛̯̫͓͕̭̬̲̯̤̯͛̿̐̽̎͠ľ̷̘̭͋͗͂̿͐͊̕͘͝l̷̰̬̻̬̮̬͓͎̲̭̝̟͖̀̀̋̈̆̔̀ͅ ̴̨̧̩̲̱̥̲͙͋̏̅̍͑͗̄̑͐̏̔͘͠͝r̷̢̨̨̮̮̜̤̖̝̬͖͚̼̉̽͊̄̔̋̒̃͝e̵̛͔̲̯̫̘̹̳̐̂̀̓́̋͛͐͂͝n̷̨̨̫̬͇͔͕̣̎̓̑̓̀̍̈́͘͜͠͝d̸̻̳̩̟̬͙̣̺͙̠̜͆ ̸̣͑̂t̷̟̬̑͜͝ȟ̵̗͓͖̯̦̮̤͙̤̞̹͆̀̀͠e̸̡̘̞̭̺̤̺̯͒̐̀̅̉͝͝͝m̵̧̡̻͓̰͚͖͈̖̫͉̮̽̿͊̈́ ̸̡̧̣̻͕̖̜̱͔͚̗͌̽̽͐̀͑̌̈́͗́̍̈̃̅ḻ̸͉̿̃͂̑̏̑̽̓̈į̸̘̺̥̺͓̃̒̍ṁ̶̦͉̞̥͓̼̜ḅ̶̱͍͓̱̪̭̟̲̱͑̈̍̓͑̏͛͋̊͝ͅ ̸̺͖̱͆͌̒͛f̸̡̤̙̣̣̒͆ͅr̵̨̘͚̹͉̼̺͚͍̯̪͙̍̌̌̈́͆̽̽̎̀̓̍̓͘̕ỏ̷̧̡̖̤̭̙̺̰̝͚̜͖͓͜m̶̧͍͕̩͕̖̤̳͍̠̫͍̼̞͐̆͑͂̈́͂́̍̍̓͌̕͘̕ ̷̛͇̰̻̪͉̠̍̄̎̾̔͌̿̓̿͂̇̚l̶̢̜̘̐̓͛̎͗̍̇̕͘̚i̶̗̯̞̾̀̀͒̔̑̑̂͝m̴̥͔͇̘̲̫͛́̒́̐̎̄ḇ̸̨̢̞̙̳̻̦̮͓̩̱̠̺͋́,̵̱͒̽̏͊̓̉͆́͛̽͂̀͘͝ ̶̛̠̤̗̥̖̝̰̜̯̗͂̌̏̓͒̈́͆͝w̴͍̞͖͓͔̣̘̬͚̩͗̋͛̎͊̏̈́̃̀͂̇̕͜͝ê̶͇ ̶̨̘̥̈̀͂̌̆ș̶̲͓͍̬͇͖̖̳̤͚̼̓͜h̵̨̹̝̬̯̤̗̭̯͎̣͙̜͛̈̎͑̽͆͊̅͒̿͘̚͝a̵̼̻̜̫̞̿̒̄̔̈́̍͑̃̈̽̆̊͝͝l̴̢̩̩͔͇̫̞̲͙͐̿̂̀̽̎̌͗̂̾͜ḻ̷̨̧̣̟̗̦̝͖̰͇̄̋̉̈́̅͒͗̍͑͌̽͘̚͝ͅ ̵̲͈̝̞̗̠̬̘̰̲̬̰̮͆̋́̏̓͜͝h̶̨̬̲͇̯̼̤͉͒̾͊̓ͅȃ̴̡͓̭v̴͚͐̿͂̅̑ę̶͕̥̘̳͍̽͋̏́̎̋͆ ̵̧̢̖̞̬̻̝̩̽͂̔͘͠v̷̡̧̙̯͖͚͓̜̹͑̕e̵̘͈̲̦̖͎̱̘͒͋͒̓̽̂n̸͍̜̯̲̮̺̊̈́̀̽͐͋̊̾g̸̝̗̘͚̥̞̖̣̺͖̜̊̐̔̎̋͠ͅȩ̵̡̤̙̟̲̯̲̬̼̰̣͇̅̉͒̀̈́͂͆ͅņ̴̡̝͍̺͕̺̯͇̳͉̬͉͗̑̓̑̓́̈́́̎̊̃̏̚c̵̡̬͑̀͌̓̍̀̍̒̆͛̔̓̋͠e̴̡̞̱̯̹̼̪̠͓̿ ̴̦̪̇̔̈́́̆̒̌͒͂͘a̵͖̦̜̎́̂̑̓̓̈́̂͊͐̚̚n̴̡̲̻̯̖̖̟̭̥͉̔̋͒͑̀̈́̔̒͝d̴͔̦͕̲̦̤͖̞̦̗̪͛̇̈́̉͘͜͝͝ ̷̧͓̼̙̖̫̗̳͔͖͈̋̈́̈͐ͅͅb̴͙̟͎̹͖̹͖̝́̔͗̍̏́̈́̈́͌̎͠ļ̶̡̨̡̣̜͇͉͈̩̫̄̑̈́̄̒̀͐̓͑̀̈́͜͝ǫ̶̮͇͈͍̘͓͊̿̒͌͌͘ó̴̢̢̡̜̬̳̩̩̺͉̺̞̤̍̊̅̂͜͠d̶̡̛̳͔̮̖̮̠͖̪̃̊̅̈́̀̒̕͘̕͠.̸͖͚̭̩̯̖̫̩̦̈̊̑̈͠.”

̶̳̫̣̞̄̌͒̓̌͝

She felt the coldness in her body take until a fury burst of rage blossomed in the center, and she felt everything fall away as she thought only of vengeance.

“What the fuck, what the fuck.” Dave yelled, mostly to himself.

His best bro had just gotten shot out of the sky, landing in a flash of orange and yellow sparks amidst a bunch of orcs.

Then, his sister had exploded into grim darkness, hair going from platinum blond to shock white and skin going dark gray, just like those Grimdark people from Angel’s Rest last week. She lifted off the ground, not flying like John had, but instead pushed up by multiple spectral tentacles, each leaving her waist and protruding up and own at various angles. There was a beam of white surrounding another of gray coming off of her body which was bent at a strange angle as well, not even standing upright as she charged at the group of orcs.

Those weird ass tentacles grabbed the largest orc and lifted it into the air before flinging it off the side of the mountain like a toy. There was a blast of energy, as what sounded like a cross between a witches cackle and the squeal of tires pierced the air. He had just healed himself but as he was knocked back by this, every other creature nearby had as well. Jade to his right was tossed into a tumble back down the road before he lost sight of her, Bec dashing off after her running with the blast. Many of the orcs didn’t stand back up, and he found himself standing on the edge of the rocks with little behind him but the tops of trees.

Rose was still in the center of things, but no longer standing where John had fallen, she had followed the majority of the orcs who were thrown around by this power. Thrashing tentacles every which way she tossed orcs left and right into trees, rocks, and the ground. He had one thud into a tree trunk next to him where he had landed and the crunch it’s back gave was a dead giveaway of its fate. Spying where he thought John would be he dusted himself off, toss on another Heal spell and started sprinting as fast as he could, his Echo summoned to leapfrog him closer and closed.

Before he could get there though there was yet another power burst and this close to apocalypse Rose he struggled to stay standing finding himself mildly airborne. “I warned you about dark powers.” He said to himself as he flew. “I told you sis.” He landed with a thud and as he skidded backwards he felt a thunk on the back of his head before everything went dark.

Tossed down the road by Rose’s power waves she found herself adjacent to the orcs who were attacking the caravan. Most of these looked like they were weaker, but there was one more of the big champions with him. Giving herself a mental checkup she patted herself down and found wound after wound, being thrown around by Rose hadn’t done her any favors either, the Grimdark energy was painful and so was her landing.

Reaching into her inventory she grabbed her strongest healing potion and downed it, feeling all her energy return as the axe wounds, bumps, and bruises vanished. That was really powerful, she needed to learn how to make those someday, but now wasn’t the time, she shook her head to refocus and looked around for Bec. He was running towards her finally catching up, while holding her staff in his mouth, what a good dog.

“Good boy, best friend.” She said as she reached for her staff. She pointed it immediately at the rampaging orcs and started firing off blasts of flame, some single shots, some groups of three, but there were just too many. Her spells would run out long before the orcs did, and if she got cornered, especially by their commander she would be in a really sticky situation.

The sheer number of these orcs, along with the fact that they were trying to capture most people along with the wagons meant they probably had a settlement nearby, one that the empire hadn’t been aware of. That must have been the reason for so many raiding parties, they were straying close to their territory. She thought to herself, checked over her spells, and looked around for what she could do. Many of the orcs were piling bound people into wagons and most of the oxen were still alive. Perhaps she could follow and rescue people with her teleport spells more easily than trying to fight off all these orcs on her own now.

If she could just find Dave, or figure out what happened to Rose and John. She grew distraught but shook it off focusing on what was happening now. As she looked about she saw the orc leader take a body from a subordinate, the captive was wearing dark gray armor, not quite full like John’s, but she couldn’t see the details from here. There was some red trim though and with the bindings she thought maybe it was Dave’s cloak. The large orc punched the kicking captive in the gut twice, and they stopped flailing their feet about before being tossed into the wagon.

She wanted to teleport him out right now, but she had used her strongest spells already, in the earlier fight and just now giving a few people the chance to run away as she sniped the orcs following them. Following them was the only option now, that and recovering her spells so she could medevac out Dave to help her.

They woke to pain, their legs aching, having trouble even feeling their lower legs. They tried to open their eyes but the pain was so intense they closed them again.

Someone was dragging them along, and they didn’t know who or where, only that it was really painful. There was a bump where they bashed their head back down and cried out in pain instinctively.

The dragging stopped and when they opened their eyes it was too bright to see much of anything but a mass of messy dark hair.

“Jade?” John asked aloud.

“Jade? gr8, how the hell are you so 8ad at colors windy human, Cerulean is the word you’re looking for.” The voice said.

Black, inky blackness. Pain, radiating through her head. ”Ṿ̸̡̗̞̩͓̤̬͚̌͂̎̂͗̋͠͠e̴̺̎̊̆͗̒́͐͝n̴̛͙̝̼̤̮̥̤̿̊̄̐͑́ͅͅg̵̰̣͇̅̂͂͠e̵̺͈̭̬̭̣̟͙̰̼͉̜͛̂̂̀̓̔ͅņ̴̛̹̯͈͉̺̣̓̈́̂̋̄̐͘c̵̣̠͕̹̮̯̣͇̭̥͈͊̀̍ę̴̡̧͕͍̙̯͙̳̼̥̦̾̆̂̓̄͒̿͘͠ͅ She shook her head again.

She tried to sit up, she tried to move, then she tried to open her eyes. She had been unable to go anywhere or move her body, but open her eyes she could do. Looking around she saw a horrific scene, bodies thrown everywhere, some being picked up and ripped in half by tentacles right in front of her. Where was John? She tried to turn her head to look left or right and was unable to do that either, she was stuck looking forward.

Her viewpoint ambled forward, a strange and unfamiliar means of movement, causing her view to rock left and right as though her head was hanging limp from her neck. She finally got to look down and saw her arms hanging loose, tentacles sprouting from her waist, the same ones that were finding and ripping orcs to pieces. Internally she tried to scream, but her voice didn’t work. She tried to yell even harder in frustration but nothing worked.

Her body was walking its way along the mountain, John’s body nowhere in sight, and she ached to know what happened, but having lost control to what could only be her Grimdark patrons she could not do even that. She turned and for a second there was a gray blur, dotted with red and green, her tentacles reaching out, and she could almost feel them grasp something. A word rang out in her head, loud and clear as a bell, when all other sounds came through muddied.

S L E E P .

He woke in a start, being poked with a stick, or, was that a rapier? He was laying on the ground and could feel pains in his back and head.

Opening his eyes everything was exceedingly bright, and he closed them again immediately. He grasped around for his glasses for a moment, before they landed on top of his face, there was a smear of something wet on one of the lenses as he put it on.

The poking resumed, and he turned as he heard the scratchiest, most nasally, and most abrasive voice he’d ever heard in the world. “4R3 YOU GO1NG TO G3T UP OR SHOULD 1 ST4RT POK1NG W1TH TH3 PO1NTY P4RT 4G41N.”

Standing in front of him was a small white dragon, but that wasn’t what was talking, in front of that was a short humanoid thing. It had gray skin, candy corn colored horns, and a walking cane, their face was covered in bright red shades, with frame shapes that rivaled Bro’s for strangeness. Sniffing the air, they smiled, and their mouth was full of sharp teeth, “TH3R3, GOOD, NOW G3T UP, W3 H4V3 WORK TO DO T1M3 BOY.”

She followed the orcs for at least a full hour, and by the time they stopped it was at a rather large encampment, walls were being built as well as lodges, built side by side with existing tents. They were building a new town right here on the eastern side of the Tusk-Tooths. The prisoners were being tossed into large cages, made of scrap metal and wood, bars wide but close enough together that only a child would be able to get through.

She waited and watched for 20 minutes before they finally uncovered the body she thought might be Dave’s. The armor looked less like Dave’s now that she had cleared her head and recovered two spells, but it was the best shot she had, perhaps she just didn’t remember exactly what it looked like.

First, a distraction, she pointed her staff at one of the bigger buildings being worked on and fired off her strongest attack “Igne Pila”. A small bead of red flew out of her staff at high speed, a blur before it reached her target, which then erupted into a 12-meter wide ball of flames.

As soon as most of the orcs ran that direction to put out the fire she pointed with her last higher level spell at the unconscious body “Vortex Stamine”. It landed next to her in the trees, she untied the bag that was over its head to find someone who was definitely not Dave. He had wild black hair, small lumps that looked like a large candy corn on the side of his head, and mismatched teeth. With his dark gray skin she thought for a moment he might be Grimdark, but he didn’t have the bright white hair that went along with it.

He squinted and muttered something to himself for a moment before opening his eyes, which were gray with red tinges, he started kicking and yelling. “FUCK FUCK FUCK, LET ME OUT YOU FUCKING NOOK WIPE, I’M GOING TO KICK YOU ASS HALFWAY TO ALTERNIA IF YOU DON'T LET ME GO RIGHT NOW YOU DAMNED GREEN SHIT STAINS.” He paused upon saying that, probably realizing she wasn’t an orc.

“Shut the fuck up.” She said in a hissed whisper. “I’m trying to rescue people, and you got rescued instead, so be quiet before you get us caught.”

He looked around confused, tried to move his body and found he was still tied. “THEN LET ME OUT OF THESE ROPES, I CAN HELP, THESE ASSHOLES CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AND I'M GOING TO KICK THEIR ASSES SO HARD.” He said, still a shout but a whispered one, like someone stage yelling in a play.

She shook her head but quickly cut the ropes so he was freed, he immediately hopped to his feet, pulling a sword with a large curve and a shield out of seemingly nowhere before turning back to the camp, dropping his jaw and just saying “WELL FUCK ME.” As he saw the entire town of orcs.