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Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.39 (154)
🕑 Added 2024-04-16 22:30:01 +0000 UTCAfter quickly locating the captain using his perception field, Nick took off like a shot. Not knowing how long he had, he recklessly ducked under the firing arc of one of the archers as he headed toward the front of the formation.
Seeing the Captain on the front lines, he hesitated only a moment before shouting, “Captain Angelton! We need to destroy that array!”
While distracting someone during a fight was usually a terrible idea, Nick really didn’t have much choice. Every second he delayed, the kobalds could be getting closer to reinstating the rift.
He impatiently watched as the captain skillfully dispatched a giant kobald with a backhand sword-swing across its throat, then kicked it back into the horde.
Nick locked eyes with the captain when the man looked over his shoulder. Almost immediately, he felt the captain’s mind reach out to establish a connection. ‘Not surprising that the man was trained to visualize communication protocols through the material plane. The army’s training is nothing if not rooted in the fundamentals. It’s both reassuring and yet incredibly limiting,’ he complained to himself, then banished the distracting thought.
Feeling the connection solidify, Nick didn’t have a chance to say anything before the captain prempted him, “How in the hells did you and Walker close the rift? And did you two cause that damned implosion?”
Nick knew they didn’t have time for this, so he completely ignored the man. “Captain, we need to destroy that spell-array as soon as possible. Otherwise, the kobald’s shamans will just open it up again. Even worse, if they destabilize the local ethereal plane any more than it already is, we’re going to start having random rifts opening all over the place.”
The Captain had returned to the fighting after having established the mental connection, so the only one to see his rare grimace was the kobald in front of him. Not that it mattered much, as the kobald didn’t live long enough to tell anyone about it.
The captain replied, “Yes, that would be bad. Can you at least give me directional heading? I can’t see anything at the moment. The essence is so dense around here it’s like looking through fog with my perception field.”
Nick didn’t reply with words, but he transferred the feeling of where the array currently was. Around 30 units in front of them, and a little to the left.
The captain took a moment to process the information before he replied, “Do you have a visual on it? What will it take to destroy it?”
Nick wiped his sweaty palms on his mud-covered pants, and said, “I can tell that it’s there. And in order to destroy it, we’ll have to get right on top of it. To make sure it’s no longer usable, I’ll have to disenchant the slabs before we can break them. Currently they are infused with potential, and will be almost impossible to destroy from range.”
Right as Nick pronounced his dire verdict, he shivered at the feeling of the ether shaking above him. It felt like a ball of insanity was intent on giving him a haircut, threading the needle between the shields and the top of his head. Even though he had only had a brief look at whatever the spell was, he could tell that it was, at best, something only an insane person would cast.
Before he was able to fully process what he’d felt, the entire area in front of them exploded in a glorious display of destruction. As he was currently focusing his senses on the ethereal plane, his eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing. That spell was nothing but a bunch of unrefined elemental essence, charged with the souls of dead kobalds, and wrapped in a simple delivery spell he recognized from a simple ‘water-ball’ spell. ‘That should not have worked!’ he told himself.
The scale of destruction was completely disproportionate to the size of the spell. Nick was by no means a practiced soul-caster, but he was relatively sure that a spell-form for a spell like that would require intense study into fields that were frowned upon even among the darkest of soul-mages. How familiar would one have to be with death in order to manipulate multiple souls’ potentials at the same time. And even if they were capable of that kind of magic, why would they choose such an asinine spell to charge with that type of potential? With that much power available, they could alter the very fabric of the material plane!
Nick’s thought process was shattered by the captain’s voice ringing in his head, “Wasn’t the spell-array we need to destroy somewhere around there?”
Blinking a few times in surprise, Nick realized that the captain was right. Before replying, he used his perception field to look over the area and double check. Sure enough, what little was left of the spell array was sitting there… smoking. Barely a hint of the spell-array was left. Instead, he saw the paving stones twisted into stone spikes, puddles of bloody water and mud, and lots and lots of body parts. With how much unfocused elemental essence the spell had unleashed, it wasn’t surprising to see randomized constructs covering the area. Without a doubt, the spell-array had been destroyed… thoroughly destroyed at that.
Nick’s mental voice was filled with shock as he stuttered, “Uh, captain, the spell-array has been taken care of. The kobalds won’t be using it to open another rift, that’s for sure. In fact, most of the shamans are very dead at this point. As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure if they can be resuscitated. I think we’re in the clear.”
Nick sensed that the captain’s mental projection had the slightest undertone of vicious satisfaction when he replied, “That’s good to hear. Now we just have to get out of here before we’re over-run.”
Nick gulped at the prospect of actually surviving this suicide mission. It hadn’t occurred to him that they might make it out of here in one piece. Now that the possibility had presented itself, whatever fear he’d been repressing was bubbling up from the recesses of his mind and causing him to panic.
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Nero came to the unfortunate conclusion that there were both positives and negatives to having such a powerful perception field. On one hand, he had a pretty good view of the battlefield, and the entire area resembled a Hollywood movie. However, as a counterpoint, his entire visible world was confined to one gigantic bubble. Even worse, he couldn’t pay attention to everything all at once, so he was limited to focusing his mind probe on one area at a time. It was like having a wonderful 360 degree field of view, but only being able to focus in one specific direction at a time, and anything over 100ft away was completely imperceptible to him.
Of course, even with all those drawbacks, it was still better than what he could see with his actual eyes. Considering that, for the most part, he was at least a foot shorter than everyone around him, the dust-filled view of backpacks was getting old.
After the destruction of the rift, the captain had ordered an ‘organized withdrawal’. To Nero, it was simply the very logical decision to run away and hope the kobalds decided killing them wasn’t worth the effort. Unfortunately, for the past hour, they’d been under constant assault as they’d made their way up the mountain.
In fact, the only reason Nero knew they were going up the mountain at all was because the slope was getting steeper. At one point, they’d even had to climb up a small rock-face to continue on their way. Even that hadn’t stopped the kobalds from following them. As far as he could tell, the kobalds were willing to follow them until their little legs gave out, or they managed to finally kill all the ‘smooth-skins’.
It wasn’t all bad though. Despite not being able to help much with the battle, being in the middle of the formation gave him the perfect opportunity to study the spells being cast by the few mages and support staff. He had even been able to figure out the cool giant shield that had been hovering over his head since the beginning of their suicide run.
The bad news was that every time he cast that version of the shield spell, the construct would just hang there in the air unless he ‘dragged’ it with him, and moving something that size was damn near impossible. He’d even had the clever idea of trying to anchor the construct to his spear and tried carrying it like an umbrella. ‘I still don’t understand why that hadn’t worked,’ he complained to himself.
Recalling how poorly that debacle had gone, he remembered casting the shield-spell, and how proud he was when at first everything seemed fine. However, the farther he’d gotten from the initial casting site, the more the tip of the spear had begun to deform. After only 10 feet, the entire spell had fallen apart and the resulting shock of losing the spell had felt like he’d taken an ice-pick to the forehead. He decided then and there, that he would hold off on the experiments for a while.
Nero’s internal musings were halted when he heard the captain’s loud voice project itself throughout the entire formation. “HOLD!” Captain Angelton shouted.
By this point, he could tell that the elites were all pretty tired. So, it was surprising to see them still managing to be relatively coordinated by successfully stopping all at once.
Nero could see the front of the formation begin doing something along a cliff-face. He really hoped they didn’t intend to climb up the actual mountain. To him, that seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. All the kobalds would have to do was pelt them with arrows while they climbed, then wait for their bodies to fall down so they could be hacked to pieces.
It took a few minutes, but Nero finally figured out the captain’s plan. The front of the formation had pulled out pick axes and were carving into the rock to manufacture a cave for them to defend. Chucking, Nero thought, ‘Only in a fantasy world is this a valid strategy to defend against a pursuit force. But what’s stopping the kobalds from just widening the damned hole?’
Now that they were no longer moving, he at least had the opportunity to blow off some steam.
Cracking his knuckles like he was getting ready to do some serious work, Nero pulled on his center to weave his new favorite spell. However, he quickly came to realize a massive flaw in his plan. There wasn’t nearly enough essence from the dead kobalds floating around to charge his spell. The moment he started pulling in essence it, he nearly fumbled his grip on the spell-form due to the uneven essence distribution. Not willing to lose all the center he’d allocated to the spell, he allowed the accumulated essence to just dissipate into the ether.
Taking a second to think through his options, he frowned at the conclusion he was forced to come to. The spell-form required way too much potential to be a practical war-spell. He could charge it with his own potential from his center, but that would be moronic.
Looking around with his perception field, he could see that the kobalds were still dying in large numbers. So, if the battle stayed in this area for a while, he might be able to start casting his ‘glass-cannon’ again. But, for now, he’d have to try something else.
Therefore, while everyone else was fighting, and the front of the formation was digging, Nero spent his time standing there with his eyes closed, examining the spells everyone was using and trying to decide which one he’d most enjoy appropriating.
Eventually, he decided on a personalized variation of what he’d chosen to call the ‘boulder’ spell. It was based on the spell-form used by one of the support mages who occasionally used it to fire a 3ft wide round stone off into the distance.
From what Nero had seen, the boulder-construct would roll down the mountain, crushing kobalds until whatever potential had been infused into it depleted itself. To Nero, it seemed like a brilliant idea to use gravity to his advantage. Also, the fact that the spell-form was exceedingly simple might have been a factor in its favor as well.
Nero’s first cast had not, in any way, been a success, considering he’d almost killed himself by dropping the constructed boulder on his head.
Yet, Nero persevered. His determination unwavering in the face of adversity.
His second cast, for the record, caused no friendly casualties as he’d managed to dismiss the construct before it had landed on anyone.
By only his third cast, he was able to successfully launch a boulder into the enemy forces. His pride was immeasurable, and he couldn’t help but come to the startling conclusion that he was, in fact, a genius.
Over time, his proficiency in the spell improved drastically. It took some effort, but he managed to fine tune how much center he was using to create his constructs at maximum efficiency. Even better, as he was able to cast his spells from a protected position, he was able to fully concentrate on maintaining his center. As a result, he became lost in his casting and didn’t realize how much time was passing outside his mental bubble.
Over and over, he’d slowly build a hovering rock before hurling it into the distance. He’d then mentally follow its progress through the advancing kobalds until it eventually got out of range of his mind probe. Then, he’d build another one and send it off on its journey. His casting time wasn’t very quick, but it was steady. And the best part about it was that he felt like he could do it forever. It was slowly becoming a form of active meditation for him.
But all good things come to their natural end, and eventually he felt a hand on his shoulder bringing him out of his trance. Looking over his shoulder, he raised his head to see an elite he didn’t recognize telling him it was time to head into the cave.
After shaking his head a bit to clear his mind, he used his perception field to check on the bigger picture. It looked like the stream of never ending kobalds was finally petering off. He could now see them trying to wait for others to show up so that they could attack in larger groups. In his opinion, at this point they barely registered as a threat.
After taking a deep breathe, he turned around to make his way into the freshly carved cave. He walked past a few shield-wielding elites that looked like they were preparing to hold the entrance. Upon entering, he was surprised to see how large a space they’d cleared out and that cooking pots and lights were already being set up alongside tents and water barrels. Unfortunately, he could tell they might be staying here for a while. ‘The wilds really do refuse to be anything other than a camping trip from hell, don’t they,’ he complained.
He felt a slight tap on his mind, as if someone thought about opening a connection to him but decided against it. Turning his head to see who caused the sensation, as it was too brief for him to identify the culprit, he saw Nick waving him over. Around the man was the captain, Howie, and a few other people. Each and every one of them was staring at Nero with serious looks on their faces, and he realized that they all wanted to have a word with him.
‘Well… crap. They’re probably going to ask me about the rift, and how I closed it. Maybe also the spell I was using too blow up the little bastards en masse. This is either going to be really annoying, or really funny,’ he thought to himself as he made his way over.
‘I wonder if they’ll take a rain-check and let me catch a few hours of sleep,’ he wondered.
Comments
Leetle Sheet
Yup, Nick and them will figure it out eventually. Remember, most people can't see the ethereal plane like Nero does. They have to scry to 'see'. That's kinda a hint on what makes Nero so unique. He really only has one superpower... it's just really useful in this world.
Leetle Sheet
If you're pissed about running out of chapters to read, I promise another one is coming. However if it's about Nero's abuse of his absurd ability to perceive what's happening in the ethereal plane... yeah, i get that. It is kind of ridiculous... but also freaking awesome. Or maybe it's about his personal boulder spell? If that's it, then I can only blame the time a friend of mine tried to freak me out by saying that people filled beach-balls with gross stuff when they launched them into the crowds at concerts. I spent the entire show dodging the damn things due to the... plant... that I'd accidentally smoked. But if it's anything else, then I can't help you. Crap, just thinking about that night makes me want to order a pizza. Anyway, thanks for reading.
Osama Laden
Come on!!!!
Ocean Breeze
First of all, great chapter. Second, did Nick notice that it was Nero firing that spell? It didn't seem like he did, but it feels like his reaction would have been even better if he had. I hope we get to see something like that in the next chapter.
