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Chapter 69: Infiltration
🕑 Added 2022-12-29 13:00:03 +0000 UTCI awoke in the in-between place, and shivered. Well, not really shivered – still didn’t have a body in here. I knew what I was up against, now I just had to surpass it. I would come back to a raging forest fire, run from it, and arrive at the line of soldiers that were prepared to block my path.
I considered trying to go around them, but rejected the idea after a moment’s consideration. I’d seen no end to that blockade the time before, and would only be wasting precious time by taking the detour. Besides, at least in the area we’d fought before, I had precious information about what was waiting for me. If I went to a different area in an attempt to find a way around them, what if the types of enemies changed, as well? They could be using different weapons, or on a different landscape that I had less information about.
I only had two more tries at this, and I couldn’t waste one on taking a chance that relied on the Demons only setting up the blockade in a random, small section of land for no reason. I had to get as much information about this specific area as I could – that would give me my best chance of winning.
I felt myself beginning to be ejected from the dark space, and hurriedly chose a time to go back to – one hour and thirty minutes ago. Back before we’d even known about the blockade.
**********
And then I was back, fleeing through the forest next to Erani and the Dryad. I shuddered, breathing heavily and glancing around. The exhaustion from our constant running flooded back into me – even if I was just there for a moment, the solace not having a body provided me was well-appreciated when I was this tired. And, of course, coming back after dying was always a bit disorienting, to say the least.
I took a breath, pausing to collect my thoughts and calm my nerves. I knew what we were fighting, and the tricks they could pull. They had the advantage in numbers and firepower, but I had the advantage in information.
…Well, they undoubtedly knew most of what I could do at this point, actually, so it was more like I’d finally evened the playing field in terms of information, and was outmatched in most other ways. But still, I at least had a simple goal to complete. All we had to do was get past them.
Erani looked over at me. She’d walked a bit ahead of me, since I’d stopped to try and figure things out.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Time loop,” I said, feeling a bit bad for alerting her like this, especially after we’d just resolved my poison crisis. “There’s a blockade ahead of us. Demons.”
“How close?”
“We’ve got about an hour and a half of travel before we get there. So we’re not too close.”
“But we’ll have to get through them, huh? What ended up going wrong?”
I explained what exactly had happened as we continued on.
“So, landmines, huh?” Erani asked once I was done explaining.
We’d continued our familiar trek through the forest by now, the Dryad having no idea of what laid ahead of us.
“Yeah. That seemed to be what they’d done. No idea how many there are, but I’m gonna assume it’s a lot.”
“What’s the plan, then?”
I shrugged. “Get past them, I guess.”
She laughed. “Not much of a plan.”
“Yeah, well I’m not sure what else we could do. There are too many Demons to kill them all, not to mention all the Human soldiers. Even if we don’t count the reinforcements that’ll be coming from the other sections of their encampment once the fighting starts, there are dozens of them in that one area. I literally don’t have the Mana to beat them, and I doubt you do, either. And the Dryad’ll run out of Stamina eventually.”
She pursed her lips, obviously thinking the situation over and trying to figure something out, herself. “And you’re sure the Demons that fought you out there weren't triggering the mines at all? They weren’t just avoiding stepping on them? Because we could try luring them into the field and pushing them onto the explosives to blow them up.”
“I’m pretty sure the things just weren’t activating from them. I didn’t see any of the Infernals looking down as they crossed the minefield, at least. And they didn’t seem incredibly cautious about it. They could’ve been remotely detonated, honestly. Maybe they just had someone activating them manually when we got close to the mines.”
“That’d make sense, I guess. Not sure how they’d know when you stepped on one of them, though. The mines were small and hidden in the grass, right?”
“Yeah, I’m really not sure.”
We continued through the forest, discussing possible strategies to try and get through the blockade ahead of us, until we eventually arrived at the clearing. We stopped short of revealing ourselves, keeping concealed in the trees.
“Holy shit,” Erani muttered. “You weren’t joking. That’s a lot of soldiers.”
“Yeah, it certainly is.” I looked behind us. The smoke was still approaching, closer now than it was before. We had time, but not much.
“Still think the plan’ll work?”
“It’s not that I think it’ll work, it’s more like I think everything else won’t.”
“Well, that’s confidence-building.”
“Would you rather I build your confidence or tell the truth?”
“Preferably, you could do both.”
“Not happening,” I grinned. “Now get ready to go. This plan hinges on you, remember.”
“Oh, I remember all too well. That’s why I’m asking you to build my confidence in it.”
“I believe in you.”
“That’s not very confidence-building, and also probably not truthful.”
“Yes to both,” I laughed. “Alright, let’s go.”
We both sprinted forward into the clearing, followed shortly by the Dryad, who seemed surprised at our sudden charge. She quickly caught up to us with her superior speed, though. The soldiers in the lined-up encampment soon noticed our charge and prepared to attack, the Humans drawing their bows and the Infernals manning the cannons and ballistae.
By the time we were about seventy paces from the barricade, they unleashed their fire. I ducked and weaved between arrows while still sprinting forward at full speed. Erani blew away the cannon fire with a couple Explosive Firebolts. And the Dryad gracefully leapt over a speeding ballista shot, leaving it to impale a tree behind us.
While the soldiers reloaded their fire, the six Infernals left the encampment to block our approach. They had been the main thing preventing us from getting any closer the time before, keeping us occupied while the soldiers in the back continued to shower us with projectiles, and keeping us too distracted to safely navigate the minefield they’d laid out before themselves. Not to mention, six Infernals were an incredibly daunting set of foes to fight in the first place.
But this time, we had a plan to get past them. Once we passed the fifty pace mark, where I’d noticed the landmines cropping up before, Erani and I began scanning the ground, keeping an eye out for any metal plates.
Now that we knew they were out there, it wasn’t too difficult to avoid them – at least, it wasn’t difficult to avoid them when the Infernals were out of reach and the soldiers were reloading. Whenever I spotted a shine in the grass, I simply averted my course, or stepped off to the side to keep myself from touching it. I had to pull the Dryad out of the way of stepping on them occasionally, but she seemed to get the idea of what we were avoiding after a couple times, and began keeping an eye out, herself.
It seemed like the devices weren’t remotely triggered, considering how long I’d been around them without them going off. Instead, it looked like my initial suspicion of them being triggered by contact was correct. How the Infernals avoided triggering them, I still wasn’t sure. But I had a suspicion at this point that it had something to do with those rings they all wore on their fingers. Maybe it was a simple exemption Enchantment? I didn’t know much about that type of magic, but I knew that some alarm Enchantments could be bypassed by having certain Enchanted items that specially designated the owners as exceptions to their triggers.
But that wasn’t something to worry about now. Our six opponents approached and prepared to engage. We didn’t plan on granting their wish, though.
“You’re sure this is safe?” Erani asked me as we ran.
“I saw the damage numbers myself. I should be fine. And I’ve got you to keep me safe, remember?.”
“Yeah, it’s the operative word ‘should’ there that worries me.”
“Well, you know what they say – action is the enemy of anxiety! So let’s stop thinking and just do it!” I held out a hand to block the Dryad from moving forward, which seemed to get the idea across to her that I’d be going ahead without her.
I rushed forward, straight into the crowd of Infernals. They stepped toward me, completely surrounding me on all sides the moment I got within reach. Before any of them could attack, however, I glanced down one last time. I spotted a nearby landmine sitting a few paces in front of me. It was between one of the Infernals’ legs. Now that I’d found it, though, I didn’t avoid it.
“Now!” I yelled back to Erani as I leapt forward and stomped directly on the thin metal plate.
The magic within activated, gathering Mana from the surrounding air. I knew from experience that these things took about a second to go off after you triggered them, so I instantly dove ahead and to the ground, now behind the group of Infernals that were left standing around a bomb about to go off.
Erani, upon hearing my call, launched off an Explosive Firebolt, aimed at the landmine. Or, really, it was aimed slightly ahead of the landmine, so it would impact the ground between me and it. Just as I hit the ground, Erani’s Firebolt impacted and blasted the landmine further away from me, straight into the middle of the group of Infernals.
And then, a second had passed, and it exploded.
The blast pushed all the Infernals back. Five of the six stumbled backward and landed on their butts, and the sixth was launched all the way off its feet, bouncing to the ground a dozen paces away. I’d noticed that Erani’s Firebolt had pushed them away an extra distance in the previous timeline, so logic would dictate these landmines would, as well. Seemed my bet was on point.
In the Infernals’ disorientation, Erani was now free to run ahead, and she dragged the Dryad with her. We’d cleared the path to the main blockade, now, but we hadn’t won – not by a long shot. Not only would we have to fight our way through the line of tents and soldiers, we’d also have to get through the minefield. Sure, the Infernals were gone, but the rest of the soldiers still very much had their weapons, and moving through the field while dodging the barrages of arrows and other projectiles was more than deadly enough.
Erani arrived and stood next me as I readied myself to charge forward. But just as I did, I heard a noise behind me. Glancing behind myself, I saw as the Dryad jumped up onto one of the Infernals’ backs, and then leapt off, launching herself up and ahead of me and Erani.
And then, I felt a tug on my ankle. I looked down to see that the Dryad’s whip had been wrapped around my foot – and Erani’s, too. The spikes seemed like they’d been retracted into the vine. When the fuck was the Dryad able to do that?
With a sudden yank, the Dryad flung her hand forward, pulling the whip – and thus, us – with her. She launched us through the air with the momentum she’d gotten from her leap, as well as a fuckton of manual strength, and I found myself screaming and tumbling through the sky, no idea which way was up. There were apparently a lot more differences between Nymphs and Dryads than I thought.
But just as I was reflecting on my ignorance, I hit the ground, slamming into the hard dirt and rolling to a stop.
You have been slammed against something. 24 damage.
Your Health is 226.
But I didn’t sit still. The moment I found which way was down, I scrambled to my feet and raised my hand, shooting off Rays of Frost at basically anything nearby that looked capable of movement. We were in the middle of the encampment, soldiers on every side and Infernals bearing down on us. Green tents peppered the surrounding area.
Damage notifications flooded my view as the already-panicked back-liners were hit with Spell after Spell, and eventually my Mana dropped down to 473. Erani stood soon after, and I watched the familiar white lines of Angelic Shield fade away while she shot off Explosive Firebolts of her own at Humans and Demons alike, prioritizing those that manned the expensive, fragile-looking cannons and ballistas.
The Dryad landed between us as Erani and I shot off our many Spells at the surrounding soldiers, apparently having decided to leap into the fray herself. I appreciated the help getting across the minefield, but I also probably would’ve preferred some forewarning.
Not that she could give us any, though, I sighed to myself.
With the nearby soldiers disoriented or maimed by our attacks and our position in the enemy lines relatively secure, I prepared to take off and flee into the other side of the forest, getting away from the barricade and the fire and finally being home-free. But just as I began to move, I looked down and realized. There were still landmines surrounding us.
Those bastards had filled their own base with explosives!
I glanced around, trying to figure out the best path forward. Soldiers surrounded us, Infernals were getting to their feet, burning rubble from Erani’s Firebolts blocked any straight shots out of the camp, and the rest of the ground was covered in those damned metal plates. How did they even move around in here?
I glanced at the nearby soldiers who were still recovering from our attacks. They all had those rings on their fingers. It had to be that. Those rings, in one way or another, made them exempt to the triggering mechanism of the mines. How else would they have avoided blowing themselves up?
The soldiers had begun to regroup at this point, the Humans taking up their bows and pointing them at us, and the Infernals taking point, approaching us cautiously. There had to be at least fifty enemies, all with their full attention trained on us.
“Did your plan go past the ‘getting into the enemy base’ point, by any chance?” Erani asked.
“No, not really,” I said. “Thought I’d figure it out on the way in. Didn’t think we’d get here so fast.”
“Well your preparation is really showing itself off.”
“Don’t worry,” I took a breath, preparing for a fight. “I’m making another plan as we speak.”
“Ah, another plan. Those have historically worked out so well for us.”
I grinned. “This one will. We’re getting out of here, and that’s a promise.”
Okay, I thought. Let’s do this.
Comments
Michael Hughes
Considering the infernals were wearing nothing but the ring I would have expected him to figure it out sooner instead of when he sees the humans who could have many enchanted items. TFTC and see you next time.
