Cleansing Fire Read online

  At the end of the block, an oddity appeared from around a corner. There were two of them, and the people closest to them seemed to unconsciously take a step away, and their conversations faltered as they looked fearfully at the figures. They were large, and they looked to probably be the equal in mass to a large lion. They walked on four legs, and their torsos were like an upside-down T, the vertical part of it raised out of the center of the bottom part of the body. They had two arms, and they appeared to have a head about the size of a human or elf. It just looked wrong, and creepy, but I tried to reserve judgment.

  I say appeared, because they were completely covered by a dark green armor from head to toe. It was odd too, because the armor wasn’t steel or leather, it looked like some kind of scientifically advanced composite and appeared seamless. They wielded a two-foot-long thick baton in their right hands, and a shield in the left that was massive. Both looked to be made of the same composite as the armor, and the shield was glowing with some kind of energy field.

  The wave of silence followed them both, as the three races moved quickly out of their path with wariness. I assessed them as soon as they came into range.

  They were level twenty, race unknown, with just over five thousand hit points. That… was the easy part. Their armor, shield, and batons were like bright burning flares to my magical senses. I had a feeling they were as squishy as we were, as any human would be at level twenty, but their equipment was another story.

  I couldn’t tell much about it, except the armor itself had a mana shield around it a hundred thousand mana strong. The shield as well. The weapon, whatever it was, seemed powerful as well. What was disturbing was between the shield and armor there was no way I could possible kill one without a very long and dangerous battle. Not with magic. With ten thousand free mana, that was only forty thousand damage per fire blast plus base damage, if I used all of it. That meant it would take at least five hits, refreshing that mana would take over ten seconds. That was just to get through the shield and armor, I’d need to hit it again to kill it. That was a full minute of battle, far too long.

  Of course, there were six of us, but it was still daunting. We’d never been in a fight where it took five of us just to kill one enemy being, and I wasn’t sure we could at that. I was the glass cannon, the one with the biggest hit, so it might take two rounds at five on one to kill them. Sure, I could shorten that by dumping my mana shield, but the power packed in those batons made that course folly to even consider.

  That would mean even the whole group, it would take forty seconds to kill both, and who knew how many were walking around town.

  Suddenly, I didn’t feel quite so invincible. We were all quite powerful now, much more so than we were when fighting the war. Suddenly I felt out of my league. We also had no proof, but I think we’d just found the reason several villages on this island were burned to the ground. Invaders? I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

  Dan cleared his throat, “That drink?”

  I nodded, “We need information. They definitely fit as our new bad guy, but we need more proof than simple wariness, and a plan.”

  Cassie winked, “Plus, I’m still thirsty.”

  We all chuckled, and we walked into the inn before our new friends got too close. The common room looked similar to inns the world over. Several tables, a large fireplace, and a long bar against the back wall. There was a stairwell in the back right of the room, that would lead upstairs to the rental rooms, or downstairs to the inn’s storage. Behind the bar which had an opening in the middle, was a door to the kitchen in the back.

  We found a six-person round table and took a seat. The bar maid walked our way, and she got a cautious look on her face when she didn’t recognize us. She was one of the feline species, and had fur on her cheeks, as well as long tawny hair. She was attractive, in an alien way, and moved with a flowing feline grace. I assessed her to discover her race name, but it was listed as unknown just like the aliens. I guess to find out we’d have to ask.

  “I’m Stacey, what can I get you?”

  Cassie said, “Ale all around, and whatever you have for a meal.”

  After Stacey left, and it wasn’t until then I noticed she had a tail, Cassie asked, “Anyone else get a load of that armor and shield? I don’t know what the baton does, but it has so much concentrated magic it’s terrifying.”

  “I’d also say it was impossible, the thing would have to be jam packed full of grandmaster gems to be that powerful. If that’s true, they should be interfering with each other.”

  Lara frowned, “Only if they were all enchanted. What if only one crystal was enchanted, and the rest simply provided power. Part of a grand enchantment is tying the stone’s magic together, so they act as one.”

  I frowned, “That would still interfere, I think. Still, the gems mana potential has to do with quality but also size. They obviously have access to incredibly sophisticated fabrication for that armor, what if that rod is just a small layer of armor covering an artificially grown crystal matrix the size of the whole rod. It would also explain the armor’s and shield’s shielding potential.”

  Enchantable gems were a small size, about a karat as a rule. It would be hard enough already, if not impossible to find a gem to cut down to that size that was perfect enough to hold magic and enchantments. But if they could grow one a thousand times bigger as the shape of a rod in a lab, then suddenly a gem with that much mana potential seemed more than possible.

  “You six are new in town, ain’t ya?”

  We all turned toward the voice, who turned out to be an old man.

  Gwen said, “We are, and we’re wondering what’s going on around here, and what those creatures are.”

  He frowned, “I’m kind of thirsty.”

  Cassie smirked, and tossed him a gold, “To wet your whistle.”

  He smiled, “Mighty kind of you, lassie. Name’s Bern. Us humans, elves, and martens have lived in peace here for centuries. We trade with the mainland a few hundred miles west, but on the whole they don’t have much use for us outside of trade. It was about a week ago they appeared, right out of the sky in ships the same color as their armor, and glowing.

  “They demanded surrender, but the queen, she fought back. Most of the soldiers are dead as a result, and five of our smaller villages on the nearby islands were destroyed as an example.”

  Well, martens, at least I knew the race name for the cats.

  Cassie asked, “What do they want?”

  He shrugged, “Don’t rightly know. They leave us alone as long as we stay out of their way. They’ve taken a number of us though, off in them ships of theirs. If I had to guess, I’d say they just want to rule us, and use us for slave labor, or maybe as dinner. We’re just… the part of the herd they’re going to let multiply, maybe. The queen might know more, surely they made demands of her besides her obeisance.”

  Gwen asked, “The rods?”

  He frowned, “Not sure exactly what it is. They fire an arrow sized blast of energy, that looks to be the color of fire. It’s also saturated with magic, just like a fire blast would be, but far more organized like a solid bolt of light. Mana shields work to hold them off because of the magic, but they do a frightful amount of damage. Not sure, but around ten thousand for each shot. They can also fire it once every three seconds or so, the regen rate is very high with the maximum power of it. Faster even, if they get desperate, and don’t mind running out for a time. Oh, and they must have some kind of life spell in them, one of the guards got vaporized after killing one, because he picked it up to examine it. Damn thing exploded. Some kind of security measure.”

  That was bad, I could take maybe two hits, most of the others just one.

  We all went silent for a moment as Stacey brought out our drinks, and meals. It was a roast beef sandwich, dripping in gravy and melted cheese on hot toast.

  Lara asked, “How we going to fight that?”

  Steve tilted his head, “Either all five of us to take out on
e, and at a rate of half a minute or so, or we could not use magic.”

  Not use magic? Of course, their incredibly powerful mana shields wouldn’t defend against physical attacks.

  “What about their physical armor though, it might be too hard for a sword, arrow, or even a bolt.”

  The old man cleared his throat, “It’s as resistant as steel. A crossbow bolt might punch through, but a sword, arrow, ice, or earth spear does not.”

  I nodded. I’d already thought of that. If I used create water to create water spikes, and then flung them at the enemy, when they hit they’d just be ice, without magic invested in them. Still, pointy ice wasn’t cutting through steel without the invested magic in an ice spike spell to help it along, much less this new armor. Even if it did get through, with the added magical damage it would take even longer to kill it that way, even if they only had five thousand hit points.

  Unless I got lucky and managed to hit a critical spot. Another disadvantage to throwing ice with magic, was that I’d actually have to aim, and could easily miss the enemy. The magic in the ice spike is what made it stay on course, and it hit the creature if I could see it. It might be worth a try if not for their armor.

  Steve said, “I guess that leaves it up to me.”

  Lara elbowed him with a scowl on her face.

  Gwen said, “Go for the weapons. They aren’t shielded, if we can break their weapons, they’ll have a hard time fighting back. Or even just knock them out of their hands. Sure, they can charge and bash us with those shields. Plus, if we damage the crystal in the weapon it will release all that magic, explode even, which will wear down their mana shield almost all the way.”

  I cleared my throat, “Hitting something a couple of inches wide won’t be easy.”

  Gwen smirked, and patted her sword.

  Of course, the insane woman wanted to get up close and personal with the lion sized tanks, and that size was only their lower bodies, with their upper torsos they were closer to mule sized.

  Steve and Dan nodded, the other two with swords, and the former said, “I’m in.”

  “You do realize, if you crack the rod open and break the crystal, the explosion of a hundred thousand mana being released will get you too? I’m betting they’ll also use those shields to thwart you, we can’t be the first ones to think of that crazy approach.”

  I didn’t like the plan, at all. But the only other option was finding good cover, and then taking ten to fifteen seconds just to kill one of them. Maybe even more, their mana shields would regen quickly.

  There also had to be a way, Gaia wouldn’t set us a challenge we couldn’t overcome.

  “Any weaknesses?”

  The old man shook his head, “Might want to talk to the queen, if you attack, you’ll be putting us all in danger if you fail.”

  Gwen sighed, “Alright, no attacking with my sword, so it wasn’t my best plan. Or at least, no trying to break their weapon from up close.”

  I raised an eyebrow, she wasn’t even angry I pulled her up short?

  Gwen grinned, “You never hold me back from danger, so now that you are, I figured I’d better listen for once. If I face them in melee, I’ll try to avoid the weapon and just stab them.”

  I laughed, and I felt better and a little worse at the same time. She explained further.

  Gwen shrugged, “You saw their stats, I bet I can parry the weapon so that they can’t aim at me, while I break their shield and peal them out of their armor. It’s their equipment that makes them so dangerous, they’re also ten levels lower and quite strong, but also much slower.”

  I nodded, “So, visit the ruler?”

  Dan replied, “We can try. If they let us in, and if one of those monsters isn’t monitoring her and squatting in her throne room.”

  Bern was still listening, because he interjected, “Queen Rachel is a good woman. It’s a very small kingdom, and she welcomes all to come to her as long as she is in the throne room. She’s a marten, they’re the original settlers on the island before us humans the elves joined them.”

  “Is there an invader there?”

  Bern shrugged, “That I don’t know.”

  We were all quiet, and considered our own thoughts, speculations, and options in regard to our new enemy as we finished the meal. It was a challenging thing for sure, but I also thought it was a bit odd. They used magic, but I was quite sure technology came into the picture too given their overwhelmingly powerful weapons and armor. Were they an evil race of some kind we’d never met, or were they a danger stemming from another place, and just an aggressive if not purely evil species?

  We ended up renting three of the inn’s rooms before we left for the small castle. The city was only a half mile or so square, so it wouldn’t take us long to walk there.

  Chapter Three

  The castle gates weren’t guarded, nor were the large double doors of the castle itself. Maybe the old man hadn’t been blowing smoke after all. We opened one of the doors, and walked in. The castle was a lot cooler than the outside, and I suspected that there were enchantments responsible for that. The entry hallway was about fifty feet long, and there was some tasteful art on the walls, and a few portraits. All the portraits were of the marten species, so perhaps these were old kings and queens from the past.

  We ignored the smaller closed doors to the right and left, and we just moved forward through the larger and grander double doors that led into the throne room. They were already open further solidifying Bern’s suggestion that the monarchy didn’t hold itself apart from the people. My first impression of the queen was that she was very young. I wondered for a moment if her parents had been killed in the invasion, leaving her to take on such a responsibility so young, but I didn’t want to make assumptions. Still, she was hardly blossomed into womanhood, and if she wasn’t still a teen, I’d eat my robes. If she was human, I’d have guessed she was at sixteen or seventeen.

  She was beautiful, in an alien way, not a way that was truly attractive in a sensual way. Humans and elves did bed each other, but I got the idea martens not so much. As a rule, but maybe that was just me. There were two guards flanking the throne, much older and elven. There were also others in the room in fine dress, all having low private conversations in small groups, though none of those armored monsters like the two wandering the city. At least we’d be able to speak freely.

  We all stopped about fifteen feet from the throne, and then bowed but didn’t hold it for long. A sign of respect, but not obeisance.

  Queen Rachel said, “Welcome to my city. What is your purpose here?”

  “We came mostly out of curiosity, we’re from the larger island to the southwest. Now that we’ve seen the state of things, we would offer our services to fight off the invaders?”

  Rachel giggled, “Right to the point, I like you. At the moment, there are only two in the city, in all of my kingdom really. Their purpose right now seems to be to maintain order, they haven’t taken any more of my subjects in days. We would have killed them ourselves, except they seem to be in contact at all times with their people on the mainland. I fear to remove them would be to invite a lot more, and swift retaliation in one of the other smaller villages in my kingdom. We already tried it once, after their ships left, but they came back quickly and in overwhelming force.”

  “Do you know what they want?”

  Rachel shrugged, “Not completely. They want slaves, but I have no idea what for or why. All I know is they picked the ones with the most mana. They also don’t seem to care what we do, as long as we aren’t violent toward them or each other. Violence of any kind is put down swiftly. For now, I’d rather leave them be, we’ve already paid too high a price in blood.”

  Cassie said, “It sounds like we need to go to the continent to find out what they’re doing, and to figure out a way to stop them. We’ll come back when it’s safe to destroy those two in your city.”

  Rachel smiled, “Then I pray to Gaia for your swift and safe return.”

 
; We turned around and left, and I sighed as we walked outside.

  Gwen looked at me with a question in her eyes.

  I said faux mournfully, “I’ll never get to see you in that bikini.”

  Gwen snickered, “You’ll have to earn it. Don’t give up hope, I’m kind of looking forward to it as well. The day on the beach part I mean.”

  Lara blushed, “We knew whatever was waiting wouldn’t be easy to deal with. Hopefully it doesn’t take another damned war.”

  Yeah, it didn’t take long to run into trouble, did it. And this problem seems a lot harder than the ones in our past. Still, we’d figure it out, we just needed more information first.

  Cassie sighed, “It’s late afternoon, and we did rent those rooms for the night. Want to head out in the morning after breakfast? That’d give us all day to scour the coastline of the continent, and then try to find the enemy. It’ll also give us more time to consider how to crack that egg, and get past their defenses, though I fear our best chance is just to hit it with everything we have.”

  Steve said, “I bet my bolts will penetrate the armor if nothing else does. At the least it might hurt them and make them cautious, at best I’ll hit head, heart, or weapon. I also wonder if we can damage the armor or shield enough to make it explode. Either way, I can do that while the four of you blast them. If it doesn’t work, I’ll start using death magic.”

  “Maybe. They might have taken precautions against that last. Perhaps even breaking the weapon like Gwen said, isn’t a horrible idea. It might blow up, but it might also have safeguards to either move it away to explode safely, or to drain the mana safely. I know I’d be leery of carrying around equipment meant to protect me that could also vaporize me. Maybe it only explodes for an unauthorized person touching it.”