System Break

It was day, the sun was in the sky, but the purple clouds were so thick I couldn't see my own shadow.

We'd left the hills and were now on the rolling plains. I scanned the horizon looking for cores. "Not much, nothing unusual," I said. There were a few roving bands of monsters, but they were the lowest level - ferals, spiders and the like. We missed Demon Bird's scouting dearly and the lack of it constantly reminded me he was gone.

"How far to the fort?" she asked.

I looked at her sadly and she put a hand on my shoulder. "Ten or twenty miles," I said. "Not far now. Keep working on your speed." 

"Will you remove your antlers?"

I shook my head and a low chuckle escaped her lips. Then I saw it. A clump of cores, hundreds of them. 

I pointed. "Something is coming. A hoard of spiders or something like it."

"I have forty arrows," she said and fingered her sword.

We kept running and I missed Demon Bird more than ever. The cores kept multiplying.

"I think the fort is under attack," I said. "We must be a curse. Everywhere we visit gets hammered."

Gisael pointed to the purple clouds which blocked the sky. "May be all weak domains are under attack."

I stopped in my tracks and looked at her. "Send a message to Mother through Snow, I'll do the same with Dark Bear. They need to be on high alert."

Her eyes narrowed. "We should return."

"We will, if either bear sees anything dangerous."

"It will be too late then," she said.

"That's what they're there for. Trust me, Dark Bear is no push over, then you add ten guardians, a wolfpack and Snow. Not to mention Kysandre."

She peered at me. "Very well."

I nodded. "The fort won't be well defended. They have no protectors it's just an outpost."

We ran for another hour. "How many do you see?"

It was impossible to count cores in these numbers. It was like a thousand tiny lights clumped together it just became one large blob of light. "It's too dense," I said. "Maybe a thousand. I don't know."

We ran across the rolling hills until they finally came into sight. A thousand ferals surrounded the fort, but they were not alone. There were fifty giant ferals with them.

"What are those?" I asked.

She spat. "Orcneas."

"Really? Orks?"

"You know them? They are a corruption of the Alfar - our precursor. They were bred by the Jotun. How do you know them?"

"They are in our stories."

She growled and her eyes blazed.

"So, I take it they're worse than ferals."

She met my gaze and the ferocity spread through her body. She drew her sword and I put my hand on hers. 

"Wait," I said, "We need to plan. We're a little outnumbered."

"Call the bears," she said.

"This fort won't last that long. We need to do something now, but, we're not just going to charge in." I paced and thought. 

"We can call the bears and the others. You can go meet them halfway and lead them here. I'll hold them off and you can attack from behind."

She shook her head. "I cannot leave you alone."

"I cannot die here," I said.

She peered at me. "It is not certain; you are not like the others."

I sighed. "Don't worry I don't plan on dying. There's a lot of work gone into this lump. Think of all the living wood. But if I did, I will survive and return. We cannot lose you and the others will need a leader."

She held my hand. "This is a hard order to follow." A small amount of liquid gathered in her eyes. The blaze had died down and was replaced with concern. "I do not want to leave you."

"I'm hard to kill. I have the living wood and I can always run if their fort falls. Go," I said.

She looked into my eyes. "They will not fight with honour. Expect tricks and lies." She had difficulty letting go of my hand. She turned to go and then looked back at me. "Are you sure? I want to stay."

I placed a hand on her stomach. "What if we put a baby in there last night?"

She growled. "That is a low trick. You can see their core if a baby is growing."

"Not at first," I said. "It takes time to form."

She stared at me and I could see the fight going on inside her.

"Go," I said. "I will not forgive disobedience. I will not forgive myself if you died here."

She stared into my eyes. "You are afraid because of Demon Bird."

I smiled weakly. "Maybe. If we were protecting our home, that is different, but these people do not deserve it. I would leave with you if I was the same as you. But I'm not, so I will stay, and you will leave."

She squeezed me in her arms, turned and ran without looking back. I saw her wipe her eyes as she ran back to the forest. Then I realised she had all our food.

"Shit."

I turned to watch the orks and the ferals. The wooden walls were high and full of men and women. I laughed. I loved wooden walls; they were my favourite.

The orks pointed and ordered the ferals around. They had them putting up tents and making rope ladders. They sent bands off to patrol. They were probably scavenging for food and materials.

I considered going for a swim and approaching the fort from the rear. I shook my head and discarded the idea. The locals would need a sign that I was on their side. And while a surprise attack could be devastating, I could only do it once and there were so many of the enemy it wouldn't matter.

I moved northwest and circled their camp. Even without Demon Bird I could track their patrols easily. When you're severely outnumbered the best strategy by far was guerrilla warfare. It was something I'd done many times in the past because my unit was always outnumbered. Strike hard, strike fast, and get the hell out of Dodge.

Without Gisael I was able to use all my speed and I circled the rag tag army in short order. I was too far out for them to spot me and it did not take me long to hunt down a patrol.

It consisted of twenty ferals and they roamed towards farm building. If there were people inside and they weren't dead, they soon would be. This close to the fort they would be safer than the homesteads farther out. Except when the fort was surrounded by a hostile army.

I ran down the ferals before they reached the front door. They screeched and screamed as I ripped off limbs and heads. I could kill them with a powerful backhand or kick to the chest. I tried to be efficient and kill them with a single blow.

There were people in the homestead. I watched it out the corner of my eye as I dug qi cores from the dead ferals. It had long logs for walls and a thatch roof. It looked like it was built with love and care, but it sure was dangerous living outside the walls with the recent portal storms.

I thought about decapitating the ferals and using their heads to create fear. But time was short. At least if I slowed down the patrols it would cause havoc with their food supply and the luscious wood the homestead possessed. They could build mighty fine ladders or a ram with its lumber.

"Hey," I shouted. "Make your way to the fort. Swim the lake if you can. If you stay here you'll die and I'm going to burn your house anyway."

I ignored the protests and jumped on the roof. It wasn't hard to set fire to it despite the lacquer they had applied. I just had to dig at it a little. It also saved me convincing them to leave. The fire would do that for me.

I popped a small qi core in my mouth as I watched it burn. The farmers were smart enough to give me a wide berth as they ran away.

I threw the dead ferals onto the fire and as the flames rose, I left. When I checked the mass of qi cores surrounding the fort, they were milling about but they weren't attacking.

I figured I had until dark to hunt down patrols.