Ember of Invention

It only took the three of them a few hours to reach deep enough into the Black Wood for Lindle to feel confident they wouldn’t come across anyone else. They paused for a break next to a Steamheart tree as Lindle dove into his old porter’s pack, pulling out all three Frostgreed Scales and tossing the wristguard and amulet to his friends.

He pinned his brooch to his chest as he spoke. “Should be far enough out now, no new scouts should be in the area yeah?” Lindle directed the question to Humphrey, who had taken out a map to confirm their route.

“Yep. The rangers are avoiding the area until the undead and necrotic mana are cleared.” The ranger slid his wristband on and admired the ghostly scales that shimmered into sight. “Hey, these don’t look much weaker than we tested them out already.”

“Mhm, good, then when we’re out in the deep parts of the wood, it should definitely be enough to protect us from some wild skeletons and zombies,” Lindle said.

“Since neither of you has been that far deep into the Black Wood before, make sure to follow my lead, we’re going to be following the same route the scout that discovered the undead took.” Humphrey took.

Lindle and Thalia both nodded. Humphrey’s experience traversing the Reach outclassed both of theirs combined, and neither of us had a reason to go as far away from one of the groves in this kind of region before as they were going now. Ironically enough, the mountains were usually considered a more dangerous region due to the wildlife. Still, it hardly counted with Madam Holly scaring away most of what made it a threat in the first place while they were there. With Humphrey in the lead, they lowered the chance of stumbling into any dangerous monsters and getting lost. Deep in the Black Woods was where a majority of the Glacial Reach’s ambush predators and dangerous flora hid. With any luck, the undead corruption wouldn’t have spread far enough to disrupt them too much.

Humphrey’s directions took them deeper, occasionally scouting ahead whenever he heard or spotted something and diverting their path to take them out of the way.

“You know,” Thalia said once Humphrey had rejoined them from one said scouting expedition. “We don’t need to avoid every single monster on our way there. Half the point of doing this is to get materials and XP, with Lindle’s items we can afford to hunt down some stuff.”

“That doesn’t sound very druidy of you,” Humphrey teased. “Shouldn’t you be happy we’re preserving the natural wildlife?”

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Spirits, I hate that reputation. The Reach’s monster population isn’t going to just collapse if we cull some extra.”

Lindle raised an eyebrow and Thalia elaborated. “The Circle sometimes keeps adventurers from killing some kinds of monsters or hunting in certain areas in the Reach. Soarians hear the words in harmony with nature and think we’re monster lovers or something. We just know disrupting the natural cycle is more trouble than it’s worth sometimes, the last thing we need is an Apex to go on a rampage when its favorite food source dries up.”

Lindle hummed. “I see. You do gotta admit though, you do sound more bloodthirsty than most druids I know.”

“Shut up.” She punched him in the shoulder and then pulled her fist back with a hiss when she hit one of his floating scales instead. “Ah fuck, cold.”

“Well, luckily for us, we can sate Thalia’s bloodlust now. Spotted some of our targets.” Humphrey said.

Thalia barked indignantly while Lindle looked at him. “Undead? But we’re still a while away from where the scout reported.”

Humphrey shrugged. “You know how wild undead are, they spread and try and find corpses to reanimate. Or make new ones. There’s a pack of monster skeletons taking down a white mammoth.”

That made sense, it had been a couple of days since the quest had first been posted, but it was still worrying they had made it this far. He had hoped that they would be contained more by the monster population as they spread. Luckily, it seemed like it was a case of them roaming uncontested unusually far instead of managing to kill and reanimate a large number of monsters. If they were skeletons, that meant those would be old corpses, likely from the original area of the necromantic build-up. Wild undead usually only created zombies from creatures they killed, there weren’t any necromancers to clean and butcher the flesh with them after all.

They all drew their weapons and snuck forward, the sounds of combat becoming apparent the closer they got. As they crested a ridge and looked down, they saw the fight. Skeletal canine and feline creatures surrounded the towering white mammoth. The mammoth’s usual white fur was covered in red and its breath came out in large clouds of steam. It was clearly exhausted and on its last legs, but wasn’t going down without a fight either, scattered bones of destroyed skeletons dotted the area and several trees had been knocked over as a result of its massive power. The undead were chillingly silent as the mammoth trumpeted with rage and attempted to stomp them into the snow.

“Wow.” Thalia breathed out as she admired the white mammoth. “Can you imagine having a form like that?”

“I’m happy not getting any larger, what? Deciding on one of your new forms?” Lindle asked.

“Maybe…” Thalia hedged.

“We need to focus,” Humphrey interrupted. “What’s the plan here?”

Lindle scanned the chaos of the battlefield, the skeletons dodging between the mammoth’s legs. “We shouldn’t risk getting in the middle of this, it’s too chaotic and we might get the mammoth angry at us too if we hit it by accident. We should let the mammoth take out as many of the skeletons as it can before it dies, and when the skeletons start attempting to reanimate it, we attack.”

Despite her earlier words, Thalia seemed saddened when Lindle mentioned letting the mammoth die, but she nodded. Druids had spells to pacify and communicate with certain beast-type monsters, but the mammoth was too enraged and close to death already, it would lash out and put their lives at risk if they tried to save it.

Lindle pulled out a vial of alchemist’s fire. “We take out as many at range as we can, if they close, Thalia, do you have a form that’ll work well against skeletons?” Her dire wolf form was strong, but her claws and teeth weren’t the best tool against a foe without flesh.

Her eyes flickered to Humphrey, specifically to above his head. “Yeah I have something, it’s should let me hold them off as long as you take them out before they can surround me.”

“I’ll stay close enough to help there,” Lindle said. “Humphrey?”

Humphrey nodded, holding an arrow, which when he looked closer, Lindle saw had a small weighty-looking ball tip instead of a point. “Skeletons suck to fight with a bow, but as long as I aim for headshots, I’ll be fine.”

Lindle smiled, pulling out a flask. “I had time to think about that too, so I asked Chip to do me a favor. He says if you coat your arrows in this oil, the blessing he put on it should let them annihilate undead.”

Humphrey looked dubious. “Holy magic? Are you sure that’ll work? I’m not exactly a follower of Hesty or whoever his goddess is.”

“Chip said it would be fine, she’s not going to be watching you or anything, that’s not how it works.” Lindle gave him the flask.

Humphrey still looked doubtful, “Well, how does it work then?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a cleric either.” Though at the very least, Lindle knew the not-watching part was true, probably. The Ethos that had filled the oil after Chip had blessed it lacked the connection that the halfling possessed that stretched into the sky to his deity.

Thalia sighed. “Just do it, worst-case scenario, it does nothing.”

“Fine,” Humphrey grunted, getting to work covering his arrows in the holy oils.

They continued watching the fight. Even in its current state, the mammoth put up a ferocious fight. The beast was most likely at the very peak of what an apprentice tier was capable of, giving the tireless undead a run for its money in staying power as the minutes dragged on. It shattered one skeletal feline latched onto its hindquarters to pieces against a tree while its trunk attempted to squeeze the life out of another, the undead savaging the trunk with its claws and teeth. Despite not comprehending that the skeleton didn’t need to breathe, the skeleton perished nonetheless as its spine and neck were squeezed to dust, but not before more of them tore large gashes into the beast.

The mammoth was a bloody mess, held together only by its massive bulk and what must have been a bottomless pool of HP, but eventually, after what felt like a lifetime but must have only been a few minutes, the beast stumbled and collapsed, taking one more skeleton as it fell on top of it. The rest of the skeletons descended on the white mammoth, and the beast finally perished.

The three of them looked in respectful silence, not able to say anything for a moment. Lindle had expected the mammoth to only take out a handful more of the undead, but it had destroyed a full dozen just in the amount of time they had been watching, leaving only ten skeletons left. He couldn’t imagine how many the undead horde had numbered when the fighting began.

Despite their losses, the undead immediately surrounded the massive corpse, standing completely still as they soaked the area in necromantic energy. They all shook off their reverie.

“Thalia, when I give the signal, use a spell to give them a harder time when they try to reach us, then join in with ranged attacks.”

The druid nodded, her expression pinched. Lindle felt similar, it had been his idea, but watching that entire fight had still lit a flame of anger in his chest. It wasn’t rational, it would be no different to the mammoth if it had been a pack of living beasts hounding it, by the beyond, Glacian hunters used similar tactics when hunting mammoths, but he hadn’t been able to help but sympathize with the great beast over the lifeless skeletons below. It was a little easier to understand Dorothea’s reaction now when Lindle expressed interest in using undead Ethos. But it didn’t change anything, life and death happened in the Reach every day, it was just going to be a little easier to put his all into this now.

Lindle cycled his Aura into his arm to use [Throw]. “Now!”