ALL NOVEL 11: Match over
The view of the walls silences the war. The swords and spears that a second ago clanked against each other, stop dead in their tracks, and those wielding the weapons raise their gawking expressions towards the colossal virgin stone walls. A man with a golden crested helmet, sitting on a pile of dark elven and minotaur corpses, also looks up. Claus, the first squad captain, gives a quiet smile.
Moonsong curses in the darkness language and pulls the reins to turn her bicorn around. In a loud voice she orders retreat. A nearby elf asks what will happen to those trapped inside the kingdom, and immediately regretting opening his mouth, Moonsong gives him a fierce look.
"They are no longer our problem!" Moonsong says without a hint of pity or appreciation, and speeds up her mount. The metal boot's heel digs so violently into the beast's side that it bleeds, opening old wounds. As she accelerates, Moonsong regrets not having been more hasty with the invasion plans. "Damn humanity and its mysterious powers!"
Now Moonsong will have to answer to The Master. If The Master were a normal person, she would try to seduce or betray him. But this is not the case, and Moonsong for the first long time begins to shiver with fear.
The dark army begins to retreat, taking the captured slaves with them. There is still a dangerous portion of dark elves inside the kingdom. The elves barely get over the shock caused by the walls, they resume the fight and the massacre, ignorant of the fact of being abandoned by their allies.
«Take that, in the face!»
Jimbo exclaims back through the clouds, not distinguishing the horsemen at all well. But he's 90% sure they crashed into the rock. He assumes the crash wasn't pretty, so avoids getting closer and instead explores the next options to make.
«The enemy commander chickened out»
Smiles as he watches the elves outside retreat. Wants to scoff, but if he were in the enemy's shoes perhaps would react in a similar way. It hurts to be winning and have your opponent turn the game around, especially if it's with an unexpected tactic whose origin you fail to understand.
«There are still many elves inside... What can I do?»
Curious, check out the third branch of options: Atmosphere.
Once again too many options appear, and so as not to overload, he limits the search to the first on the list. Jim doesn't waste time worrying about spending ether, since he increased his range feels that those costs are being paid by other people.
Tip: Every 20 levels the Dungeon Core has the ability to add or mix a new atmosphere ability into its domain. Atmosphere can make both physical and psychological changes to the environment and its inhabitants.
Doing quick calculations, Jimbo grasps that he can currently have up to three different atmospheres. For now, he's content to have one to help them.
«Let's see... Not this. Not this one either. Huh? Seasonal heat...? What would be the point of something like that?! Next. Hmmm... This one might work!»
-Atmosphere: Preservation Instinct (Primitive).
Requirement: Availability.
Description: Activates and intensifies individual and group preservation mechanisms. Although those affected may suffer from fear or panic, the environment drives them to have a combative attitude towards threats.
Caution: Due to being the primitive version, it diminishes the intelligence of those affected and pushes them to fight in a physical and instinctive way, guided by passionate forces. This can cause problems among the members of a group.
After choosing the option, the "system" asks him to determine who his allies are.
«Humans, I guess»
Jim says with some hesitation. It's not like the wizard treats him at all well. But between victims and victimizers, Jimbo chooses to side with the first.
The system also questions him about whether he wants to affect allies as well as enemies. Although Jimbo sees potential in the option to turn opposing units into brutes, he doesn't think it's the best time to try it.
He activates the ability, and a wave of red energy that only he can see spreads through the realm. The first to be affected are the soldiers.
A young squire is cornered in an alley. Trying to defend himself with a broken sword, while a minotaur corners him, covering with its wide body the only way out. The young squire gulps and looks to the sides in desperation. Suddenly he feels a fire awakening in his brain.
Fear turns to anger and a desire to fight to live another day.
The minotaur stops walking and his bovine eyes look quizzical at the change in the human's expression. He was going to amuse beating the boy to try to gain reputation among the dark elves and perhaps avoid punishment, but he changes its mind and swings the club to kill the boy with one blow. The minotaur did not expect the squire to strike first...
The broken sword buries in the minotaur's head. The young squire lets out a war cry as he stabs repeatedly, bringing the beast down. Get up and run towards the elves covering the exit of the alley. One of them raises a bow and fires a plenilunium-tipped arrow that bites into the boy's chest. But that is not enough to stop him and he keeps running as if possessed by some demon...
The elf quickly reloads her bow and fires two arrows, one sticks in the young squire's stomach and the other in head. The boy finally falls dead.
The next to be affected by the change in the atmosphere are the mundane inhabitants: peasants, bakers, carpenters, coachmen, cooks, vagabonds, in general ordinary people. The faces of many elves are tinged with shock when the fleeing humans, and those they already had trapped in chains, grab anything: whether stones, pieces of wood, or broken weapons, to attack them.
An elf on a bicorn covers with a shield when some children appear to throw stones at him. Annoyed, he climbs down from the mount and advances to assassinate the brats. The children flee, but one stumbles and falls to the ground. The elf approaches and raises his sword, and without hesitation, brings his arm down to decapitate the boy.
A blast of gray dust covers the boy's face, making him close his eyes but causing no harm. The elf, confused, looks at the sword hilt, now blunt, slowly decaying under the sun's rays. The same happens to the armor, the particles are slowly carried away by the wind.
"It can't be... We were supposed to have time until nightfall!"
It's obvious that someone lied to them. Immediately a culprit comes to his mouth, and gritting his teeth until they grind and ache, the elf mutters:
"Moonsong, you damned whore. You will pay for bringing us into this trap"
The elf plans to go into the shade to delay the inevitable and look for a way out, but is paralyzed when, turning, he discovers surrounded by a human crowd, a mixture of soldiers and civilians, some wounded or bloodstained, none of them looking happy.
The plenilunium's protection vanishes like a mirage. The victimizers become victims and flee from the human hordes that surround them and tear them apart with bare hands. There are no prisoners, a primitive and brutal impulse drives the violence, a desire to survive that turns into rancor and animal vengeance.
In the castle basement, Arrax and his disciples can no longer maintain the ritual and collapse. The magic circles are extinguished, and Jimbo is dragged by an invisible force back to the core room, becoming very dizzy from the sudden change of scenery.
King Marc, his face and body tense, questions the crystal as to what is happening upstairs. As soon as Jim recomposes from the dizziness, he responds, and the Imp is dumbfounded, her amputated wings quivering with admiration. Imp translates to the rest:
"The core says match is over... This is victory"