ALL NOVEL Chapter 38: Escape
The Secondary Fonts produce less destructive Primordials than the originals. These Primordials are always located in or near places of Illusian habitation—even when significantly more densely aspected regions exist. The development of Illusian primals for these Fonts is accelerated when compared to the original Fonts created by the gods.
*It should be noted that this researcher first named this Font "Community" when it was discovered by her and her team, but the primals of this Font wish for it to be called Understanding.
Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed
—
Kole’s blade cleanly sliced the ropes, his invisibility holding up despite the action. The log shifted slightly at first, and the goblin leaning against it jumped back in surprise, giving it the extra push it needed to tumble over the edge. He still only heard a high-pitched whine with his destroyed ears as the massive tree trunk bounced and rolled down the steep incline.
The other two goblins stared at the third in shock, shouting something to him. The one by Kole raised his hands in denial, shaking his head, but the other two were not convinced by his pleas, and they each fired their weapons into his diminutive body.
When the murderous pair moved to reload, Kole ran behind them both. He landed a kick on the side of the nearest one, breaking his invisibility but sending the unaware goblin over the edge. The third dropped his unloaded crossbow and grabbed at a dagger from his belt, but Kole was ready, and he blasted the creature in the chest with a bolt of purple energy.
Moving quickly, Kole cut the ropes on the remaining two logs, sending them down to finish off any that remained below. Then, he took a torch from the wall and threw it over the edge. Briefly, before it extinguished itself in the water, Kole saw that some of the goblins remained, but the logs had stacked near the cave mouth, restricting the entrance enough that Doug could swipe at any goblin limb that tried to enter.
Kole turned invisible again and continued down. He felt his way along the wall as he navigated back toward the steep rock face they’d climbed on their first visit. Goblins filled the entry chamber where it split to the beach and the ridge. The shaman stood, backlit by the entrance, and he watched as his followers flooded toward Kole’s friends.
Looking for anything he could use, Kole scanned the room. The rocky climb remained as Rakin had fixed it on their first climb, but Kole spotted something they had—thankfully—missed on their original attempt. A small wooden board lay on the ground, with a taut string coming out from under it, leading up into the ceiling above the cave entrance. Kole couldn’t see what it did, but he could make an educated guess. He slammed his foot down on the pressure plate and felt a snap as the string separated and flew up into the darkness.
Rocks and boulders fell from the ceiling onto the goblins below, and Kole felt the ground shake with each impact, deaf as he still was. Dust pillowed up from the impacts, and the cave quickly became obscured, the only thing Kole could see being the light of the cave entrance.
Carefully he climbed down the stone wall and groped blindly through the debris-strewn entrance, over the dead and dying goblins until suddenly he was outside in the light.
Kole rose from all fours to run but was suddenly struck in the back with a blunt object. He fell to his knees but recovered enough sense to roll forward and turn, facing his attacker. The goblin shaman stood behind him, with a skull-topped club raised for another attack, murder and hate in his eyes.
Kole raised his hands and saw that a gray dust had completely covered him, revealing him. He groped for his quarterstaff but realized he’d dropped it back by the log trap and not remembered to go back for it.
Stupid!
Instead, he held up his blasting rod and fired a bolt wildly at the oncoming attacker. The bolt went wide, and the goblin came on, swinging his club at Kole’s chest. Kole jumped back, dodging the swing, and came back with another blast of his rod, tapping the goblin on the arm before unleashing his Will through the weapon.
The purple energy exploded into the goblin’s arm, severing it below the elbow and sending him sprawling back.
The anger in the goblin’s eyes turned to madness as Kole lined up a shot to finish him off, but then the shaman closed his eyes and Kole began to feel a deep connection forming to the Arcane Realm at the back of his head.
Death spell! He realized and turned to run.
He made it only ten steps before he was thrown across the field by an overwhelming wave of sound.
***
Kole came too sometime later, though he didn’t know how long it had been. At first, he was confused but the pain in his everything quickly jogged his memory. Cautiously he opened his eyes to find himself near the forest’s edge, far closer than he had been when he’d been struck by the shaman’s death spell. Then it all came back to him. The shaman had killed himself, drawing uncontrolled power from the Font of Sound in an attempt to take Kole with him.
He rolled onto his back, letting out a gasp of pain when he tried to use his left arm.
That’s definitely broken.
With a great effort, he sat up and looked around the cave’s clearing. A few diminutive shapes were milling about in the darkness, but no goblins were around. Kole forced himself to his feet, and took a few unsteady steps into the woods, holding onto trees for support.
Painfully, he made his way through the woods, not even remembering to turn invisible.
Still deaf, his head spun around manically, looking for any sign of an ambush he couldn’t hear. He quickly came to realize that he had no idea where he was.
What happens if I stay lost? Will I be pulled from this place? Will I wander around until I die of thirst and the dungeon spits me out?
Lost in thoughts of his potential modes of failure, he didn’t at first notice the bluebird on the branch in front of him, waving its wings as if to get his attention.
After the third time, the bird repositioned itself to block his path, the oddity finally struck home in Kole’s concussed brain. He stopped, looking at the bird. It seemed to tell it had been noticed and flew off to Kole’s left a few yards before stopping on a branch.
Weird… Kole thought, but then recalled what Doug had said before about ‘asking around.’
He followed the bird through the woods, still paranoid of ambush, but trusting the bird to flee if any goblins were near. After ten minutes of this, the bird flew up high, landing on a high branch of a tree. Kole began to look for a path to the bird when he noticed the group of goblins gathered beneath the tree, standing in a circle with weapons drawn. The surroundings came back to him, and he realized where he was. They were gathered around the hatch they’d use to enter the caves.
Kole dove behind a large tree, and drew his blasting rod, inspecting it for damage as Amara had advised he do after battle. As far as he could tell, it had survived the Thunderwave far better than he had. He risked a glimpse around the tree and counted four goblins with crude bows drawn and trained on the hatch.
Elaborate plans of ambush flickered through Kole’s mind, but he threw them all out. He still couldn’t hear, and who knew what was happening through the hatch. He lined up his blasting rod at the lone goblin facing his direction and fired a bolt at its chest. As soon as the projectile had fired he ducked behind the tree, turning invisible again.
He didn’t wait for them to find him and ran around the group to another tree. His passage was clumsy and loud, and he saw three remaining goblins look right toward him, though they couldn’t see the source of the terrible woodcraft. One goblin fired blindly and the arrows streaked right before Kole’s path forcing him to stop and fall back behind a large oak.
Pausing to gather his breath and steady his hand, Kole stuck his head out and aimed at the nearest goblin. All three had abandoned their ambush and moved to find him.
Once more his bolt struck true, but this time the goblins were ready. The remaining two loosed arrows at him as soon as he appeared, and one landed a lucky shot, grazing Kole’s ribs and fouling his attempt to turn invisible.
Kole fired another bolt, missing terribly, but driving the goblins behind cover. His Will was dangerously low, and he judged he could send one more bolt, but that wouldn’t be enough.
He sat there debating using his Will to turn invisible and flee, or to take out one more goblin. Above him, the bluebird flew away, and he made his decision. Kole rolled around the tree to find the goblins advancing with swords drawn. He forced the last bit of his Will into his rod and sent a bolt into a tree beside the goblins. They both dove out of the way but quickly recovered their feet and ran at him. Kole pointed his now useless rod at the closest of the two, causing it to dive behind cover but the other continued on toward him.
Kole raised the thin rod back to chuck at his attacker, when it stopped, stumbled, and then fell to the ground, an arrow sticking from its back. Kole spun to the other goblin, to see that it had never recovered from its dodge, having been struck in the head by one of Rakin’s darts.
The exhausted wizard looked up and found Rakin and Doug standing with weapons drawn as Zale carried an unconscious girl, another following behind, eyes wide in terror.