The first spells became visible in the distance, errant or miscast spells going high, or spilling over after hitting something. The trademark of Isparian magic, with its focus on pure Elemental energy damage-dealing, was reassuring, as the pure flexibility and versatile attack methods of the Matrix Method was not something the virindi were using.
Soon enough, Princess Kristie crested the third of the intervening hills, and could survey the battle below.
“Interesting…” she murmured under her breath, assessing the situation.
It wasn’t an opposed battle-lines and formal conflict of any kind. It was basically a horde smashing into knots of virindi-led forces, which seemed to be arriving basically from the north.
More amusing was the fact that dark and scar-masked virindi seemed to be directing numbers of Rynthid-possessed Direlands spawns into these attacks, unleashing upon the virindi non-virindi-derived Summons. The Possessed were tougher, stronger, and more erratically magical than those the Rynthid were wearing, and were giving the more disciplined virindi forces quite the drubbing, even with the virindi Vulning and Imperiling for their forces, or following up with appropriate spells instead of random ones.
Sometimes, it looked like Rynthids were leaping to the killers of their hosts, too. The harsh interplay of chaotic lights would jump to one of the tuskers fighting and it would turn against its fellows. Since it could just keep jumping if slain, the virindi would usually blast it dead with a couple spells from a safe distance, but it did affect the lines of tuskers fighting, although the scarecrow-like Minions of multiple varieties seemed to be immune to the emotional corruption.
The older adventurers spoke about Aerbax and how that mutant virindi had led a schism against the Quiddity of the virindi race, it, its followers, and a couple other renegades leaving the Singularity and attempting to retain their own individuality and thoughts against the omnipresent hive-mind of the axiomatic race. Kris had little problem sympathizing with that mindset, but since the ‘free’ virindi didn’t act with any greater morality towards things not of their own race, she had no more support for them than she did for the virindi proper.
Gods above, the idiots had tried to rewrite TIME at some point, tryin to ensure that no non-virindi intelligent races ever existed on Dereth. That little attempt at temporal manipulation had failed, but it highlighted the fact that even messing with causality itself was not beyond the limits, power, or will of the species, and so any denizen of the mortal world was totally justified in sending the bastards back where they came from... or just feeding them to the Land.
The black shells of the Renegade Virindi indicated at least some investigation into the magic of Void and Shadows. Which fact, after encountering Aerbax on Caul Island, didn’t surprise her in the slightest. The fact they’d found some means to control the Rynthids infesting the spawns in the Obsidian Plains and turn them against their kin only highlighted the depths they’d go to in order to suppress and repel their own kind.
The real objective was to kick them ALL off of this plane.
Kris watched Possessed banderlings, drudges, undead, and shades fighting it out with tuskers, minions, marionettes, and virindi, with new arrivals streaming in from north and south steadily.
There was a line of blue and white Minions coming from the west, and another group of them was coming from the north now, too, their chorozite fists glittering blue and pink and ready to crump magical defenses. The Constructs didn’t have any magic, but they were tougher and more dangerous than the tuskers, and since they couldn’t be jump-Possessed, were more reliable in some ways.
The rogue virindi were nowhere near as numerous as the primary branch, but there were basically none below the level of a Master, the minimum level needed to have some sort of self-identity, and most had become much stronger. The defending virindi were naturally trying to target them and break their control of the Rynthid attackers, but the rogue virindi were excellent at sticking to cover behind their servants or some of the magic-ignoring black crystal stands scattered about everywhere in the Direlands.
Surveying it with her predatory Mask, Kris just shook her head. If there was a material objective here she couldn’t see it, and without vivus, there was no risk to anything involved here, unless a Rynthid got close enough to actually jump-Possess a virindi and turn them rogue. Even then, the virindi’s essence would simply return to the Singularity if they died, so this fight was basically nothing more than using up a few shells from the real virindi on both sides who died, and massacring a lot of Summons whose only purpose in life was basically to fight and die.
If there was a method to the madness beyond ephemeral mind games that amounted to nothing, this war of guided emotional combatants against dominated disciplined combatants meant absolutely nothing in real terms. It might mean something on some intellectual level only the virindi truly appreciated, but she could care less about their perceptions of such matters.
It might just all be about emotion, the rogues demonstrating anger and fury at their progenitors and happily displaying such to them, showing the power it brought, tempting the defending virindi with their displays...
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After three hours of watching Summons beat on one another, with virindi leading lunges into the flanks as waves of Rynthid-possessed Summons streamed in erratically yet constantly, Kristie gave up on the show, choosing to withdraw from sight and Teleport out of there using Quaver.
This was just an inane show of flexing with neither purpose nor penalty behind it. Now, if vivus was brought into play, things might have been quite different, and she was pretty sure the rogues would quit the field in haste, as their lower numbers would be far more susceptible to removal of their people.
The main faction would retreat as well. Losing EITHER side meant the main faction lost, as they’d not reclaim the virindi that had gone rogue and return them to the Quiddity, either! A tough position to be in!
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The next day...
“Well, they didn’t destroy the Markers, that’s a plus,” the Mick noted, as I laid a Vivic Eternal Light on said striped pole. It circled the base, and even though the soil was already stained white with the dead shade Summons who’d popped up at the Spawn Point, it still puffed and misted slowly, as if reacting to long-term taint or mana flow we couldn’t easily sense.
“We’ll know what they really think when we leave again. If they destroy the Markers, they definitely don’t want us clearing a road, and we won’t be able to enforce one, given the energies flowing through the place,” Briggs started, pointing ahead with Endure. “No testing, minimal stops, maximum efficiency. Everyone knows what to do. Clear the road, quick and mean. We’re not testing stuff today.”
The Mick and Kris just nodded, leapfrogging teams from one Marker to the next, while I dropped Vivic Eternal Lights and lagged after them, towed by Briggs so I didn’t have to break Aurora Stance and could get my mana back. Thera and Nippo had the Healing if it was needed, but the Lenses and layered ways of getting back Health and Soak for the combatants seemed to be dealing with most of it.
Today we went counter-clockwise around the circle, not heading up to the top to the south where we had yesterday. The spawns in the canyons were much less dense than up top, and there didn’t seem to be any ‘real’ creatures down here, they all preferred to remain up high.
There was only one horde of creatures called over to engage us, a virindi Director bringing in several spawns of banderlings, drudges, and virindi squads upon us. Kris went up the canyon wall to cut it down, then its accompanying circle of Servants and Puppets in short order. I blew up a Wall of Fire from one side of the canyon to the other, setting everything that passed through it ablaze and weakening them greatly for the attention of the two Fellowships waiting on the other side… and also killing them permanently, although we’d still have to hunt down their Spawn Points.
Mostly, the teams just cleaned house quickly and efficiently, nothing out here that much of a threat to them, while I marked the Spawn Points, dropped a misting source of very long-term illumination on them, and trundled after those fighting.
Briggs basically amused himself by tossing Endure around here and there, practicing his ricochets selectively. It would be a bad idea for anyone to think Briggs couldn’t reach out there and touch them…
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The canyon jagged left and around, sloping upwards and bringing us to the blackened surface about a mile shy of the jagged, rough hills that obstructed the Obsidian Center.
Between us and the hills were at least twoscore Spawns of assorted types, with roughly half a dozen real watchers in visual range. Whether they would choose to assemble a horde here, with rivals watching who might also choose to act, was a question we had to consider.
Briggs wasn’t much worried. “What’s extreme long range on a Shardray from you, Ryin?” he asked keenly.
I eyed him, then the surrounding terrain, which was mostly pretty flat, save for the constant leaning stands of hexagonal black crystals jutting out here and there. “Four thousand feet, at least,” I said calmly, earning me startled looks from all the non-reincarnates there.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but none of those watchers trying to stay hidden are actually all that tough.”
“If I do a Split Ray and Pair the spell, I’ll kill any of the ones I can pick out,” I promised calmly. “However, I’d like to keep the magic displays of Matrix magic to a minimum around them. The virindi, shades, and undead are all intelligent Casters who’d just love to see more magic for them to figure out and emulate.”
“Gor, Commander. Ye imagine if they could start sniping at us from a thousand feet or more?” the Mick whistled.
“That could be very bad,” Briggs agreed after a moment. “Is dropping these Lights going to be a problem?”
“They might come up with a Protection from Vivus spell that’ll shield them from perma-death if they have it up, if we give them examples to work from. However, them wielding vivus isn’t going to be an issue. None of them can actually work vivus, and any spells like that can be Dispelled and will be fairly obvious, being variations on Life Wards or reversed Void Protection.”
“So not something they aren’t going to be coming up with anyway. Good to know. Let’s continue, people. If they start sending hordes at us, then Kris is going to be flitting out to make her displeasure known. The magos has our backs in an emergency, and you know she’s watching!”
There were calls of affirmation. Actually, they were all totally aware of that, because just because I was conserving mana didn’t mean I couldn’t contribute. Triple arrays of close-range Darts and Zeks’ Telekinetic manipulation of Hexar Shields, lengths of Chain, or just slapping away thrown or launched missiles were constant things used in support of everyone, intercepting War Magic as needed on Hardened and Impervious adamantine, or even sucking all Elemental magicks in and making it a pure melee/missile grind, which they all didn’t mind at all.
Actually, Thera and Nippo didn’t mind it, either. War Magic was the thing that forced them to Heal and spend mana the fastest, and if they didn’t have to Heal that stuff, as well as not launching War Magic of their own, they could do much better support Casting and conserve a lot more mana for key moments.
Confident and prepared, Hexar Shields with overlapping areas of Elemental draw warding them, the Skeeters and Roaches advanced ahead, the big lugian Vanguards Gros and Kopf taking the lead, and we headed towards the sharp wall of the Center ahead of us. Some disapproving stares watched from the distance, debating whether or not to try to bum-rush us with more hordes… hordes that hadn’t beaten us, and had cost the lives of their controllers.
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