Mia was snapped out of her thoughts and finally managed to focus as the Diviner froze in his tracks.
“I- uh, found some goblins!” Chris spoke up, looking distinctly paler than before when Mia gave him a glance over her shoulder. She wanted to swat herself on the back of the head for getting distracted. Now that Chris mentioned it, she had heard some suspicious noises coming from the canopy about three hundred metres ahead.
“Where?” Brent asked, all business-like as usual, when in combat.
“Up there!” Camie was the one who answered, pointing ahead to the canopy, where the sea of verdant green leaves gave way to the onyx ones. “Right at the border, up on the low branches. Five of them.”
“R- yeah, that,” Chris said after a moment, awkwardly clearing his throat. “They have, uhm, stone … daggers? Yeah. But that’s it.”
“We will handle it,” Staff Sergeant — if Mia remembered his army rank right — Frederic, the man leading the army squad, said resolutely. “We will take care of the chaff so you won’t waste your energy before the big ones emerge. Corporal, your team will be up ahead. Remember, be economical about your ammo if possible, but I’d rather you waste an entire mag on a single gob than die, so don’t be too afraid to use them either.”
Right, they didn’t have an infinite supply of ammo and the supply lines were thoroughly fucked, though not as much as the military industrial complex that should have been fuelling it.
“Got it, Sergeant,” the Corporal said, shouldering his rifle as he stepped ahead, his four men spreading out around him.
“Do you guys want Wards?” Mia spoke up, and the Corporal blinked, giving her a confused look. “Magic shield thingy.”
“Oh, those! I heard of those, ah, no. Thank you, Miss, but we will be fine. Conserve your mana.” He gave her an appreciative nod, though, and then they stalked off, the rest of them following about ten metres behind them.
A minute later, the soldiers slipped off the footpath, setting up behind a few trees to take cover and lined up their shots. A round of loud gunshots rang out, making Mia wince as always as she resisted the urge to clutch her ears.
Heavy, meaty thuds followed as green bodies fell from the trees one after the other. They slammed into the ground, two twitched, but none of them got up, and the Corporal’s team reemerged, giving one of those army hand signs that even Mia could decipher: ‘Task accomplished / all clear’.
Neat. They are pretty good shots, so I guess they’ll be able to make excellent use of my Phalanx if we are made to use it.
Mia crossed her fingers for a bit of good luck, she was feeling rather optimistic about this delve but a bit of extra luck never hurt anyone. But shooting was one thing; they had ages to train with their rifles and sidearms. The alchemical explosives were another case entirely.
“How worried should we be about those barely-tested bombs blowing up in our faces?” Mia asked, giving a wary glance at the large backpacks the demolition team carried on their backs. At least the napalm-in-a-bottle she had been given was stashed away in her spatial satchel, which apparently made it so the vial didn’t get jostled around. From its perspective, it was sitting perfectly still, with no outside forces acting on it, which would likely mean it wouldn’t explode prematurely.
The soldiers didn’t have spatial statchels. The Specialist leading the demo team turned to Mia and grinned in a way that didn’t exactly fill her with confidence. “Not at all. If these bad boys do blow up prematurely, you won’t have to worry about a damn thing ever again.”
“What he means to say-!” Sergeant Frederic said, giving a gimlet glare to the grinning Specialist. “Is that you have nothing to worry about unless you go shooting their backpacks with those mana missiles of yours. The vials have been made so that you need to inject some mana into the glass to make it brittle before throwing them. They detonate when the alchemical sludge touches air.”
“And if you do happen to blow up the backpacks, we will all be far too dead to care about all this ‘world is going to shit’ business,” the Specialist added with a sagely nod, giving his backpack an affectionate pat.
“That too,” Frederic said gruffly. “But they won’t explode from a bit of jostling; they wouldn't have been cleared for field testing otherwise.”
“Considering the standard testing phase that usually lasts years has been compressed down into just a week or two, I don’t exactly trust the thoroughness of the process,” Brent chimed in, notably walking as far away from the demo team as possible without messing up the formation … which Mia decided to take as a cue to do the same. Brent had served in the army, so he probably knew better than her, and she trusted him more than someone who decided to sign up to work with high explosives.
“We don’t have years to test things, nor labs or a proper nerd-squad to do the testing,” the Staff Sergeant said gruffly. “We need the edge now, not years from now. We might very well be monster shit by then if we don’t take risks.”
“Fair enough,” Mia said before it could brew into a proper argument. “But I think I’m gonna stand all the way over there anyway.”
“That’s not nearly far enough if this entire batch blows up on me,” the Specialist said with another unnerving chuckle, but Mia ignored him in favour of making sure her Mage Armour was working at maximum potency. Sure, Gabe was still there doing his silent shadow act, but she was meant to act like he wasn’t there to save her ass if something went tits up. He was right in that it would make horrible habits to get used to him being there as an eternal safety net, because, of course, he couldn’t always be there.
“I’m hearing movement,” Carmilla whispered, then made a low humming sound at the back of her throat that made everyone pause. The silly vampire blinked, pausing too, and averted her gaze.
Mia suppressed the urge to giggle at her, keeping herself focused. She could tease Camie later about purring like a cat or using her Blood magic to stop herself from blushing in embarrassment.
“I hear them too,” Mia said, her ears twitching as she turned her head this way and that like a predatory bird. “Two groups were lying in wait; they are currently creeping up on us from behind those mounds.”
Mia pointed at two nearby earthen ridges running down the side of the hill, just high enough to hide an approaching force from view if they crouched low enough. She tracked two of Chris’ Mage Eyes as they broke away from the perimeter they’d maintained around their party and flew towards the places she’d indicated, invisible to everyone but her.
“Y-yeah, they are there all right," Chris said, swallowing thickly and then he startled, some of his likely expedited training kicking in. “I’m seeing twenty goblins, five orcs and an ogre in the group at our left and the same but with one less orc in the group to our right.”
“Well, it seems you get to ‘field test’ those new toys of yours out in the open,” Brent said. “We will provide support. I want to see what those explosives can really do before we try them in small enclosed underground tunnels.”
“Most of the bombs don’t really ‘explode’ in the default sense of the word; we only got a handful that have a substantial shockwave component to the blast,” the Specialist said. “We aren’t braindead, we don’t want to bring the caverns down on our heads.”
“Fritz, behave,” the Staff Sergeant grunted, throwing the Specialist a nasty glare that probably promised the man a few days spent cleaning toilets with a toothbrush in the very near future or whatever else it was they used to make mouthy soldiers think twice about opening their mouths. “But the essence of what he said is correct; most of what we have was chosen to be usable underground without undue risk. We have acid bombs, magic Molotov cocktails and some weirder ones.”
“And you had the time to test all that?” Brent asked with a frown that Mia could perceive just from the tone of his voice, even without glancing at him.
“It’s not like I particularly like using barely tested tools, but we don’t really have an option; we need every edge we can get,” Frederic said in a tone that made it clear he considered that topic closed. “Fritz, a HE-Red-1 vial to the left and a Red-2 vial to the right. Corporal, cover them.”
The goblins still seemed to be under the mistaken impression that they remained undetected, slowly creeping up on the ridges on the two sides of the path. Mia stayed back, taking the opportunity presented by the army guys taking the lead to make sure everyone’s Protection Wards were topped off and working properly. Then, just in case, she had Sparkle fly around the place at his leisure, just telling him to stay far enough from the group to be away from any possible blast radius. That way, she could Spirit Blink to him if things went sideways. Lina also made her own preparations, putting a hardened wall of air magic between their group and the advancing soldiers.
“That’s new,” Mia noted, watching as Brent’s unsheathed longsword glimmered faintly in the dim light slipping through the canopy. She could feel something in the blade, that same inner energy that Camie called lifeforce and Brent called Ki. “I thought you couldn’t use your Ki outside your body.”
“I can’t,” Brent said simply. “It’s the sword. Now focus.”
Mia nodded, slightly chastised, then again, the force currently gathered to ambush them wasn’t all that threatening. Maybe it would have been had it only been the original four-member party here, but it was not.
As if reacting to the soldiers crossing some invisible threshold — or maybe they’d just gotten bored of waiting — the greenskins roared, the squeaky voices of goblins mixing with the deep bellows of the two ogres as they charged over the ridge. They came from the two sides, seeking to crush the invading group between them decisively, though a handful of goblins stayed behind on both ridges, aiming bows and letting loose a haphazard hail of primitive arrows.
Most of the arrows missed, some hit Lina’s wall of air magic, which she repositioned to halt the projectiles coming from the right side, and on the left, she manually swatted the two flying towards the backline out of the air. Four arrows struck their marks, two just nicking soldiers while the other two were stopped from harming the soldiers they were about to hit in the neck and thigh, respectively, by Mia’s Wards of Protection.
She almost missed the two vials as they flew through the air in a lazy arc, only catching them because some type of magical effect was sticking to them. The one Frederic had called ‘HE Red-1’ clocked the roaring ogre of the left group straight on its massive forehead and promptly exploded with a thunderous boom that made Mia grimace. However, the one that struck the ground between the right-side group was the one that caught Mia’s attention when she felt a rather intense burst of Fire magic burst forth from it. The Red-1 was just a grenade, made through magical means, but still a grenade. The Red-2 was a dormant magical effect packed into a vial that was finally released as its glassy prison shattered, but the result resembled that of an incendiary grenade, so they called it that.
Liquid fire poured forth, blasted into every possible direction by a much tamer explosion, but that just meant everything within a few metres of the vial got coated in the substance. The roars and warcries turned into screams of pain, flesh sizzled and melted off bones, and the fire kept burning. Two of the slower orcs went down, and a third of the goblins followed them into the depths of fiery hell. The greenskins behind it stopped in their tracks, eyeing the burning patch of land in front of them warily, then backed away and began circling around it.
It faintly reminded Mia of burning oil, but was probably more like the near-mythical Greek fire.
In sharp contrast, the more standard explosion, which seemed to focus on maximising the concussive and kinetic forces of the initial shockwave, was much less successful. The ogre came out of it looking dazed, the skin torn off half its face, but still very much alive, if having some trouble not falling on its face every other step. Three orcs had been caught up in the immediate explosion, and while they’d gone down, they were clambering back to their feet, blood streaming from their eyes and noses, but that was hardly enough to stop them. At least the explosion killed nearly every goblin on that side who had neither the orc's healing factor nor the ogre’s ridiculously tough physique.
Their brains and organs should have turned into mulch … then again, maybe they can do without them. She certainly wasn’t a monster biologist or whatever to know how these otherworldly fantastical invaders worked, and the ogres certainly failed to exhibit much sign of actual higher intelligence thus far.
The rifles had started firing sometime ago, while Mia’s ears were ringing, each pull of a trigger sending a single bullet flying at the head or centre of mass of the greenskin enemies. They were surprisingly effective, though … only some of them? One bullet hit an orc, popping its head open like a watermelon struck by a sledgehammer, while for others, all the bullets achieved was to make the orcs wince and rub their foreheads. Were only some of the bullets enhanced?
No, only some of the soldiers had Skills that added an extra kick to their bullets beyond the standard ‘fire bullets’ everyone had filling their magazines. Those who saw their weapons were ineffective switched targets, focusing on the goblins.
“Those ogres are tough bastards,” Sergeant Frederic grunted, then glanced back at Brent briefly. “We will need backup.”
Brent nodded, his grip tightening the hilt of his blade as he stepped forward, then shot off towards the dazed ogre. Mia’s Black Knight followed a second or two later, leaping ahead at the other ogre, practically vibrating with murderous intent.
The battle barely lasted half a minute from there, Brent showing off his fancy new sword that, unlike his previous one, refused to give up on him. Fire and Air aspected Ki coated its edges, channelled through the blade, likely adding some additional effects that weren’t immediately identifiable at a glance. In the first few seconds of the fight, Brent had all but chopped off one of the monster’s ankles, and that decided the outcome of their duel then and there.
Mia’s Black Knight was easily handling the ogre as well, a combination of this numbskull being a bit lower in Level than the previous ones and that Mia’s Spirit stat had risen since her last battle. The orcs were handled by the soldiers, and the goblins were easily mopped up, taken out one at a time by the soldiers whose weapons were proving insufficient against the tougher foes.
“Well, that was disappointing,” said Specialist Fritz, staring at the ogre Brent had cut down with a frown. “You’d think their internal organs are softer than their skin, bones and muscles. The egg-heads are gonna be supremely annoyed about their golden goose of a bomb for tough foes fell flat and flaccid.”
“Sarge, this thing literally has its brain dripping out of its ears,” one of the soldiers kneeling next to the same ogre said with audible bemusement colouring her voice.
“Well, apparently they don’t need them as much as us,” Frederic said, then shrugged. “Well, at least our little liquid fire bomb performed adequately. Are we going on or harvesting them now?”
“We will have time on the way back,” Brent said, sounding dismissive of the idea. “Form up, we are heading inside. Riflemen will be on fire-support focusing on the goblins, those of you who can hit harder shouldn’t waste your bullets on chaff though. We will handle the big ones, the ogre and the orcs that get up close and personal. Any questions?”
“Where do bombs fit into the picture?” Fritz asked with undue enthusiasm.
“When we run out of other options, or are under threat of being overrun,” Brent said. “You have your rifles, use them. Hands off those bombs unless I say otherwise. Any more questions? … No? Good. Then form up and let’s go.”
The party advanced into the depths, taking the widest tunnel to accommodate their expanded numbers. Worryingly, it hadn’t even been half the size the last time they’d been, and it also showed no signs of pickaxe usage. Mia was no expert, but she was pretty sure she could tell smooth rock and an artificial mineshaft apart. This one was different, reminding her of the tunnels made by those burrowing Evergreen worms, which probably meant the prime suspect was a greenskin with Earth magic.
They were met by no opposition on their way down; the chambers they’d cleared in the morning were still empty and, worse, dark. At least the soldiers were better prepared than Mia’s team had been, having fastened flashlights to their rifles and even handed out some headlights. Mia didn’t take one, preferring to have her witch hat on instead, even if it wasn’t particularly made for active combat.
It was when they stepped into the wide open chamber in which their final battle had taken place and were once again met by not a single greenskin, not scouts, not lurking Redcaps, nothing, that Mia’s paranoia started acting up in full force. It made no sense.
Which was probably the only reason she caught the strange shift in the miasma under their feet as they made their way through the field of stalagmites. A shift which was mirrored a moment later in the ceiling above them, a small bundle of miasma that Mia felt was vaguely Earth-aligned, actualising into the beginning of some magical effect. She couldn’t decipher the purpose of it by feeling alone, but common sense gained from watching one too many silly action movies took up the slack, especially when she noticed similar globs of miasma lingering above every single hanging stalactite.
“Pull back! The stalactites-“ a loud crack from right above her interrupted Mia, turning her words into a frightened squawk as she was yanked aside by Camie even before she herself could move to dodge. “Dodge!”
It wasn't very helpful advice, considering there were hundreds of stalactites hanging from the ceiling, the smallest the size of pencils, some the size of stakes and the largest more than a metre thick at the base and probably weighing hundreds of kilos. The rock formation began to fall, each creaking and eliciting shouts of panic from the people below.
Her White Guardian appeared at her side and dutifully held its tower shield above its head, forming a small shelter beneath which Camie deposited Mia before leaping back into action. The vampire nabbed Helene first, just as she leapt away from a larger falling stalactite, barely avoiding getting crushed, and then she grabbed Brent and Lina to also shove them under the White Guardian’s protective shield. Lina yelped in shock as she was grabbed, the hastily crafted shield of air above her dissipating just before a spike of rock could test itself against it. Brent just grunted. Rock formations fell on the tower shield too, but the pseudo-spirit deflected them to send them crashing onto the ground metres away, showing only minor signs of strain with the larger chunks of falling rock.
The sound of shattering stone and the deafening crash of the occasional massive stalactite almost overwhelmed the soldiers' loud cursing. Not even Mia’s small group under the tower shield escaped everything, being struck by shrapnel from shattering rocks, but her Wards withstood them well enough.
By the time Camie could have leapt back into action to help the soldiers, it was over. There were only so many stalactites on the ceiling, and the soldiers who managed to evade a handful of them without moving around too much found themselves in small safe zones. By some miracle, Chris stood unharmed as well, seemingly having been shoved into a safe zone by one of the soldiers currently groaning while trying to dig himself out from under a pile of rock.
“All of them are primed to fall,” Mia said once silence fell. “Be careful.”
No one moved, staring up at the ceiling with worried frowns, then over at the soldiers. Some of them stood in small safe zones or atop the shattered remains of fallen stalactites. A handful lay half-buried under a pile of rubble, but most of them looked down at themselves with expressions ranging from surprised to horrified, like they couldn’t believe they were even alive.
Reasonably so, because while Mia’s Ward of Protection was a good Rank 1 spell, it was hardly enough to stop hundreds of kilos of falling rock if it hit you. She could distinctly remember feeling three of her Wards pop after getting overwhelmed. But for every Ward that failed, there were two that saved a soldier from getting maimed or worse. Crushed limbs, pulverised torsos, cracked skulls, or getting brained by a falling stalactite outright.
“And the three of you are dead,” Gabriel said from above, making the three soldiers left bereft of Mia’s Wards glow slightly as his own Wards shimmered into view around them. “Or at the very least suffering from crushed limbs, or half your torsos getting pancaked, which is all quite deadly considering no one here had high-quality health potions.”
“Well, shit,” one of the soldiers in question, a member of the fireteam, said with feeling, getting a round of chuckles and agreement from his fellows. The atmosphere afterwards was strange, the three soldiers likely trying to come to terms with having escaped certain death only because they were accompanying their team in specific, which was getting babysat by the only Rank 3 person in the city.
Once they knew what to expect, clearing a path ahead was simple enough. Mia just sent her White Guardian ahead and had it deflect the falling stalactites to the side, creating a traversable path they could follow if they were careful. The next adjacent chamber in which the two Sprites had all but slaughtered every greenskin all by themselves was much the same, making their procedural advance ahead a slow and extremely obvious affair. Even if the greenskins were blind, deaf and stupid as rocks, they’d still notice the reverberations going through the earth and the loud crashing sound of falling stalactites echoing down their tunnels.
They knew the enemy was coming, and they would be prepared. Mia just had to hope her assembled party had what it took to beat them despite that. In the morning, they’d enjoyed having the benefit of surprise on their side, but now they were dealing with an enemy that knew they were coming. An enemy that had taken refuge in the very depths of their territory and surrounded themselves with traps and other defences meant to weaken or outright kill the invaders before the final confrontation.
They might have the home field advantage, but we have the advantage of a pile of dubious, barely-tested explosives on our side. If action movies taught me anything, it’s that there are few problems in life that can’t be solved with a sufficient amount of explosives, or a sufficiently large explosion.