Book 2. Chapter 14

Book 2. Chapter 14

“Step lightly,” said Hogg as they approached the walls.

Brin had always wondered why Hogg spent so much effort to learn to be stealthy when as an [Illusionist] he had literally been able to turn invisible and muffle all sound. It was paying off now, though. Hogg moved like a ghost, and Brin doubted he’d have spotted him if he didn’t already know exactly where he was.

Marksi camouflaged himself perfectly with the street and quickly faded from view. Growing legs hadn’t done anything to hamper Marksi’s natural sneakiness or his ability to camouflage himself with illusion magic. Brin was able to follow him with [Know What’s Real] for a bit, but then he disappeared and he couldn’t find him again.

He was left to follow along as quietly as he could.

It was good he’d delayed until two hours after sundown, instead of dusk like Hogg had wanted. Maybe they’d be fine, but he doubted he would’ve been able to sneak out of town undetected if anyone was still on the street.

They reached a watchtower, and Hogg unlocked and opened it in eerie silence. They reached the top, where a [Hunter] was waiting for them. No, a [Huntress].

Name Luiza Agua Race Human Age 24 Level 22 Description Luiza evolved her Class into Huntress at level 20. Most of her levels are in [Gatherer]. Skills

Locate - Allows Luiza to locate static objects, such as nuts, berries or herbs.

Gather - Increase the yield of common items gathered by Luiza. Yield increased by a random amount based on Skill level. This does not include objects or items that have been placed or grown deliberately by people or sapient monsters. It will include anything harvested from wild animals or monsters, such as fur or organs.

Track - Allows Luiza to track moving things, such as animals or people.

Trickshot - Luiza can boost her arrows with mana to increase their accuracy.

She nodded at them, not speaking and turned to the balcony and casually hopped down. Brin didn’t hear her hit the ground.

He gave Hogg a questioning glance, but Hogg just nodded to the balcony, indicating that he should follow her.

From the looks of things, Luiza would be tagging along. That [Gather] Skill would be invaluable. He just wished Hogg had told him he’d decided to bring someone else.

Brin hopped down. His landing wasn’t close to silent, but there was a little thrill in how easy it was. He didn’t have the [Scarred One’s] Strength and Dexterity, but even as he was now, it was no trouble to make the twenty foot drop and land without hurting himself.

They walked together across the field, hunching down to try to avoid the gaze of the [Hunters] in the other watchtowers. It was fairly likely they weren’t watching that closely; none of them had even seen any undead as far as he knew. And hopefully they’d all be expecting Luiza to watch this area.

Inside the forest they kept up their silence until they were a half-mile away from the town. “Should be far enough.”

“Good!” said Brin. “Nice to meet you, Luiza. Thanks for agreeing to help us with this.”

He held out his hand, and she gave him a limp handshake and a shrug. “Well. You know.”

She didn’t exactly look like a [Huntress]. She had a round face and slumped her shoulders as if hoping that everyone would stop looking at her. She looked more like a stereotypical [Gatherer], which made sense.

But Brin didn’t think she was a [Gatherer] or a [Huntress]. She was definitely a [Witch], right? He didn’t even know there were any women with a [Huntress] Class in Hammon’s Bog, which meant that Luiza was probably the only one. That kind of uniqueness was exactly what Brin was looking for, as far as possible [Witches] went. How much would he bet that people looked down on her for her chosen Class? How much resentment would she feel if they did?

Also, there was the fact that Hogg had clearly informed her about what they were doing beforehand. He didn’t know for sure how much she knew, but the fact that he trusted her with this likely meant that she already knew about the potion.

Or maybe Hogg had given her a list of ingredients he needed, not explained anything, and brought her along as a false flag to get Brin to guess her and lose their bet. That sounded exactly like something Hogg would do.

“I wish you had told me someone else was coming along, though,” said Brin. “Honestly, Hogg, I know you live for this cloak and dagger stuff, but the rest of us like to communicate. Does she even know what we’re here for?”

Luiza seemed to shrink at his words.

Hogg pointed at him and scowled. “You’ll be glad she’s here. Otherwise we would’ve traipsed all around this forest all night and come home empty handed.”

Brin noticed that Hogg didn’t address his question. Did Luiza know about the potion of Turn Undead or not? He said, “I’m already glad she’s here. It means I don’t have to talk to you all night. Like I said, nice to meet you Luiza. You don’t often see girls choosing [Huntress]. I think it’s neat.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Sure. Not everyone has what it takes to forge their own path. It’s brave,” said Brin.

She smiled and unclasped her hands. “I don’t know about that. [Gatherer] hits a wall in the twenties. I’d need to [Gather] new things if I wanted to keep getting experience, but I can’t do that here in Hammon’s Bog. I had to evolve out of it, and the choices were either [Herbalist] or [Huntress].”

“Well, all the same,” said Brin.

“Thanks,” said Luiza. “Let’s start this way.”

She darted off through the forest. She moved quickly, seeming completely at home. She stepped over roots and through bushes as easily as if they weren’t there. Hogg matched her easily, but Brin had to push himself to keep up.

If he didn’t have increased vision in the dark, a benefit of [Thief] that had transferred to [Know What’s Real], it would’ve been completely impossible. His darkvision worked fairly well for things up close, so he could see the twisted roots and treacherous pools of water well enough to place his feet, but it wasn’t as easy or natural as walking in the daylight. Also, it faded quickly with range, so whenever they got thirty or so feet ahead they sank right into the shadows of any trees they stepped under.

They were also completely silent. He got the feeling it was more about habit than actual conscious effort, but that didn’t make them easier to follow. As it was, he was constantly on the edge of losing them.

They definitely could’ve lost him if they wanted to. He’d round a tree to see them both standing up ahead, and they’d start moving as soon as he was in sight. Of Marksi there was no sign, but he figured the little guy was around.

They entered a rare patch of prairie, and Luiza stopped in the middle and bent over. When Brin caught up, he saw her cutting some spiky leaves off a tiny plant growing up weakly under the tall grass. As she harvested, there seemed to be two leaves for every one she cut off.

“That’s amazing,” said Brin.

The weapons they carried were rusty messes often as not, clutched in hands that didn’t seem to know what they were for, carrying them on instinct rather than any real familiarity.

They began to moan as they shambled forwards, halting, uneven gaits.

“These are completely different from the undead we saw before,” said Brin. “What’s going on?”

“Different [Witches] have different styles,” said Hogg. “If I had to guess, this is a different army than the one that followed us here from Travin’s Bog, with a different leader. It would also explain why they’re stupid enough to get close. It’s totally possible they don’t know who I am.”

“But they all work for Arcaena, right? Why wouldn’t they share information on literally the most dangerous person in this forest?”

“[Witches],” Hogg said simply.

“So the other army was the professional and this is the newbie? Because these zombies look like they’re going to fall apart before they even get to us,” said Brin.

“Nah, if anything it’s the opposite. That other [Witch] zipped them up tight because she had to. It takes a lot of doing to make them all rotten like that without actually letting them fall apart. But what good is having an undead army if you don’t lean into the psychological aspect? This [Witch] likes scary monsters. And make no mistake, these ones aren’t any weaker than the others we’ve faced. When they get close they’ll remember how to move.”

Luiza’s eyes darted between Hogg and Brin, growing so wide he thought they might pop out. “How can you two be so casual about this?”

Hogg chuckled.

Feeling a bit bad, Brin said, “You’ll see. This isn’t even a warm-up for Hogg.”

“Yeah, but he’s only one man. He can’t fight all of them at once.”

Brin raised an eyebrow.

Luiza shook her head, looking like she was about to cry.

She paced back and forth, watching the approaching undead with wild eyes. Then she stopped, took a deep breath... and bolted.

She made it two steps before she slammed backwards onto the ground. She rose, clutching her neck. A black collar had appeared there, attached to a black chain, held by Hogg.

“Just trust me for a couple more minutes,” said Hogg.

Luiza whimpered, but stood and brushed herself off, and didn’t try to run when the collar and chain disappeared.

Had that been hard light? It was black. Could hard light be black? It must. That had been a complicated working. The hard light Brin had seen Hogg make in the past tended to be big simple shapes, but that chain had been real-looking.

“Is that what you’ve been doing these past couple weeks?” asked Brin. “Practicing?”

“Of course,” said Hogg. “Wouldn’t you?”

Brin nodded.

The minutes ticked by. The undead drew closer. Their moans became louder, and as they neared he could hear squelching in their footsteps, and the sound of ragged breath.

The undead started to cross the stream behind them, forgoing the log bridge to slosh through the water.

Hogg obliged them by moving towards the center of the field, to give them space to properly surround them. To Brin’s surprise, the ground here actually was pretty flat, with no surprise pools or tributaries.

“Hm. Only about a hundred. Shame. Oh well, time to get started.”

He lifted a hand. “[Manipulate Shadows].”

Brin knew for a fact that Hogg had no such Skill, but despite that, a patch of shadow in front of Hogg rose and filled the air.

It split into six balls, which spun and turned flat, resolving themselves into perfect black sawblades. They started to spin, faster and faster, until they whirred with an audible whine.

Hogg indicated, and the sawblades jetted out, each of them exploding straight through one of the undead.

“Whoa!” said Luiza.

The six casualties weren’t nearly enough though, and the rest of the undead broke out into a full-on sprint. Gone was the awkward shambling. They ran like trained warriors and held their weapons in solid grips, aimed for the kill.

“[Dance of the Shadow]!” Hogg yelled. Again, he definitely didn’t have a Skill like that. He was choosing to hide his real abilities by making it look like he had shadow powers. [Shadow Manipulation] sounded like something a high-level [Rogue] might get, after all. A clever ploy, especially if he could convince them to try to counter him with light. All this was moot if the [Witches] communicated amongst themselves, but Hogg was the type to seize every possible advantage, even those that might not pan out.

Real Skill or not, Hogg’s [Dance of the Shadow] rose to terrible prominence. Shadow swelled in every direction. Tendrils of darkness wrapped themselves around undead, bearing them to the ground. Great clubs flattened some, while others were diced to pieces by pitch-black knives. A huge mouth erupted from the ground to bite a zombie straight in half. A few were consumed by swarms of black flies. One unlucky undead was shackled with black chains, not unlike the one that had grabbed Luiza, and then tugged like a marionette, forced to fight the zombie next to it.

The fight wasn’t a fight at all; it was a massacre. Hogg’s shadows were a shade darker than black, and it was deeply unsettling to watch. Limbs flew. Bodes were torn apart, smashed, and diced. The smell of rotten blood filled the clearing, until it was overcome with a stench that was even worse.

In moments, it was done, and silence returned.

Brin noticed that three or four weren’t dead, they’d been bound by black tendrils and were slowly being squeezed to death, but they hadn’t stopped squirming yet.

He licked his lips, and tightened his grip on his spear. “Hey, can I fight that one?”