Chapter 340: The Fruits of Summoned Labour

Silence-spiders scrambled through the treetops, gangly monsters lurched through the underbrush.

But, Alex was ready.

“Go!” he barked, sendings Wizard’s Hands among the horde of spiders.

Crunch!

Wooooosh!

Sleeping gas spread in a dense cloud, enveloping Ravener-spawn, stealing control of their movements. They wavered back and forth, shooting webbing, but missing their targets, growing weaker with each breath. Until, in the crimson light of Alex’s spells, scythe-tipped legs spasmed, and silence-spiders plummeted without a sound.

Yet, for every one that fell, two skittered through the canopy to take its place.

Bzzzzz!

A cloud of elemental beetles swarmed them en masse, crawling along carapaces, seeking gaps for pincers to nibble between and feast on the soft flesh beneath. The spiders went wild, thrashing at the leaves, dropping to the ground, frantic to escape as the beetles ate them alive. Another beetle swarm pinched their eyes, some flew into gaping mouths and chewed the moist insides.

The Ravener-spawns’ jaws opened and closed, forming silent shrieks, but Alex’s will hardened. His tactics might be vicious, but the creatures weren’t there for a picnic with him and Gwyllain, they were there to kill them.

This was war.

And the enemy was still coming.

The air elementals reacted.

Flashes of blue light and a hungry crackle heralded their attacks. Lightning struck a cluster of silence-spiders, sending them into spasms, then the summoned monsters dropped into gaping jaws and sucked their air away. They stopped moving. More appeared, Alex sent three forceballs at their legs, tripping some, knocking them to the forest floor. Ravener-spawn within the treetops kept up the battle, fighting soundlessly, but Taraneas sprayed streams of silk, binding them to the branches. Soon, the canopies were filled with writhing cocoons of struggling monsters, breaking the momentum of the enemy’s charge.

Alex used the lull to call his Wizard’s Hands and hand them booby-trapped flight potions, keeping one in each of his hands. Then, he eyed the forest. Monsters kept coming. With a short command, he sent Wizard’s Hands into the clot of attackers at the front, and to hover above those at the back.

He planted his feet, tightening his grip on the potions in his palms and—

Whoosh!

—launched them, his enhanced senses and reflexes delivered them with precision.

Crash!

Whoooosh!

Glass shattered against tree trunks.

Wizard’s Hands cracked vials.

Crunch! Whoooosh!

Vapour swept the air, filtering through the canopy, filling the monsters’ lungs.

One moment they were clinging to a stand of trees, the next, they’d been yanked off and were flying straight into gnarled branches, tree trunks and even each other. Silence turned to ear-splitting shrieks; pulped silence-spiders soon filled the undergrowth and canopy.

“Oh dear…I feel sick.” Gwyllain groaned and covered his mouth, looking even greener.

On the forest floor, a different type of Ravener-spawn wasn't having a much better time of it. Alex recognized them: venom walkers.

Nasty things.

The entry on their venoms, habits, and what could withstand them, took up an entire page in the Thameish bestiary: Cleanse Flesh or not, staying away from those barbed tentacles was a must.

“Don’t let them touch you!” Alex warned Gwyllain. “They’re full of poisons!”

“I don’t want any of those monsters touching me!” Gwyllain’s voice sounded panicked, as did his eyes.

The young wizard sent forceballs racing through the underbrush, dimming the light until they reached the venom walkers. The spheres hovered at eye level for a heartbeat then abruptly flared as bright as flame. Screeching, and flinching, they tore at their eyelids, trying to clear the searing light, but Alex wasn’t finished with them yet. His forceballs looped between their legs, pitching them into the underbrush.

Most tried to kick away Alex’s spells, and a pair were almost upright, but…

Earth elementals had nothing to fear from poisons, but venomous creatures had plenty to fear from earth elementals. The summoned monsters grabbed spiny tendrils, dragging downed venom walkers into the soil as some were trampled by their kin in their rush to reach Alex. A wall of icy spray hit monsters and the ground around them, turning the earth into a spreading sheet of freezing water. The foliage drooped with ice, and the air grew heavy with icy vapour.

The seven-foot venom walkers’ momentum propelled them along the ice, while water showered them. They struggled to gain footing, but freezing water layered their bodies and the earth under them, leaving them flailing on the frozen forest floor.

Then, Alex’s forceballs were there, harassing them, tripping them, stopping them from standing. Their movements gradually slowed. They shivered as they were encased in ice, and soon grew still.

Their packmates in the rear bound up, desperate to avoid the icy spray, poised to poison Alex with writhing tentacles. But, there were other monsters near him. Viper-devils slipped through the foliage, hissing, baring knife-like fangs and striking the Ravener-spawn.

Alex grimaced; venom walkers were immune to most poisons.

“Pull back!” He shouted in the tongue of the viper-devils. “Save your strength: your venom won’t hurt them! Hellhounds! Fire elementals! Go! Burn them, tear them apart!”

As the otherworldly serpents pulled back, snarling hellhounds surged ahead, unafraid of these monsters’ poisons, immune to poisons from all worlds and planes. They bared snapping teeth that seemed too big for their mouths, and sprang—flame spewing from gaping jaws—burning and ripping at the attackers. The enemy struck out with spiny tendrils, catching a hellhound who yelped in pain, but then, the fire elementals were on them.

Flame spirits bounced high in the air, then dropped, landing on the venom walkers, instantly flaring with a burning light. Flame ignited from both hellhound and fire elemental, spreading over the looming venom walkers and setting them ablaze. The creatures writhed, turning into fume-spewing, shrieking, fleeing infernos.

Alex looked at Gwyllain and tapped his Orb of Air. “Are you alright? Can you smell the fumes?” They fae patted his Orb. “I’m fine. I don’t smell anything burning with this on my head! It’s great!” He grinned, still patting the Orb appreciatively.

“Glad to hear it.” Alex said, watching as venom boiled, hissed and splashed on foliage the burning monsters ran through. Some slipped and fell on the ice, melting it and dousing their flames.

More soon replaced them, looking to bypass the hellhounds and fire-elementals, but Alex called his Wizard’s Hands, telling them to throw, pull, and push the creatures off-balance. The monsters stumbled around like they’d had too much wine, falling over, making easy prey for the summoned fire monsters.

Some circled around, trying to attack from the rear.

But ran right into Claygon.

Smash! Crunch! Splat!

He cut the monsters down like he was in a field of rotting fruit, squashing them with his big fists, grabbing and hurling them against tree trunks, or stomping some under his massive, clay feet. They were no match for the golem: their venom was useless, their strength lacking.

In no time, more than a dozen lay dead, and far more were either dying, asleep, stunned, or disoriented.

The ambush had failed in a most spectacular way.

Alex looked around, taking stock of the area when a wounded silence–spider broke free of the taraneas’ silk, leaping from tree to tree, springing at the wizard with scythe-like blades stabbing.

A month ago, Alex would have dodged, or tried to guide the creature away.

But now, he had other options.

He waited, hands readied like he was in a game of catch. He kept his eyes on the monster, his forceshield deflected some of its blades, turning them away with motions matching the Cleansing Movements and as he reached up, he caught hold of two front legs.

Alex Roth smiled: the massive spider felt no heavier than one of McHarris’ flour bags, and with a surge of power, boosted the snapping creature high above his head.

‘Claygon?’ he thought. ‘It’s all yours.’

He threw it into the air.

Whooosh!

The golem swung a massive fist straight for the plummeting spider his creator had so politely pressed over his head.

Splat!

It shattered like a pumpkin as Alex stepped aside and Gwyllain sprang away, ducking for cover and looking even greener than before. The Thameish wizard had a Wizard’s Hand pat the little asrai on the back.

“You might want to close your eyes when things get messy,” he said. “I have a feeling they’ll be getting a lot messier before we’re done.”

Alex scanned the forest, listening to the sounds of monsters approaching and caught sight of some moving toward them.

‘There’s still quite a few out there…but at least it doesn’t look like it’s an army,’ he thought. ‘I’ve got plenty of mana…I could run Hsekiu’s technique through my pool again and summon more monsters if I need them. Plenty of potions left too.’

“Let’s keep going,” Alex stood in the midst of his summoned army. With their numbers, varied abilities and his tactics, his army wreaked havoc through the approaching Ravener-spawn.

This was a disaster.

The final Hunter watched, hidden deep beneath the brush as the usurper tore through its forces like they were helpless insects. It was regretting the choice of Ravener-spawn it had brought on the hunt.

The usurper had conjured a multitude of strange creatures…none of its forces were ready for them. Silence-spiders and venom walkers were perfect weapons for ambushes and assassinations, and were even deadly in a fight, but the enemy was stealing their mobility, finding them despite their advantages in stealth, and not seeming to care about toxins.

A silence-spider and even a venom walker had slipped through the field of obstacles the enemy had created, but were either torn apart by those fire-creatures, seized by the usurper and crushed by the clay statue, or smashed by it.

Its venom walkers and silence-spiders were a poor match for any of this.

Skreeeeee!

Those foul things flying above the trees strafed it and its forces with their infernal cries again. They sensed without seeing…which made trying to regain the element of surprise pointless.

Throwing wave after wave of its forces into the jaws of death was a bad strategy.

Regrouping was a sound one. Strike with its remaining forces united with the hags’ plant creatures.

“Retreat! Back to the building of stone! Back!” The Hunter roared in its monstrous tongue and loped away, moving through the forest at full speed. Trees whipped by—and as the crimson light of the usurper’s magic faded behind it—the green-golden glow of the aeld tree grew brighter.

The final Hunter sprang from the woods ahead of its pack of Ravener-spawn. From the topmost window of the windmill, the hags poked their heads out.

“The enemy comes!” the Hunter announced. “We must make our stand here!”

With a growl, it raced to the mill and called for the Hive-queen.

“Curses. Curses and darkness!” the younger hag swore. “The ambush is ruined!”

“For now,” the elder said. “We are here…that wizard is not the only one with magic, and our forces are stronger than our ally’s. Victory will be ours, sister, victory will be ours.”

She smiled looking up at the moonlit sky.

Birds flew above the forest in a flock so enormous, they looked like gathering thunderclouds.

“He will die soon enough.”

Alex Roth strode through the woods.

The forest had suddenly gone quiet…but he could hear the sound of wings beating above.

Birds.

Likely hundreds of them.

He had a sinking feeling they weren’t the friendly kind.

Alex called to his Aervespertillos: “Stay below the branches! Don’t get caught out there!”

The bat-like creatures screeched once, then dove below the canopy.

“Why are there so many birds about?” Gwyllain asked. “Some strange magic, this is…”

“Yeah…I think you’re right,” Alex said, watching the path up ahead.

A golden-green light bled through the trees.

“That’s the aeld tree,” the little asrai said. “We’ll be at it soon.”

“Uhuh…” Alex said. “And it just happens to be growing out in the open?”

“Yes, right near the old windmill.”

“Right…so the enemy probably wants to lure us into open ground then swarm us with all those birds…and I bet they have more monsters hiding in this windmi—Wait…you said windmill?”

“Yeah.” Gwyllain nodded vigorously.

“What was it used for?”

“For grinding grain before the Ravener came and the humans abandoned it.”

“...they used it to make flour…?”

“Yes, why?” the fae asked. “This is no time to be baking bread, Alex—Why are you laughing?”

Alex had thrown his head back, a booming laugh echoed through the trees. “Oooooh man, sometimes life does give you a second chance. An old abandoned flour mill, eh? Well, I hope there’s a bunch of monsters hiding in it, cuz if they are? I won’t be baking bread, Gwyllain.”

His smile turned downright evil. “I’ll be baking Ravener-spawn.”