Seventeen

Seventeen

My Territory was overrun with weaselkin, who were involved in a series of running battles with my own degraded weaselkin. The true weaselkin clearly had the advantage in terms of intelligence, but they were hampered by the defences of my Territory, ether and aether being drained from them, rising as silvery wisps into the sky, the fading strength of my Territory barrier keeping them scattered and away from anything crucial. As I watched this for a few moments a silver bolt of force discharged from above, streaking past me and hammering into one of the enemy weasels, exploding it into a cloud of ether which my Territory quickly drew in. As that weaselkin died its companion was suddenly barraged with a volley of small throwing darts, and as it staggered two of my own mindless weaselkin engaged it, dragging it down and finishing it off.

Looking up on the roof I could see my Defensive Emplacement, a glowing orb of crystal floating on a metre-high platform. It was cycling up for another shot, gathering and converting ether. Thank the Gods I had the foresight to build defences. I guess all my hours of RTS play paid off. Turtling for the win!

As I watched one of my kobolds ran up to me, panting in a rather adorable fashion, tongue hanging out. “It’s the Seelie, the bad ones! They come to enslave us again, again! Two of us already died, dead. Watch out for the big one, it strikes from afar, it does!”

“I’m sorry to hear that some of you died. I’ll do my best to protect the rest of you. Just stay back and throw your darts from a distance like you’ve been doing. I’ll back up our own weasels.”

“Stay safe, be safe!” the lead kobold, the miner said, as he clutched his pickaxe nervously. “The Seelie are terrible, they’ll show no mercy, no mercy!”

“I’ll do my best.” I smiled as I grabbed my spear and leapt into the fray. My target was a large black-furred weaselkin who had just battered down one of my own weasels with a crude wooden club that looked as it if was just a torn-up tree root. Landing in front of it I thrust my spear out, draining a little aether to increase the mass. It barely managed to get its club in the way of my thrust, but the spear pierced through and tore into its arm, causing it to gape in pain, a long hiss leaking from it.

“Sorry, but I can’t have you invading my Territory and killing my precious subordinates.” I growled, feeling surprisingly aggressive. I kicked out, aether adding weight to my blows, sending my foe backwards. My spear tore free with a welter of gore, and with another quick stab I drove it backwards. As I did so another bolt of aether sped past me, sending another weaselkin flying like a ragdoll, tumbling to the ground where the kobolds surrounded it, hacking down with pickaxe and salvaged weaponry until it burst apart in a shower of gore and ether.

Not wanting to be outdone I swung my spear like a club, driving back my foe, and as it backed up I had enough reach for a thrust once more, and my knife-head spear-point tore through its throat with extra weight and sharpness. It burst into ether with one final growl, and before my Silo could absorb it I converted it to aether, strengthening my dwindling supply.

This is no time to be frugal. I can handle this invasion and worry about how much ether I have left later.

Caught up in the battle I rushed to support my own beleaguered weasels and quickly made a couple of kills. Three degraded weaselkin had joined up with me at this point, one of which was armed with the damaged club from earlier. Moving as a group I directed them to support me and we quickly took down several more enemies, with my Defensive Emplacement managing to also score another couple of kills.

“This is going great.” I exulted as we engaged and drove back another black-furred foe. It really is advantageous defending a Territory and having troops. It’s a bit of a pain having to direct them, but if they were from a Barracks it would be easier as they could act on their own. Still, this is going very well...

The black weaselkin exploded into ether in front of us, along with one of my own weasels. The foe had leapt forwards with its dying breath and bitten out the throat of one of my retainers.

Damn, I was getting a bit carried away there, forgetting about the danger. If that had been me... maybe I wouldn’t have died, but it would have been risky, I doubt very much I'd fare any better with my throat shredded...

As I was thinking, the very air around me shook and a warning scrolled across my vision, interrupting my musings.

Your defensive barrier is now at thirty-six percent.

Damn, it just dropped by quite a few percent all of a sudden. If we take too many more attacks like that, the barrier will collapse.

What do I do? How do I get out of this? As I racked my brain the weasel raised one of his sickles and lashed out again, the green strike coming once more. Reflexively I thrust my spear out, even though the distance was too great, and I felt a heavy impact on my weapon as the jade light connected. Something passed to either side where my spear had struck and hammered into me, cutting and sharp. As I reeled in pain my stressed mind grasped one fact.

I hit... something, but I didn’t block it, instead it split to either side of my spear... whatever that green strike is, it isn’t entirely tangible. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the weasel swing again and I threw myself down as green light flashed, feeling a faint tugging at my clothes before an impact sliced away again at the wall behind me, jade sparks scattering. Another bolt from my Defensive Emplacement streaked out, but again it faded away, the distance too far to reach.

“Too bad, you will die-die here. Nothing escapes my sickles.” With that he lashed out with both a clawed foot and one arm, and even though I leapt aside I was still caught hard by the glowing blasts, though this time I was expecting it so managed to channel aether to create an invisible wall to block it. As I fell down, lamenting the cost in aether my defence had employed, my memory was jogged by a word my foe had said.

“Sickles... hmm.”

I remembered a story I had told my little sister and Eri-chan when we were all young to scare them. That of the Kamaitachi, the sickle-weasels that rode the wind and caused invisible injuries, like unseen knives. My sis just laughed it off, but I remember Eri-chan ended up crying and hiding under her bed. I regretted it after that...

“You’re using the wind, aren’t you?” I said as I got to my feet. “The green lights are blades of air, that’s why I can’t block them.”

“You are a smart-smart one. Knowing will not help you though.”

He was right. How was I going to get out of this one? If only my Defensive Emplacement could reach... damn, that's it! I hurriedly connected myself to my Territory Anchor and read the options that scrolled across my vision quickly, the silver letters coming and going in a blur.

Defensive Emplacement Rank 2- Upgrade cost 9000 ... too expensive! I didn’t have enough ether so I blinked the info away.

Defensive Emplacement Upgrade Rank 1- Sniper Mode- Upgrade cost 800. This upgrade reduces the firing rate of your Defensive Emplacement greatly, but greatly increases range and damage. This upgrade will take an Astral day to complete.

This was what I needed. I immediately queued the upgrade, and when I was prompted if I wanted to spend more ether to upgrade it faster I screamed affirmatively inside my head and dumped my remaining stocks in. It was a gamble, but if it paid off I could salvage this dire situation...

I leapt aside once more as the Kamaitachi struck, and my leg was blazing with pain, deep wounds gouged into it in a shimmer of verdant light. I stumbled and fell, barely dragging myself out of the way of another burst of green wind. As I did so the words in my vision announced the upgrade was complete.

“Totally worth it.” I muttered, linking my mind to the Emplacement.

“Your resistance is useless. You will die here for the glory-glory of our princess.” The Kamaitachi flailed again and wind darted at me. My spear spun in a desperate block which managed to divert most of it around me at the cost of serious damage to my hands, driving me backwards.

“A good effort, but now you die-die...” it said, just as a rapid bolt of aether stabbed out, using the newly gained stockpile of ether my Territory had drained from the rest of the weaselkin invading my domain. The bolt struck home, ripping one arm clean off the Kamaitachi, sending it slamming backwards into the wall, where it lay stunned.

“No, sorry. Now you die-die!” I retorted, dragging myself to my feet and hobbling over to the grounded Kamaitachi. My spear stabbed down into its dazed face, and it exploded into a massive cloud of ether, as well as a small shining ball of green light, which hovered there in the air, wobbling and drifting...