Before the Storm: Act 3, Chapter 4

Before the Storm: Act 3, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“I think we lost him,” Themis said.

“I think he lost us,” Lady Zahradnik replied.

Rangobart looked between the two women with a somewhat incredulous look. Was it fine to leave things at that?

The aerial ambush barely fazed the expedition and the patrol along with its ‘bonus’ was quickly dispatched. Now, the Adventurers were going from building to building, clearing away the Undead populating the ruins. With how the Adventurers framed things, a part of him couldn't help but imagine that they were systematically butchering the residents of a living town.

One of the Rogues brought another batch of Undead to the expedition, running past the front line.

“Tailor, wife, and four kids,” she said.

“Why a Tailor?”

“Cause we haven’t used it yet.”

Since most of the ruins were little more than outlines of rubble where buildings once stood, the Adventurers passed the time by trying to reason out what everything used to be. Some of them seemed obvious, like the Temples and a few of the public buildings, while the rest were loosely categorised into ‘workshop’, ‘apartment’, and ‘warehouse’.

“Is it fine to leave Momon out there?” Lady Waldenstein voiced Rangobart’s unasked question.

“He’s the strongest Adventurer in the Guild,” Themis said. “He isn’t at any risk of being harmed.”

“Why did he do something like that?”

“The Adventurers,” Alessia said, “they like to show off, yes? Especially the veterans from before the new Guild. He probably had something impressive in mind, but it didn’t work out as intended.”

“Displays of prowess are essential in the old Adventuring business,” one of the Bards, Vincent said. “Trying to get by on posted commissions alone is both slow and monotonous. Impressing clients is a good way to spread awareness of one’s team and secure personal requests. In Momon’s case, he had somehow become famous enough that his first quest as a Copper-rank Adventurer was a personal request from a well-known Alchemist in the city.”

“Did he know the Alchemist from before?” Dimoiya asked.

“I don’t think so,” Vincent shook his head and shrugged. “Heroes are just made of different stuff, I guess.”

From the way that they fought, the new generation of Adventurers tended to keep things uncomplicated despite their constant banter. Rangobart didn’t particularly care about how visually impressive they were so long as they could do the work that was advertised in the promotional materials he had received earlier that week. He didn’t want to kill the mood or seem insufferable by saying so, however.

“Ah,” Henrich’s voice came from the front, “this one’s got a funny-looking sword.”

A few people near the Fighter turned their heads as he used the head of his warhammer to bind the blade tightly over the rim of his shield.

“Maybe you’re fighting a Herbalist,” Cass suggested.

“This is a bit too much to be a harvesting tool, don’t you think?” Henrich asked.

The Fighter shoved the Wight off balance and buried his warhammer in its chest. It crumbled into dust in a matter of seconds, as did its exotic weapon.

“Dammit, why can’t these things drop their stuff?”

“The Katze Plains would be an iron mine if we could.”

“Who decides that? They can kill people just fine with their fake weapons.”

It wasn’t a question Rangobart had ever asked. Most people just accepted such things as a reality of the world.

“We’re clear to the town square,” one of the scouts announced.

“Let’s set up on the near side,” she said. “It doesn’t look like there’s a market filled with townsfolk or anything like that.”

The square wasn’t anything like a square, either. A circular area roughly thirty metres across was ringed by the remains of the town’s largest buildings, containing the remains of several features that he couldn’t put any names to. Rangobart scanned the nearest piles of worn, moss-covered rubble, wondering what the place looked like before it was destroyed.

“I find it hard to believe that one can discern anything from this,” he said. “It’s worn down to practically nothing.”

“We’ll have to do some digging around to find better-preserved pieces of the place,” Lady Zahradnik told him. “Considering how widespread the ruins are, this expedition may take many years to complete.”

“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”

“It’s good in the sense that we’ll have plenty of sites for field training,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “I’d like to have some answers sooner rather than later, though.”

Despite her impatient statement, the Baroness’ voice carried nothing in the way of urgency. Rangobart’s experience with her also indicated that she was the furthest thing from impatient.

“Does it have something to do with your development plans?” He asked, “I believe you mentioned building a port on the river here.”

“There is that,” Lady Zahradnik answered, “but it’s a minor concern. What’s bothering me is...well, this giant hole in our history. We barely know anything about the past, yet we use past examples to inform our future actions. There’s simply too much about the world that we don’t know or understand.”

He couldn’t deny that, but, at the same time, he wondered if it mattered all that much. Whenever ancient ruins were found, the first things that came to people’s minds were undiscovered riches and powerful artefacts. Now that he thought about it, very little, if any, history was associated with such discoveries. Nobles put great value in history, so he had always assumed that any findings were inconvenient or outright damaging to the houses that found ruins on their lands.

It was a perfectly rational decision. Few houses had histories that preceded the Demon Gods, so chances were that the history discovered in any ancient ruins would say that the land belonged to someone else. Ultimately, ruins were stores of practical rather than historical value.

『Eastern temple first. Let’s try not to get the whole thing at once.』

A single Ranger stepped forward and nocked an arrow to his bowstring. His attack shattered the skull of an ‘acolyte’ standing on one side of the temple entrance. Rangobart tried to imagine how imperial citizens would react if members of the clergy were casually assassinated in broad daylight like that. A sentry wouldn’t be able to react in time to do anything unless they happened to be right beside the attacker.

A second arrow destroyed the Skeleton Mage opposite the first. Several Undead of various types came out the door and met a similar fate. Only a handful of Wights made it to the expedition’s defensive lines.

『Keep them coming. I know I said to not get them all at once, but let’s not leave our people standing around.』

“Uwah! What’s that thing?!”

“We got the ‘high priest’!”

The ‘high priest’ had been previously identified as a potential Vampire Spawn. Upon examining it up close, Rangobart couldn’t blame the scouts for the tenuous label. The Undead Goblin that looked three times more savage than the other Undead it was outrunning, but it was hard to tell exactly what type of Undead it was.

“Who’s catching this thing?”

“I got it!”

A woman – he believed her name was Kyla – intercepted the slavering Goblin mid-leap with her shield. Rather than bouncing away, it clung to her shield with its blackened claws.

“Why did I volunteer for this?!” Kyla cried as she tried to shake the thing off, “H-hello? We’re Adventurers from the Sorcerous Kingdom...”

After dealing with their respective targets, the Adventurers watched expectantly as Kyla struggled with the Undead Goblin.

“If you can understand what I’m saying–argh, this sucks! Why are we trying to talk to things that just want to kill us? Shouldn’t there be some easier way?”

“There are spells to control Undead,” Themis said. “Alternatively, we can have an Elder Lich come along to dominate Undead. I think that might defeat the purpose of the exercise, though.”

『Go ahead and destroy it. It’s probably a Great Wight.』

Kyla dispatched the Great Wight and gave its crumbling corpse a kick.

“We need to bring Merry next time,” she grumbled. “She’s the Undead specialist, isn’t she?”

“She didn’t come precisely because we need more than just one Undead-specialised Ranger,” Lady Zahradnik said. “If we left things to chance, our Rangers would tend to specialise in Beasts and Demihumans. It’s not so easy to pick up, though – we’re just getting a taste for the real thing to see if anyone likes it.”

“Fine,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Have we noticed anything new in there?”

“If we clear out the entrance,” Mag said, “us Rogues can take a peek deeper inside.”

『You heard her. We’re picking off the sentries at the front. Expect them to bring friends.』

In addition to the two Skeleton Warriors guarding the entrance to the half-ruined building, six more came from just inside the doorway. The Undead squad was powerful enough that a standard imperial patrol would avoid engaging it and call for an air strike instead.

『Alessia, grab three. Destroy them first.』

The Adventurers smoothly reorganised themselves to carry out the Baroness’ orders. Lady Zahradnik didn’t spare the battle anything more than the occasional glance, instead peering up at the skies over the plaza.

“Do you think we’ll be attacked by Wyvern riders again?” Rangobart asked.

“I’ve yet to figure out that aspect of this location’s ‘logic’,” Baroness Zahradnik replied. “But the patrol back there ‘called’ for air cavalry. It’s not unreasonable for the town’s stronghold to do the same.”

“What if they are being coordinated by an unseen Elder Lich?”

“That’s part of the reason why we’re attacking this building now. We’ve been clearing the town methodically; abruptly switching to the ‘end’ may cause an unseen controller to panic or at least throw off their preparations.”

“...can the Undead panic?”

“Of course,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “The difference is that they can separate themselves from the physiological consequences of it.”

Rangobart eyed the stronghold and its sentries. Aside from the ones that had been attacked, it didn’t look like any of them had moved from their posts.

Lady Zahradnik dispatched her scouts halfway through the ongoing battle. They returned not long after the last Skeleton Warrior fell.

“More Skeleton Warriors,” Itzal reported. “The inside’s unnaturally clean.”

The Adventurer turned their heads at the Rogue’s report.

“How clean?” Lady Zahradnik asked, “It might be from that Goblin army looting the place.”

“Looks like someone had the corridor swept a while ago,” the Rogue replied. “As in with a broom. No sign of any furnishings or decorations and it hasn’t been ransacked.”

“How far were you able to get?”

“Just to the ends of the corridors. More Undead are blocking the way beyond that.”

“Does that mean someone’s home?” Kyla asked.

“It’s worth a summon to find out.”

Lady Zahradnik gave Themis a nod. The Cleric held her palms out toward a clear spot nearby.

“「Summon Undead I」.”

Rangobart frowned as a Skeleton rose in front of them. He wasn’t sure whether he should be shocked that a Cleric had summoned an Undead being or whether it should have been expected for an adherent of Surshana.

The Adventurers said nothing, watching expectantly as the Skeleton walked into the empty doorway and turned the corner.

“Nothing’s happening to it,” Themis said. “Does that mean no one’s inside?”

“Or they could be smart enough to see what we’re doing. Attack something with it.”

“Okie...”

A crunch heralded the summon’s demise, followed by the tread of skeletal feet and a variety of angry noises. Among them was a thin, eerie wail.

『Wraith. Keep an eye out for it.』

Undead appeared a moment later, flowing out of the entrance to head straight for Themis.

“It’s weird how they always know who the summon belonged to,” Henrich said.

“Wraith coming through the pack,” Pool called out. “Three of ‘em.”

Aside from the three Wraiths, there were over a dozen Skeleton Warriors and scores of lesser Undead. Still near the front, Lady Waldenstein and Dimoiya took an involuntary step back.

『Burn them down. Double barrage.』

“「Grease」.”

“「Grease」.”

“「Grease」!”

As with their attack on the gatehouse, the swarm of advancing Undead piled up as they stumbled and slowed on the magical oil slick. The expedition’s mages unleashed two sets of Fireballs from their positions atop the overgrown temple walls. An orange glare lit the surroundings as the resulting conflagration scoured the broken stones of the plaza. By the time the flames subsided, only a few Skeleton Warriors in the rear fringes survived. They continued charging forward through the remains of their fellows, crushing charred corpses and kicking up piles of ash.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s home,” Lady Zahradnik said.

“What makes you say that?” Rangobart asked.

“If they were under the control of an Elder Lich, they wouldn’t have reacted like that. The Elder Lich would have taken some time to digest what was going on before issuing orders to its dominated Undead.”

“What if it was having its dominated Undead act as if they were mindless?”

“Then it would be throwing away its army. There is a possibility that it did so to distract us while it escaped, but the Royal Army has orders to intercept unauthorised flyers outside of the expedition area. Let’s take a look at our prize, shall we?”

Our prize?

Out in the plaza, the Adventurers had already dispatched the remaining Undead. The scouts had already left to investigate the building again. Howe signalled to the expedition from the front entrance.

“There’s an intact basement,” the Rogue said as they came up to him. “The others are already poking around down there.”

“Is it cleared of Undead?” Lady Zahradnik asked.

“The basement isn’t too big,” Howe answered. “About what you’d expect for a building this size.”

Lady Zahradnik nodded to Alessia, who led a vanguard down a set of narrow stone steps. Her voice drifted up the stairwell, sounding the all-clear, and the rest of the group joined them in a well-kept chamber lined with small rooms. Furniture that looked like it was hewn from the nearby mountains was arranged in an eerily similar manner to a laboratory at the Imperial Ministry of Magic.

As time passed, the Adventurers’ excited expressions faded into disappointment. While neatly furnished, furnishings appeared to be all that the underground space had to offer. Themis came around to deliver her final report thirty minutes after their entrance.

“I think it’s obvious by now,” the Cleric said, “but someone used to live here. Probably an Elder Lich, going by the look of things. They’ve either moved away long ago or they were destroyed and the place looted by the Goblin army last year.”

“I see,” Lady Zahradnik said. “That’s disappointing for us, but, even as empty as it is, this town is still a valuable site for our researchers.”

“Will they even be able to work here?” Alessia asked, “Given how quickly the Undead reappeared after being wiped out last year, new ones may show their faces at any moment.”

“That’s something I’ll have to figure out for the next expedition group,” Lady Zahradnik answered.

The Cleric and the Paladin gave Lady Zahradnik a questioning look. The Baroness offered them a slight smile.

“The Adventurer Guild has a new commission,” she told them. “Let’s head back to Warden’s Vale – we can discuss the details over dinner.”