Chapter 4
Kyro narrowed down his options. Fighting was the last thing they wanted to do if they didn't want to rely on luck to survive. Shadow Travel seemed ideal, but they still had no idea what was around them besides goblins coming from the south. Plus, Kyro's mana reservoir—the space within the body where mana was kept—was small. He could probably travel a hundred yards at best with Julia and Tyson if he committed his remaining mana to the spell, but that was too risky. And running was worse for the same idea that Shadow Travel was. After briefly scanning their surroundings, the woods next to them seemed the best place to hide, even though the only things to hide behind were trees. Worst case scenario, he'd use the last spell he knew how to cast, Invisibility, and run.
"Into the woods," Kyro ordered. "Stay close to me."
The trio ran west into the woods and looked around. After seeing no ideal hiding place, he was about to decide to use Invisibility to hide until Tyson whispered, "Gather around me, you two."
He had pulled out one of his wands and was whispering something Kyro easily recognized as a spell. Without questioning it, Kyro and Julia huddled around Tyson. Julia wasn't sure whether her heart was beating so fast because of how close she was to Tyson or the cresendoing rumble.
When the two where almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the elf, he chanted, "Plant Growth."
He flicked his wand towards the ground. The dry dirt beneath them began to bubble like boiling water. Saplings broke through the ground, growing taller and thicker by the second. Stems interlocked with other stems until a cage of green plants surrounded them. Then they began stitching each other up until only apertures remained. Sunlight sprinkled softly into the leafy cage. The trio's body odors—mainly sweat and grime—mixed with the aroma of rotting vegetation and the plants' natural smells.
Tyson was a biomancer—a spellcaster with an affinity for life/nature magic.
Over the rumble, Kyro asked, "They won't be able to see through this? Nor would they think this random, plant cage in the middle of the woods seems strange?"
"They shouldn't be able to see through this unless they come within a close proximity of it," Tyson explained.
"And goblins are as wise as they are charming," Julia also explained. "They might just think, 'that's weird,' but nothing else. Hopefully."
Then they saw dozens upon dozens of the jogging, green midgets flowing through the ruined village. Luckily, the gnarling humanoids kept to the road, heading up the bloody tracks that led north. Many of the goblins looked at Tyson's cage, which made the trio's hearts pound on their ribcage, but they mostly ignored it for the most part. Seconds that felt like hours went by as one after another kept on running past. Eventually, the ground's trembling receded as the trio finally saw the backend of the horde. Four of them at the horde's end slowed to a stop as they looked at the cage. They jogged up to the cage as the rest of the horde went off without them.
Julia placed her hand on her sword. She knew the little monsters had darkvision like her, allowing them to see up to seventy feet in the dark. Even though there was little light inside the cage, that's all goblins needed to still see clearly.
And as they looked in closer, Julia was certain they would discover what was up. As fast as she could, she drew her sword and stabbed it through the cage and between the eyes of one of the goblins. With a choke, it exploded into black dust.
Kyro quickly followed her lead, drawing his swords and stabbing two heads. Two explosions followed.
The last goblin screamed as Tyson drew both of his wands and flicked them at its head. Bright green missiles launched through the wand, blasting the last one in the eyes. Like its three brothers, it fell to the ground before exploding into black dust.
Although the cage was now punctured and perhaps a bit see-through, the trio still didn't move. They waited for more goblins to show up in case a few from the horde's backend had heard the yells. But after a few moments of heart-aching silence, none came.
Julia made a heavy sigh of relief. "I think that's that." She cut the cage vertically and slid herself through the flap of plant material. Tyson and Kyro followed her out. Kyro's body was jittery due to coming down from the adrenaline, which was a sensation he hated. He'd normally slap his hands together hard to get his nerves to calm down, but he couldn't even do that without risking any goblins hearing. And although Julia and Tyson masked it well, they were no less shaken as Kyro was.
After a moment of breathing heavily for the three as their adrenaline's high came down, Kyro was the first to speak. "Good thinking, Tyson."
Tyson nodded. "Thank you."
"Now," Kyro said, "let's go follow them."
"W-wait, what?" Julia asked. "Shouldn't we wait a bit? They followed the trail, didn't they? We can just follow it when we're ready."
"We don't know if they'll go off trail," Kyro reasoned. "Perhaps the bodies were taken to one place and they're going somewhere else. Although I think you're right, I'd rather not leave anything to speculation. Come on, before they're too far ahead."
Neither Tyson nor Julia could think of a better plan, so they shrugged and followed Kyro as he ran up onto the trail and went north-northwest.
After a minute of following fresh footprints on the trail, they could hear the horde. Kyro paced himself in the sweet spot of hearing them but remaining far enough behind to not be seen. The cragged mountain seemed to grow in size above the canopy as they steadily approached. "If we're spotted, I'll get us out immediately," Kyro promised.
The sky had turned to twilight when Kyro sensed the horde was slowing down. The trail went down a steep hill, but as Kyro spotted a ledge to the right of where the trail forked, he waved Julia and Tyson to lay low and went to the ledge instead. He gently went prone, falling to the floor and crawling up to the ledge. Slowly, he peaked over.
The horde had stopped in a massive glade the size of a small coliseum arena, huddling together so that the hundreds of them were amongst the trees. The trail of drag marks and blood had led into a cave at the base of the mountain. Its entrance was flanked by burning braziers which strangely emitted no smoke. In between them, a bald old lady with a hunchback and moss-green skin stood before the horde. Kyro thought he could smell her tattered, filthy robes and shoes from where he was, sixty feet away and ten feet high. Moles and warts peppered her skin, and her long, crooked nose seemed to touch her mouth, grinning with wicked satisfaction.
As Julia and Tyson peaked over as well, their expressions morphed into disgust.
"A hag," Julia murmured. Her tail slowly swayed as something of a growl came from her mouth.
"Indeed," Tyson agreed. "And I had hoped the last time I saw one would be the last time."
Kyro frowned. "What's a hag?"
"Basically an ugly, evil spellcaster," Julia summarized. "They're native to Onyxilva, the homeland of the elves, but can be found anywhere in the world. They like to make deals with creatures, always making it seem like each deal is fair. They never are, though."
The hag started saying something, but Kyro was too far away to make out her words. "What's—?"
"'So, you return from your attack on Meadow Village,'" Julia interpreted. Her ears fluctuated in constant slight adjustments as she stared hard at the hag. "'Where are my corpses?'"
A goblin stepped out from the horde, speaking in gnarls and grunts.
"I can't speak goblin yet," Julia admitted. "Still learning the basics."
She cleared her throat and continued translating. "'So all who's here is the last of your tribe. How sad. But that's hardly my problem, is it? The deal was simple: bring me every Meadow Village and Darkwood Village resident dead at my feet, and I would share some of my lord's power. And since you've failed with Darkwood Village—much more Meadow Village as well—the deal is off. My lord doesn't tolerate incompetent failures as subjects, and neither will I.'"
The hag started to turn around, but the lead goblin waved his arms and stomped its foot in frustration, yelling at the hag.
The hag cackled. "'Is that my fault? Your leader should've specified those terms when he made the deal with me. Now leave. You're all testing my patience.'"
However, the lead goblin didn't turn around. Instead, it raised its club and roared. The horde behind it copied his actions, and all together, they charged.
The hag, looking as annoyed as she did intrigued, raised both of her hands, connecting her thumbs. Julia faltered when the hag spoke. "I don't know what—"
In that instant, a web of lightning arched from her fingertips, piercing every goblin in the horde. Thunder rattled all three of the trio's ears. In the next instant, the horde exploded, spewing black dust everywhere as if a confetti bomb had gone off. As the horde's remains vaporized from the air and the ground, a burnt smell rose to meet the trio's noses.
The three were still. Hundreds of goblins. All slaughtered in an instant.
Kyro could barely process it. Lighting-type magic wasn't rare, especially for aeromancers—spellcasters with an affinity for air magic—and the best pyromancers—spellcasters with an affinity for fire magic. However, lighting attacks often took the form of bolts that could only hit a single target. Perhaps if the spell was powerful enough, it could pierce through some objects. Lightning Chain was the next best lightning spell Kyro knew of, which was a lightning bolt that bounced from target to target, but even that stopped after hitting a few targets. And the best lightning spell Kyro knew of was Lightning Storm, which conjured thunder clouds into the sky that poured rain and randomly spewed lightning bolts all over the place. Even though the caster couldn't control where or when the bolts from the clouds struck, it could still wipe out an entire army…or a horde of goblins.
But a spell like Lightning Storm took minutes before it was at full power and a lot of mana and concentration to cast. Yet the hag, who was calmly patting down her clothes like what she did was no big deal, just cast a spell leagues better than the best spell Kyro knew for aeromancers.
Chills also went down Tyson and Julia's spine. They knew about hags very well; both of them had studied upon them, and Tyson had fought a couple himself. They could correctly assume this hag, like most of its kind, was a biomancer, but it wasn't unheard of for an excellent spellcaster to cast big spells they didn't have an affinity for. However, for a non-aeromancer to cast a spell like the hag did was unheard of. Julia knew the headmaster at Polaris, Elysia's Academy of Arcane Arts, and knew for a fact the headmaster probably couldn't do a spell like that so easily.
Yet, as the hag glanced at her hands with glee, Julia realized that the spell was probably as easy to cast as something fundamentally simple like Firefly. "'E-e-excellent,'" Julia interpreted.
Her trembling voice had turned into a complete growl. Kyro realized she wasn't so much angry as she was frightened. The fur on her flattened ears and swishing tail were puffed. Her back was arched as if she was ready to pounce—or flee—at any moment. "'A-and t-to think t-this is o-only a f-fraction of t-the lord's p-power.'"
To calm her shaky voice, Julia took a long, deep breath. The three watched as the hag drove her hand into one of her robe's pockets and pulled out a wand made of bone. It was too small and too far away for Tyson or Kyro to make out its finer details, but Julia perceived the skinny, foot-long weapon to be made out of finger bones.
The hag turned towards the cave and swiftly waved her wand. Within a second, two human skeletons marched out, each carrying a spear in their left hand. As Tyson noticed one of the skeletons had an "S"-shaped spine, he grimaced. He recalled one of the Darkwood villagers having the exact spinal shape. "Well, that explains what happened to the villagers," he thought out loud.
When the realization of Tyson's comment dawned on them, Kyro sighed and Julia covered her mouth with her hands.
The skeletons saluted the hag with their right hands as she ignored them, trailing into the cave. Kyro's heart jumped as one of the skeletons seemed to look dead at him. For a moment, he thought he would have to take Tyson and Julia's hands and hustle. But the skeleton casually continued to look around. Perhaps it didn't see them.
The trio lowered their heads below the edge of the cliff. Then they crouched onto the grass, forming a triangle. For a moment, none of them said anything as they processed everything they just saw. Then, Kyro said what the other two were thinking: "The hag needs to die."
Tyson nodded. "Though as much as I'm in agreement, we must ask ourselves if just the three of us alone are enough to kill it. Before a moment ago, I wouldn't have had a doubt in my mind. But after seeing that spell…"
"Yeah," Julia agreed. "Who's to say that hag isn't as powerful as an archmage? And there's the lair to think about as well."
Kyro frowned. He had never been in a lair or monster's nest of any sort. He figured it was a simple as kicking down a door, going on a killing spree, then leaving. "How so?"
"Lairs can be loaded with traps," she explained. "There could be trap doors, faulty flooring with spikes underneath, magical runes that explode with contact, and so much more. A careless person could be dead before they set a foot beyond the entrance. Normally, I wouldn't be so concerned about a lair of a normal hag, but…as established, it isn't a normal one." Julia placed a hand to her chin and stared at the ground deep in thought. Her ears dropped and her tail swayed with a rhythm like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.
"Then we'll just have to be extra careful," Kyro said. "Same plan as when pursuing the goblins: at the first sign of trouble we can't handle, we leave. I'll try to save my mana for Shadow Travel or Wraith just in case we need to escape that way. But that hag is too dangerous to be kept alive. Imagine that thing showing up at a festival or ceremony and the next thing you know, everyone is dead."
However, Tyson and Julia didn't seem fully convinced. Julia looked off to the side, not meeting Kyro's eyes. "Kyro, I have to ask the same question Tyson did: can we do that ourselves? From what I learned from the Silver Knight Handbook, the only reason to enter a lair for extermination is when there's no other way to kill the monsters, we don't have the time, or we're certain that we can kill them all. And as far as I know, I am not certain we can kill the hag and whatever else is in there, there's no immediate hurry, and somebody more powerful could probably kill it. I just can't help but feel… that it's suicide. "
Kyro wanted to protest, but she made sense. Their whole purpose for being out of Meadow Village in the first place was simply to find help for the village. Although the threat of goblins in the area was gone—assuming what the hag said of the goblins being the last of the tribe—Meadow Village was still vulnerable by being isolated from other settlements. Perhaps the best plan of action was to push on to the next village and get help and worry about the hag later.
But one fact bothered him: the hag had indirectly targeted Meadow Village. She wanted its residents dead and perhaps the settlement in ruins, just like with Darkwood Village. Who knew why, what her plans were, and the next time she'd take action?
Finally, Kyro sighed. He looked towards the sky, its sun fully below the horizon. The waning sunlight was slowly fading tonight, with the crescent moon low over the eastern horizon. "Let's make camp," Kyro suggested. "We can figure out what to do tomorrow."