Chapter Twenty: Tactical Withdrawal

Twenty

Summoned Spirit lvl. 1 Upgraded!

Summoned Spirit lvl. 2

Possession Skill Increased

“That’s it?” Dane asked incredulously as he watched his bank of sacrificed cores drain down as Tolic shimmered and seemed to grow more solid. The four armed spirit growled in pleasure and rose up a few feet higher in the sky.

“What? Did you expect me to become a poltergeist or something? I need a lot more levels than that. But, I don’t need you to gore these things into a bloody mess before I take them now. At least the weak ones,” Tolic said. He looked at the line of charging goblins. Then back towards the big Grass Fiend.

“Try not to die for a minute!” Tolic said as he flew towards the lumbering giant. Dane cursed and spun back towards the mass of goblins and wolves. The goblins were skittering up the hill, sometimes on two legs, often using all four limbs. A few had managed to climb on top of the wolves and clung tightly to the fur of the beasts as they surged uphill. He only had minutes before they’d be on him.

A wave of hellfire crackled over the backslope of the hill and Dane watched in horror as the line of wolves and goblins winked away. A hunched over figure walked out of the cover of the forest, to the side of where the goblins had emerged from.

The ground steamed as all the water had evaporated in a single moment of intense flame. Dane could feel the heat of the blast on his face, but it was a distant thing. His eyes couldn’t break free of the creature lumbering up the hillside closer to him.

It wasn’t an Aji-Abami or human or native. His mouth went slick as he stared at the monstrous, scaled, lizard. Aleg-Kinuun. Dragonkin. The scaled beast lifted its head to meet Dane’s eye and the sudden heat vanished as a chill washed over him. If this incursion had a Aleg-Kinuun invasion force, it was going to be bloody.

The Empire had won against the dragonkin before, but they had lost more often. The lizards didn’t leave survivors either.

The ragged remnants of a cloak floated in a soft breeze as the other Warlock stared up at him. Its red scaled arm glowed slightly, but Dane could tell it was nowhere near as severe as his own after he summoned the powerful fire.

“Naturally resistant to flame. Might even have the fire glands some of them have. Will be massively strong and resilient as well. How should I do this?” Dane thought about it for a second and then turned and ran. He couldn’t beat the other warlock in a straight fight without a bit of prep.

Tolic had managed to overcome the natural resistance of the Grass Fiend and was busy smashing apart the other, smaller monsters. Dane hurried, running as fast as he could. The closest of the monsters was trying to get to its feet, but Tolic had ripped off one of its legs. Dane leapt astride of it and stabbed down, aiming for where he knew the root heart should be.

Grass wilted and turned to black sludge as the root heart was pierced. The monster stiffened, then collapsed backwards. Dane risked a glance back to where the dragonkin would be coming from and didn’t see the warlock yet. He had a few minutes.

The sludge under him washed apart and Dane rode it down as he ran toward the next of the monsters. Tolic was a wrecking ball, fighting two or three of the monsters at the same time. They were simply lumbering brutes without thought in their head. Tolic at least had the minimum required skill to not just stand there and be punched.

Dane was harvesting as fast as he could, keeping one eye peeled for the dragonkin. That the warlock had enough power to wipe away the entire hillside of goblins and wolves was alarming. Dane needed to finish harvesting and invest in a level up for himself as well as settling his own earned levels. The stat points would be a welcome boon to the fight and resetting his one hellflame attack could be the edge he needed.

They cut their way through the edge of the grass fiends and smashed into the last remnants of the jackalopes. Tolic’s new body was falling apart already, but they had killed nearly a dozen of the weaker Grass Fiends in their exodus. Tolic left the wounded Grass Fiend and Dane stabbed it, harvesting the experience and core. He had easily replaced what he had given to Tolic.

“Why are we running?” Tolic asked as they wove their way back into the forest.

“Dragonkin!” Dane yelled at the spirit. Tolic stuttered for a second before grimacing.

“Let me guess, he’s the warlock we have to beat?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, that’s not good.” Tolic sighed wearily and flew through a tree. Dane just grunted in agreement.

“It couldn’t have been some pointy eared elf, or some thick skulled dwarf. Or even another one of you pathetic, weak armed humans. Had to be a dragonkin,” Tolic groused.

“Why are you so upset about this? I’m the one who has to fight him,” Dane retorted. They were moving around the circumference of the hill, staying far enough away that they couldn’t easily be seen by the dragonkin if it tried to spy on them.

“My world was ruled by a dragon. Lazy bastard but his spawn ran around everywhere. The reason all the women lived on the moon is because he enforced it. Won the Incursion all by himself back when he was a little tadpole,” Tolic explained.

“Giant harem?” Dane guessed. He was breathing heavily as he ran through the cold mud. Every breath sent a cloud of mist that surrounded his face.

“What! No! What is up with all your guesses? No, he had them there so he could restrict the population of the lower world. And charge for marriages. All the dowries were paid to him. Fat bastard.” Tolic snorted in anger.

“We need to find a spot to sit down for a minute. I need to go through these alerts and try to figure out how to beat that bastard.”

A blast of flame descended down the hill like a tidal wave. It struck the forest a hundred yards behind them with a roar, only partially masking the agonized screams of the dying. Aji-Abami and natives were all mixed in with the thousands of monsters in the area. And the Aleg-Kinuun had just vaporized them.

“For a self-defense spell, that guy throws it around,” Tolic said.

“What?” Dane asked as they dove deeper into the forest. If the dragonkin could throw blasts like that, they didn’t want to be anywhere near the edge of the forest. Hellfire could hurt Tolic and would kill Dane just as easily.

“It’s a self-defense spell. Meant to be used in case of emergency. Guy’s using his class all wrong. You didn’t see his summon, did you?” Tolic asked.

“Explain to me how that was a self-defense spell.” Dane demanded, he pointed at the wave of burning, crackling forest behind him.

“If they weren’t a dragonkin and had innate defenses against the heat, they would be like you. Can only use it once, maybe twice. It’s not supposed to be used to battle it out. That’s what I’m here for. And future summons. We’re your power.”

“And that guy is just throwing it around without thought,” Dane said, mostly to himself. A plan was formulating in his mind.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s effective but he’s crippling his future if this is the base he builds on. What happens when he starts fighting people who can stop the Hellfire? A powerful mana shield or any of the divine. A Nephilim would destroy him.”

“Too much information for right now. We’ll revisit this when we’re not running.” Dane looked around, searching for any type of sanctuary where they could catch their breath and plan. If the dragonkin didn’t have a summon and was simply relying on massive bursts of Hellfire and its own innate strength, Dane thought he knew how to bring the bastard down.

They had ran out of the immediate challenge zone and Dane took the moment to look at the leaderboard. He sighed as he stared at the top name on the board. It was draconic and he wouldn’t be able to pronounce it, but it looked like Gabriletric. There was just a bunch of extra sigils, letters he didn’t recognize, and two accent marks.

“Guy’s name is Gabriletric.”

“Gabe,” Tolic said instantly. Dane snorted a laugh as they found a pile of trees that had tumbled down and over the top of each other. Dane looked them over carefully, remembering those monsters he’d found in the last tree fall he’d found. This one looked relatively new, sap was still leaking out of the broken trunks.

“Alright. We slide down here, go through our levels, and then we go and kill Gabe,” Dane organized outloud.

“Think we have enough to get me to level three?” Tolic asked. Dane sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Give an inch, and they’ll take a mile.”