Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 5

Chapter 5

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 09:09

A beautiful evening in a dense forest, nice weather at the point where the chill does not yet turn into cold, colorful scenery of the surrounding landscape, and a light, warm breeze that wants to tickle behind my ears. A perfect setting for a romantic date, or even for a subsequent declaration of love to the one (or the one, I'm not judging other people's tastes) whom you call your Destiny. A few insignificant details spoiled the whole affair: a lot of dead bodies and those just dying, the screams and cries of the wounded, the foul language of terrified bandits, the barking of frantic watchdogs, and other little things that real heroes are ashamed to pay attention to.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 11:37

Jokes aside, the situation in the slave-traders camp resembled a beehive, which had also been filled with gasoline for some reason and then set on fire. Our triumphant appearance enabled us to inflict enormous damage on the enemy, knocking out more than half at once, but at this point, it came to a standstill. Still, the bastards were pretty tough, and so they recovered quickly and decisively from the shock, despite the dream-induced effects. The few whose psyches couldn't take it were either ignored or killed in case of aggression. But it was to our advantage that the outlaws were not at all accustomed to jumping up and defending the camp, despite all their training. Their main defenses were not the sturdy walls, the remoteness of their refuge, or even the strongest barrier covering the camp with its dome, but the trivial patronage of their superiors.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 11:39

This gang had been around for a long time, even a dozen years, and even though their (especially overly eager) members were regularly renewed, they had never once had to defend this place against an attack in all their activity. That's why there was so much panic, that no one, not even in a nightmare dream, could have foreseen our arrival. All their posts, outposts, and reassurances were more a tribute to paranoia than real preparation for defense. The same sentries in the far-flung bunkhouses would have had to catch loners and small groups, not keep track of the approaching army - that's what they were put in position for.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:00

In short, we were lucky it wasn't the army or the border guards. They might have had worse training and equipment, and lower levels, but they would have reacted much more quickly and coherently if attacked. It's a good thing history doesn't take the subjunctive tilt, and we won't allow anyone to correct their mistakes.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:01

The Undead were a lot less dangerous than I would have liked, simply because there were only a handful of high-level creatures. Take the same ghosts as an example - there were only about two dozen of them, and they barely made it to the top ten. The rest of the mass was made up of the lower spirits of the dead, and they are far from dangerous to a trained human. First of all, they're not Shadows who can kill with a single touch - they need time and contact with their victims to kill properly. Give them a badly wounded and exhausted man, they'll tear him to pieces, but even a normal teenager can run away from them, and if they have silver-plated weapons, they can fight off a couple or three of them. If he doesn't panic.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:05

I was not going to remind you that the slave traders who lived next to the burial ground knew exactly how to destroy such trifles. And even though the trifles came in great numbers, it didn't make them invincible, but rather a free experience, especially with mages who could hit in areas.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:08

For us, opposition to the ghosts was limited to the fact that Tarija tossed (surprisingly accurate!) the biggest flask of the essence of silver, after which a huge gap appeared in the rolling wave, and almost all the undead abruptly stopped moving toward their positions. They have no brains, of course, but their instincts are present, even if they suck. If my three companions had been the only living creatures in the place, no amount of loss would have stopped the lower undead from lusting for other people's lives. But there were other targets here, and so the spirits, like a school of saltwater fish, abruptly shifted their vector and lunged at their creators.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:16

A vivid illustration of the dangers of practicing necromancy, as well as the urge to accumulate a dead army - if these get out of hand, they will all get out together, after which the hapless lord of the dead will have to do his feet or get them blown to hell.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:18

Despite my success with the undead, the situation of my men was getting worse as the enemy arrows gave no respite, forcing Tarija to cease firing his trophy crossbow entirely. Hans had to shoot very infrequently, popping out from behind the barricade just for a second to send another arrow at the enemy. And even the nimble-as-a-wheel Losij was forced to retreat to cover, nearly turning him into a mutant hedgehog. In this particular case, order trumps class, and numerical superiority is still too great.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:20

I could have stepped in and changed the situation drastically, but I preferred not to interfere. So far, everything is within the plan, and they understand it - look how quickly they are retreating along the trail through the swamp, marked with barely visible landmarks. You can say, leading the enemy under the ambush regiment in the form of a huge green ogre, which is already exhausted from waiting. Except that the mages, who managed to spot them, could now seriously mess it up by dousing the retreating fire and lightning. I had to intervene, lest they ruin their comrades' skins.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:23

I step out of the step right behind the backs of the squad, covering the five mages from possible attacks. That's where it ends because I have neither the time nor the desire to fuck around with daggers and individual attacks. A shadowy silhouette rises beneath each warrior, either piercing his chest with a dagger formed of pure energy or twisting his neck. All five mages, having become too close together, find themselves wrapped in a not-so-dense shroud of shadow. Their synchronized and somewhat desperate attack confidently ripped through my enchantments, but their aim was not to kill me but to remove my defenses and distract me, which they did successfully - no time or energy left to repel the shadowy ribbons I had sent up close to them.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:27

I went back into Shadow again, skipping a few force-filled arrows and another hit from the overly-quick-acting Phantom. The ringleader himself was instantly lost in his strange spatial technique this time, clearly afraid of reacquainting himself with my shadows. I wasn't even about to strike that blow, already moving toward the second cluster of the enemy. This group was gathered around me by a young Malefic, who turned out to be a surprisingly stress-resistant individual, able to orient himself correctly in the situation.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 12:29

The step-out coincided with the simultaneous activation of the shroud, which covered practically the entire assembled company of forty or so people. At the same moment, the canvas of shadows burst into violet flames, and from the small hole a Malefic jumped out (like a cork from a bottle), shaking his head in a daze and apparently not coming to his senses sufficiently. Three more fighters managed to take advantage of the jerk, or simply left the enchantment zone before it covered them. The rest were turned into desiccated corpses, covered in frost, and some were completely devoured. About a sixth of the reserve was gone, but the impact was surprisingly powerful. It felt good, honestly! I felt like a mighty archmage, crushing entire armies to ashes with one heel.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 18:50

I didn't give the main man time to regain full combat readiness, immediately stepping out of my step close to him and striking with two shadow-filled daggers. Alas, the defense gave him the time he needed to survive the fraction of a second I took to strike. A few buttons and a medallion glowed and burst, but kept the wearer alive.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 18:52

I didn't strike again, slipping out from under a dagger thrown by one of the survivors (an assassin, by the way). I wished the little bastard had had time to jerk his head back so he hadn't been killed by an ally's attack. And it was trivial luck since he hadn't seen that strip of steel and couldn't have reacted to its appearance.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 18:53

The assassin did not live long, not even having time to grab a new projectile, and the two ordinary fighters also did not have time to react to the blows of the extremely long shadow ribbon. And then the Malefic, whom I was going to kill with the same ribbon, but on the return move, suddenly fell to his knees and put his hands on the ground.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 18:54

A violet flame erupted from both of his bracelets, and a circle shone with the same color on the ground. The light rose as a translucent wall, cutting off the protected area from any threat. The protection was strong enough to withstand a couple of my attacks... if I decided to launch them. I'd already used up about a quarter of my reserves, so I wasn't in a hurry to use my energy to overcome such unusual defenses.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 18:57

Instead of shadows, a flask of negator hit the barrier, making the barrier surge in waves and begin to thin. The panicked Malefic attacked me with some kind of curse, but I wrapped myself in the shadow and took the curse as a kind of armor, immediately dropping it like a cloth. I threw the resulting construct of shadow cloth and the curse, still searching for its target, at the assassin who was "stealthily" closing in on me, dodging another arrow. And I cut off the Malefic's head with another of the shadow ribbons.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:00

Ah, I am so good boy.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:02

My gut howled with thousands of needles poking into every possible and some impossible point in my body, and I immediately took off with the runaway trick a hundred yards away. In principle, I panicked a little, for I could have coped with a simple shadow step, but the threat was too obvious. Some sort of bamboo thicket was now growing where the battlefield had recently been, literally glowing with the power invested in it. And Gaze and clairvoyance immediately suggested where the blow was directed from. This was the second time the ritualist had brought an unpleasant surprise. And I couldn't get the beast out, he was too well-protected!

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:04

Of course, I could fold the whole place up like a house of cards, just by putting enough force into a punch, but that would require too much investment, and I might not be able to save my teammates in time. And they're in a pretty tight spot right now, even if it's not a critical situation. My party had been pushed into the marshes, or so the slave traders thought, for those sneaky fellows didn't mind getting there.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:05

It ended with Ygra bursting into the enemy's ranks and having a party right in the middle of the crowd, quickly reducing the number of opponents. I knew there was plenty of acid in the alchemist's stores, but I also knew that the product was not given to them, because they simply didn't need it. And if you think about the fact that all the mages I had already knocked out, then it becomes quite funny - there was simply nothing to kill Yggra. She could heal an ordinary wound faster than the blade left it. Only those with special skills showed something because they could at least pierce her skin and do some damage, but each skill ate away some reserve, and warriors have a very little reserve, and they can't hold out that long, even if you forget about the constantly decreasing number of fighters.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:07

The ogre still hasn't received a single really serious injury, taking careful care to keep her eyes and other vulnerable points out of the way. Add to that the effects of her pheromones and the brainwashing attraction, and that's a disaster. All three of my companions took antidotes against her effects, and Tarija took a double dose. No one gave the bandits any such formulas, which led to the logical results.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:10

At first, I was even surprised that the ogre was fighting outside of her favorite stealth tactics, but then I realized (slowpoke, I choose you!). Green, after all, perceives the other "pack members" as youngsters and is now protecting them from encroachment. Swamp ogres are individualists, true, but protecting offspring is still on the shortlist of things they do together.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:13

And since the offspring were helping to kill the attackers themselves, the fight quickly went from defense to offense. The only one I cared about was Phantom, managing to counteract the sunshine of Locij and Hans striking from behind him at the same time. Tarija was just lying in the mire, gurgling indignantly, and occasionally tossing the rest of her alchemy flasks - she'd lost her crossbow, and she didn't dare go into the meat grinder, for fear of the integrity of her head and the neck that held it.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:30

Phantom himself was justifiably proving that he had been written off early, fending off both men with respectable skill. I could tell even through the shadows that he was better with a blade than Losij, even if he was his equal in stats (and even better under alchemy). Hans had to watch his back, too, because Phantom was liable to stab him in the back with his blink. He would have been injured if not for the potions he had taken, and that was the least of it. It was strange how a fighter of his caliber could have ended up in the company of slave traders.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:32

I realized that, for now, we had control of the situation, so I went back to the battle. Especially since my clairvoyance was now working at full speed to cover my companions. If I sensed any danger to them, I would intervene, but so far it wasn't necessary... ouch, you're fuckin' kidding me! What kind of life am I living, huh?

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:38

Tarija stares in shock at the shadow of her own hand clutching a crossbow bolt in her "fingers," but the crossbowman has already been dragged down into the mire by a shadowy tentacle. Because don't touch my tits, motherfucker! I mean, not mine, but mine... I mean, Tarija's, but mine... Die, motherfucker!

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:39

The tentacle was still holding the sound-shooter by the throat, and I was already hurtling through The Shadow, picking out another target. This time my gaze (and Gaze) fell on the alchemist's lab. Not that he was dangerous to me, but there was a sturdy, defensible building, near where almost all the survivors had gathered, those who hadn't died or fought Ygra and Co. I'm going to cut them down, help my comrades if I have to, and then I can go and visit the ritualist, who's been bugging me a lot already.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:40

The first thing I did, before I got into the melee (saving energy, no more), was to toss another toxin vial through the open window way. There was the creepy-looking face of a shooter who had decided to use the narrow window as a loophole, so I spared him some of the poison. As it turned out, it was not poison, but some caustic lye, not even called full-fledged acid. I must have mixed it up when I was putting together a set of throwing projectiles for the battle.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:41

In any case, I knocked out the shooter guaranteed, so now I could think about getting closer and going to the rear of the bandits who hadn't yet figured out the problem. Now a little...

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:44

Fucking shit!!!

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:17

The shadow steps worked like clockwork, and my instincts were right again, forcing me into ghostly form and flying up and back at top speed. It was good that it was almost night now, so the sun didn't destabilize the Shadow, and I could take to the sky without fear of slowing at the most inopportune moment.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:45

It blew up badly, literally turning the lab into a pit. Luckily, it wasn't an ordinary explosion that would have hit my team, but some kind of magical stuff. The alchemist's house and the nearest hundred meters, or even a hundred and fifty meters, were covered by a cloud of corrosive acid, like my neighbor Baba Zina. It melted a real crater in the ground. There was not even debris and fragments left of the house, nor of the defenders who had gathered around it.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:49

When I emerged from the Shadow near the boundary of the acid collapse, all I could do was poke the tip of my boot into the gray mass that this infernal liquid had become after a rapid reaction with oxygen (not dangerous and not even poisonous, according to my alchemical intuition). I glanced around the crater and considered the consequences to my health if I hadn't escaped, and all I could manage was to speak thoughtfully from beneath the mask:

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:52

"That was a real crit!"

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:53

There was another intuition warning that brought me out of my thoughtful exasperation, to which I reacted purely mechanically. A shadow, a movement, an exit within fifty meters of the entry point - just about right. I glanced around the quickly withering bamboo thickets (the last lawn had already become wilted compost) and realized that one ritualist was still in this world. And in that world, he obviously doesn't need an artifact that allows him to deliver such blows. I don't know what kind of grass it is, because it only resembles bamboo the slightest bit, not being bamboo. But I know for a fact that it's the only thing I can use in my household.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:57

I was about to start executing my plan, but my clairvoyance forced me once again to be distracted by the rescue of the adventurers in trouble. This time they were going to kill Hans, and I had to react really fast.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 19:59

The clairvoyance was throbbing in my temples, but a picture of what was happening was unfolding before me. The Phantom, realizing that he was about to be killed and that there was nothing he could do about it, had decided that it was bad manners to go to the afterlife without good company. The wretched brether had deliberately traded his life for Hans's, wishing at least this way to spoil his attackers and prevent them from finishing the defeat of his gang altogether without a hitch. And he might even have succeeded, since his anti-prophetic affirmative had slowed my reaction considerably, and I wasn't at all sure that my shadow could pull the tracker out from under the enemy's sword.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:05

It was Tarya who saved the situation. Apparently, her perception was enough to determine the right moment to intervene. I have no idea how low the chance of success was, but it was slim: calculating the locations of each of the fighters, choosing the moment, and reacting in time was truly luck of epic proportions.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:06

The girl herself, especially, took almost no risks, since Ygra had already managed to zero out most of the bandits, and the remaining seven could only run away from her through the constant use of jerks and similar skills. She could barely stand on her feet from the weakness caused by the too frequent use of her skills and green-skinned pheromones. She was just catching up with them and crushing them one by one, and they couldn't even hurt her - the moment when the concentration of attacks could still pierce her skin and bleed out was over as the number of attackers dwindled.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:07

However, we are not talking about Ygra now, we are talking about Tarija.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:09

She demonstrated her talents in "mud fighting," stripping off her outer clothes and even wiping her chest from the mud, then stood up sharply and shouted the order to freeze. It was a good thing her ability didn't work through shadow perception, or it would have been a sad thing for me to be hit by another ritualist attack.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:11

Four men froze at once - Phantom, the two misfits (immediately finished off by Yggra) who happened to glance in the direction of the scream, and Losij, standing in line with the slave-trader who had just blinked. Except Losij had someone to cover him, and Phantom was the only one left. Hans took his chance, blowing his head off with his sword and piercing his heart with his dagger.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:11

I'll give Tarya credit, she didn't try to brainwash the rest of my co-combatants in secret, though I could almost physically feel how hard it was for her to refuse such a decision. Well, let's just assume she'd just committed the act of a paragon rather than a renegade. Or maybe she just realized in time that I would notice her influence on her comrades-in-arms, one way or another.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:12

She wrinkled her nose and fell back into the dirt, hiding her "weapons" so as not to hit Hans, who was kicking the frozen Losij to his senses. It was either the slaps and shouts that had worked, or the loss of eye contact with the ability concentrator, but the duelist came to his senses, swore in unnoble way, and, blazing with righteous anger (figuratively, since he was no longer able to do tricks with heavenly energy), went to vent his anger on the still-living remnants of the bandits, literally stealing food from Ygra.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:14

I snorted and ducked out of the hit of the obscure artifact again (the ritualist seemed to be just striking by cooldown), stopping just a hundred paces away from the nearly glowing house. The mage who was lodged there had clearly put all the defense to maximum effect, forcing it to work on the wear and tear, but now this place could protect against a lot. And what's more! If his colleagues were to resurrect themselves, and then try to kill the mage trapped inside, they'd have to spend a lot of time and blood to get through those walls.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:15

Alas, I came here, albeit uninvited.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:16

A step, a normal human step, followed by another and another. I walked leisurely and relaxed, but my own shadow was growing behind me, rising in a huge silhouette of many arms, wriggling and contorting in either grimace or squirming. I consciously invested myself in attack and defense, forcing myself to stand my ground rather than move out from under attack.

Camrad_RIP 30.01.22 в 20:16