บท 93: Born A Monster, Chapter 93 - Slow Burn

Born A Monster

Chapter 93

Slow Burn

Saddle sores are possible without saddles. I wish someone had warned me, for example. I'm not even sure what type of damage it is, because in spite of their pain, they don't normally cause damage.

I also had to treat my pony as well, and feeling it jerk every time I approached her … Animals are painfully honest, and it hurt to feel their fear and know that I deserve it.

And to know that it was the lack of my skills, the lack of my attention that caused this pain, that hurt worse than any number of blisters.

But in six days, we passed a distance that normally takes ten days to walk.

We passed Orrukhan on our left, and met Rakkal and his family less than an hour after that.

My pony panicked at the sight, and threw me.

[You have taken sixteen points of Blunt damage. After armor, you have received ten points of damage. You have 5/30 health remaining.]

Ugh. Stupid wounds.

"I believe that is the person you wanted to be guided to?"

"You have been a good and true guide, Genedro."

Gendro left. Somehow, I was able to stand.

Rakkal snorted, shook his head. His left eye was bloodshot. "You are late."

"I am late."

"Well? Are the Conclave of Thorns coming?"

"If they are, it is with an army to stop us."

Oh shit. He was breathing calmly, evenly.

"Perhaps, larger brother, you would like to see what I was able to bring you?"

He stomped on the ground. "I see no troops, no weapons. What have you brought me that is worth the effort of not killing you right now?"

"I bring you pieces of their science, brother."

"Science! Slower and less reliable than magic. Useless."

"The ability to make twenty suits of plate in a day, faster than our blacksmiths can personalize. To create swords and axes by the hundreds."

"Each one named?" asked one of Rakkal's brothers.

"No." I said. "Enchanted weapons will still need to be made in the old manner."

"Science takes time and resources."

I looked at my feet. "It will take two or three seasons to make. It requires ready access to both coal and iron."

"But after this, we can equip heavy infantry, the kind suitable for a centaur anvil?"

"At a rate greater than any other entity on this side of the Twelve Daggers."

He drew himself up to his full height. "I like the way you fail, little brother."

"There is another thing." I produced my sample vial. "It is a strong acid, used by the Conclave to enhance the process."

"Show me."

I placed a rock where he could see it, poured a little sulphuric acid onto it, held the smoking rock up where he could see it.

"It will dissolve stone and even metal, given time. I was thinking if we make enough of it, our siege weapons…"

"Do the wards on the walls of Whitehill protect against this weapon?" he asked one of his sisters.

"I don't think so, but I can definitely find out before our troops are ready."

"I trust this to you, sister."

To me, "And what does this acid take to create?"

I told him.

"We have all that. However, we also have some necromancers who have betrayed me. That will not require months to correct. Give me that acid."

Orrukhan was less than an hour, as the minotaur walks. Me, I scurried, and leapt over depressions, and burned both uses that day of Fleet of Foot.

Then I added a third use per day, and fired that off, too.

I had running skills. I needed to add them to my daily training regimen.

"I mislike those skulls." His second sister said.

"You should." I said. "That is a skull ring, used by necromancers to slay enemies who cross it."

"I've survived worse." Rakkal snorted. "Stomp the skulls, and the pain is less."

"You know you can salt them as well?" I asked.

"What invocation is needed?" asked his brother. He and Uma listened carefully.

"Brother, can you keep their bows off of us while we do this?"

Their brother, whose name I later learned was just Hunter, strung a horn bow easily nine feet in span. "Won't even be a challenge."

And it wasn't. The skulls physically broke under the enchantment, popping like greenwood in a campfire.

Their gate was wooden, and their bar so sturdy that Rakkal had to kick it off its hinges on one side to get through.

"Bolt of Death!"

"Despair of the Unworthy!"

"Entropic Liver!"

They cast and invoked all manner of spells at him. Some he just took, and others he deflected with the axe.

There were thirty families, and an even thirteen necromancers. Counting me, there were ten of us.

"Slumber!" I shouted at one, as I stepped through the gate.

"What? Does that work on lesser foes? Brain Rot!"

"Wall of Water! Mist of Dreams!"

The Brain Rot cut right through the water, of course, but the Mist of Dreams held firm.

He glared at me, unaware of how low I was running on mana. Then the retreat swept hi back toward their chieftainess' hut.

"Blazing arrow – red!" Hunter called out.

The bolt of red flame from his bow was extinguished by a Kill the Flame spell, but it used some of their magic to defend, at least.

Most of the soldiers were out of the fight by this point, and two of the necromancers.

"That one! We focus on that one!"

They began hurling their spells exclusively at the second sister.

One thing in plentiful supply in Orrukhan were skulls.

"Infuse Skull!" I called out. "Infuse Skull!"

Now if you've been paying attention, that's not how that spell is supposed to be used. The first skull exploded in my left hand, and I hurled the second. It turned into a black powder when it intercepted the Lungs of Blood.

And then, Rakkal and his brothers who knew Flash Step had ended the battle.

The sister's face sagged loosely against her skull, and she coughed up blood twice while Uma tended her.

She said something to me in the language of minotaurs, which the brother had to translate. "Little brother, she reminds you that to die in battle is the fate of all minotaurs."

"There will be other battles." I said.

She laughed so hard that she coughed up blood.

"Who now is ruler in this village? Who now has seniority among your necromancers?" Rakkal shouted. "Come forth, and face punishment!"

An old woman emerged from the hut. "If my husband has fallen in battle, this is my village."

"And the necromancers?"

She pointed. "Hyestes, there."

Rakkal picked the boy up. He was missing an arm.

"He's busy getting personal with death. Who next?"

A wheezing person pinned to the wall by a spear waved her chin.

"My family, did you leave any necromancers alive?"

"Just that one." Uma said, pointing at me.

"ARE THERE NO NECROMANCERS LEFT IN THIS VILLAGE?"

Rakkal snorted, stomped twice, and turned to face the elderly woman.

"Does this village have the hunters remaining to survive on its own, or should I relocate your survivors to other villagers?"

She shrugged. "Is the village done paying for my husband's stupidity and vanity?"

Like a snake, his hand was about her chin. "Let me explain to you how angry I am. This… is acid. I was looking forward to pouring it onto the face of your necromancer. Your face will do if you anger me further. So. Can this village survive, as it is now?"

"That is extremely painful." She said.

He took the glass stopper into his teeth, held the acid above her face. "Yes, or no, or death."

"My husband is gone, monster, you do…"

The rest of her defiance vanished with her face.

"That actually stings." Rakkal said, shaking his hand, covered in smoking spots from where the acid had touched him. "Who now rules this village?"

A youth stepped forward. "I am the chieftain's eldest son. Orrukhan will survive."

Rakkal sighed. "We will rest the night here. If even one of you raises weapon to us now, you all die. If one of you runs, you all die. The rest of you, either get to cooking, or gather the magic tools of the necromancers."

Many of those tools were personal to the necromancers, but there was easily enough death magic around to handle a small squad. If necromancy didn't terrify me, there was an ox-hide detailing the basics of the Thulian spell system.

"I believe I can train others in necromancy with these tools."

"Can you safely destroy them, render them useless?"

"Over time." I said.

"Good. I leave this task into your hands, then."

And in a loud clear voice, "All, attend! I make this decree! Too often, the corruptions of Death, and Madness, and Taint have caused divisions within my empire. No longer! Wherever the banner of the Red Tide flies, let it be known that is land forbidden to the Horrors, whether they walk in this world, or whisper from the next! Come the Week of Thawing, all such practitioners found within the empire are to be put to death!"

And in a whisper, "I'm done with this crap."

Much of the minor magic could be dispensed with that very night, burned in a campfire. Not the skull batteries that still held a charge, of course, and there were other things not safe to burn or break.

"Without those skulls," the old lady told me, "our village is exposed to hostile spirits."

I sighed. "Send me those who would deal with spirits. I will teach them to invoke the wards of salt and blood."

"Blood magic is now forbidden."

"Until one who invokes nature or the elements lives here, the invocation shall have to do."

So, under the watchful eyes of the Family, I led the remaining villagers in the ritual of salt and blood.

"I am not happy with this." Rakkal told me.

"They have nothing left. Salt alone will not protect them."

"What do they need?"

"Anyone who can speak with spirits, or wield the elements, or whose soul bears the mark of the divine. Across the mystic, wards are among the easiest of magics to use safely."

"What is safer?"

"The basic illusions are safer."

Perhaps in a later tome I will speak of illusions. For now, there are simple basic illusions, but there are more advanced ones that are more difficult and dangerous and intricate.

"If I am to serve you, perhaps I should know how many more internal matters we need to resolve?"

"More. Always more."

He then drew a squiggle in the dirt.

"Sulphur is found in volcanoes. Show me where theirs is."

I redrew the squiggle, then the other side, then the volcano, and cautioned him about the yeti tribe.

"This town, Sulphur Springs. Where does it get its water from?"

I drew the stream. "I don't understand this; they must have more water reserves than what I saw. Otherwise, this is a week's siege at most."

The knuckles in his fists popped. "Where do you propose I get sulphur from?"

"Egg yolks, or start sending traders north to the Khanate."

"Egg yolks? Will chicken eggs suffice?"

"Boiled chicken eggs will contain sulphur. Yes."

"Those stupid arrogant birds have a use, after all. Very well, return to Crimson Hand, find the alchemists you need, and get me a single catapult shot of this acid."

"Only one?"

"I will need only one. Oh, and tell Harkulet to report to me. Either himself, or his apprentice. I have questions about magic."

"I can answer some of those." I said.

And I could. The others – those who don't use magic rarely have the understanding to form questions like that.

I vastly needed to up my magical understanding.

I needed to increase my understanding of everything.

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