Chapter 3

He had found it. The village bolt hole! Deep in his heart, he’d known they had one, otherwise, there would be tracks of their young fleeting. The initial rushed feel of the defence, that illusion of them not responding in time to Mike’s attack had been an act. Likewise, the hundreds of cubs they had sacrificed were just the cost of the diversion. It had all been done to allow this cavern to be left unnoticed. Unfortunately for them, Adrian, having fought them once was not so easily fooled.

“What?” the young man yelled to be heard over the noise of the surrounding flames, confused about why they had stopped.

With a secret smile, Adrian theatrically clicked his fingers.

Suddenly, all the excessive cacophony around him vanished. His command of sound worked both ways. Jaracol would have appreciated the stunned expressions that greeted him.

“The shintopurs have a hideout underground. I didn’t get a good look, but I’d expect there to be an alternative exit, but they’re not using it. At least ten adults and four or five times as many juveniles. Wait here. Let me scout properly.”

Step, Step, Step.

His focus was on what was under the ground, but despite that, his external senses stretched every way. If someone attacked from behind or from the sky, he would know about it. There were three caverns that had been dug out, each connected with generous gaps. Two smaller ones holding a similar number of shintopurs as the main room though obviously more tightly packed. It was a large group. Carefully, he built up an image of the entrances and exits. There was a narrow tunnel that led off to who knows where. They were clearly not using it, preferring to hunker down and hide as their town burned overhead. In addition, there had been two larger exits, both of which were filled in with stone and dirt besides being covered by the burning interiors of the log houses.

Wind gust, wind gust.

The mini gales pushed into those blocked entrances. Air pressure surged and dust and flames burst into the cavern below as a dozen entry points were opened. The couple of shintopurs nearby shifted back uneasily, but those exits were into the small room so there was little space for them to shift. He could see them looking at the barrier they had built, but not doing anything to shore it up. They knew that if they moved there were spells and divination skills that would find them even buried under the earth as they were. Staying still was their best defence and the mass of them did that. Creepily, the cubs were just as frozen.

Adrian nodded to himself. The barriers, as he expected were just loose packed rocks and dirt, so were porous. He could repeat the trick from earlier and send whirlwinds full of smoke through the holes to do the job for him.

Before he took the final step, he needed to ensure whether they were trapped, or if they had a bolt hole that Adrian could block it. The tunnel was not a problem since it was only wide enough for them to crawl through, and if they used it, they would not be taking their armour and weapons with them. If that was the only way for them to escape, then he could easily follow and ambush them as they exited.

The question was, what would they do when they realised smoke was pouring into their caves?

Would they leave by the tunnel or elsewhere? These things were military planning lunatics. They would have contingencies behind contingencies . Carefully, Adrian extended his domain. He focused intently on building a picture of how the cave had been built. They were not buried deep. There was less than half a metre of dirt separating them from the surface.

That wasn’t laziness.

It would be deliberate. The earth was supported by wooden beams. Adrian remembered a similar sort of setup under the road in Albury. If the roof was held up by wooden beams, then if you pulled out those supports… Boom!

The distribution of the shintopurs almost made sense. The smaller spaces were more tightly packed because the larger space was designed to collapse. While he was not an engineer, he would happily bet that the ceiling could be brought down from the inside to let them out en masse if it was required.

It also made sense based on the tactical core instructions that each shintopur possessed. That military ‘brain’ would not allow that many of them to be trapped without a guaranteed escape, and that other tunnel could be blocked by a single mage.

It was a definite they could collapse the cavern.

Step.

Adrian looked back at the spot he had been standing. You couldn’t tell by looking at it, but he knew it could be pulled out from under his feet at any moment.

Moving away from the fall area, only an idiot would stand on it.

With a nod to himself, he decided to flush them out.

Step, step.

First thing he had to do was to get his friendly bashers. When he got back to them, they were looking hot and sweaty.

“Sorry,” he apologised still encased in his sound bubble. Stepping close so his icy mist washed over them.

“Don’t be.”

“We have a fight on our hands, so I figured we should know each other’s names. I am Adrian.”

The more confident of the two, previously the talkative one, a natural blond started. “Buster,” the young man said, holding a hand for a shake. Adrian accepted the offer, appreciating the firm wrist that greeted him. He hated those weak-limbed efforts.

“Nickname.”

“Nope, my mum had a weird sense of humour.”

“Chase,” the younger brown-haired kid said as sweat dripped down his face and off his chin.

“We have thirty adults—”

“Thirty!” Chase interrupted. “Shouldn’t we get some support?”

“No,”

“But?”

“Trust me it’s not that many.” Adrian kept walking, and the boys followed. “I’m going to smoke them out. We.” He walked quickly and led them to where he suspected they were planning on bursting out from. “We,” he told them, “are going to guard here.”

“You want us to guard some grass?”

“As far as I can tell, when they realise I am smoking them, they will collapse the area to attempt an escape. You’re here to stop them. Stay. I’m going to set things up.”

Step.

Wind gust, wind gust.

Step.

The entrances to the cave system were still within his domain, and two log houses collapsed under the impact of his wind gusts. The small amount of structural integrity left was overwhelmed by his devastating force. Even if they tried to get out that way, they would not be successful.

He returned to stand between the two boys. “That’s the prep work done. Now for the smoke.”

While Adrian knew he could do this himself, that was inefficient. Instead, he let his magic flood into the spear, it sucked the power in and focused on it. Giant tornados formed above him. The thick smoke from multiple burning log houses got sucked into the two funnels of whizzing air. Black whirl winds bled from the bottom of the larger one and rushed towards the places he had just collapsed. As each of the dark spinning devils left, the tornados got a little lighter.

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