Chapter 18: Similar Malice 2

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“Duck down! Land us at the tower’s base!” Rainier noticed just in time a volley of arrows about to shoot Tero and Nera out of the sky. He also initially intended to land right on top of the tower to face Musala Kasamir, but a barrier made from cosmic magic blocked their path, so they had to reach the tower from the ground level.

Tero and Nera dropped down to the base of the tower where a battle was already underway between equally sized groups of karkans and arachnacosa. When the four of them landed on the ground, they all readied themselves for battle with their weapons of choice.

Nera began swirling her double-ended glaive like a dervish, chopping karkan limbs and blocking their weapons. Tero effortlessly skewered a karkan through its neck as he dropped to the ground before pulling it out and shooting a solidified spiked ball of dark energy into the face of another charging karkan.

Sataska grew several dagger length spikes from her hands, tossing them at a karkan who blocked the projectiles with a buckler shield. The karkan, upon lowering its shield, barely noticed Sataska rushing at him with spikes growing from her arm. He slashed horizontally with a chipped longsword. Sataska ducked under the blade and jabbed on spike between the openings in the armor around the karkan’s kneecap, causing the reptilian humanoid to howl in pain. One more stab from her other spike into the gut and she finished off the karkan.

Rainier simply stood still and watched on. There were no threats to his current being, so he relaxed for a moment, drinking in the situation. ‘The chokepoints are still holding, but soon we will swarm and surround them. The secondary force of arachnacosa I sent to scale the walls with webbing should soon attack Vectoir from the cliff sides. Hm, there’s someone about to attack me from behind.”

Rainier swerved to the side and pulled his arm holding the Razor of Envy around. Like he sensed, a karkan tried to attack him with a greatsword, though the edge of the blade found itself dug into the dusty cobblestone of the derelict roads. Rainier shot his free hand up, imagining a purple hued spear radiating ghastly energy. This spear took the form of a knight’s lance complete with a shadowy pennant and it emerged from the collective energy of the various recently deceased soldiers of the battlefield. The karkan saw this lance and back stepped to avoid it only to see the lance stretch from Rainier’s hand directly in front of his neck before piercing him in the same spot.

Rainier then dashed over to the karkan and quickly slit his neck with the razor, coating the dagger with blood. Though only Rainier noticed this as due to the intensity of the battle, the death lance he created was unusually powerful compared to the versions he practiced when taught be Nestor.

‘It must be because of all the death in the air. Death is a fairly rare attribute, even compared to the cosmic attribute. I wonder if other mages with a death attribute also have their spells become more powerful during a battle.’ Rainier speculated the increase in his power. He also accounted it to his mysteriously large soul force, but could not confirm either theory.

In any case, Rainier realized that it was no time to debate magical theory right now.

“Arachs! You lot swarm the other side of this tower, attack the defenses by climbing the tower walls and climbing down on the other side! A group of you assist the arachs engaging the archers on the walls. Pull any karkans too close to the edge to the ground to be finished off! Five arachs guard the entrance of this tower, the enemy commander may be up here. I want to deal with him myself!”

Rainier dispensed orders with clarity, his voice reaching beyond the sounds of combat within the current vicinity. The arachs barely hesitated for a moment before adhering to their leader’s command. They all knew the central command of Kosok Kre and Sharok: To follow this human’s orders. Some didn’t care while most were not fond of handing off their authority. However, none of them could deny the fact that if they lead a siege by themselves, the arachs would fail miserably. Somehow, everything was in their favor, and they could not figure out what was it that the human was doing to lead them to victory.

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Musala Kasamir couldn’t understand a single thing that was going on. “Rainier… He’s not what I expected, intelligent.”

The person who wrote and signed the letter came off as an arrogant prick that didn’t seem to think about the consequences of his actions. Yet…

“He’s similar to me, very similar. And thanks to that, I know what his next action is, to find me.”

Musala grinned as he peered over the edge of the tower he stood on. He could barely make out several figures among the dozens of half spiders. “If he’s not down there, then those four must still belong to him, probably after me.”

Musala yanked three discs attached to a satchel on his back. He took a stance like a Frisbee thrower and shot one of the discs directly downwards. The disc went off target, most likely from a spell’s shockwave or gust of wind somewhere, and struck the ground close to two arachs. The sound of an explosion sounded off, but instead of an explosion a 360 degree flash of grey light spun in a circle before tapering off. That disc of dull light hit the arachs around one’s neck and the other’s upper torso, completely separating the aforementioned attachments from the rest of the body.

Without waiting any further, Musala flung the other discs downwards the four humanoids. After doing so, he quickly barked to the nearby mage. “Can you form spatial platforms?”

Spatial platforms were a magic of both wind and cosmic attributes. However, both types of magic were extremely hard to keep steady. Manifesting one was easy, but to keep one manifested was not.

“Yes, but wind is not my strong suit. I can probably only form two at most for about a second each, one at four seconds long.” The mage already understood what his commander wanted. “I can do this sir, escape while you can! The hero of the karkan race must not fall! Once you jump off, I’ll form a platform directly underneath you, so keep moving forwards and down without wasting a second!”

Musala nodded while smiling. “I just need to rally our forces and turn this battle around. Numbers do not mean victory, not to karkans. SPIRIT AND WITS DO!” With a fierce roar, Musala vaulted himself over the tower’s ledge and landed deftly on an invisible platforming swarming with toiling air, making his way down all the way to the bottom where a group of karkans were effectively fending off a small squadron of arachs.

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“He’s not up here?” Rainier removed the Razor of Envy from the heart of a lifeless robed karkan.

The dagger greedily sucked up any blood remaining on its blade, resulting in a twinge of pain on the back of Rainier’s neck. ‘Feels like a really intense mosquito bite.’

“It seemed this mage or human leader used some sort of magic to allow the other to mistake. Hopefully it is not long range teleportation, or else it would be impossible to follow.” Tero licked a finger and waved it around in the air as if testing for the temperature.

“Can you find out where he went? No… Scratch that, Sataska!” Rainier glanced towards his self-professed spouse. “Can you sense any humans other than me in the area?”

Even though he reaped the powerful senses of the evoants, Rainier noticed it still wasn’t up to par with the real deal. ‘Besides, I’m still not used to relying on an entirely different set of sensory input.’ The five senses were something every human were used to excluding those who lost the appendages needed. So of course Rainier found it difficult to completely rely on his antenna which when released was powerful enough to override the input from his original five.

“Of course I can! I am a queen after all with queenly power. Hmmrmmm…” Sataska blinked happily at the thought of being of some use. She pressed her pointer fingers on her temple like some sort of mind reader while humming. “It’s tough to do so when so much is going on at once, but I’m confident at finding the human if you give me a short while.”

Rainier nodded. “I suppose this is as good as time as any to focus on the overall battle some more. Tero?”

“Our initial advance was successful; we easily penetrated the walls at unexpected speed. However the momentum has slowed down and our advance has been nearly halted.” Reported Tero as his gaze ventured about over the tower’s edge.

“Karkans are quite efficient in battle. Even more so with Musala Kasamir commanding them. He’s a cut above the average person. And you said that metal magic from those discs was his doing?”

Nera then took her turn to speak. “Metal attribute magic is either purely defensive or offensive in nature. I believe a metal rune was imbued on those discs so when the discs shattered, the magic would then spread out in a circular fashion slicing everything around it.” Nera normally wouldn’t speak so much in a single sitting, but something compelled her within her mind to do so.

Of course she was unaware that Rainier utilized the mental hold he had over all of the dhampirs to force her to explain things in more detail.

“Hm, I think I’ll speak to Ganel for a second.”

With that said, Rainier searched for familiar feeling of Ganel’s mind. ‘Ganel, can you hear me? This is Rainier speaking to your mind right now.’

Mental silence could only be observed for several seconds. The abyss of mental speech was quite cold and timeless. It almost felt as if Rainier could get lost within his own mind or the minds of others.

‘Lord?! You can thought speak? Truly! You are meant to be a great ruler.’

Finding the ceaseless veneration annoying, Rainier sent more thoughts to Ganel before he got too full of himself.

‘Yes, yes, yes, I’m amazing. I already know that. Musala Kasamir has escaped my grasp right now. If you or subordinates find him, immediately let me know!’

‘Yes sir!’

Rainier turned his attention back to Sataska who was in an attempt to get his attention, pulling on his sleeve. “Hello? Sataska speaking, I’m unfortunately unable to glean Kasamir’s exact location, but I can tell he is in the direction of the firehouse.”

“Really? Good work, I guess.”

Rainier was a bit cagey to give Sataska any sort of compliment as it usually resulted in an annoying form of the ant glomming onto Rainier.

“Of course I did good work. I, as a queen, cannot do anything less.” Sataska beamed with a shift in her hips.

“The elder has been forced to take the family from the skies to low altitude. It seems several of us have been injured from concentrated fire from the karkans, no deaths thankfully.” A dhampir out of nowhere landed on the top of the tower to relay a message a report to Rainier.

“Your name?”

“I’m honored you asked, my lord. I am Haro, skilled with my jet-lance and have served as lead commander for Fountaine’s undead army before I was sealed.”

Fountaine, the Decayed One- A human archmagus turned vampire lord who raised and managed to cast an exospheric death spell which fielded a massive army of undead to fuel his ambition of creating a nation for solely undead citizens. Undead creatures of many types that had freewill flocked to his banner. His legions of undead fought successful battles in many theatres, mainly against the human and avian empires. In his bid to establish firm borders, Fountaine earned the ire of more nations and every single military force which believed undead to be unnatural. In the end, Fountaine’s ambitions fell apart four years after they began. This sparked debates among many philosophers and thinkers which questioned the morality of committing genocide on freethinking individuals, even if they were undead.

‘This encyclopedia is so weird…’ Mused Rainier as he nodded to Haro.

“Okay then, Haro. I’m assuming Falth had you come to me for your leadership ability. Well, Relay these specific orders to the arachnacosa officers and then command them while I’m dealing with Musala Kasamir.”

Rainier passed down orders, one of which included the usage of a metal magic which drastically sped up the oxidizing process of rusting metal. Haro didn’t understand the reason behind the usage of that magic, but he didn’t question it and acquitted the reason to one of his lord’s plots.

“Then I’ll take my leave lord!” Haro leapt on top of the tower’s edge and aimed his lance downwards towards a group of karkans in reserve for the frontlines.

The tip of the lance, around fifty centimeters long the shot forth from the haft, pulling a dense chain behind it with a clinking sound. Haro then dove off the tower with his bat-like wings furled around his back.

“Tero, Nera, and Sataska.” Rainier deafeningly stated their names over the music of conflict. “Let’s find Musala Kasamir, double-time!”

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The battle was effectively rendered a grand melee in the decrepit streets of Vectoir. Among the shredded cobblestone paths where freshly made corpses of arachnacosa and karkans alike.

Vectoir is a fairly large city, some eight hundred kilometers squared in area. And since the karkan army was merely an expeditionary force compared to a full invasion of the arachnacosa tribal armies, it was steadily losing.

It would take not only military genius to win the battle, but also a great deal of luck. And luck was exactly what Musala Kasamir was lacking at the moment.

“What do you mean the weapons in the armory are unusable?!” Angrily shouted Musala with a hint of gloom.

“Sir! The armaments we stockpiled all have brittle blades and edges, they shatter behind on any good impact. It’s impossible to effectively wield the armaments with such a fragile nature.” A karkan looked at his commander and hero in despair.

“Damn it! Nothing is going our way. This Rainier must have fully prepared for a surprise attack, how did he lay down those mines? Plant the mines at the firehouse? Sabotage the armory? Light up the archer’s locations?” It suddenly dawned on him. “Spies and saboteurs in our midst. I fully didn’t expect anything like this, and even if I did, I doubt I could prepare efficiently on such short notice.” Yes, unfortunately for Musala it was far too late to find the saboteurs and eliminate them.

“What next, sire?” The same karkan who gave the report inquired on their next action.

Musala felt the heavy gazes of more than forty karkans stare down on him. He was no stranger to decision making that decided the fate of other’s lives, it naturally came with the dangerous job he had back on earth.

In his surroundings, Musala could hear more cries of painful anguish coming from karkans than arachnacosa. Although he hated the thought of it, Musala Kasamir knew what his next course of action was.

“Sound the retreat. Order a full steady pull back of all karkans remaining to the gondola. We can take refuge inside the indestructible structure as it takes us down the plateau.” Yes, Musala didn’t wish to, but retreat was his only option at continued survival.

He underestimated both the arachnacosa and the one leading them, Rainier. This was his mistake, underestimating the dangers of Ademptis.

The karkans didn’t question their hero’s orders. They were all members of the bestial and battle crazy karkans, but that did not mean they refused to retreat or back off when necessary. Dying for nothing was a shame compared to dying honorably for their race and empire’s gain.

“CHARGE THROUGH HERE, CUT THEM DOWN!” A domineering shout sliced through the despondent atmosphere of the karkans.

“Thirty of you hold them off here until you can no longer. The other ten, inform your comrades of my decision!” Ordered Musala as he took aim with his rifle.

Musala Kasamir fired off several bursts of automatic fire from his rifle, downing three arachs in quick succession. He had the thirty karkans quickly arrange into a shield wall formation with spears between the shields. In the thirty, there were two mages, one skilled in earth magic and the other in plant magic. He had the earth mage erect stone stakes from the cobblestone before firing off shards of rock into the charging forces. The other mage had the weeds growing between the stones elongate to whip and tangle the legs of the arachs. Although no arachs tripped due to the amount of legs they owned, it still slowed them down.

“Fire a volley at my mark…” After waiting a full second, Musala fire another burst while shouting at full volume, “FIRE!”

A full dozen of arrows passed over the shoulders of the shield bearers as well as a small handful of magical projectiles. However, all of the projectiles were halted in midair and bounced to the ground harmlessly. Where the projectiles now laid was a human figure.

This male human looking person had bat-like wings and twirled a spear with a pennant around to knock the arrows and magic stones out of the air.

As the arachnacosa charged around him, crashing headlong in the karkan formation clashing with serrated swords and axes. Musala looked past the fighters to see three more unique figures standing by the male with bat wings.

One was a very similar looking female with the same set of wings wielding a large double ended weapon with naginata like blades. The other was also female with metallic spikes growing out of her body like some sort of porcupine. Musala Kasamir was stunned by the two girl’s beauty, the former resembled a glamour model from the USA or Russia, she also had a cold dismissive expression that seemed to look down on others. The latter was like a slender model that would have hundreds of ardent admirers, she also had a cold expression that seemed to belong on royalty. Surely those who had a masochistic nature to them, which Musala was sure he didn’t have, would be enthralled by the duo’s incredible beauty.

However, it was the fourth figure that stole his gaze. This fourth figure stood in between the two girls as if he belonged there. He stared directly at Musala Kasamir with a savage grin. A grim looking dagger held in reverse grip looked ready to slashed out and cut at a moment’s notice. A karkan that pulled out alone from an alleyway looked about frantic before charging at the figure. The person ducked the karkan soldier’s sword slash and kicked at his knees, breaking the bones effortlessly and bending it backwards before slitting the karkan’s neck,

Musala narrowed his taciturn eyes. He saw his enemy and knew exactly who this fourth figure was. The human leading the arachnacosa: Rainier.