As I had privately expected, in the face of catastrophe, even the most rigid government couldn’t just stubbornly cling to their clear and well-defined order and simply continue on. No, when the peasants started to starve, they began to go to where the food was. Or in this case, when the monsters started to come knocking, the peasants began to flee, just trying to get to some sort of safety. The military and the guards tried to maintain order, but from the videos I had seen on the forum, that was getting increasingly difficult. Killing a few peasants to frighten the mob was one thing, but indiscriminate slaughter invited indiscriminate rebellion. If they had nothing to lose but everything to gain, even the worst chance suddenly looked quite appealing.

Not that the struggles of peasants or guards had a lot of impact on our journey, after two days of sneaking through the area directly affected by the fall-out of our actions, we were mostly clear, the monsters having spread far and wide with little chance for them to simply swarm us and use numbers to tear us apart. From the sneaking, carefully concealed skulkers, we became more confident and all-too-eager to tear into some hapless monster that thought to bar our path.

“Found something new,” Adra whispered. as always in the lead. “I think those are the Forest Sprites, only that they are hopped up on the energy of the Sun. Want to see how strong they are now?” she asked, the four of us concealed by Shadows and Nature, working in concert.

“It might give us some insight into the one we pissed off,” I nodded, a shudder running down my spine when I thought of the dreams that had haunted me the last few days. Those serpentine eyes, gazing deep into my soul, measuring, judging, no matter how I tried to shield or conceal myself. If there had been any hostility, it would have been utterly terrifying, and even without it, it was incredibly disconcerting.

“Guide Sigmir into position, Rai and I will sneak around and come at them from the rear,” I suggested, getting quick nods from the others.

Without any additional words, Rai and I blended into the shadows, melding into the darkness of the forest as we jaunted just on the edge where all shadows became one. It allowed us to move swiftly and without risking discovery on the material side. Recently, even the immaterial side was incredibly quiet, gone was the nervous feeling I had when jaunting through the shadows. Maybe it had to do with the intense amount of Sun-aligned Astral Power that had inundated the area, driving away the natives of the plane, but I didn’t know. It might also come from the corrupt Mooncrystal I was carrying around, that the madness and Death inherent to it had a restraining effect. Or it was something else entirely.

Either way, Rai and I managed to ghost into position, hiding in the shadows of a couple of trees on either side of the small clearing the Forst Sprites were using to dance in the sun. A part of me wanted to use Observe, the changes they had gone through were quite intriguing, to the point that I wondered if they really were the same kind of creature, but I didn’t want to give the ambush away early.

Feeling Sigmir on the other side of the clearing, ready to pounce, I slowly and carefully started to weave together some frozen nastiness, with a nice amount of magic-devouring darkness mixed in for good measure. By working slowly, there was no tell-tale glow or aural fluctuations that might give away that someone was working magic here, allowing me to remain hidden until it was time.

The strange sprites, changed by the massive influx of power, twice the size of their previous existence, the green glow they had been shedding now replaced with a fiery aura, looking very much like a tiny sun, were happily dancing around, wings glittering in the sun-light as they twirled around the clearing. Their dance paused for a moment, and there was a fluctuation of power going on, some sort of exchange, and for me, it looked very much like an opening. They were doing something special, so no reason not to stab a couple of backs, as a distracted back is an easily stabbed one.

Even when working carefully and slowly, there was a limit to the amount of magical nastiness I could keep controlled and hidden, in this case, four large Javelins crystallised from Hard Ice, all infused with magic devouring darkness that would lash out as soon as they hit something. All four of them lanced out, targetting the four closest of the eight sprites and feeling my actions, Sigmir used that very moment to show herself, breaking through the undergrowth already clad in her crimson aura, weapon in hand and ready to do violence.

The javelins struck the targets I had aimed for, easily piercing the radiant corona around them, causing a discharge of darkness that instantly washed the rest of that barrier away, while the Icicles themselves struck the Sprite’s bodies, piercing into their backs. I was pretty sure I had managed to take out two of their spines, both of the Sprites dropping from the air, while I had managed to hit a third Sprite high in the torso, undoubtedly dealing some critical damage. The last Sprite had only been hit in the lower back, roughly where the kidney was for a human, but I had no idea how the Sprites were built anatomically. They looked vaguely human or elven, but the proportions were all wrong, to say nothing about their wings.

The screams of my victims added a nice amount of panic to the distraction Sigmir had caused, the six remaining sprites suddenly whirling around in fluttery panic that only lasted a moment, cut short by the buzzing sound of an arrow, coming from behind Sigmir and piercing the Sprite I had struck high in the torso, adding a second hole to her chest and sending her to the unforgiving ground, likely out of its misery.

Already starting to weave my next spell, another frozen Javelin as they clearly worked, I took a brief moment to use Observe, curious what it would tell me.

Radiant Sprite, level 85

To my surprise, Sigmir’s first attack with her axe didn’t actually do anything but cause the corona around the Sprite to flare, blocking the attack. Rai tried to attack as well, striking from the shadows but his attempt, accompanied by a surge of darkness, was washed away by the other three, all flaring their auras at him.

Trying to support Sigmir, I shot the Javelin I had conjured at the same Sprite. After flaring its aura, some of it had faded away, but there was still enough power in there to melt away half of the Icicle, so when it hit the corona, it shattered harmlessly.

The Sprites fighting Rai didn’t need to focus on defence, even if two of them had to protect their other, wounded ally from another of Adra’s arrows, so only one of them could strike back at him. And striking back it did, a flare of fire and light arcing away from its aura, moving fast enough to be little more than a beam of light that seared through the cloak of shadows around Rai, causing him to scream in pain as it burned his shoulder. But at least, the radiant corona around that Sprite had lessened a great deal.

“Focus,” I ordered, abandoning my efforts to summon Ice entierly. I didn’t need to strike them, I needed to smother the light, and smothering was what I did. Overflow activated, my eyes turning completely black and I let my Astral Power surge outward, into the shadow I had been hiding it, empowering it and taking command.

Commanded by my power, the Shadows surged forward, imbued with the same magic-devouring effect I had come to like and the Sprites saw the darkness coming and did the only thing they could do, let their lights flare up and push back.

I felt Darkness and Light struggle and I felt them push the Darkness back, by sheer virtue of numbers. I could easily overpower one of them, likely two thanks to the devouring effect imbued into the Darkness, giving it a conceptual edge.

But with four of them, all focusing on the Darkness I had summoned, I was losing what little ground I had made, their power threatening to wash away the shadow I was hiding in and me alongside it.

Luckily, I didn’t have to fight them alone and their efforts suddenly dropped off by a lot, as two of them were forced to defend themselves from Sigmir and Rai, while a pained, high-pitched scream told me that Adra’s arrows had found yet another victim. Emboldened by their success, I pushed, and now, it was only two of them - Until another scream, accompanied by a triumphant howl, told me that Sigmir had overcome her foe.

And then there was only one defending against me.