Spell 23 : The Warpath

'Commander Pang, we are adventurers from a distant land on a mission here to save these lands. My name is Crow; these here are Aeryssya, Vanyssa, Kiry and Connor.' I indicated each of them as I mentioned their names. But it would not have mattered had I not done so otherwise; he had his eyes only on Aeryssya. And it was only to her he spoke to now.

'You... I am sorry to say it this way but... What are you?' He looked at her from top to toe, eyes widening as he took in every single aspect of her body and how different she was compared to him.

Aeryssya was a little taken aback, but she recovered from her shock. That alluring smile that must have made men go crazy over her was on her face again.

'Commander, I am simply just an Elf.' She lightly caressed her long ears and beat off the dust from her pure lavender skin. Pang Tong's eyes never left her. His interest in her clearly trespassed the boundaries of just curiosity; I, too, am an Elf yet he never even came close to batting an eyelid at me.

He must have realised that everyone's eyes were on him, for he cleared his throat and sat back in his chair, looking slightly abashed.

'You are adventurers, you say? From which land, I wonder?' as he spoke, he reached out for his goblet on the stool next to him and drank deeply from it. 'This is fine stuff...' He said to himself, looking into the goblet and swirling its contents.

I looked back at my companions, searching their faces for an answer that I could give to him, but they all had stony faces. Only Vanyssa seemed to be thinking hard. She stepped forward and answered.

'From Accardia, milord. Land of the Eternal Moon.' She curtsied gracefully, just like a noblewoman would. Pang Tong grinned at her approvingly. I felt a surge of anger rise in me.

This perv dares to stare at Vanessa? Oh, if we didn't needed his help, I would have blasted his head in!

'Accardia? Oh dear, you must have travelled far and wide... Well, I suppose you could all stay. I, and my men here, bear true witness to your fighting prowess, and deem it only detrimental to us if you were scouted by either the dogs of Wei or the bastards of Wu.' He looked around the tent, then called for a man, who had his long hair kept by a headband.

'Captain Jiang! Lead these heroes to some tents of their own, aye?' Then he turned his attention to Aeryssya, doing nothing to hide that glee on his face, 'and the young lady wouldn't mind staying so she can answer a few questions from an old man, no?'

It was obvious that he just wanted Aeryssya's company, and I could tell Aeryssya was having the same sentiments that I had, but if I knew her well enough, she, too, was restraining herself. Rather greatly too.

Sure enough, she gave the same curtsey that Vanyssa had given to Pang Tong, lowering her head so that nobody could see the fury in her face. 'It would be my pleasure, milord.'

The man named Captain Jiang strode forwards and waited patiently behind us. Knowing that we were dismissed, I turned back and walked out of the tent. Vanyssa, and the rest followed. Captain Jiang matched up to my pace and indicated that I followed him when we were out of the commander's tent.

'You must excuse the commander's behaviour. He was always eccentric to begin with.' I broke out of my thoughts with a start, and looked over at Captain Jiang. I had not realised that he was talking to me.

I gave a small laugh, 'it matters not, Captain Jiang. We are used to eccentrics.'

The officer smiled. 'My apologies, I had not introduced myself. I am Jiang Wei, one of the platoon commanders of Fenglin Camp.'

'How long have you been in this camp, Captain Jiang?' I asked, noting how he seemed to be lost himself in this camp. Evidently, we had already made 2 wrong turns upon leaving Pang Tong's company.

'Only too recently had I just arrived at this camp. I was recruited by the greatest strategist of Shu, Lord Zhuge Liang himself, to fight for Shu,' he paused, looking left and right, searching for the next route to take. He decided on going right, which we in turn, followed. 'And please, just call me Jiang Wei. The rank of an officer is undeserving of me.'

That was true. In many militaries, especially in ancient China, ranks were bestowed upon people who had talent more so than people who stayed longer in the army. Often, men would find themselves in the lead of complete strangers who had just joined their military.

It also meant that men often disregarded their leaders' orders.

It seemed like Jiang Wei was not from Shu originally.

After circling around the camp, we finally arrived in front of a huge tent. Jiang Wei's face was flushed; we had made a total number of 10 wrong turns. Not that I was really counting, but it was funny to see the chef of this camp at least 6 times after walking around the camp. 'My apologies,' he said, 'I am really new to this camp.'

'It's quite alright.' I said, and parted the flap that covered the tent. Upon entering, I realised it was actually quite well-furnished. There were at least 8 sleeping mats and there was a wooden bench and table placed right in the middle. The rest followed after me, and the girls, in contrast to my reaction, had really disappointed looks on their faces. Vanyssa caught my eye.

'What, were you expecting a hotel with spring baths?' I mouthed to her. She merely shrugged and went over to sit at the bench.

Jiang Wei himself entered last, closing the flap as he did so. 'Well, it's not too shabby, is it? This is one of the most comfortable tents that we have around here. The well's nearby, where you can draw water from,' he looked over to Vanyssa and Kiry, 'I'm sorry, but we just do not have enough tents around to separate the men and the women. If you like, we could-'

'It's fine, Jiang Wei. We... Would not be sleeping much here anyway.' Kiry shouted over from one of the mats that she was lying on already. Though what she said was true since we would be logging out of the game if we actually needed sleep anyway, I wished she would not have made the point contradictory by lying on one of the sleeping mats herself.

Jiang Wei merely shrugged, and opened the flap of the tent to leave. 'Oh, and before I forget, be sure to be on your guard at all times. We expect attacks all the time,' he said, before stepping out of the tent. The moment he left, I called all of them over to the bench, where Vanyssa was already pouring tea into china cups that vaguely resembled saucers. Only a little more thinner and taller. Like those that you see in those Chinese pugilistic films.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Connor was ahead of me.

'Man, I wonder what that perverted old man's doing to Aeryssya?' He took out a little flask, which contained herbs of some sort, and took out a few to sink in his cup. He let it stir for awhile before drinking it. That look of satisfaction on his face was enough to make Kiry grab some for herself.

While they were fighting, I took out 2 sapphires from my bag and placed them in front of me.

Regrettably, I had realised that all my spells had shared cooldowns, be it whether I was casting them or using stored ones via Enchantrix. What this means is that I cannot cast consecutive Meteors or even Barriers to keep myself alive.

But then again, it would have made me too powerful as a mage that cannot die.

While I was caught up in my thoughts, I had not realised that Vanyssa had slid close to me. I felt a nudge in my ribs and I was brought back to reality. When I saw it was Vanyssa, and how close she was to me, I bit my tongue in excitement.

'Woah. Are you alright? Did you choke on the tea or something? There, there.' She patted my back, after seeing how I was choking and spasming.

This is bad; I HAVE to get used to her being around me, or I'll never be able to survive around her.

'N-Nah it's okay. I'm alr-alright...' I blinked back the tears in my eyes, and looked at her again. I never knew how brown her eyes were this close. She giggled again, making my heart flutter like a butterfly. 'Well, what is it? You nudged me right?'

She pointed over to Connor, who was still trying to keep Kiry's hands off from his cup, oblivious to the fact that Vanyssa and I were still around. Vanyssa sighed, 'look at them. Don't they make a cute couple?'

I had to agree. These two were attracted to each other in a way that most couples are not able to exemplify. Vanyssa held her chin while resting her elbows on the table, looking at the sapphires that I had brought out. 'What are those?' she asked.

'These are... Well, you could say they are my ammunition. I can store spells, you see. And when the time comes, if I have no time to use spells with extremely long casting durations, I use these instead. Look.' I put my hands close together and started channeling mana into my hands. Pretty soon, a small model of Barrier formed in between my palms.

Vanyssa looked astonished, but she never peered away. Slowly, I compressed the spell, forming a miasma of blue vapour. This I brought over to the sapphire, and let it sink in. The sapphire glowed for a moment, then returned to its original hue. I picked up the sapphire and handed it over to her. She held it in her hands and examined it.

When she was done, she placed it back on the table, her eyes sparking in excitement and all.

'My my, you really aren't just a normal mage, are you?' She shook her head in amazement. I looked away in embarrassment.

'You're pretty amazing yourself, coming up with a place like Accardia, in front of so many people just now too. How did you even know about it?' I said, not looking at her while pouring myself more tea. It tasted sweet; not the sickly sweet kind, but the fragrant sweet kind. She must have some skill like Cooking hidden in her too.

'Well, thanks,' I could feel a suppressed glee in her voice as she continued, 'but I'm not just a simple Dragon Knight you know. I do read too.'

To this, I guffawed. Her grades won't really spectacular in school, so the only kind of reading she really does must be abysmal. I said this to her and was rewarded with a playful punch.

Well, playful to her because she's a warrior class, but to me, it felt like all the breath was taken out of me. She giggled again, and I could not help but laugh too.

This moment here, was what I had been dreaming of for months. I really wished time would have stopped there, but alas, at that moment, I heard the tent flap open again, and the storming footsteps of an excited Night Elf woman. For a ranger, Aeryssya really does not bother to conceal her movements.

Quickly, she regaled us a tale of what happened after we had left. Pang Tong told her of their plight in this war, and basically what has happened up to this point in the war. We all nodded our heads gravely as we listened.

Kiry was the first to break the silence that ensued after Aeryssya had finished speaking.

'So you're saying that these soldiers, when they die, they revive a few hours later and return back to their camps without a single recollection of how they died?' She said, pouring a cup of tea for Aeryssya. She gave her thanks as she nodded and took the cup.

'So.. Their memories are kind of reset? Like back to when?' I asked.

Aeryssya thought for a moment. She put down her cup.

'I have a feeling it is reset back to the moment when this memory started. From the looks of it, all the people here have no idea that they are currently being played out in a memory. Pang Tong seems to know everything about this memory reset thing, but it is only because he has not actually died yet.'

When she said that, Jiang Wei's words floated into my mind.

'My apologies, I am new to this camp.'

He must have died before, I reckoned. The poor bastard was not really new to this camp; he was just reborn to the moment when he first came to this camp.

'Anyway, we are pretty unfortunate to arrive now. Shu has recently lost a lot of its generals. Now that killing soldiers will not win the war, the common tactic now is to capture them instead,' Aeryssya took out a missive from her pocket and gave it to us. 'Here's a list of missing generals. And lucky us have been charged with finding the top name on the list. He's in a Wu camp not far from here.'

I looked at the list. The first name belonged to a person called Zhao Yun. Apparently, he was one of the 5 main generals of Shu. A fierce warrior of the spear, he once took it upon himself to save a single child that was the son of Liu Bei in a castle swarmed with enemy troops and fire.

'The camp's heavily guarded, I presume?' I asked, not looking away from the list as I peered down the names.

'Yes. That's why we are going covert this time. And only you, me and Vanyssa will be going,' she saw Kiry and Connor stand up in denial but she quelled them with a single look. 'The two of you have a different mission. Important one too, I might add.' At this, the two of them looked satisfied and sat down.

*DING*

[p=center]Quest Received!

You are to seek out General Zhao Yun, who has been held captive by Wu soldiers in the east. A distraction in the form of a vanguard will attempt to attack the camp. Use this chance to sneak in and rescue General Zhao!

Failure : If General Zhao Yun cannot be rescued, he will be moved to another Wu camp, where his trail will be lost. Soldiers of Fenglin camp will lose their favour of you.

Quest Difficulty : C

[/p]

Aeryssya finished her tea in one gulp and stood up. 'Finish your preparations. We leave in 5.' She opened up the flap and left the tent. Remembering that I still had to restock the two spells I had used earlier, I took both sapphires from the bench and loaded them into my gauntlet. One had the fully charged Barrier, the other I loaded with Mistcloak.

The entire camp was in activity. Soldiers were rushing about with weapons clad loosely to their armour. Those that were adorned with more elaborate armours were the sergeants, and they too were barking orders to their men. Horses neighed in the distance as lancers prepared to mount their horses.

I looked around for Jiang Wei or Pang Tong, but they were nowhere to be seen. However, the men seemed to be moving in the same direction. Vanyssa and the rest came out of the camp with their equipment all in place. Connor had just finished chaining his tome of healing spells to his belt.

It was then that I remembered that even though I had been blessed with the Holy affinity by Monkgar the troll, I had not managed to pick up any Holy spells. I turned to Vanyssa and Kiry.

'Hey, you girls go ahead first. There's something I need to ask Connor before this. We'll catch up later.' Though Kiry looked displeased and suspicious, Vanyssa had managed to wrestle her towards the throng of soldiers. She looked back briefly, and her expression read, 'you owe me!'

I smiled gratefully and she turned around and left, dragging the screaming Kiry with her. I turned back to see Connor folding his arms, with a determined expression on his face. I stepped forward and looked at his tome. His eyes followed mine, and he reached out for his tome, rattling the metallic chains as he did so.

'This? It's just a tome for my Hol-' He asked with a puzzled expression on his face, but I put up a hand to stop him. He stood dumbfounded.

'I met him. That priest that we were talking about.' I said, gazing into Connor's widened blue eyes. For an African, this guy was the real deal of authenticity.

'When? Where? What did he-' He asked urgently, only to stop himself, realising that the situation called for me to explain things further.

'Sorry I had not informed you earlier, so that you could see him yourself, but I will tell you more later. Right now, I need you to teach me some healing spells. I've been granted the Holy affinity, so that I can cast Holy spells now.'

Connor looked through his tome and stopped at the first few pages. 'Here,' he said, pointing to a few lines of text, 'this a pretty basic spell. One that heals pretty basically, and requires low mana as well as having a low cooldown. I use it most of the time.'

I read through the text and was rewarded with a new spell in the Codex.

*DING*

[p=center]You have gained a new Spell : Morning Light!

Morning Light Basic Level 1. 0%

Summons a pure morning light to heal your allies. Single target only

Mana-cost : 50

Cooldown : 10s

[/p]

'Thanks, bro. This will help us out later if we get into fights.' I was about to turn to go but Connor stopped me.

'Hey, wait up! There's something else.' He said, flipping a few more pages of his tome. I gazed curiously at him, until he stopped at a page where there was only a badly drawn illustration. 'Look, I had once encountered onto this spell during one of my travels to the Holy Lands. But due to my specialisation into healing, I could not learn it. Maybe you could. Try it and see.'

I looked at the page closely, and this time I realised what it was. It was a picture of angels and crusaders spilling forth from a pillar of fight. And it was called...

*DING*

[p=center]You have gained a new Spell : Genesis!

Genesis Basic Level 1. 0%

Summons a pillar of light, where angels and holy warriors of light will pour forth to smite your enemies! As you gain more levels in this spell, more warriors will spawn and the pillar will last longer.

Mana-cost : 1200

Cooldown : 300s

[/p]

'Wow, you've really learnt it!' He said, gazing at my hands in wonder, which was glowing with white light. I was a little shocked myself, to experience a phenomenon like this. Just then, Jiang Wei arrived next to us, clutching his knees while panting heavily. He looked up, his face all pink with exhaustion. 'I-I've been looking all around for you! The commander requests your presence. Hurry!'

Quickly, Connor closed his tome and we ran towards the center of the camp. When we arrived, I saw how all the Shu soldiers were already lined up in attention according to their platoons. There were only 3, and Jiang Wei resumed his position in front of his platoon. Pang Tong was riding up and down with an impatient look on his face in front of his cavalry army. When he saw us, the cheeky grin was back.

As he turned to address his men, Vanyssa rode up to us on a chestnut horse, bringing up two additional horses from the rear. One had a pure white coat while the other was of a hue similar to hers. 'Choose one. They're ours for now.' She said, as she encouraged the two horses towards us.

Connor picked the brown horse, while I was left with the white one. 'Less spotting in battle. That white coat's gonna get all the arrows in battle towards me!' said Connor as he mounted up his horse. Well, I could not really blame his choice; he's the healer anyway. I mounted my horse; just in time too, for the battle horn sounded and the camp doors opened. The soldiers roared as they charged out of the camp with Pang Tong in the lead followed by Kiry and Connor.

*DING*

[p=center]You have gained a new Mount : White Horse!

This is a ground mount. Increases speed by 300%. You may not go in combat while mounted. (Exception : Lancer class)

[/p]

I was about to follow them when Aeryssya stopped me. 'We're headed out of the back. The route we'll take will encircle around the expected battle location while we strike the enemy camp. It should not be too heavily guarded. We'll eliminate any resistance on the way.' She spurred her horse forward. I looked at Vanyssa. She shrugged and followed suit.

Soon, all three of us were out of the camp and into the open meadows. The sky was extremely clear, with hardly any clouds on us. If anyone were to look out, we would be easily seen as three black specks against the horizon riding fast towards south. But we were counting on the battle to draw all attention onto us. Sure enough, the battle had already begun.

The vanguard battalion, led by Pang Tong had clashed with enemy cavalry just right in the middle of the grass fields right outside of the Wu camp. Swinging his staff around, he conjured flashes of lightning to strike enemy foes. I gave my thanks silently to that man as I spurred my steed faster and faster.

We blitzed through the meadow fields and arrived unhindered at the back of the camp. Just as we had predicted, there were a few archers stationed on archer posts along the perimeters of the camp. I could risk shooting Fire Strike at them, but it might set the entire post on fire, thereby recalling the enemy troops. Then, I remembered I had a legendary ranger by my side.

Aeryssya carefully chose an arrow from her quiver bent it slightly. It sprung back into its original shape with a slight twang. This was an extremely bendy arrow.

'Ricochet shot!'

She launched that arrow into the air, and her aim came true. It sailed through the air and hit the first archer, went through him and bounced to his partner next to him as well as hitting the signalman behind them, taking all three men in the post in one shot. My admiration for her went up at least a few levels; I mean, this was the woman, after all, who broke into Steam Society to rescue me.

Though the guards went down without a sound, we knew we were only delaying the inevitable discovery of their absence from the posts. We quickly moved and ran towards the camp. Though the gates were bolted shut, we managed to find a ladder that the archers would use in times of emergencies, like if their posts caught fire. We used it to climb up quickly to the post where the archers were eliminated.

From there, we had the entire view of the camp. I told Aeryssya to eliminate all the archers, so that no signal could be given to the Wu soldiers outside to retreat. She quickly did so, with the same arrow she used previously. All the archers went down without a sound. No one stood against the expert ranger.

Quietly, we descended the post and entered the camp. With our weapons drawn, we quietly stalked around. I could have casted Mistcloak to grant invisibility to all of us, but I decided to save it just in case we ever needed to escape in a hurry.

The layout of the camp was pretty much like Shu's except that there more fireplaces around, and that the Wu had actually brought artillery with them. The ballistas and catapult machines were parked in lines behind the living tents. If they were ever deployed, we would not have stood a chance with our meager cloth tents.

Just then, we heard the sound of a gagged animal. No, more like a gagged human. We followed the sound until we came to a cage near the stables. On a closer look, we saw a young man with his hair shredded all over his face. He was jerking about and trying to scream through the gag over his mouth.

It sounded like he was trying to warn us of something.

Though, whatever warning he was trying to give, it was too late.

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