Several soldiers flopped around on top of the walls at this point. Even Amanda, with her greatly enhanced agility since earning her subclass, was having trouble staying flat footed. She compensated by reading the strange substance’s movements. It was increasingly difficult in areas populated by more and more combatants. Then she noticed Ralph panting with his sword held in both hands. The sword began to glow again as he slashed down unleashing a line of holy energy that sliced through legs of several ants along the outer wall. The remaining rock troll was befuddled by this multicolored wall it just couldn’t get through. Armand was barking out orders now that the flood of ants has subsided.

Deacon bounced up the steps being careful not to overcompensate and fire himself right back down to the courtyard. Finally reaching the last step he looked out over the wall to see the wave of ants has dried up. The soldiers and his friends were cleaning up the last stragglers. The thing that really bothered him was he wasn’t regenerating soul energy throughout the battle. It’s as if these things had no souls. He waved over Tantus who just finished knocking an ant of the wall with his magic shield rock.

“Hey, it looks like we have a minute to breathe. Back to our ant conversation.” Deacon said.

“I’ve figured it out. Look out there at the first few that were hit with the ballistae. They are just fading out of existence. These are all summoned ants. Essentially the same ant magically duplicated what looks like a hundred times. But the mage would need to be specialized in summoning magic and drink a lot of mana potions. Even if these ants are cheap, it would have taken days to make and hide this many of them.” Tantus explained.

“So the troll is the same one we killed back on the road? Just copied several times?” Deacon asked Tantus raising one eyebrow.

“Yes, yes. It’s only a theory though. What was that?!” Tantus said quickly pointing through the pitch-black night at a pulsing red light emanating from a few yards beyond the tree line.

“We should report this.” Deacon said as the Commander of the forces was rallying the defenders down by the gate.

“Stand firm, we have been blessed by the gods this night. Surely the fates were on our side. The rock troll is too stupid to climb our…blessed walls. We just have to wait it out until it goes away.” Barked the Commander of this fort. Just then a half-dressed Lord Pentecost emerged from the fort proper slapping at the door he used to get out of the building and catching it in the face on the rebound. Wotan scurried out behind him trying to get his robe up over his right shoulder.

“Commander, there is a red light pulsing in the forest.” Deacon yelled down from atop the wall.

“What is the source?” Yelled the Commander.

“Unknown.” Deacon replied.

“Get out of my way, Commander Elris, what has happened to his Majesty’s Fort? What is all this springy material. Do you realize it took me ten minutes to get down the stairs? I felt like a pebble being skipped across a pond.” Whined Lord Pentecost.

“Chimera my lord, he appeared in person or at least his mouth did. The wall was in bad shape, and he mended it. Then it changed into this. The enemy can’t seem to damage it. Please return to your room, we are still in an active combat situation.” Commander Elris said flatly.

“Chimera, you say? This is another of Deacon’s tricks. Where is he?” Asked Lord Pentecost.

“I’m up here you blow hard. We have a problem you need to see.” Deacon said disappearing from the edge. Scowling, the Minister of the Interior, against the commander’s protests, stumbled against the elasticity of the staircase to reach the top of the wall.

“What is it, Champion?” Asked Lord Pentecost exasperated.

“Look south into the tree line. This fight isn’t over yet.” Deacon said pointing over the wall.

“About fifty yards past the trees there is a an old, abandoned chapel of Mantarok left over from an old war. That would be the only structure out there. Otherwise its just sparse forest.” Cited the Commander.

“Well send a unit to clear it out so we can all go back to bed. If we can get back up those stairs without breaking our necks.” Snapped Lord Pentecost.

“Begging your pardon but we believe this attack is the work of one or more Summoners. The ants are all identical and the rock troll down there is the same as the one we encountered on the road. In fact the bodies have all started to just vanish.” Tantus interjected getting a glare from Lord Pentecost but an assessing gaze from Wotan that looked out at the pulsing light then back to Tantus. Pentecost drew in a breath but just before he could go on another rant Wotan stepped forward and began to speak.

“My lord, since we have the Champion of Chimera here and Chimera himself blessed the fort for our protection, perhaps we should let the Champion investigate this strange occurrence and report back to you, his findings?” Wotan said standing facing Lord Pentecost while rotating his wrist in a circle behind his back in a way that only Deacon and Tatus could see.

“Absolutely not. We head to the capital in the morning. No more delays.” Said Lord Pentecost firmly crossing his arms and quickly spreading them to achieve a firmer balance. No sooner than he said that the rock troll outside the walls vanished, and a fog began to roll out from the tree line crossing the open area heading toward the fort. Energy bloomed around Lord Pentecost’s and a shield of force shimmered around him for a second before going completely opaque.

“What is this now?” Asked the commander looking at Tantus.

“Send out the Champion and you will all be spared. Alone.” Came an otherworldly voice from the fog below. It was loud enough the whole fort could hear it. Tantus rubbed his chin in contemplation. Wotan looked at Lord Pentecost and tilted his head toward Deacon. Deacon just peered over the wall staring at the light in the distance.

“I’m thinking it’s some kind of messaging spirit. I don’t see any harmful magic in it.” Tantus said.

“I don’t see a soul either.” Deacon added.

“Well, in light of recent events Wotan, I believe you may have a point. But I don’t like the idea of sending him alone out there. We need to bring him to his majesty.” Lord Pentecost relented.

“Tantus, I need you to watch my back from up here. Any magical shenanigans go down and you have my full support to act regardless of what anyone else says.” Deacon told Tantus directly before jumping over the wall into the open field below. He hit the ground with a hard thud. As Deacon righted himself, he could hear a chuckle come from the fog all around.

“Fool.” Was all it said as a guttural roar came from the tree line. The sound was oddly familiar to Deacon as a shadowy shape he was very familiar with broke through the trees at a running lope. It had a bulbous head with many sharp teeth and a long neck leading to two vestigial appendages. Instead of small claws it was two raven-colored wings. The wings were so tiny compared to the rest of its massive body they were almost comical. The main body was supported by two powerful legs with three clawed toes. It’s long tail ended in a solid bone protrusion with one spike on the end. That’s where the resemblance to a T-Rex ended. It’s eyes were on long stalks that reached around hits head and under its massive jaw. On top of its back rode a man in blood red robes. Deacon hit them both with inspect.

Gallus Rex- Gallus Rex is an untamable offshoot of dinosaur. Known for its ferocity, these monsters roam the Wastes of Ca’tharin eating everything they find. The more varied things they eat the more changes are seen from generation to generation. They typically range between twenty to thirty feet in length and can reach up to three stories in height. Abilities: Screech of the Damned. Level 22 Gallus Rex, Boss Monster.

Unknown Summoner- ??????, Level?? Human.

“Not good.” Deacon said as he checked his soul energy to see he was still over two hundred and fifty percent. The fog rolled back toward the figure on the monsters back. The eye stalks moved together narrowing in on Deacon before it began to sprint at him with a warbling throaty sound. Deacon began covering the ground around him in a layer of Nether ice hoping the massive creature would just slip on it allowing him to dash out of the way. He was partially correct. The first full speed step onto the ice forced it to slip aligning its jaws perfectly with Deacon. Deacon switched to Infernal energy uttering his command phrase, “The soul still burns.”

Deacon meticulously layered his aura around him. Wrapping it like the folding process in black smithing. As the head of the monster tilted to snap its jaws around Deacon, he triggered Spectral Dash leaving a line of flaming infernal fire for it to munch on. He arrested his motion standing next to the rider who was holding on for dear life to his makeshift saddle. The rider tilted his head in surprise to see Deacon gleaming red-blue flames traveling up his arms as he shoved two fingers into the riders elbow joint. This had the added effect of loosening the riders grip. Deacon smirked as the unfortunate opponent fell from the saddle beneath the still sliding boss monster. To Deacon’s surprise the monster managed to get its right foot up to slam into the fort wall, spinning it round and launching itself right at Deacon. He once again found himself nose to snout with this creature and before it could open its mouth, he dug his claws into it’s nostrils to anchor himself and swung his legs behind him to keep them out of the jaws. The next minute was filled with the gnashing of teeth and frantic head shakes of the monster trying to dislodge him. The eye stalks came around its head to look at Deacon from his left and right. Deacon took this opportunity to fire an Infernal Sickle at the stalk on the right severing that eye from the stalk in a clean cut. The Gallus Rex bellowed a roar loud enough to dislodge Deacon giving him a status notification as he hit the ground.

Notice: You have been affected by Screech of the Damned. Status affect Shaken has been applied to you. For the next minute, your limbs will be slower to react.

Deacon thought that was a pretty good tradeoff for half blinding it. As the monster pounded the ground with its massive feet in a fit of rage and pain, the rider made himself known. He cast a spell from the ground where he lie. A shaft of red light-struck Deacon right in the face with no effect.

“Impossible!” he shrieked cradling the other arm and using his legs to scoot away from Deacon.

“Oh no, you don’t get to crawl away shit stain.” Deacon said stumbling to his feet amidst the onslaught of the rampaging dinosaur’s stomps. Deacon made his way over to the broken man who was whimpering and crawling even slower now. Deacon flipped him over onto his back and noticed a choker around his neck with a shiny ruby gem set right in the middle. Before he could react to that there was knife in the mages hand with a familiar ruby edge. The Magic user plunged it into Deacon’s right knee making him scream in pain. He knew immediately this would cripple his ability to move. Deacon grabbed the wrist holding the dagger in his leg with his right arm and used all his strength to fling the man into the air above him. Several different things happened in this instance. The Knife came out of Deacon’s leg allowing him to collapse to the ground. The Gallus Rex was about to bite down and snap Deacon in half with its teeth, but it began choking on its master as he flew up into its open mouth. Finally a large mushroom cap from the deck of the Roaring Tempest flew out of Deacon’s bag and exploded against the summoners chest. This caused the Gallus Rex to clamp its jaws shut prematurely and miss Deacon entirely. When he saw what just went into the Rex’s mouth, Deacon did his best to put some distance between him and the soon to bloom boss monster.

Whether it was because its summoned creature or the fact that it ate its own master, no one knew for sure, the monsters belly started to expand before it just vanished. Dropping the body of the summoner all chewed up and sprouting life shrooms. He was clearly dead but someone up on the wall shot him with an arrow anyway.

Deacon cautiously got up to his feet seeing that the dagger had done serious damage to him. His health was at seventy five percent and slowly climbing thanks to his Triage perk. There was a raucous cheer up and down the wall as they noticed Deacon on his feet. Deacon’s party members sent warnings to all around not to eat those mushrooms.