Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty – 260Felix blinked as the Intent vanished. It had been far easier than he expected. His own Intent had broken the honed edge of it into harmless pieces that dissolved into the ambient Mana. The Aurochs, however, neither stopped or even slackened their pace. They thundered by, still stampeding away from whatever had so frightened them.
The Tier II beasts were being taken down, but there were so many. At least four hundred, all of them rampaging east, through the forest and...into Haarwatch.
...You cannot coddle them...
Perfect recall let him almost hear Zara voice again, and Felix scowled. This was the second horde he had fought, the second heading east for the city. It was unlikely to be a coincidence, not with how his summer had been going. No, Haarwatch should expect to see more and more of these...unless someone stopped them.
An Aurochs ran by, a little too close to the group, and Felix flared his Adamant Discord. The beast was hit by a blast of kinetic lightning, forces that lifted and hurled its shelled body up and over it's own herd.
You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs!
XP earned!
A soft trilling sound rippled through his Affinity, and Felix saw the Haarguard flash with a brief pulse of System energy. The Grand Harmony was swirling around them all, as they leveled up from this encounter. The sharper pings of Skill levels cascaded like chimes, coming from his friends as well.
Strength from adversity, huh Zara? Felix clenched his jaw. But too much adversity doesn't grant you strength. It kills you.
He wanted the Legion to grow stronger, but what would they do against so many Tier II beasts? More than just the Legion was at risk now. They would surely die, and the Aurochs would end up within the city, where they'd kill even more. The Aurochs would annihilate what little remained of the Wall Quarter. Unless they completed the Wall and restored its reserve of power, Haarwatch was practically undefended.
If I have the power to stop it, I'll stop it. No more deaths.
Influence of the Wisp!
Stone Shaping!
Mana poured from Felix, a torrent to dwarf the amount he'd used to build the battering rams. Colored violet and orange, it swept outward in a flash, leaving behind a blue fire on the Aurochs. They were instantly Enthralled, their Willpower overwhelmed by Felix's own, and froze in place. A second wave of dusty brown Mana sent a series of stone spikes upward, piercing their skulls in a single, precise casting.
You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs (x342)!
XP earned!
Influence of the Wisp is level 48!
Influence of the Wisp is level 49!
Stone Shaping is level 58!
Not today.
"Blind gods," the Orc whispered. Davum, according to Evie's Analyze. She was bad with names. His tusks at least were neat. They were white and shone in the dappled sunlight. "He killed them all. With a single spell."
"Two spells, actually," Atar said from some distance away. He glanced over his shoulder at the falling monsters, and Evie bet he was using some weird mage Skill. "Fire, earth, and...augmentation. Yes."
"Interesting," Alister added. He had sheathed his rapier and was shouldering his pack again. "Didn't know he used augmentation magic."
"Kinda makes you feel pointless," Nevia panted, and only her friend Kikri kept her standing. She was particularly slender for a Dwarf, Evie noticed, and seemed to have low Stamina as well. "How does he even have that much Mana? I'd keel over tryin' to affect that many targets."
"He cheats," Evie said with a crooked smile. Not really an answer, but good enough by her estimation.
"He isn't cheating, Evie," Atar said in his "professor" voice. "In fact, I think I've figured out how it works. See"
"Twin's teeth, I'm bored already," Evie complained, before pointing the guards at something else. "Ooh look!"
The Auroch corpses that littered the trampled forest turned to sudden, sparking vapor. It was very different than the usual black smoke of a monster decomposing. If Evie were forced to describe it, this was...it was like a house fire, smoke and all, trapped and funnelled. It sped toward Felix and just...vanished.
"Did he just" Kikri started.
"Yeah."
"How di"
"Don't worry about it," Evie said with smile and a shrug. She slung her arm around the Elf. "We'll never get to use it anyway. We're not cheaters, yeah?"
"...Right," Nevia said in a distracted sort of way. She looked from Evie to Felix to Atar. "But wasn't that Mana? And what was"
"Good at questions. Not so good at listening," Evie said with a dramatic shake of her head. She looked at the Dwarf and Elf with the patient eyes of an elder, for all that she was easily five to seven years younger than either of them. "Trust in my years of wisdom. Nothing good comes from asking Atar to explain stuff, anyway. At best, you'll just fall asleep."
"Hey!"
"Ooh, bridge is up!"
They continued onward, though Atar and Alister took cuttings of the Orphale Trees. Felix admitted they were super interesting, and regretted not having the luxury to really investigate all the strangeness in the Foglands. From hidden monsters, house-sized mushrooms, and carnivorous plants, the place had it all. And that was just in the first few miles.
Another hour passed and the ground got increasingly rocky, with trees growing more and more sparse as the land rose and dipped. It was easy going for Felix and those that were more martially inclined, but the mages were puffing fairly quickly. Harn set a steady pace that kept them going but didn't lay them out. Last thing they wanted was to run into something and have people with spent Stamina.
Atar bemoaned the loss of the avum, but Felix was happy to no longer worry about them. Advancing with just a few people was considerably easier, though the Foglands was sure to throw more curveballs at them. Felix had no doubt of that. He let Harn take the lead and lingered in the rear with Pit where he could oversee the entire team.
Pit's Bite is level 51!
Pit's Rake is level 52!
Pit's Wingblade is level 62!
Pit's Frost Spear is level 65!
Pit's Flight is level 44!
He checked and accepted all the Skill gains for his Companion, and Pit chirruped in pride. The little man had done a great job on the field, effectively keeping the Aurochs from hitting their relatively weaker allies. Their weakness did raise a few questions for Felix, though he would be the first to admit his sense of power was a bit skewed. Maybe he
"Felix?" Harn called from the front of the line. "Come take a look at this."
Felix scratched Pit's neck and walked ahead, pushing his Agility and Dexterity just a touch so that he could pass through the others quickly. It was getting easier, using varying levels of his stats instead of going all out every single time. It was one of the things Rory had harped on during his training. Control. Power was the currency of the Continent, but without control, you were no better than a monster.
Felix had been a monster long enough.
In seconds he reached the head of the line, coming abreast of Harn as the man stood atop a rocky lip over another shallow ravine. It even looked familiar, though they had passed a dozen such furrows so far.
"What's up, Harn?"