BECMI Chapter 481 – On the Road Again

Given that they could use the road if they had to, too, the Bleaklanders weren’t all that unhappy to see the improved Trade Road, especially if it meant more merchant traffic they could raid. Of course, the merchants could move much faster and more maneuverably along the road, and changes in its course limited the places good ambushes could be performed at… although no permanent stations were manned within Bleakland territory as yet, deemed too likely to attract horde attention to clear them out. Overnight areas were present however, and wagons provided the moving walls needed to make them defensible.Because it had to remain level and didn’t cut across the valleys each and every time, the trail was longer than someone who could just lope through the ups and downs of the many foothills of the Bleaklands, it was true. But we’d shortened the path quite a bit, sped up the ease of traversing it, and made it easier to patrol and quick-fortify against raiders.

All things which would make it the preferred path to march hordes along into Zanzyr or Federyn, which in turn helped make such hordes more predictable and easier to defend against.

We’d had two more encounters with nifloids spilling onto the surface, including a group of trolls unaware that lasers did Fire damage and they wouldn’t regenerate from the blue beams popping them in the head. It was a fact they didn’t notice as they just ran past the ones that died trying to get to us, thinking they’d just get back up, and they never did.

Duum swooped down on us as we set foot on the Trade Road, having wheedled an earlier departure time out of me so as to be present when we got there.

“Cirru, what’s your status?” I asked over coms.

There was a snap and crackle and pulsing roar of discharging forearm-mounted rotary lasers. “Strafing, Mistress!” she called back cheerfully. “I’m at mile marker 63 and there was a horde riding after a merchant train here. I waited until they were crossing a low river on the bridge and dove down to open up on their pursuers!”

Well, probably nothing of that horde was going to be doing anything but running for the hills. A dragon winging towards you with full Dragonfear Aura, dumping out unlimited lines of bright blue death either blowing their targets into steaming chunks or burning holes right through them was one of those occasions in life that tended to tank the morale of creatures not renowned for courage as it was. Rapids to the right of them, rapids to the left of them, into the teeth of the rapid-fire lasers rode the horde…

But not for very long.

“Well, carry on then!” I said, not about to interrupt her fun. Shooting arrows at her would be about as effective as using pebbles to distract her from the carnage. The only sad part was that she couldn’t fly along upside-down and let Sergeant Hrackhem hose them down, too.

The merchant caravan she was rescuing would take at least several hours to reach us, but that was fine. There would be others, which could be going in either direction, the trade between the two nations only increasing over the past few years with the better roads and Erendyl handling more security on the northern half of the road, really cutting down on the number of nifloid attacks from that direction.

House Colorajo couldn’t muster up the will to be more aggressive on their side of the border, maybe dipping to hire the occasional mercenaries as likely to die or run off with their money as fight, but that was on them.

It made them the more logical choice to be invaded, even if their side of the trade road was much less impressive. They obviously wouldn’t have the defenses Erendyl did there, and, well, elven kingdom, No Magic, not good material defenses… and the non-weakened humans, second-class citizens in their own homes, didn’t exactly have the highest morale or skill at warfare, either!

Cue the fact that human Rangers weren’t even affected by the physical weakness like the elves they emulated were, and Erendyl was in a much better default position.

He was big, but he wasn’t visible in the night, so he could scout ahead, and No Magic wasn’t affecting his ears or his nose. The nifloids were plenty happy to talk to one another with horns and drums, the wolves and stuff were howling away to mark positions, and the nifloids of the Bleaklands were chattering and cursing and shouting excitedly at this opportunity.

He could fly on down and do drop and fades with them as the mood struck him, or, if they were on or near the roads, we could wander over and shoot down at them in the night from three hundred yards away.

Laser fire looks a LOT like magic at night. So do grenades going off, of which we dispensed a couple here and there to really get the panic going and inspire them to advance rapidly in the other direction.

The Trade Road stayed clear, and if the nifloids stayed moving through the night, we were Sustained, only needed a couple hours of rest, and could basically do the same thing.

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Forty wagons, respectable size. The merchants and their outriders looked like they’d enjoyed a sleepless night, and were not looking forward to at least two days before they got out of the Bleaklands.

Running into a patrol led by an elfin and bearing the oddest magical rods they’d ever seen definitely cheered them up, however.

The Rangers had earned themselves an excellent reputation over the last few years after they’d expanded their remit to the Trade Road, and were likely the single biggest reasons the nifloids weren’t bothering to attack it as often as before. Having a stealthy not-elf hounding you until death and making sure you paid more than you gained from any raid was definitely not a way to encourage even foolish young nifloids eager for recognition.

Actually killing a Ranger? None remained alive long to celebrate their victory. Belle herself would make sure of that. Didn’t stop them nifloids from trying, but they all knew it was a death sentence to actually succeed.

Thus, Karista took the lead cheerfully, while I just stood aside and looked moody ominous.

Cirru had been serving as a coms relay all night, as had Duum when he flew high enough.

The Blitzengard had definitely started trying to make some moves on the Esmeraltan Rangers down in Siricil, but a half-dozen had managed to make it to the Eismark Embassies for refuge, while others had faded into the wilds outside the cities with impressive speed and elf-taught skills.

Out in the forests, it would be the Rangers hunting them, rather than the other way around, even if they had no magic. If a few Blitzengard got themselves shot trying to force their way onto Eismark properties, well, it made the world a better place.

Siricil was exploding into the suddenly non-magical theaters of conflict, however, its larger military and more skilled soldiers suddenly able to prove their worth against a crippled enemy. Delphan forces were reeling and on the retreat, especially their now-grounded air fleets, which among other things the Siricilan navy was focusing on and burning to the water lines.

The Delphan advances on land had reversed and they were being harried back with great speed, the useless wizards of Delpha riding away the hardest and longest and pursued the most fervently. Their great and steady advances, inexorable and inevitable, collapsed like a house of cards without their vastly superior magical power buttressing everything.

It hadn’t totally reversed months worth of battle losses, but the Siricilans were on a raging upswing, and determined to use this momentum shift completely to their advantage.

The Eismark Federation, including my realm of Eistree, were weathering it all with remarkably little effort. My Pyramid Domains alleviated the weakness effect of No Magic, which meant the elves were perfectly ready to take on all comers with sword and bow as needed… and a few judicious laser rifles in areas of high risk from intruders.

Briggs had cemented the positions of all members of the air fleet, and they were in good order. Sama was running around burning down grounded Teuthonic Warhawk airships with great enthusiasm, making herself even more unpopular with them in the process, and cheering up the Eisholders greatly in doing so.

There was another merchant caravan about four hours behind this one, according to Cirru, plus another one that was heading pell-mell to Federyn and hoping to hook up with a mounted patrol coming from that direction.

As this merchant’s horses were very tired, they accepted the offer of an early rest to wait for those coming behind, while we provided security.

-Edge,- he /whispered telepathically, incorporeal form not choosing to manifest.

still knew he was there. My Staff never stopped sensing for Immortals, and naturally recognized his Immortal Power instantly.

I was sitting on a fence-post along the trade road, looking south, glancing at the nifloid scouts who were peeping up nervously now and then, thinking they weren’t seen. I’d spent a point of Immortal Power to don my Mask of Clarity, and it was working just fine right now.

“Tek,” I murmured back subvocally, Magevoice still getting to where I wanted it and nowhere else, lips occluded by my Mask.

-This was a crystallizing move,- our friendly Immortal Green engineer informed me quickly and quietly. -The scale of the attack and the fallout has enraged the senior members of the faction of Immortals backing Delpha. They are energetically looking for the source of the effect and might even take personal action if they find it.-

“That is likely to be nigh-impossible to do during No Magic, and I’m sure Thaum can obfuscate things nicely if and when the magic returns. Unless he actively uses the Core again, they won’t find it.”

-Thaum may have forced the hand of the entire Delphan Council, however. The attack was a total declaration of war against the heart of the Delphan Empire. The Overmagi will be coming as soon as their magic returns.-

“Which will force Thaum to take even more disastrous action.” Because he was a Chaotic schmuck and an Immortal, and didn’t have to personally pay for the costs of his deeds. That was left for the mortals he victimized. “Did I not tell you this would happen?”

Cold Wars didn’t work if the button-pushers didn’t have to pay any price for nuking the world. There was no mutually assured destruction here.

His mental sigh was heartfelt. -I was hoping this could be avoided,- he /admitted. -The death toll in Vinndsvoll is in the tens of thousands, including nearly a third of their Council. They simply won’t forgive this level of an attack.-

“And are ignoring the fact it could happen again, and be much worse when it does.” To the point of making the whole Delphan continent magic-dead, which would do nothing but force those magi to go to other places that weren’t magic-dead and take them over!… If the entire planet wasn’t turned to No Magic.

But I had plans that centered directly upon him doing just that, and things were going to go… differently from what was expected.

“None of the names I gave you are directly involved with any of this, correct?” I asked him.

-As far as I know, although I don’t know all the faction members. They are civil in person and talking, but behind the scenes there is a lot of maneuvering and violence among mortal servants going on.-

The names were the identities of the Immortals involved with the changes to the Core in the first place, and so the ones ultimately responsible for all of this.

Sticking to the sidelines, not getting involved, watching everything that was happening for their own fun and jollies.

Well, that didn’t mean I had let them off. They thought they could set the stage and comment from the audience. This show, it had an exit fee…