Chương 82: Ambush II

We weren't fast enough to avoid all the arrows, but I'd noticed them early enough to avoid the worst of it. Sage and Anchor pulled their horse to the side, and an arrow grazed Anchor's shoulder. Another sliced his horse's flank, making the mount rear up and whinny. A few shots glanced off Brawl's armour, and another got his horse in the hind haunch. I leaned forward as I veered off, protecting as much of Burr as I could.

Nothing hit her, but a shot still glanced off my pauldron, and another stuck into my thigh, piercing below my cuisse. I clenched my teeth and hissed in pain, then turned my attention to what had shot at us. The archers at the rear had followed the last charging ogre, Ogre Four, and they had evidently seen us as a greater threat. Not very kind of them, admittedly, but it was for the best. It gave Lute's squad an opening to smash through their ranks and clean them up, eliminating the threat.

"Everyone alright?" I shouted. Sage glanced at me.

"Levi, you're—""I'm fine. It can wait until after we're done, as long as I stay mounted. Keep Brawl's horse alive." Sage nodded, then used a healing Art on Brawl's horse, sealing its wounds and staving off the toxins and poisons on the arrow. But the last ogre was still charging toward us.

"Anchor!" I called.

"Can you get it in the eye?"

"I don't have an opening," he replied. The ogre was keeping its head down, charging, leading with its thick upper skull. And an ogre's skull, especially when it was a Titanium-tier beast, was harder than stone. I didn't want to do this, but I had to use one more Presence.

"I'll accelerate your arrow even faster," I said.

"Fire it straight ahead in three seconds. On my mark." I counted down, then triggered my Art horizontally, away from Anchor. The arrow shot out into the well, accelerated faster, then whipped forward. The arrow disappeared in a blink. Then the ogre's skull shattered in an explosion of black sludge and bone chunks. I pulled Burr to a halt. That was the last one. By now, most of the rest of the convoy had been destroyed. The orcs were scattering, but Brick was cleaning up most of them.

Except, of course, two—which we had to let get away. I signalled Brawl to sound his horn once, letting Brick know. I rode Burr across the battlefield, cutting down a lone straggler as I rode, until I reached Brick's squad. Anchor and Brawl rode behind.

"I'm letting those two go," Brick said, pointing out two orcs.

"Who's your best tracker?" I asked.

"You and Anchor, probably, sarge." I chuckled.

"I can't leave the army like that again."

"I'll send Crag after them."

"And send an archer," I added.

"Once you've confirmed their location, kill the two you've let go so they can't report on us."

"Understood." For the next few minutes, I circled the battlefield with my squad, cleaning up the orcs that remained. In the aftermath, I rode to the front of the column, then had Brawl signal again with his horn. The rest of our riders gathered around within a minute.

"Sergeants, report on your numbers," I said.

"How many did you lose?"

"One," Romance replied.

"Two," Brick said.

"And we've sent two scouts, as requested." That would explain why only one rider was left with him. Lastly, Lute said, "No losses. All of us made it." I nodded in relief. It wasn't great, but I'd consider three deaths to be pretty minimal casualties. I said, "Harvest the Presences and divide them up among your men, then make camp. I need watchmen posted on all sides, and I need an alert if you see anything coming—even if it's our own scouts returning." Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. We spend the next hour organizing the bodies and laying them out, then using our Siphons to gather their Presences. I tried to use my own siphon as much as I could, but when people were watching, I shifted to using the standard-issue sergeant's siphon. We divided the Presences up among squads, then let the sergeants handle how they were going to spread them around.

As for our squad, we each claimed one Presence from the ogres and consumed them, plus a few from the orcs. It wasn't guaranteed, but my Siphon was strong enough to gather slightly more Presences than average. After gathering them, I used what I'd gotten, then checked myself with the reading Slate. With that, it took me up to thirteen total Presence. In the other stats, I had a total of thirty-two points—Presence and armour boosts not included. I was getting closer to Steel, but it felt awfully slow, still.

Maybe it was just because we'd been forced on missions instead of allowing constant training, but maybe I was missing something. We made camp on a muddy ridge slightly north of the convoy's remains, and piled the orc bodies, but didn't burn them—not yet. That could give away our position if there were any nearby scouts. With our own fallen, we gave them a proper send off—again, as much as we could without burning their bodies. I hadn't known anyone who died beyond a few words, but their squads would miss them.

Once we'd settled down, giving our horses a break and letting Sage tend to the injured, I turned to Anchor and asked, "Any idea how Path-walkers deal with their stats?"

"They don't gain attributes like we do, I know that much," he said.

"They have special rituals for enhancing their bodies, as far as I can tell. When they reach Titanium, it's all about reforging themselves into something far stronger." I nodded.

"I mean, I guess so. But they don't gain tiny increases in strength here and there?"

"I would assume they do, given what we've seen some thegns pull off. It's probably the maegen's doing."

"If the System is just the Path condensed into easier terms, made a little more standard, then how come we don't use maegen?" Anchor shrugged.

"That's a question for someone smarter than me. Sage might know, if you ask her." I winced.

"I could try. But I'm not sure how much she knows about Dupe advancement either."

"It can't hurt to ask."

"Ask me what?" came her voice from behind.

"You two wouldn't happen to be talking about me behind my back? I seem to remember warning…well, many people about not talking behind my back."

"Sorry," I said, and I did mean it. I didn't really like the idea of people gossiping about me without my knowing either.

"But we were just talking about magic, and thought you might know something about how to gain general attributes faster for Dupes."

"First, let me check your wounds."

"It's not bad. If there's someone else you need to take a look at—""I've helped everyone else. Horses included. You're last on the list."

"Oh."

"Well, don't look so sad," she countered.

"You told me to look after you last, idiot."

"That I did, and thanks for tending to the others. It didn't hurt too much, did it?"

"I survived."

"She's getting better at it, brother," Brawl said, stepping closer. He led his horse back toward us after letting it drink from an open ice pool he and a few others had cracked open.

"I have always been good at it," Sage returned.

"Better at ignoring and managing your own pain, little sister," Brawl said.

"Oh." She cleared her throat then turned back to me.

"Let's see your leg." I hadn't pulled out the arrow yet, and I didn't really want to ruin my pants by tearing any more fabric away than I had to. I shifted to Sage, letting her see the injury. She peered at it for a few seconds, leaning side to side, and signalling Morph to shift for her, then clicked her tongue and said, "Hold still."

"Was I moving?"

"A little. Hold still."

"Holding still." Before I could do anything else, Sage gripped the arrow and ripped it out of the wound. I clenched my teeth, hissing in pain for a second, before Sage placed her hand over the wound and used a healing Art—the pain disappeared in an instant.

"A little warning next time?" I asked.

"It works better without warning." Slowly, my skin knitted back together. My skin sealed, and the mild poisons of the arrow disintegrated, processed by Sage's healing. She barely flinched, and I said, "Yeah, but aren't you worried about doing more damage to me?"

"I'm about to heal you, aren't I? It makes little difference." I snorted.

"I guess."

"Besides, it was a leg injury. I barely feel it when I heal a leg injury." I waited for a few seconds, then asked, "How do you guys, Path-walkers, get physically stronger?"

"That was what you were talking about?"

"Yeah." She crossed her arms.

"There's a process of reforging our bodies that takes place at Steel tier." I glanced at Anchor and whispered, "Steel, not Titanium."

"I was close," he replied.

"We don't have the System," Sage continued.

"And we don't have resonance nodes like you guys. Our bodies have limits. To shatter those limits, we use maegen and alchemical ingredients to break them down and reforge them into something stronger." I nodded.

"Is there any reason a Dupe couldn't use those methods?"

"You don't have maegen," she replied.

"You would have no way of forming a connection with your new body. You would just melt away your flesh and never rebuild anything." I grimaced.

"Maybe not a great idea, then," But I couldn't push the idea of using a regular Path-walker's reforging methods out of my mind. What was stopping us from using maegen, anyway? Before I could ask, a voice shouted over the hills: "Sergeant Levi! The scouts are back!"