Chapter 225 - Accidental Avalanche

One of the worst things about being a hedge wizard was all the walking. Hump had grown used to it over the years—it was an unavoidable part of the job after all—that did not make him any fonder of it. Even on the best of days, walking for hours on end was miserable. Navigating the ancient slopes of the Charred Heights… now that was hell.

It didn’t help that everyone around him seemed so at ease. Even Tokdaar strolled along happily, he and Nishari zooming back and forth until the little dragon became too tired to continue. She’d nap in her pouch a bit while Hump carried her around, have a snack, then keep on going. She weighed him down like a rock on his hip, having at least doubled in size twice over during their travels.

It was late morning, yet he was already exhausted. After setting up his wards the night before, he’d spent a few hours recharging Magma Pit in his spellbook and cycling essence using the River and Waves and Spirit Well techniques. Part of the problem with so much travelling is that there was so little time for training. He’d done his best to spend a little time each day practicing his runecraft, using the enchanting pen given to him by Countess Daston, but often it was little more than a few minutes.

He gazed up at the sun poking out of the clouds above. Hump wished he had a pouch.

“Are you listening, Hump?” Celaine asked, interrupting his highly productive thoughts.

He turned to her and smiled. “Of course.”

She sighed. “Seriously, you’d walk straight off a cliff if I let you.”

“I’m a wizard, Celaine. It’s easy for us to become lost in our own heads thinking about grand matters.”

“Oh yeah? And what grand matter was this?”

“Nothing you would understand.” Hump made a brush-off gesture with his hand. “Now, what did you want?”

Celaine rolled her eyes then pointed northward toward the V between two mountains. “That, my mud-headed wizard friend, is the Fire Pass.”

Hump stared at it suspiciously. “Why do you call it that?”

“There used to be a dungeon within the left mountain, full of fire affinity monsters. It was cleared generations ago, but the story stuck. Legends say that a demon of the endless dark still lingers in its cauldrons.”

“Right,” Hump said. “We’ll stay as far away from that as we can then. Noted.”

Celaine snorted. “That’s not the point though. What matters is that I know where we are.”

A spark kindled in Hump’s core as he realised what she meant. “Are we… are we almost there?”

Celaine nodded. “I reckon we’ll reach the pass tomorrow, then it’s maybe three days beyond that.”

Hump gazed up at the sky, closing his eyes against the heat of the sun. He stretched his arms out to either side in reverence. “Thank the gods.”

Celaine didn’t respond, and when he looked back at her she was grimacing.

“Too much?” he asked.

“A little bit, yeah. Now that Bud and Dylan aren’t around, one of them really might smite you down if you’re not careful.”

“That’s a good point. Having a couple of the Pantheon’s Chosen around was a great way to even out the blasphemy. Not sure they pay attention out here though. I wonder how far into the Fallen Lands we need to go until we’re officially outside the Pantheon’s sight.”

“Estora was a city of Alveron,” Celaine said. “They might keep an eye on it, right?”

Hump hummed. “Maybe. Bud would say the gods follow us everywhere, but I can’t imagine them having much interest in a ruined city. And you’d have thought they’d stop a lich from setting up a base there.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

Rehk snapped something in gnollish, and Tokdaar let out a cackling laugh.

Hump looked at her. “What did you say?”

Her lips parted into a smile that revealed her teeth. “Nothing. Just how human make such wise talk.”

Hump narrowed his eyes. “Uh-huh.”

A cackling laugh escaped Rehk too, and Hump couldn’t help but smile. It was an unnerving sound—one that would leave Hump’s heart racing if he’d heard it in the dark of night. After coming to know the two gnolls though, there was no subtlety to it. They were straight forward creatures, when they found something amusing, they cackled.

“How long will you stay with us?” Hump asked her.

“We stay over the mountains,” Rehk said. “Pack hunt all these lands. If luck, we hear them and find pack.”

Hump nodded. “Great. It’s good to have you with us out here.”

“Still owe you much,” Rehk said. “You save life. Big debt.”

Hump wondered what the favour of a gnoll was worth.

“Come on,” Celaine said. “We can’t slow down here, no matter how much you try to ramble on.”

Hump let out a long sigh. “You know me too well.”

They made fast progress through the mountains, spurred on by fear of the undead—it was certainly motivating. As much as they tried to avoid the creatures of the Fallen Lands, there was only so much Celaine could do. Some fights were unavoidable. Out here, it seemed everything was out to kill. They’d fought off a half-dozen goats, a host of ravenous ants, strange rock elementals that seemed driven purely by magic.

Hump did his best to remain out of the fight. Celaine was strong enough to handle most minor monsters alone, and she could fight without using essence against most things. Where Hump did need to aid, he stuck to spells below Tier 2—with any luck, they would go beneath the notice of the lich queen and her minions.

The open rocky grassland soon sloped back upward, and their next section of narrow pass began. Celaine scouted ahead, navigating the steep stone slopes to either side of them with ease. Her use of Spring Step only ever seemed to grow as her skill with essence manipulation improved, not just empowering her jumps, but granting her speed, and helping her to cling to the uneven ground above. It was fascinating to see the effect of practitioner techniques on a Chosen’s blessings.

It was bleak news on what lay ahead.

“Two giants,” Celaine said. “Not the friendly kind either. My people call them stoneskins. They’ll happily add people to the menu if they get the chance and have a greed for gold. They have a great wolf with them too, so sneaking around will be difficult.”

“I’m not keen on fighting giants,” Hump said. “They’re too strong to bring down quickly.”

Rehk nodded. “Giants not die so easy.”

“Going around would require us to circle back and go the long way around this section of the mountain,” Celaine said, indicating the rocky side to her right. “It could set us back days and take us closer to Estora.”

“And there’s no guarantee the route will be any better either,” Hump said. “It’ll be risky. We’d both be using abilities that could draw the attention of the lich.”

“We can ambush them,” Celaine said. “There’s a ridge overlooking their camp that I found a path to. There’s no way we could get the horses up there, but you and I could make it without being noticed. If I bring down the great wolf, they’ll lose their mobility. Giants aren’t exactly quick.”

“You’re confident?” Hump asked.

“Confident we’ll defeat two giants, yes. Confident we’ll do so without alerting the undead… not so much. But we’re close to the Fire Pass. Even if they notice us, it doesn’t mean they’ll reach us in time.”

“Do you know of any other ways through the mountains?” Hump asked Rehk.

She shrugged. “Feet, yes. Horses.” She shook her head. “This why horses only for eating.”

Hump scratched Prancer’s nose. “Please don’t eat my boy.”

“Won’t eat. But looks tasty, no?”

“No!” Hump snapped. He rubbed his face, suddenly feeling protective. Still, it was clear they had no other options. “You and Tokdaar wait here. Celaine and I will return when the route is clear.”

“We see you soon,” Rehk said. She snapped something in gnollish and Tokdaar barked excitedly. “He says luck. And hungry for wolf and giant flesh.”

“That’s just lovely,” Hump said.

He put Walt into Prancer’s saddlepack, not wanting him to wake up once the fighting started and give their position away. Rehk gave him an annoyed look, but that at least he could live with.

Celaine led the way nimbly, while Hump clambered up behind her. Outside of the pass, he saw the tree extent of the peek to their right, towering into the sky, crusted with snow. He couldn’t even see a way around. It was suddenly clear why Celaine saw no option but to fight.

They followed a steep stretch of rocky ground upward, and soon Hump smelled smoke and heard deep, grumbling voices. Up ahead was a rock that rutted out of the mountain side, climbing to a peek a few times higher than Hump.

“Quiet from here,” Celaine whispered. “Follow my footsteps.”

“You heard her,” Hump said, poking Nisha’s head back into her pouch. “Stay in there till this is over.”

She let out a quiet chirp in protest, but Hump urged her through their bond.

He navigated the rocks and cracks upward. The hard, grey stone made for solid footing, and with Celaine’s direction he made his way to the top. Cresting the peak, he peered down at the route they’d been following once more. Not fifty feet below, two giants had set up a campsite just off the mountain road. They’d felled a number of trees to create a temporary shelter, where the great wolf lazed quietly. A goat roasted on the fire, suspended on a skewer.

The giants were big—that went without saying. Hump had never seen the stoneskin variety in person, but he’d read about them. They had to be twenty feet tall—at least three Bud’s stacked on top of each other. Their grey skin resembled rough stone, though it moved supply, bulging muscles clear beneath. They wore animal hides and woven cloth. Their faces were broad and flat, with wide, deep-set eyes beneath bushy eyebrows. Shaggy brown hair and beards covered much of their heads, and a prominent nose that was disproportionately large compared to the rest of them poked out.

“What do you think?” Celaine asked. “Another Magma Pit?”

Hump shook his head. He wasn’t sure how effective the spell would be against such large creatures. “I’d rather hold that back for an emergency. Worst case scenario, their hides will be too thick for the spell to bring them down, and we’ll end up with two pissed off giants and a lich with her undead horde on our trail.”

“Won’t be an easy fight,” Celaine whispered. “They’re resistant to magic and have skin as thick as iron. I’d probably need to nail one through the eye to kill.”

Hump weighed their options. As tempting as a trap using Magma Pit was, the Tier 5 spell was the most likely to draw the attention of the lich queen. Besides that, he didn’t want to be overly reliant on abilities that weren’t his own. True combat experience was the best way for him to improve as a wizard. If they couldn’t beat two unsuspecting giants with their own skills, they shouldn’t be in the Fallen Lands at all.

Hump surveyed the mountainside. Direct magic might not be very effective against giants, but a big rock was a big rock.

“I’ve got an idea.”

“Oh yeah?” Celaine asked.

Hump nodded. “Keep watch. If they notice us, try to keep them below the ridge.”

Slowly, Hump descended from the rock ledge, finding a flat piece of stone to stand on about halfway down. He pulled out his spellbook, opening it to Melt Stone. Now this was the part he was unsure of. Burning rock didn’t usually smell, so long as there were no volatile compounds within, but those big noses on the giants had to be good for something. With any luck, the combination of wind and surprise would grant him the time he needed.

Pressing his staff against the base of the rock, Hump sent heat pouring into it while simultaneously pulling apart the particles of the stone with his essence. A faint metallic odour reached Hump’s nose, and he pushed on, gouging out a hold in the stone protrusion and piercing deeper. Red fire filled the hole, searing heat radiating from within like a furnace. About a minute passed when he heard the grunt of a wolf followed by the angry shout of one of the giants.

He glanced at Celaine who gave him a thumbs up—he was good for now.

The hole grew wide enough for him to put the end of his staff inside, and he went deeper, drilling into the stone. Once it was as deep as he could make it, he withdrew his essence. Now it was the finicky part.

He turned his spellbook to Transform Earth, channelling its power. Bronze energy poured out of his staff and into the ground, spreading throughout the rock. First, he formed an empty sphere at the end of his hole, hollowing out the space at the end of the narrow passage. With that done, he imagined fissures and cracks forming outward and away from him. Weaknesses. A dull, grating sound filled the air. Sometimes, louder strikes would sound, like a hammer striking stone. He clenched his jaw, there was no way the giants hadn’t heard that, but he didn’t stop. He let the cracks spread to the rocks and earth below, loosening the ground. Preparing it.

“They’re moving,” Celaine hissed. “Hurry up.”

One of the giants shouted. The other responded, the two creatures talking back and forth. They were definitely aware of something now.

“Oh shit,” Celaine murmured.

A moment later, a giant, ballista sized arrow pierced the ground where she’d just been standing. The earth cracked. Celaine twisted through the air, landing deftly on the end of the arrow and shooting off an arrow of her own.

Hump’s attention went back to his magic, turning the page to Explode Earth.

This had better work.

He poured essence through the formation, relying on the efficiency of Compact Formations to help him. A cry came from below—Celaine must have landed something that hurt. The great wolf howled, and Celaine’s bow answered.

Hump drew more essence, forming it, focusing it into the hole he’d drilled through the stone, building a well of power in the well he’d created at the end. A place to focus his magic. Envisioning his intent in his mind, he directed everything he had there.

“They’re coming!” Celaine shouted.

“Explode Earth.” His voice echoed through the mountain.

There was a great, booming crack. The world shuddered. A rumbling filled the air, echoing everywhere. Stone exploded forward. The ground shuddered. It gave away beneath Hump’s feet and he fell to a knee.

Celaine was there then. She grabbed him back the scruff of his robes, hauling him back with dragon-blooded strength. He felt stones scratch against the backs of his legs and feet as he was dragged. He gritted his teeth, fighting not to scream as Celaine practically threw him. He landed hard on a patch of grassland, rolling to a stop. He lay on his belly, looking upward at the stone protrusion as cracks of bronze spread out within. Dust exploded from them. Small rocks crumbled outward, then bigger ones, and then everything fell to pieces. Mud, rock, dirt fell in a cascading avalanche.

Hump’s eyes widened at the destruction. The agile great wolf climbed over it agile, fleeing the devastation. No, not fleeing. Running at them. Celaine readied a Power Shot, essence soared around her, Predator’s Intent imbued in the power, white and black light mixing. Hump felt chills.

The arrow left her string and pierced the great wolf through the shoulder. It tumbled, crying out in pain as Celaine filled it with more arrows. Six landed before it went still.

The sound of its cries was overwhelmed by the thunderous crash of stone falling to the pass below. Everything was shaking. Adrenaline flooded through Hump, excited at what he’d achieved, terrified of what the results might be.

When it finally subsided, he looked at Celaine with wide eyes. She did not share in the excitement.

“So much for going unnoticed!” Celaine snapped. “You brought down half the bloody mountain!”

“I was just aiming for that bit at the top,” Hump said meekly. “It… snowballed a little more than I expected.”

“Mother help me,” Celaine snapped. “Wait here. Let me check if it actually worked.”

She climbed the ruins of the rock formation and looked down.

“We’ve lost the road,” Celaine said angrily. “How are we going to get the horses through now?”

Hump rubbed his face. His hands were covered in dirt. His legs were scraped. Every bone in his body hurt from where he’d been thrown. He clambered up the now much shorter slope, peering down at the devastation below. The campsite of the giants was buried in stone and mud. He spotted an arm poking out amongst it.

“Okay, I may have overshot it this time.”

“I think we can still make it past,” Celaine said. “Doesn’t look so bad on the far side, but we might need a bit of magic to do so.”

Hump’s spellbook shook and he took it out.

SPELLBOOK
Rockslide

Evocation | Battle Magic | Tier 4 | Range: Medium

Description

Conjure a rockslide that cascades downhill, causing damage and devastation to anything in its path. The spell sweeps up any stone and debris it encounters, increasing in size and momentum.

“Well, was it worth it?” Celaine asked. “Get something good.”

Hump nodded, smiling excitedly. “Tier 4. Very worth it!”

A distant screech pierced the air, and Celaine looked eastward. Far away in the distance, Hump spotted a dark spot in the sky.

He winced. “Do you think it heard us?”

“What do you think?” Celaine grumbled. “Go back to Rehk and Tokdaar. I’m going to get the giants’ heartstones and see if they have any gold lying around.”