Pandora Unchained - B1C68: Corpse Patrol

Shortly after seeing Lawrence, Sorin paid Gareth a visit to the east end of town. He arrived late at night, but fortunately, the archer was not yet asleep. Upon hearing of Sorin’s success with Lawrence, Gareth had Sorin unlock his Thrust Vessel and Yin Link Vessel, which would greatly improve the power and accuracy of his arrows.

Next, Sorin went to the Mages Guild to find Daphne. He found her half asleep, trying to figure out a spell model. Sorin successfully unlocked her yin and Yang Link Vessels, greatly increasing her mana manipulation abilities.

Sorin got about two hours of sleep before forcing himself out of bed and donning his blood-drinker armor. He filled a pouch with crystal needles, some medical-grade stitching string, and bandages in acid-proof bottles. He then strapped his whip and dagger of lesser curse to his belt, completing the ensemble.

In an effort to fit in with the team, Lorimer smeared demon blood beneath his eyes like war paint before hopping into the custom pocket built into Sorin’s armor. "You ready, partner?" Sorin asked. The rat squeaked an acknowledgment. "You’ve been very well-behaved lately, Lorimer. Keep up the good work."

Sorin met his companions just outside the north gate. The Temple of Hope was technically the closest building to Bloodwood Forest, but no demons dared invade it. Instead, they broke up to attack either the North or the South in a seemingly random pattern.

"Glad you could make it," greeted Stephan, pulling Sorin into a tight bear hug. "I heard about your research breakthrough from Lawrence. Good work."

"There’s still a long way to go," said Sorin. "I expect I’ll be able to unlock 5 extraordinary meridians after my next breakthrough. As for the 6th, it’ll have to wait until I break through to the 10th stage of blood thickening."

"You heard the man," said Stephan to the others. "Try not to break through to the 10th stage before Sorin. The foundations we lay out now will impact the future of our team. As for your hero meridian, it’ll be up to luck whether you open it. The only advice I can give you is to embrace danger and act like a hero, even if you can’t become one."

Not long after they arrived, an adventurer approached Stephan and handed him a report. "Any news?" asked Gareth.

"There was an attack 3 hours ago," said Stephan, handing him the scroll. "So we can expect some quiet for the first part of our shift."

"Is it corpse duty again?" asked Daphne.

"It’s corpse duty again," said Stephan. "So you can take it easy and keep learning your new spell while you torch the odd corpse. We aim to get everything cleaned up in the next two hours."

Ten minutes after they left the north gate, they encountered a pile of 200 or so one-star wolf demon corpses. It was difficult to tell exactly how many there were because the corpses were mutilated and burnt beyond recognition. Still, they would have a definite answer when they collected the individual cores.

It was Gareth who explained their group’s duties to Sorin. "Strictly speaking, we’re here to guard the mortal soldiers and their carts as they harvest beast parts. We only participate in the clean-up operations if there are hazards or the soldiers need help removing the demon cores."

As the team’s rogue and archer, it fell to Lawrence and Gareth to scout out for danger. With Daphne studying spells, it fell to Sorin and Stephan to walk around splitting open skulls and extracting their demon crystals.

Corpse duty was ideal for Lorimer, who’d been starved for over a week. He ravenously ate corpses but held off on the cores while Sorin clarified the situation with Stephan.

"Since they’re not our kills, we only get 25% of the harvest," Stephan explained. "We can’t take anything until the governor’s men tally everything up, though. They’ll pay us out by the end of the day."

"Lorimer won’t get in trouble for eating corpses, will he?" asked Sorin.

"As long as he doesn’t eat anything valuable, all is well," said Stephan. "The leftovers will get cremated via wish fire either way."

It didn’t take long for Stephan and Sorin to extract the cores, leaving them with nothing to do while the mortal soldiers cleared up the remainder of the corpses and burned the rest. This left Sorin ample time to practice his poison spells on looted corpses.

He also performed the odd autopsied to better understand the strange demon life forms. Some had two hearts, and others lacked major organs. Meridian patterns varied greatly between demon types; knowing these details would give Sorin a distinct advantage in future battles.

Two hours passed in this fashion. They moved from corpse group to corpse group like wandering nomads. Finally, their carts were full, and what remained of the corpses were burnt on pyres as offerings to Hope.

Shortly after returning to the gates, a horn sounded, and their team lined up on the walls to see a veritable sea of demons surging out of the forest. Only now did Sorin truly understand why they called it a demon tide. They washed out like waves, collapsing upon themselves as they rushed towards the outpost walls in a thoughtless frenzy.

"Why do demon tides happen?" Sorin found himself asking.

"There is substantial debate on the topic," answered Daphne. "And unfortunately, there are no definitive answers."

"Then what’s your best guess?" asked Sorin.

"Domain transition," answered Daphne. "Each of the Seven Evils has its own domain. Of the seven, only three evils can unleash demons upon the mortal world. Death is omnipresent and controls the deceased. As for Violence and Madness, one dominates the summer with life, proliferation, and brutality, while the other controls darkness, inconsistency, and the unknown.

"There is much debate on why demon tides only occur when transitioning from summer to winter, but not vice versa. Personally, I think that it’s due to the characteristics of Violence. ‘He’ spurs demons to mate and proliferate. ‘He’ pushes them past their natural limitations. And when ‘He’ is about to go dormant, there is a need to release all the built-up potential that would otherwise be wasted.

"But why isn’t there a similar event for madness?" asked Sorin.

"Because madness is something that lurks within our hearts." It was Gareth who answered the question. "Humans aren’t cyclical creatures like beasts in the wild or the rising or falling seasons. Madness is always present, but it acts up in the winter when darkness and uncertainty are accompanied by fear of the unknown."

Sorin shivered as he recalled his many experiences treating patients during the winter. It’s why he fought so hard to purge corruption whenever he could. The more corruption someone accumulated, the more likely they were to experience visual and auditory hallucinations that pushed them to commit unspeakable acts. Some would even transform into true demons that infiltrated cities and outposts and plotted the downfall of mankind.

"I believe the demons are retreating back into the forest," said Gareth, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled on the group. "It won’t be long before the guard opens the gates and lets us out again."

They returned outside the walls twenty minutes later, burning corpses with wish fire and collecting demon cores. This time, it was a large wave. Hence, soldiers were escorted and requested that they help extract arrows and demon parts in addition to the usual demon cores.

They were halfway done when suddenly, Sorin felt discomfort deep in his gut. He looked towards the wilderness and drew his dagger as Lawrence and Gareth returned from their scouting positions.

"There are demons nearby," said Gareth. "Somewhere behind the tree line."

"What are your recommendations?" asked Stephan, yielding to their group’s archer.

"I recommend we escort our soldiers back to the settlement and report the situation to the higher-ups," said Gareth.

"It’s a little late for that, I’m afraid," interrupted Lawrence. "Look over there!" A back of a hundred or so one-star demons had emerged from Bloodwood Forest and were charging at the group nearest to them.

The adventuring team escorting the distant soldiers drew their weapons and initiated a strategic retreat. Meanwhile, the leader of their team’s soldiers took out a brass horn and blew out a loud note, which was immediately answered with a call to retreat.

"We’re dropping the carts and pulling back," said the leader of fifty guards they were escorting.

"Retreat in an orderly fashion," Stephan instructed. "My companions and I will prepare for battle."

"Another group of demons just emerged," said Gareth, pointing in another direction. "The first group consists of roughly a hundred blood horn boars, while this second group contains about 200 flame antler deer."

"Looks like those deer are also heading towards that first group of adventurers," said Lawrence. "Anyone know who that is?"

"It should be Barbara’s team," muttered Stephan. "A hundred might be doable for them, but three hundred?"

"Our assignment is to escort this group of soldiers," Gareth reminded Stephan.

"Won’t it become tricky to see them safely back if Barbara’s group falls?" asked Sorin. "Those demons could cut us off." He wasn’t sure about how correct his words were, but it didn’t sit well with Sorin to leave Barbara’s group to fend for themselves.

"It’s not exactly a good idea to waste time," said Lawrence. "Why don’t we just flip a coin?"

Daphne snorted. "Coins have terrible variance. I can think of ten different that are much better than –"

"We’re not going to make decisions based on coin flips, dice rolls, or card games," said Stephan, cutting Lawrence off. "Daphne, pros and cons."

Daphne frowned, then calmly provided her analysis.

"Pros for breaking formation: we’re lowering overall group risk," said Daphne. "The cons, however, are that we’re throwing ourselves in danger. Ten one-star adventurers against 300 demons at point-blank range? Forgive me for not being optimistic."

"What are the odds that the demons ignore us?" Stephan asked Gareth.

"They definitely won’t do that," said Gareth, shaking his head. "These demons are crazed because of Violence’s influence. They’ll charge for the nearest target, no exceptions."

Stephan sighed as he came to a decision. "We’re going in," he said to the leader of the soldiers they were escorting. "Please make haste back to the city and inform the commander of our strategic decision."

"We’ll do so at once," said the leader of the soldiers. Like the rest of the soldiers, he wasn’t a cultivator. As far as he was concerned, it was up to their cultivators to discuss such matters with adventurers.

"Let’s make haste," said Stephan. "We don’t have a minute to waste. Lawrence, Sorin, run ahead. Gareth, Daphne, on my back."

"On your back?" said Daphne, her eyes lighting up. "Yes!!! We’re riding into battle on a polar bear, Gareth! This is going to be awesome!"

Sorin immediately set off towards Barbara’s team, which had already engaged with the first group of a hundred demons. They did their best to prevent the demons from wrapping around them and attacking the mortal soldiers. This bought the soldiers precious seconds to pull back from the front line but ruined their formation, resulting in one of their members getting injured.

"What do you see, Lawrence?" Sorin asked as he grabbed his dagger. An orb of poison appeared in his hand, ready to throw.

"They’re surrounded and using a three-point formation while their life mage heals their injured member," said Lawrence. "It’s not a problem fighting off the blood tusk boars since Barbara is a beast, but it’ll be a different story when those flame antler deer get here. Also… I think those deer might have a leader."

Sorin’s expression fell. "A two-star demon?"

"Probably," said Lawrence. "Why don’t we pull back and abort the mission?"

"Not happening," said Sorin, tightening his grip on his dagger. "As long as we can buy time for Stephan to arrive, we have a chance." As a hero, Stephan was capable of fighting demons above his rank.

"Pushing past them is going to be difficult," said Lawrence.

"I’ll throw in a ball of paralyzing mist and dive in first," said Sorin. "Can you cover me?"

"You only live once, I guess," said Lawrence, blending into Sorin’s shadow. Sorin tossed a Veridian Smoke Bomb, stunning a group of ten blood tusk boars before diving straight through them.