Chapter 71

Etson National Forest, Etson - 7:15 AM

I arrived at the predetermined point in the forest before anyone else. The instructions were simple, head to Five Gun Plaza and enter the woods behind the pizza place. Easy. A quick glance at the sky told me that we would be getting daylight soon, and I let out an uneasy breath since no one was around to see me be nervous.

The bulk of our volunteer army was down on the road outside of Etson National Forest. Most of the planning last night had been how to split people up, where to place our assets, and what to do when we arrived. Without working modern technology like phones or walkie talkies, we didn’t have a lot of options when it came to communicating other than yelling and sending messengers.

Between the various groups we had just shy of five hundred people. It was a huge gathering of players, though it consisted of a lot of people who were under par for the scenario. More than half of them had stats lower than a standard Vespae soldier, but we couldn’t turn them away. The enemy would already be outnumbering us, even with this large of a group.

“-ing is that a flaming zombie is a great way to light a forest on fire, that’s all.” I started hearing people coming from the direction of Five Gun Plaza and turned to see Francis and Todd waving their hands in a very animated fashion. Behind them, a disgruntled looking Benjamin and a few people toting guns followed wordlessly.

“Look, I’m not disagreeing with you,” Todd responded. “What I’m saying is that my Amalgams, not zombies, are usually really weak to fire so they won’t last long.”

“They don’t have to last long, they just have to set trees on fire and move on to the next one before collapsing,” Francis countered. “Like, monster bodies burn real easy. They’ll be burning for a good while. Mr. Telekinesis up here could even toss those at the baddies, probably.”

“You’re in high spirits today, Francis,” I said, interrupting him as I stood up from the log and approached.

“I’m full of energy, Anthony,” the younger man said quickly.

“Sorry we’re late,” Benjamin said, walking around the two teenagers to shake my hand. “Francis has it in his head that our Amalgamancer is some kind of endless font of undead resurrection.”

“Not yet, but someday he will be,” I said, giving Todd a nod. He flashed me a nervous grin before reaching into his inventory and pulling out the cow skull mask. Instead of donning it, though, he kept it under his arm for the moment. “So, Francis, stop pestering him.”

“It’s cool, really,” Todd said, defending Francis. “So far most people have started avoiding me because of what I do with corpses, so honestly the fact that he’s cool with it is refreshing.”

I nodded to the three people who had hung back, receiving a similar greeting in return. It had been a couple of days but I recognized them as part of Carl’s crew from the interstate, and had learned that their names were Daniel, Mary, and Stu. I hadn’t heard a word about the man himself, but none of them appeared to be mourning so I figured Carl was alive and well back in Stanley and had just refused to leave. He seemed the type to hunker down like that, not that there was something wrong with that kind of thinking.

“Alright, if you’re sure,” I replied, giving Todd a pat on the back before gesturing to the group to follow me. I began heading deeper into the forest. “So, I know you guys already know the plan, but I’m going to repeat it anyway so we have it fresh in our minds.”

“You’re the boss,” Benjamin said, flicking his lighter on and off.

I nodded before continuing. “So our goal is to gather as many Vespae patrols to our area as possible. We’ll start with Francis and Benjamin lighting fires to gather the wasps here, and we’ll use Daniel, Mary, and Stu’s guns to make more ruckus to draw even more in. We’re not going to get every patrol out there, but we will achieve our goal of giving the others a chance to get most of the way to the hive without getting spotted.”

“Which will make it harder for the Vespae to set up a proper defense,” Francis excitedly interjected.

“Right,” I said.

“Won’t that just make them more wary of the forest?” Stu asked.

“Against most monsters, yes,” I replied. “But the Vespae believe themselves to be top predators in such a narcissistic manner that they won’t think there’s a big army coming after them. The Kobolds had already informed us that the patrols are heavier thanks to so many of the Royal Guardwasps dying, but that should be the extent of their response.”

“Draw in and ambush,” Daniel said. “Think that’s easy enough. Are we going to be enough?”

“More than enough,” I said decisively. “One of those special Vespae will likely be with the group that comes to investigate, and that’s where Todd comes in.”

Todd clapped his hands together once. “I take a regular Vespae and the special Vespae and Amalgamate them. I’ve got enough juice in my tank to have two Amalgams running at the same time, but we’re waiting until we return to the main body of the army for two special Vespae for my second one, right?”

“Yessir,” I responded. “There’s a slim chance that we’ll get two of the Guardwasps to show up dragging two patrols. I don’t expect it, but it’s worth mentioning. Any questions?”

A murmur of negative responses washed over me, and I nodded. We fell quiet as we walked, and my mind wandered. I knew the body of the army wasn’t going to move without seeing our smoke, but we weren’t about to start the fire just anywhere. Luckily, thanks to the Serranras’ Trust passive, I knew exactly where I was going.

It took nearly twenty minutes of hiking, but we arrived at a small cabin near one of the many spring’s rivers. The building was meant for the Forest Rangers but had been abandoned since the system began. Though perhaps abandoned might not have been a good word; there certainly had been people here based on the amount of trucks that were parked, but no one was in sight.

All around the trucks were the traps that Serranras had dismantled after the fight against Talspra. It was a small mountain of junk now, with most of the objects being broken into pieces by the Dryad. Still, the pile was just as large as the cabin was.

“Okay, Francis and Benjamin come with me. The rest of you secure the area and prepare it as a defensive position,” I ordered. The four from Carl’s crew gave me a salute before heading towards the cabin, and the three of us started heading to another clearing nearby. “Hope neither of you are afraid of heights.”

“Well, I’m not completely thrilled about them, but…” Francis started saying before seeing where I was leading him.

Ahead of us stood a tall lookout tower that reached far above the trees. A staircase inside the metal support structure lead upwards into a small room with a balcony all around it. We began trudging upwards, though it wasn’t nearly as troublesome as the other two expected. One did not start increasing stats without reaping the benefits, and we made it to the top without even being winded.

The inside of the room was completely devoid of any usable supplies. All that was left was a wooden table and a metal folding chair, though I did grab the latter and toss it into my inventory. Just in case. The forest all around us looked gorgeous in the morning sun. The mist that was ever present in a usual Florida morning floating between the trees like a hidden ocean. Every so often we’d see yellow and black specks in the distance crest the trees, but many of them were far away.

From here we could also pick out the hive. It was miles away from where we were, but the brown structure rose above the trees in a wide area. The military testing site they had taken up residence in had been a large clearing with various buildings sprinkled throughout, but it looked like they had expanded past that. Sure enough, as I squinted to get a slightly better look, I could see that they had started encroaching on the trees surrounding the clearing. Grabbing more space now that Serranras wasn’t there to stop them, no doubt.

“It’s almost a shame we’re burning it down,” Benjamin stated as he leaned on to the balcony railing.

“It’ll be fine, I promise,” I told the man. Now that I was exposed again, I pulled Boss Steener’s Golden Bowling Ball from my inventory and held it at my side. “You notice how it hasn’t been raining lately? Weird for this time of year, right?”

Francis and Benjamin looked at each other. “It’s been raining on the daily, though?” Benjamin replied.

“Not here in Etson, it hasn’t,” Francis said. “Are you saying that the rain’s being held back on us?”

“Wasps don’t fly when they’re soaking wet,” I responded before shaking my head. “Changing the weather’s one of the things the system can do, apparently. We’ll start this fire, but luckily it’s still very misty at this time of day and once we get rid of the Vespae queen, clearing the scenario, rainstorms should start back up in the afternoon. Back with a vengeance, as it were.”

“And how do you know this?” Benjamin asked. His voice was more curious than hostile, and it made sense to ask.

“Information broker,” I lied. “Cost quite a few points for that, but I think it was well worth it.”

Francis gave me a look, and I winked back at the man. He knew the same lie that the other people I was close to did about memories of previous runs, but he wasn’t going to bring that up in front of Benjamin. I walked to the balcony to look down at the cabin, and I saw that the four I left down there had moved things around to create cover they could shoot through. Whistling loudly, I caught Todd’s attention and gave him a thumbs up.

He looked around at the others, saying something that I couldn’t hear from this distance, before turning back to me and returning the gesture. “Alright, a few trees ahead, fire when ready,” I ordered the two mages before stepping back inside of the room. Francis and Benjamin nodded, each taking a deep breath. While they were both mages, there was a big difference in the ways they cast spells.

I watched as Francis closed his eyes and raised his Tinder Twig in front of him. He began chanting words that I knew, but couldn’t translate without having a magical class of my own. A small orb of fire was conjured into being, hovering in the air inches from the tip of his wand. His Charred Bone Breastplate began to let off heat as he continued chanting, the ball becoming larger the longer he continued.

Benjamin, on the other hand, had already started burning the forest. He held his cheap lighter, already lit, in front of him while blowing on it. A large stream of fire rushed against the tops of the trees as he used a skill I recognized as Gaseous Breath. It was usually used to disorient foes with status effects, but it was also highly flammable and very effective when used with a source of flames.

Francis finally opened his eyes, surveying the situation in front of him with critical interest. Seeing where Benjamin was already laying down fire, the younger man flicked his wrist in a different section of forest in front of us. The ball of fire had gotten as big as my head when he flicked it, but it grew larger yet as it streaked through the air. Searing through the leaves at the top of the trees, it kept going until it finally hit a solid branch and exploded into a rain of embers that set the whole area on fire.

“Show off,” Benjamin panted as he gently jabbed the other man in the arm.

“Well, that was my biggest wad and I just blew it, so, all I got now is little piddly fireballs and a couple of defensive spells,” Francis said with a nervous chuckle. “Those aren’t on a cooldown like Ember Rain, though. That’s the big spell I just cast, by the way.”

“Well, good work anyway,” Benjamin said before returning his gaze to the fire in front of us. It hadn’t become a raging inferno yet, but the trees had caught fire despite the mist and they had begun smoking quite heavily. Benjamin turned to face me. “Do we need to keep going?”

I watched the fire for a little longer before shaking my head. “No, that should be fine. Good work, you two,” I said with a smile. “Head on down with the rest of the group and I’ll let you know when we’ll be having company.”

Francis started heading down the stairs immediately, but Benjamin looked back at the smoke curtain keeping me from seeing the rest of the forest. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I can see through the smoke thanks to the Dryad who lived in these woods,” I informed him. “You get down there and take command of everyone. I’ll be down after the attack starts.”

“Alright, you’re the boss,” Benjamin said with a nod.

I watched as he left before heading back outside and sitting on the balcony. The trees around the cabin and tower had been cut down to insure that no forest fire reached the buildings easily, and the only heat I felt from the forest fire was brought to me on the morning breeze.

Watching anything through smoke was always an experience. It was such a simple thing, but strange. Skills that let you see through things not usually meant to be seen through had a surreal touch to it. Both the Serranras’ Trust passive and Clear Eyes skill allowed me to see through the smoke, but the system made sure I knew it was still there. So I saw the rising curtain of black and gray, but I also saw beyond it.

It was almost as if the smoke was both opaque and transparent at the same time. Some people claimed they couldn’t wrap their heads around skills like these, that their brains wouldn’t or couldn’t understand seeing an object but also what was beyond it as if it were still there. It had tripped me up at first, though I pushed past it and, with practice, became accustomed to seeing things without directly observing them.

While I waited for the Vespae to start appearing, I polished the bowling ball I held on my lap. While I could guess how the wasps would react to us, Jeremiah Wilson was another matter. I fully expected him to know I’d be here today, but I didn’t have enough information to figure out what he would do about it. The battle plans we came up with last night wouldn’t have been given out until this morning, so while he knew I wanted to attack early he wouldn’t know exactly how.

Movement caught my attention far off in the distance, breaking my line of thought. Vespae started rising out of the forest. First a few, but they were beginning to multiply at an alarming rate. I squinted, trying to count how many started coming in our direction. I stopped counting after several dozen while more were still emerging from the tree tops.

Flying higher than the Vespae soldiers were two bigger wasps. One glimmered in the sunshine with an emerald light, and I identified it as Crausdel the Emerald Wasp. Next to her was a large, black wasp, and I almost panicked at the size of it. I took a breath and watched as it flew towards us. The nervous feeling receded as I noticed that its wings weren’t red. It wasn’t Ylstin, the Tarantula Hawk, but as I thought it over I realized there was no way she would leave the queen alone.

Which meant we had Crausdel and Vermon, the Megalara Garuda wasp. Vermon was the third largest of the Vespae, behind only Ylstin and Jickree in size and only behind Ylstin in Strength. I hadn’t expected to see him out and about as a scout, but Todd would make great use of his corpse today.

I took a breath and surveyed the approaching army. It was a lot bigger than I anticipated. If it had been forty or fifty of them, we could have taken them down with just the six of us, but we were looking at a force I had to guess was at least two hundred strong with two Royal Guardwasps on the way.

“We’ve got a lot of hostiles coming in!” I yelled down. “More than expected, two Guardwasps! Green is a parasite, black has strong jaws! We defend until we have to leave!”

My people down below gave me thumbs up from behind the cover they had taken. They were hiding amongst the traps and trucks while the door to the cabin was open for them to make an easy escape. I had plans for the Vespae to come after me first. Beginning the battle inside the tower's room, I’d gather as big of a crowd as I could so that our gunners could light up as many as possible before their position was given away.

As I looked away to keep tabs on the Vespae, Francis yelled back. “Watch-“

I didn’t have a chance to hear the rest as I heard a low buzzing noise and something slammed into me. A small needle pierced my side and the force of the impact sent me flying off of the edge of the lookout tower towards the ground fifty feet below.