Chapter 82: No Flagpole Sitting

Chapter 81

I only saw the mantises for a split second before they had all launched themselves into the air and dived toward us fast enough that even with my currently enhanced senses, I had no chance at dodging. One of them latched onto my back and raked their razor-sharp claw across deep into my flesh. I screamed in pain as I switched to my life orb and triggered regeneration while slamming my skull backward into what turned out to be an incredibly hard exoskeleton. The shock to my head added to the growing desperation of my situation. Luckily for me, I had a flying mallet that hadn’t been grabbed by a mantis because I was in no condition to focus on my own defense at the moment. 

The loud cracking sound as Corey made its own first contact with the mantis, accompanied by the loosening of its grip on me, told me that it hadn’t taken the blow well. I flipped my aether orb on as I spun to attack, only to watch it blink out of existence. I hoped that meant it had been removed from the match due to a death blow and not under its own ability. There were only three of the mantises left, one of which was on the ground wrestling with Rabyn as he stabbed it, and Glorp stomped on its limbs, so more like there were two. I focused on the one Elody had just knocked off of the twins and launched it skyward while Cecile’s hoe cracked through another exoskeleton. In moments, none of the mantises remained. They had been considerably stronger than any of the squads we had encountered so far, and I wasn’t sure how well I’d have faired without my life orb.

“Rabyn, take one of these,” Cecile said, passing what looked like a bandaid made of mana to the orc. Rabyn grabbed it with a nod and slapped it on the large cut across his forehead. I was glad to see Cecile had started working on his own life orb with their new gauntlet. That meant at least three of us were capable of healing magic now.

“Come on, we need to keep the momentum up!” Rabyn yelled as he resumed his run without waiting to see if we would follow. Everyone of course, did, which only led to a growing worry deep in my stomach of just what we would have to do with Rabyn one day. Decisions like this were yet another reason I truly didn’t want to be an emperor.

We found our first target already under attack as a group of dwarfs, orcs, and some kind of wolves were defending their flag against an assault by a sort of giants. If the defenders were a single squad, and it seemed likely they were, that meant none had left their flag yet, whereas there were only five of the giants. Just as I targeted the center of the giants with a gravity reversal, I spotted Elicec let loose with his own lightning assault on the defenders. The giants crashed back to the ground a few seconds later, one of them managing to bounce onto several of the defending squad members. Half of the defenders vanished, but only two of the giants, and now all their attention looked to be focused on us.

Rabyn let fly a flurry of knives. While Connie’s song seemed to shift, the same horrible shrillness continued, but now it felt oddly protective. I understoodd what that change had done as soon as the first giant bounced off an invisible wall, a wall that was still letting knives through it from our side. That was a handy ability. 

“Carefully studying the ground the defenders stood upon, the paladin of knowledge was able to determine the perfect spot to guide Cecile, the paladin of agriculture’s axe,” Elody said as Cecile’s hoe transformed into something any lumberjack would have been proud to hold. Even the handle had elongated allowing Cecile to take a swing from the distance, cutting through a tree in a single blow, felling it directly onto the collective of defenders, leaving only two giants still fighting.

“Two of us get to win this match. How about you take their flag, tell us which light is yours, and we continue on our way?” Elicec yelled at the giants. It wasn’t the worst idea. They’d draw attention while we searched for whatever remained of the mantis squad and the final one.

“Deal!” one of the giants roared pointing at the light furthest in our clockwise plan as the other grabbed the flag before they both trundled off back into the forest, quickly vanishing into the deep foliage. I spotted Rabyn nodding his approval at Elicec again and realized I was smiling as well, very much glad to see him come more into his own. Then it was off on another run, the forests blurring by yet again, and me wishing we had time to enjoy a nice camping trip.

This time, Elicec threw his hand up first, signaling us all to a halt. I noticed he had a light blue glow around his eyes. Was that a new ability, too? All these changes were actually making me look a bit forward to Mel’s planned training regimen. I was pretty sure I’d regret that desire long before it was over, though. “I’m not sure what species they are, but there are eight of them guarding a flag,” Elicec said.

“That answers the question of what faction the flowermantoids were with. Those are high webweavers, and this is the Jeweled Silk Trading Conglomerate. I almost regret letting the giants go now,” Rabyn said as I moved for a slightly closer look. They resembled something like the very hungry caterpillar come to life and were actively spinning some sort of webbing around their flag.

“We already took out their scout force, so there isn’t much these can do to win,” Connie said, stopping her singing for the moment.

“I’d rather piss off whatever faction the giants are attached to than the Jeweled Silk Trading Conglomerate,” Rabyn replied. Even if it was the better tactical idea, I wasn’t big on going back on the deal we just made, besides I doubted these guys were a bigger threat than the one we already had looming.

“If I have to lead a faction, I don’t want it to be one that screws over people we just made good faith deals with, and we already took down half of this squad anyway, so if they are going to consider us a future problem, we probably already caused that,” I said, putting an end to the debate instantly, leaving me a bit uneasy with the lack of further arguments.

“Webweavers it is; for those who haven’t fought them before we need to burn their webbing to have any chance, not really my specialty. I assume the mages can, though?” Rabyn asked. I swapped over to my fire orb, ready to join in as I nodded in confirmation, drawing another of Rabyn’s odd looks at me. Was he picking up on when I changed my orbs? Strange.

“As soon as Dave and I hit them with fire, I want the rest of you to mow them down before they can rebuild any web walls,” Elicec said strongly before starting a countdown. His intent was clear, so the moment he hit one, I launched several fireballs directly into the center of the web while he matched me with three lines of flame extending from his fingers. I was a bit jealous of how controlled they seemed compared to my blasts. The webs instantly ignited, followed by the sound of odd chittering as the whole base went up flames. The fire had managed to make a few holes before the defensive webs stopped burning and started sealing themselves again. But it was too late to save them; Rabyn and Elody were both already inside. The chittering died in seconds.

“For better or worse, one target left, let’s go,” Elicec ordered. Connie resumed her singing, and we charged towards our last target. We arrived to find that there was only a single guardian of this flag, a massive pile of rock in the shape of a gorilla. Were the other fourteen already searching for more flags? The final light belonging to the giants changed colors suddenly, in what I assumed was the signal that they had successfully returned the flag back to their base.

“That’s some insane overconfidence in only leaving a single stoneape guardian, but the Rockmeister faction was never known for their brains,” Connie said.

“How do we take it down?” I asked.

“Just throw it into the sky,” Elicec answered, smiling. I made no argument against the idea, instead swapping back to my aether orb and doing just as the young twinog had instructed. It launched into the sky and crashed back to the Earth, disappearing just as it made contact. The scenery vanished into a black void that was quickly replaced by the usual bland hallway as an experience notification popped into view. Guess the giants had taken care of the rest of this squad for us.

It had taken three floors, but I had finally gained a level. This was now nearing on my simulator for potential experience totals, but considering the biggest modifier was coming from our unfilled squad, I knew we couldn’t keep that up forever. Not to mention, the faster we gained levels, the sooner I’d catch my core up with the others, removing those multipliers as well, but the way the floor experience seemed to double each time was promising.

The history of the Jeweled Silk Trading Conglomerate is a story of blood and conquest. Initially the conglomerate was founded by several of the insectoid species throughout the Spiral as they felt those without exoskeletons treated them as lower lifeforms. Soon, their faction had holdings in countless worlds as their power grew, and inversely, so didn’t their compassion for insectoid species not already within their conglomerate.

Factions, Dynasties, Royalty, and the Holdings by Trig Plunderscan

Chapter 83