Sion saw Alma flying towards them, and behind her, he saw his best friend imbuing an arrow. The fucker was pointing right at him! The aura even had those weird blue-white lightning bolts Richter had gained since learning Enhanced Imbue Arrow. He could just hear how the conversation would go. “What are you doing, Richter?” “It’s all part of the plan, Sion.” “Plan? What plan?” he would ask. Then the chaos seed would give that smug, fucking smile and say, “Don’t worry. Depending on your perspective, this is the easy part!”
The meidon sprite played that entire conversation through his head in a moment. He considered wasting time being pissed, but instead, he dropped his weapons and pulled on the armor of the two sprites fighting with him, “Move!”
All three sprites fell back, and the glow around Alma faded. A circle of sparkling golden dust appeared with the goblins in the center. They took no real damage, but they still started screaming and hacking in pain as the glitterdust entered their eyes, ears, and mouths. The goblins swung blindly. Richter waited another second so that he could be sure he had invested the hundred and seventy-five mana needed to trigger psi crystallization, then he released.
The arrow sped across the short space and impacted against the chest of one of the goblins. The wash of magic spread out several feet, knocking them all to the ground. Mind Fog, Stun and Psi Crystallization afflicted some of the goblins. They cried out at the injustice of it all, and their sprite enemies walked forward grimly, weapons raised. The ensuing slaughter was halted at Richter’s call.
“No! Don’t kill them. Sion, help Alma. You know what to do.” The chaos seed gave his friend a wild smile and then started walking among the goblins that were still stunned by Alma’s Psi Blast. As he moved, he stabbed each in both legs, ensuring they would stay down even if the psychic attack wore off.
Sion watched him do this until he reached the largest goblin. Unless the sprite was wrong, the goblin was a grinder. His friend didn’t hurt this one. Richter just thrust his sword into the ground and started talking to the seizing goblin. The sprites looked at him, wondering if the lord had gone insane.
One of the other sprite’s spoke up, “What is he doing?”
The other asked, “What did he mean, ‘you know what to do’?”
Alma had already latched onto the head of one of the goblins. Her victim fell silent, overcome by the dragonling’s Brain Drain. The fighter had a blue-white crystal floating near his head. Sion quickly checked and saw that two of the other goblins did as well. While the other goblins continued to cry out, blinded and panicked, the sprite stepped towards the one Alma had chosen. Almost speaking to himself, he answered the second sprite, “This is what he meant.” Sion’s green blade pierced the fighter’s heart, and Alma gorged.
CHAPTER 34 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
While Sion executed the goblins, Alma fed on their psyches, and the other sprites saw to their fallen comrades, Richter finished the conversation he had started with the senseless grinder, “… and so that’s why it’s important to me that you know that this is personal. After what you did to that boy, and the way you disrespected his body afterward… What were you even planning to do with the body?” Richter looked down at the seizing goblin and shook his head, “No. You know what? Don’t tell me. Just know that I wish I could give you a worse death than this. I pray that your soul burns for eternity.”
His conversation done, Richter stood up again. Part of him wondered if something in him had snapped at seeing the casual torture and rape of the poor people he had failed to save. Another, larger part of him said it didn’t matter. There were more goblins to kill. The chaos seed extended both arms and his fingers contorted while he spoke a word of Power. Golden light surrounded his hands for a moment; then he turned away.
Alma and Sion had finished killing the goblins they were facing. They were now moving on to the goblins felled by the dragonling’s Psi Blast. His summoned spider had been hacked to pieces long ago, so Richter summoned a saproling for protection. The two sprites were helping one of their comrades back to his feet. Another was already up and leaning on Damien, but the last had a jagged gash across his throat. His eyes stared up sightlessly. The summoned fox had expended the rest of its healing magic healing the two fallen sprites and had already faded away.
Richter walked over to the sprite Damien was helping to stand. He was seriously favoring one leg.
“I believe it’s broken, Lord Richter,” Damien said. “He took a hard blow to the leg.”
“Leave me,” the sprite said. There was a small quaver in his voice, but his face was firm. “I will kill many of the puke skins before I fall.” Richter used Analyze and found out his name was Nusin.
“Why don’t we try something else, Nusin,” Richter said. He bent to examine the sprite’s leg.
“We do not have time, Lord Richter,” the sprite protested. “They will be on us in seconds!”
“Quiet,” the chaos seed sharply. “Right now, the goblins are marshalling their forces. We will probably need to move in the next five minutes before they start sending out strike teams, but we have the time to save your life.” He had the sprite lay down, and his fingers probed the area of the break. From what Richter could tell, the fracture was contained, and no shards broke the skin. Placing one hand on top of the Nusin’s thigh, and the other behind the sprite’s knee, Richter pulled in one controlled, strong tug. The two ends of the injured man’s femur ground together as they aligned. Nusin screamed but thankfully remained conscious. Richter then quickly cast one of his new spells, Weak Mend Bone.
Gold light extended from his hand into the sprite’s leg. Nusin’s scream stopped with a gasp that turned into a sigh of relief. Richter cast Minor Slow Heal for good measure, and then pulled the sprite to his feet. Testing it gingerly, the sprite found he was able to put weight on it, but he wouldn’t be running.
The chaos seed looked behind him, scanning for enemies. Nusin hadn’t been wrong. It had been at least ten minutes since the horns had blown. It was only because of the cautiousness of the enemy commander that they hadn’t been overrun already. All Richter could think was that precedence was being given to whatever it was the goblins were protecting. The images Alma had shown him had clearly shown the goblins taking up a defensive position around the inner barbican. Still, it wouldn’t be more than a few minutes before the enemy commander sent out a strike team to investigate. When the goblins discovered that there were only a few enemies and not a bloodthirsty horde at their gates, Richter and the sprites would be crushed. They probably wouldn’t be too happy that all of their prisoners were gone. Shit was about to go down. It was time to make some decisions.
“Damien, take Nusin over the cliff and down to the river bed. The two of you should be able to move back towards the valley entrance. The rest of the plan stays the same. Me, Sion and the other sprites will lead the goblins through the valley to the ambush site.”
“Absolutely not,” Damien said firmly. “The Battle Leader gave me express instructions to keep you alive, Lord Richter.”
“He can’t go alone,” Richter retorted.