Triple Strength

310. Not Happy: Wiremu

I was NOT HAPPY! It wasn’t the Guard compound I was looking at that was the reason. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. We were supposed to stay together and free slaves TOGETHER.

I reined in some of those angry thoughts. Just some of them. The guard compound took up a whole block. One half was armoured storage, and the other half was the guard HQ for this part of the city.

I don’t do partings very well. I don’t do emotions very well. I bottle them up and put them to one side. I go out hunting to calm down. Fishing is good. I can recognise I am angry and frustrated, but I can’t just leave this time. Tabitha can’t distract me. Tāoke was there as always. He could feel my emotions through our bond. Tāoke is like me, a patient hunter, setting traps and ambushes. I didn’t feel like being patient now. I wanted action, explosive action.

A warning came in the back of my head. Alamaedin. I showed too many of my abilities, and some well-coordinated guards captured me. Not even affinity users, just regular guards. Water to cool my lava, trap me in my Granite, and then sledge hammers to break it apart. That is all it took. This time, there are affinity users nearby. I needed to plan for the long chase. I am not sure I cared.

Umreti was standing beside me with a full helmet and armour. Umreti is a strange name for someone with a Survivalist Class. It means ‘to die.’ I know he chose it at a low point in his life when he wanted death. He has had a good year or almost two years with us and come a long way, but he has not changed his name. He is a Weapon Master and Survivalist, and I am a Hunter. When we join back up with Modrica and Težka, we will have our Armoured Cavalry. We can do this.

I looked at Umreti, “Go big?”

He nodded and grunted assent. He needed to hang around Modrica more. Fancy using an action and a grunt to show agreement. How wasteful.

Then I felt Nyx arrive in my Blacksteel Pendant. I got out my card, and she spelt out her message. “Gate guards reinforced. More inspections when leaving city.” This was happening, and we needed to get on with it. Time to make other people not happy.

I was looking at the fortified section of the compound. I nodded to Umreti, and he headed to the public service areas. He was better against people. I was better against fortifications. Puia burned through my foot and went underground toward the storage unit.

I started to walk to the gate to the fortified area. Because the compound took a whole city block, there were roads on every side. The wall around it was tall and enchanted, and the buildings were back from the wall. There are four troopers in the watch towers on each corner, and I would be willing to bet they were archer specialists with enhanced senses.

Suddenly, an alarm enchantment sounded in the compound. Puia had triggered something. It was go time. I spun around and threw Tāoke as hard as I could at the top of the nearest watchtower. Just before he reached it, he Grew and was covered in granite and smashed through the wooded structure, sending two of the Troopers flying. The watchtower at the other end of the street was suddenly swarming with Golden Hornets.

I placed my hand on the wall and triggered Granite Quake. This was not in the ground like normal but directly through my hand into the vertical wall. Cracks appeared in the wall, so I did it again. And again. This was one well-built wall. Again, but this time, with Granite Manipulation widening, the cracks and pieces started to fall off. One last time and the whole section collapsed. I climbed over the rubble into the compound.

My Hearing Aid picked up the clash of weapons from near the public entrance, so Umreti had engaged. I was too far to hear the buzz of hornets, but from the screaming, it wasn’t hard to imagine.

Then flames burst out the windows and doors of the stone building in front of me. If they want to coat their storage with a flammable liquid, I have the perfect accelerant in Puia. I hope their insulation was up to it, or there will be nothing left in the vault.

The roof burned off, and clouds of fire and smoke rose into the air. A city-wide alarm started sounding. I think we have their attention. I bent down and picked up Tāoke. The entire top of his watchtower was now just a bare platform. Puia re-entered me through my foot. There would be no looting of the vault until the fire died down. That would be Tabitha’s problem if she could do it safely. It was time to extract Umreti and get out of the city.

Then another alarm sounded, and a shimmering barrier appeared between four poles and in front of the footpath with the buildings on the other side of the road. It appeared to go around the whole block. A hand cart was parked half on the footpath and half on the road, and it was sliced in two. There were some civilians trapped as well, and I saw someone touch the barrier and quickly withdraw their hand.

I moved toward the barrier. It was obviously a defence mechanism to hold any attackers until reinforcements arrived. It went up about three to four stories, and I sensed down into the ground about two stories. I threw a dart at it, and it was stopped, and sparks flew from where it connected. The same thing happened with a lava dart. This was impressive. Longstrider must have known about this.

It hit it with a Granite Spike near ground level and continued to do so, and the Granite looked like it was continually chopped off at the barrier. It wouldn’t stop flying over it. With time, we could tunnel under it. We would not have time. This was a significant signal to the army. This was also very energy-intensive, so it would not last long. Reinforcement would be coming with speed. I could reduce the time it is active with my Granite attacks, but there might be a faster way.

I ran to one of the corner posts. They held the enchantments, and it looked like they were powered by a monster core at each post. This seemed like a waste of coin to protect a few monster cores. However, it was not my mystery to solve. I had to get out and leave this to Tabitha.

Umreti came around the corner, shooting his short bow back where he came from. Hornets swarmed around him, some darting back along his path. There was already organised resistance, making him retreat. These were no trash Troopers guarding slaves.

Time to get out of this trap. The pillars had some sort of Spiritually enhanced metal. Puia and I made short work of it. It didn’t shut down the whole pillar, but a line of the barrier about a handspan width stopped working on both the edges that met at this Pillar. Puia melted the ones above, and I melted the ones below where we had started.

A shield wall of troopers came around the corner after Umreti. I saw some of the hornets fall, and his arrows had very little effect. After the shield wall came the archers, and we were under a hail of arrows. There were only about six of them, but I think they all had Triple Shot. One of them might even have had Quintuple Shot.

I had two hit my armour, and one got through to my Snakeskin. Umreti took a couple, and one stayed embedded.

“Through here!” I yelled as I dove through the gap I had made in the barrier. Puia rejoined me. Umreti followed me with a dive, and the hornets swarmed after him. Several arrows hit the barrier as we ran off down the nearest street. One of the nearer troopers dove through the gap we had made, and I discouraged that with a row of Granite Spikes before I got out of range.

We ran past a major intersection. Everyone was making a path for us, thanks to the hornets. As we crossed the intersection and headed toward the gate with Modrica, I heard, “There! Get them!”

A patrol had been running toward the storage compound, and I guess two armoured people running away from the place; one surrounded by a swarm of hornets was too suspicious to leave alone. Trooper whistles blew, alerting other patrols to our whereabouts.

We ran past another intersection, and this time, there were two squads of mounted troopers responding to the alarm. They saw us, responded to the whistles, and changed direction. Just around the corner, I raised a double row of Granite Spikes and kept running. The spikes caught three of the horses, throwing their riders. The rest stopped and started hacking at the spikes with their weapons. Umreti sent hornets to hassle them. It slowed them down.

Civilians were scattering off the street now. Two people in Mercenary garb came out of a building and tried to intercept us. One blindsided Umreti but ended up writhing on the ground as the hornets went to work. Umreti rolled with the tackle and was straight back on his feet without pausing. The one who tried to tackle me got a mace to the head, and I didn’t even break stride.

Then I sensed the gate and what was waiting for us. This made me unhappier.