Grand Game 535: On the Offensive

The journey south was longer than my first one—then I’d been carried by the river. Still, it was not significantly so. As an elder wolf, I could maintain an impressive ground-eating pace, and the miles flew by with barely any notice. 

Around noon—or just after—Ghost and I reached our destination. Cresting another rise of barren soil, I spotted a luminous glow on the horizon.

The portal to Draven’s Reach.

And above it, another overlord.

I’d bit back a mental sigh. I’d know about the Power, of course. But I’d been hoping that Anriq and Safyre had been wrong about the creature besieging the gateway, or that it would have withdrawn in the interim.

No matter. We’ll deal with it.

The overlord’s absence would’ve made things easier, but the schedule I’d formulated already accounted for killing the creature. Besides, there were other obvious benefits to dealing with the void’s Powers in a piecemeal fashion.

“What do we face?” Ghost asked quietly.

“One overlord.” Letting my gaze drift downward, I turned my attention to the hydras and serpents massed around the gateway. “And three hundred—no, make that four hundred—lesser stygians.”

“No nagas?”

“No nagas,” I confirmed.

“That’s good news at least,” Ghost commented.

I bobbed my head. “I’m going to take a closer look.”

“You want me to unmanifest?” the pyre wolf asked. 

Glancing back at her, I hesitated. Ghost lacked the stealth necessary to sneak closer to the overlord, so she would have to stay behind or dissociate. But there was another consideration, too. “How are you managing with the mist?”

“Oh, it hardly bothers me anymore,” she replied. “Since becoming an adept stygian, I resist more of mist’s effects than I feel. My health has barely dropped since we started traveling south.” 

I nodded slowly. “Then unmanifesting is not necessary. You can wait here if you prefer.”

“I’d like that,” she replied, flopping down on the ground.

Drawing psi, I padded forward. “Alright, stay alert. I’ll report back soon.”

✵ ✵ ✵

You have cast enhanced reflexes, vanish, and trigger-cast quick mend. 

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you.

I slunk toward the portal, a silent and unseen menace. 

Ahead, the hydras and snakes were piled atop one another, asleep and oblivious of the approaching danger. Above, the overlord and his escorts of serpents were equally still. Meanwhile, the river rushed on noisily behind the stygians, masking all lesser sounds.

I didn’t hesitate in my advance. Given the situation, I was confident I was impervious to detection. Only the overlord’s thickened plume gave me pause, and I drew to a halt as I entered its depths.

The nether toxicity has increased to tier 24. 

I had little fear for myself. It was Ghost I was concerned for. How would she fare once the battle started?

Not well.

“What’s wrong?” the pyre wolf asked, sensing the direction of my thoughts.

“We’ll have to draw the stygians out of the plume,” I told her. “You won’t last long fighting in here.”

“That should be easy enough,” she stated confidently. “If I let them see me, they’ll give chase.”

“Some would,” I allowed. The only questions were how many would remain to guard the gate and whether Ghost would be able to handle those who chased after her.

“Should I do it?”

“One moment,” I replied and took a minute to conduct a longer survey of the massed stygians.

But my initial evaluation had been correct. There were no nagas amongst them. We could proceed.

“Do it,” I instructed. “And make sure you lead the stygians toward the river.”

“Why that way?” Ghost asked curiously as she began her approach.

“If you get into trouble, or if the overlord itself gets involved, you can use the river to escape. The stygians don’t appear to like water. Only unmanifest as a last resort.”

“Got it,” the pyre wolf acknowledged. “What about you?”

My upper lips lifted in a silent snarl. “I’ll hang around here and deal with the stragglers.”

✵ ✵ ✵

It was nearly a full minute before the first stygian stirred. From atop the stygian mound, a sleepy serpent uncoiled and glanced in Ghost’s direction.

Then hissed. 

Its response was a catalyst, and in short order, the entire pile of stygians unraveled. 

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you.

I stayed where I was, my gaze fixed skyward. While the ground-bound serpents and hydras were certainly a danger, it was the overlord that was the true threat.

But the Power did not stir. Nor did its escorts of flying snakes launch off. 

Hmm. Why’s that?

Meanwhile, the uncoiling serpents and hydras had split into two packs. The smaller group, slithering about in a frenzy of motion, set off after Ghost. 

But the second group, remaining behind, were spreading out rapidly in all directions—as if to protect the ground-bound approaches to the overlord. Soon, they would overrun my position. And once that happened, I would be detected.

Even crouched low and with my belly hugging the ground, I made for a big obstacle, and whether by chance or not, one of the awakening stygians would brush up against me.

Nonetheless, I didn’t move.

Letting my gaze drift beyond the approaching tide, I picked out the stygians that were pursuing Ghost. “You have one hundred on your tail, mostly serpents, but there’s a few hydras too.”

“Ha, so few? I’ll handle them easily.”

“Don’t discount them,” I replied sternly. “No matter their levels, a hundred stygians is a lot. Take the threat seriously.”

“Sorry, Prime,” she replied, more soberly. “I will.”

I glanced upward again. “The overlord still hasn’t moved, but that doesn’t mean it won’t once you engage. Be careful and use the river to escape if you must.”

“Got it, Prime.”

“Good luck, then,” I said, rising to my feet. The serpentine wave was about to break over me. Crouching back on my haunches, I readied myself. 

It was time I, too, went to work. 

✵ ✵ ✵

You have set your teeth and claws alight. Duration: infinite. Your attacks will now deal fire damage.

I waited until the last moment before attacking. Then all it took was a single bound forward and a snap of my jaws to bring an end to the first of my foes.

You have killed a stygian serpent with a fatal blow.

I didn’t pause to celebrate. Whirling about, I sprinted flat out, my paws flying across the ground. Another stygian was almost within striking distance. Leaping through the air, I landed atop the hydra’s broad back.

 A level 179 stygian hydra has been knocked down.

The large stygian crumpled beneath me, driven into the ground by my greater weight, and before it could do more than squawk in surprise, I got to work.

You have cast whirlwind, lacerating bite, and stunning paw.

You have backstabbed a stygian hydra for 5x more damage. 

You have critically injured your target. 

A stygian hydra is stunned (duration: 5 seconds) and bleeding (duration: 21 seconds).

You have backstabbed a stygian hydra for 5x more damage. 

You have backstabbed a stygian hydra for 5x more damage.

…

…

A level 179 stygian hydra has died.

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you.

It took only a handful of seconds to slay my prey, and not unexpectedly, its death did not go unnoticed. What took me aback though, was the stygians’ reaction.

They did not converge on the site of their fellow’s death, seeking to overwhelm its slayer with numbers alone. Instead, in the short span of time it had taken me to effect the kill, the space around me had emptied, leaving no stygian within easy reach. 

My nose wrinkling in confusion, I lifted my burning muzzle to take in the wider surroundings.

Only to be surprised anew.

Everywhere I looked, the stygians were… fleeing? 

That couldn’t be right, though. The nether’s creatures didn’t retreat. They fought to the death. I bent back my head further to see what the overlord made of its minions’ cowardice.

It, too, was in motion—upward.

Withdrawing, as well.

“Damn,” I muttered.

“What’s wrong, Prime?” Ghost asked.

I glanced in her direction. The stygians chasing after the pyre wolf were receding too, if at a slower rate than those about me. “The enemy is fleeing,” I replied. “Even the overlord is withdrawing from the fight. I’m not sure why, though.”

“That’s easy enough to figure out,” Ghost said, even as she turned about to snap at the closest stygian. “It must be because of you.”

“What?” I asked, startled.

“The stygians are learning to fear you,” she replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Nonsense,” I scoffed. “The stygians don’t learn. They—” 

I broke off as I realized how foolish my words sounded. Of course, the stygians learned! 

And nowhere was that more apparent than in this sector. The void had changed tactics multiple times already—not always for the better, perhaps—but unquestionably, it had managed to surprise us.

Not once. But repeatedly.

My gaze found the retreating overlord again. Its trajectory had altered infinitesimally. Now, not only was the Power rising, it was also floating northward. The ground-bound stygians had changed course too. Where before they’d been fleeing in random directions—to get away from me as fast as they could—now they streamed after the overlord, gathering beneath it as if seeking shelter.

“What do I do now?” Ghost asked as the last stygian in range of her paws died. “There’s nothing left for me to kill. The other stygians have fled. I know in which direction they went though. Do I pursue?”

Still surveying the battlefield, I said nothing.

“Prime?” Ghost prompted. “If I don’t close the distance soon, I’m going to lose them in the mist. Let me go after—”

“No, don’t,” I ordered, sitting back on my haunches. “Stay where you are. I need a moment to think.”

It was clear the battle was over. Or at least, the opening sequence was.

I’d barely gotten into my stride. My plan had been to suck in the enemy, and once I was immersed hip-deep in stygians, to activate fearsome aura and freeze them in place. 

It would have been a bloodbath. On the ground at least. 

I’d had no intention of killing the overlord itself during this outing. My goal had been purely to thin the size of its escort, ground-bound or otherwise, and train as many skills as I could in the process.

Instead, the stygians had chosen to surrender the field, leaving the Draven portal unguarded.

Why?

Closing my eyes, I pondered the question. I didn’t think the answer was as simple as Ghost made out—there was no way something as powerful as the overlord feared the likes of me—however, there was a kernel of truth to her words.

The stygians had learned. How though?

I reviewed the recent sequence of events, truncated as they were, in my mind. First, Ghost had revealed herself and a contingent of stygians had set off in pursuit. Nothing unexpected there. 

Then I had attacked—while invisible—and the enemy had fled. Immediately, too. That was the most surprising part. There had been barely any time for panic to set in, much less for it to become so widespread as to simultaneously affect hundreds of stygians. 

Which could only mean that it was not fear that had driven the nether creatures but a telepathic order from the overlord. And the only reason for the stygian Power to give such an order so quickly was if it knew.

Knew what had happened clear across the sector at the Guardian Tower portal.

Knew that an invisible foe had killed a fellow overlord.

And that implied… communication. Sector-wide instantaneous communication, no less.

I exhaled noisily. The failure of the overlord to send its flying serpents after Ghost finally made sense. This overlord clearly knew how the other one had died. Not only that, it had probably also figured out one of the key weaknesses we had exploited.

Namely, its fellow Power’s airborne escorts. 

This overlord, wary of its flying serpents being enslaved, had chosen to keep the creatures close. Hells, I wouldn’t be surprised if any unknown flying serpent approaching the Power was killed out of hand.

All of which spelt trouble for us.

I’d been fully expecting to reuse the same tactics we’d successfully employed against the first overlord on the other three overlords in the sector.

I snorted. So much for that idea. We’d have to come up with another way of dealing with the remaining overlords.

I shook my head. It was a problem for another day. Today, we still had stygians to kill.

I rose back to my feet. “I’ve thought it through, Ghost. Let’s run those stygians down.” 

“Happy to!” the pyre wolf replied cheerfully. She paused. “What if they scatter again?”

 “Then they’ll learn another lesson,” I growled. “There’s no outrunning a wolf. Not today. Not ever.”