Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 27

Being a Kindling Architect didn't feel all that different from being an aethersmith, though there were some measurable enhancements to my usual crafting abilities. I could see further into nearby dimensions than before, which made crafting dimensionally expanded spaces far easier. I could also lift more weight with telekinesis and manipulate things with much more exacting detail.

Thanks to my perception stat, I could already focus my eyes enough to see the individual cells people were made of, but before any biological work on my end involved grabbing entire bunches of cells and killing them off with a little heat. Now, I could be a lot more precise with my work. I could reach into an individual cell and construct a single molecule, which would drift around and do who knew what.

As an experiment, I gave myself cancer and tried to construct a magical nanomachine capable of detecting and curing it. I wasn't quite successful and ended up curing my cancer manually, but with a bit more thought into the nanomachine and a way to build the design at scale, I'd really have a universal cancer cure. Hell, it would probably work for almost any other disease as well.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to waste on curing cancer, as the war was commanding my attention.

Centurion Asimi was the one to break the news that we'd be moving out to me.

"Legate Carter, we've received new orders from Prince Herius. He still hasn't taken Yarris, nor have the other legions successfully taken Kanton. He believes the Black Beast Sect is rallying to secure their remaining strongholds and he's worried we will be flanked and pinned. We are to reach Kanton and assist them in securing that city, then journey on to help him with Yarris. We are to leave a skeleton garrison here in Tinsburg and make for the towns surrounding Kanton with all haste."

"Again, huh?" I asked. I'd been expecting something like this though, which was why Sakura had arranged for a local guard garrison. Back in Mundwise, I'd had the idea to recruit locals and fill out our forces. I hadn't had enough control over the legion back then to see to something like that, but this city was a different story.

We wouldn't be leaving Tinsburg defenseless when we left. And unlike in Mundwise, where Prince Herius had installed a noble ruler, I'd stuck with my usual method of forming a elected council. I wasn't sure if it would hold up when the prince consolidated control over the city. Still, I felt elevating local leaders from among the common people was superior to appointing a leader based on their bloodline. Not that I expected royalty like Prince Herius to agree with such democratic sentiment.

If it came up with him, I'd argue on a pragmatic level that it was much easier to strip individual members of a council of representatives of power than it was to deal with a noble you'd empowered with absolute authority. I doubted he'd care one way or another unless we came back this way, though.

"I take it this is relatively urgent, then? Perhaps I should fly ahead and rally the other legions to judge their current situation. The rest of you will follow on foot unless I spot an emergency along the way," I instructed.

Centurion Asimi saluted, though I had to gather my commanding officers and give the same orders before I left. To my growing nervousness, I realized I was leaving the entire legion in Myrina's hands.

I probably could have sent them all into the Sanctum mystic realm, and I'd done just that for some of my people, but I wasn't willing to share my mystic realm with legates Morin and Abesa. So most of the legion would have to march.

"Don't worry, Legate Carter! We'll march double time to catch up with you!" Myrina saluted.

"Normal marching is fine, thank you. And I'll check in via radio for as long as I'm in range."

I double-checked Myrina's gear to make sure she had her radio, though truthfully, Myrina had led monster-hunting bands in Crownhill often enough. I shouldn't be too worried about her. The worst thing that was likely to happen was her pushing the troops beyond their limits and having them arrive to battle exhausted.

Myrina always led from the front, but sometimes she made the mistake of thinking everyone else was as capable and eager as she was. I had no doubt that even at D-Grade she could have marched well beyond where most of these Dragon Lodge troops would have collapsed to exhaustion.

Once I saw everything was in order, I put my worries aside and raced ahead to rendezvous with the other legions.

I was barely an hour out from the city when I saw a band of Black Beast Cultivators doggedly pursuing a group of people. At first I assumed they were some local militia band or survivors from the original army of this region. But then I looked closer at their uniform and realized I recognized them.

That was the uniform of the eleventh legion!

I did a quick scan of everyone below me and realized they were all D-Grade. Unless there were a whole bunch of B-Grades in hiding, no one here could stop me. While scanning for any tricks, I gathered a whole host of Mana Bolts.

Once I was confident I was the only B-Grade in the area, I unleashed the Mana Bolts targeting the D-Grade cultivators pursing the eleventh legion soldiers fleeing for their lives.

Half the cultivators died before they even knew what hit them. The other half lived just long enough for me to sweep by and scorch them all with a breath of dragon fire. In the blink of an eye, they were all taken care of.

"You're safe now. Stand--"

"Ahhh! Monster attack! Run and flee! Split up! You, buy me time to escape!" one soldier with a significant number of badges on his chest took a much lower ranked D-Grade and shoved him in my direction while he fled.

I looked myself over. I'd been wearing the Moodshade Fox Cloak Sakura had made for me what felt like ages ago. It was normally pretty good at keeping me unnoticed. I'd long since outleveled it, but it was cozy and still had some functionality when dealing with D-Grades, so I kept it. But right now, it was covering my uniform. I took it off, displaying my legate insignia.

"Soldiers! At attention!" I commanded in my best legate's voice.

That finally got the panicked soldiers of the eleventh legion to stop running, though the highest ranking officer of the bunch was far enough away that he hadn't heard me. I used the Shadowrealm to grab him and drag him back.

"Stop screaming, that's an order!" I picked him up by the collar and gave him a good shake.

"Huh? Uh... what?" the highest-ranked officer collapsed to the ground, blinking up at me in confusion.

"I'm Legate Carter from the Nineteenth Auxiliary Legion. You were being chased by Black Beast Sect cultivators. I saved you. Now I need you to answer some questions. I count twenty of you in total. How did you get separated from the rest of your legion?"

"The rest of the army was defeated and slaughtered! We had to escape. It was what our legates would have wanted!" the panicked officer said.

"Where? When?" I demanded.

He gave me the name of a nearby town, which I vaguely remembered from the map Prince Herius had shown us all.

I commanded the other soldiers to loot the bodies of the dead Black Beast Sect cultivators for gear, as they all looked under-equipped, then grabbed their terrified commanding officer for a little flight.

He screamed as I carried him into the air, and he screamed harder when I took him into the shadow realm again and he got a glimpse of the big spectral dragon I left behind in my wake.

I took his mind off things by demanding details about what happened to him and his legion while we traveled.

He'd been a centurion in the eleventh legion, which was toward the edge of a formation consisting of fourth, fifth, and eleventh legions. The three had joined forces to besiege a town defended by cultivators. Things had been going well until they were suddenly flanked by an unanticipated second cultivator force. The legions promptly shattered, and the man I was interrogating bravely and heroically gathered up his men to draw the enemy away and force them to chase him, buying time for the others to reform their lines.

I was quite certain his act of heroism had been anything but. I'd seen a panicked route, and unless this guy did something to impress me, I'd be passing along that tale to his legate when the time came. But for now, the other legions were in serious danger and there was little time to waste.

I followed the centurions' directions back to the battlefield, where what I feared awaited me. The battle was still ongoing, but it had shifted from a surprise attack to a full-on route. Large parts of the fourth, fifth, and eleventh legions had broken ranks to flee. Only the fourth legion still had their banner held high, but that was because most of them had gathered in a circle around their legate to make a final stand.

When I'd first seen their legate, I'd only noted him as a portly man squeezing into armor too small for him, much like Legate Morin. I'd put the two of them in the same boat, and only now did I recognize how wrong I was.

Despite being C-Grade and wearing ill-fitting armor, the legate of the fourth legion held his banner high in one hand and his sword in the other, refusing to throw down his arms even in the face of overwhelming odds and certain death.

Before them was an elder at the early B-Grade, higher level than anyone else on the battlefield. Truthfully, even now the legionnaires probably outnumbered the cultivators two to one, but that B-Grade elder turned the tables decisively in favor of the Black Beast Sect.

"Foolish barbarians! Where is your System to save you now? Where are your precious levels?" the elder cackled manically.

"Archers, nock arrows and fire!" I heard the fourth legion's legate shout over the roar of battle. I'd put his name out of mind before, but now I wish I'd paid more attention to it.

A rain of arrows shot from a thousand bows, only for the B-Grade elder to bat them aside with a swish of his sleeve.

"Weak! Pathetic! Useless! You're all going to die here... huh?" the elder looked down at his chest, which was bleeding.

The arrows hadn't done anything to harm him, but they'd proven excellent cover for a Sunlight Spear.

The elder's eyes darted around, looking for the source of his injury. He found nothing because I was already behind him. I jammed an Arcane Blade through his back and gave it a twist. This was clearly a man who enjoyed sadistically inflicting pain on others, but he didn't seem to be taking being in pain so well.

He stared at the sword poking from his chest in horror and tried to activate some sort of escape talisman. It activated and tried to drag him away, but I killed the enchantment before it could finish.

The rest of the fight was rather short. I'd been killing people like this cruel elder since long before my current level, and now I could toy with him as easily as he was toying with the survivors from the fourth legion. My tastes didn't run in that direction though, and I killed him quickly and dispassionately before letting the body fall to the ground.

After, I helped the fourth legion deal with the remaining Black Beast Sect cultivators. On that front, there wasn't actually much to do. Once their elder fell, the cultivators were very quick to scatter. In general, these disciples were quite good at fleeing for their lives when the battle was lost, and while I could chase a few down, not even I could kill all of them.

Instead of doing that, I settled down before the legate of the fourth legion and hit him with a quick examine.

Legate Thaddeaus (Level 199)

"Legate Carter! I must say I'm relieved to see you. You arrived in the nick of time," the legate said.

"I'm glad I made it, Legate Thaddeaus. The rest of my legion is still on the march. I see you're on the edge of B-Grade after that last battle. Congratulations." Truthfully, I'd used examine to figure out his name, but I disguised it as mere curiosity over his level.

He seemed to blink, glancing at his own hands in surprise as though he were regarding a stranger.

"Ha! I suppose I am. It would have been damn useful to be B-Grade before this disaster, but I'll take what I can get. I'd offer some refreshments, but there isn't much left of our camp at the moment..."

I waved him off. "No need to stand on formalities. I need to round up survivors from the fifth and eleventh legions. Do you know where their legates are?"

"It's unlikely they survived. My officers will help you search. Meanwhile, B-Grade awaits for me..." Legate Thaddeaus departed, leaving me with a few of his officers. I spoke with them, and they got organized, then sent out rescue parties to save any fleeing other legionnaires from the fifth and eleventh legions still pursued by cultivators.

I was among those rescue parties, and I was by far the fastest, so I ended up saving some five hundred soldiers. In the process, I spotted a dozen more groups who had successfully lost or dealt with their persuaders and ordered them to return to the battlefield, as we had won the day.

By the time I returned, about two-thirds of the legionnaires I'd seen from the fifth and eleventh legion had trickled back. Each had a significant number of deserters, too, including that centurion I'd hauled to the battlefield to find the place. Apparently, the survivors were more than a little afraid of the discipline that would come down on their heads after they'd broken ranks and fled the field of battle.

I pinched my brows, unsure what I was going to do to them. Historically, decimation was an appropriate punishment for such an act of cowardice. But the real cowards among this army had already fled completely and deserted. The soldiers who followed orders and returned to us showed they were at least willing to keep following orders.

Thankfully, my forces marching up the road leading to Tinsburg saved me from the troublesome moral decision. At the front of the host was Myrina, and someone had given her a horn.

"Smell that? That's blood and steel. There's a battle ahead! March double-time, otherwise there'll be no enemies left for us when we get there!" Myrina yelled into her horn.

Suddenly, I had a perfect idea for what to do with the cowardly fifth and eleventh legion.

My people arrived just in time. I'd only brought a few hundred wizards with me through my mystic realm, and only a dozen of them were healers. We had thousands of critically injured and thousands more heavily wounded, so I set my people to work.

"Aww... we missed the battle..." Myrina pouted. Behind her, a few soldiers seemed quite relieved that they'd arrived late to what had clearly been a slaughter.

"Myrina, how do you feel about taking a few thousand more people under your command? The fifth and eleventh legions were practically wiped out, and they didn't have enough men left to make a proper legion. Worse, many of them broke ranks and fled the field of battle. I think they need a stern acting legate to discipline them."

Myrina's eyes narrowed. "They ran from the battle, you say? I see... don't worry, Carter, I'm on the job! We Amazonians have ways of dealing with deserters. I learned about them in Amazonian law school!"

With that, I left the fifth and eleventh legions in Myrina's capable hands. Though in retrospect, perhaps they would have preferred decimation.


<Note>
While reading this over, I mixed up the numbers for the legions like 3 times. I think I got them all on the reread, but let me know if I'm listing the wrong legion anywhere.