Chapter 47: Keeping Falseness Foremost

Estara and the other medic rushed to the fallen man, as the priestess whispered, “I can heal a bit with a spell.” She hovered her hand over his ruined leg and a glow surrounded it, staunching the loss of blood and apparently some of the pain and injury, as his face held shock and relief. They soon helped the man up to lean on a spear, holding his shield in the other hand. A chance, at least.

Sammy watched it all with a mortified grimace, as the whole matter delayed the whole group, which had to stay together. There was no way they’d avoid combat even before, but even a few extra steps to their goal would’ve been gold.

One could call it a waste of time or one could call it a reflection of why we’re all here in the first place.

Nonetheless, Sammy forged an illusion at the edge of her range on the right flank, of a great group of men shimmering into existence as if shedding an illusion, and charging to meet the bulk of the foes. This quickly dragged all attention to it, despite their leader yelling about it being fake (and their stupidity). This allowed the group to recover and move up a little more.

The duration on her first relic use was coming to an end. She watched it closely so she could switch seamlessly to Dax’s use…

The left flank was smaller and inevitably they would have to fight, so she let them rush in while the other side was distracted. Ranged fire nonetheless dropped several of them to the floor, or wounded hyenas that then broke off, crying and whimpering about their wounds. They were incredibly tough to kill, but were still animal-like. She imagined it was only while cornered that they’d fight to the death.

To her Followers, she sent, “Right before they close, I’ll blind them with light! They’ll see nothing.”

As the pack of imps came in, picking out targets they thought they saw and raising their weapons, Sammy struck, making the world right between them and her warriors a blinding bright void of light as close to the sun itself as possible. The immediate reactions were piercing cries and the aversion of eyes, but it didn’t help where they looked, as they were enshrouded in it.

She knew she’d not damaged eyes exactly, but their panic indicated they were quite convinced. Stunned.

The first wave ate spears and death, unable to muster a defense while blinded and senseless. Those behind broke off, staggering away, and much of Carlise’s group rushed at them to press their advantage — Sammy struggled to warp the contours of the illusion to keep from blinding her own people, which ended up having some hesitate and back away.

Hyena demons charged into the fray with momentum despite their blindness, and with their sensitive non-visual senses managed to make contact with their enemies. One bowled a man over, fortunately with a shield between. It was quite ruined by the time Theron gored it with a spear and it jerked away, snarling and whimpering, snapping at the air like it was surrounded. But it escaped the scene, bleeding severely.

Sammy had difficulty tracking everything even through the multiple vectors she had, and one imp ambushed Estara as the rear guard struggled with another hyena. With a cry, Estara managed to dodge a swing that was not quite soundly aimed, but her movement was well-tracked and the imp pressed — Estara then tripped and fell as she tried to retreat.

The injured man interposed himself before Sammy could act, colliding with the imp and going down with it in a crashing tumble.

Unfortunately, the nimble imp slipped from under the tackle and then hopped up, pinning the shifting man’s shield and arm with a foot while he brought his pick crashing down into the man’s back. Sammy’s last-second attempt to blind was to no avail. The spike was not stopped and it pierced right through armor into flesh.

“No!” Sammy was on her feet, losing her focus on the rest of the illusion, which warbled, even as numerous enemies were adjusting.

A man is dead on my watch. She felt sick as she gazed with tunnel vision through a mirror, at the man convulsing on his back, Estara rushing to him, while warriors rushed to gut the impish killer.

But voices in her head called her to action… her Followers could see her falter from the cover around them going blurry. They sent both prayer and encouragement.

Sammy saw another man’s body already down, throat ripped out by a hyena demon…

More will die if I falter. Their lives are in my hands.

Tears falling from her eyes, Samantha grit her teeth and redoubled her efforts. She switched to Dax’s relic-use at the last moment, keeping it all going seamlessly. Blinding imps, misleading hyenas, distracting and adjusting and protecting. She controlled what they saw and heard, she determined the world they interfaced with and led them to their bewildering doom, with a cold, vicious anger. Rage for the fallen turned into the edge of a blade.

Samantha and her chosen cut the enemy to ribbons with it and prevailed. Unfortunately… it was only one flank.

“Come and try me, Carlisle,” came the mocking voice of Sir Thadeus, greatsword held out in front of him. “You gnarled, old fuck. Your easy meat is spent, as is your luck this hour.” His eyes were glowing bright red, as were the eyes of five imps around him, two of them wielding shields picked up from dead frogmen. They all looked right at Carlisle.

They can see through the illusions. Fuck.

The whole mass of that prior right flank had abandoned their wasted charge on the false, illusory enemies, instead moving to interpose themselves between the intruders and the cage. The imps other than the five were all squinting, as if in preparation for glare. The hyenas waited on the flanks, handlers with hands laid on their backs. They outnumbered Samantha’s people as a whole, perhaps by double.

“I always knew you were poison, Thadeus,” Carlisle called as he pulled out a vial of liquid and smashed it onto his shield — the liquid absorbed into it and it began to glow with white light. “I’ll send it to be drained in your next life. A worm, no doubt, senseless and ignorant of the vile deeds you’ve conspired to birth here. May it pass into the darkness of eternity as the folly it is.”

A protective enchantment, but… something else, something more to it…

Samantha’s party moved up in a wedge as Carlisle spoke, everyone preparing quickly for the coming clash, forming a wedge with depth in the middle. Theron grabbed a shield from one of the slain men, while Estara healed a couple of minor wounds. She was out of personal FE, so Sammy spent an FE to recharge her.

“The only folly,” Thadeus said while pointing his blade, “is you coming here! Charge! Kill them all! No witnesses!”

You won’t have that whatever you think or desire, asshole.

Ranged fire once again caused initial attrition, but the two forces inevitably met with steel and flesh. Knowing she couldn’t fool the six, they still had plenty of uncertain imps ‘charging’ with great hesitation. She figured these would be waiting for anything strange and trying to ignore it, so she baited them instead — created shimmers right in front of her party. Hints, noises, suggestions of movement that gave them a false target.

So they charged and struck at these, but it was only air they swung at, and her men counter-charged into the opening with spears, punishing them with a slew of deadly, impaling strikes.

In the front, the cannon fodder died quickly, and immediately on their heels were the six that could see through the illusions, Thadeus at the head. He swung his blade down on Carlisle, who caught it on the shield in a flash of energy, as though it had simply absorbed it. Carlisle’s counterattack was narrowly dodged, though it seemed the aura around him aided in deflection.

The two shield-imps on his flanks sparred with Theron and Bob, while behind them imps wielding spears darted in and stabbed into the presented shields of the soldiers. Among the front liners, things stalemated.

What hyenas were left charged into the flanks finally, frustrated by a lack of purchase and sniffing out some measure of the truth within the hidden mass. They clawed and bit wildly and many did not find anything but a spearpoint or more projectiles, but one caught a scout with a claw over the torso and soon pounced to finish him off.

As the greater mass of imps pressed in, Sammy once more began creating false reads and blinding them individually or in small groups, but men began to be swarmed and jostled, or forced to retreat in, or block a pick strike — some of those strikes glanced and some stuck in, causing a sudden tug-of-war, one the soldiers certainly had the advantage on but for the numbers.

The great melee became chaotic, and her viewpoint could not see everything at once. She could only cause blinding effects temporarily, as persistent or mass effects could affect her own party.

Nonetheless, imps fell and fell to spear and knife and sword, and far faster than Samantha’s party lost. Almost all of the hyenas were licking their wounds and tromping away, refusing to fight the uncooperative prey. Some had bled enough to expire.

Dax and the other front liner — supported by Mekias with the last of his arrows and Merril with a dagger or two — had made a daring cut on the right flank, to try and get around the shieldman or force them to defend from two angles. Sammy supported them with more blinding or blacking-out effects as they pushed through the mass.

Frustrated by several blocks from the absorbing shield of Carlisle, Thadeus suddenly pivoted back, calling, “Keep our fair lord occupied! Attack!”

As those imps rushed in to present spears and shields and pin down Carlisle, the lord muttered a curse, something Sammy could just hear thanks to Merril’s hearing. “Not enough,” was all she got.

Thadeus made a kind of feinted charge over to the right flank where Dax was, who moved evasively in response. Thadeus then swept his blade in a smooth motion, and all were surprised as the flaming blade flared out a burst of white-hot fire in a tight semicircle like a horizontal crescent.

His choice had something to do with the angle — a bunch happened to be lined up perfectly for it on the flank, and none of them had a magic shield. Only those Rogue/Scout instincts saved Dax, Mekias, and to a lesser extent Merril, who was further away. Dax and Mekias dropped flat to get under it…

The other frontline soldier and Theron did not avoid it, and the fire seared through their weapons, shields, armor, and flesh like a laser. Concentrated fire and heat lashed them to their core and they dropped instantly to the floor.

No! One of mine… I failed one of mine. The buff was already gone…

Follower died. 1 Daily FE lost (total: 19).

Thadeus was not done — clearly he had no more crescent slingings, because he conventionally charged Dax, who was stuck having to scramble up and dodge, unable to parry the dread weapon. Merril and Mekias moved in to support, none with shields or spears. All Sammy could do was keep the other blindable imps distracted, a task she took on with grim determination.

A thrown dagger right at the bastard was deflected by the aura. Meanwhile, Lord Carlisle, Bob, and the rest were all but pinned down from helping by the five- four imps with the special vision. One had been taken down by Bob, at least. Other imps made things complicated, as they’d crowded around and more or less mimicked what the others struck at or dodged.

With frustration, Merril suddenly called into Samantha’s mind, “Use the damn System Deck on me! Now! There’s no time!”

“No, Merril! Damn it, don’t ask me to-”

“Please! My sister! She’s going to die.”

The flaming greatsword sweeping, swinging with great reach, Dax flinched her head away at the last second, the blade just catching the hat, flinging it off, scorched. Dax retreated backward, but not before slashing the face off of an imp that got too close.

“Come on, you little bitch boy noble,” Dax mocked, “You demon-sucking-off, ass-licking slime! Show me what you’re made of!”

Retreating, stalling, taunting, trying to pull the man away, being a hero… but Thadeus stalked with patience. The area was sadly only so big.

Was the special attack on a cooldown?

Carlisle and the others were fighting for their lives, the group still whittling away and being whittled away by imps. So many dead imps. But Sir Galmore was fallen, and Estara, tears in her eyes for his death, fought on with desperation, knocking away attacks in support of the others. Sir Finley still protected her fiercely, diced up by several wounds.

And another scout was down…

Something has to change. Should I have faith in fate? As one calls, so I answer? It’s his life, his choice.

She whispered to Merril through the mask, voice resonant, “Would you submit to fate and change your fortune for better or worse, User?”

“Yes!” Merril cried.

Back on the mountain, back on the black top with the question mark card etched beneath their feet. At the bottom of a spinning top. Merril looked around sharply, gaining his bearing, scowling at it all.

“Welcome to the System Deck function, Users. Here, the current life of Merril Asthyre will be altered based on card selection by Samantha, Virgin Goddess of Mirrors and Fortuneteller.

“Time and space are irrelevant within this psychic instance, so please feel free to take your time with your selection — within reason. You will select Past, Present, then Future, which will execute the sub-functions in order afterward. Thank you for using the System Deck.”

The deck appeared, cards flaring out around them.

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