Elevation of Mana Chapter 196 Culling

I don't know if anyone slept the first night we spent at our newly constructed wall, but I know that I didn't. I tossed and turned until I couldn't bear it anymore and just got up to keep watch. I was worried, deeply worried, that we might have another fight on our hands, another battle to go to.

Fortunately, as the sun peeked over the horizon there were no monsters with it, no beasts blazing across the fields to come and rip us to shreds.

“How are things?” I asked Rolan as I came to join him on the makeshift battlements.

“Poor, some of those injured will need time to heal,” he replied, looking worried.

“I've seen you grow a wall in almost no time at all, surely their injuries can't be worse than that? I know that most healers are limited, but most healers can't do what you can.”

“Yes and no. I could repair the flesh of some of them, several of us could, but the long term effects would be devastating. Even in just the next few days they would suffer greatly for it. This wall isn't made like the trees of my home, the plants within it will be dead soon. If we treated our best fighters the same it would bode poorly for us.”

“And here I thought you'd have found a way around it,” I observed.

“While I appreciate the confidence there are some things that are the way they must be.” I wasn't entirely convinced that it was impossible, just that it was hard. That wasn't my place of expertise though, so I'd defer to him for how to treat people, something he surely knew more about than I.

“How long do you think we'll need?” I asked.

“Three days if I were to guess. That is assuming we don't run into any more of those creatures.”

“I've seen none, but the time will be helpful anyway. We used much of our ammunition, and I'd like not to run out before all of this is done.”

“You can make more in the field?”

“Yes, it will be lesser, but it can be done.”

Early cannonballs had sometimes been made of stone, and that is what I would do. I wouldn't delude myself that they would be as good as iron ones, but the iron ones had been able to kill pretty rapidly. We could put those back, using them when needed while instead pushing forward stone ones for general use. It could work, and would at the very minimum give us more shots.

“You did make quite the effect. Will you be able to do so every time?”

“Sadly no,” I informed him. “We used much of what we had because it had to happen, but if we run into too many groups of that size we'll run out of everything quickly.”

“Other options you can think of?”

“Not much that we can do here and now I'm afraid. Though we might be able to put one or two more up there with us while fighting if we know it's coming.”

“If you're comfortable with it. Having one or two heavier hitters where they don't need to worry as much about defense will be a wonder for us. Though it might cause issues on the ground... We'll consult with the others before we leave.”

While I made cannonballs Chien rose up and scouted as best he could without going far. It wouldn't do for him to attract or run into things without backup. While I worked though I thought. Most of what I was doing was pretty boring, just repetitive shaping of stone, one bit after another.

I presented my thoughts to the other elders and Ancients and as we prepared to leave Neera joined us in the balloon. I got the feeling she liked it, and by the end of this would probably want one for herself. Personally, I doubted she'd be able to put it to proper use, but if it got her to aid us, I'd happily make her one when it was all over, or just give her the prototype. That would be a small price to pay for sorting this out.

Our enemy it seemed traveled in rough groups. The size varied, but around a dozen seemed normal from what Chien could see. Most of the time they just bee-lined for anything they thought they could reach, including other groups. My guess was that they were looking for other things to kill first, but these beasts were violent in the extreme and if they couldn't find something, they'd settle for others of their own kind.

Slowly our patrol approached a herd, aiming for one of the outliers. Above we kept to our lookout, using the same light codes we'd always used to communicate. It seemed the dinos had no reaction to those at least. That was part of my working theory.

“You're sure you can do it?” I asked Neera. “We're too far away for me to have any effect.”

“Pfft, child it will be no issue at all,” she quipped.

The ground troops closed in, and as they did her hands whipped out. There was no bright light from them, no explosion, no sign of anything serious other than a small distortion in the air. Her look of concentration though told me it was working.

My other hint that she'd succeeded was when the beast threw back its head and roared, or at least tried to. No sound echoed across the landscape, no loud call. That was my theory, they communicated like that, they called for help, or to alert. Our main problem had been that we'd had to fight so many so unprepared, but now we were prepared, and we were the hunters.

“Are they moving?” I asked Chien from where he stood near me.

“No, no, no, doesn't look like any of them have sensed the attack.”

“Good, then silence the cannon and start bombarding. No use letting this go to waste.”

Our first target fell quickly, the group on the ground now familiar with how these things attacked, and striking hard and fast. Then the next, and the one after that. We couldn't clear the whole herd unfortunately, as some stuck near the middle, close enough to each other to see one another. That was fine though, we could come back. Better than coming back, it seemed probable that the remnant of this herd would meet another soon, and with their smaller numbers they'd surely fall. More important was that we didn't lose anyone during the fighting, some injuries, as to be expected, but no deaths.

One at a time, carefully, slowly, methodically, that would be our method. We would cull them, until they culled themselves to the point where we could end this. I also promised myself this, that when it was all over, I'd be making sure all the volcanoes were checked periodically. My guess was that these things had emerged from the eggs I'd seen, and I saw no reason to allow them another chance to raze our lands in a few thousand years.