Elevation of Mana Chapter 192 Meeting of Elders

I wasn't given a moment to rest, nor much to chat with my new companions, no, instead we were led to a massive chamber. Everywhere I looked there were elders, some clearly from the north with their pale skin and light hair, some in the clothes of the swamps, some I knew from my own home in Atal. There were at least fifty, most in small groups and deep discussion.

Not all of them were though, no few were... flirting. That almost surprised me, but then I remembered who we were. Many of our kind came to dislike each other over the years, and with how long we lived marriages fell apart sometimes. Isha and I had pretty much always been together, but these people? Many had had many lovers and the sheer breadth of potential mates for powerful children in one room was nothing to scoff at.

It was a known fact among my people that powerful parents made powerful children. It wasn't a sure thing of course, and plenty of strong people came from those without a bloodline, but it was a very, very strong trend. I didn't know why, genetics, some form of magic in the seed, something like that. While magic seemed to follow physics, I'd seen enough of this world to guess there were edge cases where it didn't, or followed something weird. Isha's magic for example seemed to mostly obey physical laws, but also cheated in ways I personally felt almost insulted by.

A few faced nodded to me in recognition, or smiled, but many of the people here blew me off too. Among the many elders were others, aides clearly or assistants they'd brought along. Perhaps these older elves thought I was one of those, and not someone here for the fighting. That was fine, I'd show them when it came time to do what we were doing.

“Elder Justin has arrived,” our host announced as we came in. “He hails from Atal.” His announcement done he turned to me. “Most of us have arrived now, but we're waiting another five days for stragglers. I encourage you to mingle, try to see where you will fit in best and what we'll all be bringing to the fight.”

Taking his advice I moved into the room. The more flirtatious elves I avoided, moving around, for I had no need of them at all. Instead I moved towards a group with much more serious faces.

“If they're actually using fire, or spreading it we'll have to deal with that. You can't use fire magic against fire being of course.” An older man was leading the discussion, looking towards a pale woman as he spoke.

“Probably heat resistant,” I chimed in. “But we can use fire in other ways.”

“What ways?” he asked.

“Denying them food, or perhaps air. I don't know if these specific beasts need it, but smoke can kill.”

“That's... not the worst idea I've heard today. I'm Olar, and you're Justin yes?” he asked.

“Indeed,” as he spoke I heard tones that reminded me of the forests nearby, slight changes in the way he said things that told me where he was likely from.

“I heard about you but we never talked,” the pale woman said. “Rumor is you really peeved the Matriarch.”

“I really peeve a lot of people,” I pointed out.

“What do you do exactly?” Olar said. “If you're here at your age you must be some kind of expert.”

I blinked, almost taken aback by the slight respect I heard there. Perhaps it had been the people I'd been dealing with, perhaps it had been the constant fight with all the local elders that I'd been dealing with. Honestly it was extremely refreshing.

“My thing is building things, like the blimp that I came in.”

“The what?” he asked.

“We just came in a few minutes ago, big roundish flying thing.”

“Oh, I saw that!” the woman, whose name I'd still not learned, enthused. “Did you make it yourself? What kind of monster is it? Can you take others up there with you?”

“Yes, it's not, it's a machine, and not really, the place for people is very small.” In retrospect my social skills might have stagnated, a lot. Probably should work on that at some point.

“A shame, but perhaps you could take me up there at some time?” she suggested.

“Perhaps.” I turned back to the man who seemed far more serious than most.

“Have we gotten any in depth information on fighting these beasts yet? So far as I know none of us have gone up against one yet.”

“We killed one,” one of the others in the group croaked out. “Lost dozens against it. They spit fire, are hard to hit, and faster than something that size looks like it would be. Also the meanest bastards I've ever come up against.”

“Are they smart?” I asked.

“Smart?”

“Did they use traps, group tactics, did they change tactics or focus on certain things above others? Or are they just brutes going after the first thing they can?”

He leaned back, eyes seeming to unfocus as he went through his memories, undoubtedly playing back the whole incident in his mind. It happened sometimes with us as we reached for what we'd seen before.

“The one we went after was alone,” he began after awhile. “And we caught it in a trap rather than the other way around, but it wasn't stupid. It quickly realized that going against our strongest first wasn't working and went for the back-line, supporters and healers were its first targets. I didn't realize that at the time but thinking on it it avoided me and the other more powerful attackers, going for the weakest first.”

That wasn't too surprising, if these creatures were taking over whole areas of our lands they had to be at least a bit clever.

“Please go into detail if you can.”

As he began his tale everyone leaned in to listen.