Triple Strength

289. Home: Wiremu

“Well, that's new,” I said. We were at the intersection where the main road intersects with the track to my old village. There was a fort there, manned by Defence Force units. We checked in, and we were only about half a day behind the wagons. I wanted to see the old village. It was still named Kohekohe, and it was 4-5 hours off the main road. The presence of the fort told the story of the increasing trouble with the Empire. It looked big enough for 2-300 troops.

I was going to go to Kohekohe alone, but Tabitha insisted on coming as it wasn’t far, so Lee tagged along. I am pretty sure she wanted to watch me. I wonder if there will be Bard's tales. I remembered this track well as it also led to our nearest neighbours on the other side of the fort. The trees were larger, and the track had been upgraded and could almost be called a road now. I guess this is called going down memory lane.

We were only half an hour out when a young lad came running flat out toward us.

“Imperial Attack! Run!” he yelled.

I froze. It felt like going back in time. This couldn’t be.

“Wait, lad. Where and how many?” Tabitha asked.

“Hundreds, raiding the village. I need to get help.” was the reply.

This didn’t make sense. Was it a prank? The lad was serious, according to Truth Sensing. The Imperial must know about the fort. The warning would take 3-4 hours to deliver and the troops at least 4 hours to respond. It must be a hit-and-run, and they think they can keep ahead of the troops or join a larger body.

I dismounted and grabbed my bow and quiver of arrows. “Can you ride, lad?” He nodded, then shook his head. A definite, maybe. I grabbed him and lifted him into the saddle, “Just hold on, and the horse should follow the road. Ride fast to the fort and raise the alarm.” The lad looked scared but nodded. I slapped the rear of the horse to get him going, and they were off.

“Leave the horses here.” I tied the pack horse to a branch, and Lee dismounted and did the same to her horse. I saw her add a buckler shield to the sword. Tabitha said she had the Light Infantry Class, but it was only Apprentice level. I didn’t know what that meant in terms of her skills, but it was obviously a Defence Force Class, and she was not much into fighting if it was low-level. We had been waiting to join with Ruku and then restart our sparring, and then we would find out her skills.

Tabitha didn’t dismount. Dusk was coming. I looked at her, “They will have some wagons or a fast way to move prisoners close by. You want to find them and disable them?” Tabitha nodded.

“What do you want me to do?” Lee asked.

I was not expecting much from her, so I hadn't thought about it. I probably should have sent her to the fort for help with the kid.

Tabitha spoke up, “Watch his back.” Then Dusk galloped off into the trees, and she seemed to disappear.

We took off at a run towards Kohukohu. I knew the road, so I knew that over the next rise, we would be in sight of the village. They would have people watching the road, so I veered into the trees, and we ran at an angle where I knew we would get a line of sight. We would be at a shorter range than if we stuck to the road, but not being seen was preferable. Lee was dropping behind as she couldn’t keep up. I didn’t slow down.

I paused when I sighted the village. I thought the kid was exaggerating when he said hundreds, but there was definitely more than one hundred, probably closer to one-fifty. They were in two groups. The village had a wooden palisade which we never had when I was growing up. Another sign of growing conflict.

One group of about fifty was clustered around the gate. There were four heavily built troopers smashing at the gate with a ram, and they were being protected from the defenders by the shields of the rest of the group.

The majority of the troopers were waiting outside the range of thrown weapons, as that is what the defenders were using. There were a couple of archers in the towers, but the rest were standing on a platform near the top of the palisade, and they were throwing rocks and javelins primarily. The troopers were not attacking the defenders. I guess they didn’t want to damage or kill the future slaves.

As I assessed the situation, the gate cracked under the pressure of the ram. This was not going to happen again. I reached for my sling rather than my bow. Tāoke and I had not practised this, but he was in agreement and dropped from my shoulder. I wound up the sling and prepped my Power Strike Skill. Power Strike was not primarily a ranged Skill, but I had used it with my bow before. My accuracy was not going to be great, but then it didn’t need to be. I sensed Lee arriving as I let loose.

Tāoke shot out of that sling with as much power as I could put into it. Halfway to the target of the group at the gate, he grew to be a 12 m-long snake wrapped in Granite Armour supported by Granite Bones. The group went flying in all directions. Several would never get up again. When Tāoke rolled to a stop against the gate, he reduced the armour so he had more flexibility and sunk his fangs into the torso of one of the ram operators. His super-heated fangs went straight through the man's chainmail vest, and he lifted his head to look around with the man in his jaws, dripping blood and venom.

Everybody had stopped, stunned, including the defenders. Lee had her jaw hanging open as well. I wasn’t done yet as Tāoke casually swiped his still granite-lined tail, sending two troopers flying. And the ground shook as he triggered Granite Quake.

I tucked my sling into my belt and grabbed my bow, taking a bead on the highest-ranking officer I could see in the larger group away from the gate. Power Strike again to the centre of mass, and the super-heated arrow with Puia sunk into his chest. He burned from the inside out, and Puia formed into a low beetle with a tough black shell and two lava pincers. Nobody interfered with him as he transformed from the body of the Force leader as they were struggling to think straight from his Phantasm (Mineral), affecting their mind. He started scuttling through the troops, snipping off legs and setting people alight.

I was firing arrows as fast as I could, targeting people who looked to endanger either of my bonds or the highest-ranking person I could find. Power Strike, Triple Shot, Sudden Strike, Quick Strike, Imbue Venom, and Venom Arrow, I used them all in rapid repetition until my quiver ran out of arrows. That is more than forty dead in about a minute.

I tossed my bow into a nearby tree, pulled out the simple mace I had made, and created a spiked shield. Tāoke had less than fifteen to finish off, so I ran toward Puia’s larger group. Lee was following me, but she seemed a bit stunned. She had better snap out of it quickly.

I bowled into the largest group I saw with my spiked shield, impaling two and ripping it out again as I trampled over them, swinging the mace at a third. They were concentrating on Puia, so Sudden Strike triggered on all three, and they didn’t get up again. Then I was in the thick of it, and I triggered Granite Quake to keep them off balance. Lee finally woke up and was protecting my back. Quick Strike, Power Strike, Sudden Strike, Sprint, Granite Spike. I kept moving through the staple Skills with the occasional Granite Quake. I was moving, not giving them a chance to rally or organise. I would target people who tried to bring order. The veterans organised anyway.

Puia had been taking some hits, so he circled close to me, and I saw some damage on his plating, which looked suspiciously like Blacksteel. Lava was showing through the cracks, so I Imbued Venom into it, and a cloud of Venom Vapour rose from his body, but it was more than just Venom Vapour as troops nearby seemed confused, and I saw one hit another. Then it clicked he was using his Phantasm (Mineral), and it was mixing with the Venom Vapour, causing confusion. This was the main reason the troopers weren’t organising. I can try this, and I recreated my spikes on the shield with Pantasm (Mineral), Imbued Venom and turned them into lava to burn off. A cloud of a dangerous mix caused soldiers to stop and cough, and some started striking out at random. This made taking people down super easy as they were not concentrating on me any more, and my Sudden Strike was triggering in almost every hit.

I heard coughing behind me, and Lee was bent over in pain and confusion. She probably got a whiff of the cloud. I kicked her, and she stumbled back out to the edge of the fight and collapsed on her butt. She would be fine. I checked the breeze was blowing away from the village, and I doubled down on the cloud and moved myself upwind to let the troopers breathe deeply. I shook the ground with Granite Quake again as it created good openings for me. I was burning through the energy.

Puia and I were down to our last fifty when I felt a lot of pain coming from Tāoke. Most of our fifty were acting woozy from the cloud, so I looked over, and he was squaring off against an organised three with shields. He had an axe embedded in his upper body. I threw my shield at the nearest alert-looking trooper, and the spikes embedded into him as I turned and threw Lava Darts as fast as possible at the nearest of the three around Tāoke. I saw a defender on the wall throw a javelin at another and wound him. I never knew Triple Shot worked with thrown weapons, but it does when you are desperate enough. I switched my aim to the other and missed as Tāoke swiped him with his Granite tail, which now sprouted Granite Spikes. Tāoke broke his shield with his Power Strike and sent him flying. Tāoke turned to the third, spitting lava. I was suddenly struck on the back with a Shield Bash, sending me flying. I rolled and pulled a knife in my off hand, but the trooper who bashed me was impaled on Lee's sword.

I nodded to her as I created a new shield and rushed past her to stop her being beheaded. Melee fighting is chaotic. I spiked my new shield and started the poison cloud again. Puia had reduced the last fifty to thirty who were mobile, and several were trying to run. The first got my thrown mace crashing against his back, and I am sure there were broken bones. I created a stone knife, cutting and bashing my way through the group and threw my knife at another runner. I missed the centre of mass, but his leg collapsed under him as an arrow from the defenders pierced it. I am glad they are doing something. They probably have been all along I just didn’t have time to see.

Lee was back up and slicing and stabbing on my upwind side. I am glad she figured out the cloud. The last five squared off against us, but two suddenly went flying as Tāoke came to help after finishing his job. Actually, only one went flying. The other was stuck impaled on the Granite Spikes from Tāoke’s tail. I threw my knife at one, Lee sliced the second, and the third got a Triple Shot of Lava Darts to the face. What a mad, crazy fight that was.

I leaned against Tāoke for a minute to get my breath back. Then I noticed he still had the axe embedded in him. I grabbed it, “Hold still,” and I levered it out. I felt my pockets; yes, there was one unbroken potion, so I tossed it into the air above me, where his head towered over me. He caught it and crushed it and swallowed it, container and all. The wound was deep. I knew he would heal, but we might need to fight again soon, so it was better to speed things up.

“You should have taken that,” Lee said.

I looked at her, and she indicated I should look at myself. I did, and I had cuts I had no memory of. Some were deep, slicing right through my Snakeskin. Now that I had stopped, I also think I had a broken rib from that bash. Pain Resistance is a blessing and a curse.

I fixed the rib with Lava Body and patched the worst cuts with granite. “Are you OK?” I asked her.

“You caused my worst damage,” Lee replied.

Oops. Then I looked around. There were troopers alive, but none were mobile. Then I looked at the village. The wall was crammed with people, and they were just staring at us in silence. Oops.

I was still catching my breath as Puia limped over to me. He had lost several limbs, and his armour was barely able to be called armour anymore. I guess it is not so easy to repair the Blacksteel. I reached down, and he melted into my hand, much to the consternation of Lee and the watchers on the wall. We were all very drained.

“Thank you, stranger,” yelled an older man on the wall. He was talking to me, not Lee. “The Village is yours. Anything we can provide is yours. You and your team will always be welcome here. May we know your name, stranger?”

I limped closer to the wall. Now that I noticed it, there was something wrong with my leg as well. A blessing and a curse.

As I moved closer, one of the younger members on the wall pointed to smoke rising from deeper in the forest. I turned to look. I figured it was Tabitha’s doing.

I turned back to the speaker, “Thank you for your kind offer, sir. Our arrival was timely as we were just coming to visit.”

“You know someone here?” he asked in surprise.

“Not any longer, sadly.” I straightened up as I discovered I had been leaning on Tāoke more than I thought. I need to rest. “I was …” I took a breath, “I was coming to see the village where I grew up. My name is Wiremu Hunter, and this was my home.”

That caused a lot of exclamations of surprise, not all of them suitable for children. I did not ever envision I would arrive here amongst hundreds of dead Imperial troopers. I guess there is going to be another Bard's tale about this, too.

“Then let me be the first to welcome you home,” said the old man.

Then the youngster, with the Keen Sight, pointed past me and said, “Who’s that?