Touch of Fate

Chapter 239: Opening Fire

The first thing Mike noticed as he left the tent was an unusual droning buzz that seemed to be filling the air. As far as he could tell, it was coming from the west, and was growing louder. In fact, it was quickly starting to overwhelm the sound of the signal horn, not that it seemed like it was necessary anymore.

A crowd had gathered on the western side of the encampment, many of the soldiers milling about uncertainly. After a few seconds, Mike realized what the problem was. They'd mobilized as part of the general alarm, but there was no clear enemy, simply the droning sound which was growing increasingly ominous.

[So they didn't actually see the enemy, and were just spooked by the strange noise? Are they really that unsettled by the circumstances?]

Glancing around, he spotted Emmanuel moving purposefully forward, brow furrowed in thought.

"I'm going up for a better look." He yelled, taking off into the air before his teacher had a chance to stop him.

Moving quickly, he shot out past the wall and began scouring the region to the west of camp for anything that might be causing the noise. He'd gone maybe a kilometer when he noticed the anomaly.

[Some kind of cloud?] He thought as he noticed a dark mass which stretched across the horizon, but was clearly moving in his direction. [Its a little too low for a storm cloud and too dark for fog or mist. At that scale, its probably not smoke either...]

Something about it was tickling at a memory he couldn't quite recall. For some reason he had the mental impression of being trapped in a phone booth, but he couldn't find the relation. On impulse, he used Appraise, not expecting to get any results back.

However, he did, and the implications were horrifying.

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Unnamed

Age: 2

Race: Crow (Zombie)

Class: Exploding Zombie

Title: None

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[You've got to be kidding me...]

By this point, they had approached close enough that he could start making out the individual creatures. From all outward appearances, they looked like normal birds, albeit with unnaturally swollen abdomens. They flew with stiff, jerky motions, which gave the cloud a disturbing, undulating appearance.

He tried to estimate how many of the creatures he was facing, but found himself balking at the task. Judging from the size of the cloud alone, their number at to be in the millions, at the very least. After all, the swarm stretched as far as he could he, and they still kept coming.

He stopped his forward momentum, and began flying in reverse, already chanting his tried and true fireball spell. As soon as it was ready, he let it loose into the oncoming swarm. The missile streaked forward, bypassing the leading elements of the cloud and detonating in their midst. As he expected the birds had no resistance to the blast, and many were quickly incinerated.

Alarmingly, the zombies who were a little outside the radius of the fireball's flames, but close enough to experience its concussive effects, exploded themselves. They burst into clouds of hissing bone shards with all the force of a hand grenade. A part of him expected that to set off a chain reaction, but the rest of the birds simply shrugged of the rain of shrapnel and continued on. Evidently their creators had already created a counter measure for that issue.

[These things shouldn't be able to hurt me, but they will tear the coalition army apart.] Mike thought. [I need to warn them.]

In response to his attack, large sections of the cloud broke off and began streaming towards him with lethal intent. While he was sure they lacked the power necessary to actually harm him, he didn't want to put that to the test by simply ignoring them. Redoubling his efforts, he rushed back towards the encampment while sending a mental message to Red. He would need the dragon's cover in the coming moments.

Spotting Emmanuel near the crowd of increasingly confused soldiers, he descended quickly and landed in front of him. "We got trouble! The Lacotians sent a swarm of exploding bird zombies!"

His teacher stared at him for a beat, obviously trying to work his mind around Mike's statement. It was admittedly a bit outlandish. To his credit, however, he didn't waste time asking inane questions. Swiveling in place, he yelled in the general vicinity of the group he'd brought from Almirn. "Harnik! Can you get a barrier in place around the camp?"

The mage in question glanced around before shrugging, "Maybe? I've got the materials for it, but it will take me a few minutes at least. Even then, I'm not sure if it will hold for long."

"Start working on it, and take whoever you need to get it done. The rest of the mages follow me! Everyone else stay out of the way."

"What's happening?" Morris asked while running up. Mike could see the rest of his command team in hot pursuit.

"Exploding zombie birds." He replied with all seriousness.

"...Really?"

Mike simply nodded.

"To the walls! We need to hold them back until Harnik finishes." Emmanuel yelled while leading a group of his followers to the western edge of camp.

"You'd best tell your people to get out of the way. Mages are the best choice for this enemy. They are the only ones who can use area of effect attacks from a far enough distance. Anyone else would just be in danger." Mike caught Morris's attention long enough to pass that message along. He nearly had to yell to be heard over the droning of zombified wings.

He surged back into the air, already hearing the sounds of detonations as the leading elements of the swarm began exploding amongst the wall's defenders.

Red began sweeping the cloud with cones of flame, destroying hundreds in the process. Several of the birds bypassed his breath weapon and collided with him explosively, but his hide proved more or less impervious to their assault. Nevertheless, the blasts were sufficiently disorienting to prevent him from simply diving into their midst. Instead, he skirted the swarm, keeping it condensed and picking the isolated pockets that had broken of from the main group.

Yet all of his efforts could not halt the steady advance of the undead birds.

[Alright, think. What should I do?]

What they really needed was time. Enough so that Harnik could get his shield up and running. As he flew, Mike sorted through the various methods he could use, but had trouble finding one that would accomplish his goal without devastating the coalition army in the process.

"Screw it. Now's not the time to be worrying about precision. Gotta go big or go home." He muttered to himself as he started gathering mana.

He stopped and began hovering in place, needing to concentrate. It was a reasonably simple application of Air Magic, but the massive scale he was attempting to utilize it on required both an extensive amount of mana and complete focus.

Although he wasn't conscious of it, the sheer force of his magic was causing the air around him to vibrate with an invisible pressure. It tensed, almost as if it were a living creature, like a snake coiling itself in preparation for a strike.

"Come forth with thy purifying zephyrs. Clear the air in front of you, repulse that which resists, and free the sky from those who'd trespass against it. [Windblast]!"

The air over the encampment erupted into a powerful wall of wind, howling forth with all the intensity of a thunderstorm. The undead birds within range were blasted backwards, slamming into each other in the process and detonating in small bursts.

A wave of explosions filled the western sky, continuing with greater ferocity as he forced the swarm back even further. He focused his will and fed mana into the spell, increasing both its range and its strength, and finally pushed the undead swarm away from the encampment. A surge of elation ran through him as he imagined how many of the enemy had been destroyed with that spell. He could only guess that the number was in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, yet there were still many, many more. A seemingly endless supply of them continued to fly in from the west.

While effective, the Windblast spell was rapidly draining his mana reserves, so once he'd burned through roughly fifty percent, he let the winds calm. Almost immediately, new undead birds were surging forth to fill the gap. Thankfully, the other mages had gotten into position in the intervening time, and were already unleashing a barrage of magical projectiles on the enemy. To this was added a few desultory volleys of arrows.

Taking a few deep breaths, Mike flew over to the top of the keep he'd created. He needed to conserve as much mana as he could, since it was growing clear that he'd underestimated the sheer size of the swarm. The defenders at the wall were having a hard time holding them back. They'f probably need his help again soon.

He was still considering whether or not to repeat his previous spell when the air shuddered briefly, and the sky seemed to shift slightly. For a second, he thought he was seeing things, but then the undead birds began to detonate again, filling the air in a half kilometer radius with sizzling fragments of bone and feathers.

[Looks like Emmanuel's handiwork. I'm not really sure what he did, but its certainly flashy.]

His teacher's spell had bought them a few seconds of breathing room, but the assault was far from over, and in fact took on a dangerous new aspect.

As if acting under the control of a singular will, the swarm stopped their mindless rush at the western defenses, falling back until they were outside the defenders' range, and instead split down the middle, allowing them to encircle the entire encampment.

Clearly, whoever was controlling the undead birds was planning on simply overwhelming them with simultaneous attacks from all directions, and Mike wasn't sure if he had could stop them all.

As he furiously contemplated his options, he looked up at the circling wall of undead birds, and felt it trigger a memory from his previous life.

[A storm wall?] He thought, as a crazy idea started forming in his head. [Could I do it? The ocean's a bit too far away, but I could potentially mimic it with the right kind of Water Magic. The problem would be mana. There's no way I have enough for the kind of brute force application. Could I finesse it with specially formed chant?]

He felt his pocket shift as Audra clambered out onto his shoulder. Surprised, he reached over to push her back down, but stopped when he felt her mental reprimand. She fixed her gaze on his, eyes filled with an ageless wisdom that seemed to give lie to her usual animalistic behavior.

[Listen.] A soft, feminine voice sounded in his mind, speaking with an urgency that demanded his attention and provoked a burst of mild annoyance, which faded quickly as the rest of the message came across.

Slowly but steadily, a stream of jagged symbols began entering his consciousness. Symbols he somehow knew belonged to a language that was ancient before the first High Elves walked this world. Their individual meanings were simple enough for him to divine thanks to his Communication Magic, but together they formed a massively complex chain that he couldn't begin to fully comprehend.

However, Mike understood enough to know that this might well be what he'd been looking for. With this he could create a real storm, and possibly save the day.

[You're really living up to your last name.] He thought back while hurriedly preparing the mana core infused ink he'd need to create the formation. Once he'd finished it, a simple application of Water Magic would allow him to paint it without too much difficulty. He just hoped that he'd have enough time.