Nearly 20 people were following the road, Callahan and Nyx in the middle of the crowd, seeing little else but the landscape. "You don't really need me here, do you?"
Callahan appeared absorbed within the scenery, following the lines of trees and meadows toward the horizon. "Not necessarily. Everyone seems to carry their weapons at all times, but it's important to maintain an intimidating attitude."
Like Callahan, Nyx tried to be alert. "I don't think it'll help."
"What do you mean?"
Nyx couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I don't know about intimidating the lizardmen. As long as we were rounding up bodies, I haven't seen any semblance of lizardmen or anything else close by." Yes, the assault on the city had been swift and one-sided for the most part. Kollin had explained it to Nyx. Only with the help of Brigades 2 and 5 had the city not been breached. Everywhere, simultaneous attacks began at midnight, and the three brigades were confronted with a wave of attacks that left Brigade 4 with the most severe damage, both across the city and in terms of the number of soldiers. "One of the soldiers, Kollin, said that the lizards mainly attacked at night, with their own trebuchets."
Before Callahan could put forward his insight, one of the nearer soldiers cut their conversation short. "It was awful. It began at night, they threw rockets, making it rain rocks. Then they threw burning logs over the walls. In the first two nights, we lost the trebuchets on the southeast wall." Even now, the soldier's face was pale.
"The next day, half of the entire brigade secured a perimeter outside the city." So another soldier continued what another had started. "That was the first night it was quiet. The bastards attacked at the first ray of sunlight." This man chewed on a piece of dried bacon while he was on the march. "They followed with all their might and then attacked from the flanks. I tell you, some things you can see... Sometimes you're ready to take a sword to the head, but then they hit you in the back. I tell you, some things you can see... Sometimes you're ready to take a sword to the head, but then they hit you in the ass."
" Lizard fuck biting hands and heads off. Or a fucking cyclops tossing you like a rag doll," another said.
The soldier had finished chewing and swallowed the last mouthful of meat. Like Callahan and Nyx, as he spoke and chewed, he watched the trees, now the only thing left for him to do. "So yeah, the girl's right. I can't speak for everyone, but I shit myself standing outside the wall."
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"Säurestrahl - klein" (Acid Stream- small)
Small green vapors sizzled from the fingertip of one of the three wizards surrounding the bench.
Korp, the man slowly pouring acid into the test tube, stirred and attempted to create a reaction between the acid and Nyx's "flesh." The two substances reacted slightly, causing bubbles to show and sharp fizzing sounds came to life, almost like mineral water.
"Let me see something." The second man to Korp's right, Vlad, lit a match as quickly as he could. His hand was steady over the mouth of the pipette. Nothing visible, but something causing the flame to shrink slightly until it was as small as a grain of rice and finally died out. "No hydrogen. Carbon dioxide, maybe?"
Next to her, Jeon broke off another piece of the golem's finger, grinding the material and collecting it on a metal plate. "Oh, boy. Remember that book on necromancy?"
"Shhhh!!! Are you crazy!? Don't say that." Vlad almost grabbed Jeon by the mouth like a duck, ready to slam him to the floor. "We're not 21 anymore," he growled at his colleague.
"Yes, yes... It's just that it gives me the creeps, you know, playing with this finger." Jean's experiment was different, using a metal clamp, he had placed plate over a fire in the Inglenook. "What do you guys have?"
Vlad was back with his head close to Korp's ear. Korp glared daggers but made no sound, continuing to analyze the vial and especially the residue inside it. A mixture, not perfect, formed by clouds of white and green stuck to the glass. "One minute and I'll check." He carried a microspatula in his hand, scratching the side for the white substance. "Vlad, give me some fire, please."
"Произвежда пламък(Produce flames)"
Holding his hand out to Korp, a flame, not wild but steady, appeared, looking like a piece of fine red glass, but slowly turning bluer. "Try it now."
The tip of the spatula lightly touched Vlad's flame, igniting it and causing an orange flame to burn until the entire material was burned.
"I'm pretty sure that was calcium chloride." Vlad added his own comment, fixing his glasses and extinguishing the flame, causing Korp to nod in agreement. "Jeon, what about you?"
In the corner, Jeon squats at the level of the furnace. "It smokes like a fan cap. But it doesn't burn or anything."
Ankerite
---------------------------------
CHOP... CHOP... KRRRUNCH
"Out of the way!" the soldier chipping away at a tree shouted to the others before the trunk fell. Upon impact, others began to hack away at the branches, making the tree easier to pull down and also obtaining some resin-filled firewood. Nyx was among the soldiers, breaking through the branches with ease, his weight and small hatchet doing most of the work.
"How are we going to use the wood? It has to dry first." The golem paused for a second from his task. As everyone knew, they had to gather wood for the city's trebuchets and other small things. So as was he explained-- yelled at by Floyd-- always work with dried wood.
"Well... As I understand it, we'll put it in a furnace." Bram spoke from the bottom of the hill. Since leaving the city, the group had been getting closer and closer to a small forest on a higher hill. Right now, the location, a few dozen meters above a road, offered a clear view of the city. "Never've done that before but I guess I'm just an old man."
"Like what?"
"Mr. Bram, sir, says something else, girl. In big cities, there are so-called dryers. They help dryin' the wood faster, but they also run on wood or coal. You just put a log or a few inside and roast it for a week. Well not roasting, like an oven." Callahan, his wizard friend cut in, supplementing the explanation.
"Didn't we need the trebuchets back up and running pronto?"
Remembering Officer Parka and his unrealistic expectations, Bram just frowned at the man who was missing from the scene. "Parka just orders and barks. We have some logs that are already dry, but not long enough. The arm of the machine has to be dry, or we can't shoot as far. Plus, we put our hands on some tall trees, so maybe the trebuchets can be biger, I don't know." Bram just stopped to talk, turning around to the city.
Nyx also just turned his gaze to the rest of the forest, not at anything in particular, just thinking idly. "I'm taking a break. My muscles ache."
Bram was still near the golem, even though it was pointless. Although Nyx and Callahan had come with soldiers, he had no direct authority over the girl, so they just kept bickering. Callahan had the opposite effect, the wizard just pulled his beard. Seeing the golem after his fight with the vampire, Nyx was sure in a hundred out of a thousand he was only irritating the captain.
"How about a break now? After the journey and a little work, it wouldn't hurt." Callahan had taken the stage in between the two, trying nothing more than what he had come here for. Just digging for some stupid plants. "At the same time, I'm in serious search of hemlock."
Bram was uninterested. But internally, he couldn't deny that if he had a need and didn't even try to fulfill it, there was a likelihood of delays or other time-consuming issues. "We'll take 20 minutes. Nothing more than just a lunch break."
Right then, Bram shouted out loud to all the soldiers to gather wood and start a fire. Some just dumped whatever food they had left in their carts and backpacks.
After everything was done, he went back for Callahan. "If you see anything... food, deer, or anything, please bring it back." His request was brief, just long enough for his eyes to show that he had started and finished within two seconds, turning and walking away to the fire. He sat down directly among the soldiers, but more among the small groups, not interacting with anyone.
Callahan took the lead. "Let's go." A few steps further, he takes a piece of paper out of his inside pocket. "I've been here before, with Jerry. I didn't look for hemlock, but Jerry says it's here. He made me a map to a small stream." Callahan and Nyx walk back down the road, returning the way they came. "It's good that we're here, we'll go down a little and continue through the forest."
"Hmm." was all the golem replied. "It's better than cutting down trees." He followed the wizard, slowly leaving the soldiers behind and disappearing around the bend in the hill. Looking around again, the side of the road was eaten away, revealing the earth and roots of the plants above, boulders, and sand. The road itself was simple but full of gravel, with bushes lining the edge down the hill. "Is that hemlock?"
Callahan caught sight of the plant the golem was referring to. "Nah, just some thistles. Nothing to help us. Unless you' run on something else but blood. " Callahan explained to the golem. Not that he had ever seen hemlock. He knows it's used for poison. The plants looks to carry soft spines. So it looks dangerous. "Maybe" Nyx joked around, imagining a happy cow munching on it. Moooo.
"So it's just a weed?"
"More or less. But many things are edible if you know what to eat and what not." Callahan approaches the plant. "The thorns are no good, obviously. But if you eat the root..." Then he hits the top of the plant. "Anyway, don't eat it on an empty stomach. You'll be farting your guts all day." He chuckles, perhaps in amusement, seeing Dörk in that same scenario.
The minutes of walking were filled with pleasant silence. Not the silence itself, but the opportunity for Nyx to enjoy the scenery. A good hike in the countryside.
The small trees became less and less frequent, now turning into a small deciduous forest. "We're just passing through the trees. We don't have far to go."
Nyx nodded. "And how did you become Skybinders?" Nyx waved his hands in a dramatic gesture. "Are you college buddies or something?"
Callahan let out a simple sigh. "Not everyone knew everyone when we first met, some they know each other before walking into the life of magic, but not all of us." Moving closer, Callahan leaned against the hollow trunk of a tree. "Four years ago, some research in the capital at one of the state universities. Someone wished to derive results on enforced regrowth of members or organs, to industrialize the technique through various processes."
Nyx remained rooted to the spot where she had stopped. "Sounds like a good thing."
"Not at all. It was a good idea, the university had wanted to produce something like this for quite some time, but the state did not agree. After all, they needed willing people to experiment on. But with time and much discussion, the process was approved."
Callahan had made the same gesture as Dörk and other wizards. He had clapped his hands, and a pipe had appeared in his right hand. "I have to learn that." Nyx had muttered under his breath, but Callahan had still caught the words.
"Good luck. It's more complicated than it looks."
Taking a puff from his lit pipe, he continued. "Before the state would accept such a trial, it had asked for one last thing."
Nyx shamelessly reached out to Callahan, quietly asking for a puff. The wizard knew that Nyx did not feel the effects of the substances in the leaves; for him, it was more of a social thing than a pleasure. "What?" The pipe leaves glowed brighter and brighter due to the flow of oxygen drawn by the golem.
"The state wanted this to remain confidential. Not to be handed over, published in a book somewhere in a library or freely available. Basically, you wanted them to have the research for themselves."
Nyx didn't comment, he had nothing to say. The human world, always just as complicated, was only growing and becoming uglier. Except that Nyx was the same on the inside. He got lost on hate, butchered people he didn't know or done nothing to him just for his safety only. No, it turnned him into an animal most of the times.
"They could make money off it, right?"
"That's exactly why they wanted the research." Nyx handed Callahan's pipe back to him, continuing to smoke it. "You see, healing magic is like a curve that tries to push the body back to what it was. But you'll never be the same. No matter how hard we try." With that, Callahan extinguished his pipe after two last puffs. "They basically wanted a machine that could heal the body. Maybe you've seen Dörk and his circles, something similar, but the machine in question had to push the limits."
Callahan stood back up on his two feet. "What about you? We don't hear you talking much."
Now Nyx was in the hot seat. "I don't have anything interesting to say. I guess I just exist."
Callahan understood the feeling. "Don't worry, that happens to a lot of people." His comfort was accompanied by a shrug, not out of disinterest, but because his instinct kicked in for a second. "It'll pass. But you have to do it."
"Do what?" As he asked the question, Callahan continued walking, without stopping.
"Keep walking."
Nyx scoffed a little, outside Callahan's ears. "And what should I do?"
Callahan didn't break stride. This girl seems a little thick-headed.
-----------------------------
"Sir, if I may ask, why am I here?"
"You answer for them, and I want to see if we can all come up with something we can combine."
Dörk's whole vibe went downhill. He had just sent Lim and Ion to discuss with the general how they could get the trebuchets back up and running as the GREAT GENERAL NOWAK had requested, now everyone was standing in a room that served as a meeting and briefing room for the officers.
While the two extra wizards talked to the officers and craftsmen already enlisted in the army, the general opened the first topic with the main man.
"Listen, Dörk." He turned his chair slightly toward the wizard, adjusting his armor in the process and leaning back in his chair. "About... your explosions."
His dry lips pursed for a second. "What about them?"
"Do you think we can put them on trebuchets. Sorry—on the ammunition?"
The momentum of the idea was short-lived after all. It was a very good idea. If it were possible. "Sadly, no. Once I set the glyph, it can't move more than 10 feet away. It'll just dissipate. I write them almost everytime to completion just so it would take less time to make it work in action, that's why i can carry them in a scroll, but anything else..."
The man in charge of the entire brigade could only lean back in his chair at the derailment of the plan. "Sad, really sad. Such firepower... I mean, we've thrown logs and boulders into oil before, but you know what I mean..."
"It's one of the disadvantages of the spell. And unfortunately, I haven't found a solution yet. No one has."
The water jug he had brought before the meeting had found its way into the general's hands. A classy man by definition, but as is fitting most of the time, including now. Before filling his cup with water, he pours a measure for Dörk. "If we can't move down that road, I want us to do something about our food and water."
Dörk accepts the glass kindly, taking a good sip, not making a slurp. "I understand that food is problematic, clearly. What about water? The wells are not good?"
Dörk's guess was spot on. "For a while, the water was fine. But lately, it's started to taste like metal. A few fountains in town are still okay, I think. A few of the men are tasked with fetching barrels of water every day from a spring not far north of the wall."
Dörk glanced briefly at his glass, then back at Nowak. "So you want us to... purify the wells?" Work, work. And increasingly difficult work. He leaned back in his chair, resting one shoulder on the table. "It'll take some time—someone has to go down into the well's pool—research above all else, I've never tried this before."
Nowak just gave the wizard an amused smile. "Now, no one said you need to go down into the well. We want a contraption. A filter, whether it's magic or not. We can't dig new wells, and I'm afraid at some point, that spring would turn compromised too." Nowak stopped and turned his attention for a second to his workers and wizards. Each explained what they could find to reuse and what to throw on the bonfire. At the same time, the wizards came up with their ideas for new mechanisms and other nonsense. "Let's talk later." he said.
Dörk could only chuckle silently under his mustache. At least he had managed to swim through the fountains. And building such a "device" couldn't be that much trouble. It was just another opportunity to earn a favor. "No problem, it'll be done. But how many should we make?"
Nowak just smiled, under his beard, but visibly. "About 20."
Brain popping out of Dörk's head
--------------------------------
"Gosh... Thanks a lot. I would have been a goner."
Callahan just saved his life thanks to Nyx. He and the golem had arrived at the marked stream a couple of minutes ago. And yes, collecting hemlock. It only took a second to make the difference between life and possible death. Callahan wished to pick the plants from a bush, but Nyx volunteered to pluck them instead, saving him from a lethal snake bite that Callahan identified as a horned viper.
"What should I do with it?" Nyx asked like a child. A real child
to the core.
"Best to kill it. But we can take it with us. We came for something toxic after all." Callahan finished the string of naration. While Nyx held the viper by the head, palm over its mouth, he placed the snake in one of the canvas bags Callahan had brought.
Tying the knot, the wizard handed the bag to the golem. "Do you mind carrying it? It might still scratch through the bag with its fangs." The reason being good, Nyx just tied the bag to the belt on his hip.
"Now what?" as Nyx finishes the story of the murderous viper, a crow swoops down out of the hillside, flapping its wings in the golem's face and landing on Nyx's shoulder, making Callahan, still within arm's reach of the golem, flinch to it.
"CAWW! CAWW! CAAAWW CAAAWW!"
"What the hell? What did you do to the bird?" The bear man raised his right hand, ready to protect his eyes. He knew that crows and ravens liked to peck at corpses. Especially their eyes, but standing on someone's shoulders out of nowhere?
"Nothing, honestly--- birds just dig me. Didn't Jerry said anything to you guys? Getting stuck with a flock of birds over the night in Elth?"
But the bird interrupts again with another caw, violently flapping its wings and flying away. Its flight path guiding the two men's gaze upstream. Before it could be seen, an animal had been slowly advancing toward them, now galloping toward them with intent.
The monster's appearance was clear through the bushes and green grass, easily blending in among the tree trunks, but not the green, due to its gray fur and occasional black spots. Its speed was impressive, running 30 feet in a second. As it got closer, both were petrified, the creature terrifying the veteran wizard and the stone golem. It was visible now, its huge mouth full of sharp canines and tough jaws, capable of tearing flesh from bone like paper. A large snout. A hump. A giant hyena. Unseen in the lands of Latarr. Not seen until the war.