Beers and Beards-Chapter 75Book 4, : Calm before the storm

We didn’t have long to cheer before Isen’s voice came chattering back through the Commstone. “We’re about to enter combat with the mayn enemy forces. Report.”

Captain Conrad quickly ratcheted off the results of our little sortie with a gleeful grin on his face. I had to imagine that Isen had one on his face as he replied, “Excellent. Keep it up. I won’t have time to check in soon, so you’ll be on youhr own.”

“Aye aye, sir.” Conrad snapped, before dropping the commstone into his pocket with a sigh. “Well, that’s that then. We dealt with the first strike, but now they know we’re here and what we’ve got, soh it won’t be as easy next time.”

“I’m not sure knowing there’s a boss monster ready to ambush anyone that comes close is the same as being able to anything about it,” I snorted.

“Dunno. What makes bosses so hard is that ya can’t get big groups into the dungeons to fight ‘em. The mana limits fer one, and there’s not enough space, and you start gettin’ in each other’s ways and become susceptible to area spells and Abilities. Out in the open like this? They’ll fer sure try and hit her from far off,” Balin interjected.

“It’ll still give them pause, though, which is already helpful. Can you summon more?” Conrad asked, hope in his eyes.

“One more. But I dunno how much help he’ll be.”

“Then we’ll make do for now. Everyone with scouting Abilities, keep an eye out. If they have some [Illusionists] we can’t trust anything we’re seeing!” Conrad waved his hand out over the now recovering camp, and the squad began to fan out, keeping two other squadmates in view at all times.

There was a thrumming sound as Henbeetta approached the group. Her giant beetle wings buzzing with a bass so deep that I felt it in my spine. The refugees continued to bow in her direction, and as she approached I was able to feel the pressure of her royal aura. A few of our squadmates bent down on creaky knees, but a surprising few stayed upright. My own [Unbending] kicked in as well, preventing the Ability from working on me.

She had two people hanging from her upper arms. One was a fairly standard adventurer – a rather short human in a mismatched enchanted tunic and pants, with some leather bracers and a leather vest. Every bit of fashion sense had been sacrificed for utility. That had to be the [Monster Tamer] or whatever his Title was.

The other was more interesting. A well-built and toned human with a black goatee and swept back hair greying at the temples. He was, in a word, statuesque. He wore a dark green button up blazer and grey pants, with a black beret and shoes polished to a mirror shine.

That had to be the Valtarian officer.

“Azz requested.” Henbeetta declared, tossing them to the ground at our feet with a *thump*. She paused to wipe her hands off on her fuzzy ‘skirt’, and frowned. “I know this uniform. They are bothersome pests. They do not just steal honey, but take sport in slaying my drones. You may… lay your eggs in him, or whatever you humans do to captured enemiezz.”

So saying, she buzzed off, flying back down to another of the larger tents. She motioned at some of the kneeling beastfolk outside, and they followed demurely after.

“She’s… something.” Conrad eventually stuttered. “She isn’t going to eat those people is she? Please tell me she isn’t going to eat them.”

“No. Probably ask them to fan her and provide her with refreshments.” I sighed. “She doesn’t eat people. Finds the thought offensive, actually. She does like overly sweet alcohols though. Maybe get a runner to get her some before she gets testy.”

Conrad called over a yellow furred youngster, who soon ran off to play fetch quest.

I spent the time watching Balin thoroughly tie up our captives.

“Impressive knotwork,” I murmured, leaning over his shoulder as he made some kind of bowline figure hitch around the Valtarian officer.

“Aye. Ya need ta know yer way around knots as a carpenter. Gotta make sure none of yer wood is just lying around willy nilly.”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Annie really is a lucky girl.”

“‘Cause I can do knots? Why would… you’ve got a dirty mind Pete.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Comes from livin’ underground, all that dirt overhead. Yer not much better. I’ve seen how ya blush when yer fiddlin’ with Annie’s beard.”

“... would ya shaddup and let me work?”

The Valtarian captain was just starting to come back to his senses as Balin finished up his knots, and he groaned pitifully. Not that we had any pity for him. We called over Conrad, who arrived just as the Valtarian’s eyelids fluttered open.

His eyes rolled in his head as he looked around at all of us, and his jaw tightened. “I am Lord Delondo of Valtaria. My family will ransom me for five hundred gold, not that slaves will be able to spend it. That is all you beasts will learn from me,” he spat.

“Pleasant.” Balin remarked, his eyebrows raising.

Delondo turned to look at Balin and frowned. “Why are dwarves with these animals? Are they not beneath you? You are a people who value lineage and royalty. Why are you helping them? I will see to it that you are handsomely rewarded if you release me from this bondage and help me take this camp.”

“There’s more than just dwarves. And we don’t have any interest in helping slavers. Our Kingdoms abolished such barbarity ages ago. There’s a reason that freedom is one of the pillars of modern civilization!” Aishablue interjected, her tone clipped and angry.

The Valtarian snorted. “Says the gnome. Your people are little more than remnants, living in the scraps of dwarven society, much as these animals roamed fallow in the field. If the Gods did not intend for us to make use of them as such, why would they shape them as beasts?”

He then snapped his mouth shut and turned away from us, clearly refusing to speak any further.

Conrad scowled. “You see? This is what they’re like. Fools.”

I honestly had to agree. In a world with reincarnation there was a pretty good chance that they’d be the slaves eventually. It seemed moronic. Plus in this world hard work was quite literally rewarded with Godly power. But then, I wasn’t human anymore, and I was finding myself more and more often thinking in terms of hundreds of years. Maybe if you only had seventy odd years to live, having someone else do your gruntwork was worth it?

Eh, still no.

Conrad motioned to one of our squadmates. “Gag him and have some of the others look over him.” He then poked the adventurer a few times. “Hey, you. Wake up.”

The adventurer groaned, but remained unconscious. Conrad frowned. “Damn. Well, we wouldn’t be able to get enough out of him to matter in the short term anyways. Take him too.”

A pair of young bucks came and dragged the two down to the refugee camp, while the rest of us took up our stations once more. Conrad, worried about illusions, had the squad spread around the camp while always making sure to keep two others in view at all times while Brightstar and I were kept by his side to serve as a strike force.

An hour ticked by in a nervous hush, punctuated by the sounds of crying babies and screaming children. That many people cramped into a small valley like this was not quiet. We kept near the Commstone, hoping to hear anything, but all we were met with was complete silence.

“Are we gonna know if they’re defeated?” I asked, gnawing on my lower lip. I wanted to start moving people into Cascadia immediately if that was the case.

“We had defenses set up. It will take a while to dig them out even if we had already lost,” Conrad said, shaking his antlers. “We’ll just need to pray to the Gods for good news.”

Unfortunately, our prayers didn’t seem to have worked, as the first news we had of the battle finally came in through the Commstone. Isen’s voice cracked like boomdust in the middle of our worried camp, and we all dove closer to hear.

“Are you there, Conrad?” Isen’s already ancient voice sounded papery, like he was an old book falling apart at the seams.

“Yes, Mystic!” Conrad replied, a bit too loud. We all winced.

“Good. I don’t have much time. We hit them hard, lad. Dealt them a real blow. Marco took out the Duke leading their army, and they almost folded completely. But somebody must’ve taken charge, because they strengthened their center and then pushed us back into ouhr fortifications. They’ve got us boxed in here, but we’ve been sending out strike forces through the secret tunnels to harry their sides.”

“Is that… good, or bad?” Conrad asked, worried.

“Remains to be seen. But while the bulk of their army has us bottled up here, they were able to send a hundred or so soldiers in your direction. Do you think you can handle them?”

Starshine swore and began limbering up, while Flowerpott reached into his satchel and pulled a single glassfly out. “Cat’s already out of the bag on us I think,” he grimaced, then launched the little glass dragonfly into the air.

“We’ll try, sir.” Conrad said, giving me a glance. “We have the Queen of Hive, and a lot of mages. And more than a few of those left behind are still handy with a bow.”

“Good. If you think you need to flee, just do it.” So saying, Isen’s voice snapped off like a switch being thrown.

Conrad called for the squad to reassemble, and turned to me. “What do you think, can we do it?”

A hundred people? There were a lot of refugees out there. Certainly we had the numbers. I looked out over the crowd, spotting Adrian and a few other members of the squad running in our direction. And they were good kids and capable combatants.

Add Henbeetta, and Deathbringer as wild cards?

I wasn’t the person to answer though, as all eyes turned to Starshine.

“Damnation,” she muttered. “Is it my call?”

“You’re the boss! S’why I never wanted it!” Raysdotter quipped.

Starshine considered for a moment, then answered. “I think we can take them. It’s not like we need to beat them. If they’re mostly mercenaries like that last bunch, we just need to put up enough resistance to scare ‘em off.”

Conrad nodded. “Good, then –”

“More soldiers!” Flowerpott suddenly interrupted with a desperate cry. “Coming in from the East! There’s gotta be a thousand of ‘em! They’ll be here in a few minutes!”

Our eyes all widened. “But… the battlefield is to the North-West…” Conrad croaked. “It must be an illusion, to frighten us and break our resolve.”

“Dunno about that,” Flowerpott continued. “But they’re flying the flag of Grandia!”