Elsewhere

Duke’s head snapped around as he looked around himself, but he did not see anything amiss. Aurelia immediately picked up on his motion and joined him in looking around. “What is it, Duke?”

“I’m not sure. Something’s wrong but I don’t know what.”

Aurelia did not hesitate. She brought her full COMMAND VOICE to bear shouting, “Alert! Stand ready for attack! Source and nature unknown. Cohorts, turtle up!” The response was immediate. Legionnaires moved with practiced efficiency, forming squares of outwardly facing ranks with shields drawn tightly into shield walls. In the span of thirty seconds, neatly marching ranks had converted into several defensive formations, ready to take an attack from any side.

Duke cycled to Soul Sight to see if he could pick up anything amiss but still did not see anything. Finally, he turned to DUNGEON SENSE and immediately saw the issue. There were tunnels underneath them all that were filled with giant ants. He shouted, “Subterranean threat!”

Aurelia attempted to echo Duke’s alert again employing her COMMAND VOICE. But she was not fast enough. The ground collapsed beneath their feet before she could shout, or the Legion could respond. Throughout the area, holes the size of houses collapsed underneath the Legion, dragging countless soldiers screaming into the darkness. Duke grabbed Aurelia’s arm, holding her aloft with FLIGHT as the ground collapsed underneath them and giant ants poured out, attacking everything in sight. The ants stood as tall as a man at the shoulder, and they came boiling out of the holes, swarming over the Legion.

The Legionnaires did not stand idly by as the giant ants swarmed. Shield walls were reformed, and ants were repelled. Quickly, discipline had the Legionnaires reforming ranks and slashing into the swarming ants. The enchanted weapons of the Legion sliced through chiton quickly, leaving hundreds of dead ants surrounding the defensive formations. There were thousands more to take their place, however, and the Legionnaires found themselves pressed backwards by the sheer volume of ants attacking, using the corpses of their brethren to climb above the shield walls.

Duke continued to rise above the battle with Aurelia dangling from his arm. It gave him a vantagepoint to assess things. What he saw was not encouraging. Of the roughly thirty original Legion formations, three were just gone and the rest were being pushed together by the weight of their enemies. He saw the exact moment when Aurelia activated her INSPIRATION Ability. Soldiers that were being pushed back surged forward, toppling piles of ants back onto themselves. Duke began raining down LIGHTING on the largest piles of swarming ants, killing them by the score with each of his myriad strikes.

Below him, he saw Baslin rising out of an incendiary cloud of death filling the hole that had taken the command formation by surprise. Even at this distance, Duke could see rage in the Archmage’s eyes as he rose above the fray. It was at that moment, Duke saw the next wave of attack coming from the forest itself – the trees themselves were marching onto the impromptu battlefield. Duke felt his own ire rising to dangerous levels.

“I have to get back down there, Duke. Drop me into the center of the Legion where my Abilities will make the most difference.” Duke felt his grip on her arm involuntarily tighten, not willing to let his lover go. “Now, Duke!” He released her arm, TELEPORTING her to the center of the consolidated formation.

Duke saw that the Mage Cops embedded in the Legion had erected barriers to hold the ants back as the Legion regrouped and prepared for a counter-surge. Duke could see the difference just having Aurelia amongst their ranks was making and decided to let them handle the ants for now. He turned his attention to the trees entering the fray. At first, he hesitated, not sure whether they were an approaching threat or were coming to their aid. When the first tree slammed its limbs against the Mage’s barrier, he was sure, and he acted.

His voice seething with anger, Duke launched OVERCHANNELED FLAME DARTs down upon the attacking trees. He fired ten at a time, using his SIMULCASTING Ability and pouring 1,000 Mana into each. The trees that were struck were instantly engulfed in fire and flailed helplessly as the magical flames ate through their bark. The burning trees screamed in some unearthly manner, but Duke did not watch the results, instead moving onto other trees marching towards the Legion. He quickly found himself down more than 100,000 Mana after the tenth volley. He paused only long enough to place his 12 Characteristic points into Psyche knowing even the small boost in his Mana regen would probably be needed.

Fire rained down upon the advancing trees, Spells and swords pushed the ants back, and the tide of battle had turned. Duke continued activating his Abilities but pushed his DUNGEON SENSE harder to try and find the conductor of this orchestrated attack. Splitting his attention was not as difficult as he had expected but he had not really tried it since his Reason had risen over 300.

Scanning the area, Duke was finally able to spot the anomaly amongst the fray. Whereas there were dozens of trees marching from the edge of the forest to attack, there was one that was not moving at all. Duke focused his senses on that lone tree and, with singular focus and assistance from his enhanced XENOGLOSSIA Ability, was able to see that the tree was not a tree at all.

*** You have penetrated an Illusion. Although you see through it for the reality that lies beneath, others will not. ***

The man hiding as a tree somehow seemed to notice Duke’s scrutiny and smiled up at him. The smile was full of malice and hate. Duke returned the smile with his own glare of hate. The man was short and mostly bald with sharply pointed ears. The figure was very thin and did not fill his green robes at all. In his left hand, he held a warped and gnarled feathered staff that glowed with emerald power. His right hand held nothing more than a ball of churning emerald energy. Energy that he hurled at Duke.

Duke ignored the attack and TELEPORTED next to the man but in the time it took him to attempt to grab him, the presumed druid had stepped into a tree and vanished. Duke blasted the tree apart with LIGHTNING but there was no sign of the man. Duke knew that he was alone when the trees stopped advancing, the Spell that drove them apparently ended. He did not hesitate to join the Legion in driving the remaining giant ants back.

Duke added his Abilities to the fight but he truth of the matter was that the fight was largely over. The last of the giant ants were retreating back into their holes and fleeing the field. Spells, arrows, and the odd thrown object followed the ants back down into the holes. Nearly as fast as the attack had started, it was over. The healers were working furiously to stabilize the most critically injured and centurions were taking assessment of their centuries. It was nearly half an hour before the Legion was re-organized and a report was brought to Aurelia.

“General, this was an attack that we were wholly unprepared for. You have my resignation.”

She looked at her subordinate commander, the one who she had learned had volunteered to take the brunt of her ire. The man stood at full attention, unyielding and stiff. She held his gaze for several seconds before responding. “What are our losses and has anyone scouted the holes?”

“General, the Legion has been decimated. We have lost nearly three thousand Legionnaires with the bodies of over one thousand missing, presumably fallen into the holes. The scouts are ill-prepared for pursuit of a strong enemy in a subterranean environment. I have held them back.”

“I see. Carry on, commander. You are not relieved of your duties as I will not be accepting your resignation. The Legion was prepared for a different battle, against an entirely different type of enemy. Our failure here rests solely on my shoulders. Dismissed.”

The commander offered a crisp salute and departed with military precision to continue assisting in the recovery of the Legion. Duke stepped up to stand before Aurelia. “We knew that we would be taking losses but none of us had anticipated that we would take such a large hit before we even got close to the city. That means that they knew we were coming and had set up the ambush for us in advance. I had never considered we would be attacked by a giant ant colony. That’s something that Grat might have thought of. We should ask…where is Grat anyway?”

Several minutes of frantic searching around the area revealed that the druid was gone. Duke tried to reach Grat using his Jewel of Whispers. His message was delivered but he received no response from Grat. It targeted him, so he’s still alive. That’s something. So, where are you, Grat?

“The Jewel of Whispers connects to him, but I am getting no response from him. He’s either incapacitated or lost his own Jewel.” Duke relayed.

“Or he’s unwilling to respond.” Baslin added, having joined Duke and Aurelia.

“What are you saying, Baslin?” Aurelia asked.

“We were attacked by creatures of nature. Even the trees were animated to attack. This was the work of a druid.” He responded evenly. “Surely, I am not the only one here who has been betrayed by someone once thought of as a friend.”

“That’s a damned cynical view you have there, Baslin. I get it because I know you were heavily betrayed, and I do agree that this was the work of a fucking powerful druid. The thing is that it wasn’t Grat. I saw the druid responsible for this and the bastard buggered away through some tree magic before I could get to him. But the question is where is our own druid?”

“Dragged into the tunnels. Remember, the ground collapsed underneath us to start this whole thing off. You grabbed my arm but both Grat and Baslin fell.” Aurelia reminded Duke.

“Then I’m going in after him.” Duke responded out of reflex.

“Not alone, you’re not.” Aurelia responded immediately.

“I agree with the young lady. You should not venture off into this unknown by yourself.” Baslin added.

“Baslin, I need you to set up defensive wards for the Legion. They are going to stay here and regroup. Our plans have been derailed a bit. I still mean to take the capitol, but our plans have been delayed.” Duke’s annoyance was clearly rising.

“I will ward the area. We will not be caught by surprise again.” Baslin responded.

“And Aurelia, your place is with the Legion. They need leadership right now. You are their leader and I need you to stay here. Don’t worry. I will get Grat back and if this druid shows his face down there, I’ll tear his fucking head off.”

She started to argue but upon seeing the looks on the faces of Legionnaires all around them, she begrudgingly realized that Duke was right. “I still don’t like it. You be careful.”

Ignoring any further protest, Duke TELEPORTED to the hole that had formed under the command group and entered.