At least the Twisted didn’t seem to care for the storm any more than we did. Sebastian thought idly. Another trap was triggered early the next morning, but the lack of horns meant that it had just been another wandering group. The storm had settled into a gloomy overcast sky that, when coupled with the general mood possessed by pretty much everyone left in town made for a rather depressing day. He felt like he hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep, tossing and turning, waking up with every boom in fear it was heralding an attack.

There was also the very important fact that thunder was bad for their prospects of getting through the pass safely. Lots of water and loud concussive booms tended to cause mudslides every now and then, and Sebastian was rather keen on being able to actually leave if things got too dangerous. He wanted to help, and hurt the twisted, but he didn’t want to be trapped on the wrong side of the pass with them.

He sighed and went up to the roof of the tower to look around. He saw some scouts headed into the pass, probably having been sent to make sure it was still open after that storm. Glancing towards the forest he saw the black scorched area from yesterday marring the usually scenic view, as well as the new one that was still smoking a little. He thought he saw movement in the trees at one point, and stared at it hard. After a minute or so he decided it had just been the wind or something, only to see another brief flash of movement from east to west, followed by a blinding flare of light as they found another trap. He watched in astonishment as a tree froze in an instant, then shattered. The stake immediately self-destructed, spraying razor sharp bits of frozen wood in every direction with a concussive blast and a roiling wave of fire. A second later he heard the explosion.

How in the hells did I not set the forest on fire with those yet? That was way stronger than I expected it to be! He watched the forest intently for a good while after that, waiting tensely to see if it was the real deal this time. After fifteen minutes or so he relaxed a bit, then started to grumble to himself. “Bloody things are going to set off all my bloody traps before they actually do any attacking.”

Admittedly he didn’t actually mind them blowing themselves up all that much, but he couldn’t help hoping that some of the traps would still be active if there is a major assault. At least they had only triggered the stakes so far. The plates strewn through the fields were where he got a bit bored, and as a result, a bit creative. He had come up with a few different kinds, operating under the assumption that causing chaos amongst his enemies in a battle would be a huge help to the defenders.

Two traps set off within a few hours of each other though. That thought wasn’t a very comforting one. Last night’s storm was more intense than they had expected it to be, and there was a solid chance that the pass had suffered for it. Mudslides or fallen rubble blocking the path were both possibilities, and while neither were completely impassible to a group of determined men on foot, it would be exceptionally difficult to try and pick your way through a treacherous mudslide while fighting goblins and orcs.

He shook his head to dispel his thoughts of things he couldn’t control, then went inside to get himself something to eat for lunch. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but he had nothing else to do. His personal enchantment had refused to let him change anything further than he already had, he had no more items to enchant, and most importantly, he needed to conserve his mana so he would be able to use his bow longer.

After he finished eating he went and made sure all of his things were packed. He hesitantly pocketed his mystery ball, then shouldered his pack and headed for the rear gate to drop it off. He would be helping at the north wall as long as he could, but the captain had insisted that everyone pack necessities and stow them near the pass, so they could grab their supplies on the way out if they had to leave in a hurry. Sebastian didn’t argue with the man either, he thought it was a wonderful idea. Being able to retreat and not starve because everything was in town still was a plan he supported wholeheartedly. Well, that and his books were carefully stowed in waterproof wrappings in his bag, and following along with the plan ensured that they were as far away from the fighting as possible.

He dropped his bag off and started to trudge back to the tower, carrying his bow and quiver, and wearing the dark green cloak he had gotten from Jocelyn, if anything he liked it even more after he enchanted it. The patterns didn’t stand out as clearly as they did on more solid things he enchanted, instead it seemed to almost shimmer in sunlight, with the edge of the hood having a silver frosted appearance. It wasn’t all that spectacular of an effect, and most would probably not notice or assume it was wet or something along those lines, but Sebastian loved it. He was halfway back when he heard an explosion. Then a second explosion. Then hunting horns began to blare loudly.

He swore, then broke into a run for the walls. Owdel and Sarah were already there, as well as most of the guards in town. He looked out across the fields and saw an unruly mob of what had to be at least a couple hundred goblins. “This can’t be all of them, right? I mean, they wouldn’t be able to get through the walls even if all of them made it through the mines unscathed. We have enough bows to slaughter them before they even get close.”

Owdel shrugged, “I doubt it’s all of them boy, but it is enough to force us to act, enough to trigger more of your mines, and if they start coming in groups this size at the rate they have been showing up we will rapidly run out of arrows and your mines.”

Sebastian frowned, “Well, perhaps I can convince them to leave and try coming back with more of their friends.” He raised his bow and started to channel mana into it while drawing back on the string. As a shimmering blue-silver arrow took shape on the string he muttered, “Been wanting to test the modifications I made anyways, not sure how far the arrows will travel before they fade out.” He ignored conventional wisdom and aimed directly at the goblins, instead of arcing the shot like he would have to with normal arrows. His conjured ones didn’t technically have any mass and should continue in a straight line until they faded or struck something.

He fired and everyone watched with bated breath as the arrow streaked across the fields in an unnaturally straight line, the original enchantment having much more impact on its speed than Sebastian had anticipated. Turns out that the force required to launch a normal arrow at nearly twice the speed of a regular bow had a much greater impact on something that had no weight. It struck one of the goblins near the front of the mob in the chest, punching through it with ease. Everyone except Sebastian was startled when the goblins chest exploded outwards.

He had a dangerous smile on his face as he explained, “I was worried about overpenetration. Pretty much everything I’ve made so far creates a lot of collateral damage, and while that is good for now, I also wanted to make sure I had something that wouldn’t put any allies that might be close to, or behind an enemy.”

Sarah stared at him, “But why did the goblin pop?”

He was watching the goblins gather close to each other, probably in hopes that any further shots would hit one of their friends and not them, but they also didn’t show any signs of retreating, or for that matter, of coming closer. He drew back again and loosed another shot at the edge of the mob this time, trying to get them to gather even tighter together. As it shredded a leg off of another goblin he answered, “Well since the arrows are made from barriers like my bracer can project, I figured that they would punch through things with ease and probably keep going. Which, again, would mean that if there was something on the other side of my target that I didn’t want to have holes in I wouldn’t be able to fire. So I added an extra trigger into the arrows, the fletching part doesn’t solidify until it passes the bowstave, and when it makes contact with something solid it makes the arrow use the last of its energy to burst outwards in every direction.

“My guess is that the goblins just come apart easy, or it is more effective than I thought it would be, possibly both.” He fired another shot at the opposite side of the mob and disarming, literally, another goblin. “I might be using too much mana too, but I wanted to make sure the arrows would go that far, if they run out of energy they will just fade away.”

He wasn’t really paying attention to everyone around him, fully wrapped up in his exploration of his bow’s capabilities now that he had real targets. Satisfied that they were clustered nice and tightly he decided to go for the much, much more difficult shot. He drew one of his frostfire arrows from his quiver and nocked it. He estimated that the goblins were at the extreme end of his range, and while worried that the arrow might fall short, he felt it was worth risking one for the possible payoff if he hit one of the goblins in the middle of the condensed mob. Aiming upwards at an angle in order to maximize his range he loosed his enchanted arrow at the greasy little bastards.

Everyone watched the arrow as it sailed across the fields, plummeting at a nearly vertical angle ten or so feet past the leading edge of the mob. It sank into the shoulder of one of the goblins, immediately freezing a large section of its victim’s chest and head solid, then bursting apart into a roiling ball of flames and shards of frozen goblin chunks. As Sebastian watched the goblins panic and finally start to flee back into the forest, many of the slower ones being trampled to death, and a fair number of them running back and forth while on fire, he lapsed into thought. Well goblins are surprisingly flammable. I’m pretty sure more of that goblin should have frozen though. Are they a little resistant to magic? Or maybe there was just more potential heat energy than the tree I tested it on before and it overwhelmed what the arrow could hold before it froze as much? Eh, maybe they will come back and I will get to test it more.

As the goblins made their way into the forest he finally turned and noticed that every guard on the wall was staring at him in astonishment, Owdel had a strange look on his face, and Sarah averted her gaze when he looked at her. He looked around and asked, “What? Did I miss something?”