Watching the townspeople attack each other through the dark, lamplit streets gut punched me. The long-awaited mind control had finally come, but something weird about them caught my attention.

Instead of the fluid movements of the enthralled Carvers, the people attacking their fellows shambled around, lacking the quickness and agility displayed by the bugs. It reminded me of the puppet shows the traveling minstrels used to put on at the castle when I was young, but less skilled.

I watched as the ‘attacks’ continued. The normal townsfolk ran back and forth in confusion, but there didn’t appear to be any real danger. A few injured people crouched down out of the way, or ran back indoors, but most of the panic appeared to be from shock instead of casualties.

The thralls moved as if the ones doing the controlling, the Inculids, didn’t understand what human movement meant. Their jerky, slow movements were almost entirely ineffective. So, then what was the point?

I braced myself in the saddle preparing for mental backlash, and one at a time I severed the mental tendrils that I now saw attached to the human thralls. Luckily, only half a dozen milled about in the immediate area, so I could spread the pain out a little and recover some power in between.

Once severed, the thralls just fell to the ground, rolling around, incapable of doing much. A group of nearby men had taken it upon themselves to be defenders and when they saw the collapsed thralls, they moved to attack.

“Stop! Don’t kill them!” I rode up and inserted myself between the panicked men and the collapsed thralls. “I’ve stopped it, what’s making them attack.”

A brave one, who I now recognized as the stall keeper I’d spoken to when I first arrived, stepped forward and gave a curt bow.

“What are we s’posed to do with ‘em? They could get up ‘n start attackin’ again, yeah? I don’t wan’t tuh kill my neighbors or nothin’, but…” he trailed off, a conflicted look on his face.

“Listen, gather up a group and collect them all in the center of town. Bind them if it will make you feel better, tie them up. I’ll make sure they’re not going to cause any more trouble.” I eyeballed the group, trying to gage if they were going to go rogue on me, but decided that they were just scared, and direction would do them good.

The group looked at each other, then looked at my woodcarving friend, apparently having decided that since he was brave enough to speak up, he was brave enough to be the leader. He gave them a resigned look, but his stance firmed up and he faced me.

“Yeah ok, we’ll round ‘em up. Don’t want no killin’.” With that they group loped off to take care of business.

I rode through town, swatting the Inculid mental connections as I came across them. Where had these people come from? And why the specific timing? I continued to ride through town, clearing out mind-controlling power, and noticed that most of these people came from the outskirts of town. None of them seemed to pop out of any of the homes or buildings in the town itself.

The only places I hadn’t gone to set fire to the Inculids ritual power, the only places not covered by Orleander’s map, were the outskirts. I had completely neglected the furthest reaches of the town.

“Shit.”

Was that the purpose of the suppression ritual? I had thought the intent had been just to put everybody to sleep to make us easily killable, but maybe that had just been a convenient side effect. What if the end result of the suppression ritual was enabling the mind-control effect? Based on the little evidence I had, it seemed like it fit. I cursed again.

I’d probably be too late, but I needed to clear out the power from the outskirts of town and redo the town proper as well. I looked in the direction of the battle, the faint sounds strangely muted by the buildings in the way. I didn’t like being away from the action for so long, but I knew it had to happen eventually anyway. If things continued as they had been for a while, it should be fine.

I kicked my horse into motion, racing through the streets, clearing out the thralls as I came across them. There weren’t very many, thankfully, so the task didn’t split my head open. However, every time I shredded an Inculid tendril, it drained a significant amount of power out of me. I wasn’t sure if I had the stamina to keep up with this and support the battle at the same time.

I stopped as far out on the outskirts of town in each direction as I dared and each time shredded the ritual effects with as much of my own power as I dared, trying to extend my range. There wasn’t any indication that it made a difference since the distance I could sense it was limited, but it made me feel better. Once finished with as much of the outskirts as I could reach, I cleared out the town proper once again.

I made a few more passes through town, searching through the dark streets and unlit alleys for thralls, but didn’t see any more. The woodcarver had gathered more people in his effort apparently, because now roving gangs of people transported the last of the un-thralled toward the center of town.

Not just that, but it they’d organized into sloppy combat units, outfitted with whatever armor and weapons they could scrounge up. There looked to be lots of wooden spears and hatchets among the mix. I grinned, imagining the stall-keeper cum mob leader sitting on a pile of tied up bodies, casually chipping away at a wood carving, commanding his minions.

I trusted they had everything under control and left to go rejoin the line of defenders. I had a hard time hearing it from the middle of town, but it sounded like the tone of the battle had changed. Unease suffused me for the third time that day. The timing was just too good. Whatever trick they’d pulled, it had been done shortly after the Inculids had gained some human thralls, almost like they were meant to be a distraction to pull people away from the barricade. But the thralls had been a failure, why trigger their plan at all, if there was one?

I urged my horse to step up the pace, heading toward where I had left Kan’on. The noise grew clear again, the closer I approached. The sound of weapons, screaming soldiers, screeching bugs… and a new sound that I could barely hear, like a blacksmith’s bellows. Like a great breath being taken and let out again.

I rounded the last corner and pulled so hard on the reigns my horses skidded to a stop. A giant bug approached the barricade on the opposite side, its legs rasped against its body as it propelled its bulk forward. It reminded me of a Carver but bloated and inflated to incredible size, even though the bladed arms remained at the same length as on the normal Carvers.

My horse bucked beneath me and I jumped off before being thrown off. Soldiers stood around nervously, on the verge of breaking and running away. There weren’t any Carvers trying to push through the barricade, but the evidence of their previous efforts, their corpses, blocked off large portions of the interior of the spikey mess. Where was Kan’on? Where were the rest of the Ilfids or the Brutes?

Behind the giant I spied a large crowd of the missing Carvers, crouched in the shadow of the mutant, seemingly waiting for something to happen. The loud rasping continued, not breathing as I had thought, as the oversized bug continued to push its bulk toward the barrier.

The defenders showed more signs of skittishness, so I pushed my way forward to the front, encouraging and soothing fear away as I went. I would have been the first to admit that I wasn’t the best at encouraging others, but in the moment, I did the best I could.

The ponderous mutant giant reached the barricade, hesitated for a beat, then started pushing through. Though, the creature moved slowly, its inexorable momentum pushed aside the giant wooden caltrops as if pushing through paper.

What could I do against such an enormous creature? I couldn’t just let it do what it wanted, the Carvers behind it waited to pour through the opening. It had already pushed halfway through the barricade by the time I finished drawing a crushing rune. I poked the currents with my mental filaments and unleashed the power on to the giant Carver. The force struck it from above, and while its chitin flexed a little, no cracks appeared, nor did its legs buckle.

“Stand back,” I yelled to the soldiers around me, waiting for them to comply to avoid accidentally catching somebody in the effects of my next trick.

I focused and drew another familiar rune in the air, one that Kan’on had been using to try to pass my little test, but I modified it with my intent and willpower, and unleashed it.

I bight white, tightly controlled beam of fire spewed from the rune and struck the creature dead on the head. Instead of running or screeching, the bug simply tucked its head in and crouched, taking the brunt of the fiery strike on the thick armor-like chitin of its neck and back. The power of the rune petered out, a slightly charred tint to its chitin the only evidence of my second powerful attack.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You!” I said as I pointed at a random soldier next to me, “Go find Kan’on and bring him here as fast as you can.”

I’d already nearly tapped the power I had left after taking care of the thralls in town, I’d need to be careful to ration what I had left. This creature needed someone with raw power to handle it. I had my strengths, mainly flexibility, but if Kan’on beat me in one thing it was raw, unadulterated throughput.

The giant continued to push its way through the barrier. I drew my sword in preparation, not sure what I could do with it, but prepared to face it, nonetheless.

In an effort to delay the creature as long as possible, I reach through the Flow with my tendrils and whipped the currents attached to its legs into a frenzy, interrupting its stride. It didn’t so much trip as stumble around as it regained its footing on its four legs, but its forward progress never stopped.

Resigned to the inevitable, I waited for the behemoth to finally push away the last of the pieces of the barricade, creating a hole for its bulk to fit through.

“Fall back to the buildings!” I scrambled back and forth across the front line of defenders, physically pushing them back to the dubious protection of the alleyways between the buildings.

I followed my own advice, retreating with the soldiers. It would be a disaster for them to be caught out in the open by the normal Carvers. Too much open space left room for the agile nightmares to maneuver around to conduct their slice and dice activities. The giant didn’t threaten me personally, it moved too slowly, and it probably didn’t threaten the normal soldiers either. However, its presence on the battlefield presented a very inconvenient, if deadly, obstacle.

I amped up my battleaura, something I hadn’t needed to do in ages, pushing my power into my muscles and bones for strength and endurance. Even more, I pushed my intent and willpower into the currents, augmenting my agility and speed.

The giant Carver pushed through the breach in the barrier and Carvers swarmed in around it. They screeched as they came through shifting in and out of sight with the shadows thrown around by the still-burning torches.

“Use the alley as a chokepoint! Don’t let them climb the walls over you! Watch each other’s backs!” I couldn’t think of any other advice to toss over my shoulder, so I just stood and watched the Carvers speed toward us.

A few immediately jumped to the walls of the wooden buildings next to us to get around the bristling wall of wood and steel points directed at them.

Following my own advice, I reached out into the flow and disrupted their currents, knocking them loose. I went to draw a crushing rune, but realized I’d nearly emptied my power reserves. Cursing, I leapt forward toward the charging Carvers to give myself space to move around. I’d leave the defensive line to those best suited to it.

I rushed forward, sweeping my sword through the bugs I’d knocked from the walls. As soon as I cleared some space, more rushed in to fill it. My increased strength and agility allowed me to outmaneuver the forerunners easily, but their sheer numbers made it difficult to keep them contained at the alley entrance.

The soldiers behind me moved up to support me, cutting off my mobility, but adding their collective strength to the effort of stopping the Carver’s momentum. I joined my sword to the rhythmic hacking and slashing of my fellows, occasionally reaching out to climbers and knocking them down into the storm of weapons.

Inevitably, my power ran low, and I couldn’t slap down every attempted climber, and a few slipped past me, jumping in among the defenders behind me. Screeching and screaming ensued, and blood sprayed as the Carvers laid into them before the soldiers were able to contain and slay them.

Unrest rippled amongst them, but I couldn’t stop my own assault to reassure the others as the wave of bugs continued. Behind them, the behemoth Carver continued its inexorable approach. I couldn’t let it continue unopposed, and my contribution to the current stage of the battle was miniscule compared to what it could be.

Making a decision, I pulsed my strength and jumped halfway up the wall to my right. Hitting the wall feet first, I leapt out and over the milling pile of Carvers trying to get at the defenders and landed in a relatively clear area. I raced to intercept the giant bug, gliding through and around their chaotic ranks, slicing and chopping them as I passed.

I’d let the soldiers do what they were good at, and I’d do what I was good at, which was making a nuisance of myself.