ELI POV

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All the orcs and Frojan were now moving out and were off the road completely. The morning sun was now in the sky as the footsteps of the Coalition’s reinforcements could now be heard pounding down the road. The battlefield had a swarm of vultures and scavengers moving in from the forest as the fresh bodies on the outskirts were already being picked over. Our job finished, I headed back towards the woods. Bounding over the bodies, I made my way into the trees and went as high as I could, coming to rest on a large branch. Cell and Salamede were lower than me as the tide of green skin and Frogmen below flowed through the woods.

Behind me I started to hear shouts as the humans came upon the sight of the battle. The orcs and Frojan who had stayed up with me to help set up and make the traps left as they were replaced with fresh troops. The edges of tiredness crept all through my body, but I pushed on.

This time the column of soldiers seemed to be more wisely managed. When they came upon the destruction, they almost immediately started heading back. In the cold morning light, I looked out over the column of metal clad men and saw this group had only three mages in the middle. I thought it over as I strummed my fingers on the wood for a second but decided not to push it. Giving away the fact we could hit them in the middle of the road wasn’t worth only possibly killing three mages, especially when we’ll need that surprise to take out the supply lines.

“Salamede and Cell, it looks like we’ll need to start cutting off the roads closer to the main road. They will know whatever has been destroying the forts is now at the Viper base and the box fort closer to it. I’ll try to take out their tar and chemicals today with Cell to stop them from burning too much of the forest.“ I told them.

Salamede was on a branch below me and stood still for a moment before continuing.

“Will I be needed for anything else today? I-I don’t think I can go on much more.” She said, her voice pained and exhausted.

I came down closer and gave her hand an affectionate squeeze.

“Take as much of the day off as you need. But this is a war and unless we want to have to slaughter all ten thousand plus men, we need to make their supply situation untenable. These attacks we’re doing needs to hit just hard enough. Too hard and the orcs will try to slaughter them wholesale, too timid and the Coalition will tighten its hold even more, and we’ll lose the chance to access our last thread on the necromancers. After that we’d probably have to live the rest of our lives in the swamps scratching out a meager existence. If even that.” I said sadly.

“Would that be so bad? The necromancers probably wouldn’t find us.” She asked.

“No, that doesn’t sound bad. You, me, and Cell and a few dozen pups after a decade or more of scrounging the materials to fix my chip. Sounds nice. But they found me once and they’ll find me again. Who knows, they may have some magical tracking device embedded in me when they brought me to this world. There are too many unknowns with what we’re dealing with for me to just give up on the only potential link I have to them.” I said as I leaned against the tree.

“A ‘few’ dozen pups? I though you only wanted twelve?” Salamede asked coyly with her hands on her hips.

“A simple expression.” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “Are you comfortable travelling with Cell and working with Gula more if it comes to that?”

“Yes. I have some questions for her, and I think some more feminine company could do me good.” Salamede said.

I chuckled and nodded towards her.

“Ok. Keep a watch and I’ll yell ‘Partner’ when I get back. I’m going to their command post and see what our next move is.” I said. They both nodded and leapt from the trees out into the rest of the woods beyond. The morning sun was now low in the sky as I made my way further south, following the rough mental map I had of the area.

Eventually, I hopped through the trees long enough that I came upon the small campsite with the big boulder over the commanders table. The air had a much more festive mood as orcs around the table clapped and hugged each other as did the Frojan. Even Mor seemed quite pleased as she looked over the table and looked between two different reports. The Larger Frojan with a silvery back and green skin idly snacked on a hard cracker as he looked over a report of his own with a light smile across his frog like mouth.

I dropped down from the trees with a thud. Some of the orcs and Frojan jerked back, but they seemed more relaxed around me now. Striding up to the table, the black robed Frojan and Mor put down their reports to look at me.

“Any information?” I asked.

It was Mor who answered after giving a light cough.

“It’s too soon for them to react, but if I was a guessing woman, I would say they will start more aggressively burning down the surrounding forest in the coming days. Unless they somehow saw you fighting, they still haven’t a clue who or what’s kicking their ass and the surrounding woods is the only real means we have of ambushing them. That or send out a swarm of mages, but they’re a rare resource and can’t be wasted like the common soldiers. They’ll deplete their supplies sooner, but money is no problem for them right now.” She finished.

“Money not matter at all if supplies cannot reach.” I said as I idly strummed my fingers on the table.

If the Coalition burned down too much of the forest, we’d be forced to meet them on the open field, which would put my temporary allies at too great a risk. They were only just holding their own now, but if things got so bad that they gave up holding any land here, an attack on Viper base was going to stay a pipe dream. Also, I’m pretty sure the character I was playing would have prioritized stopping the fires. A nature demon spirit not fixating on humans burning down the forest would probably draw suspicion.

“We will attack caravans at fort near huge scar humans move a lot of supplies over. We will attack burning things inside camp or fort first. Where is sticky burning stuff kept?” I asked her. Mor searched through a pile of papers to her left before pulling out the one she needed.

“Of the three forts leading to the Viper base, they seem to be using the middle one to hold all the alcohol and chemical barrels. No idea where inside though. They typically arrive in a caravan away from the others with a special carriage of solid wood around nighttime.” Mor finished.

I continued strumming my fingers on the table as I thought over what to do. Sending Cell to sneak in was too dangerous, even if he knew exactly what to look for and where to hide. I could wait until they bring in a shipment of the stuff and do coordinated jumps in the air to see where they store it with Cell and Salamede. Once we know where they put it, I could summon a massive fire ball through the entrance to whatever warehouse they are using.

But I was a nature spirit plant demon thing. If I started using fire magic it would raise far too many questions about what a ‘Pandego’s’ nature really was. Besides, it raised the possibility of the watchmen seeing us as we did our jumps and sending out a team to sneak around us. The only real option was to dig underneath.

“What humans has to detect digging into fort?” I asked the table and the array of personages around it.

Mor just looked towards the Frojan with the black robe. He leaned against the wall with his big eyes closed and arms crossed as he contemplated. Finally, he leaned forward and sighed.

“They only did it once and never since then. The method I know of is to dig into the ground and bury strips of long leather in the dirt and craft an enchantment that explodes with a mixture of stone and fire summoning when a certain line along it is cut or moved. The line siphons magic off from the mana battery circle and stops it from getting enough mana to activate.

But that was in a desperate situation where we were digging into a cave the mages were boxed in. It’s expensive and constantly getting set off by moles, worms, and other miserable curs of nature unless you can afford the expense of dousing it in poison. To say nothing of how dangerous it is to make. Maybe they would consider it if we had the earth element, but we’ve never been able to do any serious digs.” He said.

I drew in a deep breath and nodded with a dramatic flurry of my hand.

“Good. We will dig under fort.” I said. But as I turned to go, Mor gave another loud cough.

“So soon? We’ve already done a lot today. It’ll be a few hours before we get enough new people in to properly cover for the ones who were up all night and the ones still out there laying traps.” She asked. The Frojan leader didn’t say anything but I got the impression he agreed with her.

“Need no one. Better alone considering orcs and Frojan can’t use earth magic.” I pushed back.

Mor closed her eyes and thought on it for a bit before responding.

“All right just give us until nightfall to get a few groups in place ambush the people currently burning the forest near the Viper base. I want to make sure we make the most of your attack while we can.” She said.

As much as I wanted to just get this all over with, I felt the lag in my reflexes and a sluggishness in my thoughts from the long night. I turned around and made my way to the left towards the trees. Back up in the tree’s, I headed back towards the original ambush site. Coming back to last night’s attack sight, the carrion birds were making quick work of the battlefield, as the fattened vultures and crows contested amongst themselves for the preferred bits from the buffet of flesh. Off to the far side opposite of me, I saw some wild dogs drag off a body, human or orc it was too far to tell. Man, orc, Frojan. Magical or mundane. All were treated without bias by the scavengers of the woods.

“Partner!” I called into the surrounding woods. After a minute, the dark wood mask of Salamede came bounding through the treetops to my right. Finally, she came forward into full view and stood beside me.

“Do you know where Cell is?” I asked her.

“He should be off on the opposite side of the road helping me keep a watch.” She said.

This is too time consuming.

After mentally adding radio communications to my to do list, I motioned for her to follow me past the burnt side of the road. Once on the other side, we went into the treetops. After a minute of searching through the dense leaves, I found Cell squatting on a large branch. He was idly moving his vine hands around in a back and forth motion as his face kept his eye on the hillside and empty forest below.

When we gathered together, I took out three pieces of bark from the tree we were on and molded them into three wood coins, whose size was between a thumb and an index finger with a dent in the middle. A quick and dirty enchantment laid down into it, I used my spirit magic to create a temporary connection that sent of a high whirring sound. A few adjustments to the two wind enchantments, and I got it down to where it was loud, distinct and wouldn’t pain the ears when used.

“Use these to find each other in the future.” I said after I finished making the other three and handed them to my three other companions.

“First things first. We need to get some rest. Mor wants to attack the teams currently burning the forest when we move to take out the Coalitions chemical stores and will be ready in several hours. Let’s set up a small camp in the trees, get some food in our belly’s and wash up. While we wash up and prepare, Cell needs to stay behind with Gula’s group to make sure the Coalition doesn’t kill the orcs off with a surprise attack” I said. Salamede didn’t say anything to that statement but it made her stand a little straighter.

We headed back further south. A mile or so from the command post was a good patch of older trees that had survived the wars and natural disasters for a great many ages. It wasn’t as comfortable as our regular base, but it was better than nothing. Magic had its faults, but it was a life saver when you needed something quick with few to no resources at hand.

A few manipulated branches and some reinforced vine patches for flooring and I had a private sanctuary in the trees that, while slightly smaller than a family sized van that you could stand in, still provided a little corner of the world for us to relax in. I got our vine suits into hammocks and fashioned a quick shower head that shot out warm water from a larger piece of bark that I attached on the left side corner in a private little room with a leaf curtain.

Salamede showered first and as she did so I used the time to create a few bark crafts to gradually mold more balls and U shaped pieces of wood with the ambient mana. I finished four of them when my turn under the shower came. I took a minute under that warm flow of water to relax.

But time was of the essence and while I relaxed under the water, I used my mana generation to create a thumb sized mana crystal that I threw on the pile of clothes just outside the shower. Not that I had all that much energy to begin with.

All the typical post battle aches were there. The sadness at the loss of human potential, all the moments where it all could have gone horribly wrong and how. The warm water helped wash some of those worries away but I still felt that tension in my muscles, like an ache that had no single point that I could rub to make it better. My shower finished, I decided to go to the one person who could help me.

Salamede was in a corner laying on the small vine floor opposite of the shower dressed in a long white underdress with a v cut across her chest. The light of the late morning sun filtered through the leaves of our little makeshift homes roof and danced across her face as she snacked on a hard granola bar.

I walked over and stood over her, which caused her to immediately stop eating and gaze up at me, with her ivory bicycle handle horns now leaning against the vines of the wall. I looked at her white stripe across the muzzle that was the same milky hue of her eyes, then to her questioning face. Her goatish features presented no problems for me as her company during this time was more valuable than any conventionally good looks.

‘What’s up, Eli?’ She asked me with a note of concern through a spirit connection.

‘At first, I was just admiring the view, but I need comfort and I remembered from a reliable source that I own your lips. I’m too tired for such activities but I was wondering if other parts of you are available for my personal use.’ I said in heated tone as I sat myself down beside her, making sure to never break eye contact with her. A smile played across her mouth before she responded.

‘Oh? What parts were you referring too?’ She asked coyly.

I wasted no time and promptly grabbed her shoulders to push her fully on the floor. Laying her down, I laid my head across her chest and rested on her pillows. It took a few adjustments, but I found a good position where I was laying fully on her breasts through the white undershirt but could keep an eye on the crafts waiting for them to finish.

‘Eli… Would you want to relieve stress… down below as well?’ She asked in a breathless heated tone, lifting up her dress with her left hand to expose her thigh. This time she couldn’t look me in the eyes as she kept her gaze on the ceiling.

‘Absolutely. For now. But later, that would just leave me more stressed. These games of tongue and groping are one thing, but I do not give out my seed lightly. If there was any possibility of you being pregnant, I would not send you out on missions even when the situation demands it.

And above all I know myself. Sex without the commitment of marriage scrambles my emotions and I get way, way too attached in a very immediate manner.’ I told her. In spite of this self-knowledge, I had apparently indulged in such things in the past if the visions were anything to go by. Thankfully these relaxation sessions didn’t seem to trigger them, so I had at least this respite.

‘Do… you… consider us to be marriage material?’ She asked.

‘Yes. If we find that we are right for each other.’ I said.

Seemingly pleased with the answer, she leaned back fully and stroked my hair as we basked in our mutual embrace and the glow of the sun from above. It was hard to tell how much time had passed when the crafts finally finished but we were both too tired and stressed from last night to stay fully alert as we lazily appreciated the appetizing bits of each other’s bodies. We lay in each other’s arms for a long while, our various parts feeling very well massaged from all the squeezing but in the corner opposite the shower I saw the trap pieces were now almost finished.

Salamede seemed to be content as she held my head in her hands before following my gaze.

‘Ah, yes. The war. I guess we shouldn’t spend all our time ‘relaxing’.’ She said mischievously through the spirit connection.

‘If the war was decided in the next hour sure’ I said with a hard squeeze of her left breast through the white underdress. She bit her lip and lifted her head back with an unrestrained moan as I continued. ‘But having mental breakdowns isn’t healthy and we still need to wait on Mor to get ready.’ I said as I leaned up and attacked her exposed neck with kisses. Her fur got in the way some but each kiss I landed on her skin rewarded me with a sharp intake of air above my head as Salamede started heavily breathing from the contact.

A few more minutes and we finished as did the wood pieces. The time to focus more on work had come. I spent the rest of the day making mana crystals. Molding the wood didn’t take anywhere near as long as metal for the crafts or the vine suits considering they didn’t need to move at all, but four of them so close to each other was still a considerable drain on the ambient mana so I cracked the mana crystal I made earlier and placed it between the four large pieces of bark with gradually shifting pieces of new wood on them. Off to the left was their previous pieces just waiting for the vines to finish them out.

As I attended to my various tasks, I had to also balance how much of my physical energy I was using. Spend too much on making traps and I’ll be too weak to help throw back a Coalition raid on the orcs when their horns blow, rendering all of this work totally pointless when the orcs no longer have access to the roads these crafts are meant to booby trap. This continued for the rest of the day, with a long nap somewhere in between, until the sun started the last leg of its descent with the tell-tale signs of red and orange starting to spray across the clouds. Having made as many trap pieces as I could, I got back into my vine suit, as did Salamede. Heading back towards the command post, the place was a buzz with activity. Mor was in her usual position, wearing her usual leather armor and warhammer across her back, at the table with the Frojan with a black cloak gone.

The buff orc with short cropped black hair, and a strong jaw was looking over various reports when we dropped down.

She merely looked up as the orcs and Frojan around our landing site shirked back.

“Ah, good. We need just an hour more before we get our people in position. They’re pushing further into the forest in the southern section now and fortunately they’ve been taking so many barrels of tar, alcohol and other chemicals out of the storage area in the middle fort that we managed to get a glimpse through the opened gates when they were moving them to and from.

The barrels are being stored in an underground warehouse in between the stable close to the gate and the mess area, I’ve already sent the scout who saw it to wait for you at the fort” She finished.

“What about frogs men’s support?” I asked as I looked around, with my mask giving off its usual wobbly tone.

“He is off giving the report of our recent success to the higher ups. But don’t worry, the Frojan will obey my orders in his absence.” Mor said, the dissatisfied looks of some of the Frojan around the table confirming her story.

I started a spirit connection with Salamede.

‘After this attack, we’ll probably need to head out with Cell to take out the Coalitions Caravans which will almost certainly be another fight. For right now, stay here and keep watch with Gula since this will probably demand magic and get rest whenever you can’ I told her.

Salamede didn’t show any physical reaction but responded with a simple ‘yes’.

“We heads towards human stone blasphemy. We take out burning, foul water. More traps, already have earth parts working” I said to Mor as I dropped the small pile of balls and U shaped pieces of wood on the ground. I took off into the woods towards the main road with a loud whoosh as my air jump function engaged.

Halfway there, I used the wooden coin to signal for Cell. But it took us until we got near the site of the attack on the road before his coin was heard off in the distance. Coming onto the road, it now had the bumps of earth all along its length and farther still if my eyes could see through the trees. This section of the road was now more or less impassable for the Coalition without mages willing to weather the ambushes and exhaustive casting.

Off to the left, Gula’s group came through the woods as the late day sun filtered through the treetops. It was Gula who started the conversation as she stood below us with Cell to her left and the Frojan to her right.

“I heard you guys were attacking the middle fort.” She said hopefully.

“Taking out fort is not purpose but getting rid of burning water is reason for attack. Alpha orc tells us to meet up with orc scout who saw where burning water is kept.” I said, using the typical Pandego grammar.

She just raised an eyebrow briefly before giving a light bow. Cell got the que and launched himself up towards us. I waved Gula goodbye as Salamede joined her group to patrol the area. Then I took off with my familiar towards the middle fort.

When we got there, it was a proper mess from our view in the treetops. The various caravans that were meant to go towards the Vipers base were now stuck in limbo with the roads blocked off. But unlike the fort near the Coalitions main territory, this place wasn’t ready to host a swarm of people as the caravans and their workers took up every patch of dirt that wasn’t a puddle or burnt tree stump. Squads of troops were burning down parts of the forest to provide more safe space but they were clearly unprepared as I saw a few men being carried away on stretchers and tended to by nurses as various accidents getting the barrels of tar, cheap alcohol, and an odd clear liquid of light brown to burn the forest took their toll.

A few more minutes, and we found the small band of orcs in the trees on the right side of the fort camp. Among the typically well-armed orcs was a skinny brown haired one with leather pants and a white undershirt that was only armed with a dagger and a bow that just screamed ‘the scout’.

We dropped in behind them, causing them to clutch their various weapons but they all relaxed when they saw me, their black eyes with varying red and gold irises now seemed more hopeful than afraid.

“Ah, Mor said you’d be coming.” The scout said. Her wide face, ears and button nose doing nothing to hide a rather feral grin. She turned back around as her golden eyes shined with raw greed.

I walked up beside her. We were on the slightest of inclines and could barely see over the sea of carriage tops and disheveled tents, but the huge box of grey stone was impossible to miss. Like the other three, the fort had a tower at each point with a square parapet at the top of each along with a ballista to round out the long-range defenses. The scouts rough voice then intruded upon my observation.

“Several yards past the gate is where I saw it. A large dual door of wood and thick iron bars. It was definitely the place as I saw them bringing out a few more of them barrels like they is using on the forest over there. Oddest thing, I saw a little girl with a blanket by a vent near the doors before the caravan got inside and they shut it again.” She said in an excited tone, her rough accent shining through.

I nodded and looked around until I found a reasonably straight stick.

“Get on knees and place stick exactly where hole storage is when looking at big box” I said as I handed it to her.

She nodded excitedly as her wild brown hair flopped about. After a minute of placing it a few times, she finally decided on a place to put the stick as she laid behind it with her tongue out in concentration.

“There. Right there.” She finally said with a beaming grin.

“Good. Keep watch, we has work to do.” I said as the real work began.

It took well into the night. Me and Cell had to dig into the earth low enough that we got to a layer that wouldn’t collapse on us and keep track of where we were digging. Fortunately, when Cell was going through the topsoil, he could leave his vine suit and dig a very small hole to the surface to get his bearings. It would have gone faster if we didn’t have to make it wide enough for me to scooch forward with my helmet, but no way, no how I was going to risk being seen without it.

One time a man screamed when a black sphere suddenly popped out of the ground and bumped up against his previously sleeping head. Fortunately, his companions seemed to dismiss him as a drunk and promptly bid him good night, a fact the man grumpily accepted when he went to sleep in one of the carriages. At least that’s the impression I got from Cell when he came back to tell me the tale.

Another factor was having to stop whenever the air got stale and suck some in through a top hole and blow some out the tunnel but the mana crystals I had saved up came in handy, and before long our slightly zig-zagging tunnel barely big enough to allow me and Cell to pass through had hit a wall of stone brickwork in the earth.

“Here we go.” I said to myself. The magic based digging meant I was actually pretty clean so far except for the dirt around my feet. Another magic spell and I thinned out a hole in the brick. Peering in, I saw a large room with a central stone pillar peering above a railing. The room had mana lamps in the corners giving off a faint orange glow along the grey brick work of the few bits of wall I could see. Looking down I knew I was nearly right on top of the floor. A few seconds and I couldn’t hear anything, so now was the time to move.

I quietly moved several of the bricks away and placed them behind the barrels as I carefully peered around. The whole room was one large open space with an immense central pillar of solid stone. The middle of the room was an open space around the pillar with floors of wood with railing, each of which contained row after row of barrels. We seemed to be near the middle section and before I could think of what to do, I heard a door open from above.

“Damn it. The mess hall has been packed. Took me damn near an hour to get my lunch.” A rough voice called from above.

“Better waiting than dead. Be grateful you ain’t one of those sods who has to work the caravans.” Another responded as the clear sound of a wheelbarrow moving a heavy load reverberated across the room.

“Is we any safer? The fine and mighty officers put on a good face, but I hunted back on my pa’s farm and I know a cornered animal when I see one. Whatever’s going on, they’re all scared shitless even when they’re in these walls.” The rougher voice responded as the grunts of heavy moving was heard.

Apparently, his companion had no rebuttal because no more words passed between them before I heard the closing of the door again. Then it was dead silence.

‘All right Cell. Let’s get this done.’ I said in a spirit connection to my familiar.

We went through the barrels and got a few with the tar and some filled with the brown, nearly clear liquid and dumped them down the central chamber onto the hard floor below. That took less than a minute but before we finished putting down the first barrel, a hard-sucking sound was heard from above. The air began whirling towards the top floor and a loud whoosh was heard from the tunnel we came here in.

Ah, they were using a wind enchantment to preemptively suffocate any potential fires. I didn’t know how much air they would suck out before it became a vacuum, but it was probably enough to suffocate us, not to mention the racket it would be making on the other side of the tunnel.

I dropped my barrel to the side and motioned for Cell to continue as I jumped up the railing to the top floor just two levels above my previous position. When I came up and stood behind the railing, I saw to my left was a large double wooden door, but these looked more like the finely molded wooden objects I made with large iron bands around it. I saw the dust in the air going through two grates several feet in front of the door. Despite the magic involved, the rough metal work and sloppy mismatch of certain bricks told me this was a rush job.

Judging from the tight seal around the doors, I would say the system sucked air into a reservoir and expelled it through another exit that was also tightly sealed so they wouldn’t have to keep expending the ambient mana to keep the enchantments running. But as interesting as this system was, it was currently in my way.

A quick wind spell sent along the breeze shut down the whole thing and the sucking sound stopped.

Looking back over the railing, I saw Cell had finished dumping two other barrels of brown liquid and tar down the pit at the bottom where the pillar met the ground. Satisfied, I made a quick and dirty fire enchantment out of a piece of broken barrel wood laying on the ground. It would have about 30 seconds to activate, but just for safety’s sake, I went forward to mold the door into a solid piece along its seem in the middle.

These people weren’t my enemies and killing them without them presenting any obstacle to my survival wasn’t justifiable in my eyes. But as I went to mold the wood, the door suddenly opened.

“Why did the thing sto-“Looking down, I saw a little girl with flowing brown hair, and a button nose with a plain blue blanket over her right shoulder as she leaned against the now slightly open door. She wore a simple dress of brown middling quality cloth and her eyes were a green that was hard to see when they went wide as disks as she looked up and saw the black wood of my deer skull and the vine and bone covered mass of my body.

She didn’t scream or yell, just wordlessly scrambled back with a pale face.

Without a moment to spare, I molded the door into a semi-solid single piece. Running back towards the main pillar, I jumped over the railing and down through the soft glow of the open-air center, around the main pillar, and back towards the hole we came through. The second I finished the square to start the craft, I pressed it and promptly dived through the hole as I threw the quick and dirty craft over my shoulder with Cell coming in shortly behind me. We scrambled through the tunnel barely large enough to allow my helmet through. It took a few minutes, but an odd creak was heard… above? Yes, it was coming through the holes in the top of the tunnel we used for air.

That wasn’t good. I looked behind me briefly and sure enough beyond the vacuum Cell was maintaining to block at least some of the heat, the soil was steaming and the roots that reached down here promptly crisped in the red hot oven behind us. I wasted no more time and quickly shuffled out at breakneck speed. Light was eventually spotted in the dark tunnel and I threw myself out of it and onto the dirt. I saw Cell coming out right behind me and the orcs on the slight incline. They moved closer to us but the sudden blast of heat coming out of the tunnel made them pull back.

I stayed on the ground and looked up at them.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“The wall” The brown-haired scout said in delight.

The blood drained from my face and I quickly made my way up the slope, making sure to avoid the furnace heat currently blasting out of the tunnel. Cell was now up in the treetops when I got on top of the hill. Looking out over the darkened sky, I saw the fortress, seemingly same as ever but this time every person in the camp was looking at it. Men in nighttime pajamas peering from carriages, guardsman, soldiers on the road who had been leaving or coming, they were all staring at the wall for some reason but then it happened.

The wall section connecting to the corner tower swayed. A loud groan, same as I had heard before, resounded as a small pillar of smoke gradually wafted up behind it. The men closest to the tower just scrambled back but my eyes were transfixed on the sight.

No. Please God tell me that wasn’t a load bearing pillar.

The wall swayed again, this time leaning outward as the stone at its bottom sagged from the heat below it. That heat combined with the momentum it already had was enough to finish it.

The orcs were going to kill all of these people. There wasn’t enough time to move all of the caravans and soldiers out, and their safe haven was no longer safe. Which also meant more of them would be heading to Viper bases adjacent fort, exactly the direction I didn’t want them going. Thinking quickly, I decided to rely on the lie I had used for the Viper base. As more than half the wall tumbled down, the tower it leaned against swayed slightly, but it stood firm for now.

This was the point where things would spin out of control or not. If I can maneuver this right, we’ll knee the Coalition in the groin hard enough to leave the Viper base isolated. Do it wrong and the orcs would ask the wrong questions and blow up my whole ‘foul ritual’ story. The orcs did a silent cheer and jumped for joy, but I clutched my shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” The brown-haired scout asked me as she stopped to look at me. That stopped the cheering and the rest of the orcs now stood back slightly, worry clear on their features even as the mayhem and cacophony of noise was reaching its peak out in the field in front of us.

“Foul ritual. Kills non-humans. Not safe for us. Humans get sick but not die. Not like us if stay here.” I said as I moved limply to get down the slope.

The orcs got a pale face at that and promptly followed behind my hobbling form as Cell lazily dropped from the trees and cautiously moved to support me, like I was a wounded brother on the battlefield.

“Get to Mor. She’ll give those humans a good bloody nose.” The scout said behind me as the sound of footsteps told me the orcs were closely following.

I sent a spirit connection to my familiar.

‘Carry me. Try to make sure the people have an hour to get away as you carry me back and then I’ll convince Mor to let us carry out our poison plans.’ I said to Cell as he lifted me up.

“We gets back as fast as can. But this is time to strike. Need poi- HUAGGH!” I gave a dramatic heave to emphasize my struggle. “Poison. Get humans too sick and we finish our journey.” I said to the orcs, turning my head over Cell’s vine shoulder. “Stay and keep eye out. Will take word to orc alpha.”

The orcs all nodded at that and promptly scurried through the darkened underbrush. I couldn’t risk any inconsistencies in my story being reported by an unseen scout so I ‘limped’ back towards the command tent on the last few miles to the command post south of the Viper base.

It took us more than an hour to get back to the command post and we had to stop just short as I mentally went over my story again and all the elements that were needed to give me the most desirable outcome.

The place was buzzing with activity as scouts rushed back and forth and as I came around the side of the small cave with a boulder on top, I saw Mor and the black robed Frojan Going over papers and furiously scanning the contents as they came and went under the torchlight. A few of the orcs squeaked as Cell and I pushed by. Off to the left, I saw Gula’s group. Her gaze towards me showed concern but she kept still as she tried to stay out of the way of the people coming and going.

Mor raised her head towards us as we approached the table. Her face grew pale when she saw my ‘condition’ as I propped myself against the table. Even the Frojan with a silvery back and green skin looked worried as he used his black robe to wipe away a few crumbs of a hastily eaten cracker from his jaw.

“Burning water is burned for good. But ritual was at fort as well. Not send any orcs. They die while humans only get sick.” I said like I was out of breath. The surrounding orcs all went wide eyed at my proclamation.

Mor’s eyes shot up and she quickly pushed aside her reports as she knocked on the table in an idle manner.

“Good, good. But we’ve gotten a lot of odd reports of huge numbers of humans flooding the roads with most heading towards the fort closer to the human’s main territory. I wouldn’t have thought burning those supplies would cause such a commotion.”

“Fort is fucked. Humans put burning supplies around pillar holding up fort wall-“ I gave a moment to heave a great cough but it was mostly to hide my annoyance at their stupidity. “And now fort wall is down. Humans probably abandoned it.” I finished.

The faces at the table were all in various states of elation. I saw the green faces of the orcs smiling in the torchlight as the eyes of the Fojan all lit up with the flickering torchlight.

A solid cheer burst through the crowd as shoulders were patted and whoops were heard. Mor actually seemed to get a little misty eyed at the announcement. She looked over the crowd and moved her left hand for someone to come forward.

From behind me, Gula came forward. Her face showing a repressed smile but there was fear in her gaze as she approached. Mor turned to her with watery eyes.

“Tell me, Gula. Is this how it felt? When you helped take down that first fortress.” She said in a cracking voice.

“No Ma’m. I know it can happen now but when it happened the first time… I didn’t believe… Seeing it happen now is great, but I was up in the clouds for hours after that first time. The first time I thought we might actually have a chance.” She said, making sure to look at me with an appreciative nod.

Mor gave her a big hug and a burst of joy erupted around the whole camp, with more than one mug being raised in the air. But Mor quickly moved back, straightening her leather jacket as she did so.

“All right girls. That’s enough. We’ve missed the opportunity to attack them leaving the forts. But they’ve probably left a lot behind. Will anything be safe to scavenge?” She asked, turning to me.

“Safe by morning. But since they used ritual in fort, probably well along in Main stone blasphemy. Hit two days at most.” I responded.

“Can you tell us anything about this ritual or what exactly it does?” The black robed Frojan asked as he finished drinking from a tankard.

“Uses dead people. Makes nonhumans very sick and then dead, humans slightly sick after long time. Mother not give all details, only know what is needed. Stone scar on land. Ritual. Mass death if fail.

Now that burning water is destroyed, we must poison humans in home near main stone blasphemy so cannot help when we take stone base and discuss with alpha humans. We go stop carriages along dirt scar tomorrow with orcs who set up traps while you get poison for humans’ ready.” I said, making sure to make a few movements like my shoulder was still hurt as I did so.

Mor puckered her lips in thought for a moment.

“And afterwards?” She asked with a hint of hope in her voice.

“We rest. Long, long time.” I said.

The faces around the table became deflated, with some looking dejected at the prospect of us leaving. Mor, however, decided not to push the issue.

“Understood. Thank you. Whatever happens, you’ve given us a better chance than I ever thought we had.” She said. Gula nodded as she drifted off to the side of the cave wall, seemingly just happy to be in with the main group now.

We spent a few more minutes going over some details about the state of the poison, how fast we could transport some of it, and other small items. Finally, the details were ironed out and I was free to head back to my little piece of home. Once I got back into the trees, I used the wooden coin. The sharp whine resounded out, causing some of the orcs to look up at me but off to the left, Salamede came out from the trees.

A mere nod and we were both off. Back at the temporary hideaway, I got in through the shallow roof past midnight and promptly flopped down on the floor as I used my vine suit to create a quick and dirty bed. Before I fell asleep, I felt Salamede curl up beside my back as we drifted off together.