138 138 Thunder
Morning dawned to the sight of Wolfe sitting in the parapet of a newly constructed keep, tossing volleys of [Fire Bolts] between approaching undead swarms and the barrier.
“What exactly are you doing?” Cassie asked, joining him on the roof of the keep.
“It’s Wolfe speak for ‘keep off my lawn.’ See how they change directions when the spell hits the ground? You might need to use a sensory spell to enhance your vision enough to see it clearly, but the general situation should be clear enough.” He replied, sending another three dozen [Firebolts] out to keep the undead moving away from their position.
“Let me rephrase. Why are you herding the undead to the Main lines?”
“Isn’t that the job of the flanks? I’m more than a lazy mana battery, after all.” He teased the slender brunette.
“You know we didn’t mean it like that.” Cassie laughed, then gave him a hug from behind before continuing.
“You’re cute when you’re pouting, but you should let those beasts who are coming behind the undead reach the lines, or the other commanders will accuse us of making them fight our battles again.”
The group was made up of a species of mutant boar, vicious and fast-breeding descendants of the wild pigs from before the great war.
A single volley into their front ranks was enough to send them charging straight at the center of their barrier. They didn’t care about the lingering undead or even why something had hit them. All they cared about was that one of their members was injured, and the attack came from this direction.
“Oh, they’re mad now. I’ve never seen them move so fast before. I hope the lines are ready.” Cassie laughed, still holding Wolfe and enjoying his body heat in the brisk morning air.
“If they’re not ready for the attack, they will be soon. The boars are still kilometres away, and I can hear them squeal from all the way up here.”
From the lines, Wolfe could see Ella swearing and making rude gestures at him. The team on duty had been watching carefully as the spells flew overhead, and she wasn’t happy about the target Wolfe had picked after chasing away the undead.
Wolfe knew she was aware that he could feel her annoyance through the Familiar Bond, but she seemed intent on letting him know it was directed at him specifically.
“You should probably keep casting. They’re just wounded and angry now.” Cassie reminded him.
“Give them a moment to really get going. Once they’ve committed to the attack, it will be much easier to hit them.”
Wolfe slowly drew his Mana Focus full so that he didn’t wake the sleeping Servants up by drawing through them and then waited for the perfect moment to attack.
He set the focus points for his [Lightning Bolts] and waited until the pigs were in range, then filled the sky with Lightning and cracks of thunder.
The strikes landed all through the horde of beasts, scorching and stunning the ones who took indirect strikes and directly exploding the ones he actually hit as Wolfe emptied his mana storage.
[What the heck are you doing? I was sleeping.] Stephanie yelled in his mind as the noise woke her from a sound sleep.
[Sorry, I forgot that directing large amounts of mana into Lightning Magic would create actual thunder and not just a buzzing noise.]
[Moron.]
Wolfe felt the cat settling back into her bed as he refilled his storage, getting a strong influx from the Servants, who had been scared half to death by the sound echoing through the empty tower of the keep.
Every soldier in the three camps was on their feet with weapons in hand before they realized that half the threat was already dead and the defences would have an easy time with the rest.
That attack probably didn’t earn him any new friends, but from what he could hear, the monsters were edible and tasty, so he had at least picked a good target.
The depleted storage rooms of the camps would be full again today, even if they were still going to be lacking in variety.
“New rule. No full force Lightning except during emergencies.” Priya yelled from down below him in the camp.
“Sorry, Lieutenant,” Wolfe shouted back and then began using [Telekinesis] to pick up corpses in the back of the battlefield and distribute them between the camps as a peace offering.
It wasn’t an easy task, and it was near the maximum range of his spell casting, but it was good practice to fine-tune his mana control.
Slowly the activity inside the three camps returned to normal after the battle. The night shift, including the Servants, returned to sleep, while the off-duty afternoon shift worked to butcher and magically preserve the harvest that the defenders had sent to them.
The chaos over the radio didn’t calm down as quickly. The thunder had scared many groups of monsters and changed their course, which meant that the entire zone within thirty kilometres of their position was clear of everything but the most aggressive species.
ƥαṇdαηθνε|
“Sure, just teach the other units the Lightning Array you learned, and they can try it as well.” She smirked, referring to speculation from the main lines on what had caused the phenomenon.
“Just wait, I’ll find one that you can use, and it will be glorious.” Wolfe agreed.
“This afternoon, we will have to start expanding the buildings in the camp and moving the Array poles for the inner defence barrier. As much as I want to, I won’t be able to keep you here forever, so I need to plan for the camp to defend itself.” Priya sighed, seeing all the work ahead of her.
“It’s nice here, though. Not as dark and stuffy as the city, cleaner too, even including the mess we just made.” Wolfe shrugged.
Priya clapped him on the shoulder with a smile for his enthusiasm but had to let Wolfe know that his optimism was misplaced. “Our unit is gathering a lot of jealous onlookers. We have entirely too many magic users, and the rest of our existing officers are already too powerful to remain as junior non-commissioned officers.
The army likes keeping units together, but that only goes so far, and we are quickly moving past that point. Just wait until someone contacts the Purity Guardians, those zealots who think that Familiars are a sign of morality.
They’ll do everything they can to split the unit apart so you can’t be a bad influence on the Witches.
I am surprised they’re not here yet, but that could have to do with the Inquisition. They don’t actually have the authority to change deployments, but they’re good at falsifying paperwork showing that the ones they targeted asked for transfers or time off before they disappeared.”
“Back at the Academy, that sort were mostly angry Commoners, and the Demon thing was an excuse to target the Nobles,” Wolfe replied while thinking of the day they had attacked Christa Abilene and her Goblin.
“Then you know what I’m talking about. But we’re not in the Academy, and they might do something stupid if they find out about how the unit gained its power.”