-Callen-

  Getting the people out had been a near thing. I had spent the night banishing stone into the void, enchanting decoys, and communicating with Callia using our bond to guide our tunnel into the town. I was a bit spooked at one point when we heard the sound of a tunnel over us collapsing and frightened people screaming while being crushed by stone, but despite that, when we reached the surface, the looks of relief and hope on everyone’s faces were worth it. The earthkin went to work setting up the decoy guards to make it appear the town hadn’t given up defending while I assembled the GFS. The size of objects I stored in the void was limited, but it seemed to improve with my will and skill level.

  The civilians brought only what they could carry and were each given a chunk of fish bone with runes that would make an illusionary fire. It was dawn when the last sweep for civilians was completed, and many were red-eyed from working hard through the night. Before sealing our tunnel entrance, Lord Portten grabbed my shoulder and thanked me sincerely. I wasn’t sure how I should respond, but a nod seemed sufficient for the man. The sound of warhorns signaled that it was time to leave.

  The GFS was slow, clunky, and poorly designed and took several minutes starting up and lifting off the ground. It was just fast enough to make its lift off as enemy soldiers reached the walls. Just as planned, the enemy focused all their attention on me as I drifted the GFS away from them. It wouldn’t have been apparent from below, but the deck was torn to absolute shreds. Had we tried to evacuate civilians with this thing, we could easily have lost over half. My projectile shield even triggered from two would-have-been hits and one dangerously fast splinter.

  The turbines were shot to crap, and I had to fight the ship to keep it from listing, but I successfully crossed over into the forest. While I could fly, the GFS was guzzling the mana that had been charged into the craft just before leaving. It would only last a couple hours under normal circumstances, but with the damage, I was going to crash in less than an hour. Still, I managed to drag the scouts who pursued me into Nixie’s zone. It was sad to see the GFS die, but I promised myself to work with the Earthkin and make them a new one once this was over.

  -Nixie-

  The other day was something of a shock. I woke up in the morning and suddenly knew my stats had been unlocked. I had resigned myself to waiting for the natural occurrence. An expert trapper was a niche kind of job that was created more by the growing influence of Callia and Callen, but it definitely lacked the kind of stand out nature that had unlocked my siblings' stats. With nothing exciting going on recently, I went down to try to figure out what had changed.

  I never expected that my specialty would result in me being entrusted with the leadership of the town's scouts and woodsmen. My job was what I do best, but this time without limits. I was entrusted with making a field of death that would cover Callen's escape. With about twenty able-bodied minions, I went to my workshop and dug up every weapon I had theory-crafted and sent to Callen. I had an arsenal of traps deemed too dangerous for daily use. However, war changed the rules, and considering this would be a random chunk of woods nobody cared for, I could finally let loose.

  When we were finally in position, I started giving orders with ease. The easy-to-set traps would be at the front and sprinkled among the more complex works built further back. I hummed as I carefully laid down landmines, flesh-cutting wires, living mana reactive explosives, and poisonous dart launchers. The scouts cleared out any monsters that wanted to interfere while I worked, and the second layer was already in the works. I had my minions digging pit traps, cutting logs for swinging traps, adjusting foliage to corral our prey into well-designed kill zones, and building large swinging spike walls. Of course zone two had some of zone one’s traps littered in as I camouflaged their work and properly installed the traps.

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  My real pride was zone three. Using the various wands Callen had made me, I altered terrain to include random caltrop-like spikes from random roots and pit traps that were entirely invisible from the surface as I carved them out without disturbing the surface, and I busted out my arsenal of Callen's prohibited weapons. Spinning blades for swings and projectiles, undetectable stakes, and my current favorite, concentrated Nightshade poison gathered from the fields of nightshade that I harvested before they had faded after The Great Bear had been driven away.

  Callen even made special gear for me to use when applying the poison to eliminate any chance of being afflicted. The suit might have come with a promise to never use it unless I was certain nobody I didn’t want dead would be anywhere near. The last part I had to do on my own, so I sent the rest of the team off to begin digging pitfalls on and around the road.

  The whirling of propellers coming to me signaled it was time to move on myself as the GFS drifted over my position. The road traps had to be lethal but also visible enough that we would be able to clear them out once the bandits were dealt with. Which meant I had to switch back to controlled terror. As I ran for the road, I felt a shift in my XP as it rose rapidly. The poor fools had gone somewhere I would never willingly risk returning to. A part of me felt a vindictive satisfaction knowing for each man who died there was one less that would fight us later, but I also felt a burden. This was the first time my traps had been used on people; these were the first humans I had killed. I caught up with my squad and got to work setting basic trap camouflage and spikes while keeping us moving fast enough to stay ahead of a marching army.

  It was late the next day when we finally arrived at the river crossing. From the distance I could see the formidable defenses set up on the far side of the river. I wanted to go back and help everyone else, but my work wasn’t done. I needed to provide deterrence in case they chose to bypass our fortifications and head south to Woodside. My team continued laying traps on the path to Woodside while wishing Callen and Callia fortune in battle.

  Useless Efforts

  Baron Eldraine’s army moved into the forest as a disorganized mob. The few scouts who had made it back had died on the ground seizing and vomiting. The spotters left were assigned to the flanks of the army to prevent an ambush from the woods. However, constant delays had slowed his speed by nearly half. Marching an army was much slower than a convoy and could drag the journey of two days to four under normal circumstances, but with all the stops being made, it threatened to drag on for nearly a week.

  The baron was well prepared for this to take some time, but the impact on morale was growing, and the lack of goods from the last town had set a bad precedent. Instead of slowing down, he decided to push harder. Camp followers, the men and women who would follow an army seeking to make money offering goods and services for plunder, were dragged to the front and used to test the ground ahead for traps.

  This made the march easier for his army, but the lower ranks seemed quite distressed, frequently passing holes with men and women screaming, trying to climb out while bleeding profusely. That or the mangled bodies of civilians who had been hit by large objects. The baron, however, didn’t care and was pleased to have so easily protected his army while cleaning up the parasites that wanted his loot. The Baron’s aide watched from the side but was much less enthusiastic about advising the baron. The failure of Portten had resulted in his being brutally beaten within an inch of his life. The man was beginning to feel that following the baron may not have been a good idea. The sight of a dying woman trapped in a pitfall only affirmed his feelings.

  “Such traps are a useless effort! We have more than enough of these leeches to fill every hole between us and that accursed town. Send the order to march faster! The screams of these wastes are making my partners uncomfortable, and I want to be done with this forest. Such useless efforts really are the struggles of dirt commoners.”

  A grim silence settled as the screams of their followers heralded each step of the baron's path.