[SD:SC] Ancient Battlefield And Ancient Foes - Chapter 5

The herd of sheep, the cattlekin cowboy shepherds, and the various adventuring parties make their way into the ancient battlefield. A fact that becomes more evident once they see the less weathered areas up close.

Perfectly circular divots in the ground wider than two wagons end to end. Stone walls with perfectly smooth sides, only just hidden by plants and any dirt that has blown up against them. Expanses of glassed soil, some shattered, some not. And a few places with a bit too much obsidian.

The cowboys are all on alert as the herd makes their way through this broken landscape. Softened only by countless years allowing plants to slowly make a go at reclaiming things.

The cowboy next to Gem’s team shakes their head, “We’re going to need to report this place. This should have been a fight between Metallics.”

Gem looks around, paying extra close attention. “How can you tell? I mean, yeah, the place is pretty torn up, but it is also overgrown by this point. Unless you’re seeing some obvious marks of an S-rank spell, I don’t get how you’d be able to tell.”

The cowboy plucks a nearby leaf and tosses it into the air. “The wind is practically dead and has been since we entered.”

They then point towards a nearby pit. “And something like that should at least have a puddle at the bottom. Where’s the water?”

The cowboy sighs, “This has to be the site of an ancient battle between a metallic rank fire mage and earth warrior. At least it has been long enough that things aren’t swelteringly hot and gravity feels twice what it should. Instead, we simply deal with minor environmental effects. Though the lack of water is problematic.”

Gem, “If it has lingered this long, how would you fix it? And why aren’t there more places like this? Like, if top-end fights cause lingering damage, even if people don’t go wild, wouldn’t monsters?”

The cowboy shrugs, “High-rank fighters can be just about anywhere, but high-rank monsters? They survive off of environmental Mana or else they’d consume entire ecosystems. Which also means that they’re forced to live in high-Mana environments if they don’t want to constantly feel like they’re starving.

“So yeah, most high-end fights are restricted to areas with enough Mana so the effects don’t linger as long. That is also why most such areas are the result of person on person combat. Though sometimes a high-rank monster can rampage into lower-level areas.”

Gem, “Huh, I would have figured it was simply that those in charge would keep things in line.”

The cowboy laughs, “Why do you think it works like that in the first place?”

Gem holds up their hands, “Yeah, fair enough. I should have seen that coming.”

The group transitions to joking around after that and for the most part, the next hour is peaceful enough. That, of course, couldn’t last. Not only was this a strange area soaked with ancient battle magic, but they already knew something was here, what with it making the sheep nervous.

So it came as no surprise when the scouts raised an alarm. The cowboy listens and frowns, “We have some fast enemies incoming. No time to prepare.”

The group pulls out their weapons, but there really is no time to prepare. Even as they’re raising the weapons up, monsters come up over the nearby berm. And given how tall the monsters are, there must have been a gully behind it to hide them from view.

Gem laughs and shouts, “We’ve got feathered dinosaurs! Hehehe, I’m going to get myself some raptor feathers out of this!”

And they aren’t wrong. While not directly taken from a known species, this was clearly based heavily on a velociraptor, giant toe claw and all. With feathers. Which come in a colorful array of patterns and contrasts their grey-green skin.

Then, the closest raptor breathes fire.

Gem had gotten a bit ahead of everyone else and had to jump backwards to avoid being crispier than they would prefer to be. Though that doesn’t stop them from flinging off a charged Wind Blade, taking out the raptor behind the one breathing fire.

Sans a leg, that raptor falls over, out of the fight if not quite dead yet. Though that will soon follow, given the freely bleeding major vein.

Of course, these few early enemies aren’t the only raptors. All along the front arc of the herd, raptors are popping up and jumping down on the sheep below. Some of those nearby, however, misjudge their jumps, which results in more than a few broken legs.

Emrys smiles with each such instance. His illusory terrain fools only those with a weaker will, but every monster counts.

Samuel ignores this and simply stands in front of the sheep, who have clustered together. For now, his job isn’t to protect the party, it is to complete the mission. To protect the sheep.

Gem in turn ignores him because that sounds boring. Oh sure, Gem isn’t going to let these dinosaurs harm a single hair of the fluffy beauties behind them. It is just that they’re going to take a more aggressive stance under that old saw about how “the best defense is a good offense”.

So they jumped up and landed on a platform, bringing themselves up above the berm hiding the rest of the monsters. And oh boy! Were there a lot of them? What was on the other side of the berm was less of a gully and more of a lakebed, swarming with raptors. And at the very center, the reason for why they are all there in the first place.

A giant corpse of some sauropod. Except, much larger than Gem remembers seeing them being in museums and lessons. They were actually a bit shocked someone hadn’t seen it as they approached the area. Then again, even if someone had spotted it, they would have likely mistaken it for part of the terrain. The muddy brown, green coloration blends in better than you’d expect for something of that size.

Gem turns to the cowboy, “So, uh, there’s more than expected. I think we should keep things moving because I don’t think we win this if we try to hunker down and take them all.”

The cowboy frowns as he pulls his heavy sword out of a dead raptors spine. “How many is ‘more than expected’?”

Gem shrugs, “I’d say they outnumber us a good five times over?”

The cowboy turns and bellows towards the center of the herd. From which a sheepfolk jumps high into the air to survey the danger.

Gem raises an eyebrow, “And why didn’t anyone check before now? If you have someone who can do that, it seems wasteful not to scout out a fight.”

The cowboy shrugs, “Oh, they don’t actually have a spell for that. It’s instead a ring of the frog. Some new travellers sold us theirs. Seems it was one of the potential options for new players to receive. It works off of your existing ability, so the low level on the ring doesn’t matter much. Rather, it so the limited uses that cause us problems.”

Gem, “Huh, that’s the same ring I got. You want to buy mine? I’ve not exactly been using it and with my platforms, I have even less need for it.”

The cowboy’s eyes gleam, “Well, I wouldn’t say no!” They then sign, “But that is the kind of thing our provisioner needs to handle. After we get past this fight, I’ll bring you over to them so that something can be worked out.”

Gem smiles, “Sounds like a plan!”

And so, with that sorted, they turn their attention fully on the dinosaurs. All while the entire herd of sheep is slowly coaxed into moving. Because the high-jumping sheepfolk had confirmed what Gem saw. There were simply too many raptors to fight.

So slowly at first and picking up speed as the sheep realized this was to get away, everyone is fighting a moving battle. And despite Gem not wanting to lose a single sheep, that simply wasn’t in the cards.

As the guards and cowboys pushed back at the dinosaurs, leaks would occur. One raptor slipped between two groups, their toe claw easily slashing the throat of a sheep and then dragging it away from the fight. Elsewhere, a small pack manages to overwhelm a team, and a few grab snacks.

However, as the forward momentum of the herd picks up, less sheep are taken. While it is harder for the various groups to defend, the moving sheep are in turn harder to take.

Throughout all this, Gem is tossing out Wind Blades left and right. Their Air Platforms proved to be the perfect tool to get off a single well-placed shot. Sure, Gem still could feel the way to sustain a platform. It was simply that making them last wasn’t useful for this fight. They were on the move and so a stationary point was less than useful.

Besides, there were important targets that Gem was better off going to. Yes, every one of these dinosaurs was the same base species. Some sort of velociraptor-style dinosaur. However, that didn’t mean they were all Just that species.

There was a smattering of tougher “dire” raptors. A simple evolution that increased their size, added bone spikes, and improved whatever they mainly used to live. Which, in the case of the raptors, tended to mean an exaggerated toe claw.

More worrying and Gem’s main target, where not the dire raptors. Instead, they focused on the elemental raptors. Not a full spread. All that is represented among these dinosaurs was appropriately, Fire and Earth. Though mostly Fire, like that very first raptor.

And Gem made sure that even if they couldn’t protect all of the sheep. At the very least, large swaths of them weren’t being set on fire. Oh, and the Earth raptors tended to be a tanky pain to deal with, but also most likely to grab a sheep.

So Gem kept plugging away at them. Their spear shots pierced through stony hides, and the actual spears pierced more than a few raptors that figured they would be an easier target in melee. Which, to be fair, Gem would be easier to take down in melee. A shame Gem isn’t alone for the raptors to pile on.

Good thing for Gem and their team though. Every melee kill is another spell they can make use of later. And with each passing moment, that becomes ever more important. They aren’t even attempting to charge their spells. Though someone else notices one detail.

June, “Should you really be using the air platforms? That costs Mana as well.”

Gem, “Mana well spent! I need to target down the fire breathers before they can AOE us.”

June, “Just leave them. We have defensive casters to handle that. You only have, like what, 25-ish casts? Less because the platform spell isn’t as high level?”

Gem, “Rocking 30 Wind Blades. Though after all this casting, I’m down to maybe ten.”

The nearby cowboy speaks up, “Reserve them from now on! I want those casts saved for any more serious threat that might pop up.”

Gem shrugs, “Fair enough.”

So of course, Gem joins the front line. Their spear work isn’t the best, but each strike is straight and well aimed. Though even then, they can’t help, but use a spell or two. Not like they’d be gaining Mana back while the fight was ongoing. The local Mana field was too riled up to be properly absorbed without hurting oneself.

The herd is really moving at this point and despite their much higher stats than the average sheep, all the defenders are basically forced into a jog. The new pattern to combat was simple enough. Jog along until an enemy presents itself.

If you can beat the monster in a swing or two, stop and stab. Simple as. Then you pick up the pace and go behind anyone else who has stopped until you find an opening to position yourself in.

If the monster is too much to beat easily, take a swing, but keep moving. None of the raptors actually need to die, though it helps. At this point, all that matters is getting away from the swarm of them over the berm.

And everyone pushes. The terrain isn’t favorable to them, preventing the herd from just turning and running away from the raptors. So all the group can do is endure.

Gem’s Mana slowly slips through their fingers. Only 8 casts of Wind Blade. 7, 6, 5 and the raptors aren’t as thick. More time comes in-between them being forced to cast.

4. The raptors have thinned out significantly, except those that are left? They’re the strong raptors that decided to follow. 3. Gem can no longer bring the raptors down with a well-placed spear point. But they’re close to getting away.

2. There are only a few raptors left. Which also means people can finally team up against them. And while Gem doesn’t end it, their second to last Wind Blade is used to distract a velociraptor wannabe that is twice the normal raptors height. Leaving Gem with only a single cast of Wind Blade and no monsters to cast it on.

Picked One, Delayed The Other - Chapter 4

Gem Leaves Home - Chapter 6