AO 6 Ch 21

At this point, I was digging deep underneath the fortress, using my magic to sense all of the stone above me. The fortress itself was set upon an incredibly rocky hill, which made sense. It was likely that the hill had been forged by a mage once upon a time, or even more likely, a whole team of them.

Even for me, moving this much stone was incredibly difficult. I had to use my magic to soften it into more malleable earth and then push it aside. Moving this rock into itself was just impossible. 

At the same time, I was trying to be fairly careful with how much magic I was expending. There were mages nearby in the fortress. Even if they didn't expect barbarians to suddenly recruit an earth mage to solve everything, they weren't so naive as to be entirely unaware. After all, they were at war with two of their other neighbors. They did not have the luxury of being lax. 

"How much longer is this going to take?" Zuri asked me. 

"As long as it takes," I sighed and shook my head. "I can't exactly rip this entire flab of bedrock out in a single go. Otherwise, obviously, they're going to know we're coming. And the whole plan here is to do this at least marginally stealthily.”

“Chances of us getting everyone tonight are slim to none, which means when they go run back and report, I’d really rather the first thing they say not be 'an earth mage did all of this.'" Zuri rubbed at her temple, but I could only shrug.

"Well, then, it will take as long as it takes," I reiterated. "But, if you would like some good news, we're starting to go up rather than over." 

"Good news is good," Eva said, rubbing her hands together. She still looked quite cold, though the temperature had definitely improved. Underneath the hill, it was a touch warmer than outside, and it sheltered us nicely from the frigid wind that seemed to perversely enjoy cutting right through our clothes and into our bones. 

"I never thought I would be so eager to kill people," Eva said, still holding her furs tight. 

"Me neither. But this one in particular needs to be done," I said, my eyes growing hard as I slowly lifted us up through the rock. "Is this taking longer than expected?" I asked Zuri. She wasn't normally one to rush me. 

"If Emlyn and Aurelia stuck to their end of the plan, they should be done soon," she said, pursing her lips. "Which means we might have a whole crowd of angry barbarians rushing to the fort's doorstep. We could still get the element of surprise, but attacking an already alert opponent isn't as ideal as attacking someone not alert at all."

Zuri wasn’t normally one to make mistakes, which meant that I was going slower than expected.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it would have been the perfect plan, Zuri, if the barbarians attacked at the same time we did. Not to mention it would allow us to keep the guise that this is all a barbarian attack." I sped up slightly, increasing the risk of being discovered just a smidge. If the Northmen were already on their way, then alerting them of a mage sapper wouldn't cause much of a difference.

As if Zuri was a fortune teller, Emlyn and Aurelia rushed down the tunnel to join us. Emlyn paused, glancing at me as I continued to work. 

"Nope, we aren't there yet," I gestured to the side. "Are the Northmen hordes rushing this way?" I asked with a smile. 

"Don't know if I would call it a horde. There were only four villages that we riled up, but that should be enough for them to call on more," Aurelia threw the hood of her own cloak off. "But we lost them about two miles away from the fort. There's no way they're going to think the attack was anything else than from garrisoned troops." 

"And what did you do to them?" I asked, seeing a slightly guilty expression from Emlyn. 

"We may or may not have stolen their food," Emlyn shrugged. "And Aurelia also set their chief's house on fire." 

I closed my eyes for a brief moment. "Alright, well, what's done is done. It makes some sense, given the current situation in Garrish," I nodded along, "that they'd steal food. Still don't like it," I said, as Zuri gave me a glare that told me to stick to the plan. 

"They were arming themselves and rushing after us," Emlyn tried to make the situation better, but that information didn't particularly make anyone but Zuri happy. 

"Good. Then I need one of you to go outside and keep track if they come. If I'm going to play being a mage sapper," I gestured at the rock I was removing even while talking with them. “I might as well do that to the fullest," I said, changing the plan slightly. 

"Just get us up there so that we can deal with the chancellor before the chancellor deals with the Northmen," Zuri said before she shot back the way I had tunneled in. The entrance itself was small enough to hide behind a bush, and from there she could likely keep an eye out for anything that was happening with the Northmen's attack. 

Things were getting more complicated by the second. Rather than continuing to move slowly, I picked up my pace. At this point, if there was a wolf mage up above paying the slightest bit of attention, they would feel what I was doing down below. That was just going to have to be okay, because what I couldn't allow was for the fortress to decimate whatever Northmen population Emlyn and Aurelia had just riled up.

Zuri came running back down the tunnel as I neared the fortress's foundation. 

"There's a lot of barbarians gathering about a ten-minute march outside the fort," she reported. 

"Good," I said. "Then it sounds like we're getting ready." 

My serpent sphere opened up and dumped life magic into my soul, flooding Soulguard as I stared between the anchors. 

"All four of you, don't forget, you are essentially immortal. So you can be as suicidal as you want when killing mages and keeping Northmen alive." I watched each of them in turn. "Don't forget, our goal here is to clear out the fortress and give room for the Northmen to attack. That means killing leadership and mages as a top priority." 

I started glancing between them, waiting for confirmation.

"And you are going to stay here where it is safe until we've cleared a swath. I assume you'll have to come up when it comes time to fight Chancellor," Zuri added, reiterating the plan. 

I held my hands up. "Yes, I will stick to the plan. Eva stays down here with me. You four all get to go up under the absolute promise." I held my hands out to show Emlyn that I wasn't crossing my fingers. "That I will stay put and I will stay underground. I will even reinforce this until it is a blue steel box." 

Emlyn narrowed her eyes. "Are you crossing your toes?" 

"No, I am not crossing my toes. To be honest I don't want to be up there. This one's on you guys." I flashed them a smile. 

I kept digging us forward, getting close enough that I could punch a simple spiral staircase right up into some cellar of the fort. Then I did just that.

As soon as it opened up I could hear dozens of men shouting. But that only lasted a moment before my anchors shot through, leaving Eva and I underground. 

Eva turned to me while we waited.

"So, what do you think my other soul magics do?" I asked, with a giant smile plastered across my face. 

***

Emlyn led the group of anchors as they launched themselves up the spiral staircase into the soldiers that were scrambling in the fortress. Someone had certainly sensed Ard recently, based on the number of armed and partially armored men rushing down the stairs with their swords drawn. 

Aurelia stopped a dozen feet short of the men and swung her battle axe into confused expressions. In her kingdom blues and the bluesteel axe, she looked every part of the ferocious anchor.

But that was exactly what confused them. While anchors could certainly channel magic, something at this distance was unheard of for them. But then again, none of them were a standard anchor. 

As Ard's fire magic poured through the bluesteel axe and out in an arc of fire so thick it almost seemed liquid, it formed up into a row of flaming fangs that chomped down on the enemy soldiers, splitting and charring half a dozen of them. 

Emlyn blinked. "Shit. Was that like a proper spell, Aurelia?" She turned to the Virel. 

"Of course it was. I've seen a dozen Virel mages use that very one. Now that I have magic, it just seemed like it was about time for me to use it too," she said with a shrug. 

Emlyn's jaw dropped. Sure, she was using Ard's magic and had even thrown some lightning bolts and made walls of stone, but she hadn't actually cast a spell, something with that level of form and realization. Suddenly she felt intense competition from the Virel anchor. 

"It’s not a big deal, Emlyn.” Zuri stopped short and with a flick of her wrist, an arrow of light shot out and into the next row of soldiers rushing down the stairs. Zuri cracked a small smile. 

"Yeah, yeah." Emlyn waved a hand at both of them. "Quit showing off. You all seem like Ard." 

Zuri kept fighting while taunting Emlyn. "I don't think comparing me to someone who's likely to go down in history as the greatest mage of his era is as effective as you think, Emlyn." 

"You know what I mean," she grouched. Even Zuri had stepped ahead of her on the magic? Aurelia was understandable, she was born and bred by a house of elite mages.

"I’m not so sure I do if you were implying anything else." Zuri offered. 

"Yeah, you do." Emlyn wasn't giving up so easily. "I will have you know, the rest of us aren't stupid." 

Zuri corrected her quickly. "Well, what you meant you didn’t say.”

“Given how you implied to Ard that he heal people only to cut them up and use them to stave off hunger. You do plenty of it yourself." Emlyn shot back, still stuck on that suggestion she’d offered when they first entered the badlands.

Rather than ascending the stairs that Aurelia was currently battling up, Emlyn used Ard's magic to crumble a wall and create her own exit. This seemed far more preferable than facing the mass of soldiers likely gathered at the top of the stairs. Zuri was patiently waiting with her. 

In the midst of all this chaos, Maribelle had somehow already disappeared. Emlyn was certain there would be consequences of Ard's wild anchor on the loose. That or she’d come back with a bag of mage heads like a cat coming back with a bird looking for praise.

"Anyway," Emlyn said, turning back to Zuri, "how about we get out of here and worry about competing over magic spells later?" A little lightning trickled off her fingertips. "Right now, I just want to blow things up." 

Zuri smirked. "For all the grief you give Ard, you're really not that different." 

Emlyn shivered. "You say the meanest things." She finished creating her hole in the cellar and jumped out through it, Zuri right on her heels. 

"Oh come on, you're his anchor. It doesn't actually offend you that much, does it?" Zuri probed.

"I want to say it does, just to win the conversation," Emlyn squinted back at her, "but truthfully, no, it doesn't bother me a bit. I just have a competitive bone to pick with Ard. It's part of my charm." She flashed Zuri a smile. 

They emerged in what appeared to be an officer's room, judging by the man who was halfway through getting dressed. He paused, a jacket covered in commendations in his hands. He didn't get to finish whatever he was about to say before his head rolled.

"By the way, what are the chances that Ard does something stupid while we're here, even if he stays down there?" Emlyn was slightly distracted as she swung her sword and splatted blood on the floor. 

"Why would you even put that out into the universe?" Zuri grumbled.

"Because it had to be asked," Emlyn shrugged.

"Well, now that you put it out there, I think Ard's gonna do something really stupid. But we'll just have to see what exactly he chooses. We can't exactly hold his hand through all of it now, can we?" Zuri challenged.

Emlyn turned the corner, and a group of soldiers were rushing down the hall, only for them to stop dead. Their bodies slowly slid apart as a boom of thunder ripped through the hall. Emlyn appeared on the other side. 

She snorted, "Who needs spells?" She wrinkled her nose. "A good old-fashioned sword stroke seems to do the trick." 

Zuri was coming up behind her quickly, her two shorter, curved swords in her hands. 

Emlyn guessed that she could just fire off arrows of light if she needed the range while they were on this trip. The bow was probably too bulky for her to carry running through the halls. 

Zuri paused and looked down the crossway in each direction before glancing up at the ceiling.

"Do you know where we're at in the fortress?" Emlyn asked.

"I think so. But I want to go to the roof," Zuri pointed up. "Would you be willing to make us another hole?" 

"If you're just going to make me work construction, you're going to have to pay me, Zuri," Emlyn said. But while speaking, she jumped up to touch the smooth masonry above her. She was able to convert it from stone to sand across an area big enough for them to jump through one by one.

Of course, their entrance caused even more commotion. Soldiers were no longer rushing about. Instead, they were more steady and completely armed. 

Emlyn stayed by the hole to guard Zuri as she shot up, but the other anchor had no such responsibility.

Zuri jumped up and nearly bounced off the wall before spinning into the soldiers, her two blades making meticulous work of them. Each spin, both blades found a throat, slicing through it. 

Emlyn was an agile fighter, but Zuri was certainly a step above her in that regard. It almost looked like Zuri was doing a ballroom dance as she spun through the crowd. Emlyn was far less graceful, charging through in a single line. Her longsword cleaved through anything in its path. All of the magic reinforcing her body went straight into the power of her swing, and the bluesteel sword held firm through it all.

As soon as they finished, Zuri repeated what she had done on the prior floor. She paused and looked around before pointing at a section of the roof. "Here.” 

“We're still going up?" Emlyn asked.

"Up, up, up. If we get to the top, that's when we're going to see the mages that we need to kill. At least so far, I'm not seeing any amongst the rabble." Zuri gestured at everyone running up, then at the dead bodies down the corridor. "So we can either continue to play around with them... Or do what we came here to do, Emlyn." 

Emlyn didn't listen to her. Instead, he turned a strip of the ceiling into sand for the two of them to go through. "I want to get this over with just as quickly. It reduces the amount of time Ard has to do something stupid." she said, pausing and gesturing for Zuri to go first. "After you." 

Zuri was the tactician of the group and generally very warm to Ard, but to most people, Zuri would be described as no-nonsense or cold. Not that that really mattered. Their group was a bunch of weirdos. 

As soon as Zuri shot through the hole, there was already the sound of fighting above them. Emlyn didn't wait, rushing up herself.

Guarding her body with earth magic, Emlyn was quickly hit by a crossbow arrow in the center of the chest. She blinked and looked down, where her kingdom blues were scuffed by the steel bolt. She grabbed it before it fell, holding tight and activating the lightning magic in her to zip down the hall and bury it in the head of the soldier who'd fired the bolt.

"I thought I'd return this," Emlyn said, smiling, as the soldier slumped to the ground, already dead, and not able to hear her half-hearted apology. "Well, that was just rude," Emlyn said, glancing down at the floor. 

"Are you done?" Zuri asked, hand on her hip, watching Emlyn. 

"I think so." She shrugged and threw the sword over her shoulder. She made quick work of the rest. 

Without being asked this time, Emlyn touched a wall, and through its connection with the earth, opened up another path in the ceiling. Zuri stepped up, jumping through just as quickly as the hole formed.

"You know, you could say thank you," Emlyn commented, only for Zuri to pause. 

"Thank you. Now, can we keep going?" Zuri asked.

They reached the rooftop without too much trouble. As Zuri had said, from this vantage point, the whole situation of the fort was easy to see.

And now Emlyn could see that the Northmen had taken a unique approach to this attack. Emlyn had to admit, it was, in its own way, kind of genius. 

Rather than using siege engines, they were currently standing as far back as they could, using sticks with scoops shaped at the end to lob snow at the base of the fort. Emlyn smirked. "Are they just going to build up a snow mound?" she asked Zuri, somewhat incredulous at the idea, but it would defeat the walls.

There were a few arrows flying from the fort, but ultimately, between the harsh winds and the thick furs on the Northmen, the arrows were useless. Crossbows were even worse, the bolts were torn from their path by the wind and scattered amongst the snow. 

"It's not the worst idea I've ever seen," Zuri commented. "In fact, it'll probably work if a mage doesn't come out here soon and make the whole exercise worthless." 

Emlyn grunted. It was a fair point. In all of the battles, mages were an equalizer that was hard to combat without another mage.

"Well, I think they've got this, especially with us helping them out." Emlyn was nowhere near as sentimental as Ard, but she had to agree with Ard on this one. She didn't want to see the Northmen pay for their attack. It simply wasn't fair to them.

And she also didn't want Brusset to cave her face in when she reported their activities back to Melida. She wasn't entirely sure how sentimental the giant Northman might be to the plights of his people, but she anticipated he would care at least a little. 

Emlyn watched the events playing out below. While soldiers did little work peppering arrows directly into the frosty storm, there were other groups gathering for their own attack. At least, that's the way it looked. Emlyn could spot a group of anchors on a wall, as well as another section that held mage-forged that likely hid their mage among them. 

As Emlyn glanced about, she couldn't spot the Chancellor, which was frustrating. Their entire trip to that fortress had been to kill any that they had here. 

Zuri crouched next to her, scanning everything with a calculating expression. 

"Thoughts?" Emlyn asked. 

Zuri glanced back. "Nothing out of the ordinary. I think we should just focus on killing as many mages and anchors as we can."

"And the Chancellor?" Emlyn asked, "You know, the whole reason we're here?" 

The Trevis anchor shrugged. "I always sort of figured Maribelle would find them or Aurelia would flush them out. In part, our goal really is just to make as big a mess as possible." Zuri shrugged again. "So if that means taking out the mages starting at the bottom, then so be it."

With those words, Zuri put her hands together, one palm atop the other, before she stretched them out. A curious small bow formed, only to grow larger as she expanded her hands. It was mostly made of light, though the string was made of dark magic, as were the horns. 

Emlyn squinted at what was most certainly another spell and more complicated than the first. "Really? When have you all been practicing this?" Emlyn threw her hands in the air. Was she the only one that wasn't using actual spells at this point?

"Don't tell me you haven't spent all your time as an anchor  watching mages work and you haven’t thought about the one spell you would make for yourself if you could? Using all that soul juice that Ard has pushed into us I find it easier to sort of realize where I want my magic to go and I just know what I wanted to make." Zuri answered.

Zuri completed making a bow that was a mixture of light magic and dark magic. The weapon was just as big as the normal one which was big enough that she had to collapse it so that she could carry it around. Once she was finished, she pulled back the bowstring made of dark magic only for an arrow of light to appear and began firing into the mass before them. 

A mage who had been talking to his anchor flew sideways as Zuri's arrow nailed him in the head with enough force to nearly rip it from his shoulder, certainly enough to send him flying.

Emlyn knew that his head was probably damaged beyond repair based on the way it cracked the stone. 

Zuri squinted. "I think it was too solid," she murmured to herself. "Not sharp enough?" She squinted harder, shrugging. "Did the trick."

Emlyn chuckled, even as that group of anchors and even more attention turned their way from down below. There was shouting and fingers being pointed up at the two of them. 

"Well, you said to cause as much trouble as possible," Emlyn twirled her sword back and forth, getting a little excited about the prospect of the next fight. 

"Knock yourself out," Zuri chuckled. "And I mean that sarcastically. Please don't make me explain to Ard why I have to carry you back." 

Emlyn chuckled. "Oh, I think you'll be carrying back something, but it won't be me, that's for sure." Emlyn threw herself down into the oncoming group of combatants. Her sword flashed back and forth.

Even if she didn't hit one of the targets directly, a small jag of lightning jumped off the blade and stunned anybody nearby long enough for her to come back around with a second swift sweep and finish them off.

It was easy to kill when fighting recklessly. So often the battle was the other measuring you up before trying to deal a lethal blow and protect themselves. 

But with earth magic shrouding her kingdom blues and her skin, Emlyn ignored the shallow cuts that started peppering her skin as the enemy attacked her.

Even as she stacked up small cuts bleeding down her armor, there was a smooth salve of life magic flowing between her connection with Ard. She wondered if the idiot could feel her injuries given the way he was shoving life magic into her and closing them nearly as quickly as they formed.

Emlyn smiled as she continued pushing forward among the fray.

At the moment, she was certainly not a normal anchor. Anchors were not this strong. Sure, they could put up a good fight and dish out damage far greater than any single soldier on the battlefield. But with an earth magic shell around her body and life magic healing her wounds from behind, she didn’t need to concern herself with defense, just how quickly she could put her blade in the enemy and then the next.

Emlyn hesitated as she realized what she had become. She was a four-sphere anchor. What she was experiencing must be similar to how Ard must have felt when he first touched on magic.

He had it all and accessed it with a simplicity that would probably incite others to strangle him if he got too cocky about the ability.

After all, it felt pretty unfair to Emlyn as she parried the heavy swing from an anchor whose fire magic was pouring off him. Poor guy didn’t even know what was about to hit him.

He grinned, pumping fire through his shoddy bluesteel blade.

It burned Emlyn, but she simply didn't care. Using her other hand, she negligently jolted off his arm in a snap of lightning magic, moving faster than he could have expected and bent his knee in the wrong direction with a small rock.

His eyes widened like an idiot as she switched between earth and lightning, her wounds healing before his eyes.

"Don't take it personally," Emlyn shrugged, flicking her sword back around as he collapsed. "Ard makes everyone look like that by the time he's done with them."

While Emlyn was having a little too much fun, an arrow of light shot over her shoulder and pinned an anchor who had been using dark magic to prowl along the corner.

"Thanks, Z," Emlyn waved, continuing her onslaught into the anchors and mage-forged that barred her way.

She took another few steps ahead, ready for her next hit, as the entire fortress shook. The sound of rocks groaning and cracking roared throughout the whole structure.

Emlyn didn't need to be with Ard to know this was his doing.

A surge of flame shot up next to Emlyn, and she swished her sword around, coming on guard, only to realize the fire was Aurelia.

"What is Ard doing now?" Aurelia asked.

“How should I know?" Emlyn shrugged. "Probably something stupid," she frowned, understanding of Ard kicking in. "Oh, he wants to help the Northmen."

She started to connect the dots, understanding what was happening just in time to watch as one of the fortress walls collapsed. The collapse was only part way before several Garrish mages made themselves known, locking the stone in place and trying to keep it all from collapsing.

The fiery-haired anchor next to her grinned. "Looks like he uncovered more mages for us to eliminate," Aurelia said, looking bloodthirstier than usual.

"Everything okay with you?" Emlyn asked pointedly.

"Fine," Aurelia smiled, holding off from jumping into the fray just yet. "You don't need to worry about me. I just simply don't have to hold back, not when I want to give my new powers a proper test." Aurelia’s ferocity flickered away for the briefest moment before fire lit in her eyes once more.

Emlyn watched the battle around them as she made a noise of understanding. "I was just thinking I might call myself a four-sphere anchor going forward. It has a nice ring to it and feels accurate."

The two of them shared a grin before they jumped back into action.

Emlyn was startled as Aurelia let out a battle cry, using fire under her feet to launch herself high into the sky.

She came crashing down on another wall, an explosive wave of fire clearing her landing.

Emlyn shook her head; the other anchor was having a little too much fun.

Then again, the power flowing through them all was something else. Ard had all of this at his fingertips every waking moment? Perhaps that’s why he didn’t look up to the goddesses.

Emlyn squinted, realizing something and scanning the area for any sign that Ard's actions had brought danger upon him.

If these other mages could sense his magic, they might be able to track it back to his hiding place beneath the castle.

Emlyn scanned in the direction she had come from, hesitating before making a decision and turning around. No one would ever blame an anchor for returning to protect her mage. 

She just had a feeling that Ard was going to get himself into trouble, as he always seemed to manage.

AN - I got off on my chapter numbering and have fixed it.