131 Chaos in Irriton Grove Encore (1/2)

Patches of black raced toward the perimeter wherein the party set up camp. The arcanists did not chase Hearth and Caspian as they deemed it useless. Instead, they shot arrows toward them but due to the evasive manoeuvre Hearth, they dodged it perfectly.

The arcanists regrouped and Caspian and Hearth caught their breath. Knights immediately stood in attention as the two came rushing.

\”What's the problem?\” asked an aged knight in plate armour.

\”Arcanists,\” Caspian breathed.

\”What? Where?\”

\”To arms, we are under attack,\” another knight shouted.

Rycharde and Evered went forward immediately.

\”Where are they?\” asked Rycharde.

\”South, around thirty or forty, It's weird though. Some felbeasts are with them and it seems that they are attacking in groups. Like platoons of sorts,\” Hearth reported.

\”Okay, everyone, set up a perimeter. Around the circle now, we need to hold out until Lord Blackfyre arrives. If they attack, we to stave them off.\” Rycharde commanded and then directed his conversation back to Hearth and Caspian.

\”Sounds like there are whisperers in the mix,\” Rycharde said.

\”Whisperers?\” Caspian asked.

\”Yes, arcanists who can control beasts with commands. We don't exactly know their limits yet, but it seems they are working with the shadow walkers,\” elaborated Rycharde and nodded then at Evered.

\”Okay, let's set up a fire in the middle and around the periphery so that the shadow walkers cannot penetrate our ranks.\” Evered directed as he poured tar and firewood on the circle. The other people followed as he did.

Ulric hid on the outskirts just beneath the canopy to observe, they had paid these arcanists to see if they could produce some results. They wanted to know the fighting capacity of Bren's knights first hand and see if they would use the weapon, they had seen Hearth brandish.

Soon there were patches of black that were moving. It became harder to tell as night had come.

Rycharde and Evered squinted at the distance. Suddenly a hawk seemingly out of nowhere dove and grabbed a knight's visor. He and the fellow knights were stunned. Suddenly there was an arrow that pierced through the pitch black targeted at the helmetless knight. It was fortunate that he turned just in time and it punctured a cheek instead of going through his skull.

\”To arms! They are here!\” Shouted Rycharde.

As soon as he shouted a hail of arrows launched toward their circle. Two knights who were alerted put up an [Earth Wall] just in time but a few of the arrows pushed through and injured a few people but no hit was fatal as they put their shields up.

\”These guys are smart,\” Evered breathed heavily.

\”And accurate too, it's actually hard to produce such a volley of arrows with the trees all around,\” Rycharde nodded.

\”How do we counter?\” asked Hearth under the shield of the earthen wall.

\”Well, we didn't bring enough arrows to return volley,\” Evered spoke.

\”Aye, who would have thought we would meet a tandem of arcanists here?\” Rycharde shook his head.

\”Yeah, arrows don't do too much damage on felbeasts and Precantae,\” Evered nodded.

\”Really?\” Hearth asked as arrows kept falling.

\”Yes, it's much more effective if you use melee weapons or spells on them,\”

\”We'll just wait for this volley, and use the wall to do a [Stone Barrage]\”

After a few seconds, the arrows died down.

\”NOW!\” commanded Rycharde.

The wall broke down and spells poured forth spraying stones at the direction of the Arcanist's attack.

Rycharde tried to expand his aura to detect any mages in the area. But their scan was not enough to get into the range of the Shadow Walkers.

There was silence.