Not long after the military NPCs had managed to fall asleep despite all the menacing noises, the Tribe struck at the resting men brutally and decisively. Seven transformed and battle ready beastmen were too fast for Damak and his two partners, regardless of their vigilance. Damak and his peers stood in front of the wave of assailants as they howled to alert the others, but the abominations broke around them and slaughtered the soldiers before a proper defense could be mounted.
When the beast that Damak stood to block raised its mangled talons to swipe at the warrior, Dakkon unloaded half of his mana into a fiery ember at the small of the tribesman’s back—halting the beast’s attack and causing it to turn around in confusion. Damak slammed his gleaming shield into the beastman’s backside, toppling it to the ground where Saden pinned it using one of his exorcist’s barriers. As the combatants dealt with the downed tribesman, the other beasts scuttled off as quickly as they had appeared.
[You have gained a level in your secondary class: Thermomancer! Current level 30.]
[You will now be considered a master of thermomancy!]
[New skill acquired: Thermal Sight!]
The Tribe had switched to guerilla tactics—another 12 members of the expeditionary force lay dead, and sleep would no longer be an option for any NPC without a death wish. The whole of the expeditionary force had been shaken by the sudden assault, and the only good thing to come of it was a level gained in Dakkon’s thermomancy.
“Pack your garbage up!” yelled Damak, wasting no time to assume command and salvage what he could of the force’s morale. “We march right now!”
No one argued. Nights and natural darkness were fairly navigable in Chronicle. The real obstruction of their vision here was the dense forest which slowed their march to a stressed amble. Between marching to the goal ahead and staying put to be picked off, there was no discourse. The only sensible course was to push onward.
Dakkon checked his character’s skills while on the move. The level he had just gained marked the milestone he had been striving for ever since he gained the edgemaster class. Finally, after all of his training, he had mastered thermomancy.
|Secondary Class: Thermomancer – 80% Power (from multiclassing)
|Class Leveclass="underline" 30
|EXP Until Next Leveclass="underline" [
|Skills:
|+Thermoregulate – 29— 90% [
|+Heat (Touch) – 26— 12% [
|+Chill (Touch) – 25— 74% [
|+Hotspot (Area) – 22— 80% [
|+Condense – 1— [
|+Thermal Sight – 1— 0% [
Eager to see what his master-level granted ability did, Dakkon checked his new skilclass="underline"
|+Thermal Sight: This skill allows its caster to focus on heat and its absence. Sources of heat or cold will appear to radiate their temperature without obscuring the caster’s vision.
As they moved, Dakkon familiarized himself with his new ability. When the skill was invoked, Dakkon had a layer placed over his normal vision that allowed him to see the heat pouring off other members of the expeditionary force. Since the skill did not convert his sight entirely into infrared vision he could still see clearly, only with an added haze signifying the flow of heat. Dakkon couldn’t help but feel that the skill might have been a lot more powerful if it were actually difficult to see in the dark.
The expeditionary force slogged onwards in a comforting clump which had to occasionally sieve through arboreal bottlenecks like sand in an active hourglass. Each chokepoint like this was scouted and re-scouted again by shamans before anyone would set a foot through despite the precious time it cost them to do so. A surprise attack at a chokepoint would be a decisive loss which would rob the force of any chance to leave the forest, let alone complete the quest.
It was towards the edge of the tribesmen’s lands—at a similar bottleneck—where Zelle’s spiritual scout animal, a zippy little hummingbird, returned with anxious determination. Unlike other points which were simply surrounded by thick brush, this narrow path dipped down into the earth about three meters like a miniature gulley. The forest around the pathway was unnaturally dense—as if it had been cultivated to be impossible to traverse. The single, three-meter dip looked as though it, too, was unnatural. The pathway seemed like it had been built as a way through the wall of wood and brambles.
“Now that’s definitely got to be a trap,” said Saden. By the looks on others’ faces, no one wanted to try disproving him.
Dakkon used his newly gained sight again, but to no great effect. With danger all but guaranteed to be lurking somewhere around him, he decided to try out something a little more drastic. “This had better not burn out my eyes,” muttered Dakkon inaudibly.
“We’ll have to find another way,” Zelle said to Damak who had been rubbing his forehead in contemplation.
“What other way?” Damak barked.
“It’s a forest, not the edge of the world. There has to be a patch where things thin out if we keep skirting along the edge,” Zelle said.
“Are there any talented druids hiding in our ranks?” asked Saden of the restless crowd.
There weren’t. Two druids had, indeed, joined the mission but they were both fledgling practitioners who were better with a sword and club than they were with magic. A more powerful druid could have been a great asset here, making the forest bend to their will, even without being a master of the class.
Dakkon attempted to use condense with his new vision skill, altering the concentration and intensity of his focus. The sensation was abstract. He first had to believe the skill affecting his sight could have a form—over his eyes—like some sort of goggles. Then he focused on trying to alter those metaphysical goggles he’d only just imagined, as though adding and removing lenses of hot and cold. Barely paying attention to the conversation and frustrated with his task, Dakkon said grimly, “I suppose burning it all down’s not a real solution?”
“You’ve got to be joking,” said Zelle, “that would be a more surefire way to kill us all off than any ambush.”
“Well, at least we aren’t being chased,” joked Cline, morbidly.
Dakkon’s eyes scanned the trees in front and behind him while he continued to alter the supply of mana flowing around his eyes. After a few seconds, everything lit up in a spectrum of warm colors, but he could see nothing useful. Dakkon continued to make adjustments. Although all other thermomancer skills worked synergistically, he was still surprised that he could affect his vision so profoundly. Still tinkering, a timely howl rang out from behind.