Are you a farmer, Archmage? Are you a smith, and a tailor, and a builder, and a cook? Do you enjoy the warmth of a fire, the sound of theater, or the written word?
If not, go ahead. Let humanity die. You'll live, since we are mighty, but you'll be alone, and you will have to provide for every aspect of your life. You will live in hovels and spend most of your time scavenging for food, just like our distant ancestors did.
But if you enjoy all that society offers you, perhaps you should use some of your strength to make sure it survives.
Excerpt from The Beasts of the Dungeon.
REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK p^o^q REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK
The rain broke before Marcus could comment on the silent city, the kind that started heavy and only got worse from there. Elly was peering into the distance, but by her lack of joyful exclamations, she wasn't seeing any signs of life.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, double fuck.
He turned to one of his Royal Guards. "Inform the general that the city is silent. Spread out the army and surround it. There's too few Hounds, so expect an ambush."
The man saluted, jogging away while he turned back to the city. It wasn't on fire, which made sense considering the weather, but the place had hardly been left undefended. Unless, of course, a Calamity had come, in which case all bets were off.
"Movement," Elly called. Marcus snapped around to look at her. "Looks like an insect. Three feet long, maybe about one high and weighing approximately fifty Imperial kilograms. I. I've never seen anything like that before."
She sketched it out, her hand moving over the paper so quickly it barely had time to soak, and he looked at it while the army got moving. It wasn't like any Hound he'd seen, be that in person or in the School of Life, and that worried him.
It looked like some manner of warped, enormous cockroach, except with pincers.
"I see another two. No, three. Oh. Oh no."
Marcus silently agreed. New monsters appearing from nowhere, especially in large numbers, usually meant only one thing.
A Horde Calamity. The Beasts of the Dungeon had a few pages on them, but blessedly, they rarely appeared.
The last one, Meagar, had been an ant variant. The Empress had killed it, and gained a title by doing so. Not because it had been a Calamity, but because the thing had merrily started spawning thousands of its offspring. Then thousands more, each of which seemed happy enough to breed.
It had been, before now, the closest humanity had come to extinction.
And now there was another one. Marcus turned to his Royal Guards again. "Modified orders for general Pator. Burn it all. The city, the countryside, everything. Verify each kill, and focus on containment. None of these things can escape."
"They might already have gotten out," Elly said. Marcus turned to her, eyebrow raised. She shrugged. "Who knows how long it had been around before it attacked Estin?"
Marcus shook his head. "Possible, but unlikely. Unlike the other fun creatures the Dungeon sends to fight us, the offspring of Horde Calamities need to eat. Estin is likely to be the first proper city they got to, or we—and perhaps Vistus—would have gotten a priority message from the Empress already."
"There might be survivors."
He sighed. "There might be, but I doubt it. And if there are, their lives aren't worth the risk of this thing spreading over the continent. The math doesn't work out."
"Agreed," she replied quietly, nodding once. Louder, she said. "We're going to scout in the city. Go assist with the quarantine."
Their guards obeyed and within seconds they were alone. Marcus looked up, briefly enjoying the sensation of rain on his face, while Elly twisted her hair in a bun. He sighed a moment later. "I might be able to teleport us straight up, but it'll be risky. Better to be safe and take our time."
Elly shrugged, and Marcus took them away. The city was still quite far, and only its sheer size made it visible in this weather, but even on a flat road he was far faster than a horse. It meant they approached the outer edge within minutes, and found their first monster quickly afterwards.
It was a pair of them, and cockroaches really did them justice. But just like looking at insects under a microscope, they looked dangerous. Plates of chitin protected their softer insides, and their faces twitched in an almost alien way.
The pincers didn't help, especially when they snapped aggressively. Elly moved closer while he waited, one slice of her blade killing both, and she shook her head.
They weren't anything special, then. Good. Marcus teleported them up to the wall, entering the city proper, and then onto the rooftops. Some of the monsters had apparently decided that was the place to be, but not many. And fortunately, the weather didn't just limit their senses.
Then he made the mistake of looking into one of the houses, and what was left of his good mood drained away. Eggs were inside, about the size of his fist, and a few dozen little cockroaches were scurrying about.
Four adults were caring for them, checking over the eggs and gluing new ones into place, while a vaguely humanoid shape seemed to be a feeding source for the young.
Elly glanced into the window next to his own, and he felt her hand on his shoulder a moment later. Marcus nodded, turning away. This place would burn, but that's what he had mages for. The Calamity, if it was still here, was their main target.
If it was gone, well. Even with this much rain, setting a fire was far from impossible. Hard, perhaps, but doable.
They moved closer inwards, only killing the monsters they needed to. Elly took care of that, being far stealthier than he was, and the first scene of death they'd come across turned out to be a common one.
Doors had been broken open, wooden shutters smashed to splinters and the rare glass window shattered. There was little blood, which he found strange, until they came across a cockroach licking an alleyway wall.
But despite the general devastation, the city was remarkably intact. Houses still stood, the wall was practically undamaged, and there was little evidence of magical fighting. The worst they found was in the form of a large warehouse, which had partially collapsed.
It looked like there had been an explosion in its center, one fierce enough a shadow had been left behind. That had been, at the least, a tier four mage, and Marcus could almost see the terror in the imprint. But there was no expression, nothing but a black shape, and it only told him how strong the mage had been.
Terror great enough to detonate their own magical core, killing everything nearby. Including themselves.
"I see something," Elly whispered. Marcus turned to look, seeing nothing except the rain. She tilted her head. "It looks like a spider person demon… thing. Bipedal, vaguely humanoid, but eight feet tall and with eight limbs. Insect like, too, with chitin instead of skin, but there's human hair. There's only two eyes, and frankly it doesn't look much like a cockroach. It's, uuhm. It's laying eggs. I think."
Well, that sure was something. Calamities ranged from mundane to monstrous, but that was pretty out there. Marcus hummed, tone as quiet as hers had been. "Minions?"
"Quite a few." She paused, then cursed. "And they're moving with her. It. No, her. The thing looks more feminine than masculine, though I doubt she's anyone's type. Silent Gods, I hope she's not anyone's type."
Marcus snorted. "Focus. And yes, someone has probably tried to fuck a Calamity before. Now how are we going to play this?"
"If her offspring scatter, we hit hard. If they don't, I'll engage while you distract them. Spatial arcs should wipe them out, though it's shitty terrain for it. How's that sixth tier area spell coming?"
"Not good enough," he replied, exhaling slowly. "And I'm not using untested magic against a Calamity. Alright, let's do this; On three, two, one."
He teleported them both towards the Calamity, which was currently inspecting a fountain. A fountain filled with corpses, at that, and he didn't check it over. He'd already know what he would find.
The Calamity turned towards them, clicking loudly and skittering to the side. The cockroaches rushed them, well over two hundred of the damn things, and Marcus grunted. It wasn't so obvious in small groups, but they were extraordinarily well coordinated.
Elly was already dashing towards their mother, and Marcus pulled their attention with a spatial arc. It killed over two dozen of the things, but they weren't that tall. Worse, they spread out almost immediately, flowing around an upturned cart and closing the distance.
Marcus moved up to a nearby roof, glancing at Elly. The Calamity didn't seem mindlessly aggressive, but she was certainly willing to defend herself. And if this had been pre-chicken Elly, that might have been a problem.
Now the spider creature had already lost one of its limbs, and his wife was only getting started.
His own task was equally managed, at least for the first twenty seconds. Kill, move, kill and repeat, hundreds of cockroaches soon littering the alleys and rooftops of Estin. But the fight was drawing attention, and in a way he hadn't foreseen.
The Hounds rushed towards any battle they stumbled upon. Champions laid traps, yes, but only until their bloodlust was ignited. These things? For twenty seconds Marcus was happy with his progress, and then a wave of monsters rushed towards them. Not in a trickle, or in small groups, but as one attack.
Marcus cursed, abandoning his extermination to join Elly. Small groups he could have kept off her, but not this. Improvising already. Great.
The Calamity spit something at him when he arrived, which took him so off-guard he actually failed to dodge, but it never hit him. The glob of something curved away from his shield and impacted the roof, eating through it almost immediately, and he retaliated with a spatial arc.
It didn't even measurably damage its chitin, so there went his greatest weapon. Elly was still dancing around the thing, another four of its limbs having joined the first, but it was growing more cautious. Waiting, almost, and it probably knew reinforcements were on the way.
He teleported a wagon on top of the Calamity and watched Elly take ruthless advantage of its distraction, but then they were out of time. The wave was here, and by Elly's glare, she could do as much about it as he could.
Teleporting them both away was the only option, and within moments the Calamity was surrounded by its brood. Elly grunted and stretched her arms. "I can keep going. Can you teleport them away?"
"I could," he hedged. "But not for long, and I'll have to drop some defenses to do it. There's too many for a third-tier spell, and even if I do, cockroaches can survive terminal velocity. Well, normal ones can. These might not."
She hummed in reply. "Do it."
Marcus nodded, and three things happened in very quick succession. The first was that the rain intensified, further limiting his range, and the second was that he moved himself to a clocktower. From there he could just about make out the horde surrounding the Calamity, and with a flex of power, a fifth-tier teleportation spell was weaved.
He scooped up a hundred cockroaches at the time, blindly depositing them upwards and moving on to the next. The third thing was that Elly moved to fight the Calamity, which suddenly found itself without its brood.
And then cockroaches rained from the sky, and every second, another hundred joined them. His reserves were falling rapidly, but at least they had no way to resist. Thousands tried to rush his tower, and thousands died.
Elly was pushing hard to end the fight, something she couldn't keep up for long, and it wasn't like he could either. Teleporting monsters instead of killing them with a spatial arc was almost hilariously inefficient, but the damn creatures seemed determined to ruin his day.
But, for a few moments, things were going alright. Elly was dancing around the Calamity, which seemed a little on the weak side for one of its kind, and he removed any cockroaches trying to assist their mother.
It was a little grim, hearing them go splat on the rooftops of Estin, but at least they appeared to die. Or get horrifically injured, which was good enough.
He still kept up his usual shield, and that combined with his bracers and the shield embedded into his armor, he was still mostly protected. Hells, he was reasonably comfortable with the idea of wielding his mace while teleporting the creatures to death.
And then, because the Silent Gods apparently hated people having a good time, the roof collapsed. From the inside, at that, which was so unexpected Marcus lost his footing. His reflexive teleport failed by virtue of rain, and while it took only a second to override his instinct of 'teleport as far away as you can', he had already fallen into the clocktower.
Six cockroaches were inside, and they lunged before he could ever hit the ground. Marcus felt the full impact against his shield, and while it was well crafted, it didn't have its usual adaptive recharge matrix. One pane broke and then another, their pincers able to exert an almost ridiculous amount of force, and then they were through.
Marcus scrambled up, pushing back the closest cockroach with one hand and grabbing his mace with the other. It pulped the second-closest monster with ease, even the awkward angle more than enough with the fourfold force multiplier, while the rest were sliced apart with a spatial arc.
A dull thud echoed from above, and he snapped his head up to look. There, in the large hole he'd left behind, was the Calamity. He didn't know how it had gotten past Elly, and he didn't care. The vaguely feminine spider creature spit at him, and though he was already turning to look outside the window, he was a second too late.
His defenses snapped into place scant milliseconds before the glob of acid hit him, but from this close, his spatial ward didn't manage to curve it away. It did turn a headshot into a chestshot, but since his shield was form-fitting, that wasn't a huge difference.
The acid also came with him when he teleported, and burned at his magic. Burned and scorched and ate, bleeding the shield away in moments. His adaptive recharge matrix unraveled under its effect, and the shield his armor offered didn't last much longer.
Marcus linked three elemental matrices together and staggered under the spray of water, but most of the acid was washed away. Yet not all, and teleporting away from an octuple of cockroaches cost him precious moments.
The magical pain turned physical when the acid burned clean through his armor, and then it stopped being acid at all. Marcus shoved his chestpiece aside as quickly as he could, forcing more water into the wound, but too little, too late. He could feel it enter his bloodstream, and some distant part of his mind insisted that it had just turned into venom.
Another part of him noted that it might not be so bad, and that he was overreacting, but his first poisoning was still fresh in his mind. So he weaved his fourth tier cleansing spell, the much more familiar burn fighting against the unfamiliar one.
He glanced up, making sure that Elly was still keeping the Calamity occupied, and grimaced at the sight. Because she was winning, and doing more damage to herself in the process than the spider creature ever had, but he needed four matrices to stop himself from dying. That left two, and he needed those to teleport.
Which meant the Calamity was quickly being joined by dozens and dozens of its brood, which forced Elly to back off. Which, considering their pincers managed to bite through his shield, was a good move. They'd take a limb just as easily.
Marcus made sure he had a few moments, then focused on his cleansing spell. It was, as usual, hurting like a bitch, but at least the venom didn't seem to be winning. If that whole glob had gotten through, though, or if his armor hadn't sacrificed itself to burn out some of its potency…
He shook his head, forcing himself to turn towards the fight. Elly was pulling back, which he aided in by teleporting her to his side, and she spent a frantic moment checking him over.
"I'll live," he said, tone somewhat sharper than it probably should have been. Elly snapped up to look at him, though there was no anger in her eyes. Marcus grunted. "Focus. I'm at a quarter reserves, and if I drop my cleansing spell, I'll die."
Elly cleared her throat, glancing back at the Calamity. Which, thankfully, seemed happy enough to gather a small horde around herself rather than attack. "I have maybe another twenty seconds at full power, and those fucking insects are good at working together. Remind me to thank your enchanters for the armor. The shields saved me twice over. And it tried to spit at me, but I dodged."
"I'm wishing I had managed the same," he replied dryly. He moved them another two hundred feet, wincing at the mental strain. Well, mental and magical. Teleportation was a third-tier spell, and only using two matrices hurt. "Plan?"
His wife was already taking the bow from her back. The Calamity saw, and wasn't taking her eyes off either of them, but neither did the thing seem worried. Elly grinned a savage smile. "I know how it moves now, and it's not as tough as it should be. It's probably been shot at before, but I doubt that achieved much. Get me a clear shot, and I'll end this."
Marcus grunted, the concrete goal allowing him to push his impending panic attack way down. Life was already gathering into her weapon, but the Calamity wasn't stupid. It might not be as cautious as it should be, but neither was it standing still.
In fact, it was gathering more of its brood to itself. The cockroaches were climbing all over it now, appearing to gnaw at its many stumps, and he wasn't even going to guess as to why. Elly nodded, and he moved them up.
It might not be safe to teleport into the sky with this much rain, but they'd left the realm of safety behind a while ago. The Calamity turned to look at them, apparently able to feel the inefficient teleport, and its brood clicked in rage.
A timeless moment passed, a moment where gravity realized it really should be dragging them back down again, and it was oddly glorious.
Then Elly let go of her arrow, and a raindrop entered Marcus' eyes. By the time he'd blinked his vision clear, the Calamity had one of Elly's enchanted arrows buried halfway through its skull, its body collapsing downwards.
Marcus teleported them back down, slicing at it with a spatial arc. The Calamity lost its head, the magical resistance it usually enjoyed already gone, and he carved it into ten more pieces just to be sure.
Elly butchered its brood before moving to take the things… scalp. She was scalping it.
He didn't even care, very tentatively reducing his cleaning matrix down to a third-tier version, and the venom didn't immediately kill him for the impudence. Elly was at his side a moment later, pointing to the east.
Ah, more cockroaches. Great. Elly swung his arm over her shoulder when he staggered, tone hesitant. "Can you teleport us back?"
"Should be able to," he replied, suppressing a wince. "Fuck this hurts."
Elly grimaced. "Yeah. Never fun to feel your own bones squeaking, especially with how in tune I am with my own body. Let's go."
Marcus teleported them towards the wall, then up to it, and barely even glanced at the wall of fire slowly encroaching on the city. It hadn't felt that long since they'd entered, but actually finding the Calamity had taken time. Hours, at least.
The venom twitched in his veins, and he focused on getting them to the army. And more importantly, to its healers.
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