Chương 166: Chapter 165 [Realities Of War]

Sam sent Phantasm forward, overlaying it with his fog. This was the first time he'd tried casting both spells at once, and the drain hit him immediately. He pushed forward anyway. He located every enemy captured in his fog and took note of their isolation. He knew the situation they found themselves in would be tough for most people, but he wasn't sure how that would affect these creatures. Realising he couldn't play this safe, he decided to give them the full brunt of what the spell was capable of.

He gave them pain first. A phantom stab in the back, sudden and sharp, the kind that made a body react before the brain caught up. Somewhere in the dark, a goblin's nerves screamed that something had gone through it from behind; it spun and swung at the nearest shape it could find, its blade burying into whatever was standing there. The feelings Sam gave them didn't need to be real. They just needed to feel real for a second, and the dominoes would fall by themselves. The change was immediate.

More of them turned at once, whipping round on whoever was closest, striking out at pain that wasn't real and blood that was. Something large enough to be a shadowclaw lashed out at the goblins that had been sheltering behind it a heartbeat earlier, and it didn't stop when the first one went down. A pair near the trench broke and bolted for a safety they wouldn't find rather than face whatever they were sure was behind them, and they didn't slow down when the ground gave way beneath their feet.

Sam kept this up, pushing the feeling of more pain, or screams in their ears, or of monstrous forms appearing in the black. He watched all of it without looking away. He knew what this power could do in the hands of an unfeeling man, of someone who got pleasure from inflicting pain. He was none of those things, yet he watched all the same. He needed to make sure this was effective enough, even if his own power made him feel a little sick. Behind him, the others stared on in shock.

"Sam," Nessa said eventually, her voice quiet.

"What did you just do to them?"

"Made them feel like something was attacking them from behind." He didn't turn round.

"I didn't know if they would react to fear alone, so I went all in. I needed to make sure this worked. I also know how this looks and believe me, I'm not exactly happy my power can be used like this. It's necessary, though." Nobody answered that either. When he finally glanced back, there wasn't a single face behind him that looked at him the way they had five minutes ago. The fog dropped before he was ready for it to.

Sam felt the mana go, faster than he'd planned for, Phantasm eating through his reserves in a way the fog never had. He let it fall rather than fight it, and the black wall thinned to nothing in seconds, leaving the boggy ground exposed for the first time since he'd raised it. What was left wasn't pretty. Bodies lay in the mud, a tangled mess of goblins, kobolds, and shadowclaws, alongside other creatures he'd not seen prior to half an hour ago.

Some were still twitching, all of it strewn across ground that had been packed with movement a minute ago. The ones still standing froze at the sight of it, confusion and fear draining out of them slow, giving way to hesitation. It wouldn't last. Sam knew that before it happened, watching the hesitation break as more of the horde behind them shoved forward into the gap, forcing the front line back into the bog whether they wanted to go or not.

"Cover me," he said, already backing up a step.

"Need a minute." Nessa didn't argue. She was already moving, blade out, meeting the first of them that made it clear of the mud before it could get within reach of him. A couple of the trainees fell in beside her without being told, weapons levelled, holding the gap while Sam knelt there with his eyes shut, willing his mana back fast enough to matter. I am not casting Phantasm again anytime soon. He knew that much already. But the fog, he could manage.

He just needed enough to get it back up, and enough to offset the mana drain with his own regeneration. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The stream feature had unlocked four days ago, buried in a UI update most of the town hadn't had the mana to touch yet. For nearly everyone, it meant one thing: a way to actually see the people back home, properly, not just messages typed out one line at a time. Ben understood that too. He also understood it meant something else, something nobody else seemed to be thinking about yet, not with everyone still half convinced they'd never make it back at all.

He'd spent the days since grinding for the mana, quiet about it, not mentioning it to anyone who might ask why. The activation cost alone was steep, a hit that would've wiped him out if he'd tried it too early. Central to it all was the system logic itself. Maintenance costs are fixed once the initial gate is passed, he reasoned, knowing his regen would keep pace with the maintenance drain on its own, same as everyone's did.

As long as he wasn't burning mana on anything else, the stream would run for as long as he wanted it to. Then the news came through about what was heading for the town, and Ben knew exactly what he needed to do. Get the mana up, find somewhere safe with a good view, and be ready. He'd made it with a day to spare.

The house he'd picked had windows facing northwest, a clean line of sight over the whole field, north and west both covered from the same spot. Nobody had come looking for him yet. He wasn't planning on giving them a reason to. He'd filtered the viewer list down the night before, picking through names, settling on the same handful he always came back to when he thought about who'd actually watch. He composed the voice tag the way he'd seen described in the update notes. Hey, it's Ben.

New feature just unlocked, proper live stream this time, not just text. Close your eyes for about thirty seconds after this and you'll drop straight in, see what I'm seeing. Trust me, you'll want to see this one. He activated the stream and felt the massive surge as his pool depleted. Initial connection cost: 150 Mana.

"Alright, we're live," he said, keeping his voice down, more excited than he probably should have sounded.

"For anyone just joining, this is it. This is the big one. I've got eyes on the whole field from up here." Chat scrolled up along the edge of his vision before he'd even finished the sentence. [CJ] no way this is real [MarkP] BEN. BEN IS THIS LIVE [DanO] holy shit what am I looking at right now? [PoppyR] is that Leo's group?? I recognise the tall one"Yeah, that's Leo's lot, they're stationed centre field with one of the guard captains."

He kept his voice low, mindful of the archers stationed on the roofs further down the row of houses. It wouldn't do to have one of them wander over wondering who was talking to themselves in an empty house.

"There's a fireball, look, that's Phil, he's been doing that on and off since it started." [DanO] that's insane [Ste] how are the archers hitting stuff from that far back??

"There's a whole platform of them on one of the roofs down there, can't really see it from this angle, but trust me, it's been in the works for days. Trenches, traps, the works. It's a literal siege." [DanO] are you safe man?? that doesn't look safe [CJ] bro just casually streaming a war"I'm fine, I'm nowhere near the actual fighting, promise." He grinned, more for the chat than for himself.

"This building's solid, and everything's happening way out past the—" He stopped. Something had changed out on the field. A black wall of fog had appeared earlier, and he knew it was Sam's magic from people talking about it in town. It was thinning out fast, and what was underneath it wasn't what he'd expected. Bodies lay tangled together in the mud, a massive number of them, some still moving, twitching in ways that made his stomach turn over slow and unpleasant. [Ste] what happened?? did someone do that??

[Poppy_R] BEN what is that"I—" He didn't have a good answer. He hadn't seen it happen, only the fog dropping and what was left after.

"I think that was Sam. One of the lads. I didn't see the spell, just, that's what's left after." [DanO] did HE do that??

"I think so." [MattyG] what happens if people like that come back here [Ste] he wouldn't do that to anyone though, I know the guy, he's sound [CJ] it's not really the same though is it. this is different, it's extreme [MattyG] yeah I know but [DanO] if monsters were attacking town and someone could do that, I bet you wouldn't be worried about them then. they're literally protecting people's families right now [MattyG] yeah I know but...

Ben watched the chat scroll past without adding anything to it, still staring out at the field where the fighting hadn't stopped. It had just shifted, the goblins that had frozen at the sight of their own dead already being shoved forward again by whatever was still coming from behind. He'd known this was real and there would be death; he'd hoped everyone would be safe. I always thought of this like a fun adventure, though, he realized, the thought hollow.

A live-action game I was taking part in, even if I wasn't one of the people training to fight. The sight of the dead shocked him. He knew he was naive; he'd been told that before. He was the sort of person who always had his head in the clouds, dreaming of how he was going to make it big as the next great British streamer. That dreamlike state had just been washed away with the blood and mud now visible to him and his viewers as clear as day. He kept the stream running.