Chương 280: Chapter 531: "Slaughter!"

As the horde of wolves approached Sedgewick, Baron Billy came limping in through the back gate, carried by one of his automatons. Three more of the Bloodstone Golems were being dragged by the fellows, drained of mana. Betty appeared as someone began yelling for a healer. She looked at the wound on Billy's leg, muttered a few things, then handed him a piece of pie.

"Eat this, it's good for you. Lots to do today, and those people on the farms need you." Her eyes held a feral flame that those around her had seen before in desperate times. Suddenly starving, Billy shoved the piece of raspberry pie in his mouth and stared as his wounded leg and all other aches and pains went away. He watched as Betty walked away.

"I have to eat down here more often." At the charging station, Ozzy set the first drained Golem in place and Chainy linked to it, "We're on a tight schedule, buddy. Fill these up as fast as you can, and see if you can put a little fire into the sloth series. Billy has a hard time getting them going." A dozen more chains appeared, wrapping around the Golem, and hot, smoky mana flowed into it, charging it full in ten seconds, and then kept going. And going. And going.

Finally, after a minute, the Golem's eyes snapped open, glowing bright red. It ran over to stand by Billy, who was staring at it.

"Auxiliary power storage? You slackers could store more power, but never used the option? Oh hell, those days are over. Ozzy! Fill all of them to the maximum they can take. I'm going to run these slackers until they drop. Thank Ares, I have Caedis. He kills everything he can and then puts in another 20% of effort."

"You got it, boss. You heard the man, Chainy, turn it to 11." The delighted Smokehouse began grabbing the golems, not bothering with the unneeded charging station. Silvery chains caught fire as mana burned through them and into the automatons. Each of the Sloth-Series Golems grew bright and fiery as they were pushed for the first time to take a full charge. Chainy hated slackers and pushed mana into each until they were ready to explode. Caedis took three times as long.

As the lone Slaughter-Series Golem stepped away from the chains, it turned and roared at the Smokehouse.

"Slaughter!" To everyone's surprise, the Smokehouse responded, "Slaughter!" The word echoing from withing the wooden structure in a deep and terrible voice. Caedis began jumping up and down, repeating the word, echoed by Chainy.

"Slaughter!" Billy yelled out, struggling to be heard.

"Good plan, let's get moving!" He ran for the back gate, followed by his Baronial Guard, on their way to defend the hamlets. Vladimir remarked to Damien, "My, my. That Butcher seems to have a remarkable connection to his creation. He just revolutionized the charging industry and made Sloth-Series Golems worth the effort of creating." Even Damien was impressed. Jealous, but impressed.

"It isn't science. He's somehow using a mixture of demonic forces and unnatural smoke magic, and fusing it with applied mad science. I'm not sure what to think of it."

"Ah, Damien. We know better than anyone how harsh the world can be on innovators. The things the Mages Guild and Inquisition will find in this little town are going to cause people's heads to explode. I find it inspiring, myself. I'm thinking I need to begin a large project to push myself to the limits."

"Excellent! You've become far too domesticated lately with your new wives. Let's start planning our new project when this small canine invasion is put down!" <It was so nice of them to fall asleep in this musty cave. Squirmie needed a snack. > One by one, a group of unconscious Beastmasters lost their heads to the former Very Hungry Caterpillar, now a Very Hungry Pretty Princess. A glint of sunlight reflecting on a bottle had made her curious, and she'd been overjoyed to find a snack waiting for her.

Rolly was relaxing with a sandwich as she chewed each head and moved on.

"Have to keep up your strength. Are you gaining any Super Special Cold abilities munching on these Winter guys?" <No... but something is odd... it feels like I'm connecting to a web of thousands of brainless creatures and their masters. It feels like a small swarm. But not enough legs, they only have four each. >"Wolves? I bet these guys were Beastmasters, and you're tapping into their network, controlling all those packs." <Well, they suck at it. They barely have voices!

My mother would have eaten all of them for incompetence! >"Not a bad idea. I think Mom is right. Let's home in on these slackers, eat their brains, and take over their swarms?" <Dangerous! I might like the feeling. >"Naw, you're a lot stronger than your Mom. And if you start to slide, I'll keep you on the straight and narrow. We've got plans, remember?" <Squirmie loves the BIG PLAN... so much fun, and Mom and all her Sisters with writhe in envy.

You're right, it will be easy to resist thinking about commanding swarms. Time to hunt, eat brains, and steal swarms. Then do what with them? >"Simple, we use them to kill other swarms and send the survivors to attack Sedgewick. Our friends need some fun, too." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. <Twisted. Yes, testing Nestmates is always necessary. It keeps them on their toes.

> Ozzy had just seen Billy off when three large mallards, one with a roll of paper in its beak, dropped from the skies, looked up at him, and put the message in his hands. Ozzy read it twice, making sure he understood. Then he looked down at the ducks.

"Excellent job, Corporal Brownback, privates Quickwaddle and Snailhunter. There's dried corn and apples in the store room. Please take what you need for supplies. You guys are doing a great job." The ducks quacked among themselves, saluted with wingtips, and waddled off to the storeroom for refueling. Suzette was grinning at him, "First, you talk to cows, and now Rolly taught you to understand ducks? Such a versatile boyfriend I have."

"Naw, he told me to say all that to them in his message. Good for troop morale. His note says to fortify the front of Sedgewick; that's where all the wolves will head to."

"He figured out their plans?"

"No, I think he gave them that plan. He's going to pile them up for us. That will certainly make our Fire Mages happy. They love tightly packed, flammable enemies." A familiar voice spoke, and he turned to see two Couriers walking their horse, with Master Caldrius and the Earth Mage, Rastfian, mounted behind them. Following the Fire Master was a twenty-foot-long, low-slung, orange lizard with burning eyes. Caldrius was grinning, "Did I hear someone say 'Tight-packed, flammable targets?'

I was told this would be a dangerous battle with dire consequences, but it sounds like a party. The hardest part of fighting Winter is getting enough of them together to be worth burning, but not a major part of their army we have to run from. The Emperor and General Themis send greetings. They couldn't send much help, so they sent the best. My familiar, Iggy, has needed some exercise; he's getting sluggish up here in the cold, so I brought him along for some wolf-burning."

The arrival of the Salamander had caught everyone's attention, including Myrna. She'd been cooking all day, giving a Pre-Battle Buy-2-Get-1-Free deal, and was nearly out of meat and tortillas. The little kobold came running up to Iggy, sniffed him, put her hand on his forehead, and scowled at Caldrius.

"TOO COLD! Has the chills! Needs warming up! What are you feeding him?!" Caldrius, used to the rapid-fire speech of the fireflume kobolds, tried to defend himself, "Madame, I assure you, I give him plenty of food for a Salamander of his length. Too much, I fear, he's putting on weight." She glared at him.

"Knows nothing! Puts on weight from growing insulating fat, lower to ground, will slow down more, look for warm crack to hibernate in volcano. No volcano, get fatter, turn into waddling, sad, lukewarm lizard! Myrna will fix!" Caldrius watched as the little kobold filled a bucket with the remains of her spices. Then she yelled at Ozzy, "Fat-Fingers! Myrna taking new friend, Iggy, to hot-smoky place. Needs special food, warm spot to nap, Myrna fix."

Then she ignored everyone and marched off to the Smokehouse, Iggy trotting behind her, sniffing at the bucket. Chainy politely opened the doors for them, then slammed them shut and increased his heat, happy to have Myrna and a new friend to talk to. The Butcher shrugged. Chainy was popular today. Ozzy shook hands with the grinning old man, "Nice to see you. Sorry about that, Myrna burns hot when she cares about something."

"Oh, no need to apologize, lad. I've spent a number of years in the Fireflumes. They are an amazing and passionate race of people. I hear the same about many people in this town." Ozzy introduced Suzette and her bodyguard to Caldrius and Rastfian. Rastfian shook the Battle Stenographer's hand eagerly as his magical senses took in her battered, plain armor.

"Gnomish Battlestone? It's exquisite to look at. Whoever interwove the layers of the gneiss and granite did a masterful job." She accepted the compliment with a small nod of her head.

"My Ma has always had a good eye for armor forming, and lots of practice outfitting our clan." Rastfian turned to Caldrius, "Another interesting place to visit and study. I don't think I'm ever going back to sitting in a town again." Ozzy pointed out the different groups on the walls and what they had of a battle plan.

"We've got support groups on all sides of the town, and a few heavy hitters in the center to play Fire Brigade if something goes wrong. But the bulk of the attack is coming at the front, and I'm talking thousands of wolves and a couple of dozen Snarlfangs." Suzette pointed to the top of the Gate Tower, where there were a dozen people standing.

"Our local Guild Mistress is organizing our spell casters from there. A few players, and some of the local people with a flair for fire magic." Caldrius nodded, "A perfect spot. Good visuals, and no one else nearby if we burn too hot. I'll head there now. What about you, Rastfian?" The Earth mage looked around the area and knelt to touch the ground.

"This town is riddled with underground caverns, but there are some solid places where I won't disrupt things too badly. I believe I will stay here and join the people in the Fire Brigade." The howls of the wolf packs were getting closer. The Butcher started towards the walls, shouting loudly.

"Lock and Load, people. Things are about to get interesting."