NOVEL NEXT Chapter 107: Infiltration
With our course of action set, my wooden walker got down into a low crouch. Or rather, the legs literally collapsed into themselves.
Living wood weapons had a quality where they could compress themselves to a degree that seemed to defy physics. The weight and mass were retained while their physical volume decreased. It often made me wonder what the upper limit was. Questioning people who would know such as Rimir who actually owned one himself didn’t yield much in terms of useful info. His answer was simply that the only weight limit was how much the owner could lift and handle effectively.
As Eirlathion said, though, it seemed none of them had ever even thought of using them like this. I did not even know if what I was about to do would even work. But, if it did work, then it would be the safest method of scaling that wall. If that thing was made from earth magic, then there was no grantee that the demons who made it wouldn’t weaponize the physical wall itself, either by altering it’s shape or even intentionally breaking it and sending sharp shards of ruby raining down on us.
Gigantic sharp crystal gravity projectiles raining down on us would not be something I wanted to deal with. So, the only sensible option was up and over.
[Is everyone secure?] I asked, looking to mother and Eirlathion. Both were lashed to the platform, and also to each other, with vines created from each of their own respective living-wood weapons. There were better ways to secure us to the platform that would assure we would not be falling off, but none of them would be conducive to what we had in mind right now.
All at once, the legs of the walker extended vertically. The upward force, just as planned, wound up being well in excess of what was needed to simply lift the platform. This resulted in the excess momentum actually ripping the feet from the ground in a manner that most people would refer to as a jump.
The walker had flung itself high into the air, and the legs quickly retracted and formed themselves into wings. This thing was not actually sky worthy by any stretch of the imagination, but these wings were just enough to allow the thing to glide for a short distance as it was continuing it’s ascent.
[Now!] Eirlathion shouted when they’d reached the very height of their jump. At his word, the vines holding both him and mother to the walker-turned-glider suddenly retracted and launched them over the nose of the craft like a sling-shot. Some dandelion-fluff like material grew out of their shoulders and backs, suspending their fall as the glider I was still attached to started to drag me back to the ground below.
Even with wings, this craft simply had far too much mass and not enough volume to remain air-born. Perhaps if I’d made the wings even longer and wider to the point it was practically all wing, it could have managed something. However, this was never meant to be a long-term flight.
One might think a city would be a wide enough stretch of land to not make over-shooting it a concern. However, this world's definition of a city was far smaller than the bustling metropolitan areas Earth had become familiar with in the 20th century.
This "city" likely had a population of only a few thousand, and a glider could pass right over the entire city in under a minute. Combine that with these ruby walls that we have to get over and the physics calculations become rather involved. Chances were good I'd miss my window before I finished getting the wings right.
So, instead, I maintained the craft in this vaguely bird-shaped falling bullet design. The problem was, my current trajectory had me on a direct collision course with the top of the wall.
My knowledge of aircrafts was simply not sufficient to figure out a way to correct my course enough to get me through the narrow window of entry to drive my craft into the city. And, even if I could, it would likely mean plowing this heavy lump of wood directly into someone's house. Depending on momentum, maybe even several people's houses.
It just sounded like a bad idea all around. So, I will have to use a little cheat. A nifty little method living wood weapons have to defy the laws of physics.
The section of the craft I was sitting on suddenly extended upward, taking me above the trajectory that would place me on a collision course with the wall. Due to me and the projection having far less mass than the craft as a whole, it had no problem boosting me upward like this.
Once I was in the air, the wood from the projection started climbing over my body and forming itself into a harness. This harness then grew leaf-like wings that were much lighter and wider. And, since they were supporting only my slight frame, they were much more capable of holding just me aloft.
I lifted off from the falling wooden projectile with the strange wooden protuberance coming off it, but I remained tethered with a rope-like vine. The vine continued to lengthen as the wooden projectile fell, allowing me to maintain my altitude as I glided on my course over the wall.
The vaguely bird-like wooden object continued to loose altitude and, just as I’d predicted, it smashed right into the wooden wall. It was a testament to the object’s mass and previous velocity that it was actually able to make a large enough crack to embed itself in the very top of the wall. But, also just as I’d predicted, it did not manage to come even close to smashing through.
Well, at least it hadn’t immediately fallen. That was a very real fear of mine, and it would have completely messed things up for me if it had happened. It would not have been a problem I couldn’t easily deal with, but it would mean having to abandon all of the wooden material of the craft and loosing a powerful potential weapon while deep in enemy territory.
I had even considered the merits of simply abandoning it without urgent need, but decided having it and being discovered immediately was better than not having it and having to fear a potential instant loss if I was found while sneaking around.
And besides that. My role in this mission was to be the distraction, so this all worked out perfectly.
As I observed the site of the crash, I noticed something else. The two tall towers that stood at either end of the section of wall the craft had crashed into began to glow. Or rather, it was not the whole tower that was glowing. It was a single sphere of red light that began to glow, embedded deep in the heart of each of the towers.
I got a very distinct sense from those red spheres as though I was being watched. It did not feel as though the spheres were eyes of some large entity. Rather, it felt more like each of them was an individual person. A person who was physically there, embedded within the tower.
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising. If they could raise this massive wall of ruby, what’s a little magic to have them embedded inside the crystal themselves? The only question is, why?
Lookouts. That’s the only explanation that makes any sense at all. And they’ve just spotted me. The only question now is whether or not they can take any offensive action from inside those towers. Most likely, the answer to that is going to be yes, and I’m probably about to find out how.
I once again debated the merits of cutting myself off from the wooden construct without reclaiming it. It was actively in the process now of unraveling into a vine as it continuously gave me more slack. Eventually, the plan was to start reeling it in from my end in order to reclaim the full mass of my wooden weapon.
Now was the time for a decision. Either way, I would have to do something drastic.
Even the guidance from the core philosophies of my combat style were at odds on this one. On the one hand, the guiding philosophies said that one should not become too attached to anything in a combat situation. Becoming attached will limit your thinking, and that will get you killed.
On the other hand, it also says to avoid being predictable.
Well, actually, referring to that guidance does somewhat provide an answer to this situation. I most certainly am getting too attached right now. As for being unpredictable, these are supposed to be the upper level elite servants among the demons. They’ve surely fought great fairies armed with living wood weapons before. The one thing they’d never expect a person to do is to discard one of these things.
My mind made up, I flooded the tether with mana, placed two of the now 4 nature spirits I had into the construct side with instructions to plant themselves as soon as the vine hit the ground, and then detached it. As the vine fell to the ground below, I could actually feel shock and alarm through the energies coming off the red spheres in the towers.
The spheres released a red wave that I watched ripple through the entirety of the wall. As the wave hit the remaining 4 towers, each of them also lit up in turn with a sphere in their respective centers.
6 sets of eyes were now watching me carefully. The energies rippling through the wall were no longer visible, but I could feel a split in the attention directed toward me that would be consistent with constant panicked communications sent between them.
Looks like I’d just made exactly the right call.
Now then. I’m slowly loosing altitude right now. Let’s survey the area before I hit the ground and get a better idea of what I’m dealing with.
Easily the most eye-catching thing was found just by looking at the wall. Although it was ringed by 6 spiky towers, they did not form a perfect hexagon as one might expect. Rather, there was an odd bit jutting out from the two that were near the river.
They had formed an extension of the wall to actually encompass a section of river, damming it off from the rest of the flow. When examining this section, it became pretty obvious why. There was a single ship, larger than the others in port, that was out on the water.
On closer examination, there was a section of land on a straight line between the two towers responsible for this extension of the wall. The ground in this area was very torn up, as though the wall had started to form in one place and then the spell was hastily canceled and reversed before being re-directed.
From this information, it was fairly easy to figure out what had happened. The ship must have shoved off from port as the wall was being raised. I did not know how long it would take to raise a wall like this with high level earth magic, but I am guessing it’s not slow. However, that ship was actively trying to escape the encirclement. And, the ones responsible for this attack did not want it leaving.
If the boys are smart, they are not going to be anywhere near that ship. Being out on open water is a known defense against earth magic. These enemies are definitely powerful, and capable of overcoming this weakness. This would make the ship an incredibly obvious place to hide, and therefore the last place they should be.
Now then. All I need is a plan to find them. I suppose this is the advantageous side of being the distraction. It’s time to do some more attention getting things.
