Cathleen looked over the various teams getting ready for deployment with pride. While she hadn’t had all that much time to train them, they were performing admirably. Each and every one of them was dedicated to House Walker’s development and eager to push themselves further along their path.

  She had always been the type of woman who enjoyed seeing others working hard to improve themselves, and this new challenge… ostensibly leading a new house… was turning out to be everything that she’d hoped it would be.

  Through her position as House Walker’s viceroy, which is what they called provosts here, she had limited access to the members of House Walker’s Thought Hub records. So, she knew that most of the newly appointed Wacko’s had already taken the time to read through the recommended reading list she’d sent out.

  Back home in the North, several texts were considered mandatory reading for young warriors. ‘Walking Your Path’ by Skellig Yaegerburg, ‘Why We Fight’ by Helen Otorous, and ‘Earning Your Pride’ by Corine Illius were practically venerated as religious texts among the WarBlades.

  In time, she knew that these Wackos would become a formidable force, led by a formidable demi-god. Lord Walker may not be much now, but she had faith that he would reach the pinnacle before his time on this plane came to an end. Her task was to make sure he was allowed to develop, helping him stay alive while allowing him room to walk his path.

  Hopefully, she’d be able to convince him to head North, as her clan was looking for people exactly like him. That was, after all, what she’d been doing in this backwater in the first place.

  “All teams are reporting ready, Battle Leader,” Blackwood said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

  Nodding, she looked over at the man, once again wondering what someone like him was doing here. His family was practically an enemy of House Walker, but he’d given up his ties to their House and dedicated himself to his new position as a Wacko along with all of Knight Angleton’s other subordinates. While it was possible he just wanted to follow Knight Angleton, she couldn’t help but wonder if he had just embraced the opportunity to walk his own path.

  “Very good. Send out the call for deployment. We’ll stay together until we reach the forward operating positions. I want all our team leaders to stay in communication over links through our Battle Hub, and relays set up for our private coms,” she ordered tersely.

  Blackwood’s expressionless face nodded before replying, “Yes, Battle Leader.”

  While he turned away to get everyone moving, she isolated a communication channel between her and Natalie Keening, who’d she assigned to watch over Lord Walker and the dwarves.

  “Any problems?” she asked.

  Natalie replied quickly, “No, Battle Leader. Lord Walker seems to be able to handle the dwarves well enough. Knight Angleton has spread out most of their numbers with the other teams under his command, while their leader and his team will be staying with us. I can confirm that they seem interested in observing Lord Walker, but I haven’t been able to determine why.”

  Replying quickly, Cathleen said, “I believe we’re correct to assume that they’re most likely unhappy with the other nobles and are looking to develop a relationship with House Walker. Their new city will require a local trading partner, and despite what the ‘agreement’ with the capital entails, they’ll end up doing whatever they want. Like most beings with intelligence, they can see that Lord Walker is special, and likely want more information about him.”

  Natalie Keening was one of the Wackos who’d begun to comprehend the breadth of Lord Walker’s growing legend and was eager to see it blossom. So, she understood what Cathleen was hinting at.

  “Any change in my orders?” she asked.

  Cathleen replied, “No. Your area of operations should be relatively safe. Just keep an eye on the young lord and let him fight when he wants. I doubt you’ll be able to keep him out of trouble, and your main priority is to support him.”

  “Understood, Battle Leader. I’ll see it done,” she promised.

  Cathleen cut the connection, temporarily putting Lord Walker and his team out of her mind. She had a larger battle to command, and his part would be minimal at best. House Walker needed to make a good showing, and she intended the entire city to hear about its exploits before she was done.

  —--

  The team of fifteen had spread out a little as the hallways were rather wide. Groups of two had split off to confirm the rooms alongside them were clear, so Nero had been standing alongside Nick behind Natalie on their own.

  The forward scouts who’d called out were rushing back toward them from the other end of the hallway, looking grim. Both were younger-looking men, wearing leather armor and carrying bows. Their tabards were smaller and tighter than normal, cinched tight with their belts and straps. With their dark cloaks trailing behind them, they blended into the shadows rather well.

  While the team regrouped in the middle of the hallway, one of the scouts skidded to a stop right in front of Natalie and said in a voice barely louder than a whisper, “We were spotted. Two groups of kobalds are on their way, numbering 50 or 60 together. There are probably more though. From what we could see… there were no mages or casters among them. Four larger kobalds in command.”

  Natalie, not wasting time, called out, “Form ranks.”

  Turning to Crusher, who was still standing behind Nero and Nick, she asked, “How would you prefer to take part in the fighting?”

  Folding his arms, Crusher replied, “We’ll just watch for now. If ye look like ye’re needing help, we’ll step in.”

  Nero, figuring that the dwarf wanted to see how the ‘humans’ fought, just chuckled to himself in amusement.

  In no time at all, the melee fighters with shields took up positions in the front, while Nick and two other casters brought up an arched shield of magic over their heads. The ceiling was only 15 or 20 feet tall, so there was plenty of space above them. While their group arranged themselves in an arc covering the entire hallway, Nero stayed back with the dwarves, wondering what his contribution to the fighting should be.

  No one bothered to tell him what his assignment was, and he was starting to get confused at how everyone was moving around without saying anything. It made no sense that they were all coordinating what they were doing without ever having trained together.

  Suddenly, he remembered the command channel he had not been privy to during his last battle.

  ‘They’re probably all talking to each other over that,’ he reminded himself, feeling like an idiot.

  Leaning over, he whispered to Crusher, “Hey, you guys on the command channel thing?”

  Crusher turned his head toward him with a frown on his face. “Of course we are? Ye think we’re idiots?”

  Nero’s expression was blank as he stared into the dwarf’s judgmental eyes. “No, I’m sure that you’re not.”

  Mumbling under his breath about asshole dwarves, Nero reached out to Natalie through the ether, wondering if she was the one running the command channel.

  “Yes, what is it, my lord?” she asked, clearly having no trouble multitasking while setting up their defenses.

  “Um… the command channel thing for the team. Shouldn’t I be on that?” he asked, somewhat awkwardly.

  He could practically feel her confusion as her mind checked something. Turning her attention back to the connection with him she replied, “Yes, my lord. I apologize. I thought you knew that we had a Battle Hub in place with the operations center. Your link should allow you to access our team’s channel. If you’d like, I could act as an intermediary if you’d prefer.”

  Nero, still not having taken the time to read up on how everything worked, replied, “No, that’s fine. I’ll find it.”

  Cutting off the connection quickly, he reached out for the link in his pocket. As usual, he had multiple pings waiting for him. One of which was the request to join the various command channels available to him. It took barely a moment for him to connect with the one for his team, as it was practically vibrating in his head with the demand to link himself up.

  All at once, he felt the surrounding minds of the team slam into his head like a series of loud presences snuggling up alongside his brain. He could pick out who was who without issue, feeling them all like individual people standing right next to him.

  “Be sure to keep a watch out for incoming abilities and magic. While we haven’t seen any evidence of that before, we have no idea if these are the same type of kobalds that we’ve faced on the surface. Watch each other’s backs, and keep your center steady,” Natalie called out over the command channel.

  Nero, figuring that he needed to make up for his missing the part where he was assigned a place in the formation, decided that he would contribute by doing what he always does… winging it.

  Stepping away from the dwarves, he took up position directly in the center of the hallway. Casting his most reliable spell, he raised the floor underneath him in a pillar, allowing him to see what was happening beyond the front of the formation.

  The scouts sure weren’t lying, as the end of the hallway was already filling with ravenous kobalds intent on killing everything in sight.

  Isolating the mind of Nick through the command channel, Nero dragged the connection into a private part of his mind.

  “Hey Nick, not to distract you or anything, but with all the rooms having been cleared out, I figured that this area of the mountain had already been wiped clean of the kobalds. So, what’s the deal with these assholes?” he asked.

  Nick, whose mind was currently focused on maintaining the shield he’d set up with the other casters, replied, “It was. But that doesn’t mean that the kobalds from above aren’t sending out scouting parties to harass us. Our task is to continue to flush them out and thin their numbers now that they aren’t getting reinforcements from the lower floors. This won’t be the last kobald war party that we run into.”

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  Nero nodded in understanding, carefully sending out the appropriate emotion over the connection. “Understood. Do you and the other casters mind if I throw out some spells? I’m confident that I can shoot them out under your shield while not head-shotting anyone.”

  Nick, sounding rather annoyed, replied, “Why? Just wait for your orders.”

  Nero, sounding equally annoyed, replied, “You just expect me to sit here and not do anything?”

  “Isn’t that what you were ordered to do?” he asked, somewhat confused.

  “Was it?” Nero replied.

  “How am I supposed to know?” Nick replied.

  “Because you know stuff? I don’t know… Shut up,” Nero replied before cutting the private connection and returning their presence to the rest of the command channel.

  By the time their conversation finished, the front of the kobald assault had arrived. The small lizards were frothing at the snout, eager to engage in some violence.

  Like idiots, they didn’t bother with much of a strategy, and instead just threw themselves at the front of the line, hissing and screeching as if a 4-foot-tall lizard could actually intimidate anyone.

  The frontline fighters responded to the aggression in kind, cutting them down with their swords and axes like they were chopping wood. Off and on, Nero saw abilities going off along the line, various wackos flashing with light in the ether.

  He saw one wacko’s sword trail fire in the air, leaving lines of destruction hovering like lasers that would cut into any kobald stupid enough to get themselves caught in one. Another had small balls of what looked like bubbles that would explode on contact floating in front of her. There were so many varied ways in which the frontline fighters killed the kobalds that Nero was struggling to keep track of who was doing what.

  While none of the abilities on their own were all that impressive, together they were enough to rip through the kobalds like paper.

  One thing was for sure, there were definitely more than 60 of the little bastards.

  Behind the kobald forces, Nero could see the 7-foot-tall super kobalds directing the little ones. Occasionally, they would hiss and smack a few with the flat of their curved swords, demanding that they hurry it up. To Nero, it looked like they were just herding cats… while being assholes about it.

  Not having anything to do, as he didn’t want to annoy anyone with his magic, he tried to take a larger view of the battle. From his position on his pillar, he was able to see the shield above them occasionally flaring from deflecting an arrow or two. He didn’t see any kobald spells going off, and Nick and the two casters looked almost bored.

  Ranged attackers like Rose were using their bows and javelins when they could, firing through the lines directly where there was an opening. They looked like they were running up and down the lines, looking for opportunities to contribute.

  Muttering under his breath, Nero said to himself, “This is dumb. If this is the extent of what the fighting is going to be like, then I’m going to have to pull out my shield and join the front lines. Otherwise, all I’ll be doing is watching.”

  Since his perception field was spread out wide, he could see the entirety of the hallway, watching everything happen. It was a good thing that he was because he sensed the dwarves assembling themselves quickly into a defensive formation… pointing themselves back toward the way that they came.

  Confused, Nero turned around to see what they were looking at.

  While it was outside of his perception field, he could see with his eyes that another horde of kobalds was rushing them. As the hallway was longer than hell, he had a few seconds to wrap his head around what he was seeing.

  Grinning like a madman, he shouted over the command channel, interrupting what everyone was saying, “Lizards in the rear! Don’t worry, me and the dwarves will take care of them!”

  Already, several arrows were being launched by the running kobalds, falling down onto the dwarves like useless sticks. The dwarves looked like they barely even noticed them. Nero, however, quickly assembled his mage armor.

  While it wasn’t the super-fantastic-all-encompasing-defense type of mage armor that he’d lucked into before, it was still the standard one that required part of his mind to maintain. Predictably, it was still more than enough to shrug off the few arrows that were heading for him.

  Nick and the mages altered their shield to arch over the team’s back, cutting Nero off from the dwarves who’d started marching toward the oncoming kobalds.

  Nero could hear Natalie ordering the lines to change formation, intending to split the defenses. He could tell that the dwarves had no intention of listening to her, and honestly, neither did Nero.

  Lowering his pillar, he ducked under the shield and jogged after them, calling out over the command channel, “I said don’t worry about it, me and the dwarves got this.”

  Chuckling to himself, he could feel the annoyance and acceptance in Nick’s mind when he focused on him. Natalie on the other hand was freaking out. He tried to send her some calming thoughts but didn’t expect much luck in having her not coming after him.

  Everything was happening quickly, so he didn’t have a lot of time to wait for things to develop. Instead, he just decided to prove to her that they had it under control.

  While at a jog behind the dwarves, Nero began casting one of the spell turrets he’d developed while assaulting the kobald encampments. It was a combination of napalm spewing acid-like jelly which should cut off the entire hallway if things worked out as planned.

  Shouting out loud to the dwarves, he warned them, “Heads up, things are going to get a little hot if you keep pushing forward!”

  Without bothering to wait to see if they would listen to him, Nero fired an arc of death over the dwarves' heads, starting on one side of the hallway and running it across the floor. Almost immediately, a wall of fire erupted over the ground, cutting the hallway in half.

  The first bunch of kobalds who were running at full speed didn’t have enough time to stop and slid through the flames at a tumble. Nero kept up his fire-spewing like a sprinkler, running it back and forth across the floor.

  As his spell was tied to his personal reserves of essence that he’d collected for his shield, he took the time to continually refresh it by pulling in chunks of essence every few seconds. While needing center to keep casting, he tried to focus on maintaining his control.

  He didn’t want to get in the habit of requiring dead things around him to cast. Theoretically, if he was able to maintain his will, and control his center, he shouldn’t be wasting too much center with simple spells like these. Although, that was just based on his reading and his few classes with Specialist Howard who’d taught him some elemental magic.

  The idea with center was that it was who you were, and if you kept yourself ‘centered’ then you could maintain your personal reserves. As you grew stronger, you’d be able to control more essence without taxing yourself. Only when you become too mentally tired should your reserves start to deplete.

  While that level of skill should arrive around levels 30 or 40 for simple spells like what he was using… Nero took that more as a suggestion than a rule. Archmage Jennings himself said that he should ignore level requirements as they barely applied to him, so Nero figured it was just a matter of training.

  And what better way to train was there than char-broiling murder lizards?

  The dwarves, seeing the line of fire erupt in front of them stuttered to a stop, angrily turning to glare at Nero for denying them a fight.

  Nero was too focused on what he was doing to care. The spell form floating over his shoulder was spewing death by the gallon, filling the hallway with the smell of roasting kobalds. His grin must have been something to see, as the dwarves’ expressions quickly lost some of their heat and instead turned to curiosity.

  “Come on you stupid iguanas! Daddy’s got some lettuce!” Nero shouted in glee.

  The kobald charge had come to a complete stop, none of them willing to brave the fire which was now burning taller than them. Inside the flames, and in front of the dwarves, kobalds were rolling around on the ground, trying and failing to put themselves out.

  Nero, checking his center reserves, shrugged at the sight of his center dropping below 90%.

  Muttering while waving his hands back and forth to continue spreading his sticky flames, he said to himself, “10% isn’t terrible considering how much center I actually put into this stuff.”

  Cutting off the spell, he estimated that the fire should burn for a while on its own.

  Crusher, stepping up near Nero, said, “Lad, do ye intend to just let them just sit there? Cut off the fire and let us do what we do.”

  While Crusher was speaking, more and more arrows were reigning down on them from over the fire, crashing futilely against his mage armor and the dwarves' armor.

  Nero could feel the rest of the team paying attention to what was happening, while still embroiled in the fighting on the other front. Natalie’s presence seemed… proud? While Nick felt smug.

  Not wanting to mentally dig into what any of that meant for how they probably saw him, instead pulled out a canteen from his personal space and took a swig… blatantly ignoring Crusher who was still staring at him.

  After he was done taking a long drink of water, and before Crusher lost his temper, Nero pushed the canteen hard into the dwarf’s chest… causing him to grab it reflexively with the hand he wasn’t using to hold his axe.

  “Here… hold my beer,” Nero said with a chuckle.

  Casting a quick spell to raise up a little pillar to give himself some height, Nero barely stopped himself from laughing out loud at the look on Crusher’s face.

  Pushing everything unnecessary aside in his mind, he focused on what he intended to do.

  Reaching out with his essence field, he first collapsed some more essence for his mage armor, before carving one of his shell-hurling turrets above his head. Holding up his hands as if he were welcoming rain, he pulled in some soul stuff to empower his spell.

  Being careful not to go too far, after all, he didn’t want to cause the ceiling to collapse, he began firing shells out over the flames into the kobald lines.

  It barely took any center at all as he was relying on the leftover essence from the dead kobalds. There wasn’t a ton to work with, but it didn’t take all that much to empower the shells themselves. His spell form was all him, and his center was fully capable of shaping the shells on its own. The essence from the ether was what was providing the real ‘oomph’.

  In fact, with how hard he was concentrating, he doubted he’d be losing much center at all.

  Like a howitzer going off indoors, the walls shook. Nero didn’t realize it, as he was too focused on what he was doing, but everyone… kobalds, humans, and dwarves included… stopped what they were doing and covered their ears in pain.

  Eruptions of kobald parts exploded one by one as the shells reached their targets. Nero swung the turret back and forth along the kobald horde, obliterating them in droves and painting the walls with their bodies. It was overkill… a massive and unnecessary destruction of the enemy that was both shocking and awe-inspiring. With a mere ten shells of death, he shattered the kobalds' resolve, killing their few larger kobalds in the process.

  The kobalds broke, running back where they came from.

  Nero lowered his hands and recaptured what little center he could from his spell form. Still grinning from ear to ear, he said, “That was freakin’ awesome.”

  Lowering himself to the ground, he wiggled his finger in his ear and flexed his jaw a few times… trying and failing to get his ears to pop. The sound around him felt muted… like he was underwater.

  Crusher, who was now standing next to him, was saying something.

  Looking at the dwarf in confusion, Nero shouted in his face, “What?”

  The dwarf, looking incredibly angry while also impressed, shook Nero by the shoulders and started talking again.

  Nero, still not understanding anything, glared at him and shouted, “I think my ears are messed up from the blast. Hold the fuck on a second.”

  Carving his go-to spell form for healing, Nero looked into himself, discovering that his eardrums had been perforated by the sound of the explosions. A quick flex of his spell fixed it in no time, returning his sense of sound.

  “Much better. Now what were you saying?” he asked smoothly, a smile reappearing on his face.

  Crusher, glaring at him while also smiling, said, “I said, are all humans capable of what you just did?”

  Nero shrugged and replied, “I have no idea. I’ve been practicing magic for like a couple of months. I’m sure I still suck at it… so probably.”

  Behind them, he could feel the fighting that was going on with the main force of wackos dying down. The last of the kobalds attempted to retreat while being shot down by the ranged fighters.

  Nick, who’d now either dropped his shield or more likely had simply disconnected himself from it… as the blue barrier still floated in the air, walked up to them.

  “No, most humans at Nero’s level can’t do what he just did. Not to mention that anyone who could… wouldn’t. It is both idiotic and impressive that he was able to do so,” Nick said with a glare while staring at Nero in accusation.

  “Idiotic and impressive… Yup… that tracks,” Nero replied while watching the last of the flames he’d spread die down.