Chapter 28 - The ICB: The Overworld Tower Dive
<blockquote>
Inter Cohort Battle Report:
Cohort 1: 841/924
Cohort 2: 755/833
Ongoing Rifts:
1st River Tower Rift C1 21 : 1 C2 [Victory C1]
2nd River Tower Rift C1 1 : 14 C2 [Victory C2]
3rd River Tower Rift C1 - : - C2 [Seeding]
1st Middle Tower Rift C1 12 : 13 C2 [Victory C1]
2nd Middle Tower Rift C1 - : - C2 [Seeding]
1st Creek Tower Rift C1 13 : 21 C2
Century Battle Status Report, II, VII:
Location - In the field between Misty Tower and River Tower
Strength - 62/74
Incapacitated - 10
Missing - 2
Dead - 0
Rift Teams -
Fifth Decio - Full strength
Sixth Decio (aka Team Palinus) - Full strength
Seventh Decio - 4/5
</blockquote>
“They weren’t supposed to win!” Centurion Armiger kicked at a shrub beside the path as the century reformed. They had taken nearly half an hour to turn the century around and collect the various decios strewn through the forest in the retreat from the river tower. “They are just a pack of street rats from the 7th Hill with no pedigree at all! That one is a bloody stoneman!”
Optio Magunnus was used to his superior’s ‘opinions.’
“Winning a rift is generally considered to be a good thing.” Magunnus said carefully, he had worked with Armiger for over a year and knew how to manage the man. “You are looking good with a skirmish win against the 11s and a counter rift.”
“But now we have to attack them head on… “ The centurion’s gruff frustration crossed into whining as he channeled an ars to slash the offending shrub with lashes that removed it’s spiny leaves. “...or do we?”
“Yes, we do. The 9th Century are already moving to support. ” Magunnus said calmly,
“Fine.” he agreed sullenly.
“...and you need to let the 2nd team take a run at the 111s.”
“The First Team…!” Armiger started to object weakly, but his face pinched into a calculating look. “Maybe you are right.”
The optio sighed, he almost preferred the petulant version of the centurion than the overtly corrupt one.
“They can take the tower rift, if they can get there in time. If they don’t make it in time to compete with the 111s…” The centurion shrugged. “Either way they have no hope and it will be quick. It’s not like Augustus will complain to his father about avoiding another thrashing.”
Stomping on the stubby shrub with his sandal, Centurion Armiger twisted the heavy leather sole of his sandal and ground what remained of the plant into the dirt.
He scowled at the rift and the conscripts below it.
Tendrils of mostly red essentia already crept from the Misty Tower through the rift and towards the River Tower. It sapped essentia from the 1st Cohort conscripts who were currently positioned beneath the tower. Steadily reducing their power as it also empowered their conscripts the closer they got to the tower they had claimed with the impending victory in the rift.
Standing straight and putting on his gruff soldier persona he finally turned to face the century that was now fully formed, besides the bodies of 5 who lay strewn below the rift they guarded.
“We go to recapture the tower!” The Centurion yelled with his chest out and sword raised.
Some within the century cheered weakly. Most warily eyed the first century, they had won a small victory with a surprise attack, but they would still be a fierce enemy in a melee… even with buff provided by the tower.
“...after we surround and bombard the 1st for a while!” Armiger added, which prompted a much bigger response.
<hr>
Palinus found the return to his body awkward. He smacked his head into the earth as he reoriented himself from walking victoriously through a rift to his face down prone position under one.
As he rubbed his head and as he sat up found Centurion Armiger crouching in front of them, uncomfortably close.
“Um, hi.” He said.
“Get in formation!” Centurion Armiger yelled.
He hadn’t expected much, but the complete lack of acknowledgement of their victory was underwhelming.
They stood up and ran to stand in a line.
“You are assigned to rift 3. Congratulations.” The centurion said with an evil smile.
As they digested the statement the rift behind them pulsed and shuddered. Its aperture closing like a kaleidoscopic flower folding in on itself.
Through the forest they could see the river tower.. They could feel the pulsing of essentia from the rift they stood by to the tower and could feel the pull of the rift within.
They could also see that the tower was defended.
“But the rifts probably just about to open!” Seline was the first to react, but the whole team knew the score.
“Well, you might want to run.” The centurion commented.
The team quickly shared a look. They had 5 minutes realistically, and they would need to fight through to the rift.
Without a word they began to move. Rather than the clearer path towards the road they started off into the forest.
“Wait!” The voice of Armicustos Cico pulled them to a halt.
They turned to find not the impressive woman but Decurion Marius running towards them carrying a chest with a copper horn mounted on the top of it. The portly Decurion was panting and sweating in the heat as if he had been running for quite some time.
“Good boy Marius, set it quickly so we can let them get underway.” Cico’s voice sounded tinny as it was projected from the horn. “Did you get any loot?”
“Nothing for us.” Palinus replied with frustration. He had hoped for something that might get them an edge on the 111s.
Both Cico through the horn and Marius laughed at him.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“It’s rare to get something fit for you unless it is a formed rift you idiot.” Marius stated bluntly. “Show us what you got.”
The team pulled out the two calculii they picked up:
[Stone Wall] and [Polymorph]
“Good choice not applying either of those.” Marius stated, it didn’t sound like a compliment as much as a statement of relief that the team weren’t that dumb.
He took the two stones and tapped once on the lid of the chest. It opened for a moment and he stuffed the stones in.
“Anything else?”
“This vitis dropped.” Bruchts handed over the ornate stick that had formed from the essentia in the rift.
The vitis, also known as a vine staff, was a symbol of the centurion rank, it was a stick exactly a meter long that was used for drill as well as for flogging.
Marius hefted the stick for a moment and eyed the markings along it, channeling his essentia he swung it and a lash of dark red energy flickered from it’s tip.
“Hmm.” The decurion seemed to be deep in though. “This could work… Huh. Interesting.”
Moving over to the chest he whispered into the horn. The whispered conversation that Palinus could hear was from more than one voice, but he couldn’t place who was speaking.
When Marius finished he handed the stick not back to Bruchts but to Palinus.
“Try this instead of your wand.”
“Am I allowed to carry a Vitis?” Palinus asked.
There was an ugly sound of disapproval from Centurion Armiger who Palinus had forgotten was hanging around.
“It is just a stick, it is almost more like a whip in truth. ” Marius laughed. “Even if it does look a lot like a Vitis, it is ultimately just a weapon, the Auxilia don''t care for arbitrary status symbols."
“Hrmph.” Centurion Armiger didn’t argue but he looked pissed off as he stomped away.
This made Marius laugh even harder once the man was out of earshot.
"It is shorter range than you are used to, but a possible long term option as a weapon. Give it a try.”
“Can we go now!” Seline was getting agitated, “We have a rift to get to!”
“Just a moment. Cico is just finalising some trades for the calculii you picked up, she’ll get you something nice it''ll be worth the wait.”
Through the horn on the chest they could hear a muffled argument.
“... I know… I know…” Armicustos Cico’s voice came back to the fore, clearly still arguing with someone in the background. “It doesn’t matter how fun that woul-”
Then sound cut off for a moment before Cico came back to them.
“Go ahead and grab the stones before someone else comes in and adds their opinion… Good luck!”
She wished the team good fortune as the lid of the chest opened and the team crowded around.
Inside the chest was plain, but the size was far smaller that the full chest. The edges of the box blurring to connect itself, the effect gave palinus a headache and he focused on the two calculii within.
One a deep orange with a square gem cut, its facets were gleaming as if the light within chased itself around the edges as it entered the stone.
The other was a turquoise. It stood out from all the other calculii Palinus had seen as it had rounded edges, dark black veins and the blue and green colours within clashed against themselves rather than blending homogeneously.
The team instantly felt who they were intended for.
A flash of disappointment tugged at Palinus, he wanted a new calculii and had hoped for something that would add to his offence.
Sharing a look with the team, he knew he was not alone. In Rufian’s eyes was bloodlust and in Vesuvia’s undisguised greed. They wanted more.
<hr>
“Do you think we would have got a warmer response from a first cohort centurion?” Vesuvia joked as they ran towards the tower.
The team chuckled as they dodged around trees and cut a wide path towards the River Tower.
“It''s a pile of shit.” Rufian was still fuming, “We were pivotal in setting up the ambush and then we managed to win the rift with a disadvantage! Armiger should be kissing our feet!”
“Well you didn’t exactly contribute to either of those things, you feeder!” Seline teased.
“What?!” Rufian said in mock outrage, “I’ll have you know I killed three of them… and that was twice by myself in the top lane.”
“Then you ruined our clean slate by diving their nexus towers.”
“I was just securing the kill.”
Their banter as they ran had an odd gallows humour quality. They knew they were about to do something silly.
“I wonder if tower diving in the overworld hurts as much as in a rift…” Bruchts mused
They were pleased to find as they reached the edge of the forest that the seventh century had not been completely idle. The first cohort were starting to look a bit the worse for wear under fire from the empowered second cohort.
It pleased Palinus to see them under fire from siege weaponry and it looked like there was an ongoing battle as the conscripts with long ranged spells and projectile weapons took shots at each other.
The second cohort were winning handily in the trades, but the first cohort didn’t need to win, they just needed to delay until their rift team had an advantage.
“We’re running out of time.” Seline sighed.
“We have to just charge.” Rufian stated. “Otherwise we are potentially delaying our starts in the rift.”
“But we also all need to make it to the rift.” Palinus replied, “Otherwise we are at an even bigger disadvantage… even if we do make it, we’re probably going to get destroyed.”
“We have a chance if we all make it in,” Bruchts added. “‘Night Dive’ to get there and ‘Deep Fist’ in the rift?”
The team around him nodded.
“Good plans, but we need to stick together for the dive. I’d rather we all go to the infirmary together than face a 5v4.” Palinus agreed.
“Sorry Pal I’ve got a new ars to test! Get ready for a slight spin on the dive strat. When we get out of this you need to rate my warcry!” Rufian said excitedly before he ran off.
“What is he talking about, isn’t this a stealth attack where we go in tight?” Seline said with a worried look.
They started to move out of the forest quietly, they could hear Rufian making a racket in some thick bushes not far away.
Before they were completely ready to go it seemed like Rufian decided to make his move.
“Let’s do this!” They heard him yell. “RRRRUuuuuuuFFIIIAANNNN RRRAAAMMMMIIRrrrruuUUUSSSS!!!”
“Oh Vestra, he’s running in!” Seline exclaimed.
“Rufian you idiot.” Brucht grumbled.
“We’d better go and save him.” Palinus sighed.
The team ran as quickly as they could. A stealth approach was thrown out and the first cohort conscripts on this side of the tower began to prepare themselves for battle.
As they ran they quickly got within range for Palinus to use his ars and he was quick to channel the Saturnine Veil. It gave them a boost to speed and some cover from the projectiles which were already being launched at them as they ran towards the tower.
Palinus quickly lost track of his team as he charged headlong through the smoke. He held the Vitis that he had just got and hoped that it might be useful trying to fight through a shield wall, though he wasn’t hopeful.
As he got closer to the tower he saw what he was dreading.
The first cohort conscripts had formed a wall and it looked solid with an interlocking bubble of projected shields that might as well have been made of brick.
He flicked out with his stick in frustration.
As the stick came down thick strands of dark red energy streamed out of the tip like half a dozen whips of energy. As it cracked against the shield it made a sound like the vicious whips they had experienced only that morning. He felt that the damage was more than he might have done with the wand, but it was not going to be enough to break through the shield wall.
As Palinus started to lose hope he heard a growling that he recognised from off to his left. It seemed like Rufian had run slightly around the formation to the left rather than straight into the enemy. It was impressive misdirection but Palinus wasn’t sure he could do anything.
As his friend started to channel an ars Palinus felt a moment of hope.
A sharp line of orange light shot like a laser through the formation of First cohort conscripts. It looked similar to the ars the swordsman in their previous rift had used. It also didn’t seem to do any damage, which was why it hadn’t been deflected by the shield wall.
Rufian’s ars quickly locked on to a far conscript and began in earnest. His arm was locked to the beam as if the fist he pointed was tied to it. He began to fly forward.
It was slow at first but he quickly picked up speed.
It would have hurt a great deal as he bashed himself into the shield wall.
*SMACK* *Smack*
His fist hit the wall and his whole body followed into it secondary thud. The fist and body pressing as if trying to squeeze through an invisible hole.
The shield wall flickered and with a shudder gave up against Rufian’s body pressed into it.
Rufian flew through the line of conscripts holding up their shield. He came in from the side and scattered them like pins as he flew through.
With a yell Palinus took the opportunity to run through the line and up into the tower.
As he got through the door he could tell that he was joined by several of his team, but that they were also being pursued by their enemy.
“Stop them!” from in front a handful of resting conscripts stood to fight.
With a slash of his wrist Palinus flicked out the whipping tendrils of his new weapon and was morbidly satisfied with the cry of pain as he hit the person in front of him.
Not wasting any time to see the damage he darted past and dove headfirst into the waiting tendrils of the rift.
As he felt the lurching sensations of entering a rift he hoped that the rest of the team had made it. He especially hoped that Rufian had managed to unentangle himself from his impressive ars. They would need him for their plan to win in the rift.
A plan they had dubbed ''Deep Fist.''