29 Assault, Defense: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Upon reaching the camp, Saiph gasped in astonishment. On the opposite side of the Rune Array, there was a large tower made of mud and dirt.

"Huh?" Saiph gasped. How did they build that so fast?

"Hey-o, Saiphy boy! Hahaha!" Suddenly, Enzo's head popped out from the top of the tower, calling down on Saiph. "I'm the king of the Tower!"

Saiph was dumbfounded by his friend's nonsensical verbalisms. He sighed and approached the towering mound of dirt.

"Hey, welcome back. Get all ya needed?" Velvet walked out from behind the mound, asking Saiph.

"Yeah, I think so. There should be enough components to create a potion or two lethal enough to take down a Carnage Beast if I hit it right.

"But, what is this about?" he asked, gesturing to the pile of dirt reaching an impressive height of around seven or eight feet.

"Well, we finished the array before you were back so we figured we'd make a base of sorts to shoot down from."

"Hmm." Saiph pondered the resourcefulness of his companions and the usefulness of this mound of dirt momentarily.

He figured that the tower would be able to protect them from practically any beast that showed up, although only with the help of the Restriction hindering the beasts' movements.

"How'd you two get this much dirt, anyways?" But, the issue of their resourcefulness came to greater light. How was it that they moved and arranged this much dirt in the span of just a few hours?

"Oh, I know an anti-gravity field spell. It's called 'Minor Upward Force'. I had to learn it to collect taxes from the mortal folks on the 51st world." Velvet replied.

Saiph felt a shiver of excitement travel down his spine; he knew that one! He had seen the scarred Mage use it to lift the corn from their silo back before he had even met Mr. Mayers.

The scarred Mage…

Saiph's thoughts wandered off to the time of three years ago when he was thrown down to the bottom of the silo. A bitter melancholy grasped his heart as he remembered the turbulent times he had had with his father.

"Saiph? Saiph!?"

A voice shook him from his daydream.

"Yes?" he called back to his sister, who was still standing in front of him.

"No, it's just that you were spacing out. You good?" Velvet worriedly put her hand on his cheek.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just tired. It's been a long few days out in the wilderness." Saiph brushed her hand off of his face and shook his head, shaking himself out of his trance.

"Anyways, what does the Spell do? I spaced out before you said."

Velvet looked at her brother with a strange sense of perplexion and trepidation strewn across her face, before repeating herself.

"Minor Upward Force creates a small disk of space that counteracts the force of gravity. So, anything above it becomes weightless. I just cast that Spell about seven feet underground and lifted up the affected dirt. Of course, it wasn't quite that easy but that's the gist."

"Gotcha, gotcha," Saiph nodded and said. "And, I'll learn it when I have to collect taxes someday, you say? Cool. Should be helpful at some point."

"Yeah, it's one of the most useful Spells I can think of in terms of utility. The issue is that the field doesn't move and it's incredibly strenuous for the caster. It's probably unusable in combat unless you want to get killed or are very protected by other Mages."

"...Can you change the direction of the force?" Saiph asked after a moment's pondering.

"Nah, haha," Velvet laughed. "I have no clue what all of the component Runes mean, to be honest. I just have the Spell itself memorized; I don't think I could modify it whatsoever."

"Yeah, that's fair," Saiph laughed along. "Still, it'd be cool to change it so that it aimed away from you. Then, anything running at you would be blown away by the full force of gravity."

"Hmm." Velvet thought for a second. "No, that sounds like a bad idea to me, actually. Incredibly potent against one opponent, but it's also hazardous for any allies and leaves you vulnerable from the other three directions. Even projectiles coming at you wouldn't be blown back by the force."

Saiph sighed and nodded along with Velvet's words, seeing the true light on the matter.

Enzo hopped down from eavesdropping on their conversation and butted in, asking about what Saiph had found and if anything interesting had happened.

The three chatted until an hour after the Sun had set.

…

The next day, the final preparations were set into place. That morning, Saiph had painstakingly, with the help of the other two, brewed his potion. It wasn't the most complex formula in the Tower, but Saiph also didn't remember its name. He knew that he wasn't the inventor of the simple potion, but only the ingredients and procedure were embedded in his mind, not the name.

"I'll call you two 'Good Corrosion Potions' for now," he declared after the brewing was finished.

Hence, his arsenal was set: three corrosion potions in total, one being notably less corrosive than the other two that he had just now brewed.

Saiph sighed to himself as he thought about the future potions he could brew.

While these potions were acceptable, they still had their faults. For example, a Torrent Burn potion wouldn't be neutralized by the organic compounds existing in creatures. It would eat through something until that something was no longer a thing.

Only a beast with eminent vitality in the realm of a Sovereign would be able to counteract the relentless corrosion of a Torrent Burn Potion with their natural life Runes. Of course, a Monad was on the level of a True Mage; anything Saiph knew of right now would prove derisory in the face of their power.

However, a Desolate Beast was the strongest force on Arches and what Saiph's group was currently cowering from. A Torrent Burn Potion would kill one rather easily, as long as the potion connected.

Imagining that sort of power left Saiph in a state of awe and wonder. But, after shaking his head free of such fantasies, he brought his focus back on the task at hand: killing Ember Wolves.

The Restriction was set; all Saiph had to do now was bring the blood and guts of the Leap Deer he had slaughtered over to its core.

"You ready?" he asked Enzo and Velvet.

"Mhm," they both nodded.

Saiph was inefficient at the reigns of a formation, so he gave his Leap Deer pieces to the other two, retreating back to the top of the dirt tower.

Velvet took the bait, bringing it over to the core of the formation and pouring it all out on the ground.

Enzo squatted down on the ground next to her with his hands pressed down on one of the Rune Circles.

Suddenly, a bright light radiated from all of the component Rune Circles, flashing with a radiant greatness then immediately dying out.

Suddenly, Saiph felt a pungent effluvium reaching his nostrils just a split second after the light had died out.

"Ugh," Saiph recoiled and coughed from the powerful impact it left on him. He felt his eyes water, closing them and clenching his nostrils closed with his fingers. He almost felt nauseous enough to retch over the side of the dirt tower. But, the prevailing sense of dizziness prohibited him from doing as such, lest he tumbled off and met with a broken limb.

Through his blurry vision, Saiph spotted the figures of Velvet and Enzo rushing toward him from their previous position. They also were grasping at their faces, desperately trying to prevent the rot from reaching them any more than it already had.

'Uh-oh,' Saiph thought. 'At this rate, we aren't even going to be able to fight back against the oncoming beasts.'

Velvet and Enzo suddenly hopped into the crown of the tower, landing next to Saiph. They nodded to him, not daring to open their mouths to speak.

Saiph returned the gesture, holding his worries to himself; they should be perfectly aware of the ordeal as well.

Time passed slowly for the suffering group of teens. After what seemed like an eternity, Enzo, filled with valor, dared to try to test the waters once more.

Saiph's heart trembled in anticipation as he viewed on at the horrendous spectacle.

"Ah," Enzo laughed. "Pretty bad, but I'm alive."

Saiph felt skeptical of his words but nonetheless took his hand off of his face and took a cautious breath. He winced from the stench but he had to agree with Enzo: it was bearable now.

Clearing his eyes free of tears, Saiph stood up and looked around, spotting for any beast herds attracted to the stench yet.

Fwoom

Saiph jerked his head and looked over to where he had heard the noise to no avail. Trepidation seemed key here, so Saiph dropped down below the lip and carefully gazed over. No adversaries were blatantly visible -- yet -- but Saiph knew better.

Beasts were very intelligent creatures. They all had intelligence rivaling mortal wolves, and more astute creatures -- such as the coveted Ember Wolves -- had intelligence approaching the levels of civilization-building.

AWOO

A harsh howl ripped through the air, shocking Saiph. He peeked over to where it had come from.

SNAP

Saiph flew back and away from the lip, narrowly dodging the vicious maw of whatever had almost taken his head off.

Almost completely out of breath, Saiph thought back in horror of his near-death experience.

How the Hell did they already get so close to the tower!?

Regardless, Saiph came upon a realization: the battle had already begun.