A wall of fragrant, hot tea explodes out from around me to meet the approaching demonic fist thrumming with sinister power. The two forces collide and waves of pressure radiate out from the point of contact throwing boulders away from us in the canyon, I can hear the sound of the Devil’s skin sizzling from the scalding liquid. The demonic being stands over eight feet tall with its cracked skin being a bone-white color. His eyes are abyssal black and it has one hour on the left side of his head. Where I expect to see another remains just the stump, his right horn lost in some previous battle. The energy radiating off him just feels evil and embodies a bloodlust and killing intent unmatched in even the worst humans. His bone-white skin ends at his hands which are a mottled black with a vile ichor dripping from his sharp claws. In the previous incursion, I was never strong enough to stand toe to toe with the Generals, but I remember seeing the Verdance elites battle these beasts and I know the one in front of me is a true monster.
I need to be careful not to over-extend myself because as things stand right now, I am the only one in the remnants of the Verdance forces that can keep this monster abated. I quickly dodge out of the way of his demonic needle, and he quickly retreats back before I can launch a counter-attack. Even though we have exchanged blows over a dozen times, neither of us have activated a real skill yet and I can tell he is also hesitant to push our battle to the next stage—unsure of what cards I’ve also hidden during our lethal sparring sessions.
I notice that the Pyrathis patriarch and his party are almost done with their task of whittling down the demonic tide, and soon the Devil will retreat as he has done multiple times over the last few months. The Devil Incursion is different from the one I spent my youth growing in, only one General has made himself known so far and we are more or less the same power level.
As the last of the Tier Two lieutenants falls, the Devil retreats back hundreds of feet before it looks at me with persistent rage burning in its eyes. Finally it disappears into the canyon, and I can only expect it to return with the next wave of demonic beasts.
The Pyrathis Patriarch approaches me, and I can’t help but look on his empty sleeve with guilt. I was too slow dropping Cam off at The School, and because of it Verdance’s strongest adventurer suffered a major wound. I don’t know if I will stay here for the whole Incursion or if I will be called into the deep portals as I did before, but I know that if I leave now, the rest of the Verdance forces will be decimated by that Devil. If things get to the point where I have to leave, I will just have to take a chance to kill or greviously injure it before I depart.
He clears his throat and waits for me to nod. With my permission, he reports on the battle. “Tea Sage, there were no casualties from the battle, minor wounds that can be healed back at camp. We successfully routed the remainders of the demonic beasts. A few of the weaker beasts fled at the beginning of the battle and they moved toward some of our other fronts; however, I don’t think it should be cause for concern as none of their mana signatures exceeded High Tier One.”
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I quickly process the report and am relieved to hear that the mission was a resounding success with no major injuries. I thank him for the report and instruct him to prepare the troops to march to the Northern Front. Though I can see some confusion in his eyes, he does not raise any concerns with the orders and gets the party prepared to march. Since we routed the push so easily we should move to the most contentious front and flank the beasts. That should alleviate quite a bit of the pressure on our Tier Twos holding that zone down and help us push for more ground.
I can see some exhaustion in my troops, so I decide that we will only assist for a few hours before we head back. As we approach the front, I follow the recommendations of our scouts to get in position along the flank of the incursion’s elite troops. I signal to our mages to prepare their largest spells and we flash out of hiding. A massive, flaming slash soars from the patriarch’s blade cleaving into the tide of beasts, a deep groove carved into their tight formation. Panic echoes from the elite beasts as the surprise attacks befall them and I watch as earth spears and tornadoes tear through their ranks. I pull a small, unassuming teapot from my pouch and prepare to throw it into the mix, but a wave of killing intent sneaks through the cracks of the canyon and I narrowly dodge the Devil General’s sinister needle, dropping the pot in the process.
Thankfully, my squad is well-versed in my battles with this entity and they scatter falling back to the human battle lines to provide support against the devil tide. I kick myself for underestimating this beast, thinking he had fully retreated, but just hid his aura as he tracked us through the battlefield. His body contorting in painful ways as he squeezes through the canyon’s incredibly narrow crack. The needle zips back to his hand, as if pulled by a taut string and the Devil steps forward to crush the fallen teapot.
Finally… After months of fighting and waiting for an opening, this demonic beast makes his first mistake. I quickly try to hide the smile creeping at the corners of my mouth, but the General spots it and quickly tries to dodge back—it’s too late.
My eyes glow a bright blue and my voice booms with the power of my path. “Sage’s Pour-Grasp of Enlightenment!”
The small teapot gently tips and a single drop of tea falls. From that drop erupts a titanic hand of fragrant tea. An aura of calm descends upon the battlefield and the world itself sits in it’s all-consuming palm. The monster’s eyes widen with shock and a grating sound erupts from its mouth as power rushes to its claws and forms a sinister claw mark hanging in the air to meet the hand. The mark radiates sacrifice and years of accumulated bloodlust, but unfortunately for it, what kind of hasty skill could match a true sage’s path. The fragrant hand bursts through the mark, barely losing any power in the process and reaches out trapping the Devil in its grasp. He struggles to resist but the calming aura becomes more domineering and the space surrounding the hand begins to crash in on itself under the pressure. A soft clink of porcelain rings through the valley as the lid of the teapot lifts into the air. The hand condenses back into a single dark drop and makes a solitary plop as it falls back into the pot. The lid closes again and as the sounds of bird chirping returns to the valley, it is accompanied by the silence of both sides of the conflict as they stare on at the impossible power contained within that attack.
I turn to the demonic tide and smile in their direction, the fetters of unknown attacks have been shed and it’s time for the humans to gain back some ground.
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