16. Mandatory Overtime

As we move on there are definitely a few more Great Vultures watching us than before. Then again, they’re probably more interested in the bodies of the Corpse Bears than in us. As I’m thinking that Willard speaks up. “So do we have any idea why Corpse Bears were even over here? If we run into another group like that we’re going to need to run.”

Gwendolyn gives a non-committal head movement. “The dangerous area we were avoiding is supposedly overrun by Corpse Bears that another group is clearing out, but … well Corpse Bears don’t exactly run from a fight even if they’re overpowered. I wasn’t expecting them to be this far east.”

Willard rolls his eyes. “So some guild members are doing a terrible job at something and it’s suddenly our problem. No change there then. What’re the odds we see more of them?”

Gwendolyn thinks on that for a few seconds. “Not terribly high. As long as we’re still seeing Great Vultures nesting then there can’t be that many other things around here.”

I barely hear Johannes mumble a response. “Corpse Bears are also attracted to light magic, they probably started getting closer after I healed you all.”

The conversation dies down a bit after that, and I notice Elizabeth writing something on a wax tablet. I guess there’s no real polite way to ask about it, so I just look around at the occasional Great Vultures in the surrounding trees. At least until I get a tap on my shoulder. Looking over, Elizabeth is staring at me, holding out the tablet. I guess it was for me then anyway. I take the tablet and read what she wrote on it. “Just wanted to say thank you for the whole vulture thing.”

I hand her the tablet back. “No problem, I wouldn’t have made any headway on the bear you melted on my own.”

She just gives me a shrug into a thumbs up before going back to walking alongside me. Looking around Willard is clearly looking at us, and in close enough range to have heard my side of the conversation at least. He waits a minute before speaking though. “Oh, Jezebel, I meant to ask. I assume people not being where they seem was one of your tricks?”

I nod. “Yeah, sorry I noticed it threw off your aim with the second bear.”

He shrugs. “It worked out in the end, although I wouldn’t mind a warning next time. Regardless, that’s not the point I was getting at. What I wanted to ask about was what you can do with it since it seemed really useful as a defense of last resort.”

I give a half shrug. “I don’t know the exact limits, before today I hadn’t even used it on another person in years. I can at least say that more than one person at a time’s a bit beyond me, at least right now. It’s not a question of enough magic, it’s just that completely concealing someone else is an incredibly complicated illusion, and doing it twice plus two highly detailed illusions to act as doubles is too much focus. Not to mention it gets much harder if I’m not keeping them both in my field of view”

He raises an eyebrow at that. “Just sounds like you need practice with it then.”

“Easier said than done, I can do it on myself basically trivially, but I’d need someone’s help to practice on.”

“So borrow someone? Heck if you just want to practice you can do it while we’re walking. I don’t mind if you want to try it on me for a bit, just drop it if we need to run or something so I don’t trip. Or you could practice once I’m asleep if you don’t need the time to recover magic. My point is you’re not exactly lacking in people to practice with, you just need to do the practice.” Elizabeth nods and points to herself and he continues. “There, see, two people to practice on and plenty of magic, plus if we get attacked you can just charge the doubles right at the attackers and buy a few seconds while we run.”

Well … sure why not? I was looking for something to do while we walked, why not have some fun? “Well then, sure. Thanks for the help.” I start with Elizabeth’s process before doing Willard’s more slowly. With absolutely nothing else to focus on the second one is possible, but I already feel myself dropping some details trying to keep them both up, and the duplicates are both starting to look a bit fuzzy. Still, every time I fix one detail I lose focus on another. This is great, I should do it more often, it’s an actual challenge for once.

I spend the next few hours of walking balancing the different illusions, it’s a bit like trying to do giant shadow puppet plays with thirty hands working simultaneously, but practice is helping. Still, I get suddenly interrupted when Johannes stumbles nearly to a stop, and leans against a tree. I drop my illusions as everyone turns to look at him, and Gwendolyn is the first to speak. “Are you alright?”

Johannes shakes his head and turns around to lean his back against the tree. “No, I’m really not. How long do we have left before we’re out of this area?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Eight hours or so. I’m fully aware it’s going to feel awful, but I can still see Great Vultures watching us every few minutes. Resting here just isn’t an option.”

Johannes winces and slowly pushes himself up from the tree. “I’ll do my best, but I don’t have any magic to push myself any further, and I’m about to hit my limit.”

She thinks on that for a few seconds. “That’s … about right, we were more or less relying on your magic just to pull off traveling for this long. What do our resources look like? I’ve got enough metal magic to maybe launch myself again, but anything past that is pushing it.”

Elizabeth just shakes her head no, and Johannes does the same. Meanwhile Willard leans his back against a tree. “I’ve been worse, but not much. Physically I’m burnt, but I’ve still got a twister or two locked away for a rainy day. Plus I’ve still got my armor’s magic. Speaking of which …” He looks over towards me.

I shrug. “About the same as when you last asked, I used a bit of magic practicing, but not enough to really matter. Physically I’m still fine. So if you need anything illusory I can probably provide.”

Gwendolyn seems to think for a bit. “If we used four liquid lives we could push ourselves further, but that would be our entire safety net gone. We could try to keep watch while Johannes sleeps, but at that point sleep deprivation would be a big issue for most of the rest of us. We could try hiding in an illusory cover, but it wouldn’t work if the Great Vultures interacted with the illusion itself.”

Willard looks a bit skeptical. “We’ve already seen these things go to attack Elizabeth while the rest of us were awake, and she wasn’t even asleep. I’m not sure we can protect someone sleeping unless some of us can recover some magic on our own.”

Gwendolyn nods. “True, we could use the illusion with that, but at that point it would almost be better for all of us to sleep so that if something goes wrong we’ll all have a bit of magic to use in escape. It would at least give us pretty good chances, and save the liquid lives to recover if something physically injures us. That being said.” She looks over towards me. “What do you think? You’d be the one handling the cover if we went with that.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind being useful again. “I could probably make something work, we saw a Great Vulture running away before the Corpse Bears arrived, so they can at least be scared away.”

“Then let’s work with that, if things start going wrong just wake us up. Everyone else just try to get some sleep, and recover a bit of magic while we can. There’s no Great Vultures around, so we should get at least a short rest no matter what happens.”

I wonder if the plan is less ‘Jezebel will protect us while we sleep’ and more ‘we can risk a short nap to recover some magic, and Jezebel will slow our enemies down a bit’. I guess the two aren’t mutually exclusive … more like ‘I hope Jezebel can protect us, but in case she can’t we need a backup plan’. I can live with that.

The rest of the group seems to agree, that is to say Elizabeth and Johannes all but collapse onto the ground, I should probably handle the illusion now. A colossal ruby colored dragon descends from the sky, and lands on top of our group. It’s a bit unfortunate how dark it will be under it, but that’s pretty inevitable without some dark magic mixed in.

I think both Gwendolyn and Willard try to stay up a bit longer, but both of them stop moving just a few minutes after the others. I focus my attention on keeping the dragon looking lively, and not worth the effort for a Great Vulture to attack. At the same time I try not to make too much noise with it, but the deep bellowing breaths, and cracking sound of a colossal creature’s ponderous movements are a bit inevitable. Luckily the other four seem unaffected by the extra noise. As time passes though I’m starting to get an audience; a few Great Vultures are sitting in the trees observing my pet dragon. It’s probably not moving as much as it should, but I can’t just have it walk about, or even stand up without uncovering everyone who’s sleeping. As I’m thinking that one of the Great Vultures moves a bit closer, breaking from the tree it was sitting on, and flying up to get a closer look at the Dragon. I have the dragon glare at it, but the vulture … might not know what it’s looking at. In retrospect I may have chosen a creature that it wouldn’t recognize as a threat at all. Still a giant resplendently red beast several times its size should be more than intimidating enough on its own. The one brave Vulture’s getting a bit too close, and if it realizes this is an illusion the rest will probably attack … even with the Liquid Lives that many at once could be dangerous.

I make a snap decision. As the vulture gets closer I add a bit of extra magic to the dragon, and it lazily breathes a puff of flame at the scout. With the dark magic I included the vulture feels a sudden blistering inferno on its skin eliciting a panicked squawk and a second of flailing before it darts back into the forest. The dragon gives a deep exhale as it shifts to look at the other Great Vultures with what I hope is a look of smug superiority. I can’t really tell if that was the right look or not, but either way the other vultures retreat deeper into the forest. I let out the breath I was holding and disperse the dark magic in the illusion as best as I can. Hopefully that will keep things safe for a while.

I end up playing with the illusion for quite a few hours until Gwendolyn wakes up naturally. I create an illusory light to let her see better as she rubs her eyes. “Ah, good morning. How long were we out for?”

I shrug. “Eight hours or so, I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

She shakes her head. “No, we should probably wake the others though.”

The two of us wake up the other three pretty quickly even if Elizabeth and Johannes take a bit of effort. With that done Gwendolyn takes the lead. “Alright time to go, Jezebel bought us some extra time, so let’s not waste …”

She gets cut off as Johannes suddenly starts looking around the area, and holds up his hand. “One second.” He seems to inhale deeply for some reason. “This area has a hint of dark magic that wasn’t here before.”

Oh … that’s not good.