This is Master Acolyte Hammerfoot, requesting direct SkyCast to Inquisitor Sijik.
Inquisitor Sijik, nothing to report. The skies are clear, and our Shadows have encountered no threats aside from a pack of chameleon raptors. The subterranean teams have also reported no visible threats.
Progress is optimal. I recommend that we double our pace. We should avoid Magerita Point for that reason. It might add a few extra hours to our travel time, but passing through might just see us intercepted, considering we have not sent them a SkyCast in advance.
That, ultimately, is your decision to make.
Master Advisor Sijik, for now— Wait, what the hells is that? Please hold. I think I see—
-Recovered SkyCast Communications from Master-Acolyte Hammerfoot
142 (I)
Structure
"Wait. Hold. I'm coming with you.”
Shiv turned just as he was about to step through the gateway and saw Helix descending from the Court Leviathan. Beside him, a long and orderly line of orcs were already queuing up. Those who walked the Path of the Shadow, the Thief, and the Assassin were at the front of the line, and they were chattering among each other, discussing how fun the coming excursion would be.
Behind them were Heroes of Physicality, Toughness, and more. This was the main force of the orc army, the arm that would see the Inquisition's expeditionary force crushed. It was a mixed group of Heroes and Masters, and ultimately, there would be 20,000 orcs taking part in this operation.
The best thing about the orcs was that they were self-directed. He didn't need to herd them like they were sheep. The moment the order came, they immediately began massing, preparing their equipment, readying themselves, and making for the gateway.
But if there was one other thing he had noticed, it was that it was every orc for themselves. They might talk to one another, discussing old experiences and new expectations, but they didn't hold to any obvious teams. Every orc was his own individual. And so, though they were about to fight together, they ultimately operated alone.
However, if there was one orc he didn't expect to be heading over to the surface, it was Helix. Helix, who made his distaste of the First Blood known. Helix, who was openly interested in raiding a First Blood city and capturing vampires for his experiments. And now, the Heroic-Tier Biomancer was gliding down through the air, his revolving wings of blood fusing back to his flesh while his Biomancy field sheathed itself around his body as well.
"Helix," Shiv said, “We're not really going for the First Blood yet. As soon as I get back—"
"No, not that," Helix said with a loud scoff. "I will partake in the sacking of the parasitic blood-vermin. But right now, I wish to be with you.”
Shiv stared at the orc for a moment. He didn't expect this. "With me?" Shiv chuckled. “You find me that charming?”
"No, you fool, you're that inexperienced. If you think I'm going to let you wander off onto a battlefield and miss out on key educational experiences, you are woefully mistaken."
Shiv just grinned, and that made Helix scowl all the more. "So, what, you're planning to tag along just to be my tutor?"
"Just to make sure my previous efforts are capitalized on," Helix said, sticking a finger in Shiv's face. "Also," the orc lowered his hand as he took in Shiv's armor, "what have you merged with your armor now? I see some basilisk biomass, but why is it leaking green between the crenulations of your scales?”
Shiv looked down at his armor and felt a swell of pride spread through his chest. "Oh, this?" His armor was split in slight separations. That was the result of fusing the basilisk flesh to the bone adamantine. Adding the basilisk's venom glands, however, created a network of green veins, veins Shiv could affect using his Biomancy at any moment. "Yeah, I added a basilisk's poison gland to the armor. At first, it was just to dose myself up fast. But then, I thought, well, if I want to poison someone and paralyze them in battle, wouldn’t that be useful too?”
Helix looked on at Shiv's armor, frowning slightly. The Deathless expected the orc to chide him about some Biomancy mistake or another. Then, Helix just nodded. "Very good. This is the kind of initiative a Biomancer should take. Experimentation is good for you. Remember to fail often, fail soon, and always fail. That is how you make something interesting. Is this the only thing you've imbued with a basilisk's gland?"
"For now," Shiv said. "I used up the entire gland."
"What is it about me that makes you so paranoid?" Helix said, prodding at Shiv slightly.
"The fact that you're an orc, a Heroic-Tier Biomancer, and that you've probably not shown me half of what you can do with your Biomancy." Shiv looked Helix up and down. "Like how you managed to give me blood cancer the first time we met. Didn't even notice that. I let you near one of my allies for too long, and you might infect them with a parasite somehow. Or some kind of sick, fucked up disease that will only trigger when you decide. So, yeah, I am a bit of a baby bird. But that doesn’t make me mentally challenged.”
Helix stared at Shiv for a good long moment and said nothing.
Shiv put a hand on his hip and waited.
“Very well," Helix finally said, rolling his eyes. But then the orc laughed in concession. "Paranoia is also good for you. It is not a bad instinct to have."
"Were you gonna actually do something like that?" Shiv asked bluntly. Helix didn't reply. Once again, the Deathless sighed. "I just can't risk anything with you bastards."
"You can't risk anything with anyone," Helix corrected, latching on to Shiv's statement. "You think you can trust those you're with, that they are your friends, that they are the ones you can rely on? No. With time, everything is eroded. And with life, everything changes. Everything mutates, Shiv. Remember this. Never forget. Eventually, and should you survive long enough, you will be at odds with everyone you were beside, at least once. That is the way of the world, and that is the way of the System."
The orc spoke with absolute conviction, no doubt in his own words, and his confidence left Shiv feeling uncomfortable. He knew the System was trying to set something up. A triangle of counters between him, Adam, and Uva. Except Shiv didn't think that triangle was going to hold for long.
Adam could still hurt him substantially, avoid him maybe, but with his new Vitaemancy, he could offload soul damage. And at the same time, with how fast his skills were growing, he just didn't see Adam keeping up, or Uva, for that matter. They would still be dangers in their own right. Shiv doubted he could match them in their primary skills in the near future.
But down the line, if this was what he was capable of after a few intense weeks of struggle and death, what was he going to be in a year, in ten years, in a century?
"Good," Helix said, noticing Shiv's gaze grow distant. "You are thinking. Do that more. Do that as much as you can. Think from as many angles as you can. Work at the problem constantly. Like right now, I want you to get a Crafting Skill as well."
Shiv stared at the orc. "A what?"
"A crafting skill," the orc replied. "You have every means of creation. You can shape biology, and now you can assemble different pieces together. You can grow weapons. You can forge living creatures from your mana. But since you don't understand how to do that yet, you can fuse weapons together using biology, using spell patterns representing biology. You have an extra venom gland. I think that you should consider how you want to spend it. You've already incorporated it into your armor. Perhaps you need a weapon as well. But I will leave that to you. Expand. Grow. All is Biomancy. Don’t just deepen a few skills. An organ doesn’t work alone. Be complete.”
“Complete,” Shiv muttered. “Got it.”
"Now," Helix said as he marched past the other orcs and made for the gateway. He rose up the final steps and stared into the black pool of Dimensionality. "It's been a while since I've seen the surface of Earth. Let’s see if it is still the delightfully savage land I remember.”
An orc beside him swung out a meaty fist. Helix let out a cry as he was backhanded down the steps. He bounced several times, and Shiv just watched while the other orcs cursed and spat in the Biomancer's direction.
"Back of the line, asshole!" one of the orcs shouted. The other orcs muttered in agreement, and someone threw an old boot at the back of Helix’s head. “The hells do you think this is? Challenger’s godsdamned asshole, have some dignity!”
"Helix?" Shiv called. "You okay?"
"Yes," Helix groaned, clutching his face. "I got carried away. It was terribly impolite of me to cut."
***
The twenty thousand orcs made their way through the gateway, through Adam's dimensional pathway, and finally out the surface gateway thereafter in under half an hour. They were efficient; a constant flow of bodies that moved eagerly toward their destination, and as they appeared on the other side, they immediately fanned out, forming something of a defensive perimeter.
Whisper, alongside a few hundred orc Dimensionalists, threw up a barrier of quivering black static around the gateway on the surface. Shiv was about to ask why they were doing such a thing when Adam explained without being prompted.
"It's the easiest way to hide us from a Seer or from someone with high-level Awareness," Adam said. He observed the orcs’ magic as it formed a dome over the gateway. Uva connected her mind with Shiv's as well thereafter. The Deathless had given her verbal confirmation that the sky was dark, but even so, her strands moved with care, as if fingers reaching toward boiling water. Only after a few seconds did she finally move without worry or nervousness. As she tapped into Shiv and Adam's mind, she let out a breath of disappointment.
"My first gaze at the mysterious surface of the world, blocked by a wall of Dimensionality. Truly, the orcs ruin everything."
"It's only temporary," Adam said. "It's a very well-done Dimensional veil, though. These orcs have experience working with each other, constructing shields and dimensional barriers. I guess when you live as long as they do, you just kind of start cooperating intuitively sometimes."
"Still, they don't really seem to work in teams,” Shiv muttered.
"They don't, do they?" Adam said. "It's not that they can't cooperate; it's that they prefer not to. But they will, if the task calls for it. At least for short periods of time."
"Insul, Gate Lord," Whisper said. He walked up to Shiv with an eager shine in his eyes, but didn’t regard Adam at all. "We've established a protective perimeter. As I speak..." And then there came a shudder, and a part of the ground collapsed. A hole opened in the earth, and a tunnel was formed. "Our Geomancer friends are going to be shuttling the bulk of our ground-inclined forces. It is agreed that they will maintain a 20-kilometer distance from our forward operating Shadows. Would you like for this distance to be adjusted, Insul?"
The orc made a deliberate show of asking Shiv while ignoring Adam. The Gatelord frowned, but Shiv snorted.
"Yeah, Whisper, why don't you ask the Gate Lord?"
"Certainly," Whisper said, and he turned his head to Adam. And suddenly his demeanor shifted entirely. The orc just sneered. "We're going to be maintaining a 20-kilometer distance. Do you have suggestions, or shall we proceed with the operation?"
Adam sneered back at the orc. "Twenty seems fine. I'll keep an eye out from the air."
"Oh, you won't be joining us?" the orc questioned. “Fearful of your life?”
"I'll be right beside you," Adam said as he materialized a Veilpiercer, "if there is a need. Aside from that, I think I'm most useful high up in the sky, and with my senses cast far wide open."
"And you'll be keeping that eye on your enemy, I hope?" Whisper asked, a sweet smile playing across his face.
"Hey, Whisper," Shiv interrupted, flicking the orc on the forehead. "Knock that shit off. You've got plenty of Inquisitors to tear through soon. Save it for them."
"Of course, Insul. My apologies. I simply get excited."
"Get excited about the right people," Shiv chided. The orc bowed his head before telling the others what they had just decided. More orcs were flooding out from the gateway, and the messages were passed through them quickly. Orc Psychomancers even cast memory-imprint spells into the air, informing the ones that just arrived.
"Well," Shiv said, looking toward Adam, "I think that they won't be listening to your orders at all."
"I suspect not," Adam replied. "Still, they're experienced, and they're willing. Maybe we won't need to give them that much guidance at all."
"Likely not," Helix said. He loomed behind the Gate Lord and simply stared down. "And a word of advice, Young Arrow. Hide your emotions better. I can smell your annoyance from here. Now every orc will try to treat you the same way Whisper did."
“If you orcs intend to make this a problem—” Adam began.
Helix just shook his head. “No. That’s not the right reaction at all. You run that perfect border between dangerous and vulnerable. You are everything we love to abuse in a human. While the Insul is mostly danger and very little vulnerability. Be cognizant of what you are. I tell you this not out of kindness, just so you can pose more of a threat. And also because I wish for my tutelage to end before I and Shiv try to kill each other.”
“Just laying it out in the open, huh?” Shiv grunted.
“We are eternal. The clash is inevitable. There is no if. There is only a matter of when. And that applies to everyone that lives long enough under the gaze of the System.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to make your end quick and messy.”
Shiv’s promise slid off Helix like oil. “Focus on becoming a better Biomancer first. It would be a most embarrassing victory if I rendered you invalid from a special variant of brain degeneration and muscle atrophy.”
Shiv blinked. “Did you hit me with something like that? Is that shit hiding in my genes right now?”
Helix just walked past him without replying.
“Felling orcs,” Shiv breathed. Then, he laughed. “Never a dull day with them.”
Adam, meanwhile, took a slight step away from Helix. “I’m going to have one of the Biomancers back in Gate Arrow take a deep and thorough look at me later.”