TS4: Chapter 44 (Patreon)

Leading the charge, Thorn brought the team towards the shrine. Huginn, who was monitoring the situation from overhead, reported that the other team had chosen not to engage right away and was about half a mile away, seemingly waiting for something. Thorn had a sneaking suspicion that this team's intent was not actually to go after the shrine, but rather to go after the teams that were going after the shrines. This challenge was not only a prime opportunity to earn points by capturing shrines, but also to attack other teams, stealing their points and their gear as well. This theory was confirmed when the other team began to creep closer as Thorn and his companions launched themselves into the spectral soldiers, killing their way towards the shrine. As they got closer to the crystal at the center of the shrine, Thorn had Huginn keep a close eye on the other team's movements.

"They've paused about a thousand feet away," Huginn said, speaking to Thorn through his E.V.E.

"Got it," Thorn said. "I'm spawning the spectral guardian."

He stepped forward into range of the shrine and the crystal that floated above a fountain-looking altar flickered and two flashes appeared between Thorn and the crystal. Both were of medium height, but carried wavy-looking blades as long as their bodies. They were identical in every aspect, save for the color of their hair, one with long white hair and the other with short, close-cropped black hair. The guardians didn't speak, but instead launched themselves directly into battle, throwing themselves at Thorn, who was the closest enemy. Brandishing his halberd, Thorn took a simple step to the side. When the shrine guardian with white hair tried to hack through him, he found that Thorn was actually half a foot further back than he anticipated, causing his blade to miss.

Using Titan's step once more, Thorn advanced, seeming to go directly forward while his body actually moved diagonally. His halberd slashed, attempting to cut one of the two guardians in half, only to find that the other guardian lunged over, blocking the strike with his wavy sword and deflecting the attack. Startled by the feedback he received through his weapon, Thorn felt as if he sensed a hint of flame in the block, and his mind sharpened, focusing on that fleeting feeling. The other guardian hacked towards his leg, but Thorn stepped back, his halberd bursting forward to drive the attack aside.

"Enemies incoming," Huginn announced, alerting the entire group that the enemy team had begun to emerge.

The enemy ran swiftly through the ruins, closing in on Thorn's team who was still eliminating the remaining spectral soldiers.

"I'm counting 15 enemies," Huginn reported, causing Boreg, Vengef, Skoll, and Stello to back up, disengaging from the spectral soldiers and turning to face the attack.

The first of the enemies to appear was a lithe elf with deep scars across his face. When he saw that Thorn's team was expecting them, he let out a loud shout and brandished his sword, charging straight into battle. Skoll, ever eager to fight, was the one who met him, jumping forward and attacking with his own sword. The rest of the elf's team came piling out of the ruin, lunging towards Thorn's team with fierce attacks. Blades clashed and sparks flew as the courtyard devolved into a wild brawl, but Thorn was entirely occupied with trying to understand the faint feeling of flame that he was getting from the dual swordsmen he was fighting against. But that didn't mean that he wasn't aware of his surroundings.

As if he had eyes in the back of his head, he stepped to the side while an arrow flashed by, missing him by half a foot. He continued to fight, using the modified version of the flame-attributed elemental blade that he had learned from Stello. By this time, the entire rest of the team had abandoned their attacks against the spectral soldiers and were concentrating entirely on fighting against the enemy. Huginn went after the archer, flashing down through the sky like a bolt of black lightning to rip and tear at the elf's head and eyes. Though she managed to dodge the first few attacks, he seemed to be everywhere at once, impossible to pin down. And even when she did manage to gain distance, he would close in an instant, dodging past her arrows as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Consecrate Kendal wielded the sword that Thorn had given him, hacking and cutting as he fought against a large, green-skinned warrior, while nearby, Sparky tangled with one of the massive tree folk. Skoll, Boreg, Vengef, and Stello formed the backbone of the fight, handling twelve people all by themselves, in a mad melee. Salliish launched ambushes from the shadows, lunging out to bite into somebody before retreating quickly. The fighting was desperate and fierce, and the two sides seemed evenly matched as they hacked and slashed at one another. The first fierce seconds turned into minutes that started to pile up as they continued to fight, and soon the leader of the enemy team sensed something was wrong. Though they outnumbered Thorn's team considerably, the fight still felt as if it was a draw, and Thorn wasn't even fighting them. Instead, he seemed to be trying to figure something out.

Eventually, however, he let out a shout, "I got it," and abruptly lunged forward.

The Shrine Guardian clearly expected Thorn to use his halberd to cut them down, and they raised their blades to block. But instead, magic flashed, and two thick bolts of lightning ripped through the unsuspecting Guardians, stunning them, and making it impossible for them to follow up to block Thorn's follow-up attack. With a clean swipe, he killed both of the Guardians, causing the Shrine to reset, and then turned to examine the fight.

"You guys look like you're doing well," he said, causing Boreg, who had dozens of cuts all over his giant body, to growl.

"Hurry up and help us," the ape god beast yelled, smashing one of his opponents in the chest with a giant fist.

Dispelling the blade on the end of his staff, Thorn lifted it into the air, and an ancient rune appeared behind his head. Immediately, almost all of the enemies felt themselves begin to slow, their bodies turning sluggish as an intense pressure locked them in place. One of the enemies, who had been about to attack Boreg, saw the ape turn and grin, his massive fist swinging through the air. Slowed by Thorn's spell, and unable to block, the elf could only grit his teeth as Boreg's fist smashed straight into him, sending him tumbling through the air as his ribs cracked.

Across the battlefield, similar things were happening, as the tide of the battle abruptly shifted in favor of Thorn's team. Realizing that they were in trouble, as they had no way to combat a mage of Thorn's caliber while also fighting against the others, the leader called for a retreat, and the enemy team began to fall back. Not content to let them go, Vengef, Stello, and Skoll all struck hard, badly wounding or killing their opponents, who were attempting to flee. There was a choked scream in the distance, as Huginn's talons tore out the throat of the archer and the other enemies rapidly vanished into the ruins. Before the others could be chased down, Thorn called them back.

"We don't have time to chase, we need to get moving," he said. "Let them go."

Knowing the wisdom of what he was saying, the others returned, gathering together with him, and watching as he activated the shrine, upgrading it to the fourth rank. As it glowed an ominous red, he gestured to the corpses on the ground.

"Don't forget to loot the bodies, and then let's go. We're targeting one of the main shrines next."

The major shrine that Thorn decided to target first was to the north of their current location, one of the three controlled by the god beasts. He wasn't exactly sure whether the god beasts were going to form one large team or several smaller ones, but he picked this shrine because he could see that Ascendant Quilla's team was currently fighting with a number of god beasts nearby. His thought was simple: Quilla was likely engaged with the god beasts defending that major shrine, thus weakening the shrine's defenses. His hope was that they wouldn't anticipate an attack on the shrine itself, allowing Thorn and the others to quickly defeat the guardian and the spectral soldiers surrounding it and retreat, making their escape without getting entangled in a drawn out fight. Huginn ranged ahead, flying above the ruins and scanning the ground to assess the situation, while the others arranged their formation and advanced cautiously to avoid encountering any enemy teams.

According to what Consecrate Kendall had explained, it wasn't typical for there to be many teams on the field in the first week of the challenge. The challenge itself would last from two weeks to a month, with no predetermined schedule, and the end of the challenge seemed to trigger based on how many shrines reached the fourth level, as that meant they wouldn't be conquered again. Thorn hoped that by rapidly advancing all the major shrines to the fourth level, he would trigger the end state of the challenge, shortening the time for all the other teams to capture their own shrines. There seemed to be a multiplier effect on the reward, granting a greater reward for possessing a larger percentage of the shrines. Thorn figured that if he could cause the challenge to end prematurely, there might be shrines that hadn't yet been taken over.

Along the way, their team made sure to eliminate any spectral soldiers they encountered, continuing to gather points. They had also gained points from the enemy team members they had killed, slowly working towards the final 50,000 points they needed. There simply wasn't time to sell more weapons to gather the points, though Thorn was sure that if he took a quick trip back to the store he had set up outside the Seeker's Alliance camp, he would be able to get the points he needed. Making a mental note to return after capturing the first few major shrines, Thorn called for a halt roughly two miles from the shrine's location while they waited for Huginn's report. A few moments later, he heard the raven's voice.

"We've got a group of saints fighting half a dozen god beasts. They've got a considerable number of soldiers with them, and two tier nine combatants," Huginn reported. "One appears to be Ascendant Quilla, and the other one is a mage of some sort, who looks like he's probably attached to Quilla's family. The fight is pretty even, though neither side is really going at it."

"What's the situation at the shrine?" Thorn asked.

"There are two god beasts guarding it," Huginn replied. "Vesh, who's a porcupine, is standing in front of the shrine, and Garak, a giant spider, is hiding nearby to ambush."

Thinking for a moment, Thorn unrolled the map, looking at the position of the shrine.

"Where is the spider located?" he asked, his finger quickly finding the spot as Huginn detailed the surroundings.

"Got it. Salliish, how do you feel about an ambush?"

"I feel great about an ambush," Salliish's voice said, echoing from the shadows around Thorn. "Ambush is my middle name."

"You and I will take the spider first," Thorn said, “hoping to make as little sound as possible. After that, the plan is simple. We're going to lock down the porcupine to try to keep it from alerting the others. At the same time, Vengef, you and Boreg are in charge of clearing the spectral soldiers, and I'll kill the general."

"Are you going to drag things out like you did last time?" Skoll asked, raising an eyebrow at Thorn.

"No," Thorn said, shaking his head. "I apologize about that. Even if there's something to learn here, we don't have time. I'll tear through the general as quickly as possible, and I expect you to do the same with the enemy god beast. Our goal is to settle this shrine so fast that they don't have any chance to respond."

"What's the signal to attack?" Vengef asked, flexing his fingers.

"You'll see me appear and trigger the general," Thorn replied. "That will mean the spider's dead, and we're ready to go. Any questions?"

Exchanging glances, the group shook their heads, and Thorn clapped softly.

"All right, Salliish, with me. The rest of you stay out of sight until it's go time. Oh, and watch out for threads. It's very likely that the spider has some sort of warning system in place, so proceed with caution. We don't want to alert them before we arrive."

With Salliish hiding in his shadow, Thorn began making his way around the shrine, sweeping wide to ensure that he wasn't alerting the spider to his approach. It was an interesting feeling having the snake god beast ride in his shadow, and it was only Thorn's absolute affinity with darkness that allowed him to sense it. It was sort of a terrifying thought that a being of Salliish's power could ride along with him, potentially without him knowing. But Thorn pushed the thoughts out of his head and focused on sneaking up on the giant spider that was lying in wait.

The spider was nested at the top of a ruined tower, tucked into the shadows where it couldn't be seen from the ground. A long, complex web of thread stretched out from it, disappearing into the rest of the ruins. And there it sat, completely motionless, guarding and monitoring the threads it had spun. Thanks to his mental sense, Thorn could see the area clearly even before he approached. After making sure that the others were in position, close enough to attack swiftly and tie up the porcupine god beast, but far enough away not to alert the spider, Thorn set up his plan with Salliish.

The first indication the spider god beast had that something was wrong was a faint symbol that appeared in the air in front of him. Half of his many eyes blinked in confusion, and before he could open his mouth to issue a warning shriek, the symbol solidified, completely freezing the air around him. Realizing it was an attack, he immediately sprang into action, his legs lifting his bulk into the air as he lunged forward with his large mandibles, attempting to bite through the symbol. As a god beast, he could crush spell constructs with his physical body, but this symbol pulsed slightly, and he found himself slowing, almost to a crawl. At the same time, he saw a figure appearing on the roof of the ruined tower with him, dressed in a robe and holding a staff.