Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 639: Portrait of Grim Endings

After they earned some reprieve from the initial assault, they took two actions. Argrave and Anneliese set to work charting out more of this land. Argrave used blood-infused electric eels to deliberately carve out areas of the Shadowlands, and Anneliese worked to replace what he burnt away. The terrain that took place before them was a land of vast canyons, mesas, and valleys with treacherous falls into places where Argrave was certain Shadowlanders lurked. It remained devoid of color.

According to Roland, who could mark lifeforms he saw and keep track of them, the horseman and the dragon both lingered on the outside edge of the shadow, retreating as necessary where Argrave revealed more. To that end, Argrave made it a point to clear out a near-perfect circle around them so they couldn’t be snuck up on as Argrave had with his life-or-death encounter with that rider.

The heroes of old, meanwhile, set to work fortifying this plateau that they’d found themselves stranded atop. It was slow-going at first, but eventually they all delegated their responsibilities efficiently and created a formidable perch that was closed off to the outside world. It wouldn’t last long against the Shadowlanders outright assault, but it was only meant to give them time—or at the very least, an advantage if another battle was soon to come.

Eventually, progress stalled at clearing away the surroundings. Something was pushing back against Argrave’s efforts to burn it away—replacing what shadows were lost. It was near the location where that tower had been, confirming it wasn’t mere coincidence that place had been reclaimed. It had been the only fragment of civilization Argrave could see from the Shadowlanders, and that likely meant it was important. Still, with a sizable area translated into something they could comprehend, Argrave and Anneliese joined the others inside of the fortress. Bhaltair used his undead to watch the ground, while the Archchief’s wyvern kept a handle on the skies. For now, threats came from neither.

“At present, we are troops cut off from our supply lines,” Anneliese explained to everyone, her amber eyes standing out in the darkness of this fortress. They had elected to forego their code inside this base, giving everyone’s voice equal weight. “Despite that tremendous show of prowess, we spent more energy than we absorbed from our foes. And I’m sure that you all can feel something rather acutely, being spellcasters.”

“There’s no magic here,” someone answered—hard to tell who. “The only way that we can recover magic is through Anneliese.”

“Anneliese and me,” Argrave added. His eyes were gray, and seemed part and parcel of this strange new world. “To recover, I have to kill—specifically, I have to kill with blood magic. And on the subject of our enemy… Anneliese has verified that they have a hierarchy binding them by some mysterious power. Thus far, we’ve determined only four strata. The lowest are those we killed. Higher up was the dragon. Above the dragon was that horseman. But the horseman had someone above him.”

they’re organized, great leagues of them will be arriving soon. During the age I fought Gerechtigkeit, Shadowlanders of similar strength

fortress when beings as powerful as the horseman roamed around. No one necessarily agreed, but

those ‘endless’ numbers immediately,” the Archchief said, his golden eyes flickering open and closed as he concentrated on what his undead wyvern saw as it flew above, scouting. “Back when they fell upon us, they erupted forth from their breaches as though the land was an overcrowded mess. I expected to meet walls of them,

them may be coming had the best point—we are tested for time, here. We need to develop a strategy to hunt down Traugott now that we’ve assessed the lay

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the Fruit of Being bestowed. Now, however, the hunting blessings bestowed by Stout Heart Swan might lend them the power they needed to track down the shadowy bastard even in this place. Argrave briefly considered if he might have made a mistake… but Durran’s life couldn’t be risked with it tied so closely to Garm’s power,

remained—they lacked a way to easily track down Traugott in this abyssal realm. None of them had expected this place to be as strange as it was, nor to remain so wholly difficult to conquer—Argrave had thought Traugott would be easily found with the skillsets of those present, then perhaps he’d flee or be forced out of the Shadowlands where their proponents on

that his undead all be unleashed and equipped with blood magic to comb the place, but even with their added numbers it remained a difficult prospect to find the needle in the haystack. Mistislav and his considerable mastery over earth magic proposed clearing more and more land so he could then detect any and all

detail,” said Balzat, amber eyes looking between all.

few moments. Another interjected, “He spoke

Chu countered. “And he’s

him at the relative top. Failing attempts to communicate or pry information from him, we could use him merely to follow it up the chain,”

the trend, you want us to pursue greater enemies? That sounds utterly ridiculous,” Aurore disagreed