85 High-Threat
1344 Words
"Prince Janus! An opening if you please." Aiden yelled.
Janus pointed. "Middle Hexagon, I'm marking it right now. Can you see it?"
"Aye!" Aiden carefully aimed the device with levers and wheels. He adjusted his spectacles and moved the dials on the device. The contraption was clearly still in the prototype stage. Everything looked like it was mashed together with tape and glue in the last minute. Even with scrappy goblin standards, the machine looked unfinished. Aiden looked towards his workers and yelled. "Take it away!"
A flash of overwhelming blue light glowed around the cannon. It whizzed for a few seconds before exploding.
A loud bang emanated across the field. Janus had to duck due to the impact. He saw a glimpse of the large beam, but he had to close his eyes at the very last second. The power was too much to bear. It flooded his senses.
The beasts roared and braced for impact.
The ground trembled beneath their feet. Janus felt a large surge of energy that shook his balance.
"No!" Cornelia yelled.
Janus inspected the damage. His barrier was almost about to give. The beasts were kneeling in with on their front legs, but they otherwise looked unfazed.
"They absorbed it. It went through their horns and they redirected the power to the ground! I should have known there was something about those horns!" Corelia said, exasperated.
Janus looked behind him. Most of the knights and guards were all toppled on the ground with the exception of Commander Arthan and a few others. They all looked completely drained.
Aiden and his assistants were sprawled on the ground. Their cannon and its supporting machinery reduced to nuts, bolts, and gears scattered at their feet. The barrel was nowhere to be found. It was probably flung backward.
The power was too much for its scrappy housing to handle.
Cornelia and Haruna didn't fare much better. They were kneeling behind him, clutching their staves and wheezing. Out of breath.
As the arcane energy was caught and distributed through the ground. Everyone standing near the area took a shock of the arcane pulse. Most were dazed and confused. It had a similar effect of one taking too much energy from one's Wellspring that they weren't accustomed to handling. It made novices sick, it would take a whole day of rest for most to recover.
The time that they didn't have.
The creatures raised their heads and roared. Janus' barrier was breaking. Behind him, his backup force had failed.
The largest Rhinosaur reared its head and charged.
They hit the barrier with a continuous barrage of blunt force. First, there were small splinters in his barrier, which formed into branching cracks. The edges of the hexagon formations started to crumble. Janus' head was crumbling with it. His hands were now held up above him in a Y formation. Like someone who was persuading a whole army to stand down.
He was at his wits end. At that very moment, he had no other options. If only he could use his abnormally large Wellspring, if only he had better spells on hand.
If only...
The barrier crumbled completely, the beasts charged. He stared at the largest one in the eye. That was the Matriarch, he suspected.
"Stop! Please stop!" he yelled.
His ring finger vibrated. He heard a frequency of sound, like one of the things he heard randomly during his childhood. The kind that could make dogs writhe in pain.
The Rhinosaurs stopped abruptly. The fervor in their eyes disappeared. They looked at the surroundings and at each other, seemingly confused at what happened.
Janus was stunned. He looked at his finger. It had a faint glow
What the...? Are you doing this?
The ring buzzed.
"Don't attack my men... and women." Janus whispered.
The Matriarch stared him at the eye and bowed. The others behind her scrambled to look at him. It was as if they were curious at this small creature that was interacting with their leader.
Behind him, he heard murmurs from the army. Commander Arthan and the three mages rushed to his side.
"Janus, what are you doing? Is that a new spell? Have you learned mind manipulation?" Cornelia asked.
"Shh. I don't know. But let's not get into this now."
Janus addressed the creatures "Why are you here?"
The Matriarch tilted its head. The same way Skeeter had when Janus asked him something that he thought was clearly obvious.
The Matriarch bowed again and signaled to her right. Towards the mountain.
She trotted slowly, and the herd followed.
"I knew it. He knows mind control! Janus! Can you teach me?" Cornelia said.
"Don't be silly Cornelia." Haruna said. "Mind control is of the dark arts."
"Right, and who's to say Janus isn't performing the dark arts right now? What about you Aiden, you're the genius. What do you think?"
"You know I don't believe in the dark arts Nelia. It's simply folklore and myth used to explain the unknown." He said.
"Then how do you explain that?"
Janus followed the herd towards the base of the mountain. At the base was a gash that extended up to the top around thirty feet high, it was covered with rocks on all sides. It looked like the aftermath of a landslide.
The herd started scratching and burrowing through the gash. Leaving mounds of rock and soil behind them.
They were tunneling into the mountain, and this part of the earth didn't seem to resist very much.
"I think he's performing some kind of magical affinity towards creatures. I'm sure I've read something similar before, but those were merely ancient records."
"So it's of the dark arts then!" Cornelia insisted.
"Shut up." Haruna said. Irritated. "Look."
After a few minutes of work, the creatures tunneled through the mountain into what looked like a large chasm. Inside was a large empty cavern that was as big as the clearing outside, with a large hole at its roof.
"Is this where you live?" he asked.
The herd looked at him and collectively shook their heads.
Janus thought long and hard. His finger trembled with every word he said. Was this the effect? The so-called High-threat defensive protocol was doing this?
"Don't hurt anyone of our people okay? Well... unless if you're life is being threatened."
The Matriarch stared at him, then ruffled his snout.
Janus and the army camped fifty feet away from the location for the rest of the night. They asked the workers to send them food and supplies while they observed the movement of the Rhinosaurs.
Janus similarly ordered everyone to refrain from going too close to the creatures, which was an easy thing to do. Even the monster hunters were keen to keep their distance.
The next morning was chaos. The ground rumbled within the mountains, toppling soil above and shaking the ground around them.
The creatures fought amongst each other for sport and in search of a mate. They had to move further back when the next ritual started.
Janus ordered the land to be excluded from their expansion plans.
There was no other explanation for it, this place was the Rhinosaur's designated mating ground. They were merely going back to what was theirs for hundreds of years.
Janus camped on this ground for a few weeks, conducting experiments by himself to try out how it worked on the creatures. He delegated all of his tasks to his assistants.
He was certain that whatever he could do to these creatures was also possible for others. Perhaps they could use this ability to open up for future expansions.
It seems like the creatures followed his demands. He was able to make them sit, stand, and rollover. It felt ridiculous commanding these giants to do dog tricks, but it was far better than what he had achieved with Otis.
He also ordered for some of the creatures to move away, with more specific commands like "go back to where you came from" or "stay away". But they would still come back the next morning or as soon as Janus turned his back.
His theory was that the instincts of these animals were too strong for him to command them.
After a few tests, they decided to relocate the newest settlers somewhere else and relegate this place as solely a ground for pasture.
Janus was intrigued at his ring's newfound ability and wanted to test it on other subjects.
- Writer
