Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

804 - Down in the Valley

Master, they were waiting for us!

Lex didn’t bother responding to Solvei’s telepathic alert, having come to the same conclusion the moment he’d laid eyes on the group. Somehow, Sissel and her misbegotten siblings, as well as their daemonic allies, had figured out that they were being followed. Worse, they’d taken the opportunity to prepare for their arrival, turning what should have been an unexpected ambush into a chance to ready themselves for battle.

And Lex had no doubt that they’d made the most of whatever advance notice they’d been given. The venedaemons had spread out, making sure they all had clear line of sight – not that the disgusting creatures had eyes – to him and Solvei, with none of their allies in the way of whatever spells Lex was sure they had ready to cast.

Worse, the adlets’ placement maximized their use as deterrents. With Sissel, Grisela, and Vidrig all standing behind them, the lupines were effectively acting as living shields; while they didn’t cover the twisted sisters completely – their kneeling position left the tops of their heads slightly below Sissel’s waist, and only up to mid-chest height on Grisela and Vidrig – it was still enough to strongly disincentivize attacking the three of them, lest the adlets be struck instead.

And while Lex was confident that he could target his attack spells with precision sufficient to where shooting around the adlets wouldn’t be a problem, that wouldn’t matter if Sissel followed through on her implicit threat to start executing her prisoners if he attacked.

As if to highlight that, Sissel moved the blade of her axe slightly, causing a trickle of blood to drip down from where it pressed against Yotimo’s neck. “I seem to recall telling that adlet we left behind to let you know that you’d need to go to Hvitdod’s lair if you wanted the rest of your pets back,” announced the snow giant, her voice flat. “And yet here you are anyway.”

“His name is Silla!” snarled Solvei, lifting her ice blades as she settled into a crouch, her serac drifting a few inches forward. “And I promise you, for what you did to him, I’m going to take more than just one of your legs!”

“That doesn’t sound very fair,” snickered Vidrig, her hideous face twisting into a mocking smirk. “His leg didn’t even taste that good. Too tough and gamey.”

Solvei’s eyes bulged, her jaw opening as the horror Lex registered from her then stole her breath away. “Y-you...”

Grisela’s laugh accompanied her sister’s then. “Always too quick to eat, Vidrig,” chortled the winter hag. “Never wanting to play first.”

Leaning in from the opposite side of where Sissel’s axe was resting on his shoulder, Grisela’s blackened tongue came out to lick one of Yotimo’s ears as her hands reached around to caress his chest. “Would have rather had a go at you,” she teased, keeping her eyes locked onto Lex. “But puppy here was fun too.”

“That’s enough, Grisela,” ordered Sissel, frowning at the snow hag. “We’re trying not to provoke them, remember?”

“Just wanted to let the stallion know he’s missing out.” Grisela’s hands slid lower then, and she leered as Yotimo grimaced. “Shy puppy, pretends he doesn’t like it. But was eager to bury his bone when told it’d either be him” – her fingers squeezed sharply, and Yotimo couldn’t hold back a grunt – “or his boy.”

“TAKE YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF HIM!!!”

Solvei shot forward, her serac rocketing across the ground as though fired from a cannon as she lifted her blades, roaring at the top of her lungs. The venedaemons tensed, raising their tentacles from the sleeves of their robes even as Sissel moved her free hand up-

“STOP!”

Lex’s command carried the force of the Charismata, and it brought Solvei to a halt instantly. Even then, he could feel her struggling with everything she had to free herself, a wordless scream tearing itself from her throat as she fought to complete her wild charge. Let me go! she roared across their telepathic link. LET ME GO!

The ice blades in her hands started to glow with soft blue light, and Lex cursed inwardly as he realized that she was about to attack magically instead of physically. “Don’t use your magic,” he snapped. “Don’t do anything at all.”

The blue light immediately faded from her weapons, and in his mind she howled to be released, but he ignored it. Instead, he glared at Sissel. “I’ve controlled my subordinate,” he hissed. “Control yours!”

Sighing, the snow giant removed her axe from Yotimo’s neck, even as Grisela cackled. “Poor she-wolf,” taunted the hag. “Made herself all big and bad, but still can’t-”

Her jeering cut off abruptly as Sissel grabbed Grisela by her hair and tore her off of Yotimo, flinging her backward. “I said that’s enough.”

Ignoring Grisela’s indignant shriek, as well as the way the tiny sphinx on her shoulder winced at the sound, Sissel gave Lex a neutral look. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to pick up our trail or not, even with all of the precautions we took. This would have been easier if you’d simply gone straight to Hvitdod’s lair the way you were told.”

“Easier for whom?” shot back Lex. “You were hoping that I’d fight the dragon in order to recover the adlets. But now that I’ve caught up to you, I don’t have to.”

The snow giant nodded her head toward the kneeling adlets. “That depends on whether or not you want them all back, or just the ones Paska didn’t take.”

That was enough to snap Solvei out of her rage, and in Lex’s mind her screaming tapered off. She...she’s right! Toklo isn’t here! Neither is Ujurak! Or Nootaitok! Or Kumaglak!

Lex frowned. When he’d initially met Yotimo, the elder adlet had kept his warriors well away from the ponies, not wanting to initiate a conflict while his son was cursed to be inedible. The result was that Lex hadn’t gotten a full count of how many warriors were there, let alone a good look at any of them. How many are missing altogether?

Seven, replied Solvei after a moment, her mental voice slipping back toward anxiety more than anger. Six members of the warband, plus Toklo.

“Right now, Paska is probably closing in on Hvitdod’s lair with the others,” announced Sissel. “Each of them is going to be hobbled, tied down, and left for the dragon to eat. After that, how long they have depends on how soon it wakes up and smells that there’s a meal waiting. Which means that if you want to save them, you need to get moving.”

“For someone who makes such meticulous plans, you don’t seem to realize that I don’t know where this dragon of yours lives,” replied Lex coldly, the edges of his umbral form roiling as his eyes narrowed. “Nor do the adlets, according to what I’ve been told.”

Sissel quirked a brow. “And for someone who was able to track us down in spite of all the magic we used to stay hidden, you don’t seem to realize how hard it is to believe that you can’t find a dragon the size of a small mountain.”

Lex didn’t rise to the barb, instead redirecting the conversation to another topic. “You keep saying how hard you worked to keep me from finding you, and yet you were waiting for us when we finally did. Which means that you knew when we were getting close. How?”

He didn’t expect her to actually answer that question, of course. Even if Prevarius had once remarked that it was surprising how many people would voluntarily reveal their secrets when asked, Lex knew that Sissel was far too intelligent an enemy to do something so foolish. He’d only asked because the longer they talked, the more time he had to scan the area for magical emanations.

Or rather, to sort through the myriad emanations which he could see.

That wouldn’t have been possible before, when his only way to see into the magical spectrum was either to cast a spell specifically designed to do so – and in the process alerting Sissel to what he was doing – or to use his circlet, which he couldn’t do in shadow-form. But now, his new body’s augmented magic, still available even when he was incorporeal, not only made that possible, but allowed him to easily channel additional power into his enhanced eyesight, giving him a better look at the spell auras surrounding his enemies.

That was good, since there were so many that he wouldn’t have been able to identify them nearly as well otherwise.

At least four different defensive spells on each of them, noted Lex, making sure Solvei could hear his thoughts. It looks like they’re all warded against fire. Vidrig and Grisela have minor fields of deflective force wrapped around them, and Sissel has a boost to her reflexes. All three of them have apotropaic wards active, and well as abjurations against summoned creatures, probably in anticipation of more ice elementals.

Grant me the power to summon an army of them again, and we’ll see just how long their ‘abjurations’ hold out, replied Solvei darkly.

It takes you too long to summon those, replied Lex. And I have no doubt that the venedaemons will immediately target you with their spells if you try in order to break your concentration.

Frustration radiated off of Solvei in waves. Then use your black crystals to put up a barrier so that they can’t blast me!

You need to have room to summon them in, which means I can’t enclose you completely, explained Lex. And anything less than that won’t protect you from a fireball or a cloud of acid mist. Not to mention that I think several of the venedaemons we can see are illusions meant to draw our attention. Remember how Silla said they appeared out of nowhere? The real ones are likely hiding nearby, invisible-

“Cacodaemonia!”

Vidrig’s sudden announcement made Lex frown, not that the expression was outwardly visible. “What?”

Turning to glare at her sister, Sissel frowned. “Vidrig, shut up.”

“Why?” sneered the troll. “We outsmarted him, and he can’t do anything about it now!”

Reaching up, she grabbed one of the cacodaemons, ignoring the way the ugly little thing yelped and squirmed in her grasp. “When we figured out the bear was following us, we thought that might be a problem. But instead of killing it, we figured it would be easier to use it as an alarm in case you found us, so we had this little guy bite it! And it worked! The bear got sick with cacodaemonia! That meant it could hear all its thoughts!”

Beside him, Solvei sucked in a sharp breath of air, and Lex was sure that if he’d been corporeal he’d have done the same.

Cacodaemonia. The Libram of Ineffable Damnation, with its extensive catalogue of planar creatures, had mentioned that those bitten by a cacodaemon contracted that disease. But the author’s flowery language had written only that the illness “opens the victim’s heart to the daemon.” Lex had assumed that was a reference to the sickness inducing some sort of drastic change in behavior, but if it meant that it could listen in on their thoughts...

Nangiannatuk! His wounds were blighted! Master, they were listening to Nangiannatuk’s thoughts while we were talking to him! That’s how they knew that we were close!

“Vidrig, you’ve said too much.” Sissel’s passive expression had hardened into one of disapproval, glowering at the troll. “Be quiet.”

But the ice troll wasn’t listening, instead cooing at the struggling cacodaemon the way a filly would have at a kitten. “And since these little guys are natural shapeshifters, we sent a few out to watch the gorge while-, OW!”

Yelping, the troll opened her grip as the cacodaemon – having changed into a scorpion the size of a housecat – stung her hands, dropping to the ground and frantically scuttling away.

It didn’t get more than three fit before Vidrig fell on it in a rage. “How dare you?! I was being nice!” she screeched as she snatched up a rock and slammed it down onto the transformed creature, its exoskeleton shattering under the force of the blow. Screeching, it metamorphosed back into a cacodaemon, trying to fly away, but Vidrig slammed her rock down on it again, not giving it a chance to escape. “Gonna squish you good! Stupid little thing, being all-”

She didn’t get a chance to finish as Sissel swung her arm out, her axe cleaving Vidrig’s head from her shoulders in a single stroke.

Grisela gave a spiteful laugh as the troll’s head hit the ground and rolled away, its jaw still working soundlessly. Her body swayed, but didn’t fall as blood spurted from her neck, instead lurching drunkenly as her mismatched arms reached out in different directions, trying to find her missing head without any sensory organs. In another context it would have looked funny, but the insect-like way she kept spasming, her limbs each working independently as she tried to literally pull herself together, made the sight unnerving rather than humorous.

Ignoring the hideous spectacle, Sissel lowered her axe as she returned her attention to Lex. Turning so that she was standing in profile to him, she nodded her head behind her, at where the canyon narrowed as its winding path continued. “If you keep going that way, the network of canyons eventually works its way northward and slightly toward the east. Eventually, it reaches the rift where Hvitdod lives. You can’t miss it; it’s the deepest rift here, going almost a mile downward.”

Lex snorted. “And you think I’ll simply leave and do your bidding? After everything you and yours have done? Slaughtering innocent ponies. Taking Woodheart hostage.” His eyes narrowed again, the edges of his black form churning faster. “Killing Solvei.”

“I’m sure you’re very upset about all that,” answered Sissel flatly. “But try to think logically. We outnumber you by more than five to one, and we’ve had plenty of time to prepare for you to get here. Even if you manage to win this fight, and do it without losing what looks like your only remaining pawn, since those mares of yours apparently knew better than to accompany you this far” – she glanced up at the venedaemons on the clifftops, which Lex knew were scouts making sure he didn’t have any allies waiting in the wings, before looking back at him – “you’d never have enough power left to slay Hvitdod.”

“Because it’s so much better for me to kill the dragon first,” sneered Lex. “That way, you and your retinue of monsters can simply finish me off after I’ve expended most of my magic dealing with it.”

“True,” admitted Sissel, glancing to the side as Vidrig found her head and put it back on her neck. “But at least that way you’d know we’re coming, and what we can do, since I’m sure you’ve had plenty of time to scan the spells we have up. Isn’t that more advantageous for you than spending most of your strength now and going to fight a dragon whose abilities are complete unknowns?”

Lex was silent for a moment, then gave a hollow laugh, silently counting down the last few seconds before the Solvei was able to move again. Get ready, he ordered her.

“You are, of course, absolutely correct,” he announced, floating toward Sissel. “But I’ve gone through some changes lately, and as a result...”

He changed back into his corporeal form, and had the pleasure of seeing the snow giant’s eyes widen as she caught sight of his new self.

“Logic isn’t all that drives me anymore.”

Then he sprang into action.

Author's Note:

Confronting Sissel, Lex rejects her offer to let him and Solvei continue towards Hvitdod's lair in peace!

Does he have a plan to rescue the adlets and finish the snow giant and her siblings off? Or is he bound and determined to end things once and for all no matter the cost?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Using the aurumvorax's vicious instinct while satiating it's lust for violence. Sounds good on paper but I can't help but worry that Lex might lose control of himself and go after the adlets who will undoubtedly have heard Lex call Akna his subordinate. So even if the rescue of this group is successful, there will be a lot of questions.

Of course, that will depend on whether or not Sissel and her immediate group managed to retreat and get to Paska and prepare themselves for Lex's new form and power. Hopefully Akna and Solvei will be able to tip the scale in Lex's favor.

[Booster Spice]

Would be nice if Lex was capable of permanently taking out members of Griselas squad without having to resort to the equivalent of, what hostages?

Then again, different enemies require differet actions and capabilities. Lex would like professional Pokemon if it was available as something to take it easy with?

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

Lex going straight to "We don't negotiate with terrorists" Mode. They didn't expect it at all.

[Alzrius]

11519836 Hopefully Lex isn't planning on relying solely on what his new body can do. While he has a lot more battle-power now, and will doubtlessly catch his enemies by surprise, he's still outnumbered by enemies that have made preparations for a fight. Given that he can come up with complex plans in only a few seconds of thought, the brief exchange he had with Sissel was hopefully enough to let him think of something, but at the same time he hasn't exactly been at his best lately.

Still, it helps that Sissel and company don't want to fight, since they'd rather he go and slay the dragon for them (even if they then plan to step in and eliminate the winner). But somehow I doubt that will extend too far if their lives are suddenly on the line.

[Alzrius]

11519859 I suspect that Lex is very much intent on taking out members of Grisela's group permanently. Whether he can pull it off is another matter altogether; while only Sissel seems like she could be a match for him one-on-one (and even then, I suspect that Solvei, in her new form, would be more than even she could handle, at least in terms of a physical match), he's still outnumbered by quite a bit.

Plus, the captured adlets being there also. Let's hope Lex still wants to rescue them more than he wants to kill his foes!

[Alzrius]

11520226 With any luck, he'll be able to get the drop on them here, and use that to start pushing back against the advantages Sissel and the others have given themselves by preparing for his arrival.