It seemed like they were holding their collective breath to see if something would happen...and then it did. The image came to her from Ramoth. There were three mesmer running along some much higher branches than the one she was on, jumping nimbly from tree to tree. Thankfully, the group below seemed to be alert to the danger, as there was a murmured warning and most of their bows all swung in the same direction: towards the mesmer now coming down the giant tree on the opposite side.
As soon as they landed and started running around the trunk of the tree, arrows flew from those below. “Drop your weaponssssss…” The one in the lead ordered in his hypnotic voice, and as one, most of the bows began to lower. Smiling in triumph, the mesmer was about to issue another order when her arrow penetrated his forehead. A look of confusion flitted across the face of his companions as her group loosed the next barrage of arrows.
The remaining two mesmer had taken an arrow each, though not in vital spots. Growling in rage, they raced forward in powerful leaps, claws extended to slice into the nearest man. Another arrow thunked into one’s chest from Marcelle’s bow, missing the thing’s heart by mere inches. Just when she thought the man was about to be sliced into pieces, a wall of rock sprang up in front of him, the creature’s claws embedding deeply into it. The next arrow took it in the head.
The last one roared in rage, yelling at the humans, “No magic! Drop weaponsss!” It screamed with such forceful hypnotism that four of them dropped their weapons and several others lowered their bows once more. It screeched as Jade’s arrow took it in the shoulder, its eyes casting about for the direction the unseen arrows were coming from, even as it swiped down on the man in front of it, opening up a deep, bloody gash.
She let out a sigh of relief when Marcelle’s sword made a clean sweep, beheading the creature a moment later. The healer she’d requested moved forward, closing the gash on the man’s arm and letting his breathing return to some semblance of normality.
She was about to jump down to join them and finish when Lilith sent the image of more mesmer running through the trees. She stopped, quickly hiding among the trees and wrapping an illusion around her that made her part of the tree. She wanted to yell down at her comrades, but didn’t want to attract the attention of the mesmer racing towards her.
Frantic, she chose an emergency option: she sent a mental command down at the group. “Get ready to fight again, NOW!” Directing her thoughts to her fellacai, she gave them their orders too. “Send your pollen through the trees towards them as inconspicuously as possible, then make sure to hide.”
Thankfully, she saw that those below heard her mental command and were on the alert, watching the treetops. She could see the magic of the fellacai pollen starting to spread towards the incoming mesmer. It was inconspicuous, though she could still pick out tiny motes. Her hope was that the monsters were more concentrated on looking down and that at least a few of them might be affected.
Her second hope was that this was the only linked encounter, and that they hadn’t set off a series of enemies running at them in waves.
Chapter Six – Pollen
She held her breath as the mesmer approached the pollen trap her babies set up. The fellacai each took a different area, though some of them overlapped. The fight with the giant apes mostly involved them dodging, so she hadn’t been able to see their ability, since it hadn’t had time to spread and then she’d left the affected area rather quickly. She was excited to see what it could really do.
Bolt’s pollen was the first to reach one of the mesmer, from what she could tell. Tiny arks of electricity raced over its skin, and its muscles seemed to seize up mid-jump. Instead of landing properly, it hit the branch and fell off, beginning the plummet towards the forest floor. “Shoot them as they fall!” Her mental command fell over her group, who turned as one to target the only mesmer they could see and began shooting.
She wasn’t sure if they obeyed so swiftly because of her command, if it had any effect on them, or if they heard it and decided to obey because it was common sense. Still, she was happy to see several of the arrows hit the thing, especially because the paralysis wore off before it reached the ground, so it was attempting to stabilize itself and land when the arrows struck. The mesmer tried to curl up, but didn’t seem to realize how close it was to the ground. It hit with a loud crunch...head first. She turned her attention away from the ugly splatter, figuring she no longer needed to worry about that one.
Seemingly wary of where that one fell, and rightfully so, the mesmer split up, jumping to different trees to avoid the area that they assumed was trapped. They were hissing in anger, but probably knew their hypnotism was less effective with distance, since it relied on verbal cues.
The next two to be hit were on opposite sides of where the first fell. One hit Ramoth’s area, and the creature blinked heavily for a moment as it was running, then slid forward as its muscles locked together and dropped off the side of the branch. Another hit Willow’s pollen and seemed confused as it came to a stop, wobbling slightly as it tried to catch its balance. It too fell off the branch, but managed to dig its long nails into the wood, clinging to the side as it looked around in confusion.
The falling one was peppered with arrows, twisting its head around blindly as if trying to see what was going on and hissing in pain, until it landed with another crunch. Giving up on hiding, Jade stepped out on her branch and targeted the confused one. Since it was clinging to the branch, her arrow took it cleanly in the head. The others couldn’t have shot it from below, but she could do so just fine from her vantage point in the tree behind them. The thing hung from the branch like a pinned beetle, infuriating the mesmer behind it.
Now that they’d noticed her existence, she knew she’d become the main target. Honestly, it was probably safer than having them target those below. “Ssssssshe sssssmelllsssss of magic…” They split into even more trees to approach her, and she counted eleven left. The fun thing about that? There were only seven trees they could use to reach her, and her babies were hidden on the tree with her now, sending their pollen along those branches.
“You’re all going to die.” She calmly told them as she sighted down her arrow and let it fly. The closest mesmer jumped over it, sneering as it ran towards her rather bravely, if stupidly. The others closed in on her from the other trees and were running forward as well, planning to bum rush her.
“Noooo magic from youuuu!” One of the mesmer hissed at her, and she merely grinned savagely in his direction. She stood there calmly and watched them approach, which caused half of them to break off their headlong rush forward and stop on their branches as their brethren continued forward.
There were still five approaching, and to her glee, they all seemed to be hit with pollen at the same time. Her glee turned quickly to almost retching up her lunch as she observed the effects of the pollen.
Rio and Andy’s effects were similar, at least as far as the end result was concerned. Rio’s mesmer seemed to grow a layer of ice as he skidded off the branch. It started to crack on the way down as he was hit by an arrow, and then...he seemed to shatter on impact. Andy’s turned half of the mesmer to stone, and the arrows glanced off of it as it fell, but the shrill screaming as the rock exploded on impact with the ground was horrifying. Half of its body was gone, and it lay there screaming as it bled out until an arrow ended its miserable existence.