Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Conflict

The next two days were a flurry of activity, as the villagers prepared for the chieftains to meet with the outsiders. In that time, people engaged in all sorts of odd activities. Some ordered weapons from Master Arne or one of the other workshops, causing us to become incredibly busy. Master Arne and I churned out large numbers of bone weapons in the two days before the outsider meeting. I also took the chance to make a few personalized weapons for Felix, Sallia and I, since a lot of the adult weapons were too big for us to use comfortably. I also specially made three one-handed swords, just in case. 

Instead of ordering weapons, some villagers requested to temporarily move to other islands, especially those who had children that hadn’t passed their first adulthood ceremony. Most people, however, opted to stick around. In the worst case scenario, they could help defend the village against the outsiders and participate in the fight, and if things turned really bad, most people felt that they could always hitch a ride on one of the flying boats later.

Among the people remaining on the island, everyone began to debate what the outcome of the meeting would be, while offering prayers to the Ocean Mother in hopes that the meeting would go well. Nobody seemed to quite agree on what a good outcome was, however. Some people hoped that the village chiefs would see the ‘true faces’ of the Outsiders and attack them, removing any potential threats to the village and ensuring that our existence remained unknown to the Megailian empire. Some others hoped that the Outsiders would turn out to be nice, and that they would start trading with us. If Olav’s words about the outside world were accurate, our pearls and floatwood should be valuable resources, so many people thought that we would be able to trade them for lots of useful things. People like Master Arne were especially interested in Olav’s description of bronze, since we had no metal deposits on this island. Being able to make tools and weapons out of bronze would allow Master Arne to experiment with a completely different kind of material, and might even allow the hunters of the village to hunt more safely and efficiency than ever before. Since Land Beasts were a huge threat to the village, many of the hunters were just as interested in bronze as Master Arne was, leading to a big clash in opinions between those who wanted to fight and those who wanted to trade.

On the day of the meeting, the village chiefs left the village surrounded by villagers, who surrounded the village chiefs and their honor guards in a big crowd as they departed. The group was abuzz with curiosity and barely contained anxiety, and as I sat in the group with my parents, I couldn’t help but share the worry of the other villagers. If we could open up trade with the outside world, the villages might finally hop out of the stone age and enter the bronze age. However, if a fight erupted, it would be catastrophic for our village.

After the village chiefs left, Sallia, Felix and I returned to my house, along with the rest of our families. Since the three of us played together frequently, our families had become increasingly familiar with each other, so all of us decided to wait out the meeting together. Felix and I were especially nervous - while my memories of my previous life were hazy, I seemed to recall that a technologically advanced neighbor making contact with a group of weaker natives usually ended pretty badly for the natives. Felix seconded this opinion, claiming that on his world, the nations which had begun the gunpowder era had rapidly begun conquering other nations, taking over territories left and right to extract resources and expand their nation. Ostensibly, the goal of each takeover on his previous world was to purge the Mages within a given territory and liberate the villagers. This was usually welcomed by most populations, since the Mages of Felix’s world were almost universally reviled. However, after ‘liberating’ various nations of their Mages, the powerful gunpowder-wielding nations of Felix’s previous world tended to stick around and place themselves in charge of the area. He admitted that he had never thought much about it before, but now that we were the technologically inferior natives, how the outsiders thought of us was quickly becoming a question of life or death for our islands.

An hour after the village chiefs departed, the three of us finally confirmed how the meeting with the outsiders had gone. This wasn’t because the village chiefs had returned, or because one of their honor guards had informed the villagers of the ongoing negotiations. Instead, a huge arc of light suddenly shot through the treetops, chopping down several of the larger trees in the forest. It was extremely similar to the gold arc of light that had cut off one of the ocean monster’s tentacles, and I knew the moment I saw it that an Astrellium weapon had been used. There was no reason for an Astrellium weapon to be activated if the negotiations were going well. My heart sank.

“Something went wrong,” said Felix’s mother, the moment she saw the golden arc of light. She immediately gestured for everyone to get up, and the mobile half of her face contorted into a grimace. “Come with me. Let’s follow the beaches for now, and head away from the outsider’s camp. If they launch another Astrellium weapon and point it at the village, it’s best if we don’t get caught up in the attack.” After that, Felix’s mother quickly grabbed a few weapons, before tossing a spear at my father a pair of spears towards Sallia’s parents. “It’s not ideal, but we might be able to at least slow a landbeast down long enough to run away if we have weapons, and we can also put up a fight if we get unlucky and run into any outsiders. Actually, do any of you know how to shoot?” Asked Felix’s mother, gesturing towards one of the bows laying on the ground.

My parents and Sallia’s parents shook their head. “We only know a bit about using spears.”

“That’s unfortunate, but we’ll make do,” said Felix’s mother, slinging a bow and a quiver of arrows over her own shoulder and then grabbing a spear. In the meantime, Sallia, Felix and I got the swords I had prepared ready, and also grabbed three smaller bows and sets of arrows. Felix’s mother turned to the three of us, before frowning. “Do the two of you even know how to fight?” She asked, turning to Sallia and I. The half of her face that wasn’t paralyzed was locked into a stern frown, as she examined our postures and our weapons. “I know my son has been training under a hunter and that the three of you spend a great deal of time together. However, weapons aren’t toys, and if you haven’t learned how to use them properly, you might hurt yourself before accomplishing anything with them.”

“We’ve been learning from Felix, ma’am. Even though we aren’t directly training under a hunter, we still spar with Felix occasionally. We originally thought that it would be good training for when we hunt a landbeast when we turn sixteen. We’re using our skills much earlier than expected, and we aren’t as strong as an adult, obviously, but we can at least defend ourselves,” I said. 

Felix’s mother’s frown lessened by a lot, and she even gave me an approving nod. “Good thinking. If you know what you’re doing, bring the weapons along. Though it would be best if you don’t need to use them, it never hurts to be more prepared. Let’s go.” She led our group out of my house.

After stepping out of the house, I quickly realized that I wasn’t the only one who had realized something had gone wrong. Many of the villagers were running around like headless flies, picking up weapons, organizing a messy defense, and looking for hunters to save them from the approaching danger. The villagers hadn’t really expected chaos to break out today, so everyone was scrambling to get into place and figure out the best course of action. A few of the villagers latched on to the sight of Felix’s mother and us moving out of my house, fully armed and moving with obvious purpose. A few of the ones who knew Felix’s mother better quickly moved closer to her.

“Vanessa, where are you going? Do you know what’s happening?” Asked one of the villagers, an older man with five runes.

“That golden ray of light looks like it was an Astrellium weapon being activated,” said Felix’s mother. “I figure they might toss another attack towards the village if things go really wrong, so we’re heading out of the village a ways to stay safe. Do you want to come along? Bring your wife and your daughter, too.”

Hearing this, a few other nearby villagers perked up, and gave the ruined trees in the distance another glance. Then, several of them quickly walked up to Felix’s mother and asked if they could also join her. Since she was a retired hunter, she was much stronger than most average villagers. I assumed that was why so many people wanted to tag along - if we ran into outsiders or land beasts, Felix’s mother could offer some level of protection against them. 

In short order, we had about twenty villagers gathered, instead of our previous eight people. After that, our group headed out of the village, before we started putting some distance between us and our houses.

All of us kept a close eye on the forest as we traveled, wary of land beasts attacking us while we moved away from the conflict. We did see a few land beasts hovering uncomfortably close to the edge of the forest. Luckily, none of them seemed interested in us right now. It was obvious that the damage to the trees had alerted many land beasts that something was happening, but most of them were trying to protect themselves from stronger land beasts or were attracted to the noise I assumed the fight was generating. Thus, nothing came out to attack us.

After travelling perhaps ten minutes away from the village, Felix’s mother breathed a sigh of relief. 

“We should be safe enough here. If the Outsiders lose the fight, they should either be completely annihilated or driven into the forest or ocean, where that creature or land beasts should eat them. And if they win, they won’t have time to chase after our group before the other villages reinforce us. So we should be safe either way,” said Felix’s mother, absentmindedly adjusting her hold on her spear. I looked around, noticing our relatively empty surroundings, before I nodded in agreement. At least from the outsiders, we should probably be safe here. 

Our group of twenty waited in silence for several minutes. My parents, Sallia’s Parents, Vanessa, and the three of us held the majority of weapons in the group, since I had specially prepared some weapons for us, but we weren’t the only family with weapons laying around. There was also a man with six runes in the group who held a spear with extreme familiarity, and a few adults with five runes carrying either spears or bows. Although almost a third of the group was children, we at least had the ability to defend ourselves.

As minutes ticked by, I strained my ears to see if I could make out anything in the distance. A few other people, including Sallia and Felix’s mother, shared my wariness towards our surroundings. They scanned our area periodically, occasionally tightening their grip on their weapons as they shuffled their feet and prepared for a fight that may or may not come. I was suddenly struck by how similar the two of them looked. Although Sallia was much younger and weaker than Felix’s mother, and had less practical battle experience, something about her posture was extremely similar to Felix’s mother. Both of them looked like battle-scarred veterans, preparing for a final charge into enemy lines, or a final defense against the enemy.

After perhaps twenty minutes, I saw Sallia and Felix’s mother both suddenly turn to look at a single spot in the distance.

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My heart sank. After the landbeast had crashed the adulthood ceremony last year, I knew what it meant when people with high Perception all zeroed in on a spot in the distance. My stomach sank, and I whipped out my bow and prepared an arrow.

“Of all the rotten luck…” Felix’s mother cursed, also swapping out her spear for a bow as Sallia and Felix followed suit. Even though we weren’t great shots, we could at least sometimes hit our target, and an extra wave of attacks might make the difference between life and death here.

Nearly twenty seconds later, I heard what Sallia and Felix’s mother could hear. It was a confused mess of sounds - some clanging sounds, heavy breathing, and rustling all mixed together as one. 

Felix’s mother turned to our group of villagers. “Those who are proficient in combat, prepare to fight with me. We must protect the children,” she said, before taking a few steps forward.

Soon, a chaotic group charged out of the forest, and I finally figured out what was happening.

At the front of the group was a cluster of outsiders. There were perhaps fifteen of them, and all of them were running for their lives. They were wearing metal armor, which was why they produced such an odd sound as they ran. It was hard to see how many runes they had, since their skin was covered by metal, but the ones with more damaged armor seemed to have five or six runes each.

Chasing after them were three land beasts. One of the land beasts was shaped like a massive spider, and looked like it had already succumbed to the Call of the Ocean. Its eight legs whirled with rhythmic thudding sounds as it charged towards the water, completely uninterested in those around it. It was the least threatening land beast, since it wasn’t charging directly towards us and would completely miss the group. The other two land beasts looked like a pair of massive wolves, but were made entirely of mist. Their bodies occasionally wobbled and subtly changed shapes, as if they could reform themselves at will. I had no idea what they were,  but their presence made me very nervous.

Chasing after the land beasts and the outsiders was one of the other village chiefs, a woman with eleven runes. With her were twelve members of her honor guard, men and women with eight or nine runes each. They were chasing after the outsiders with a determined look on their faces, as if they wouldn’t rest until the outsiders were dead.

My heart sank as I saw the chaotic group of warriors chasing after each other. While Felix’s mother had led us away from the village in hopes of getting us out of the conflict, it was evident her plan had failed. Even though we had left the village behind, we were still about to be embroiled in the fight between the village chiefs and the outsiders.

I turned towards an outsider at the front of the group, who had the least protected face, and glanced at Sallia and Felix. They also had bitter expressions on their faces, as they realized we were in for a fight, but they were also taking aim with their bows.

Right before I shot my first arrow, I heard a sudden sound in the distance.

From the direction of the village, I heard an incredibly jarring yell blasting through the area at top volume.  The sound was enhanced far beyond any amount of clamor the village usually made, however. Once I heard it, I knew it was a rune enhanced sound. Why would anyone make loud sounds near the village? The terrible feeling in my gut grew increasingly intense. The person yelling had an incredibly heavy accent, and due to my low Intelligence I had a hard time making out exactly what they said. For a moment, I was just confused.

Then, I realized what the Outsiders were planning. My heart sank.

In the forest of the island, the only rule one needed to observe, no matter what, was to stay quiet. Sound would draw in the powerful landbeasts. Normally, a bit of noise from the village wasn’t a problem. After all, the land beasts near the forest had been killed off by the hunters, and so the usual ruckus of day to day life in the village wouldn’t draw in any new predators. 

But that yell had clearly been enhanced by runes to produce as much sound as possible. Felix’s mother had been completely right in getting us out of the village. Based on the fact that the village chiefs were chasing down stragglers through the forest, the fight against the outsiders was going well for our villages. However, the outsiders had resorted to any trick they could think of to turn the tables.

The outsiders were trying to flood the village with landbeasts, in a last ditch attempt to survive.