Silence reigned for a moment, the only sounds echoing down from the tunnels that had been carved into Gramma’s Shoe, or the distant thunder of more Legion reinforcements closing in. Then one of the people that had been selected for an Eye of Argus stepped forward. “Reporting, Teamkiller Bro! Those fancy circles started rotating, then raced off into the distance. They became bigger as they moved, which I’m pretty sure breaks the law of conservation of-”
“They moved?” Joe stared the Dwarf down until the words stopped. Even as he started realizing what that meant, Joe was running toward the sound of incoming troops. “They didn’t break, they just moved? No! They expanded!”
It didn’t take long for him to reach the next ritual circle, it was about eleven meters from the Novice circle to this one. Just as he had hoped, it wasn’t broken. As the notification had stated, it was paused. He stepped on the circle, and a strange thing happened.
He got feedback.
Ritual of Argus: Beginner Circle. Current requirements: filled.
He stepped over it, and a dark glow—which he hadn’t even originally noticed —vanished. Joe kept going, reaching the next circle after travelling seventeen meters. “Okay, they’re arranged out in prime distances. Next one should be… eleven, seventeen… twenty-three meters if the pattern follows.”
Ritual of Argus: Apprentice Circle. Current requirements: Not filled.
This time the circle hadn’t lit up, making Joe nod. He couldn’t supply a circle this large by himself; he had known that was going to be the case. Right now, what he really needed was a truckload of charged mana batteries. Were ley lines a thing? Could he tap into them if they were? The sound of metal-shod boots on stone became louder, and he glanced up to see more troops arriving. “No batteries… but this might work.”
He rushed over to the front of the column and body-blocked them from moving forward. “Legion! I have a change order!”
They came to a halt as his Candidacy impacted them. The platoon sergeant stepped forward and hollered at Joe, “Get the abyss out of the way! I heard that we’re authorized for war crimes today!”
“War crimes!” The Dwarves shouted, heat appearing in their tired eyes.
Joe walked over to the platoon sergeant, took three Ritual Orbs out, and hit the Dwarf with them and a Dark Lightning Strike all at the same time. With the pure constitution score that the Dwarf had, it was Joe’s equivalent to punching him in the face. “I said there was a change order! This operation was put into play by me, and the success of the Dwarven Oligarchy is relying on my orders being followed. Follow your orders, or are you going to take the blame for the Elves overrunning this position?”
Not waiting for a reply, and wanting to keep the Dwarves confused—which was unfortunately a little too easy—Joe directed the Dwarves to split by highest mana pool and take a position on the nearest ritual circle. The entire platoon fit onto the Beginner circle, but the circle had only lit up when there were at least half of them on it.
“Split this unit; a quarter of you follow me. As for you, sergeant, get on the road and get all of the reinforcements onto these circles until I tell you to stop!” Joe sent the glowering Dwarf away, then started populating the next circle. It took a few minutes before the next contingent arrived, and his ears caught a familiar conversation after a dull *thud* resounded through the area.
“-or are you going to take the blame for the Elves overrunning this position?” The sergeant’s voice reached Joe’s ears. He laughed that his own confusing argument was being used again, but he wasn’t about to complain. Joe started directing the Dwarves into position as they arrived. The Apprentice circle took twice as long to reach the ‘fulfilled’ condition, and he lost count of the troops needed to fill the Student and Journeyman areas. By the time the Expert circle was filled, an unbroken line of Dwarves trailed off into the distance in both directions.
Joe watched the uncomfortable Dwarves shifting slightly, their chest plates scraping against the armor of the person in front of them. The circle was glowing, but he knew he needed to hurry. If something didn’t change soon, his orders would lose their potency and the Dwarves would wander off before they missed the chance to fight. One small problem was that he was on the outside of the ritual, but it was only a small problem. He got a running start, hurdled over the line of Legionnaires, and landed in a sprint, repeating the acrobatics until he was standing at the center; the only person on the Novice circle.
Mana requirements fulfilled with the current cadre of mana donors! Ritual of Argus Stage Two is ready to activate!
Wasting no time, Joe activated the ritual with a chant and the first influx of mana. “Omnes videntes oculo. V videre. Si opus fuerit, his comedent!”
Ritual requires targeting mechanism.
The notification was unexpected, but Joe’s eyes lit up after a moment of panic. He dug through his ring and found an item he had been saving, but forgotten about. “Use this Taglock!”
Targeting mechanism accepted.
The bright sun was hidden as darkness covered the land. Each of the literal thousands of Dwarves that Joe had forced to help cover the mana costs of the ritual cried out and slumped as the small amount of mana they had in them was drained away, circle by circle.
Novice circle: complete.
Beginner Circle: complete.
After this message, the Dwarves in that circle slumped to the ground, and cries of alarm rose in the Apprentice circle. Before anyone could react, the circle drained them as well. The circle completed, but Joe winced at the notification that appeared.
Apprentice Circle: complete. Stability compromised! Attempting to stabilize… failed.
Just as he read the last word, a *whumph* like fireworks exploding in the distance reached his ears. The Dwarves that fell were
