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'The Witchwood'! From a Yasoi's perspective, this name was a bit of an offense in itself. No tree, at any point in his life, had done anything that would have justified this kind of a designation with so much negative connotation. It were the people of this world who did malicious things, not nature itself, so the name's origin probably was some kind of evil event of very artificial cause -- or just mere superstition as so often with those humans.

What would these woods be called decades or even centuries from now, assuming Parrench victory and his own humble part in it ? 'Thunderwoods' maybe ? Or, to keep things a little more fancy, 'The sparkling forest ?'. Spark in the sense of something large and hot enough to hurt somebody and put fire to his or her property and not in the sense of a harmless piece of fireworks, of course. A nice question to ponder about halfway drunk in a tavern once things had happened here, but what if those barbarians would win this battle instead ? Then maybe the Witchwoods would just cease to exist and be consumed by the need to rebuild an entire kingdom [i]their[/i] way. A very sobering possibility.

The sound of heavy boots trampling down the foliage below forced Otios out of his thoughts. The Yasoi would not have positioned himself here had he not expected that at least a diversionary attack would make its way through here, but what his ears picked up now was significantly more discomforting than that. Either these people couldn't march or this was a horde! The place would be crawling...

Officially, Otios would have called it 'foresight', but deep inside he knew that it was more the small bit of chill running up and down his guts that made him retreat deeper into the extensive treetop high above everyone's head. He had deemed this to be a much safer place than being on the ground, even with a horse, but that would no longer hold true once being surrounded and behind the frontline so quickly. At least Lady Talit left out those branches he was standing on when bending so many others to signal something! A bit inefficient, was it ?

Otios tightened his grip around a wire than ran down the whole length of the trunk and ended in a solid pole rammed into the ground next to it. This effectively was his fastest means to get off this hideout aside from a suicidal jump, but it also served the double purpose of connecting him to the earth those Eskandr were marching on. What kind of connection ? Those fools would not understand! If not for the lack of intelligence, then for the lack of time to think! Otios still highly preferred for it to go unnoticed in the first place, so he was not hesitant to get going once he spotted the first small band of Eskandr warriors happening to walk by relatively close to his tree.

[i]Clank![/i]

[i]Clank! Clank! Clank![/i]

[i]Argh![/i]

Really! Magnetism could spread like a disease within and among items of iron or mild steel -- and he was in control of the germ. While in the process of the metal parts of their armors and weapons being tethered together by an invisible force, one of the men's battle axes had been set upon a collision course with a helmet and had only found deceleration once inside the wearer's face. Another individual who had not been part initially was startled by the unexpected moves of his comrades and tried to help, but only got sucked into and attached to the crowd as well.

The crowd, that was the involuntary aggregation of Eskandr warriors who could neither escape individually nor move together anymore. It would have been enough of a challenge in calm conditions to try and coordinate a dozen feet or more, all facing into different directions, to move synchronously and in a manner suited for going into one distinct direction instead of jittering around randomly. This however wasa bunch of people rapidly descending into a state of panic and stuck in an increasingly loud environment, last but not least due to their own shouting.

Could humans not solve their conflicts this way ? Just set up one group of men glued together as tightly as possible for each side and then let them do a race along a fixed route. First group to reach the destination would win and maybe some intoxication would make this even more fun for the public ? Like... was it even realistically possible for a bunch of drunkards to topple over and fall to the ground collectively, or would there always be enough resistance from some to keep going ?

Unfortunately, it was far too late for that already, even assuming that anybody would have been willing to listen to his suggestions in the first place. So Otios had to make a decisive move himself now and hated it no matter how much he had seen it coming. Just agreeing to participate in this mess for the sake of the future of one's own kind was one thing with a big comfort zone of abstraction around it, but actually being in it now felt so much like another. Far below him, the core of the small crowd started collapsing as the ribs of the man standing in the middle caved in under the pressure enacted by his comrades.

Even more unfortunately, this actually lowered the pressure and stopped the process from just continuing on its own. So, yes, he'd have to do the rest. The Yasoi launched his attack and dropped the other wire into the crowd below. He just knew that guiding a current through metal instead of just brute forcing it through bare air was far less straining and also did not create a brilliant flash of light that would betray his position quicker than any dangling wire could.

Or was it still dangling ? Not really. The end not in Otios' hand had found its way into the Eskandr and they, in their panic, did not really seem to even notice it pressing against their clothes, their armors, their bare skin even. He pressed the two ends in his hands together and let the carnage begin. No need to incinerate anybody as that would, again, have been a waste of energy urgently needed later on. Wreaking havoc upon the control of muscles, last but not least the one pumping the blood, was enough. The Eskandr started to release their poop into their pants as their nervous systems experienced catastrophic failure one after another. What would others say when stumbling upon this part of their diversionary force some minutes later ?

Otios realized only afterwards how eerily convenient this way of killing had been. He had not been burdened with seeing anybody in the eyes as they had died for he had been in a tree far above their heads. He had also not caused a bloodshed like any regular solider was condemned to do, just some burn marks nobody would care about. There were no blood stains on himself, no sweat, no nothing that would need to be maintained and thereby be able to remind him later on about his doings. His weapon had been a pair of long wires taken away from an originally very different purpose, and the only thing wrong with them now was being a bit hot for a few minutes. And a crowd had, somehow, just made things more anonymous.

Now he should probably get off this damn tree however and relocate, right ?