Woad Children (Challenger's Call Book 3)

by Nathan Thompson

  Now that be a nice trick, Merada thought at me, and the power of my Path suddenly left me, circulated, and came back stronger by over a hundredfold.

  My awareness over the army behind me sharpened. I had a dim concept of the health and vital guard of every warrior under my command. I felt a general sharpening of skill in my own fingers, as the axe and shield I was holding suddenly felt more familiar. The impressions in my mind told me every other warrior was feeling this sensation as well. Finally, the hazy impression of our enemies solidified to where we knew they were exactly a thousand yards ahead of us, and completely unaware of our presence.

  Ready? I sent to a now-larger audience.

  Ready! a mass of voices answered me, along with mental shouts and whoops.

  Bridge team, go, I sent.

  A cluster of tiny brown, green and blue lights drifted forward along the bank. They moved quickly, stretching all of the water I could see, settling directly on top of the water’s surface. I saw the already-quiet stream slow down. I saw large patches of earth raise up out of it, long and large enough for people to walk over. Finally, I saw the remains of the water freeze, giving us a dirt and ice bridge wide enough to move large groups of people quickly.

  Hurry, the sprite in charge of the bridge team sent tensely. We can’t hold this up for very long.

  Charge, I commanded silently, and a chorus of whoops and cries sounded in my mind as we drew weapons and dashed across the altered river.

  Weapons and armor rattled softly as Great Pan’s magic still poured into the white-hilted dagger I gripped in my left hand under my shield. I felt my new tattoo pulse warm under my skin, somehow reaching into the connection I had formed between all of the warriors in my army walking down the same Path.

  King them, the voice of Avalon’s Kingtree said as my tattoo glowed. King them. Queen them. Crown them. Let me crown them for war.

  Granted, I nodded, and as the army rushed across the bank I felt everyone’s limbs heat up.

  We made it across and dashed into the frosted woods beyond. I felt everyone keep in step. The Woadlands may not have much in the way of organized armies Earth had back home, but these people raised themselves on guerrilla warfare. Rushing through trees to ambush their enemies was second nature to them, whether they were Woadfolk humans, elves, or sprites.

  Our enemies just began to come into view when Pan’s magic began to sputter out.

  That’s as far as I can get you, the trickster Icon sent, as a Hoarfolk goblin looked at me with wide eyes. The rest of your steps will draw blood.

  Well it’s about time then! I roared through the mindlink, and over a hundred bloodthirsty voices shouted in agreement. I dispelled my dagger and raised Toirneach high over my head. I felt my tattoo reach into my Ideal of Fire and pull out a spell Merada had recently taught me, Burning Blades. Then I felt that same tattoo reach into the common Path shared between me and those putting their lives in my hands. The Kingtree poured the spell down into that Path, letting everyone behind me gain the same benefits of that spell.

  The result was that swords, spears, axes, and arrowheads all around me began to glow with heat. Toirneach itself burst into flame, and I let out my angriest roar as I brought the burning weapon into and out of the panicked goblin’s throat.

  A frightened cry sounded out a dozen yards ahead of me, as a host of other horned goblinoids rushed forward, and battle was finally joined.

  War was nothing like my video games had taught me. I had known that, but it was still a shock to see a rush of chaotic images all around me, screaming, slashing, and dying, and on the greatest scale I had seen so far. I fought off the panic trying to throttle my focus and let my rapid cognition take over the work in front of me, recognizing and killing small blue shapes before the rest of my brain could realize those shapes were enemies and that it needed to figure out what to do about them.

  I slashed my flaming axe through a horned head. I darted around a human shape and killed a smaller shape trying to stab at his back. Another snarling horned shape leaped out and onto my shield, trying to grapple it off of me. I let him stay there as I slammed my wooden barrier into the goat-horned face of another monster, and both monsters screamed as their bones cracked apart.

  A loud, cold voice shouted out at me, and the rest of my brain perked up to process the words.

  “Brytenwalda!” the voice shouted, over and over. “Brytenwalda!”

  My eyes locked on a man-sized shape, with long, ice-colored ears and longer, snow-colored hair. He was garbed in crystalline mail with pieces of glacial-like plates over his shoulders, wrists, and legs. His head wore a light, tiara-like helm of similar metal and he was pointing a sharp, clear sword in my direction, still shouting.

  “Brytenwalda!” the Hoarfolk noble shouted again. “Maróidh mé thú!”

  Translating, the mindscreen informed me. Enemy leader, I will kill you. Subject appears to be challenging you to a duel.

  “Come then!” I roared, as a pair of Merada’s burning arrows fired into the goblins between the noble and me. Dueling was usually stupid, but right now I needed to keep our momentum going. I slashed apart two more goblins in my way as the Hoarfolk commander ignited his own weapon with blue flame. He shifted his feet, and in the next blast of cold air he was suddenly in front of me, dancing his blade over my shield and inches away from my face. I gave ground as he pressed the advantage, darting around my flanks and nicking at my mail and warding spells, until I planted my feet, arrested my backward momentum, and slammed the rim of my shield into his mailed stomach. I heard ice crack and saw him double over in pain. I also saw his eyes widen in shock as he realized the force of my blow lifted him off his feet. Then I darted to the side, far faster than I had been moving a second ago, and slammed my burning axe under his chin. The winter fey shrieked in shock and pain as my blow sent him whirling and smoking through the air, his vital guard barely holding his neck and jaw together. I heard Woad warriors cry out in triumph as I leaped through the air and after him, raising my axe to finish him off. He landed, rolled, and looked up to see me descending upon him. His burnt, crushed mouth snarled in contempt as he disappeared into a plume of frost and blue fire just before I landed, axe slamming harmlessly into the ground his wounded neck had occupied moments ago.

  “Coward!” I shouted for the morale of my warriors, who cheered in agreement as they stabbed and slashed into the smaller Hoarfolk with burning weapons. “Don’t let the rest of them get away!”

  And form up, my team, I sent to my personal warband. Because he just went to go get everyone else out of bed.

  Winter fey don’t really sleep, Breena pointed out, but yeah. This is about to get tougher.

  A loud bellow sounded out from further in the trees as something other than goblins finally decided to engage my warriors. Nearly fifty of the woolly yeti-men I had seen before charged into view, hurling javelin-sized icicles into my warriors. Several warriors screamed behind me, but I couldn’t afford to look back and deal with it. I just had to trust that the healers would save whoever they could, because the yeti-men were heading in my direction anyway.

  I grinned, because that was what I wanted.

  I was a target in every sense of the word. Loud, clearly some kind of leader, and with far fewer Rises than a lot of the older warriors behind me. The shaggy giants formed a wedge and headed straight for me.

  “No!” I shouted in mock fear, at the same time mentally sending a series of commands, projecting a sense of confidence through the massed battlelink.

  Give them one volley, then let them come to my band. Clean up the ones that survive contact with me.

  A dozen different chieftains silently acknowledged my command. Flaming arrows and fiery darts whipped over me to strike into the yeti-men rushing at me. A few of them fell dead, a number of them grunted in pain, but most importantly, all of them halted as they stumbled away from each other to avoid more of the volley. That brought them out of formation just enough for my own team to slam into
them.

  The fifty or so scattered, giant yeti-men found themselves face to face with a team of nearly a dozen Gaelguard and fairies, three Testifiers, two Earthborn Challengers, and a pair of Starsown Satellites, all working together and augmented by magic. I lowered my shoulder and slammed as hard as I could into the lead yeti. I heard the monster bellow in defiance, brace to pit his strength against my own, then shriek in surprise as I knocked him clear off his feet and into the monster behind him. As they went down, I hurled Toirneach into the face of the next yeti I saw, then I summoned my mace, leaped onto the two downed monsters and took four quick swings to smash their skulls in. I dismissed the weapon to catch Toirneach as the weapon returned to my grasp and the rest of my team slammed into the throng of shaggy beasts.

  I fell in step with Merada, Breena, and Val as we all went to work. Merada had switched back to her spear and began thrusting and slashing the now-burning weapon over our heads, cutting and distracting the tall monsters. As she did that I would duck under to hack and bash at their knee-caps. Their lower limbs gave way to my newly increased strength, and as they went down Val would leap and phase on top of their chests to open up their throats, then flit away before they could catch her in their death throes. Breena drew her Boomstick and flicked it once, suddenly creating a controlled stream of lightning at the wand’s business end. Whenever one of the giant monsters came close enough to hurting us, the fairy would dart over and stab at their limbs, scorching or shocking them just long enough for the three of us to dodge free or finish the monster off.

  I! she sent me as she continued to flit, blast, and taser enemies. Love! This! Weapon!

  Glad it makes you happy, I sent as Toirneach cut clean through another giant’s leg.

  Ten seconds later, my team’s charge had carried everyone completely clear of the monsters. The fairies had kept my Gaelguard healed enough to keep fighting, and I was starting to see the benefit of assigning every single warrior a fairy companion.

  Speaking of which, my fairies all turned and fired one final volley back at the shattered unit of monsters behind us. More went down, with one losing its head to a blast from Breena’s new Boomstick, and then the rest of the Woadlands warriors tore into them, shredding the handful of yeti-men still on their feet.

  That went well, Merada sent me as we kept advancing. Usually a band of those beasts can scatter or slow an attack like this.

  They still did some damage, I thought grimly, remembering the javelins that tore into my army. But we’re attacking a disorganized army close to our size with the element of surprise and all kinds of other benefits. If the fight gets a lot harder it means I’m doing something wrong.

  We’ll help ye fix it if ye do, she said supportively, and I loved her for it.

  Again, we kept moving forward, trusting the fairies and other healers to make sure the wounded could still keep up. More goblins and yetis emerged and more javelins fell among my people. The only thing I could really do was to order concentrated volleys of magic onto the small packs of yetis and trust that everyone’s armor and wards would protect them from the small goblin arrows.

  I continued to hack and slash and shout encouragements to the warbands following me. Goblin heads crunched, yeti kneecaps shattered, until finally we had reached the main camp of our enemies.

  This far in we began to see snow line the ground. Every few moments a single flake would fall from the sky. The ground directly ahead of us was clear of trees, covered instead by a much thicker coating of snow and igloo-like huts, stretching out for half a mile. The end of the camp farthest from us was almost completely dark, but I could still see outlines of a massive, unfinished structure at the very end.

  I would have to worry about it later, though. Right now a number of horned shapes were crawling out of ice huts or just popping out of the deeper patches of snow. I started to shout a command, but most of the chieftains were already acting, sending me messages of what they were about to command their bands to do.

  Namely, charge and burn everything down.

  I deferred to their experience and acted as if they were acting under my orders. The Hoarfolk rising up to attack were quickly pounced on by teams of painted warriors as flaming arrows began volleying all over the frozen structures. I left them to it. My battle-view let me tell that their numbers were evenly matched by now. Furthermore, the warriors I had brought with me were the tribes’ best, and had been further enhanced by magic and the merging of our Paths. They would be able to handle things on their own, even if more Hoar-yetis emerged.

  But I had to get my people to the half-formed ice palace as fast as I could, and keep at least one Hoarfolk noble from escaping.

  If our idea didn’t work though, that second one was going to be impossible. Either way, though, we had to try.

  The sky began to darken further. Thunder rumbled as small shards of ice began to fall from the sky and onto the Woad tribes. On the ramp leading into the palace entrance were five elf-like figures. Three of them wore long, snow-white robes, while the two in front of them were clad in armor similar to the dancing wuss I had axe-slapped earlier. The three in robes were moving their mouths as they looked up at the sky, probably bringing about the hailstorm on my people.

  Those are our targets, I sent to my team. And I think they’re about to kill our army.

  On it, Merada answered. As soon as we get close I’ll open up on them.

  Same, Weylin and Karim sent at the same time.

  But as we charged headlong for them, one more bellow to our left sounded as a last group of goblins and yetis tried to intercept us.

  Green fire ignited behind me as my Gaelguard activated the full power of their tattoos.

  “Go!” Alum shouted as his people shifted to engage a force several times their number. “We will handle these!”

  Thunder cracked over our heads and the hail began to grow larger. A lightning bolt crashed down somewhere behind us, and I heard a Woadfolk warrior scream in pain. I had to take Alum at his word and sprinted onward, my now-smaller team keeping pace behind me. As we grew closer I saw the Hoarfolk knights lock eyes on us and advance forward, crystal swords drawn. The one on the left suddenly started shaking, and now I could notice the fresh burn-scar under his chin.

  I’ll take the one on the left, I told my team. Artillery, fire at will.

  Aye, Merada sent back, as she, Weylin, Karim, and Breena all stopped running forward and opened fire at the three Hoarfolk mages channeling the hail storm. The arrows and arcane missiles streaked forward before they were frustratingly and predictably stopped by a shimmering barrier just in front of the fey wizards.

  That’s no problem, I heard Breena say to the other archers. Keep hammering at it. I’m gonna go around. Then as Merada and the others kept firing, she dimmed her glow and began to shrink smaller than she ever had before.

  Eadric, Val, and I continued charging. The two fey knights advanced to meet us, the burnt one moving just a step slower as he looked at me.

  You sure you’re okay with both of us taking on the other one? Val asked carefully.

  Oh yeah, I replied, as the two ice-clad warriors leaped to engage us.

  I needed to give him credit, because my opponent had been wise enough to realize that the burned hand teaches best. When I tried to slam him again he leaped up and kicked off of my shield, landing back on his feet and darting toward my unshielded flank. I swung my axe to intercept his weapon, wincing as he still slipped past my guard to strike my mailed sleeve. His next swing went high but I ducked under it, stepped into his reach and struck him in his mailed stomach with my elbow. The blow knocked the wind out of him again, but he leaped with it, putting distance between me and him.

  He must not have seen me throw Toirneach yet.

  My flaming weapon went hurtling after him, and to my brief surprise the fey swordsman caught it. He did not catch the five finger bolts that followed after it, however, and as he jolted in shock for a few seconds I ran up, summoned my mace and brai
ned him in the temple with it. The force of the blow cracked through his helmet, exhausted the last of his vital guard, and sent him whirling off of his feet and into an unconscious heap five feet away.

  Guess they do sleep after all, I thought as I rushed forward, leaving Val and Eadric to handle the remaining warrior.

  The left wizard took his eyes off the storm overhead to glare at me.

  “Tá Éire seo chomh fada agus a thagann tú, Brytenwalda,” the Hoarfolk noble muttered, stretching out his hand. My mindscreen started to translate his words, but it became unnecessary as he unleashed a blast of ice and cold air into me. My feet skidded backwards from the gale-force wind, and I became painfully aware just how much one fey noble could differ in power from the next.

  I got my shield in the way of the blast and began to slowly walk forward, inching my way step by step to my enemy. I heard him gasp in surprise, and then I felt the force of his spell intensify, making it hard to even look beyond my shield. A few moments later, I heard a gurgle and a crunch as the other fey knight went down, then the rightmost wizard released a blast of his own to try and stop my companions, all while fiery darts and arrows slammed into the shield just in front of their faces.

  From my mindlink, I sensed Eadric cover Val with his shield, taking most of the icy blast, and digging his heels into the ground to keep from blowing backwards. Then I felt Val vanish from the link and reappear a moment later, on the other side of the three wizards. That was enough to make the middle one stop channeling the hail storm and turn to defend himself.

  Before he could, though, a tiny light appeared next to his head, expanding into the shape of my fairy companion, magic wand pointed right at the wizard’s temple.

  “Boom!” Breena shouted. “Headshot!”

  Before I could even begin to shout out ‘hey we might need him alive,’ the pink fairy had fired off a lightning bolt thicker than both my arms into the side of the frost wizard’s face, knocking him clear off the ramp. Val leaped at the right Hoarfolk noble, grappling with him until Eadric slammed his hammer into the back of the ice fey’s head. The last one stopped casting a spell at me and suddenly vanished into a puff of blue fire and snow.