Emperor Forged

by K D Robertson

  The griffins the oni had brought with them to Tornfrost Watch were some of the most valuable assets I had. I could trade a tamed griffin for a castle in the Empire. A black-feathered one such as Zwei would be worth more than most nobles’ estates.

  The battlefield came into sight. Two armies lined up across from one another, barely more than a bowshot apart. I had expected more chaos by the time we arrived. Evidently whoever we were battling was poorly trained in the Empire’s military tactics.

  An oni waved at us from the top of the rolling hills situated behind the battlefield. He wore heavy plate armor, and a single horn parted unkempt black hair. This was Yasno, one of Miyasa’s lieutenants.

  Frowning as she surveyed the battlefield, Miyasa immediately questioned him. “Shouldn’t we be deployed up here? This is an ideal defensive position.”

  “They have more than triple our number of mages, and we’re infantry-heavy as it is, Miya. Blame Hish and her love of swords,” Yasno answered casually. His face betrayed no stress, and he almost looked bored. His words and battle preparations made it clear that he took his job seriously.

  I mentally noted Miyasa’s nickname and visually confirmed Yasno’s assessment of the two forces. The visual enhancement my helmet provided made it easy to pick out force compositions.

  It looked bleak. The power of mages was key to modern militaries. A mage had the range of a longbow and explosive power that could punch through plate armor. Plus, they were flexible, able to both summon defensive barriers and mow down their foes. The only thing that common soldiers feared more than mages were the beasts and heroes of myth and legend. An unopposed unit of mages would erase entire companies of soldiers with each fusillade of magic. Only other magic could oppose them.

  This meant that the nearly 150 mages the enemy fielded were extremely bad for us. If they had more mages than us, that meant our magic-using knights had to carry the battle.

  “Arrows will be stopped with barriers. Trying to trade spells will result in us being overwhelmed by their superior firepower,” Miyasa summed up, biting her lip.

  “Exactly. So we have to charge them and hit them as quickly as possible. Setting up on the hill will take away space we can use to maneuver later,” Yasno said.

  “We also have to account for any dragons in their force. Each will double or even triple their magical power,” I said.

  The two oni looked at me in confusion.

  Miyasa spoke up. “I don’t see any giant winged lizards.”

  “That’s because it would make them a target. Dragons have a human form as well.”

  If only I could sense them. I’d never been the best at sensing magic and had completely flunked all forms of sensing the flow of magical energy. Terra, my old sorcery mentor’s pure earth elemental, had tried for years to teach me the basics of flow detection. She had never truly given up until I left the mage tower once and for all to serve up north under Tornfrost. As I had countless times in the past, I wished I had tried harder to learn. I needed the ability to detect the flow of magic to sense any dragons hiding among the mages.

  I shifted my focus to our army, which was roughly two-thirds the size of our enemy’s. Approximately half were oni, their horns proudly poking up from their fresh black and blue uniforms—with one exception.

  “What’s with the unit of oni that looks fresh from the marshes?” I asked.

  “Hish,” Miyasa said flatly.

  “Ah,” I said. One of Miyasa’s other lieutenants. She was… something.

  Clearly, Miyasa felt some need to defend her subordinate. “She believes that appearing more… barbarian-like inspires more fear in our enemies. It makes us appear stronger because she is wearing the loot of her victims.” To the Empire, it always appeared as though they were vultures picking at the scraps of the dead.

  “Personally,” Yasno said, “I prefer looking like an armored wall of death rather than a vagrant killer. It’s worked for the Bulwark for sixty years. Should work for me, too.”

  Yasno ignored Miyasa’s glare, so I also paid it no regard. Given that my own lack of protocol in these situations was likely fueling his behavior, intervening would irritate Miyasa more.

  I pointed toward the enemy army. “It’s odd that they’re not doing anything. The recommended tactic in such a situation is to bombard the enemy before they can form up. Then you rush the enemy while they’re broken. If the Empire has any dragons, all the easier for them. Delaying for too long gives us more time to rally reinforcements. They should know that means I gain time to intervene. The odds of success lower accordingly.”

  Magic had changed the traditional tactics of war significantly. Attempting to wait out an opponent could see him rally elites or a powerful warrior in under a day. The tides of an already decided battle could change overnight due to unforeseen reinforcements. We had proven as much with the absurd speed of our griffins. The marching distance of an army was meaningless in a world with tireless mounts and teleportation magic.

  I spotted a hive of activity near what I guessed was the enemy’s command center. It was tempting to bombard it, but that would reveal our hand, and our shots would be deflected with barriers. Instead, I considered what the Empire’s commander was waiting for. A dragon to arrive?

  Then it struck me. I groaned. “They’re waiting for me.”

  “For you? For what? To attack first?” Miyasa asked. “I did not think the Empire was so polite.”

  “No, to parley. I’m technically still Imperial nobility and a magister-general. I never formally declared my rebellion,” I said, resisting the urge to palm my helmet’s visor. “Without an emperor, there was nobody worth my time. I had assumed at least one of the loyalists had gotten a message off. Perhaps they weren’t believed. Right now, whoever is in charge of this army is attempting to contact me using magetalk so that we can discuss this like civilized people and come to a peaceful resolution.”

  Once again, I had forgotten to bring such a device outside the fortress. Ilsa would have my head.

  “Instead, we’re going to slaughter them all because they’re idiots,” Yasno said. “Should we just charge?”

  “Sounds great,” I said.

  “No!” Miyasa shouted. “What do you mean you never declared your rebellion, Mykah?”

  Oh, so this was a thing now. Fortunately, I was to be saved by the bell. Or the impatience of the enemy commander, to be more exact.

  The hive of activity in the enemy camp shifted. A man strode forward and cupped his hands around his mouth. It was for effect, as nobody actually needed to do that to magically enhance his voice.

  “Magister-General Mykah Arium,” shouted the Empire’s officer. “By the order of Marshal Lyria of the draconic province of Taranth, you are required to cease your resistance against the Rogistran Empire, suppress all errant barbarians, and report to the Regency Council for summary judgment. All soldiers under his banner are expected to lay down arms or they will be judged as traitors against the Empire and be executed. I ask of you on behalf of the marshal to make the right decision for the sake of the Empire and its people.”

  I sighed, uncertain if it was in relief or annoyance. Battle was to be joined, and Miyasa could be distracted.

  “Lyria, huh.” So she was involved and even in command here. Just my luck. “Can’t say I care to respond to a puppet. Miya, can you give him a warning shot,” I said, waving my arm dismissively toward the Empire’s army.

  “M-Miya,” she responded, her face going red. “Yes, sir.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Miyasa drew the massive hunk of wood hanging over her shoulder. It was even larger than the war bow I had used the prior day, greater than two meters in length and with arrows of solid steel. Having been hit by the thing in battle in the past, I doubted I could physically fire it without considerable preparation.

  Miyasa nocked, drew, and fired the arrow in a single smooth action. She didn’t so much as sway. The earth around her did, however. Wind exploded into massive gu
sts behind her as the arrow blasted across the battlefield faster than the eye could naturally see. My vision wavered from the light of the magical circle that formed around her hand. It shimmered for an instant as she held the arrow at full draw. Then the arrow sucked the circle inside itself. As the arrow flew across the battlefield, the magic left a brilliant trail of light behind it.

  That brilliance was matched by that of the Empire’s officer. The arrow had crossed a good half mile or more so quickly I barely followed it. In that instant, he somehow responded with an explosive spell. The gathering of magical energy from the officer was so swift and furious that even the knights would have felt it.

  The spell and arrow met in an explosion that lit up the sky so brightly it almost seemed like night afterward. Shock waves knocked down entire ranks of the massed soldiers in both armies. Panicked yells rose up from all sides of the battlefield as boredom exploded into fury.

  “Traitor!” yelled the Empire’s officer, who was now revealed as a dragon in human form. No human could have gathered magic like he did.

  “Pot, I’d like you to meet kettle,” I muttered, thinking of Lyria. “Yasno, you’re in command. Miyasa, we’re going dragon-hunting.”

  Chapter 7

  Yasno dashed down the hill on his griffin, leaving me and Miyasa alone. Dragon-hunting was our game, not that I was confident in doing it. It had been over twenty years since I last fought one and over fifty since I killed one. Even then, those had been undead dragons or young ones driven mad by magical overload.

  A sane dragon with access to all of his spells and raw power was nigh-invulnerable to everything save for weapons dedicated to slaying him. An adult dragon could singlehandedly obliterate whole armies, ruin castles, and still have power left over to fly across the Empire overnight. With the right leverage and spells, I could punch through his innate protections with my current equipment, but otherwise…

  I looked over at Miyasa’s gargantuan war bow. That was the sort of flexibility I needed in my attacks to match a dragon. If she had my power and I had her bow, then we could easily defeat a dragon. Sadly, combining our strengths was not so simple. I doubted that shouting “combine” would do the trick here, as much as an old friend of mine from the Arisian Isles would probably have supported the idea.

  If the dragon at least stayed on the ground—

  Oh, he transformed and took off. There went that plan. He was large enough that he would barely fit in the grand hall back at Tornfrost Watch. That bulk marked him as a young adult, and it scared the soldiers around him into scattering. His scales, easy to pick out against the cloudy sky, were a deep blue.

  “Miyasa, I’m going to have to leave the dragon to you,” I said, gritting my teeth as I looked up at the thing soaring through the sky. “Leaping through the air to score blows on him won’t do us much good. I’ll join Yasno in the thick of it.”

  Miyasa muttered something under her breath. It sounded oddly like her nickname. She said, “Very well. Any advice?”

  “Don’t let it strafe anybody. Dragons’ spells are nasty but can be countered with raw power. Let him get off a burst of dragonfire and you’ll learn why it’s one of the most dangerous magical elements in the world,” I said, then considered something. “Although if you can shoot him in the mouth, he’ll probably go down for good. Risk versus reward.”

  Having said my piece, I signaled for Zwei to charge down the hill. I looked around for where horses and other mounts were being kept behind the lines. With dragons flying about, this battle was too risky for a new partner. I’d keep her out of battle until we had some time to acclimatize to each other. We weren’t true partners yet, but we would be. Rushing things would hurt our relationship.

  A wave of pressure ran down the hill and over my back, followed by a loud crack. An explosion sounded in the distance. I looked up to see the dragon circling wider. Another magical explosion burst in the air near where he was flying. Prismatic light was visible around the edges of the explosion—a sure sign of a failed magical spell that Miyasa had interrupted with a well-timed shot.

  Another arrow flew through the air, accompanied by the same shock wave. Light glowed in the dragon’s claws. That same light glowed in the air around the arrow, trying to intercept it. Keyword: tried.

  I’d never seen the entire body of such a large creature flinch in mid-air. His whole body seemed to recoil in a caterpillar-like wave as the impact rippled through his muscles. His snout snapped to one side as the arrow slammed into it.

  A scale spun away through the air, glinting as the sun reflected off it. Dragon scales did not grow back, nor was the damage fully hidden in a dragon’s human form. That was a permanent scar on his snout. He wasn’t going to be the prettiest fellow anymore, and he had to know it.

  The roar that resounded throughout the battlefield was deafening. I made it my mission to get the hell away from the hill. Miyasa let out a shout and galloped away as well, beginning what I took to be a chase. Her strength was true, as that arrow had proven. I trusted her to keep the dragon busy while I mopped up the dragon’s army. I shifted my shield to a more comfortable position on my back as I rode. This shield was my insurance, should I need it.

  Yasno wasn’t that far ahead. He was slipping off his griffin at the rear of the lines as they began to march forward. Explosions were already rocking the front lines. Fire and glimmers of light were visible in the sky ahead of our lines—battlemages testing their range. The lack of screams meant their volleys had fallen short. For now.

  I leaped off Zwei and sprinted to join up with Yasno as he rushed to the front lines. We were preparing for a charge, so our archers and mages were massed in the center. Normally we would have our artillery on the front lines, as per standard tactics. Our formation shortened our range but still let our mages cast barriers for our knights, who occupied the front lines. The knights had to carry the battle. Only they had the equipment to shrug off the numerous enemy mages. The barriers would minimize casualties but everything was built around getting our knights into the thick of the fighting as quickly as possible.

  Right now, we were surrounded by the regular grunts, namely human soldiers from the territories around us. I could see uncertainty and fear on their faces. The dragon above clearly rattled them, but they held fast.

  “Did Miya want to present the dragon’s head to you as a dowry?” Yasno asked me when I drew up to his side. His expression was still dour, despite the joke.

  “I can’t fly.”

  “I’ve seen you try.”

  “I don’t fancy being chomped in half in mid-air by a dragon. He’s a little bigger than I expected any of Lyria’s dragons to be,” I said, looking up at the sky.

  There were more lights in the sky now, and they were coming in fast. These weren’t fireballs. Magic lances were harder to cast than fireballs, but they had more penetrative power. As one would expect from elite battlemages under the command of a prince’s former lord-general, they knew how to handle knights. Even enchanted plate broke under the right spells.

  “Barriers, Yasno,” I said.

  He nodded, already raising a fist into the air. He fired off a spell. Light burst into the air from his fist, followed by bursts of light elsewhere from within our ranks. Our entire army stopped in its tracks. Moments later, a shimmering wall of silver light snapped into existence before our soldiers. It rippled like a pool of water as the magic lances exploded upon it. It felt like I was underwater, staring up at raindrops falling endlessly on the surface above me. It was tranquil. We were unharmed.

  Then the moment passed. The volley ceased and the barrier dropped. Yasno’s arm dropped in turn as more flares rose in the sky and the advance began again. Seeing the oni pull this off like clockwork and in such a short period of time was nothing short of impressive. Then again, we stole this barrier march tactic from the oni to begin with. Forced to dedicate themselves to war for so long, they had gotten exceptionally good at it.

  We reached the front lines, which w
ere thick with oni, though there was not a single full-blooded oni in sight. Almost three-quarters of the hundreds of heavily armored knights charging headlong at the Empire right now were oni, yet only Miyasa at the very rear bore two horns.

  Hefting his massive hammer and tower shield, Yasno joined the very front of the charge. At a glance, I could tell which unit was his because every soldier in it was equipped like Yasno: heavily armored walls of death carrying hammers with heads almost as big as their fists and gigantic tower shields. Although the hammers were unwieldy in the hands of a human, with superhuman strength, they could shatter magically reinforced plate armor like it was cheap wood.

  “Forty meters,” Yasno shouted.

  The mages were right ahead of us, desperately casting one last volley. I pumped my legs, unwilling to charge ahead of the pack. Thirty meters. Twenty.

  “Brace!”

  Shields up. I unslung mine and pumped magical energy into it. The wooden backing filled my vision. A golden light flickered out from its edges as I cast my spell. Fire and prismatic light soon joined the golden glow, along with screams and yells. We stood strong.

  “Forward, again,” Yasno ordered.

  We were all whole. I slung my shield on my back. The mages ahead of us fled in a panic. Black and gold armored knights charged forth and desperately attempted to form ranks to protect them.

  The first ranks—if you could call the enemy’s haphazard formation ranks—were slapped aside instantly by the raw power of the oni. Imperial knights were sent flying with each blow. Hammer blows caved in plate armor so deeply that I could see organs spilling out. Yasno swung his hammer with one hand, felling enemies with each swing. My sword cleaved through flesh, bone, and steel alike. The air was thick with screams, blood, and magic.

  The Empire was not having the same easy time of it as us. We were not fighting grizzled veterans with years of experience. Their swords and axes bounced off our armor and they died from our return blows. The enemy mages had fallen silent as they retreated in a panic to their rear positions, to find themselves buried under an onslaught of arrows and fireballs. My own archers and mages had come into range and were now able to fire unmolested at the enemy.