by Noah Layton
Then, in response, the sound of the arrows rapidly thudding against wood.
They were shielded.
Through the smoke on the air and the barriers against the backs of the cages I couldn’t make out the forces within. Even checking through the gaps between the cages, I could only make out a fraction of the armed forces inside.
The fires had died down, but we had to get inside.
How the hell do we do this?
We needed to get inside to decimate Garrison and his warriors and free the slaves – but the safety of the slaves was the very thing preventing us from getting inside in the first place.
So switch the order.
I was already holding the answer in my hand.
I looked to the sword.
It had already literally sliced the weapons of my enemies in half, cutting through metal like it was nothing.
The thickened steel bars of a cage, though?
I had to try something.
‘Stand back!’ I commanded the captives. They promptly shrunk back against the other side of the cage.
I swung my sword hard against the bars.
Instinctively I expected the blade to twang off immediately in a barrage of sparks.
But it didn’t.
It moved through the bars like a knife cutting through melted butter.
With a cut in the upper bars, all it took was another at the bottom.
The bars fell away and toppled to the ember-ridden ground.
The captives looked between me and the sword in astonishment. They quickly emerged from the cage to freedom, eyeing us with skepticism.
‘You don’t need to be afraid,’ I said. ‘But we need your help.’
Garrison was prepared for an attack in the most nefarious of ways.
But he wasn’t prepared for a weapon of this caliber.
‘Hold the line!’ I called to my companions. ‘Get these people armed and ready!’
‘Where are you going?’ Elera asked.
‘To free every last one of these slaves.’
I immediately broke into a hard run, the sword clasped in my hand and directed towards every cage that awaited.
Cage Breaker.
‘GET BACK!!!’ I commanded every occupant of every cage.
The words didn’t even matter – the sight of the glimmering sword under my command was enough to send all of them against the back walls of their cages.
I sliced through every set of bars that I came into contact with as I sprinted along the perimeter line, cutting through cage after cage and setting more captives free by the second.
The small area that Garrison’s land covered wasn’t only advantageous for him – it was for me now, too.
‘Get these people armed!’ I called to each of the teams as I passed them.
My forces did as they were told, helping the captives out before providing spare weapons to each of them.
Smoky air filled my lungs, but I didn’t care – I was so filled with the adrenaline of battle that it felt as if it was fueling me.
With every broken cage the sword seemed to glow brighter. It was showing no sign of wear in the slightest.
If anything, it felt even more powerful.
At the northern side of the land Mariana locked eyes with me as she and her team of sun-elves came into view.
They were under fire from a barrage of arrows, protected by their own shields.
Mariana looked confused at my appearance, but as I swept through the bars with the sword her expression changed immediately.
‘Jack…’ She exclaimed with a shocked smile, lowering her shield.
‘Get these prisoners out and armed,’ I said, slowing to cut through the bars at the cage before them. ‘On my signal, we move in.’
I dashed onwards, cutting through more cages and freeing more slaves as the whirring of the sword escalated like an overheated engine.
By the time I returned to my team I was gasping for breath, but I had never felt more alive.
We armed the last of the freed slaves, then turned our attention to the path ahead.
‘Shields up,’ I commanded. ‘We’re getting past these cages.’
‘And then?’
‘We’re taking these bastards down.’
The cages along the land’s perimeter to our right were the last to be broken.
Once we had armed them, I would know that all of the others were ready.
We quickly supplied the slaves with spare swords and daggers.
Not a single one went running into the forest.
They were all ready to fight alongside us and taking down our enemy, the one who had captured them in the first place.
‘Shields at the ready!’ I called to my companions.
I brought the xevea beak to my lips one last time and blew.
A final torrent of calls responded, and then-
‘CHARGE!!!’
I yelled the words out across the land, and in a mighty echo my allies surrounding the land all called it back to me.
I moved between the cages with my shield held before me, the first man in amongst our team.
A bout of arrows quickly struck the shield, but it was no use.
Even if the aim of the dark-elves was true, there was no way that they were going to strike me.
My companions quickly followed, and as I chanced a look about the inner side of the perimeter, I saw the rest of the teams emerging onto the land.
Fearless, formidable – and ready to fight to the death.
Garrison’s forces numbered around 70 – all armed dark-elf soldiers of his own kind wearing the same black armor that they had been wearing on the land of the dwarves, and all armed with rapiers and longbows.
Scattered houses stood between us and the tree at the center of the land which they all defended, a hundred yard stretch standing between us.
The buildings would act to our benefit, providing defenses.
We had to be aggressive in our tactics.
‘MOVE IN!!!’ I yelled out, a rallying war cry from my allies responding swiftly to my call.
My team rushed forward with our shields raised, more arrows slamming into our defenses as we moved in.
The frequency of the thuds against our shields began to fall the closer we got.
It wasn’t due to a shortage of arrows; the dark-elves had too many targets to cope with the closer our forces came.
We were approaching from all directions.
‘MELEE FORCES, MOVE OUT!!!’
That call didn’t come from me.
But I knew the owner.
Garrison.
He was commanding from the steps of his home, defended by every single one of his soldiers.
He would let them all die first before anybody even got close to him.
Coward.
A war cry exploded from the center of the land. The forty melee warriors on the front line came sprinting towards us, teams of four or five rushing our way.
We had the outer walls of the houses for protection, but they could easily make their way around those in an effort to reach us.
I couldn’t risk using my new sword in such close quarters. A single miscalculated swing could strike one of my allies, and in doing so end them as quickly as I could end the life of one my opponents.
I would need to switch to a different method.
I sheathed the glimmering sword and slotted my shield over my shoulder, and promptly drew my iron longsword from my other side.
Blood pumping and mind alert, I could handle its weight in one hand, leaving my other hand free to command my power stones.
The dark-elves might have been agile and well-trained, but we outnumbered them three to one.
All we had to do was divide and conquer.
I switched to my Telekinetic Blast power stone just as the five dark-elf warriors reached us.
‘Telekinea!’
The forceful blast exploded straight towards our enemies.
It struck two, sen
ding them flying back in the direction that they had come, but three used their agile deftness to dodge the attack.
‘Finish the other two!’ I commanded my warriors, ‘We’ll take care of these three.’
They were too close now for me to use the spells again without risking the lives of my companions.
The sword was my only option.
But I still had my allies at my side.
We promptly unleashed a torrent of attacks at the three dark-elf melee warriors.
Santana and Lara launched bolts and arrows at one, retreating slowly as he tried to regain his footing but eventually struck the ground.
Elera struck the second with a bolt of frost to the face, sending him into a crazed stupor while Ariadne raced up behind him and attacked, bringing him down with her twin scimitars in a flurry of swipes.
I faced off against the third, deflecting his rapier just in time, while Talia raced up behind him and stunned him with a series of swipes, leaving him wide open to a final swipe to the chest from my sword.
I looked sharply to the warriors, who had swiftly defeated the pair of dark-elves that had been thrown back by my spell.
The melee attackers of the dark-elf forces were no match for the rest of the teams either – seven other small battles were taking place throughout the land as our groups attempted to close in.
But I couldn’t be sure how many of my allies I had lost to Garrison’s forces.
‘MOVE IN!’ I yelled out.
A rallying cry sounded in response.
I led my wives, Alorion and the warriors through the houses to the final section of Garrison’s land.
Twenty archers remained, surrounding the tree at the center of the land where Garrison resided.
Behind them all, I could see him looking out at the approaching forces.
He was here, just as I had remembered him from The Market.
Nearby, protecting him from harm, were his personal guards.
One, Kali, I had already killed.
But the other three still remained.
‘OPEN FIRE!!!’ Garrison commanded.
The dark-elf archers unleashed another torrent of arrows straight at us.
Shields went up on all sides as our collective forces approached, protecting as many of our forces as we could.
Our own archers had the upper hand, though; while the dark-elves were wide open to attack, ours were shielded by our melee attackers, their hands free to command their long-ranged weapons while the others protected them with the shields.
Garrison’s forces were acting separately, each of them firing at my allies independently.
But we were working together.
‘FIRE!!!’
‘FIRE!!!’
Our archers responded to the commands immediately.
Torrent after torrent of arrows burst towards the enemy archers, striking the air all around them until a flurry of accurate shots wiped out every last one of the dark-elf archers.
Plenty of the arrows had missed their targets, flying past them and straight towards Garrison and his three remaining personal guards.
They were heavily shielded, but now they were the only ones left.
There were no more forces to protect them.
‘Cease fire!’ I commanded.
The firing of the arrows immediately stopped as my forces awaited their next command.
But my next command wasn’t directed at my own people – it was at my enemy.
‘This is Master Jack of the Orakin Tribe, in alliance with the sun-elves of Morelia,’ I began. ‘Your forces are decimated. We have you surrounded on all sides. Surrender immediately, or face death.’
The dark-elf guards kept their shields raised and didn’t respond.
Garrison was giving them commands.
‘Come on, you idiot,’ I muttered under my breath. ‘Just lay down your freaking weapons. It’s over.’
The dark-elf guards cast their shields to the ground.
Thank God.
‘We shall not yield, tribe master,’ Garrison called out from behind his guards. ‘My men will fight until the last!’
Damn it.
The guards moved forward, leaving Garrison finally without defense.
Every one of the hundreds of allies that surrounded the tree raised their weapons, whether melee or ranged. They were all ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
Where was the sense in giving an order like that, though?
Even if I was merciless in dealing with my enemies, I would never cower behind my own people and allow them to do my dirty work for me.
I respected my enemy – to not do so was to become him.
‘Leave them to me,’ I said firmly, raising my new sword and moving forwards from the safety of the army.
Garrison’s final guards remained surprisingly loyal. They stood between me and their master, fear in their eyes but hands steady upon their swords.
Incredible power seemed to be pouring through my veins.
That thought quickly vanished, quashed by the unbridled confidence that I felt in commanding this incredible weapon.
Garrison looked to me fearfully from the steps of his home.
‘FIRE!’
You slimy son of a bitch.
He was attacking while my guard was down.
The three guards drew small crossbows suddenly, weapons that had been holstered slyly behind their backs, and fired bolts at me as I approached.
I kept my shield held steadfast before me. The arrows struck it hard, splintering the wood but failing to break through its thickness.
‘FIRE AGAIN!’
Another round of bolts followed seconds later.
I raised the shield again. They were all on target, all perfectly ready to skewer me straight through the head, but there was no way that they were getting through the shield.
‘Arrrghhh!!!’ Garrison yelled out in frustration. ‘Swords drawn! Move in and kill this bastard!’
Garrison’s three personal guards cast their crossbows aside and closed in on me. I kept my shield raised until their rapiers were drawn and they were less than ten yards off, sure that they wouldn’t try any further underhanded or secretive ranged attack.
I lowered the shield slightly, peaking over its top at the well-trained dark-elves approaching me, ready to cut me down.
Everything felt as if it was moving in slow motion.
I cast the shield aside smoothly, swiftly pulling the scabbard and the steel sword that it held away with my other hand and dropping it into the trampled snow.
I only needed one weapon.
I readied the shimmering agrarium sword from its sheath, swinging the huge weapon in two hands.
The three dark-elf guards looked upon the weapon with growing fear. I could tell that they wanted to retreat, but there was no backing down now. They were committed to their orders.
The first jabbed his sword straight at me in a sharp movement. I swung to meet it, slicing his sword in two before cleaving the blade in a huge arc towards my enemy.
He disintegrated before he struck the ground, and as the other two guards attempted to gain the advantage on my unprotected back, I continued the swing and struck a second, taking him down too.
The third saw the path of my sword and dodged away from me.
Therein lied his opportunity to attack, and he took it.
With a harsh grunt he jabbed forward with his sword.
I dodged to the side, but not far enough.
The tip pierced straight through my shoulder several inches, unleashing a cry of pain from my lips.
But in doing so, my path opened too.
I turned and plunged the sword forwards, straight into the dark-elf’s stomach.
I stared the final guard in the eyes as I drove the sword into his gut. He glared at me with an unyielding stare before his body quickly collapsed into dust, the remains sinking to the ground around the blade.
His sword was still plunged into my shoulder.
I grabbed the handle and pulled it free, the scrape of it against my flesh burning brutally.
I groaned out and cast the bloody sword aside.
The wound wasn’t too severe – no major arteries had been hit, and at most it pumped out a slow trickle of blood.
I was alive.
That was it – the last dark-elf warrior.
There was only one man left standing: the tribe master himself.
I looked towards Garrison where he stood before the tree.
I didn’t exactly expect a man like him to take defeat well. He was a psychotic, megalomaniac tyrant who had sent every single one of his warriors into battle before himself.
Rather than it being defeat stamped upon his face, though, I was met with a cocktailed combination of frustration and disappointment.
He looked up at me with a narrow glare, his lead lowered, then his gaze sank to look at his fallen dark-elves, the soldiers who had given their lives to protecting their tyrant of a master.
And what did he have to say?
‘Pathetic,’ he muttered to himself, shaking his head at the sight of his fallen warriors. He looked to the glimmering sword in my hand, nodded to himself, then looked up to me. ‘I did not truly believe that you would find it, nor that it would be so… Powerful.’
‘Well, it is,’ I breathed. ‘It’s over, Garrison. This reign of yours, the overrunning of free tribes… You’re done.’
I could feel the quiet presence of the freed slaves and all of my allies surrounding the two of us, all of them watching in anticipation.
I knew that every single one of the freed slaves wanted to fire an arrow, to swing a sword, to destroy the man who had overrun their tribes and killed their kin and placed them in cages like animals.
But not one arrow was fired, not one sword swung – not a single call for death ringing on the air.
They were all waiting for my judgement.
Judgement likely wouldn’t be necessary. I saw this going two ways: Garrison would either drop to his knees and beg for mercy, or challenge me to a one-on-one fight.
I didn’t know which of the two was more likely; he was too proud to do the first lightly, and way too cowardly to resort to the second.
‘It is you…’ Garrison finally spoke. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘It’s me?’ I repeated. ‘What the fuck does that mean?’
Garrison’s chest rose and fell with stolen breaths. His clothes, once tailored to perfection and made of luxurious fabric, now seemed to hang from him, and his hair was pulled from its tight bun, straying in ragged strands around his face. His sharp features no longer looked healthy but instead gaunt, the long scar running down the side of his face appearing more pronounced than ever.
