by Pirateaba
He strode forwards, towards the head of the Antinium army. Xrn let her arm fall helplessly. She heard Klbkch shouting as the ranks of Soldiers and Workers turned to follow him.
“Antinium! The enemy is attempting to slay a Queen! They are destroying the Hive! They must be stopped! Follow me! Give no ground to our foe! Charge!”
He charged down the slope and the Soldiers charged after him in a silent wave. Xrn stood on the cliff, frantically shooting down the wave of spells that came from the Drake army, trying to protect the lone Antinium in the front. She saw Klbkch charging across the muddy ground, running into the wall of Drake spears. Then there was a flash of silver—frenzied fighting—falling Soldiers and Workers—
Chaos. The Drakes had not been prepared for a suicidal charge and their front line wavered as their [Mages] and [Archers] enacted a terrible vengeance upon the Antinium. Xrn raised her staff and tried to destroy the enemy Drake [Mages].
“[Venomous Snow]! [Thunderstrike Volley]! [Chaos Flamewheel]!”
Her spells blasted apart Drakes in robes, lightning and jets of fire arcing through Drake lines. But they didn’t break. And an arrow struck Xrn in her chest. She stumbled backwards.
“Not yet.”
She snapped the shaft off, ignoring the blood. The Antinium were wavering. She looked around in desperation and saw thousands of Workers standing around helplessly. Their crude bows did not have the range needed to strike the Drake army from this distance and it would be death to advance any further into the kill zone.
“If it is slaughter, then it must be. Workers! Prepare for a second charge! [Glorious Radiance]!”
Xrn’s spell made the Antinium shine like beacons. She pointed her staff towards the Drake army. She could not see the flash of silver among their ranks. Where was Klbkch?
“Charge!”
A second wave of Antinium charged down the slopes, some of the Workers tripping and falling in the mud. Xrn raced down the slippery incline, hearing thumps as spells blasted the ground around her, hearing only the roar in her mind. Black arrows streaked down towards her forces—she waved her staff and they broke on a shield in the air. The Drakes were ahead of her now.
“Break their ranks!”
Xrn ran past a struggling knot of Soldiers being held at bay by Drakes with spears and swords and planted her staff in the ground. She concentrated and then thrust her fingers forwards.
“[Repulsion Wave].”
The Drakes in front of her—and Soldiers—were blasted into the air. Xrn pointed towards the gap in the lines and the Antinium flooded through. Now the Drakes lines were collapsing, but there were still so many! Xrn struggled, fighting other [Mages] hand-to-hand, burning them with spells, until she heard a sound above the noise of battle.
It was a voice, a roar, a screeching that no animal or person could ever make. The piercing cry echoed and made the Drakes look up. Xrn did too, staring towards the north. And then she saw him. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“At last. Wrymvr.”
A dark shadow flew across the sky. A tiny shape—but growing larger with each passing second. The Drakes turned, their [Archers] sighting at this new threat. But then the singular shadow multiplied, and grew, spreading across the horizon.
“The Flying Antinium!”
Xrn shouted, knowing the Drakes had no idea what was happening. They were trying to form a second line to deal with this new threat, but the Antinium were closing in too fast. The dark shapes became visible now, and it was apparent that the Antinium weren’t actually flying—they were gliding down, hopping forwards like grasshoppers and propelling themselves forwards with their wings incredibly quickly. Only one figure, larger than the rest, truly flew, and he screeched again, a wordless scream of vengeance.
The Flying Antinium crashed into the Drakes from the side and Xrn raised her staff. The light from her eyes shone bright red, the color of battles and Drake blood. She shouted.
“Charge! Forwards, all Antinium!”
She ran forwards as the Soldiers and Workers crashed into the Drakes like the tide. This time the Drakes could not stop them. Xrn ran forwards as Drakes died, searching, hunting for any color in the black mass. And then she saw it. A flash of silver.
Klbkch.
On that day the Antinium liberated the besieged Hive and the youngest of the Antinium Queens. Klbkch personally rescued her from drowning and she would later go on to lead the hive in Liscor. The Queen of the Free Antinium lived that day, and the Drakes learned to their cost what war with the Antinium was. It was sacrifice. The Antinium could not be broken so easily. And their retaliation for this treachery would soon engulf the continent in flames.
—-
“Did it really happen like that? Truly, Prognugator Xrn?”
Xrn opened her eyes. She looked around the campfire at the other Antinium watching her. Tersk, Pivr, her Prognugator-Guardians and the other Antinium assigned to her escort were all staring at her. Slowly, the Small Queen looked around and then remembered the book she was holding. She nodded.
“That was what the battle was truly like. We triumphed, but barely. Were it not for Wrymvr’s arrival, we might have been too late to save the Queen.”
“And yet, it appears that Revalantor Klbkch took a great risk in attempting to save her. Did you not say that it would be more prudent to avoid risking his life—and by extension, yours—to save a single Queen?”
Pivr observed as he fanned his own wings at the fire, looking smug about the role the Flying Antinium had played in the battle. Xrn gave him a long look, which deflated Pivr quite nicely.
“Perhaps. But that would not have been Klbkch’s nature. It was a risk, true. But he has fought for the Antinium longer than your Queen has existed, Pivr. He understands sacrifice.”
“And yet, he disregards his worth. The Centenium are a unique group of Antinium that can no longer be reproduced, are they not? Surely Revalantor Klbkch should take his safety into account.”
Tersk spoke up quietly, polishing his armor. Xrn nodded. She played with her staff, twirling it and making the fire change colors as she stared around the night sky.
“Perhaps he should. But again, that is not his nature, Tersk. Klbkch, Wrymvr and I all served during the Second Antinium War. And while it is true Klbkch lost much of his strength and his original form, we three still defined the war. Each one of us led the armies of the Antinium. Wrymvr and I were unstoppable in battle. As we had been created to be. Klbkch was forced to lead through strategy rather than personally most of the time. But each of us claimed many victories through our strength.”
Tersk nodded.
“So I understand. But I have never met Prognugator Wrymvr. Is he similar to you or Revalantor Klbkch, Prognugator Xrn?”
The Small Queen hesitated.
“…No. Wrymvr is different. He and Klbkch and I were all created to serve different roles. Klbkch was a warrior, meant to assassinate the Antinium’s enemies and fight on the front. I was meant to cast magic. And Wrymvr was meant to defend the Grand Queen. He was created to be undefeatable.”
“He must be the most powerful of the Centenium, then!”
Pivr looked up, his eyes shining. Xrn’s own eyes flashed purple with annoyance.
“He is a fool. But yes, he is strong. Perhaps that is the only thing this book gets correct. Wrymvr the Deathless was a threat. And in this war the Grand Queen released him from his role as protector. We unleashed him against the Drakes, as well as the Flying and Silent Antinium. It was enough to win a few battles. But unfortunately not enough. If we had more variants, more Centenium then perhaps we might have won the entire war. But we did not.”
The other Antinium were silent as Xrn opened the book again. Only Tersk dared ask the question hanging in the air.
“Prognugator Xrn?”
“Yes?”
“What are the Centenium? Why were they created?”
Xrn stopped with her finger on the next line of the book. She looked around, at the other Ant
inium. They were so close to home, to their Hives. And yet, these poor copies of true Antinium would never know home, would they? They would never know the grandeur of the true Hives, the might of what the Antinium had been. She looked at Tersk, the finest warrior of his Hive. An ill-made clone of Galuc with armor. She shook her head and her voice was kind as she spoke to him, an adult to a child.
“The Centenium were made long ago, Tersk. Long ago, on another continent. For one purpose. The Grand Queen made many Antinium in many shapes to serve every role imaginable, but one hundred of us she labored upon, gave individuality to, gave names and strength beyond the rest. We were not made to be spent and replaced like the other Antinium. We were made to be one thing and one thing alone.”
“And what was that, Prognugator Xr—”
“Heroes, Tersk. We were made to be heroes.”
—-
The battle on the Jessal Highlands ended in disaster. The surprise attack on the Antinium had failed, leaving only regrets and recriminations from the other Drake city states that had not been aware of the surprise attack. A request to end hostilities was made immediately, but the traitorous Grand Queen of the Antinium, no doubt sensing an opportunity, ignored the pleas of the Drakes and launched a vicious counterattack at once.
Within a day of the battle at Jessal, the Antinium armies were on the march again. The Black Tide rolled forth, but the defenders of the greatest continent in the world had not been idle in their preparations. Drake armies marched against the Antinium, armed with the knowledge of their inability to swim and weakness against high-level magics and warriors.
However, the Antinium had not been idle either. The second battle against the Antinium took place between an army led by Wrymvr the Deathless and an army from Pallass. It was assumed that boxing in the Antinium and flooding their position would decimate their army, but the Drake high command received the shock of a lifetime as new Antinium warriors overran their formations in minutes, slaying the [Mages] and throwing the army into disarray.
The Antinium fielded two new variants of their species in the Second Antinium War. Whether they always had such creatures or had somehow altered their own warriors with magic or alchemy is unknown and the subject of much speculation. However, the facts are clear: the Antinium had created a flying warrior capable of leaping across vast distances known as the Flying Antinium, and a stealthy infiltrator capable of camouflage and deadly surprise attacks known as the Silent Antinium.
These two new variants bridged the gap in the Antinium’s formations, allowing them to swiftly flank their enemies and mount surprise attacks on vulnerable targets. The Drake armies which had relied on [Mages] for superiority fell backwards as the Antinium willingly sacrificed hundreds or thousands of their flying warriors to take out [Mages]. Meanwhile, the Silent Antinium infiltrated army camps and cities, slaying high-profile targets in the night.
The news of the new Antinium was devastating for morale across the Drake cities. And indeed, the fear the Silent Antinium created was such that many cities locked down their gates, refusing to open them for fear of infiltration. And yet the Silent Antinium crept behind their walls, locked gates or not, creating a wave of terror across the continent.
What ended up stopping the Silent Antinium in main was not any one military action, but rather, the existence of another, opposing force on the Drake side. The Assassin’s Guild in the south of Izril took the existence of the Silent Antinium as a direct threat to their own way of life and put out a universal contract on every one of the Antinium’s assassination insects. Thus, a quiet war began where [Assassin] dueled assassin-bug in the shadows.
This hidden conflict would become known as the War of Sighs, kept mainly out of the public view. The only evidence of the battles in shadow and darkness would be the corpses of the Silent Antinium and Drake [Assassins] appearing on doorsteps or in buildings, slain where they had fallen. In Drake cities, inhabitants would wake up and discover dead Antinium gutted in the middle of a street or an [Assassin]’s head placed next to the bedsides of slaughtered Drake officials.
The most notable such event occurred at a meeting of Drake nobility in a private meeting room in the Walled City of Oteslia. The Lords and Ladies of the Wall conducted their meeting for ten minutes before an unpleasant odor led to them investigating the tables they were sitting at. They discovered the bodies of six Silent Antinium and four [Assassins] hidden under the tablecloths.
It is impossible to tell how many [Assassins] or Silent Antinium died in the conflict due to the elusive nature of both forces, and this writer has refrained from questioning the Assassin’s Guild on the subject out of personal concern for his own safety. However, it is safe to say that the costs were tremendously high on both sides, such that the Assassin’s Guild in the south of Liscor has yet to recover, unlike the flourishing Human guilds to the north.
It is simply another example of Drake integrity one supposes, that fewer Drakes have the inclination to stab enemies in the back. An honest Drake stabs from the front. But I digress…
The war between the Drakes and Antinium had taken a turn for the worse. While the Silent Antinium’s assaults had been blunted, the armies led by Klbkch the Slayer, Xrn the Small Queen, and Wrymvr the Deathless seemed undefeatable by all but the most famous of the Drake [Generals].
Zel Shivertail managed to rout the Slayer’s army in a pitched battle and the Small Queen’s army found itself attacked by multiple armies, stalling her advance, but Wrymvr the Deathless rampaged unchecked behind Drake lines. This monstrous Prognugator of the Hives truly deserved the title of ‘Deathless’, because despite concerted efforts by multiple armies, the Prognugator refused to be slain and actively hunted down Drake commanders during battle.
The Antinium pushed forwards, again relentlessly overtaking city after city. It was as if the first Antinium War had returned with a vengeance as the Drakes found themselves on the back foot once more. And this time their Human allies were too preoccupied in the north to send assistance. For you see, the Necromancer had landed to the north, and his arrival had heralded a plague that swept the Human cities while his armies grew in number.
Az’kerash. The Necromancer. The bane of Terandria and now, Izril. His undead forces were never as numerous as the Antinium, but where his personal army went the Necromancer left only death in his wake. Where other [Necromancers] have raised armies of tens of thousands of zombies, ghouls, or skeletons, Az’kerash created far darker armies.
His forces consisted of Draugr, advanced and incredibly powerful zombies, wraiths, Crypt Lords, wights, and worst of all, Bone Giants. This foul horde of abominations moved ever southwards, heading towards Liscor and despoiling Human lands on the way.
And for what purpose? For what reason did he turn his gaze so suddenly to Izril? This befuddled writer has no notion dear readers. Perhaps the Necromancer sensed the confusion caused by the Antinium, or had grown bored of Terandria. Then again, what rational thought can be ascribed to such a horror? It is enough to say he went south, and his undead armies distracted the Humans in the Drake’s darkest hour.
“Dead gods, this [Writer] really does drone on a lot. Doesn’t he realize how biased he is? It’s not as if the Humans had a fun time fighting all those dead, you know.”
Ceria complained out loud and Pisces broke off from reading the very battered book in his hands. Pisces sniffed in annoyance as he looked up from reading and glanced about the inn.
“I personally find it incredible how dismissive he seems to be of the Necromancer’s true intentions. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised; Krsysl Wordsmith’s works have never been—how shall I put it?—particularly innovative. The best he can do is parrot other authors’ analyses and commentary.”
He sniffed again, but his audience seemed disinclined to support his opinion. Mrsha scratched at one ear as Lyonette held her on her lap. Jelaqua looked up from her cup, eyebrows raised, and Moore and Seborn looked up from their game of cards.
The inn wasn’
t that full this late at night. Drassi and Lyonette were manning the inn, but their own guests were the Horns of Hammerad, the Halfseekers, Mrsha, and the five Redfang Warriors who were sitting at a distant table, jabbering to themselves. They had been having a rather idle night with Erin gone, until Pisces had produced the book and begun reading from it.
Since he was a good reader no one had minded—until now. Ceria wondered if she’d made a mistake in interrupting. Pisces loved to poke holes in other people’s statements and he wouldn’t shut up if he thought someone was wrong.
The half-Elf sighed as she sat at the table with Pisces, Ksmvr, and Yvlon. She eyed the book in Pisces hands and raised her eyebrow at the [Necromancer] she thought of as a friend.
“If you don’t like him so much, why do you have a copy of his book, Pisces? And why do you insist on reading it aloud?”
“It is impossible to point out the flaws in his arguments without first hearing them. Besides which, I am offended by the lack of knowledge in this room! Ksmvr has never heard a history of the Antinium Wars, young Mrsha and Miss Lyonette have received only the scantest of summaries, and as for Yvlon and Miss Drassi—”
“I know the history of the Second Antinium War you jerk!”
Drassi called out from across the room. She propped her hands on her hips and glared at Pisces.
“Every Drake knows the history! And I bet Miss Yvlon knows her history too!”
“I did study the war, Pisces.”
Yvlon raised her eyebrows at Pisces. He curled his lip.
“Ah, education. And did you receive your wonderful education from this book, Miss Drassi, Miss Byres?”
The two young women hesitated. Pisces nodded.
“I thought so. How unfortunate. This ‘historical narrative’ is riddled with flaws. Oh I suppose as a form of propaganda it has some merit, but as an accurate insight into the minds of those who fought in the war? Hardly.”
“If you’re so smart, you tell us what the Necromancer was thinking. You like dead things. Why’d Az’kerash invade Izril all of a sudden, then? And don’t tell me it’s obvious because that means you don’t actually know.”
