by Jeff Gunzel
“I wish I could kill you a thousand times over to make up for the lives you took today!” Liam lifted his staff, then hammered the butt down at his feet. The ground shook as a giant crack opened up. It began to zigzag away, crackling its way up between Diovok’s legs. Waving his arms frantically, the giant could only straddle it for so long before falling in.
Like a giant mouth, the edges of the open cavern sprouted razor-sharp teeth just before snapping closed. Again and again it opened and closed, those razor-sharp teeth turning crimson as it crunched and chewed until all that was left was a mushy pink paste. With a final snap, the ground thundered back together and sealed itself shut.
Staff falling from his hand, Liam dropped to his knees. Exhausted, pushed beyond his limits, he couldn’t even stand. He wanted nothing more than to go back to Viola, to see if she was alright and help out in any way he could. But the mystic was spent.
This is as far as I go, my dear. His head spun as the blackness seeped in. The rest is up to you. He tipped forward, eyes already shut before his head ever hit the ground.
*
Back to back, Jarlen and Viola twisted and spun in a furious dance. Their flesh blades snapped like vipers as ash and fire rained down over them. But with each ghatin felled, it seemed like three more rushed in to take his place. They could hear other screams and knew there were still lerwicks out there fighting for their lives.
With their ranks divided, it was every man and woman fighting for their own life. Worse, there seemed to be no way to reach the others and let them know that they were not alone. What it must feel like to believe you might be the last man standing. Why go on? Why even try to survive if the battle was already lost?
“We must reorganize!” Viola shouted as another slash sent a wave of ash raining down over her face.
“It’s all I can do to just keep them off!” Jarlen replied, his own blades flashing about furiously. Although the ghatins were dying left and right, it felt like trying to drain an ocean by removing one drop at a time. “I can’t penetrate through this, and I doubt anyone else can either. That is, if there is anyone else.”
Suddenly, a crossbow bolt zipped down from the top of the wall, streaking straight through the ghatin standing before Jarlen. It did no real damage of course, but the brief disruption caused the creature to freeze in place for an instant as his body rippled with distortion. A flashing flesh blade made short work of the stunned creature. It had only paused for a second, but that one-second advantage was an eternity for the skilled warrior.
Both he and Viola spared a quick glance up to the wall, wondering where that had come from. Crossbow pressed to the ground between his legs, the young boy began loading another bolt. He struggled with the lever, needing to use the ground as leverage in order to pull it back. He nearly fell on his backside when the bolt clicked into place.
His arms swayed with the weight as he leveled it against the stone rail, then let fly a second bolt. This one zipped far wide of the mark, striking a ghatin at least fifty feet away from them. But it was nearly impossible to fire into this tightly packed battlefield and not hit anything.
When a soldier came running up from behind to try to grab the boy and pull him to safety, he kicked and thrashed, determined to stay put no matter what any of the adults said. If they wouldn’t fight, then he would do it instead.
Giving up, the soldier released the boy. Who was he to stop him from fighting for a chance at life? Instead of running back into the perceived safety of the city, he took up a spot next to the boy and drew his bow. The idea had been to protect the people behind the wall, serving as a last line of defense. But it was now clear that if the ghatins penetrated that far in, this fight was already long over with.
More men came to join them as word of a last stand spread, and not all of them were soldiers. Farmers and rich merchants stood side by side, husbands and wives, anyone who could hold a weapon was making their way to the top of the wall. Nobody forced them, nobody insisted that they risk their lives.
They chose to.
Bolts and arrows, daggers and stones came raining down from the wall. The spiritists were spent as far as their spirit magic was concerned, but that didn’t mean they were useless by any stretch. Drawing their sling shots, they swooped down on their war birds while snapping projectiles into the fray. Each stone, each bolt, had a minimal effect individually, but the combined effort proved to be very disruptive.
Jarlen and Viola slashed through the enemies, striking like snakes the moment one got stunned by a mortal weapon. For the first time in what felt like forever, they were starting to move through the ranks.
“They’re leading us,” Viola realized, glancing up to the sky just as Salina swooped overhead. Down streaked a well-placed stone that stunned the ghatin standing before her. A flash of her blade and the creature was no more. It seemed to be true, the spiritists had a top view of where everyone was located, and there seemed to be a distinct pattern to their attacks.
Breaking through a wall of white, they ran straight into a ring of lerwicks. Not only had they managed to hold out all this time, but they had formed a perfect defensive circle without any leadership or instruction. Quickly joining their circle, Jarlen and Viola received a round of cheers. This circle was a combination of both their troops, and they had done well to work together in the absence of their leaders.
Others began breaking through to join them, led across the battlefield by the spiritists above. More had survived than either of them thought, proving once again just how resilient the lerwicks could be.
Barking out orders, Viola had the defensive circle reform into straight lines, each one three men deep. With each line facing a different direction, they began their march. The front line slashed away recklessly, using speed and aggression as opposed to controlled attacks. The second line stabbed left while the third stabbed right, each one using precision and length to kill from a distance.
The lerwicks were reorganized, and back on the offensive once more.
Chapter 24
The lerwicks were on the march, each blade flashing in perfect unison with the man standing next to him. With projectiles raining down from the wall, each strike causing a brief disruption to a ghatin’s body, their combined efforts proved to be devastating. The very idea that the humans had played any role in turning the tide seemed hard to believe, but they most certainly had.
“Tighten the formation and push forward!” Viola called, killing two more with a single blow. “Send these demons back to—” She whirled around at the sound of piercing screams. Lerwicks lay scattered about, some dead, others mortally wounded. Hit from behind by a pack of nezzerians, they never saw the blind-side attack coming.
The giants stormed straight through the broken line, swinging large clubs which were bigger than most men. This new wave of enemies placed the lerwicks at a horrible disadvantage. Strong as titans, resilient as stones, the nezzerians would not go down so easy.
Breaking rank, Viola rushed back to help her fallen brothers. The northern formation had been shattered, allowing both the ghatins and nezzerians alike to move past unchallenged.
“Mutant creatures!” the nezzerian roared, stomping down on a fallen lerwick’s chest. Blood sprayed from his mouth, the mist of red drifting back down to speckle his face and chest. “Warped and twisted beings. Your tainted blood has offset the balance long enough. Now return to the mud and filth from which you were spawned!”
The beast raised his club, determined to sweep through as many downed lerwicks as possible. But his weapon slipped from his grasp as his eyes crossed. His body twitched once, then twitched again. With a wet crackling sound, a flesh blade erupted from his chest in a spray of blood. Viola twisted once more to make sure, then ripped it free.
“Reform the lines!” she shouted, trying to get them reorganized. But her voice could barely be heard over the screams and chaos. Bigger, stronger, and more tactically skilled than the lerwicks, the nezzerians were tearing apart their ra
nks. The lerwicks could hardly defend themselves against the savage onslaught, let alone get themselves back into formation. “Do you hear me!? I said get back into—”
Her warrior’s instincts flaring, Viola dipped her shoulder and rolled just as Narkural’s blade soared past her shoulder. Even the clean miss was so powerful, the breeze it caused altered the direction of her roll.
Springing back to her feet, she spun around to face him. Stunned by his speed, she had to dive out of the way a second time as his giant blade crunched into the ground, the impact spraying up a cloud of rock and soil.
Completing her evasive roll, she spun back as her flesh blade snapped out. Her intent was to counter strike, possibly taking him down at the knee, but ended up intercepting yet another sword strike. How could he be so fast? Their weapons collided in a thundering boom as the quivering impact radiated up her arm. The numbing effect moved all the way up into her shoulder. Such strength... Such speed...
Arm hanging limp, she lashed out with her second blade. Like catching a fly out of the air, Narkural intercepted it with his bare hand. Ignoring the blood seeping between his fingers as the blade bit deep, the giant yanked her back into him with a mighty tug. Helplessly crashing against his chest, Viola wheezed from the impact. The giant dropped his sword and wrapped her in a crushing bear hug.
“I should never have allowed it to get this far,” he growled in her ear, his hot breath washing over her face. “You’re an abomination, one I should have eliminated a long time ago.”
His grip tightened as all her remaining air whistled out through her nose. Her body made crackling sounds under the intense pressure, and her mouth hung wide open in a silent scream. Over his shoulder, she could see the nezzerians cutting down her men. The lerwicks fought back gallantly, but were no match against these seasoned fighters.
“I will not make the same mistake a second time,” he whispered, the rings in his lips spreading as he squeezed even harder. She wished her body would implode just so the pain would stop.
As the tunnel vision seemed to pull her back into her own body, the tiny part of her that was still conscious wondered if she didn’t deserve this fate. She had failed her men, the humans, the entire realm. Go on, then, let my body die one inch at a time. It was probably a more merciful fate than that of those she had failed, and certainly greater than she deserved.
I’m so sorry...
A wave of warmth washed over her face, and all the pressure suddenly eased. As her eyes slowly began to reopen, she wondered if her body had finally caved in under the pressure. Am I dead? Her lungs expanded reflexively, instantly filling with crisp, sweet air. Her eyes jetted open all the way as she coughed and wheezed. Fixed on the headless corpse that still held her with a loose grip, she shivered.
When the giant body tipped over, she slipped between its arms and landed on her hands and knees. The body hit the ground with a rush of blood spilling from the steaming severed neck. Viola looked at it in stunned silence, having no idea what just happened.
A white streak zipped past her nose and blasted straight through a nearby ghatin. The opening punched through its chest instantly began to fester and burn. Not unlike a strike from a lerwick, the reaction quickly spread across its body before engulfing it in flames.
A whistling sound in the sky drew her attention. A wave of arrows soared overhead, possibly hundreds all at once. Nezzerians howled as their bodies appeared to sprout shafts. Wave after wave of arrows followed, none ever seeming to miss their mark. The beasts were large and sturdy, and many still wobbled around with fifty or more shafts protruding from their bodies. But even those that survived the aerial assault were effectively out of the fight.
Just like that, the nezzerian threat had been eliminated.
Viola looked to the south. She blinked, not sure she believed her own eyes. The tarrins were here, all armed with bows and arrows. The brilliant marksmen had made short work of nezzerians, and they still weren’t finished. Wave after wave of arrows snapped down into the ghatins, disrupting their ghostly bodies just long enough for any nearby lerwicks to do what they did best.
Another flash of white zipped past Viola, circling her head once before thrashing through four more ghatins. Unable to take her eyes off the ghostly sight, she watched the bolt of energy fly back toward the tarrins. There stood Assirra, hands in the air as white spheres rotated around her head. What was she doing here? Was she actually controlling those spheres?
Dropping her hands in a sweeping motion, the spheres all fired out at once. Stretching, changing their form in midair, the energy daggers tore through wave after wave of ghatins. Their bodies might as well have been made of paper from the way they displayed no physical resistance to the attack, then burst into flames almost immediately.
Still recovering after nearly being crushed, Viola bent over and clutched her side. It was wonderful to see her old friend, but more so under these extraordinary conditions. She had a million questions for Assirra, but they would all have to wait. Thank you, she mouthed silently.
Now led by Jarlen, the remaining lerwicks had regrouped and were on the march once again. Between the arrows from both the humans and the tarrins, as well as these energy projectiles that seemed to have come out of nowhere, they had regained the upper hand. The ghatins appeared to be in full retreat, with no real way to defend against this onslaught.
The spiritists circled above, moving their way toward the outer boundaries of the battle. For the first time, they could see the back half of the ghatins’ march. So they weren’t limitless after all! There was a limit to these demons’ numbers, and now it was time to finish them off once and for all.
Chapter 25
The spiritists flew toward the outer edges of the battlefield to cut off any possible retreat. There was no telling what might happen if even one of these vile creatures managed to escape. A few of the stronger spiritists were able to regain some of their power, so it was time to make a final push.
Groaning with fatigue as they summoned what little energy they had left, they conjured a few more spirit spheres and cast them down into the sand below. Rising up into misty tornadoes, their whirling faces howled and shrieked. Dancing around the edges of battle, they drove the outer ghatins back toward the center. Herding them like sheep, they finally had them trapped.
As their front lines retreated and their rear forces fled inward, the ghatins appeared to huddle together like frightened rabbits. With danger coming from all sides, they had nowhere to run.
One of the ghatins, nearly twice as large as the others, lifted his arm and let out a whistle-like screech. Shrill, piercing, the sound was enough to deafen any human. Reaching toward the sky, his body appeared to stretch even further. Overextending himself well beyond any normal limits, already he had doubled his height and was continuing to grow.
Those nearby huddled closer to the mutant ghatin, apparently seeking shelter. But one by one they seemed to disappear, appearing to get sucked right into his body.
The feat seemed to be replicating all over the battlefield as other ghatins doubled, or even triple in size before those around began merging into its body. The mutant ghatins started to swell and bloat, growing larger with each fresh body consumed. Their skin changed color as well, changing from a ghostly white to a swirled marble. It even appeared to harden, taking on the appearance of a glossy shell.
“Flank them!” Jarlen shouted, leading his men around from the east side.
“Follow me!” Viola ordered, leading her troops back around from the west.
The newly formed giants seemed disorientated, stumbling about while blinking their large pink eyes. It was as if they were entirely new beings, with no real understanding of how they came to be. Although massive, their hard bodies covered in marble, they still strongly resembled the original ghatins from which they were formed.
Jarlen’s men hit first, slamming them from the side. Flesh blades slashed, crashing against their hardened skin in a lightshow of orange and blue
sparks. The air filled with acrid smoke as the shrill sound of grinding metal rang out. Their shells were so hard, so impenetrable, that the lerwick flesh blades didn’t even cause a scratch.
With their attention now focused on the attack from the east side, Viola’s men crashed in from behind. Catching them with their backs turned, they hit them with everything they had. Still, even with what was perceived to be an enormous tactical advantage, their free-striking blades did no damage at all.
Not only were their weapons ineffective against those outer shells, but they weren’t even able to move them in any way. It was as if their body mass was fifty times greater than it should have been. Easier to push over mountains than to move these creatures off a single spot.
As if the useless attacks had somehow awakened the beasts, some of the giants suddenly sprang to life. With a roar, the first one swung its club-like arm down across the annoying little creatures who were trying to cause it discomfort. In a clearing sweep, broken lerwicks went sailing through the air. Twisted and shattered from the impact, their bent bodies came raining back down nearly fifty yards away.
Several more turned towards Viola’s side, their heavy limbs making short work of dozens with a single sweep. The lerwicks’ forces had already been horribly depleted, and in a flash they had been brutally thinned even further. A few more attacks like that and there wouldn’t be any left at all.
“Retreat!” Viola ordered, trying to move what was left of them to a safer position. But where could that possibly be? If they couldn’t finish off these beasts right here, then nothing would be safe in this world.
But she couldn’t have her men stand in front of them, getting slaughtered. Throwing their lives away recklessly wasn’t going to do any good. She was more than willing to die for the cause, but there had to be some chance for success no matter how small. Whatever chance there was, it couldn’t be found by going toe to toe with these invincible giants.
