by Asher, Yarid
They continued going towards East and after dawn, they followed the suns, for they rose from East. The rays of the sun struck the sea like lightning and looked magnificent. The golden rays looked as if they were the dust that fell when fairies flew.
Far away, they saw that they were now reaching land. It was fairly odd, for it was a little colder than it was to be in the area which made Virgil suspicious, as well as the elf brothers, for they knew all the weathers and geography of entire Thraenus, for they had been bounty hunters for years. Neiham was now a little bit scared as well, for she saw mist on the land. The mist was a sign that they had entered the lands of the vampires and vampires craved warm blood. It seemed like they had been misled by the suns.
All of their men were soon to be massacred if they did not turn their ship around but little did they know, they had already entered the death zone, there was no going back. If they were to try and turn back now, the rocks around their ships would break the ship because they were too close to the rocky beach.
The vampires had seen them through the thick, misty forests and now were waiting for them to come in so they could gnaw through the fresh flesh.
Virgil saw one of them in the forest through the mist and quickly stopped the ships. He knew he could not turn the ship around, therefore they set the sails to fall back but the vampires were smart and lassoed the ships with very thick ropes that could not be cut very easily. The vampires’ speed and strength was unmatchable. They moved faster than the eye could discern and pulled the ships near the lands very quickly.
Now Virgil knew it was futile to try to escape, for the Vampires had a hold of their ships, so he decided to fight them with full force. He yelled out “Charge!” and all the men jumped onto the shores. They could not see where the vampires were because there was a thick mist and the forest provided shelter for Vampires from the suns and the eye of their enemies.
They wore dark, thick robes that covered them from head to toes. Their skin was pale and blue veins showed through them. Their faces were hideous, just like the Nephilims. They had huge jaws that could even tear through rocks if they had to. There were about 50, blood sucking, sharp teeth in their mouths and they were yellow and black, and their eyes were blood red. Their hairs were black to protect them from suns. Their fingers were long and claw-like. They were bare foot and did not leave any tracks behind when they moved, for they moved too fast.
Virgil jumped off the ship and joined his warrior companions, Usere, Urey, Azar and Neiham who were already on the shore, trying to figure out where to enter the forest and not to get killed. Just as they were about to enter, the Vampires decided to attack them first. They moved out of the thick shade of the forest into the bright light of both of the suns, shining without any cloud. Their skin burnt, even through the dark thick robes they had on but they moved quickly. They swept through on the shore and snatched many men off of the huge, bare, sandy, rocky shore.
When Azar saw this happen, he looked at Neiham concerningly “You be careful sister, you are the only family I have and I do not wish to lose you.”
She nodded and followed her brother and got closer to him.
Usere and Urey stood at the farthest part of the beach and smirked, for they thought they could fight the vampires. Usere rubbed his hand on his brother’s head and said to him “Now is the time we have been practicing for—let us do it.”
Urey’s white teeth sparkled as he smiled and there was a shine in his eyes “Finally, I thought this day would never come—I thought we would never get to fight this way.”
Usere took out a rope for his clothes and tied himself to Urey. Both brothers stood back to back and were highly coordinated. It was as if they were one body, two souls. Their hand movements were incredibly smooth and fast and their running was magnificently flawless. With Urey’s keen eyes and arrows and Usere’s sharp sword and close hand fighting experience, they were the perfect being on the battlefield.
Urey took out his bow and had his arrows in front of him, ready to fight. Usere only had one sword but he knew it was not enough and picked the sword of one of the fallen soldiers and both brothers charged into battle. They attacked alternatively, first the swords, then the arrows and soon, they entered they grim forest right behind Azar and Neiham and were the first Empirions to kill a vampire that day.
Virgil, who felt lonely, for his brother was not there with him while all others had their loved ones, followed them and charged. Now all the Empirion soldiers were in the forest and were trying to fight but most of their tries were futile, for the vampires were to fast, and also, they had incapacitated Neiham by taking her cards away. She was no longer able to bring about the monsters. And now, Azar, Usere, Urey and Virgil were one of the very few ones who were being able to hold their own against the vampires.
There was a massacre and about one third of the Empirion forces had been wiped out by just a couple hundred vampires and one third was about 10,000 men, including elves, dwarves, minotaurs, humans etc.
The battle lasted for quite a while, even though the vampires were fast, Virgil was a great general. He had the men fully coordinated and had them looking out for each other, that was the only reason they had lasted for so long. But now the vampires were gaining advantage on them, for they had knocked down one of the strongest warriors of the Empirion army, Azar.
He fell on the ground and the vampires broke his staff, for they knew he was nothing without his staff. When it snapped and the gray fibers unraveled, a purple-blue, bright light came out from within it. The broken pieces turned to ash and Azar was left jaw dropped, astounded, for now he was fully incapacitated. Without a medium to channel his energy through, he was useless in this fight. Tears rolled down his eyes, for this was his first and only staff. He had used it all of his life and now it was gone and now, both siblings were armless, therefore they got up and being unable to do something or help them, hid in a corner and waited for the massacre to pass.
Virgil saw them and created a shield around them using “Auxilius Armus” to protect them. Azar and Neiham nodded in appreciation and Virgil continued fighting. The shield had proven to be the best move Virgil had mad in the whole fight, for after the shield was created, Azar felt safe and finally devised a plan on how to eradicate the vampires.
He paid close attention to every move the enemy made and he saw them move, he saw them fight and most of all, he saw them avoid brightness. He finally realized that the vampires avoided brightness, for it burnt them. He quickly yelled at Virgil “Use Exsilio Ignis!”
He nodded and waved his wand and pointed it up to the sky “Exsilio Ignis!” and a bright ball of fire came out of the tip of the wand and lit the dark, thick forest on fire. This was not a good idea, for his men were in the forest too but the bright fire was the end of the vampires; they were forced run out into the brightness of both of the suns of Thraenus and just as they reached the shores, they caught on fire and blew up immediately, for their cloaks had burnt off of them.
Virgil looked around to see what damage he had caused and all he could see were blazing flames and men running out. There was smoke everywhere and there were bodies piled everywhere, burning.
Azar ran out of the shield and stood close to Virgil “Use the water to take out the fire.”
Virgil smiled and ran through the mayhem, out to the shore and he firmly pointed his wand out towards the sea and gently flicked it while reciting “Pondeo Supervolous!” It took a bit of effort for the spell to work, for the water was not in a definite shape and the spell was to lift definite objects.
Slowly, the waves got higher and thick drops of the blue water began rising from the waves, through the mist and soon, small but strong tornadoes rose up from the sea. There were about 6 of them, waiting for a flick of the wand to take the fire out. Virgil could not believe that he himself was levitating water in the shape of tornadoes but it was happening and without wasting anymore time, he swung his wand over his head and pointed it towards the burning forest. Hi
s clothes fluttered and his hair waved in the strong air. The tornadoes rushed from behind him and from around him and into the forest and tackled the fire to its death and left Virgil proud of himself and Azar mind blown by his pupil’s accomplishments.
The tornadoes sucked up all of the fire and took it out, completely. Virgil finally let loose of them and they fell down like a tsunami. The corpses of the fallen soldiers flowed out of the forest with the water and those who were still standing, cheered, for they were now the first force to defeat the vampires. Even Katos, the king whose region they resided in, was scared of them which was why he had recruited them in his army, rather than trying to eradicate them.
Virgil walked proudly towards Azar and smiled “How did I do? Was that good enough?”
“Yes, that was excellent.”
Neiham hugged Virgil and thanked him and just as she was finished, the elf twins came out of the forest. They had untied themselves and were a little injured with cuts and bruises on their bodies.
“That was fantastic,” Urey said with a look of excitement and happiness on his face “How did you do that?”
Usere kept calm and did not let his excitement show on his face but he did show happiness and appreciation “That was amazing—thank you for saving all of us.”
Virgil smiled at Usere “It was my job to protect my men” then he turned Urey “I just simply used a levitation spell to raise the water in mid-air and the tornadoes were just an accident,” he laughed and scratched his head “a positive accident though.”
After he was done talking, he rounded up the men on the shore and all of them stood on halt, waiting for their general’s word on how to move through the forests and into the lands. Virgil ran and stood on a tall boulder and began talking,
“My brothers, today, we have made history,” Virgil yelled out. The veins on his neck popped up for it took lung strength to yell out and address an entire army. “We are the only ones who have dared to go against the vampires, and we are the first ones to have actually killed more than one by just using a sword. Now, although you all might want to celebrate, we cannot yet, for we have a bigger army to go against, the Agnithiun army, the biggest and the strongest army on the face of this planet. Even though they are intimidating, there is one thing we know, they were not the ones who defeated the vampires, we were and therefore, we are braver, stronger and sharper—now let us conquer Agnithius, in the name of our king, our lord—Leosher!”
There were cheers all around the beach and the morale of the men was high, for they felt proud of being a part of the Empirion army, the only army that had dared go against the vampires.
Virgil got off of the boulder and walked to Usere “How many men have we lost?”
Usere smiled jokingly “The question that you should ask is, how many men do we have left and the answer to that would be that we have lost more than half of the number of men we started with.”
Neiham overheard the conversation and joined in “And the Agnithiun army was four times the size the Empirion army was, when we were still in The Empire, now, we are highly overpowered and outnumbered. I would say that we fall back.”
Virgil looked at her surprisingly, “You know the prophecy, and you were the one who made it—how could you say that?”
Urey who was standing nearby, talking to a Minotaur, left his own conversation and joined in “But Virgil, Neiham is right. We do not possess the power to defeat the Agnithiun army, and now, Master Leosher would not be able to help us, for he is scared, the prophecy might come true.”
Virgil laughed “We have the gods on our side; no one shall stop the march of The Empire.”
They all smiled and Azar slowly walked in front of the men, “We shall march forward again, remembering those who have fallen, but reminding ourselves that those who fell did not lose their lives in vain, we shall defeat Katos and bring peace in Thraenus, and we shall stop the tyranny of the rulers.”
He began walking in the forest and the army followed him and Virgil quickly approached him “Master,” he said while whipping out his wand and offering it to him “You should take this. You shall remain a wizard and help us defeat the Agnithiun army; after all, you are the strongest wizard in all of Thraenus.”
Azar smiled sadly, “I was the strongest wizard, but now I am old. I cannot fight the way I could when I was young. Though I have experience and wisdom and power, I do not have strength or the stamina to last in a battle. Therefore, from this day forward, I shall not be a wizard anymore.”
Virgil was shocked, as well as Neiham and the Elf twins, who were walking by them as well.
“What?!” Neiham said immediately “How could you take such a big decision without consulting with me?”
Azar laughed “Without your cards, you are incapacitated for battle too. You should retire from battles and fall back as well, just like I did.”
Usere and Urey stayed quite, but Virgil showed his concern “What about me, master? Who is going to teach me all the spells?”
“You have the book, use it.”
Urey laughed and mocked Azar wittily “Yes, use the book.”
Usere elbowed him in his arm to shut him up and that worked and just as he got quiet, they all got quiet and made their way through thick, smoked forests and finally reached the edge. It all looked fine until they moved out of the forest and when they stepped out of the forest, they saw that on the stony wasteland stood Katos with all of his army, waiting for them. As far as the eye could see were Agnithiun soldiers wearing chest armor and loincloths. This was the only kingdom out of the original three, to include female soldiers in their army.
Alongside Katos stood Colossus and Barian, both with a huge grin on their faces. Barian did not have even a speck of shame on his face, for he did not regret betraying The Empire and its leader, Leosher. He was fully determined that he was protected under the cruel hand of Katos and even Colossus, who had lost his kingdom, did not seem to care, for he thought he was going to get it back right now.
“All of this was a plan,” Virgil yelled out to Katos while walking towards him. It was quiet a distance he was going to have to cover. “It was all a plan and we fell right into it.”
Katos smiled and said in his heavy and hoarse voice “Yes.” He stood tall, wearing nothing but a loincloth and holding nothing but a beat-up, yet strong sword. He was tall and muscular and fast. His body was very toned and was very strong, for while the other two rulers had slacked off, he had been training non-stop. He was in the best physical condition out of all of the rulers. He had a bald head but had a thick beard on his face, for beards were a sign of manliness on Thraenus. He also had countless scars on his body and was brown, just like Leosher.
Katos began walking towards Virgil too “Now bring out Leosher.”
“You are not getting to him that easy my friend,” Urey joined Virgil. Even though he was childish and witty, he was courageous and undoubtedly brave. Though the Emprion army was greatly outnumbered, they were brave and had the will to fight till the end.
“You are going to have to go through us to get him” Urey said proudly and when the Empirions saw Virgil and Urey walk forward, they all marched forward to back Virgil and Urey up. Katos was impressed with their bravery but always making fun of them for their foolishness. They did not stand a chance against the Agnithiun army, for the Agnithiuns were almost 6 times the size of the Empirions.
“You are brave,” Colossus tried to be brave but because he was fat and stood like a coward, no one took him seriously. Katos looked at him angrily and he stopped talking immediately, but then Katos looked at Virgil again, who was still quite far even though he was pacing towards him, “I will get Leosher, even if I have to slaughter all of you where you stand—prepare for death!”
Katos raised his sword high up in the air and then slowly, brought it forward and pointed the tip towards the Empirions and yelled “Let the slaughter begin!”
The vast wasteland roared with war cries and trembled with the speedy m
arch of the Agnithiun army and just as Virgil saw the Agnithiuns march, he yelled out to charge too “For peace!” and while he was running, he prayed to Asurot and asked for only one thing, help!
The men charged and ran and soon, just as the armies collided, the slaughter of the Empirions began.
CHAPTER 17
Leosher now grew very restless, for he did not know what was going on with the Empirion army. He did not know whether they had made it to land or had they sunk somewhere in the ocean, and that suspense was eating him from the inside.
Adne and Meagon who had come to the castle now, tried to comfort him but he was growing restless by the minute. He sat in his golden, magnificent throne, with his servants and family around him.
Leosher was getting angry, for he regretted not going on the journey. He loved to fight in war but now he had missed the chance of going against the strongest enemy he could face in this era.
Just as his anger was increasing by the minute, something crashed on the crystal bridge and although it did not break the bridge, the impact could be felt beyond the castle walls. Leosher got up and ordered some of his servants to go check whomever or whatever it was and after a few minutes, the grand doors opened and Asurot and Arusus walked in. Both wore golden robes that loosely hung to their bodies and both had French braids on their heads. They both looked magnificent.
Asurot walked in gracefully “I see you have grown angry.”
