Sebastian did his best to ignore the strange feeling of fear radiating from the black dragon. It was a primal urge to run in the face of a true dragon. Some of the guards flinched and were quickly crushed.
"Impressive," the voice boomed before lashing out with a blast of magic. There seemed to be no element, light or darkness to it. Pure energy, the power struck Cheleya's dragon form knocking her back into the wall behind her. The fortress shook and stone fell.
Stunned, the dragon shrank back shrinking quickly down into the little girl she had been to start. The mar'goyn'lya and one of the che'ther males jumped out to protect her as Darius lashed out at the darkness.
His magic struck the shadow but more laughter followed. Unimpressed, the Dark One sent his magic into the group standing before the door. Sebastian used his pent up power releasing his shield runes. The orange glow expanded to block for them all, but the force of the emperor's blast succeeded in making the mage use up so much power that as the attack winked out, so did his shield. A single powerful blast and Sebastian knew that everything feeding him wouldn't be enough to make him anywhere near this monster's power.
Lightning lashed out along with the spells of those brought to battle the Dark One. His warlocks defended and countered. Wizard hunters jumped into the fray clashing with the dragon mages.
Sebastian held Bairh'loore with his left hand and fought the guards with his Hollow Sword. Still seeing stars from the breaking of his shield, the battle mage continued to defend himself and Ashleen. His arm burned, but the owl knew that he could reform the defensive shield again, though not as powerfully as he just had. He was still in the fight, but wondered what they could possibly do to stop the warlock's power.
Chapter 34- Death Closes In
Rilena turned hearing a scream from behind her. Feeling like she was seeing death literally, the woman was appalled at the bodies given life. She could that they had been diseased or frail to cause their deaths, but the raised puppets of the dark mage had power beyond what they had in life.
A wizard was caught from behind never having seen the threat coming. An aged grandfather clothed in rags grasped his arms as the remaining teeth in his mouth bit into the man's neck. Blood sprayed from the wound as the wizard tried to fend it off.
Multiple stabs with a sword from one of the battle mages dislodged the undead monster, but it continued to fight while their band was soon fighting a dozen more. Rilena saw a child, thin enough that she could see ribs and its hip bone standing out jaggedly through its skin. A girl that couldn't have been more than eight, she thought. Its eyes were sunken and glowing red. Finger nails tore at her shield even as tears came to the mage's eyes.
She twisted bringing her blade horizontally across the little girl's neck severing her head from the body. Freed of the necromancy magic animating it, the girl's body dropped like a puppet without strings. Her head rolled to the side. It was a good thing that the rest of the undead were being dispatched around her as Rilena had to turn and wretch away the food she had eaten before coming to Ensolus.
Serrena came to her aid, patting her friend on the back. "Come on, Rilena. She was already dead. You didn't hurt her. You released her from the torment of a necromancer's spell."
Nodding, it didn't truly make her feel any better. Averting her eyes from the dead child, Rilena noticed that the other puppets had nearly been taken care of. Two wizards were down as well as a battle mage. Bite marks to the neck of the wizards were killing them. She was no healer.
"I'll make a gate," their portal wizard stated quickly and quietly. "The owl set up a gate outside the hospital in Hala. Can someone help them through?"
Rilena wanted to volunteer, but knew that she had to stay. She couldn't have carried any of the fallen easily and her skills could be used in Ensolus. No longer feeling as positive about what they had to do here, the battle mage still wished that she could go home; but her friends were battling who knew what in the emperor's city. She couldn't let them do it all when she was a battle mage capable of fighting.
The gate opened. One of the wizards and two of their stronger men carried the injured through. Rilena thought that it was probably too late for two of them. The injuries were severe, but perhaps a healer's magic would still surprise her.
She suspected that the healers would be very busy by the end of the morning. Many wouldn't ever return to Southwall alive and that was as long as they could defeat the Dark One and escape again. They had come to cripple the empire, but it would come at a cost.
Once the three had returned, the squad moved onward. It wasn't long before living soldiers crossed their paths. Fighting adults: soldiers, human, elven and orc never sickened her the way it had killing the used body of a dead child.
The mage pushed on and the fighting grew as more and more squads of the enemy looked to end the threat of Southwall.
An explosion of stone as the building nearest the raven exploded from a warlock's attack made the man shelter in the defense of his shield. New runes had been added and Sebastian had instructed him on what they could do. After four decades as a battle mage, he was learning more new spells and runes than he had in the previous decades combined. It made him feel both rejuvenated and old somehow.
The next generations of battle mages would be so much more than they had been. It was happening during his time, but the owl would be the one remembered.
Now he just had to make sure that they all survived. That would be something to be known for, the killing of the Dark One; but the raven was outside the fortress trying to stay alive and keep those with him that way too.
Swinging his Hollow Sword, a surge of fire washed through the hole in the building. He heard screams from those thinking to use the cloud of dust and debris to sneak through to attack them. Unable to leave their position, Leros and his small platoon did their best to defend themselves against steadily increasing numbers.
The plan had been to keep moving, but that would have meant leaving half of his people behind. His wizards were powerful, but they didn't have the stamina needed to escape the trap closing around them. He wished that they had taken a portal wizard with them, but the attack on the gates had been one of the riskiest positions. They knew that they'd be between the remaining troops there and those to the north.
A rumble in the ground preceded a wave of stone rippling beneath them. The raven rode the wave and picked up the wizard beside him as he blocked a fireball hurled towards them.
"Get up and fight, man," he ordered without anger, but his voice still held need that the wizard responded to with a nod.
Wind whipped up and sliced at the building and those inside of it. The wizard was strong and back in the fight. His job was to keep as many of them that way for as long as possible.
Soldiers leaped over the stone barricade pushing the raven to fight once again. Pacing himself as best he could, Leros wondered if he was getting old after all.
Black armored warlocks descended upon Elzen and the battle mages at the front of their wizards and soldiers. Apprentices lay around them, but these had taken advantage of the distraction of the weak to attack from above. Crossing the lower roofs of the buildings between the emperor's fortress and the academy, wizard hunters joined the fray.
A troll in black armor ran in from the side at the head of a force of orcs. Elzen let his harpoon fire into the wizard hunter before him hauling the mage out of the monster's path. Using his rune spell, he turned the momentum of the hunter into a projectile to trip up the troll as it turned to follow the smaller man.
It stumbled as he planned. Elzen swiftly jumped back closing the distance jabbing upward with the knife rune on his left hand. Pushing his magic into it, the blade glowed orange as it jabbed into the troll's neck in the gap between helmet and breast plate. Dark gore spewed from the wound as the troll forgot about him. Weapon and shield dropped from its hands as the monster tried to stop the loss of its dark blood.
"Impressive," a voice spoke from behind him. A man dressed in b
lack armor held a long black spear.
"You picked an odd time to try getting on my good side," the mage replied as his runes reset.
The orcs were being met by other mages and the spells of their wizards. Elzen looked at the man backed by five more wizard hunters. He sensed magic in three of them including the one in front of him. They were warlock level.
The man laughed and said, "We'll see if you keep that good humor for much longer. Your forces seem too small to be a real invasion. You'll prick us and cause some damage, but we'll kill you all and send you to the burners."
"You still have to kill us first," Elzen replied coiled and ready to strike or defend himself depending on his options. No one had been able to join the mage to cover his back yet. The orcs were wizard hunters and tough. More hunters were between him and the rest. This would be his fight for now. "If you turn back now, maybe I won't have to kill you. There are kids that I left alive behind me. Take them back to their school and let them sleep off my spell."
Again the man laughed, but he was joined by the other hunters.
"You've spared the children? How nice of you? We'd bring down those buildings crushing you and them, if it let us win."
"That would be a pretty big waste. They're warlocks. I can't imagine that they're any more common here than in Southwall."
The spear pointed towards the mage. "Enough talk. You're just trying to waste time long enough to hope someone will come save you."
Elzen smirked, "Well, I tried to be nice, but I guess that you asked for it."
The warlock surprised him by sending a spell of night towards him using the spear to aim the magic.
"Reflex," he ordered for the first time. This was likely to be a time that he would need it. These hunters felt more deadly than those he had fought so far and it was one versus six.
Blocking the night attack with his rune shield, the mage launched forward. The harpoon flew towards the spear man, but the rune weapon was knocked away. His left knife slashed to parry the weapon as it pointed towards his chest. The other hunters didn't respect a one on one fight and Elzen was forced to dodge more attacks.
Reflex gave him an edge. He could see all their attacks coming and tried to move to avoid them. The only problem with the spell was that his body could only move so fast, but they were also human. Alerting him in advance, the mage dodged, blocked and countered as quickly as his body would allow him.
The runes of speed and strength enhanced his abilities beyond human pairing them with the mage spell.
A punch from his shielded left hand caused the spear man to drop back. His harpoon turned into three the way Sebastian had shown him. With enhanced vision, the three weapons fought three hunters at once. His rune shield expanded knocking another back. A gash created from his rune knife lengthening into a long sword was cut into the hunter's breast plate.
"Gust," he gasped sending the air spell into the ground sending dirt into the faces of the spear man and those closest to him.
"Shield," he ordered flipping towards another striking the man with his foot. The rune knife extended magically beyond his shoe drawing first blood as he connected with the side of the man's neck. It disappeared once more as he landed on his feet again.
The spear man recovered and lunged towards him. Another night spell lashed out for him. His rune shield caught the blow as one of his harpoon lines wrapped around the man's ankle tugging his foot out from under him. Elzen couldn't finish him as two of his men leaped over the hunter casting fire and wind at the mage.
His rune shield expanded into a ball letting the mage use the wind to roll him back into another hunter. The left knife cut him as he tumbled out of his shell. Finding the seam between shoulder armor and the chest, he created a wound nasty enough to send the wizard hunter to the ground.
A ray of light struck the hunter who had cast fire. Elzen could see the armor crack and one of his harpoons lanced into the opening catching him high on the chest. It wasn't a killing blow, but the man was wounded significantly.
"Hold still, damn you!" the spear man snarled before trying to cast a spell of his own.
Elzen's harpoon harried the warlock interrupting the cast. Slower than a battle mage's spoken words, he let the wizard hunters understand the difference between hunting wizards and fighting a battle mage. In close, they were the superior fighters and Elzen had taken to the brawler style of fighting very early. The runes he had been given merely opened up that world of fighting making him even more deadly.
His reflex spell would be winding down in less than a minute at the rate he was going. Their number was halved.
"Light," he called out spearing the one who had used wind a moment ago. Two of the harpoons followed the spell and tore at the man's armor. He was quick enough to avoid being wounded, but his chest was exposed. Knowing the danger, the warlock fell back.
The third harpoon tripped up the last man trying to catch him from the opposite side. Faster than he could move, the other two harpoons crossed the distance piercing the fallen man through each shoulder making his ability to fight gone.
Elzen looked at the remaining two men and replied with a laugh, "I told you to just run away."
"What are you?" the spear man asked backing away warily. He was the only man not severely wounded and with full armor, but he was nearly alone now.
"Just a battle mage, would you like to fight one of our wizards? They're more powerful than I am. You can see my aura to know it's true."
The idea caused the man's eyes to flick behind the mage towards the approaching wave of warlocks and soldiers guarding them. Suddenly realizing only the wounded and a few orcs fleeing back to the west remained near him. The wizard hunter announced, "You've won this round then."
His men that could move followed him looking beaten.
He heard heavy breathing as his fellow battle mages walked over to him. One of them asked, "You're just going to let them walk away?"
Shrugging the mage replied, "We don't have the man power to guard prisoners. Besides let them leave to tell how they were beaten by a single battle mage. Maybe that will make these people realize that we're more dangerous than they thought and they will finally give up."
The man straightened cracking his shoulders as he shook off the work of fighting and laughed sarcastically. "If only that would happen, but we've spent almost two centuries beating their superior numbers. They keep coming back and we keep killing them until they leave."
"Well, one can hope," Elzen quipped with a grin as he turned back towards the remainder of their forces.
Palose reentered Acheri's room in the fortress through his portal. Spilling out into the hall, his puppets and wraiths waited for him. The dark mage let his senses expand looking for magic. Power was being expended all over the city. He could hear the echoes of magic being used even without using a spell and the bells continued to ring.
"Which way, sir?" Tongold asked as he stood by the door.
Though Palose had been in the castle many times, his wraiths had not. They were soldiers and warlocks, but not of consequence enough to have ever been called within the emperor's fortress.
His mind took control of his puppets enough to start sending them towards the emperor's throne room. It was a big room and Palose had a feeling it had been chosen as a place where Kolban could bring his best guards to fight in large numbers. With his power backing a wall of soldiers, the emperor could likely wipe out any force Southwall sent to attack him.
"Left, Tongold, follow the puppets," he said walking forward with the other wraiths falling in around him.
Looking through the fortress, Palose could see the power of the emperor shining surrounded by dozens of smaller bits of magic. They were moving around a bit and already fighting he thought.
The only woman among his wraiths, Piera asked, "What can we do? The emperor is far more powerful than us."
"We can make sure that Southwall doesn't get to him easily. The puppets can slow them down. Any dead we find along the
way can replace any units we lose.
"An unending army can be thrown at them and you wraiths are hard to destroy."
The girl looked oddly unsettled by his words.
"What is it?" he asked. Wraiths usually followed his orders without resistance, but they did have their own minds which made them good leaders in his absence.
"I would have thought that you would have said that we are hard to kill. What are we that you look at us as things to destroy?" Piera asked seeming a bit upset.
Oween had never been this... emotional; the dark mage thought and wanted to roll his eyes. The warlock had recommended this girl for some reason, but he was beginning to regret having this elf with him now. Her cousin seemed more composed though and he looked curious to hear Palose's answer as well.
"You aren't truly alive yet. If we manage to survive this, then maybe it is time to change that. For now, can you stop acting like a teenage girl and concentrate on the fight ahead?"
The answer wasn't to her liking, but he had just given an order. A wraith couldn't resist its master, even if it could question his thoughts. He hadn't known these three for very long and wasn't sure that they were stable enough to join his circle; but he had risked bringing others back blindly before.
Shaking his head, Palose tried to get thoughts of making more resurrection men out of his head.
Descending the stairs towards the floor with the throne room, his puppets hit an obstacle that didn't want to move.
"We've found the enemy," he warned the others and hurried forward with the warlocks right behind him. Tongold and Balish ran before him. They had been loyal and he would reward them. He would have made them human again, if not for the need of more powerful soldiers. Wraiths were more powerful than mortal men by far. They couldn't be destroyed easily and could take damage that would kill a normal man.
He was losing puppets. The mage could sense the change in the power used to maintain the undead soldiers. He knew the dozen brought to life from the furnaces had been destroyed already also. They had been a distraction and were no loss. The necromancer could make more from those killed around him and find better puppets than the elderly and weak.
Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) Page 49
