In response, Omni shrugged and answered, “He probably found it during the battle of Antia.”
Galivan nodded slowly and although sounding as if he was not quite convinced said, “Yes you’re probably right.”
With this Gwion turned to Peg and asked, “Have you any questions Peg?”
Peg winked and replied, “No, it’s simple, we trap Merihim and then kill him.”
Galivan snorted, as he stopped himself laughing and said, “If it were only that simple.”
To this Omni, frowned and then said, “I don’t see how it isn’t.”
Peg shrugged and replied, “I think it will be.”
As they continued their discussion, Bray moved across to a small fire, next to which Gwion was sitting. Shaking his head, Peg pointed after him and said, “Anyway it is that simple for us. Those two have the hard part.”
Realising the enormity of what lay on Bray and Gwion’s shoulders, the friends then went silent, before moving across to take some of the food, which the Sentinel chefs were serving, close to the largest of all the campfires.
An hour later, Primero lumbered across to Bray and Gwion, who were lying by the fire, relaxing in its warming glow, and said, “I think it is time that we sent you on your way Bray.”
Bray swallowed hard and then nodded before saying, “You’re right.”
With this, he and Gwion stood up, as Primero began pooling his Mogya in front of him. Soon a gateway lay open, so Gwion took a deep breath and stepped through it, closely followed by his father.
However, as he was half way through, Bray glanced back, just in time to see Tom race past Primero, screaming, “We are under attack, get to your positions!”
In the brief second, it took for Bray to see this, he also watched as Manil, Muru and Sam charged past with their weapons held ready to repel the enemy. As a horde of enemy warriors charged towards him, Primero struggled to hold on to his Mogya just long enough to say, “Bray, you must take the gate from me; if you don’t you will die.”
Knowing the predicament that his friend was in, Bray focused his mind on the top corner of the magical gateway, halting the waves as they began to unravel. He pushed with the full might of his mind, taking the weight of the gateway from the Dragon and then moved through it, before allowing it to close behind him. As the doorway grew smaller, Bray glimpsed Primero rearing up and spitting forth an almighty plume of fire at a squad of silver-armoured warriors. The gate then flickered out of existence, leaving Bray and Gwion wondering what was happening.
Bray glanced across at his son and then collapsed, as the weight of using Mogya settled on his shoulders. Gwion saw his father fall and raced towards him. He grabbed him under the arms and dragged him across to a nearby treeline. Finding a natural trench, just inside the trees, he grabbed Bray and pulled him into it. Laying him flat, he took his pack off his back and took out his blanket. Throwing, the blanket over his father, Gwion settled himself down, waiting for Bray to recover.
Half an hour later, the ground began to shake. Feeling this, Gwion crawled out of the trench and lay in the long grass around it, peering out onto the pebbled track outside the forest. As he peered into the morning light, he noticed a long column of silver-armoured Cavalry riding towards him. Scrambling backwards as quickly as he could, Gwion crawled back into the treeline to hide from them.
Fighting for Time
As Peg saw the magical gateway disappear, he rushed across to Primero, and drew on his Mogya. The Dragon was busy fighting ten glowing, black robed priests, who were using their red crystals to try trapping him. Drawing close enough, Peg launched himself at the closest of the enemy priests, bowling him over, as his shoulder connected.
Catching his balance, Peg let his thoughts race. As he began telling the crystal in his magical brooch, just what he wanted to do to the priests, he started lashing out, as if punching an invisible opponent in front of him. As he did this, two of the closest priests began to rock and stumble, as if being attacked. The harder Peg punched the more blood poured from the priests’ noses.
Primero released yet another blast of flame at the other priests and then lashed out to bite the closest of the hooded figures. His teeth sliced through his opponent’s chest.
He shook his head to make sure that the priest was dead and then spat the limp body onto the floor, before raking his claws down the face of another.
As Peg and Primero battled the priests, Manil charged into a squad of silver-armoured infantry, who were battling hard with a number of Sentinels. He brought his huge hammer, crashing down onto the helmeted head of an enemy soldier and then kicked the man in the chest as he fell. To his right, the agile Galivan was flicking his blade in a deadly dance.
The larger, but slower enemy warriors could not cope with the nimble Elf. They tried to fight back, but Galivan sliced through them, as Omni joined him, hacking a bloody swathe through the enemy.
Behind the battle, Tom had formed the honour guard around the fire, next to which Sam and Donny were sleeping. The huge grizzly warriors, the best that the Sentinels had to offer were fidgeting uncomfortably, wanting nothing more than to join the battle. However, their fine discipline was keeping them in check, as Tom growled, “Wait, we only fight if the enemy break through our lines.”
As the Sentinel honour guard stood firm, tense, waiting for their turn to fight, Primero blasted the last of the enemy priests, weakening them so much that the flimsy magical field surrounding them, crumbled. Primero’s fiery breath instantly consumed them, killing most before they could do any harm.
Peg watched them die and spun towards the remainder of the enemy, who were attacking from the south. As he ran towards them, he blanched. Coming towards him was a Regiment of beings, who were instantly recognisable as vampires; not the frail, underfed versions he had seen in his own time, but over a hundred, strong, muscular monsters, who were baying for blood. The un-dead creatures themselves did not frighten Peg; it was the colossal Elebulls they were riding, which scared him.
Ignoring his fear, knowing that it would drive his Mogya from him and tire him so much that he would not be able to fight, Peg sprinted towards the oncoming Vampires gripping his crystal as tightly as he could. Primero saw him race towards the column of monsters and flew after him. The mighty Dragon streaked past the tiny Nunnupi and opened his mouth. Knowing that flame was one of only three ways to kill these evil creatures, he released another huge plume of fire. Seeing the raging inferno heading towards the Vampires, Peg growled, “Enrich.”
His Mogya immediately read his mind and sent a massive blast of gas from his crystal. The noxious substance swept across the ground at an incredible pace and mixed with Primero’s plume of flame, causing an immense explosion, which obliterated over half of the Vampire Regiment. As the powerful detonation spiralled upwards, Primero realised that he was going too fast to stop before he reached it, so he pulled as hard as he could with his mighty wings and sent himself as high as he could. He knew that the flame itself would not harm him, but the force with which it burnt would knock him out of control, so he pushed himself even harder, flying high away from the battlefield, where an almighty fight was ensuing.
Peg watched as Primero flew away and then charged at the closest Vampire with his sword held high. He leapt up and grabbed the Elebull’s halter, which was hanging so low that it was brushing the floor.
He clambered up it and flung his feet up so that he was balancing on the creature’s head, before flicking out his blade, which sliced its rider’s head from its shoulders. As the Vampire died, Peg reversed his blade and stabbed the Elebull through its thick skull. The huge buffalo-like creature emitted a tortured shriek and then died, crashing to the floor with such force that the ground shook.
Peg waited until the beast was on its way to the floor and somersaulted from its back. He landed nimbly in front of another of the massive beasts. The Elebull tried to gore him on one of its two branch-thick horns, but Peg simply grabbed the buffalo’s natural weapon and us
ed it to help him spring on to its back. Having seen the first Elebull die, the Vampire riding this one leant forward in its saddle and tried to slash at Peg. However, the agile Nunnupi simply stepped back from the untrained blow, causing the Vampire to overbalance.
Peg watched as the un-dead warrior fell forward and then severed its head from its body. As his blow struck, it bit into the Elebull’s back, causing it to rear up, nearly throwing Peg from its back. Peg however, managed to dance gracefully up its back and clamber onto its head. With as much venom as he could muster, he stabbed his blade through the beast’s skull.
As the Elebull came crashing to the floor and the Nunnupi King rolled out of harm’s way, the Elven archers opened fire on the remaining Vampires on their carnivorous buffalo mounts. The deadly cloud of white arrows arced through the air and then as Peg scrambled away from the Elebulls, fell towards their targets, serving up death as they struck home. As soon as the first volley thudded into the thick hides of the huge beasts, the archers released another salvo.
Peg watched, as the Elebulls died en masse, knowing that the Vampires would rise to attack, once their injuries had healed. He did not have to wait for long before the first of the un-dead warriors rose. Seeing the disoriented creature look around for support, Peg allowed his blood lust to get the better of him and charged towards it.
At the last moment, the Vampire realised that it was under attack, but it was too slow to react. Peg lifted his blade and slashed at the beast, stabbing it through the heart. As his opponent burst into flames, he stepped back and smiled. However, the expression slipped from his face when he suddenly realised that he was on his own and over a hundred Vampires were standing close enough to attack.
Seeing Peg’s situation, Galivan slashed a silver-armoured warrior across the throat and rushed across to the archers, who were reloading. He grabbed Limi and spun him around before shouting, “Aim at the hearts of the Vampires. If you don’t fire quickly, they will kill King LilPeg.”
Hearing this, Limi, in a move, which would have made his Grandfather, of the same name, so proud, rushed towards Peg. Firing a salvo of arrows into the Vampires with such speed that it almost seemed impossible, he sprinted to help the Nunnupi King. Seeing him charging forward, the remaining archers followed suit and soon another blanket of death was flying towards the Vampires.
As the cloud of arrows thudded into the creatures, Peg found himself facing two of the beasts. Peg made a feint forward and then struck left, but the Vampire closest parried the blow. The creature then sent an overhead blow whistling towards Peg with such force that although he managed to get his blade up, he stumbled backwards and fell over. He landed with such force that the clasp on his crystal brooch snapped, and rolled away from him. As the semi-precious jewellery piece bounced out of reach, his Mogya fled from him; leaving him exhausted and so weak that he could hardly lift his sword.
Peg peered up in terror, as the two blood-sucking warriors moved towards him. The closest to him, a blonde haired muscular example of his breed, laughed loudly, as he saw Peg struggling weakly. He then glanced up to see the archers reloading, so bent down, grabbed the body of a dead Vampire and held it in front of him like a shield.
As he crept forward, keeping his fallen comrade in front of him, the archers released another salvo. The arrows sped towards the surviving Vampires, who were charging towards them, killing most of them, before they could reach them. However, a few managed to get through, so the archers dropped their bows, drew their swords and sped to meet them.
Omni roared angrily and then sped towards the vampires. As he closed with the un-dead warriors, his axe rose and fell with such ferocity that every one of the pale creatures that tried to fight him died in an instant.
Peg watched as a multitude of arrows embedded themselves into the second Vampire that was moving towards him, killing it instantly. However, the body of the dead warrior had saved the closest Vampire. After looking up to see that the archers were too busy to fire any more, it threw its limp companion to one side and stepped confidently towards the fallen Nunnupi. Suddenly, as Peg stared up, a huge shadow blocked the moon from view and then bit the Vampire’s head clean off.
Peg stared up in a mix of fear and relief, as Primero growled, “Look after yourself Peg, I like you and would be very upset if you died.”
Peg sighed and nodded, before lifting himself to his feet and limping back towards the honour guard.
Primero watched him go, making sure he had made it safely to the secure perimeter behind the huge Sentinels. The majestic Dragon then sped across to where Muru and Manil were battling ferociously with a company of silver-armoured infantry.
Manil sent his hammer crashing into an enemy soldier’s ribs and then risked a glance up at the Dragon who was swooping towards them. As he did this, he spotted the silver-armoured commander riding behind the enemy infantry. He looked across at Galivan, who was wrestling with a large enemy soldier and roared, “He de ones who wanted to kill Manil wiv that fancy Elfish knife.”
Galivan twisted quickly, breaking his opponent’s grip and ducked low, before bringing his sword up as viciously as he could. The blade took the silver-armoured warrior through the chin, spraying crimson blood across Galivan’s grey leather armour. The Elven war leader spun towards Manil and nodded towards the enemy soldier, before growling, “Let’s make him pay.”
As he finished speaking, Muru drove his axe into the stomach of an enemy warrior trying to creep up on Galivan and then sprinted forward, cleaving a massive gash through the massed enemy ranks with Omni running by his side, cutting a similar swathe. Manil saw their charge and seeing that he was heading towards the enemy Officer, raced after him.
The aggression and anger, with which the Anlam warriors struck, drove the enemy back. This coupled with the might of the Sentinel warriors destroying their eastern flank, caused mad panic amongst them. However, just as they were about to flee, a strange haunting note echoed across the countryside. As Omni kicked an enemy soldier in the gut and then sent his axe cleaving into his chest, he risked a glance towards the sound. Despair erupted in his heart, as he saw the enemy cavalry charging across the plain towards him. Seeing Merihim’s Cavalry galloping over the plains, their armour glinting, gave the enemy courage and they began to fight harder.
The warrior still had not noticed the Anlam warriors trying to get to him; he continued to rally the enemy infantry. Seeing that he was still oblivious to their attempts, Manil sent his hammer crashing into the head of an infantry soldier, in a bid to get through their ranks to the colourful sash of their commander.
Muru sliced his blade through another’s sinewy neck and then, as his victim fell, charged through the gap he had left. Omni sped through after him and sent his axe sweeping left then right. Severing enemy limbs like butter, the Dwarven axe sent a message of panic through the infantry soldiers closest to him.
For a second Manil found himself isolated from his allies, but as he battled valiantly for survival, Galivan and Muru hacked their way towards him. As the three of them fought hard to get to the enemy commander, the Elven archers despatched the last of the Vampires and, finding themselves without an opponent, began firing indiscriminately into the enemy.
From their position, the Elven archers could not see Manil, Muru and Galivan, so they did not realise that they were firing upon their friends. However, by some strange fluke, none of the arrows touched the three whirling combatants.
As arrows rained around him, Manil lifted his hammer and crushed the chest of a silver-armoured warrior in front of him. He then spun and attacked another. As the arrows continued to fall, so did the enemy and very soon Manil found that he was free to charge at the mounted commander.
Manil sped towards the silver-armoured warrior, roaring fiercely, as he did so. The helmeted figure turned towards the troll and seeing that he was too close to do anything else, lifted his sword, preparing to drive it through him.
Manil, however, had anticipated this and as he drew
close enough for the warrior to stab him, he dipped his shoulder before rolling underneath the swinging blade. As he came up, he drove his hammer into the enemy horse’s legs and grabbed the silver-armoured warrior, pulling him from his saddle. Seeing the ease with which Manil had dealt with their commander, the remaining warriors fled, joining the mass of already fleeing infantrymen, who were running from the Sentinels.
Manil twisted his body, making it easier to drag the man from his falling horse. Forcibly, he pushed down with all his might, trying to crush the enemy soldier into the ground. As the heavy warrior crashed to the floor, his helmet bounced from his head, causing Manil to growl in disbelief. Galivan, who was gasping for breath, having just sprinted after the troll, immediately grasped his dagger and growled, “Well that explains how that dagger ended up in enemy hands.”
Lying on the floor, gasping for air, bleeding profusely was none other than Erion. Manil, who was still holding the traitorous Elf by the neck of his breastplate roared with anger and began dragging him roughly across the ground. He halted a few feet from where he had started and snarled, “You seld us all out. You be paying for that.” He then lifted his hammer and while holding the struggling Elf down, prepared to crush him. Galivan, however was quicker than Manil and managed to leap onto Erion, who was sobbing like a baby, stopping the troll from finishing his attack.
Manil managed to divert the heavy hammer, so that its head thudded into the floor mere inches from Erion’s head. Angry with Galivan for stopping him, Manil grabbed him by the straps of his grey Elven armour and lifted him off Erion before flinging him away. As he saw this, Erion erupted in floods of tears begging Manil, “Don’t kill me please.”
Galivan hit the floor, but rolled to his feet. Muru, who had just finished fighting an enemy soldier, knew exactly what Galivan was doing, so, as he noticed the Elf stand up, called, “Leave him Manil. We’ll put his fate in Bray’s hands, so don’t kill him. We may need him.”
Destruction of a God Page 13
