The hammer landed and the air was tossed away. Logan knew that someone had caught it.
His scalp tingled and goose bumps covered his body. His eyes shook as he saw them now. The breeze was enough to see the purple lights below. He strained his ears, hearing the sound of jogging for- mations, rushing to battle, to the call that pulled at their very bones.
He saw tens—no, hundreds, possibly thousands.
And then...then he heard them. The words once forgotten, but now spread to every corner of Dena once more.
“We fight the strong and the armed.
“We stand beside those who would stand beside us. “We stand for those who can’t stand for themselves. “We teach justice, not war.
“We drive for peace, not destruction.
“We will not look away from the world, whether it’s darkness or it’s light.
“We are the harbingers, the peace seekers, the blood letters, the god killers, and the farmers.
“To those who know these words, they know our oath.”
Their oath, their war cry, their vow that they honored, even in death.
***
Anthony yelled out as he blocked the Drafeng close combat with his sword. Claire created a spear of stone that shot up through the ground, piercing his body.
He heard it; he heard the oath; he heard the call he had an- swered. He looked back to see Guardians, wreathed in purple flames, armored knights and cloth-wearing mages.
Arrows shot out, killing the immediate Drafeng and giving An- thony and his group the space they needed.
“I swear that something is wrong with him,” a big armored ox complained as he rushed forward with a war hammer.
“Glutton for punishment, really,” a dwarf said, holding a stone hammer as the pistol barked in her hand, killing a chaotic beast.
“I thought that you were having a lie-in,” Anthony said, seeing Troga and Tairlyn once more.
“Making too much noise out here!” Troga yelled as he dove for- ward with his war axe, smashing through a Drafeng guard.
Anthony shot forward, taking the opening and killing the Drafeng.
A wave of wind came from behind, expelling the dust and snow to reveal the battlefield as the Guardian army smashed into the Drafeng army, tearing into them with abandon.
Shivernsin was revealed once more, a small mountain blocking the northern pass.
Anthony and his group had been pushed back again and again, which just happened to bringing them well within the range of Shiv- ernsin’s weapons.
Mages atop of Shivernsin worked together, calling down their attacks upon the Drafeng. Cannons and mortars adjusted their aim and fired.
All of Shivernsin was alive. Spells lashed down upon the Drafeng; cannonballs smashed holes within their army that had been forced to bunch up.
“Hold the line, you scabby bunch of bones!” Claire or- dered. “Ha! The war mage is fired up today!” someone called out.
Mages grouped together, buffing the Guardians and their bod- ies shone with brilliant power. They cut their line in the pass—Drafeng on one side, a wall of Guardians on the other.
Shivernsin supported them from the rear. There were no more Drafeng to charge in; they had no more forces left.
They fought savagely. The Guardians were cut down, but a flash of power from Claire was able to repair them and get them back in- to the fight.
The Drafeng’s fighting spirit wavered as they were unable to take a step forward or do anything. A noise came up from the Drafeng as the rear of the army turned and started to run.
Anthony and the others weren’t going to let them go that easily. They redoubled their efforts, expending all of the power that they had left. Shivernsin’s mages fought on with all of their power, ex-
pending all that they had as the cannons and mortars fired as fast as they could be reloaded.
The Drafeng front lines folded as everything behind them had fled already.
The Guardians and people of Shivernsin watched the fleeing Drafeng who passed their camp and kept running.
“I could do with a beer.” Troga rested his battle axe on his shoul-
der.
“You always want a beer,” Anthony said.
“Bad habit—drinking all the time, Mister Kagan,” Wendy tut- ted. “Sorry, ma’am,” Troga said, looking embarrassed.
Wendy smiled and hugged Tairlyn.
“Going to be hard to drink, you know, you being undead and
all,”
Tairlyn quipped.
Troga looked down at himself. “Ah crap.”
Wendy moved to him and he put his war axe down, hugging
the diminutive woman.
“It is good to see you both.” Wendy sighed, looking at them all.
Anthony felt that he was flying as he heard a thwang from some- where.
He passed over the Guardian in a big arc.
“Hey Steve!” He waved at the big Guardian, who let out a high- pitched squeal.
Huh, where is my hand? Anthony waved his hand and brought it up to his face.
“Who hit my he—ahh!” Anthony cried out as his head was pulled back in the direction it had come from.
He landed in Claire’s arms, looking up at her eyes. Oh shit!
“What were you thinking charging all the way out here with- out backup!”
“It worked out!”
“It worked out? Is that all you have to say for yourself !”
He could feel the mana in the area building up and he looked to his friends. Tommie studied rocks, Aila was whistling and look- ing at
the sky; his familiars were nowhere to be found. Wendy and Tairlyn were talking about something.
Troga flashed him a thumbs-up and an awkward smile that seemed to say you’ve got this... I hope?
“Could you possibly put my head back on my body?” “Just so you can run away?”
“No!” Damn!
Chapter: Shifting Tides
Two days later, Damien arrived with the forces of the Combined Army. With them, all of the fortresses watching the Northern Basin and the passes leading out of it were fully barracked and Shiv- ernsin now had a strike force that could advance forward.
“The plan, as it stands, is to use the mana restricting formation. With it, the doorways will have a harder time functioning and we can move forward without fear of the Drafeng getting more power. “It should reduce the rate that they can produce chaotic beasts.
Though, it will hamstring us as well. We can’t use mages within the area of effect. Magical tools will, however, work. The plan is to cre- ate a series of fortresses as we move north, like they have done in Cheon, to support one another as we advance,” Logan said.
“With that, it means that the Guardians and the mages in the area are rendered pretty much useless,” Aila said.
“Hey,” Troga complained.
“No more mana”—Tommie raised his hand and smacked it against his other hand—“lights out for the undead. Ask Anthony and Damien.”
“Feels worse than that time we got that Falerian ale,” Damien said.
“No thanks.” Troga held his hand to head in memory.
“So, the Guardians as well as a large number of mages will head to the northeast. There, we will meet up with the First and Third Fleet of the Island Alliance. They will ship us to Cheon and we can support them there.”
“Why Cheon and not to Cresmond Peak?” Logan asked. “Isn’t that where the fighting is the worst, other than here?”
“Yes, but it will take us longer to get to Cresmond Peak. Watch- er Cecilia believes that she can hold on there. I also talked to
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Tamarra, commanding the Island Alliance. When the Island Al- liance pushed
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into Cheon more, then the fighting at Cresmond and Shiv- ernsin in- creased in intensity. Though, in Cheon they are making camps, and although they’re fighting heavily, they’re not going all out like they have on the other two battlefronts.”
“Seems that something is up. If we were looking at just one bat- tle and we didn’t have the communication to know about the other bat- tlefields, we wouldn’t send people away for fear that we would be pressed too hard here,” Tairlyn said.
Logan and the other dwarves all looked at her with a kind of rev- erence. She was the reason that they had stayed in Shivernsin. She had created this home and was the first bearer of the Stone Hammer. To them, she was some kind of deity.
“So off to Cheon we go. Remember when we had to get rid of that group of demons that climbed out from the undercrust? I won- der how they’re doing,” Troga said.
“Undercrust?” Aila asked.
Tairlyn stomped her foot under the table and the sound of breaking bones could be heard.
“Oh, um, nothing, just you know, story tales, myths...legends!” Troga laughed and brought his fist up across his chest, as if some jolly sailor.
Everyone looked at him in suspicion and Aila cleared her throat. “We will head out by the end of the day and reach the harbor
in two days. It will take us another four to five days to reach Cheon from there by boat.”
“Where are Claire and Anthony? I wanted to thank them as well,” Logan said.
“They’re having a little chitchat,” Wendy said.
“Oh, and you might want to have the builders take a look at the block of housing they’re in,” Tairlyn said awkwardly.
“Why? What happened?”
“They’re having a little chitchat,” Wendy repeated, wincing as she held her forefinger and thumb together.
“Ri—ght,” Logan said slowly, nodding but not quite getting what they were talking about.
Chapter: Plans on Both Sides
Axion was tired. Everyone in the damn army was tired. Today, they were getting reinforcements: the Ninth Army and the remainder of the Army of Light. He didn’t much care for the people from the Church of Light. As long as they did their job, he didn’t much care where they came from. His people were spread all over the place. The fortress plan was working but they couldn’t cover everything. The Drafeng led attacks all the time, looking to make their way through their lines.
With it, he had to make sure that there was sufficient strength in each of them before they moved forward or else there was the threat that they might fall in the next surprise attack.
The First and Third Fleet had headed off to the west to get the forces that were gathering there. The rest of the navy was moving back and forth between the isles and Cheon, supplying them with the food, ammunition, and even water they needed. Cheon was an inhospitable rock with little drinking water. The supply fort to the rear did their best, removing the salt from the water but it was more work than getting water from the islands.
They were stripping gunners from the defenses that covered the islands. Thousands of Epan and Ilsal soldiers and sailors were now on the shores of Cheon.
“With your army, we can add four, maybe five more fortresses to the chain we’ve created. That should take us a week or so to com- plete. The farther we go, the longer our supply lines become and the shorter that it is for the Drafeng. They are getting a near con- stant supply of reinforcements from their rear,” he explained to the Guardian who had been put in place of the Army of Light and Sun Tao from the Ninth Army.
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“The Army of Light will move supplies between the different camps. From what I hear, their combat standards and organization are somewhat lacking?” He looked at the Guardian.
“You could put it that way.” She grimaced.
“Then we’ll go ahead with that. We will now have supplies com- ing in once every three days, which should allow us to in- crease the pressure on the enemy without worrying about our ex- penditure as much. Admiral Raye should be returning in four to five days. I am told that he has a full army of Guardians as well as mages who are coming with him. That will reduce the number of cannons we have to use, increasing our firepower. And the Guardians can allow us to whittle down the Drafeng faster as they will not be able to recover as much of their strength with them handy purple flames annoying them.”
A few smiled in the room. It was a tough fight, but the end was in sight. They were advancing on all fronts. A few weeks or months—it was just a matter of time now until they entered the area where the Drafeng doorways lay, the mysterious camp that they had been un- able to look into.
“Looks like this battle is in the bag.”
“Not until there are no Drafeng left will we be able to say it is done,” Axion said. “They’re smarter than you would think and they’re not afraid to lose their people if they think that they can gain an advantage. A cold, professional, and ruthless enemy is not a simple opponent,” Axion warned. He had learned how the Drafeng weren’t just beasts but tacticians and good commanders.
***
Khurok studied the harvesters once again. All of the tests had shown that they were working properly. In just three more days, they would take to the skies.
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Looking at the map in front of him, he saw the different camp positions that had been crossed off and the growing number of fortresses that dotted Cheon.
Using the fortresses, the enemy was able to gain supporting fire whenever they moved. He sent as many Drafeng and chaotic beasts as he could spare to the front; there were none left in their home- land anymore. The planet was bare of anything that had once lived.
He still needed thousands of them working on the har- vesters.
Nothing could slow their progress.
“With the enemy force and positions, it appears that we will be able to complete the harvesters well ahead of the enemy reaching our main camp,” Oru said.
“Good. Enya has done well. These races of Dena are smart. But with being smart, they think of us as nothing but dumb brutes, which will be their downfall. What of the reports from the north- ern passage?”
“We do believe that the reports were right. There were Guardians who attacked and held fast, defending the main fortress that they have there. Yesterday, they used a new tactic. Using some kind of tool, they were able to deprive the area of what they call mana and the power of Dena. It has slowed the production rate of chaotic beasts significantly, though they are also unable to use their mages and have to rely on their melee fighters, familiars, and tech- nology.”
“Though to see if their fighters or ours are better in such an en- vi- ronment waits to be seen,” Khurok said.
“This is not confirmed, but it is thought that the large force that appeared on the battlefield are Guardians. They are not among the ranks of the people who are attacking the northern pass.”
“If they are not in the north, then they must have gone some- where.” Khurok looked at the detailed map outlining the different cities and towns. “Two of the fleets that have been resting in our shores headed west, did they not?”
“Yes, Leader.”
Khurok tapped a city on the map. “The closest port to the north- ern pass is this Port Frostfinger.” He traced back to Cheon. “If they are coming from there, then the harvesters will be complete and ac- tive before they even reach Selenus waters.” Khurok dis- missed them and turned his eyes to Cresmond Peak, putting his sharp finger on the point.
“The other remaining main camp has been attacked repeatedly. The commander there reports that he thinks they are working to cast some powerful spell. He has been unable to break through their lines.”
“Have them hold their strength now. Without plans in motion, there is nothing that the enemy can do to stop us now. We will head to Cresmond Peak with the harvesters. The weakest armies are there. If we can break them there, then we can send out our forces through the main continent, retaking it again, building up the strength that we need to take Shivernsin in the north. While they think that they have us stuck in these places, the harvesters will give us mobility that they can’t hope to match. They might rule the seas with their navy but it will ta
ke them time to move all of the force that is in Cheon. And if they leave, then we can just return. It will be hard for them to pin us down as we wear away their num- bers,” Khurok said.
Oru let out a noise of agreement.
Chapter: Port Frostfinger
Aila thought she saw a familiar face. “Su?”
“Huh?” The goat kin man looked around, his eyes meeting Aila’s. “Aila!” he called out with a laugh and bowed to her.
“Huh, it is Caravan Leader Su,” Tommie said, wandering over.
Anthony and Troga, who were behind him, wandered over as well.
“Gus! You won’t believe who I ran into!” Su called out. “Who is it?” Gus, the elephant kin guard, walked around the
car- avan and saw them. “Hey!” He gave them a big smile. The rest of the people from the caravan turned and came over, greeting them.
“What are you doing here?” Aila asked.
“Well, I guess that we are your drivers once again. We just got up here with supplies and now we’re heading to Port Frostfinger,” Su said.
“These must be the two from the caravan who you saved from cultists,” Troga said, standing beside Anthony.
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