by Rosie Scott
I handed the binoculars back to Maggie. “Rek and his orcs are safe but massively outnumbered. They stayed in the north where they've been camping. Terran evidently had to work around them to destroy the wall.”
“And yet they live,” Cyrus pointed out, scanning over the battlefield frantically. “Your decision to ally with brutes may be one of the best you've ever made.” He glanced over at Azazel. “Do you see Zephyr?”
“Zephyr fights at the northern gates,” Azazel replied. Following his direction, I finally saw the Sentinel on her favored white griffon in the skies. Spreading her arms wide, Zephyr called upon the heavens just outside of the rubble. With rumbling protests, a lightning storm developed over the fallen northern gate. Bolts of electricity zapped out of the skies, each one removing a handful of foes from the fight and releasing wisps of smoke. As the storm neared its completion, multiple fireballs and a boulder roared back toward Zephyr in retaliation. Her griffon dodged the first two, but the ward surrounding the duo flickered as a fireball hit it, then disappeared with the boulder. Zephyr's mount scrambled back in the air, its two massive wings attempting to right itself. Even when tumbling back, Zephyr refreshed their protections. The griffon regained its composure, but only seconds away from crashing into the side of a tall building.
“Kai.” Holter's voice brought my attention to where the scout walked beside Nyx. Puffs of smoke escaped his dark lips in the cold, but he pulled his shirt over his head anyway. “I'm going in.”
I respected the mutual camaraderie between Holter and Zephyr just as much as I respected his decision to support her now. Holter noticed the approval in my eyes and handed his satchel to Nyx before stopping to undress the rest of the way in the plains. He wore only his boots and trousers, and the ring I'd given him glimmered against his purple-bronze chest. “Guide us from the skies,” I called back to him. Our armies marched forward as Holter's cries broke through the air.
“Marcus,” Cyrus called.
The giant perked up from far to the left and replied, “Yeah, boss?”
Cyrus pointed south. “At my signal, I want your unit to flank the cavalry surrounding the hyenas. Protect the Naharans at all costs.”
Marcus lifted his spangenhelm and secured it on his large head just before turning back to his men. “Ready to kick some ponies, boys?”
“Neigh,” one giant replied dryly, before she laughed.
Calder jogged up just behind us from where his beastmen hugged our right flank. “I'll be taking on the western cavalry,” he informed me, pointing to the unit that was demolishing the undead outside the west wall. “Horses got nothing on me. I'll keep raising the dead and fight my way north.”
“Good idea,” I agreed.
“I'll aid you,” Dax called over to Calder.
“I'd appreciate it.” Calder gave Dax a quick salute before cupping his hand over my shoulder as we walked. “Good luck with your brother, love. Normally I'd say not to do anything crazy, but that might be ideal about now.”
“You'd never advise against being crazy,” I replied.
“Nah,” Calder agreed with a charming smile. “Maybe not.”
“Be safe,” I pleaded. Calder wrinkled up his nose playfully like my worry flattered him and hurried back to order his men to transform.
“Kai,” Cyrus's eyes attempted to read mine as I met his gaze. “Plan? I will try to keep my armies out of your way.”
“I will do my best to only lose control over open land and in masses of enemies,” I replied. “I don't know where Terran is, but right now my main concern is ensuring Chance is safe, the castle isn't raided, and the Serans are driven out of Comercio. I will lead my army through its western gate, aid our defenders, and fight against the northern onslaught to push them back. Terran's primary objective is killing me. If he thinks I'm here, he will storm the castle.”
“If you come across your brother in the city, your people will be at risk in your rage,” Cyrus reminded me.
“I will do my best to control it,” I repeated. Catching Azazel's gaze, I added, “If at any time I lose control, I give you permission to lead the army in my stead and disable me.”
“Kai.” Nyx's voice strained with concern as she warned, “Don't forget about my intel. Terran has a new friend. I don't really think we should disable you.”
“I'll consider that,” Azazel assured her. To Cyrus, he added, “I will watch Kai and keep her safe.”
Cyrus nodded once in respect to Azazel and said to me, “This will be yet another battle we can reminisce about in awe years from now, Kai. We will be victorious. If I lose my life in this battle, know that I was happy to give it in service to you.”
“Do not speak of death, Cy,” I replied. “Your future is bright yet.”
Uriel and Hasani finished doling out orders to their men. As Holter soared overhead on his way to Zephyr, his approach alerted some of our enemies to the reinforcements coming from the west. All our armies knew their orders and placements, so Cyrus waited no longer to announce our arrival.
HUUURRRNNNNN!
Zephyr glanced to the west, and even from our distance I recognized the immense relief that flooded over her pale face. The Sentinel screamed out a string of words to Comercio's defenders I couldn't ascertain, but Azazel soon informed me she alerted the men of our arrival to boost their morale.
Marcus and the giants plunged ahead, closing in on the Chairel cavalry in the south with frighteningly long gaits in record time. At the end of their charge, horses in full gear flew at the mercy of kicks and swipes of giant weapons. Riders were dislodged and trampled. One unfortunate woman was thrown from her saddle only for a Naharan hyena to snatch her head in mid-flight with already bloodied jaws. The beast chomped down on the skull, shattering it easily. The headless corpse fell to the grasses as the hyena broke down bone and brain matter. On its back, its rider was amid melee.
As deadly as the hyenas were against Chairel's horses, their vastly smaller numbers worked against them. As Hasani feared, his cavalry was nearly demolished. Mounts and riders splayed across the southern plains in puddles of blood. It was harder to kill the hyenas than their riders, however; many of the beasts roamed the plains, gathering in packs and whooping to one another before chasing an unsuspecting horse or infantryman. Some hyenas simply jogged through the battlefield, picking out corpses and tugging them out of the fray to feed.
Calder and his beastmen were next to attack, rushing past us with the extra speed of their blood-kin. After his army pulled out ahead, they veered left, moving to attack the western cavalry just as he'd informed me. The Chairel cavalrymen re-evaluated and formed a new charging formation. In the field between the horses and the western wall were thousands of old, decomposing corpses from our first battle here. These undead were defeated, and the necromancers Zephyr stationed behind the battlements focused more on fighting in the breached city now. Calder summoned the dead from their rest, and the beastmen under his wing with access to death magic did the same. Black tendrils slithered over the grasses like snakes, alarming the horses before the rising dead distressed their riders. Someone gave the order to charge, but few of the cavalry could follow it. Recently defeated corpses surrounded their ranks as a distraction; then the beastmen bombarded them with magic, teeth, claws, and talons.
As we drew ever nearer to Comercio, our armies parted ways to focus on different areas of the battlefield. I led my men toward the western gate where Calder's army tore through horse and man. Hasani's men soon reinforced the southern enemy force already tackled by the giants as he sought to protect his dwindling cavalry. Cyrus and his remaining two Sentinels spread their armies like the blades of a trident to flank the northern forces.
Cerin nudged my upper arm and pointed north. Walking alone and ahead of the Sentinels toward the massive northern enemy force was Hades. The god of the dead was a smudge of black amid green armor and red sprays of blood as he infiltrated the flanks of the enemies unnoticed. A few seconds after Hades disappeared behind the
Chairel ranks, an explosion of black fog that mimicked my gigantic fire bomb during the Battle of Hallmar darkened the northern horizon, seeping under and over the bodies of still-standing victims. All at once, hundreds dropped. The corpses of horses crushed the bodies of their riders as they fell mid-march. Hades stood still as the masses hit the ground in an enormous diameter around his boots. Finally, the Chairel Army noticed the god's arrival. Battle cries broke out as soldiers charged, but Hades only appeared mildly amused. He sent more death magic to his feet. Thousands of tendrils skittered across the battlefield, raising a new army.
The frontlines of my army fell into shadow as we neared Comercio's western gate. Azazel blew through his war horn, catching Calder's attention. The lizard-kin jumped off a recent kill and found Azazel's eyes through the crowd. When Azazel motioned for him to pull his army north, Calder complied, urging his men out of our way with hisses and arm movements.
When the beastmen moved, I built stone and metal golems out of the land as Azazel ordered our allies on the wall to open the gate. The gigantic entryway creaked and whined as it complied. The western road just before us was clear, but in the cross-section far ahead, allies rampaged to the north and were getting battered back by the magic of Chairel mages. Many allies were safe as they used alteration shields to their advantage, but countless foes used the same tactic. The center of Comercio was thus a deadly tug-of-war between mages determined to be the first to gain the upper hand.
“We fight our way northeast to the castle!” I shouted back to my men as our army neared the chaotic intersection.
Those on both sides of the battle overheard my orders. It overwhelmed allies with relief to be reinforced. Many were injured, leaking blood and pus over the road. I waved my arm to the south and yelled, “Defenders! Pull back to recover!”
The order was happily followed. Fatigued defenders retreated southward, and the Chairel forces hung back in the intersection as they re-evaluated due to my arrival. A few of the enemy soldiers regenerated their alteration shields in anticipation of my magic.
Creatius la magma projectille a multipla. The magical barriers in my hands vibrated intensely with the density of the elements that formed within them. Some foes took one look at the spell and spun in fear to retreat. The Chairel general at the forefront of her men screamed directives at them to stay. “Retreat is not an option! We do not leave Comercio until it is ours!”
“How unfortunate for you,” I declared. “I intend on keeping it.”
I lifted both hands and propelled the magic forward. Comercio's center cross-section lit up neon orange as balls of molten lava flew through the crowds. The magma projectiles hit alteration shields and splattered, splashing over dozens of warriors in a radius with a hiss. Screams rattled against the nearby structures as unprotected soldiers melted, their skin and armor degrading and merging as one. Those with alteration guards absorbed some of the spell's energy, but the heavy element combination weighed down the protections. The tops of guards everywhere throughout the crowds chipped away until they disappeared, leaving the soldiers attempting to flee before the puddles of lava on the ground could melt through their boots and to their feet.
The enemy unit was in absolute pandemonium as men tried to either retreat or combat the lava. One mage farther back in their ranks retaliated by sending a tidal wave of water through the area. The gushing river engulfed man, corpse, and lava alike, sweeping down the street and evolving the magma into igneous rock. Some of my soldiers scrambled back to avoid the wave, but I walked forward to face it.
The water mage clearly had excess energy from alteration shields, for the wave roared with an intensity that rattled the panes of glass in nearby store windows as it swept up to overtake me with its crest. Bodies both living and dead were blurry streaks of green and black in the rushing water just before I turned it to ice. Much like in Celendar, the wave came to a standstill like a blockade in the intersection as it froze from where I stood back to the mage who summoned it. Screams and orders echoed over the ice wall, and the tidal wave dispelled. Within the ice, multiple Chairel soldiers were stuck in place after getting caught up in their comrade's spell. One of these men stared directly at me, his gaze panicked and mouth agape as he suffocated in solid ice. I summoned two new spells, watching the man's skin blacken and the capillaries in his eyes burst from asphyxiation before I sent them forward.
Giant ice spikes propelled out of the elemental blockade and toward the army on the other side. The only indication they hit was the audible blood splatter that fanned out after each impalement. I summoned more and more spikes until my side of the wall weakened with holes as the magic pulled whole sections of ice forward to give into my request. Cracks etched through the remaining blockade as it prepared to break and dismantle on its own.
Generat gusto le air. I drained my life energy into the air spell so I could achieve the desired effect. I thrust my palms at the impaired wall of ice, forcing a powerful wind gust into its concave weak points as my hair whipped back from my face, kissing my cheeks and neck like tiny knives.
With the overbearing ring of shattering glass, the frozen roadblock burst outward into the Chairel Army. Chunks of ice and mutilated frigid corpses flew through the air like shrapnel. The flood of foes in the road ahead folded under a barrage of weighted debris. Some fell dead from blunt force trauma while corpses and ice cubes buried and incapacitated others. With the blockade shattered and the closest enemies stumbling for ground, many orbs of black magic were thrown by allies into the area to collect energy from still-recovering foes. My string of relentless attacks pushed the enemies in the street to the defensive, allowing our frontlines to gain the upper hand. Newly refreshed with the life force of my brother's men, I led my army north.
When we reached the castle courtyard, it was cluttered with Chairel soldiers who met us in battle with gusto. The castle doors Maggie had upgraded a year ago were busted and shattered, and the echoes of crashes and frantic footsteps resounded from inside. One of the nearest defenders took one look at me before turning to the castle and screaming, “Terran! Your sister is—”
Shink!
The man's screams were interrupted and replaced with a geyser of blood that chased his head as it separated from the neck due to the acute edge of Cerin's scythe. The necromancer immediately engaged another in melee and yelled over at me, “Looks like we found him, Kai!”
“I'm going in,” I called back, nodding toward the castle when my lover glanced over. “Stay here and help the others guard the courtyard.”
“I'm coming with you!” Cerin insisted, ripping his blade through to his foe's spine. When the man went still, paralyzed, Cerin finished the job by absorbing his life force and letting the body fall.
“You know better than to follow me into battle against him, Cerin,” I argued, stealing lives out of fleshy vessels. “He wants you dead.”
“As he wants you dead!” Cerin yelled with exasperation. “I do not fear your brother, Kai. I never have. Terran can try to kill me all he wants. He won't lay a fucking hand on you.”
“Don't fear Terran. Fear me,” I pleaded. “I cannot know if I will be able to control myself in his presence. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you as collateral damage. Stay here, Cerin. I want to go alone.”
“You always go alone!” Cerin shouted, frustration and anger bleeding through his voice. He made his inner turmoil even clearer as he butchered his next two enemies. “I let you go alone in Hallmar and could have lost you to your rage. You want to talk about not being able to live with yourself if I died in combat? How do you think I would feel if you died after I let you go? I will not keep stepping back to let you face everything alone. Let me support you!”
My nostrils flared with indecision. The desperation on Cerin's voice was palpable, but the last person in the world I wanted following me into a fight with Terran was him. There was no one my brother wanted dead more.
“If you truly wish to support me, respect my decision now,”
I finally stated. “I will not lead you straight into my brother's path. I came back safe in Hallmar. I will come back safe here.” I turned to Azazel and said, “If Cerin tries to follow me, stop him.”
“Fucking hell, Kai,” Cerin breathed with frustration after overhearing, releasing hundreds of necromantic tendrils at his boots. “Talk sense into her, Azazel!”
Azazel exhaled heavily as he loosed arrows into the crowds. “You shouldn't go alone without a backup plan, Kai, particularly when you will be contained and not on an open battlefield. Deep down, you know this.”
“I will take someone with me,” I told him, my voice low to keep my lover from overhearing. “But it will not be Cerin. I have nightmares of Terran killing him.” I swallowed hard and added, “If I bring Cerin closer to Terran and he is killed as a result, I fear for everyone in Comercio.”
Azazel listened to this and nodded as he understood. “Cerin,” he called, catching the other man's attention. “Kai's main concern is you. If you are injured, the city could be at risk in her rage. I think it is best if you stay back.”
“Is this you or her speaking?” Cerin asked, his voice pained.
“Both of us,” Azazel replied. “I can go with her. I'll watch her back and try to keep her focused. You know nothing will happen to her if I'm there.”
