Trials of a Champion

by Thomas O'Gorman

  “I assure you I am no coward, yet I don’t have a death wish. If you attack the wizards, you are signing death warrants for your men. No responsible leader would do such a thing. I certainly won’t, and I won’t join you in such madness.”

  “I don’t need you or your men, but I tell you what. I will make it a volunteer mission for my men if you allow your men to volunteer as well.”

  “I will agree to that if you agree not to attack the wizards unless you have at least 100 men join you.”

  “Done.”

  “Done,” said Vennon. He walked off, presumably to warn his men not to go on Tiga’s mission. Tiga didn’t care. She would go stab the giant by herself despite what she told Vennon.

  Three hours later the scouts returned. They told Tiga that they had found twenty guards surrounding the wizards camp. Each of the wizards had their own tent and the tents were guarded by two guards for each tent. Most of the wizards were bedded down but the big one was roaring in pain from the wound he had taken earlier that day. He was in the middle of the camp and five wizards were creating some sort of spell which was torturing a human woman and her child. The humans were screaming in agony unceasingly.

  Tiga thanked the scouts and went down the adit into the cavern where the soldiers were gathered. She gave a loud whistle to get their attention.

  “Men, you may have heard by now that my uncle, King Arkyn, was probably killed today by the giant wizard. That wizard is hurt and practically defenseless right now, but within the hour he may be healed. He is the most powerful wizard amongst the enemy and if his health is restored, he will kill many more of our brothers and sisters. I say it is time to stop this monster now. The scouts say he is reachable, and again he is hurt and defenseless. The other wizards are sleeping and will be easy to kill. I am making this mission voluntary, because I want willing participants to help me take revenge for my uncle, the King! If you are of Skal then I say it is your duty to fight with me, even though your commander refuses to do so. If you are Avish then stand with me, Captain Tiga Vaux, in protecting our fellow soldiers and avenging the death of a friend to Aviel, the uncle of Delver Kide, and my uncle, King Arkyn. Who is with me?”

  Every soldier in the room shouted “Aye”! Vennon couldn’t believe it, and after the shouts from the men rang out, he walked toward Tiga.

  “Your words cast a spell on everyone here, including me. I recant what I said earlier, I will join you in this attack.”

  Another shout rang out from the soldiers in the cave.

  “Prepare yourselves for stealth, no metal armor,” Tiga said. “Bring bows in case the wizards try to fly away from us. We launch the attack in ten minutes.”

  An hour later Tiga’s troops were positioned on the outskirts of the wizard camp. They surrounded the camp and were dispersed evenly. The camp was on a flat stretch of ground that fell away at the opposite end from where Tiga’s troops were. Beyond that a battalion of Menegar were camped. The scouts’ report proved accurate. There were fifty tents on the flat ground. The area was patrolled by twenty Menegar that were equally spaced apart. Tiga could see in the moonlight the tents that were guarded by two guards a piece. She could hear the wails of the woman and child, who looked to be a ten-year-old girl. She almost wretched at the sight of them. Their skin was stripped away by the spell the wizards were using on them. Tiga forced herself to look away. She was afraid all she could do for them was put them out of their misery.

  “Vennon, my plan is to have 280 of the men form groups of four,” Tiga said. “Twenty of the four-man groups will take out the perimeter guards in the first action. Fifty of the four-man groups will attack the guards at the tents next. While the guards are occupied, 200 of the soldiers will also form four-man groups and will attack each wizard tent. While all this is going on, I will lead the 100 soldiers that killed the perimeter guards and attack the big wizard and the five wizards that are with him.”

  “This is your mission,” Vennon said. “I support whatever strategy you propose.”

  “Do you think it is a sound strategy?” Tiga asked.

  “It is as sound as any other strategy of attacking fifty wizards.”

  “Lieutenant Cleft pass those orders back. I want your fifty and Lieutenant Wright’s men attacking the perimeter guards. Have the Skal attack the guards at the tents with the 169th Company. Lieutenants Bell and Rend will attack the wizards.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” Lieutenant Cleft said. She turned and silently went to pass along the orders. She came back when she was done. “Your orders have been disseminated ma’am.”

  “Good,” Tiga said. “Pass the orders for the first wave to commence when you see your neighbor attack.” Cleft passed the word. Tiga crept closer to the patrol line and her soldiers followed. She silently moved as close as she dared without being seen in the moonlight and waited in the shadows with her men. She waited until the patrolman closest to her turned away from her then she rushed to attack the Menegar. She ran up to him quietly and stabbed him in the back. The sword missed the Menegar’s armor and slid through his back, coming out on the other side of his body. He made a small gasp and slumped to the ground. He made the most noise when he hit the ground but Tiga and the soldiers in her group had already run to the next guard, but he was dead too. The group next to Tiga’s took care of him. Tiga motioned for her group to be still. No indications of an alarm being raised were heard.

  Tiga sent Cleft to tell the second waive to attack after five minutes of waiting in silence. Soon men were running past her toward the tents. That was the signal for the first waive of troops to rush to the north side of the camp, where the big wizard was. Tiga and the soldiers around her took off running. As she approached her target, she heard sounds of fighting and screaming. One hundred soldiers arrived at the same time where the big wizard was being healed. The five wizards had noticed the fighting amongst the tents and had formed a protective circle around the big wizard. Tiga and her soldiers had stopped running, but Tiga saw that each of the wizards was preparing a spell.

  “Attack!” Tiga yelled. The 100 men converged on the wizards. Just as they were about to reach them, the wizards unleashed deadly fire spells that burned the men that the magic hit to the bone, killing them instantly. Half the men were wiped out by the spells but the brave soldiers of Aviel did not stop and fifty reached the five wizards. The wizards tried to fly away but three of them were killed before they could take off. The other two escaped. They didn’t fly away though, but rather they circled the fifty men and threw more fire spells at them. Most of the men avoided the spells from the air, but ten of the men died from the aerial attack. Some of the remaining men picked up their bows and shot at the wizards. Their aim was true, and they knocked the two wizards out of the air.

  Tiga turned her attention toward the big wizard. Just as she was about to approach him, she heard screams in the air. She looked up and saw four more wizards shooting spells down at her men. The men had learned to avoid the spells and that an attack opportunity with arrows presented itself after the wizards attacked. Her soldiers shot down three of them. The fourth somehow recognized that Tiga was the leader of the attack, and she dived toward Tiga and launched a beam of red light that would have hit Tiga in the eyes if she had not moved at the last minute. She dove and rolled as the wizard zoomed passed her holding a wicked dagger.

  The wizard circled back and launched another spell at Tiga, who hit the ground to avoid it. Several of her men launched arrows at her but she was very agile and avoided the arrows. She dove at Tiga again and this time Tiga was too slow to move out of her way and the wizard cut her deeply in the shoulder. Tiga shuddered in pain and fell to the ground.

  Cleft came to tend to her but Tiga pushed her away.

  “Cleft stay away from me!” Tiga shouted. “Do you want to get killed?”

  Tiga willed herself to get up. The wizard had circled around in the air but this time she aimed her spell at Cleft, who was hit directly in the chest. She died instantly.

>   “Bitch!” Tiga yelled. “It is me you want, come after me!”

  The wizard swooped down and made ready to swing her blade at Tiga, but one of her soldiers nailed her in the thigh with an arrow and sent her spinning out of control. She flew close to Tiga, and Tiga swung her blade hard and the wizard’s head went flying in a separate direction than her body. Her ponytail whipped around and around until her head landed with a thud and splattered.

  Tiga’s wound burned but she ignored the pain. She turned toward the big wizard and started walking toward him. To Tiga’s surprise, he stood up when she came close. He flicked his wrist and grey mist surrounded them. The mist blocked out all the sound of the fighting, and it was quiet.

  “Who are you?” Aryogar asked in some language that sounded foreign to Tiga, yet she could understand it.

  “You should know the name of the person that will kill you,” Tiga said. “I am Tiga Vaux.”

  “You have a power, one I haven’t felt before,” Aryogar said. “Has a god touched you? Are you a wizard?”

  “I am no wizard, and as far as I know, I am just an ordinary woman.”

  “No, you are not ordinary. Vaux. I know this name. Winn Vaux, he is your brother, isn’t he?”

  “How did you know that?”

  Aryogar answered by launching a fireball at Tiga. Tiga dove to the right but not far enough. The ball of fire engulfed Tiga’s feet and she felt the searing heat, but not a burn. She looked down at her legs and saw that her leather boots were burned away along with her stockings, but her feet were not even red. Her legs were bare as well and luckily the fire ball burned only up to her mid thighs. She realized that the spell had no effect on her. She jumped up and charged Aryogar. He threw an ice spell that only made her shiver and her skin get goose bumps. She ran on towards Aryogar. When she got close, he pulled out what was a knife to him, but a huge sword to her, and swung at Tiga. Tiga knew that the strength behind the blow would make it impossible to block. She dove under the swing and jumped up only to see Aryogar’s fist coming toward her face. Tiga dove but Aryogar hit her in the shoulder and knocked her back.

  That was his wounded arm. They must have healed it enough to give him mobility with it.

  Tiga recovered from the strike as another sword stroke came at her. It was a low swing and she was able to jump over it. She looked for another swing from his wounded arm and it came in the form of an overhand blow. She jumped to the left at the last minute and slammed her sword into Aryogar in the area above the hip, sliding her sword in up to the hilt. Aryogar bellowed in pain and backhanded Tiga forcefully. She flew back five span and hit the ground hard. As she struggled to get up Aryogar went down on one knee, his abdomen bleeding heavily. He was digging for Tiga’s sword, which was still impaled in Aryogar. Tiga got up and pulled her dagger. She ran toward the distracted Aryogar and when she got close, she jumped as high as she could and stuck her dagger in Aryogar’s neck. She fell to the ground and had to roll away because Aryogar was falling towards her. After he fell, she got up and felt for his breath, and there was none. The grey ether dissipated and suddenly she could hear fighting again.

  “Ma’am thank goodness you are OK,” Bell said breathlessly as he ran up to Tiga. We couldn’t see what was happening because of the grey mist. We tried to go through it to help you, but we couldn’t pass through it.”

  “It is OK,” Tiga said. “I don’t have any major wounds, but my shoulders are both very sore. I don’t know if I can lift a sword over my head.”

  “How did you survive against that monster?”

  “He didn’t use any magic,” Tiga lied. “He tried to beat me using his brute strength. I was too quick for him.”

  Before Cleft could ask about more details, Vennon ran up to them.

  “We must pull back now. Most of the wizards are dead but a few escaped and flew to the main Menegar camp and raised the alarm. The Menegar are about to converge on us.”

  “No need for secrecy now,” Tiga said. She pulled a bugle out of pack she was carrying around her waist. “I knew we would want to retreat quickly.” She blew the signal to retreat to the mine in all haste. “Come on, run!”

  The moonlight helped them to run without falling and breaking their necks, but it helped the enemy as well. As they ran Tiga kept looking back, and the Menegar were keeping pace with them. The Menegar were going to see them enter the mine, then they would be trapped. The Menegar would keep them from escaping the cave and would eventually find their hide out inside the mine. The problem was there was no good alternative. If they went up Crystal Mountain, the Menegar would surround it and snuff them out. If they ran on in the open countryside, they would tire and the Menegar would pick them off and eventually kill them. At least in the mine they could make a stand. She would rather die in a strategic fight than be hunted down like an animal.

  They ran for half an hour before they reached the entrance to the mine. They were ten minutes ahead of the Menegar.

  “Vennon, how many men do you have now?” Tiga asked.

  “140. I lost 101,” Vennon said.

  “I lost 95, I have 146,” Tiga said. “I want eighty men to defend the mouth of the mine. I want forty hidden in the adit in places where they can ambush the intruders if they get past the mouth. The rest I want in the hidden room, which is where we will make our last stand. I want the entrance to the room barricaded as much as we can with the time we have left.”

  “It is as good a plan as any,” Vennon said.

  Tiga gathered her lieutenants and told them the plan. They divided up the men and went to their posts. Tiga was torn. She wanted to face the first assault at the mouth of the mine, but most of her remaining soldiers would be in the barricaded hidden room. She felt like her duty demanded that she stayed back there. Bell insisted that she stayed in the hidden room, and the rest of her lieutenants requested that she do so as well. It was decided when Vennon and his commanders came to her and told her they were taking charge of the defense of the mouth of the mine. She told them she would take command there, but they reminded her that it was their country and they got to choose where they would fight first. Tiga was convinced and jogged back to the cavern so that the soldiers could begin barricading the entrance.

  Tiga organized the defense formations in an inverted wedge because she wanted to keep the enemy in the middle of the room and bunched together in the hope that it would limit their effectiveness. Once the formation had been set, Tiga ordered total silence. She also ordered that all torches and lamps be extinguished. Once they were put out, they stood in total blackness. Tiga hoped that they would not be found. The mines were vast, and she thought there was a small chance they could evade discovery.

  Twenty minutes passed and they heard nothing. Another ten minutes passed and still nothing. Five minutes later they felt a rumble and they heard screams. A distant explosion reverberated through the walls and the floor of the cavern.

  The wizards that are still alive are hunting for us. No doubt they want to exact revenge.

  There were more explosions and they were coming closer. Rocks and dust were falling from the ceiling of the cavern. Tiga wanted to yell to her men to keep steady, but she didn’t dare risk making any noise now.

  Suddenly the barricade blew into the room and the large rocks were shattered into dust and pebbles. A green light arced into the room, cutting down everything in its path, from stalagmites to men.

  “Attack!” Yelled Tiga.

  She gave a sign and several of her soldiers lighted lamps so they could see. A wizard came through the breeched entrance into the cavern and five of her men leapt on her and killed her before she could launch another spell. A steady stream of Menegar started coming through the entrance, and Tiga’s formation funneled them into the middle of the room. She had set the soldiers up so that they could attack the Menegar from the sides and front as they entered the room. The Menegar were being chopped down efficiently because of this strategy. So much so that their bodies were starting to block
the entrance of the mine. This slowed the Menegar down as they had to climb over the corpses to get to the room. The attack point shifted directly to the entrance of the room. Eventually the Menegar couldn’t get through.

  Tiga looked at her men. Lieutenant Rend was down but the rest of her surviving lieutenants were OK. Vennon had sustained a shoulder wound but said he could still fight. The soldiers looked confident, even hopeful. Tiga didn’t have the heart to tell them that they were all dead and were just taking as many of the enemy with them as they could.

  Another explosion resounded and the pile of Menegar bodies disintegrated into blood and fragments of bone that flew all over Tiga and her men. Two wizards emerged from the entrance to the cavern and they were launching fireballs at a rapid rate, blowing her soldiers away and destroying the formation. Tiga ran to try to stop them. She reached the first wizard who waited until Tiga got close then launched a fireball right at her. The look of shock on his face when Tiga was not hurt by the fire ball was frozen there because Tiga stabbed him in the throat.

  The second wizard witnessed what happened and dashed behind a wall of Menegar who were now flooding the room. Tiga fought the Menegar and killed several but she was giving ground the whole time. The soldiers around her were dying. All her lieutenants were killed and Vennon was dead too. There were only a handful of her men left. She felt the far wall of the cavern on her back and looked to the left and saw the path to the underground river. She ran for the path and made it into it. Several Menegar followed her. She turned to face them but as she fought, she was pushed back until she was on the edge of the bank of the river.

  I would rather drown then be killed by a Menegar.

  She launched a flurry of attacks at her enemies and killed two, one with a stab in the chest, the other with a slice to the neck. A third Menegar launched an overhead blow, and she jumped in the river to avoid it.

  The water was frigid but as the river carried her away from the Menegar she could still breathe. She rushed by rocks that gave her glancing blows, and there were spots where there was nowhere to breathe. In one spot she held her breath for over a minute before there was space to take a breath. The river flowed faster, and she thought she saw a spot of light when a rock hit her head and knocked her out.