by Eric Vall
We joined the troops despite the fact that the orders were being given in Elvish, and I noticed Rhys standing close beside Dragir with his own elves nearby. All of House Fehryn’s men wore magazine bows across their backs and Halcyan swords on their hips, and when I leaned to get a look at one of their quivers, there were at least fifty serrated arrows ready for loading.
I couldn’t begin to count how many sleek and wolfish dogs prowled around the clearing, but they wove in and out of the brush with an anxious energy that caused their hackles to rise. Several of them began to fight with each other in agitation, and a few had bloody marks on their noses already.
Ruela’s throaty growl was easy to recognize above the rest of the pack, but I couldn’t see her with all of the commotion taking place.
The elves ignored the dogs aside from the occasional sharp whistle, and when the next troop headed northward, at least a dozen dogs followed after.
“Better get in position,” I told Shoshanne, and the healer looked up at the battlement.
“I only have about thirty shuriken,” she said, “but I have forty arrows.”
I nodded. “I’ll send whatever I can back to you,” I assured her, “but make good use of what you have just in case. Do you have enough ammunition?”
Shoshanne nodded as she shifted the strap of her rifle. “Yes, but Cayla has most of it,” she replied. “I’ll stick to the bow until she gets here.” Then she reached out to squeeze Aurora’s hand, and the half-elf wished her luck.
I left a kiss on the healer’s cheek before she headed back into the house toward the battlement, and when we turned, only Rhys’ army and Dragir’s own troop remained.
Rhys caught sight of me and came over, and to my surprise, the elf offered his hand without pause.
“Good to see you,” I told him as I shook it. “I hear my weapons have served you well enough.”
A sardonic grin came to the elf’s face as his amber eyes flashed in the light of the last torch.
“Very well,” Rhys assured me. “Natyr is in their rightful place beneath our boots, and we have every intention of putting Syru and Kylen where they belong before dawn.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said with a chuckle, but my smile fell as Rhys’ young son came to his side. He wasn’t even as tall as my chest yet, and he had a stubborn glower that still looked out of place on his boyish face.
The young elf spoke to his father in Elvish, and I noticed his green braids were now wrapped almost identically to his father’s.
Rhys nodded. “Take your troops to the far corner,” he told the boy. “I’ll take the right side.”
The young elf left with his orders, and I stared at the magazine bow strapped across his slim shoulders as he went. His troop seemed to tower over him, but they waited diligently for his command and followed in two strict lines at his back.
Rhys clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“Good luck,” he said with a broad grin before he led his own troops toward the south as well.
Aurora and I exchanged an uneasy glance.
“You too,” I mumbled.
Then Dragir sent his men to fill in the break between the two armies and turned to us with the torch in hand.
“Try not to burn the dogs,” he told the half-elf. “We don’t direct them in battle. They’re most effective if we leave them be, and they tend to attack in packs of three or six, so keep an eye out.”
Aurora smirked. “I’ll aim high.”
“Where will you be?” Dragir asked me.
“We’ll head toward the break with you and see where we’re needed once things start up,” I told him.
The elf nodded, but then his eyes flared, and his face flushed with anger.
“What are you doing?” he hissed, and I whipped around to see Deya sprint into the clearing.
My heart lurched. “You shouldn’t be here,” I told the beautiful elf, “you should have been halfway to the--”
Deya slammed into me and grabbed my hand, and then she slipped the silver coin into my palm.
I stared at the little rune etched in the center, but before I could respond, she’d already flipped around and bolted back toward the warrior’s village.
Dragir sighed.
“Here,” I said as I turned and held the coin out to him, but Dragir shook his head.
“No.”
I furrowed my brow. “Take it,” I insisted.
“Deya gave it to you,” he said soberly. “Do not lose it.”
Dragir doused the torch before I could argue any further, and I ground my jaw at the stubborn elf as I followed him into the fog with Aurora close behind.
I had the coin clenched in my fist while Deya’s brother led us through the blackened jungle, and all I could think of was the beautiful elf trembling and the promise she’d asked me to make.
So, when Dragir took his position, I brushed past him to take my place just ahead of his troop, and I knocked him gently aside as I went.
Aurora joined me and glanced sidelong with a worried crease on her brow, but I only sent her a small shrug and settled my empty hand on the hilt of the Halcyan sword.
“Remember that first drake we fought?” I asked her with half a grin.
Aurora’s emerald eyes glittered with moonlight as she smiled. “I love you.”
I pulled the half-elf into my arms and kissed her despite the uncomfortable shifting of the elves not far behind us, and she had a coy smile on her lips when she pulled away.
“Don’t die, okay?” she asked
Three dogs wove around us and trotted silently through the ferns with their heads low, and I nodded as I watched them go.
“I’d ask you to be careful, but you’re not going to listen,” I teased, and the Ignis Mage’s smile became devilish once again.
“Of course not,” she replied. “I came to kick some ass.”
A couple elves chuckled behind us, but then the dogs began to snarl somewhere up ahead, and we all turned to face the wall of fog.
“There’s at least sixty … ” Dragir said as he trained his ear.
“More,” another elf estimated. “They have their axes by the sound of it.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered as I recalled the massive tungsten axes the burly elves of House Syru had when I’d stormed their fortress with House Natyr.
“Metal armor,” Dragir added before he addressed his troops. “Ready your arrows and aim for the neck and head. Don’t waste time and do not lose your grip. Defender Solana … ”
Aurora and I glanced back, and Dragir smirked.
“Do not burn us alive, please.”
I saw the serpentine eyes of his troop widen nervously, and Aurora sighed as her lip curled.
“Fine,” she allowed, then she leaned toward me. “I’ll race you.”
I grinned. “I love the way your mind works.”
I took a steadying breath as I let my magic spark and course through my veins, and as it began to pulse, I sent it crawling out across the topsoil. It wasn’t long before I could sense the heavy footfalls of House Syru’s army coming toward us, and I closed my eyes as I felt for the edges of their formation. It seemed to go on endlessly, and my adrenaline surged.
“There’s way more than sixty,” I said over my shoulder as I opened my eyes.
Then, far to the south of us, the dogs began to howl.
“House Kylen have moved out as well,” Dragir said.
I sent my magic into the soil and then to the south, but I was relieved to find the numbers weren’t as extensive. “Probably about forty,” I told Dragir.
“Rhys should do well,” he replied, but then the dogs to the north began to howl, and we all went silent as the troops raised their bows.
“Hold your fire until my word,” Dragir ordered.
I realized he probably meant this order to include us since he hadn’t spoken in Elvish, but Aurora had her arms raised at the ready, and I grinned as I eased my focus into the soil once more.
I could hear the
heavy clang of House Syru’s armor not far off, and just as a line of shadows formed in the fog, I ripped the earth apart.
The ground shook as the trench wrenched open like a giant mouth that spread along the entire front, and the hulking silhouettes of House Syru’s men dropped into the Earth.
Aurora cursed at my side.
“I win,” I grunted and slammed the trench shut to crush the soldiers eight feet under, but Aurora’s flames suddenly blasted from her outstretched palms as the next line came barreling from the fog.
As the elves were enveloped by the enchanted fire, they broke their formation and began to thrash in pain, and chaos finally broke out in the jungle.
A swell of soldiers crashed through the ferns as a hefty axe came flying, and I reached out to bring it into my grip before I twisted and impaled an elf headed right for me.
The blade split straight through his armor and into his sternum, but the elf managed to drive his sword out before he fell. I dodged the blow and pulled a wall from the earth to topple it over the swarm of oncoming soldiers, and as they flattened under the weight, another blast of flames engulfed the elves who fled to avoid being crushed.
Then I pulled another wall up further north to finish off one more batch before House Syru were too enmeshed in House Quyn’s troops.
Dragir gave his final orders over the clang of blades, and somewhere nearby, a dog snarled viciously, and I knew an elf was about to meet a grisly fate. I flipped and saw their shadows grappling in the dappled moonlight, and the dog must have pounced because he had his teeth locked on the skull of a burly elf from behind.
With a final snap of his teeth, the flesh peeled from the soldier’s face, and the gurgle of pain that followed was cut short when an arrow found its mark in his neck.
I cringed and ducked as an axe swiped for me, and with a wave of my hand, I yanked the heavy tungsten out of the elf’s grip. He froze for the briefest moment when it landed in my own palm, and I brought the axe around to hammer it into his side with the help of my metal magic.
With the axe buried halfway in his gut, the elf still came at me, and I pulled a Halcyan sword from my sheath to slice his neck with the serrated blade.
He got a few more paces before he dropped at my feet, and I glanced around at the fray that closed in around me. It was already an all-out brawl, and soldiers in blood red garb continued to swing their axes even with their arms punctured with daggers, and their calves split open by glaives.
As I considered their demonic expressions and the force of their blows, I knew for certain the Master had finally managed to build for himself a full army. Not one of the burly elves seemed to register their injuries, and only when their skulls were pierced, or their throats ripped open, did they let up.
Still, House Quyn were cunning and lethal with their featherlight glaives, and while the tungsten crashed down with brutish strength, the warriors wove and dodged their strikes, only to catch them with a swift swipe to the throat.
Packs of dogs slithered amongst the ferns and yanked the soldiers off their feet, and while they tore into the meat of their calves, the elves drove their daggers into their eyes before they could regain their battle stances.
Then a familiar growl rose up from the mayhem, and Ruela lunged to pin a massive elf to the ground. Her teeth met with his metal armor, and the elf raised his axe as he fought against the weight of the wolfish beast.
I threw my arm out and sent the axe spiraling into the blackened trees, and Ruela finally got a hold of the fucker’s neck.
I looked away as she shredded his tendons for him, and with the throng of soldiers continuing to press in around us, I ducked behind a fern to channel my Terra magic toward the north.
First, I opened a gaping pit in the ground, and then I kept pushing forward to send several trenches sprawling out like a skeletal hand through the jungle floor. I stretched them out as far north as I could, and I let the ground begin to shake to knock the soldiers who still filed south off their balance.
I was about to branch off from these trenches to snag a few more, when someone tripped over me on their way through the ferns, and I was found by three blood red soldiers.
The trenches collapsed in on themselves as I eyed the metal armor of the elves above me, and they lunged to rip me from my place, but I swiftly rolled back through the ferns before they could.
Once I was safely out of range, I cinched the metal of their armor like a vice around their broad chests.
The soldiers gasped and dropped to the ground as they slowly began to suffocate, and I left them there as I jumped onto a felled tree to get a better view of the terrain.
Everywhere I looked, axes came crashing down, and elves dove aside and countered their blows. I realized it would be too dangerous to use my Terra Magic now, but the chaos had kicked up much of the fog so I could just barely make out the extent of the battlegrounds if I squinted hard.
Further than my vision reached, elves clamored and ripped their swords into one another, and when I turned to the south, my adrenaline only rose.
The battle there was a shadowy wash of rustling ferns and the occasional splatter of blood arching in the moonlight, but every so often I saw the sleek fur of a wolfish beast as it tore into its prey.
Three dogs suddenly leapt over the log I stood on to rip two burly elves to shreds, and I pulled the axes from their remains to send them straight through the armor of two others.
I focused on locking a few soldiers in their armor wherever they looked to be gaining an upper hand, and as I scanned the dim jungle, I saw Dragir sparring with a soldier more than twice his size. He moved so quickly that it was difficult to keep track of him, but he dipped and wove as he spliced any exposed bit of flesh he could, and his assailant had become furious. He swung blindly with the tungsten axe and snarled savagely, and when he raised his arm for a heavy blow, I cinched his armor until the veins on his temples began to bulge.
Dragir stared in confusion as the soldier panicked and dropped to his knees, and then he shrugged and slit his throat clean through to the bone before he turned for the next.
I chuckled and was about to give another three soldiers the same treatment before my leg was suddenly snatched out from under me.
I crashed down hard on the log as a blood red soldier pinned me by my neck, and I quickly sent his axe off into the night before he could let it fall.
He swung with his massive fist instead, and I felt the flesh on my face split open under the force of his iron-like knuckles. Then he pulled his arm back again, and just as his gaze settled on the hinge of my jaw, flames engulfed him, and I slumped to the ground.
I gasped for breath and pulled the glaive from my back, and as the spots in my vision cleared, I drove the needle-sharp point into the eye of an oncoming elf. He let out a bloodcurdling scream as the tip broke out the back of his skull, and when I pulled it free, his eyeball came with it.
I couldn’t help but gag at the sight, and I decided blowing their faces off was way more fun and much less fucking disgusting.
Still, I did the same thing to the next two elves to come my way because Dragir had a good point. It was incredibly effective with this design.
Each elf gave a violent jerk before they crumpled in agony, and I used the hook to splice their necks and put them out of their misery.
I managed to bury another handful of elves in the ground as I pushed through the bloodied ferns, but when I found one of House Quyn’s warriors under my feet, I crouched and squinted into the dim undergrowth.
Bodies littered the ground all around me, and I could immediately tell many of them were from Dragir’s army, but a few had sleek wolfish fur, while only some wore blood red garb.
I shook my head and returned the glaive to my back, and then I pulled my revolver from its holster and climbed to crouch on top of the nearest boulder.
With the elves of House Syru hulking all over the place, it was easy to pick them out from the fray, and I grinned as I took my aim like
at a carnival stand.
Six burly elves jolted as the bullets tore into their brains one by one, and once the barrel was empty, I gritted my teeth and split my magic.
I used my metal magic to reload the barrel as I sifted through the dirt, and by the weight that pressed down on my senses, I found I could tell which footing belonged to which side.
Three elves were swallowed up by the time I had the revolver cocked and ready, and another six bullets met their marks just before a hefty axe soared out of the ferns in my direction. I waved my free hand and sent the tungsten blade spiraling into a blood red elf, and as I was about to reload the barrel of the revolver, I heard the crack of a rifle split through the jungle.
I grinned as another shot went off, but it was too dark to be able to see the main house from where I was. Since the start of the battle, I’d been pressed further south, but the fog and the darkness kept me too disoriented to be sure where I was exactly. After two more shots, though, I was positive Cayla had come to her post as our sniper, and I trained my ear to discern where the sound had come from.
As I waited for another shot, I sent my metal magic out into the night and searched for the familiar glint of gold in my veins. I felt it spark from all over the place, and I pulled every bit of it from the necks and heads of elves, as well as the undergrowth and the trunks of trees.
With the gold shuriken and arrows all gathered, I crouched lower and closed my eyes, and the second Cayla fired once more, I split my focus and sent my Terra magic straight toward the sound.
Eventually, it ran into stone, and I furrowed my brow as I let the magic travel all across the surface of House Quyn. A map began to form in my mind, and I could see the battlement in a sketchy sort of outline. Once I was positive I knew where I was aiming, I took a deep breath and sent every piece of gold directly to the point I had in my mind.
Another shot fired as I eased my connection to the battlement, and as I let my metal magic disperse through the air, I felt three golden shuriken sweep out toward the jungle.
I grinned, and swiftly reloaded my revolver, and Ruela’s sable tail flicked in the ferns at my right as I stood once more. I saw her chomp into a soldier’s neck while I pulled five elves into the earth, and I deflected a dagger before I cocked the hammer of the revolver.
