by Brent Tyman
“Form a square, monitor the flanks, two lines at the front. Go, go, go,” I said as the men rushed into formation. If I had known we would battle straight away at the portal, I would have had the archers come through earlier. I lined them up at the back of our column so they would be the last ones to get portaled through.
“If I had known that they were here…” Eliandra said with a worried look, and I raised a hand to calm her.
“No, these things happen. It just means we can kill a few for practise,” I said.
“Where should we stand Ordan?” Lunara asked, and I motioned beside me.
“There’s few of them right now, but they may try to attack when they realize more and more are coming through. Hold here for me,” I said.
I expected the creatures to either flee from us or rush us immediately, as the longer they waited, the more troops I had. But they just waited, staring right at us.
The men in front had formed an even line, where I had them make a temporary gap so I could still see the enemy. There were about a hundred of them now, perhaps more, yet still just a single armored one.
Like with the Nox and their Blatus, I assumed the armored one was the leader. I doubted the smaller ones had any real leadership capacity as they looked more feral than anything else. I could hear their distant hisses and growls as my men added onto the front line as they shuffled out the portal. Some also headed to our flanks, but those were few.
“Sir, unit lead one, Yantra reporting,” A man said as he dashed towards me from the portal. Perfect, this was one of the unit leads, a commander of a small part of my army. His armor had a blue band around the arm which signaled to me and the men that he was one of the leadership. I wasn’t sure what beast he had fought to earn that helmet though. It looked more like a bird like anything else, as I could tell there was a small beak in its design, with cowled eyes.
“Ah good, you can take lead of the flanks, the creatures have already gathered. Defensive for now,” I said, and I watched his salute before I turned back.
“Ordan…” Eliandra said, and I saw that she stared at the front line. I looked back at the town and was glad that I had worn my helmet before stepping through the portal, as my jaw dropped.
I had thought it would a simple battle, as it was with the Nox. They had acted like mere beasts in the end and a line of spearmen made short work of them. The armored one didn’t look as intimidating as the Blatus did, so my main worry was getting flanked.
Those thoughts dissipated as I looked at the enemy now.
Each creature was in a perfectly straight line, with the doglike creatures in perfect formation. The armored one stood at the back, as you would expect from a commander.
Another type of creature revealed itself, similar in size to the first. These had short snouts and were longer framed, yet still walked on four legs. The main different, however, was that they had large thick tails that raised itself above their bodies in an arc. The tails thickened at the tips, with what seemed like an opening, but it was hard to judge from this distance.
A roar resounded in the air and I saw that it was the armored one. It reached for its back and produced a large twisted sword in its hand, its blade curved and contorted. It growled again, this time louder, and I wondered if it was trying to intimidate us before I realized what it was doing.
Another growl reached my ears, this time from much further away.
“Shit, it's calling for more of its kin, we need to do something,” I said as I considered the next steps.
“The men are still coming through, do we have any archers?” Lunara asked, and I shook my head.
“They are at the back, fuck,” I said, more to myself than to anyone else.
I then realized that the only ranged combatant I had was right next to me, and it seemed I had to make use of her.
“Eliandra, I need your power...” I said, but she shushed me, placing a hand at the mouth of my helmet. Her eyes were set in determination.
“Just tell me what to do, Ordan,” she said as she faced our enemy.
“Fireball that armored one, as fast as you can,” I said and she nodded.
A ball of pure orange prime appeared as she clutched her hands together. It floated above as it spun, round and round as it slowly gained strength. A moment later, a cloud appeared above us, which formed a ball of fire that streaked through the air and shot directly towards our enemy. I had always wondered if the fireballs mages produce from their hands or from the sky were the same or not. Perhaps Eliandra made this one come from the sky as we were on flat ground, and it was more difficult to shoot over the line of men.
The armored one looked at the rabidly descending fireball that headed directly towards it and growled as it struck. An explosion erupted from its position, and I smirked as the fireball enveloped many of its fellow kin too. A cheer rose from our ranks with a few laughs as we all heard the creatures' screams.
“Nice work, Eli,” I said to her as my eyes examined the enemy ranks. “They will rush us right after men, so get ready!” I shouted as the cheers slowly died down.
“Have you gotten more powerful?” Lunara asked, but Eliandra didn’t answer her as the explosion cleared away and the cheers suddenly halted in their tracks immediately.
Thick black smoke still drifted away from the scene, but I could see the result of Eliandra’s attack clearly.
The armored one was still standing. Worse, it barely looked injured. In fact, if the ground it stood on wasn't as black as ash, I wouldn’t have been able to tell if we had attacked it at all. Even its armor remained unmarred by Eliandra’s efforts. None of the creatures that surrounded their leader showed any sign of injury, other than a few that shook off some soot and dirt from their leathery skins.
That’s when something that Lestia said, that Fulgremian mage I had spoken to before our siege of the capital, suddenly clicked in my mind. She had mentioned that the Zegari was resistant to prime magic. Could that be the reason Eliandra’s attack had no effect?
Lestia said that they had cleared away most of the Zegari’s spawn in Croydra. I assumed that they had help from the city garrison and the mages that answered the emergency summons. She had only mentioned that the Zegari itself was resistant to prime magic, not its spawn.
Had they gained this resistance in the short time that they lived in the Fancern forest? This was leaving more questions than answers, and I still had an enemy to fight.
“Dear Gods,” Eliandra said, and I couldn’t help but echo her sentiment. This was bad.
“Brace men, get ready for a counterattack!” I bellowed. More men joined the line, and I at least felt comfortable with our numbers now. I still hadn't spotted any creatures at our flanks just yet, and Yantra would report to me if there were any. We still didn't have any of the riders or archers, and it would be awhile before they arrived.
“Can’t we go back through the portal and inform everyone to rush through as fast as they can?” Lunara asked.
“This is a one way portal, if you try to step through it, nothing happens,” Eliandra said as she clutched the front of her dress in worry.
“Can you make another portal back to the capital and inform them?” I asked, but Eliandra shook her head.
“I can’t make another portal until this one closes and I can’t cut this one unless it is idle. There are troops constantly streaming through so there is little I can do,” Eliandra said, and I frowned. This was really bad.
“Well, we have to make do, there’s still far more of us than there are of them. I just don’t like how this is shaping up,” I said.
The only thing left to do was to wait for the creatures next move. I did not want to attack and abandon this defensive position as they could flank the troops that came from the portal later. They would then be at a heavy disadvantage.
As if the armored one could read me through the helmet, it growled in bursts which I assumed would be orders to its kin. The ones at the back of its line, that had the arced tails, su
ddenly vibrated in place. The tails glowed a faint green along its leathery skin and I knew what was coming; it was clear.
“Shields up, ranged fire incoming!” I shouted as fast as I could, but it was already too late.
Thick lobs of green liquid burst forth from the tails of these creatures. They formed into round balls in the air and plunged down towards us. They aimed them right at our front line and while many of the men had shields up already, many didn’t.
I watched in horror as the green balls struck my line and heard screams as this strange fluid melted through armor as if it were flesh. It seemed to act like potent acid as it make short work of the men caught in the attack. Even the men with shields wavered as their comrades fell.
“Keep those fucking shields up and fill the gaps!” I shouted as I looked towards the tide of men that still marched out from the portal.
“You lot! Grab any fallen shields and cover the line. Grab the ones from the men at the flanks too,” I said, and they rushed to obey, not bothering to salute. Good.
Another volley of those acid balls struck the men, and this time the damage wasn’t as severe. The shields were made to handle many types of attacks, but I could see that they wouldn't last long against this onslaught. I had to do something.
“Should we retreat?” Eliandra asked, and I shook my head.
“We can’t abandon the portal, and… we can’t wait for the archers to come through either,” I said. How the battle had developed troubled me, and my mind raced to come up with the next steps. I had to think fast. If I did nothing, that was just as bad an idea as a retreat.
“We need to charge, but the men won’t get close without taking heavy casualties,” I said.
“We can wait for enough men to come and then charge them with overwhelming numbers,” Lunara suggested. It wasn’t a bad idea, but now that the ranged attacks had disrupted my men, every moment I waited meant more would die.
“Eliandra, can you form a barrier?” I asked, but she shook her head.
“Not with the portal in place, I don’t have enough prime to do two sustained spells,” Eliandra said, and I tried to think of something else we could do.
Another volley struck the men and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Right, we need to attack, now!” I said as I drew my battleaxe. The armored one still stood at the town gates with its kin, which numbered over three hundred strong now. There was no telling how many more were on the way with that growling cry it made earlier. I think I had around five hundred men, minus the ones that had perished in the first acid attack.
I could still see some smoke that rose from Eliandra’s earlier fireball attack, and that gave me an idea.
“Eli, how about smoke? Can you produce a mist of some kind to obscure us from their sight?” I asked, and she tilted her head in thought.
“Yes, I can, where would you like it?” Eliandra said, and I pointed right at the enemy ranks.
“Drop it in front of them, if they can’t see us, they will miss and even better if they try to move forward to regain their vision,” I said, and she nodded.
I gritted my teeth as yet another volley smashed into the men; the shields were waning, and I saw one soldier fall to the ground, with his shield sporting a large hole at its center.
“Yantra!” I shouted over the screams and cries of the men, at the only other commander in my army thus far. “We are going on the offensive, keep the flanks secure and stay on the portal. Direct clumps of men to the fighting as they come through.” I waited until he nodded before returning my attention back to the front line.
As before, an orb of prime appeared above Eliandra’s hands, this time it was gray in color. I had only a moment to admire her power before the orb itself blasted out of her hand and smashed into the front of the enemy ranks. I heard the creatures confused grunts as a mist appeared, clouding their vision of us. As soon as I saw the last of the enemy disappear behind the veil of mist, I roared.
“For the Black God, for our new home! Don’t you dare stop running until your blades are wet with blood!” I bellowed as I ran towards the mist. The front line was ahead of me and they all put their shields down to run as fast as they could. I saw that both Eliandra and Lunara matched my speed before they disappeared in the mass of troops.
From the mists, those acid balls shot out from the top, which disturbed the gentle swish of the air. This time, however, the orbs were way off as they landed exactly where the front line used to be. The attack only caught a man that stayed behind in the flanks, and I turned my head back to the front to make sure I was looking where I was going.
It seemed that the armored one was smarter than it appeared, as the next volley appeared much lower from the mist and struck the ground in front of us. It was thankfully still a miss as we ran over the acid on the ground. I could hear my boots sizzle for a moment, but ignored it as we reached the mist.
As I predicted, the front line creatures carefully marched out the mist in perfect formation. My men let out a bellow of roars as we crashed into them.
The creatures were blown into the air as my much taller troops attacked in full force. I could hear their screams as our weapons sliced them open with little resistance.
I smashed into a creature, pouring prime into my legs as I raised it up in a resounding kick. My boots crushed through a creature's head with ease, thanks to the increased strength from my prime power. Blood coated my leg as the corpse of the creature flew through the air, and crashed into another one of its kind further down the line.
I gripped my battleaxe with two hands and swung wide from right to left, watching with glee as my weapon ended each creature unfortunate enough to touch my axe’s blades.
I was thankful that I had left that infernal sword with the slaves that carried our provisions. This battleaxe of mine was truly a thing of beauty as it sliced through each creature’s flesh.
It had previously concerned me that my enemies would put up more of a fight, but it seemed that my fears were unfounded. These creatures were nothing.
None of the creatures posed a challenge to me as I killed them one after another. I raised my battleaxe in an uppercut that caught three of them. I sliced two open in their underbellies, where their guts splayed everywhere as their bodies tumbled away from me. The third howled in dismay as my axe blade caught one of its limbs, it separated from its body and fell to my feet while the rest of the body vanished out of my vision.
I had a moment of reprieve as there were no longer any creatures in my immediate vicinity. I grinned as I looked around, excited to see the rest of my men put these creatures in their place. My grin dropped off my face in an instant as my mind tried to comprehend what it saw.
We were losing?
As if the Gods themselves were mocking me, my men encountered heavy resistance as the battle raged on. In the heat of the moment, I did not realize that the war cries and howls I heard were of my men. They screamed in pain and returned to the void for their final slumber.
The creatures were coordinated, far more vicious against my men than my own experience. I saw a creature latch onto one of my men's arms, causing him to lose balance. As he tried to shake the creature off, an acid ball struck him right in the head. He dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, the life instantly snuffed out of him. The creature wasted no time to jump onto the next man.
What was happening? I barely had time to think before I spotted a clear path to one of the ranged creatures. My men would definitely have an easier time if I took some of those ones out.
I pushed more and more prime into my legs and charged them up as much as I could before I would feel pain. I bolted forwards, sprinting hard as my boots practically crushed the soft ground beneath me.
A creature tried to get in my way, but because of my momentum, as soon as it neared, it struck my leg. There were points where the greaves had small protruding spikes, but I could not tell if those did any damage. The creature practically exploded in blood and guts as m
y prime infused legs tore through it. In the next instant, I had already passed its corpse and reached a row of the ranged creatures.
Some of them backed off as I approached, but I couldn't let any of them lob those acid balls at me. Feeling brave, or perhaps foolish, I used my momentum to jump, sailing over the air in a surprise attack.
Thankfully, the creatures seemed more bewildered than anything else as I gripped my battleaxe tighter. I arced through the air and my boots crushed through one creature's back. It howled for a moment, but I barely noticed that as I tried to ensure I didn't fall over as my feet smashed into the ground.
I swung my battleaxe and cursed as I remembered that these creatures barely reached my waist in height. Luckily for me, the tails of these ranged ones were long and tall. My battleaxe sliced through the nearest creature's tail, where the acid spurt out from the open wound.
I darted out of that creature's way as it was still alive; it shook its tail angrily and bellowed out in pain while acid splattered all over its nearest kin.
Despite my hope, the acid didn't seem to affect their own bodies, as none of the other creatures reacted when the green fluid touched them. I tried to put these thoughts out of my mind as I struck the tailless creature again, this time along its neck. The axe sliced clean through with no resistance, and I watched as its body shuddered for a moment before it dropped to the ground.
I tried to stay wary as I ended each one of these ranged creatures. One unlucky burst of acid would end me surely as an arrow through the head. I caught a swipe from a creature’s tail with my arm as it tried to use it as a weapon. My arm buckled as the armor strained against the blow. Gods, these beings were powerful.
Before the creature could strike again, I struck out with my battleaxe, aiming for its head. It tried to jump away backwards, but either it was too slow or somehow, that tail was weighting it down. It practically skewered itself onto my axe blade and let out a wail before its corpse collapsed.