by Brent Tyman
I was thinning out both types of creatures the enemy had, but it still seemed we were losing. I looked back to see that more troops entered the fray in clusters of ten or twenty, but it wasn’t enough. We had to win this before more showed up to flank us, as that would spell disaster.
The armored one!
I had to find their leader. Perhaps he was the reason for the enemy being so coordinated.
As the back line of the enemy were the ranged creatures, I was near the town gates themselves and had a little space to look around. The armored one should be around this area and close to me.
I could see Eliandra’s magic at work in the distance. She couldn’t use fireballs as these things were resistance to them. But I could see faint specs of ice and frost that formed on one end of the battle. She must have been trying to freeze the creatures, to give the men opportunity to crush them in place. Her intellect was impressive and admirable.
I couldn’t see Lunara anywhere, but that was to be expected as it much harder to see a dark elf running around amongst tall men and black creatures.
Another ranged creature growled as it approached me, but it barely resisted as I swung my axe wide along its ribs. As the blood coated my gauntlets, I spotted my quarry.
The armored one was fighting Lunara as well as four other soldiers, its twisted blade slashing across the air. Lunara seemed to be the only one that aggravated it, as it caught a man’s spear in its hands and struck his side with its sword. The movement was so fluid and effortless; I was almost impressed.
Any more prime into my legs would cause pain and Lunara could hold her own for a few moments, so I looked for the clearest path to the armored one and ran as fast as I could.
The creatures seemed more preoccupied with my troops than with me running along their back line. I met a few of the ranged ones that tried to block my path, but my battleaxe made short work of them. It was almost strange on why my own men were having so much trouble.
The armored one had already killed three of the four men that faced it, and that left only one other with Lunara. Lunara struck out with dagger after dagger, pushing the armored one back, but none of them pierced its exoskeleton or its armor. It growled in short bursts again, as if it were talking, before it lashed out with its sword. The last man tried to block with his shield, but it had been struck with acid before. The sword crushed through the shield and embedded itself into the man’s flesh. It surprised me that this sword could pierce our armor so effectively; it was another surprising aspect of this battle.
The man went down a moment later, his blood spattered onto the twisted sword and the armored one's sight was now on Lunara alone. She snarled as she pulled out yet another dagger and dashed forward, striking the armored one's knee as she slid along the ground with her momentum. Other than a slight cut along its leathery skin, the armored one only roared in response. It struck out and missed with its sword swing.
It was my turn, as I got close enough to ensure no one else would get in my way. The armored one’s back was facing me, and I wouldn't give it the pleasure to see its attacker before I ended it. A little pain was a small price to pay to make sure it was dead.
Charging my legs with enough prime to give me incredible speed, I darted forward with the speed of an arrow, holding my battleaxe in front. As soon as I got close, I poured more prime into my arms and readied for a powerful swing.
The armored one was fast, faster than I expected in fact. It turned around in a snap and tried to raise its sword to defend. But it was too late.
My battleaxe smashed through its left shoulder with a boom. The sound of crushed bone reached my ears as it howled in pain. I expected it to go flying through the air but it stood perfectly still as it took the blow, causing me to crash into the creature.
We tumbled through the air, and I heard Lunara call out my name as I collapsed hard into the ground, with the creature doing the same. I groaned as the backlash from using too much power merged with the pain of striking the ground this fast.
I didn’t have time to think though, as I needed to make sure that thing was dead.
The armored one laid still on the floor near me, its left arm missing from the rest of its body. Where the wound was, black blood mixed with red leaked out, staining the earth. It didn’t growl in pain as it did before, I could only hear its desperate breaths as it clung to life.
Ignoring my protesting body, I quickly got to my knees and raised my battleaxe in an effort to end this creature once and for all. Its red eyes met my own, and something gave me pause.
It stared at me as more blood leaked from its wound. The crushed armor it wore had the blood of my own men, which should have made me want to snuff it out of existence as soon as possible.
I ignored my lingering feelings as I raised my battle axe once again. It growled something softly and perhaps stupidly; I closed in to hear what it was saying. I expected more short bursts of grunts, but what I heard shocked me.
“I… found… you,” it said, wheezing each word. As soon as it was done, its eyes glazed over and its head turned to the side, which signaled that it was dead.
A mass of screeches filled the air as every single creature in the vicinity howled as hard as they could. I tried to cover my ears before I remembered that I couldn't with this damned helmet on me.
The creatures all as once, fled in one direction, trampling over themselves and my men. They gave me and Lunara a wide berth, perhaps not desiring to be near their dead leader.
My men cheered as the last of the creatures disappeared over the horizon, and I couldn’t help but think on what the armored one said.
Who had found me?
Chapter 4
“We have collected the last of the bodies Sir,” Raina said as she gave her report on our loses.
Three hundred and twenty-two men dead against a force of three hundred. If we didn’t have men trickling into the battle, no doubt more would have died.
It was an embarrassing loss this soon on our excursion. So bad, in fact, that I considered heading back to the capital to assign more troops to this front, no matter what the pair said.
“How are the rest of the men?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“Morale is down, as you would expect amongst the ones that fought. Most of them praise your valor as you took down their leader, my king,” Raina said.
“But valor doesn’t bring men back from the dead. Thank you Raina, dismissed,” I said and watched as she saluted before marching from my sight.
“Those creatures were incredibly coordinated,” Eliandra said from my side.
“And powerful, that acid is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. I bet you could sell it for a fortune,” Lunara said. Both of my women stood with me as we waited for the last preparations to finish up before we headed to the mountain gap.
“Yes, it is destructive and also a problem. I don’t believe there is anything we process that can counter it other than our shields for a short time,” I said. I was more than willing to not dwell upon our losses, as the very thought of the dead men invited more melancholy.
“What of the town, should we leave it as it is?” Eliandra asked.
Pernra was a ruin, and it seemed that all the creatures had abandoned it. I wasn’t entirely sure when it had fell, as when we arrived, there was no sign of any survivors. Both Eliandra and Lunara agreed that it had definitely been more than a week since these creatures attacked it, which begged the question on why they lingered here for that long.
“I want you to report back to the capital as soon as we get settled at our campsite,” I said. “Some truth sayers were to join us, but any additions troops they can provide must be sent here as soon as possible.”
Eliandra nodded as I looked over the town one last time.
“The town can stay like this until we complete our aim. Nobody would have survived for this long,” I said in finality as I headed towards the mass of troops to help with preparations. Eliandra and Lunara follow
ed me, talking amongst themselves quietly. My mind wandered on how I could keep those two safe against such a strange enemy. Lunara put up a good fight against that armored one, but there was no telling what would have happened if I hadn't intervened.
It took another few hours before we were ready to leave. We carried the bodies of the fallen with two men each and they would take turns with the burden. We would take the names of those who were too badly wounded by the acid and burn their bodies in the night.
When one of my people returned to the void, custom dictated we would do all we could to return the body to their families. We couldn't spare the manpower to dig up graves for the fallen in Frostburn so we would burn them under a dark night. For those whose bodies were too marred by their injuries to be recognizable, we send their armor to the families to burn instead. A waste of armor, some would say, perhaps I thought so too, but none wanted to wear their fallen comrades armor.
The men needed a leader now. No, they needed a king. They had been aptly reminded on why we were out here and I needed to show them we were capable of victory, even with these loses. There was no room for doubt.
It took around three days to get to our destination, the wide gap between the mountains where the creatures were no doubt passing through on their way deeper into Fulgrem.
As the maps showed, it was a hill, but it wasn’t too steep and the scouts reported that there was a plateau of flat ground perfect for our camp. We would build a fort here with the raw materials we had brought, and it should serve as the ideal place to hold the line against any further invasions from these creatures.
The men conversed amongst themselves as we trekked to our destination, and I infused my ears with prime to listen in to them.
“…mighty fine women in the city, all breasts and small,” one man said.
“I saw a fine one in the capital. Runs a jewelry store, says it's tough now since some of us burst in and stole most of her stock,” a second voice said.
“Haha, where is her shop?” a third asked.
“Near the east side, where that bakery is we went to before training,” the second replied.
“Probably men under a Tier Three then, should try to find her more jewels to sell,” the third said.
“Right, just dunno what else these human women like,” the second said.
“If you're gonna court a human, make sure to..” the first voice said, and I tuned out of those three. It seemed that my men were quickly getting acclimated to our new home, which was good to hear. I was looking for what they thought about our current predicament though.
After a few tries, I heard a conversation that seemed promising.
“How long do you think we will be posted here?” the first man said.
“As long as it takes, we can’t let those animals get to the capital,” a woman said.
“If they really wanted to stop them, we would have way more troops here, or force the humans to defend their land,” the first man said.
“It's our home too now, better than Frostburn. Even if the humans hate us, we can crush them easy. What’s with you anyway, you have been down for days now,” The woman said.
“I just can’t get the image of Juli melting before my eyes, out of my head,” the first man said and there was silence after.
Fuck, we needed a win, else the troops morale would be the end of us. It must have been the decades of using the specter magic, our magical way of not dying during battle. I had survived on this world without it for some time, but for the troops, their only true battle would have been the siege on the capital where we won decisively even though we took many losses. Now that their comrades would stay dead, their hearts weren't as steeled against it as they should be. The only saving grace was that only a small portion of the five thousand troops had fought these creatures, but it wouldn’t be long before morale as a whole plummeted.
Once we had reached our destination, I looked around. This was good, great even.
I could see the mountains to either side of me and even parts of this Fancern forest in the distance. The hill dipped down in front of us before it regained height, so it wasn’t ideal for keeping tabs on the forest from here. We had the high ground, however, which helped immensely for defending against attacks.
I had Raina tell the other unit leads to start with building the fortifications. It was the middle of the day, so there was plenty of time to have the palisades down in front of us before we slept.
Organizing five thousand troops at a time wasn’t easy, but somehow there were no problems by the time the sun came down. The scouts were yet to return, but the sentry didn’t detect any creatures near us at all, which was a relief.
There was no telling how many of them were behind us deeper into Fulgrem. The ones that had fled from us after I killed the armored one had reportedly come this way, so they must have returned to the forest. The ones I had heard before our fight had yet to be spotted, but once the fort was ready, we could hold against assault from all sides.
Once I had dealt with all the matters that needed my attention, it was time to sleep. Eliandra and Lunara were at my side the whole time. They dragged me to my tent in the center of the fort, while whispering amongst themselves.
“Ordan you need your rest,” Eliandra affirmed as we entered my tent.
“That’s right master, come to bed,” a familiar voice said. It was so unexpected that I almost tripped over myself.
Tessa laid down on the opposite end of the tent. She wore a thin dress which was more like strips of cloth sewed together; it exposed most of her midriff and stomach. The thin straps strained to contain her breasts and she had one leg over the other, bare for me to see. Her blue thighs were beautifully mesmerizing.
“Tessa, how did you get here?” I asked, and she responded by stretching her arms in front of her, while stifling a playful yawn. She was always the tease.
“You left me all alone in the capital without giving me my reward,” Tessa said, as she moved into another seductive position
“What reward?” Eliandra asked, which brought me back to reality. I had forgotten that both of my women were with me here.
“Hmm,” Tessa said. “He promised to do indecent things with me, because I helped him so much over the past few weeks.”
“Oh, did he know?” Lunara asked, with a huge grin on her face.
“You didn’t answer my question, how are you here Tessa?” I asked, trying to ignore how her poses made me want to ravish her on the spot.
“I didn’t want to be cooped up in that castle for Gods know how long,” Tessa said as she sat up from the bedroll. “So I blended in with the slaves and used my shadow ability to sneak into your tent. It's dreadful how you are making those slaves carry so much baggage, I almost chipped a nail on a wooden box.”
I sighed as I raised a hand to my temple. This woman…
“I like your panache, we should be friends,” Lunara said, and Tessa grinned at that.
“Why thank you, I am how I am because of Ordan’s… rigorous training,” Tessa said as she stood up, her armed crossed right under her breasts. That was a deliberate attempt on her part to push them up, knowing her.
“Look,” Tessa said, her manner turned serious. She looked at both Eliandra and Lunara. “I know you two are getting married. I am happy for you, truly. But I love Ordan too, far longer than either you two have known him. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t give to stay in his service. He may be a bloodthirsty barbarian that cares little for the suffering of anyone on his path, but he’s strangely kind to those on his side.”
Tessa turned her head to side as she stared off into nothing. “I remember when I first came to Frostburn. The heat was horrible, the smell of burning and soot. I was so scared.”
Eliandra pulled at my arm and directed me to sit down. Lunara moved over to Tessa and gently took hold of her shoulder, easing her down to the soft fabric of the tent. Once we were all seated, Lunara looked over to Tessa.
“What happened n
ext?” Lunara asked her.
Tessa seemed different from what I had seen the past few weeks, more vulnerable. It was strange to see her like this, as she was my pride and joy.
“Tall men had latched collars to me earlier, and pulled me over to a massive house deep into the city,” Tessa said. “I had been together with my people before but I cried when we were all separated after coming through the portal. They dropped me in chains in a house and I sat alone for what seemed like an eternity.”
Tessa voice caught for a moment and Lunara stroked her arm to encourage her to keep going.
“Ordan came to me after, a huge man in dark armor. He said I was his and that I would serve him in all manners in the household. I was a ranger before, living in trees and hunted game for my livelihood. I barely knew how to keep my parents small tree clean, never mind a manor.”
I laughed at that. Truly laughed.
“Haha, yes, you were hopeless. She dropped either plates or trays consistently for days on end. One of the clumsier ones if I remember right,” I said. Tessa smiled at that.
“That’s right, I had to learn everything. How to cook, how to clean, how to… please. I got better as the days ticked into months,” Tessa said.
“Do you not treat your slaves with harsh discipline, Ordan? I hear that the slave masters that travel every nation keep their slaves in little more than cages and feed them barely anything,” Eliandra said curiously. I shrugged at that.
“I was always on a raid, so I became more interested in making sure a slave could cook, clean and be fun in bed,” I said. “Some of the others are very harsh with their slaves, but there’s a fine line between discipline and cruelty. My enemies can drown on their own entrails, but slaves kept Frostburn alive, even when we couldn’t.”
“Oh, yes!” Tessa exclaimed. “The discipline, Ordan got frustrated with me after one too many times where I dropped his food right next to the table. He would do… very intimate things for my punishment.”