by Eric Vall
Julia passed them along to one of the guards at the top and returned to me.
“That’s everyone,” she said.
“Good,” I replied. “I’ll make sure to find you after this is over. Be safe.”
“You too,” she said gently and cupped my cheek.
We hugged one last time before she climbed back up the ramp and inside the airship. The ramp slowly began to shut, and I turned away and jogged back to the city.
It was eerily calm now, with the citizens either inside the ship or down by the training area as they waited for their next orders.
Laika, Ruslan, Nike, Ravi, Alyona, and Valerra waited patiently outside of the tower where the bell rang. They were all dressed in armor with weapons in their hands or at their side. The exception was Valerra, who was naked and stood with a bored expression while her arms were crossed over her breasts.
Laika and Nike talked quietly amongst themselves as I approached.
“Is everything ready?” I asked the two of them.
They shared an uncertain look before Nike spoke.
“The people are ready as they’ll ever be I suppose.”
“The ships are ready as well,” Laika added with a firm nod. “They just await our word.”
“Good enough.” I looked around the group. “Has anyone talked to the guard who rang the bell?”
Nobody answered, so I took that as a no.
“I’ll be back,” I said as I turned to the tower.
I ran up the steps two at a time before I finally reached the top, and I spotted a Demi-Human as I walked inside the small watch tower. His hair was golden blond, his eyes were bright yellow, and he had talons at the tip of his scaled, three toed feet. He wore a long-sleeved shirt underneath his armor, and I would have bet he had feathers up his arms.
“You’re the guard who saw the echidnas?” I asked him.
“Yes, sir,” he answered with a bow. “I have excellent eyesight, that’s why I am usually on guard. I can’t see as clearly or focus as easily once I pass about four miles out, but I can still see.”
I wracked my brain for my limited bird knowledge, and the man smiled at me.
“I’m an eagle Demi-Human,” he answered my unasked question.
I guess that would explain the eyesight, since I remembered eagles had the best eyesight in the animal kingdom back on Earth.
“So, do you know how far away the echidnas are?” I questioned.
“They seem to be about five miles away, give or take,” the guard replied. “They are slow, so it might take them a few hours to get here.”
“Good. We need all the time we can get. Thanks … ” I hesitated when I realized I didn’t know his name.
“Gavin,” he supplied with a salute.
“Thanks, Gavin,” I repeated. “Send an update if anything changes.”
“No problem, my Lord,” he said somewhat casually before he turned back to the small window.
I made my way back to the others, and they immediately started with their questions.
“Whoa, guys one at a time!” I said as all of their voices ran together.
“How much time do we have?” Laika asked first and crossed her toned arms over her chest.
“The guard Gavin said at least a few hours, but we need to prepare like it could be immediately,” I told her. “Everyone gather the people of your unit and report to your section. Then wait there. The echidnas will be here before we know it, and I don’t want any surprises.”
“What shall I do until they are here?” Valerra asked me as she uncrossed her arms and exposed her bare chest.
“You and I will fly ahead,” I replied with a vicious grin. “We’ll bring the fight to them.”
“Great,” she sighed as she cracked her neck. “So, we are the pawns.”
“No, we’re the first line of defense,” I corrected. “The more we can kill before they cross out of the desert, the less we have to worry about reaching the city.”
“Fine. Let’s just get this over with already.” She turned toward the gate and walked out, and then quickly shifted into her dragon form.
“I’ll see you guys later,” I said as I looked to the rest of the group. “Let me know if you ever need help and watch out for each other.”
“Be careful, Evan,” Alyona said before she hugged me.
“You too,” I murmured as I squeezed her and breathed in the gentle scent of her hair.
Before I left, I paused in front of Ravi.
“You be safe, too, okay?” I said seriously as I reached out and brushed a stray feather away from the phoenix’s face.
“I’ll be fine, Lord Evan,” the beautiful orange-haired woman assured me with a smile. “Your father has already promised to look after me.”
“Good,” I chuckled as I met Ruslan’s eyes over her shoulder, “because if anything happens to you, I’ll have to answer to your father, and I don’t want to get on his bad side.”
Ravi giggled nervously before she darted up onto her tiptoes and kissed my cheek.
“You just worry about keeping out of reach of those echidnas,” she said.
“No promises.” I grinned before I stepped away from the phoenix and followed Valerra out of the city.
“You ready?” I asked as I shifted into my dragon form and flexed my claws into the dirt.
“Of course I am,” Valerra responded with a smirk. “Let’s get this over with.”
I nodded, and we flew into the sky and took off toward the desert. The afternoon sun was still high in the sky as we flew, and it warmed my scales with its bright rays. As we rose higher on a warm updraft of wind, I finally caught sight of the colony of echidnas. The desert was spotted with various black patches for as far as my eyes could see, and it looked like a black carpet moved over the sand.
There were hundreds of thousands of them.
“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath.
“Well,” Valerra called over the wind, and her gold eyes burned bright with an inner fire, “let’s do this.”
Then she let out an ear-piercing roar that split the sky before she dove toward the swarm of echidnas closest to us. She launched herself into several of the creatures and crushed them beneath her claws before they knew what hit them.
I sent my magic toward her to protect her feet from the acid, and then I dove after her. I attacked the echidnas with glee as I ripped them apart with my claws with Valerra beside me, and together we tore into hundreds of the beasts. Their emerald blood stained the sandy earth an olive color, and the corpses began to pile up beneath as we slaughtered echidna after echidna.
I didn’t know how long Valerra and I battled the beasts alone for, but the next time I flew up into the sky, I noticed we had slowly crept closer to the line between the desert and the lands that surrounded Hatra.
And there was still an endless army stretching out to the horizon before me.
“Shit.” I glanced down and back toward the city, and I saw Ruslan’s unit of fighters and Ravi as they waited for the echidnas outside the walls. Ruslan and Ravi stood at the front of the group, and their metal armor glinted brightly in the sunlight. They both brandished swords that gleamed like rods of silver in their hands, and they had around a hundred civilians and mages pulled from the guild behind them. The dryad sisters also waited beside my father and Ravi, and their vines were already spreading from their feet and twisting toward the desert.
As I studied the unit, I used my new found skills to create a shield of fire around them. I knew it wouldn’t stop the echidnas, but I hoped it would at least slow them down.
I was pulled away from my distraction as Valerra roared in pain, and I dove down to assist her. I quickly healed her burns, and then I used my stone magic to create a box out of the sand to squish dozens of echidnas inside it.
Then I heard the sounds of battle, and I realized the echidnas had finally reached the first line of fighters. I took off into the air to check on everyone and grabbed a handful of echidnas as I lifted
off the ground. I dropped them once I was high enough to determine they wouldn’t survive the fall, and then I looked back to Ruslan’s unit.
The Blue Tree Guild mages held their own against the echidnas as their magic abilities tore into the beasts. Water mages, which I had only seen in action once before, were brutal as they used the blood of the fallen echidnas to create giant spikes to impale the survivors. Anton and the other fire mages used their swords to slice and behead numerous amounts of the creatures.
The dryad sisters were also a force to be reckoned with as they trapped the echidnas in their vines and pulled the insects apart quickly. Marina also carried a bow, and she shot with deadly accuracy as she stood beside her sisters and made sure no echidna got too close.
Even the civilians were holding their own, and I watched as one man threw a javelin with a savage war cry and impaled an echidna through the skull.
I sent my healing magic down toward the people below to ensure no one was hurt too badly, and then I returned to the fight on the ground. I created box after box out of the desert sand until I could feel my magic start to deplete. Then I landed, since there was no use for me in the sky if my magic was at risk. I couldn’t afford to pass out up there.
“Evan!” I heard Ruslan bellow over the din of battle, and I charged toward him in my dragon form. I crushed dozens of echidnas under my feet as I ran through the chaos.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when I finally reached him.
“The echidnas,” he panted, and his emerald eyes were wild, “they’ve broken past us.”
Chapter 16
Ruslan was drenched in sweat and covered in sand, and his fox ears were flat against his head as he took short, quick breaths. He reminded me of his father Tristan like this. Both of them had the same determined look in their eyes as they fought to protect Hatra.
Then I realized he was also covered in green echidna blood. I quickly scanned him for injury and sighed when my magic seemed to be preventing any serious risks.
“There are just too many of them,” my father continued. “Should we pull back to assist Laika’s unit?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “There are a lot more than I thought there would be, so we need to help prevent the echidnas from reaching Hatra. Laika’s unit is the next line of defense, and the airships should already be there as well. With these numbers, she’ll need all the help we can get.”
“I’ll give the order then.” He turned around and yelled to the closest mage. “Fall back, we need to assist the next unit! Reach them before the hoard does.”
The mage nodded and immediately fell back and repeated the order to anyone he passed. Shortly after, the others began to fall back as well.
I looked back out into the desert, and I could see black patches still approaching from the distance.
“I don’t think they’ll stop anytime soon,” I told him. “They’re still coming.”
Ruslan swallowed, and his red fox ears spun this way and that over his head.
“This is bad, Evan,” he grunted. “We don’t have the manpower for this.”
“I tried to warn you!” I heard Valerra yell about a dozen yards from us as she ripped through three echidnas with one swipe of her massive claws. Green blood sprayed onto the ground beneath her, and I sent my healing magic to quickly heal the burns along her forelegs.
“Go,” I said to Ruslan when I finished. “Warn Laika and fall back with your men. We’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded once, and with a final look toward the desert, turned and ran back in the direction of Laika’s unit.
“The echidnas won’t stop until they reach the queen or until they are all dead,” Valerra continued with a snarl as she landed beside me hard enough to shake the ground. “They have been summoned, they act solely on their instincts now. Their queen is dead, no one can call them off, so we have to kill them all.”
“How the hell are we supposed to kill them all?” I growled as I flexed my claws, lashed out, and caught an echidna midair. I quickly covered my foreleg in my healing power and crushed the insect creature before I tossed its carcass away. “It seems like their numbers are infinite! This must be the whole fucking colony.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you killed their queen,” Valerra rumbled and lashed out with her tail to knock another echidna to the ground and crush it.
“Are we seriously going to argue about this now?” I shouted as I ripped apart more echidnas, and I flinched as the blood sizzled along my scales. My healing magic prevented too much damage, thankfully, but it still hurt like a bitch.
“I’m stating a fact, not arguing,” Valerra responded as echidnas began to crawl over to her in larger numbers.
I heard Valerra snarl as we continuously slaughtered the echidnas. We still fought along the edge of the desert, but we were slowly forced back toward the next unit. Trees and shrubbery began to replace the dry desert sand beneath our feet, and I realized we had been pushed back to the entrance of the forest that surrounded the city.
There didn’t seem to be an end to the wave of beasts. We would kill five, only for ten more to take their place. My body began to ache as I slashed and ripped across their black bodies, and my healing magic was stretched thin to help ensure no one was too badly injured from the green blood that began to stain the ground.
Suddenly, Valerra roared in annoyance before she snapped open her wings and took to the skies. She broke off a few limbs of trees as she exploded off the ground, and several echidnas screeched in agony as they were crushed or impaled by the debris. Valera rolled in the air above the canopy, and more echidnas scattered off her back and smashed to the ground in a green and black mess.
I knew Valerra could handle herself, so I looked around for the others.
Suddenly, a volley of arrows shot toward the ground from the sky, and I was pleased to realize the airships were here. The arrows sliced cleanly through dozens of echidnas, and I could hear the Mistress of War Daya from the ship above as she ordered the archers to notch another arrow.
I could also sense the familiar touch of Alyona’s magic close by, and I quickly realized we had been pushed back deep into Laika’s section. I inwardly groaned as I realized we were halfway to the city, and the insects had shown no sign of ceasing their attack anytime soon.
As I whirled around to crush another several insects, I spotted Alyona and Laika as they fought against a small swarm. The wolf Demi-Human stood defensively in front of the princess as she used her two blades to strike down any echidnas that dared to come too close. Alyona, on the other hand, stood with her hands clasped together, and her amethyst eyes were squeezed shut. Her mouth moved slightly as she spoke her incantation, and then her eyes flew open as a burst of pure magic exploded from her in the form of a bright light.
Any echidna within ten feet was instantly disintegrated as the light touched them, and Alyona stepped to the side and collapsed onto her knees. Then she shook her head slightly, clasped her hands together once more, and started to chant again.
I growled deep in my chest and took off in a run toward my two lovers, and I trampled as many echidnas as I could under my clawed feet until I finally reached the two women. Then I stood defensively over them in my dragon body and roared loudly. The echidnas around us chittered loudly, and I slashed my claws at them in annoyance.
“Is Alyona okay?” I asked Laika as I used my magic to check both of them for any serious injuries.
“For now,” Laika answered quickly. “It takes up a lot of her magic to do this spell. I’m worried she’ll exhaust herself.”
The wolf Demi-Human’s ear were pressed down flat against her head, and her tail twitched back and forth in irritation. Her armor was covered in green blood, and sweat plastered her gray hair to her forehead and the back of her neck. She also panted heavily as she gripped her swords tightly in her hands, and she had a few small cuts along her arm and on her left cheek that I quickly healed.
“I can take Alyona out o
f here and back to the airship in the city,” I offered to the wolf Demi-Human.
“Good luck.” Laika rolled her eyes fondly. “She’ll give you hell for even suggesting that she leave the battle.”
Suddenly, another burst of light exploded around us and disintegrated the echidnas in a twenty-yard radius.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Alyona declared from behind us.
She was still collapsed onto her knees, and her chest heaved with every breath she took, but her amethyst eyes burned with determination.
I growled to myself at her stubborn nature.
“Alyona, you’ll exhaust your magic if you keep this up, and then you won’t be able to help anyone,” I reasoned with her. “I can take you back until you’ve rested and feel a bit better.”
“No,” she said in a tone I’d never heard before, and her voice was steady despite her erratic breaths. “I will fight with my people. They need me.”
The tone she used reminded me of her father, and I was suddenly reminded that Alyona stood to inherit an entire country one day.
But she’d do it with me by her side.
“Fine,” I told her and blew a puff of smoke from my nostrils, “but if you start to feel your magic deplete, call for me, and I’ll make sure to get you somewhere safe, okay?”
“I promise, though I will be fine,” Alyona replied with a small smile.
“I trust you,” I said. “I just know you have a hero complex and will gladly give up your own life to save others.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she chuckled
“It is when it’s you who would get hurt instead,” I told her gently.
The sound of Laika’s swords as they sliced through the spine of an echidna turned our attention back to the fight at hand, and Alyona clasped her hands together again and looked at me.
“You should go, Evan. We can handle this here. Find others who might need help.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I asked her and swiped my claws out to shred an echidna that came too close.
“Yes. Now go.” She closed her eyes and quietly began her chant.