by A R Chen
***
A thousand people, all carrying weapons of war, were split up into fifty-man squads, each with a capable mage leading them. The squads were preparing to attack, just waiting for the signal from their Lord.
The Lord, on the other hand, had been waiting a good fifteen minutes for his rogue magician group. They were supposed to take the remnant of their original squad, along with some more of his men and sneak around the village to flank Niti.
The group had long since sat down in wait. They had brought half the force over, a total of ten squads, to escort the Lord over to the meeting point. The other half were camped nearby, overseen by the mages of the Mottor force.
Tenk and Fom never showed up. This told the Lord that they were compromised. That was disappointing, but not a real problem for him.
Lord Mottor was just about to give the signal to move on, when he suddenly sensed the presence of magic. It felt odd and was powerful enough that he wondered why he hadn’t sensed it before, when something came hurtling out of the brushes, swift as an arrow. He instantly popped one of the seals on his arm and Blinked to safety.
“Enemy ambush!” There were shouts all around. The one that had come at him wasn’t the only one. Apparently, they had been targeting all the mages.
There was no time to think. “Retreat back to the camp, men!” Lord Mottor shouted. They were falling all around. As he watched, five more humongous logs were magically flung through the air, though they couldn’t see any attackers. The Nitians were literally crushing his men with brute force.
Originally, they had been seated close together, to avoid being too visible. As the first logs came through, the men had tried to quickly evade. Some tripped over each other, knocking still others to the ground in the path of the logs. Then they were flattened, like human pastry dough before a multi-ton rolling pin.
The sound was the worst part. Bones snapped and ligaments popped loudly under the massive force of the logs. In seconds, they had already lost twenty percent of the force and the rest of the men broke and ran in every direction. It was impossible to issue further orders over the sound of hundreds of men shouting or screaming in agony. There was mass panic in the forests of Niti. Nobody had ever trained for this kind of scenario.
By now, Lord Mottor had used two Seals. The Blink when he was surprise attacked, and a defensive one when he couldn’t dodge another log.
“They’re using formations to mask their mana trail; I can’t track it!” one mage screamed out, amplifying his voice to be heard over the chaos. He was one of the few that wasn’t completely useless. A three-star earth mage, from the look of his robes.
Lord Mottor was a five-star mage himself or at least he had the robes for it, albeit a little bit out of date. The true advantage he had over the other mages here were his Seals. Seals were extremely rare, and very expensive. For those reasons they were typically only used by the rich. Having a Seal in your body meant that you could cast a high-tier spell instantly, making them incredibly useful in high-pressure situations. Though the cost of having such a Seal applied was tremendous. Lord Mottor, being a Lord of two villages, only had three such Seals. They were well worth the cost, having saved his live twice in such a short time.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t be used reused. Seals broke and disappeared after being triggered
The mages that he had hired did not have any Seals on them. It was possible that one or two of them had Lesser Seals, but that was about it. Any Seal would cost a ridiculous amount, as only seven-star mages or the equivalent could bestow them, or even understand how to bestow them. Finding these mages was difficult and getting them to give you a Seal was even more so.
They were all out of the rendezvous area now. They had been surrounded by trees in there, making it hard to figure out where their attackers were. Most of the casualties were normal troops, but a good number of the mages had fallen as well.
Lord Mottor glanced around at his losses furiously. The losses of these rogue magicians meant that the organization he had hired them from would never do business with him again. Especially for this kind of reason.
The remaining men who had scattered in all directions were only now coming back to him. As he took a rough headcount, it seemed he had lost eight rogue magicians, one of his own mages, and about two hundred men. His face darkened, and his eyes gleamed with malice as he contacted Remley’s trio.
“We begin the attack, now!”
***
Amon clenched his fist in victory. They had taken out ten mages and forced Molke to use two of his Seals, just to escape with his life. Molke was Lord Mottor’s name before he had taken the position of Lord. Nobody with any respect for the Lord would ever call him Molke. After losing so many mages and two hundred soldiers, the enemy would be more cautious in dealing with them now, but that was fine. They had struck a devastating opening blow and scored a clean victory for themselves.
They had a god on their side if worst came to worst. Amon was skeptical of asking for a god’s assistance, but at this rate, they wouldn’t need help at all.
“Great job, everyone! We completely pushed that cowardly Molke back,” Amon triumphantly cheered. He had ten mages on his side of the ambush location; on the other side was Joffrey, with another ten mages. They had worked around the clock to set the formation circles which would mask their magical presence, in preparation for this. Even Fom had helped. The man was probably still angry that Molke had thrown him to the enemy as bait and was firmly on their side now.
“Clear out, prepare for the next ambush,” Amon commanded. The mages followed Amon back to the village. They weren’t that far off—after a good ten minutes walking, they would be there.
Niti only had four mage squads, meaning they had used almost half their force for this ambush. It had been worth it though. Amon had to admit they’d done an excellent job, even better than he’d dared hope.
As they approached Niti, they heard screams and shouts from the village. As soon as Amon realized what he was hearing, he set off in a sprint, casting a wind spell to increase his speed as he ran.
As he neared the inner walls of the village, he could hear deep, rumbling growls coming from the village center. Dire wolves, Amon thought, as he pushed himself to run as fast as humanly possible.
If anything happened to his family, he would tear the Mottor clan apart.
***
Azra and Steve moved as quickly as possible back to the village. Steve expended energy to push his light body forward faster, to keep up with Azra and her wind magic assistance. He didn’t care if it was wasteful, it was necessary.
Azra had explained as they ran from the encroaching army, “The centipede army is usually inactive, they’ve never approached the village before. But the fish used to have control of the lake, now that they’re gone, everything around us for miles around will come for the lake! The mana’s leaking out freely.” She was crying at that point, though just a few tears, so far.
“If the mana leakage isn’t solved soon, we’ll be overrun by monsters!” Azra sobbed. To her, there was no solution to this problem. “I…We…doomed Niti!”
Apparently, Steve had been too rash in his decision to clear the lake. At least she didn’t seem to blame him for it. Even though he had been the one to do most of it, in the end, the three that were with him had all agreed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to get that Crystal!” Steve reassured her, on the assumption that the Crystal was the problem. He had seen the Crystal on the lakebed when he had been levitating the water. The main issue was, he wasn’t sure he had the ability to absorb it all. He also didn't even know if he could go that deep down into the Lake. How would his body react to the water pressure?
It seemed likely that he would need to greatly expand his maximum energy in order to do it. His current max was only about twenty thousand. The Crystal down there seemed like it would contain a lot more than that.
“We might only be able to hold out a few days under s
uch an onslaught.” They were moving at this point. Azra was still a bit red-eyed, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the god. She had stopped panicking. “Can you get it in that time?”
“Of course, I can,” Steve reassured her once more. He had no idea whether he could or not but telling the truth in this moment wasn’t going to help.
***
The dire wolves they had left near Niti had still been waiting for them when they came back. Remley and his two brothers had worked together for weeks to control them and even then, they could only influence the pack leader. They convinced it to wait for them near Niti, not moving unless they had to hunt.
At the command from their Lord, they began leading them towards the outskirts of Niti. All they had to do was tell the dire wolf pack that there was fresh food in the village. Extremely fresh food.
The weeks the trio had spent here, living out in the forests, were finally about to bear fruit. The hard work they had put in living off the land and learning about the surroundings, foraging to supplement their rations, was about to pay off. They knew the perfect route to sneak the dire wolves in.
They were all two-star mages. Low-class for sure, in the world of mages. But there was one thing they were exceptionally good at: teamwork.
“I’ll do it,” Ronnie said. They were with the dire wolves. The group had come with them into the tall grass that surrounded the village’s front entrance. With the dire wolves hunched low, they wouldn’t be seen. Ronnie, who was usually sarcastic, was completely serious now.
“Come.” He was coaxing the dire wolves along. It would only take a few minutes for them to get into position. Then, they would sneak as far into the village as they could and set the dire wolves loose. It would be the perfect distraction for Lord Mottor’s men to overrun the village from the opposite side. This would be it; Niti Village and all their resources would be theirs.
They crept along a bit longer; the dire wolves had already reached the village entrance. Reagan was preparing a spell under his breath, his hands glowing. Remley was holding up the rear.
Then, a young man who appeared to be headed elsewhere blundered into them. He appeared to be around age 16 or so, and though spooked, he didn’t hesitate.
“Enemies at the gate!” he called out loudly, as he ran back the way he’d come, alerting all his nearby clansmen. The trio were taken by surprise by the suddenness of it all and failed to react in time.
“Guess we’ve been found out,” Remley called from the back. “Let’s get this thing started.”
Chapter 17
“Help! Send help!” Loop ran madly back to the inner village walls. The ‘outer wall’ was more of a flimsy fence. But the innermost part of the village was the stronghold where they could hold out in the event of an attack or siege. All the villagers were gathered there now since the battle had begun.
“What is it, son?” Leeroy asked.
“Enemies by the entrance!” Loop gasped. “Three mages with dire wolves!”
Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be enough to be a serious threat. But the problem now was that their Left and Right were out of the village, along with half the mages, conducting an ambush. Even god Steve was gone. This left them in a bit of a pinch, with more than half of their elite forces gone.
“Pass on the message!” Leeroy roared. “Let the Elder know!”
The designated messenger immediately set off at a run towards the village center where the Elder would be.
***
Leffer had been feeling optimistic, maybe even in a good mood, considering the circumstances, until the shout interrupted his meeting. He had been planning their next move with the advisors that hadn’t gone out with the Left and Right. Amon had told him via communication crystal that the ambush was successful. Now, just five minutes later, he heard someone shout something about a surprise attack.
The messenger stumbled in, getting tangled in the curtain over the doorway and shouted again, “Enemy attack! Three mages and dire wolves!” It was clear he had run all the way; he was breathing heavily from the sprint. “They’re already…Inside the walls.”
“Gods damn it! The dire wolf pack.” Leffer was furious, though mostly at himself. He should have seen the correlation. Now it was too late to prepare for dire wolves. “The Mottor…never mind, assemble the troops! We need to repel this threat at our inner walls.”
Leffer was in full control of the situation. He stormed out to the village center and saw the sea of people—mostly women and younger children—waiting for him. They had gathered here within the last hour, to stay safe during the attack. The troops were already prepared, but they weren’t gathered in one place yet.
His commanders, Amon and Joffrey, were gone. It would be up to him to salvage the situation. Sounds of fighting had already broken out near the entrance to the inner village.
Leffer cast a Flight spell. It took a minute, but this would allow him to fly to the action immediately. In the whole village, only he and Joffrey knew how to cast this spell. The previous Left had also known how, but he had died some thirty years back.
Leffer swallowed. Casting this spell always brought up old memories. The three of them had learned it together, while they were young and journeying in the Capital. Now, after all those years, he and Joffrey were the only ones left from the initial group. Before he left, he gave out a few commands.
Leffer lifted into the air and quickly traveled toward the sound of the battle and assessed the situation. There were fifty dire wolves and three mages were directing them from the back. The few hundred villagers Leffer had positioned near that side of the wall were currently managing to hold them back. The villagers fought the wolves three to one, since they outnumbered them by a large amount. But, with every cast of those mages, the defenders were falling.
The other villagers were pulling the wounded back out of the fray as well as they could, but the losses were mounting nonetheless.
In just the few seconds he’d been observing, Leffer understood where he was needed. He was about a hundred feet up in the air; nobody had noticed him yet, they were all too focused on the fight. So he began preparing his spells.
Mages typically took a lot of time to cast spells. That was why they weren’t great in one-on-one combat. Fighting in an enclosed space, mages were at an extreme disadvantage. Especially if the mage couldn’t start their cast before the opponent knew they were there.
Knowing that, Leffer was in a perfect position to end the fight. He didn’t have to eradicate all the wolves or mages—not at all. All he needed to do was disrupt the battle and destroy the enemy morale. He began to cast his most powerful spell.
***
“What the fuck?” Ronnie suddenly said.
At his prompting, the other two noticed it as well. The three of them slowly turned their attention upward. There was a man, floating in the sky. Next to him was a towering tornado. It looked to be about thirty feet tall and growing rapidly.
It was already too late to run away. The tornado would obviously be targeted straight at them, because they were the ones directing the dire wolves.
“Combine, now!” Remley ordered. Nobody questioned it; the three of them knew what to do. They had practiced this spell together many times before.
The three of them huddled up and put their arms in. Remley started the chant. Ronnie joined in soon afterward, with Reagan following their motions. A wind vortex began swirling in Remley’s portion of the circle, then expanded to form a circle within the space defined by their arms. Ronnie added fire to create a smaller circle within the first. Reagan then summoned earth to fill the core of the circle, completing it.
The three of them kept on adding their elements into their self-made spell. They compressed the Fusion spell when it threatened to grow too large for their arms. It took a lot more mana to compress the spell and they felt it. The brothers were close and compatible enough to share mana—by splitting the cost three ways, they were able to succeed.
The compressed Fusion spell had been charged for a full minute now. While they were doing that, the tornado above hadn’t stopped growing. It was at least fifty feet tall now and gathering power by the second. The man controlling it had long since moved far away, lest he be sucked in by it.
The multi-colored Fusion spell was fired into the center of the tornado that was about to come down on the men and dire wolves, in hopes of dispersing it. By now, the Niti villagers had fallen back a bit, seeing what was about to happen. The dire wolves were confused, losing direction when the mages directing them were distracted by their spell.
When the fusion reached the center of the other spell, it imploded. With a flash of light and burst of mana, a ripple of spell residue washed over everyone in a one hundred-yard radius. The ones nearest to the center were decimated, namely the confused dire wolves. The ones farther from the center that survived, weren’t in good shape either.
As for the rogue mages, they were a bit better off. The moment they had sent the spell up they had run towards the village exit. Even then, the blast caught them. Reagan went down with a stray rock to his head. Remley threw himself atop Ronnie, in an attempt to shield him. It worked, though Remley’s body was ravaged by the force.
As for the villagers, some of them hadn’t made it far enough away in that short amount of time and also went down.
The blast spread across the sky and the land, as if signaling the start of the real battle.
***
Lord Mottor used his communication crystal to order his Left, who had been left in charge of the other camp, to attack. The mages in control of the squads cast wind spells to make them move faster, then he led the remnant of his own force to do the same. They would attack the village from the rear while the hired rogue magician trio sieged the main entrance with the help of their dire wolves. Lord Mottor assumed that the villagers would have trouble dealing with the dire wolves, unless the Elder directly intervened and expended most of his mana to stop them.
The two groups met up and assembled into a single force, near the rear entrance. They then stormed into the village, buff spells at the ready in the minds and hands of the mages. At a moment’s notice, each mage could enhance their entire group of fifty.