The Path of Giants

by B. T. Narro

  She alone could keep the threat of the entire army at bay, but for how long?

  I could see and hear the enemy sorcerers becoming furious with the elf. I was envious of her stamina. I didn’t know if it was from years of casting or if she was just naturally stronger than I was, but I was still recouping lost mana and strength as I finally made it to Reuben’s cage.

  It was my damn healing spell. It took so much out of me, and I was about to cast it again.

  Reuben was losing a bout against a swordsman still intent on jamming his weapon into Reuben’s torso. So intent, in fact, that the swordsman didn’t see me coming up behind him.

  I did not hesitate as I jammed my sword up through the side of his back, splitting his ribs open. I left him to die as I took Reuben’s reaching hand through the bars.

  I let my healing spell course through his body, and all his many wounds closed before my eyes. Fortunately, he had been in better shape than Aliana.

  “Can you use the callstone?” I uttered through heavy breaths. Hadley hadn’t heard anything from Reuben since his capture.

  “I can’t figure out how the damn thing works! Here!” He handed it to me. “Hurry,” he said as he pointed at Charlie, Michael, Eslenda, and Eden. “They’re not going to make it to my cage, let alone Aliana’s, without the rest of our army.”

  “They have to. Everyone else is far.”

  “Nox’s blade. I’m doomed.”

  I shut out the rest of the world as I connected my mana to the callstone. It felt like losing myself to a memory. I didn’t know if Hadley would understand any direct thoughts or just sense my feelings, but I tried to be as clear as possible.

  Hurry, I’m out of stamina. Everyone’s facing west. Be careful of traps and archers.

  I put the callstone in my pocket and tried to push myself to a sprint as I left Reuben in his cage. Every enemy had their attention on my allies about thirty yards ahead of me. If I could just come up behind them before they noticed me….

  “Shoot the healer dead!” Endell commanded, still at the center of the encampment. His group of archers had hardly moved, all of their sights on me.

  There was no time to hide behind trees. Enemies had finally gotten through to my allies as they were trying to make their way to me. It was a chaotic scene just ten yards ahead of me as sorcerers from both sides were flying through the air from the spells of wind and dteria. But I couldn’t spare another moment to watch them.

  I made a wall of dvinia between me and the archers, taking it with me as I ran toward my allies. It threatened to break apart with each arrow that stuck inside of it, a heavy weight on my mind.

  “Forget the elf!” Endell yelled. “The healer’s coming behind all of you.”

  I would soon be in between the enemy archers and the enemy sorcerers. I could only hope the archers wouldn’t keep shooting at me in fear of hitting their own men, and I was right as I shot a look over my shoulder. They were turning their attention to the other way, a mass of people emerging between the trees. The rest of my allies had finally arrived.

  But more than fifty men stood between me, on one side, and Eslenda, Charlie, and Michael on the other. I didn’t have the wherewithal to really process what I thought about Eden clearly helping us, but I sure wasn’t going to do anything to stop her.

  Before I could come to a plan, dteria came at me from every which way. It picked me up and shoved me through the air, a wrestling match between many sorcerers with me at the middle. I grabbed and pulled at the energy, descending close to the ground many times, but I could never quite get my feet to touch as my legs flailed.

  “We have the healer!” announced one of the dark mages, aiming his hand at me.

  I made a wall of dvinia around my rear, and just in time, as I felt an arrow strike my energy near my back. I had to let down the shield momentarily to throw back a few swordsmen charging at me.

  I tried once more to free myself by pulling at the energy, but there were too many sorcerers holding me. All I could do was form another shield around my backside as more arrows came at me from where I could not see.

  “Fire mage, forget about the elf!” yelled Endell. “Burn the healer.”

  The woman pushed a larger man out of her way and was soon just a few feet in front of me. She swirled her hands around as an enormous fireball formed. Everyone backed away, and I still couldn’t move with so many dark mages suspending me.

  There was a blast of light, but it wasn’t from the sorcerer’s fireball striking me.

  I was thrown back in a surge of heat. As I struggled to my feet, I realized that Leon had come. He had struck the fire mage with his own fireball before she had gotten hers off, and her enormous fireball seemed to have exploded against the ground. I didn’t know where she was now. There was no time to look around.

  I grabbed my fallen sword as a horde of swordsmen charged at me. I deflected one attack, then another. An arrow came from behind me, from the enemy archers, but missed. It stuck into the stomach of one man trying to get around my side.

  I shot a look over my shoulder to see the archer’s eyes wide with horror. All the other archers started firing at my incoming allies—the Thieves’ Guild. I recognized none of them except for Kataleya, as she charged in with them and made a wide wall of water that absorbed about a dozen arrows.

  I returned my attention to my many attackers as I ducked and weaved, deflecting the attacks I could not dodge. It was chaos all around me as people were thrown in every direction. I couldn’t tell if any side was winning as I concentrated on keeping myself alive.

  There were too many swordsmen, and I was too damn fatigued. I’d never had a chance to catch my breath.

  They came at me from every side. It was as if every soldier in the encampment had descended upon me at the same time. I sidestepped and backed up as quickly as I could to keep them in front of me. One bearded swordsman took a risk, thinking I would let him get around behind me because I was too distracted. I stabbed him in the leg quickly, then got my sword back up to defend myself from a flurry of more attacks.

  He hollered in pain, but he didn’t fall. It wasn’t much of a stab, after all. But it did slow him enough for him to give up trying to get behind me.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie melting the metal of Aliana’s cage. I hoped that meant he had already freed Reuben, who had been on the way to Aliana. Charlie and Aliana darted off away from the fight, both of them weaponless. I hoped Aliana would find a bow and Charlie would find his courage. I surely needed both of their help right now

  Allies and enemies were all mixed together everywhere I looked. There always seemed to be at least one person tumbling through the air. My enemies wore black uniforms while members of the Thieves’ Guild were dressed in the gray and brown clothing of commoners. Either I had miscounted the Thieves’ Guild earlier or most of them still weren’t here, because there were so many more enemies.

  “Just pin him!” said Endell from shockingly close behind me.

  The swordsmen stopped trying to get through my defenses, many lifting their free hands in my direction. Dteria struck me from every angle and shoved me against the ground.

  “As soon as he’s dead, fend off the archers,” Endell was telling them as they rushed at me with their swords.

  “Jon?” Leon yelled from somewhere over my shoulder. He sounded busy but concerned.

  “I need help!” I wasn’t afraid to admit. My chest burned with every breath. I might be able to throw one or two of them back with dvinia, but it would use the last of my strength.

  I looked over my shoulder to see Leon sprinting at the fifteen enemies all around me. Knowing I had to hold on just a moment longer, I used dvinia to blast back one man about to stab me, then another, then a third. I was completely spent after that.

  As Leon arrived, he casted a huge blast of wind that rolled me violently across the ground and blew away everyone else. I couldn’t be sure if I was still in danger as I picked my head up and tried to gath
er the strength to get the rest of my body up.

  Someone with small hands grabbed my arm and pulled me up, then dragged me stumbling away from the fight. I was surprised I still had hold of my sword. Looking back, many of the swordsmen were scattered along the ground. Now it was Leon who was quickly becoming surrounded. The rest of our allies were far back. He had pushed too far forward to help me, but I could see Remi running toward him, ignoring enemies in her path.

  “I have to…” I couldn’t talk as I struggled for breath.

  “Steady your sword!” Hadley demanded.

  I trusted she had some sort of curse prepared, so I lifted my weapon and held it still. There were many swordsmen who had their sights on me, but most were trying to get behind Leon as he burned one alive and blew back three others with wind.

  They’re not just swordsmen, I corrected myself. Most of them are dark mages as well.

  “You have to get out of here,” I told Hadley. She didn’t even have a weapon with her. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re exhausted! You’re going to get yourself killed if I don’t do something!” She wiped a cloth down the end of my sword, taking off a bit of blood at the tip. Then she wiped the cloth on a blue moonstone. Quickly, she brushed her hand over it, then closed her eyes and murmured something.

  “All right, go,” she said as she darted off away from the fight.

  I felt my strength returning with unnatural speed. It was as if I’d had a whole minute to recover, and her spell still wasn’t over. I jogged, then sprinted at my enemies, feeling fresher than when the fight had started. It was as if there was no end to my mana.

  I tensed my mana as I watched my enemies lift their hands in my direction. Their spells were barely stronger than a sneeze against my resistance. I tossed one man high and far as if he were a small pebble. Then I deflected a sword strike from another and kept up my momentum as I stuck my weapon into the face of a third attacker. The one who I’d deflected thought he could stab me from behind, but he wasn’t ready for me to turn around and chop his head off.

  The sword in his now-dead hands still had enough momentum to stick into the soft flesh of my side, but it was a quick heal as his weapon and headless body fell to the ground. That’s when I noticed the bearded sorcerer I had stabbed, whose blood Hadley had used. He had fallen to his knees as he struggled for breath, looking as if he didn’t have the strength to even stand.

  It was his mana that Hadley’s curse had transferred to me.

  I ran toward Leon and took out two men with quick swipes of my blade before the rest even knew I was there. Some turned to face me while the others continued to shield themselves with dteria from Leon’s fire.

  “Watch out!” I yelled to Leon.

  He didn’t see a swordsman coming up behind him, but the swordsman was struck by a blast of fire before he could finish his attack. He and his weapon were blown away from Leon, who ignored the heat behind him as he focused on two others in front of him. I traced the direction of the fireball to little Remi, the front of her shirt covered in soot.

  I feared for her safety as I watched her picked up with dteria from one of the many sorcerers around us—I couldn’t even be sure who—but then she sent a stream of fire into a sorcerer’s face, and soon she was on her feet again, darting toward Leon.

  I was too busy to watch her any longer as I tossed away one man and faced the other with confidence. It didn’t take long to get through his defenses.

  But then something struck me from the side. I was pushed over and pinned against the ground by dteria, no doubt.

  “Shoot him!” yelled the mage as he held me.

  I eyed an archer running up close—too close to miss me.

  I didn’t have time to do anything but flinch, tucking my head down and rolling my shoulder up. The arrow went deep into my shoulder. I lost concentration as I screamed.

  “Again!” said the mage, still pinning me to the ground.

  “I’ve got him!” spoke a deep voice from my other side. I looked over to see a sword coming down through the air and threatening to chop my face in half.

  My reflexes took over as I casted dvinia out through my head, tossing the man back and sending his weapon flipping high into the treetops. But that didn’t stop the archer on the other side.

  I casted at him wildly in a panic. My dvinia made him stumble back a few steps, knocking his arrow off his bow, but he snatched it up from the ground quickly.

  I had to free myself, or I would soon be dead. I tried to blast the dark mage back with dvinia, but he wasn’t very close to me. It didn’t interrupt his spell, just made him stumble back. Damn, he was strong to pin me from twenty feet away.

  I physically and mentally grabbed the dteria pinning me down and shoved it off me enough to get to my feet, the dark mage groaning in effort during our wrestling match.

  The archer had his arrow ready again. I suddenly let go of the dark mage’s dteria, letting him win the wrestling match as his energy threw me a few yards away at the same time that the archer released his string. He missed.

  I found the same small pair of hands helping me up again and pulling me behind the cover of a tree. Hadley had gotten a lot closer.

  “Take this,” she said as she plopped a moonstone into my hand. “Can you get it close to the archers at the center?”

  First, I had to check on the archer and dark mage team who had almost killed me. The archer fired at my head as I looked around the tree, but his arrow struck the bark. The dark mage stood beside him, both waiting for us to come out with quick looks over their shoulders to check on the rest of the battle. Neither of them moved.

  I looked over toward the center of the encampment. Endell stood with the team of archers who had remained at the center this whole time, and that’s when I noticed just how many arrows were with them. They were set up in a square formation with barrels of arrows sitting beside them. A set of dark mages stood at each corner. Our own archers were firing at them, but every arrow was stopped by a wall of dteria.

  I watched with dismay as the enemy archers took out one, then two, then a third of our own archers. The Thieves’ Guild used trees as cover, but they had to come out to take a shot. They were being picked off quickly. This group of enemy archers at the center worked well with the dark mages. They had certainly practiced firing over the invisible wall of energy to strike their targets while using the same wall to make it nearly impossible for them to be hit.

  We weren’t going to win this until that group was dismantled, and I had a feeling time was against us, especially as I thought about how I hadn’t seen Valinox since this began. I was sure he was dealing with Souriff before he dealt with us, and it would only be a matter of time before he beat her. I feared she might even die if we took too long before we aided her.

  I didn’t see where Leon and Remi had gone. I did find Kataleya on the other side of the encampment, using water as a shield whenever someone got close to her, but she was bloody. I couldn’t tell what her wounds were—she was fighting as if they didn’t matter—but blood covered her arms and stomach. Michael fought close to her, and he had found a sword. I noticed Reuben near Michael as well, the two of them watching each other’s backs. A little ways behind them stood Aliana, now with a bow. She loosed, her arrow striking a swordsman in the chest who had been trying to deal with Reuben.

  I didn’t know where Eslenda and Eden had gone.

  In the short time it took for me to check on my friends, I saw two more thieves shot. Endell must’ve given the order to take out our archers first, and it was working. Without them, the rest of us would fall quickly. I wondered if someone should give the order to retreat, but there were so many hidden traps we would have to deal with on our way out. Many of us wouldn’t make it.

  “The radius of the curse will be small,” Hadley said as she pointed at the stone. “Just toss it into the group of archers, and I’ll take care of the rest from here.”

  Peering around the tree again, I wasn’t su
re if I could get close. The duo of an archer and a sorcerer had the luxury of just waiting for me while the rest of their army was quickly winning this.

  I motioned like I was going to start running out, only to stop and jump back behind the tree. An arrow zipped past me. I ran out for real this time.

  I couldn’t resist at the same time that I casted, so I made a choice. I grabbed the archer’s bow and ripped it free from his hands, throwing it back behind me. Nearly at the same time, I was slammed against the ground by dteria.

  The bowman ran at me as he drew a dagger. I took out his legs with dvinia. He fell flat in front of me. I pushed the dteria off me. It felt like shoving off a cushion that a large man was sitting on. The bowman got up at the same time, grabbing the dagger and thrusting at me. I picked up my fallen sword and batted it down, then drove the tip of my blade through his stomach.

  I left him as he fell to his knees and charged the sorcerer wearing a dark robe. He held only a dagger, but he seemed confident as he sneered at me. He tried to throw me back with dteria, but I resisted. Finally, he showed a moment of panic. He tried to turn and run, but it was too late for him. I ran my sword through his back.

  “Shoot the healer,” Endell commanded, and half the archers turned in my direction.

  I crouched and made a wall of dvinia in front of me. Arrows pattered against it, threatening to break it apart. Other arrows stuck inside.

  There was no hope of disrupting the archers with my own spells, not with their powerful dark mages holding barriers up in front of them. I could only hope Hadley’s curse would do the trick.

  I kept up my barrier as I made my way over to them in a crouch. I wanted to get up and run, but I didn’t trust myself to keep my barrier intact with it stretching to cover my entire length.

  I muttered a curse as I witnessed the fire mage running toward me. Some of her robe had burned off from the fireball Leon had hit her with, the side of her stomach showing. If she was injured, she hid it well.

  I didn’t think I could stop her enormous fireballs with dvinia. I would have to get around her some other way, but letting down my shield of dvinia to lift myself up over her would mean I was vulnerable to archers. She started to form a sizzling ball of heat that grew quickly.