Legend of the Arch Magus_The Upheaval

by Michael Sisa

  “It’s not nonsense! I told you! This forest is poisoned!” retorted the old beastman.

  “Enough,” the calm voice of the General made them immediately stop.

  “I summoned all of you here to verify this shaman’s claim.” Urkawi’s piercing gaze made the shamans quiver. “Can you do it?”

  Everyone knew there was only one answer to this question. After looking at the old shaman with contempt, they started their investigation. Half an hour later, everyone were dumfounded by the results. Indeed, this entire forest was poisoned. The reason why none of them noticed it until now was because of its peculiarity.

  The dangerous substance which currently filled the air they breathed was not organic, nor was it something commonly found in these lands.

  Miasma. The product of death itself. The byproduct of lives dispersing into the void.

  All throughout history, only places where innumerable lives were lost were filled with these malignant substances. Unless thousands of lives have perished on this forest less than a year ago, it would have been impossible for Miasma to have formed in this area.

  “But how?” said one of the shamans. It was the same question that ran through everyone’s minds.

  “I’ve heard of magic poisoning before,” said Urkawi. “It’s a disease which could be fatal for humans. But how about beastmen?”

  The old shaman answered, “It’s basically the same for us, General. It’s a chronic disease which opens up the victim’s meridians, making his mana continuously leak out. Magic Poisoning is fatal, but with proper rest, one could fully recover after a month.”

  “A month of rest, huh?” General Urkawi contemplated. “How long till the symptoms start?”

  “A couple of days at most,” said the old shaman. “The warriors of this legion will become significantly weaker after that.”

  Urkawi fell silent. Should he order everyone to retreat back to their country? To recuperate? He knew that it would be a far too risky move to mobilize an attack under such state.

  But in less than a week, we’ll be able to reach that town. A territory as small as that will easily fall in our hands. Even if the beastmen are weakened with Magic Poisoning, those humans will still be unable to defend against an attack of such massive scale. This is not a battle against those puny humans. It is merely a battle of time.

  Urkawi realized that decisiveness would play a key role in obtaining the victory to this battle.

  “Falma, was it?” Urkawi gazed at the old shaman. “You did a good job. You shall be handsomely rewarded after this war.”

  The other shamans looked at the old beastman with envy.

  But surprisingly Falma did not look pleased in the slightest. With quivering voice, he asked, “G-General? Are you telling me that you’re continuing this war?”

  Urkawi nodded. “That’s right. It’s a race against time. We just need to capture that town in a single instant.”

  “This place is no longer safe.” Urkawi summoned the guards. “Pass my orders to everyone. We will march towards that hill in the distance.”

  He said to the shamans, “I want all of you to start concocting the medicine for this. I want all of the beastmen cured after a week and a half.”

  The shamans protested, “But General! We couldn’t possible make enough medicine for ten thousand beastmen! In a week, we could only probably concoct enough for a half a thousand at most! The herbs we’ve brought with us are limited!”

  “We’ll capture the town in the next four to five days.” Urkawi did not doubt this statement in the slightest. “You’ll have enough time after that.”

  Soon, the sleeping camp immediately blazed into life. Guided by torches, the soldiers marched for several hours until they reached the hills. News about Magic Poisoning had spread out. By the time they reached the hill top, they could hear several protests that they should probably stop and recuperate.

  The warriors were becoming uneasy.

  Urkawi looked at the map.

  Our target is near. Four days. We can make it there in four days. We’ll have more than enough time to heal the Magic Poisoning by then.

  He firmly believed that the town would fall in less than a day, maybe less than hour at most. After all, his army was a Legion.

  Despite the uneasiness and complaints, the Legion continued their march. After four days, they finally arrived at the forest adjacent to the town.

  “Hey, there’s still some time before summer starts, right?” One of the warriors said.

  “That’s obvious, moron.”

  “But look at the ground.” He stomped his foot on the ground, creating crisp sounds. “It’s filled with dead leaves. You’d think its autumn with all these things scattered about.”

  Just like the beastman said, the entire forest was currently blanketed by dried leaves. It felt unnatural in this weather. Furthermore, there was a peculiar scent wafting through the air. A sweet, fragrant scent.

  “Stop bickering.” One of the officers reprimanded them. “We’re almost there.”

  As the group continued their march, one of the scouts returned and immediately reported to the General.

  General Urkawi noticed that the scout was pallid, his entire body quivering. “What’s wrong?”

  The scout continued to tremble. “It’s… It’s terrible.” He choked the next words out. “Up ahead! The heads! The Vanguard Army is up ahead!”

  “What do you mean?” said General Urkawi. “Snap out of it!”

  But the scout refused to answer. He merely stood there, trembling from what he saw.

  General Urkawi frowned. The words of the scout did not make sense. Was he trying to tell him that the Vanguard had been waiting for their arrival this entire time? But why did the Vanguard not respond to their messages via animal couriers?

  “Hasten the pace,” said the General. “Move!”

  The army quickened their steps. And after several minutes, they realized what the terrified scout was trying to say.

  Hundreds of severed beastmen heads were dangling from the branches of the trees. Several of them still have their eyes open, their faces distorted in agony.

  All those who saw them realized what these beastmen went through before they died. At first, the Legion was filled with terror, but the emotion called rage soon consumed everything.

  With vehement fury, they looked further ahead, towards the direction where the town was. Everyone decided that they would rip those human bastards to shreds. They would make them die in the most painful way possible.

  “Azura,” breathed General Urkawi.

  The head of the Commander of the Vanguard stood on the ground for everyone to see, his neck pierced by a wooden spear. At the bottom of the spear was a wooden placard. Surprisingly, the words written on it were on Albahim, the language of beastmen.

  War is pointless. Go back to your country. This is a warning.

  It was a straightforward statement.

  “War is pointless?!” growled the General. “Go back to our country?! These damn humans!”

  This region originally belonged to the beastmen. At least, that was what their history books stated. Everyone in the army believed that they were simply reclaiming what was rightfully theirs.

  “Take all of the heads of our comrades. They shall be buried in our homeland.” The General’s voice was loud and clear. “As for these humans… Crush them! Warriors of the Third Legion! Forward!”

  The beastmen gnashed their teeth. They gripped their weapons and continued marching. Soon, they saw their target. A town enveloped by a wooden wall, moats and trenches.

  General Urkawi did not expect the town to be a small fortress. With these fortifications, it’ll take some time before they captured the town.

  “But it still just a town.” General Urkawi smirked. The hatred within his eyes continued blazing. “These low lives think we’ll turn tail after seeing those corpses? Hah!”

  General Urkawi could still vividly remember the corpse of Commander Azu
ra. He trembled in rage. He roared, “These damn humans dared desecrate the corpses of our comrades! Warriors! Charge!”

  A straightforward battle without use of any tactics.

  General Urkawi planned on showing these humans the difference in strength between their races. He planned to show them that against such number, what awaited were only despair and death.

  Thousands of soldiers ran out of the forest and charged towards the town. A horn resounded from the wooden watchtower behind the walls. On cue, arrows flew out and struck the beastmen.

  But blinded by their rage, they continued charging regardless. Under the command of Phantomin, a group of beastmen carried several logs with them. They used it to cover a small portion of the trenches, creating a bridge to let the army pass through.

  Despite the barrage of arrows, the beastmen continued setting up the bridges despite the rising casualties on their sides. Several warriors raised their shields and protected those that were setting up the footholds.

  “Archers!” roared General Urkawi. “Fire!”

  A hundred archers from the Legion fired their arrows. The previously unending barrage of attacks from the humans immediately stopped. The beastmen used this chance to cross over the trenches. And with their weapons, they started destroying the wooden gate.

  General Urkawi knew that it would only be a matter of time before this puny town falls in their hands. He snorted. As expected of humans.

  As he was savoring the upcoming victory, shouts suddenly came out from their rear. To be precise, it came from the beastmen hiding in the forest.

  General Urkawi quickly turned towards the forest and his eyes widened by what he saw.

  The forest was on fire!

  How was this possible? In just the span of a few minutes, the entire forest was blazing in flames, and the warriors stationed at the rear – the shamans, reserve soldiers, and those who handled the rations – were all being burned alive.

  His instinct screamed at him.

  He eventually realized what was going on.

  The forest unnaturally littered with dried leaves. The sweet, fragrant scent which filled the air.

  The severed heads of his comrades were nothing but a diversion. Blinded by their rage, they failed to realize that the forest ground had been soaked with oil all around.

  All of them were planned by these damn humans!

  He gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists. A third of all his men were still inside that forest. Even now, he could hear their agonized wails. From the sky, he could see fire arrows raining down.

  It seemed that several human archers were lying in wait in the forest all this time, waiting to burn the beastmen alive.

  “The town’s a bait,” Fior came running to him. “Their real targets are the soldiers in our rear. And it’s also the place where we kept our rations and herbs.”

  Losing those things would be a devastating blow to this Legion. Capturing this town was only the first step, after all.

  After this, they would be pointing their swords at the Lion City and at the entire Eastern Region. If these humans succeeded in their plan of annihilating their shamans, rations and reserve soldiers, their plan of conquering the Eastern Region would be pushed back by several months.

  “We could still save them,” said the Rabbit. “Please order the magicians to summon the rain.”

  That was a Grand Scale Magic which would consume all of the mana of his magicians. But General Urkawi knew that anything weaker than that would not work against the forest fire.

  “Very well,” he said eventually. “Tell the magicians to put out the fir—”

  He had yet to finish his statement when a deafening sound reverberated and the earth shook. General Urkawi instinctively turned towards the direction of the town.

  “What the hell?”

  Boulders were raining down from the sky!

  Urkawi did not know how the humans managed to throw those things, but they were obviously effective against the beastmen trying to cross over the trenches. The boulders were probably made of hardened mud, as they immediately broke into several small pieces upon impact. Those who were hit immediately died on the spot.

  Urkawi roared, “What are you doing?! Even if it kills you, charge! Break down the gates! Break down the walls!”

  Despite the unreasonable order, the warriors still charged ahead. Some of them were shot down by arrows, but there were those who successfully reached the gates.

  Just when they were about to break them, the gates opened. This momentarily stunned the beastmen. And as though toying with them, several humans wearing leather armors pointed crossbows at the invaders. Without hesitation, they fired and killed the beastmen, then shut the gates once again.

  Veins popped on Urkawi’s forehead. What he just witnessed was humiliating. It was as though the humans did not fear them at all! They even opened the gates just to directly fire at the beastmen pummeling through it!

  Urkawi looked at the forest, then at the town. Capturing this tiny territory was proving to be difficult as time passed by. Who would have known that the humans would build walls and trenches? If he turned around now, he could still save those inside the forest. After all, he still had his magicians.

  “What are the magicians waiting for?!” said the General. “Put out the fire! Put out the damn fire!”

  The magicians pooled their mana and cast a Grand Scale Magic. Thunderclouds roared and the sky dimmed. Slowly, droplets fell down the sky. This single spell consumed all the mana of his magicians. It’ll take some time before he could utilize them for battle again.

  General Urkawi contemplated for a moment.

  His decision here would dictate whether or not his men would live.

  Eventually, he decided. “Fall back for now. We’ll save our comrades.”

  They couldn’t afford to lose thousands of warriors from the fire.

  The beastmen warriors slowly retreated, leaving behind numerous corpses of their comrades. The rain did not put out the fire, but it was more than enough to make it possible for the army to pass through and retrieve the warriors inside.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  On top of the watchtower, Mikael stared at the retreating army of beastmen beyond the wall. Even from this distance of almost a kilometer, he could see the swarm of green and brown entering the burning forest. With his amplified senses, he could see the desperate attempt of those beastmen to rescue their comrades burning inside the forest.

  “But how?” he mumbled.

  How did Lark Marcus predict all these things until now?

  Three days before this attack, he ordered his men to spread castrel oil inside the forest, along with several dozen barrels of dried leaves. Mikael could still remember the words the young noble said that time:

  The enemies will arrive in three days. They’ll surely enter this part of the forest.

  It was as though he knew everything from the start. Did he plant a spy within the ranks of the beastmen? That was the only possibility he could think of. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to monitor the movements of their enemies from so far away.

  The tactics used by Lark was simple, almost an out-of-the-textbook method of dealing with the enemies, but it proved very effective. Even now, Mikael could see the fiercely burning forest ahead. Even with the summoned rain, the fire continued to blaze. With this single exchange, probably thousands of beastmen succumbed to their banes.

  Mikael knew that anyone else would be hard-pressed to mimic this feat. Although it looked simple at first glance, a lot of variables played vital roles in initiating this plan.

  First, one needed a wide view of the battlefield as a whole: Where the enemies were. Where they would come from. Their numbers. Their strengths. And even the personality of their commanders. If even a single one of these things were missing, this plan was doomed to fail. If the enemy’s leader did not charge recklessly while bringing all of his magicians with him or if the enemies took a different path in the fore
st, things would have unfolded differently.

  “Do as we planned!” the Commander of the Blackstone Soldiers shouted. “Open the gates! Move out!”

  The gates opened and several men started pushing a removable wooden bridge. After it perfectly crossed over the trench, the soldiers started moving out of the town. There were several hundreds of them.

  The man next to Mikael struck the gong then blew the horn.

  A war cry. It signaled the counter attack from the humans.

  The retreating beastmen looked at their rear. They were clearly flustered after seeing hundreds of soldiers armed to the teeth. They clearly did not expect to see such an army from a very small town.

  Since these soldiers were originally from Lion City, most of them have experiences in subjugating monsters. Almost all of them had experienced war.

  The beastmen knew that if they were to clash now, they would be unable to save the thousands of beastmen trapped in the forest. Those who survived the forest fire must have been too weak to move right now. Even with the help of the pouring rain, they would be unable to get out.

  “Split into three groups and enter the forest!” roared the General. “Phantomim! Valanar!”

  The two officers nodded their heads. The two led their own detachments. They entered different paths of the forest and started rescuing their comrades. The General, on the other hand, stayed behind to confront the army of humans. With only a thousand soldiers, he stood right before the forest’s entrance.

  “Warriors!” roared General Urkawi. “We’ll slaughter these damn humans! Be ready to charge at any time!”

  “Understood!”

  Each of the warriors with him have rage burning within their eyes. They could still remember the defiled bodies of their comrades. With vehement fury, they all steeled themselves for the upcoming clash –

  —But it never came.

  Half an hour had passed since the human army came out of the town. But peculiarly, they simply stood there, unmoving.

  After several more minutes, the gates opened and the army retreated inside.