The tall and lanky blue-robed young man began to cast a spell. “Push forward!” I yelled and began pushing through the line in front of me. The skeletons at the front of the wave of untouched undead began running on the still brightly burning gravel. A few of them fell apart taking enough damage from the residual heat to break their bindings. “Give him cover!” Before I could get through the confused infantry line, the other mage had finished casting his spell.
In front of the sun I had just created, swirled a small and skinny tornado about three times the height of your average human, but only about as thick as my arm. I analyzed it and found that it was a medium-sized Air Elemental. I wasn’t able to glean any other useful information before the spindly mage pointed at the nearly self-sustaining ball of fire I had created and issued his command.
The wind that swirled around us intensified. It wasn’t as strong as the backdraft my spell had created, but it knocked a few of the injured infantrymen off their feet as they limped to the rear of the line for treatment by the priest and his handful of attendants.
The skeletal undead that had been getting close enough to threaten the air mage, where blown back into their brethren and scattered across the still burning, slowly dying gravel when the boy lifted his staff and unleashed a gale-force wind directly into their numbers.
I looked at the two soldiers who were holding me back from charging blindly into a fight I didn’t need to fight and grinned sheepishly. “Can you get off of us wizard?” one of them asked with more politeness then I thought my antics deserved.
“Yeah, sure,” I said as I stepped back and straightened my leather jerkin. “Sorry about that. Who is that guy? Either of you know?”
“The air mage? Well, that is Lord Traser’s youngest son, Ma’vone Traser, High Windmage of the Harbor.”
“The only windmage of the harbor,” the second heavily scarred man said. The first one rolled his eyes before finishing his explanation.
“He’s still young, true, but the boy is said to be a prodigy with air magic. Already a journeyman rank to hear the water witches say it. Blessed by the gods that boy.” Said the first man. The man still had his spear and a wicked-looking ax on his belt.
“And a heart to match. Ma’vone saved my boy from drowning over this last summer he did, the river was fast-moving, being swollen by the spring rains and runoff. My boy had no hope of swimming to safety after he fell from my brothers fishin skiff, but Ma’vone? Plucked the boy right out of the water.” Said the second man, who carried a large mace instead of a shortsword. He sported a gnarly looking and still slightly bleeding gash across his right cheek. Despite his earlier comment about the boy's lofty titles, the man seemed to carry a genuine affection for the young mage lord.
I looked back to examine what the young air mage was doing, and saw him attempting to coax his air elemental into my sun. He might be kind and smart, but he isn’t very wise. I don’t think that’s going to… the creature shot into the sun, and the air that had been whipping around us ceased entirely. The whirlwind died down to almost nothing, and the sun blazed with renewed life. Yeah, I didn’t think that was going to work. Good try though, I thought sadly.
As I prepared to launch a fireball at a clump of skeletal warriors and one doggedly ferocious-looking warg with bits of fur still clinging to its bones, the tornado re-emerged from the fire, and a being of light and fire and wind emerged. It stood nearly as tall as the skeletal monstrosity that had been consumed in the creation of the sun had. Fire blazed and swirled mixing with the wind that fed it, even as the elemental gained newfound energy from the updraft of warm air it turned and reincorporated into its living form. I analyzed the creature immediately, forgetting my petty fireball.
“Name: Ra’thin’ax
Race: Elemental of Sun and Sky
Class: Under 10th Level
Level: 1
Height: 18’9 ~ 3’6, can change his height at will within this range.
Hair: Fire / Air
Age: 13 seconds
Affiliation: Ma’vone, You
Alignment: Unknown
Disposition Towards You: Confused, this creature was recently awakened from the mindless state of an air elemental summoned by Ma’vone, by fusing its former self with the heart of a dying mini-sun created by your hand. The new intelligent creation is exceedingly rare on Ethria and sees both you and Ma’vone as potential parental figures.
HP: 500/500
Physical and Immaterial Characteristics: Unknown, Skill Too Low
Defensive Characteristics:
Armor Defense: 10 ~ immune to all physical attacks. Magical attacks penetrate this immunity.
Magic Defence: 60
SPECIAL: Can restore HP by finding new fuel, or merging with a mundane flame.
Offensive Characteristics:
Fire Claws: N/A, skill too low
Wind Gust: N/A, skill too low
Fireball: At-Will, costs 10 HP per fireball cast this way.”
“Looks like I just had a baby,” I said in awe at the development. Before I could do much more, Ma’vone said something to the large creature, pointed a finger at the remaining undead minions still facing us, and the massive elemental of fire and wind with a star for a heart leaped into action. It was a mad titan of brutal devastation, as it devoured the remaining undead.
All the giant elemental had to do was touch any animated pile of bones and after a few seconds, they would shatter from the heat, scattering the remaining shrapnel over hundreds of feet due to the creatures wild winds. More than once the infantry line had to hide behind their shields as debris peppered the line.
I admit I began to relax. I pulled out some jerky and began chowing down, chatting with Tol’geth and the two guards as we watched the giant creature riped the lines of comparatively slow skeletons apart.
Thank God, both mine and that of Ethria, the men at our rear and the archers were not nearly as stupid as I was being. As I chewed and watched the carnage, I heard voices from behind us. After a few seconds, a shouted command came from Commander Traser.
“About Face! Infantry! To The Rear!” I stayed with the two men I had been chatting with and stood behind them as they reformed the line fifteen feet back from where they had been. A thin line of archers split into four groups, two human and two elven, were strung out behind the line. I stood between them, and the infantry.
Aside from the rampaging sun-storm elemental monster hybrid behind us, everything went still, and quiet. No noise came from forest. After a few minutes, I felt a chill ran down my spine, and I imagined it froze the sweat that had been accumulating all across my back because I visibly shivered. “Even in winter a forest as dense as this one has something living in it.” One of the rangers a few feet away caught my eye and nodded agreement with my statement.
“It's an odd thing, I can’t hear anything but the fire and wind behind us. Not a squirrel, or a breaking of a branch.” She said as she nervously fingered her bow. Our position was facing one of the pathways that had been designated by the rangers as potential ways to the ruins through the forest.
The pathway, it was really just a large game trail, let out slightly to my left. In front and to my right, maybe eighteen feet in front of me and twelve or so in front of the infantry was thickly overgrown forest. The trees had lost their leaves, but the underbrush had yet to follow suit, growing almost as tall as the tree branches around over five or six feet.
Two rangers on a desperately running mare, eyes roaming wild and foaming at the mouth from exhaustion and fright, rounded the corner maybe thirty feet into the brush. “They’re coming! They’re right behi…!” The male elf on the rear of the horse was tackled off the exhausted mare by a black blur, that disappeared with its prey into the undergrowth. The elf screamed in agony before quickly being silenced in a wet crunching sound. The last elf screamed in terror as she streaked past the line through the opening the men-at-arms had given her.
“Shields up! Weapons at the ready! Archers, knoc
k! Draw! Hold!” came the commands of Knight-Commander Traser now at the very center of the formation. “Hold!” He said again, his voice booming his command over the silence.
The first black-clad creature, looking like it was wearing a full-body suit of skin tight latex, even over its constantly shifting eyes, charged out of the bushes and straight towards the line, it's razor-sharp and pearl white teeth bared and looking like daggers in its frenzied rage. One of the Rangers loosed an arrow and struck the creature mid-leap at the line. The incident repeated itself several times down the line, and only proved to showcase the prowess of the elven rangers. “HOLD!” Trasers voice boomed, reinforcing his command with the human archers.
The trees shook, the ground rumbled slightly underfoot, and the bushes began to shake, in a wave moving towards us only slightly slower then the horse had at full gallop.
As the ground shook and the first beasts had leaped from the brush my inner voice went from a, “Oh crap this is going to be rough.” To, “Oh crap, Oh crap, Oh crap!” As the line was approached even faster, and we could hear giggling laughter, mixed with mad rambling, and angry cries of pain and hunger, that little voice went “Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh Shit!” When the voices, laughter, and inhuman sounds of ecstasy or pain, I was unsure which, went silent all at once, I lost it.
I let loose a fireball that blasted the undergrowth just in front of me, turning it to ash and revealing several now burning, latex clad creatures, licking their lips hungrily. They began cackling madly, even as the flames burned their skin to charcoal and their lungs to ashes. The worst part was, even as they shriveled and died in the flames, they didn’t move an inch. Whatever, whoever was commanding them wanted to prove a point, to unnerve us. And I had helped.
A few of the men began to waver, one man near me took a step back, his hand went slack around his spear. I walked up and put a hand on his back, and firmly pushed him back into line. “We need you in the line soldier. We need all of you. Don’t worry, your leaders are with you. My magic is with you.” Just at that moment heat and light blossomed behind us as my new ‘child’ did something cool, giving my words a more tangible meaning.
“And we have a giant three-story fire monster on our side,” I said with a bit of a chuckle. The man still looked shaken still, as his grip hardened slightly on his spear and his gaze went back to the forest. His resolve hasn’t broken, not entirely anyway.
He was young, some lords son from the twins out on his first real posting more than likely. Parents probably sent him to the country so he could learn what it was like roughing it among the fishmongers, hoping it would instill some character in the boy.
I smiled as confidently as I could while looking at the burning, unflinching creatures straight on as they died. His grip firmed, his shield raised slightly higher, and though it was shaking, it rejoined the line. Many others including the two warriors I had chatted with earlier, watched as I confidently strode back to my place behind them.
“Do Not Fear Them!” Traser called. “Watch as they burn from our pyromancer's spells!” Seeing a chance for melodrama, just for effect I launched another fireball at the center of the line where a few of them were out in the open at the mouth of the game trail the ranger had rode in on. After the explosion silenced he continued “You have seen the magic our own lord's son first hand!” Helpfully the elemental threw a flailing handful of skeletal creatures over our heads and into the forest far beyond. The undead turned into little more than flaming shrapnel that ripped the underbrush apart in places as they landed.
Couldn’t have timed that better myself.
“You have seen what our elven allies can do in the field.” Probably picking up on the helpful emphasis tact we were all taking, a few of the elves shot arrows from bows so powerful that they pinned the still burning creatures to the ground as they squirmed in the liquid fire I had unleashed. “Now is our time to show them what we can do! Hold the line!”
“Fear effects resisted. Aura of Command ability activated, all soldiers under Knight-Commander Trasers command are now immune to fear effects. All terror effects reduced to fear effects. Immunity does not apply to reduced effects.”
The infantry all let out a great warcry, banging their swords and axes on their shields to add to the cacophony, freed from the terror effects that had almost broken them.
Seeing what they imagined was a moment of lost concentration, the leading elements of the black-clad creatures began throwing themselves out of the woods and onto the waiting spears and shields of the infantry. Even as the first wave hit, the second started forward, creating gaps and breaking holes in the defensive line. As I watched these were swiftly filled by the handful of reserve squads Traser had placed strategically along the line.
From atop his horse at the center of the breach Commander Traser watched and supported his men. I glanced over and watched as one of the creatures leaped from atop the back of one of its fellows directly at him. He decapitated it mid-leap with a swift slash of his sword. The weapon ignited in light as it struck, activating some kind of enchantment inherent in the blade. The undead creature fell at his mares feet, limp and lifeless.
Commander Traser turned his mare around as he pointed at the now dead corpse. “See? They can not break you! They need to rely on magic, and sorcery to frighten you! I am with you! And while we stand here shoulder to shoulder, your will is Iron! It is Steel! It will not bend nor will it break! Hold the line!”
Damn that kid can give a speech. I thought as I began picking off the leaping creatures with short three and four round bursts of force bolts from my staff. The force bolts struck and then lit the creatures afire due to the secondary effects my staff granted them. Even then most simply shrugged it off, rubbed dirt on where I had hit them extinguishing the flames, and began charging the line with renewed anger and hunger in their unseeing black eyes.
The weapons that the men-at-arms wielded, primarily short swords, axes, maces, and clubs, were only marginally effective against the creatures. A beast could drag a man down, sink its teeth into his throat, snap his neck and rise for another, as quickly as a normal man could land a single blow. The creatures ran on all fours, acting more like rabid jungle predators then the people they had once been.
That being said, the men-at-arms were far from helpless. When one of their brothers was brought low, the others turned their attacks on the offending creature, outnumbering and overwhelming it, and eventually driving it off before their friend could be killed. A few among the soldiers stood out as being able to stand toe to toe with the beasts.
I saw the Infantry Captain, Bardin, cleave one of the creatures in two with his two-handed sword as it glowed bright red with some warrior ability. The Archer Captain, a man who I later learned was named Ugin, shot two of the creatures point-blank as they ran through a small breach in the lines, one that Bardin filled alone, pinning them to the ground. Ugin finished them both off with his drawn short sword, a single slash for each ended their miserable undeath.
After only a minute of fighting, a large gap appeared on the far left flank, opposite me. The cavalry charged the breach, noble pendants gleaming, lances lowered, and armor shining in the waning sun of the afternoon. I didn’t see what that first charge looked like directly, but I saw its effects first hand. The creatures all turned and began racing down the line, opening themselves up to attack by each man as they went, beelining for a single target, Lord Traser of Laketown himself.
The calvary entered the breach at full tilt and at an angle, crushing the handful of the creatures that had been flanking the soldiers there, and ripping apart the enemy. The knights continued straight down the line towards the end heading away from me, hoping I think to allow that section enough time to reconstruct and reconnect with the rest of the line, sealing the breach.
As the calvary crushed the undead that had caused the breach under hoof, they exposed themselves to attack from all sides. The now vulnerable calvary, mainly high ranking knights, and commanded by Lord Tra
ser himself, drew nearly the entire enemy force after them, to one end of the field. Seeing the opportunity to end Lord Trasers life, the enemy couldn’t pass up the now vulnerable and valuable target. This was both a boon and a terrible situation, as it put Commander Traser between a rock and a hard place.
On the one hand, he could order the entire force into the enemy's rear, and potentially slaughter them with relative ease. However, if the enemy still had a wave or two of those creatures hiding in the woods? Well, he’d be laying the entire force open like an all you can eat buffet.
I looked at Tol’geth, and the large man seemed disturbed by the sight. I turned my attention back towards the horror show I was witnessing with my own eyes, and a runner appeared as if out of nowhere. I really need to learn to be more observant, I chided myself.
“Wizard Rayid! Wizard Rayid!”
I rolled my eyes, why couldn’t these people just get on with it? “Yes, speak!” I urged the breathless man.
“Commander…” The main inhaled “...Traser, bids you take command of this flank, and hold…” Another deep breath “... against the possibility of another attack, while he…” Another breath. “Takes the rangers and the center to flank the enemy and rescue his uncle.”
I nodded “How many men do I get?” I asked.
“The section of archers assigned to the northern section,” The man said pointing towards the handful of human archers who were milling about on the edge of the rear line. “...and the far flank of infantry.” He said pointing from roughly the man whose nerves I had steadied under the terror effects, over to the end of the line.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, that's only thirty men, in total. And he wants us to screen and act as a rearguard?”
“Those are the orders, sir.” He saluted, hand over heart, and stepped towards the line issuing orders and demarcating the line separating the men I would have, and the men that were going to help save their lord. Less than a minute passed before the infantry began swiftly marching away.
Ethria- the Pioneer Page 47