She stood and, breathing in, took in her foes.
The closest Teifen had been thrown to the ground in heaps. Blue blood smeared the bottom of her shield where she had smashed troops to bloody pulp. They stared, not moving with the shock of her arrival.
Sara roared out an animal sound, her fists clenched and glowing with power. The hulking Teifen standing closest to her actually took a step back in fear.
She struck without pause. A blast of fire spewed from her left hand, incinerating anything in its path. Then her hand sent blades of force slicing through men and armor like they were made of tissue paper.
For a glorious moment, she poured death and destruction on an ancient enemy that had showed her and hers no quarter.
Then they started firing back.
She threw up a shield, absorbing the fire from a hundred weapons like it was nothing. The Aether was flowing from her in waves, ripping tanks to shreds with force, burning Teifen in their armor, freezing bodies solid as she moved from one foot to the other. It was a dance she knew she would only be able to do once, and she was going to make the most of it.
She tore from one end of the wall to the next, and soon she was chasing them as they ran from her in droves. Soaring over the battlefield she rained destruction, then swooping in to thick groups of Teifen she blasted them with fire and ice, smashing them to the ground with force hammers. She was a goddess of death.
She may have fought for minutes, or days—she had no clue—but eventually there were no more enemies. She stood in an open square, the stones charred and smeared with blue blood. Nothing moved but the smoke. Her breathing was heavy, and she could taste the blood running from her nose, but she was not done. Not by a long shot.
She streaked into the air, and turned out over the open field, where the transports were warming up their engines. Smiling cruelly, she rocketed over the swaying grass, and fell upon them with reckless abandon, ripping the large ships to pieces or imploding them with crushing balls of force. All ten transports lay in ruins, their dead occupants scattered across the ground like discarded peanut husks.
The Aether raged. She needed to do more. To channel more. She needed to mash her enemies to a bloody pulp. She searched for more Teifen, but found only the dead.
There was a tickling in her mind.
Ignoring it, she flew to the city and scanned for more of the enemy, but found none. She finally spotted a group of armored soldiers, and dove in for the kill. She craved their blood. The Aether begged to be used.
She reached out to smash them with her powers, but the spellform didn't come. She tried again, but there was no spellform to channel into. She realized that she was falling, not flying anymore. She tried again, but nothing.
Her head cleared slowly as the wind slapped and buffeted her. The fog of battle and bloodlust gradually washing from her mind as the Aether reluctantly receded back to its well. With a scream of realization, she saw that the enemy she had been trying to crush were her own troops.
She was still falling, the wind whipping past her in a rush.
At the last second, a spellform appeared, and she fed it. A shield popped up around her seconds before she slammed to the ground, sending clods of dirt and stone in all directions.
She lay there groaning and wondering what had happened.
Baxter’s face leaned into view. “You okay? I’ve been trying to reach you for twenty minutes,” he said, concern in his voice.
“I’m… I’m fine. Sorry, I was a little caught up there for a minute,” she said, groggily. She could feel a trickle of disappointment and fear coming from Alister.
“I think I owe you that drink, Captain,” Baxter said, and he offered her a hand up.
Epilogue
The Teifen scout stepped into the throne room, his head lowered in respect and fear. He was guided to the opulent room that soared four stories above to a glass ceiling that exposed the vastness of space; a reminder of what their God Emperor ruled over. The scout tugged at his curled horn with nervousness, but he would fulfill his duty to his Lord.
The guards stopped him at the foot of the dais, and stepped back, one hand still on their weapons. The scout slowly looked up at the magnificent throne, inlaid with gold and silver. Huge tapestries hung from the soaring ceiling, framing the throne to perfection.
The Governor had a bored look on his face. His massive frame was slumped in the throne, and he didn't even glance at the visitor.
Flipping a hand in a lazy manner, the Governor boomed, “My advisors tell me you have something to report. For some reason, they seem to think you need to tell me in your own words what you saw.”
The Governor’s eyes slowly turned and focused on the scout, whose legs began to tremble under their intense scrutiny. He had to make an effort to keep his hooves from tapping on the stone tile.
“My Lord, our ship came under attack on the outskirts of your province, in the Elif empire.” he began, but was cut off.
“Former Elif empire. It is a victory the Emperor will be pleased with, I am sure.” The Governor’s voice dripped with his lust for approval from the God Emperor.
“Forgive me, Lord. We were attacked on the outskirts of the former Elif Empire. It was a single ship that came out of nowhere. We had reports that the area was empty of Elif star cruisers, so our captain was not prepared when they arrived. There was a fierce battle, but in the end, the carrier was destroyed. We could not get a transmission off in time, but I happened to be in my ship from an earlier scouting mission, so I was able to escape.”
He realized his actions may be seen as cowardice, so he quickly amended his last statement. “Uh, so that I may report to your Lordship.”
The Governor’s face tightened in annoyance. “Why does one ship’s fate merit my attention? I have millions of ships entrusted to me to help with the control of my sector.”
“My Lord, the loss of one ship is of no concern to you, I am sure, but the enemy may be,” the scout said, bowing his head.
“Continue. You have my attention,” the Governor growled.
The scout quickly resumed. “My Lord, the scans of the ship revealed an ancient design. A human design. The ferocity with which they fought was nothing an Elif-controlled ship could hope to achieve. They were humans, my Lord, I swear it,” he said, bowing low.
The Governor sat unmoving, taking in the news. The war with the Elif had been tedious, but nothing his vast armadas could not quash in time. The Galvox were stupid beasts. Barely more than a slathering hoard that won the occasional battle with sheer numbers, not tactics. Their push into his sector was nothing more than an itch.
But a human enemy.
The stories his ancestors told were of an enemy worthy of the Teifen.
“Humans,” the Governor said. A smile spread across his face. Finally, an enemy worthy of my greatness. “Have my dreadnought made ready for battle. We leave in the morning,” he bellowed as he swept from his throne, his long leathery tail snapping as he headed toward his war room.
“Should I continue on to the Capital to pass word to the Emperor, my Lord?” the scout asked, still bowed.
The Governor stopped and turned back, “No. I will handle this in the name of our great God Emperor. No need to trouble him over such a trifle.”
“Yes, my Lord,” the scout said in obvious relief at not having to deliver the news to his god.
Author’s Note:
Dear Reader,
Thanks for joining along on this epic adventure!
Sara has won the day. But it almost killed her…
…and she almost murdered her own troops in a bloodthirsty rage.
Can she learn to control her power before it destroys her? Or someone she loves?
No one has heard from Cora or the Raven. Will Cora ever wake up?
The Elif have abandoned them. The Teifen are preparing to extinguish them. This war is just getting started for humanity. Are you ready for the true battle ahead?
See where the Aether might
take you in Dreadnought: War Mage: Book Two.
Get it now, and come follow me on Facebook.
Thank you,
Charles R. Case
P.S. Authors love reviews and whiskey… and reviews are free.
About the Author
Charles R Case is an emerging author of Science Fantasy. This is Charles’s first book.
Feel free to email me with comments, or just to say hi at
[email protected]
Genesis: War Mage: Book One (War Mage Chronicles 1) Page 26