They all looked rough around the edges, scratches and draw- ings on their machines and armor, more earrings and tattoos, even a few mohawks here and there.
They might look different physically but the way they interact- ed they were all the same, all well honed bands.
A war band moved towards the lifts that would carry them to the surface, their Mech-aniks thudding with each step as the others checked their gear, other war bands followed them out.
Claire looked away from the groups as they moved out. For years, their only opponents had been the beasts that lay in the depths around Shiversin’s mines and dealing with the occasional at- tack from the humans and the Beast kin.
I just hope that they make it home.
With a heavy weight on her soul, Claire kept on walking and in- specting the groups of fighters within Shiversin.
***
General Fysher and Gheta spent most of their time dealing with the two of their armies fighting than they dealt with anything important. Within the ranks of the United Army, there were more Guardians who Anthony had sent out to command the mixed
groups of humans and beast kin.
Anthony had headed off to install more Guardian Flames in the different cities, leaving Tommie and Watcher Cecilia with their United Army to drive the coalition forward.
They herded Fysher and Gheta’s forces into the west, breaking up their force into more manageable chunks. Thankfully, the camps had been fully supplied with food and water. Caravans of traders and conscripted forces were keeping them supplied.
Now there was a different issue.
“That is a doorway,” Cecilia said as the two of them stepped up closer to her.
They looked at the forest ahead. It looked normal for the most part. But as they looked closer, they could see the twisted trees and vegetation. The blackened ground smoked slightly, covered with ash and embers.
“Looks like the Drafeng have already entered here. We will need to encircle them and advance as one. Our mounted forces will ride around to the western side with the assistance of the Guardians. As they do so, we will advance forward. They might have their traps in place, and defenses. We will need to break them down to destroy the doorway.”
“What traps?” Gheta asked.
“They cannot move through the ground but they do bury their chaotic beasts underground sometimes to attack us as we pass. They can use anti-magic formations that make people unable to draw up- on external power, or illusion spells that will drive one mad,” Cecil- ia said. “Make sure your people keep an eye out.”
Gheta and Fysher looked at each other. They had a begrudging peace between them.
Tommie and the mounted forces set off, moving to the south. With Gheta and Fysher’s orders and the United Army’s goading,
the human and beast kin forces were moved around.
The units weren’t mixed; there was a fear that they wouldn’t be able to fight if that happened. Although Anthony wanted them to work together, he didn’t want it at the expense of lives.
Instead ,he is using the rivalry of the two groups to see what he can goad us into doing. Since we cannot fight one another, then we can try to show the other our true strength.
Fysher looked at the forest ahead.
Till this point I have only heard about the Drafeng—I have never seen one. Hell, I didn’t know that they existed until a few days ago.
Fysher started to work with the different leaders and mobilize his forces. After being pushed around, now they could show off and prove their worth.
***
Tommie stared at the Doorway Keep. A twisted growth of crystals jutted out of the ground to create a bowl around the doorway.
Light played off of the crystal spikes sticking in the air. Tommie felt a chill looking at them.
One hundred meters to the end of the forest, four hundred meters across dead ground patrolled by chaotic beasts. The real Drafeng war- riors must be hiding in the camp. Ready with their chaotic beams.
Movement caught his eyes. Chaotic creatures patrolled outside the camp. The ground was lifeless, the Drafeng sucking the very life out of the land. A chaotic beast stepped on a withered husk of a tree.
The once might trunk as wide as a man shattered like a twig.
With their unnatural consumption of mana, everything is dying. It looks like a fire burned through here. And we’re running right into it. Seal the camp up, bring up the artillery and hammer the crap out of anything that even looks Drafeng. We need to take out that doorway as fast as possible before they can call in reinforcements or retreat.
Tommie put away his magnifying glass. He pulled the different levers in his suit, checking them. Gnomes put their heart and soul into their creations. With Tommie becoming a Guardian he found that not only did he receive a boost to his strength and abilities, his Gnominator did as well.
There were other gnomes among the ranks of the United Army. Many of them worked with the siege engines among them and there were also elites that piloted mechaniks. Grand machines of metal, magic and steam. They lacked the power and versatility of Tommie’s Gnominator, needing to be charged, unable to alter their arms. While they were juggernauts, the Gnominator was a special- ized weapon of destruction.
There were so few blueprints I could find as a trader in a small vil- lage. I prefer my Gnominator more anyway.
Tommie was standing with the command group, watching and waiting. Behind them there were beast kin mounted on Bedar, Hu-
man cavalry mounted on Familiars and the United Army that were mounted on an array of creatures, or were inside a Mechanik.
A purple light shot up into the mid-morning light.
“That’s our signal.” Tommie stood and turned to Major Este- ban, a Hob goblin.
Esteban raised his axe.
“With me!” he barked. His warthog carried him forward as his close goblins let out excited whistles and riding behind him. They loaded slingshots with explosives as they went.
Goblins and their explosives.
Tommie grinned as he applied power to his feet.
The waiting line rose up and charged toward the enemy camp.
Familiars appeared, light transforming into their animalistic bodies among the roving patrols.
They attacked first. Chaotic beasts that had been snuffling along the ground were cut down.
Tommie was close to the leading edge as he felt the power of his Gnominator. The rolling gait, the mass around him. He grunt- ed and the Gnominator leaped and cleared a small stream.
In a panic he dodged around a tree, getting his stumbling steps underneath the gnominator he left the greens and browns of the liv- ing forest.
He had walked into the Drafeng’s paradise, Dena’s hell.
Movement, chaotic beasts attacked familiars. Shattering light signaled the chaotic beast’s victory.
Tommie fired arrows from his arm by feel alone, the large ar- rows pinned the chaotic beasts to the ground.
Tommie didn’t pause his advance he shouldered a husk of a tree out is his way and pushed thru the brush and into what looked like a blackened circle around the huge crystalline camp.
He slowed down, sighting a group of chaotic beasts that all seemed to notice him at the same time.
Tommie raised his left arm, launching grey spheres that arced through the air.
I missed! The Goblin grenades turned trees into wooden shrap- nel, and the ground into a series of angry craters.
Other than being alarmed, the Chaotic beasts showed no fear.
Luckily for Tommie, they were in his range; but he wasn’t in theirs.
Compensating for the powerful kick, Tommie led a line of ex- plo- sions over the chaotic beasts.
There was little left of the group as Tommie saw another patrol of seven charging towards him.
Too close damnit, I’d blow myself up.
He fired with his right bow-arm, the other transforming with moving metal parts and gears.
Arrows took down two. Tom
mie shook his right bow-arm as the bow parts retracted.
A sword appeared in his hand as thunder rose at his back. Tom- mie felt a rush of wind that was able to make even the
Gnominator stumble.
Familiars, Bedars, mounted beasts and powerful Beast kin passed him in a wave of battle while the Chaotic beasts rose to counter their attack.
Under blasts of magical power, Familiar attacks, swords, spears and axes. They were but a footnote in the army’s charge.
“Watch out for the camp!” “Elven barrier units!”
The crystals glowed with internal power. Shifting lights made Tommie feel the reapers hands around his soul.
“Get to cover!” Tommie half-turned to yell, his stomach dropped. Beams appeared among the charging line.
Tommie turned away, fearing to look over. He felt like he would be confirming their deaths if he looked.
He let out a yell, as if screaming louder and running faster would somehow act as a protection.
Power built up in the crystals and lanced out ever-changing light again and again.
Parts of the charging line were cut down. Where the beams missed, they carved lines in the forest and melted the very ground, turning it to glass.
A group of familiar-riding knights disappeared in a flash of bril- liant light, a mage summoned their turtle familiar.
Beams struck the turtle, intended for the Beast kin and Goblins underneath.
The Turtle’s body was starting to flake away from the massive amount of damage being absorbed. The mage’s skin showed famil- iar tattoos, the light was burning away, a fire inside his body, turn- ing in- to embers.
Familiar and summoner mage, the determination in their eyes was identical.
Tommie stomped forward, his body shook with every footfall. He tasted blood in his mouth as the Gnominator’s power runes lit up as his power rose.
Elven mages shot out on their elk mounts, moving through the armies and the forest.
“Cover them!” Esteban howled.
Tommie drew on his power as a guardian, the Gnominator’s runes showed a purple light as purple smoke appeared around the Gnominator’s chest, leaking out.
The line were being slowed down by the sheer number of pa- trolling chaotic beasts. Spells, arrows, spears, Chaotic pillars it all flew between the camp and attackers.
Tommie and others moved to protect the Elven Sorcerers that charged forward, dodging between attacks.
Tommie cut through a group of chaotic beasts engaged with mounted humans.
He didn’t take time to look back, running across the open ground, passing fights, reaching the nearest group protecting an Elf.
His arms changed, into a bow and a goblin grenade launcher.
We’re still so far from the wall.
He saw a patrol charge towards his group. “I’ve got them!” Tommie fired on them and peeled away from the sorcerer’s pro-
tection. The chaotic beasts spread out, coming for him in different directions.
A chaotic beast charged him from the right.
Tommie dropped under their lunge. He slid on the ground, shooting another chaotic beast in the face with his arrow. His grenade launcher turned into a blade for melee.
Another chaotic beast pounced, in mid-air he had nowhere to go as the blade hacked through him.
Tommie’s Gnominator added a layer of blood as he got to his feet, shooting an arrow into the beast that had lunged at him first.
The spear sized arrow affixed them to the ground. Tommie’s hairs raised up, a sixth sense towards danger.
He held his hands together, turning as his arms connected to one another and metal plates interconnected and layered on top of one another.
Tommie grunted chaotic beams crashed into his double-arm shield. His feet dug into the ground, leaving two lines in the ground.
“Clan Fox!” A beast kin roared. The attacks suddenly ended.
Tommie lowered his shield. The chaotic beasts had been hit with several spears, their blood leaking on the ground.
Tommie looked to the sorcerers.
The horde closed in on the crystalline camp that was fighting back.
The first sorcerer grabbed their staff and jumped off their mount, rolling down on the ground and running forward, sending their elk away. Other sorcerers dismounted.
Shit I didn’t know they could move that fast.
They dodged incoming attacks, forming barriers to defend them- selves and sending out attacks. All of their faces were focused as they ran through the embers on the burned ground and past the chaotic beasts. They had a goal in mind, and no one could catch a slippery elf in a forest, even in a burnt-out one.
Tommie watched the sorcerer he saved slide down a hill and then jump forward. A white spell appeared under his arms and along his body, allowing him to glide and miss a Drafeng’s attack.
Tommie ejected the half-melted shield. His skinnier arms turned into twin bows, holding arrows wreathed in purple flame.
Before the Elf landed, two arrows pierced through the defend- ing Drafeng.
The looked down at his body two more arrows passing his shoul- ders as he collapsed. The chaotic beasts that had been around him didn’t touch the hem of the Elves’ robe, purple flames consum- ing their bodies.
The Elven sorcerer stabbed her staff into the ground, a light blue formation appeared around the staff and caster. Other staffs were stabbed into the ground by the other Sorcerers. Light raced out from the formations, connecting to one another.
Other staffs were stabbed into the ground, the formation spread- ing faster to reach one another and cover the crystal camp. Tommie watched the barrier enclose the entire Crystal camp,
separating it from the battlefield outside.
Without the fear of the camp, the army redoubled their efforts.
Tommie ran towards the nearest sorcerer, standing beside other warriors that had made it this far. They stood together ready to fight.
Charging familiars Bedars and mounted forces crushed Chaot- ic beasts under their claws and weapons flashed in the sunlight, at- tack- ing the chaotic creatures.
“Box them in!”
“Don’t let them shoot out their beams! Use the powder!” Gnomes tossed small bean-bag sized cloth sacks that hit
Chaotic beasts in the face and covered them in powder. While coughing and sneezing, the beasts couldn’t open their mouths to shoot out their beams.
Tommie worked with the others around the sorcerer, nothing made it past their weapons.
Forces were breaking down into groups, boxing in the chaotic beasts, hitting them from every direction.
Their fate was written in stone as Drafeng and their chaotic beasts inside the camp attacked the barriers, but they weren’t able to make them even shudder.
Esteban used a shrill whistle and people moved to the side.
Dwarven cannons were rolled out as massive heavy Familiars stepped forward from their masters.
The Dwarves readied their cannons and yelled, their lines belched fire they passed through the barriers, creating ripples.
Beams of familiar’s power emanated from their bodies or the air around them.
The cannonballs exploded against the crystal defenses. Beams smashed through them or burned holes in the surface.
The once safe camp turned into a hell.
The Patrolling units were dealt with. Units pulled back togeth- er, staying in the lanes that the siege weaponry wasn’t firing down.
The Crystal walls turned into shining shrapnel, hitting the bar- ri- er a few meters from Tommie.
He could see the doorway in the middle of the camp.
Drafeng were tossed to the side with the explosions. Chaotic beasts charged the barriers. They hit them full force. Spears stabbed through, piercing their bodies.
Their camp turned into a prison.
Proud walls were cracked, torn open before the United Army.
A horn sounded out the cannons and familiars fell silent. Este- ban’s
shrill whistle sounded off.
The cannons and siege weapons pushed forward. Archers and mages attacked the doorway directly, cutting down anything that tried to come through.
The Familiars were re-summoned. Attacks of the elements and beams of pure power tore at the doorway. The power fluctuation should crack the Locus stone with enough attacks.
Cannons stopped their advance, close enough to see their tar- get themselves. Cannon balls went through the doorway or hit the ground around it, destruction covered it.
It took a full ten minutes of concentrated fire before the door- way succumbed. It sounded like a book being slammed shut, the doorway disappeared. A whistle called out, the siege weapons fell silent and the Infantry units advanced.
Tommie followed them, leaving ripples that ran across the barri-
er.
The Infantry units, ignoring the smells of explosives and the dead
made sure that the Drafeng and their beasts were dead, grimly ad- vancing into the camp.
There were bursts of fighting as a Drafeng that had been faking their death attacked the infantry.
There were only a few that could give a token fight.
Tommie walked inside, checking the area there was nothing left alive. The beautiful crystal camp was a shelled out ruin.
He stood there, looking at it. He didn’t know when Cecilia or Esteban walked up beside him.
When she pulled out a map, using a section of broken crystal as a table Tommie and Esteban stepped up on either side.
Death Knight Box Set Books 1-5: A humorous power fantasy series Page 57