“Pretty much. I heard that he was dropping out of the sky in dif- ferent places to put down the flames to save time. Started call- ing him the Dusty Comet.” Tommie grinned with the side of his mouth.
Aila snorted as the “Dusty Comet” walked over. “So, how have things been, Aila?”
He reached out his hand and she tapped his fist with hers, dis- lodging some dust.
“We made good time, though we left behind more than I’d like.” Aila sighed.
“Can’t change everyone’s minds. Everyone has their own path to follow.”
“Do you know when the Drafeng will reach Shivernsin?”
“At their current rate, it should be another two days,” Tommie said.
“What about Cheon?”
“Cheon is a bit of a mess,” Anthony muttered.
***
“Scouts report that another group of Drafeng reinforcements have arrived,” a messenger reported.
General Axion of the Island Alliance’s First Army grunted. He pulled his cloak tighter around him against the howling wind and seawater that came with it, pulling at his clothes and making the torches flicker in the room. “What of our own reinforcements?”
“They will be arriving tomorrow,” a colonel reported.
Axion opened his mouth to speak as a horn called out from along the wall.
es!”
“Looks like they want to go for another round! Man the de- fens-
The room turned into action as the tired men and women checked their gear, pulling on their helmets and dropping their
wa- terproof cloaks.
Axion took firm strides as he undid his cloak. His guards pulled it from him and passed him his helmet. He pulled it on and did up the straps, his face hidden from the world.
Mages came out from the cover they had been hiding under; balls of light formed from spells appeared in the sky above the wall. The darkness was lifted as cannon coverings were removed and run forward into their positions. Archers strung their bows and
took off the canvas coverings protecting their arrows.
The rain came down at them from the side. The sea was stirred up and angry as it crashed against the black rocks of Cheon’s shore.
Soldiers and sailors who had been brought to shore left their cov- ered barracks with grim faces, taking up their positions.
Axion made it to one of the towers overlooking the bat- tlefield.
He pulled out a telescope from his hip and surveyed the area. The chaotic beasts’ crystal defenses glowed slightly in the dark-
ness. The chaotic beasts, although ugly as demons, didn’t leak out chaotic power like the Drafeng did. It made them harder to see in the night light.
“Batteries are ready! Archers are awaiting orders.” A colonel walked up beside Axion.
“Thank you, Margrave,” Axion said to the snake kin colonel. “With their constant attacks, there’s no time for proper beauty
rest.” She sighed.
Axion snorted slightly and he surveyed the battlefield again. Then, from the darkness, the wave of chaotic beasts appeared. “Fire!” he yelled, looking at the horde entering into the cannons’
range.
They used the chain fire technique. With two cannon crews working together, the first would fire their cannon; the second wait- ed thirty seconds and then fired themselves, keeping up their rate of fire to one cannon round every thirty seconds instead of every minute.
This way, they kept pressure on the Drafeng and they didn’t waste their shots, hitting the same place as the crew beside them.
The chaotic beasts were spread out, making it harder to inflict the kind of casualties that they had achieved when the Drafeng rein- forcements appeared at first.
“Have the archers and the melee types hold in position. Get the mages to engage once they reach the three-kilometer mark.” Axion closed his telescope and put it away.
Cannons blazed with magical light and the power of gunpow- der; cannonballs landed among the chaotic beasts, cutting down tens of them and leaving a cratered battlefield behind.
Axion checked his timepiece as the chaotic beasts reached the halfway mark.
“Twenty minutes and they’re still coming.” Axion looked be- yond the chaotic beasts and at the crystal fortress behind them. “What is their plan?” he muttered.
“Are they capable of planning?” Margrave asked.
“Don’t let their chaotic beasts fool you. The Drafeng aren’t stu- pid,” Axion said.
“You think that they will win?”
“It is not about them winning or not—it is about knowing your enemy. They sent people over here centuries ago to weaken us and learn about Dena. They threw us into chaos to make it easier for them to invade. It has been almost a month since they have arrived, and they have taken over Cheon, the Northern Basin, and have de- stroyed cities and villages. Their actions look to strike at our weak- nesses, targeting our harbors and supply points across Dena. Their
actions might look random but they have planned out their ac- tions in detail. Although this might look like a waste of troops to you and me, there should be another reason for it. Why have they not sent out any true Drafeng in these random attacks? They’re holding their core strength back, weakening us, and reducing our supplies.” Axion’s expression darkened.
“I fear just what they’re trying to hide from us in the north of Cheon. They must have a large force there to keep on pushing this many chaotic beasts forward, though they have not gone all out; they sent a force that should be able to dislodge us. They are taking their time to weaken us. Is this because they don’t have the force, or be- cause they don’t want us to see them as a true opponent and take them seriously?”
“What could that mean?”
“Have you played cards, Colonel?” Axion looked to Margrave. “Yes sir.”
“You know when you have a good set of cards, instead of bet- ting everything right away, you bet at medium and small amounts, look- ing to increase the pot slowly as to not gain attention, right? Keep people focused on the money and not on the cards you hold close to your chest.”
The cannons continued to fire and the mages started to cast their spells.
A pillar of light descended from the heavens. Portals opened and fiends and demons walked out. The stones of Cheon pulled to- gether into golems and spikes, or melted into quagmires.
The chaotic beasts were slowed, breaking their ankles on the small pits and holes in the ground, unable to stop themselves from being impaled on the spikes that rose from the ground.
Holes were torn through the charging chaotic beast lines as they rushed the isle’s castle.
“Archers!” Axion called out. A new horn cut through the rain and thunder heard over the cannons.
Archers who stood in the rain, water running down their ar- mor and helmets, grabbed their arrows, laying them along their bows.
Axion watched the enemy getting closer. “Now.”
The archers pulled back their arrows and released them. Their ar- rowheads glistened in the light of magical attacks, cannon fire, ex- ploding shells, and the heavens’ thunder. It seemed the battle had ig- nited the fighting power of the heavens as well; bolts of lightning crashed into the ground.
The people called down their own lightning, controlling forces that had been left to the gods before.
Axion stood there in the rain, watching as the arrows struck the chaotic beasts. They cried out and twisted, falling to the ground as cannon shells exploded among the enemy ranks.
There was a noise that came from deep in the Drafeng ranks. The chaotic beasts turned and started to flee back the way that they had come.
“Reduce the weight of fire. Conserve the cannons’ ammuni- tion,” Axion said.
Horns called out again as Axion looked at the battlefield. It was another twenty minutes until the cannons went silent. The chaotic beasts were so spread out there was no guarantee that a cannonball would do more than injure a few of them.
Axion looked over the battlefield, at the new destruction. Then he looked past Colonel Margrave and at the forces on the wall.
“Go to half strength.” He saw the archers slumping as they cov- ered their quivers with cloth once again. The cannon crews were cleaning their guns, their faces covered in grime and their backs slick with sweat from the heat and the heavy labor.
“How are we looking on ammunition stores?” he asked Mar- grave.
“We have the arrows, but for cannons and powder, we have at most an hours’ worth of ammunition if we were to go for four can- nons sounding off one another,” Margrave said.
“So enough for one more of their attacks.” Axion let out a breath through his nose as he looked out at the Drafeng defenses.
We need to get off this beach and push inward. For that, we need people; we need ammunition and reinforcements. We don’t have the strength here to push forward.
“Sails!” someone called out.
Axion turned and looked away from the wall. He looked for the person who had called out. “Where?”
“Over there, General.” The man pointed out into the darkness, among the rain and thunder.
Axion pulled out his telescope and looked where the man was looking. Thunder cracked overhead, lighting up the seas as he saw them. Second Fleet had returned; they drove through the raging wa- ters, braving the storm and the thunder. With them was the mer- chant fleet.
He couldn’t help but feel emotional as he saw the flags upon the ship. “Looks like the Seventh and Third Army didn’t want to be left out!”
He had been teetering on the edge; they were running at the end of their strength. Now he felt a new power fill him—knowing that his brothers and sisters of the Island Alliance had come, that they wouldn’t leave them alone to their own fate.
He felt a pride deep in his bones. The risks they must’ve taken to go through this weather. He could only click his tongue as he stud- ied the fleet. They were moving quickly, even against the wind.
Then he saw it: the white woman. Her features were indistinct but she seemed to be formed from white swirling winds.
“A wind elemental,” Axion said in shock, his voice a bare whisper. “A what?” Margrave asked, stunned.
Axion’s eyes moved to First Fleet’s flagship where Thunderwing remained, their backup and final support. He knew that the crea- ture was powerful, but they were made from power. All the strength they used, they had to gather again over time. He had only heard of the power that they could display in legends.
Thunderwing had been keeping a low profile; they didn’t want to reveal his presence if they didn’t need to.
Axion saw a flash of light darting across the waters. It appeared over the ships. A thunderbolt landed, letting out a blast of noise. But it didn’t strike any of the ships.
“With this, we can carry out our advancement plan.” Axion put his telescope away. “Tell the army that their brothers and sisters have arrived. Make sure that they get some sleep while they can. We need to be prepared for the enemy to take advantage of the landing and hit us as the armies are getting ashore.”
“Yes, General,” Margrave said.
“Send a signal to the fleet. Ammunition first, then followed by archers for disembarkation.”
“Yes, General.” A signal officer turned to a runner, talking into their rear. They ran off to the signal hut, sending out light signals to the fleet to pass on his orders.
***
Lord Dion Lemar looked at the man in front of him and then to Ja- clu beside him.
The two of them shared a look before they looked back to the man, who tapped his hammer on each foot and then looked out at the Drafeng.
“So, the other armies are going to attack the Drafeng from be- hind and force them out to the east toward Cresmond Peak?” Lemar said.
“The Drafeng are smart people. If we pin them down in all di- rec- tions, then they’ll fight with everything that they have. If we are able to give them a way out, then they will take it and look to es- cape the battlefield. If we are to pin them all here against the walls, then they might get through the wall. We don’t have the people or the strength here to keep them all out if they all come at us as one. So we will have the Guardians help to bolster your people. Then we become the rocks; they crash against us, lose some of their num- ber and flee to the east. Relieves pressure on us here and then crams them into a cor- ner. We have heard that there are Drafeng at Cres- mond Peak already. It’s harder to assault there, but if we can bottle them up, then they are competing with one another to gather and consume the power of Dena,” Damien said.
There was a knock at the door. It opened to reveal Mai, the rep-
tilian leader of the Black Scarves. Ubi and Jun had taken over fight- ing; Mai had taken over organizing the rear lines.
“The Guardians are with the wounded. Thank you, Guardian.” Mai tapped his chest and raised his hand to Damien, offering his deepest thanks.
“Ah, we are all in this together,” Damien said, squirming from the compliments.
“I have to ask, are you Kin?” Jaclu asked, unable to hold herself back.
“I am slightly. You have an acute nose there, Commander Ja- clu,” Damien said.
“Kin, but you’re human?” Dion said.
“Some things can be both,” Damien said. “You’ll see soon.” He looked out of the window at the sun.
“The attack will start at dawn tomorrow. The armies will weak- en and hit the enemy from behind all tonight. If they’re worrying about their rear, they shouldn’t care about attacking Skalafell. The Guardians can take on the majority of the watch. Get your people
rested. Tomorrow will ask a lot from them.” Damien looked to the three people in the room.
He nodded and then left the room. Jaclu and Dion let out a breath. “He’s strong,” Jaclu said.
Dion’s clan spirit appeared over his shoulder.
“He is the Guardian who went to Bracegar and freed all of the clan spirits. He is a werewolf kin, with a human form but able to be- come a werewolf with a thought. Three of his clan spirits have chosen him.”
“Three of them—what kind of power?” Jaclu said.
“He is a simple and humble man. It has allowed him to control the power and not be controlled by it. The beast kin and the hu- mans hunted down the rest of his family due to their ability to be one or the other race. He is one of the few who remains. There are only leg- ends of surviving werewolves. Even with that loss and anger, he looks at people with equal eyes, judging each based upon their actions and theirdeeds.”
“You sound like you respect him?” Dion said.
“I respect many people, but Damien—I look up to him. He is an example that I hope to follow one day. People, spirits—we are not perfect, but there are examples and people who quietly, or unknow- ingly, shift the balance of the world. It is the small ac- tions and the way that people act and interact with others that will change Dena and the people. Fighting beside one another has unit- ed the people of Dena. But if we make it through this battle, then we will have to an- swer the next question: how do we grow in what unites us instead of what divides?”
They fell silent at the clan spirit’s words.
The air filled with noise as the three armies outside of Skalafell started their attacks. The elves used their magics, the humans used their familiars, the beast kin their massive bows and siege weapons.
The gnomes used their war machines, the goblins their grenades and their shamanic magics. Dwarves were covered in smoke as smoke covered their firearms.
The most destruction came from the United Army’s weapons. Dion trembled, scared, excited, terrified.
What can stand in the way of that?
Dion felt that he was watching armies of ancient lore rising up. Slumbering dragons that had played meek now raising their heads and gathering their breath.
The instruments coordinating the forces reached a crescendo. The sleeping armies weren’t silent anymore.
>
Sion saw the rumble of Dwarven mortars. They stabbed into the ground, pushing back mud and dirt, rolling black smoke cover- ing their ranks.
Their Elven enchantments glowed within those dark clouds, flashing as they fired again.
Screams came from the air as the mortars made home in the Drafeng ranks. Flashes of Goblin explosives tore through crystal, beast and ground with disregard.
Attack spells stretched overhead. Landing among the grim de- struction.
Elven mages weaved their mana, creating spell formations. Hu- man’s and their familiars worked; two parts of a whole joined in pur- pose.
They chanted but their words couldn’t be heard. Nothing could be heard under the weight of the attacks.
The beast kin and goblin shamans laid down curses on the bal- lis- tas that were fired by elven gunners.
Units marched forward, melee in front, archers and ranged be- hind them.
They didn’t look like people, they looked like an iron vice clos- ing around the Drafeng.
“I never thought that we could be this strong,” Mai said.
Dion looked at the battlefield. The other armies were all look- ing over at the United Army’s strength that was there for all to see.
What did we lose fighting among one another. Was it worth it?
***
Cecilia looked up at the skies. A fog had rolled in the night and dew covered the ground.
The sounds of fighting had tapered off in the night. The three armies had advanced closer to the Drafeng, who had grown their crystal walls to create some kind of defense against the powerful bombardment.
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