by Tom Larcombe
Merlin powdered the metal again and ate it. A few minutes later he fell into a deep sleep once more. When he woke, the sun was fully up. The battle was still going on around him but his itching had eased and he no longer felt the urge to throw himself at the enemy.
It's a good thing too, he thought. I only have the one fully charged crystal left, along with a few partially charged ones. That wouldn't take me very long to run through at all.
Merlin made the best use of his internal energy that he could, attempting to save the charged crystals for later. He and the wizards that were guarding him assisted the medics, stabilizing the wounded and trying to ensure their survival.
By dark the 2nd Armored division was beginning to retreat. The resistance was too strong here. The German self-propelled artillery was cutting them to pieces. They'd received word that a second bridge was being constructed to the south and other portions of the Ninth Army had solidified a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Elbe at that location.
It was early morning on the next day when the last of the division rolled back across the bridge, ceding the battle to the Germans. The Welsh tankers were one of the last groups to cross and Merlin and the rest were waiting for them on the western bank.
Merlin fumed.
“We need to get to Berlin! How are we going to do that from here?” he said.
“We go to the southern bridge and cross there. We prepare in the bridgehead they've established and then we break through the enemy lines,” Gunter replied.
“Lloyd,” Merlin called, “What would it take to get us to the other bridgehead?”
“There would have to be orders for some of the 2nd Armored division to head down there. We could just tag along again.”
“What, exactly, would those consist of. Do you know?”
“Yes,” Lloyd said.
“Tell me. I'll make sure they come through.”
Merlin scanned through Lloyd's mind and shortly thereafter a regiment of the 2nd Armored division received orders to reinforce the southern bridgehead. The Welsh wizards attached themselves to the regiment and were on the eastern bank of the Elbe again before nighttime.
* * *
Merlin chafed when he found out that the army wasn't continuing on to Berlin now that they'd crossed the Elbe. They still hoped for the orders so he decided to wait, a day or two at least, before continuing on without them. If nothing else all the local opposition that Ninth Army was taking care of would no longer be in his way.
Two days after they crossed the Elbe, Merlin and the tankers assisted in the assault on Magdeburg. After the city was taken, it was announced to the troops that Ninth Army had been ordered to hold their position. There would be no assault on Berlin by Ninth Army.
“We've got to go Gunter, I can't wait any longer. Can you get our supplies topped off?”
“I'll do that,” Gunter said.
“Lloyd, how far can Ollie go on a full fuel tank?”
“It depends on the terrain. Anywhere from seventy to two hundred miles. In this terrain? I'd guess around a hundred miles or so.”
“It's only fifty miles to Berlin. Shall we take a drive?”
Lloyd smiled.
“Let me get the fuel tanks topped off.”
The following day the Welsh tankers attached themselves to the patrol that would head as far east as possible. It was only five miles or so but that meant they'd have extra forces for the first tenth of the trip towards Berlin.
The patrol headed out in the morning. When they reached as far east as they were going, German forces were visible in the distance. The patrol lingered, hoping that the Germans would commit an aggressive act and allow them to continue after them but there was no such luck.
Merlin turned to Lloyd. He finally allowed his pent up thirst for battle to surface. From here they'd be fighting their way to his target.
“They're between us and Berlin, right?” Merlin asked.
Lloyd nodded.
“Let's take them.”
Ollie rolled away from the rest of the patrol, heading generally east. Shouts and yells followed them but were ignored. When the shouts died away Merlin focused on hearing what the leader of the patrol was saying.
“What are they doing?” the patrol leader asked.
“Advancing, obviously. Why aren't we?” his second in command answered.
“You know we were ordered not to. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes if and when they get back. Heads will roll.”
Merlin heard the leader call out orders to continue the patrol and ignore the idiots harking off on their own.
* * *
Chapter 12
Merlin slid off the tank as they moved into range to fire on the Germans. The other riders did so as well, trotting along behind the tank, which quickly outdistanced them.
“Fire when you're in range,” Merlin yelled to the tank crew as he was left behind.
Ollie continue moving forward for a while, then stopped. Moments later the main gun belched flame as the tank crew fired on the Germans. A second round followed after the gun traversed slightly. The shells landed in the midst of the unarmored Germans. Merlin's wizards were still out of range of the German's rifles when the High Explosive shells detonated in middle of the German positions. The few survivors jumped out of the ditch they were using for cover and sprinted off to the east.
Ollie stayed motionless while the others caught up. Merlin scrambled back onto the tank and overheard Lloyd talking to the rest of the crew.
“If the resistance is all like that, we'll be there tomorrow. I'd heard the Germans were down to manning the army with old men and young boys, but I didn't believe it.”
“Don't underestimate the Germans,” Merlin said. “You know they had tanks and mobile artillery where we tried to cross the Elbe to the north. Those are still out there somewhere.”
“Yes, I know. But they aren't here to stop us.”
Ollie's engine revved as the tank started moving again. Despite a top speed of forty miles per hour on a road, they were moving much slower cross country. They crested the hill that the Germans had been positioned on and found a forest on the other side.
“We'll need to find a way through or around the woods. Ollie can run over a few trees here and there but not an entire forest,” Trystan said, popping his head out of the hatch.
Merlin guessed Lloyd was upset with him for his earlier remarks so he'd sent Trystan to talk to him.
“Hold up here, I'll scout us out a path,” Merlin said.
Merlin sat and leaned against the turret of the tank. He detached a portion of his awareness and sent it up into the sky. There were narrow paths leading through the forest but no larger roads except around the edges. Roads skirted the woods to both the north and south. He guessed that the northern one would be a quicker route to Berlin but there were armored units on it. The southern road was manned by a unit of infantry that was dug in. There were blockades on the road itself but there were clear fields just to the south of the blockade.
He returned to his body and told Trystan what he saw.
“I think probably the southern one, if that's okay with you. I don't know what armored units are in the area but one tank against an armored unit is not a good idea, not even for us,” Trystan said.
“South it is then. Let's go, Berlin is only a little more than forty miles away,” Merlin replied.
Trystan slid back into the tank and Ollie lurched forward again.
Merlin was in a better mood than he had been for days, now that they were headed towards Berlin again. His blood lust had surged slightly when he saw the German defenders earlier but it faded some when the tank made quick work of them. Now he sat and watched the German countryside as they traveled through it.
The tank headed south around the edge of the forest and eventually came to the road Merlin saw when he was scouting. They swung onto the road and increased speed. When the roadblock came into view, they stopped.
“Why are we stopping?” Mer
lin asked.
“We'll fire on the roadblock and demolish it, then drive through,” Trystan said.
“The fields to the south are clear, we can just drive around it, can't we?”
“Those field are probably planted with Tellermines. We hit one of those and it'll tear Ollie's tracks right off. If we destroy the roadblock, we can shell the road as well to trigger any mines on it, then drive right through.”
“It sounds like you know what to do better than me,” Merlin said. “Go ahead.”
Ollie's turret tracked towards the roadblock and the first shot hit low on it. The second one landed directly in the middle of the roadblock, sending bits of metal and wood flying all over the place. The third through fifth shots widened the hole until it was large enough that the tank could fit through. Trystan poked his head up again.
“Might want to shield up everyone. Tie your shields to the tank if you're going to stay on it, you should be able to handle a few bullets that way. Careful though, we'll be using the machine guns to clean up. Looks like the defenders took cover before we fired.”
The hatch closed and Ollie started rolling forward again. When they reached the roadblock, men popped up out of covered pits on either side of the road. Bullets started to fly and when Merlin heard the first one whistle past his head, his blood lust took over.
He jumped off of the tank and raced towards the man he thought was firing at him. He was halfway there before he remembered to draw his pistol. He fired on the run, missing badly. As he closed with the German soldier, he fired several more rounds. By the time he reached the soldier's pit, the rest of the firing had stopped. His shield was glowing brightly enough that he had to wait a few moments before he could see through it. When it cleared, he looked into the hole and saw that he'd hit the man three times before killing him.
I need to get a better weapon, Merlin thought. I wonder if Gunter has anything tucked away in his bag or if I should take one of these rifles.
He turned around and started walking back to the tank. When he looked up, he saw the wizards on the deck of the tank staring at him.
“What?” he called.
“You just charged into rifle fire and took all the bullets on your shield?” Sionn asked.
Merlin nodded.
“Yes, so?”
“Just checking. I was wondering if there was a trick to that.”
“No, just my shields.”
Sionn nodded thoughtfully and whispered something to Rhys, who just laughed.
“I told you so, Sionn. What did you expect from Merlin?” Rhys said.
Sionn blushed and stayed silent as Merlin climbed back onto the tank.
“Keep your shields up for another minute. We're guessing they put some Bouncing Bettys on the road in case infantry tried to come through,” Trystan said.
The tank started moving again and a series of popping sounds followed by small explosions proved Trystan's theory correct.
“Gunter,” Merlin said, “do you have any heavier weapons in your bag there? I shot that man three times with this pistol before he went down.”
“Guns aren't your strong suit Merlin. Why did you shoot him instead of using magic?” Gunter asked.
Merlin stopped and thought for a moment. His hand moved up to stroke his chin.
“All I could think of was taking him down physically. Since he was firing a gun at me, I fired one back at him. I didn't even think of using an offensive spell. I don't know why.”
“The answer to your question is no, I don't have something heavier that I think you'd want to use. All I have is my own Luger, my rifle, and an M7 grenade launcher I stumbled across back when we were with the Ninth.”
“Do you think I should I grab a rifle off of one of the bodies?”
“Merlin, listen to yourself. Why do you need a gun? You're a wizard,” Gunter said.
“Do you remember when you told me you probably had some berserker blood in your ancestry?”
Gunter nodded.
“Well, I think it's catching. Every time I've been in combat recently the only thought in my mind is to charge into battle. I'm caught up in wanting to kill my opponent with my bare hands, or a rock, or a gun. Anything physical really. Magic is the last thing on my mind when I'm like that.”
“Think it through Merlin. You need to get that under control. What do you think will happen if you try to charge Ave physically and ignore your magic?”
Merlin thought for a moment.
“You're right. I need to figure out where this urge is coming from and how to remove it.”
Merlin sat back and tried to determine what the problem was. His introspection was interrupted when the tank lurched and came to a stop.
“What's going on?” Merlin asked.
“Looks like we have some debris in the tracks from the roadblock, or some other kind of track damage. Owain should be able to do repairs if it isn't too serious. But we won't be moving for an hour or two at least,” Trystan said.
Owain climbed out of the tank and dropped to the ground. He examined the tracks and finally settled on a specific area of them. He dropped into trance and Merlin could sense him manipulating energy although he couldn't see exactly what was happening.
“That'll get her moving for a bit. Let's get off the road, maybe head into the edge of that forest for some cover,” Owain said.
Ollie limped off the road and across the field, moving as slowly as possible. Once the tank was into the edge of the forest it stopped again.
“Three hours,” Owain said.
Merlin decided that some extra concealment would be in order. He tapped his energies and created an illusion of the area they were in, minus the tank and wizards. He tied it to the earth and set it to dispel with the next sunrise, thinking that should be plenty of time since it was just now dusk.
“Don't worry about being spotted by normal troops,” Merlin said. “It would take another wizard to dispel the illusion I just set on this area.”
* * *
Merlin and Gunter sat leaning against a tree. Merlin was the first to break the relative silence.
“I've been thinking about what you said.”
“About what?” Gunter asked.
“About my not using my magic. What's taken the edge off the blood lust before has been the raw fish. We have a couple of hours here still so I was thinking about trying to catch some sort of small game in the forest. It looked dense enough from overhead that there might be something. No trails for hunters to follow into some sections of it. So there might be game left in there.”
“Let's see how long we have. If there's more than two hours left, we'll go. It certainly can't hurt to try.”
Gunter stood and walked over to Rhys. After a few minutes of conversation he returned.
“Rhys says it will be at least another two hours and maybe more. Evidently Owain can repair metals but it takes him a long time.”
“I appreciate the fact that he can do it at all,” Merlin said. “It isn't a common skill among wizards.”
He and Gunter headed into the forest.
“There was one of those dense sections less than a mile away from here. It's this way,” Merlin said.
The forest had been thinned out in this area. The trees were spaced well apart and the underbrush that filled in the area between them was fairly easy to get through. As they moved towards the denser section of forest, the trees became more numerous, in some cases growing up entwined about one another. The underbrush was heavier and the dense stands of thorns and thickets forced detours.
Merlin heard active wildlife in the forest all around them. But the hunting call of an owl caught his attention.
“That way,” he pointed. “If the owls are hunting there should be game there. It may only be mice but I'm hoping for rabbits or squirrels.”
Merlin briefly sent out his awareness to pinpoint the location of the owl. A quick scan of the area surrounding the owl showed several burrows with creatures living in them.
&nb
sp; “It appears that the owl is watching several burrows,” Merlin said. “The creatures in them are larger than mice. Maybe I can scare some out and the owl and I can have a successful hunt.”
Gunter nodded, more concerned with getting his rifle through the undergrowth they were currently negotiating.
Merlin moved through the undergrowth, utterly oblivious to the thorns. Any that made it past Anguis were stopped by the scales that continued to spread across his body.
Alright, mister owl, he thought, you first. I can stop one in its tracks with my magic but your catch will be harder.
Merlin sent his awareness out again and noted the location of the burrow with the largest creatures in it. He created a whiff of scent at the very back of the den, making it smell like a fox. He slowly increased the odor, allowing it to fill the burrow and move towards the exit he'd spotted.
His efforts were rewarded by a rustling in the undergrowth and the owl swooping down to strike its prey. There was still movement audible and he quickly used his awareness to pinpoint another one of the fleeing creatures. He killed the rabbit, stopping its heart with a touch of magic, and strode over to it. The owl turned towards him. It looked as though it were about to screech and try to lay claim to the second rabbit, but when its eyes settled on Merlin the owl shrunk in on itself and turned back to its meal.
Merlin reached down and grabbed the rabbit. He picked it up and was considering how best to prepare it when instinct took over. He could tell that it wasn't his natural instinct, instead it was one being overlaid on his own instincts. He didn't fight against it, hoping that the end result would be worth the intervening occurrences.
Gunter, finally free of the thorns, walked up and found Merlin tearing chunks out of the rabbit with his teeth. Fur, meat, bones... all of it was going into Merlin's mouth. The sound of a predator tearing apart its prey accompanied the sight and Gunter found somewhere else to look.
Merlin came back to his senses and grimaced. He could feel bits of something stuck between his teeth and the inside of his mouth felt stiffer than normal. He had just started working to dislodge the debris in his teeth when Gunter caught his attention.