Guy then summoned a gale below his feet, launching him into the air and toward the creature. He latched onto its reins with one hand and pulled himself to secure his seat atop the beast.
Sensing his unwanted presence, the beast did a barrel roll to throw Guy off its back, but he maintained his hold on the reins despite his feet dangling down as the beast went completely upside down before returning upright.
Guy locked his feet tight against the beast’s sides, and began to fire arrow after arrow at the other riders in the air. The beast dove hard, but Guy kept on. He got a good look at the battle raging below before the beast swooped back up into the air.
By now, he had taken out dozens of riders, and by now, the others had caught on to his presence. They readied a counterattack of their own, but by the time that their attacks reached Guy he had already dismounted and took ahold of another flying beast. The beast who he had rode just prior was struck by a barrage of blasts, and like its original rider it crashed lifelessly into the ground below.
The aerial battle raged on in such fashion as Guy continued to whittle down their numbers by the handful. Arcadian forces below had also recovered from the aerial bombardment and had since joined in, and it wasn’t long before the skies were clear of any beasts.
Guy found himself with feet firmly on ground, panting heavily from the aerial battle. Such use of his wind element caused his heart to beat much more rapidly than any bout of exercise. His legs had nearly cramped from holding on so tightly. It would be some time before he could enter the fray again. He had landed near Fort Bellford, or rather, what used to be the fort. The way it was now, it wouldn’t even be able to defend against a hundred soldiers on horseback.
The rear lines were in chaos. Thousands of bodies scrambled every which way, gathering wounded, rejoining the battle ahead, or relaying orders. Most of their siege weaponry and ranged forces had been obliterated in the attack, and Guy’s focused toward the front lines.
They were already starting to get trampled by Liberty’s forces. Arcadia could do nothing but crumble under the onslaught. And now, what hope did they have of winning?
Is the war lost? Arcadia needs more, but who else is there to take arms against Liberty?
_ _ _
Samantha and the others watched the battle between Arcadia and the Order of the Faith unfold. She felt an unshakeable feeling in the pit of her stomach, one that she had only felt once before.
It was crushing despair, though this time it seemed much worse than before. Whereas before it had been born from her attachment to life, this time it was born from her attachment to existence.
What she saw before her, she could not reconcile.
God would not ask for this. She was certain of that now. Liberty was wrong. He had to be. It was Liberty who was corrupting the Faith, not the Faith itself. Not the thing that she had put her entire life behind.
“Arcadia is losing,” Raxxil said. “We must enter the fray soon.”
Samantha turned to the hammer-wielder. “Do you really intend to fight?”
“Are you still stuck on your misguided morals?” Raxxil asked. “The Order of the Faith is the one that brought war to Arcadia.”
“It is not a misguided morality to cherish life,” she fired back as she furrowed her brows at Raxxil. “Do you really intend to take the lives of those who you know are not responsible?”
“That means nothing in war,” he answered firmly as he turned to face Samantha, glaring at her in disapproval.
“What’s the plan?” asked Darius, who like Arwynn, had been quiet so far.
“We don’t belong anywhere near Arcadian forces, for more reasons than one,” explained Raxxil, his eyes still on Samantha. “Samantha, as someone trained in the art of war by the Order itself, where would you strike in this case?”
Samantha gritted her teeth. “I will not join this battle—“
“Where would you strike?” repeated Raxxil.
She looked at the others, at Darius and Arwynn. Where one looked at her expectantly, the other only appeared disdainful. Neither of the other three had any reservations to the senseless killing.
Why? Why am I alone in this?
“Sam, we cannot let Liberty win here,” said Kavem within her mind. “We all know what that would mean for Ashkar.”
“But, why?” she asked her elemental. “Why is this happening?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “But what I do know is that Arcadia will crumble if we do not step in.”
Samantha felt a weakness wash over her. She closed her eye to steel herself, reopening it to an awaiting Raxxil. “I would flank them where they are most vulnerable. With a small group such as ours, we would be able to traverse the battlefield relatively unnoticed.”
“And where are they most vulnerable?” Raxxil asked. The way he spoke seemed like he already knew such answers, and he was just trying to bring Samantha to the fold.
“Liberty would have had an area set up for medical attention to send the wounded, which would be behind his main forces,” she said. “All of his supplies and food are vulnerable. We would then be able to pincer his forces.”
Raxxil nodded.
“You… you can’t be serious?” Samantha asked. “You will attack defenseless people?”
“No, I will win a war,” Raxxil replied as he turned to mount his horse.
_ _ _
The four of them rode.
They rode past the battlefield where the main forces of Arcadia and the Order of the Faith were battling. Samantha watched from the outskirts the deaths of thousands.
She couldn’t process it. She felt numb, and several times she had to will herself to stay alert or risk herself losing her grip on reality. This was no demonic attack, like the one that she had seen at Merchant’s Keep. She wasn’t defending helpless people from brigands.
Samantha turned to Raxxil. His face was stern and his eyes focused to what lay ahead. Was that where all men and women headed after seeing such atrocities? Desensitized and numb and accepting of things that tainted the purest of hearts? Samantha felt her soul blackening then and there. Was that what had happened to Raxxil?
They had reached a point where clashing forces had given way instead to siege weapons and portable fortifications, followed by fields of pitched tents, pack mules, and stacks of supplies.
It was there that they dismounted atop a hill overlooking the fields below, far enough so that they were unnoticed but close enough so that they could see bodies milling about. It wasn’t as chaotic here, though the booming echo of warfare still entered her ears.
“We go in swiftly, starting from the back and moving toward the front,” Raxxil said as he pointed to the furthest point to the east where Liberty’s army was gathered. “Take out everything and everyone who you can. Stick together, and don’t get surrounded.”
The other two nodded, but it took Samantha a moment to accept what was about to happen. Raxxil knew it, and he eyed her expectantly. “We need to be all together, or we will fail.”
Samantha looked away, unsure of what to do. She felt Raxxil’s gauntleted hand grasp her pauldron. She did not look up to meet his eyes.
“Are you with us?” he asked.
Samantha whispered a prayer. “I only defend the innocent.”
“Then defend the hundreds of thousands of Arcadian women and children who will have no home or life to return to should Arcadia fall,” Raxxil said.
“And what of those of Lenas should the Order of the Faith fall?” Samantha asked.
“We both know that Arcadia will not seek retribution against them,” he responded. “They will find a home, I’m sure of that.” He withdrew his hand and started down the hill toward the encampments.
The others followed, and so too did Samantha. It wasn’t long before they snuck into the encampment behind a large tent that housed the wounded, the forces of Liberty completely unaware of what was to happen, and rightfully so. No one would have suspected such a small attack.
<
br /> But it wasn’t just any attack, nor was it just any four elementalists.
“Erupt in blazing fury, Vrand,” said Raxxil as he withdrew his hammer. It transformed into its true form, and Samantha’s heart sank. The Volcano would soon erupt, and she whispered another prayer to the unfortunate souls who would soon perish in an inferno.
Samantha had been happy to see it before. She had been happy to see Raxxil’s blaze taking out scores of demons. She had been happy to see his cauterizing fire erasing all that stood against God.
But now, what was Raxxil cauterizing?
“Dance of the serpent, Cadence,” said Arwynn, and so too did her blade transform. Samantha had yet to see what Arwynn’s true weapon was, and she just realized she knew not her element either.
Arwynn’s sword was replaced with a whip-like blade with sharp edges tethered together. Just as soon as it elongated into its new form the blades collapsed, attaching to each other and forming a different sword. From the appearance of the blade, Samantha still could not ascertain Arwynn’s element.
“True lightning, Azerid,” Darius chimed in, his crossbow turning into one encapsulated by arcs of electricity.
The three others waited for Samantha to do the same. She could tell by their faces that they might have expected her to not follow through, but she had put aside her reservation on the way to the encampment.
That, and one of the most important rules of warfare taught to her by the Order of the Faith: when in a group, do not go against the others, have no hesitation, and most of all, do not abandon each other.
“Blow with resounding force, Kavem,” Samantha said, garnering nods of approval from the others. She willed herself to soothe her trembling soul, then returned a resolute nod.
They sprang into action. Shouts of surprise and cries of pain echoed moments later as the combined might of the four elementalists caused havoc throughout the encampment.
Arwynn’s blade lengthened and shortened several times as she whipped it about herself, slicing through scores of both wounded soldier and unarmed healer alike. The way that she moved reminded Samantha of an elegant dance, with flips, twists, and vaults aplenty.
On the other hand, Darius was as rough as it got. He fired bolts of lightning from his crossbow in between hard slugs with his fists and the occasional drop kick to whoever tried to get too close.
But it was Raxxil who unleashed such a blazing fury that it set the entire encampment on fire for hundreds of feet in every direction. With a single swing of his hammer he razed entire tents to the ground, the lives of all those within.
When she looked at his face, Samantha saw a lost soul searching for solace, and for the first time, she saw the man who Raxxil truly was.
By now, Liberty’s forces had rallied to the presence of the four elementalists. No army would leave their supplies and wounded completely vulnerable, and able-bodied soldiers now battled against Samantha and the others when before it had been a one-sided slaughter.
Samantha blew on her horn, invigorating herself and her allies. She then parried an incoming blow with her sword and retaliated in kind with a swift kick. Her foe keeled over from the pain, and where the others would have finished him off, Samantha moved on in search of other targets.
She summoned a gale of wind, throwing it behind her allies, giving them a further boost in addition to slowing the movements of their enemies. Her allies did the rest.
Another armored foe charged at her. Samantha sidestepped the attack, then struck her foe at the back of his head with the pommel of her blade. He fell over in a daze, but he stumbled to get up.
“Stay down,” she ordered, but the soldier would not relent.
He reached for his blade—
A blast of fire incinerated her foe, his howls of pain ringing in her ears.
Samantha looked to the source, finding none other than Raxxil, his hand outstretched where the fire had come from. Before either of them could say anything he returned his attention to the killing, throwing his hammer at a large contingent of oncoming enemies and annihilating them in a fiery explosion.
The battle continued in the same fashion, the three others—most notably Raxxil—ushering in total destruction to Liberty’s forces. Samantha supported her allies, and when necessary, dismantled or incapacitated her enemies.
While she entered the fray with her allies, she hadn’t promised them that she would take a life. And she would not do so for the entirety of the war or any other in the future unless justified.
In this war, only Liberty’s life would be justified, for it was a means to an end and the only way to end the bloodshed.
Samantha looked around. Where once stood a vast encampment that spanned fields upon fields had been razed to the ground, not a single tent or stack of supplies left untouched. Such was the same fate for any forces aligning with the Order, the only ones fortunate to live being the ones who had ran away toward Liberty’s main force to the west.
“Back to the horses!” Raxxil shouted as he charged toward where they had left their mounts. “We will continue our assault to the west where Liberty’s main armies are.”
Together, the four of them galloped across the plains back to the west, though this time they had no use for being discrete. They continued to strike down any unfortunate soul in their path, and with every life she saw vanish before her eyes, Samantha felt a piece of her own soul leave with them.
She knew that given the circumstances, such a notion was too divine for a world such as Ashkar. Perhaps that was why God created Heaven, because he knew that fact.
If so, then who went to Heaven and who went to Hell in this war? Why not do away with the misguided bloodshed in the first place?
Chapter 11
217th Dusk of the 5010th Age of Lion
Samantha, along with the other three, arrived at the Order of the Faith’s flanks and immediately engaged. Shouts of surprise and commands rang through the air in between Raxxil’s explosions of flame as the newly arrived elementalists tore through the ranks of their enemies.
Samantha knocked out a slew of warriors until she caught wind of General Von Doley on horseback engaged in battle with an Arcadian soldier. The soldier managed to parry the general’s onslaught as he charged, and then moved into a counterattack.
Samantha waited for right time to strike at the general.
But the Arcadian soldier was cut down by an unseen attack. Samantha watched as General Von Doley engaged another ally, and so too did that ally meet the same fate as the first after only a few seconds in battle with the general.
Samantha inspected the first slain soldier, finding that the wounds had come from a sword and seemed to match the general’s attacks. Somehow, his weapon had a unique ability that allowed him to strike unseen.
She moved to engage the general, and when he saw her, his face lit up with rage.
“Traitor!” he yelled as he charged at her.
She parried his blow, then waited for him to charge again. Inside her head she counted the time that elapsed since his attack, and just like the other instances, she brought up her blade to parry an invisible sword.
General Von Doley kicked his horse to charge again, but halted when his eyes laid upon Raxxil and the hammer-wielder’s fury. He looked back at Samantha, narrowing his eyes at her before riding off somewhere.
_ _ _
“You fight well, Ohrl’han the Supreme,” commented Jace as he held Lohilune ready to counterattack. “I understand now why you hold such a title.”
“No, Liberty,” replied the veri commander, who had lasted the longest with Jace without conceding or losing his life. “You know nothing of why I am called that, and likewise yours is not fitting in the slightest. I see no liberation coming at the hands of someone as yourself. If that is what you hope with this war, then you are simply delusional.”
Despite the chaotic battle raging around them, the two leaders remained distanced from each other. Their battle had only lasted so long at Ohrl’han�
�s wisdom to avoid being struck by Jace’s blade, and by virtue of the veri’s own weapon.
It was clear that Ohrl’han’s fiery blade oscillated between powerful flame and nascent ember, as was evident by the rhythmic increase in both intensity and size of the weapon until it burnt out and diminished to reheat.
“Arcadia, along with all of Ashkar, must be liberated by the shackles that bind its people,” answered Jace as he took a step forward. Ohrl’han in turn took a step back. “I am its liberator, its Liberty. That is what God has decreed.”
“Delusion,” repeated Ohrl’han as he kept his space. The veri was stalling, of course. Stalling for aid that was not coming, for while Jace had his attention averted to Ohrl’han just as the veri wanted, so too did Jace have the veri’s attention just as he wanted.
That is, if Jace and Ohrl’han canceled each other, all that was left were the other two leaders and the greatly diminished forces of Arcadia versus the entire might of Onturi, and even though the Tuuhan riders and their ghaliers had been dealt with, their attack had costed Arcadia much more.
Their fortress, destroyed. Their supply lines and siege weaponry, also destroyed. Jace still had a large portion of his army, and he could endure the war if he had to. His ships had carried enough supplies and food to last for a very, very long war.
Ohrl’han leapt in for another strike, then jumped back as Jace parried and counterattacked. It had been Avanos Hildir’s grave mistake to put his entire force behind his attacks. It had merely made Jace’s counter that much deadlier.
“How long can you keep this up?” Jace asked as he gestured to the battle around them. “We do not stand at the place where our duel first began. Fort Bellford, or what’s left of it, lies much closer now. It is only a matter of time.”
“You’re right,” replied the veri, with naught a wrinkle of worry on his smooth face. “It was only a matter of time, after all.”
Jace narrowed his eyes. Was he being toyed with? He looked around for a sign of something new, but only found his forces steadily gaining ground on Arcadia’s. Unless an ally of Arcadia’s was assisting them, they would be crushed soon.
Silent Requiem (Tales of Ashkar Book 3) Page 15