by Mark B Frost
Kulara, Karice, Lathria, Cyprus, and Fujia all stood together. Shortly Zynex joined them and they collectively tried to repress their excitement and anxiety. None of the Military Councilors had ever participated in a battle like the one that was about to happen. None of them had ever attempted something so orchestrated, so deliberate. Every single step of Kulara’s plan depended upon a precise Cainite reaction, and even one unexpected detour could send the whole thing into a destructive spiral. Yet the audacious smile never left their General’s face, and he had cryptically reassured everyone, “No fox walks away from the rabbit with a broken leg.”
* * * * *
As Stratas finally came within a couple hundred yards of Felthespar’s forces, he debated his next action. His personal style was to move forward and take a few moments to taunt his opponent. Instead, as much as he loathed it, he forced himself to consider what the previous Lord Commander would have done. It was crucial that this attack went well, so he could not afford to play in his usual manner and take unseemly risks.
He decided that the prudent thing, the Derris thing, would be to start the charge immediately, engaging the enemy before they could be fully braced. He turned and started giving the order out. “At my signal, start the charge. Hit them hard and don’t stop or slow down until you can’t find an Onion Knight skull within ten yards of yourself. Focus your attention on the center of the army, try to kill as many soldiers as you can. If we leave a few scattered war mages and archers it’s fine, as long as we do heavy enough damage to their infantry before we head to the front gate. Alright, ready? Charge!”
* * * * *
Kulara began backing away at the sight of the Cainites’ sudden rush. His councilors followed suit, displaying mock signs of surprise. “Now remember,” the General cautioned one last time, “all five of you stay close to me and try to make it look like you pick up some serious injuries. We have to lure Stratas back to the wall and make him think we’re easy targets.”
Then the time for planning was over, as Cainite wave met Knighthood wall with a resounding crash that thundered across the plains. It was time to put military minds to the test—the experience of Kulara Karfa pitted against the cunning of Stratas Ezul and Karrin Tranch. The fate of Itrius was already decided, the machinations of mankind set into motion. Now was only to wait and see the result, as the blood of brave men and women was spilled for their nations.
The Cainite Lord Commander had been cautious enough to drop back into his own troops, avoiding the direct impact of the assault. He noted to himself that the Felthespari chieftains had not shown the same restraint, and were caught up directly in the brunt of the collision. He signaled to Hartik, and they formed a tentative partnership. Cutting through the carnage, they found the staggered Military Council and fought to keep them collectively in check. Stratas was uncertain where Brakken had gone, but knew that without the Dragoons involved the brawler could wreak havoc virtually unchecked. If he and Hartik alone could keep the Knighthood’s leaders contained for long enough, he could tip the scales of battle even further in his favor.
Stratas dived in with his twin sabers and drove Kulara back with a fervor. The war-weathered General fought well, armed with the Dual Blade in one hand and his old Morabet in the other, carefully matching Stratas’ pace. The sabers threw off a continuous flurry of elemental energies, but Kulara knew specialized grey magic barriers to counter these as they came.
This was his own personalized school of martial arts, the Way of the Flame. The most advanced practitioners of grey magic were capable of using these specialized fields, each tuned to block out a specific element with the utmost certainty. Under normal circumstances these spells were reserved for situations facing a limited opponent—such as a demonspawn with only a single attack magic—and most knights only rarely bothered with them. Kulara alone had taken them to their apex, practicing each barrier to the point that he could summon it within a fraction of a second, as a direct response to an incoming attack the instant he saw it. The school was considered to be highly flawed, with a single poor or slow decision carrying fatal risks, but this had not marred Kulara’s enthusiasm. Mastery of his style had brought him renown as the ultimate martial artist, and the championship of the World’s Tournament.
As a hurricane of heraldric fencing crashed around him, he was forced to repress a smile. He admitted to himself that the Cainite leader was indeed a skilled fighter, probably close to the level of Myris. Kulara had never considered himself anything less than a match for the Lord of the Cain, however, and did not back down from this contest of warlords.
Between exchanges, Stratas pulled a score of Elites to himself and used them to form a circle around the councilors. Hartik was fighting Cyprus, Fujia, and Karice all at once, easily holding the three of them off with his daunting brute strength. Even Cyprus needed a breather after being hit by either the sledgehammer or the ironclad fist of the mountain man. Fujia wielded her old broadsword in her right hand and the short Shield Sword in her left. Karice was fighting solely with Flamberge, though she still had her father’s sword strapped across her back. Cyprus and Karice’s elemental attacks seemed to have no effect on the armored brute, and while Fujia’s defense held strong, her offense was not of the same caliber as the two veterans.
Zynex and Lathria battled the Elites efficiently, both fighters too skilled for the ninjas to be any real threat. The Lord of Lurin began to wonder how things were going on the grander scale, and nudged a shoulder into his warlock companion. “Hey Lath, I’d like to get a better look over things. Any way you can summon me an energy platform to stand on?”
She thought for a moment as she sent an Icestorm into a nearby Cainite rank, killing half a dozen enemy soldiers. “Fujia!” she shouted. The young fighter detached herself from the struggle with Hartik and move quickly to her side. “I need you to put up a shield around me and hold it for a little while so I can focus on a spell, ‘kay?”
Fujia sheathed her broadsword and held the Shield Sword parallel to the ground, her right hand resting on the blade. A sparkling blue energy field appeared around her and Lathria. The mage pointed her staff skyward, causing a circular orange disk appeared in the air. Zynex took a running leap and landed nimbly atop it as it began to rise.
He spent a moment inspecting the breadth of the battlefield, and was not pleased by his discovery. Karrin’s idea of transforming the siege towers into bases for the Cainite sorcerers was working well. The sorcerers had erected thick barriers over the towers, and Zynex’s archers were unable to get a flaming arrow through. In the meantime the towers were being pushed around the battlefield, sending death from above on the unsuspecting Knighthood forces.
He hopped down and thanked Lathria, then quickly ran to the General and whispered over his shoulder, “Sir, their siege towers are taking our numbers out too quickly. I’m going to go help my archers disable them.”
Kulara forced Stratas away from him for a second, then turned to his councilor with an unhappy expression. He grimaced, gave a reluctant nod, and then slammed back into the Cainite.
Zynex decided to take a course straight through their towering foe. He dashed over to his fellow combatants, jumped onto Cyprus’ shoulders, then leaped from there to Hartik’s. He used his hands to beat the helmeted head like a drum for a second, then launched over the armored titan and headed on his way.
Hartik was infuriated by this, and turned to swing his hammer about and strike at Zynex’s back. It came to a sudden stop, and the giant turned back to see Cyprus holding it tightly between both of his arms.
“Heh,” he said as he shook some of the hair out of his face. “It looks like you’re not that much stronger than me after all. Just bigger.” As he finished, he gave a powerful shove to the boulder and sent the handle of the weapon crashing into Hartik’s stomach. This attack did not budge the huge man more than any other had, and he sharply pushed back. The boulder slammed straight into Cyprus’ face, knocking him back with bloody nose and busted lip
and sending him falling to his knees. Hartik lifted the hammer high into the air to deliver a decisive downward blow.
Cyprus recovered his vision in time to recognize what was happening, and reached up with his right arm and sent a massive wave of electrical energy into his foe’s armored chest. He was woozy, and was forced to reach up with his left hand to steady his arm. To his surprise, the left gauntlet started feeding its power into the right, and the blast of electricity he was firing suddenly increased exponentially. Hartik found himself unable to move his arms to finish the attack, and slowly his feet began to slide back. Seeing this, Karice jumped forward and swung her Flamberge in a sweep over Cyprus’ head. A huge wave of fire joined the stream of lightning, and in the resulting explosion Hartik was sent rolling away in a tangle of his own armaments.
Kulara decided he had held Stratas in check long enough, and suddenly surged forward and gave a deep gash across the Cainite’s jaw. As the stricken man rubbed the side of his face in shock, the General fell back and gathered his councilors around him. Lathria and Fujia had finished off the nearby Elites, and Stratas realized that he stood alone versus five of Felthespar’s mightiest.
But Cildar Emle was the only enemy that Stratas feared, so he did not back down. He strapped his two large sabers across his back and withdrew his secret weapon from where he kept it hidden against his leg. The same metal pole that he had used to threaten Karrin—no one ever suspected the power the small device held.
He pointed it at Kulara and his entourage. “One chance only. Surrender?”
“Death first,” the General spat.
Stratas reached up and removed the ball from the pole, and with a strained heave tossed it over the heads of the chieftains. It landed harmlessly on the ground behind them, and they waited in confusion for his next move. He pointed the short pole forward. Suddenly half a dozen bolts of electricity shot from the pole to the ball, passing straight through the councilors and holding them frozen in place. Stratas made a motion, and the ball turned into a huge orb of explosive energy, blasting its way through the councilors to reattach itself to the pole. They were blown away by forceful blasts from the tiny ball, and lay on the ground for several seconds trying to regain control of their bodies.
As they slowly recovered themselves, Stratas educated them on his weapon. “So what do you think? It’s the only new Cainite artifact to be crafted in three hundred years. After Kargaroth, the Cainite leaders began to fear their own power, began to fear that the magics they were using were inherently evil. So they forbade them and disallowed their usage. But I found them, learned them, mastered the dark arts. With them I created this. A simple design, I confess. I am a fighter, after all, not a wizard. I designed it to be effective, not impressive. I think I did a fine job, personally. Soon, you will too.”
The Felthespari leaders still were not composed, so Stratas gave himself a moment to get a feel for the tides of the larger battle that raged. The Cainites had pushed their way almost entirely through Felthespar’s ranks, and they were close now to the city walls. He stretched his neck and looked around as far as he could see. The left and right flanks of the Onion Knight army seemed to still be as full as when the battle had begun, maybe even more so. I guess the troops took my ‘attack the center’ speech too closely to heart, Stratas thought to himself. They should have at least thinned the flanks a bit. He decided he would deal with that problem later. It was nearly time for him to send a troop to break through the front gates, but he wished to finish off the nation’s General first.
Kulara was braced on one hand and knee, having been unable to predict the nature of the Cainite’s mace in time to manage a defense. Stratas felt this was a noble enough position for Onion Knight scum to die. He swung his weapon, and a chain of electrical energy zipped to rip the man in half.
Fujia bravely jumped in front of her injured general, throwing up her Shield Sword. The buzzing attack hit the Sword’s barrier with no effect. Stratas quickly delivered a flurry of similar attacks, trying his hardest to rip through the field, until Karice moved to Fujia’s side and sent forth a wave of flames. Stratas flung the ball from his weapon onto the ground in front of him, and as the flames from Flamberge passed over it he pointed the pole down. An explosion of his magic devoured the magic of Flamberge, and the ball returned to him once more.
When the smoke cleared he saw the councilors retreating from him, Kulara leaning on Cyprus for support. He restrained himself from following them personally, knowing he needed to oversee the upcoming attack. “Dammit,” he muttered. He looked around and shortly located Hartik, who had recovered and was enraged. “Hartik!” he shouted to the big man. “They’re trying to get back to the city. Take a full thousand soldiers with you and hunt them down, make certain to kill them all.” He helped his fellow commander quickly round up his thousand, then they headed separate ways.
* * * * *
Kinguin Peet at long last stepped out into open air. As in all things, his knowledge of the layout of the Tunnels of Percephir was flawless, but traveling through the tunnels was a perilous ordeal due to the throngs of vampirics infesting them. As Kinguin had a rather large amount of baggage to bring along, he had been traveling for quite a number of hours.
These vampirics were the true reason the herald had been so agitated by Kulara’s request. The Tunnels of Percephir contained the tombs of the Arcanum, where those who had attained the rank of Archmagus were buried. Among these deceased, a disproportionate amount were known to rise again, becoming vampirics. The Arcanum had accepted this long ago, and did not interfere with the creatures. Among the living members of the sects’ highest rank, it had become understood to be a sort of unofficial retirement option.
The Tunnels had been carefully reconstructed, to allow the vampirics to eventually slip out into the Sarin Plains. Wards had been placed throughout, preventing any nightspawn from traveling closer to the Tower itself. Nonetheless this was one of the Arcanum’s darkest secrets, and not even the Grand Council was aware of the practice. Kinguin, like any Archmagus, was sworn to protect the secret at all costs.
His spooky journey finally complete, he emptied his Automatons out into the open, then resealed the exit to the tunnels behind him. Once he was confident no vampirics could follow from the tunnels and surprise him, he began to gather his bearings. To the north, he could barely make out the dust and smoke of a battle raging. He turned to the south and realized he was nearly right on top of New Cainis. “Hmm,” he muttered to himself, “it’s a good thing I was no closer when I faced Abaddon, else I would have blown away the Tunnel’s exit. I’m sure I planned it that way.”
He turned and started casting Seeker spells in his city’s direction. Kulara’s plan had gotten well underway. Too well. The army was already a couple of steps ahead of Kinguin. If he was going to accomplish his mission on time, he was going to have to work quickly.
He stared for a while at the city built in the crater, a little intrigued by the whole idea. His eyes drifted along the crater wall, and various plans ran through his mind and were rejected. “Well then,” he finally announced, “I guess there’s really only one thing to do.” He threw up the invisibility spells he had developed, and began walking into New Cainis.
* * * * *
Zynex resumed command of his troops on the west flank and redoubled their efforts to bring down the siege towers. He had his archers launching both flaming arrows and arrows with attached mortars at the towers, but they were intercepted by Cainite spells or the magical barrier the sorcerers upheld. The archer lord’s efforts at least forced the towers focus on defense rather than offense and slowed their rampage, but did little to bring an end to the assault.
He examined the situation. Stratas was keeping the towers close to the center of the combat zone, trying to break through the Knighthood forces there. This made it easier for Zynex to coordinate his troops against all towers simultaneously. He sent some orders through a runner over to the far flank, telling a lieutenant to rally
the archers there to focus on the siege towers. He linked with a group of war mages for a moment and tried combining his various elemental arrow attacks with a flurry of their spells. Still the barriers did not budge. He spent a few minutes destroying all of the Cainite ladders he could find to ease his frustrations, then turned his attention back to the towers.
“Alright,” he whispered to himself, “when nothing that you know works, try something you don’t.” He drew another of his enchanted arrows and slid it slowly across the black slit on the Bow of Traval. The tip of the arrow gave off a dull glow, and Zynex cautiously nocked it to his bow and aimed it at the nearest siege tower. “I hope you have a desirable effect,” he said to the arrow as he released it.
The enchanted dart hit the field around the tower and disappeared into it. The barrier turned a strange shade of dark blue, twisting strangely for the span of about five seconds, then the effect wore off and nothing happened. No arrows or spells had penetrated the barrier during this gap, and it seemed his shot had accomplished nothing.
Zynex stared at the barrier for several seconds as the siege tower started moving in his direction. Despite the impotency of his attack, the Cainites had become concerned enough to try and squash him. He rubbed the side of his face thoughtfully and stared at the wooden monster slowly making its way toward him.
Entranced, he drew another arrow and slowly struck it across the black slit. He fired the Shadow Arrow, quickly drew another blank, struck it to a slit, and sent a Fire Arrow at the tower as well. The Shadow Arrow had the same effect as before, but when his Fire Arrow hit the shimmering barrier, the entire tower erupted into a soaring pillar of flames. Zynex’s eyes went wide with delight as burning Cainites fell to their dooms. He quickly notched another Shadow Arrow and turned to the next tower.