by Eric Vall
Still, so many soldiers were streaming out of the four portals that we were surrounded within minutes, and Haragh bellowed out orders to our troops while the elven warriors switched up their tactics now that they were up against armored foes.
They still wove and ducked the oncoming blows with featherlight ease, but they relied on split second openings to strike, and I could tell they’d wear themselves out quick. Two elves of House Quyn had to double up against just one of their possessed counterparts, but they won out after several minutes of pursuit thanks to the bows of House Fehryn.
Rhys’ army used their tactic of working in pairs to swap places so they could reload the magazines, and serrated arrows pierced our attackers’ throats one after another. Still, the Master’s soldiers kept coming at us, but as they staggered and began to slow from their wounds, the dwarves hacked the tendons of their legs open to bring them down.
At first, I was relieved to see the different armies working together, but when two dwarves shoved a few elven warriors off a boulder to claim their next kill, I realized they were actually competing against each other. Ogres lunged through ferns to snag a kill before the elves could loose their arrows, and dwarves tripped the green giants up to send them sliding through the mud.
I ground my jaw as I watched the races try to out-battle each other rather than knuckle down against the fucking slaughter we had coming for us, but at least no one intercepted the fledglings’ progress. Those mangy little elves were tearing the skin off faces and gnawing on ears while their victims screamed and thrashed to be released, and despite their gangly limbs, the fledglings kept their hold as they began stabbing the minions in their eye sockets and slitting their throats multiple times. Then they’d pounce from one bloody corpse to their next prey, and as I considered their form, they kind of reminded me of Deya lately.
Just as swiftly as this thought occurred to me, I shoved it from my mind for the sake of my own sanity, and I refocused to find the possessed mages were drawing from the rain now. So, I aimed for the Flumen Mages as my dwarven soldiers began doubling over to heave the water out from their lungs.
“Defenders, take the mages and leave the rest for the others!” I shouted above the din.
My army instantly started letting the elves through while they picked off the possessed mages from the cover of the undergrowth, and when our allies were able to stand again, they let out furious war cries as they lashed out at every possessed elf that passed. My lungs ached from how many times they’d been filled or emptied in a matter of minutes, but I kept myself sliding through the mud because on top of all this, bullets were flying at me, and none of them were from my own troops.
The Master’s forces were armed with his revolvers as well as blades, but they didn’t know shit about aiming, and while this could have worked to our advantage, right now, it meant bullets were being fired all over the damn place, and they struck our troops at random.
The ogres held up fine aside from their mounting anger, but the elven warriors leapt and dove to dodge bullets, as if their maneuvers weren’t already exhausting enough. The dwarves cried out and hit the ground as stray bullets struck their limbs, though, and while my Defenders struggled to haul them to safety, I let my healing rune war in my ears and drown out everything but my targets.
I kept on pulling the trigger as I tried to melt down every branding iron I could, but it was nearly impossible to keep up with the storm raging around us and the screams of the wounded beginning to multiply. Even the fledglings screeching as they flew past didn’t distract me from the two portals in my sights, though, and I vaguely registered the sound of flesh being torn and bones snapping in the hold of the ogres.
I took this as a good sign while I hacked off the limbs of our attackers and buried laced bullets in their skulls, but I didn’t have time to react to Grot’s deafening roar nearby.
Air rushed from my lungs as I was thrown off my feet, and Grot barreled into the jungle while I crawled up out of a muddy fern. Then I saw he was going after a pack of possessed elves who’d broken through our lines, but there were another dozen minions at his back.
His roars disappeared into the storm as I hollered for Rammstein, and when I turned to scan for a glimpse of the ogre again, a stray bullet sliced across the side of my helm.
My heart nearly stopped as I dropped down to the mud, and the realization that I’d been inches away from death was actually irritating considering it hadn’t even been an intended hit.
I hadn’t gone through all this shit to die by coincidence from a single bullet, so I bellycrawled through the ferns to avoid a repeat incident, but I didn’t even have time to let the close call go to my head.
The possessed mages had started summoning mudslides to throw my troops off their feet, and I focused on countering their efforts while I heard Rammstein swooping low.
“Take out the Terra Mages!” I ordered my troops as I caught the dragon’s leg in my hand, and Rammstein’s wings battered the heads of a dozen possessed elves while I scaled his steel frame.
I couldn’t see Grot anywhere, though, and the flashing lightning only revealed the path of destruction the giant ogre had left behind him. I urged Rammstein forward while I swiped more rain from my eyes, and the dense jungle and swaying trunks made it difficult for the dragon to maneuver around the trees as quickly as he could.
He muscled through, though, and while I held on tight and bucked around with every collision, I sent my metal magic to check on Stan.
The little metal man had inched his way down into the pocket of my vest, and he was curled up into a little ball while he clutched his helmet on his head. I could sense he wasn’t completely overwrought with terror, though, and he seemed determined to hold out with me.
“You’re doing good, buddy!” I shouted above the snapping branches.
My powers caught the tiny nod Stan gave in response, and just knowing he was here with me steadied my nerves as I desperately scanned for any sign of Grot.
It was another three minutes of rocky flight before I finally found him, and the ogre ruler was surrounded by thirty elves who’d luckily run out of bullets by now. I couldn’t help shaking my head as I watched the Master’s soldiers chuck their revolvers aside rather than reload them, but at least we wouldn’t be dealing with their weapons much longer at this rate.
Still, Grot was smattered with bullet wounds as they came at him with swords instead.
So, I fused my axe to the dragon, pulled out both pistols, and jumped from Rammstein’s back, and as I rolled through the mud, I came out in the path Grot had torn through the jungle. The ogre ruler’s palms closed around his attackers’ skulls as he wrenched them off the ground and hurled them against trees, but more minions lunged to take the giant ogre down regardless. Their snarls broke off into wails as their bodies broke against the trunks, though, and when Grot slammed some of them straight into the ground, I could hear every bone in their bodies snapping on impact.
Grot was even laughing heartily as his bloody belly shook with each throaty chortle, and I couldn’t help chuckling as well while I took a post behind the brutish ogre to fire on the troops. Grot enjoyed the laced bullets so much, he started throwing his victims straight up into the trees for me, and every time I shot them on their way back down, he’d roar with approval and smash another couple skulls for good measure.
Haragh hadn’t been kidding when he said his uncle was as fierce as ten ogres, and I’d never been more grateful for an alliance as I was in that moment. Grot withstood daggers, swords, and bullets as he shredded his attackers with his bare hands and teeth, and when I saw more minions had broken away to pursue us, I grinned as I sent body after body bursting into flames.
The two of us took down nearly two hundred soldiers in under ten minutes as we fought side by side, and I hoped Haragh’s platoon would have a better chance now that Grot and I were luring his attackers into a trap of our own.
More and more kept arriving to come after us as Grot’s roars
rose up louder than the thunder, and I carried on firing down the path the ogre left behind him as he bludgeoned his way through the stragglers.
Then daggers flew in from behind me, though, and I flipped around to see we’d come so far, we were almost at the next tunnel. Grot’s mauling must have drawn notice from both sides, and as I sensed swift footfalls sprinting this way from the west and east, I cursed under my breath and quickly reloaded my pistols.
“Grot, boost me up!” I hollered as I lunged through the ferns.
The ogre ruler clamped my armor in his grip without hesitation, and I managed to grab onto the nearest branch while my boots slipped against the bark. I scrambled to find a decent firing position as the tree swayed beneath me, and when I reached a spot about forty feet up, I looked down to see possessed soldiers closing in on Grot from all sides.
Then I opened fire, and I emptied both lightning magazines in less than a minute as every one of my bullets struck their marks.
Grot was still going strong, too, as he slammed his fists down on the minions’, and I couldn’t tell if he enjoyed it just because he was killing shit, or if it was because most of these guys were elves. Either way, he was having a blast despite all the daggers slicing at his thick skin, and the sight of him tearing limbs off like nothing was equally gruesome and fucking awesome to behold.
Then I paused to reload for the sixth time, and I heard Rammstein crashing through the canopy as I turned my aim toward the west. As soon as I gave the order, the metal dragon spewed a trail of green flames across the minions coming in from the east, and as the enchanted inferno enveloped their bodies, they built to alarming heights in a matter of seconds.
Despite the rain, ancient trees ignited in a flash as the ferns fed the blaze, and the strange flames undulated in slow-motion while they burned at an accelerated rate to consume everything in their path.
I dove down from the limb I was on as the Master’s soldiers fled for their lives, and I kept firing my pistol as I ran right along with them with Grot’s arms swinging ahead of me. When the eerie green glow of the flames reached the troops at Dragir’s tunnel, all of us came stampeding through the next battle, and I ducked glaives and maces as our troops lashed out from both sides.
I had to shoot my way out of the line of fire as I summoned my powers to call Rammstein back to me, and just before the billowing green flames could char us all, the metal dragon took seven trees down as he dove to extinguish the inferno.
A coal black trail was all that remained once he took off again, and I couldn’t help laughing as I saw the four-lane highway of ash we’d carved through Nalnora. Then I ducked behind a boulder to reload again, but the victory was short lived, because the four portals at Dragir’s tunnel were shelling out just as many minions as the last, except it wasn’t only elves and mages arriving anymore.
Branded sphynx appeared at random with their jaws gaping for a bite of anything, and even though their ribs and bones were jutting through their fur, they were still at least seven hundred pounds apiece as they tore through the undergrowth. Their ragged wings knocked full ogres off their feet as their fangs broke through dwarven armor, and I brought my AR-15 around from my back as I took aim at the nearest sphynx.
It took two bullets to the heart and one to the head to bring him crashing down, but I finished off eight more sphynxes by the time the griffins showed up. Then I ordered both Boms to go after the sphynxes for us as I reloaded my pistols, and I swapped the rifle for my lightning bullets as I took aim at a griffin who’d caught three dwarves in its talons.
All I could hear was the rumbling of thunder and the discharge of firearms as beasts snarled in pain and fury, and my healing rune chanted in my ears as I let it override my senses.
I took down twenty griffins and seven more sphynxes without registering much of anything except where my next kill was, but I thought I saw Kurna burst into flames somewhere close by as his crazed laughter split through the rain. Then I heard him holler Dragir’s name, and when I spared a brief glance, Kurna had a wild grin on his flaming face as he shoved an orb of blue fire down the throat of a griffin who dove at him.
I shook my head as he taunted Dragir to outdo that, but even this didn’t distract me from the growing feeling in my gut that told me the tides had shifted for the worse.
More and more ravenous beasts were spilling out from the tunnels, and they were starved and wild-eyed like they hadn’t been set loose in ages. There were still elves and mages pushing their way through the talons and claws, but the Master wouldn’t have sent out the beasts if he was still bent on enacting a mass branding tonight.
He knew we were out here now, and while I processed how long this level of attack would keep up, I saw a sphynx bite an ogre in half as it flattened four dwarves in the process.
Then I heard Deya let out a screech, and the black dragon launched into the air from forty yards away as Shoshanne ordered her to get to Orebane.
My stomach dropped while I looked around at the carnage raging in the jungle, and even though the onslaught here seemed endless, I knew I couldn’t stay to help the troops fight it out. The other tunnels were probably in as bad a spot at this very moment, if not worse.
Especially the knights in Illaria.
So, I emptied both pistols as I summoned Rammstein to me, and once my magazines were spent, I emptied the AR-15 on ten more sphynxes before I leapt onto the nearest boulder to catch the dragon.
“Take us south!” I hollered as I ducked behind his ribs to shield myself from a volley of bullets.
Then Rammstein vaulted into the canopy, and I was abruptly engulfed in black clouds and pounding rain. I could still hear the battle below us as we soared over the jungle, but it wasn’t long before all I heard was the wind and rain in my ears as purple streaks of lightning broke out around me.
The metal dragon lurched side to side before he dove to fight his way through the storm, and I kept my gaze straight ahead as we finally made it beyond the jungle. Then the dragon dipped under the cloud cover as he jetted over Illaria, and I squinted at the flashes of flame on the horizon.
The attack at the Illarian tunnel was already billowing with smoke, but from this distance, I could tell there wasn’t nearly as much chaos taking place as in the jungle.
For a few fleeting minutes this gave me hope. With the longer length of this tunnel, the Master might not have managed to send out his beasts yet, which meant there was still time for me to warn our troops what would be arriving soon.
Then I reached the field, though, and I could hear the knights yelling for everyone to retreat while Cayla and General Ralot furiously commanded them to hold out.
The storm was fierce here, but without the cover of the canopy, lightning struck straight into the field, and everywhere I looked, knights were making a break for the trees as the Master’s mages and elves tore after them at alarming speeds. The whole area was completely overrun with his forces while my Defenders struggled to hold them all off, and I watched two of our ogres get ripped apart while the others stood barricaded by possessed elves all fixing to do the same.
I locked my jaw as I saw Cayla alone on the mill while half her troops panicked under the onslaught, and I scanned the entire clearing before I swiftly gave Rammstein the order.
I kept my magic connected with his gem as I directed his aim through it, and while Rammstein circled over the field, I scalded a trail of green flames across the incoming troops. The Master’s soldiers were swallowed up in fire by the dozens while I narrowly avoided burning my own army up as well, and we managed to cut the attack down by hundreds within minutes.
Then I doubled back around as I caught sight of our knights gaping at the ashen field, and in the distance, I could hear Cayla screeching her threats to kill them all if they didn’t return to their posts.
“You heard the general!” I bellowed as their eyes turned to me. “Back to your posts and get those revolvers loaded! Defenders, cover them! Boms, keep your aim on those portals!”
Pindor shoved through the knights of Rainard as I flew past, and while he sprinted toward the incoming troops, I jumped from the dragon’s back as I anticipated his next move.
The second my fists hit the ground, my powers joined with Pindor’s, and we tore a trench twenty feet wide to barricade our army from the cluster of portals. The possessed mages fought against our hold as we doubled down to counter their powers, but the elves were spilling into the jagged pit by the dozens, and they clawed over one another to reach the other side like a pack of wolves.
Our trench still gave the knights time to reform their lines and get their weapons back in action, though, and as soon as I heard Ralot give the order, Pindor and I slammed the trench shut before the elves could scale the walls.
Rapid fire broke out from every corner of the field as the Master’s mages were unleashed, and I whistled for Rammstein to swing back and grab me as I fired on all incoming mages. By the time he found me in the mayhem, the field was nearly overrun again, and I was melting down every branding iron I sensed while I backed my way to a clearer spot and kept on firing.
Then I heard someone growl my name, and when I whipped around in a circle, my eyes locked on a hulking mage not twenty feet away.
He was at least six inches taller than me with muscles like a bodybuilder straining against his old Defender gear, and he had dark skin and eyes as he lit twenty knights on fire without raising a hand. Then a sneer spread across his face as I swiftly raised my pistol, but the mage dodged the bullet as he ducked into the crowd.
I braced myself for a bout of flames to engulf me, but instead of attacking, the Ignis Mage’s gravelly voice roared above the crack of revolvers, and he alerted his troops I was out here as I caught a glimpse of him barreling toward the portal.
“Shit!” I growled as elves and mages turned on me, but they were being taken down a split second later as Cayla went ballistic on them with her rifle.