by Scott Beith
Some gnolls still swiped at Zephyr. A few grabbing hold of him as he was once again forced into flight, pulling them with him as he leaped into the air, dropping them from a tremendous height while he shot arrows at the ground, clearing the gnolls away so he could land.
Gnolls literally disappearing with the wind long before the arrows hit the ground, most of their dark leathery hoods peeling off to reveal nothing but dark mist underneath; it was almost as if the gnoll had suddenly disintegrated into a colourless void of space.
I couldn’t believe what I saw, but I had no time to rationalise why these creatures were disappearing like ghosts. All that mattered to me was whether or not we still seemed in control of the situation.
And quite frankly, when looking out at all the fires and madness below me, I could hardly believe this battle had only started but half a minute ago. We were already overrun! I could see pockets of army soldiers doing their best to build a resistance in the little alleyways. Some tiny distant versions of us slipping through the streets undetected as they sought out refugees to save, only to be scouted by the gnolls, who were flooding in from all four corners of their sight.
I saw a villager tunnelling into the ground, trying to escape its four-legged aggressors, plucked out of his hole by a gnoll somehow managing to out-dig his very talented opponent only to drag him out before the rest of their horde. This unfortunate stray soldier smothered by the crowd until he had merely vanished from all sight, right along with the gnoll that had initially attacked him.
“Where do they go?” I asked Akoni in a fluster, confused at how they could simply disappear without any sudden scream or noise. I thought if anyone could give me an answer, it would be the brainiac beside me.
“I… I don’t know,” he answered, sharing in my bewilderment. “Maybe my mother knows,” he then speculated, considering his mother’s own talents for teleporting in and out of worldly phase.
It was staggering to see how rapidly the streets were overcome. Battles lasted mere milliseconds, so it would appear. Akoni and I were spectators to this poor town slowly falling into flames; the two of us watching gnolls throwing crates through windows, attempting to continue pulling hidden civilians out into the streets, pushing them all into a circle of howling gnolls. Their war cries scaring all defiance from the imprisoned townsfolk as they slummed and simply waited to disappear like all the others.
Unfortunately, even the marketplace was overrun, with gnolls surrounding it, putting stray soldiers in a spot of serious strife as they continued trying to evacuate townsfolk into the thick boarded up tavern that sat in the very centre of town.
Camilla was furiously shifting about, wielding a huge bladed lance. She swung it in clockwork spirals, deflecting the gnolls as they swiped at her from left and right. The pole of her banners deflected the attacks coming towards her from behind, and her armour sparked as sharp claws struck against it like metal on metal.
The town seemed all but lost. Akoni looked devastated as he watched his mother slowly losing her fight against the gnolls. Thankfully, Ode came rolling to her defence, flattening gates and crushing chairs as he created a path for Camilla to escape down. Despite not being able to control his movements, he managed to reach the marble marketplace stone on her behalf. Camilla then climbed the steps shortly afterwards, heading up to her husband’s old gateway device.
I tried to see what was happening, but Akoni was hogging the glasses, and the clouds were becoming thicker and thicker, plunging the town deeper into darkness, with it becoming so dark I could barely see my hands. The soldiers were keeping to the safety of scattered fires – their only viable means of light – while the gnolls continued to ransack the darker sides of town.
In the distance, I saw an aqua blue light and knew it was the marble gateway charging up. That meant Camilla had reached her portal device.
Judging by the squawks and shrieks resonating from that area, I think it was safe to say she’d already used the devise to transport herself back to the castle. It was obvious that this horde had been hell bent on stopping her. But blinking from one point to another, she must have eluded enough of their lunging paws in order to make it through the stone and out the other side. Sending herself, and possibly a few dumb stragglers holding on to her, back into the radiant light of our castle’s dusk, via the marble stones’ linking wormhole network.
It was a moment of pure relief for Akoni and me to know his mother was alright, and that her plan to get back to the castle for reinforcements had succeeded. We’d hopefully only have to withstand the gnolls’ forces for a couple more minutes before the king and queen would come to save everyone.
Midas had built these unique stones for Camilla, who was the only one capable of using them, placing one in every town of The Borderlands as a way to unite all the tribes. They meant his castle could offer aid to other tribes quickly and readily, if they ever found themselves in situations as dire as this.
I tried to see what was happening now that the soldiers had lost their leader. My sight was restricted to the various house fires – the only areas that illuminated the darkness. Some resilient nymphs, such as the blacksmith I’d seen earlier, were trying to fight off the gnolls, bravely defending their families and town. I had no idea how many people had made it to the tavern – nor how many soldiers were left defending its doors.
I kept an eye on one particular family as they snuck out from where they’d been hiding and crept along the deserted streets towards this gated-off estate. Gnolls stalked along the rooftops above them, silently following the family. Those scared farmers slowly dooming us as they led the stragglers to this high-rise beach estate. Arlo waved his hands invitingly from beside the gates he was ordered to close, prompting the family to hurry up.
Seeing him, the gnolls immediately pounced, jumping out from windows and off rooftops, tackling the poor family and pinning them down, just like they’d done to me in the swamps.
Both children had managed to squeeze themselves from the gnolls’ grasp and continue to run away, while their parents remained pinned down, fighting just to give them that chance to escape. Gnolls chased after the children and forced them away from the safety of Rubin’s strong spiky metal villa gates. Watching them disappear around the alleyway corner instead, pursued by only a few stragglers that continued to chase. Most of them were now focused on the prince guarding the half open gate.
All heart and no head, the prince abandoned his post, rushing to give aid to the parents far ahead in the centre of the main backstreet. Running underneath a passage of roof dwelling monsters as they drooled and dropped down in added pursuit, the vast majority of this pack closing in on him as he sprinted into the pack still restraining the unfortunate wife and husband. With only a minor few still remaining up on the rooftops, watching over the gnolls below, revealing some strange, but obvious, sense of hierarchy or leadership amongst these pack hunters.
Pulling out his blade, the prince swung it backwards and forwards in blind defence. The gnolls backing up ever so slightly as more came in to surround him. The fires all along the side streets were reflecting their light into Arlo’s bright new crystal sword, glowing it with a fiery blood red that seemed to scare the gnolls. It appeared the sword had been built with very similar solar technology to Helios’s pointy spherical staff, and the Sunspire that inspired it.
Arlo waved his infernal glowing sword, spooking away the gnolls, who reacted as if he were waving hell-fire toward them. He freed the trapped parents, giving them the chance to run while he bravely back-peddled his own way to freedom.
The gnolls had forfeited their fight for the moment, waiting for his back to turn and release them from the strict circle of confinement he was trying to creep out of.
His bright sword was slowly losing its glare as each step took him further and further away from the fires. My prince was having to deflect a few eager gnolls as they clawed at him, too impatient to wait, enough to spook the parents as they bolted under the ivy vines of a ha
lf open gate just ahead of him. That gate locking shut as the parents abandoned him and sprinted off past it, their own sudden movements causing the gnolls to dash towards the prince while he remained pinned behind the gates and this immediate horde.
“Open it for him!” Akoni and I yelled down to the frightened family as Arlo battled to fend off the gnolls pouncing at him.
But the two parents were already too far from the gates. A few small scavenging gnolls began climbing the long pointy vine gates; one managed to cling on and scaled over them, not concerned about the thorns scratching at them. Catastrophic as our prince was also far too distracted to even notice the stray gnoll as it dived over and landed softly against a pit of sand on our side of the protective fence.
Its arrival made me just as scared for Arlo as I was then for myself. I couldn’t understand why Arlo still wanted to be out there. From the distance, it looked easy for him to jump himself over that spiky gates and get away, and yet he was still there, caught deflecting attacks left, right and centre.
Finally, Arlo did jump into the air. Another moment of relief for us, as I figured he must have seen the stray gnoll heading up the hill towards us and was about to chase it. But then he didn’t jump over the gates. He landed back in the same spot, plunging his sword, up to its hilt, into the ground with an earth-shattering tremble. The sword convulsing in his hands, shaking the ground enough to rock the gnolls like a tremor or earthquake. Cracks opening beneath the creatures’ feet, as the earth erupted and imploded with a giant uplift of rock and dirt, rumbling like a volcanic fissure as the largest rocks spewed out under the pressure of that hot vibrating sword.
Soot and ash covered much of the nearby area, blinding even my sight as Arlo shielded himself with a sound field, hiding in the debris of floating rock hazards as they continued to spurt from the ground.
On first glance, the fight appeared completely unfair, but after that display I was starting to think the gnolls were the outmatched ones. With Arlo, it never mattered how many foes surrounded him, he was somebody who appeared to work better when he was pushed into a cage.
Admirably tough, the gnolls charged towards him nevertheless, only to be beaten down without consequence. Confidently, Arlo continued to skip and skid in circles. Skating across freshly powdered gravel, acting as if this fight was one poetic blade dance, luring and charming victims with his own serpent like rhythm.
The prince’s cockiness had put me into some ease as I turned my attention to look back towards the gnoll on the beach and the parents trying to sprint up that long sandy hill towards the manor. I quickly gazed at the streets, trying to see if I could spot the children. I thought about slipping out undetected to go look for them. I wanted to do something brave, but I had a bad feeling they were most likely going to be another candle to the Nyx shrines, considering the odds against them.
I was unable to act on that impulse regardless, though, considering how quickly the parents made it up to Akoni and me, getting far enough ahead of the gnoll, which was still, thankfully, down on the beach, slipping against the sand as it attempted to rough its way up the steep dunes of those mini hills. I opened my mouth to tell the parents I’d help find their children, but before I could even speak the children appeared by the start of those gates. The little brother and his young sister squeezing inside with hands linked and tears held back as Anara secretly ushered them in, these children becoming ecstatic when she pointed towards their breathless parents way up the hill beside us.
Unaware of the stalking creature still climbing the sands just below the proper pathing. To our horror, the gnoll quickly changed its direction, prowling towards its closer targets – the children. Leaping down with great finesse as it no longer had to battle upwards over each bumpy dune that led off track towards the large beach house.
There were no soldiers up here; no one to save the children from that gnoll. I realised this was my moment to be brave. Adrenaline poisoning my bloodstream as I started running down the hill. The nervous anticipation of not knowing exactly what I was going to do had begun overcharging my senses. Although after looking behind me and seeing a pool of shadows ready to fester, I knew I was ready for this. For once I was in a position of visible strength, the flickering embers of distant house fires doing me great justice as, for the first time in history, I finally felt ready to show some true courage and valour.
I picked up some speed, trying to match the gnoll’s speed as it silently charged towards our oblivious princess and the children. I carefully widened my arms, waving them through the air as a means to expand my own clawing shadow, remembering just how quick gnolls can leap and just how fast I needed to be in order to react in righteous time. And as quick as a screech, I had to confine my arms back to my side. My reflexes jumping me as I tried to settle myself back down and lower a racing heartbeat. I watched the running gnoll illuminate like a candle before tumbling immediately down. Blasted off a small canyon divide mid-air as it attempted to leap from one mound to another.
A loud crackling noise had blasted in my ear and a hot violet flash of light had caused this gnoll to be sent off and back towards the sand dunes against the ivy-covered side gates. A magic missile flaming as it had whistled past me, splashing the gnoll with an unearthly raw concussive power. A compound of fire, lightning and frost all looking like it merged into one. Akoni’s exotic purple flame had been pressurised and ejected out of his little boom stick hand pistol. Its barrel still smoking from the tiny missile’s launch.
Akoni kept his gun aimed at the ready, prepared to fire at the gnoll again, but the mysterious and mystic flame vaporised the gnoll’s shroud, revealing nothing inside – the creature was gone, dissipated like all the others.
“Arlo, pull back!” Akoni shouted to his best friend.
Too dumb to be afraid, the prince stubbornly refused to listen, choosing to keep the gnolls bottled down there against his own poor positioning, even if it meant risking a stray loose foot that would be the death of him.
Playing with his wristband, Akoni’s backpack began to clunk and brighten, power diverting out of his gun before the backpack rocketed him past the young family while he tried to hover with it. Wonkily schisming from one side to the other, before eventually shooting up like a star, with two purple jet trails of flame spurting out from the backpack’s turbines.
What is he thinking? I asked myself. How did Akoni suddenly consider himself an expert after one lucky hit on an unsuspecting target? I wanted to shout out for him to come back, and not be a careless moron, but he was too far above me already, blasting into the anonymity of the foggy dark sky.
Finally managing to gain enough control to drop down and hover just over the gates, he fired out warning shots at the ground near Arlo and his aggressors.
I had to admire his courage. Akoni could have used his jetpack to fly off at any time and escape the attack. But he didn’t, because just like his mother and father, he simply cared more about others than he did about himself.
With the streets deserted of all residents, many gnolls began making their way towards the gates, the infestation growing as only Arlo and a few thorn-covered gates blocked the pile of predators building up along the low beachfront.
Anara bypassed me without as much as a word, running back down to the gates to help. Me, once again, being the only one there who wasn’t in anyway involved, but I was tired of being a useless observer who did nothing but watch her friends valiantly risk their lives while I just sat indecisively still with fear.
Trying to let go of that fear and use some of my puppetry to meddle and create disturbances on behalf of my team while they remained exposed, each of them willing to enter the more harmful side of these huge reinforced gates.
Shooting wildly, as he remained too unbalanced to aim and yet in an area too crowded to miss, Akoni found himself slowly sinking downwards into the very heart of the action, repelling these ghostly thick-nailed creatures with his cracking iridescent firework flares, blasting hot illuminatin
g bolts from that hand-cannon as his mystical blue and purple bolts collided against ground or foe like lightning and thunder.
The super-hot metal plasma was interacting with cold atmosphere each time he struck an object, leaving a solar wind force that blew bright enough to eliminate these dark forces instantly from our world. Each bullet an exorcism that expelled these demonic apparitions in a flash, while residual light splashed all nearby creatures, pulling them fiercely to the ground like gravity. The pressure of it severe enough for them to willingly claw off their own shrouds and deliberately disappear into the unknown oblivion they had come from.
Our skilful technician dropped down from flight beside Arlo, deciding more precision with his aim was a better compromise than staying above the gates where he could safely reign supreme.
Touching the rubble of war-torn ground, he unleashed the full potential of his new flare gun pistol, his fiery pellets lighting up the streets and melting holes in the bricks of house walls as he managed to intimidate even the biggest clusters of this overbearing crowd into wild scatter. This small pocket of town becoming the only safe haven left amidst the all-consuming foggy darkness.
But Akoni’s new invention had gone far from being unnoticed. His input had truly thrown a real spanner into the works as he continued to power-down his jetpack and arc up that electric wristband and plasma pistol instead, forcing those once wrathful aggressors to feebly run for cover instead. Creatures retreating to the marketplace to reunite with the rest of their pack.
There was no question that Akoni’s arrival had sparked a conflict amongst the pack of gnoll rooftop alphas, their apparent high command becoming much more distinct in my eyes as they began howling a whole new set of orders towards their horde, drawing the other gnolls’ attention away from raiding and rummaging the spoils of abandoned houses, barking at them to abandon the streets and market square and head towards us and this high-hilled beach estate.