“Uncle Timur! Mom!” Morgan leapt into the air and flew in beside Frances and Timur’s galloping horse. Somehow she managed to fly in to hug Frances who smiled gently.
“You are so grounded after I make you ice cream,” said Frances.
“Ice cream?” Morgan asked, cocking her head.
“Think of snow cones or shaved ice, but made from cream,” said Timur.
Frances let go of her daughter, her eyes finding Hattie. Her apprentice was still looking over Fennokra. The dragon’s bleeding had stopped but the half-troll looked very shaky and was sitting down next to the beast. Nudging Timur to go closer to her apprentice, Frances was about to dismount when Hattie looked up and waved both hands.
“Frances, I’m alright. You have to go.”
Frances froze, her eyes drifting up to the looming dragon behind her apprentice. “But—”
“Frances, I’ll be fine with Fennokra.” She looked up at the dragon, who nodded. “We’ve left our disagreement to be blown by the wind. Besides, I’m out of magic. I don’t think I can fight Thorgoth.”
Nodding, Frances reached out to clasp Hattie’s hand before pulling herself back upright on Timur’s horse. “Hattie, I’m very proud of you. Take care of yourself.”
Hattie’s forced smirk didn’t do much to prevent her pointed ears from twitching. “You’re the one who needs to be more careful, Master!”
“You have outgrown the need to call me that,” said Frances, smiling as Hattie blinked, mouth dropping open in shock. “We’ll have your mage promotion ceremony when I get back. Timur? Morgan?”
Timur grinned and touched his heels to his horse. Morgan flew nearby. As the family set off, Hattie waved them frantically away.
“Come back, all of you! You have to!” she cried, blinking back her tears as the sight of her teacher and dearest friend grew smaller and smaller.
***
Ayax hunkered down behind a wall of earth she’d thrown up with of all people, Leila. The pair were panting, trying to catch their breath as their defensive fortification shook from impacts.
“How the hell did your cousin hold her own against this monster for so long?” Leila asked.
“I have no clue. Though, frankly, I’m also not sure how he is still—” Ayax heard Thorgoth’s voice pitch up. Chancing a glance from behind their wall, her eyes widened as she caught the king throwing a massive fireball at them.
“Move!” She yanked Leila, almost carrying the Otherworlder to safety as the fireball smashed their temporary shelter over. Feet pounding the dirt, they continued to run while loosing spells.
The Otherworlders initial attack on Thorgoth had stalled out. The king was still standing, moving from temporary wall to temporary earthen wall. Aside from maintaining his shield, he’d created a ring of earthworks where he could take cover behind from and pop up behind to fire back a spell.
Once in a while, one of the Otherworlder warriors would get close enough to attack. This time, it was Patricia. Ayax had only heard of her from Elizabeth in passing as the young dark-haired, pale-skinned woman had been fighting mostly on the Lapanterian front.
Patricia tensed for a brief moment before leaping out on Thorgoth’s flank. She didn’t attempt to fire her pistol before she attacked. The last Otherworlder who attacked hadn’t managed to break through his shield. Instead, she swung her weapon, a long two-handed saber with a basket hilt into Thorgoth’s shield. The enchanted weapon glowed, and halted for a brief second before cutting through.
Patricia was already pulling back however and for good reason. She dodged Thorgoth’s scything blade by inches and managed a counter-strike at his knee. The force of the blow wasn’t heavy enough to unbalance him, but the king had to parry her whirling second strike.
Ayax and Leila ran closer to the king, preparing spells. They couldn’t shoot as the duellists were too close, but they would be there for the anticipated outcome.
For Patricia and the rest of the Otherworlder warriors were very good. Their speed, their reflexes and their years at war had meant they could easily hold their own against the Demon King. Patricia was keeping Thorgoth’s attention so well, another Otherworlder by the name of Junaid had leapt towards Thorgoth’s back and swung his axe.
Ayax instantly yanked him out of the way as Queen Berengaria fired a magic missile that almost killed Junaid. Meanwhile, Thorgoth skillfully kicked Patricia’s knee, unbalancing her. He almost landed the killing blow with a spell, but Leila managed to create a wall of flames to cover Patricia’s mad scramble back to cover.
Then Ayax and Leila were running back into cover as Thorgoth cast more spells at them and they were right behind another wall again.
“Why isn’t he escaping?” Leila muttered.
Ayax brushed dirt off her armor and gave herself a look over. Her cuirass was scraped and her dark-blue uniform was battered by dust and detritus. Yet, she somehow remained only a little bruised from a few rocks.
“I don’t think we’re giving him an opportunity. We can’t kill him, but he can’t easily get out of this with Berengaria, especially with his army now in ruins,” said Ayax.
“What an utter bastard and with Edana out of action, we can’t just burn him to death,” said Leila.
“I’m more worried about what he’s going to do if he can’t get out,” said Ayax. The stamping of feet beating against the earth turned her head. The troll blinked as she saw her beloved dashing across the dirt toward them. “Liz!”
Elizabeth slid the last meter right up to Ayax. “Hey! How are you?”
“We’re fine, Liz. What are you doing here?” Ayax asked.
“Well, I got to get my hit on him,” said Elizabeth with a wry shrug. Her humorless smile fading, Elizabeth squeezed Ayax’s hand. “We need to make a plan. Thorgoth is going to make a break for it with Berengaria.”
“What? How can you be so sure?” Leila asked.
“What would you do if you and your loved one were trapped without any hope of victory?” Elizabeth asked.
Ayax nodded, seeing Elizabeth’s point and now considering what the cornered Alavari ruler would do. “He’ll likely come out with something big to distract and fix our attention. A showstopper as Don would say.”
“Like that?” Leila’s eyes were wise and she was pointing over the wall. Ayax’s ears perked up and she winced as they twinged from the instinctive action. The pressure of the air was changing. A low howling noise filled the cavern and even as she peaked over the wall, she could see that Thorgoth was whipping up the wind. He fed the tornado around him like it was something alive with magic, dust and even fallen weapons, armor and dead bodies that twisted and coursed around him.
“Yes, that,” said Ayax. She rose and started firing a firebolt, only to have it blocked by Thorgoth’s shield. She continued to fire, whilst Elizabeth bellowed out orders.
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“Warriors withdraw! Mages open fire with everything you have!”
All around, a rainbow of magic beams flashed at the howling tornado. They splashed against the king’s shield, random debris or were even blocked by his queen’s golden magic. Berengaria was soon hanging onto Thorgoth’s armored talons with her talons, wings bared protectively over the king.
“Why don’t you rats just die!”
No time for a fancy retort. The tornado surged and expanded suddenly. Several warriors were picked up and flung away. Others further from the king were hit by debris. Ayax spotted Anriel and Dwynalina being picked up and slammed into the ground. Only Kellyanne quickly grabbing the three with her magic saved them from further injury. Meanwhile, other mages braced themselves behind barriers to shield themselves from the scything air. Hissing out a Word of Power, Ayax cast a barrier to block the wind and shield herself, Elizabeth and Leila.
“Wow, did I sound like that?” Leila asked.
“Like Thorgoth or in a way evoking Thorgoth?” Elizabeth asked, arching an eyebrow.
Leila rolled her eyes. “Did I sound like a megalomaniac?”
“Yes to both,” Ayax grunted. The Demon King was hovering in the center of the vortex atop a smaller tornado of dust and wind. Berengaria’s eyes scanned the pinned Otherworlders as the pair slowly began to move. “Leila, if there is a time to pull out a big spell, now’s the time.”
“Do you think I’m your cousin? You fry the bastard. I’ll hold the shield.” Before Ayax could affirm, the Otherworlder had layered a red barrier atop of Ayax’s kicked the troll forward. Ignoring the indignity Ayax took a breath and started the song to charge Frances’s spell.
Right after the first words, Thorgoth’s head whipped around. His wide eyes swayed for a moment before focusing on her.
“No you don’t!”
Ayax cut the spell off and threw one of her cards at Thorgoth. The spell activated mid-air with a blinding flash that she used to tackle her girlfriend and Jessica to the ground. Even so, the flash didn’t prevent the barrage that slammed down around them. Eyes shut, Ayax held her breath as dirt and fresh glass baked into existence by dragon and magefire clawed at their armor and clothing.
“My love we have to go!” Ayax heard Berengaria yell at Thorgoth.
“I am aware—SHIT!” Ayax chanced a glance and saw a cannonball streak just past Thorgoth and Berengaria. The queen put up a violet shield as musketballs clattered or whizzed past them.
More Erisdalian soldiers were joining the battle, firing at the airborne Thorgoth from a distance. Martin and his escort were at its head, riding to meet up with Ginger.
Somehow having retrieved her standard, Ginger laughed. “Martin! What took you so long!”
The King of Erisdale dismounted to embrace his wife before he took cover with her. “Well, I wanted to make an entrance, so I had my troops set up an artillery battery.”
Said artillery battery was lobbing iron shot at the king of Alavaria as fast as they could. High above the enemy army, he was a rather tempting target for them and the musketeers that were discharging their weapons with rolling cracks. A number of their shots were getting knocked off course by the high winds, but Thorgoth had now dispelled his tornado and retreated to the ground.
“Now—” Martin blinked. “General Helias?”
The tauroll shrugged. “I surrendered. He needs to die.”
“No idea how we can get him. He and Queen Berengaria are too formidable together,” said Ginger.
“If you can separate them, I can work on Thorgoth.”
Ginger and Martin looked around to see Frances, Timur and Morgan. Frances was leaning heavily on Morgan, whilst Timur’s jaw was set, his eyes narrowed at his father.
Martin looked his friend over. “Frances, are you sure?”
“I know I can make him vulnerable, though, you all might have to follow up after I do what I need to do,” said Frances.
Nodding, Martin clasped Frances’s free hand before grabbing his sword. “Alright then, you heard Frances! Let’s go!”
Martin ran forward, Ginger following him along with a number of their escorts and Timur. At the same time, Frances clasped Morgan’s hand.
“Morgan, I need a little bit of your magic to start this.”
Morgan grinned. “Say no more. I got it.”
Ayax, hearing her friend’s cry, hauled herself onto her feet and momentarily braced herself against the makeshift earthen barrier. Smiling at the sight of her cousin, she broke into a run with Elizabeth hot on her heels.
Scrambling after them, Leila bit back a curse as she saw Thorgoth turning his head towards them. “Wait-wait-wait don’t you want to know why we need to separate Berengaria from Thorgoth!”
“Nope!” Elizabeth leapt behind a wall, dodging Thorgoth’s first spell. Coming up on a roll, she briefly caught a soft lavender and sapphire twinkle from the corner of her eye before finding Frances and Morgan holding each other’s glowing hands.
Shaking her head to banish her curiosity, Elizabeth took a deep breath and ran for the next bit of cover. Hand clenched tightly around her faithful warhammer’s handle, she wondered just how to accomplish the task her friend had set.
“Oi, father!” A shout made Elizabeth look up to find the prince of Alavaria striding towards his father. He looked confident with his wand in hand. Of course, the twitch of his tail gave away what Timur was truly feeling.
“Son.”
The grating drawl in Thorgoth’s voice was so evocative it made even a few onlookers wince. Timur stopped for a brief moment at his father’s pronouncement. Yet, his silence lasted only as long as it took for him to briefly touch the wedding ring on his finger.
“Neither of you can’t escape! Surrender for Alavaria’s sake so we don’t have to spill more blood!”
“I have given my entire life for Alavaria. For the future of our family I and Berengaria have suffered—” A violet lance cut Thorgoth off by forcing the king to duck.
“You raped my mother, murdered your firstborn, abused your children, and sent thousands of Alavari to their deaths! For your hatred, you sacrificed Alavaria’s future!”
Twisting his wand in a figure-eight pattern, Timur howled word after Word of Power. Bright bolts of magic flashed into existence, streaking towards Thorgoth and Berengaria.
Some hit the king’s shield, others were met by Berengaria’s shrieking bolts of magic. Ayax blinked at the rainbow of colors flashed in the air. Not all the bolts were exploding as they were blocked or intercepted. Some vanished with a loud popping sound a little like a loud fart. Others exploded into motes of light.
Berengaria blocked a fake spell which blew a raspberry as it hit her shield. “You mock us with your parlor tricks!”
Timur flicked a knot of hair out of his vision before he continued to let fly with his illusions and real spells. “Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Elizabeth had to suppress the urge to snort. Tapping Ayax’s shoulder, she made a chopping motion toward the Alavari king and queen who continued to send spells against the Timurs. Yes, Timurs, there were now three of the Alavari prince who were leaping and ducking around cover.
Not too far away, Martin, Ginger and the rest of their escort waited for their moment.
“Tarquin, give us what supporting fire you can. Helias and Katia, Ginger and I are going to make a run for Berengaria and leave Thorgoth for Elizabeth and her group,” Martin said.
“Good plan, but how do you know they’ll go along with it?” Tarquin asked.
Helias shrugged. “I would trust him, given how long they’ve worked together.”
Ginger was focused on reloading one of her pistols, and despite her concentration she shivered slightly at the general’s words. “When, Martin?”
Martin looked over barrier they’d been hiding. Timur was merrily distracting the two and giving ground. He had avoided getting hit by anything serious by continuing to keep his distance. As he leaped and sprinted from cover to cover, that drew Thorgoth and Berengaria towards him and closer to Martin and his comrades.
The king of Erisdale looked back at his companions who met his gaze with clear eyes and tight grasps around their weapons of choice.
“Now!” Martin leapt over the side and charged, drawing his sword. Tarquin was soon up and he threw a glowing emerald sphere of magic. Thorgoth leapt to the side, but the sphere still slammed into the ground and exploded with a deafening crack.
On the other side, Elizabeth, Ayax and Leila had also leapt from their positions and were charging. Ayax and Leila threw spells that Berengaria blocked with small golden shields that shattered from the impacts. Thorgoth turned to try to blast the two stronger mages with more powerful spells, but Helias now pointed his Fangroar at the king and roared a note. Dark gray serpents leapt from his blade forcing Thorgoth to blast them apart. Timur and his clones further occupied the king with a barrage of spells real and imitation.
Nobody could hit Thorgoth or Berengaria, but the mages didn’t have to. They just had to allow their melee fighters to get in close.
Elizabeth was tall enough to stand up to the king. Yes, he was slightly taller than her but she cut a glorious pose as she stepped in and swung her hammer at his head.
Berengaria took off, leaping off of the king’s shoulders. The steel flat of the hammer whipped through air, narrowly missing Thorgoth’s nose. Not missing a beat, Thorgoth swung with his sword, which thunked across Elizabeth’s shield, metal edge screeching across metal. Elizabeth and Thorgoth attacked simultaneously, moving to evade the worst of each other’s hits. The Otherworlder’s hit caught the topmost half of Thorgoth’s blade, whilst her hammer clanged off her shoulder.
Elizabeth was betting on what she’d observed from Thorgoth. He was a brilliant mage, but while he was physically imposing and fast, he was not nearly as strong a fighter as her. They continued to exchange, but she was faster, fresher and was driving him back and apart from his queen.
Berengaria, golden eyes fixed on Elizabeth, raised her wand, but Martin had gotten close. He leapt into the air, faithful longsword rising back before falling down with the force of a waterfall. The blade clanged off the harpy’s battle claws, and Berengaria wobbled. Flapping her wings, the hit claw clenched tightly, the queen pointed her wand at Elizabeth’s back and shrieked.
“Liz!” Ayax leapt in between the pair, swinging her glowing staff. She hit the spell with the end of her staff.
A bright flash was coupled by an explosion that tossed the troll like she was just some children’s toy.