The room was circular, with its center empty and its perimeter filled with twelve desks, evenly spread through the entire space. Each desk was occupied by a counselor. There were six men and six women, each dressed in long robes representing one of the six Colors: Blue, Red, White, Green, Yellow and Black. The counselors were mirrored, with the man and woman of each Color facing each other across the room. Except for the twelve counselors and Mahon, no one else was present.
Spotting him, they stopped their previous conversation and turned their attention to him. Sitting almost opposite to the entrance was an old woman in blue robes. She was small and her face full of wrinkles. Her long hair was tied on her back in three braids full of gems and rings. She had the look of someone who had spent her life hiding behind a smile, and her dark eyes betrayed nothing of her thought. Yet, she seemed genuine as she smiled at Mahon.
“Welcome to the Council, Nightmare commander. Please step in.”
Using his canes, Mahon limped into the center of the room. Turning around, he inclined his head to each member of the small meeting. The greetings done, he once more faced the old Blue woman. It was the Blue man behind him that broke the silence, however.
“We want to hear from your mouth the events that led you being the sole survivor of the strike team in the final Nightmare battle.”
Fada, it will be boring...
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“Can we go now, Mah?”
“Not yet, Margot.”
“What will you do if we win today?”
Mahon turned his head away from the raging battlefield and looked at the woman beside him, frowning. He couldn’t see her eyes as Nightmare blurred most of her face, but he knew she was looking straight at him. She smiled back with innocence, as if it was completely normal to ask this question in the middle of the battle. Mahon focused back on the two armies fighting, a hundred of meters in front of him.
“I am not sure, Margot. You?”
“If we can end this war, why can we not end the one in Ratho?”
Mahon said nothing, but his posture betrayed the rising tension and Margot had been his second for too many years not to know how to read him. She gestured to the two dozens of warriors waiting behind them and shouted.
“Get ready, we are going in soon!”
Her order was echoed by the many other 28-men units, waiting at the rear of the battlefield.
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“Whites please, can you briefly remind us of the strategy we planned for the battle?”
The two White counselors exchanged a look and the man gestured for the woman to proceed. As she spoke, her tone came sharp, almost military.
“Last Red Mahon devised a plan to kill the Amentiae general. Twenty 28-men units of elite warriors, along with Mahon’s own unit, would wait behind the battle line until the Amentiae general’s position had been determined. When signal is given, they would charge from behind our lines and try to pierce through the Amentiae line, clearing a path for Mahon’s elite unit to reach the Amentiae general unscathed and claim his head.”
“Do you confirm, commander?” The Blue counselor continued to lead the discussion.
“Precisely. We know that the Amentiae depend on hierarchical structure and thus killing the general could…” Mahon stopped as the counselor gestured with impatience.
“We don’t need all the details for now. This part ran smoothly, didn't it?”
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On the front line, humans were slowly being pushed back by the Amentiae. It was not perceptible, but step by step, half a meter here and there, they lost ground. And yet, the Amentiae were not strong, nor had more warriors.
No, it was just that in Nightmare, humans were weak. Feeble. Limited.
They had ghost-like forms, human-shaped but ethereal, almost translucent. They moved with excruciating lethargy and had trouble applying force to their strike, as if they were pushing through a dense liquid. Of course, there were exceptions to the rule and experienced Nightmare warriors had an easier time controlling their bodies.
The fight in front of Mahon turned more and more chaotic and it would soon be their turn to act. More than ever focusing on the battle, he localized Elmer without difficulty. The man was, besides Margot, the only Last White commander in Nightmare. He was one of the few warriors able to push back the advance of the Amentiae in his vicinity.
Shield and scimitar in hand, Elmer finished clearing half a dozen Amentiae in his immediate vicinity with fluid movements and then looked behind him, as if to meet eyes with Mahon.
Now.
“Go!” Mahon shouted and, as one, his warriors rushed to the battlefield. At his side, the other 28-men units started their sprint too. When they were just meters away from reaching the fight, the human battle-line suddenly jolted forwards with impressive momentum.
“YAAHHHHHH!!!!” The sudden clamor came from the frontline where the soldiers, with invigorated energy, let loose on the Amentiae. Holding nothing back, they hurled their bodies forward in an attempt to tear apart the surprised insects’ formations.
Seconds later, the other units joined the fray and, where the front line succeeded in weakening the enemy’s battle-line, they cut through like hot knives through butter. Mahon’s unit didn’t even have to fight as they rushed into a narrow passage carved through the Amentiae formation.
They broke clear of the Amentiae front line, leaving Elmer and his warriors fighting to keep the passage open. Mahon’s unit didn't have time to slow and praise their comrades' effort as they were led further in the insects headquarters direction.
The Last White commander wished them luck as they ran past him. His own job was now to prevent the human army from crumbling to the Amentiae’s retaliation while keeping them engaged to buy time for Mahon’s offensive.
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“Fewer than ten units managed to pierce the Amentiae line. But only my unit emerged unscathed and no more than two hundred warriors were able to move forward with us.”
“But it was within your expectation when you devised this plan, wasn't it?”
“Yes. It was close to the higher limit though.”
“And after that?” The counselor gestured for the woman in white robes to continue her presentation.
“The report mentions the Amentiae swiftly reacted and rushed to intercept our units.”
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With expertise, Mahon led his unit through the holes of the Amentiae’s closing blockade. On his flanks, the other 28-men units were doing their best to keep the insect monsters away from his path. At least they were slowing them down enough that his unit had not fought until now.
Mahon’s eyes focused on his now visible target, the Amentiae general, roughly eighty meters away. There were just a dozen guards close to him, but they didn’t look in the least afraid of the approaching humans.
The path was clear, except for a hundred Amentiae approaching on their left. It was obvious now that they would not be able to avoid fighting this unit before reaching the general.
Considering his possibilities, Mahon envisaged splitting his unit to both slow the arriving Amentiae and fight the general, preventing him from escaping. The said general, however, did not look like he would retreat any time soon. In fact, it was the opposite, and he seemed almost eager to face the humans.
Is he overconfident? Why is he staying there without moving?
Anyhow, the general and his dozen elite guards would be hard to kill with only fourteen warriors. While running, Mahon assessed the situation of the other units around him.
He needed help.
Fortunately, the units chosen for this operation were all experienced and one of them had decided to send him half of its warriors as reinforcements. A commendable sacrifice, as the other half tried to obstruct on their own what looked like more than forty Amentiae.
They should reach us in... twenty seconds. That would have to do.
Mahon no longer hesitated as his next moves took form in his mind. They were now fifty meters away from the general. Forty meters. Thirty. Twenty.
“LEFT!” He shouted. At the last moment, his unit turned left and charged the approaching Amentiae instead of the general. The remaining meters were barely enough for the stupefied Amentiae to react, and they were still moving to support the general when they got rammed on their flank.
The crashing sound was horrendous as the running warriors met the cartilaginous insects. Mahon pierced an Amentiae with his spear, targeting the soft skin between the segments of its exoskeleton. The weapon went through and exited on the other side.
In the same swift motion, and still carried by his previous race’s momentum, he aimed the spear at another Amentiae. It did not pierce through this time, but it was enough for another warrior to finish the insect.
Mahon paused to gauge the situation while Margot was fending off an Amentiae with her two swords, giving him space and time to lead the unit. His warriors had penetrated deep into the Amentiae and more than a third of the insects had perished in the first clash. The twenty-eight were now fighting in tandem, every pair of warriors assisting each other against the Amentiae.
A single look behind him showed the dozen warriors acting as his reinforcement rushing to his position. A glance at the headquarters revealed the enemy general had yet to move. Spinning his head left then right, Mahon concluded there was no other element close enough to them to have a significant impact for the next couple minutes.
It meant that if they could disengage from their current fight, they would have a shot at the general’s head. While he came to this conclusion, he felt a twinge at the uncaring attitude of the Amentiae general, like he was missing something obvious. But the reinforcements were now so close that he had to move on with his plan, regardless.
“Seven! We disengage!” Mahon ordered. With perfect coordination his unit executed the well trained dynamic, assembling in four 7-men groups and leaving the fight one after the other. The reinforcement team engaged the Amentiae just in time to give the final push needed to completely free Mahon’s unit from the fight.
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“From my understanding, your unit was close to its full strength when you met the general.”
“Yes. We had only suffered minor injuries.”
“And the other Amentiae units were kept under pressure by other teams, so you had created the opportunity you wanted. Am I wrong?”
“No.”
“So how did it turn so bad then?”
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The Amentiae general gestured to his guards to make way for him as he moved to the front while drawing two imposing axes from his sides. Now, having a closer look at him, the insect was indeed impressive. Usually, Amentiae were shorter than humans, but the general was at least 2 meters high, a good head taller than Mahon. His two arms were massive, and he tiptoed with his four legs on the spot while rolling his shoulders, as if he was warming up.
Despite the terrifying exoskeleton of the insects, they did have a pretty coloration, dark red with black dots, not unlike a ladybug. It was common knowledge that the more black dots they had, the deadlier they were. And now that he was in plain sight, the general showed ten big black dots.
It was the most Mahon had ever seen among all the Amentiae he had fought. As a comparison, his elite guards had between five and seven each, whereas the Amentiae they fought earlier only had two to four. His thoughts were cut short when he saw the general and his elite charging at them.
What?
When they had planned this entire strategy, they had imagined the general would try to avoid them as much as possible. There was no need to play the human’s cards since he was winning on the field. So why would he move closer to them? But here he was, eagerly charging them.
Wrong. Something is wrong.
The fast action didn’t allow Mahon to think anymore as both sides collided. Propelled by his four legs, the general jumped just before the impact. High enough so that his armored knees were introduced to the soft torso of a running warrior.
The man got crushed and dispatched in an instant. Landing in the fray, the general waved his axes and two more humans were reduced to scraps.
Fuck.
The general’s guards joined the fight a second later and Mahon was entangled with them the next instant. He dodged a sword aiming for his head and blocked the following kick with the haft of his lance. He pushed back to unbalance the Amentiae, but the monster was firm with his remaining three legs. Changing his tactic, he feinted left and hit right with the back of the spear. The disoriented Amentiae was killed in the consecutive strike.
Mahon injured another guard with a vicious strike in the neck and, without pause, he rolled to the side to dodge an incoming claw. On his knees, he retaliated and pierced the Amentiae’s leg. Margot rushed in the next instant and cut another leg. The Amentiae fell to the ground and she finished it with her other sword. The deadly tandem exchanged a look while the screams of their comrades reached them.
They observed, powerless, as another of their teammates was eviscerated by the general's axes. Her duo, a young woman named Sybil, tried to keep her calm but the massacre in front of her eyes got the best of her. She charged at the general, her heavy hammer falling towards his head with unstoppable momentum. So she thought.
The general blocked the weapon midway without thinking twice. And the same ax that had killed her partner carved a bloody path through her chest, leaving her lifeless.
“Humans... weak.” the general cackled, turning to face Mahon and Margot. The rough voice was not adapted to the human tongue, but he taunted the duo standing in front of him anyway.
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“So it was the Amentiae general who was much stronger than we had expected?”
Mahon closed his eyes and nodded without saying anything. The Blue counselor turned to the White woman for confirmation.
“It was a massacre.”