The march towards the Orders camp was stressful for Melisia, her nerves were frayed enough as it was from the last few days let alone after she was ordered to join in the raid proper. She wasn’t much of a combatant but her skills were quite useful in regards to finding specific mana signatures and traps. She activated her Discerning Eye and Comprehend the Astral Threads in intervals with the cooperation of the scouts in the battalion. Nothing had been detected so far, which only made Melisia more nervous. She did not like leaving Kal in the camp, sure he was probably still safe enough with Leo and the remaining guards but it was still the least protected he had been since she had met him. It truly was a mistake to bring him with her, but her excitement in finding an unascended man who had managed to kill an ascended overcame any rational thought at the time. She tried not to dwell on her mistakes and concentrated on the task before her. The faster the raid was done the sooner they could return to the safety of a city. Their force moved much more quickly now that it wasn’t dragging the camp followers behind them. Melisia rode beside Commander Hurius who occasionally barked orders to soldiers around him. The path to the Order’s camp had narrowed significantly, with most of the soldiers not having traversal skills which made moving in defensively difficult. But they moved quietly and should arrive at the Order’s camp in the next hour. Ahead one of the scouts froze and reached for his weapon, and then he was gone an inferno of green flame washing over him turning him and all the terrain within a dozen feet to ash. “Ambush!” someone cried out before the forest path exploded into chaos, bolts of lightning and flame filled the air, most of the projectiles crashing down onto their forces.
“Form up! Mages activate shields.” The Commander yelled, his voice booming over the frenzy of fire and the cries of their dying men. A large translucent shield manifested over the majority of their force and the bombardment slammed into it making it ripple like the surface of water. Melisia didn’t have a shield skill but kept her Comprehend the Astral Threads skill active and scanned the area outside the path, tracing the mana signatures back to their sources. There! She had spotted a small group of mages about half a mile away.
“Found them Commander!” she yelled, as she fired an Astral Bolt to mark their position. Her bolt missed but its bright blue path was impossible to miss even in the chaos of battle.
Hurius nodded, raising his arm towards her mark, “Fire!” The followers of Dhinir did not have many mages, but the few they did were known for their potency. A beam of intense red-gold energy exploded from their battle mages and annihilated a large swath of the forest between them and the Order mages. Most would have been certain that their enemy was dead but Melisia knew many of her old Order’s tricks so she watched the threads carefully, and there it was, space mana. Just before the beam struck the enemy mages a threaded of space mana dragged them away from the targeted area and placed them on the opposite side of the path, roughly the same distance away. She was about to fire another blast but stopped and dived from her horse as nearly fifty shadow archers appeared from nothing and fired a volley directly at the command unit of their forces. The arrows powered with potent shadow mana were barely perceptible besides the damage they left behind once they pierced their targets. Melisia’s horse was torn to pieces as multiple arrows struck. One still managed to graze her shoulder as she landed, the rest of the command unit fared much worse, however. Two of the Commander’s bodyguards were killed instantly and even Commander Hurius had taken an arrow to the chest. But he barely reacted, simply pulling the arrow out and tossing it to the ground before leaping from his horse. He charged straight for the archers backed up by the remaining imperial guards. Suddenly the shield winked out and Melisia spotted their battle mages get pin cushioned by another volley of arrows from another unit of shadow archers. They had already lost so many soldiers and as the bombardment returned they lost even more. Melisia fired several bolts toward the Order mages but each time it was countered, there were just too many mages to deal with alone. Then she heard it.
“Melisia, I wish we could have reunited under better circumstances…” A woman she knew all too well whispered into her mind.
Melisia froze, no no no why did she need to be here? The one person Melisia respected from her old life was here.
“Elder Jaliete” Melisia responded through her thoughts.
“It saddens me to see you with Dhinir’s followers have abandoned yet another cause?”
Melisia flinched at the condemnation in her old leader's words, “No, I am still a member of the Seventh Tower. And believe me when I say that I am not here out of spite with the Order.”
“Oh, is that so? Tell me, why have you come to slay your past brothers and sisters?”
Melisia was forced to throw herself to the ground to avoid another bombardment from the mages. “Happenstance, I was allowed to travel and continue my studies but first had to complete a time of service with the commander.”
“I see…”
Melisia felt something was off, the Order rarely attacked people as they were right now. They had so many ways to travel quickly Melisia had assumed they would simply flee and ultimately her whole time with the commander would end with no conflict, but for some reason, they engaged them first. Why?
“Why did you engage us, Elder? I hoped you would leave like the old procedures?” she asked, as she attempted to get cover within a unit of spearmen currently forming a shield wall.
“Desperate times Daughter, perhaps soon you will understand.”
The realization hit her, No!
Melisia immediately abandoned the cover of the shield wall and ran. Using every bit of agility she could muster she ran back towards the camp. She knew she wouldn’t get there before whatever the Order had planned but she needed to A searing blue light exploded in front of her, blinding her and throwing her off her feet.
“I must apologize, Daughter, I will not allow you to intervene. You have proved yourself to be a great asset despite leaving us behind.” Elder Jaliete said, her tone completely losing its judgmental edge.
Melisia staggered to her feet, her vision blurred but clearing. As it cleared the silhouette of Elder Jaliete stood before her. She looked as she always did, dressed regal yet humble in a simple gray robe, her black hair tied back away from her eyes. She hadn’t aged a day since Melisia last saw her seventeen years ago, she still looked to be perhaps in her mid-thirties and quite beautiful. Melisia knew the reason, her old leader was well over level one hundred and Melisia didn’t have a chance against her. But she needed to escape the ambush and try to warn Kal.
“I won’t let you have him, Jaliete,” Melisia shouted, An Astral Bolt flying from her staff towards the Elder. She didn’t let up either, her mana burned away with the sheer amount of astral power she poured through her staff. The beams of blue energy bombarded the Elder and Melisia ran further away from the ambush but didn’t make it far. She had barely made it thirty feet before a wave of confusion overcame her and the trees around her seemed to bend and stretch. Suddenly nauseous Melisia fell once again. Her mind raced to find a solution to this mess but her mind quaked obliterating every useful thought before they came. Jaliete was an incredibly dangerous Mind Mage, quite useful for the interrogation, or indoctrination of those they captured. Melisia knew they frowned on the latter but, Desperate times… She climbed to her feet, her head still jumbled by the mind magic.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The voice of the elder once again sunk into her mind, “Don’t be foolish Daughter, stay with me and you can join us in helping Him grow. You are so fortunate to have found him and have him ally himself with you. ”
The nausea hit Melisia hard she gagged for a moment before responding, “He should be free, he is not what you intend him to be. He would not want what you could offer him,” Melisia tried to continue but had already realized it was hopeless but her pride wouldn’t let her give in. She wouldn’t betray Kal’s trust and let him be captured. The figure of the Elder stepped out of the aftermath of Melisia’s attack completely unharmed, her expression grim as she walked up to the struggling Melisisa and looked directly into her eyes, and spoke aloud.
“I am sorry Daughter but we truly have no choice. Every moment the firmament weakens, every moment those that Fyrborh has protected us from grow closer to returning. He is required, I will see that he is treated well,” she placed a hand on Melisia’s cheek, and the nausea suddenly gone but Melisia didn’t dare move, “Oh how you’ve grown. I have missed you Daughter, I had hoped you would return to us someday,” a small smile flickered across the elder’s face but it was quickly replaced by a sad frown, “But I see that today is not that day,” she removed her hand and stepped away, “I will not force you but neither will I do you any further harm,” she leaned towards Melisia and whispered, “I hope to see you soon Daughter. Devour Cadence…”
Melisia blinked, her surroundings suddenly darkening. Oh no! She thought as she turned running this time not towards Kal and the camp but towards the ambush. There were wounded everywhere, both from the Empire and the Order. Most were simply sitting around resting and nursing their wounds. As she arrived a sentry cried out and several soldiers scrambled for their weapons. Melisia, surprised at the change of circumstance was lost for words for a moment but before she could speak Commander Hurius stepped out from a quickly assembled healing tent.
“Tanaruhn, explain yourself. Where have you been?” He said, his stance guarded.
Melisia was taken aback for a moment. What was going on? How did it get so dark all of a sudden? “I was confronted by one of the elders, but it was going on. How did it get so dark? The fighting only just began a few minutes ago.”
The Commander’s face looked more confused than Melisia’s, “What are you talking about Woman?! The battle was over five hours ago.”
----------------------------------------
Kal went over to the stands and sat with Dalen and Leo. They both congratulated him for his win in the fight and of course, Dalen handed him another disgusting brew. He didn’t need the healing but this one sped up his stamina recovery a fair bit. The next couple hours passed as they watched the rest of the teams duke it out, but Kal only half paid attention. He spent most of that time looking over his status curious to see if he had gained anything when he found his Physical Energy.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Null
Level:
0
Race:
Human
Health:
220
Stamina:
260
Mana:
0
Attributes
Strength:
24
Agility:
15
Endurance:
26
Vitality:
22
Intellect:
12
Perception:
21
Will:
30
Wisdom:
19
Titles
Core Bane, Defier of Dhinir
Skills
Soul Forge [Corrupt]
And once again he had increased his attributes nicely. He opened the comparison menu again.
Statistic Comparison
Health
20
Stamina
20
Mana
0
Strength
0
Agility
0
Endurance
2
Vitality
2
Intellect
0
Perception
2
Will
0
Wisdom
0
Total
6
He had gained a total of six points across his endurance, vitality, and perception. Kal was especially happy with the increase in perception since he felt he would likely need it to find his Mana if he even had any. That was Kal’s main concern at the moment, finding Mana may be the only way for him to actually create a core of his own. Kal remained deep in thought throughout the rest of the team fights, ignoring the sensation in his chest. It was all quickly forgotten though when the Prophet once again stepped into the ring raising his arms into the sky, with the red-gold circle glowing between them. “Let the dueling round commence!”