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Warrior’s Spirit

(Rune Cost: 3 Warrior)

-Spell-

Effect: Select a Warrior you control with half or less of

its hearts remaining: For the rest of this turn,

it gains +10STR and is Invincible.

Lore: “When the end is upon you, summon every last

shred of strength from the pits of your bones. Let no

enemy taste an easy victory.” -Qui of the Five Arms

✪✪✪ (Rare)

#759

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Kaya gripped her spear tight. The ground rumbled, birds taking flight over the dense forest canopy above. Orcs were near.

There was no shred of fear in her that day. Only the thrill of battle, the love of a good fight. The battlefield was a sacred place that always made the right decision. All that was left to do was let it choose.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Under the sylvan sky!” Kaya cried out. Her crown of leaves swished with her movement.

“Under the sylvan sky!” came the obedient echo of her soldiers. They held their spears vertically, raising them high, ready to run them through the orc invaders. The dozens of fellow elves under her command would follow her to the grave if she so ordered it. As the young princess of her tribe, she commanded the most elite warriors; there were others, though, matriarch generals just like her who would lead their own soldiers into battle. They were all taking up their battle stations around the perimeter all throughout these woods.

The orcs thought they were surrounding the Sylvan Queendom. Really, they were only rounding themselves up for easier slaughter.

“Till all the world is green!” Kaya shouted.

Her soldiers answered in kind, “Till all the world is green!”

The orcs’ arrival was seismic. It was more than just the distant sound of it like grumbling thunder, more than the gentle leaf-shake of the ground; now the soil quaked like it wanted to knock Kaya off her feet. She turned away from her troops and toward the invaders. The orcs were twice their height, five times their weight, equal or greater in number, and wielding ugly weapons made of rock and metal. Their armor was forged from black earthblood, the ultra-flammable substance made from eons of death. The orcs were so large, so many, that Kaya couldn’t see the end of them.

Good. Now, if any orcs survived to flee, then they would know that all their many advantages were not enough to win the day.

Kaya beat a fist against her grownwood breastplate. “The ungreen shall be red!”

“The ungreen shall be red!”

“Till all the world is green!”

“Till all the world is green!”

“NOW!”

The warrior princess led the charge into battle. Raised her bone-tipped wooden spear. The orc in the front of the pack let out a steaming snarl, raising his jagged metal sickle high over his bald head—that one would be her target. The two sides met in a forest clearing cut and consecrated for this very purpose. War.

Time passed differently on the battlefield; sometimes it flew, and others it crawled. In this moment, time crept along very slowly. Kaya could count the individual pebbles and grains of dirt kicked up with every heavy footfall of her orc adversary. The single fang of his underbite bit absentmindedly into his own flesh, so fearsome was his thirst for battle. This fight would not be an easy one.

But Kaya knew she and the other elves would prevail. The Sylvan Queendom would repel the invading orcs from the Outer Waste. Another victory, another step closer to terraforming the arid badlands that surrounded their verdant sanctuary.

And with her victory, Kaya would prove herself to her queen mother. She would prove to all the Sylvan Queendom that she was worthy of the Elderwood Crown. One day, these woods would be hers to protect. Protect... and expand.

Battle came naturally as breathing to her. Right foot step. Raise the spear. Left foot step, full body strength into throwing the spear. Her small elven frame belied the lean muscle underneath.

But there was a problem.

Her left foot fell through the leaves. A leaf pit? Not on the battlefield—not here. She’d have seen it, would have felt the difference in the soil three steps sooner. The hole she fell into was too narrow for her spear.

She fell, weaponless, mid-battle cry, into a black abyss, the light of the battlefield shrinking overhead, like sunbeams through a forest canopy.