Alton woke to shouting coming from outside his tent. Years of being a soldier on the lines found him dressed and equipped in less than a minute. He stepped out to sounds of chaos and his mind flashed back to the raid on Olshein. Loud horns were being blown from staggered areas of the camp. A messenger was darting through the striker quarters as a shortcut, Alton grabbed him by the arm.

“Report,” He said to the startled man.

At first he pulled away, but noticed the rank displayed on Alton’s medallion. “Sir! Scouts from the southwest of the camp sent out a distress signal and then went dark. Skirmisher Tual, Vito and Retty responded and went dark. Colonel Riske sounded a general call to arms. All units to defensive positions.” He finished with a salute and left to deliver his message.

By that time, his team was rolling out of their tents. Fox and Gazelle were both out and readying themselves as well. Raven must be on mission. Alton gave them a moment to finish getting dressed and equipped while he thought. Southwest corner was about half a mile from where he stood. His core was above half but still raw from usage. His body was sore but whole again.

“At attention! Scouts and skirmishers have gone dark from the southwest corner of the camp. All units are ordered to defensive position. I’m taking Wolf to the trouble and see what is going on. Fox with us, Gazelle go to command and find out what information you can. Stage in the middle and sent word if you find anything we should know. Questions?” Alton announced and asked. Despite ranking on the same level as the other strike leaders, he acted as Corbin’s second in command.

Alton motioned in the direction with his head and set off at a jog. Fang was strapped to his side, and his belt was full. He gently pulled some mana from the belt and winced as it passed his core. He would be able to use it, but it would cost him. Manalights cast the camp in a blue glow as the team jogged towards the unfolding chaos. They passed standard units arming themselves for combat and setting defensive cordons. Even the camp followers were arming themselves in their enclaves.

When they reached the corner of the camp, Alton could hear the din of battle raging in the distance. There wasn’t a full wall this far out to the side in the temporary camp. A plain extended from here to the base of the mountains, Alton’s mind went to the group of mindless they found up there. A horde of mindless in the camp would create chaos on an unfathomable scale.

Alton found a large fire being stocked to provide light. Two defensive lines were being set up around the fire with a score of manalights being erected. Various infantry units were digging in to create a shield wall to repel a full scale attack. Archers were setting arrow barrels around the perimeter and taking deep positions. He found a sergeant and asked for an update.

“Sir! Contact made on the perimeter. Large force of infantry and mindless, skirmishers are buying time to set a defensive front. That’s all I know.” The infantry sergeant reported.

Alton thanked him and set off to find the line. He looked back to his team and found them right behind him, ready to engage. He signaled for Fox to split off and move in parallel. A few dozen more feet into the darkness and he found the front line. It was chaos as the skirmishers fought a desperate battle to buy time. Mindless were pouring through gaps while the Edorian infantry clogged the space with thick shields and tight formations.

“Wolf team! Steady that line! Advance!” Alton shouted and ran once more into the fire.

He made first contact against a group of mindless assaulting a lone skirmisher. Fang whistled through the air as he cut the head off the first and followed it with a stab through the throat of a second. The skirmisher took the third, and both moved on against the horde. Everywhere Alton could see were swarms of mindless pressing towards them from the plain. Manalights were scattered out through the distance, giving Alton glimpses of the sheer numbers facing the camp. This was an all out assault by the Edorians.

Racing from groups of skirmishers and trying to reinforce the buckling lines left little time to account for his team. They had the training necessary for this. He would have to trust them to stay safe. He allowed himself to slip into the rhythm of combat that had been his boon this last week. The monotony of hacking apart the former humans was replacing by the symphony of violence that played across his soul. Alton grinned as he dove forward into the horde. The hunt was on.

—-

“Hold! Hold!” Amelia screamed out to the skirmishers being bolstered by Nelson and Miser. Alton had raced ahead and she could just barely see him in the distance holding an entire line by himself. The skirmisher unit she first came across had lost their sergeant early and was rudderless against the masses of undead. Every lesson of the past week rushed through her head as she hacked and slashed the disgusting corpses.

It was so dark she could barely make out friend from foe. It had started to rain during the jog over and was increasing into a downpour. Visibility was so limited she could only see for twenty feet in any direction. Soldiers were slipping in the dirt turned mud as they tried to plant and pivot. She circulated through her legs to stay steady and buy herself time to think.

Fox team was somewhere to her left while the remnants of three skirmisher units were trying to form a line. Behind her was a scramble as the standard infantry tried to set a line and create a shield wall they could fall behind. Her core sang to her as she drew deeply from it and circulated. Her hand and a half sword flickered through the air as she hacked apart the former Edorian tribalists.

The chaotic battle was raging all around her as she tried to figure out the optimal move. Command had never been her dream, always one to follow orders. Be that from her father, mother, or the drill sergeants in camp, she looked to others to make the decision. Now the rest of the team looked at her and she couldn’t let them down. When should they retreat? Should she push forward and join Alton?

Just as she thought they would hold, the left side of the line buckled when one of them went down. Mindless scrambled through the hole, biting and clawing at every opportunity. She dashed over and tried to right to plug the gap against the tide. Circulating through her entire body, the elation of power flowed through her. Slash, stab, slash and repeat. The mindless were unyielding and uncaring as they fell.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Rico! Up! Up! Ten two up!” Amelia screamed when she saw a chance to regain the line. She didn’t have time to look and see if her orders were followed. There was a rivalry between the two blades, but it was a rivalry of respect and mutual drive. Seconds became minutes and minutes became hours as she tried to stem the bleeding.

—

Rico buried his sword to the hilt through the mouth of a walking corpse and grimaced as his forearm was cut by rotting teeth. He heard Amelia’s voice cut through the sounds of battle and grimaced as he heard her order. Amelia may be obsessed with beating Rico in sparring, but she had a good head for tactics. He turned around and found Miser in the shield line. He tapped him twice on the helmet and relayed Amelia’s order.

He turned and backed off ten feet before sprinting towards Miser. The large man stepped back and held his shield horizontally. Rico launched off one foot and then again off the shield and catapulted himself deep behind the enemy line. The mindless didn’t react as he soared through the air and sliced through the skull of one on his way down. He landed and whirled his blade out in a low circle, slicing through tendons and muscle.

Ten.

Rico counted it down in his head. He surged every bit of mana he could handle and fought in the style Sergeant Rork had shared with him. His slight build excelled in weaving in and out of combat. The mindless reacted like animals and Rico danced around them. Two more met their end on the edge of his sword in seconds.

Six.

Rico could feel the strain the surge was placing on his body. He placed his trust in his team and Amelia. One of the mindless behind him finally breached his armor and clawed across his back. He ignored the fire lancing through his nerves and continued to stab and slash to make room. His arms felt numb and he couldn’t feel his legs anymore, the mana raging through his system.

Three.

A low stab took off the leg of two mindless facing him and Rico rolled backwards. He hopped to his feet and slashed out at chest level, catching another mindless through the throat. His body was breaking down from the strain of mana, and his wounds were adding up. He knew he was out of the fight soon, one last move, and it was over for him. Rico yelled and expanded his last bit of mana in a furious three move set that felled two more foes. He felt a hand rip him backwards and under, shields slamming down and blocking his vision just as he blacked out.

—

Amelia watched Rico sail overhead like the Mad God, ready to smite his foes. She wasted no time in calling up reserves to plug the wall. They rotated the injured out and got ready to push and recover her corporal. She prayed he would be alright, but she had to focus. The infantry was almost ready to receive the charge behind them. Ten more seconds and they would begin the retreat.

She poured a health potion down a man’s throat and watched him cough up blood. It would have to be enough. The healers pulled him back to the main line. Her sword arm weighed heavily as she assessed her core, less than half. A grimaced adorned her face, but she pushed through and settled the line. Nelson stepped forward, grabbed the back of Rico’s uniform and ripped him back through the line. Amelia pounced on him and poured a health potion down his throat. He was unconscious and bleeding from scratches and bite marks all over, but he was alive.

Less than three minutes since the start of the battle, she heard the horns behind her call out a retreat. The infantry was ready to receive the charge. She dragged Rico backwards, straining her meager mana reserves as the skirmishers and shields fought a staggered retreat. She felt a tap on her back and turned sideways to slide through the shield wall. Runners grabbed Rico and carried him backwards to an infirmary established near the front. Amelia followed behind and tried to gather Wolf. Alton was nowhere to be seen. The infantry was chanting an ominous chant. She sat down and listened.

“In the realm of madness, we find our strength,

Find our Strength! Strength! Strength!

With Chaos as our guide, we unleash our fury!

Unleash our fury! Fury! Fury!

Mad God whispers echo in our soul!

In our soul! Soul! Soul!

No fear, only the dance of mayhem!

Dance of mayhem! Mayhem! Mayhem!

For the Mad God’s glory, we hold!

We hold! Hold! Hold!

In this grip of madness, we claim our destiny

Claim our destiny! Destiny! Destiny!

—-

Alton heard the general retreat call and tapped the skirmisher to his left to back off. He had fought well ahead of the line to create some space. A few of the skirmishers had rallied to him as he advanced from group to group. The bodies of mindless became tripping hazards as they littered the plain off the edge of the camp. He motioned behind him to retreat, mindless continued to barrel into him, Fang making quick work of the unthinking.

His core was raw, but his base circulation was enough to handle the horde. A few brief glances back confirmed that Wolf team was holding behind him. He continued to fight a slow retreat, allowing the mindless to waste themselves against his sword. Edorian infantry was present in the distance but seemed to read the status of the battle and retreat. Alton wished he could pursue, but the numbers between them were too great. Every pass through those mountains would need to be guarded after tonight.

The amount of mindless that had been converted was staggering. He knew that command was weighing rumors that Edoria controlled Sapients, despite his initial disbelief. Sapients were wild fiends as far as Agorra was concerned. That they could be worked with and influenced seemed impossible. His anger threatened to flare out and cause him to act reckless regarding Sapients and mindless. He sated his blood lust on the hapless corpses instead.

When he felt a tap on his back, he turned and slipped through the line. The skirmishers and strikers had bought the infantry enough time to form a solid shield line a hundred feet across and three men deep. Archers fired en masse, and the mindless fell in kind. It was a slaughter from the point that the standard units rallied. Alton searched out for his team and found them recovering near an infirmary.

Amelia was sitting next to the unmoving form of Rico. She was covered in blood and guts, though most of it didn’t seem to be hers. The two large shields were standing guard, also covered in blood. Alton walked up from behind them and went unnoticed for a moment. The camaraderie between the young team was obvious from the concern shared on their faces.

“Sir!” Ameila snapped out as she noticed Alton.

“At ease. What happened?” Alton asked.

“I had to send Rico over to plug a hole, sir,” Amelia answered hesitantly. “I didn’t see any other way. I thought he would be fine. He’s so fast when we spar..”

“Relax, Amelia. He looks to be fine, a few health potions and a day of rest, and he will be good as new. You did good. You have been asked to do far more than most in their first few weeks of service. We saved a lot of lives today by bolstering those lines until the standards were ready. I know this is not what you all expected when you signed up. War never is.” He said.

“Take solace in the lives saved. It is rare to be able to measure it so directly. The camp was caught off guard and unprepared. It won’t happen again. The Edorians are using the mindless as shock troops, it would seem. There are thousands of tribes in the mountains surrounding us. I strongly doubt they are being converted voluntarily. We are fighting a war against a true evil, harkening back to the days of the last Sunwright. It will take all of us to prevail, and prevail we must. Our survival depends on it.” Alton finished and sat with his team.

Only a few soldiers filtered in through the infirmary in the time it took Rico to wake up. He stirred after half an hour as the line held and the mindless were slaughtered to the man. Alton stayed with his team rather than search out the situation at large. His core was still raw, and he worried about his ability to remain in control. By the time the sun peaked through the clouds, the battle was over. A victory for Agorra, but a costly one.