Nicolas woke to metallic clanging. His eyes flutter open to take in the full glory of Captain Meyer banging his favorite morning pan with a debilitated lightning strike rod. The runes on the rod had melted upon first use due to improper runecraft. The colonel like to tell the story while holding his hand covered in burn scars into the new recruits' face. As an apology, command had granted Captain Meyer the rank of captain along with a nice, relatively quiet deployment on the northern front. Shades were attacking this fort only a few times a day due to the cold. That happened twenty odd years ago.
Nicolas gathered himself and swiftly swung his legs out of his bunk bed. Delays resulted in punishment. Punishment may result in injuries. Injuries resulted in delays. Avoid delays. In that spirit, Nicolas hurried to put on his uniform and strap on the shoddy rune pieces, he had been issued with. Physical shield, magic shield, cold res, endurance, and strength. Their poor quality made their enhancements negligible compared to the added weight of the roughly processed iron. He would be punished if seen without them. Punishment resulted in injuries, injuries in delays, delays in punishment.
Finished, Nicolas stood to attention next to his bed, trying to ignore the man Captain Meyers currently disciplined with a brand new, very effective lightning strike rod. Delays resulted in punishment, punishment in injuries, injuries in delays, delays in punishment. Nicolas's hand tightened around his short fire flash wand. Rods were scarce on the front. Privates, especially juniors, were expected to make do with small firepower. The wall-mounted amplifiers would do the rest.
"Command has reached out. There is unusual activity within the woods. Threat level has beend raised. Our squad has 16 hours wall duty. Up amd at it!"
The captain turned on his heels and marched out the barracks. All soldiers formed an orderly formation behind him immediately. The punished private was dragged along by his bunk mate. Avoid delays. The sound of boots filled the air in a steady rhythm, quickly drowned out by the shouting, screams and distant spell discharges as Nicolas and his company left the barracks. It was unusual for fighting to continue after dawn. Nicolas gripped his wand even tighter.
They ascended the walls via worn, wooden stairs attached to the inner side of the walls. The captain stood at the top of the stairs directing his two lieutenants toward their sections of the wall. Nicolas was in the Captain's own platoon. Captain Meyer had chosen the the centre section of the wall for his own soldiers. He claimed to have never liked the fort's supposed quiet. He may have gone crazy at some point.
The various squads were each alloted an amplifier in which everyone would slot their wands. The seargeants carried rods and had no need for amplifiers. Nicolas was best at aiming of which he was glad. The rest of his squad looked like they were in their fifities. They had gone through basic together little more than a month ago. Constant magic drain was unhealthy for mortals.
Nicolas aligned the amplifiers focus with the nearest cluster of shades. His squad mates gasped as the amplifiers drained their energy to overclock each wand. The energy was combined and gathered at the focus. As the thick beam struck its target, tens of shades turned to ashes. Captain Meyers congratulated him with a toothy smile as a shadowsludge projectile glanced of his officer shields. The shield already featured hundreds of tiny fissures.
Nicolas focused on his squad mates, trying to gauge when to take another shot. It was at this time the ground rumbled. Trees were felled as huge tentacles slithered out of the forest dragging behind them mountains shadowflesh. Titan shades.
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With but a second delay, the sirens sounded on the walls as the massive arcane cannons swirled on their mountings. Even Nicolas could feel the air vibrate as the mana batteries discharged their mana into the projectile taking shape at the cannons' foci.
VROOOM!
The projectiles seemed to split reality as they were let loose towards the Titans. Their energy was completely swallowed by the writhing shadowflesh. Nicolas was baffled.
"Wait for it!", the captain screamed with inappropriate glee.
Just as Nicolas began to doubt his commanding officer, white light began to tear through the surface of the dark Titans. At first, just a few small spots. Then more and more until the entire Titan disappeared in a flash of light. There had been no sound or shock wave. They just disappeared, consumed by the mana. Nicolas had only heard of this. It was the military's way of protecting the surroundings from the consequences of an explosion. Fueled by that much mana, it would kill any soldier within 10km. Shades were unfortunately quite resistent to that which made the maneuver costly only for the army's own forces. It was thought better to eliminate the explosion. How they had done it, Nicolas did not know.
"Continue firing!", Captain Meyer ordered at the top of his voice.
At once, all amplifiers returned to firing. Nicolas deemed his squad mates recovered and contributed his own shot at the masses of shades. He disregarded any larger elite shades. They required a direct hit from rods or a glancing one from the arcane turrets. Amplifiers were to clean up small fry which made up 90% of all shades present.
The annihilation of the Titans didn't seem to affect the enemy. The empty spaces of the demise were quickly filled up with foot soldiers.
Nicolas heart skipped a beat when he perceived a loud screech from the air. Flying shades were well known for pick off defenders. He vaguely perceived the captain using his signal wand as he watched a shade diving towards him. Panicked, Nicolas instinctually ripped his wand from the amplifier and fired a full blast towards the shade successfully it from its course. It veered off course just enough to crash into Captain Meyer whose skull audibly caved in on impact. The captain had come to berate Nicolas for short circuiting the amplifier by ripping out his wand without preperation. Nicolas guessed this as he looked at the smoking amplifer in front of him.
Nicolas recovered from his stupor when Tom, one of his squad mates shoved him down to the ground, getting cleft in half himself from the razor whip, Nicolas had been shoved under. Nicolas was showered in blood as Tom's legs collapsed onto Tom's severed upper body.
The sergeant who had taken cover himself, screamed at Nicolas to take the captain's rod and defend the walls. Nicolas scrambled to comply as he finally heard the dull duscharges from the second wall in the distances. Their fire support shot almost all shades out of the sky. Nicolas turned to his squad mates to give them a relieved grin. The last thing he saw was their eyes widening as a thick, black tentacle that could only belong to a titan, slammed into his side lifting him up and off the wall towards the mass of shades.
His short bout of flight was abruptly terminated when his back slammed into the bark of a fir. The last thing he saw before fully blacking out was the ground approaching. His body felt rather mangled.
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Nicolas was in pain. More pain than he had ever felt before. Even during basic. His head was pounding as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
After an unknown amount of time he felt his healing bracers kick in. The pain worsened as his bones were stitched together in the wrong positions and his flesh ripped apart and rearranged to close serious wonds. The pain supressing runes he had bought from his pay kicked in as well and he drifted off into a magically induced coma.
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Nicolas eye lids fluttered open as his consciousness returned. His senses were immediately dominated by an ungodly stench. He slowly and carefully sat up. The movement sent waves of pain through his body as he attempted to move his misaligned bones. He still managed to observe his surroundings.
Corpses. Everywhere there were corpses. Shadowflesh and the shade's tar-like blood tainted the ground and in between lay the occasional vaguely human part. Fallen trees lay about and the fort walls were only barely recognizable in a huge mount of rubble. He could perceive no sign of life.
Nicolas knew, the battle had been lost. He had been left behind. There was no hope.