Chapter 93 LET THE HEAVENS RAGE!
Lenna retreated another step as the all too familiar knight-paladin stepped completely into view. “Lenna!” He demanded. “Explain yourself.” He drew his sword and stalked towards her over the bodies of drow soldiers.
Lenna steeled her nerves and got into a defensive stance to meet him. “Surrender Macken, I don’t want to kill you but I will.” Lenna replied.
Two drow infantrymen tried to move around Macken to engage Lenna just as Edward stepped up next to her, suddenly free from any direct opponents. “She’s mine.” Macken said and threw a hard gaze at the soldiers at his sides.
“He’s mine.” Lenna said at the same time to Edward. In silent response to their declarations their auras surged. The two paladin’s auras moved through each other as if the other wasn’t even there before forming an invisible barrier around the pair as they squared off with only half a dozen feet between them.
The drow soldiers felt like they had wronged a being of unquenchable fury upon even dipping their toes into the sectioned off area while the humans felt like the wall of aura was real. It wasn’t but in their hearts that was the feeling they got. It didn’t even slow them down at all but the feeling itself was disconcerting enough to stay out of it. “Why, Lenna?” He asked and his sword started to glow a soft white-gold that left spots in their eyes if they looked at it for too long.
Lenna positioned her flaming sword between them and it cast the pair in flickering oranges. “Lua gave me a way out. I am giving you one, surrender.” She ordered him.
Macken lunged and their blades met with a deep clang as the magically and aura enhanced blades tried to bite through each other with little but not non-existent success. “You abandoned your post.” Macken accused and their blades clashed again. Each of their attacks were perfect mirrors of each other. They carried the same strength and resolve behind them as well. “You abandoned your men.” He growled.
“For a better life.” Lenna retorted. “Blame me if you must but I made the right choice.”
“You abandoned me!” He countered. “Your only surviving unit mate! Why?!” He demanded. “To fight alongside HIM?!” His gaze snapped to Fable before refocusing on her. Their blades continued to clash again and again. Neither of them even attempted to break the status quo. Neither of them used any more mana than was necessary either.
“He is here by chance!” Lenna argued. “I will kill him myself one day.” She promised even though Fable could clearly hear them.
“Then let’s kill him now!” Macken reposted. “Why stomach fighting alongside him?!” He demanded. “Why kill our men?!”
“They aren’t mine any longer!” Lenna shot back. “I told you all to leave!”
“You insulted their honor!” Macken yelled back at her. “What did you expect to happen?!”
“Come forth, ember of a dying star!” Was Lenna reply as she lunged at him. A fireball exploded behind him and tossed him towards her. His aura absorbed the brunt of the explosion but it still knocked him off balance. Lenna infused her sword with more fire as she struck his right elbow with everything she had.
Macken let his forward momentum take him and fought through the pain of a now heavily bruised elbow as he grabbed her faceplate with his other hand. “Come back with me!” He instructed her while healing mana was already pooling in his injured elbow.
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Lenna let go of her sword with her left hand and drove her closed fist into his face with everything she had. “Surrender!” She ordered him in return. His head snapped back from the impact but he then pushed her fist backwards from neck strength alone as he tried to rip her faceplate off.
“No.” Macken replied and dropped his sword before he drove his fist into Lenna’s side.
—
Behind Lenna a certain dragon received a request from his master. A request to join him in his battle. Kahtesh’s bone tail whipped back and forth in excitement as he quickly retreated back behind Shaeo. He sent a feeling of what he wanted the drider to do for him and it emotionlessly obeyed. Shaeo reached back with her right hand and cupped her fingers pointing upwards. Kahtesh got a running start before he leapt into the air. His front claws caught Shaeo’s fingers and she launched him forwards with all of her and his strength. The little dragon kept his wings tucked in for the first thirty feet as he was flung over the heads of the drow soldiers.
He was a little streak of white bone until his wings opened up. The little bit of mana control he did have immediately went to running mana over his wings to try and generate lift. He glided over the battlefield towards his master with barely contained excitement. Dozens of drow soldiers, paladins, and wizards looked up as he shot over them with a mix of wariness and confusion but Kahtesh didn’t even notice. None of those morsels were what he was planning on snacking on. His master had something in mind for him and he would not get distracted.
Kahtesh touched down on the other side of the drow formation and continued bounding towards where their wagons had been parked. The rear of the drow line watched him go and didn’t even try to stop him. If he wasn’t going to engage them then there was no reason for them to pick a fight with an unknown entity no matter its size. Kahtesh felt a powerful surge of magic behind and above him. He glanced up to see clouds start to form over the drow formation. He had never seen clouds but Kahtesh had no idea why or even if it was weird or not that clouds were forming underground. Kahtesh also didn’t notice that the ballista had stopped firing but none of that really mattered to the little dragon because his master was now almost in sight.
—
‘Do it, Celeste.’ Izen ordered as the last magical ballista bolt was fired. They had finally used up their entire reserve. He saw Kahtesh go flying forwards over the drow formation and realized that Isaac was both still alive and in need of assistance. He instructed the ballista to all stop firing lest one of them hit Kahtesh by accident. With no more magical bolts remaining the general usefulness of the ballista had dropped dramatically. They were still useful but with the drow infantry’s magical shields they would be able to avoid taking too many losses, even with the reality shields that they had overhead powered down. That combined with the fact that the battle lines were so thin that they had been firing with the constant risk of a stray bolt hitting their own men.
Celeste took a deep breath and raised her hands to the sky as if she were offering a prayer to god that might not have even been listening. In a way she was offering a prayer. The main difference was that the miracle she was asking for she was going to make happen herself. “Hear me Mount Celestia! Release the chains that bind your wrath! Release the shackles that hold your fury close to your heart! Let forth your ire upon those who have earned it!” As Celeste screamed towards the heavens mana poured from her core and solidified around her mana pathways to reinforce them for what was to come. Clouds of ash began to form, roll, and roil over the battlefield. “Hear me Mount Celestia! AND LET THE HEAVENS RAGE!” Thunder cracked as a thousand tiny lightning bolts shot and snapped across the thunderclouds of heat and ash. Glowing embers of brimstone formed inside of the scorching tempest as the smell of burning air and sulfur pervaded the area for miles.
Boiling, glowing, scorching balls of brimstone rained from the tempest forged of Celeste’s rapidly draining mana pool. The representation of the wrath of the heavens sent dozens of lightning bolts crashing down towards the stony battlefield below with little direction. It took every ounce of control Celeste had to keep from hitting the human half of the battlefield with her army ending spell. The drow wizards mana pools were being guzzled away as their silver shield summoning artifacts ripped power from them to maintain their integrity under the assault.
A heat haze could be seen pouring off the tops of the reality shields as the shields themselves started heating up faster than their magics could cool them. The battlefield under the shields rapidly increased in temperature from a warm summer night to a scorching summer day in barely half a minute. The reality shields could no longer be seen through as sulfur pooled on their surfaces. All twenty of the drow wizards were put in an awful position as they realized that if they dropped their shields, even after Celeste’s spell was over, all they would do is drop a hundred gallons of molten sulfur on their formation. As it stood some of the sulfur was rolling off the edges of their shields and the soldiers under them were forced to dodge falling yellow globs of pain and heat.
Celeste dropped to her knees and one of the two soldiers tasked with keeping any stray attacks from hitting her caught her. “Take it easy Celeste.” He told her as he looped her arm over his shoulder to help guide her inside the walls to rest. His voice was familiar but she couldn’t see his face so it was hard to place his name.
“I’m not that old. Just give me a minute.” She protested as the clouds overhead stopped raining death and started breaking apart. Her mana pool was empty and her head was pounding. She could have kept going but she was getting too old, despite her own words, to be burning her blood for power.
“Yeah, yeah.” The soldier replied and all but drug her towards the steps down into the interior of the walls. “You did your part. Let my generation finish the job.”
Celeste shook her head. “There are older women than me fighting out there.” She protested even though she had no intentions of joining them.
The soldier just chuckled. “Uh-huh.” He half heartedly agreed.
Celeste huffed. “Damn kids.”