The ground beneath us began to shake more as the earth shifted. In only a few seconds, a curved wall formed in front of us that blocked the view of all of the soldiers. Burner fire began to come in our direction as the two men prepared themselves for the fight. My hand finally reached the burner, but Keagan had closed the distance and pivoted his foot, with his hand sailing towards my face. It was too late for me to successfully react, and he connected with my jaw. The hit seemed to run throughout my entire body and cause me to stumble backwards onto the dirt, dropping the burner from my grasp.
He had brought his fists to a mage fight, and was actually winning.
As he began moving in to continue his assault, I raised my other hand and focused a light directly into his eyes to blind him. His eyes widened as he saw the energy form in my palm. The beam hit him in the face, removing his vision and causing his movement to falter. I pressed my leg forward and attempted to sweep, but I didn’t have the strength or leverage to pull it off. It still made him stumble and that was enough for me to grasp towards the burner. I turned over and attempted to grab it only to feel a piercing pain in my left shoulder blade. The second lieutenant had launched a knife of ice into my body to stop me from grabbing the weapon. I screamed as it tore through my muscle. I tried to reach out my other hand only for a knife of ice to completely tear through the burner itself, cutting the tube and causing the magore to fall out. The weapon I was relying on had been completely nullified.
My head sharply twisted to see Elm surrounded by smaller stones before they were launched as a volley of projectiles at the water mage. A shield of ice came up in front of him to stop them from hitting his body. Elm’s assault was so continuous that the most he could do was defend from attacks. I reached out again, trying to grasp at the pieces of the broken burner only for a hand to grab onto me and onto my shirt, hoisting me up into the air. Keagan, with his eyes bloodshot and wet with tears, stared at me furiously.
He wound up his other hand and let off another punch directly into my face. I could feel my nose break as his fist slammed into it, launching my head backwards. My brain rattled around in my skull as parts of my vision went black. Pushing through the tremendous pain, I lifted up my right hand and placed it against his neck.
It was holding the piece of magore that had fallen out of the burner when it was broken.
Keagan’s face contorted as the searing pain of direct magore exposure spread through his skin. The lieutenant yelled, his hand loosening its grip on my collar. I fell to the ground and onto my knees. I could feel blood rushing down my face from my broken nose.
I heard a similar yell as my eyes turned over to the second lieutenant, and I could see that one of Elm’s stones had torn through his ankle. His balance faltered as he started to move to one knee, and the shields of ice he had been forming started to lose shape.
“NO!” Keagan yelled as he turned his attention away from me and towards Elm, rushing him down. Elm wasn’t able to change the focus of his volley in time, and Keagan managed to get in close. He shifted his stance and narrowly dodged the first hit aimed towards his stomach.
Theodore noticed this and started to form an ice blade in front of him, aimed at Elm. Before he could launch it, a spike formed from the earth and pierced directly through his upper left leg, causing him to scream out in pain. Keagan didn’t stop his assault and kept moving towards Elm, who was consistently evading him at every blow. That didn’t matter, as Elm was being moved closer towards the edge of the wall and towards where the soldiers would see him.
I needed to stop him somehow. I gripped tightly onto the magore piece and made the move to stand. Theodore noticed and launched another blade of ice in my direction while his blood stained the dirt. The pain caused him to miss my chest and instead hit the side of my right thigh. I powered through the injury and stood nonetheless.
Elm noticed he was nearing the edge of the wall as a shot from a burner narrowly missed his back. His stance shifted again as he moved to duck over to the side of Keagan and regain his position, but the lieutenant used the opportunity to circle his arm around his neck and grab onto him. He held onto him tight, wrestling to keep him in hold while Elm jabbed his elbow into his stomach. Even then, they held Elm in place. The two lieutenants locked eyes, and a silent message was sent between them.
Keagan wasn’t trying to choke out Elm. He was lining up a shot for his mage. The ice mage began to slowly form a large blade aimed directly at Elm’s head, and he was making sure he didn’t miss.
Time began to slow as the adrenaline flowed through my veins. I had one opportunity, and it was the only way I could save Elm. I raised up my right hand, holding the magore and pointing it at the mage’s head. I couldn’t create a complete container to focus the energy, but it would be enough.
Pure mana began to come from my hands and surround both the objects. My mind ran over the design of the burner over and over as I visualized an artificial tube. I didn’t have the time to form anything physical, so my body would have to act as both the container and the primer.
I raised up my left arm with an open palm. The ice in my shoulder blade made every single movement complete agony. Theodore’s ice blade grew as my hand drew closer and closer to the magore until it finally connected.
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I could feel the reaction throughout my entire body as my palm struck the piece, causing it to release energy. It felt like a raging fire had consumed all of my insides. My fingers and palms that held the piece began to burn and smolder as they held back the energy. It was a fight for my life with the mana. Once it found no other avenue of escape, the mana finally focused in the direction of Theodore and his head.
The beam of mana erupted from my palms and bore its way through his skull, melting flesh and bone until it found its way to the other side and into the stone wall that covered us from fire. The ice blade dropped to the dirt before it could fire at Elm, and Theodore’s corpse fell onto the ground.
The reaction finally stopped, and I dropped the piece of magore from my charred hands.
Keagan watched in horror, his grip loosening enough for Elm to get in another jab in his stomach and pull away. He immediately ran over to my side to check on me before turning his attention back to the lieutenant, who stared at us in disbelief.
“You… YOU MONSTER! I’LL KILL YOU!” He screeched, but stopped before he began to move. His eyes turned in the direction of the caravan, whereupon he noticed something flying through the air. It was a number of small metallic objects, all launched high into the sky and towards the soldiers currently protecting the border. As they came closer, it became apparent what objects they were.
They were canteens.
As they finally made their destination at the feet of Arlin’s forces, they did the one thing not a single one of them would have expected.
They exploded.
Blasts began to ring out all around us as the canteens landed and blew up the forces. Soon after, they were met with burner fire and a rush of forces continuing into hurl canteens at them. The soldiers had to take cover to avoid the blasts, and those who didn’t were torn apart by the reaction of refined and unrefined magore. It was a brutal display, using the trick that had blown up the mines to our advantage on the battlefield. The reason we hadn’t started fighting immediately was because they had to prepare the explosives for the assault. Now that everything had started, the border was overwhelmed.
Keagan stood there in horror as he heard the screams of his comrades and watched as slaves began running down the hill. His eyes darted between myself, the slaves and in the direction of the border. In what appeared to be an extremely painful decision, he turned himself around and began to run in the direction of the border.
He was deserting the battle.
Elm turned his attention away from the lieutenant and back to me. Pulling me up, he reached over to my side and looked at the ice blade in my back. I could see him visibly wince upon seeing the wound. He tore off a piece of his shirt and then carefully placed his hand on the ice stuck in the wound.
“This is going to hurt, but I don't think things can get much worse than they already have.” He casually said as he ripped the blade out of me. I stifled another yell as he took the piece of cloth and began to clean the wounds, then tying it around the wound in my leg.
“We should get out of here and let them do the rest of the work. You aren’t in the state to fight. Hell, can you even stand?”
I would have shrugged, but it hurt to move my arms in any capacity.
“I’ll be fine. This will all probably be healed within a day or two.” I said, wincing every time an explosion landed nearby. My gaze turned towards the chunk of flesh missing from my thigh, and I realized that I could barely move the leg at all. Making any movement of my hands hurt as well due to how badly my flesh was burned, and the magore reaction had drained all of my energy from how much focus and mana it required me to channel. My speech was also off, since my nose had been shattered.
“You realize how much I fucking hate that I genuinely believe you on that statement?” Elm bemoaned even as burner fire surrounded us on all sides. “You should be moved back and get some treatment. Speaking of…”
I turned to spot Mell bolting towards us. It was absurd how someone as large as Mell was able to move so blindingly quick, yet it felt like a struggle to keep my eyes on him.
That might also be due to blood loss. Pretty sure I’m missing a good bit.
When Mell finally slowed down, a gust of wind followed in his wake, causing my already messy hair to flutter. Elm simply moved aside while Mell leaned down.
“You alright, sir?”
“I’ll live. Just get me back to the carts so I can get bandaged.”
“On it.”
Mell moved to pick me up and hoist me over his shoulder. It had dawned on me that I was getting weirdly used to being carried by other people, although I lacked the energy to complain. Once he began running, I could feel the wind rushing by me.
On both sides, I could see the members of the caravan battling, launching canteens and firing their burners while the soldiers attempted to retreat. It was in vain, as none of them had prepared. Oddest of all, I could see a soldier raise up his hands and drop his weapon to the ground. He was quickly tackled and smothered by a slave. A small part of me hoped he would live, even if it didn’t make up for the death we were causing.
Second Lieutenant Theodore and First Lieutenant Keagan didn’t feel like monsters. They weren’t like Galen or the people who worked at the camps. They were soldiers, first and foremost who just wanted to protect the empire. There was no personal malice or enjoyment in this fight, just a commitment to duty.
Yet I had killed Theodore, a person that Keagan very clearly cared for. His eyes during those last few moments were filled with unbridled rage. I’d never seen that much hate directed solely at me.
My mind flashed back to the word’s Nicole said to me before we parted ways.
‘I do hope you’re prepared to be the most hated person in the entire Arlin Empire.’
The woman was a snake in human skin, but she wasn’t an idiot.
My body ached all over, yet the worst sensation I was feeling as I was being carried by Mell was the pit in my stomach telling me I’d set something in motion that I couldn’t control.