The sun was just cracking the horizon by the time the Forest Caldera arrived. It did little to illuminate the field, as it never got darker than twilight anymore. Thousands of elementals and armored soldiers lined up just outside a standard warrior’s bow range.
Archery did not scale with draw weight, too much force in the string would break a standard arrow. The solution was a thicker arrow shaft, which increased the mass behind the arrow while also reducing the range. All that was to say, the Forest Caldera was only five hundred feet away.
Tristan’s stomach sank when he saw the enemy arrayed against them. Every single soldier had metal armor and a well made weapon. Each appeared to be paired with a skeleton elemental which was also wearing armor.
Glancing up and down the Lake Caldera’s line, he wondered how many people could fight an elemental of equivalent tier while its only weakness was guarded. That glance led to the inevitable comparison between the metal and cloth defenses of the armies. They would need to leverage this trench for all that it was worth.
“I don’t see the Lord of the Underworld,” Tristan muttered as he scanned the army.
There were two elemental lords, but neither of them were the one they were after. Tristan did not have much experience with it, but the Lord of the Underworld seemed to like his public displays of aggression. At least if his experiences in the mine and watching from across the lake were any indicator.
“I don’t know,” Luke whispered, “Maybe Siren did more damage than we thought with the gallium capsule.”
As if to answer their queries one of the two elemental lords stepped forward. It was impossible to tell an elemental lord's tier from their movements. Some were brutes, some were quick, and some were refined, like the one before them. It had a wind, water, and earth combination which could either be very dangerous or very weak depending on how it was applied.
“Hello, traitors within the lord’s land,” It began, “My name is Custodian. I am here to give you the terms of surrender. Give up now and submit to the lord and all of you will be granted eternity. If we battle there is no way for us to guarantee this for all of you.”
Everyone was focused on the Custodian’s voice. It would have been easy to miss that many of the people climbing out of the wagons were assembling something. Bodies blocked the view, but one glimpse of a long tube told Tristan what was being constructed. Tristan grabbed a man beside him and was about to tell him to go get Siren, but Bruce stopped him.
He pointed to a boy with a copper medallion inscribed with waves and a fishing boat. It was a sigil of the Lake Caldera. Tristan released the confused and scared man to wait for the messenger boy.
The boy whispered something into Bruce’s ear. Bruce in turn asked Luke a question, “Can you two handle the contraptions?”
“The cannons?” Luke asked.
“No,” Bruce answered, “There’s another wooden one that can throw explosives. It has a basket attached to a wooden pole, like a fishing net.”
Tristan scanned the line a second time. It did not take him long to find the weapons just as described. They were the wagons the people rode in on. What he had assumed was a backrest lining the spine of the wagon bed was in reality, the pole with a type of sling attached to the end. Several gears and pulleys were anchored near the front. Tristan could not be sure how exactly it worked, but any metal construct he built to jam the pulleys and gears was bound to mess it up.
“Yes, any warrior with an earth kern should be able to mess up the machinery at the front, while fire kerns should be able to burn them,” Tristan answered.
The message boy spoke up for the first time, “If you are able to target those machines once the conflict starts, try to destroy them.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“When is that?” Luke asked.
This was the downside of a civilian army. Many signals and drills could not be imparted in such a short time. It was the main reason they had chosen the trench, poke the enemy as they crossed and stick with the buddy to either side was easy enough to impart.
“I will let you know,” the boy said. He took a step back and clasped his hands behind his back. It was rare to see such an expression of focus on a person’s face.
Tristan turned back to where Custodian was standing with its hands clasped behind its back. It appeared to be waiting for something. That something strode out to meet it.
Three people, Elder Lake, Eve, and Siren stepped out. Upon seeing Eve, Tristan tensed. She was vulnerable right now, if Custodian had ill intent then she would die. Tristan stuffed down his worry, he had told Eve to pick up her responsibilities, but he could not tell her to abandon them.
All three of them were wearing the colors of the factions behind them. Eve had the blue and black of the River Caldera, Elder Lake had the brown and copper of the Lake Caldera, and Siren wore black armor trimmed in the colors of the temple.
“So you are surrendering?” Custodian asked. A smile could be heard in the telepathic resonance of his voice.
Humans did not have the ability to project like elementals, making their voices unintelligible. Tristan tried to glean information from their body language. Which gave the opposite problem, Custodian stood at attention while Elder Lake gesticulated.
“You think I am being ridiculous,” Custodian deadpanned.
Elder Lake shook his head and waved his hand in a noncommittal way. Eve folded her arms and judging by the slight bob of her head, she just rolled her eyes. Siren simply slid his foot back to rest his weight on the ball of his foot.
“I will give you an example then,” Custodian made a gesture behind him. Two humans stepped forward dragging a skinny body with one hand and holding a chest plate in the other. Tristan did not recognize the dirty man, even after Custodian continued, “This is how we deal with traitors. This is how we convert the wicked.”
Eve took a step forward as if to stop Custodian. Siren placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. The dirty man looked up and Tristan recognized him, just before Custodian cut off Elder Forest’s head with an emerald axe.
Tristan flinched slightly, but before he could go on an introspective tangent something familiar happened. The body started shriveling and smoking. The whole line of Lake Calderan’s took an involuntary step back.
“This is what will happen to you and your children, and all your decedents until the end of time if we don’t win!” Tristan took advantage of the situation, “Kill the elementals or they will harvest us like cattle.”
Custodian was doing this to unsettle the people. Tristan did not know if it was working, but Tristan’s goal was to do two things. First trade in fear for anger, second show that there was no escape. A cornered man fights with more ferocity.
The headless body grew a radiant flaming skull. After a few moments, the body caught on fire and the elemental tore itself free. In life, Elder Forest was tier three, but he was no warrior. In death, he would fight with his Caldera.
One of the people holding armor passed it to the fire elemental. It pulled it on over its head. The metal must have been some force alloy, most likely tower plate, as it did not start glowing with heat. The other man handed the elemental an oversized mace. It was pushing the limit of what a tier three could swing, but the tireless nature of elementals meant that if it could swing once it could swing forever.
“This is how we use our enemies,” Custodian patted the elemental on the shoulder, “Kill your fellow elders.”
Custodian took a step back, anticipating the next action. Eve and Elder Lake staggered back surprised that an undead immortal would refuse to honor a negotiation. Siren, on the other hand, pushed off his back foot launching himself at the elemental.
In the past Siren had fought elementals under tiered and without a force. Elemental Elder Lake swung his mace, but it was too slow. A gauntlet of solid shadow with diamond fingertips punched through the eye sockets. Siren used the fist within its skull as leverage to throw the elemental aside.
Custodian had thought that Siren would be occupied longer. Emerald armor was constructed over his body and he prepared to receive the Caldera’s strongest soldier.
“Kill their leaders. The Caldera belongs to the chosen of the Champion!” Custodian blasted out just as Siren rammed into him with a tower shield construct.
“With me!” Siren yelled. His roar was loud enough to be heard over the murmuring of almost ten thousand combatants. He slid to a stop as Custodian managed to negate Siren’s forward momentum
Eve slid to a stop before spinning back. Elder Lake kept running, but she picked up the mace the Elder Forest elemental dropped. It was too heavy for her to swing around, but she only needed to get it above her head. She walked over to the prone elemental that was still regenerating its head. The mace came down and crushed the elemental’s pelvis.
Tristan prepared to engage as well. Just before he vaulted over the ditch to cripple the cart war machine the messenger boy said, “That’s your signal.”