Edited the chapter making it readable... Note to self, stop writing instead of sleeping. Enjoy.
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Far away, in an entirely different realm even, hundreds of entities were watching as the spectacle across the battleground of the gods unfolded.
They were like whispering voices in the wind, not one of these entities present with an actual body. Instead they appeared as glistering shadows and shades, without any consistence or shape to them. Standing huddled into small groups and strewn all across the realm.
Within their midst stood a wide array of pillars, surrounding a raised platform. The other shapes seemed to fear that area, as not one dared to gather anywhere near the construct.
Atop the raised platform rested five much more refined shades, their figures unlike the others blended with color and their forms constantly shifting as to appear in numerous shapes.
One of these shapes chuckled, causing two of the others to turn their facial features towards it.
“What is so funny. Your stupid trial has already decimated more than half of the chosen without even giving them a chance to show off their skills. How are we even supposed to grade those individuals now?”
A female voice had spoken, each and every one of her words having been accompanied by the echos of thousands of merry laughter. Where after the chuckling figure turned silent for just a second.
This shade, which appeared in its entirety bland and gray, turned its head to lock the two bottomless holes within its facial frame onto the shape with the female voice, whose frame was surrounded by hundreds of butterflies, which glistered in all the colors of the rainbow.
“Listen Love.” It said with a male voice, which seemed as thick as honey and overflowing with mockery. “This first trial was a test of chance and those that have failed it neither had the luck nor the wits to be worthy our attention. Luck is crucial in any aspect of life and they won't ever make it far without any. So instead of mouthing off you should be thanking me, since I have successfully weeded out all the worthless garbage already. Now if we could all focus our attention onto the remaining forty-seven survivors.”
His words caused a frown to appear on the few facial features Love had and her gaze, which shone with the reflection of youth and innocence, affixed onto him.
“As always your mind is a work of art Fate.” Love said. “How is raining down dirt onto our chosen a good way to prove their usefulness. Luck, pff... Aren't you supposed to be the one that sends the mortals to tread their already laid out paths? One would think that you were in opposition with anything based upon chance.”
Fate laughed out aloud at this statement and his bland features flared up with a majestic golden hue.
“This just proves how young and ignorant you still are Love. Have you already forgotten that I am part of the Divine pantheon of Luck? Just how could there be destiny without chance, you of all people should know this. After all, life is like a web whose each and every threads are intertwined yet lead into countless directions. Just because there is a set direction into which life may carry you, there is no right or wrong as to what path these ignorant mortals may seek to wander.”
Loves frame lit up in a reddish tone as Fate's words drove a wave of embarrassment through her mind and she turned her back towards him, to proud to admit her wrongs.
“Enough.” Sounded a voice across the realm, which was no more than a hollow whisper, yet still caused each and every entity to instantly turn silent. All eyes were now affixed onto the dark, gargantuan shape which had spoken and from whose dark frame hundreds of black tendrils emerged. Only its head holding a faint resemblance with what would appear to be a humanoid skull. “We shall see whether Fate has made a folly or not, though I expect there to be no more unnecessary deaths. And Fate.” Death's hollow eye sockets came to a rest atop of Fate's now shrinking figure. “You will do well to refrain from uttering my wife's name a third time.”
There was no spoken threat, yet the entire realm had grown tense at Death's words which couldn't be interpreted as anything but a warning. Were Fate to posses an organic body he surely would have found himself covered with cold sweat, as Death's words drove like a knife through his mind.
The white illuminating figure next to Death moved, which caused the countless light tendrils protruding out from her facial features to shift around her frame in a similar fashion as to how hair moved when emerged in water.
Grabbing a hold of her husband's hand Life now spoke up. “Calm now dear. I am sure Fate only had the best intentions and simply wished to refresh Love's memories. Though she should have long since burned this knowledge into her mind. But none of that now, look, our remaining lambs are gathering their strength. Oh how cute they all are, just look at their souls, flickering with the will to life. Except... Say dear, what do you think of that one? Yes, the sick looking one... He... Oh my... How sad.”
Hundreds of shades let out relieved breaths, as Life's voice, which was filled with harmony and which resembled an angelic chorus, washed through the realm while filling it with light. Even Death's features softened after listening to her and upon her last statement he turned his attention towards the mortal in question.
The other deities also followed suit, though each and every one of them had their attention resting atop different individuals, though only the fewest regarded the mortals with any actual interest. If there were bound to be a promising bunch the higher deities atop their honor seat were bound to snatch them away anyways.
“Hmm... Interesting.” Death said, his eyes locked onto Sascha's soul. ”That mortal seems hollow to the core, except for...”
“... an all consuming flame of love.” Love whispered. “How weird...”
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Meanwhile, in a realm known as the battleground of the gods, I found myself still engulfed within the dust cloud. My throat was sore and burned and I was coughing whilst desperately trying to fill my lungs with air. My eyes were burning, too and I made sure to keep them closed as I drew one last breath, which filled my throat with yet another burst of pain, all the while I stumbled forward.
It didn't take me long to grab a hold of the battlement and knowing that I was currently facing the army, I hurried to move towards my left, where off in the distance the remaining tower stood.
I finally managed to escape the cloud soon thereafter and collapsed with no energy left in my body onto the floor. Simply resting atop the blood drenched and boiling ground, I gasped for breath and coughed my lungs out at the same time. The opposing motions leaving me to also start retching.
A few spasm thereafter and the first wave of enemies jumped across the battlements, the ladders they had climbed standing about ten meters apart from each other, which meant...
My eyes darted across their ranks and I guessed that at least three hundred people had just landed atop the wall and that was only the very first wave, too. Not to mention that more than two hundred warriors had found their timely end as soon as they emerged from beneath the ladders and way to close to the gathered forces by the tower.
With our decimated numbers we would barely be able to fend off this enormous army with the tower behind our back. Sadly though I was still standing in the middle section of the walls segment and not just me, but numerous of our forces were still scattered across its entirety.
A chill ran down my spine as I realized that I was bound to die soon.
'No, not yet. If we hurry and gather our... we... could mabe still push through, before the next wave arrives.'
With no time to waist. I arose and filled my lungs with air. And drawing my blood covered sword into the air I shouted out as loud as I could. “Everyone, the enemy is upon us. Follow my voice, we have to gather by the tower! Run towards me!”
Several faint dark shadows within the dust cloud halted in their steps, then, as I shouted the same words out again, slowly made their way towards me.
Soon I had gathered about thirty survivors around me and the numbers continued to grow. Each knight was thankful as they had only managed to escape the inconspicuous death mist by following the direction of my voice, though I wished their thanks did not necessarily include the hits they placed onto my backs.
Suddenly, the dust cloud turned dark as an entire row off shadows stepped out from within it.
It was the former battalion I had seen before the spires collapse. I was able to tell because the ranks of knights were lead by the same general that had lead said battalion. The three streaked claw scar across his left eyeball clearly visible even beneath the eye-patch that he wore. which made him easily discernable even with his entire armor covered in dust.
The man approached me and recognition shimmered in his eyes as his gaze came to a halt atop of me. “You, soldier. Was it you who gathered these men?” He asked, his voice hitting me with the intensity of a sand filled iron bat as it missed any of the expected gratitude.
“Err... sur- I mean, yes Sir. It was me, Sir.” I responded, while I took a straight stance and rose my head as to no longer cross gazes with the battle hardened veteran.
Still, from the corner of my eyes I saw a grin grow on the mans scarred face. “Well done soldier. You saved my mens' and my life. But let's not waste any more time.” He patted me onto my shoulder and passed me with big steps as he took position at the front of the gathered survivors. Where he then roared out aloud as to swallow all other sound. “Attention soldiers! There are about four-hundred meters between us and safety and about the same amount of enemies in between us. But fear not, we are not yet doomed. Take up formation, two rows of archers at the front who will shoot in circles and shield bearers at their back. Let those bastards taste our arrows as we fall into their backs and make sure to stand in between them and our archers when the time comes to engage them head on!”
His commands were clear and very reasonable, though his tactic wasn't especially great and mostly relied on us not dying, as of now it was still the best way to apprach this fight though. It took less than a minute for our now hundred-and-some men to form their ranks and I found myself in the midst of the first row of knights. Before me gathered two rows of archers whom I would have to protect were the enemy to engage us.
'Well, that's just the job for me.' I thought and was happy to have gathered these men around me. With a bit of luck reaching the tower didn't seem all that impossible anymore.
“Move!”
We marched forward in formation, though the occasional craters and those countless corpses which littered all across the ground, made it hard to remain in order half of the time. Not even mentioning that the entirety of the wall was drenched in blood and guts, making its entire surface extremely slippery. At parts we even had to form lines to get across especially damaged instances of the wall, which slowed us down considerable, though we still reached the enemy sooner than later.
“Ready! Draw! Fire!” The commander belowed, as soon as we had gotten order among our own ranks again and I watched with joy as the first volley of arrows took out a couple dozen of enemies ahead of us. The second row of archers already stepping up and past the first, upon which the second hail of arrows was released.
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Again a couple of dozen of enemies died and I was also finally able to inspect them further, though I was left surprised as to how barbaric and savage they appeared.
The warriors hid their bodies beneath furs and covered their face with hoods bearing the shape of different animal faces, while mostly featuring canine maws. Which was also the reason why the died so easily, as their fur seemed to increase their physical resistances only minimal and only the fewest of them wore big, round and wooden shields. Also the bits of their faces which peaked out from beneath the hoods were either bearded, or tattooed with colorful and angular tribal patterns.
The sight of their canine fur hoods made me remember the images decorating the altar from before and suddenly this whole situation made a little more sense to me, as I could finally draw a connection between the events that had lead up to this point.
'So these guys are those wolf-like creatures I have seen on the altar and we are the knights. And this must be the wall from the ornaments, too. So that altar was some sort of gateway to this place, I guess?'
Our ranks had come to a halt by now and multiple of our own were send out to get rid of the ladders still docked onto the wall in our immediate surrounding. Our arrows rained onto the enemies constantly, but without any sense of self preservation the barbaric men still kept pushing our way now, though the biggest poll of their numbers still remained by the tower where they fought against the there gathered forces.
“Get ready, shields to the front, archers pull back and aim your shots high”
The two rows of archers ahead of me thinned out as they streamed to the sides and made space for me and the others to push forward. The enemies were still a good hundred meter ahead of us, but the timely formation swap allowed us to properly prepare ourselves. I tried to adjust my footing on the ground and raised my shield, my heart beating fast and adrenaline slowly flooding into my brain again. While other knights hurried to stack the closest corpses atop each other about three meters before our ranks.
My palms grew sweaty as the enemies closed in and with a primal war cry I jumped forward and into the man ahead of me. My shield met the incoming man mid charge and the impact send him slipping across the floor into which he then smashed face first. Keeping my balance and my enemies spot now unoccupied, I didn't miss my chance to strike at the next barbarian already pushing forward to replace the fallen man. Focusing all the strength in my body into my right arm and moving my upper body and waist in accordance to my slashes, I kept on relentlessly hacking away at the enemy ahead of me. Each slash drawing a deep gush into and through the barbarians body.
It didn't even take more than three swings to bring the man down, though my victory was short lived as the next man already stepped up to replace his fallen comrade.
This one appeared somewhat more experienced than the former, as he effectively tried to faint me with a left twitch of his shoulder, but instead shot forward to bury his axe in my exposed right side. Yet, I didn't even bat an eye at his tricks. I had a shield and knew how to use it and a puny dead angling attempt such as this nothing but childsplay.
Stepping up with my left while pushing my left shoulder forward I placed my shield in between me and the incoming axe and even though the clash caused the entirety of my forearm to grow numb, I was left with a big opportunity to strike.
Bitch-slapping the savage across the face with the edge of my shield I forced him back, upon which I lunged forward as to plunge my sword into his chest.
My sword easily penetrated the man's furs and buried itself deep within his chest, going deeper and deeper inside him while pulling me along. Yet, to my surprise, the man hadn't died from just that and though he had dropped his axe, held onto life with the last bit of a fight still within him.
The impaled savage grabbed onto my sword with both hands as he tried to stop it from entering him any deeper, though his actions might as well have been a panicked reaction to being impaled. As, in the end, this turned out to be a terrible mistake.
By driving my foot into the man's torso I managed to successfully dislodge my sword from his chest, after which three... no, seven fingers went flying through the air. The man screamed, pain and despair filling his voice, though it didn't prevail much longer as I cut his throat only a few seconds thereafter.
'Two enemies down three-hundred-ninety-eight left.'
The incoming stream of enemies now knew more dense and I couldn't hold my position for much longer as I was slowly but surely forced into my own ranks. Squeezed shoulder to shoulder together with my allies I found myself unable to retaliate to any of the incoming attacks which rained in a constant onslaught onto me, as there simply was absolutely no space with which to work with. All I could do instead was keep my shield up, poke my sword forward from beneath it and pray.
Another powerful shook drove through my shield arm and into my shoulder once again , leaving my already numb side to burn up with pain. When suddenly a mind freezing and stinging pain exploded in my right side, after the instance of a few heartbeats I could feel a warm liquid flowing down my waist and I knew, I had been wounded. With a quick look down I confirmed my worries and indeed found an enemies blade to be deeply lodged into me. The lucky bastard who wielded it had hit right into one of the few gaps in between my armor.
The blade was pulled out and a gasp escaped me as the pain burned up stronger than before. Twenty percent pain reception? What a joke. I was shocked at the fact that the pain did not recede, but instead appeared to grow worse as time moved on.
Again shoulders bashed into me and I was pushed aside, which left me wide open for another attack, though the sword hitting my exposed chest did naught but leave a dent within my armor, yet I could still feel the impact through.
“You... God... Damn... Bastards!” I huffed out in between burning gasps, struggling to get back onto my feet. “Get... The... Fuck... Away... From me!” I roared out the last bit's and pushed with all the force in my body as I drove my shield into the enemy before me. Left and right limbs and weapons glistered as they drove past my head and every thought, every feeling, simply everything within me grew silent as I switched into an autopilot like state.
Raising my right arm up into the air I gave the handle of my sword a twirl, grabbing ahold of it in a reversed grip, after which I then started to madly drive my arm down into the enemy ranks, again and again. No minute later I found myself drenched in the blood of more than five people, as I kept on jumping shield first into the rows ahead of me, catching any and all attacks with my body without even caring anymore, all the while I kept on punching every face in reach with my shield.
The fewest of the barbarians actually had other weapons besides swords and axes, though those they had in all sizes and variations. Yet, as they found themselves just as squeezed in between their masses as we did, they barely had enough space to swing their weapons with the necessary force to penetrate my plate mail. Only a handful of attacks I received actually managed to wound me and the few attacks that actually went past my shield and towards my head I still managed to catch with my gloves or sword, though I still bore numerous scratches all along my features.
All the while I continued to penetrate one warrior after another, all around me. Their defenses way to weak to prove any hindrance to my blindly descending blade and their forces way to crowded to allow them to dodge. Yet, only the fewest of the people I hit actually died after being impaled, though the second and third hit usually got the job done.
Hours must have passed and by the time my clouded mind cleared up again I found myself encircled by corpses, the entirety of my body and attire covered in both, my own and the blood of my enemies.
I couldn't locate the countless wounds across my body anymore, as the fading adrenaline turned it's entirety into a fiery sea of pain.
My sword dropped onto the ground as I barely managed to remain standing on my wobbly knees and my eyes darted around, searching for the next enemy. Yet, I only found myself surrounded by hundreds of shimmering reflections. Had we won?
We had, as apparently the forces gathered at the tower had managed to decimated the enemies after whe had successfully held them entraped in between our ranks. In the meanwhile the cheers of hundreds of knights arose from all around me.
All the while I carried myself slowly towards the battlement. More than half of our men had fallen and I felt as if I was about to follow them, though that was a small prize to pay in exchange for four hundred plus slain enemies.
'Hope I got a good grade for this performance, otherwise I am gonna be real pissed...'
Yet, I knew that I had only managed to survive this far thanks to my superior equipment. Had any of the enemies worn any sort of iron mail, we would have been doomed.
“Well fought soldier. Your charge has raised the mens' vigor and may have won us the battle. Though I see you didn't quite get out of there unharmed."
I blinked my eyes open to stare into the scarred visage of the general, a new wound now covering his cheek. The man surprised me as he grabbed a hold of me and pulled my arm across his shoulders, a second soldier soon came to his aid and I was carried towards the tower which now rested only a few meters before us.
Though I started constantly stepping in an out of awareness, I still managed to see the allied ranks, which stood in position before the tower and which welcomed us with open arms.
I felt multiple iron encased hands clap onto my shoulders, which drove multiple waves of pain through my body, though I was already at a point where only numbness seemed to prevail through my frame and I no longer took note of anything else.
We breached through the line of men soon thereafter and I didn't take long until we entered the tower at the segments end. Within I saw countless injured men strewn across the ground on provisional mats, the entirety of the room filled with screams and pleas for mercy.
Blood drenched people with saws and other likewise tools raced from one place to another and I watched in horror as a similar looking girl approached me.
“So what do we have here?” She said, her voice sounding way to cheerful for the given circumstances. My eyes refusing to close as long as this girl kept waving the blood soaked meat-cleaver within her hand.
“This man is a hero, make sure to patch him up properly will you, I think he prefers to die with his blade in his hand rather than of blood loss, isn't that right boy?”
I stared at the general for just a second and had difficulties to process and make sense of his words, yet I still managed to stammer out a broken and weak sounding. “Yes, Sir.” After which I drifted off into unconsciousness.