The wind whipped across Rudy's face, nearly blinding her eyes as it pulled her long red hair behind her in a shocking line as she spun across the sky. This was her life. or at least the end purpose of it.

She took aim at a small parapet at the top of the keep as she raced through the city, pulling herself up and onto the top of the keep where the Prince of whispers lay waiting. He didn't speak as she came up beside him, not like he almost ever spoke, not when he was always swimming through all that information like he always was doing. She started to walk off towards one of the nearby catapults to hitch another ride when his voice cut her off, or at least spoke into her mind.

“Wait.” The voice cut through the screams and the crashing below of burning wood and stone on stone as Rudy heard the words appear somewhere near the front of her head. She had learnt to merely listen to the old man instead of trying to argue a long time ago, and walked over to the edge of the roof to take a better look.

Below she could see the flying form of Rowan as he sped away from the latest stone boulder he'd tried to drop on their heads, though it didn't seem to be very effective. Maybe that's why Whispy didn't want her playing around anymore, as pre-prepped gouts of water flowed behind archways of vines and small branches extending over the tops of the stone tunnels. At the very least it would exhaust their mages to keep things up like that all the time, but it did render her fun a bit delayed at this point.

The stone tunnels continued to encroach across the field as the leftover fire tribes started to panic as they got closer to the wall. She saw a few random non-flamers dart across the field and throw half forgotten stones into the tunnel cracks, but they didn't get the same audible screams that their more talented brethren had earned earlier in the fight. Shame most of the veteran flamers had already died. Rudy kind of wanted to try fighting one head-on one day. Not that anyone would ever let her.

Rowan joined her silently as they looked over the battlefield, evidently getting a similar order from Whispy as they settled into a comfortable silence. It wasn't often that the two of them got to spend time together like this, usually being sent on separate missions where their skills were needed most. It was kind of nice to just spend time with the lanky fool as Rudy sat down to let her legs dangle over the edge of the stonework.

The ground comprising the field started to change as the tunnels got closer to their goal, dirt rising up in large tufts to start building thin hills that angled up towards the top of the wall. It was fairly evident at a glance that they were trying to build a staircase up to the top of the wall, while several other tunnels merely remained on level ground as they split their attack. The catapults continued to rattle with explosive power, throwing their supersized missiles at the enemy, but the joint power of water and nature easily stopped any of the rocks that managed to get an accurate bead on their targets.

This was always the downside of battles with the arcanist corps. They were just too damn good at turtling up, it had a habit of making the battles go quiet as both sides waited for their strategy to eventually play out. The only downside to their plan was the fact that it would leave the arcanists tired and exhausted by the time they made it to the walls. Although it would at least ensure they made it to the walls in the first place.

As the slowly moving stone caterpillars finally made it across the rest of the field after several minutes, they chewed through the remaining fire tribe like they were nothing. Spikes of stone rushed out from the defensive positions to pin the flamers to the ground, easily making it through their light movement focused armor. Meanwhile the water arcanists had apparently made it close enough to the moat to start causing issues as sudden waves pushing the tribe away from the wall and into the rock spikes, hastening their destruction. A few brave souls tried to run away from the arcanists only for roots to rach out of the ground and hold them in place until the dirt itself swallowed them whole.

The stone tunnels along the ground level then stalled as they seemed to help move the dirt into the increasingly large staircases up to the walltop. It was frustrating being forced to just watch the arcanists employ their tactics, but Rudy had heard the stories of many force mages that had tried and failed to breach those stone tunnels in the past to no success. Supposedly, even if someone managed to get into the tunnel in the first place, it just left you stuck between a rock and a hard place as the numerous stone mages in each tunnel attacked you from all directions until you inevitably made a mistake.

Instead, they simply waited amid the screams and the fire as the battle slowly drew out into an awkward standstill. The dirt staircases now connected directly to the top of the wall as the walltop soldiers below formed into a conjoined shield formations as they waited for the tunnels to arrive. Meanwhile, the ground level tunnels had started spinning up grand drills of water from the nearby moat that cracked through the foundation of the wall in small openings into the town on the other side. It was rote, by the book, and incredibly boring.

“Rudy, take the street fight. Rowan, take the wall fight.” The old man's voice appeared in her head once again, and Rudy leaned forward off the top of the keep. Her clothes flapped in the wind as she fell, approaching the top of the wall below her as she pinged her squad letting them know they got street duty this time. At the last minute she pushed downward, arresting her momentum an inch before she hit the stone, then ran the remaining twenty feet to the side of the wall and jumped down below.

Her hair trailed out behind her as several other men and women beside her jumped from their positions on the nearby houses and fanned out through the city to each confront a different hole that had appeared in the wall. She used mostly pulling motions to pingpong between the city streets past running civilians and raging house fires while she maintained a passive force bubble around herself to pad the movements.

When she reached a particularly large hole in the wall, Golden kingdom soldiers were already moving down the street as they settled into tight formations around large metal humanoids. She took note of the fact that one of her squad mates was hidden around the corner as she relayed her plan into his head.

“Abel, let's do a cross fire.”

“Got it!”

Rudy wasted no time flying over their heads and releasing a series of small metal beads from one of her pouches and pushing on them all at the same time. She floated there passively for a moment as the invisible bullets zipped through the air, then immediately felt a strong backwards push as the missiles made contact with their targets. Blood ripped up in thin spurts from both the lightly armored individuals and the heavy armored ones alike as screams cut out into the night.

Anyone who had shields below immediately raised them to the sky, including the rather large shields the metal humanoids raised that were comparable to the size of a double door. Her squad mate then turned the corner and released a similar spray of bullets at the group as she saw the building groan behind him as he braced himself. One of the large metal golems reacted in time, pulling his massive iron shield down to brace it against the ground and even spread the metal out like wings to the sides, protecting several of his nearby companions. The rest however, were not so lucky as another spread of beads cut through the majority of the formation that still had its shields pointed upward.

Stone spears shot up from the ground around her squad member, but he merely pushed away from the street to land back up on the top of one of the nearby buildings. Rudy in turn pushed away from the wall until she caught one of the nearby chimneys, bracing herself against the stone outcropping as she focused on one of the bullets she had dropped below, whipping it sideways across the street as she caught a couple of soldiers by the ankles before the small object got embedded into a body and almost lurched her across the sky if she hadn't been clutching the chimney so tightly.

She let go of the bullet and tried to move around another one when a stone arm whipped out from the side of the chimney to land right on her nose. Her body flopped backwards into the rooftop as her nose made an audible crunching noise. She rolled away haphazardly from the nearby stone chimney as she realized her mistake and dodged another blow that came crashing down into the rooftop where she had been laying just a moment ago. Head still swimming, she looked back down at the soldiers and pushed back reflexively as she saw several crossbowmen release their bolts in her direction.

Her body wrenched back up and over the lip of the rooftop as the momentum of the bolts bled out into her own arcing parabola through the sky. A moment later she found her orientation and latched herself to the top of the roof, pulling with as much force as she used against the bolts, and they suddenly switched directions to shoot back towards the crossbowmen below. A wall of water rushed up in front of the men, catching the redirected bolts and stalling their movement as the soldiers moved out of the way.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Rudy looked to the side at her squad member who had been throwing more small bullets in waves against the attackers, doing a good job of distracting them. Unfortunately, she couldn't send him a message in time as she saw a small vine reach up and over the lip of the rooftop and cinch itself around his foot. Within a moment, the man had been pulled by his leg off the rooftop into a series of stone spikes that rose to greet him from the street below. Rudy tried to throw another wave of bullets from above to distract them, but a metal mage rose to block her attack as another series of vines jumped up to grab Abel by the wrists, holding him in place even as he struggled against them hovering above the spikes.

By the time a second metal mage charged across the street with his massive shield upraised, Rudy knew she was too late and the man's body was quickly crushed between the shield and the wall of the building.

“Abel!” She screamed the word, but was cut off by several more crossbow bolts that she had to push away from herself.

She took her cue to leave, and pulled downward on the next street over to get out of eyesight from the remaining attack group left in the street. By her estimation at least seventy percent of the group had been killed or injured and were laying on the ground, with the majority of those still standing being the ones centered directly next to the large metal mages.

She pulled herself along the surface level of the street, rounded the corner, and started doubling back until she found a building that looked vaguely like the one her friend had just died in front of. A single pull on the door while she anchored herself on the building behind her removed the front door from its hinges, and she lightly pushed on it to send it crashing to the ground as she ran into the building itself. No one was inside the small living quarters as she dashed through the wooden rooms towards the back of the house and the window she had spotted earlier.

Through the crystalized glass she saw the attacking group split into two smaller groups, each oriented towards a different direction down the T intersection and neither paying attention to their rear. Without thinking, Rudy ran to the back of the room, jumped as high as she could, then pushed towards the center of the building as it sent her flying towards the thin window separating her from the enemy. As soon as she crashed through the barrier, she pulled on the stones below the closest metal mage's feet until she managed to fall onto her back right between his legs. His massive iron helmet turned down to look at her as she oriented her bubble inward, then sent a full force push outward in every direction.

The weight of seven different people slammed into her all at once as their bodies resisted the action, but with her back already against the ground there was nowhere for her to go. Instead, the tight formation exploded out in every direction as the soldiers were flung into the air and nearby buildings. She let go as soon as she could then pushed downward, propelling her into the air and away from the stone spike that exited the ground where her body had been a moment ago. The upward force blasted her past a very surprised looking metal mage who had been pushed twenty feet into the air, then she reoriented her push onto his shoulders sending her even higher.

The metal mage stopped in mid air, then changed direction to rapidly approach the ground as he fell back down. He tried to twist and get his shield below him to break the fall, but didn't quite make it as the tip of the shield and his head made impact with the ground at the same time, twisting his body into a very awkward shape. Her push on his body sent her even higher into the air as she used the chance to take a small break, just floating there high above the town while she caught her breath.

Over on the wall she saw a figure of a man arc out and over the town, then seemingly stop for no reason in mid air as a series of enemy soldiers were plucked off the top of the wall to fall into the town below. He had almost made it back to the wall himself when another figure with a black cloak descended from the sky further down the wall and caused a large swath of the fighting to simply stop as an entire section was forced to its knees. Figures in green hesitated only a moment before they started stepping in between the enemy ranks, swinging down on the helpless figures as the cloaked man held them down.

‘Come on, why does Rowan get the princely entourage?’ Rudy thought.

A horn blasted in the direction of the burning forest in a trio of notes that stopped the invaders in their tracks. She looked down below her at the distant street as the small squad of troops started running back towards the open hole in the wall and the tunnel beyond. The lone metal mage below seemed to have forgotten his place and let his massive shield dangle by his side as he ran along with the others, so Rudy figured she had one last chance to do her duty before they got back in the tunnel.

She released the push that was currently keeping her up, and angled her feet downward as she fell. A moment later her daggers were out and ready, which she then flipped around and braced the blades with her feet on the cross guard. Her speed increased with every moment she fell, and within the last twenty feet of the ground she pulled hard on the general shoulder area of the remaining metal mage. The man stopped running, bending his legs as he instinctively tried to resist being pulled away by the small girl, but she was never trying to lift him in the first place.

Her daggers slammed into his shoulders as she fell down on top of him, hopefully punching through his thick armor into the flesh underneath, she only sent a push down into his back at the very last second so she wouldn't be squashed flat with the impact a moment later. When her body finally did slam into his back, butt first, it certainly didn't feel good, but she had a feeling her barrier at least prevented any broken bones as the massive mage buckled under her weight and slammed into the ground.

Rudy ripped off the last pouch at her waist and tossed it into the air between herself and the tunnel entrance, pushing on the small balls within with all her might. For a single blissful moment, she merely sat there, resting on the top of the soon to be corpse as blood pooled around her daggers, then the next moment a jerking motion sent her sailing backward through the air until she crashed into, and through the wall of the nearby building.

“Oww.”

The word escaped her as she lay there, body half broken and embedded into the side of a destroyed bed that she had found on the other side of the thin wall. Her vision was so foggy that she couldn't really see very well other than the yawning hole in the wall and the firelit sky behind it.

She lay there for a long time taking long slow breaths that made every inch of her body hurt. All she could do was lean back and doze off for a bit as she tried to just will her body to keep going. Maybe that fall had hurt a little bit more than she had given it credit.

Her sense of time was lost to her. It could have been seconds, or maybe it was hours before a looming figure blocked out the light in her vision and she desperately tried to understand the picture that she saw. It just made no sense. For some reason a large statue was standing on the other side of the wall, clad with a strange cylindrical head, a massive oversized chest, and two small daggers sheathed to its back that looked far too small for it to use.

‘Oh no.’

She tried pushing back upon the mage as soon as she connected the dots, but it did nothing but push her back further into the mess of wooden splinters behind her. A sudden pain of what must be several pieces of wood sticking into her body made her scream, and she let go of the push without accomplishing anything but clearing her mind with the pain.

“HELP!” She sent the thought out into the void, like a message in a bottle to anyone who might be nearby. But the man didn't stop.

The wooden floor buckled under the weight of his armor as he slowly took step after step towards her broken body.

She could do nothing but watch as the results of her own greed came back to haunt her. There was no reason she'd had to go back for the kill when they called for the retreat earlier. Just a distant desire for revenge, she supposed.

But now her revenge was standing over her like a statue of pure retribution, face a foot from hers as he raised a fist back to punch into her head.

She spat up at him with every ounce of power left in her body, and the man hesitated. His free hand reached up to wipe off his visor as she heard low grunts of effort coming from the man with every small movement. He must have been hurt too.

The light coming from behind the man winked out, sending the room into darkness. Then the glint of a massive war hammer slammed down onto the head of the metal mage from behind, all but bending the man in two. The man imploded like a table that had just been crushed in the center, upraised arms that had been so ready to kill her now drooping onto the ground as the body slowly fell backwards revealing the man behind.

His stern prismatic eyes stared down at her as he hook his heavy mace into his belt, the body of the metal mage sliding to the side of the room by the unseen force coming from the man.

He shook his head and bent down to pick up the girl, grasping her to his chest even as her breathing quickened from the sudden pain of being moved.

“Fool of a girl.” He spoke into her mind as the man walked down the broken street.

“Did I get them all?” She asked mentally.

He looked over at a series of bodies that had been shot in the back as they ran for the tunnel. He shrugged non-commitedly.

“Worth it.” She spoke into his mind, and drifted off to sleep as he walked away from the carnage.