The first thing to happen wasn’t the clash of metal on metal or metal on wood as Kaleb had expected. Oh, he heard the heralding beat of hundreds of boots on the ground, but before that promise could materialize into the reality of battle, he saw a spell flying above them. Towards them.

A spell from their side flew off to engage it, both of them quickly exploding into a shower of sparks. He looked at the source of their side’s spell and saw Master Beris, guarded by two men, moving to another position, probably to avoid having his position exposed to precise attacks.

Another spell, this time from their lines, flew above, towards the enemy. Kaleb glanced at its source and saw Miryodel, accompanied by his own guardian, also moving to a new position. The purple-blue spell sailed over the company’s lines and descended somewhere ahead. Kaleb heard a crash but none of the expected screams. Perhaps some sort of defensive spell had intercepted it.

Master Beris yelled something at Miryodel as three spells flew at them from the enemy lines.

Miryodel started casting offensive spells one after another, conjuring his own rain of attacks on the enemy. Master Beris on the other hand, waved a hand horizontally in a move Kaleb had become familiar with, dispelling the closest approaching spell, which had been a simple arrow of fire. Then he conjured two azure transparent shields high in the air, intercepting the two more complex incoming spells. The explosions of offensive skills on the shields were overtaken by a sudden clash of metal that made Kaleb jump.

His eyes were forced down to the ground, where their wall of regulars had just absorbed the charge of the enemy. Yells and crashes echoed around from every direction, even though the battle was only in front of him. The yells were interrupted by flashes of light as one Awakened or another used an ability. Screams of pain that were sometimes cut into gurgles of death sounded out of the lines, and Kaleb paled. He felt the familiar coldness of blood abandoning his skin as the sounds of combat bore down on him, but he quickly shook himself out of it. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen death so close, was it? Rather, he’d seen it closer, when it had looked into his eyes with its eyeless wooden–

He took a deep breath, noting Yez’s reassuring hand that was on his shoulder now. He nodded to his friend. “I’m fine.”

Yez nodded at him encouragingly, then stepped in front of him with his shield raised.

The cries of battle were still assaulting his ears from every direction. He saw more spells being intercepted above them. A small spell managed to slip through Master Beris’s defensive net and it took out one of the regulars up front. The hole was plugged with another body before it could affect the solid wall that faced the enemy. Miryodel’s spells were still flying at the enemy’s lines even if it happened with decreasing frequency. The apprentice was beginning to show signs of exhaustion. Soon, spells from both sides began to slow down as even the full-fledged mages grew close to overdrawing themselves.

At the same time, an ebb and flow were apparent at their frontline. The company’s men were outnumbered but adamant in their defense. At some point, the captain himself had joined the lines and dived into the melee. Any semblance of organization was gone, or at least any visible semblance, as Kaleb didn’t see any of the enemy’s troops successfully getting behind their lines.

Then it happened.

Kaleb was the first one to see it, as he wasn’t engaged in combat himself. A red flash from their right, where the enemy’s center was, the center that was supposed to be kept busy by their allied mercenary company. He saw the spell sailing towards their lines, even as Master Beris tiredly intercepted another spell that was coming from the enemies on this side of the field.

One of the company’s regulars the spell was about to land on saw it at the last moment, and suddenly he was a dozen feet behind where he’d been before, a blur of movement the only evidence that he’d done anything at all. The others who’d been around him weren’t so lucky. The spell landed among them and exploded into a maelstrom of bloodred blades, sparing neither friend nor foe, though the damage was mostly done to their company’s men, only taking one of the enemy’s lives and injuring another.

A hole too big to be plugged this time opened up in their wall. Enemy soldiers poured through, some of them attempting to roll up the newly exposed flanks of the company’s lines, and others attempting to circle from behind and strike the rear of other parts of the line. Several of them spotted the casters, including himself, and ran towards them. Most of them went after Master Beris, and his two guardians stepped forward to intercept them. Kaleb saw Captain Simion breaking away from the melee and moving to the rear with a few regulars to handle the leak.

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Kaleb’s attention was soon pulled to his own troubles. Even though he hadn’t been casting any spells and looked perfectly harmless, three enemy soldiers still charged at him, with only Yez standing in their way, so Kaleb did the only logical thing he could think of. He Hasted Yez after quickly informing him of his intention to do so.

The soldiers fanned out to attack them from three sides, the one in the middle was ahead of the others, and Yez surprised him with a countercharge of his own.

Kaleb was surprised himself, as he felt exposed once Yez charged away from him. Then a moment of clarity made him realize that Yez probably wanted to force the combat to begin ahead of him, so that he could sweep the enemies one by one before they got too close.

Kaleb turned to the second closest one to him, who ignored Yez and kept charging at him. Kaleb waited until the soldier was within spell range before casting Repel.

The soldier, having been advancing cautiously in preparation for evading a deadly offensive skill, didn’t expect the all-present wall of force that took him off his feet and threw him back.

Kaleb watched his enemy fly off his feet and back where he was coming from for a reasonable distance, giving him enough ease of mind to turn elsewhere.

He turned towards Yez, who was now tangling with two enemies while Hasted. The third soldier had decided to converge on the lone guardian to outnumber and eliminate him early on.

Yez proved tougher–and faster–than expected for them and managed to bear with the double assault. The warpick of one of the soldiers lit up as it crashed into the barrier-like light that was covering Yez’s skin. The two abilities flashed and disappeared. Yez bashed his shield into said Awakened enemy’s face, throwing him on his ass, and turned to parry a strike from the other soldier.

Kaleb watched as the man he’d just Repelled got up, disoriented but alive. Kaleb made a quick decision, running towards Yez and ignoring his own opponent.

He came across the downed soldier, who’d just been bashed in the face. The man was getting up and he was too late in noticing Kaleb running up behind him.

So Kaleb raised his mace and swung it as violently as he could. The inaccurate strike hit the soldier’s shoulder, forcing him down again. Kaleb winced at both the inaccuracy and the up-close violence, he raised his mace for another swing. This time, the man intercepted it with his warpick, and as he absorbed the momentum of his strike, literally single-handedly, he drew a thin short blade from his belt with his other hand. It looked like a dagger but pointier and deadlier.

Kaleb’s confusion at the possible use of such a short blade from the soldier’s disadvantaged position cost him dearly. He felt the pain at the same time he saw the man’s hand jerk towards his leg, stabbing the blade through his clothes and into the flesh of his lower thigh.

Kaleb fell into a kneel over the man’s supine form, and now he was finally within weapon’s reach, his own mace having fallen to the side as he supported his weight with the hand that had held it, his other hand holding the bloody wound.

After stabbing him and pulling the blade out, the soldier twisted his body in preparation for a decisive swing with his warpick.

As Kaleb panicked, the hand that held his wound moved on its own. He found himself extending the bloody hand towards the soldier, hovering it over the Quill’s face and he knew what he had to do.

The confused soldier didn’t get a chance to deliver his strike as a Repel came out of Kaleb’s hand. His head rocked down onto the ground with a telltale crack that Kaleb found familiar from the memory of his second time ever casting Haste on a head of cattle.

There was no yell of pain from his enemy. There was no groan or struggle. He just ceased action, growing rigid for a moment then losing any tension in his body as if his strings were cut.

Kaleb felt the symptoms of overdrawing coming up as he gulped mouthfuls of air and coughed out some saliva that had choked him. Then his eyes moved up to his friend’s fighting form.

Yez was putting his axe through the head of his opponent then turning around to face the third soldier, who–to Kaleb’s surprise–was now fleeing.

He looked towards the frontline, where the enemy’s push had slackened and the fight was coming to a close. Captain Simion was finishing one of the last men to make it behind their lines while standing beside Master Beris who looked untouched. Miryodel was far to their right, holding a bleeding arm but looking otherwise unharmed.

The battle came to an end in a similar manner to how it began but in reverse. The noise of battle smoothed out into intermittent yells and clashes from time to time then flowed into the relative quietness of boots hitting the ground as enemies either fled or surrendered.

Later, Kaleb would know how it all happened, and how blind he’d been to the overlying battle.