Chapter 45: The Last Stand of a Noble Man
Landar
“Shiiiit!’ I yelled as I slid off the back of the pegusi and into open air.
Don’t worry boss, you should be able to survive a fall from this height. Given your level, and admittedly robust but rudimentary control of mana, I calculate only a 15% chance of permanent bodily injury.
I fell in what felt like slow motion, and twisted so I could see the ground. The battle was unfolding below me as if the entire thing was moving in slow motion. Adrenalin had to have kicked into overdrive, as I adjusted my body to try and roll upon impact.
Lose legs Landar, lose legs! I frantically recalled my few weeks in airborne school back in army training. I hadn’t elected to join the insane helo diving, plane jumping out of hard core ground pounders that was the airborne. But I had been forced through a basic course just in case some mess in the middle east that was happening at the time would have required my unit to drop in to support them.
It had been how I had learned I'm terrified of heights. And subsequently, total hell.
I chose to focus my attention on the battle rather than my slow motion fall to my death, or the ever sinking pit in my stomach.
The cavalry charge by the elves had its momentum broken. The core of the attack had been locked into close quarters combat, or forced to deal with the havoc the knights spells and abilities had caused in their ranks.
While the two flanks had broken away back into the forest canopy hoping for cover from the aerial attack that had so greatly damaged their allies in the center.
From what I could tell the two forces were looking at flanking the small force of beleaguered knights and students on the ground that we had come to reinforce. But that wasn’t an immediate threat.
Another force of elven infantry, what looked like a mix of conscripted slaves cobbled together from various races, supported by a core of their professional soldiers had moved up to support the tied up cavalry unit.
I had no idea how large the infantry force was, but clearly they were largely under equipped and poorly trained.
Meanwhile the skyborn knights and their mounts had split into three groups. One group were those who had been somehow dismounted, or forced to land. They were individually wreaking havoc on the enemy forces. These were moving at a normal speed even through my adrenaline fueled slow motion reality, while their enemies were largely sluggish.
But several had been severely injured, and were held up on a small dry island in the middle of the mud protected by two of their unit mates. Their mounts circled nervously overhead, taking potshots and dives at anyone who got too close.
The other two units were circling around, trying to find a good angel to attack the flanking cavalry units, or to strike at the still massing infantry.
All while the students and knight unit we had come to help were desperately circling around a pair of injured. I thought I recognized a large, slightly pudgy student wearing a helmet, and wielding a shield and mace like they weighed nothing. Fire flickered above his helmet like a crown and lashed out at several elves who had trickled through the mud and made it to the other side to menace them.
Is that Victor?
83% match. It is a strong possibility boss.
Damn, I have got to have him teach me that fire spell.
Off to one side of the group of knights and students I found a pair of blurs moving so swiftly I thought I was watching two buzzsaws going at each other. One flickered and rippled in dark shadows, in and out of the shade from the trees, and back into the daylight. While the other radiated burning light so bright I had to squint to see through it.
I forced myself to look away. I was getting close to the ground, and I looked where I was going to land.
Below me, directly below me, someone moved in a blur. Not a buzzsaw, unseeable, but more a hummingbird, flitting from flower to flower with deadly intent. They cut through horse flesh and elven armor as if it were butter, parrying attacks with their long sword-spear.
I blinked and realized it was a woman, in easterner combat robes. She flowed through the mounted cavalry like water over rock cutting carnivorous six-legged horse hamstrings, severing limbs, and gutting unaware or far too slow infantry as they tried to intervene.
That’s Sakura.
Yup.
And I'm going to fall directly on her.
Good luck boss.
I braced my body with mana and chie, cycling both as quickly and with as much force as I could. I forced my knees to bend, and then my world turned into flailing, swearing, and the clanking of metal.
“Damn it Landar! Get off me!” She shouted, but before I could move I found I was stuck up to my knees in the mud. One of Sakura’s legs was trapped under me, and the rage in her eyes chilled my bones.
“Working on it! Just a second!” I tried to pull myself free, but only managed to get up to my knees free, while sinking up to my elbows in the mud.
Sakura grabbed her sword spear, and in a moment of heartstopping panic, for me, slashed it over my head. Something heavy hit me, and suddenly there was a severed head laying in the mud next to me with pointed years.
“Work faster,” she ordered, and I did just that.
I cast Jet of Fire through both hands, and the ground roiled with steam. Solidifying into hardened ground. Ground I could push off of.
While I worked, she fended off two more foes, including a carnivorous six legged horse that tried to eat the back of my head.
“Got it!” I ripped one hand free from the hardened earth, then used the leverage I gained from that to pull the other free. It only took a heartbeat more to free my legs, and stand. I offered a hand to Sakura. “Sorry about that.”
“Why are you here?” She demanded, taking my hand and using me to lever herself out of the Sakura shaped mud hole I had created upon impact.
“Uh . . . we’re here to save you. Thought that was obvious.”
She stabbed another riderless enemy horse as it reared, piercing its heart and sending it to its muddy grave. Then she fixed me with an annoyed stare. “Normally when men fall from the sky to try and save the damsel, in the stories, they slay all the enemies and ride in on angel wings or beams of light. Not trap themselves and the woman they’re trying to help in mud.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” I pulled my ax from my belt, activated the freezing rune on the handle and threw it at an elf who was about to run her through with a spear. It split his skull in two, embedded in his neck, and subsequently turned the still standing corpse into a popsicle.
I then reached down to my belt and activated the Tethering rune that pulled it back, handle first. I had many, many mishapps before I figured out how to do that little trick without almost killing myself, and snatched it out of the air.
“You’re not entirely incompetent and feral anymore.” Sakura smirked, taking most of the sting from her words. “Good. Let's get the wounded to my friends, and see about getting out of here.”
We started towards where the wounded knights were holding up on the small island about a dozen yards away. “Oh, and if you see Regi . . .” her expression looked pained for a moment. “Don’t hesitate to end him. He’s with the enemy.”
A traitor would explain how someone as powerful as Edna’s spell had gone awry. “You’ll have to tell me everything later. For now, let's get to the wounded, and get them back to your friends.”
It didn’t take long for us to slaughter our way to the injured knights. I ended up having to use two small contraptions I had created, one was a small use of the Tether rune that increased the relative gravity on anyone who ran over it to about double. The other was what amounted to a grenade. The explosion was more than I had hoped for though, and it blew up the gravity mine.
Dang it, I wanted to recover that after this.
Don’t think that would have been possible even if we won this fight boss. Don’t worry though, I saved the schematics for you.
Thanks Sid!
No problem boss!
By the time we got to the little island all of the grounded knights had gathered. The Elven infantry unit and what was left of the cavalry had pulled back to the tree line again, licking their wounds and getting ready for another attack. The knights still sky born were gone, presumably engaging the break away cavalry elements.
“How many injured do you have?” Sakura asked as soon as we were within earshot.
The knights parted for us and revealed three. Two had clearly broken legs, and the other had been stabbed clean through by a spear.
“I’ll get to work. Then we need to move and meet up with the others.” Sakura gestured towards her friends, and the still dueling knight captain and the man I could now barely make out was Regi.
Among the gathered knights, more than I had realized had been unseated during the fighting, was Roland. He had been tending the minor wounds. “Hey,” I said as I came up to him casting a minor healing spell on a cut one of the still standing knights had suffered.
“I saw you fall,” Roland's voice was teasing. “Very graceful.”
“Yeah yeah. I’m sure your fall from the sky was epic. Probably took out a dozen bad guys with some kind of superhero landing. Huh.”
“Super hero?” I shrugged and he rolled his eyes. He then lowered his voice so only we could hear. “No, Johnathan’s mount was bit by two of those six legged freaks, and pulled down. We slaughtered them, but . . . well.” I followed his gesture and found a single pegasus corpse.
Surrounding it were half a dozen of its carnivorous cousins. At least a few had been brained to death by pegasus hooves. But the corpse held the hallmark signs of being dragged down and ripped apart by something I would have assumed would be wolf-like.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. There you go Jasper. Thank you.” The knight put his arm guard back on, and joined the others in the defensive line.
Someone yelled, and I heard a popping noise that sounded distinctly like a bone being forced back into place. “Sakura’s work.” Roland nodded.
“Wish I had that kind of skill with healing. I’ve learned from the priests and surgeons.”
“And my mother.” Roland grinned.
“And your mother.” Another man shouted followed by a brutal popping noise that was worse than the first. Green light emanated from the other half of the island. “But I don’t have the skill to heal those injuries in the field. Not like that.”
It didn’t take Sakura long to finish her brutally effective healing arts, and for us to start out towards the students. The entire time the knights kept a watchful eye on the elves behind us, still organizing themselves for another assault. Meanwhile I kept my eyes fixed firmly on one thing.
The fight between Regi, and the Knight Captain that Sakura had been paired with. They were moving all along the northern tree line of the clearing, and they showed no sign of slowing.
“I don’t suppose any of you could help that captain out?” I asked the knights as we moved.
“Brodric the Bold probably could have,” The knight named Jasper, that Roland had healed, said. “But he’s passed out.” He gestured towards the one who had had the spear rammed through his chest. He was healed, but out cold. “Some elf with horns like branches just appeared behind him as he was trying to rally us, and rammed that thing straight through him.”
“That's the leader of these forces,” Sakura explained. “He’s the one Regi partnered with, or made some kind of pact with. His power was that of a Baron cultivator, maybe even a Count. Exemplary, and old. If you see him, do not engage.”
“May the Mother give us the wisdom to follow your words.” Roland said. “And may the Father grant us the strength and courage to defy them if it proves necessary.”
There wasn’t much more talking as we made our way onto hard ground and quickly rejoined the students. Someone had summoned a small wall of earth around them, and hard packed it with stone.
Sakura examined the defense as we joined the others, and cast a spell. Green living vines with thorns the size of daggers emerged from the top and bottom of the small defensive wall, and writhed with their summoner's wrath.
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“The vines aren’t as large as I can make them, but they will last longer this way.” Sakura explained. “Have you tried your bandana yet?” she asked as the knights greeted one another.
“No, should I?” She shrugged.
“Couldn’t hurt. I tried mine when all this began, but there seems to be something interfering.”
“Good idea.” When I reached the center of the small and still growing fortress, I pulled my boot off and unwrapped the bandana from inside my sock.
“Interesting place to put it.” Victor said, smirking.
“Yeah yeah, it's the only place I could think of that I wouldn’t easily lose it.” I put my boot back on, and poured mana into the enchanted scrap of cloth.
My world spun into blackness, and I felt my entire body go limp. Every ounce of my mana was drained into the spell, and my chie nearly bottomed out as it too was pulled along into the enchantment.
The world rang like a bell. The darkness that surrounded me shook like it was a cage, and something outside was trying to break in.
“Shit! Landar, he’s out of mana and about to black out.” I felt someone else touch the cloth, and more mana poured into it and into me, then for that same mana to get ripped from me and back into the enchantment.
The world rang again, this time a hammer-fall on an anvil.
Then a third time the world rocked, as if the earthquake that had killed me on Earth had found its way here and was trying to finish the job, as another source of mana poured into me. Then through me into the cloth.
I see you child, But something fights me. Edna’s words were hissed, angry, dripping with venom and the promise of vengeance. A forest lord of some power blocks me from coming to you, or sending more forces to help you. He is paying for his temerity, but his anchor still holds.
How can we help you? I tried to ask, but in the realm of the mind I found myself in my words were like a whisper in an endless sea.
Hmmm. I felt Edna’s mind rush through my thoughts. She saw who was with me, the events that had transpired so far, and what I had seen. Then through me, and into the others who had touched the cloth with me. She saw those same events through their eyes, and in less than a heartbeat she had all she needed.
I see. Sil’darus’s bastard son seeks to make a name for himself and corrupts a student under my care. He and his father will pay. A miracle. Holy magic, if Roland can create a wedge for me, perhaps threaten Sil’darus’s progeny or his designs enough to distract him, I'll be able to get through the anchor.
Go. And open the way for my wrath.
***
My eyes flew open, as my mana poured back into me from inside the enchanted cloth. I still felt tired, and a bit drained. A good third of the mana I had was now gone, but now I knew what to do.
Victor’s eyes shot open, as did Sakuras. They had collapsed onto me, and now moved as if nothing had happened.
“Roland!” My brother in law turned from where he was working on Tedgi. The archer was unconscious, and she looked ashen. Drained. “There is a dimensional anchor around us. This was a trap, and Edna can’t break through it. At least not yet. If you can use a miracle of some kind to either distract that horned guy, or weaken the barrier even a little, Edna can get help to us.”
Whispers ran through the group. Doubt, and fear. If something had stopped Edna’s will, what could they do?
Roland thought for a moment. “Do we know what the purpose of the trap was?” He asked, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“I do,” Sakura interjected. “Tedgi, and Medgi. The reason for this trap was to cut us off from help, kill everyone here, and allow Regi to harvest their cores for himself.
“They’re triplets?” Roland asked, and Sakura nodded. “I could try something . . . There is a miracle called Sever Fate. It severs a person's spiritual connections to another. I only know the lesser version that affects such connections temporarily. But a greater caster or thealogion could sever their connection permanently. Even so, it is . . . a difficult miracle to call. Please, stand back.”
Sakura got up and moved away from the injured duo, her turtle companion did likewise.
Power, mana to be sure but something else as well began to build around Roland. It wasn’t chie, it wasn’t mana, it was a will. Powerful, beyond any I'd touched before even the Arc Dukes. But in this space, and time, in this place, it was limited.
Limited by Roland.
He bowed his head, cupped his hands in front of him as he kneeled next to both unconscious forms. He began to pray, reciting what I thought was some kind of scripture. The words were vaguely familiar, as if I'd heard them before in a sermon, or the sentiments stated by others I'd known.
“And so it is said that on that day, the great Mother gave mankind its own fate. Not one of beasts, not one of prey. But one of steel, and fire, and will. A fate all humanities own. To walk the paths we will, to say the things we will, and to be who we will. And on that day, the Mother severed our bonds of servitude. Brought low the beasts who devoured us, and gave us the many roads of her kingdom to follow. Even as the Father gave us the strength to walk them.”
Rolands words were sing-song, his expression had grown stern and disciplined as he wrestled with that will. Trying to entice it through him, to accomplish the task he had called it forth to do.
Only a trickle of that great power came forward, but it rushed through Roland's soul like a stream. It souped up his mana, and manipulated it, took his chie or life mana, and used it as it would to accomplish the task that Roland had asked of it.
It worked with the materials it had, to accomplish a true miracle.
Simultaneously both unconscious siblings began to twitch and then convulsed in a grand mal seizure. Their mouths frothed, and their bodies rebelled at what was happening to their spirits. Their eyes were open and I could see awareness as keen as any I'd seen before clear in their eyes.
They rose from the ground, levitated by the magic that practically sizzled in the air around us. They both screamed, and an accompanying scream not far off echoed their own.
Pain, terror, uncertainty. Not just for themselves but for those whose bonds they were about to break away from. Their backs arched painfully, and for a brief moment their otherwise invisible connection became visible as a trio of lines that linked somewhere in the middle, mirroring the colors of the aura’s and mana of each of the triplets.
“Be on your guard!” I shouted over the screaming of the trio. “If their leader is going to act, now will be the—”
A green and gold blur erupted from the treeline, and made a beeline for the knight duel.
The knight captain was about to strike the distracted, and levitating Regi, hopefully to impale him on his sword.
The blur slammed into the captain and the two went careening into the forest. They impacted on half a dozen trees along their path, most of which splintered into shrapnel.
A will less then half as immense as the one Roland was challenging, but far, far more present slammed down onto Roland like a bag of bricks.
He had been starting to stand, but the weight of the impact forced him back to his knees.
I erupted my aura around him, easing the pressure a bit by taking a few tons on my own shoulders. I nearly fell to my own knees, luckily every knight matched their wills against this new threat. And while we were not nearly enough to match it, we were enough to protect Roland so he could finish the ritual.
“By the Mother, and by the Father, let it be done!” Roland shouted, raising his heavy laden arms up and releasing what little mana he had left into the will of the being who was casting the ritual. The three lines pulled and pulled against each other, until something gave way. They pulled apart, and shot back into their respective siblings like an arrow.
“It is done.” Roland collapsed a few seconds before Tedgi and Medgi fell onto the soft grass. Whatever will he had summoned was gone now. Leaving only the terrible will that was unflinchingly focused on us.
The weight on us increased, and I found my vision swooning and knees buckled. The other students fell next, one by one. Their wills sapped by whatever thing was trying to destroy us. It took only another heartbeat for the knights to fall. One by one they did like a forest before a lumberjack.
I was struggling to stay up right. I knew that if I fell over and went unconscious, I would die. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I knew. And I fought with every ounce of strength in me.
Sorry boss, I don’t have anything for you.
I struggled to even think through the strain
It's okay Sid. Sometimes, you just run into something too big. And too strong. To beat.
A shadow moved in front of me, and glared down at Roland. “Pathetic boot licker.” Regi’s words dripped with disdain. “Your gods are not your partners. They are your masters. You are not free to walk the paths of the dao. Only the paths they pave for their slaves.” He lifted his long, curved blade wreathed in umber mana. “You took my kin from me. But I never needed them.”
His blade came down, in one swift motion two heads rolled across the once green grass. Blood pooled under their bodies, and Tedi and Medgi were no more.
“No!” Sakura yelled. She must have been belting her rage for her words to reach so far through the pressure I was sure she was under. “No! No, no no!”
Regi kneeled next to their bodies, their hearts were slowly stopping evidenced by the blood flow from their bodies slowing. He dismissed his shadow sword, and it puffed into smoke freeing both hands. “There’s no going back now.” His voice was soft, as if he were talking to his dead siblings. “Thank you.”
Both hands plunged into the corpses chests, and I closed my eyes. The sound of him chewing filled my ears, and still to this day haunts my nightmares.
“Sacrifice.” Regi said the word with conviction after he finished his dark deed. He ate both harts, even as he integrated their cores into himself. “That is the basis of all power. That is what my father told us. Before we escaped. We thought he was a tyrant, a monster who wanted us to do horrendous things. But I knew the truth behind those words. Power has to be seized, and often can only be attained through sacrifice. Either your own, or others. It doesn’t matter.” As he spoke he stood, and his voice became more sure of itself.
Explosions rocked the woods to the north, as the knight captain and whatever leader the elves had battled. Trees fell, and the ground shook lightly every few seconds.
“Do you see the truth in that? Little godly slave?” Regi kicked Roland over, and looked him square in the face.
“When you tried to steal my siblings, my prizes away from me. Did you know that sacrifice leads to power? Did you know what I was attempting?” He glanced over at Sakura who was just as plastered to the ground as the rest of us. Though her face streamed with tears. “Of course. The harridan told you. The princess, who's been given everything and who has earned nothing. Never suffered, never sacrificed herself for anything. She knew, or at least suspected my plan the moment we got here.”
Regi pulled his sword out of thin air. Materializing it from black smoke into hard black steel. He walked over to Sakura, and slowly stabbed her through the back. She was pinned, helpless, and his blade bit deep.
I could only pray it hadn’t hit her spine.
Roland began murmuring something softly, unintelligibly. “What is that slave?” Regi grinned, and walked back over to the young cleric. His voice was manic and filled with the ecstasy of the new power that was still growing inside him. I could feel his aura growing denser and denser with every passing moment as he integrated the cores of his siblings.
He leaned over Roland so he could hear better. “I would hear your last words, you who would have defied m—EAaak!”
Roland reared up and bit his ear clean off. Blood fountained over Roland's chest, and exploded across Regi’s face. “You bastard! I’ll kill you!” He raised his sword for the strike, but was met by one of Rolands mailed fists.
“The Father grants me strength to defy your petty elven lord!” Roland shouted, and a radiating golden light engulfed him.
Not mana and chie mixed, directed by some other force. But pure light from wherever that entity had been.
“Strength enough to defend my allies!” Roland was on Regi in a second. As the younger black clad man wheeled back holding his head where his missing ear once was, Rolands metal engulfed, miracle fueled punches rained down like hammer blows.
“Strength enough to defy you!” Roland raised an empty hand into the air, and summoned a gleaming golden hammer. Exactly like the one he had lost during the fighting. It crackled with an unknown electric power. “And strength enough, Goddess willing, to end your traitorous existence!”
The hammer fell, and a crack of thunder and lightning split the air. My eyes burned, and I was forced to close them as a real lighting bolt called from the heavens streaked down to land on Rolands target.
“A crucible!” One of the knights shouted. “He called down a crucible.”
A string of murmurs ran through the still prone group of knights. Words of hope, that the gods might actually be with them even here in foreign lands.
It took me what felt like an eternity to blink away the afterimage of the bolt. In that time, Rolands heavy fist blows continued to rain down on the prone, and clearly incapacitated Regi.
The moment I could see again, the world shifted. Something heavy, equally as heavy as the force holding us down, struck whatever elven lord was keeping us there.
Suddenly I could move. We all could.
The knights rose to their feet, and drew their swords. Their auras were weak and flickering, and I could tell they had been holding back most of the force from the enemy up until that moment. They were exhausted. But still they moved to help Roland.
Good job boy! Edna’s voice came to my mind through the cloth still wrapped around my ankle. You distracted the bastard long enough for me to teleport closer. I’m holding the old goat back now, and in a moment I'm going to open a portal. I can’t hold it open for long, so be sure to get everyone through before it closes. Understood?
Yes ma’am!
Good. Here it comes!
Sakura was being helped to her feet by her spirit companion, the turtle lifted her onto his back. Phew, she’s able to move. A swirling mass of mana glowing purple and black appeared inside the little fort on the western side.
I calculate a 93% chance of full recovery if she receives treatment within the next 24 hours boss.
Good to know. “Everyone, get through the portal. Now! Edna can only keep it open for so long.”
The knights switched their target from helping Roland, to evacuation. Suddenly the students were being forced through, driven by the knights. Roland, Sakura who was being carried by her turtle friend, and myself were the only exceptions. I had no idea why the knights left me there.
I pulled my ax from the loop on my belt, and filled it with every ounce of chie and mana it could hold. It was practically vibrating by the time I got to Rolands side.
Regi was a bloody mess. His face, skull, and body were broken, flesh had been carved away by Rolands bloody mailed fists with each blow. But the power he was integrating was showing its worth. Bones quickly reknit, skin regrew, and muscle magically repaired itself before my eyes. And it seemed to be happening faster with every heartbeat.
While Rolands light was slowly fading.
I brought my ax down directly into his bloody chest. Frost erupted into the wound, and quickly spread to his heart, arms, hip, and shoulders. It was slowly creeping upwards towards his neck and head.
“That should hold him for a bit. Roland, we need to go, now!”
Roland punched him once more, before standing and locking eyes with me. His normally blue eyes were alight with an inner golden fire. Pools of molten light swirled there, and I wasn’t entirely sure who was looking back at me.
“Yes.” Roland's voice echoed oddly in my mind. It carried authority behind it. “Let us go. Justice will be served another day.”
“If that’s not justice, I don’t know what is. Let's go dude.” I pushed lightly on his broken and bloody armor, and he followed my gesture towards the portal.
“Only a partial measure. More will be extracted in due time.” Roland's voice was quickly returning to normal, and the light was fading rapidly as we approached our exit. We stopped just in front of it, and I turned and summoned my ax back to me. It took a moment, but it ripped itself from Regi’s frozen bloody chest and flew back towards me.
“I will stay with you. We go through togeth—” An arrow of pure darkness ripped Roland's helmet off his head, sending it careening back through the portal. Roland’s light dissipated, and his eyes rolled up into his skull.
“Shit!” I grabbed my ax from thin air with one hand, and caught my brother in law with the other. “Shit, shit shit! Roland, you better be okay!” Rolands eyes were fully white, rolled up into the back of his head. His breath was shallow and growing more so.
I cycled energy through my whole body, what little I had left, and put it towards the task of hauling his body through the purple and black spinning disk. Every muscle in my body shouted in protest at his weight. But I got him off the ground.
He flew through, and disappeared.
Never leave a predator on your trail, young pup. The she wolf growled angrily in my soul vault. Her voice for the first time reverberating in my mind with authority and certainty. It will follow you home, and devour your kith and kin. Turn and go for its throat, or die and give yours time to flee. That is the only way.
I couldn’t move my legs, they were frozen in place.
I felt a deep urge to return to the fight and finish Regi off. It was only a momentary hesitation, not a full blown attempt at control of my body. But it was enough.
The portal closed.
Leaving me alone on the battlefield.