The whistling sound of falling stones was quickly followed by loud explosions on repeated impact. Hundreds of fragments were scattered around, immediately turning into effective killing instruments. Robert saw how flying debris of different sizes literally tore apart a few men from the militia, who were unfortunate enough to be very close to the magic meteor. Some managed to survive, getting wounds in non-critical places only be set on flame. Several by sheer instinct dropped to the ground, but that didn’t help much.
Knight’s body, thrown away by the explosion, crushed on warrior, clearly breaking his spine just from the combination of massive weights and force. However, the knight himself didn’t look any better, using all his energy to survive the blast. Another explosion sent crumpled mace directly into his face, making a deep dent around the visor and splashing blood from underneath.
Screams from open wounds, the smell of burning flesh, and a non-stopping whistle before the new explosion – everything made Robert’s consciousness balance on the verge of falling into darkness. The pain in the head felt like someone was blowing the balloon inside it attempt to blow it. He felt dizzy and wanted to vomit, while his painted-red world was turning into a slow-motion picture. Soon Rob could hear only the sound of falling meteors. The shouts of survived soldier turned mute, while he was looking around in complete disorientation. Everyone was just opening their mouth without any words coming out like fishes until flying debris would take their life the next moment.
What was I doing? Where am I?
For a moment, he lost himself in pondering about the current situation before sharp pain in his buttock woke him from this state. The clouded mind cleared, and Robert found himself in a small hole, which he had dug using an axe in a half-unconscious state. Rob didn’t know, where he had found it, but he didn’t care. He just continued to push his body deeper in the ground, before covering himself with the nearest corpse. The latter had lost its head, leaving a bloody open wound, which was creating a constant flow of red liquid that quickly covered Robert. However, his attention was elsewhere as Rob managed to catch a glimpse of his surroundings.
The falling meteors continued to reap the lives of both sides in the most brutal way possible. Despite their flaming nature, that inner fire was used primarily to send them into an explosion after impact, and not to burn everything down. For Robert, it looked like a magic analog of cluster munition with its devastating effect on dense ranks of enemies. Rob himself used lots of them against a swarm of aliens, but he appeared to be the target right now.
A new explosion almost pulled him out from the improvised trench together with the corpse. The shock wave pressed him to the ground, and he felt new fragments enter his body, slowly covering him in a veil of pain. Nevertheless, Robert couldn’t do much in this situation – just to endure and rely on his luck. Nothing more. Therefore, he simultaneously tried to shrink in size and merge with the ground, while he waited for what felt like a real eternity. Each explosion made the ground shake and Robert shudder. Each time his internal thought repeated the same thing – “Not me, not me, not me”.
When everything calmed down, Rob spent several more minutes before slowly checking his surroundings. The scene around him could easily surpass any sick imagination of a horror movie director. The main reason was the melee nature of the battle, where no one had any range weapons and had to face their enemy directly. Despite the impressive number of tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides, the space they needed wasn’t big – not more than a few football (soccer) fields. Any big live concerts could easily outnumber it. And currently, it turned into literally a field of corpses. Bloodied, burned, torn apart, mutilated from a variety of wounds, the surroundings indeed looked like the picture from hell.
Robert felt the need to vomit but the pain in his body stopped him from any movement. He wasn’t alone in such a wish as there were more survivors. They were rare, in different states but each of them was on the brink of falling apart under the pressure of horrible reality. Rob wanted to stand up, to leave this place, but to his bad luck the regeneration ability had an unwritten factor, which he never experienced before. Despite using all his available mana and healing him, it didn’t magically push out stuck fragments from his body as he assumed it would. It just closed the wound, restored the skin but left everything in it. Robert felt them and not only did it hurt, but it limited his motion. However, he had to stand up hastily when he saw the anxiety in movement from others.
There were not more than a hundred of them, who were able to get in horizontal position. Even so, only five happened to be the knights. Still, their condition was not much better as they were in the epicenter of a meteor attack and thus took the most damage. Some could walk, while others could only crawl. Most - just moan loudly, begging for help. But right now, despite their belonging to different sides, each of capable tried to grab some weapon when they saw robed figures emerging from the rear of both forces. No one was an idiot not to understand who created such a magical disaster.
Robert squeezed his teeth using all his force before pushing himself forward. His regeneration ability kicked in before Adaptation, but the latter still emptied his mana, leaving him refreshed with a stuck fragment inside his right buttock. His body didn’t recover to its fullness, and he still felt as if he was beaten by a dozen drunkards with no stoppers in their minds. At least he could move somehow. And he indeed needed it as quickly approaching mages didn’t look friendly in the slightest.
It was not the first time when Robert saw them, but their current equipment looked odd. Familiar robes were covered with strange symbols and not the emblems of a noble house, which they severed. The strangest was a huge staff with a big plate on top with a half-meter diameter. The latter held some kind of rune circle, very similar to those, that demon summoners in movies liked to draw on the floor of the basements. Few mages had different types – bigger and with sharp edges, but overall the same metal construction with an unknown purpose.
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Wait! Why unknown? It obviously helps to cast magic, dumbass! I don’t think they are making a religious ceremony with ritual staff. Just nope!
As answering his inner thoughts, one of the mages raised his metal weapon. The engraved path on the plate started to shine with white light as charging. Soon other mages followed, stopping at their place and reading the attack. The reaction from survived warriors was different. One of the knights with a loud command shouted to charge before showing a personal example. Around ten nearest soldiers obeyed, raising their weapons and running into the mage’s ranks. Two more knights silently retreated in different directions, clearly abandoning others, which led more soldiers to copy them. The last two knights tried to put the defense formation, hastily gathering men. The wounded stayed in their places, as they didn’t have much choice in their state. Robert, on the other hand, took the axe from the ground and leaned to the ground, pretending to be injured and not wanting to be the first target of spells.
The attempt of knights to reach the mages in time was almost successful. Almost. The remnants of the fallen weren’t the easiest obstacle to overcome, as a few soldiers struggled to find where to place their feet just not to step on the dead. Knights, on the other hand, avoided being in the front this time, forcefully slowing themselves. That gave enough time to charge the spells and release them right before the clash.
The first one was an ordinary fireball. Looking and flying like a red paintball, it was easily evaded by the knight only to be directly blocked by the shield behind. Or at least the soldier tried to do it as a flaming projectile pierced the wood with ease and immediately set the man ablaze. A few more fireballs were sent in a moment, killing one more soldier, but missing others. The second knight even cut the spell with his sword, which triggered it. Unfortunately for mages, the flame died on the full plate armor, not managing to go through the energy protection. This made soldiers braver and they increased their pace to shorten the distance as quickly as possible. However, in the exact same moment, another spell was cast, when the first mage finally finished his charge.
With a loud thunderclap sound the slow-moving lightning went through the whole group, chaining from one target to another with almost no pause. Of course, slow in comparison to natural phenomena. It was indeed “lightning fast”, giving no time to react and no ability to resist, as all men collapsed to the ground. Robert managed to catch the burned bodies of soldiers, but the knights survived. Still, the mages were not satisfied with this result as new fireballs were sent flying, now being used against stationary targets. The end of this unsuccessful attempt to break through Rod didn’t see, as he stood up, while looking around. His mind was already working at full speed to find the way out.
Chain lightning took around twenty seconds to cast, while fireball only ten. The former clearly depends on the engraved rune circle and is bigger in terms of size than the latter spell. Moreover, the mages are definitely not trained in shooting with it as they missed most of the fireballs against moving targets. Also, they don’t move while casting it seems. That gives me enough chances to use it. Let’s go!
Pushing himself up, Robert began his sprint, aiming directly at the center of the mage's ranks. Both groups started from rear positions before slowly stretching in a thin line to encircle the battlefield. The wielders of bigger staffs were exactly on the edges of it, creating an illusion of weaker defense. On the other hand, the center was more packed, but the fireballs by Rob’s belief couldn’t pose the same threat. Still, less didn’t mean none, as the first flame projectiles started to fly almost immediately. They were not even near him, but it was just a matter of time before he would shorten the distance, making it easier to aim for mages.
Moreover, his single buttock hurt as hell with each step. The step, which he had to carefully choose as debris, bloodied ground, bent weapons, and hundreds of bodies made the way much harder. Closing his eyes for a moment, Robert sighed before stopping futile attempts to avoid stepping on corpses. They were already dead, but he wasn’t and didn’t want to become because of mixed emotions from such a deed. It was just another morale line, which he had to cross to survive. Therefore he ran, while his hand was gripping the axe handle to the point of pain.
The next wave of fireballs came when he was in fifty meters (150 feet) to the nearest mages. The latter and his two allies tried to aim their spells, but the chaotic surface made Robert move in the same manner, nullifying the enemy’s effort. The rush of adrenaline together with sprinting at full speed made Rob’s heartbeat as crazy. He didn’t wish, but it was hard not to notice the mutilated bodies, their open non-blinking eyes with different facial expressions. When he almost reached the mage, he couldn’t miss how young he was – just a teenager. However, the latter didn’t pause for a moment before launching his deadly spell into Robert.
Rob wanted to duck under it but tripped. Making an improvised somersault before bumping into something, he had to jump to the side to avoid two more fireballs. One of them burned the hole in the ground, while the other set aflame ever-present blue-purple flowers. Pausing to see the glowing lines in the rune circle on the magic staff, Robert didn’t find any better solution than to throw his axe into the youngster's chest. However, in a rush, he aimed way too low, and his flying weapon ended in the teenager’s knee. With a painful scream, the young mage dropped to the ground, while his staff dispelled the charge. Not wasting any time, Robert pushed himself up and forward. Rob didn't wared, when he kicked the face of the young mage with all available strength, immediately knocking the opponent out . Hstily bending down to take the axe, he evaded another shot of fireball, which flew over him and only by sheer luck of the mage didn’t hit his own ally. That stopped the attack of the latter, giving Rob enough time to run away.
The sounds of battle and spells, shouts of anger and pleading, metal clashing, and another thunderclap – everything was left behind, while he continued to move. Rob was sure he was not alone in that deed. Mages made a smart choice to wait until the main force – knights – entered the battlefield before attacking with devastating spells and in this wiping out all commanders from both sides. The remnants of soldiers didn’t stand a chance not only for resisting but also just for organizing themselves in this situation. Maybe if they had enough time… but they didn’t. Therefore, he made the most logical solution in current circumstances – to run.
Robert went directly through the camp only to find dozens of motionless bodies of coachmen right around cauldrons with soup. All regrets of attacking the teenager vanished, as he understood that the mage's revolt ended in poisoning even civilians. The latter didn’t participate in battles and mostly consisted of the villagers, rarely the servants. However, even they were not sparred. Therefore, he just ran further, right into the visible forest, which was less than a kilometer from him. The movement brought pain. He didn’t have anything except one axe on him. No food or water, nothing. His clothes and armor were torn and barely held. Rob was tired, stressed, and in total uncertainness about his own future, but at least he was alive. It was enough for him.