Chapter 16
After the confirmation that their scouts and main force arrived. The village went into full alert mode. With sentries manning the walls at all hours.
Yet, contrary to expectations, they didn’t immediately attack. Their main force seems to be camped in the forest just out of range and into cover. Their commander has a bit of a brain it seems. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do right now without giving up our defensive arrangement and unnecessarily putting ourselves into danger.
What came then, was an uncomfortable stalemate. With the bandits occasionally taunting us from the safety of distance. They seem to be preparing something yet to be seen though.
Not that we’ve been idling ourselves. We continue our preparations, with the villagers training and securing the place for an eventual battle.
As for me. There’s really not much I can do at this point in time other than making more weapons and runes.
With the whole place engulfed by this feeling of uneasiness. Aida seems to want nothing more than stay besides me like she’s attached to my hip. The girl clearly terrified about what’s to come. It’s very cute though.
I’ve been carefully observing her magic training these couple days as well. Her progress clearly astounding. Her telekinesis accuracy improving by the hour. As I watch her levitating lumps of metal around her. I notice the ease in which the mana flows through her. Her pathways are clearly different from me, a human. At least before I went through the Dryad ritual. Almost as if magic is part of their very nature as species. I suspect their body’s functions are also related to mana.
I guess this is why dark elves are called one of the magic races. Which leads me to the very important question as to why there’s no mages among them, if it’s something that comes so naturally to them as I’m seeing here. Is it an intentional suppression? Something to investigate.
Aida’s face scrunches into a frown as I closely observe her. She suddenly loses concentration, making the lumps fall into the floor of the forge. As her eyes open, she sees me intensively examining her body with my magic sense from up close.
“Wah, what are you doing you fiend!” She screams as she jumps back placing her arms in front of her chest in a protective stance.
As she realizes what she just said. You can practically see her head smoking and getting red as a ripe tomato.
“I’m just observing your mana flows. Nothing to be shy about.” I as matter of factly answer. That I was also appreciating some of her curves, is something best left unsaid.
In one of the sides of the forge we have an area with wooden flooring, a low table at the center, and a small vase with wild flowers she insisted on getting for me. We move there to get our lunch, which Aida always prepares for us.
“Come. Time to eat.” She calls me. Desperately trying to cover her previous embarrassment.
As I sit besides her. I notice her anxiety. Her movements are shaky and inconsistent.
“What is wrong with you? Did you hate it so much? Me looking at you?” I ask her between bites. Trying to lighten the mood. And failing miserably.
“It’s not that. It really isn’t.” She exhales. “I guess I’m just nervous. With all that is happening. The bandits. The village. My previous Kidnapping… Us…” She confesses, as her voice gets progressively lower, till barely a whisper. I soon hear the quiet sound of her weeping.
“These days. Every time I try to sleep. I remember everything. Mother, the goblins, the bandits. It’s all a jumble in my head.” She continues between sobs. “And then there is you. Shining so, so bright. I’m afraid you’ll disappear every time I take my eyes off of you. I’ve never felt this way before. I…” I hear her voice louder and louder. As if she’s afraid of never being heard again.
I desperately hold her between my arms as she tries to finish. As she muffles the sounds of her sobbing with her face pressed against my chest.
What can I do? I’ve never been a dependable person. I’ve never been a good person. The weight of their trust in me is too heavy. I myself am a whole mess of feelings I have no idea how to untangle.
What is it that I came here for? What is it that I feel for these people? That I feel for her?
“I’m here for you. Don’t you worry. I’m never leaving you.” I say, trying to calm her down, as much as I’m trying to calm myself. Holding back my own tears as I say so.
Perhaps, that was exactly the moment a threshold has been surpassed. Which one is something I’ll have to carefully examine. All I know is that I will protect these people with all that I have. Protect… Her.
That afternoon. Aida cried herself to sleep in my lap. Her peaceful sleeping face did a number on my resolve. Her embarrassment and fast escape as she woke up was amusing though.
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It was late at night that same day, when the warning whistles went off throughout the town. After rushing to the wall, Layla was already waiting for me.
“Sentries detected movement at the edge of the forest. Torches and what seems to be shields” Raja was informing the people present.
“So, it’s finally time. Gather every militia we have. I want this wall fully manned right now!” Layla barked her orders as the village turned into a hive of movement like someone kicked a hornet’s nest.
Everywhere, people getting ready, weapons being distributed and noncombatants being evacuated to the town square. You could cut the tension with a knife.
“Rhea. Can you do something about this darkness? We can’t see their movements properly. Night’s too dark.” She asked me as we observed the flickering movements in the distance.
“I’ll see what I can do.” I answered as I focused my mana into a particular form. What followed was a larger ball of light, slowly ascending over the fields.
What the light revealed. Made all of our blood freeze. In the distance, you could see a wall of crudely made wooden shields, followed by long wooden ladders right behind. But that wasn’t the problem.
In front of all of them, being held at spear point. Were multiple naked dark elves. You could see the slave chokers around their necks. Stopping them from reacting. They were being used as shields. Stopping us from shooting them, and making my landmines useless.
“Where do they come from?” I asked Layla, as my hands went white from closing my fists in rage.
Layla, who was raging a losing battle against the idea of jumping there herself. Answered me with gritted teeth. “These are the girls kidnapped in the last raid before you came. Goddess knows what these poor women went through already.”
“These bastards. Are. All. Going. To. Die.” She said with utter resolution.
The line of bandits continued unabated until a little way before the moat. Their hollering and provocations only seeming to enrage the villagers. When suddenly from out of the crowd, came a fancifully dressed man. He carried a cane with one hand, and a horribly decorated sword in another. Clearly, he never put it to much use.
“Greetings my Ladies!” Came his voice. To the laughing of the rest of his men.
“My name is Roderick Muri. I am a noble and a mage. So, you might as well know what happens to people who challenge either one of those!”
“But fret not! I came here on Business!” He continued. “There is no reason to make business a bloody endeavor. Surrender, and you might yet come out with your lives!”
“Fuck you!” Came the simple and concise response from Layla.
“So, it is DEATH!” The man answered with a laugh, before returning behind his men. He never once put himself in direct line of fire. The coward was the whole time behind an elven live shield.
“What can you do?” Layla asked me as soon as the line began reorganizing with the ladders being brought to the front.
“I can isolate the hostages for a while. But it will make me extremely vulnerable to the mage. I’ll need all of you to cover me while I recuperate so I can take him out after the hostages.” I said as I quickly detailed the plan.
“Ok. We can do this. We’ll cover you. Go!” Layla screamed as I began focusing on the ground.
What came next, was a shoddy earth barrier, almost instantly separating the hostages at the front, from the rest of the bandits. With a flick, I toppled it over, burying the hostages in a layer of soft soil. This was the most I could do right now, and I just hope we can get to them before they suffocate.
All of this was the clue for the crossbowmen. I mean crossbow women. To let it loose on the crowd of bandits. Their crude wooden shields might as well be paper against the powerful weapons I made. The first line was nearly massacred right then. And to everyone’s relief, we began to see the hostages crawling out of the soft dirt.
“Reload! Second line! SHOOT!” I hear Raja shouting in the background while I frantically try to recompose myself.
The second volley fired off. I thought the results would be the same. But the arrows suddenly reach an invisible wall and begin falling harmlessly to the crowd.
Looking at the middle of the crowd, I see them beginning to bundle up around the mage. He seemed to be in a state of concentration while holding a pendant. Probably a magical artifact.
Looking at it with my mana sense. It gave me an unbelievable sense of disgust. It was like the very air was oily and filthy around him. Where he executed his magic. Only filth remained on the mana.
“On me!” The man frantically screamed as the battlefield was taken over by a cacophony of dying screams from the men unlucky enough to not be near him when it all went down.
By now everything was in disorder, and he must have sensed it. Because he soon began retreating with the rest of his men.
Of course, we can’t let the fuckers just go, right? Now without the hostages, I began activating the landmines in their retreating path. What followed was a pure symphony of explosions and gore. This night, not one of them will survive. I’ll make sure of it.
While the explosions went off. Layla jumped on Balto and off the top of the wall she went. Behind her, from the gates. A small squadron began pulling the non-reactive hostages to safety. Layla was having none of it, and simply threw multiple of them on top of Balto to be taken away.
Inside the gates, the elders together with Aida, began mounting a triage. None that I could help right now, as I was too focused on blowing the bastards right to hell.
I might have made a bit too many mines. Not that anyone was complaining really.
On the middle of it, I could feel the oily magic getting weaker and weaker. The fucker must be really taking a pounding.
As the dust began to settle and visibility returned. The scenario in front of the walls was one of devastation. Bodies stirred everywhere. And the unlucky enough to survive, screamed on pain for their wounds.
The arrow wounded didn’t look so bad. Worst, and vomit inducing was the result of the explosions. I almost hurled my dinner when I saw a man uselessly trying to put his intestines back inside.
The whole of combat must not have taken more than 10 minutes. But the results were utter annihilation.
As I jumped out of the wall, beside the moat. I was silently joined by Layla as we began the gruesome work of finishing them up.
I could argue to myself that it was an act of kindness. To give them a quick death. But the truth is that I found myself really don’t caring much about these people. What they tried to do here is what sealed their fate. Not our weapons. Does this make me a bad person? I’ll have to think about it.
Waddling through the field of death. We finally arrive at our destination. Full of lacerations, missing half a leg, but otherwise alive. Was our “Prize”.
“You can’t do this. You can’t… My family will kill all of you!” He tried to scream through the pain.
Now. What to do with this piece of turd?