Hagon Mukuru hid behind his shield as the advanced mage peppered him with wind missiles. The centre had pushed forward nicely, but the flanks were considerably slower owing to the Diaf’s advanced mages posted there. The General weighed his options and decided to direct his efforts elsewhere; he retreated into his lines to recharge. Just as he was about to launch himself to the right side of the line, he paused. He heard an odd rhythmic noise. He closed his eyes and focused his senses. As a fire mage, the remaining elements were undetectable to him, but he felt a cluster of fire magic spells being cast behind him.
The Mukuru’s eyes widened as he realised what was happening. He tore his way to the very rear of the Hatha line to confirm his fears. His heart sank at the sight, the Imperial rapids had returned. They must have realised the plan was to separate them from the battle and were returning swiftly with no sign of the Ikona counterparts to offer resistance. He traced the path of the rapids, they were splitting up into two units, heading for each of the flanks. Hagnon had no time to think of any countermeasures, even if he could, his orders would not reach the flanks in time.
He rose into the skies with his spear in his hand in a last ditch effort to save his troops. He was a master of the explosive flame and could produce a directed explosive burst from any part of his body, he had conserved his power during the fight and so had the magic left for one large scale attack.
Hagon prepared to launch himself at one of the rapid units and detonate explosions from every part of his body. The pressure from explosions on all sides would crush his bones, and the surviving rapid forces would instantly kill him as well, but death did not frighten the Mukuru. The move itself would not completely solve the problem, even if he destroyed half of the rapids attacking their right flank, the left flank would surely fall and force the Hatha to retreat. But still, this would prevent a complete encirclement, and the Hatha could fight on another day.
Hagon now simply looked to the left and right, to decide which flank he should save. His breath left his chest when he saw the scene behind the left flank. He saw his Vice General on his knees with scratches and burns all over, barely holding out against Sciprio and another enemy.
The General’s heart sank yet again, he stopped the preparations for his explosive suicide and instead focused his energy into his elbow. “I’m sorry, my Hatha” he whispered, as he flung his steel spear at Sciprio. As the spear left his hands, Hagon poured all of his magic into an explosion that propelled the flaming weapon forward at incredible speed. The General watched with hope as he fell to the ground.
His Hatha were the most capable warriors in the world. They had never been defeated in battle before, but they were only human. As the Diaf rapids crashed into the flanks, they quickly collapsed in on themselves. The Empire's infantry easily encircled the Hatha, nothing would save them now.
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The son of the Umpetha had tears in his eyes as he lowered his head to avoid detection. The strongest warrior in the Ikona army had fallen to his knees. His wind barrier would die out quickly and then the enemies would take his head.
Krymenos had never felt so useless, so helpless in the face of impending doom. Just as despair was gripping his heart, he noticed the Vice General turn his way and let out a serious glare.
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The despair halted. Krymenos needed no words from his commander, the look etched a clear message into his heart- “Are you just going to sit there?”. The Umpetha placed his hands on the ground and tried to move his magic towards Sciprio while keeping the energy dormant. There was no earth mage on the opposing side, so this attack would not be detected.
Krymenos gasped for breath and felt a tug in his chest as he strained to push his spell all the way to Sciprio’s feet, despair began creeping into his heart again as he realised he did not have the power to unleash a truly powerful attack at this range. Was resistance truly futile all along?
Out of the corner of Krymenos’s eye, he saw something rise to the sky, followed by a huge explosion that drew everyone's attention. It was clear who was behind it, the Umpetha immediately spotted a flaming spearheading Sciprio’s way.
He turned to Sciprio, who had seen it as well, the Imperial commander was getting ready to dodge and escape the final threat to his life.
But the despair had halted, and Kyrmenos would never let that happen. He unleashed all of his magic at the same time, pushing out a single block of the earth and jutting it into Sciprio’s right knee. The Diaf water mage gave a scream and fell to his knee. He instinctively raised his hands and summoned every bit of water he could to make an emergency shield. The water collected in front of him, but not nearly quickly enough, the spear passed through the shield like it was paper, and passed through Sciprio’s chest just as easily.
Krymenos could feel his consciousness fading as he fell to the ground. He could hear the cheers of the Diafthoreat army fill the air. Paligxulu had fallen, he and the rest of the Hatha would all be taken as prisoners. “Did we fail, Sir Michail?” he whispered, as he fell to the ground.
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“There is no other way to say it, Ervin. They crushed us.” Anna checked on her son to make sure he hadn’t drifted off to sleep. “With Sciprio’s death, the Empire lost their method of easily breaking through the Invincible Moat of Thalassanqaba, but the Ikona had lost almost all their fighting strength. The Ikona king had no choice but to sue for peace under unfavourable conditions.”
“In exchange for maintaining our independence, we were forced to give up magic. The Diafthoreat Empire does random checks to make sure that no peasant or noble of Ikona have a systematic knowledge of magic, and that no Ikonan has been practising their magic.”
“In some ways it is a grace. The Empire took complete control over the rest of the southern continent. Do you understand now, why we live this way?”
Ervinos nodded quietly, trying to suppress a stinging feeling in his chest. He felt the anger and pain of his fallen ancestors, but it was dominated by the shame he felt in his own family's failure.
“Let me ask you then, Ervin.” said his mother, seeing her child lost in thought, “At what point did Ikona lose the war?”
Ervin considered the options: was the whole battle plan flawed? Was the failure of the chargers the decisive factor? Or was it simply the final moment when the rapids swept aside the Hatha warriors?
“I think-”
“Before you answer, Mukuru,” his mother interjected, “do not answer this question as the descendant of Hagnon Mukuru. If you answer this question wrong, it is a sign that you might be mature enough to fight a battle, but not enough to fight a war.”
Erwin paused. “First she asks me to think like a Mukuru, and now tells me not to?” In the end, he admitted defeat - “I don’t know.”
“Well, at least you aren’t wrong” she laughed as she realised she had expected too much of her child. He had plenty of time to come to the correct answer.
“Sleep now, child, you’ve been up too long.”