The invasion of Zagliastrua chapter 5- Blood and fray...what a perfect day!
The descent toward the monster army seemed never-ending and the screams of the allies were alternated with loud sounds, emanating from the aerial clash between Hisey and the crystalline Lord. Other powerful beings had started to anticipate the battle and had begun to clash far ahead on the battlefield, Londse among them.
Meanwhile, the enemies had begun to launch their offensives with magical and non-magical projectiles. Soon, boulders made of earth and stone began to be hurled in their directions.
A large boulder headed toward them and Hurd, who was in charge of the defense in the platoon, immediately intervened
"RAISE THE SHIELDS!"
In no time a dozen soldiers in charge of the defense promptly raised their shields, which glowed with plasma essence, a path common to them all, creating a small dome around the platoon and those near them.
The projectile shattered on the plasma surface without causing the slightest damage and the remaining debris was reduced to ashes.
As the rain of boulders and magic projectiles continued, Leind saw that the other allied groups were also defending themselves very well, some intercepting the projectiles before they came down, some defending themselves as his platoon was doing, and some even sending the projectiles back to the sender.
As this was hardly the time to be distracted, Leind went back to look straight ahead, just in time to see that finally their artilleries had also begun to go on the offensive and were hurling giant blocks of compacted essence at the enemy ranks.
Their attack proved how diverse, both in type and power, was the enemy army by making visible how they handled both offensive and defensive actions. Certain parts of the enemy army were broken through by the heavy blows of Allied artillery while others were not even scratched by the various heavy blows, but rather counterattacked with staggering force.
As they advanced, Leind could see a variety of hostile magical creatures looming in their direction. He glimpsed some nagas, half-human half-snakes creatures, originally from Cartcussa, who were said to have magic very similar to the one from the continent of Deloa.
Near these stood the primitive trolls, 9 feet tall and armed with what they found in their paths, such as tree trunks or rocks. Clever like a rock but famous for their powerful regeneration.
One could see creatures with various traits, animalistic, human-like, elemental…
Truthfully some of these creatures he had never seen neither in real life nor in books... but what caught his attention were the titans, which towered above all these creatures. The colossal monsters were slowly growing larger and larger with proximity. Fortunately, they were still very far away from them.
Other projectiles, magical and non, were deflected as they descended.
"HOLD FORMATION, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
The plasma shield was still erected when they collided with the enemy lines and numerous beasts attacked them, to no avail. The shield dome was composed of the same essence of numerous elite soldiers, Hurd foremost among them, and would not give way for a few well-struck blows.
"STAND!"
A crowd of creatures was forming around them, biting, scratching, striking, trying to penetrate their defenses.
Leind knew that the time would soon come to…
"NOW!"
At that command, the defenders released the plasma essence outside, hitting all the enemies huddled in front of their shields, with a wave made of red energy. Now was the time to strike at all the enemy, injured or unbalanced by the shockwave, and with a shout, he and all his comrades jumped into the fray.
Leind mulled his sword striking numerous enemies, heads were falling, limbs were flying, and his platoon was mowing down enemies like weeds in a field. The exhilaration was taking hold of him and, forgetting for brief moments all his thoughts, he concentrated on killing as many things as the edge of his blades could meet.
A bit tired from all the slashing Leind halted himself to regain some breath and composure. In the moment of adrenaline, he got separated from his platoon and now found himself in the middle of the fray. It was there that one of the many skeletons, which he had seen during the lords' arrival, stood before Leind looking at him through his empty skull, which was permeated with Essence on the greenish color. The monster was clothed in nothing but rags, its jaw was dislocated and hung from the skull by only its left half, and cracks were visible on all the bones of the poor skeleton. As a weapon, it held a broadsword which was worn in several places. Lastly, its movements were anything but fluid.
He was certainly not doing well, even for a reanimated body, but Leind would not let his guard down.
He parried a simple vertical slash from the skeleton with ease and, without waiting for a second blow, swiping the dwarven blade across the worn broadsword, cut the monster in two halves at chest level.
Once it fell to the ground, the green essence left the skeleton's body and headed north of the fray, probably to the sorcerer who had used it. Leind was sure that every necromancer had dozens, if not hundreds, of skeletons at their command, so if he had succeeded in killing the one that had given life to the skeleton he had just eliminated, the contribution he would have made would surely be significant.
The fray that was before him did not seem so risky, there were beasts of lesser danger such as the nagas and other skeletons but no groups of cultists, fearsome beasts, or lords nearby. Moreover, the power of reanimated corpse depended in part on the body but largely on the necromancer, and what he had faced was no big deal.
He could do it, he knew it.
Without wasting any more time he jumped into the fray following the essence, which was quickly disappearing. Soon before him, stood four more skeletons, and unwilling to back down he soaked his blades with his path, the sand essence, making them longer and sharper.
The four bodies had no way to do anything, for within moments Leind had slaughtered them all with two consecutive strikes. The essences abandoned these bodies and, as it happened before, went in the same direction as the first one.
The fray was chaotic and at every step more skeletons popped up, as weak as the first ones, one time he found himself face to face with a wolf-like creature that was, however, quickly distracted by an ally nearby.
At last, the Essences, as well as Leind, reached their possessor, a cultist in the middle of the battlefield surrounded by, surprise surprise, other skeletons, all of them in worn armor.
The necromancer wore a black robe, a clear reference to the Lord he followed, and the amethyst-colored pendant, common to all cultists. He was bent over, intent on preparing some kind of dark spell.
Leind hoped to be able to remain unnoticed for that minimal time to close the distance between them but, as soon as the essences returned to the necromancer's hands as if he was updated on the events by them, he turned in Leind's direction. His black and grey eyes were on him.
Aaah crap.
Emitting a shout, which had little of human, the cultist ordered the skeletons, whom he had as guards, to go straight for him. In response, Leind hopped to the side and, soaking his blades again in sand essence, began to destroy the first skeletons that came near him.
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As he was about to strike another blow, an arrow pierced his armor backrest, sticking lightly in his shoulder. A sharp pain expanded from the point of impact, causing him to lose grip on the dwarven blade. At the same time, he was forced to take a few steps back to avoid being too exposed to probable blows from the other skeletons.
He had been distracted thinking that the necromancer had skeletons only close by but had not thought of support from a distance, and this had cost him a wound.
Moreover, the necromancer, as soon as the essence of the other skeletons came to him, sent it back to the fallen bodies, which started to recover, though with missing body parts, ready to face Leind again. The fight had become more annoying than expected, he had to close it in the fastest time possible.
Normally, a caster's weak point was the caster himself, so Leind come to the conclusion of closing the distance to kill the necromancer to avoid being bound to only destroy his skeletons to the point of exhaustion.
Imbuing his leg muscles with life energy, Leind sprinted forward past the raised skeletons who, too slowly, tried to hit him, to no avail.
An arrow grazed his cheek but undaunted he ran toward the necromancer who, surprised by this quick series of actions, pulled a dagger out of his robe to prepare for hand-to-hand combat.
Their two blades impacted, and to Leind's surprise, the cultist's dagger held his blade soaked in sand essence. He was expecting to cut him and his dagger in half...Either the enemy also knew how to put essence in the blade or that material was really hard to cut.
Still, in order not to let the moment slip away, he closed the distance, left his blade, grabbed and twisted the necromancer's arm, and circulating additional life energy in his left arm, struck the cultist in the center of the chest with all his might.
The blow was made to take all the air at once out of the enemy’s lungs and the necromancer was thrown some feet away from Leind with his mouth open but without making a sound.
Such inconsiderate use of one's life energy to enhance the body was having its effects and Leind started to feel numb, but he had to finish it before the enemy would rise up again. He grabbed back his sword two-handed and hurled himself at the necromancer. Leind was about to reach him when a giant shadow darkened the enemy and the nearby area. Leind had only time to stop and back away when a huge foot crushed the cultist and whatever else was nearby.
It was the damn Titan!
He was so screwed…
How had he not noticed that the thing was practically there? Had he put too much effort into his fight that he had not paid attention to his surroundings? That was a good way to throw away his life...
Leind, trying to quickly regroup his thoughts, took a few leaps backward but a giant hand grabbed him too quickly for him to do anything else. Now he found himself trapped by huge fingers of flesh and stone.
The creature's grip was too strong, and Leind could not extricate himself from the Titan's hand that held him firmly. The Titan, who had a grimace-like expression, had brought him up to the height of its face and was slowly opening its mouth, with strands of saliva hung from its sharp fangs. Leind could look down the entire pharyngeal tract of the hideous creature, and if he had not done something immediately, he would have seen it much closer than ever.
Although it was risky Leind decided to resort to his life energy again and circulated it back into his arms in combination also with the use of his sand path, trying to increase his strength to free himself. The fingers holding him moved imperceptibly, a meager result that had changed nothing in the titan's movements.
Leind was almost under the monster's teeth, panic assailing him when a shadow passed in front of him with such speed that he could not tell who or what it was. Straining with his neck to look up, he managed to see the figure, which was none other than General Londse who, having reached the height of the titan's forehead, struck him violently.
Leind had to close his eyes from the electric shocks emitted by the general's blow; if he could have, he would have closed his ears as well given the deafening noise, but since he had escaped a one-way trip into the stomach of that monstrosity he resisted the urge to complain.
The titan's fingers, which held him steadily, finally relaxed, allowing him to get out of the firm grip. Hoisting himself onto the monster's knuckles Leind observed the scene. The titan, after the blow it had received, had made no sound, instead, it had slowly and inexorably begun to wobble between forward and backward.
Londse, apparently having no time to waste, after taking a glance at Leind, threw himself forward with his own body, and landing on the giant beast's face drove it brutally, accompanied by further electric shocks, toward the ground.
If before he had done everything to get out of the titan's fingers, now Leind held on to them as he fell, while a sense of dizziness clutched his stomach, and his view of the battlefield abruptly diminished.
The monster's lifeless body fell on the enemy units, crushing dozens of them, and shook the earth on its impact with the ground, raising dust and hurling debris into the air. General Londse in a short time had eliminated a colossal unit and had directed its fall over other enemies, crushing them.
He was at another level of strength and strategy...
"LEIND!" his superior shout awakens him from his thoughts "Stop sticking to the britches of this greaseball, take your blade, and go back to your platoon, you've gone too far!"
Finishing speaking Londse tossed Leind’s blade back to him and disappeared in the fray as he came.
Leind recovered from his fall and began to look back. The general was indeed right, he got too carried away, and although there were other allied troops in the area, his team had fallen far behind him.
Fortunately for him, the platoon was coming in their direction. Hurd was the first to see him and shouted "Here's the big shot, what great news! Now you too like to leave the ranks like Akser. Come on get back in!" Although from the angry tone, it was clear how his friend was relieved to see him safe.
Leind with displeased face, and without uttering a word, moved back into position.
Akser was absent, as usual, he abandoned the group after the first few minutes of battle preferring a more murderous style. Why he had decided to stay with them instead of other platoons more suited to his style was a mystery.
Now again a group moving as one man, they threw themselves back into the fray.
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The sun had now risen and was illuminating the battlefield, where the war continued to rage. After hours and hours, it was still not easy to tell who had the advantage or not. By now Leind had lost count of how many enemies they had faced but it had been a long time since his arms ached so much and his breath was so short.
As they continued in their advance Leind noticed and was also noticed by a cultist, which from the intricately and elegantly dress, he guessed was one of the higher ranks.
Without muttering a word the enemy sorcerer raised himself in the air toward them. Using strands of essence, scarlet red in color, the enemy grabbed from the air numerous magical projectiles which were crossing the skies, tossed both by allied and enemy units.
What is he…
Leind had not the time to complete the question as the answer came soon. The enemy united in a single sphere all the projectiles and hurled that deadly blow toward them.
"WE CANNOT STOP THIS ALONE, THE DEFENSE OF THE WHOLE PLATOON IS NEEDED HERE!"
Hurd's shout, with a clear note of panic, echoed through their ranks. Evidently, he also knew how this was a very risky shot. Using the same essence path was very easy to amplify one's powers but combining essences of different types, especially for defense, required not only practice and talent but also time, which they did not have at the moment.
This only left time to create a shield with one's power that would crumble to such a devastating attack... Perhaps the best thing to do was to try to deflect the blow with a combination of attack and defense.
"HURD, YOU DEFEND, WE TRY TO MAKE HIM LOSE POWER BY ATTACKING!"
Leind was shouting at the top of his lungs to be heard by the whole platoon as well
"NO! CREATE ADDITIONAL LAYERS TO THE SHIELD WITH YOUR ESSENCE!"
To be honest, Leind did not expect that response from his senior comrade, but they could not split up at such a critical moment, and although he did not agree with him at all, he tried to create a defensive layer with his sand essence. As many did the same, and little by little the plasma shield was surrounded, below and above, by other layers of essences, all different from each other.
The projectile impacted their defenses quickly piercing through the various outer layers. Finally, reaching the plasma layer it seemed to halt his path.
"RESIST!"
For a few moments, Leind thought the defense would hold, that they were going to deflect the projectile. Then the red essence strands holding that large projectile together broke, triggering an explosion that wiped out every remaining barrier.
A wave of energy crashed over them and Leind was thrown backward by the impact, the pain was making his mind go wild, and soon after he lost consciousness.
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Leind woke up coughing, his mouth full of dirt, he felt pain all over his body, his ears were ringing and, as he tried to open his eyes, he noticed how his vision was blurred.
Trying to get up was hard as his muscles were shot through with strong twinges whenever he moved.
"Finally...awake..."
Hurd's voice. His friend was near him!
With strong efforts and lots of pain, Leind hoisted his own torso up so that he could see his companion.
Hurd was on his knees in front of him, bleeding and full of wounds, part of his leg had been severed cleanly, and he had countless scratches on his arms and neck. A blade stuck in his abdomen and his closed eye was covered with blood. Leind, mustering all his will and strength, forced himself up to his feet and went near Hurd
"HURD! What happened?!"
"The war..Leind...... not...over..."
"A healer! Please...someone!..."
As he screamed he turned to see if anyone could help him... but the first thing he noticed was that around them, the ground was full of bodies of werewolves, nagas, trolls, and Medriot knows what other creatures.
Hurd had protected him while he was unconscious…while he was helpless Hurd was giving his life to protect the idiot. Tears of anger and helplessness began to flow from Leind's eyes.
"Hurd! Stay with me, you will live through this..."
The comrade stood momentarily silent, then looked up and stared at him as he was always used to do.
"Promise me...Borderat...when...finished."
"Sure buddy, we'll get drunk from dawn till night.. everything will be on me..."
He was able to barely speak as tears were profusely flowing down his face.
Hinting a smile Hurd closed his eyes, still standing on his knees.
In that shitty place, in a stupid war, his friend, comrade, and mentor had just died.
Resting his head on Hurd's forehead, Leind screamed his grief and frustration to the sky, while the war was still raging.