Chapter 64 – Assault

[Hannah]

Rhythmic war cries rang out through the night air as the draugr pulled on the ship oars in powerful rows. They were gliding across the lake as they made their way to the opposite side. The queen was still launching volleys of arrows into the night at targets only she could see, providing cover for the assault.

Hannah watched as red-eyed draugr began teeming out of the forest and posting up on the shore, leveling spears and returning volleys of their own at the approaching ships.

The Valkyrie flew into action. They shot out of the sky in a powerful dive bomb, slicing and cleaving through half a dozen draugr with each fly by, knocking down several others as powerful flaps from their wings. The dozen or so Valkyrie under the queen’s command made quick work of the shore, pushing back draugr and creating a landing zone.

The ships had speed and momentum as a final powerful row launched the boat up onto the shore crashing into any draugr who might have been left defending. The blue-eyed draugr poured out of the ships axes and shields at the ready as they charged into the forest where hundreds of defending draugr met their assault.

The queen spread out her six ethereal wings, taking to the skies above where she rained down further destruction with pinpoint accuracy, taking out anything that remotely resembled a commander.

Hannah joined the assaulting draugr on the ground, pushing into the forest behind a contingent of the soldiers and sending support fire over their shoulders, breaking defensive locks as her [Charge Shot] let loose her powerful explosive mana.

Hannah quickly took to the trees in a vain attempt at getting a better shot. She would jump from branch to branch sending volleys of her own into the battling draugr, only for several archers peppered throughout the forest to turn and aim at her exposed position in the trees.

Hannah groaned in annoyance as she jumped through the trees, her longbow getting caught in branches as she avoided volleys from what felt like every archer in the forest. Hannah jumped down back behind friendly lines. They were making a slow push forward into the forest. The lightning strike she saw had been much deeper. It was going to be a long while of fighting before they made it to Jack.

Progress was only manageable at the moment because Onem hadn’t made an appearance yet. Hannah knew why. He likely had his hands full with Jack. That didn’t comfort her though. Jack alone versus a boss mob could only end one way. Hannah had to get to him fast.

Hannah grit her teeth in frustration and started weaving a spell in the air. A large orb began to form just below the canopy of trees that blocked out the skies. Hannah hadn’t planned on using this ability at first. It was going to set everything on fire, and draugrs seemed especially flammable. She knew there would likely be casualties on both sides from using this in such close quarters, but honestly, she didn’t care – this whole entire dungeon could burn to the ground as far as she was concerned.

Hannah concentrated as she fed more and more of her mana into the orb that was growing noticeably harder for the enemies to ignore. Several draugr shied away from its radiant heat. The ability was called [Rain of Destruction], and to her satisfaction, it did just that. First she had to form the orb of her explosive mana over the desired location. Then she had to shoot it with an arrow of her own, bursting the orb.

Hannah formed the orb well behind enemy lines, and several draugr had set to attack it. For them it was like attacking a locked chest. Sure, their attempts to destroy it degraded it a bit, but they still couldn’t open it up. Hannah was the one with the key.

Hannah poured more of her mana into a [Charge Shot], sending it soaring across the battlefield and crashing into the orb of burning black and orange mana.

The world around it erupted in fire and explosions.

Several inflamed draugr threw themselves on top of others as the flames from Hannah’s explosion rained down on the battlefield. The blue-eyed draugr shied away from the fire, unwilling to push into the now on fire battlefield.

Hannah launched past the front lines, chugging a mana potion leading the charge deeper into the forest. That was enough for the draugr to rally behind as the front lines collapsed into chaos and Hannah spearheaded the charge deeper into enemy territory.

The battle continued on like that for several more exchanges. The pace grew noticeably quicker as Hannah set more and more of the forest on fire from her explosive AOE technique.

It quickly grew unmanageable as the fire roared throughout the forest.

Several large crystalline arrows sailed in from somewhere behind Hannah, weaving perfectly through the trees and landing at the spots the fires raged the strongest. Large crystalline structures erupted from wherever the arrows landed, radiating a deadly cold energy that quenched the consuming fires.

“It’s easy to lose yourself in the raging fires of battle, daughter.” Came the queen’s voice. “You must remember that you aren’t fighting this war by yourself.” She said in chastisement as she approached from behind.

“We aren’t making enough progress. Where the hell did this guy get so many troops? There weren’t this many last time I was here.” Hannah protested.

“It is a concerning thing, likely siphoning troops from Gurthoks main forces for a long while now. I suspect had we not showed up he would have launched his own assault on the king.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Hannah threw another glance at the ongoing battle. Now that the fires were no longer threatening to overtake the battlefield the draugr resumed their chaotic battle. Any semblance of front lines had faded away as the fighting spread throughout the entire forest.

“I’ll continue the fight here on the front lines. Take my Valkyrie and see if you can’t save your friend. I suspect we haven’t had to deal with Onem and Halldis thanks to him. The least I can do is see that we save him.” The queen said after a moment.

“My daughters, return to me.” The queen said in a gentle command.

Moments later Valkyrie descended from the forest canopy above, kneeling before the queen.

“Daughters. I shall take over the fighting on the front lines. Onem and Halldis are yet to make an appearance and still prowl these forests. It is likely they have been intercepted by Hannah's companion. Take Hannah with you and see to it he is rescued. Do not engage with Onem or Halldis until I am able to accompany you.”

“My queen.” They all said in unison, before rising from their kneeled position.

Eyla, the Valkyrie who had carried her around before, stepped up to Hannah. Hannah looked out at the Valkyries, their golden armor marred in the black blood of the draugr.

“Are you ready little sister?” Eyla asked, not waiting for a response as she grabbed Hannah and took to the skies.

The Valkyrie soared through the skies with a deadly grace, weaving between volleys of arrows that seemed incapable of reaching them.

“I think it was over there.” Hannah shouted above the wind, pointing in a direction closer to the mountainside where she thought she saw the lightning bolt.

Her point was punctuated as a dangerous black bar of energy shot out of the forest, cleaving through tree tops like butter.

“I believe you are correct sister.” Eyla said as the Valkyrie fell into formation, flying towards the action.

They landed in a sea of draugr corpses.

Hannah glanced around, unable to make heads or tails of who did what. Some were missing heads, some had suffered from an attack that left them cut in half, others were scorched and burned alive. These draugr had been caught up in a fight far out of their league.

Hannah’s eyes fell to a spot on the ground, a crater of destruction where the ground had been shattered by some sort of explosive power. The telltale sign of Jack’s storm step.

“What sort of chaos took place here.” Eyla said from her side as she stepped over corpses, investigating the destruction.

Another black beam of energy shot out from the forest and everyone ducked as it tore through the trees, cutting them in half and raining down on the battlefield.

“Wait!” Eyla screamed as Hannah took off in the direction of the fight.

Hannah pushed out into a clearing, killing several straggling draugr as she pushed towards where she thought the fight was taking place.

She saw Onem first. At first glance he seemed perfectly fine. He was standing there, staff in hand, staring into the forest.

And then he began to step backwards. Hannah noticed the concerned look on his face first. She followed his gaze to the tree line as a man appeared.

Jack walked out of the forest, and Hannah felt her heart skip a beat.

He’s still alive.

He didn’t look great, mind you. He was still in much better shape than the last time she saw him though, covered in blood and a sword stuck through his shoulder.

It looked like he earned his fair share of cuts and scrapes from the fight so far, at least compared to Onem, who looked to be unscathed. Yet Onem was the one backing away as Jack walked out of the forest.

Jack was so nonchalant as he walked towards Onem, it even managed to unnerve her. His daggers hung loosely at his side. His head was tilted and he fixed Onem with a sharp, almost all knowing gaze as he walked the draugr down.

Worst was his smile. This wasn’t the smile of the maniac she let loose weeks ago. This wasn’t the smile of madness or bloodlust. Hannah shivered as she recognized the smile Jack wore. This was who she had asked him to become. Who she thought she needed him to be. This was the smile of a man perfectly absorbed in his element. Jack had found his way back to who he used to be. Back to Rodeo’s perfect killer.

She could hear Jack breathing heavily as he stepped closer and closer to Onem, who started to fall into a stance.

Jack was on top of him in a flurry of blows before the draugr could raise his staff to defend himself. Hannah’s eyes widened in shock at the speed. Her Focus stat was high, but even she had trouble keeping track of the frantic battle.

Onem delivered powerful counters of his own, but Jack met each one with a perfect dodge and careful deflection as he rolled the momentum of his speed into perfect strikes aimed at Onem. Shadow armor creeped up to intercept every blow.

Onem let loose another powerful blast of energy that was enough to push Jack back. Jack narrowly dodged the black bar of destruction and began his lazy, nonchalant walk back towards Onem. Hannah grimaced.

Jack wouldn’t stop until one of them was dead. She knew that much.

Hannah aimed a [Charged Shot] at Onem and dumped half her mana core into the ability.

Her arrow tore across the forest clearing, but a black shadow came screeching out of the woods and intercepted the arrow, spiraling around it in a rapid fashion until her charge shot disappeared completely.

The shadow stopped before Hannah and the Valkyrie, taking a wraith-like form that resembled the witch Halldis who had imprisoned the Valkyrie.

“My precious Valkyrie, you’ve done the favor of returning yourself to me. I must thank you.” She cackled.

The Valkyrie all had their weapons drawn and leveled as Halldis approached the group.

“Sister, we have orders not to engage. We must rescue your friend and retreat immediately.” Eyla hissed from behind her.

Hannah glanced over at Onem and Jack as they exchanged another flurry of blows.

“You’re welcome to try stopping those two if you want. Asides, I’ve got unfinished business with this bitch.” Hannah said, sporting a smile of her own at Halldis.

Hannah hadn’t just been sitting around the past few weeks waiting for the Queen’s armies to be ready. No. She had been training with the battle-hardened Valkyrie, and the queen, who was no slouch with a bow herself.

While Hannah had to ask Jack to return to his old form, the killer he used to be. Hannah didn’t have that same problem. She had never allowed herself to get rusty. If anything, she trained all the harder to cover for Jack once he became more… lackadaisical. And once she came to the Tower, her lethality had only increased.

Hannah reached into her void sack, pulling out three short bows and cast [Bow-Link] on each one of them, sending them into the skies above.

She wasn’t leaving Jack a second time, and she would kill anyone who got in her way.

She charged at Halldis.