Max cursed. The creature hit the shield wall and pushed through mauling warriors caught in its path. Too many warriors in his way prevented Max from getting another clean shot at the beast. Handheld weapons would have to kill the creature now. Another monster breached the elves’ line near Max. He heard an elf’s armor crunch under its blow. A gigantic orc, four times larger than the average tusked creature, loomed over them. Upon seeing it, Max watched the bald, gray-skinned monster fix his eyes on him and the crystal. The large orc bellowed and swatted at another elf who charged at its waist. Max heard the elf’s ribs break under the powerful backhand. Another elf attacked, running in swiftly behind his companion. Max watched helplessly as the elf stabbed the monster in its middle. Before the elf could strike again, the orc’s large hands had grabbed the elf’s head and burst it open like a ripe berry. The elf’s body fell to the ground. More demons and monsters crashed into the elves and warriors around them.
Using the power in the crystal, Max charged the giant orc and thrust energy out at it. Where the magic normally exploded on impact, the energy from Max’s crystal passed cleanly through the giant’s chest. For a moment he could see through the orc’s insides to the fighting dragons in the sky behind. Then it fell to the ground, crushing the back end of a wolf-like monster who’d almost reached Max, much to his surprise. Britt ran in front of him and lopped off the beast’s head before it could escape.
From the corner of his eye, Max saw a dark shape fly past. He swiveled to see a demon landing among the warriors near him and Britt. Max charged the demon, throwing bursts of light with his crystal as he did. The demon flew overhead, dodging each one as they came. The winged creature came in directly on him. Max’s only thought was to save Britt, who stood behind him. He had to kill the thing before it reached them.
At full speed, the demon descended on them. Max grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands. With the crystal held in his fingers against the grip of his sword, he swung at the demon. Misjudging the distance, he realized his blade would fall short and miss the attacking monster. Trying to access the crystal’s powers partway through the swing of his sword, Max saw a flash of light shoot out from the tip of his blade. The energy hit just behind the demon’s body, cutting off the outer half of its wings. The demon dropped, crashing into the ground in front of them.
Not understanding exactly what he’d just done, Max saw his opportunity to kill the creature. He thrust forward with the tip of his sword directly at the demon’s head. With lighting speed, the demon swiped its arm across Max’s sword, knocking his killing blow to the side. Suddenly the demon sprung up with its spear-like fingers aimed at Max’s chest. Without time to react, Max braced for the piercing grip to shoot through his leather armor. A blade cut down through the demon’s outstretched arm, separating it from its body. The demon screamed, letting out a hellish noise that pierced Max’s ears and drown out all other sounds. The creature’s momentum carried him into Max and they fell, chest to chest. As the demon’s weight crushed down on Max, he managed to pulse a small amount of energy through his body. The flow was enough to push the beast off of him. The demon’s body whiplashed away from Max and he saw a sword pop through the demon’s head. The piercing shriek stopped instantly and the blade sticking out from the center of its face pulled back and swiped quickly, cutting off its head. Max pushed himself away from the demon as its lifeless body fell to the ground. Behind it, Britt stood with her bloodied sword in hand. She reached down and took Max’s hand, pulling him to his feet.
“You okay?” she asked.
Max nodded. He was shaken but could see that their combined efforts had wiped out a massively destructive creature. The Rollo Islanders had managed to kill the brindle beast that had broken their ranks without being picked off. They’d quickly reformed their shield wall. All around them, monsters in widespread and random groups continued to pepper their defenses.
Max and Britt again faced a group charge. Max prepared to use the crystal to pick them off one at a time. Use your energy wisely, he thought, remembering Nadir’s last words to him. I’m not getting direct hits each time and that’s wasting valuable energy, Max told himself. Do something different. Then Max brought his sword back into both hands. He held the crystal against the blade’s handle and attempted to recreate what he’d done to the demon. Summoning the magic in the way he’d used it independent of the sword, Max now channeled that energy into his sword.
The bright light rushed out of the tip of his sword, continuing as if he’d shot it with his hands. It exploded into the group, dropping three of the beasts. Two trolls charged with large axes. It was too late for Max to try anything new, so he attempted to defend himself as best he could. He brought his sword up to block the trolls’ axes as they fell at him. Astonishingly, his blade still glowed and cut through the steel curve of one battle axe. Reacting quickly, he slashed out at the troll. Still pressing the crystal into the blade, Max was able to easily cut through the large creature. Britt blocked the attack of the second and Max quickly cut it down with her.
How am I doing that? he wondered. Whatever magic he was transferring into his sword was not the same magic Anders used to extend his blade. Instead, somehow Max had infused his sword with energy. It cut through a steel axe with one swing and a troll’s thick torso with another. With renewed energy, Max took on all of the creatures who charged them.
Consumed with setting his sights on the next monster, Max successfully cleared a pocket around them. When he stopped to look around, he saw a fight nearby that was going much worse for the others. Fairnheir bounded into the ranks behind the last of the charging demons and monsters. To his left, elves had become spread apart while fighting. Seeing the next wave of fairnheir bursting forward, Max returned to Britt’s side. They prepared to face them together.
***
Natalia withdrew her blade from the wraith’s body. She whirled around to see an enormous black bull with three sets of sharpened horns wrecking through the ranks to her right. Arrows and spears stuck from its body like porcupine quills, but it continued to gore Rollo warriors. Dashing with elven speed, Natalia used her crystal’s energy to place a barrier between the enraged bull’s face and the people who were being attacked. The barrier still pushed them back, but it gave them some separation from the bull’s six spear-like horns. Natalia summoned a spell, something that she knew would drain most of the energy inside her. After learning how to syphon the life from something dying, Natalia knew she could replace what she used now with that of the bull once she took it down.
Rapidly approaching the creature, she withdrew the shield barrier in front of the bull’s horns and prepared to use her spell. Natalia released the spell, ramming it into the bull’s side. The spell spread through the bull with such force that its heart was separated from the arteries supplying its blood. The six-horned bull toppled to the ground and Natalia quickly absorbed the last of its dying energy into her sapphire.
Looking for her next opponent, Natalia scanned the sky. Anders and Maija worked together in a deadly fight against one of Merglan’s dragonriders. A dragonrider who’d joined their fight fell among the chaos taking place in the sky. Natalia cursed, seeing that Merglan hadn’t even bothered to ride out to join them. Why is he toying with them? she wondered, redirecting her attention to the fighting on the ground again.
She saw a demon fly in low over the Rollo warriors. Some were able to block it with their shields, but the creature slashed its claws into many as it passed. Natalia ran. As she trailed the demon, she saw Nadir leap up and grab the demon by its neck. As he caught it, he thrust his crystal through the beast’s head and fell back down into the crowd of warriors. She stopped, turning her attention to another bear-like beast charging at her section of the shield wall. Meeting the creature before it could kill dozens more warriors, she slid between its legs and cut the brindle beast down the middle. Its momentum carried it into the warriors and it still managed to crush several under its dead weight, but she’d stopped it from destroying more.
When she rose to her feet out in front of the warriors, she saw the next wave of enemies coming at them. Fairnheir, some larger than the biggest she’d ever seen, were running at them with intense speed. Like the monsters that had attacked before them, the giant hound-like creatures lacked organization, but were as blood-thirsty, if not more so, than the rest. She caught a glimpse of the entire army before coming back within the shield wall. The monsters who’d attacked continued to crash into the ranks down to the elves. They were losing too many warriors and elves. If nothing changed, they would be overrun by fairnheir before the orcs even arrived.
Before the bounding fairnheir reached their lines, Natalia thought, We're going to need to retreat into the city if we're going to last through the day. She attempted to mind-meld with a dragonrider from the north who flew nearby. At first the rider didn’t let her in, but when she shouted, he heard her. We can’t hold them off in the open like this. You must help me spread the word of retreat to all of our forces.
Not waiting to see if the rider planned to do as she asked, Natalia ran out in front of the shield wall to meet the charging fairnheir. Using the energy in her sapphire to charge her speed and strength, Natalia put her blade to work. At first, she took them as they charged, but she lost her effectiveness as their numbers grew and they began to charge past her. Thinking quickly, Natalia chased after one in the lead and jumped on top of the hellhound. She grabbed its ear and pulled hard. The massive hound’s head came back, snapping as it tried to bite her. The beast continued to charge forward, not steering to the right as she wanted.
Next, she tried to mind-meld with it, but the fairnheir had been protected from magic attacks. With one last attempt to stop the lead beast before its pack reached the retreating warriors, she took the crystal in her hand and pressed it down against the back of the fairnheir’s head. Suddenly she could feel some distant connection into the beast’s mind. The fairnheir resisted at first, but when she pressed harder, Natalia finally made it turn. As the beast ran across in front of the others, she cut them down with her sword. Soon the beast resisted and corrected its course.
Damned creatures, she thought and plunged her sword deep into the back of its skull. She flew forward jumping off and hitting the ground running. She tried to cut more down before they hit the fleeing front lines, but there were too many.
Among the few who were braced and ready to fight, Natalia saw Red and the warriors around him defend themselves against the giant hounds. Nadir worked his crystal’s magic to pick off the hounds as they came and Natalia ran in next to those fighting with Red. She called to him, “Red, get them back to the city!”
Red hefted his axe from a dead fairnheir and shouted, “There are more dangers that lurk in the streets!”
“There may be some dangers in the city, but there are far more out here! If we go back into the city, we can use the buildings to strengthen our wall. We can use them as barriers.”
Red groaned as he slammed his shield into a hound’s snapping jaws.
“Look around you, they’ve already been given the command,” Natalia called, trying to get him to follow the others. When he continued hacking at the fairnheir, she abandoned him to help the others.
Natalia worked to beat back the fairnheir and soon helped the retreating Rollo warriors pile into the city streets. With buildings to serve as their initial barrier before attackers reached their shields, they had a better chance of holding off the beasts. Using a window ledge and the uneven outer surface of the dried clay walls, Natalia climbed the nearest single-story house and called out for archers to join her. Natalia fired energy down at the gathering hounds and killed them in greater numbers than before. Soon she saw Red enter the city and join his entire force so that they could fortify themselves using the streets and structures of Aquina.
Seeing the other crystal bearers climbing onto buildings and defending themselves more successfully, Natalia began to think they could hold off the beasts. Yet, from the thick crowds in the streets, Natalia heard cries of horror. She spun around to see black wings rising from a hunched back as a demon devoured a Rollo Island warrior. The dangers from within the city had not gone away, but at least here, there were fewer than on the open Plains. Natalia jumped down from the building and ran to take on the creature herself.
Chapter 96
Struggling to Survive
Britt heaved her sword in an arching swing and sank it deep into a fairnheir’s skull. Another bright flash of light caught her attention as Max attempted to push back the hounds that continued to descend on them. The elves and humans fought desperately to ward off the beasts while demons, wraiths and monstrous creatures still rushed in. A strange voice had sounded in Britt’s head telling her to retreat to the city. Without question, all of the fighters around her began to obey the command while struggling to keep the attackers from breaking through their ranks.
“Max!” she shouted and rushed to where he was swinging his sword wildly. Britt hadn’t seen this level of bravery from him before. He’d always been bold, but now he stood out in front of the retreating elves taking on beasts as they came. What is he doing? He’s going to be killed, she thought, preparing to strike at the devilish hounds.
Leaping over the bodies behind Max, Britt could see Max cutting cleanly through each of the fairnheir that charged at him with a single pass of his blade. The sword in his hand appeared to be glowing as he wielded it with a two-handed grip. Britt stopped just behind him, watching him for a moment. He lacked perfect form, but his strikes were well placed and his sword was more deadly than she’d known possible. The strongest men among us could cut through a fairnheir with one pass once, maybe two times in a row, but not like this, she wondered in amazement.
A slew of arrows vaulted from elves who had collected in the streets behind them had taken down the beasts around them. After a moment, Britt regained her awareness. “Max!” she shouted, finally getting his attention. “Come back. They’ve all made it into the city.”
Max turned from the pile of bodies around him and ran toward her. Britt loped just ahead of him, reaching the elven blockade in the closest street corridor. She looked out at the field she and Max had just left. Dead elves, humans and monsters littered the gap between the charging fairnheir and the outer edge of the city. The demons and beasts who’d survived the initial attack did not follow their retreat right away, instead hanging back, waiting for the bulk of the fairnheir to join them.
Max soon reached her and they slipped through a gap the elves created for them. Britt and Max pushed into the crowded streets. Here they heard clashing and screaming from the elves who’d gone the farthest into the city.
Britt looked over the heads of the elves crowding the streets and saw a furry back moving into the group. She glanced over her shoulder. A wave of fairnheir bounded in toward the city. Her heart raced. What do I do? she thought. A brindle-furred beast stood on its hind legs towering over the elves. A dozen arrows landed in its chest causing it to topple over backward. She made her choice in that moment. She turned back to face the fairnheir.
Max stood at her side as she stepped in behind the shields blocking the street’s entrance. The elves had stepped up to create a shield barrier between the two outward-facing walls of each building along the street. The fairnheir were nearly on them now. Britt raised her sword to stab over the shields when the hounds showed up. The sea of black fur rolling in waves as the fairnheir bounded in at them struck the walls and Britt was instantly knocked onto her back. She looked up from the ground to see elves bracing behind their shields. Black muzzles snapped at the spears and swords as they stabbed.
Britt felt a hand grab her leather-armored shoulder and start dragging her back. She scooted past several rows of elves, deeper into the streets and then stood up. Max’s grip on her shoulder helped pull her to her feet. Britt wrapped her arms around him. They held each other in an embrace for several seconds. She could feel the intense beating of her heart against his as they breathed heavily. “Thank you,” she whispered. She looked at the frontline where elves and fairnheir struggled against each other in a shoving match. For the moment they were safe.
“Are you alright?” Max asked.
