the armor on their opponent’s feet. Their glittering armor was all but gone now. only the real stuff remained, and he saw as they bit and scratched that they were wounding each other deeply, causing blood to pour from the cuts. It fell like scarlet rain in great drops from the gray sky. almost at once the injuries healed. The dragons didn’t seem to notice that they were bleeding all over the field. An involuntary chill ran along his spine, and he looked to see Legon start to engage the Iumenta Venefica.
Arkin felt his lungs burn as his broad sword severed a man’s spine. This was not his kind of fighting. he was more used to playing hide-and-seek before he killed someone. The constant exertion was getting to him. It was getting harder to stand as well. this area was all rock, and neither army was making any headway. The ground was littered with bodies and, even worse, their entrails. it slopped on his boots and made the flat rock slippery. All his wards were also being pushed to their max. he was losing people left, right, and center. the Empire had a higher Venefica to normal soldier ratio than the resistance, and that meant casualties on a large scale. He was doing everything he could to keep his people alive, and sadly the more men he lost the easier it got.
Arkin ran up to a man in all black wooden armor with some sort of cheese cloth over his face. Arkin swung at him and the man raised his sword with surprising speed.
“He must be trained in the Jezeer,” he thought.
This whole unit that they were fighting was like this. they all had the cloth over their faces and each was amazingly fast, and they didn’t back down. Their skill was formidable, but they weren’t Iumenta. His opponent was gaining ground and Arkin had to duck so as to not lose his head. he tried to change his style and trip up the soldier. Nothing. The soldier countered him easily, almost playfully. Arkin knew the man would be protected with wards form the Iumenta, so he couldn’t use magic.
Pain erupted across his chest as the enemy slashed a shallow wound across him, slicing his pectoral muscle and vein beds. He staggered back as blood rushed out of his chest. the man was coming up fast now, not wanting to waste time. He clutched his chest and tried vainly to stop the onslaught. he fell back landing on his tail bone, feeling it crack as it hit. The man was over him now and raised his sword for the death blow. In that moment he saw the flick of light, the flick that said that the Venefica protecting the soldier was dead. Arkin shot his hand forward and sent a fire spell at the man’s head. It evaporated in a cloud of blood, bone, and brains that spattered his face. There was a metallic taste in his mouth; he had forgotten to close it before the spell hit. he rolled on his side and retched, seeing the blood from his chest soak the ground. He blacked out.
Keither took in the field before him. it was an epic story gone horribly wrong. His ears cringed at the sound of grinding metal from the dragons. there was no progress being made there. Then there was the sound of spotters gasping or shrieking, then falling dead as their wives or husbands were killed in battle. The river in the center of the field no longer appeared to be running with water, but he knew that it was foolish to think that it was all blood.
Both sides were taking heavy casualties. they had gotten their wish. the forces were equal and as such neither gained ground. this battle would not have a true victor. His eyes were getting used to the flash of magic, and as he looked through the seeing glass he saw Legon fighting an Iumenta Venefica. he was using that large sword and both were sending spells in rapid succession at each other, but it looked like Legon was slowly winning.
Barnin’s unit was with Legon. The tall one, Ankle, was fighting a man. the soldier fell and tried to get up, but Ankle thrust down, stabbing the man in the chest. Keither saw the tip of the sword exit the soldier’s lower back instead of his chest. He saw another of Barnin’s unit on the ground, holding his hands up futilely as he tried to keep a horse from trampling him. the horse was trained well and reared up on its back legs and drove its front hooves into his chest and abdomen again and again. Keither shook his head and looked away. He noticed Sara and the Elves’ chief medical officer standing by them.
Sara was a medic, and most of those were busy at the moment, but she only knew how to fix things with magic and even then only minor wounds. she would learn more over time, but for this battle she was going to be most useful at the end when men returned with scratches and other small injuries.
He reconnected with the rest of command. the problem was dragons. they were evenly set, but with the somewhat tight air space they were being forced to fight in, only about half could engage at any given time while the others circled over their sections of the army, strengthening wards. It was rare for dragons to die in battle, but often they would get hurt and have to retreat. this wasn’t a problem in this fight; all they had to do was get close to being truly hurt and then fly back away from the fight and rest.
Sara interrupted him. “The lights from the magic are something else, aren’t they?”
He nodded his agreement.
Sara knew she shouldn’t be bothering Keither, but she needed to get her mind off the battle. it was so gruesome and Sasha would have been no help since she was too busy helping Legon. The Elves’ chief medical officer was next to her and she was feeling a little uncomfortable. She couldn’t remember his name but he had remembered hers, of course.
He spoke to her. “Are you ok? You look a little nauseated.”
“Oh, I’m fine, thank you. It’s just the flashing light from the fight, and the blood, and the flying colored things in the air. ok, well, I guess everything.”
He nodded grimly. “It has the ability to turn one’s stomach. the light especially. They can make epileptics have seizures just by looking at them.”
“They can? That’s horrible.” She was trying to remember what that was. she knew it was important. She vaguely remembered learning about it not too long ago.
She pushed it from her mind and stood for another few minutes before the thought buzzed back in her head. She decided to go and access Sasha’s mind to see if she remembered. The girl was a store of information. When she connected with her Sasha was still in a Mahann state, but not like she should be. there was something else that was going on, and Sara noticed that she was having issues with her connection to Legon. Sasha’s body had a slight tremble to it and she kept closing her eyes and trying to steady herself…
“You said the light can cause seizures?” Sara asked.
“Yes, why? You’re not epileptic, right?. The only one I can think of here who-”
He broke off and they both bolted down to where Sasha was supposed to be stationed. he outstripped her with ease, moving faster than a horse, but she made it to Sasha faster than she thought possible.
Sasha was on her knees, violent tremors jolting her body, but she was awake.
“How is she awake?” Sara asked.
“It’s the store. Its energy must be keeping her here, that’s the only way.” the medic said.
Sasha broke in. “Please take it off me. I can’t connect to Legon. please…”
“But what if you have an episode by taking it off?” Sara responded.
Sasha’s eyes blanked out for a moment and Iselin’s voice rang in their heads.
“Take the store off of her now! Legon is out of energy and is getting cut to ribbons by another Venefica. do it now!”
Sara didn’t need that voice twice. she wrenched the store off Sasha and threw it on herself noticing as she did that Sasha was now slipping into a full seizure. She found Legon’s mind with ease. he was panicked about Sasha and his men. she needed to connect fully with him. For Sasha she could just partially connect and send the energy needed, but Sara wasn’t advanced enough and had to force to connect all the way. as she did, she felt burning strips of pain along her left arm. She gasped and clutched it as the pain grew. his bicep was almost cut in half. it must have been a cutting spell that did it. She accessed the store and started dumping copious amounts of energy across their connection. this too hurt. she couldn’t handle it, but she poured more and more, feeling her body shudder under the pain.
She felt a cold hand against her skin, and then Sasha’s mind joined hers. she was still weak, but determined. She altered their connection with Legon and the pain vanished in an instant. Sasha forced the connection with Sara and then accessed the store and directed Legon’s healing wards, targeting the bicep and healing it in a moment. Moreover, Sara felt seething anger emanating from Sasha at her lapse in composure. Sara had never really thought about how Sasha felt about her episodes, but anger made sense; anger she understood.
