All we needed was Elyse to get the ball rolling.
Then I saw her. Her and Talon, rather. Silhouetted against the moon above Rollar’s camp, they came swooping down. The moonlight glinted off Elyse’s full-plate armor. She was using her powers, and her flanged mace had grown, becoming a massive two-handed warhammer.
“It’s almost time,” I said, energy crackling in my fingertips as I prepared to use my corpse explosion spells on the unsuspecting troops. “Everyone, prepare for battle.”
Elyse and the harpy swooped down low so that she could get a clear shot at the first of the soldiers. As she and the flying beast dropped to around 50 feet above the ground, a sentry spotted her and raised the alarm.
“We’re under attack!” he bellowed. “There’s a… a fucking harpy carrying an armored woman!”
“Battle stations!” roared another soldier.
As Elyse and the harpy came swooping in, the soldiers in the camp scrambled to grab their weapons and get into battle formation.
And that was when I finally saw him: Sergeant Rollar himself, bounding out of a tent. As soon as I laid eyes on him, I was certain of his identity.
Rollar was almost as broad as he was tall—and both his height and weight were substantial—but his girth was indicative of massive strength and power, not laziness and gluttony. Tattoos laced over his bald head, and a red beard burst from his face and reached to the top half of his barrel chest. A steel breastplate gleamed, bearing the sun and moon sigil of the Splendorous Army. He also wore the polished steel pauldrons, gauntlets, tassets, and knee guards, but the rest of his gear was more the battledress of a northern barbarian. He wore a bearskin cloak and bearskin boots similar to Drok’s, along with numerous other garments of animal fur. And for a big, wide man, he moved with surprising speed and agility.
He was a northern barbarian; this surprised me almost as much as it did Drok, who let out a yelp of disbelief at the sight of Rollar.
“Traitor!” Drok snarled. “He one of my people, but he fight for Lord of Light! Traitor! Grr!”
“Shield walls, lock tight!” Rollar roared. “Archers, take that thing out, and the woman who’s riding on it!”
At least two dozen archers armed with longbows raced out of the tents, nocking arrows and kneeling in formation as Elyse swooped in closer.
Rollar then darted back into his tent before he came out carrying two items that were glowing subtly in the dark—magical items for sure. One was a winged helm of burnished silver, molded into a wolf’s face, the upper jaw resting over Rollar’s forehead while the lower jaws covered his bearded chin. As soon as he slipped the helm on, the huge dire bear I’d seen earlier pricked its ears and bounded over to him.
The other item was an enormous two-handed hammer. It was three times the size of the upgraded weapon Elyse wielded. Rollar slung it over his shoulder as he climbed onto the bear’s back. I didn’t know what power the massive hammer held, but I would find out soon enough.
Elyse dropped down low enough to take her first shot. She aimed her mace at the head of a soldier who was roughly in the center of a shield wall. The soldier held his shield above his head, and I could tell even from this distance that he was trembling. A volley of arrows flew toward Talon and Elyse but they fell short, and Elyse blasted out a torrent of holy fire. The white flame was almost blinding in the gloom, and it smashed a burning passage through the man’s head, killing him instantly.
This was the moment I’d been waiting for. As his lifeless corpse began to drop to the ground, I zeroed in on it. My fingertips linked to the dead body as if I’d fired multiple invisible harpoons into it. Along the unseen cords linking those harpoons to my fingers, I zapped out a blast of energy.
The effect of the explosion was even better than I could have hoped.
A massive boom ripped through the camp, shaking the stone walls of the ruins. The resulting fireball, brilliantly yellow-green against the night, churned up the earth and hurled bodies in all directions. Soldiers and their dismembered body parts flew outward in a radius of 20 or 30 yards from the center of the blast.
“Kill that witch!” Rollar roared, and the archers unleashed a volley of arrows that streaked through the air.
This time, the projectiles had no trouble reaching Talon. Two arrows ripped through the harpy’s wings, while a few thudded home into its arms and legs. Others missed, zipping off into the depths of the forest. Elyse, thankfully, wasn’t hit. But those arrows had come close, far too close for comfort.
To distract the archers from her, I decided to launch my own attack early.
“Charge!” I roared.
“But Vance—” Rami protested.
“I said charge, dammit, so charge!”
Without waiting for any more objections, I kicked my heels into Fang’s sides. He blasted out of the treeline at a sprint, bounding eagerly toward the first line of troops who were blocking the only entrance to the camp. My troops had no choice but to follow, and I heard them galloping along behind me.
Another volley of arrows tore through the air as the archers tried to take down Talon, but I was controlling my winged servant now, and I had her fold in her wings and drop like a stone under the arrows—which elicited a frightful shriek from Elyse—and then swoop up just before she hit the ground. It was a risky maneuver, but it worked, and this time, not a single arrow found its target.
As the harpy soared upward, Elyse took this opportunity to blast a stream of holy
