“Be safe, Marin,” I called out to her with a nod. “Drive straight and fast no matter what happens, and we’ll see you on the other side.”
“I will!” she shouted, giving me a confident pump of her fist as we passed by.
An icy flood of adrenaline surged through me as our horse began to pick up speed, and my enhancements all flared to life with a powerful rush of mana. As my senses sharpened and my mind quickened, I scanned ahead and confirmed that the scene was still what I expected. A wagon had just passed inspection and was moving through the wooden gatehouse while the guards waved the next cart ahead.
Long-dormant memories from my time in Alderea flared to life and guided my body into a low, steady crouch on the back of our galloping horse. Every inch of my body burned with pent-up energy as the moment of reckoning came closer, hoofbeat by hoofbeat. The inspection guards finally took notice of our approach and began to shout, pointing swords in our direction and calling for us to halt. “I love you,” I spoke into Lia’s ear as I tensed my legs. “Let’s show them what we can do.”
Just before the horse crashed into the leading guard, I leapt forward with all my strength. I sailed through the air well above the heads of the guards, soaring in a calculated arc to land firmly on my feet just feet away from the gatehouse. As the pained cries of the first group of guards rang out behind me, I flexed my empty fist and drew it back over my shoulder. Energy rushed down my arm and suffused the gauntlet as the punch flew forward and connected with the gate.
A loud crack echoed across the barren fields as the gate snapped off its hinges and exploded forward, tumbling violently along the road as its momentum tore it to splinters. The men who manned the gatehouse all abandoned their posts immediately, running back towards the wall in a panic. “He’s here!” they screamed frantically, covering their heads as they ran. “He’s here! He’s fucking here!”
I took a deep breath as I processed every detail of the readying force before me. Men poured out of the encampment like ants, drawing swords and donning armor in a frenzy as their officers barked commands to create some semblance of order. Archers took up their places along the crenelated defenses and nocked their arrows, while the ground forces formed ranks at the base of the wall. Through the chaos, my enhanced senses finally picked up the sound I was waiting for: the telltale clacking of the ballista taking deadly aim at my position.
“FIRE!” The order echoed out from the top of the wall. There was a loud whir as the war machine activated and launched its deadly wrought-iron payload. The world seemed to hold its breath as the bolt screamed across the sky with deadly speed, bearing down on the singular reason for their encampment. Within my mind, however, it hardly seemed to move at all, and my body was already shifting to deal with the attack I knew would come. I turned side-face to the attack and readied another punch, throwing it forward with perfect timing to intercept the ballista’s bolt as it passed by my face.
The metal rod rippled and cracked from head to tail and exploded away from me in a deadly hail of metal shrapnel. The pieces smashed through what little remained of the gatehouse, kicking up a storm of sawdust, snow, and dirt. When the cloud cleared, the only thing that remained standing at the impact site was me, pointing back at the wall with an outstretched hand and a vicious smile.
Virram, when they write the history of your reign, I thought, channeling the memories of every slight the King had made against me into a singular focus, the story of today will be your greatest failure. Energy exploded out from my body in all directions, crackling along the lines I had practiced hours beforehand and suffusing the defensive structures built along the wall. I snapped my fingers above my head, and my ring flashed as the magic activated.
A series of thunderous explosions reverberated in my chest as the scaffolding burst into pieces before my eyes. Tree-sized logs flung out of the structure in wild directions, crushing countless men in their neat, orderly formations below, and the bottom half of the wall disappeared from view in a cloud of debris. The wreckage still glowed intensely within my mind, allowing me to watch as horrified soldiers fled from the destruction. Before the dust settled, my mana had already suffused the surface of the broken scaffolding, and another rune within my ring glowed to life.
There was a disorienting rushing sound as the air surrounding us was sucked away; a moment later, the world was engulfed in flames. Crimson fire danced along the face of the wall, licking thirty feet in the air as it ravenously spread along the newly created fuel. Screams of agony and terror filled the air alongside the crackling of wood, underscored by the blaze of a merciless red light. My sword flashed into existence in my hand, and I stepped forward into the world of chaos I had created with a smile.
If I had harbored any doubts about whether I truly had the strength to defeat the army Virram had amassed to stop me, they were quickly and completely dismissed. It didn’t matter if I encountered an organized group of footsoldiers or the generals that lead them; the men were too slow and too weak to fight me for more than a few seconds. I cut through the mass of guards with ease, dancing through their ranks with a brutal elegance I had never felt before.
Despite the mayhem around me, I kept a close eye on three locations separate
