Turning, Mosael called to his right-hand colonel, who was also his daughter. She had risen to this position only by pure merit. Mosael was happy that she was every bit the soldier he was and more.
“I need you to get me the colonel in charge of the para-troops,” he said.
His daughter looked at him with steely eyes, devoid of any feelings that reflected the kinship they shared, but full of duty and loyalty.
“Yes, sir,” she said and walked off the rampant to deliver his summons.
Mosael looked back to the battlefield. Use your magic all you want, he thought. But today you will feel the might of Tonar!
Lord Taboon was having one of the best times he had ever had practicing dark magic in the many years he had lived. He was wreaking untold horror on the battlefield, and his students were doing the same.
A few of them had died though.
They were skilled, but not skilled enough to handle a swarm of soldiers. Lord Taboon was hemmed in by a circle of horsemen, who kept on firing those little stars at him. His defense shield was holding so far. The stars would speed towards him but explode in an intense cloud of fire blanketing him, and covering the horsemen from his vision. He saw one of his students work black magic on one of the horsemen, causing him to bloat until he burst in an explosion of blood, organs, and bone. But the student was too focused on killing that he did not see another horseman in his back until it was too late.
The horsemen threw a spear...
Straight through the back of his student’s neck. Lord Taboon was not too bothered about one loss. Hadn’t Lord Taboon given them an opportunity of a lifetime? He had told his students that death awaited them, but they would get the chance to practice their magic as they saw fit. Now, all he had to do was find a way to extricate himself from this circle. The spell he was about to chant was one of the most powerful that he had ever done, and having to do it while keeping up his shield was going to be the trickiest part.
Lord Taboon began to chant, in harsh growling sounds. They were magic words from ancient orc lore. Too powerful and dangerous to meddle with that as he sang the words in harsh sputtering growls, and the air around him began to get dry and hot as life was drawn out from it. The horses began to grow restless, and so did the soldiers. Rather than run for their lives, they charged; all of them, at once. And that was their mistake. Probably the last mistake they would ever make. With their spears poised, and the tips glowing with energy, the human soldiers drew ever so closely to Lord Taboon. The words began to drop from his mouth quickly now, and then his eyes grew red – starting from the irises and then onto the whites. But the redness did not stop there. It branched into the skin surrounding his eyes like little red veins. The soldiers were a few feet away from him when a wave of red burst out from Lord Taboon slammed into them. It caught them, like in the teeth of a trap, and they floated in the air, struggling in terror. Lord Taboon let the shield around him fade, and then he stepped into the open, staring at the circle of floating soldiers and horses as they fought against the hold of his magic. Letting out a menacing smile, he opened his mouth, and then the red wall holding them intensified in color. The soldiers and horses began to scream and thrash. They screamed even when beams of red light poured out from their eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears, and flowed into Lord Taboon’s body. Lord Taboon trembled as all the beams entered him...
But as soon as it had arrived, the beams stopped, and the red wall disappeared. The ring of horses and soldiers fell carelessly to the ground, their skeletons shattering on impact. Lord Taboon opened his eyes and smiled.
The battle raged hard. Sometimes, it looked like the Middle Kingdom were winning, and all of a sudden, the tides would turn and it would seem as though Tonar was winning. However, one thing was sure: Tonar was in no way as weak as Henok had thought them to be. The King himself was directly facing the consequences of his assumptions. Even his ring of guards was not safe. They were being barrelled by ambitious soldiers from Tonar who wanted to make a name by being the ones to kill the King of the Middle Kingdom. So far, his elite squad had proven their usefulness, slicing to pieces in the space of seconds anyone who would dare venture close enough.
General Senay was not allowed to try the attacking strategies he had prepared. From the start of the battle, the goal had become rather simple. Withstand Tonar’s assault enough to not get themselves thrashed. So far, the plan seemed to be working, though it was not going too smoothly. He turned to a soldier and handed him a parchment he had just prepared.
“Take this to Sinto or Lord Taboon, any one of them you find is fine. They will likely not get the chance to read it, so my suggestion is this: that they should redistribute some of the stronger magicians to the front of the battle. We need them to begin to
