The Chosen (32 page)
"So what is our plan?" Seth asked, knowing that any plan would be in vain at this point.
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve, Seth, this isn’t my first campaign. The basic plan is this. The main army is to hold its line to stop the enemies’ approach. Myself and my knights will be our offense, along with Vladmere’s battle mages, and you, as I promised, will be given the leisure to fight as you see fit, and command your men to help as you deem them capable. Those are the fundamentals," the king said with a sly smile.
"I hope those are some amazing tricks you have in your sleeves," Seth smiled. His jest was more or less to hide his own uncertainty, but Seth did realize that this was not the king's first battle, nor his first encounter with this very enemy. But Seth could not help but wonder if the king had ever faced such dire odds.
Turning to relay his orders to Borrik, Seth caught his brother's eye and they shared a solemn nod of understanding. Turning his eyes from Garret, Seth was astonished to find all of his wolf men only yards away, formed up into four ranks awaiting his orders, his captains standing at attention at their head. Borrik posed ahead of the troops by several paces awaiting his master.
"You came to me seeking a means to vengeance," Seth shouted to his troops. "But today I offer you more. Today as you bring justice to those who have wronged you and your loved ones, by dealing death you gain glory and honor. We are asked by our king to take a reserve position as a means to hold the defensive line if it falters. I’ve seen the enemy as I am sure you have, and I tell you without our help the line will fail. Today you must be ferocious, show no leniency, mercy or quarter, for you will be given none. Fight together and communicate well, use your instincts and let them guide you. Today you write the first page of a history of a new race upon the world. Write it well, for if we waver it will be the only page to ever be written about you," Seth concluded.
His men erupted into a mixture of cheers and howls, and Seth strode to the head of his small army. He led them down the hill to the center of the defensive lines, and taking their place immediately behind the main front, Seth was happy to discover he had a clear line of sight from this slightly higher elevation. The king it appeared already used a wise strategy. By holding his men here above the base of the hill, they commanded the higher ground, giving both archers and mages an unimpeded view of the enemy over the heads of their own defensive line. If the line was forced to fall back, the attackers would have to fight an uphill battle the entire way.
Seth watched as the enemy approached, and he also watched as the Knights of Valdadore spread themselves throughout the defensive line in preparation for the battle. Seth knew his men would be needed; he only wondered how long before he would be forced to order them into battle. Red-robed mages flowed down the hill by the dozens, falling in behind the defensive line, taking positions among the archers. The enemy lines grew nearer, and only a few hundred yards out Seth could distinguish between orc and goblin and other races of men as well. Asking Borrik’s assurance, Seth pointed out two such races among the enemy and Borrik labeled them as ogres and trolls. The ogres it appeared were sluggish creatures, but made up for their slow speed with immense strength. The trolls were tall, thick-limbed creatures standing more than a head over the orcs. They had tough, wrinkly, leathery hides that almost reminded Seth of tree bark, except for the sickly blue hue.
On and on the enemy came, its war drums thrumming louder and louder and the ground responded by trembling more and more beneath the feet of the immense army. Coming within two hundred yards, the enemy it seemed was near enough. A command was shouted upon the crest of the hill where tents were torn down, uncovering massive steel ballista, which were summarily loaded and loosed upon the enemy. Each bolt from these ballista was as big around as Seth’s wrist, and longer than his body was tall. These were massive machines, and Seth was surprised that not even he had seen through their disguise. Dozens of ballista began to fire, resounding through the valley with a thwonk, thwonk, thwonk. Giant bolts sailed through the air each carving a path several men deep within the enemy’s lines. Each time one of the huge bolts struck home, screams would issue from the enemy horde, but where their comrades fell, the enemy continued ahead trampling their dead or dying comrades.
Another hundred yards closed between the opposing armies and Valdadore’s archers began to loose volley after volley of arrows into the sky, bringing them raining down upon their enemy as hundreds more fell. But hundreds was merely a scratch upon this horde and they continued to trample their dead and move forward. As they closed in further, the drumming ceased and the black-armored horde charged the defending army screaming in their vile languages chants and war cries that drowned out all sound.
Seth stood paralyzed for a moment as he watched some of the Knights of Valdadore shimmer and explode to immense size as they charged into the oncoming horde. Mages from both armies issued fireballs into the ranks of their opponents as cries of horror and dismay rang from both sides. Seth could not believe the horror as the first clangs of metal meeting metal arose as the blackened horde attempted to hack its way through the defensive line. Unable to watch as his fellow humans fell, Seth took a deep breath and focused himself.
Reaching out with tendrils of power Seth drained the five nearest enemies he could locate, and feeling the power surge into him, he unleashed it all in a single attack. Wicked yellow-green lightning exploded from Seth’s fingertips over the heads of Valdadore’s defenders into the nearest ranks of the black army, exploding bodies in a singed rain of blood and flesh as more than a dozen men were obliterated. Seth again reached out and drained more enemies and again unleashed lightning upon his foes, destroying another wave of attackers. As he repeated the process of draining yet a third mass of enemies for his power he realized his mistake.
Using lightning as his method to kill created a dazzling display, and though it lent courage to the hearts of those men nearby holding the line, it too made Seth an easily visible target to the enemy. As Seth drained the third wave of attackers, balls of fire lanced towards him at incredible speed. Hardly having time to react, Seth raised his hands as the first struck home, and although absorbing the power from the blast just in time, Seth was barely able to recover before the next one struck. Again and again the fireballs came from seemingly all directions. The blasts crashed into him over and over, sometimes two or three at a go, and on each occasion Seth scarcely had time to react and recover before the next blast struck. Seth was brimming with power as he absorbed blast after blast of magical fire, yet try as he might he could not locate the enemies’ mages among the masses of dark-armored creatures. The enemy was intelligent. Whereas the mages of Valdadore were all easily distinguishable upon the hill in their red robes, the enemy disguised its mages among the thousands of troops, but if Seth could buy himself some time to focus he had another means of locating the fireball throwing pests.
Still rocked by blast after blast and filled with energy almost to breaking point, Seth found an opportunity and unleashed a great torrent of fire from his palms into the black ranks of enemy troops, decimating dozens of them. Recovering quickly Seth absorbed the next two fireballs, and remembering a lesson he learned from the grizzled old mage just days ago, Seth again unleashed his power, bewildering the many mages that had him targeted for death. Where Seth had once stood, now stood a dozen identically-armored men who rapidly spread out along the hillside standing clear of the other archers and mages defending the hill. Seth had bought himself the moments he needed. Careful to remain focused to keep his illusion selves in place, Seth reached out, seeking only the brightest auras among the attacking horde. These would be the blessed among the attackers, those infused with the power of the gods they worshipped. Locating three of the nearest Seth tore through one’s life force, severing it from the god it served, and ripping it from the goblin whom it sustained. Recoiling his tendrils Seth exulted in his small victory as the power rushed through him. Already having a lock on two more mages, Seth dropped his replicas and unleashed fireballs of his own, incinerating them before they could retaliate.
His closest threats destroyed, Seth surveyed the carnage around him. Giant armored men from both armies battled upon the field as the Knights of Valdadore clashed with equally blessed opponents. Thus far the defensive line held, but was thinning in many places. Blood and gore covered the ground everywhere and the smell of burnt flesh hung heavy in the air. Fireballs lanced in both directions as ballista bolts rang overhead into the attacking army. Valdadore’s archers continued to fire volley after volley though their numbers had been greatly depleted by magical fire. Seth watched as the line struggled to hold just ahead of him, the enemy trying to reach him and eliminate him as a threat.
Turning to Borrik, Seth gave the command and within an instant his troops sprang forward, bounding and leaping over their human comrades into the fray, teeth gnashing and claws raking at the enemy as the line surged once more forward. Borrik and Jonas remained to protect Seth and Sara if the need arose, standing like statues to either side of their master, whilst Sara crouched behind lending her small crossbow bolts to the rain of arrows upon the enemy. Seth watched as one of the massive Knights of Valdadore took a blow from a massive orc who crushed his own comrades beneath his hulking feet. Seth launched a fireball into the giant orc’s face seeing the kingdom’s knight at a disadvantage, and reaching out with his mind he severed the orc's umbilical to the god he served. Seth saw as the orc shimmered, once again becoming average size, and could not help but smile as the Valdadorian Knight, raising his massive leg, crushed the orc beneath his boot. Seth finally realized how he could turn the tide of this battle.
*****
King Valdadore watched as someone interceded on his behalf and a great ball of sickly-looking fire smashed into the grotesque face of his adversary. He knew that fire, and knew of only one mage who commanded it. Knowing Seth was watching his back somehow made the king feel better and, as if to add insult to injury, the orc appeared to lose focus and returned to his unblessed form. His shoulder ruined, the king realized that Judilanthaliz must have fallen victim to a prior injury, and wanting to return to the fight as quickly as possible, King Valdadore crushed his foe’s head beneath his boot with a grin, and turned to stride to the healers’ tent, clearing a path through the dark army, to have his shoulder mended.
*****
Seth looked down upon the field of battle and was able to spot several fights waging between champions on both sides. One by one Seth reached out and tilted the scales to favor his side, and one by one the enemy’s champions fell, though Seth began to feel the strain from reaching out too far with his abilities as his limbs began to tremble and sweat started to bead on his forehead. Deciding to focus his power locally, Seth took a moment to regard the progress of his own troops.
Just a few dozen yards ahead of him, Seth watched as the human counterpart of the army shifted to make way for his wolf soldiers. This simple movement gave great advantage to the defending line of troops, for as the humans shifted to either side, they lent strength to the rest of the line, working as reinforcements themselves. Also this made room for Seth’s small army to fill the gap, giving them easy access to the enemy. His wolf men and women had wanted vengeance, and though it was a gruesome sight, Seth could not help but be impressed by the effectiveness of his creations. Each of his beasts fought like a raging berserker, lunging, biting, clawing, tearing and mauling the enemy, and though the scene appeared to be utter pandemonium, Seth could see the proof of calculated precision in his troop’s attacks. As one of his wolf troops would lunge upon an attacker to bring him down, from the masses several more wolf men and women would spring atop the beast and rend it limb from limb within seconds. As the enemy was dispatched, the troops would fade back into the snarling mass to seek out the next target. So ferocious were his troops they had actually managed to surge forward into the attacking horde. The wicked enemies fell back, unwilling to plunge into the hairy beasts.
Seth surveyed the length of his kingdom's defensive line once more. It held but was thinning and falling back in several locations. He watched as Knights of Valdadore continued to wade through the enemy, carving paths of destruction, and as the decreasing numbers of mages from both sides threw fireballs back and forth, and the remnants of Valdadore’s archers continued to fire into the enemy mass. Thousands on both sides lay dead or dying, and Seth saw those with lesser injuries dragging those mortally wounded back from the battle to be tended by the healers. Trying to estimate the damage to both sides, Seth assessed that Valdadore had already lost a quarter of its troops, and the remainder was beginning to tire. The enemy had much higher losses, but even so still vastly outnumbered the defenders. Seth knew if the battle did not change drastically and soon, all would be lost. As he scanned the enemy horde a last time before renewing his attacks, he saw a drastic change coming.
The goblin raced from the back to the enemy horde blasting short notes on a small horn carved from bone. In his other hand he carried a torch. As the small green beast blew his horn, the ranks of the enemy opened for him to allow him a clear path. Seth assumed the goblin a messenger of some sort and thought to dispatch the goblin before it could relay its orders, but curiosity stayed him. Thinking it better to wait until the goblin was passing along its orders to a leader of some sort, so that Seth could slay both the messenger and whomever he reported to. Seth watched the small, green, lanky beast as it got closer, headed straight into the front lines of his own wolf troops. But before his troops were able to bring the goblin down, reaching over his shoulder the goblin thrust the torch into a pack strapped to his back and without warning a giant explosion ensued. Flames and body parts erupted from where the goblin had been as a concussive shockwave leveled troops from both armies. At their center a crater had formed in the ground, ringed by over a hundred dead from both forces. The kamikaze goblin had single handedly slaughtered nearly a tenth of Seth’s troops in a single blow, and although devastating, the loss was overshadowed by another realization.