Confrontation
We were travelling down the mountain, following the same path as the scouting unit before us. After the ordeal of what happened back at the safe house, I had to explain to them what exactly just happened. Of course it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t understand half of it… or maybe I was just bad at explaining things. At any rate, they agreed to help me out and rescue Christine now that they had a fighting chance.
As for that injured person who was inside the building at the time the buldobear attacked he made it out fine. Apparently those soldierly instincts kicked in when the buldobear attacked and he managed to make it outside of the safehouse in time. He had mostly recovered during the week so he wasn’t as battered up as when he first arrived, which made his escape fairly smooth. I had tried persuading him into staying on the sidelines during the final fight, however he had insisted that he would fight alongside everyone else.
I wasn’t really in a position to decline him though, as we’re definitely going to need as much manpower as possible. Everyone here ate the remaining food we managed to salvage from the fire, which actually wasn’t that much. I had tried my best to gather as many berries and fruits as I could from the surrounding forest but in reality we were just barely scraping by.
The bright side was that if we didn’t have much food, then our enemy probably wouldn’t as well. Since they burned the entire outpost to the ground, they couldn’t salvage anything from it. In all honesty, they were probably more well off than we were considering they had the manpower to hunt wild animals.
We decided to strike during the day, around noon. It definitely wasn’t the best time for a surprise attack, but we couldn’t risk them turning the tables and leading an ambush on us. We also needed good visibility so we could actually hit our target. In the night, with their dark smoke-like armor, they would blend in with the night too much. That coupled with the fact that the commander’s fire would be brighter in the night and therefore blind us, made us choose to attack in the day.
Our first destination was the spot where we got ambushed so we could try and trace any trails they left behind. Chances were, they weren’t going to stay in the same location. There hadn’t been much rain or snow lately so thankfully their footprints could still be tracked.
In all honesty, I was extremely nervous. I tried to put up a brave front so as to not dampen morale, however on the inside, I was shaking. If things went poorly, we were essentially walking to our deaths. I wasn’t responsible for only my life, but all 9 of us. If I messed up and I couldn’t blow the fire away, all of us would be incinerated.
As we drew near the site, the smell of burnt flesh and dead carcasses wafted through the air. I pinched my nose as we went on. I had thought I was mentally prepared to handle this situation, and although I was somewhat, the scent of my dead comrades made me want to puke. In the distance we saw burnt trees and singed grass. The floor was littered with ashes and soot, and of course, dead bodies. You could see flies and maggots crawling along their limbs. Their face was sunkun in, and you could see parts of their face eaten off by the wildlife.
However, as much as we were surprised by the state of the dead bodies, that was only a fraction of the surprise we felt when we saw what awaited us. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9… suits of armor, smoke black, and in the center of all of them, the 10th… the commander. They were sitting on the floor in a sort of semi-formation. Had they predicted that we were going to be here!? Why were they here!? We had expected to have to track them down… unless… unless they haven’t moved at all?
“Took you long enough kiddo” a gruff but yet undeniably female voice sounded out, “I thought you would turn tail and abandon her after all. I was so close to killing her after all…”
The commander stood up and walked to the far edge of the site which caused us to tense up and be on edge. However, she simply reached behind a tree and pulled out a body. At first I had thought it was Christine, dead, however that was very much not the case. She had been bound with rope and gagged so she couldn’t speak. Surprisingly enough, she wasn’t thrashing around or anything. She did look genuinely relieved upon seeing us, but maybe it was just my imagination but there was a tinge of sadness in her eyes.
Suddenly, all of the enemy soldiers simultaneously stood up and readied their swords.
“My name is Anniumpa Fepheia of the 218th battalion. Serving under our great lord and emperor. Such that you are, we will bury you under your transgressions”
She voiced out, authoritatively, but somewhere inside of it there was a hint of monotony. Like she was simply reciting a phrase from long ago.
Before I could gather my thoughts about the peculiarity of the situation, the battle had already begun. We were evenly paired so each of us had our own fight, mine being Anniumpa the commander of this unit.
She readied her sword and I readied my staff, and we charged towards each other. She swung her sword down at me, however I deftly used the side of my staff to parry it away, allowing me to reach her left flank. I tried to use the opportunity to swing at her head, however she evaded it by ducking down. I had just barely backed away in time to avoid a sweep of her leg attempting to knock me off balance.
During this quick break of mine, I quickly surveyed the rest of the battlefield. We haven’t suffered many casualties yet, however we were clearly being pushed back. However, as much as I wanted to analyze the situation at hand more, I was quickly snapped back to reality as Anniumpa charged towards me.
Every nerve in my body wanted to run, however I knew I couldn’t do that just yet. Her body movements were heavy, her armor was clanking. A sign of fatigue maybe? But we had just started fighting. I waited until she got about 5ft in front of me before I ducked down and tried to dodge it.
I needed to wait until the very last second to dodge or else I could risk her changing her movements to match mine. Her armor was heavy so it would take a while for her to recover her footing from such a heavy attack.
However, even through my dodge, she did something unexpected. Normally her forward momentum would continue to carry her forward for a while, however she dexterously stabbed the floor with her sword, using it as a pivot and managed to kick me in the side as she halted.
The kick, which utilized the momentum from her charge sent me flying in the opposite direction, kicking up a bit of the burnt ashes from the floor.
I groaned in pain as I suddenly had an idea. As I recovered, I shouted the signal for us to regroup. Before long, everyone had disengaged their fight and regrouped around me. Without giving the enemy time to react, I called upon the wind and I sent a gust as low as possible. The resulting effect caused all the dust and ash to get lifted up in the air, creating a smokescreen of sorts. However, that wasn’t all to my plan.
Immediately afterwards all the particles flew in the air, I sent another gust of wind towards it, this time at eye level. That combined with a bit of funneling from the outside, it pushed all of the particles in the air straight into the helmets of the enemy soldiers. The plan was to get the dust within their eye slits and blind them.
As much as I was proud of myself from this feat, I couldn’t spend even a fraction of a second gloating. The battlefield was not a place to be spaced out from. Charging through the smoke first, I cleared a path for my comrades as I headed directly towards the enemy commander. Or at least, that was the plan until I was met with a wall of fire.
The wall of flames quickly approached my comrades and I as I felt the singing heat draw nearer and nearer. Did she also use this opportunity to cast a fire spell against us!? Thinking quick on my feet, I realized I had to blow this fire back. Since I was taken aback by surprise, the flames licked my skin, searing marks of pain into it, however just as soon as it happened, I combated it with my own wall of wind. The pain hurt, my flesh stung, but I had to continue onwards. Under no circumstances was I allowed to falter now.
A wall of wind and a wall of fire clashed against each other. My wind scattered the fire away, however as much as I dispersed it, more just kept coming. At last, after what seemed to be an eternity, after the heat had caused me to be drenched in sweat, it finally relented.
As the cloud of fire dispersed, I could see the aftermath of the battlefield. What little vegetation that was left was now charred to dust. The half of the field which the fire swallowed was blacked beyond repair, while my side still retained some semblance of a normal place. A sharp line was drawn in the center, showing just exactly what had transpired.
My eyes eventually wandered over to the soldiers standing on the opposite side. Their armor was a bit scorched, but not enough to warrant that huge inferno that was casted. This same thing had happened twice already, was that armor really fireproof or was there something more to it?
Anniumpa had her hand outstretched, presumably from casting all that fire. However, as I saw the faint remains of magic in the air, everything finally clicked into place. I knew exactly how to defeat our opponents.
“Snap out of it! I know how to defeat them!” I shouted to the soldiers behind me. I knew that they were there standing idly with their jaws dropped. It would only make sense as they haven’t had much exposure to magic before this.
“I need you to buy me time”
After reclaiming their thoughts, I heard them nod as they charged forward. They didn’t know what I was going to do yet they had absolute faith in me. It wasn’t like they themselves had any idea how to beat them either. To trust me with their lives, they rushed forward and resumed the fight. I charged straight towards Anniumpa.
She was at the very far back, however, thankfully I wasn’t interrupted on my way there due to everyone else being locked in a fight. As I got near her, I kicked up a pile of dust from the floor to obscure myself and charged through. My plan was to make it behind her, but it seems I only made it about 3 quarters around before she retaliated with a fire attack. I quickly cut it in two before using that brief moment of vision obscurity to jab at her neck with my staff.
She, seemingly having predicted this, bent her back down in order to dodge it. However, this was exactly what I had wanted for my goal wasn’t her neck, but her necklace.
My staff got caught inside the chain, and with a quick and strong tug, I tore it off of her neck. The vial which was connected to it fell to the ground and shattered. However, I had not expected just what would happen when that vial broke. The reason why I targeted the vial and not her was to neutralize her source of magic.
Through the countless repeated times of viewing her cast magic, I noticed something peculiar. The places where the fabric of magic was bent was around the vial. And after her mega attack, I noticed lingering traces of magic flowing from the vial, to her hand. That coupled with the fact that the once bright red fire inside was now dimming, made me believe that that was the source of her power.
What I didn’t account for though, was just what kind of explosion happened when the vial shattered on the floor. As soon as it cracked open, a blast erupted as the fire spilled out like a liquid. It seemed like a living entity that crawled and slithered before gaining its form. The tendrils of fire mimicked limbs as it combusted in full. Sweeping through the battlefield, it seared everything near it until it wisped away.
As much as I knew not to be surprised on the battlefield, I couldn’t stop myself from being flabbergasted at the situation. It seemed like the rest of the soldiers, both allied and enemy stood to watch this spectacle unfold. Just what was inside that glass?
Anniumpa, the only one unfazed by this situation seized the opportunity to attack me as I let down my guard. A simple mistake by me, yet it yielded great consequences. Before I knew it, her sword stabbed into my shoulder. If I had not noticed it in time, it would’ve made its way straight into my neck.
At first, I felt nothing but surprise, but that was soon drowned out by the searing agony that consumed me. The sword was a poison into my body, tearing my tendons in my body apart until I felt nothing but pain. All concentrated into a single point that seared its way into my very being. My body convulsed and my shoulder spasmed in torment as I let out a single blood-curdling scream.
Gritting my teeth so hard that blood could spill out, I managed to pull myself away from the blade, attempting to muffle my pain as the sword exited my body. My arm went limp as I saw blood pour out from the wound. Its bright red gleam mocked me, threatening to take my under my own consciousness. However, I couldn’t let that be. I wasn’t finished yet.
I took as many steps back as possible, as quick as possible, as I called out the signal for regrouping one final time. I faded in and out of consciousness as I struggled to assess the situation once more.
‘Breathe’ I heard a faint dark whisper in the corner of my mind and I snapped back to reality. I can’t fall unconscious!
Out of the 8 other soldiers we brought here… or was it 9..., only 4 remained. They were battered and bruised up, their armor stained with blood. We had only managed to take down two of them in this amount of time.
My vision blurred as dark spots clouded around the corners of my eyes. Had everyone made it back safely? I don’t even know. However, I did know what I had to do next. Gripping every single morsel of strength left and saving none for later, I channeled my power.
The floor was lit on fire from the previous two infernos, albeit quite little. However throughout this entire time, I had been slowly feeding air into it, making it grow and grow. In the heat of the battle, it was unnoticeable, however now that everyone had a moment of clarity, they understood.
I pumped wind and air into the flames, fueling it. More, more. I need more around it. In order to trap the wind inside, I made the air storm and swirl around the entire battlefield creating a funnel. This tornado incited a firestorm that was concentrated in this small area. More and more air was funneled in which caused the flames to grow bigger and hotter. The blaze reached and stretched up higher and higher, reaching the heavens. What I had just created was a fire tornado.
I could hear the screaming agony of the enemy being burnt alive. Ha, how does it feel to be killed by the very thing that you used to murder us? This hellfire was a hundred times more potent than what had killed our scouting party.
During my brief moments of analysis, I realized why exactly they had seemed immune to fire. The brief traces of magic that I noticed surrounded the soldiers after the inferno caused by the commander.
I thought it was strange as the magic should’ve been everywhere, instead of just around the soldiers. However upon noticing their armor and the floor underneath them, I realized. The enemy commander had intentionally made the flames go around them in order for them to not get burnt. I had thought it was strange as their helmets had slits for the eyes, yet they didn’t get burned. Heat should’ve gone through their armor and affected them no matter how fireproof their armor was.
By destroying the enemy commander’s vial, her source of magic, I had ensured that this strategy would work. Though this blazing firestorm in front of me was as bright as the sun, it looked dark in my eyes. The shadows in the corners of my eyes crept up until it swallowed up my vision. The last thing I remembered before feeling the cold hard surface of the ground was the sound of my soldiers charging onwards.
It was dark. It was cold. Whether my eyes were closed or open, I couldn’t tell. It felt like I was suspended in air, yet not at the same time. A very hard to describe feeling of nothingness accentuated the feeling of captivity. A suffocating expanse of silence.
Where was I? Was I safe? How did the battle turn out…?
*swish*
A movement streaked across as I turned to face the sound. Well, it wouldn’t be appropriate to say I turned as I didn’t have a form. I was seeing everything and nothing at once. An envelop unto reality. A figure manifested itself. It didn’t take any particular shape or color, it was more of an absence.
It swirled around me, nearing me and backing off. Yet cared to never stray too far away. It was almost as if it were examining me, evaluating me. I couldn’t speak as I didn’t have a mouth, but it was clear of my intention for it was a part of me. ‘Were you… that voice back then?’ I thought in my head.
When I was fighting Anniumpa back then, I very nearly lost consciousness. However, I heard a voice that told me to breathe. A voice in which after hearing it, made me surge up with energy. I didn’t pay heed to it at the time, but perhaps this was the source?
When the figure spoke, it wasn’t as if it were actually spoken out loud. A soft, captivating, and ultimately alluring voice sounded in my head. It was a honey nectar, stimulating the deepest parts of my psyche, further accentuating the strangeness of the situation.
‘Was I the one? Or were you?’ it said as it slithered around me.
‘...’
‘I am you, yet not at the same time. I came into existence because you encountered me. You needed me, you wanted me’
‘What.. I don’t even know who-, no I do know who you are. Not who, but what’
‘That’s right. You encountered me, on that fateful day. You let me in. Inside… inside where? How deep?’
‘What do you want with me? Why are you here?’
‘What a strange question. Want? No that’s not it. I’m a part of you. What is it that you desire? You my child… or I yours? There is nothing I want that you don’t want, yet there is nothing you want that I don’t Desire…; delirium, nightmares, secrets, bliss, obsession, fear.’ it whispered as it continued to circle me, ‘Wake up young one, AWAKEN from your ignorance like those before you’ it screeched like a parrot mimicking a crude sound.
‘Ignorance...?’
‘Are you... one of them?...”
It’s final whispers trailed off into the distance as the traces of its existence fluttered away. Away? No that wasn’t the right word. Within.
To say I understood what just happened was an overstatement. One thing I knew for sure though, that this was what I had encountered on that fateful day. That day where my loved ones and family got burnt to a crisp. That day that I no longer remained human.
