Trinity wiped the sweat from her brow as she stood above a group of twelve dead enemy soldiers. She held a flexible whip in her right hand with a glowing red gemstone embedded in it. She surveyed the battlefield for the enemy commander and saw him tearing through her soldiers. They were outnumbered and if something big didn't happen soon, they would finally lose this war. Damn. We can't keep going on like this. We're going to have to pull back to the mountain pass. She turned to Vireal, her second in command, and gave the order.
Three years I've been in this world, and I've done little else but fight for my life. The priests who had summoned her to the country of Ashax had told her of the Cyrulenthian Empire, and how she was one of a few heroes who were chosen by the gods to stop their horrible conquest. She had balked at the idea of being some sort of hero at first, but over time she had come around to the idea and had fought and bled with the people she now considered to be hers, all so that she could someday find a way home to her husband and daughter.
Horns blew four strong blasts and thousands of troops began to move back toward the high mountain passes, covered in thick, swirling fog that never dissipated. If only we hadn't lost Carlos... he was the strong one... I don't know if I can keep going alone, they're just too strong and there are too many.
The enemy saw her troops retreating and surged forward. Trinity knew this was going to happen, the bloodthirsty bastards never gave up, she burst into action. The power she had asked for from the gods when she was brought to Neverenthia was simply to be gifted with combat prowess, as she had a feeling that she might need it; luckily for her, it had been a wise choice and she had been given command over the country's army.
She crashed into the side of the enemy line with her weapon flailing outward. It burned with a fire so strong that it cut through almost anything. Ten soldiers in front of her were cut cleanly in half and their bodies smoked and sizzled as the parts fell to the ground. She ran through the enemy troops like death itself clearing out wide swaths of enemies to buy her exhausted troops time to escape.
They just need a little head start. We can hold the pass through winter at least. Over a period of minutes she had mowed through well over two hundred enemy soldiers. Her reputation preceded her and when some of the soldiers saw her coming their way with her glowing instrument of destruction they ran in fear for their lives.
This couldn't continue forever, of course, as the lines parted and two of the Empire's elites stepped out to confront her. They stood a good 30 feet away from Trinity and stared at her. One of them was the bruiser who had been thrashing her soldiers. He was built like a mountain and wielded a gigantic two handed great sword. He was dressed like Conan the Barbarian. A stone glowing stone, similar to her own, was embedded within a large belt around the man's waist which glowed brown.
She had encountered him on multiple occasions over the past year and a half and they had always fought to a standstill. Not only is that fucker huge, he's fast too. She grimaced while taking note of the second enemy. Trinity had never seen this person before, and she wore a blue dress and had her hair tied up behind her head in a bun. What caught her attention was that the woman was carrying a staff that sported another glowing gem, this one was blue.
This isn't going to be good, I can tell already. I need to get the fuck out of here. Trinity turned to run but a thick wall of ice sprang into existence in front of her, boxing her in. Not one to be outdone, she slashed her whip through the wall causing steam to flow outward in all directions as it collapsed. She turned to her enemies and gave them the finger before heading off again.
Unfortunately, her opponents wouldn't let her get away so easily, and most of her soldiers had already retreated; she was virtually alone in no-man's land at this point. The large man made his presence known when he performed an amazing feat of strength, jumping clear over her head from behind and crashing down in front of her, dirt flew up around him as he superman landed to the ground, sword swinging in an arc toward her middle.
Trinity blocked the blow by holding her whip tight in two hands and causing the enchanted edge to burn with intensity as the sword crashed into it. She still didn't understand how the thing didn't burn the shit out of her, but she didn't have time to think about such things. Trinity slid to the side several feet from the force of the powerful man's swing.
"Give it up, hero. Ashax is finished, your armies are depleted and your friend isn't here to save you this time."
She didn't answer and instead responded by attacking with her whip. He threw up his sword and blocked the strike with his enchanted blade. Unlike the poorly equipped soldiers she typically faced, these elite ones always had weapons and armor that could withstand her attacks. It didn't matter though as her weapon had wrapped around his and she yanked as hard as she could. There was no way she could disarm him but she wasn't trying to. She gave herself extra momentum as she flew toward her target, the spiked on the bottom of her whip slammed into the man's shoulder and she jumped back like a viper, releasing her weapon from his and then whipping it towards his legs.
The second enemy hadn't been idle and she had to cancel her attack at the last second as two six foot spears of ice flew towards her. I need to get out of here. I can't take them both, not alone. Desperately, she looked for a way to escape, but she knew that as long as the larger man stood, she had no hope of escape. She reached down and grabbed two throwing knives from the sheaths on her left leg and lobbed them toward the man.
They would have flown true except that a sheet of ice sprang up out of the ground blocking the projectiles. Once more, she gritted her teeth and ran towards her retreating forces. The large man had apparently been wounded enough to not follow, but she still had many problems to deal with; namely the giant balls and spikes of ice that came flying at her constantly. She wasn't very skilled at magic, but she could play the same game as that mage if she had to. The stone on her weapon gave her power to conjure fire, but she needed to concentrate for a couple seconds to cast it and never had time to do that in the middle of melee combat.
She turned and faced the enemies who were now well over a hundred feet away from her. Spikes of ice continued flying at her and she dodged left and right while focusing her aura. After a couple seconds she was ready and began casting fireballs the size of volleyballs toward her enemies from a distance. The molten balls of fire met ice and exploded into steam over and over until she could no longer see very good.
Time to leave. She conjured a 30 foot wall of flame that stretched 15 feet wide and then hoped it would be enough to block or at least slow down further ice projectiles. She ran with everything she had and reached the safety of her army and the narrow pass that lead into the Rossevayne pass. She panted with exhaustion when she reached Vireal's side.
"Report." she said.
"We lost 4,000 soldiers," he said with sorrow in his voice.
That means this country is down to a fighting force of only 15,000. We're going to need aid from the other countries, or we're finished, mountain pass or no mountain pass. "We can hold these passes for now. There's no other way into Vireal, they will run into a meat grinder if they try. I want every single tower to be manned at all hours with 15 archers. We need to hold until the other countries can send aid. Send a carrier pigeon to the capital."
The man nodded solemnly and she turned around to survey the large battlefield. Corpses lie everywhere and carrion eaters were already feasting on the dead. In the distance she could see two figures alone on the field looking her way. As she started to turn and head up the incline to get some rest, she heard the voice of Vireal in her ear. "I'm sorry. This is what was decided." Before she could react a knife slid across her throat and she fell to the ground staring up at the man who had been her trusted companion for the entire campaign.
Vireal reached down and took her weapon, removing the large ruby. "We have no choice. Assimilate or die, was their demand. We can no longer resist. I'm truly sorry." The last thing she thought before her death was how she never really wanted this life to begin with, she had just wished to save this place and find a way home to her little girl. I'm sorry, Jess... your mom wasn't strong enough... Tears streamed down her face as the void of death took her.
With that stroke, only two heroes remained within the world of Neverenthia and Ashax became yet another country to be devoured by the Cyrulenthian Empire.
