Cinders of Magic

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

The Sloanish were already firing before Elias had crested the wall. There were fewer of them now, and the two channelers that held the front of the assembling train were straining under the weight of the barrage; their heels dug into the mud a little more with each strike. The rest of Elias’s squad cleared the wall just seconds after he did and hurriedly fell into an ad-hoc position with the rest of the group behind the channelers emitting a slight yellow glow from their fingertips.

“Push forward!” Captain Eladrine yelled over the sound of clanking metal hitting the sparkling, yellow force.

The two men started their charge forwards. Elias lifted his weapon to manage a shot past the front of the group, hitting a Sloanish man in the shoulder and sending him reeling back into the trench in a scream of pain.

“Fire through,” Elias called back to those following behind him, but his voice was carried away in the retort of rifle fire that resounded before he even got the words out. A spread of lead hit the Sloanish line in quick succession, sending several of the enemy to the mud below and clouding the air with smoke. It was not too far a run, and the train had made it halfway across the expanse between the two opposing lines before Elias had time to slide a new round into the chamber. More of the Sloanish peeked out above the wall of the trench deep to the left and sent their blades flying towards the train.

The channeler ahead that had been guarding that side stopped for a moment, and with a voice cracking like thunder, screamed, “Sistair!” Mud and blades alike were sent flying back from him in an arc twenty feet ahead as a wave of force hit everything ahead of the man. Some of those near enough in the trench were torn away from their posts, but most were able to weather the unexpected shock by bracing as it hit.

Sistair“Don’t stop moving,” Division Sergeant Jild yelled as he shoved his shoulder into the stopped channeler’s back, nearly dropping him to his knees in the dirt. The shove got the man to moving again, and he rushed back to the front before the next volley of Sloanish blades could be loosed at the group.

The group had made it to within twenty feet of the enemy line by the time the Sloanish revealed themselves from their hiding place in the dirt. An exchange of fire ripped through the air. Several of the defenders went down in sprays of gore as their blades bounced harmlessly off the pulsing field of invisible force the group ran behind, but a lucky few made it under the wall. A cry of pain hit Elias from behind, and as he ran, he turned to see one of his squad, Biddy, fall in a spray of red agony as one of the Sloanish blades took his foot clean off. The woman who ran next to him, Hlia, stopped her own pace to try and help him up. Elias did not order her forward, but he knew all too well what would likely come of her in just a few seconds.

Ahead, Sergeant Jild sprinted forwards past the two sweating and panting channelers that were still keeping up their efforts. “Eyes down!” he roared.

Elias had the good sense to obey and managed just barely to avoid the blazingly bright sight of something like the sun appearing in the dim twilight of the setting day. The flash lasted only a moment, but Elias had to stop and shake himself back to reality when blackness threatened his vision. Dazed, he turned, found the edge of the trench only five feet away, and sprinted towards it as those around him did the same.

Gazing over the edge, he found Sergeant Jild a storm of motion and death as he leveled his pistol at one Sloanish fighter after another, dispatching them to the Lowlord in a spray of smoke and red mist. Just ahead in the trench was a tunnel three feet wide and deep that had been used for the last hour or so to help the retreating troops run from the battlefield in relative safety. Each of the enemy fighters in the immediate vicinity was in a state of blind flailing, swinging pulled blades from their long cloaks and throwing them indiscriminately; none landed any strikes, even among their allies.

“Left!” Elias shouted as he spied an advancing group of enemy fighters running along the bottom of the trench to the spot the group had stopped to fight in. Elias and five others dropped to a knee at the top of the trench, and like a well-practiced drill, fired into the group as they sprinted forwards. Three of the Sloanish fighters dropped to be trampled by those that ran unimpeded behind them, which sent their blades flying from the bracers on their forearms.

The channeler that had launched a wave of force at the Sloanish lines before appeared once more to stop the onslaught of blades as they soared forwards, managing to catch most of them. Some flew past to cut into the sides of the group, but none managed a solid enough hit to bring anyone down.

“Into the trench,” Captain Eladrine commanded. The man lept down to some of the stacked boxes the Sloanish used as platforms below. He pushed a dazed enemy out of his way as he fell before finishing him with a shot to the head.

The two channelers that had been the shield for the group did not waste a second jumping down into the trench to follow the captain. Elias’s squad scrambled to jump down into the dirt and get back behind the channelers protecting them from the enemy’s weapons. The squad put their back to the decimated right side of what had been the enemy’s line as Sergeant Jild worked on finishing off any stragglers there and fired upon the group to the left that continued their advance, using discarded crates for cover.

“Bilk, cover the hole,” Captain Eladrine commanded from over Elias’s shoulder. The channeler that had been guarding the right surged forwards to intercept the Sloanish forces already trying to push back through the hole beneath the wall. The captain hopped off of the platform he was on and seized Elias by the shoulder. “Take your men and follow Sergeant Jild.” He shoved Elias towards the right side of the trench that Sergeant Jild was already sprinting down like a man possessed.

“On me,” Elias called back to his men, chambering another round as he did so. Jild was fast, and it took more effort than Elias had expended in a long time to keep up with the man as he chased after the group of Sloanish ahead that was in the middle of trying to hoist a large crate over the side of the trench and up to the wall beyond.

Elias could just barely make out words on the wind as he ran after Jild, but he caught sight of the man’s hand beginning to glow with a stark white light. Jild raised a finger towards the group ahead.

“Eyes!” Elias yelled as he pulled a hand up to guard his own, though he need not have bothered. A streak of pure white light shot from Jild’s hand to cut clean through the line the Sloanish had been using the hoist the crate. From eight feet up, the crate fell back into the mud to c***k open with a wet thud. The Sloanish that had been carrying it turned to fire upon the oncoming group.

Once again, Elias found himself at the front of the exchange of fire. Two of the Sloanish blades sliced through him, one leaving a deep gouge in the left side of his face and the other superficially cutting into his shoulder on the same side. Elias put a round in the belly of an abnormally large man too busy pulling another blade from his cloak to seek cover; someone else managed to score a more lethal shot on the man. Elias reloaded his weapon as he passed Jild, who was busy panting on one knee from exhaustion, to close in on the few remaining enemy fighters.

The rest of the squad was just behind Elias as he made to fight close quarters. He managed to get a shot off just as one of the remaining fighters leaped for him with a blade in each hand. He was tackled into the mud by the corpse of the man and could hear the exchange of fire and cries from above him as he pushed to free himself of the body. Elias struggled in the mud with the body of a man twice his size when a rush of blazing heat hit him from the side, followed then by the screams of the dying and the stench of burning flesh.

Elias managed to get out from under the body in time to see what had been left of the enemy fighters flailing, burning in the mud as flames consumed them and their voices; the breath that could give sound to their death cries was stolen from their lungs by fire. Opposite the way the group had hurried down the trench, a woman with burning red hair and violet shining eyes stood, smiling as flames danced along the palms of her hands. She wore the pristine white of the Fiorian military uniform, and smoke rose from the trench behind her for as far as Elias could see.

“Seems you made it first, Jild,” she commented.

Sergeant Jild hurried over to the cracked remains of the crate that still laid in the mud. “Shocking,” he replied dryly. He started to pry apart the wood of the crate to reveal the objective of the excursion. A man: bound, gagged, and unconscious, rested in an awkward position at the bottom of the splintered wood, a faint trickle of blood steadily dripping from his temple. “Let’s hurry and get him back before the Sloanish realize we have their prize.”

“I’ll help with him,” Elias said. He stepped forwards and hefted the unconscious man. It was not difficult. The man was slight and barely burdened Elias at all as he laid him across his shoulders.

Sergeant Jild nodded. “We make back to the others,” he said as he began to run.

Roan ripped a blade from his thigh, binding the wound tight with a shirt sleeve before keeping pace with Elias towards the back of the group, his pained limping not slowing him too much in the heat of the moment. The red-haired woman stayed to the back, watching for any enemies that might come from behind. They found only one of the channelers and Captain Eladrine still standing when they made it back.

The hole to the other side of the wall had been thoroughly demolished, and several Sloanish fighters hung from the wall above, shot dead as they tried to scale it. One of the two men that had gotten them safely across the expanse between the walls was unmoving in the mud with a Sloanish blade buried deep in his chest among the throngs of Sloanish dead.

“We’re out of here,” Sergeant Jild said when he caught up to Eladrine. The captain peered back along the line of men to where Elias still carried the unconscious man and nodded.

“Good,” he said. “We pull back before any reinforcements arrive.”

In an exhausted rush, the group scrambled up the side of the trench wall and made it back to the muddy field to begin their run back between the walls. The massive channeler pulled the dead body of his comrade from the mud and shouldered his burden back without any sign of strain in doing so. When they had finally made it back across, Elias found Biddy and Hlia still breathing, being seen to by the healer that Captain Eladrine had brought with him to the sixth wall.