Chapter 256: Chapter 253: Fishy Taste

“Listen up!” roared the Grand Commander of the Rosicrucian Knights, sweeping his eyes over all the regiments under his command. As far as I knew, there were 36 of them the size of the 7th - about a hundred men and women. That made a total of 3,600, but the reality was closer to 4,000. That was what I was told. Nevertheless, it was hard to imagine the number until you saw it with your own eyes. 

“Fucking Eleaden and its beasts have sent everything they have at our lines! They are holding for now, but it may not stay that way for long. So I’ll be brief. The Rosicrucian Order is to reinforce the Wesmack Valley part of the front. We’re the backup - if we fall, the front will be breached.”

With that heavy reminder, he straightened and pressed a fist to his heart. The rest of the knights did the same.

“To face the enemy is to face the world’s hate.”

“We march to war so we can go back to those lying there in wait.” A chorus of four thousand answered him.

“To sink blades into the hearts of our foes is to sow peace in the hearts of our beloved.”

“We shed our blood, so that our loved ones will not have to.”

This time, the chanting of the knights was more out of sync. The words of some did not even match the words of the others. Not to mention, it didn’t rhyme very well as a whole. Yet, while I found it quite peculiar and not exactly a great speech, some of the knights wept, moved.

“Rosicrucians, do your duty - and come back!” the Grand Commander finished this strange speech, and I found myself holding my breath. It wasn’t so much what he said that made my heart beat so hard that it rang in my ears, but the spirit and determination of the knights around me. For a moment, it made me completely forget what awaited us over the hill.

With the Grand Commander’s order to move forward, all the gravity of the situation rushed back.

“Seventh, forward!” Ronnu shouted along with the other High Commanders, each addressing their respective regiments. Following that, individual Knight Commanders beckoned to their respective units. So did Pom Nilzibarge, the man Stella and I were assigned to, the man I had a burning question for. A question that made me more and more restless the closer we got to the top of the hill.

‘What the hell did they expect us to do on the battlefield?’

Seriously, no one told us a thing.

Did they expect us to face the same beasts as Ronnu, Geran, and Vienlin? If so, they must have been crazy to think that we’d be able to do any damage to them. But if our job was to have their backs, why were we in a unit with Geran and someone like Nilzibarge? Those guys should be facing the worst up front.

“Don’t, little Guardian!” Traiana stopped me so sharply that I almost bit the tongue on the tip of which I had the question. Somehow, she managed to walk leisurely behind me, even though there wasn’t much space between the knights. “To ask such a question now would be highly inappropriate.”

“Korra?” Stella whispered, unable to read my body language, unlike Traiana.

“The little Guardian is, if I am not mistaken, troubled by your task on the battlefield.”

“Y-yeah, Stella.” To be fair, we had been in the unit officially for less than two days. That was just enough to get our bearings, not to study the guidelines we never received.

“I see,” she said, giving Traiana a curious look. She, for sure, was no better off. As confused, maybe even as burdened with dread as I was. She just didn’t show it as much - well, as usual, I guess.

This time, our ancient guide gave us an apologetic look. “I considered it obvious. In short, your job is to take care of beasts of your level that would otherwise interfere with the fight of stronger knights.”

That sounded better than my idea of chewing on the leg of a beast that wouldn’t even notice a small fry like me.

Unfortunately, if there was more to our role on the battlefield, Traiana didn’t get to tell us. Or maybe she did, and I just didn’t hear it. The moment we reached the top of the hill, the rumble of battle hit us full force.

“Nothing can prepare you for this,” Geran remarked, patting me on the shoulder as I whimpered, my eyes glued to the battlefield ahead. For as far as my eyes could see on either side, a battle beyond my wildest dreams was taking place. The entire front line was alive. Thousands upon thousands of people facing overwhelming numbers of beasts, obscured behind a shroud of countless spells and counterspells, clashing in the sky above the battlefield. It was magnificent - and terrifying at the same time. One miscalculation, one missed spell, and the ground beneath the knights melted under the weight of beast magic.

For the first time, I saw the work of the mages in its entirety. 

While I trembled to the rhythm of the shaking ground, I dully followed the quick trot of the march. Not even at the point where the order, in fact the entire line of reinforcements, broke into a run, tens of thousands of men and women, hundreds of thousands of knights and probably more, did I come out of this dull daze. What was unfolding before my eyes was simply too surreal.

It wasn’t until Ronnu’s presence hit me that I got my shit together. In a way, she gave me the slap in the face I so badly needed. But to think that she did it for my sake would be self-centered. My displeased growl, driven by my instincts, died away in the roar of the knights around me answering her dare.

And the roar didn’t stop.

We passed massive machines - which made my fur bristle, and what I could only describe as cannons powered by hundreds of mages - our throats unquenched. Truth be told, never before in my life had I screamed as wildly and as much as I did now. No particular phrase or word, not even ‘Die!’ Just a simple beastly roar.

Why?

My guess was to give us courage. At least that’s what my screaming and the shouting of everyone else was pumping into my veins, courage. Far from enough, though. My guts were still in knots, and dread held my heart in its grip. I really wanted to believe that with all those knights reinforcing the front, everything would work out. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the knowledge that even though they would likely win the battle - Traiana/Ronnu seems to have survived - it wouldn’t be a great victory.

Many would die.

We swept past the healers, overwhelmed by the number of wounded, even though they only administered the most necessary treatments, like stopping the bleeding, before sending the wounded back to the encampment via teleportation platforms. The smell of this place, the blood, sweat, piss and shit, the smell of death, made me taste the contents of my stomach in my mouth. 

However, should I throw up, I had to do it on the fly. No stopping for this gal on the side of the road. 

I swallowed the sourness as we whizzed past the line of archers. The number of arrows leaving their bowstrings with each breath was unimaginable. Like a steady stream of deadly rain. Spatial tools. It was the only explanation I had. Spatial tools and an army of craftsmen dedicated to making arrows and bolts. Or machines. Either way, it was the amount that would otherwise have to be hauled in by the wagonload.

A battlefield littered with arrows, a thought I quickly shoved out of my mind.

The line of magi we passed reminded me of what the battlefield looked like from the hill. There wasn’t a moment when a stone was left unturned, despite the work of these guys. Defensive magic, counter magic, short-range magic, that was their job. Yet, regardless of their efforts, preventing all of the beast magic from landing was beyond their power.

The notion of warriors dancing in the midst of a reed of arrows was simply far-fetched. The more apt image would be of a mishmash of magic eating away at the land.

The line of magi.

Crossing it was more than just a stupid reminder of reality. Further on, it was a land of melee warriors, the land where the Rosicrucian Order was to fight. Where me and Stella were to fight. The weight of it all came down on me with full force.

“Here we go,” Geran remarked, shaking his head. “Do you feel it, kid? That’s Eleaden.”

Oh, so that was the crushing weight on my mind. “I d-don’t hear any - and w-whispering.”

“We’re still too far away from its mad beasts.”

Still far from the beasts? True. We still had a long way to go. Yet one look ahead and I had to swallow a hysterical laugh along with dread. The size of some of the beasts made the front line seem so close.

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A stream of magic, bluish in color, swept across the darkened sky above our heads and plunged into the towering giant before us. Then another. Artillery. The scream of the beast struck into my bones so hard that my knees nearly buckled. They didn’t - unlike the leg of the beast the artillerymen hit. The tremors of its fall, sent through the ground, lifted me off my feet. No kidding. Luckily, I landed on my feet and not on my face.

Excited shouts came from both the front line and the Rosicrucian Knights around me.

Running along, I took a glance to the right to make sure Stella was still there. My perception, my domain, was one thing. I trusted it, relied on it, but seeing shit with my own eyes was something else entirely, something primal, something I had been used to since birth. And now I wanted to be damn sure.

She was there, like me, running, eyes wide.

“Heads up!” Ronnu shouted, and I looked. There, against a dark sky painted with clashing magic, a group of fliers was bearing down on us. Not eagles, yet it reminded me of my escape to Esulmor. Thus, I couldn’t blame my instincts for wanting to pick up the pace and hide. No trees here, though, only stumps.

Four of them were downed by a volley of arrows. Another had an arrow fly through its head at a speed I’d say had to have been fired from a railgun. The last beast was literally split in two by the shot.

We were hit by a shower of blood, feathers, and corpses. The knight swept past them like a river flowing around a stone in the riverbed, delivering the final blows to the still-twitching beasts.

“1st!” the Grand Commander bellowed. “That drake thing! 2nd - the feathered tiger! 3rd... you help the Arstvil Order with the rhino! 4th...!” and so on. “7th, the octopus-like thing! 8th and 9th...!”

“On it, sir,” Ronnu nodded at the orders of the man, who paid no further heed to her. His job was to coordinate the whole wing of this order; Ronnu’s was to do as he said.

“Okay, guys, this is it! Quick and clean, no messing around! Watch your backs; no dying!” she said with great emphasis on the last word. “I’ll take the big one, you take the little ones!”

Unless my instincts were wrong, which they rarely were, the big octopus was at level six hundred, and the little ones she had in mind were at level five hundred. There were six of them and many weaker octopus-like beasts. One-star bastards were in the hundreds.

“Don’t worry, little ones,” Traiana spoke as she sensed our confusion. “You are not expected to defeat all beasts of your level. The stronger knights will do most of the work. You take care of the ones they miss.”

That made more sense to me than hoping a few one-star warriors could hold their own against hundreds.

“Time to shift!” Geran noted, and like the other shifters, he began to transform.

I, on the other hand, hesitated. “I-in a full sprint?” Geran and the others made it look so easy. They just ran, and when they reached the right size and their front legs the right shape, they dropped to all fours. All in a single breath.

Sure that my feet would get tangled up to do what they did, I first shifted into my Tier II form to adapt to my best legs. Only then did I go full beast.

“Sorry.” Even with my best efforts, I failed to keep my footing straight and bumped lightly into Stella. Luckily, I didn’t trip her. That would have been embarrassing. However, I must have overheard an order from our Knight Commander Nilzibarge, because the Seventh had split up. Each unit headed for different targets, different sections of the octopus horde to take care of.

And then, of course, there was Ronnu. The woman took off like lightning. Only one target in her eyes. She slammed into the massive octopus-thing that was trying to break through the lines with a force that sent shockwaves from the impact and threw the beast back a few meters. There on the ground, it roared in pain and rage. »Human! Dare you!«

Ronnu cut off one of its tentacles.

»Human! Die!« The presence struck.

“Do not falter!” Nilzibarge roared, and his presence stood up to the beast’s, as did his shield to the attack of its weaker octopus cousin. The battle was in full swing. Knights, be they swordsmen, spearmen, aura warriors, or shifters, rushed at the beast with dauntless roars.

I, on the other hand, was lost with my tail between my legs. Traiana may have told me what was expected of me, but knowing and doing were two diametrically different things.

»Come join us.« Strange as it was, I could understand what the octopuses were saying. The seductive suggestion that penetrated my core, tickled my insides and made me think, sounded tempting. All you had to do was look around. Seriously, there was so much chaos. No organization, no coordination. There was no place for me to do anything. Just die.

Joining them didn’t sound so bad....

Pain so sharp I almost pissed myself shot through my spine. “For the tits’ sake, Korra! Get your shit together!” Stella hissed at me, gripping my tail by the root.

In the next heartbeat, she tumbled to the ground, an octopus the size of a football sucked onto her head. Horror gripping my heart, I finally sprang into action and rushed to my friend’s aid. She was rolling on the ground, screaming, trying to get the octopus off of her.

It would have been easier if she hadn’t tried to cut it with her swords. Still, I managed to bite into the beast and rip it off, making short work of it.

“A-are you all right?” I spat out the fishy taste that remained in my mouth. “Did it lay eggs inside of you?” She was wearing a helmet, but...

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

It didn’t look like it.

“It wanted to fry my brain, for fuck’s sake!”

Now I was the confused one? Eleaden?

“Watch out!” The Knight Commander’s roar cut through the air, and in the next instant, heat rays from the suction cups of the octopus he and the senior knights were facing dug into the ground right next to us. Just standing next to it burned the hide on my side. I didn’t need my instincts screaming at me to know not to come anywhere near it again. If I got hit, there would be nothing left of me.

»Come join us!« octopus voice boomed into my head with such force that I howled before the octopus latched onto my side. The son of a bitch immediately fired up the suction cups. However, all it managed to do was burn a few circles in my skin before Stella sliced it in half.

To be honest, it didn’t look good.

The battle - as far as the Rosicrucian 7th was concerned - had barely begun, and Stella and I had already nearly died twice. Worse, to suckers who were almost half my level. The beasts the two of us were about to face were twice the size of those suckers, and had more tentacles. Worse, as I quickly found out, they were harder to bite and could heat their suction cups to higher temperatures. And they were fast bastards, too. 

We’d barely gotten rid of one before we had two more and a half dozen of the little guys on us.

As soon as Stella figured out where to chop, the gaps between the suction cups sent severed tentacles flying in all directions. I, on the other hand, found some comfort in the mane I wrapped myself in. It wasn’t a foolproof solution, but it was enough to keep me from getting too badly burned before I tore the octopuses to shreds. They tasted awful.

Not the glorious fight I had in mind when it came to these great battles.

But we fought; we did our best.

Stella had my back; I had hers.

Then the world turned white, and a blazing heat burned into our backs.

 

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