Chapter Seventy-Nine: The First Battle Begins
The captain of the Second Southern Mounted Forward Unit led his men towards their next target, a medium sized town that sat between the border and the Silver City. They had been on the offensive since the early hours of the morning, having taken over from the First, who had been conducting raids through the night. He had received his orders weeks ago from Richard directly, who told him to use what he called 'guerrilla tactics' to pave the way for the main army's advance on the city.
The methods themselves weren't unknown to the captain, but the preparation he received in the weeks leading up to the excursion had given him a newfound appreciation for them. They had taken part in roughly fifteen conflicts since they started, and had lost only two men. Quickly rushing in and out of their target location, they would strike fast, and disappear. As the survivors believed them to be gone and lowered their guard, they would return and wipe them out.
It was incredibly simple, but effective, as none of their enemies had any real combat experience, and collapsed under the pressure of an assault.
Having recently rested, the unit was ready to proceed again, which led to where they were now, racing through the countryside. The captain looked ahead, searching for a glimpse of the town's appearance on the horizon, when a shadow flit across the ground.
Chasing the shadow's source, he saw a lone figure fly through the air over the top of them, and once past them, turn to look back at where it had come from.
The captain followed the figure's gaze, and the last thing he saw before being flung from his horse, was the crazed grin of the man hurtling towards him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
With a flash of light, Meg appeared on the summoning circle that sat in the centre of the encampment. The stone slab was on the back of a large cart, and Meg rushed down the ramp, and towards the large tents that had the banners of Spara outside. Ignoring the guards outside that tried to welcome her, she entered the tent, to find Edgar and a couple of noblemen inside.
"Meg." Edgar said, a little shocked by her sudden appearance. "Wha-"
"Get ready, we're about to be under attack." Meg cut him off, and turned around to leave.
"Wha-? Wait! Where's Tim?"
"Fighting another army that's heading for the Silver City, you'll have to hold out till he gets here."
"But..." Edgar stopped as Meg strode out of the tent, and with a worried glance at the men alongside him, they rushed to follow her.
Meg heard the men begin to shout, and soon the whole camp was scrambling to prepare for battle, as Meg walked to the edge of the camp. Reaching the outer edge, she peered into the forest, looking to see if she could find any sign of the enemy.
As she did, her eyes opened wide, as the front of the forest seemed to peel away. As if the forest was a painting, the bottom 3 metres of it fell forward, revealing a small armed force waiting behind it.
"Oh shit." Meg said, as dozens of arrows were pointed in her direction. She reached into one of the satchels she had adorned herself with, and pulled out a souvenir she had obtained a while back. A stone block that fit in her hand, and on it, a magic circle.
Thrusting it in front of her, a fireball erupted from it, hurtling towards the forest. It dissipated before reaching the forest, but it startled the archers at the front enough to throw off their aim, and as arrows whizzed everywhere except for at Meg, she flew backwards into the camp.
Putting as many tents between her and the archers as possible, she resolved to hide by the transport circle, ready to escape if necessary. On her way there, she could hear the battle begin at the outside of the camp, as a relatively small group of armored horses began to rush the camp, with the archers harassing the soldiers inside.
Reaching the circle she had arrived on, Meg found Thomas nearby, having a breakdown.
"MEG!" He shouted upon seeing her, and rushed to her with tears in his eyes. "What do we do?" He asked desperately.
"Well I'm going to sit here until either we win or we start losing." She said, her fear of the situation only compounding her resolution to remain calm. "And if the latter then I'm leaving."
"Can't we just leave now?"
"There's a good chance they'll attack the library too, so without the living power source around we shouldn't if we can help it."
"Where is he?"
"Fighting another battle, he'll be here when he's done."
"And how long will that take?"
"The hell do I know?"
As Meg admonished the panicked man, the thudding of a running horse approached, and an enemy soldier that had broken through came into view. Seeing the pair, the soldier charged straight for them, sword ready to cut into them.
As he charged, Thomas screamed, and Meg held up the stone circle still in her hand. Using it, she shot a fireball at the horse, causing it to come to a shuddering halt and rear up in fright.
Coming to the conclusion that he wouldn't be able to attack them directly, the soldier reached behind him as the horse came back down, and grabbed something hanging from the saddle. Lifting a small pot above his head, he threw it at the transport circle that led to the library. The pot shattered, spreading a liquid used to draw the circles across the stone slab, effectively ruining it. His job done, the soldier left, as several of the camp's soldiers attempted to encircle him.
As the soldiers left, and the battle raged on nearby, Meg looked at the transport circle with a fearful realisation.
"Did they do that to try and stop Tim from getting here?" Thomas asked, scared and confused.
"No." Meg said, staring at the ruined circle. "Didn't you see, before that, he tried to kill us first."
Meg turned to Thomas, with dread reaching up her spine. "Hey Thomas?" She said.
"You don't think we could be priority targets, do you?"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tim made extremely short work of the mounted unit, complaining as he moved on to find the foot soldiers that it wasn't even a warm up. Fengari either didn't hear him, or didn't care to talk, as she didn't respond from her position above him.
It didn't take long for the two of them to reach their second target, and Tim charged headlong into the army, sword drawn and swinging. Whilst he was tearing through the soldiers, he noticed one of them had laid out a piece of cloth with what appeared to be a circle on it. Deciding he wasn't nice enough to let that continue, Tim launched the sword in his hand at the man, ending his activities in a hurry. Then Tim finished off the rest of the soldiers, allowing a few at the back to escape while he finished off those that were close to him.
Job done, Tim took a moment to look at another oddity he had seen during his battle.
"What the hell is this thing?" He asked no-one in particular, as he examined the object. It looked like a thin metal barrel, was positioned on a wooden frame with wheels, and was being pulled along by the army. The soldiers near to it had tried to point it at him a couple of times, but gave up when he proved too erratic.
He also noticed that in a wagon of supplies that was similarly being taken with them, there were heavy metal balls, and small sacks made of a thin paper that contained a powdered substance.
"Weird." He said, looking the inventory over while he freed the horses that were bound to the wagon. "That all?" He shouted into the sky, and after giving confirmation, and hesitant thanks, Fengari left for her home.
Looking at the metal barrel once more before leaving, Tim picked it up. He weighed it in his hands for a second, then with trepidation, slowly lowered it. Seeing it disappear into his storage space, a smug satisfaction spread on his face, and after grabbing some of the sacks and balls, he left for the library.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Meg and Thomas were still hiding in the magic tent as the battle carried on. After some time, the attacking forces had drawn back, and while the struggling forces of the camp tried to regroup, it was made clear that it was merely a change of the guard, as a second wave thundered in from the forest road.
The defending forces had managed to organise themselves somewhat, since due to their overwhelming numbers there was no way such a small group could eradicate them so easily. However, they were shocked, scared, and unprepared. This crushed their morale, and led them to instinctively try to defend themselves over all else, which meant that the attacking forces had received little in the way of casualties.
Arrows continued to rain down, and Meg and Thomas had taken to sit beneath the table in their tent as they waited for it to end. Meg sat nearest the entrance, stone circle in hand, waiting to turn any enemy that stepped in into a smoldering crisp. Thomas had set up some storage circles during his time there, so they were in no worry of running out of energy for a while, and had drawn an emergency transport circle just in case.
"MEG!" A voice yelled as a man burst into the tent. Meg prepared to fire, but stopped when she realised that killing the prince of the nation she was in wasn't a smart move.
"What do you want Edgar?" She asked unhappily from her position beneath the table, feeling Thomas cower behind her.
"We need Tim here, now!" He yelled, and turned back to leave.
"He's-"
"I don't care what he's doing! Bring! Him! Here!" With that he stormed out to return to the side of the other nobles. He had no other choice at this point, the mounted soldiers would pick off anyone that tried to escape.
"Fine then." Meg grumbled, and crawled out from under the table. "Thomas, get out here and help me draw."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tim was quickly running to library, on his way to use the transport circle to get to the camp faster, when suddenly he found himself about to run headlong into a tent. He slammed his foot into the ground beneath him, and tethering himself to it using his strengthening ability, managed to stop himself from barreling through it.
His core muscles yelled in protest as he rocked back onto his feet, and looked around him.
"Meg?" He said, looking down at the woman crouched by the summoning circle drawn on the ground outside the magic tent.
"You sort this shit out!" She yelled over the noise of the battle, and Tim looked around to get his bearings.
"Wow, things really went to hell here."
"Fucking go!"
"Don't need to tell me." Tim said, and with a grin, pulled out a sword.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Just inside the outskirts of the forest, a man sat with a small transport circle, waiting. He had been there the entire battle, hidden out of sight. Watching the mounted soldiers cut in and out of the camp, he saw one of them heading towards him, a red flag waving in his hands.
Message received, the man activated the circle, and sent through a letter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tim launched himself away from the two magic users, one of whom appeared to be screaming to himself, and slammed into a mounted soldier as he rode through the camp. Knocking him off his horse, Tim sank his sword into the man's chest, before turning around, and heading towards another soldier that was approaching the magic users.
Slicing clean through the soldier as he shot past, Tim jumped to the side of the helpless pair, and quickly scanned the distance to see if there were any more heading their way.
"Get on with it then!" Meg yelled, unsure of why he had stopped.
"Look, do you want to die here while I'm jumping around a forest?"
"I want to go home!"
"Well shut up and one day you might." Tim said, and stared out at the dark, empty wasteland.
"...What?" Tim said, shocked. He thought back to what had just happened, where, for a fraction of a second, he was stood within a cave, surrounded by men holding out their hands to his feet.
Looking at the floor beneath him, Tim saw a configuration of metal wires, bent and welded into a specific shape.
"A summoning circle... For me?" Tim said to himself, eyes wide in shock. "They summoned me, then must have used a transport circle to send me away..."
Tim looked up at the sky, and saw the waning moon hanging above him.
"...Fuck."
Racking his brain, Tim thought hard about what to do. All he could see around him was a flat, empty world devoid of life. He had no idea where he was, but based on the fact that it was nighttime, he surmised he was probably transported to the other side of the planet.
Knowing that the Western side of the known world ended with the ocean, his best bet would be to head West, and hope to enter from the East. With that in mind, Tim picked a star directly above him, and waited to see which way it moved.