Amendments (20 page)

              The foremost of the behemoths was nearing the water and loomed over the men.  Grandel cried out the order, “Fall back and target the straghs around the behemoth's feet!”  Grandel scanned and found Luxin Adeel and Ash.  “Ash, throw a fireball at the straghs in front of the behemoth!”

              The man looked very hesitant, but stood and held out both of his hands.  Grandel followed his own order and started to retreat, but watched the fireball grow in front of Ash's hands.  It curled around itself and built into a giant, flaming ball of fire.  Adeel yelled beside Ash, “Now push it away, Ash!  Push hard with din!”  The man yelled furiously and flung his hands forward.  The fireball streaked over the stream and exploded into the straghs in front of the behemoth.  After a moment, more secondary explosions happened as the straghs' enchants triggered and drained the chakra from their bodies.  Two straghs exploded next to the behemoth's leg sending fire curling up the massive metal and flesh creature.  Several more straghs exploded with din harmlessly, but one sent ice spikes piercing through the stragh bodies that stretched across the massive beast.  The ice formed around the creature's leg and held it in place.  Slowly, with horrible grinding sounds, the beast tripped over its frozen leg and collapsed into the edge of the stream.

              Grandel and other soldiers nearby cried out in triumph.  Grandel ran to Ash who looked bewildered at the scene before him and clasped the man on his shoulder.  “Excellent, Ash!  Very well done!  Do you feel tired from that?”

              Ash blinked and looked at Grandel.  “Maybe a little.”

              “Do you think you can do that a few more times, my friend?”

              “I will try.”

              Grandel pushed on the man's shoulder to turn him from the scene.  “Good!  Now retreat!”

              The forces of Talik and The Returners fled to the top of the hill that looked down into the valley.  As Grandel had hoped, the straghs did not follow hastily.  They stayed near the behemoths as they must have been instructed.  Elrid ran to Grandel's side and he had a look of triumph on his face.

              “Report, Elrid,” Grandel demanded while still looking at the slowly approaching straghs.  The injured behemoth still struggled to stand up, but the other three were striding slowly across the stream.  They had perhaps one minute before the behemoths and their stragh guardians would be upon them.

              “My report, Grandel, is that we just kicked ass!”  Elrid let out a triumphant yell and several of the men nearby echoed it.  “Not a single soldier was injured!  Your strategy is masterful, Grandel!”

              Grandel nodded curtly, but couldn't help but let one side of his mouth curl into a smile.  “If it worked once, keep doing it.  These creatures are not smart enough to adjust their strategy.  Send word to continue to hit and run.”  As Grandel talked, one of the behemoths bent over oddly and put its hands on the ground just out of the water of the stream.  “If they're going to slow themselves down to guard the behemoths, we will take advantage of their--”

              Grandel looked in horror at the bending over behemoth.  A massive metal tube protruded from its back, extended over its shoulders, and attached in the back to some sort of strange mechanism.  Grandel saw the explosion of fire come from the end of the tube before his ears were deafened by the blast.  Out of the tube came a massive ball of fire that streaked toward his men on the hill and exploded into their ranks.  Adeel had made a light barrier to block the blast, but it cut clean through.  Men screamed and bodies burned.  Grandel's horse flailed wildly beneath him.  It bucked hard, threw him to the ground, and then ran.

              In a daze, Grandel stared at a man's face.  Elrid's mouth was moving as if talking, but all Grandel could hear was ringing in his ears.  “What?!” Grandel yelled.  His own voice sound muffled to his ears.

              “They have freaking cannons, sir!” Grandel could barely make out.  “What do we do?”

              Grandel watched as a second behemoth lowered itself down to reveal a large cannon on its own back.  It fired at the men, but luckily the fireball went high over their heads.  It exploded harmlessly down the other side of the hill.

              “They're not accurate,” Grandel said half to himself.  Grandel grabbed Elrid's arm and yelled over the ringing in his ears.  “We can't group up!  Tell the men to spread out!”

              “What?  Why?”

              “They aren't accurate with those things!  We have to spread out so they aren't firing into a large crowd.”  Elrid still looked a bit confused.  Grandel added, “Fish in a barrel, Elrid!  We can't be fish in a barrel!”

              Finally Elrid seemed to understand.  He turned and started yelling to men nearby, “Spread out!  Fan out!  Same strategy as before, but do not group up!  Pass it along!”

              Within a few moments, men were scattering.  Their ranks broke and men dotted the top of the hill in random places.  One of the behemoths continued to fire its bizarre cannon at the men, but missed all but twice.  Those two times, only one man perished in the blast of fire instead of several.  The other behemoth that had been shooting now lumbered up the hill.  Grandel could see now that only two of the behemoths had the cannons.  The first behemoth that had been immobilized still pulled at its frozen leg trying to break free.

              Three behemoths climbed the hill and their stragh guardians started to claw at the ground furiously.  They rushed toward the closest soldiers.  Arrows rained from random directions.  Men fought with swords and spears.  When a stragh fell, the creature's slayer would retreat back behind the other fighting men.  Adeel threw up light barriers where possible, but soldiers still fell to the dark claws of the straghs.

              Stragh bodies exploded randomly around the battlefield.  As instructed, whenever a stragh was slain, men fled from the body to avoid the din explosion.  The other straghs did not seem to understand this concept.  Almost every time a stragh sent spears of ice, exploded with fire, or violently shot up earth, there were others nearby that caught the explosion.  One chain reaction occurred that took out nearly twenty straghs in a matter of seconds.  One stragh exploded causing nearby straghs to explode.  This expanded out to several more which also exploded.  An entire section of the hill was in flames as one of the behemoths stepped slowly up its slope.

              Grandel took down several straghs himself, firing arrows at ones near the behemoths feet and sending his sword through the creatures' pale bodies when they neared.  He watched his soldiers battle and was amazed at how well they did with how little training they had.

              The battle raged down the side of the valley hill, up another, and down into another crevasse between two hills.  Bodies of straghs and soldiers littered the battlefield behind the fighting.  Several times, the two cannon behemoths bent over to fire again, but rarely hit anything because of Grandel's order to fan out.

              The soldiers climbed another hill and looked down at the approaching stragh army.  Few of the regular straghs remained, but all four of the behemoths still stomped forward unwavering.  The fourth had somehow freed itself from the ice and lumbered behind the other three.  Every one of the behemoths had scorch marks running up its legs from stragh explosions.  The stragh bodies that were stretched across and built into the metal frame of the monstrosities were limp and charred on the legs.

              Grandel studied his men.  Many clamored up the hill in slow, tired steps.  There were many fewer than they had originally, but more than half remained, Grandel was certain.  Grandel looked back at the behemoths.  The remaining straghs stayed close to the legs of the larger beasts as if protecting them even more carefully.

              Grandel found Ash not far away.  He was still beside Luxin Adeel.  Grandel ran to them.

              “Grandel,” Adeel said in a tired voice.  “We need to take those big ones out.”

              “That's exactly what we're going to do.  Ash, how tired do you feel?”

              Ash shook his head.  “I've never felt this tired before, but I think I can still do a bit more.”

              “I need you to do three more attacks for me.  Can you do that?”

              “I can try, Grandel.”

              Elrid ran to the others.  He had lost his horse at some point as well.  “What's the plan?”

              Grandel spoke swiftly.  “Did you see that chain reaction earlier?  The bunched up, exploding straghs caused the ones close to explode as well.”  Grandel pointed at the nearest behemoth.  “They are close now.  We just need to focus fire and cause as many to go off at once as possible.”

              “Sounds good,” Elrid concurred.  “I'll tell the men to get ready to focus fire on one at a time.  The one on the right first?”

              “Yes.  Go.”

              Grandel's army retreated farther to set up their attacks.  Men surrounded the behemoth to their right and made ready to attack.  Grandel clasped Ash on the shoulder and said, “You're starting this fireworks display, my friend.  When you're ready.”

              Grandel stepped away from the man and readied his own bow and arrows.  The behemoth loomed over them and the straghs at its feet sprinted out toward the soldiers.  “Now!” Grandel cried.

              Ash created a ball of fire in front of his hands and hurled it at a group of straghs at the behemoth's feet.  They burst into flames.  At the same time, dozens of arrows flew from all directions and felled several more straghs nearby.  The bodies fell to the ground and quickly went limp.  “Get back!” Grandel yelled as he dove for cover himself.  Stragh bodies popped one after another.  Several ground pillars rose sending dirt and stragh bodies into the air.  Three straghs right at the behemoth's feet exploded simultaneously in a massive ball of fire that engulfed the massive beast.  Several more exploded with din and a cacophony of explosions tore through the air.  A mushroom cloud of smoke rose in the air above the behemoth.  Half-melted ice spikes pierced the ground around it and the earth was in uneven, craggy, rubble.  Several of the straghs attached to the behemoth burned.  Slowly, with a massive sound of grinding metal, the behemoth toppled over.  It slammed into the ground with a tremendous force shaking the earth around it.

              Cries of celebration rang out around the beast.  Men raised their bows and other weapons to the skies and simply screamed in absolute triumph.

              The other behemoths were being surrounded similarly.  Grandel grabbed Adeel and Ash.  “Come!  We have to help the others!”

~~~

              Grandel sat atop the destroyed and charred metal remains of one of the behemoths and cleaned his sword.  He periodically stroked Isis who stood proudly next to him atop the metal corpse.  Isis picked at the stragh boies with her strong beak.  Grandel sent an emotion of disgust through the sye connection, but received what Grandel interpreted as, “So?  Meat is meat.”

              Men rested, traded stories of the battle and their exploits, ate celebratory food, and tended the wounded.  Grandel watched Adeel go from one man after another.  She moved a little slower and tiredly after touching each one for several minutes.  Eventually, she simply lay down on her Luxin cloak and passed out.  He knew she would probably be asleep for more than twenty-four hours after such an immense use of lux.

              After Adeel had healed all she could heal, the final remaining soldiers were sixty-two of the one hundred and ten Returners soldiers had survived, and sixty-six of the eighty-seven Talik soldiers survived.  About two-thirds of the soldiers that Grandel had led to battle had survived the ordeal against seemingly impossible odds.

              Grandel finally was satisfied with the cleanliness of his sword and replaced it into its scabbard on his belt.  Grandel noticed a group of soldiers approaching the behemoth that he was perched upon.  They were mixed Talik soldiers and Returner soldiers.  Grandel stood and asked, “What's wrong?”

              One of his Returner squad leaders, a man named Calvin, spoke hesitantly.  “Grandel, we have something we want to tell you.”

              “What?” Grandel questioned, now even more concerned.

              “We,” Calvin continued, “owe you our lives for today.  Not only that, we realize you have helped us numerous times in the past.  Not only did you train us to fight, teach us to be blacksmiths, and defend our town from that previous behemoth, but we now see more clearly what you did for us in the past.”

              Grandel looked down at the corpse beneath him.  He wasn't sure what to say.  Selvin, one of his scouts continued.  “Many still probably won't see it this way, but we understand now that back when you were a General for Chrion, you were a slave too.  You had to do what you were told just like we did with our slave collars.”

              Grandel couldn't meet the men's eyes.  “I... did evil things back then.”

              “And you have dedicated your life since then to helping us... the very people whom you were forced to hurt in your past.  Grandel, you've saved us over and over.  We will defend you and stand by your side for as long as we are able.  You are our teacher.  You are our friend.  You are our general.  We forgive you.”