Amendments (33 page)

              Ratt ran below Noir keeping pace with his rapid flight.  It had taken some encouragement to convince Ratt to put his enchant armor back on.  Noir had to promise his friend that he would stop him from harming anyone if he went out of control or seemed not to be himself.  Noir wasn't sure he
could
stop Ratt if he needed to, but it had convinced his friend nonetheless.

              Noir could just barely make out the walls of Garmak in the distance.  The light was rapidly disappearing as the sun set, but he could see enough to know the battle had already started.  Several of the large stragh monsters the scout had called behemoths were lumbering toward Garmak.  Bursts of din attacks flew from the tops of the walls into attacking straghs below.  Noir realized he could faintly feel the tug on his consciousness from the Din Mages using their powers just like he could feel someone using lux.  The sense grew stronger as he approached Garmak.

              “Not much farther!” Noir called down to Ratt below him as he easily leaped across a moderately-sized stream.  His friend's view was lower and the terrain was slightly hilly, so Noir figured Ratt couldn't see the city ahead.

              Noir felt his chakra rapidly draining from using the light wings, but he had to get to his friends as quick as possible.  Even if Noir was moderately tired when he arrived, he would still be a great asset to the newly freed citizens of Garmak.

              “Is your chakra running out, Ratt?” Noir called down as they continued to approach the battle.

              “Ha.  Are you kidding, Noir?  I could do this all day!”  Noir's friend was boasting.  He could tell Ratt was winded.

              “Save what you can.  The battle has already started in earnest.
”

~~~

              Finn urged on one of the former Din Slaves.  The man was young and nervous, but he was holding his own against the clawing beasts below.  This young Din Mage was especially talented with ice manipulation, Finn had found out.  He'd had the brilliant idea of blocking several breaches in the city walls with hastily formed walls of ice.  Now, he rained down precise spears of ice, killing one stragh with each attack.

              Finn felt a slight surge of triumph, but his heart sank as he looked out and saw the slow, hulking masses of the behemoths approaching.  What could they possibly do against those beasts?  One behemoth ducked down once again and fired the cannon on its back.  A section of wall beneath one of the watch towers to Finn's left exploded, and then toppled down in a rain of bricks and dust.

              Finn closed his eyes in despair.  One of the precious Din Mages had been in that tower.  Finn forced himself to open his eyes again, and his stomach lurched as he realized how soon the behemoths would reach the city walls.  He grabbed the young Din Mage next to him and yelled, “Target the behemoth!  If it gets to the walls, nothing will stop it!”

              The young man nodded curtly, and then started a furious barrage of hail at the behemoth.

              Straghs were surging toward the new opening where the watchtower had been.  Since the now deceased Din Mage had been defending that section, no one but the Tierian archers now guarded the area.  Finn cursed and ran for the stairs that led to the ground near the breach.  He then shot across the street and climbed the wreckage of the former watchtower.  Finn pulled out two daggers and stood in the breach in the wall.

              A wave of straghs galloped toward him.  The blank, white faces of the creatures flew toward him with horrifying speed.  Finn flung first his right dagger, then his left.  Each caught a stragh in the chest.  They silently collapsed to the ground and writhed there for a moment before one suddenly went limp.  Massive spears of ice shot from the creature's body and impaled several more nearby.  Finn drew two more daggers as more straghs clawed their way over the destruction and continued toward Finn.

              The closest stragh lunged at Finn with its black claws outstretched.  Finn ducked beneath the creature's attack as it flew over his head and swung up with both weapons.  The daggers caught the creature's abdomen and it went tumbling behind Finn.  Finn spun as another stragh swiped furiously at him.  He cried out as a claw caught him on the arm, but slashed at the creature's neck at the same time.  Finn kicked the creature away as it grabbed at its throat.  The kick sent the stragh tumbling backward into two more that approached.  They were put off balance, so Finn threw a dagger into each of their chests.

              Finn pulled out his last two daggers and stepped back.  Several more straghs climbed over the mass of ice spears and other stragh corpses.  Finn knew he couldn't take on that many and started to retreat.  He jumped back and began to turn to run, but saw something that made him stop.  In the fading twilight, a streak of glowing bluish-green flashed by Finn's vision and barreled into the approaching straghs.  Before Finn could process what was happening, all of the straghs nearby were cut into pieces.  Several had been cut perfectly in half.  Among the wreckage stood a dark-skinned man in faintly glowing armor.

              “The Savior of Tier,” Finn whispered with awe.

              Ratt turned and, to his surprise, Finn saw a mix of hatred, fear, and determined restraint in the man's eyes.  “I'm no savior,” Ratt said.  “I'm just a puppet.”

              Then, with a bluish-green streak, Ratt thrust himself into the mass of approaching straghs.

              Finn stared with confusion and awe for a moment, and then was suddenly aware of an immensely bright light approaching from above.  He looked up and caught sight of a figure with blinding wings of light.

              Finn put his hand on his head in utter confusion and panted, “What in the
world
?!”  He watched as the winged figure rained fire down on the attacking straghs.  Finn shook his head slowly and smiled.  “Whatever
that
is, I'm glad it's on
our
side!”

Chapter 33

Family

             
Noir landed next to Ratt once he'd cleared out an area of straghs.  He let the lux fueling his light wings dissipate.  They were draining too much chakra to continue using them.

              Noir grabbed his friend's shoulder and pointed at one of the behemoths that was mere steps away from the city walls.  “We need to do something about
that
!”

              Ratt responded, “Agreed.  But how do we stop it?”

              Noir studied the creature.  The creature stood taller than the city walls.  Its body was mostly metal, but several stragh bodies were stretched on the outside of it.  The behemoth reached the city wall and drew its massive metal arm back to smash the wall.  Noir made a massive barrier of light.  The behemoth's arm crashed into the barrier and Noir felt a drain on his chakra.

              Noir remembered the stragh that had attacked New Talik months earlier.  He remembered how the stragh lost consciousness as its massive metal appendage was activated.  “I think I know how to kill those things.”

              “How?” Ratt questioned.  He held his axe in front of him ready to attack.

              “Target the stragh bodies attached to it.  I think their chakra powers it.”

              Ratt nodded.  “It's worth a shot.”

              “Go; kill all that you can that are attached to its bottom half.  I'll torch the ones on the top half.”

              Ratt streaked off toward the behemoth killing several smaller straghs along the way.  Noir focused his anxiety and anger and grasped din.  He felt the power surge in his hands and he formed a ball of fire in front of him.  The metal beast thrust forward with one of its arms once again and Noir grasped lux and deflected its attack once again.  Wielding din and lux at the same time took tremendous concentration.

              Noir pushed out with din and the fireball he'd created streaked toward the behemoth's upper half.  Noir watched as it exploded and several stragh bodies attached to the beast erupted in flames.  Around its feet, Ratt jumped and swung his axe repeatedly.  Straghs stretched across the behemoth were cut in half all over its metal body.

              Noir made to grasp din again, but suddenly a stragh lunged at him.  Noir spun and slashed with his enchant sword.  One of the stragh's arms was cut clean off.  The Einlanzer was much more effective than his old sword.  The stragh tumbled to the ground by Noir's feet and suddenly went prematurely limp.  Noir put up a strong light barrier just as the ground around the stragh erupted upward.  Rocks and dirt buffeted Noir's light barrier, but he did not feel the attack.

              Noir turned again to the behemoth that he'd been attacking and felt someone on top of the wall use a large amount of din.  Then, as the massive creature swung its arm in an attempt to pound the wall once again, the entire top half of the behemoth erupted in flames.

              Ratt chopped a couple more times, then hastily fled as the behemoth's metal body went limp, then slowly toppled forward.  Its front slumped against the town wall and slid down to rest bent backward.

              Ratt raced to Noir's side.  “It worked!” Ratt exclaimed as he gasped for air.  “We got one!”

              Noir pointed to the top of the wall.  “We had help.”

              Ratt followed Noir's finger to the top of the wall.  “Good!  They must have been able to convince some of the former Din Slaves to fight for them.  Let's go.  More of those behemoths are attacking.”

              Noir frowned.  “You go.  Do like you did before.  I'll help you in a second.”  He kept his eyes on the top of the city wall.  “This Din Mage is especially strong.”

              Ratt frowned, but said, “Fine.  Don't leave me hanging.  I'm not sure I can take one of those monsters by myself.”  Ratt streaked off, slaying several small straghs as he ran.

              Noir pulled on an immense amount of lux and reformed his light wings.  Light burst from his back and illuminated the battlefield around him.  He thrust the wings down and his body rose up the height of the wall.  He pushed himself forward and landed on the undamaged portion of wall.  He let the wings dissipate and darkness settled in around him again.

              A lone woman stood on the wall in front of Noir.  She was impossibly thin and dressed in rags, but Noir could still easily recognize his cousin.  “Aimee!” he said with surprise and delight.

              “Cousin?” she uttered with doubt.

              Noir was reminded of his horrible scars.  “Yes, it's me.  I....” he searched for the words to describe what had caused his scars.

              Aimee smiled.  “It's been a while, Noir.  No offense, but you've... looked better!”

              Playful joking was not what Noir had expected from his cousin.  Noir wanted to ask Aimee a hundred things, but he couldn't find any words.  Before he realized what he was doing, he walked forward and hugged Aimee tight around the waist.  Despite the sounds of chaos, battle, and cries of pain around him, Noir found himself laughing.  Tears of joy filled his eyes and spilled out onto his cheeks.  He had not realized how much he needed to see Aimee's face.  He'd worried so much about her.  So much had happened since he'd last seen her.  Most importantly, she reminded him that home still existed.  She was a concrete remnant of the world they'd left behind.

              The stiffness in Aimee's body flowed out as she realized her younger cousin was crying like a baby on her shoulder.  She hugged him back for a long moment and realized her eyes were a bit blurry with tears as well.

              Finally, the sounds of battle forced them to acknowledge their surroundings and pull away from each other.

              Noir sniffed, “We need to help with this before we catch up, cousin.”

              Aimee wiped her eyes quickly and said, “You're right, but
boy
do I have some things to tell you.”

              “It'll have to wait,” Noir lamented.

              “I figured out what this world is and who these people are.  I know where this world is... or more specifically, when this world existed.”

              Noir looked at his cousin with shock.  “When—”  Noir was about to ask more, but a huge crash drew their attention away.  One of the behemoths had reached the city walls and smashed it with a massive arm.  “Later, Aimee.”

              “Later, Noir.”

              Aimee and Noir ran along the length of the wall toward the attacking behemoth.  Noir blocked another swing of the beast's arm with a strong light barrier, then sensed Aimee harnessing din.  He watched as she expertly manipulated the ground beneath the behemoth's feet.  The ground thrust up with tremendous force at an angle, sending the massive creature flying back away from the wall.  It landed in a herd of smaller straghs.  Several instantly exploded in din beneath the behemoth causing more damage to the creature.  Noir found himself trying to grasp din but couldn't muster up anger, anxiety, or any other emotion that he'd used previously to help him harness the power.  Instead, he tried to push his feelings of relief and happiness he felt from finding Aimee at the power.  To Noir's surprise, it worked and he grasped din.  Noir created a ball of fire and hurled it at the prone behemoth.  Aimee threw several of her own flame attacks at the creature.  The beast stopped moving soon after its entire body was engulfed in flames.

              Aimee turned to Noir and, to his surprise, she smiled.  He hadn’t seen his cousin smile since before they came to this world.  The smile disappeared as if Aimee realized what she was doing.  She looked sharply away from Noir’s eyes.

              Noir took a step toward his cousin and finally asked what he’d been wondering for months.  “Aimee… what’s been going on with you?  Why are you so angry at this world?  I mean you killed the Lu—”

              “I’m not angry at this world,” Aimee interrupted Noir and turned her back on him.  “I’m angry because of what happened to me.”

              Noir pleaded, “What on earth could have happened to you that was so bad that you killed the Lumin?!”

              “Noir, before we got sucked into this world, I was—”

              A mass flew through the air and slammed into the city wall.  The wall did not collapse, but more rocks were flying through the air in their direction.  Aimee pointed and said, “Block those catapult shots!”

              Noir guessed at the trajectory of the next few projectiles and put a wide light barrier in their path.  They slammed into his barrier and Noir felt a small portion of his chakra drained with each deflection.  Noir said, “There are human forces out there too?”

              Aimee gritted her teeth as she shot more fireballs down on approaching straghs.  “Yes!  They must be Tierian soldiers who are still loyal to the old king!  They have catapults!”

              Noir’s heart sank into his stomach.  They had their hands completely full with the straghs and behemoths.  Adding a large human army with siege equipment to the fight makes the situation even more impossible.  “This is going to be a rough battle, Aimee.”

              “Then let’s play rough in return,” she said with a mischievous grin.

~~~

              Luxin Adeel sat tall on her horse as she noticed smoke rising in the distance.  “Grandel!” she called as she turned to him and pointed.  Grandel followed her gesture and peered into the distance.  Adeel clarified, “The battle has already started.  Fafnir was right.”

Grandel received worried, angry emotions from Isis who circled high above him and his small army.  She had been scouting the area ahead of the army in search of ambushes or traps and ignoring the horizon.  Isis sent an image of Garmak’s walls crumbled and burning in the distance.  “We have to hurry,” Grandel said to Elrid who rode on his other side.

Jarek pleaded from the back of Adeel's mount, “This doesn't mean I have to go to the back of the army now, does it?”

Adeel looked over her shoulder and declared, “Yes, Jarek.  You aren't ready to help yet.  You're still just a beginner with lux.  Our training will continue after the battle.”

Jarek whined but didn't argue.  He leaped off of Adeel's horse and ran through the soldiers toward the back.

              After Grandel had defended New Talik and the Returners from the massive stragh army, many more refugees joined his ranks.  He had only two weeks to train the newcomers before Fafnir told him of the danger Noir and all of Tier was in.  However, Grandel knew that the best training a soldier could receive was nothing compared to the pride and resolve that these men felt.  He now commanded almost five hundred free men and women all with at least some combat training.

              Grandel pulled his horse to a stop.  He pulled the animal around so he faced the soldiers.  He threw up his hand and made the signal for the army to stop.  They halted and watched their leader with focused interest.  “The battle has already begun!” Grandel called over their heads.  “Garmak’s walls have been breached.  The newly freed city is New Talik’s sister city.  We are together at the start of the revolution against the tyrant kings.  We must protect the revolutionaries as our own.  Make haste, my free soldiers!”

              Grandel turned his mount and galloped forward.  Behind him, the free army of Talik and the Returners thundered forward toward Garmak.