Reborn: Demon's Heritage (7 page)

8-8

The next morning Ash was woken well before the sun rose by the sounds of shouting. He didn’t know why, but Ash still felt a pain in his chest when he woke. It was as if the whole world had darkened slightly. At the same time, there was a slight ray of hope building. It was a confusing feeling and one that Ash didn’t understand. Shaking his head, Ash shook Allice slightly until she opened her eyes.

Ash couldn’t help but smile as he watched Allice wipe the sleep from her eyes. “Morning Ash,” Allice said as she laid her head against his shoulder.

“Allice, today I want you to stay in the tent,” Ash said as he stood from the bed.

“Yes master,” Allice said quickly but Ash could tell that she wasn’t happy with his order.

After getting dressed, Ash quickly left the tent and joined the large group of knights that had gathered on top of the walls. It didn’t take him long to find Matt among the others. “Are they going to attack?” Ash asked as he moved to stand beside the knight captain.

“They are starting to form up ranks,” Matt said, his eyes never leaving the field. “I am guessing that we have less than an hour before we are under siege.”

“What is the plan?” Ash asked, trying to keep himself calm while his heart was pounding wildly. He had been in a number of fights, but never had he felt that death was nearer than it was at this moment. They were easily outnumbered forty to one and with little hope of reinforcements. Their death was almost assured, the only question was how long could they hold out. Every day they could keep the enemy at bay was one more day the capital had to reinforce their defenses. The main question in Ash’s mind was not how he could survive, but how to keep Allice from perishing along with the rest of them. She was not the only non-combatant in the fort, but they made up less than twenty people within the compound. As long as the enemies adhered to the rules of war, the civilians would not be touched, but nothing would stop a stray arrow from taking a life.

“Right now we have all the soldiers lining up with bows. When the enemy charges, they will try and reduce their numbers. If the enemy is smart, they will send the fodder first to test us. They will most likely attack throughout the night and into the next day. Each time they will send more and more against us until they overrun us.”

“How long do you think we can hold out?”

“Three days if we are lucky. One if they don’t care how many people they lose. Most of it is left up to luck and their commander. We have limited actions while they have numerous ones they can employ. This is the worst part of any defensive battle.”

Ash took his place on the far end of the wall opposite Gabe. The main forces on the wall were regular soldiers with a few knight scouts mixed among them. Those that couldn’t fit on the wall waited in the main area of the fort in case the wall was somehow breached.

Just as Matt had predicted, the first wave of a thousand men surged toward them. It looked like a small number when compared to the large force waiting behind, but it was still half the number that stood inside the fort and almost triple that of what could man the walls. The men ran in groups of five carrying long ladders that could be used to scale the wall. A few also carried bows with the hopes of taking out a few men if they were able to get close enough.

Ash had a number of abilities, but none of the seemed to of much use at a great distance. All he could rely on was his earth magic. He looked out at the large number of people rushing toward the fort and he felt his pulse race. Ash had trained with the knights and soldiers over the weeks so he knew the range of his magic was slightly less than that of a skilled archer so even though he wanted to strike at the numerous soldiers, he could only watch as the human wave surged forward.

When the enemy passed a number of marked stones on the ground, the soldiers lifted their long bows and a loud twang filled the air as countless arrows filled the air. As the arrows fell to the ground, less than a quarter of them found their mark and even those few seemed to do little to detour the advancing horde. Yet the bows continued to ring out and the air filled with the sound of the bowstrings. When the first sounds of death mixed with the sound of bows ringing out reached Ash’s ears, it was almost like some macabre sonata of death.

When the enemy reached the second set of marked stones, they were forced to slow down due to the number of pits that the knights had dug over the past months. At the same time, Ash and Gabe raised their hands and started their part of the battle. Next to Ash were a number of large buckets of dirt. Reaching down, Ash touched the dirt and four orbs about the size of a man’s head rose into the air. The orbs quickly shifted to look like large stone spears and flew out, each one finding its target. Ash could cast the same spell even without the use of dirt, but it would more than triple his mana use.

By the time the enemy reached the third set of marked stones, they had already lost a quarter of their soldiers and at the reduced distance, they were going down even faster. Though they had received heavy losses, things had slightly turned. A number of enemy soldiers lifted their own bows and while many of the arrows fell short, more than enough found their home in one of the defenders. Each time someone was injured, they were brought down and someone quickly replaced them. A few arrows flew toward Ash, but he was able to easily knock them aside.

By the time they reached the fourth and final set of marked stones, the enemies had lost over eighty percent of their men and a loud horn sounded. As the men turned to run, Ash started to target the fleeing forces. A strong hand rested on his shoulder as he let loose another set of stone spears. Turning his head, Ash found Matt standing beside him with a wide grin.

“Save your magic, there will be plenty of chances for you to use it.”

During the battle, Ash had used less than a quarter of his MP while Gabe had used slightly over half. They both left the wall to rest and recover as they waited for the next attack. As they took their places to rest, a fire and wind mage took their place. There was a total of six mages at the fort, if one were to include Ash. The plan was simple, they would switch with the other mages to give time for their MP to recover. The fire mages were the best suited to attack and were paired with the wind and water mages to help even out the groups.

“Master, are you ok?” Allice asked running up to him as soon as he was back on the ground with a worried look on her face.

“I am fine,” Ash said with a slight grin.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Gabe said as he shook slightly.

“First time in a battle?” Ash asked, feeling a slight twinge of pity for the young man.

“N-no but this is the first time I have been in such a large scale battle,” Gabe said, his face going slightly white. “There were just so many of them.”

Ash silently agreed. That was the reason that he hadn’t tried to look over the entire battlefield. No matter how seasoned a person was, that amount of death was too much to take in. It was better just to focus on a small area and try and block out the overwhelming sounds of death.

After the first battle, the ground was cleared of the dead and wounded. Ash didn’t ask why no one attacked while the enemy cleared their wounded and dead since he had long ago learned the rules that this world used for war. It seemed slightly foolish to allow them to clear the field as the dead bodies would slow down the next advance, but as long as the rules of war were followed, there would be less unneeded death at the end. At least it would make sure that Allice would be left unharmed as long as she didn’t take up arms during the battle.

As soon as the field was clear, the second battle began. Even from where he sat, Ash could clearly hear the sounds of death. Ash couldn’t help but watch as soldiers were brought down from the wall to be treated in the medical tent. Surprisingly, there were five full healers in the camp. From what Jorin had said, the church of Altina had dispatched priests and priestesses to each fort in show of support of the duchess. Not only had they sent healers, but it seemed that they had also sent out word that no one associated with the church were to fight against them. This might not seem like much, but there was a number of strong knights and fighters who were in the service of the church and every one of them that was forced to hold back increased their chances of winning the war, though with the numbers that stood before them part of that hope had been drowned out.

Thanks to the healers so far, less than ten people had died and many of the injured were already ready for their next chance to man the walls. Seeing how fast the people who were healed were back up and ready to fight, Ash could only feel wonder once again at the way his new world worked.

Almost too soon it was once again Ash’s turn to man the wall. It was only slightly past midday and this was already the fourth attack of the day. Unlike the first attack, this time it looked as if five times as many were ready to assault the walls. So far it had been two groups of one thousand and then one group of two thousand. Now it looked as if the enemy was going to take them seriously.

As the men raced toward the fort, Ash could hear the sound of his heart beating in his ears. Soon that was replaced by the sound of arrows filling the sky. Once again Ash was forced to launch attack after attack. Before he knew it, he had used over half his MP. Breathing hard, Ash looked to where Gabe stood on the other end of the wall to find the mage was already kneeling on the ground his MP totally exhausted.

Ash continued to cast his spells as arrows rained down onto him and the other knights. Soon it was not just arrows, but magic as well that filled the air. More than five mages had joined in the enemies attacks. By the time Ash’s MP had been reduced to only a quarter, the soldiers were starting to gain a foothold on the wall.

Gasping for breath, Ash looked around to see the healers below working frantically to heal the numerous wounded that were being brought to them. Before he had a chance to take everything in, Ash was forced to take a step back as a sword struck from the side. Turning around, Ash found himself faced off against two enemy soldiers. Without hesitation, Ash used his ability Shadow Whip to strike them from the left hitting them hard and throwing them to the ground.

Before he had a chance to enjoy his victory, more and more soldiers began to appear on the wall. Ash fought hard and started to save his MP for when it was most needed. His blade flashed time after time and luckily most the normal soldiers were wearing thin leather armor. After the battle had lasted for more than three hours, Ash was breathing heavy with only seventy MP left. He quickly drank a mana potion but even that would only slowly help in recovery.

A blue spark flashed and Ash felt his MP drain by forty points instantly. His body aching, Ash turned to fight against his new adversary only to find himself faced off against a heavily armored knight. Cursing his luck, Ash took a step back and readied himself. The knight was fast and skilled and in the narrow space of the wall, Ash had trouble finding the room to dodge his attacks. As a strike came in to his left, Ash slid right aiming his strike at the joints in the knight’s elbow. His strike was true, but it was a small victory as the blade only able to make a small cut before the knight drew back his arm and attacked with a sweeping strike. Ash tried to moved back, but found himself near the edge of the wall with the small lookout tower blocking his path. His luck shield flared and Ash once again felt his MP drain, but it wasn’t enough and the sword broke free and struck him in the side leaving behind a deep cut just above his waist.

Pain flared throughout his body as Ash tried to lift his sword to ward off the next blow. Though the enemy knight wore a helmet, Ash could almost see the victory grin on the man’s face as he swung his sword down for a finishing blow. Ash pushed himself and was able to get his sword up in time, but his strength faltered and he was only able to partially block the blade and it dug deep into his shoulder. Ash felt as bones broke and flesh was torn. A loud yell pierced the air as Ash fell back against the cold stone of the tower wall behind him keeping him upright.

Ash watched as the knight neared him, taking only a small amount of happiness of the blood seeming from the man’s injured arm as the blood dripped from the armor. The knight once again raised his sword, but this time it did not fall as a large ball of flame engulfed the knight causing him to scream out in unimaginable pain. The knight moved too far to one side and seeing his chance, Ash used the last ounce of his strength to jump forward, pushing the man over the side of the wall. As the man disappeared from sight, Ash’s head started to swim and his eyes started to falter.

Ash felt something grab him from his uninjured side and tried to turn his head, but it felt as if he was moving it against a tide of water. He caught a glimpse of Matt who was saying something, but it sounded like gibberish to Ash’s ears.

Ash was carried down the ramparts to his tent and soon a woman clad in a white dress stained in many spots with dark splotches of red entered. The whole time he lay, Allice sat by his side his hand in hers. Ash tried to smile, but each time he did, Allice would start crying in earnest.

When the woman laid her hands on Ash’s chest, he felt something warm enter his body and a portion of the pain disappeared. With each passing moment, his mind became clearer, but even when the woman took an unsteady step back, Ash still couldn’t bring himself to sit.

“Master,” Ash heard Allice say her words catching slightly as she spoke.