Chapter Seventeen: A catastrophic battle
Ferral looked up sharply when he heard a noise from the South Gate of Idylyn.
They had been up all night anticipating the horde sent by the traitorous lords of Bron and Mylar, but to add insult to injury, the lord of Tryht had also betrayed their emperor.
The previous day had been spent fighting the troops off the gates, but Ferral knew they'd get into the city sooner or later.
His Leniency's Royal Army numbered, at this point in time, approximately eight and a half thousand, and the other lords, of Bron, Tryht and Mylar combined, had managed to gather an army of at least fifteen thousand men. The only reserves in Idylyn were the Engineer-Corps, who numbered about three thousand, but many of them had elected to help heal any injured men from Ferral's troops.
“Go check that out please, Freyd” Ferral ordered the nearest guard, then hastened back to the watch tower, where Over-Marshal Skayl, Marshal Cynyl and Under-Marshal Rafyl waited patiently for news of the attack.
As Ferral made to open the steel door, he heard a scream coming from the South Gate; Ferral ran speedily back to where he had come, his heart thumping wildly and his stomach fluttered nervously.
Freyd lay injured on the ground, with an iron bolt through his stomach and blood flowed from his mouth.
Ferral knelt over the dying guard and brushed the hair off his face, then wiped the blood from his mouth; “what happened to you and who was it?” Ferral asked quickly before the man died.
Freyd coughed and blood spewed from his mouth; “th-th-they c-ca-came and they shot me, the-they were f-fr-from Mylar and Bron” Freyd spoke with extreme effort. “You did well Freyd, rest easy now soldier” Ferral spoke calmly, then closed his eyes and let Freyd pass to the Grand Forest.
Ferral stood up with a fierce rage in his eyes.
The signal for attack was to let off a red flare, red being the signal for danger, and Ferral decided that they were in extreme danger from this point onwards.
So Ferral pulled a flare from his carry-pack, rummaged around for the spark-setter and then finally planted the flare in the ground in the most open space and lit it. The flare fizzed angrily and the wick slowly disappeared until the flare was finally let off with a small cloud of grey smoke, then it exploded in the air and let off a bright, red cloud of smoke.
Ferral sped off back to the watch tower to plan the defence with High Command, noting that they had lost the element of surprise once again. Already the watch tower was alight with torches and Ferral could hear the thudding of metal-soled boots reverberating off the tower from a distance.
Ferral rendezvoused with High Command as they left the safety of the watch tower.
Over-Marshal Skayl looked worried and the others had looks of mild concern on their faces, but from a closer view they both looked just as concerned as Skayl.
“Ser, what's happened? The red flare was lit” Cynyl spoke anxiously. “I lit the red flare myself, Marshal Cynyl. We are under attack again and already we have one casualty; Freyd of the Palace Guards was lost but a few moments ago. We have to set up the defence right away” Ferral growled furiously. “Ser?” Skayl asked. “The plan, Skayl. We must defend Idylyn and standing here questioning me will not help us one bit, so make yourself useful and organise the troops right away.” Skayl looked flustered for a moment, then his face hardened and he headed off in the direction of the Parade Grounds; “keep your wits about you, Skayl, and you'll do fine” Ferral called reassuringly after the Over-Marshal.
“You two are with me for the time being. We'll just go over the plan once more, then we will make the arrangements that we need.” Cynyl and Rafyl nodded briefly. “Right, archers in the watch towers along the wall, troops positioned near the South Gate and reinforcements close to the South Gate in case they try and send forces there too. I will take care of any Mages that they brought with them, yeah; now lets go and send this scum back from where they came.” The two High Command officers looked at each other and shrugged; “let's do it then Rafyl, these traitors will suffer painful deaths from our hands” Cynyl grimaced, then followed Ferral in the direction Skayl had gone.
Once they arrived at the Parade Grounds, a short half a centime from the South Gate, the three busied themselves with locating the two archer squadrons and sending them to their prospective watch towers each small squad had been assigned to. “Renyk, you and twenty archers are assigned to the watch tower by the North Gate. If any of the invading force attack, then you will need to alert Under-Marshal Rafyl and the reinforcements” Ferral explained to the Archer-Captain. “Yes, Ser” Renyk replied, nodding to the Under-Marshal. “Rafyl, this is where we part. You will be leading the reinforcements, since I know I can trust you not to let us down” Ferral clapped the man heartily on the back. Rafyl smiled briefly, then made off to meet the regiment assigned to him. “Well that solves that problem I'll wager, but we'll see by the end of the battle. We can't expect not to lose any troops throughout this battle, but who knows what will happen; we don't even know how many troops they're sending.”
The rest of the troops were organised accordingly, most posted close to the gates to reinforce the guards and help keep the attackers out. The first wave of attackers started about a quarter of a glass after the battle plans had been completely sorted out.
Ferral raced back to the South Gate, with a squadron of Mage-Lancers, that Skye had left for him in case any Mages were with the attacking force. “Our job is to destroy any enemy Mages; the rest of the Lords' Army will be taken care of and without too many losses hopefully” Ferral explained breathlessly, trying to keep up with the other troops in front of him.
The star rose steadily in the background, lighting up the dark of early morning and gracing a warming feeling on the Kaladacian troops. Ferral and his squad found the side gate and slipped outside the walls, closing it tightly behind them to make sure none of the opposing forces found their way into Idylyn. “This is it. From this point onwards, we will be involved purely in a stealth mission and we cannot afford to be discovered by the enemy. Our task is to evade the army and find any enemy Mages, then destroy them. Any last words before we depart?” Ferral questioned. No-one said anything. “Right, then lets go!”
They took the shortest route, from the side gate to the forested land close to the South Gate, and took up positions within the forest shrub.
The enemy were just starting to attack the South Gate, while Ferral's archers had gathered in the ordered location, on each of the watch towers close to the South Gate, and were attempting the hold the enemy off for the time being. It didn't last long. The enemy grew frustrated and set up their cross-bolt mortars and began to fire upon the archers. Ferral watched in horror as many of his archers got hit by the steely, metal bolts; unfortunately Archer-Captain Renyk was hit by one the bolts, going down hard with the bolt through his right shoulder. “Frag!” Ferral whispered furiously, taking care to not let any of the enemy hear him; “what should we do, Ser?” one of the Mage-Lancers asked him. “We can't do anything, we just have to let Over-Marshal Skayl deal with this as he sees fit.” This didn't stop Ferral and the Mage-Lancers from glaring furiously at the enemy.
Some of the archers clicked and started firing at the men who were manning the cross-bolt mortars, killing several of them until finally they had shot down each of the men firing cross-bolts. The enemy sent more men to fire the mortars, but a few of them were struck by arrows before they could reach their destination. Ferral grinned, “now that's more like it.” Suddenly Ferral could feel the link-magic concentration of a Mage. “It's our turn to rumble now, can you all feel that?” the Military-Advisor questioned the Mage-Lancers. Majer Cabayt was the first to nod and the other Mage-Lancers didn't look bewildered, so Ferral assumed they knew what he was talking about.
Ferral snuck through the bushes quietly, his eyes fixed upon the said Mage and then he nodded to Majer Cabayt to cover him while he attacked the Mage head on. Once the Mage came into his sight, Ferral automatically started using the same concept Skye used on the Ice Wizards. The Mage turned around as he felt the link-magic start to leave his body and drew a scant shield around himself, then pulled back some of the link-magic being leached from his body and flung a wave of life-force directly at Ferral. Ferral drew up his own shields and forced the life-force back at the Mage. While Ferral's foe was desperately trying to gain control of his life-force, Ferral started to concentrate on his weather magic. Ferral quickly drew dark clouds above them, then stopped and drew some more link-magic from the Mage. The magus snarled and summoned a bolt of pure energy, then threw it straight at Ferral. Ferral dodged and hurled himself away from the energy bolt, which exploded just Dexyl from him. Ferral had lost control of the fight, but he schemed to gain control once more, while he was dodging more energy bolts. He focused once more on his weather magic, as he ducked behind a tree.
The darkened clouds finally rebelled and rain came pouring down in a sudden torrent, huge drops of water splashing loudly on the already soaked ground. Ferral concentrated harder on the greyish-blue clouds, and out of nowhere came a sudden rumble of thunder and a small flash of lightning lit up the dark sky in the distance. Ferral ran a little bit further among the trees and signalled to Majer Cabayt, who was hidden in the trees on his left. The Majer led the Mage-Lancer squad out to attack the Mage and Ferral followed them, intent on completing the already fierce storm. The Mage came into sight once more and the Mage-Lancers readied their Linked-lances. “Ready, aim and fire!” Majer Cabayt growled throatily, glaring at the robed magus. The Mage-Lancers went to fire, at the same time as the magus summoned another energy bolt. He flung it off and quickly summoned his shields, as the link-magic from the lances exploded daintily on his link-hardened shields. The energy bolt exploded behind the Mage-Lancers, maiming one and instantly killing another.
The Mage started summoning a different coloured energy bolt, one that was fire-red and probably contained the Elemental essence of fire. Ferral finally completed his thunder storm, which was now so intense that the hail was knocking out some one of the enemy, in the distance, who didn't have helmets on. Ferral had made every one of his troops wear a helmet in case of this kind of circumstances. As the magus fired the fire-bolt at the Mage-Lancers, Ferral ran blindly to get as close to the Mage-Lancers as possible, then concentrated most of his energy into a huge shield that covered the whole squadron. White spots blurred Ferral's vision, but he caught himself and made an energy bolt of his own and sent it straight at the Mage, who was too busy concentrating on the Mage-Lancers that he didn't even glance at Ferral. The magus' scream was cut short as he died instantly. Ferral cheered inwardly and healed the maimed Mage-Lancer, then he blacked out.
When Ferral woke up, he found himself looking into the eyes of the most beautiful redhead he had ever seen, then flushed as he realised it was Kleryssa. “Huh? How did I get here and where are my troops? Oh and what about the battle?” the swordsman asked in a confused frenzy. “Calm down, you're not in any condition to move easily.” Ferral relaxed into the soft bed in a sigh; “can you at least tell me how I got here? I'm the Military-Advisor, I need to know what's happened.”
“If Skye was here with us, he'd tell you to shut up and rest.”
“But I need to know” Ferral persisted eagerly.
Kleryssa sighed in defeat. “Fine I'll tell you what happened as long as you promise not to get out of that bed.”
Ferral grinned victoriously.
“A Majer named Cabayt brought you here. He told me that you had killed a Mage, but used so much energy that you passed out and he had to have the squad of Mage-Lancers bring you here. He also told me that there was another Mage and they would take care of the problem this time.” Ferral swore. “You have to find me a vial of the life-blood restoration potion, otherwise those men will be going to their deaths!” Kleryssa frowned. “I have no idea what a life-blood restoration potion is, or where I would find something like that.” Ferral sighed; “it doesn't matter, but you must let me out of this bed, otherwise our troops will be decimated and it'll be all my fault for not doing the job I was meant to be doing.”
“No, Skye would be furious if anything happened to you!” Kleryssa growled. “The way the battle was going before we might all end up dead; I have to protect Idylyn, because I am the Military-Advisor, like it or not” Ferral snapped, a little too harshly. Kleryssa bowed her head; “fine, but if anything happens to you I'll be telling Skye that it was on your own stupid fault.” Ferral sighed regretfully; “sorry, I didn't mean to speak harshly, but I have to think of all of Idylyn's citizens. I can't lie in this bed and let the Mage-Lancers die, just because I used a little too much energy against a Mage.”
Ferral reflected upon that conversation, as he left the small apartment and weaved his way through the buildings littered throughout Idylyn's Residential District. He could hear the sounds of battle in the near distance. Ferral quit walking and started running towards the South Gate, hurdling a fallen pillar on the way. Finally he made it to the South Gate, where the regiments of the Lancer-Elites were steadily forcing the enemy back out of Idylyn. Ferral spotted Over-Marshal Skayl and jogged speedily over to him. “Ser, I thought you had been injured?” Skayl wondered, looking slightly confused. “No, I used too much energy against a Mage. I need to locate my squad of Mage-Lancers and Majer Cabayt, you haven't seen them have you?” Ferral questioned intently. Skayl shook his head. “Ser, the battle isn't going as well as I'd hoped. We've lost almost five hundred men already” the Over-Marshal reported with some concern.
Ferral shook his head. “Doesn't matter right now, as long as we drive them out of Idylyn.” Skayl blinked officiously; “but they died Ser, we can't just forget about them.” Ferral breathed heavily, receiving an anxious look from Skayl. “We won't, but at the moment we have to concentrate on winning this battle, do you understand Over-Marshal?” Skayl nodded, wearing a look of enlightenment on his face. “Yes, Ser. We'll drive them back and send those traitors to the Grand Forest.” Ferral smiled in agreement and then dismissed himself, heading through the main battle out the South Gate. An officer from the opposing forces leapt, out of thin air, straight at Ferral, who brought his sword up quickly, parrying the expected blow.
The officer swore and landed cleanly on his feet, not even tripping or falling over himself, then turned around and faced Ferral. “Scum! Your emperor is a weak fool” the officer spat in utter disgust, then moved closer and swung his large battle-sword directly at Ferral's head. Ferral dived to the ground, avoiding the blade and kicked the officer's feet out from underneath him, then sprang to his feet, as the officer recovered swiftly and did the same. Again the blade came close to Ferral's head, but this time he met the other's blade with a dull, metal clang. The other snarled and pushed Ferral's sword away and, quick as lightning attacked once more; Ferral growled back and slammed his sword into the officer's, ripping the blade out of his hands. Both blade and man fell to the ground with a dense thud and a loud clanging noise of metal hitting pave-stones. The officer threw himself towards his sword, but it was too late and Ferral's sword sliced through his neck, separating his head from his body.
Ferral sprinted out the South Gate, avoiding the conflict around him and let his inner senses work out where the magus was. Finally he felt a strong link-magic concentration, which was accentuated by the slight feeling of death in the same area; Ferral assumed the squad of Mage-Lancers had run into trouble and encountered the Mage. Ferral headed towards the area, which was in the forest, close to where the River Viene flowed. Once he reached the area, he noticed a body of a Mage-Lancer lying on the bank of the Viene and a sense of disorder (lack of orderly links) very close by. Through the darkened trees he could see a man robed in white, who was evidently the magus and he was very powerful; unfortunately for the magus Ferral had the element of surprise.
The swordsman crouched in the bushes behind the magus and decided to try a technique that Skye would probably berate him for and lecture him on how dangerous it was, but Ferral could see no alternative to preserve his own troops and he knew that he had to do it. Ferral concentrated link-magic from the trees around him and created a large bolt of link-magic, then he put as much energy* as he could afford into this link-magic energy bolt and sent it straight at the magus. The Mage turned, but could do nothing as the link-magic field swallowed him up and destroyed his living body. Ferral sank to the ground and blacked out, having used up almost all of his available energy.
Ferral looked up sharply when he heard a noise from the South Gate of Idylyn.
They had been up all night anticipating the horde sent by the traitorous lords of Bron and Mylar, but to add insult to injury, the lord of Tryht had also betrayed their emperor.
The previous day had been spent fighting the troops off the gates, but Ferral knew they'd get into the city sooner or later.
His Leniency's Royal Army numbered, at this point in time, approximately eight and a half thousand, and the other lords, of Bron, Tryht and Mylar combined, had managed to gather an army of at least fifteen thousand men. The only reserves in Idylyn were the Engineer-Corps, who numbered about three thousand, but many of them had elected to help heal any injured men from Ferral's troops.
“Go check that out please, Freyd” Ferral ordered the nearest guard, then hastened back to the watch tower, where Over-Marshal Skayl, Marshal Cynyl and Under-Marshal Rafyl waited patiently for news of the attack.
As Ferral made to open the steel door, he heard a scream coming from the South Gate; Ferral ran speedily back to where he had come, his heart thumping wildly and his stomach fluttered nervously.
Freyd lay injured on the ground, with an iron bolt through his stomach and blood flowed from his mouth.
Ferral knelt over the dying guard and brushed the hair off his face, then wiped the blood from his mouth; “what happened to you and who was it?” Ferral asked quickly before the man died.
Freyd coughed and blood spewed from his mouth; “th-th-they c-ca-came and they shot me, the-they were f-fr-from Mylar and Bron” Freyd spoke with extreme effort. “You did well Freyd, rest easy now soldier” Ferral spoke calmly, then closed his eyes and let Freyd pass to the Grand Forest.
Ferral stood up with a fierce rage in his eyes.
The signal for attack was to let off a red flare, red being the signal for danger, and Ferral decided that they were in extreme danger from this point onwards.
So Ferral pulled a flare from his carry-pack, rummaged around for the spark-setter and then finally planted the flare in the ground in the most open space and lit it. The flare fizzed angrily and the wick slowly disappeared until the flare was finally let off with a small cloud of grey smoke, then it exploded in the air and let off a bright, red cloud of smoke.
Ferral sped off back to the watch tower to plan the defence with High Command, noting that they had lost the element of surprise once again. Already the watch tower was alight with torches and Ferral could hear the thudding of metal-soled boots reverberating off the tower from a distance.
Ferral rendezvoused with High Command as they left the safety of the watch tower.
Over-Marshal Skayl looked worried and the others had looks of mild concern on their faces, but from a closer view they both looked just as concerned as Skayl.
“Ser, what's happened? The red flare was lit” Cynyl spoke anxiously. “I lit the red flare myself, Marshal Cynyl. We are under attack again and already we have one casualty; Freyd of the Palace Guards was lost but a few moments ago. We have to set up the defence right away” Ferral growled furiously. “Ser?” Skayl asked. “The plan, Skayl. We must defend Idylyn and standing here questioning me will not help us one bit, so make yourself useful and organise the troops right away.” Skayl looked flustered for a moment, then his face hardened and he headed off in the direction of the Parade Grounds; “keep your wits about you, Skayl, and you'll do fine” Ferral called reassuringly after the Over-Marshal.
“You two are with me for the time being. We'll just go over the plan once more, then we will make the arrangements that we need.” Cynyl and Rafyl nodded briefly. “Right, archers in the watch towers along the wall, troops positioned near the South Gate and reinforcements close to the South Gate in case they try and send forces there too. I will take care of any Mages that they brought with them, yeah; now lets go and send this scum back from where they came.” The two High Command officers looked at each other and shrugged; “let's do it then Rafyl, these traitors will suffer painful deaths from our hands” Cynyl grimaced, then followed Ferral in the direction Skayl had gone.
Once they arrived at the Parade Grounds, a short half a centime from the South Gate, the three busied themselves with locating the two archer squadrons and sending them to their prospective watch towers each small squad had been assigned to. “Renyk, you and twenty archers are assigned to the watch tower by the North Gate. If any of the invading force attack, then you will need to alert Under-Marshal Rafyl and the reinforcements” Ferral explained to the Archer-Captain. “Yes, Ser” Renyk replied, nodding to the Under-Marshal. “Rafyl, this is where we part. You will be leading the reinforcements, since I know I can trust you not to let us down” Ferral clapped the man heartily on the back. Rafyl smiled briefly, then made off to meet the regiment assigned to him. “Well that solves that problem I'll wager, but we'll see by the end of the battle. We can't expect not to lose any troops throughout this battle, but who knows what will happen; we don't even know how many troops they're sending.”
The rest of the troops were organised accordingly, most posted close to the gates to reinforce the guards and help keep the attackers out. The first wave of attackers started about a quarter of a glass after the battle plans had been completely sorted out.
Ferral raced back to the South Gate, with a squadron of Mage-Lancers, that Skye had left for him in case any Mages were with the attacking force. “Our job is to destroy any enemy Mages; the rest of the Lords' Army will be taken care of and without too many losses hopefully” Ferral explained breathlessly, trying to keep up with the other troops in front of him.
The star rose steadily in the background, lighting up the dark of early morning and gracing a warming feeling on the Kaladacian troops. Ferral and his squad found the side gate and slipped outside the walls, closing it tightly behind them to make sure none of the opposing forces found their way into Idylyn. “This is it. From this point onwards, we will be involved purely in a stealth mission and we cannot afford to be discovered by the enemy. Our task is to evade the army and find any enemy Mages, then destroy them. Any last words before we depart?” Ferral questioned. No-one said anything. “Right, then lets go!”
They took the shortest route, from the side gate to the forested land close to the South Gate, and took up positions within the forest shrub.
The enemy were just starting to attack the South Gate, while Ferral's archers had gathered in the ordered location, on each of the watch towers close to the South Gate, and were attempting the hold the enemy off for the time being. It didn't last long. The enemy grew frustrated and set up their cross-bolt mortars and began to fire upon the archers. Ferral watched in horror as many of his archers got hit by the steely, metal bolts; unfortunately Archer-Captain Renyk was hit by one the bolts, going down hard with the bolt through his right shoulder. “Frag!” Ferral whispered furiously, taking care to not let any of the enemy hear him; “what should we do, Ser?” one of the Mage-Lancers asked him. “We can't do anything, we just have to let Over-Marshal Skayl deal with this as he sees fit.” This didn't stop Ferral and the Mage-Lancers from glaring furiously at the enemy.
Some of the archers clicked and started firing at the men who were manning the cross-bolt mortars, killing several of them until finally they had shot down each of the men firing cross-bolts. The enemy sent more men to fire the mortars, but a few of them were struck by arrows before they could reach their destination. Ferral grinned, “now that's more like it.” Suddenly Ferral could feel the link-magic concentration of a Mage. “It's our turn to rumble now, can you all feel that?” the Military-Advisor questioned the Mage-Lancers. Majer Cabayt was the first to nod and the other Mage-Lancers didn't look bewildered, so Ferral assumed they knew what he was talking about.
Ferral snuck through the bushes quietly, his eyes fixed upon the said Mage and then he nodded to Majer Cabayt to cover him while he attacked the Mage head on. Once the Mage came into his sight, Ferral automatically started using the same concept Skye used on the Ice Wizards. The Mage turned around as he felt the link-magic start to leave his body and drew a scant shield around himself, then pulled back some of the link-magic being leached from his body and flung a wave of life-force directly at Ferral. Ferral drew up his own shields and forced the life-force back at the Mage. While Ferral's foe was desperately trying to gain control of his life-force, Ferral started to concentrate on his weather magic. Ferral quickly drew dark clouds above them, then stopped and drew some more link-magic from the Mage. The magus snarled and summoned a bolt of pure energy, then threw it straight at Ferral. Ferral dodged and hurled himself away from the energy bolt, which exploded just Dexyl from him. Ferral had lost control of the fight, but he schemed to gain control once more, while he was dodging more energy bolts. He focused once more on his weather magic, as he ducked behind a tree.
The darkened clouds finally rebelled and rain came pouring down in a sudden torrent, huge drops of water splashing loudly on the already soaked ground. Ferral concentrated harder on the greyish-blue clouds, and out of nowhere came a sudden rumble of thunder and a small flash of lightning lit up the dark sky in the distance. Ferral ran a little bit further among the trees and signalled to Majer Cabayt, who was hidden in the trees on his left. The Majer led the Mage-Lancer squad out to attack the Mage and Ferral followed them, intent on completing the already fierce storm. The Mage came into sight once more and the Mage-Lancers readied their Linked-lances. “Ready, aim and fire!” Majer Cabayt growled throatily, glaring at the robed magus. The Mage-Lancers went to fire, at the same time as the magus summoned another energy bolt. He flung it off and quickly summoned his shields, as the link-magic from the lances exploded daintily on his link-hardened shields. The energy bolt exploded behind the Mage-Lancers, maiming one and instantly killing another.
The Mage started summoning a different coloured energy bolt, one that was fire-red and probably contained the Elemental essence of fire. Ferral finally completed his thunder storm, which was now so intense that the hail was knocking out some one of the enemy, in the distance, who didn't have helmets on. Ferral had made every one of his troops wear a helmet in case of this kind of circumstances. As the magus fired the fire-bolt at the Mage-Lancers, Ferral ran blindly to get as close to the Mage-Lancers as possible, then concentrated most of his energy into a huge shield that covered the whole squadron. White spots blurred Ferral's vision, but he caught himself and made an energy bolt of his own and sent it straight at the Mage, who was too busy concentrating on the Mage-Lancers that he didn't even glance at Ferral. The magus' scream was cut short as he died instantly. Ferral cheered inwardly and healed the maimed Mage-Lancer, then he blacked out.
When Ferral woke up, he found himself looking into the eyes of the most beautiful redhead he had ever seen, then flushed as he realised it was Kleryssa. “Huh? How did I get here and where are my troops? Oh and what about the battle?” the swordsman asked in a confused frenzy. “Calm down, you're not in any condition to move easily.” Ferral relaxed into the soft bed in a sigh; “can you at least tell me how I got here? I'm the Military-Advisor, I need to know what's happened.”
“If Skye was here with us, he'd tell you to shut up and rest.”
“But I need to know” Ferral persisted eagerly.
Kleryssa sighed in defeat. “Fine I'll tell you what happened as long as you promise not to get out of that bed.”
Ferral grinned victoriously.
“A Majer named Cabayt brought you here. He told me that you had killed a Mage, but used so much energy that you passed out and he had to have the squad of Mage-Lancers bring you here. He also told me that there was another Mage and they would take care of the problem this time.” Ferral swore. “You have to find me a vial of the life-blood restoration potion, otherwise those men will be going to their deaths!” Kleryssa frowned. “I have no idea what a life-blood restoration potion is, or where I would find something like that.” Ferral sighed; “it doesn't matter, but you must let me out of this bed, otherwise our troops will be decimated and it'll be all my fault for not doing the job I was meant to be doing.”
“No, Skye would be furious if anything happened to you!” Kleryssa growled. “The way the battle was going before we might all end up dead; I have to protect Idylyn, because I am the Military-Advisor, like it or not” Ferral snapped, a little too harshly. Kleryssa bowed her head; “fine, but if anything happens to you I'll be telling Skye that it was on your own stupid fault.” Ferral sighed regretfully; “sorry, I didn't mean to speak harshly, but I have to think of all of Idylyn's citizens. I can't lie in this bed and let the Mage-Lancers die, just because I used a little too much energy against a Mage.”
Ferral reflected upon that conversation, as he left the small apartment and weaved his way through the buildings littered throughout Idylyn's Residential District. He could hear the sounds of battle in the near distance. Ferral quit walking and started running towards the South Gate, hurdling a fallen pillar on the way. Finally he made it to the South Gate, where the regiments of the Lancer-Elites were steadily forcing the enemy back out of Idylyn. Ferral spotted Over-Marshal Skayl and jogged speedily over to him. “Ser, I thought you had been injured?” Skayl wondered, looking slightly confused. “No, I used too much energy against a Mage. I need to locate my squad of Mage-Lancers and Majer Cabayt, you haven't seen them have you?” Ferral questioned intently. Skayl shook his head. “Ser, the battle isn't going as well as I'd hoped. We've lost almost five hundred men already” the Over-Marshal reported with some concern.
Ferral shook his head. “Doesn't matter right now, as long as we drive them out of Idylyn.” Skayl blinked officiously; “but they died Ser, we can't just forget about them.” Ferral breathed heavily, receiving an anxious look from Skayl. “We won't, but at the moment we have to concentrate on winning this battle, do you understand Over-Marshal?” Skayl nodded, wearing a look of enlightenment on his face. “Yes, Ser. We'll drive them back and send those traitors to the Grand Forest.” Ferral smiled in agreement and then dismissed himself, heading through the main battle out the South Gate. An officer from the opposing forces leapt, out of thin air, straight at Ferral, who brought his sword up quickly, parrying the expected blow.
The officer swore and landed cleanly on his feet, not even tripping or falling over himself, then turned around and faced Ferral. “Scum! Your emperor is a weak fool” the officer spat in utter disgust, then moved closer and swung his large battle-sword directly at Ferral's head. Ferral dived to the ground, avoiding the blade and kicked the officer's feet out from underneath him, then sprang to his feet, as the officer recovered swiftly and did the same. Again the blade came close to Ferral's head, but this time he met the other's blade with a dull, metal clang. The other snarled and pushed Ferral's sword away and, quick as lightning attacked once more; Ferral growled back and slammed his sword into the officer's, ripping the blade out of his hands. Both blade and man fell to the ground with a dense thud and a loud clanging noise of metal hitting pave-stones. The officer threw himself towards his sword, but it was too late and Ferral's sword sliced through his neck, separating his head from his body.
Ferral sprinted out the South Gate, avoiding the conflict around him and let his inner senses work out where the magus was. Finally he felt a strong link-magic concentration, which was accentuated by the slight feeling of death in the same area; Ferral assumed the squad of Mage-Lancers had run into trouble and encountered the Mage. Ferral headed towards the area, which was in the forest, close to where the River Viene flowed. Once he reached the area, he noticed a body of a Mage-Lancer lying on the bank of the Viene and a sense of disorder (lack of orderly links) very close by. Through the darkened trees he could see a man robed in white, who was evidently the magus and he was very powerful; unfortunately for the magus Ferral had the element of surprise.
The swordsman crouched in the bushes behind the magus and decided to try a technique that Skye would probably berate him for and lecture him on how dangerous it was, but Ferral could see no alternative to preserve his own troops and he knew that he had to do it. Ferral concentrated link-magic from the trees around him and created a large bolt of link-magic, then he put as much energy* as he could afford into this link-magic energy bolt and sent it straight at the magus. The Mage turned, but could do nothing as the link-magic field swallowed him up and destroyed his living body. Ferral sank to the ground and blacked out, having used up almost all of his available energy.
Cherub's Cage of FIre
