His sword flashed in the afternoon sun.
The blood of hundreds of cuts soaked the cloth beneath his armor, but none of his wounds had been fatal yet. His eyes stung with sweat, and his breathing was hard. He ignored all of it.
He felt bone-deep exhaustion set in as a fire mage rescued him from the swing of an Ogre’s massive tree branch. How the massive creature had gotten behind him, he didn’t know. He was pretty sure one of his ears was clogged. Probably dirt. He’d lost his helmet and hadn’t managed to pick another one back up.
Mana surged through his weapon as he shoved the blade into the earth. Floating rocks split from the ground, hovering there the same as they did around his sword. A hundred meters away, the ground buckled and collapsed beneath the feet of two war trolls who were about to murder a sergeant and a private.
The trolls, temporarily disabled, were immediately stabbed to death by the two soldiers, spears skewering them both.
They shouted thanks, but Berkenem had already moved on to another target.
She’d said he’d need this blade to kill winged ones. Well, he’d killed more than twenty of the bastards at this point, and he had no intention of stopping any time soon.
Before the sword, his Earth Magic had been unique, but nothing special. He’d developed it on his own and registered as a mage on the same day.
After receiving it, he’d become a paragon of the battlefield. His magic felt almost as easy to use as the blade itself, and the stones that floated around it didn’t impede him.
High Quality Longsword
Effect 1: Earth Magic channelled through this weapon can affect the sea.
Effect 2: Earth Magic channelled through this weapon can affect the sky.
It did nothing to improve his magic, but the biggest problem with Earth magic was getting it to an opponent. He’d started by carving shockwaves in the air, but soon he’d realized that he could just detonate the air as if it were earth right beneath an enemy’s feet!
Or right above their heads. A small explosion of air detonated right behind a soldier’s ear served just as well to kill them as a shockwave tearing the earth, but it took an eighth the mana and happened nearly instantly.
Almost overnight, he’d become a terror of the battlefield. His level soared.
He held dominion over earth, and if air was also earth? He held dominion over everything.
His Earth Magic skill improved without need of free points for the first time in years, pushing it to eighty. His free points were also improving, as his Talent was finally getting the use it had needed all these years.
“For the captain!” cried the sergeant as he realized that his life had just been saved. Charging ahead, he redoubled his efforts.
For your squad’s efforts, you have gained 2 free points!
Inspiring Oath wasn’t what he would’ve preferred in a skill. He’d upgraded it to uncommon shortly after becoming a Lieutenant and had regretted it ever since. Squads didn’t need inspiration in the Ever War. He’d wanted something like the General’s or maybe Arc Sergeant Vovel’s combat prowess. Instead, he gained points when he inspired others to action.
That had not been ideal… not until Eschal invaded anyway.
“Form ranks! Prepare for a counterattack!” he cried, calling back his overly enthusiastic men.
They heeded his orders, returning to a loosely fitting line.
Eschal wasn’t known for any particular type of warfare, which was a crutch and a boon. On the one hand, they didn’t have the overwhelming force of Rechin war machine. On the other hand, each new mercenary company might specialize in an entirely different form of fighting. He could never know what to expect, but he’d discovered that their commander’s were competent.
If he desperately wanted not to be facing a fire mage, that’s who would inevitably be there to challenge him. If a battalion of pikemen would counter his cavalry, then that’s what he would face.
Not that they had cavalry anymore. The horses had all been turned into couriers, most of them desperately tearing through the woods to the west in the hope of spurring Denarla or Tacuria to aid them faster.
The general probably regretted that now. Berkenem grit his teeth as he watched Eschal soldiers flee, unable to run them down. He aimed his sword forward, but held off. They were too far away, even for his new range. It would be a waste of mana.
No counterattack came. Another Eschal forward position successfully liber–!
“Captain watch out!” came a sudden shout.
Berkenem was given just enough warning to snap to the right. A goblin had hidden himself behind the body of a dead war troll.
He turned his body, just enough, and the dagger the goblin held scraped harmlessly against his shoulder, instead of skewering his throat. Before the goblin could even begin to return to the ground, Berkenem smashed its face, hearing a satisfying crunch as the creature’s skull fractured. Blood poured from the hideous creature’s exposed brain, but Berkenem had no time to feel relieved.
“Sick nucks out!” he shouted!
As one, his men unclipped pouches and readied themselves. If one goblin had tried it, others would too. Sure enough, four or five more sprang up from the ground. Some had pretended to be dead, while others had hidden themselves behind dead bodies.
All of them met a barrage of clay balls that smashed against them, spreading the noxious pepper paste Elmerina had provided.
As she’d said, it wasn’t as effective on goblins, but men who were ten paces away could stop an ambush aimed at their friends with the clay balls. Elmerina had originally called the Pepper Bombs, but the name had been too unwieldy. Someone had started calling them sick nucks, and the term had stuck.
The goblins died without even laying a finger on his squad. Once they’d confirmed all of them were dead, they continued slowly forward. He stayed a few paces behind the leader, ready to lend aid if needed.
His men stayed about six or seven feet apart, wary of a mage trying to attack them with wide-range spells, or worse, more of that damn poison. Some of his stupid men still hadn’t managed to put enough free points into the Chemical Resilience skill, and they were still susceptible to it.
That powder had been responsible for almost half of their deaths, if he had any guess. It was immensely satisfying to turn a chemical of their own on the enemy.
“We retreat!” he shouted when the area was secure. He was already a little further away from the fort than he’d intended, and he didn’t want to be caught alone. The vast bulk of the Eschal forces were organized to the East and North. They’d only sparsely defended the south because the Rift Monsters were there. Whatever control they had over them, it didn’t not make them completely allies. The occasional war troll killed an Eschal soldier, but some of them had grown smart.
His soldiers snapped up and began a steady retreat. Another goblin from a little ways ahead popped up, enraged at losing the chance to attack, but one of his men blasted the creature with a jet of concentrated water that bore a hole straight through the goblin’s head.
They weren’t very smart, but their numbers were nothing to joke about.
As they slowly backed away, another winged one attempted an ambush from a nearby tree. Berkenem’s sword flashed, and an explosion of earth blew the creature to pieces.
“Gods, does it have to be so disgusting, Captain?” Elresta shouted. She’d been splattered with a bit of the viscera.
Her fellow soldiers snickered.
“Oi, cap! The quality of your rescue is lacking.” Calereb piped up. The soldier was obnoxious, but he was also good for a laugh sometimes. “Next time you save Elresta’s life, could you do her a favor and make it a little less bloo–!”
“Oh fuck off!” Elestra shouted, before turning back to the Captain, only somewhat contritely. “Thank you for the save, Berk!”
Almost no one could take on a winged one alone and live to tell the tale. Nine times out of ten, the ambush predators would succeed in their attacks. He could, though.
“No problem, Private!” he replied, spirits high.
Another successful mission. Ever since the general had gotten his hands on Elmerina’s paste, Eschal had been on the back foot. They’d even managed to reclaim ground outside the fort, creating a somewhat stable perimeter for safe trips to the river for water and chances to send hunting parties out for food.
The general had also immediately seen Berkenem’s new usefulness and had begun deploying him in the south, where he had devastated the rift monster population. He was the first real counter to the winged ones, and by protecting most of the soldiers from aerial ambush, he’d freed them up to safely focus on the trolls and goblins.
With fewer soldiers needed to guard the south, Neogon had finally managed to get time to allow shifts. Soldiers were getting the rest that days of fighting had denied them.
Eschal, seeing this, would advance, only to discover that the land they’d reclaimed had been contaminated with a stench so foul it made the eyes water. Neogon’s men, prepared for the effects, would then charge back in, finding a disabled and disoriented enemy almost throwing themselves onto Tacurian steel.
It wouldn’t last forever, but the Pepper Paste, spray, and the sick nucks had bought them much-needed breathing room.
Eschal wasn’t stupid, though. In response, they’d begun fanning out, attempting to take control of the eastern woods, which was the only remaining way Neogon’s army could escape if things went wrong.
“We have any wounded?” he asked.
“Nah!”
“Good here!”
“Mekert took a spear in the arm, but it healed up good!”
“All clear, Captain!”
He nodded as they continued the retreat, eyes constantly behind them in expectation of another fight.
They left the treeline and saw the sprawling camp, surrounding a hill that led to the fortress where Neogon’s army had been for nearly a month.
A subtle shift in the air behind him was the only warning he got.
He dodged to the right and swung his sword. For the first time, the air… resisted his attempt to solidify it.
A blade of air sliced down from almost directly above him, ignoring his attempt to control it. If not for the sword, he’d never have sensed the change. His sword allowed him to treat the air like earth, and that let him sense fluctuations in it, the same way he would beneath his feet.
He held up his blade, and the razor-sharp wind crashed into his sword as if it were made of metal.
The attempted magic failed, but the sword itself successfully halted the attack.
He heard the sound of two footsteps and turned back, only to find a young woman standing between them and the fortress. Her back to the castle.
“Hello there, little Earth Mage,” the woman said, a strange smile on her face. “You’ve been making a nuisance of yourself. I’m here to fix that.”
A shudder trailed down the captain’s spine.
“Full retreat,” he said calmly.
Good men that they were, they turned and fled. The woman, graciously, allowed them to go.
From your squad’s efforts, you have gained 1 free point!
He licked suddenly dry lips. Only one sort of person could be insane enough to attack a full squad of soldiers alone.
Observe.
He didn’t think he should’ve wasted the skill, but he was glad he had anyway. What he saw made him tremble.