Ollie bolted awake, a new lifetime of living on or training for battlefields forcing him into focus. He was drawing on his titled beast coat and fixing his hat as he ran out of his tent, his staff in hand. He was beginning to spin up his magicka channels even as he moved, feeling the cold energy spiral up inside him, filling him up with raw power. Blake had already left his tent in the night and he quickly began making his way toward the position he, Laird, Blake, and Lance had been told to take. They’d been working together long enough now that Knight-Captain Leon wanted them to stick together.

  He found Laird and Lance already on their horses readying their lances and Blake just behind them securing her helmet. Ollie leapt onto his own horse. He was not nearly so skilled on horseback as the knights that had spent their entire lives training to ride them, but over the last month he’d gained a lot more confidence. He readied a few barrier spells as they began moving their horses forward, weaving them around other groups of knights as they made their way toward the front.

  “Nykas, you jolly bastard, give me whatever the fuck it is I’ll need to survive this and keep everyone else alive too.”

  ~haha~

  He shook his head and as they crested the hill they were meant to rally at, he got a good look at the horned men’s forces. They were arrayed in neat and orderly rows with shields and spears. Their sorcerer lizards were protected in their center, and the scorpion monsters were surrounded by the chitin armored horned men in small clusters scattered throughout their lines. It was a formidable force, looking a lot more intimidating when they were organized than they had the previous night when he’d flown over them sleeping. In the midst of them Ollie could see the clusters of rifts they’d been gathered around. Those were his goal, and the goal of several other groups of knights and their diviners.

  At the far end, toward Lataxia, Ollie could see that the enemy army had sent nearly half their force toward the city, with the rest there to defend the rifts. If they managed to take the city, they would likely fall back into it. They seemed to have at least some limited control over where the rifts appeared, so once they’d secured the city they could open some there where they’d be even better protected. They couldn’t let that happen.

  It was only a few minutes until the Hume army was ready. A sea of men wearing the gray-blue uniforms of the soldiers, backed up by more than a thousand irregular militia, and flanked by the heavy knight cavalry that was readying on either side. The knight-Captain himself could be seen on the opposite end, a banner planted in the ground that showed a Griffon standing on a blue field. They looked impressive, but seeing the horde of monsters against them created an unflattering contrast. Still, none of them were faltering. He saw no shake in their knees, no breaks in their ranks. Only disciplined men and women who were ready to fight.

  There was maybe one more minute where they all sat still, looking across the long gulf between themselves and then the horn blew again.

  They were moving before Ollie even realized what was happening. His horse responded to Lance, Laird, and Blake’s. He began gathering his will as they moved forward. Just behind him to his left and right was a full column of knights, all of them with their lances held at the rear. He kept focusing on building up his magicka, beginning his mutterings and curses. As they closed in, he could make out the terrifying faces of the horned men. They were snarling behind sharp teeth and smashing their weapons against their shields. Many of them had their horns run through with iron spikes to make them more dangerous, and their armor was heavier than what he was used to seeing in the past.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Only a hundred yards before they reached them, Ollie noticed that there was a shimmer in the air. He reached out with his own magicka, sensing the threads that were forming the barrier and located a small group of lizardmen hidden behind the front line of horned men. He wouldn’t be able to shatter the barrier before they reached them, so he shifted the spell in his left hand, and began to focus on where they were. He felt his magicka dip drastically for a moment, and a portal appeared in front of his staff, moving with him as he moved. He jammed his staff through, causing it to appear above a group of surprised lizardfolk, and before they could react, a fireball launched from the staff’s tip and crashed into them. The barrier dropped just before the knights hit the front line, crashing into the horned men with their lances.

  …

  Michael could see the activity in the horned men encampment begin to speed up. They were trying to force more of their men through, and the rifts themselves seemed to shiver and grow as if reacting to them. He was close, hidden behind a shimmering wall of invisibility that the prince had summoned with the help of a dozen other lizardfolk. There were nearly fifty of them with Michael, and there were fifty on the other side of the encampment. Others were with the young and old who would be running through with them, making sure that they’d be alright.

  They walked toward the horned men carefully, until they were right outside the makeshift barrier that they’d created. It was barebones, just a chest-high wall, likely because they hadn’t expected anyone to attack from within a world that was completely their own. Four of the other lizardfolk began to focus, forming a powerful ball of force. The green prince raised his hand, counting down from four until one, then the ball of force was thrown forward.

  Wood shattered and sent splinters across two of the horned men near the barrier. Michael charged through the new hole in the wall, his mace already glowing with divine fire when he crashed into the nearest of them, pushing him back with his shield while he smashed in the chest of the other. He spun around, running and shifting his mace into a sword before he cut through another one’s leg as he ran by. One attempted to throw a spear at him and he bashed it aside with his shield, and a second one he redirected with his barrier before crashing into a group of five and slashing clean through the chest of one before stabbing into one of the enemy lizardfolk before he could throw a fireball at him.

  He twisted around and jumped through the next nearest group, keeping the attention on himself as he kept moving. As he did that, the prince and the other combatants all slipped in behind him, dropping the wall of invisibility they’d summoned so that they could prepare offensive spells. By the time the horned men realized they’d slipped in, they were ready to loose what they prepared, and more than a dozen of them dropped. That was when the other fifty loosed their own spells, crushing the wall on the other side and rushing inside.

  The horned men began to rally, and gathered around the portal, signaling to the next nearest one that they were under attack.

  Michael and the prince rushed them. The Prince tossed aside thrown spears with a gesture from one hand even as he twisted their necks with a gesture from the other one. Three of the horned men rushed Michael at once and one managed to jam a spear into his shoulder even as he blocked the cleaver and spear of the other two. He broke the spear in half with Ruin, and jammed the edge of his shield into the gut of one causing him to collapse. He then summoned a barrier just in front of the cleaver of another as he began to swing, robbing him of his momentum so Michael could smash in his chestplate with Ruin. The last one turned and leapt through the portal. Michael could hear the faint whisper of the gods through it, but it was distorted, as if they were being played through a crackling car radio.

  Michael checked that the prince was ready and he nodded. He jumped toward the portal, and at that moment, it disappeared.

  “Fuck.”

  …

  “Got it!” yelled Ollie as the rift sealed in front of him. The battle was raging all around him, and Lance was driving his sword through the chest of a horned man that had just leapt through the rift.

  “Alright! On to the next!” yelled Lance, Laird and Blake brought their horses about as they started to charge toward the glowing and flickering scar in the distance, a sea of monsters in their way.