About a week had passed since Max left Briargate. After he had hunted the needleleafs near the village, they continued their trek for four more days. The days were reminiscent of the first two days out of Briargate, with nothing much happening and them sleeping in the wilds.
The squire continued to talk Max through loading and unloading the horses and camp, but he was now able to do it far quicker than before. Max probably couldn’t do it completely by himself still, as he always got mixed up on the order of things, but he managed well enough with a couple of instructions.
Due to this, their speed at setting up and breaking camp increased, giving them more time on the road. Max’s pace on the horse was also getting better, allowing them to make better time.
It is before midday when Max spots a settlement in the distance, but he can’t quite make out if it is a town or a village. He smiles, looking at it. Another town! I bet they plan for us to stop there like the village. I wonder if they will have any work like the village had. He is lost in thought, thinking of finding another hunt request, when he hears Elijah’s voice.
“This should be the last town before we cross out of Duke Grey’s territory and enter Duke McEwain’s. Ashbury lies in his territory and is currently at war. Once we cross over, we will have to begin to be more careful. While I doubt we will run into the enemy this deep into our territory, bandits and brigands will make use of these troubled times and be more prevalent.”
Max is a little stunned; This is the first time the knight has spoken about anything other than when or where they would be stopping. He doesn't even know that there is a war going on. “Ashbury is at war?”
“Yes. Duke McEwain holds the western portion of the Ridge Weald. The kingdom of Hafat Al'ard lies to the west; they are ocean-bound and regularly try to invade and take the Ridge Weald’s land. Duke McEwain has been tasked with holding this land. Baron Braye leads Ashbury as the westernmost holding of Duke McEwain’s territory in the area that they are pushing in from.”
“You can even see the battlefield from the walls of the keep of Ashbury. Hafat Al'ard has never taken any such forts in the past, and doubtfully will this time either. Still with the men gathering and heading west to fight on the front, there are less people to stop the outlaws from causing trouble.”
This news troubles Max. He had never considered the possibility of a war or the danger it might bring to him or Lady Rosalee. Hearing how confident and almost bored Elijah is with the subject, Max doesn’t worry too much about it.
This seems to just be the way of life for them. While thinking about this, they continue to approach the town and are almost at its gates.
Screams can suddenly be heard in the distance, and the guards begin to close the gates. Elijah kicks his horse into a run, and so does the squire. Max tries to copy and almost falls off the horse as it takes off.
They barely make it through the gate in time. Max pulls the reins back and is knocked off the horse while the others come to a smooth stop. Elijah leaps from his horse and approaches the guard.
“What is the meaning of this? What is going on?”
“I do not know, Sir. We just received word of an attack and were to close the gates.” The Guard is stunned at their sudden rush and doesn’t know if they should have let them in or not. The elf seems angry but not hostile. Not looking for a fight, he simply answers Elijah’s questions.
Ganis dismounts and helps Max up, making sure he is alright, then shows Max how to lead the horse by just the reins. They follow after Elijah as he walks quickly toward the sounds of battle.
As they approach another gate, the sounds of people screaming and bowstrings become more noticeable. Elijah rushes up to the top of the wall and approaches the only man in plate mail to be seen.
"What's the situation?"
The man looks at Elijah's surcoat before responding. "Goblins, a fair number of them, attacked some people outside the town. Given the number we are dealing with, we closed the gates. We will deal with them shortly."
Max and Ganis listen from below, catching most of what is said. Max can’t help but think, you just had to say it, didn't you? You just had to jinx it. As the gate to the town suddenly explodes near them.
"A mage! They have a mage!” The man in plate mail shouts.
? ? ?
Behind the forty to fifty goblins, five hooded people appear. The one holding the staff in the middle of the group raises his staff and mutters alien-sounding words. Symbols appear all around him. Magic swirls around him, condensing before it fires into the gate of the town. The gate shudders from the impact before exploding. The men around him cheer and laugh as the defense of the town falls.
The other four people spread out and begin herding the goblins towards the now open gate and into the town. They use whips and strange, magical-looking devices to encourage the goblins to move as they wish. The mage chants another long line of alien language, and the falling arrows begin to disintegrate before hitting the goblin horde.
Max and Ganis rush to Elijah's side, who is thrown from the wall when the magic collides with the gate. He groans as he stands, drawing his sword. Seeing this, Ganis draws his sword and starts to follow Elijah toward the destroyed gate. "Protect the boy-"
Two arrows zip past Elijah, killing the first goblin past the destroyed gate. He glances back at Max as more arrows fly past him and Ganis. The look on his face is as if they no longer exist, and he only sees the enemies beyond them.
"Protect him." He says again and turns to the horde rushing into the town. He spares only a moment to be impressed by Max's rate of fire before he is distracted by the goblins.
The man wearing plate mail wades into the goblin horde with Elijah, and they slaughter any that come near them. The goblins rush past anytime the knights are entangled as they try to hold the gate. Max fires with a lack of restraint at the horde.
At some point, he stops paying attention to whether they die or not and just keeps firing. If any approach Max, Ganis intercepts them and tries his best to dispatch the creatures.
The goblins try to get past Elijah and the other men without care for all of their kind dead at these men’s feet. Seeing the goblins struggle, the mage releases the spell, keeping the arrows from falling since it isn’t as useful anymore. He finishes another few lines of alien speech, and the symbols around him turn blue, blazing into a bolt of lightning aimed at the two men.
Elijah sees the flash of blue and jumps out of the way. The bolt just misses him but squarely hits the other man, flinging him into the town. With the men's efforts wasted, the goblins are now inside the town.
Max reaches for another arrow only to find his quiver empty. He quickly tosses the bow to the side along with the quiver. Grabbing his spear, he dispatches the goblin engaged with Ganis before heading after the next closest target.
Compared to his skills with the tomahawks, he is lacking with the spear. He uses it to keep a distance between himself and the attacks, but starts to get frustrated at how much longer it takes for him to kill them.
I should just switch to my tomahawks. Urgh! Ganis tries to keep up with Max, but he cannot kill the goblins as quickly as the boy, and the distance between them begins to grow.
Elijah stands, glancing towards the mage, and moves into the town. Blasted Mages! I have to deal with the goblins before I deal with him. I should keep out of his sight unless I want to be like that unlucky bastard.
Elijah spares a look at the knight who has been fighting beside him. His armor is blackened, and he is having trouble getting to his feet and remaining standing. Even in such a state, he engages the goblins as Elijah does, making sure not to be seen through the gate.
Max hears a scream and turns to see Ganis down on one knee. Two goblins attack him with sharp daggers, one of them clearly slashing his leg. He tries his best to defend against the four knives but is unable to keep up.
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If he weren’t wearing a chain shirt, he would most likely be dead already. The goblin in front of him jerks to its side, falling dead, a spear sticking in it. Facing only one goblin, he begins to regain his footing and starts fighting evenly with it.
Good, that spear was just getting in my way anyhow. Max draws his two tomahawks after saving Ganis and rushes after the goblins who are trying to kill some townspeople. Being able to parry and attack at the same time, the goblins Max fights fall faster.
Unlike the bandits he had fought previously, they are closer in both size and temperament to the needleleafs, only slightly smarter and wielding weapons.
The goblins dwindle, and the remaining defenders all rally back at the gate. Elijah notices that Ganis is limping, his surcoat torn to shreds with lots of new, shining scratches on his mail.
Max, on the other hand, appears to be unharmed but is covered with a fair amount of goblin blood. His bow seems to be nowhere to be found, and he is dual-wielding his odd axes. Before he can speak to them, an ominous laughter comes from beyond the gate.
“Impressive, Impressive. I fear it is not enough, though.” The mage shouts before slamming the staff in his left hand upon the ground while sticking his right arm out, and he slowly turns his palm skyward before clenching it tightly.
The bodies of the goblins who are both inside and outside of the town begin to release an ominous indigo light. The goblin’s forms twist and deform; they grow about a foot as their muscles expand. They go from looking like green children to half the height of a man with snarling faces, long noses and ears, hands and feet too large for their limbs to hulking beasts with deformed backs.
Their own muscles are seemingly too large for their small forms. Any wounds that they have close, leaving deep indigo scars. Any limbs that have been lost regrow with an indigo color and are further deformed, the skin looking too taut and the muscle showing in places beneath.
Hands grow back with only two clawed fingers and a thumb. Legs grow back slightly larger than what the goblins have previously had, so if they only lost a single limb, they now move in great limping strides.
Even a few who have been beheaded grow new heads; they have smaller ears with larger mouths. Any of the new indigo body parts have spike-like thorns on them.
“Eschaton, those damned bastards, what are they doing here!? Max, Ganis to me!” Elijah tries to fight his way over to the boys, but the creatures are no longer like the goblins.
They discard their weapons and choose to fight with tooth and claw. Fearless of damage, for as they are cut, the wounds scar over quickly. Removing limbs fails to help either, for they just grow a new one, and if their limbs haven’t been mutated, it is now giving them even more strength.
The only reason the defenders are not instantly wiped out is due to the fact that the creature's intelligence has sharply declined. They use only brute strength and attack what is in front of them. They rampage through the town, killing anyone they see or even just destroying buildings.
Ganis immediately tries to get to Elijah, but is attacked before he can make it there. The creature tosses him around as though he is a plaything. He tries to fight back, but not being strong enough to remove limbs, he slashes and stabs at it to no effect.
His eyes are wide with fright as it backs him towards the town wall, and screams come from all around him. Faring better, Max avoids fighting the beasts; he is unsure of how to do so, and instead chooses to watch.
When he sees Ganis' predicament, he rushes forward to help. Stabbing and slashing do not work. Removing a limb buys time, but then they get stronger. This is troublesome. I have an idea, but I have no idea at all if it will work. Ganis will die if I don’t do anything, so I might as well try.
Running at the beast, Max jumps, driving both of his tomahawks into the creature's shoulder blades. It howls and spins to try and get him, but he holds tight to the stuck tomahawks and rides upon its back. Dodging as it tries to reach back and grab him, he shouts at Ganis. “Distract the damned thing! I just need an opening!”
Having no idea what Max is up to, Ganis engages the beast. He has seen Max in combat and how dangerous he can be. He seems confident, and that is enough for Ganis to trust his judgment.
The beast resumes attacking Ganis as it can’t get whatever is on its back off. Max, with much effort, pulls himself as high as he can before grabbing the bayonet knife and, with a reverse grip, slams it as hard as he can down through the beast's head.
It stumbles and falls to the ground, barely missing Ganis. Rolling off it as it falls, Max gets to his feet and dislodges his tomahawks as quickly as he can before backing away from the beast toward Ganis.
“Is it dead?” Ganis asks while shaking, his eyes never leaving the beast.
“No. But it does look like my guess was right. That blade should keep it down, for now at least. Let’s get over to Elijah before another one comes.” Grabbing Ganis’ arm, he leads him off toward where Elijah is struggling with two of the beasts.
Once they are close enough, he pushes Ganis toward the wall. “Stay there.”
Max looks up at the wall before finding the ladder up. He climbs up the ladder to the top of the wall and looks down at the two beasts fighting Elijah. Tripping over it, he notices a spear lying amongst the bows and arrows on the wall. “Well, that’s handy.”
Sheathing his tomahawks, he picks up the spear and starts to judge the best time. “Here goes nothing.” Max leaps from the wall and drives the spear through one of the beasts’ skulls that is fighting Elijah, and rolls beside him.
Noticing Max rolling off the creature as it falls, he can’t help but glance sidelong at him. “What the hells are you doing? Where is Ganis? We have to get out of here!”
“Don’t worry about that, take its knee on your side!” Max doesn’t wait to see if he listens and ducks a swipe from the beast before pulling his tomahawks back out and driving one into the beast's knee. It stumbles forward due to the damaged leg. Seeing this, Elijah shakes his head and chops its other leg off.
“They will just regrow! There is no point-” Max drives his other tomahawk into its forehead after dodging another blow, and the creature falls flat on its face.
“If you destroy the brain and leave something piercing it, they don’t seem to get back up. Just don’t take the weapon out, or they heal up fast enough.” Ripping the tomahawk out of its knee, he looks at the tomahawk stuck in its head sadly. He brightens suddenly and pulls a knife out of his boot, and with both hands raises it above his head before driving it as deep as he can into the creature's skull.
“How in the hells did you figure that out!? And what are you doing?!” Elijah is dumbfounded by how Max has so quickly figured out how to beat the beasts. Using his foot as a brace, he struggles as he rips the tomahawk out of the thing's head.
“Well, I'm not about to leave this here. I can always buy more knives. Look around, any of the goblins that me or the other archers got in the head didn’t stand back up. I also saw one of the guard swords stuck in the chest of one of the beasts, while it didn’t kill it, the beast didn’t pull it out, and its healing didn’t push it out. The wound simply stayed. When Ganis was in trouble, I gave it a try, and it seems to kill them, kinda.” Max waves Ganis over to them.
“We need to get out of here before they are done destroying the town.” Elijah looks around at the chaos. Most of the defenders are dead or scattered, and the beasts are rampaging everywhere.
“The horses are gone; they got spooked by the explosion, and I lost them,” Ganis shouts while clutching his sword fearfully.
“The town needs us. We are the only ones who seem to have figured this out. If we work together, we should be able to save most of the people who remain.” Shaking his head, Max disagrees with Elijah wanting to leave.
“The town is of no concern to us; our only concern is getting you to Ashbury.” Elijah starts to move, but Max’s words stop him.
“No, that is your concern; mine is this town. If you don’t wish to help, fine, I am going to save as many people as I can.” Without waiting for him to respond, Max heads towards the nearest person he sees fighting one of the beasts.
“He’s gone mad!” Looking horrified, Ganis turns to Elijah, but Elijah just brushes past him, running after Max. Ganis runs after the pair. “Wait up!”
Elijah passes Max at a sprint. “Same thing, I’ll get its legs.”
Working together, they slowly begin killing the creatures off. After Max runs out of daggers, they find weapons or tools that are left lying about and use them to keep the creatures down. They find that more defenders have survived than they thought; they have simply been pushed away from each other by the sheer number and force of the beasts.
With each beast slain, their group grows, making it faster and easier to kill the others. After another beast falls, they notice they don’t hear screaming or the sounds of things being destroyed, and figure that is probably the last of the beasts. They make their way back to the gate, tired and bloody.
“That is surprising. You actually managed to survive; would you look at that.” The mage laughs, and he and the four other hooded figures stand just inside the gate. He claps, and a creepy smile is seen under the hood.
“I do not know who you are, but that is enough! You were a fool to try to destroy Summit Oak!” The knight with the scorched plate mail shouts at him, gripping his two-handed sword.
“Take care, they are with The Order of Eschaton,” Elijah warns, moving beside him.
“Eschaton, here!?” The knight turns to Elijah, his eyes wide before glaring at the mage.
“Oh? Would you look there, he knows who we are. Doesn’t change anything,” The mage smugly responds.
Max moves to the side while they are talking and picks up a bow and a half-empty quiver from the ground. He has no idea if the owner is even still alive, but figures they won’t mind. He takes his stance, holding two arrows with his bow hand, an arrow in his teeth, and notches another and aims at the Mage.
The other defenders, whose number was nearly forty at the start of the battle, number barely ten, and that includes Max and his escorts. They spread out as well, forming an arch around the group at the gate.
“You think you can kill us? Well, isn’t that optimistic? We never were your opponents, though; you were all just test subjects to see how the new recruits fared. Poorly, as it turns out.” The mage looks at one of the mutated goblins and gives it a kick. “There are still some kinks to work out, I see.”
Roaring, the plate mail-wearing knight charges at the mage. Without even looking at him, the mage raises the staff sideways with his right hand pointing his fist at the man, and the man slams into the building behind him. He crumples against the building without making a sound.
“Fool.”
Max fires two arrows at him, and the mage glances his way, sighing. He slams the staff down, and the wind whips the arrows away from him and the hooded figures. The wind grows faster, kicking up dust until no one can see the figures. As the dust clears, the five of them are gone.
