He looked up. the pink dragon and the gray Iumenta dragon were above them. They were slashing at each other, their claws dripping with gore. their tails swung out to be caught by the armor on their opponent’s feet. Their glittering armor was all but gone now. only the real stuff remained, and he saw as they bit and scratched that they were wounding each other deeply, causing blood to pour from the cuts. It fell like scarlet rain in great drops from the gray sky. almost at once the injuries healed. The dragons didn’t seem to notice that they were bleeding all over the field. An involuntary chill ran along his spine, and he looked to see Legon start to engage the Iumenta Venefica.
* * * * *
Arkin felt his lungs burn as his broad sword severed a man’s spine. This was not his kind of fighting. he was more used to playing hide-and-seek before he killed someone. The constant exertion was getting to him. It was getting harder to stand as well. this area was all rock, and neither army was making any headway. The ground was littered with bodies and, even worse, their entrails. it slopped on his boots and made the flat rock slippery. All his wards were also being pushed to their max. he was losing people left, right, and center. the Empire had a higher Venefica to normal soldier ratio than the resistance, and that meant casualties on a large scale. He was doing everything he could to keep his people alive, and sadly the more men he lost the easier it got.
Arkin ran up to a man in all black wooden armor with some sort of cheese cloth over his face. Arkin swung at him and the man raised his sword with surprising speed.
“He must be trained in the Jezeer,” he thought.
This whole unit that they were fighting was like this. they all had the cloth over their faces and each was amazingly fast, and they didn’t back down. Their skill was formidable, but they weren’t Iumenta. His opponent was gaining ground and Arkin had to duck so as to not lose his head. he tried to change his style and trip up the soldier. Nothing. The soldier countered him easily, almost playfully. Arkin knew the man would be protected with wards form the Iumenta, so he couldn’t use magic.
Pain erupted across his chest as the enemy slashed a shallow wound across him, slicing his pectoral muscle and vein beds. He staggered back as blood rushed out of his chest. the man was coming up fast now, not wanting to waste time. He clutched his chest and tried vainly to stop the onslaught. he fell back landing on his tail bone, feeling it crack as it hit. The man was over him now and raised his sword for the death blow. In that moment he saw the flick of light, the flick that said that the Venefica protecting the soldier was dead. Arkin shot his hand forward and sent a fire spell at the man’s head. It evaporated in a cloud of blood, bone, and brains that spattered his face. There was a metallic taste in his mouth; he had forgotten to close it before the spell hit. he rolled on his side and retched, seeing the blood from his chest soak the ground. He blacked out.
* * * * *
Keither took in the field before him. it was an epic story gone horribly wrong. His ears cringed at the sound of grinding metal from the dragons. there was no progress being made there. Then there was the sound of spotters gasping or shrieking, then falling dead as their wives or husbands were killed in battle. The river in the center of the field no longer appeared to be running with water, but he knew that it was foolish to think that it was all blood.
Both sides were taking heavy casualties. they had gotten their wish. the forces were equal and as such neither gained ground. this battle would not have a true victor. His eyes were getting used to the flash of magic, and as he looked through the seeing glass he saw Legon fighting an Iumenta Venefica. he was using that large sword and both were sending spells in rapid succession at each other, but it looked like Legon was slowly winning.
Barnin’s unit was with Legon. The tall one, Ankle, was fighting a man. the soldier fell and tried to get