Eagle and Raven came from the same tribe of indigenous people who were chased away from the Holy Land of Adrar, they were the last of their tribe. It was Gideon who found them and accepted them to his domain and made them into full-fledged loyal soldiers. The two had unique gifts, to turn into an eagle and to turn into a raven respectively, as such they received their new names Eagle and Raven from their master Gideon, whom together with his wife Layla, treated them with great sympathy.
In a few years of staying, they already made a family within their lord"s domain and lived peacefully, their daily duties were to become messengers for Gideon"s friends and relatives, however, when the news spread about the emperor"s fall, they were tasked to deliver messages to the other lords, Hawken and Netland about the defection.
Together with their family, they evacuated the city together with Gideon, and now that the time has come to claim back their once lost peace and to punish the ones who destroyed it. Their family were safe, however, they couldn"t accept what they did to their countrymen, some of whom they became close to in the past.
In human form, their faces were a bit different than usual humans, this is why they were hunted by the holy clerks of Adrar, to them they looked like demons as their mouths slightly looked like beaks, and their eyes were sharp, they looked scary and angry most of the time. However, in truth they were both kind and gentle since they were children, those who were able to know them closely became their friends, Kydus to them was their home.
Now, they have been given a critical mission by their master, not to deliver messages but to bring destruction to the enemy. In their talons they carried the so-called BC"s from their allies, being in their bird forms all that they could do was communicate to each other through bird language.
Eagle: [Raven, ya redy?]
Raven: [Swoop down and drop ayt? Ezzy ezzy]
Eagle: [Comin" in hot]
Raven: [What das mean?]
Eagle: [Nothin" just somethin" ally Andrei told me about when attackin"]
Raven: [Raven too, comin" in hot]
As the Eagle and Raven screamed, they swooped down and emptied the sacks on Andrei"s instruction, they swooped down on a certain level above the clueless enemies.
Black objects fell down forming a line as they did this, just like falling debris, however when it landed the filaments were triggered and it ignited in a fiery ball of yellow flame, it was an enormous explosion. It was as though a fist of orange flame had decided to punch the knights who were around it, but it didn"t end there, projectiles flew from all directions creating holes at the bodies of the knights as if making sure they were dead.
To the knights who were in formation, and with their armors and s.h.i.+elds deemed useless, the successive blows were deadly, and it came from the sky, normally they would have sent their dark magic after the birds but all of them were in a state of panic.
They didn"t understand what was happening, the harmless-looking birds dropped harmless-looking debris, but when it dropped it turned out to be gifts from Muspelheim.
Out of this, the elf-commander who led the force of sixty thousand felt himself issuing amid a ma.s.s of terrible sensations: the fearful blow of the explosion, the noise by the projectiles smas.h.i.+ng into their armor, the hoa.r.s.e howl of people and horses, and the rus.h.i.+ng of men.
"IDIOTS!!! STAY IN POSITION!!! WE CAN"T THROW A BIGGER SPELL IF YOU RUN AROUND!!!" He tried to shout telepathically, but no one listened, as another set of debris was thrown into them, they didn"t want to leave the human bodies and their souls extinguished, they were running for their lives.
It was a rare sight even for him, the mighty, crafty and feared dark elves, getting cornered by the enemy, and much more an attack from above utilizing flying animals. This angered him so much as he stared beyond the portcullises, where the humans just stood and watched them getting destroyed.
"d.a.m.n HUMANS!!! CHARGE!!!" but still the force of sixty thousand was enormous, while some feared for their dark elven souls, some of them were like the elf-commander, in rage and in thirst for human blood.
The cavalry charged while clas.h.i.+ng into their own killing them along the way, there were only two birds, and it took time for them to drop another set of debris which gave them a chance to charge.
As they went beyond the portcullises they were greeted by an iceberg at the center, behind it was a blonde girl in golden armor, but it didn"t do reach them because each magic has its own effective range, however, it did block their way.
"GO AROUND!!!" He commanded his men, cavalry and men on foot ran around the ice like savages in rage, however, what happened next surprised him.
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What greeted them was destruction, the force that was resentful enough to charge at the humans was blasted by the hundreds of explosion that greeted them on their path around the iceberg, it was the infamous tricks that the humans used to defeat the first four, it was what they called the ???????? ??????.
"JUST HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO HUMILIATE US!" Unlike the other elf-commander, his body was fully manifested, although he wasn"t large, he was much more proficient with their dark magic and can use a variety of it in succession, he looked like the dark elf mentioned in the holy scriptures of Adrar. He had a dark charcoal complexion, pointy ears, and grey hair.
But this also meant that his power exceeded the previous one, he looked at the ice blocking the way, "so this is the safe way huh?" he thought as his men were blasted one after another by the aerial bombings and the raging minefield.
As a fully manifested dark elf, he didn"t need incantations, he simply shouted the name of his spell.
[Corrupted Soil]
As he placed his hand to the ground, Ice turned into rocks, and it crumbled into dust, leaving no trace of it.
"NOW!!! USE THE MAIN PATH!!!" He commanded his forces, the ones who were in the minefield were still left struggling however the next wave used the center path, where the hostages pa.s.sed through, however instead of warriors they were greeted by the long-range gunshots, the product of human ingenuity, although it was inspired by an irregularity brought by an otherworlder.
No one was able to pa.s.s through, waves of gunshots echoed whenever a wave tried to squeeze their way in, as they also wanted to avoid the minefield in their left and right.
...
Geraldine called the shots whenever someone crossed the center path.
"First to Fifth Company reload! Fifth to Tenth Company switch and... Fire!" with the enemy concentrated on one path, they didn"t need to aim accurately, as long as the enemies were on their sights.
On Andrei"s instruction, they were to divide the battalion into half this time, switching after shooting to reload, in this rotation the guns fired non stop.
The refugees who saw this was amazed, together with the knights who only stood there to defend them, deep inside they were cheering for them, but they couldn"t say the words, because some of them are from Kydus and those whom they are killing wore the same armor as them. Some of them saw the unit in action for the first time, they couldn"t hide the astonishment of seeing a thousand men, downing the same number at each shot from a long distance. Those who held magic s.h.i.+eld defenses for them were startled by stray projectiles attacking their s.h.i.+elds from time to time.
They were all synchronized as if they were machines, some of them were slow in loading their weapons but they did exactly as they were told to, all it took for them were simple movements and the pull of the trigger, hearing the news that they were only trained for a few weeks sent chills to their spine. All they could do was watch, get ready, and feel safe that they didn"t have to battle yet the large waves of bloodthirsty enemies coming for them.
The rotation of gun carriers enabled Michaela to cast another spell, she blocked again the main way with an iceberg, freezing the rest of the first wave in the middle.
...
"NO WAY!!!" The elf-commander scanned around him, at the front were his men being shot or being killed by the minefields, at his back were his men scattered because of bird-dropped the debris. He had no choice but to make the call.
"RETREAT!!! RETREAT!!! RETREAT!!!" He called out but no one was listening to his telepathy due to the explosions. "CURSE YOU!!! CURSE YOU!!"
He looked at the girl behind the iceberg who crossed her arms with a dignified expression, his eyes were about to pop out due to his anger.
"At least I have to save myself," he started to look around, for an escape route, "if I survive I could just help the high priestess call some more reinforcements! I can"t die here! This bunch is done for, next time I will crush these humans!"
But he didn"t see any route, it was crowded and his soldiers were pus.h.i.+ng one another in order to avoid being hit by the explosions, it was pure chaos and panic. Some of them gave up, went to a corner and covered their ears throughout the chaos, every time a debris made a fall they felt their heart was also falling, not knowing if they would survive or not.
Some of them tried shooting down the birds with their unholy swords and bows but they were too swift, the ones who were angry ended up in the minefield or were shot by the enemy hiding behind the mounds. They were pounded by explosions from the air and ground, but the enemy haven"t suffered any injury yet.
This angered him so much that he wanted to escape immediately and report it to the high priestess so they could make a counter measure.
[Corrupted Sword!] he called out a large b.l.o.o.d.y sword above his head.
But instead of throwing it towards the girl who was out of its range, he threw it to his comrades who blocked his way.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!! IF ALL YOU CAN DO IS RUN! DON"T NEED WUSSES LIKE YOU!!!"
The corrupted sword bulldozed a great number of his soldiers, killing more than a hundred of them.
"Okay! Now I can- guhhh" before he could move forward something had done great damage to his fully manifested body, with a blurry vision he looked at it and saw bleeding everywhere, it was in his gut, in his heart, and in his head.
"No, this shouldn"t be possib- guhh" he coughed blood, "I see, so it was much more powerful than I thought, that commander of the fifty thousand had a large body, defense was his specialty, and I am… " his vision started to get blurry, "humans, I"ll give this one to you."
With a thud he fell down and was stomped by his soldiers that were trying to escape and attack.