The Knights' Chronicles Part 30
Fast as they could carry their riders, the dragons soared through the skies with deafening roars to match the cries of the knights. As soon as they rose above the treetops, what they saw was enough to give even the most seasoned warrior pause.
Unable to breathe at the sight of the glow from fires raging beyond the damaged walls of the city, Pete Swan whispered, "Dear Creator." His tan steed, Scorch grunted in a seconding of the sentiment, but neither thought of turning back for a moment. Instead, the lancer gripped hold of his weapon all the tighter, green eyes narrowing on their destination.
Near the front of the pack, Wufei glanced at either officer beside him. For a moment, he reflected on how he had respected these men and hoped for a chance to fight alongside them if there were ever a strike made against their homeland.
Never in his wildest dreams in those innocent days would he have imagined a scenario like this... a struggle against the Keeper's army. But that was exactly what was unfolding this night.
On the grounds below, those knights on horseback rode swiftly through the dark wood with the aid of hand-held torches. Knowing that her father was at the head of those hundreds of flames flickering through the openings in the trees, Anna swallowed roughly.
There had been no time for her to speak with the Captain before they left the encampment. Silently, she hoped and prayed that by some miracle her father might make it through... that they would both survive and see each other again.
Quickly banishing that line of thought, the archer reached back into her quiver to remove an arrow. Nooking it to her bowstring to pull it back, she turned her blue eyes back up to see the city coming up on them.
A few lines of soldiers behind her, Jerry Ferkey followed her example and stood up in his saddle to call, "Hell of a way to have our skills put to the test, huh, Anna?" Beneath him, his silver-streaked orange steed, Wedge smirked.
Peering over her shoulder, the red-head's ponytail flipped in the wind as she smiled, "Bragging rights to the archer that takes out the most of these monsters! I will not be happy until I have sent at least a few dozen of them back to wherever they came from!"
The knights and trainees in earshot chuckled at the spirit of the youngest amongst their ranks. Such a will was going to be more than needed, they could all tell as they neared Sanq enough to make out more of the devastation.
What were once the tallest buildings in the land had giant, gaping holes in their sides- if they had not completely toppled. Where there were residences, nearly all were aflame as little ant-sized shapes ran around. Civilians scrambling for safety.
As unsettling as those images were, the army had their sights on what Wufei, Anna and Odin saw to be the giant ogres, gremlins and other demons of which the darkest of nightmares were made from, running rampant through the city. Blades of unimaginable size and width to suit them glistened in the light of the fires all around them.
Overhead, against the backdrop of a strange black cloud forming over what remained of the castle, white skeletal dragons with hooded riders were engaged in a heated struggle with the first wave of knights that had managed to mount up. Green beams and red fire shot from translucent hands of bone to sear the flesh and scales that they hit.
Screams of pain and terror echoed as many a warrior and their beast fell helplessly from the air to crash violently thousands of feet below in the thick of the destruction delivered to the kingdom.
Now with less than a half-mile before they reached the shell of the city wall, the knights readied their wills and weapons for the clash. Not all, however, were as ready as they needed to be. A couple of the young trainees simply froze as their dragons continued to take them head-long into danger.
One such knight-in-training began to shake violently in his saddle just before Wufei. Frowning in concern, Chang leaned forward and yelled, "Brian, hold yourself together! You need to get your sword ready!"
"C-cannot m-move," the blonde teenager stuttered through his chattering teeth. Try as he might, his right hand was glued to his side. Chirping, his blue dragon turned his head back to check on his rider.
Everyone around was so concerned for the stricken soldier that they had not noticed their unit was spotted by the ghoulish riders until a wave of green beams flew through Brian and his steed's hide, ripping them and their neighbors into bloodied shreds before they plummeted to the ground.
Nataku gave a shrill shriek in her narrow miss of their bodies when she turned sharp on her side. His eyes enlarged, Wufei let out a shrill scream at the terrible sight. Suddenly, he and his line of riders were exposed. Growling deeply as Nataku straightened them again, his hold on his sword tightened and he glared heatedly on the skeletal figures that were waiting for them.
Too occupied with the fact that his division was nearly in the thick of the fight, Odin had to ignore the terrible sounds behind him from the hit on his men. Blade ready, he yelled over the noise that surrounded them, "Split between the ground and air to take our enemy out! Get as many as you can out of the city!"
It was all that the Commander was able to get out before a hoard of ogres hidden at the top of what was still standing of the wall leapt up to climb up the dragons for their riders.
Spinning just in time, Lowe shoved his blade to its hilt into the leg of his would-be-attacker behind him. The surprised monster dropped his spiked ball and fell from Peacemillion.
"Head up, Nataku!" Wufei shouted. Bending her wings, the green dragon launched them for the demon riders to aid their fellow knights in bringing them down. All the while, more beams and flames were shot to claim the lives of the newly arrived recruits.
Seeing a translucent hand raise for him, Chang had just enough time to prepare himself for the quick maneuvering Nataku executed to avoid the shots fired at them. Not at all expecting their mark to be missed, the ghost rider and its steed were run through with a mighty blow from the dragon's tail in her swift pass of them.
A sharp laugh exploded from Wufei as he praised, "Nicely done, girl! Now let us try to keep the momentum up!" Swinging his blade, he cut through the robes of another phantom as Nataku and her scaled comrades sent a sea of flame into their enemies.
Paying no mind to the gurgling that came from the archer beside her when an arrow pierced his neck, Anna hollered, "Get us low, Ingier! I want a look at the armor on those soldiers!" Her scaly friend grunted an affirmative and they shot down along with a hundred others.
In their spiral towards the main bridge of the city, Anna pulled back on her arrow to take aim at the ogres that were knocking men, women and children into the river with brutal violence. Closing her eye, she took aim for what looked to be an opening in the armor at the middle of one of the gruesome monsters.
Along with the team around her, she fired and a hail of arrows were off... only to bounce off of the thick steel protecting their foes. Turning their attention from their easy pickings, the Keeper's warriors flashed their mangled, sharp teeth in malicious smiles and they returned the attack when the archers' dragons tried to scale high enough from the danger.
The screams of those riders and their steeds joined the noise that filled the city when they were hacked at with amazing force. Even as Ingier twisted and spun to break past the danger, Anna continued to shoot at their assailants.
When every one of her arrows was rendered down to little more than a nuisance to the ogres, the redhead shook her head when she and her steed were well out of immediate harm and hissed, "Damn! There has to be a weakness in that armor!"
Stretching her neck out towards Ingier's head, she yelled, "Keep me as close to them as you can until we find it, boy!" A smirk spread across the blue-purple's face and he let out a growl in response before he plunged back down into the heaviest spots of the battle.
Blue eyes narrowed, Anna never gave herself more time that it took to send an arrow and remove the next to nook it in between her shots. Such a move would have cost her the supply of her arrows a couple times over, but with her gifted quiver she did not need to worry about that. It was only right she be the one to take the risk to help the Sanq army have a chance.
Trusting that her dragon would keep them save however he turned and spun them, the redhead paid her full attention on the Keeper's men to shoot randomly until one of her sharp tips penetrated their rough skin.
Finally, one did.
With a loud thunk, one of her arrows sunk into the thick neck of an ogre. Its red eyes wide at the impact, the beast's arm that had been raised to lower its sword onto another knight fell at their side before they collapsed to the ground.
Cheering, Anna made a fist with her free hand and raised her bow overhead, cheering, "There you are!" Not giving herself too much time to celebrate, she tested her findings and released another stream of arrows off with a much more concentrated aim.
To her thrill, more ogres fell and another weakness was discovered.
At the end of her experiment, Fraise hollered, "Get us up to the rest of the team fast, Ingier!" Huffing a plume of black smoke through his nostrils, her steed obeyed to take them in a sharp incline to where the other archers were struggling in their hits.
On her way past them, Anna cupped her mouth with her hands and cried, "The base of their necks and under their arms! Aim for the necks and under their arms! Those are their weak spots! Tell every archer you see!"
Their mouth falling open, one of the more experienced knights looked on the redheaded girl in disbelief as she sailed past. Jolting himself from his surprise, he peered back to his peers and grinned, "You heard the young lady! Let's go, archers!" As they poured from the heavens, the team let out wild howls of excitement and released their arrows as directed to bring the end of many monsters.
Justin led the recruits on horseback through the gaping holes in the city wall. Running on pure instinct, the Captain shot arrow after arrow as he charged through. The demon soldiers' attention that had been locked onto the innocent, unarmed people of the city, switched to the knights.
A handful of people who were seconds away from being cut down were suddenly forgotten. Bearing burn marks and bewildered gazes, they blinked in shock in seeing their attackers turn away. Over the roar of the oncoming predators, Fraise screamed to the freed lot, "Get out of here and as far from Sanq as you can!"
Finally breaking from their stupors, the neighbors sucked in deep breaths and hurried through the narrow opening that had been made for them. Shouting to one another to hurry, they helped those struggling to run with their injuries through the hole in the wall to disappear.
Though there were only maybe twelve survivors in that group, Justin breathed a sigh of relief that even that much was able to get out as his horse continued to storm ahead with their enemies fast on their heels. Quickly, the stream of knights that he helped bring in was being taken out at handfuls at a time when the demons fell onto them.
Havoc could not begin to describe the scene that was the kingdom of Sanq and its skies above. Everywhere one looked, there was an engagement. The air vibrated with the sheer volume that rose from the soldiers and the people desperately trying to get away.
After what he knew was maybe an hour of fighting, Wufei felt as though he had been swinging his blade for a day. Covered in sweat and bleeding from a few wounds that he'd received for his bold strike, he panted for air in his continued effort.
His team having been relieved from their skirmish with the demon riders by the next round of recruits, the swordsman was now being carried through the residential sections of Sanq in a desperate search for more survivors.
In Nataku's carrying him through the burning streets, his onyx eyes grew when they found a frail, old man several yards ahead with his back to them. By the light of the flickering flames around, the Sanq man's bald head glistened.
Confused when the lanky civilian fell to his knees with his hands held overhead, it took Chang standing in his saddle to be able to see over his victim's shoulder. He saw an ogre mounted atop a horse rushing right for the old man with a long picket in hand and a nasty smile on its slimy face.
"Faster, girl!" Wufei urged, a cold sweat running down his back in realizing how close it would be to the opposing forcing reaching the innocent at the same time. Nataku had speed over a horse, but she also had a greater distance to cover than the snarling ogre.
Then the knight-in-training was close enough that he could hear the loud words of prayer being all but yelled by the old man. Still, the ogre came all the faster, never baulking when he noticed that he was also heading straight for a dragon. "Come on, come on!" Wufei muttered under his breath.
Reaching the last few feet from the old man, the knight-in-training removed his harness to climb higher up on his dragon's back to give himself a better advantage. But it was also in doing that when he had a better look at the situation.
They were not going to be the first to reach him.
Just as that realization hit home with Chang, so did he watch as the end of the ogre's lance pierced through the old man's back. Silent and limp, the civilian fell forward against the weapon. And a vile laugh rasped from the demon that had claimed his life.
A frustrated scream ruptured from Wufei as he knelt atop Nataku's back. Raising his blade, he made to fast swings- one strong enough to knock the helmet of the ogre from his head and the second to wind back and cleave straight through its thick neck all while his steed pulled them back upward.
Peering over his shoulder, the swordsman gulped for air while he watched the monster's head roll away from the rest of its body where it lay on the ground. As satisfying as it was to have been the one to take out one of many ogres he had that night, there was still an overwhelming numbness left after watching such a horrific display.
What harm could that old man have done to such a creature that he deserved to be killed like that? Terrible as it was to face, the fact of the matter was that this was the start of what was to come for the total destruction of mankind. All throughout the city, good and innocent people were being brought to the most violent of ends.
It was all starting to catch up to Wufei as he carefully crawled back into his saddle. Shaking hands reached for his harness as more knights fell to their deaths. Only at that sight did he realize the danger he was in with his scaling over the roofs of the buildings around.
Taking full advantage of the teenager's distraction, an ogre leapt onto Nataku's back, flail raised high to come down in one powerful swoop when he landed right before Wufei. Too fast... it all happened too fast for the boy to prevent the ends of the spikes from cutting into and across his chest in a diagonal fashion from his right shoulder.
Still unharnessed, Chang felt blood rising into his mouth as he choked on the pained cry that wanted to escape. Then he was falling away, into the empty air to fall towards the flames that were now far below him.
Nataku's reaction was instant. Reeling back, she flung the ogre from her hide, catching it in her mouth to snap its writhing body in her sharp teeth with one sharp bite even as she dove for her rider. Her large eyes narrowed in her focus, she shot past her falling charge and rounded herself back up to collect him on her back.
Tossing her head aside to hurl the split remains of the ogre from her mouth, the dragon found an abandoned corner of the city to land in. A worried chirp wheezing from her, she craned her head around to gently assist Wufei to the ground with her tail. Once he was lying down, the swordsman reached frantically for the vial that he always kept in his trousers.
His vision was darkening around its edges and his breath was becoming more and more labored with every second as he fought through the sheer agony of the deep scratches across his chest. Nudging her head in, his steed pushed his hand away with her long tongue to remove the vial he was searching for and pass it to him.
Grunting in effort, Chang freed the serum by cracking the fragile glass in his tightened fist. As soon as the glowing contents spilled over his chest, the relief came instantaneously while it spread through the fibers of his body. The cold feeling that had been sinking into him was replaced with the warmth of the magic doing its work to keep him alive.
Able to breathe again, the knight-in-training turned his head to spit out the blood that had filled his mouth. Panting heavily, he winced in pain as he tried to get up when his bleeding had stopped at last. A look around to see what had seeped from him pooling in the ground, he shuddered at how close he'd clearly come to bleeding out.
In his attempt to get to his feet, he nearly collapsed when the world began to spin. Nataku was there to catch him with her muzzle and she carried him into his saddle. Pale and weak, the boy chuckled a wheezing, "Good girl." As much as he hated having to leave the fight, he sighed, "We have to find a healer for me. Fast."
Only too happy to help with that, the green dragon launched them back into the air to leave the city. Slumped forward in his saddle, Wufei blinked in surprise when he looked down to see that he had held onto his blood-covered sword through his ordeal. Sluggish in his movement, he placed the blade back into its sheath.
It was with content in knowing that his family heirloom was safe that Chang fell into the blissful, dark realms of unconsciousness.
Completely unaware of what had happened to her lover, Anna was in the middle of a battle with the 'ghost riders' as the knights were quickly coming to refer to their flying enemies.
Having made themselves out as quite the mark for their tactics in finding the openings in the ogres' armor, she and Ingier turned their battle to the skies when every beast on the ground made it a point to go after them whenever the pair was close enough.
Without rest, the redhead fired arrow after arrow at the phantoms atop their skeletal steeds. Taking full advantage of the thick shield around his head, Ingier was enjoying ramming himself head-first through his bony opponents to shatter them into thousands of pieces.
Peering over her shoulder, Anna looked down to see that her father's team had managed to fight their way into the heart of the city and free as many people locked inside their burning homes as possible. A small sigh of relief escaped her at the sight before she returned her focus on the fight.
There were just so many opponents to fend off. And their numbers were only growing as their reinforcements continued to arrive from the sea. Suddenly, the Sanq warriors were all outnumbered and surrounded by their enemies.
Lost as to which way to go to break from the ring of ghost riders around him, Ingier had a rare moment of panic. When he finally found the opening that he sought, it came too late. A skeletal steed rammed itself into the blue-purple's side, jolting him with such violence that he groaned loudly in pain.
Crying out, Anna was rocked in her saddle while another blow came to Ingier's other side. That was when she heard something coming from behind. Spinning around, she gasped sharply on finding the large mouth of a bony dragon opening to claim her. Consumed in terror, she held her bow up to try and get a shot at the hooded rider.
Reluctant as he had been to use his fire out of fear of hurting his comrades in the confusion, the sound of his rider in danger had Ingier sending a wall of fire around them.
In surprise, his closest enemy snapped its sharp mouth closed just as he was about to take Anna... only it was close enough to take hold of her left arm and the bow that it was holding out. Screaming in blinding agony as those jagged teeth dug into her shoulder, she pulled with all her strength to free herself.
Slowly, she succeeded but the archer's appendage was scraped in her twisting and wrenching it out. From her shoulder to her wrist, what was left of her arm was a mangled heap of bleeding flesh with her bones visible in spots. And as her attacker fell away, she noticed that her bow was gone.
Whimpering as she pulled her damaged arm close to her chest, Anna fought the sharp tears in her eyes as her whole frame shook. Quickly applying the serum that the gifted had provided, a sickening dread that too much damage may have already been done struck hard. But at least the magic worked to prevent further harm and the bleeding stopped.
Biting her lip, she straightened herself in her saddle. "We need to get out of here, Ingier," she ordered, reluctant as she was to be taken from the fight. But the fact was she was of no help with her injury and without a bow.
With a deep breath, the blue-purple shot a stream of flames ahead to clear a path for them that led them beyond the kingdom's limits.
Back on the ground, Justin shook his head in frustration in seeing more of the dark army storming towards what was left of his team. It was futile to stay and fight any longer. There were no other lives to save.
Sanq had fallen.
"Men, fall back!" the Captain hollered, raising his bow to get the attention of his comrades. Blood rose up in his throat and his blue eyes widened when a spear penetrated through his abdomen and out his back in that brief moment.
Odin was just overhead to watch his friend collapse from his squealing horse. "Oh, Creator, no!" he cried as Peacemillion instinctively lowered them. Moving as quickly as he could, the Commander pulled his convulsing friend into his arms and along his saddle.
Against every urge to defend his city with his life, Lowe knew that the rest of his men would do the same. What sense was it to have them all die when they could have their numbers grow with other armies.
Pulling a sharp breath, the officer yelled to his remaining troops, "Retreat! Everyone pull back and get to safety!" Surprised as they were by the order, there was a relief that came to those still struggling with their enemy.
Together, those knights worked as one to get out away by wing, hoof and foot. Instead of running into the danger as they were used to, they ran from it.
Covering the wound in his long-time friend's abdomen as best he could, Odin peered over his shoulder sent a fiery glare at the castle... the very same that Dekim Barton had claimed as his own.
Under his breath, the Commander hissed, "This is not over."
As his steed took him from danger, Odin made it a vow to see that the human race did not go down without a fight.
No... the war had, indeed, only just started.
TBC...
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