Chapter 62 - Betrayal

I took off across the kilometre or so of grassland that separated me from my wife and my warriors in a sprint the likes of which would make Olympians weep in jealousy. Each step threw me forward five metres, leaving deep prints in the soil and throwing divots of turf up behind me.

The first barrage of stones from our enemies had landed but the second wave bounced off broad discs of ice and fire as the members of the coven deployed their magic. More numerous but much smaller shields appeared as warriors activated trinkets to throw up hasty defences. I felt some of the links in the back of my mind disappearing one by one as warriors took mortal injuries. It was only a handful so far but I sped up even more to get to the soulbound servants that represented the real threat.

I used Enhancement again to boost myself as I closed the distance. I carefully stared at Mortimers minions as I shot towards them. A dozen with Body at D rank, the rest had Mind at a similar level. I launched three fireballs from my rings to incinerate half the casters as my left hand closed around the skull of the first fighter I reached and squeezed. Eyeballs popped out as his skull collapsed and I let go to catch another man by the shoulder. My dagger buried itself in the face of the man on my right and I swiped sideways, cutting clean through the bone and killing him instantly. The man I’d caught my left hand screamed as I tightened my grip and bones ground into fragments before I threw him at his comrades, sending him spinning through the air to knock them off their feet.

Soulbound Servants slain x14.

Two hundred and eighty Souls gathered.

Another ring-launched fireball caught a group of mages who were only just turning in response to the screams my arrival had caused and turned them to ash. I still had four hundred mana to play with. Enough for something that would sway the balance back in our favour.

Soulbound Servants slain x7.

One hundred and forty Souls gathered.

Normalis Humano Slain x3.

Thirty Souls gathered.

What remained of the “wizards” and soulbound were now fleeing as fast as they could. I smirked slightly as I watched them scamper away like rats just as Kril appeared at my shoulder, soaked in blood down his right side and carrying a pissed off looking Jagapan slung over one shoulder. My mentor dumped the king to the ground in a heap.

“Are you ok?” I asked quickly, earning a chuckle in reply.

“This is Hakubins blood, not mine. I might have killed his new Dreamer as well by accident!”

“That was undignified,” grumbled Jagapan as he rose to his feet.

“We need to cut our way through to the camp. Are you ready? Pan, just stick close behind us,” I ordered but he smirked, pulled his bronze eyeball from his pocket and tossed it up and down before popping it in his mouth, making his cheek bulge like he was eating a gobstopper.

The wiry little man grew nearly half again as tall, looming over me and he caught the silvery ball as it escaped his eye socket. He broke into a loping run moving far more quickly than ought to have been possible. Huh. Haldene had gone for Space and Time with the Souls I had given her.

Kril howled at the sky like a mad dog and ran after Jagapan faster than even I could move. I slapped an iron pendant hanging on my chest and activated the Haste enchantment on it and suddenly my own speed outmatched his.

We blurred through the crowd of warriors attacking our friends. Jagapan just kicked the hapless bastards out of our path while Kril and I followed in his wake, fists crushing bones and skulls, our blades flickering out to remove limbs and slice through soft tissue. Kril cackled like a loon as he danced between men half his age, leaving ruin in his wake with his twin steel knives. The amusement I felt at seeing the wrinkly old murderer having such a good time was a weird juxtaposition for the fear I had for the rest of my people.

I bulled my way through. If an enemy got in my way they were knocked over, usually with broken bones or cuts gushing blood down their bodies. Jagapan must have had multiple casts on his enchanted eyeballs, I resolved to turn a blind eye to Habene’s nepotism on this occasion. I was hardly innocent on that charge myself and it saved us having to carry him through the melee. Every time he slowed or shrank he quickly regrew and sped back up until we broke through and found ourselves fending off the spear tips of our own warriors.

Normalis Humano slain x126.

One thousand two hundred and sixty Souls gathered.

Snatching a spear aimed at my chest out of one of my warriors hands, I glared then tossed it back to him.

“MOUNT UP!” I roared, cutting through the din of battle. “GET THE WOMEN TO THE CHARIOTS! WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY FANGS!”

I turned to face the throng or traitorous nomads pressing us and cast Burning Skies. The night was suddenly illuminated by glowing red clouds rapidly gathering above me. Shaping the spell so it was longer and narrower than the base version, I unleashed it on my unfortunate enemies. I didn’t need a square of destruction, I wanted a firebreak to give my warriors time to reorganise so we could break out.

A long line of fireballs fell from the sky into the mass of warriors still swarming towards my camp from the west. Hideous screams rang out from those caught on the edge of a blast as they lost arms or were horribly burned down one side of their bodies. The lucky ones were reduced to ash and never felt a thing. The barrage stalled the attack as warriors at the rear balked at the suddenly cratered landscape, while those at the front screamed in terror and broke. It bought me the time I needed.

I ran through the camp to the marshalling area where the lancers were already mounted and released a quiet breath when I saw Fay, Haldene and the other women were already on chariots being rapidly hitched to pairs of ponies.

“Mond! A fine night for it!” laughed Jandak as he reined his pony up next to me. The lancers were all mounted and filing out of the camp to form a line across the plains. Small troops of horse archers were already spread out in groups of five and ten working to clear the immediate area.

“They’ll pay for breaking the moot-peace!” snarled Kos as his pony skidded to halt nearby. “What’s the plan, Mond?”

“Where’s Mune?” I asked.

“He’s out on the field already, keeping the grass clear so we can form up. He’ll fall in as we advance,” Jandak said. “So who was it?”

“Hakubin. Probably a few others as well. We circle out and cut a way free for the chariots with the women. Forget the tents. Twenty archers go with the women as escorts as they break for the north. Then we are going to pay our old friends a visit and burn their fucking yurts down around their ears,” I snapped. “I’ll run. I’m faster than a horse anyway.” Stooping down I ripped the leather boots from my feet without undoing the ties. Fay would be annoyed, they had been finely made and she’d gotten me them as a gift, but I might need Earth Shaping this evening.

“Mondyn!” my lieutenants yelled as they kicked their heels into their ponies flanks and cantered out of the palisade. This was a shit show. The people were more important but there was a lot of metal in the form of wires on the barricade and trade goods we would have to abandon. Whoever claimed the site after we left was in for a windfall. It would make figuring out who benefitted from this betrayal a lot easier though and a grim expression crossed my face as I considered the fate that would await them for pillaging my camp.

The chariots with the ladies rumbled out and moved north, peeling around the next camp without incident as a squadron of archers rode alongside them. I checked with Glimpse who was still circling overhead. It was a mess. Multiple tribes had taken the breaking of the truce as an excuse to settle old scores. Fights were raging all around the artificial hill, most were small pitched battles between groups of warriors, but a few had spilled over into slaughter as one side broke into another’s camp and put it to the torch. I was watching my hoped-for powerbase crumble as the tribes attacked each other.

I strode out of my former camp and jogged to where my fifty lancers had formed into a wedge. The ponies could smell the blood in the air and they snorted, pawing the ground in anticipation of the charge.

“Gentleman. We will repay like with like. ARCHERS! MOVE ON THE LANCERS FLANKS! LANCERS! ON ME!” I screamed and a bloodthirsty cry bounced back to me from my people. We were small in numbers compared to most of the other tribes but we had the advantage in mobility, morale and magic. Kril rattled to a stop driving a chariot with Japagan grinning in the secondary position.

I didn’t order a charge, I just started sprinting. I knew which camp I was aiming for, it was the next but one to the west and the intervening camp had sent soldiers as well, judging from where some of the cowards had fled to when they retreated. The broken remains of the swarm were stopping there to snatch up possessions and rush to the paddocks with the horses. The earth shook as my cavalry picked up speed to match my pace. I caught a spear that Jagapan tossed to me as he grabbed one for himself, its steel head matching the blurred reflections coming from the whirring blades of the scythes on the vehicles wheels.

With a wedge of lancers behind me, just ahead of the chariots, we thundered across the grass towards our foes. I sent half a dozen fireballs from my rings into the crude barricades to break the roughshod defences. As the wood splintered or vaporised, we were left with a clean entry point. My dagger flashed as I cut through the camp. Whichever idiot tribe this was had made a bad mistake allying with Hakubin and Mortimer.

As I approached the far side I sent out more fireballs to clear a path so the lancers and chariots wouldn’t lose momentum, excising a portion of the defences with incandescent flames.

Normalis Humano slain x59.

Five hundred and ninety Souls gathered.

We burst out of the camp and pounded towards the warriors of their former tribe. Clearly my people had zero reservations about slaughtering the people they had recently lived with. My barbaric tribe were not prone to sentimentality.

As we crossed the distance to the Areskyn camp the archers pulled ahead on either side and began launching volleys of firewall arrows into the tents and paddock. Lines of blue and orange fire erupted and wound through the camp before I deleted their flimsy barriers with more fireballs. The archers spread out to either side of the camp and circled around to take any stragglers that broke out from the imminent slaughter, all the while launching enchanted arrows into the tents. I silently thanked Khan, Atas and Trikilo for all the drills they’d driven into the heads of the cavalry.

I burst into the centre of the camp and ignored the fires. They hurt but didn’t do me any real damage. I checked my health.

Health Points: 247/250

Yep. None of these assholes had done me much damage yet. I began to think my dagger needed a name. It sliced, it diced, it amputated. I could see myself struggling to explain just how amazing it was in one of those TV ads for the latest and greatest kitchen knife on TV back home.

I barged into a man knocking him on his back and pivoted to kick him in the groin while both hands flashed out. My left crushed an elbow in a vice-like grip while the right lashed out to cleave through an arm with my as-yet unnamed blade. I tapped my chest and sped up again as the lancers began streaming past me, screaming and hooting as their spears smashed people aside. As the lances began to break they pulled their now steel-headed maces from their belts and set about themselves.

“Push through and come back! DON’T LOSE MOMENTUM!” I bellowed and they began picking up speed again, cantering through to land occasional blows rather than getting stuck in a melee. Mobility was their greatest strength. Besides, it left a few alive for the scythe chariots to cut down as they rattled into the enclosure. I threw myself aside to avoid losing a leg to one of my own chariots and rolled to my feet looking for more targets.

Normalis Humano slain x34.

Three hundred and forty Souls gathered.

“ENOUGH! FACE ME YOU COWARD!” roared a voice. I did a quick double take as my first thought on seeing him was that this was an Ur-Vile. He was nearly six and a half feet tall, towering over me as I drew closer.

Soulbound Servant

Body: D+ Mind: E- Souls: F

I charged forward and he sped up unnaturally as he moved to meet me. His iron sword moved like lightning as it cut towards my face. I ducked and threw a punch into his solar plexus knocking him backwards with a grunt. Through Glimpse I could see the chariots were clearing out the rest of the camp and Jandak had wheeled about and reorganised his lancers for a second charge. The ponies looked blown, sweating and huffing but I expected they had one more good run left in them.

The soulbound lunged with a straight blade aimed at my heart and I twisted away again, my much shorter dagger slicing round to catch his forearm. The wound closed as soon as it appeared and he spat at me before diving forward and tackling me to the ground.

My ribs groaned as he squeezed but unlike this idiot I hadn’t dropped my weapon as the grapple began. I twisted my wrist and stuck the blade into his kidney. He screamed but only tightened his grip around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides. Enhancement activated and I broke his grapple.

He punched me in the face as he shoved himself back and rose to his feet. He spat blood at me this time. What was it with these people and spitting? His eyes glowed red for a moment and suddenly beings of fire stepped out of nowhere and threw themselves at me while he scrabbled to recover his blade.

I ducked and weaved moving backwards. I had no magical counter for the Summon Fire Spirit spell and I made a mental note that I had badly neglected the potential of the spell. All I needed to do was outlast the timer so I gave ground, leading the floating humanoid flames deeper into the tents and away from my troops.

When they flickered out I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around for my enemy just as Glimpse shrieked in my mind. All around us, under almost every camp, the ground was roiling and turning over.

The grass burst upwards as grey flesh dragged itself into the moonlight and shambled towards the nomads. Shit. Bandaged men were disgusting enough but unbandaged men who’d been buried underground for who knew how long were even worse. Worms and maggots fell away from their half eaten faces as they came to the surface and began attacking anyone living, quickly putting an end to the internecine wars and sending most of the warriors into screaming terror.

The other tribes melted away as their warriors bolted from the ghoulish horror as quickly as they could, grudges put back on hold in shared fear.

“JANDAK! KOS! MUNE! KRIL YOU MAD OLD BASTARD! WE ARE LEAVING! FALL BACK TO THE NORTH!” I screamed, my physical enhancement allowing my voice to cut through the other sounds of a camp being slaughtered and burned. I followed my own orders, my previous enemy forgotten as I sprinted back towards the plains. I had to pull my dispersed troops together so we could escape the second part of this abominable trap.

Thousands of walking corpses had emerged from the ground and every moment dozens more pulled themselves free of the soil and began attacking the tribesmen.