Onslaught

Aurei and her friends find themselves overwhelmed with their foes, but a surprise source of help arrives.

18.

Onslaught

 

With the Reapers defeated, Aurei and her companions quickly focused on the Anthrodracoi and undead spirits that remained.   

“The Guild is just toying with us.”  Eleazar told her as they rushed to fight the Dragonmen.  “Most of their forces are simply watching and waiting for us to weaken enough to attack.”

“What can we do?”  She asked him.

“Hope help arrives before they decide to overwhelm us.” The Half-Drow replied as they engaged the fire-breathing creatures.  

Aurei felt her burns healing, thanks to Nitthum’s ring, but she knew another blast in the face would probably kill her.  

 

So she kept moving from side to side as she engaged the Anthrodracoi, hoping to keep their heads turning so they’d hesitate to send another breath of flame her way.

They all carried curved great swords that were designed to resemble a Dragon’s claw.   

Her group bunched close together to keep their enemies from surrounding them, then attacking each of them from multiple sides.  

Aurei stayed close to Eleazar and though she fought with two weapons and he chose to use a two-handed sword, their combat styles merged very well.   Their blades twirled through the air, forcing the Dragonmen before them to defend theirselves.   Aurei pushed her opponent backwards, constantly swinging from as many different angles as she could, so the Dragonman would have to keep his heavier blade blocking instead of attacking.  

 

Eleazar was using his enhanced strength to batter the Anthrodracoi backwards.   The strategy worked and the creature tired of trying to defend against his blade.  

 

Aurei heard him draw in breath to breathe fire on Eleazar and with jolting abruptness spun away from her opponent and swung at him.   Her Drow sword nearly took his Dragon-like snout off, causing him to yelp pitifully as he abandoned his breath attack.   Aurei didn’t waste any more time on him but resumed her assault on her own opponent before he had time to react to her pause.  

Eleazar finished the creature off almost at once, slicing through his chest while he was still reeling from the wound Aurei had inflicted upon him.

 

Eleazar returned the favor by spinning his sword sideways into the hip of the Dragonman facing Aurei while he parried an overhead slash by the girl.    The wound the half-Drow scored was deep and he flinched in pain, giving Aurei the opening she needed.   He fell to the ground dead.  

 

To their left, the Royal Guards were struggling to do as well against their enemies.   Two Dragonmen had been killed, but at the cost of four of their own.   The Paladins and Zeatt moved up to help them, while Lute, stayed behind them at the Drow Matron’s orders, as he had just regained consciousness and was still too weak to fight.

One of the Anthrodracoi surprised them by breathing fire without warning, at close range into the faces of two of the Royal Guards.   The men were engulfed in flame and fell backwards, screaming.  

Aeric pulled them back out of range of the Dragonmen, while Davit advanced to take their place.  

Two other Dragonmen, encouraged by the success of their brother, breathed fire from two different angles at Davit.  

 

But some sort of protection was upon the Paladin; perhaps coming from the Gambian flametongue he wielded.   He moved against them unharmed and it so surprised his attackers that he was able to kill one of them before he could get his curved blade up.

 

Suddenly there was a chorus of ear-piercing shrieks coming from directly overhead.   Glancing up into the night sky lit by the many burning buildings, Aurei and her companions beheld a horrid sight:   a group of ten Wyverns diving in a formation down at them, with their talons ready to snatch them up.

 

There was no time to yell a warning, but everyone reacted simultaneously.   Alvis let go with a hurricane force blast from his sword Helke, and Sophia complimented his attack by casting a blast of ice at the wyverns, which was accelerated by the Knight Commander’s arcane gale.

 

Rori also cast a spell, sending a huge sticky glob of glowing green material directly into the face of the front Wyvern.  

 

But they received help from another source, for a barrage of arrows rained upward at the diving beasts from a tower nearby.   The combined effect caused disaster for the Wyverns.   Buffeted with arctic wind and large pieces of ice, while the leading beast lost control as its wings were covered in a thick mud-like substance, they slammed into each other as arrows found several of them.  

 

Aurei and her companions raced to get out of the way of the crashing reptiles as six of the ten smashed into the ground.   Two of the remaining creatures bounced off burning buildings, but managed to pull out at the last instant before slamming into the ground.   The last two monsters wisely veered off of their attack and avoided the chaos below.  

The Anthrodracoi moved in against them as soon as they turned their focus to the Wyverns, but the Dragonmen’s plans were foiled by the disaster and they too had to scramble to get out of the way of the falling creatures.

Two of the Dragonmen were crushed by one of them.      

 

Before they could advance upon the Dragonmen again, there came from somewhere in the distance the deep sound of a large horn being blown.   The single note hung on the air for a long moment and it quickly became evident that it was a signal, for immediately the Anthrodracoi began retreating, as did all the undead throughout the city.   Even the Wyverns began turning and flying back to the east.

 

“What happened?” Aurei asked Eleazar as all of them stood there watching the retreat.   “Did we win?   Are they leaving?”

 

“No, they’re leaving because we arrived.” A female voice said from behind them and Aurei and her companions turned to find a man and woman standing there, both holding wizard’s staves.  

The man looked somehow familiar to Aurei; he was tall and somewhat thin with messy black hair and a neatly trimmed goatee.   He wore a royal blue robe and smiled at her as if he knew her.  

The lady was also familiar; she resembled Alis somewhat; a beautiful blonde with brilliant crystal blue eyes that smiled warmly.   She wore a silver chain mail shirt that seemed to be of Elven construction, heavy cloth pants and comfortable deer-hide boots.   Around her waist she had a sword belt.   Aurei tried to recall where she had heard of a lady attired like this, and suddenly it occurred to her; the letter her adopted human father had left for her!   They had been there when she had been rescued as a baby from Faesidhe Wizards who were preparing to kill her.  

 

“You’re them!”  Aurei said in awe, and surprisingly, the duo seemed to know exactly what she was referring to and nodded.

“Hello, Aurei.”  The lady said with a smile as she watched the undead retreat, then turning to her companion she commented, “You were right, Drake, she did grow up to be stunning.”

The man smiled an ‘I-told-you-so’ grin. “Hello, everyone, I’m sorry it took us so long to get here, but grandmother was busy in another part of the world and it took me a while to find her.”

“Who are you, sir?”  Zeatt asked, sensing from their enemy’s rapid retreat that they were very powerful.

 

The male looked to the woman as if asking approval to respond and she gave a slight nod.

“Zeatt, I’m Archmage Drake, and my companion here is my dear great grandmother, Archmage Kinzer.”

“Yesh, preserve us!”  Zeatt exclaimed and everyone near her shared her feelings.

“Well, that is exactly what we are trying to do, Matron Zeatt; preserve you.”   Kinzer responded, and then turning to Sophia, “It appears that you were lucky this time, Sophia; your involvement is warranted.”

 

Zeatt looked at her daughter, “You know them?”

Kinzer laughed, “Matron Zeatt, your hot-headed, disrespectful, headstrong daughter works for us.”

Zeatt’s mouth fell open, “I didn’t know!”

 

“Don’t blame her, my dear; she was required not to tell you as part of her job.   It was a requirement that she saw fit to ignore when she shared the information with her cousin.”

 

The lady turned to look at Aurei, who would have been terrified at the Archmage’s words if she wasn’t smiling so warmly as her glance fell upon her.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell anyone about Flux… whoops!”   Aurei’s hands went to her mouth in horror.  

Drake laughed and Kinzer just brushed her comment aside, “Don’t worry, dear child, we’ve received permission to intervene here today and so all of you will see and hear some very strange things.”

“Are you… Watchers?”   Aeric asked the lady.

“Yes, and this little war is currently the hottest thing to watch in the whole world right now.   It seems that the Necromancer’s Guild is breaking some important rules by summoning demons into battle.   They’ll regroup and try another attack soon.   But first, I want to address all of you.   I don’t see Haroldris or Eioldth… or your wife, Sir Aeric, nor do I see Siris either.   Drake-“ 

 

The Archmage seemed to know what she was asking and immediately disappeared.   A moment later he blinked back in with Alis, still in a kneeling posture where she had been praying in the sanctuary at Westmark, now looking around wide-eyed.  

Aeric went over to her and held up a finger to his lips, whispering, “Hold on, you’ll see what is going on in just a moment.”

Drake was already gone, but was back in a flash with the royal couple.   Haroldris jumped up from where he knelt beside his wife, who also looked surprised.  

Again Drake disappeared and a few seconds later he reappeared with a terrified Siris, along with Duke and Duchess Frampbrum.  

 

“Is that all, grandma?”   He asked Kinzer, who certainly didn’t look like she was old enough to be anything other than his sister.

“Yes; we’ll leave the other two barmaids and the children Leah and Luke out of this meeting as it would be best if they stay out of harms way.   But let’s not talk out here where spies could hear.”

Kinzer raised her hands and instantly all of Aurei’s companions, including the Royal Guardsmen and the surviving knight, were teleported into the great room of the three story tower across the street.  

The Dullerm archers guarding the ground floor of the tower cried out in alarm at the sudden appearance of the crowd, but their lord’s reassurance calmed them quickly.