“So, do you think he really is working for the enemy?” I hear as we look stealthily at Brad.

“For sure, I just don’t know if he will do anything himself, or just let his subordinates take all the risk.” After the brief exchange, we both fall silent. Though we wanted to say much more, the task was too important to allow sloppiness and distractions to get in the way.

From our vantage point, we couldn’t see what he was carrying, but his entire demeanor indicates he was about to do something we wouldn’t be happy about. We just had to be ready to catch him.

A minute goes by, until a sound I hadn’t heard in months, comes to my ears. I hear a small and faint bird cry.

Soon after, as we hear the noises of a small bird taking flight, and any doubts of about his intentions are gone we charge in. The swordsman to my side advances, as I take the communicator in hands, and with a few mana points connect it to the city comm grid.

“Shoot it down, shoot it down,” I say in a frantic tone, not finding the right words to communicate what I desire. Before I can continue, I hear on the other side:

“Shoot down what?” With their calm and patient demeanor, I manage to get a hold of myself.

“A bird, I think it’s a messenger bird to Lord Max.”

“Ohh shit, ok. Passing along. Subject confirmed hostile?”

Before I can answer, a very fast flaming streak hits the bird, and my immediate concerns are alleviated.

“Bird is down, I repeat bird is down. And yes, subject confirmed hostile.”

Trusting them to handle everything else, I approach the fight just beginning in front of me. There were in total 6 people tailing Brad, and three are already in combat. I approach, along with the other two that were responsible for communications to the headquarters like myself.

Brad uses a +3 bastard sword and is more skilled than we expected, but he is still no match considering our significant numeric advantage. As everyone arrives, one of the guys speak:

“I’m gonna be a bit further back reporting back to HQ, you guys make sure he doesn't get a chance to escape.”

We both nod at the sensible suggestion and watch intently Brad’s fight. Everything goes smoothly until he suddenly gets much faster and manages to knock back one of us back. With now only two people against him, a savage blow to the side knocks the wind out of the middle fighter, distracting him enough he can’t take advantage of the opening. This gives enough room for Brad to run his sword through my partner.

Having already started sprinting from the moment things started to go wrong, seen Leo slumping at the massive injury sends my blood pumping even higher. With an overhead blow from my spear, Brad is forced to turn his entire body to defend against me. He doesn't have the maneuvering room, or time to take other action.

This simple, but time-consuming task of turning his whole body to defend against a full-strength blow from me is enough to doom him. The other two fighters grapple with him, and after a few cracked ribs, Bard finally gives up.

I take a new contraption Merlin designed, and slap the magical handcuffs on him. It isn’t anything fancy, but it’s almost impossible to remove with a really good saw or magic beyond our current capabilities.

With that, we march him over to a house. From the outside, It’s just a common house, but inside the purpose is clear. This is a confinement place. Only after watching the door close, and knowing he doesn’t have any significant magical talents, I finally let myself breathe.

He has no chance to escape for the time being. And different from his usual blustering demeanor, been taken prisoner seems to have affected him deeply, and he is now silent and taciturn.

Not a single word about the futility of our endeavors or anything else comes out of his mouth. Let’s just hope this is just wishful thinking. If he really has trained the others well, they may be more trouble than we anticipating.

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I sense the people stepping over my roots, and coming out of the forest and into the clearing. As the seconds pass however the expected reaction from the people in the walls doesn't come. Opening my eyes for a few moments, I see what has happened. A smile comes to face, and sending a tread of mana into the roots, lets me get a taste of the magic being wielded.

Though the smile soon falls away, let’s hope they don’t have too many of these surprises. With a flick of my hand for dramatic effect, I create simple and cost-effective runes all along their path. As each of the invisible people in the enemy army steps over one of them, light is emitted in our direction. They won’t even notice their disguise was disrupted. They continue to approach at a measured trot in the unobstructed part of the clearing I speak loudly at the confused people in the commander's table behind me.

“Invisibility spell, they can’t see the lights I created to expose them. You might be able to make good use of this advantage.”

I again turn my head forward and close my eyes. Mana, which before was spread out, focuses on a single purpose, forming even more robust and plentiful runes. Every single one of the enemies seems to be inside my current range, with just about all of them are coming in near full sprint ahead, so greater range and other tactics would be of little help.

The reactions from the people atop the wall all around me are back to normal. Or at least the normal when seeing the enemy charging. There was momentary confusion as they saw the lights, but with the help of the speaker system, everyone calmed down soon enough.

Most of my attention goes to the advancing troops. I feel as the footsteps, which before had been a near sprint, become more measured as they arrive closer to the defenses. There are no goblin corpses on the blades, spikes, and wire strewn over in defense, as teams whet around getting all the bodies to be processed. I notice as they concentrate the three thousand troops in a smaller area than the goblins usually did to my left. Not quite at the edge of the main wall, but closer to the edge than the middle.

They start to make their way into the defense fields. Carefully circumventing all the defenses. And it’s then that our defenses come into play. Big fireballs head for them. Smaller than the one that finished of the goblin lord, but still much larger than the ones the gauntlets can produce. All twelve turrets atop the defense towers fire off. From the mana guns, or whatever they are called I feel about 500 mana being spent on each of the fireballs. The distance of about 150 meters is covered in two or three seconds, hitting the front liners with full strength.

The gauntlets don’t have the range, so for now the only significant mana use is on the fireball guns.

What comes just after I didn’t know had been so expended. Over a hundred giant bolts slam into the enemy at full force, fire off from our siege crossbows. Different from my expectation, only a few people are on top of the tower, and extending my senses, let me take a peek inside. As mana trickles in I feel movement. Though I could be wrong in my assumption, a smile comes to face at the likely answer. A couple of mana points instead of dedicating a bunch of people to pulling the string is indeed worthwhile. A single person can easily reload multiple siege crossbows, and if you don’t need very accurate aiming you also don’t need one shooter per crossbow.

The illusion around the people at the very front is disrupted, and the scene is gruesome. Their answer is however calm and measured. Thousands of mana almost instantly start to be polled, and the earth begins to form over them so they will stay protected. I gather the mana Pando’s seed kept at hand and with his help, concentrate exactly on the spot the mages are. It activates a simpler, but still potent version of the mana disruption I applied to the enemy shamans.

The results are however even more satisfying than before. Not quite as familiar with their magic as the shamans, any small disruption is disastrous. The earth they already formed keeps its form, but the tunnel they started to form a second or two ago halts its progress.

Fireballs and heavy crossbow bolts continue to pelt the edges of their formation, the only part not being fully protected.

Their next actions bring a grin to my face. All of the mages start chanting, and in seconds all of the mana is dispersed. I don’t understand what they did, but I can tell they had to spend a good amount of their mana to do it, so it’s a worthwhile trade. With a slightly different design this time, I talk to Pando’s seed and we join forces in sending mana to the runic formation. To the edges of the disruption field, where they didn’t touch, I send mana. There the disruption is so weak they didn’t even notice it until now, and it starts to grow back.

I feel as the mana from a few split off, and they start trying to deal with me. Not in a direct way, they are still too far away, but in keeping away the chaotic mana.

When they fail and the mana creeps closer, a few more detach from the main group. We reach an unsteady equilibrium when about 30 of the 100 and something mages focus on my creation.

With cycling Aether not only over me but also Pando’s seed, slowly he comes to understand and understand how to use the control mechanism I designed for this specific formation. Happy I will be able to take my attention off this endeavor. I start to send the approximately 20 mana a second I was pulling elsewhere. With nearly all of the opposing army stoped, they are easy prey to my roots, and I start to tangle them slowly, but surely. In only a few seconds a few people start to notice, the dozen or so already with stronger bonds, can’t get away, and are firmly pressed to the ground unable to move, or even breath properly. I wonder how I could make some type of poison, and file the thought away for later.

Pandemonium breaks out on the opposing army, and the crossbow, that a moment before, was trying to break through the thick Earth walls, go back to strafing the people outside the protected area.

I only manage to catch a couple of people in the next minute, but the disruption is enough of a reason to continue. Before me, a field of death starts to form. Against the goblins, even if I was not happy about it, I could still stomach it. It shouldn’t make a difference, but this time humans were the openness, and somehow that made things different.

My gut churns slowly, and not from hunger, but from the scene. I did what I could, and will continue to do so in the future, but I can not just lay and allow my throat to be slit. If you wish to take my life, you are by definition risking yours. And without another choice, I will always choose me and mine.

These thoughts however don’t stop me even for a moment. The mana I was wielding becomes visible, as I stop hiding it, and grow a pair of tangled roots, up to my hands. The slight blue tint of light becomes visible to the closest people, and as they are only waiting for the moment, they start to take notice of my actions. They now know the origin of at least the roots.

Merlin and the main group of mages stand on the wall at the closest point to the enemy group of mages, and as they manage to reach thirty meters from the wall underground, the clash of wills begins. Both groups try to take hold of the earth.

Thousand of mana point leave the battery and working in concert, Merlin is like a maestro in charge of the greatest of operas. Each of the mana streams comes together fluidly and is directed at the enemy. Almost three times as many Mages can barely keep up with him. Any progress they make is instantly knocked down, and closer to the wall. Merlin has firm over the earth, and no matter what the enemy tries they don’t advance a single inch.

Each second about 200 mana leaves the conduit and not a smidge of it is wasted.

Seeing the futility and with at least a tenth of the enemy forces no longer in action, I hear a bellow louder than I ever thought possible, even for a larger animal like a lion.

“Charge.”

My very bones, rattle in a physical sense, and the stampede of the enemy does the same. But the second reaction begins in the mind. All I know is they are coming for me.