Chapter 27

Tirr watched as the enemy forces stopped some few hundred yards from the walls. At the front, he could see several individuals with different uniforms than the others, similar to the one worn by the man he had defeated in the first attack. He turned to Claire to verify and had his suspicions confirmed.

“The pompous ass in front is Rills, he can barely fight so he’s nothing to worry about. The other three are trouble though. The big guy next to Rills was supposed to be very talented with the shard…” Her voice trailed off as two groups of Knights separated from the others and started towards the opening.

“We knew they would probably do that.” Doron said reassuringly.

Tirr just nodded turning towards Maria and Claire, “Go to your staging area, we’ll signal if they start heading your way. We’ll handle it like we planned if they split. If something goes wrong just hold on and I’ll be there soon.”

“Yes!” Maria said nervously before letting Claire pull her along.

“Get them ready!” The child god said as he picked up a large stone about the size of his fist. Doron turned and shouted to the other villagers on the walls who prepared their own weapons, for most a variety of stones and bricks.

The entrance area was a small opening with paths leading in either direction between the two walls. This would be their first point of contact, and the villagers hid behind the second wall with their weapons ready.

The knights charged into the opening recklessly, only to stop in surprise as they noticed what they thought to maybe be a small blockade to be what looked like a full second wall. Before they could react to the information, Doron yelled out to the waiting villagers. Who started to rain stones down on the heads of the knights below.

The knights lifted their shields in confusion to block the falling projectiles as they struggled to control their mounts. Injuries quickly started to appear as they tried to defend from the attack. One knight missed a coming stone that cracked heavily into his helmet, knocking him down onto the ground where the other panicking horses quickly trampled him.

Knight Captain Denner watched in fury as his colleague gathered a ball of flame and threw it at the top of the wall in front of him. The villagers moved out of the way quickly ducking down and avoiding the blow that fell on the wall harmlessly.

We have to get out of here!” Denner yelled over the conflict.

“We can’t leave without doing anything!” Kork grunted, blocking another heavy rock as he threw another ball of flame up towards the walls.

“What choice do we have? We need seige equipment to deal with this.” Denner called, before feeling a sudden chill. He ducked quickly and heard a crack behind him as a rock slammed into the ribs of one of his men’s horses, causing the animal to collapse. He looked up to see the face of a child staring down at him disappointed an launched his own fireball up toward the walls, forcing the child back.

“The inner wall can’t go that far! You can head back, but I’m going to take my men down that path and see if there’s an opening or not! Kork replied, before yelling to his men and charging down the left path.

Denner cursed but had to agree. It was possible that either path would end quickly or open at the end. If they went back and forced a full seige when it wasn’t necessary, they’d be in for another of Rills’ screaming fits. He called to his men and took off heading the other direction.

Tirr watched as the two groups split up, happy with the results. It would have been better if they had both gone the same direction, but was fine as long as they didn’t leave. They had even managed to seriously injure around a dozen men, who now lay on the ground of the entrance area groaning or unconscious.

“Keep an eye on the rest of them and signal if there any changes!” Tirr yelled to Doron as he took off towards his own staging ground. He had to finish his targets as quickly as possible so that he could help Maria if needed.

He raced off towards the gathering point, feeling his strength as his feet dug into the ground powerfully with each step, focusing on what he needed to do. He met with the groups set around this staging area and ordered them to prepare as they could hear the knights approaching.

Kork tried to hold his rage as he ordered his men forward, taking yet another turn in the labyrinth of dirt walls. They had already taken several turns as the path led them around, seemingly heading in towards the village but without end in sight. Just as Kork was starting to regret his choice he saw an opening ahead and urged his men forward.

They burst into the wider area but were confuse when once again all they saw were walls. Even worse Kork heard a crash behind them as a load of wood, dirt and stone crashed onto the way they had come from crushing one of his men underneath.

Once more, stones and bricks fell from above, striking at his men in the confined area. Some of his men dismounted as they tried to make a rush for the walls but couldn’t climb them in their heavy armor.

Kork started gathering more of his strength, worried about using to much but not seeing a choice as he launched a large fireball just as on of the villagers poked his head out.

The villager ducked upon seeing the flaming sphere but couldn’t get away intime as it hit the wall next to him blowing away a small chuck and leaving the villager screaming from his burns.

Kork started to gather another when suddenly the dirt wall in front of him shattered into dirt and wood, revealing a young boy who charged out of what seemed to be a building hidden within the wall.

Tirr broke through his hiding place and charged at the large man, ignoring the confused looks of the other knights. He leapt at the Knight Captain fist pulled back.

Kork was taken aback at the sudden onslaught and speed but barely moved his shield in front to block as the fist connected. He felt a sickening crunch as the shield folded around the fist like parchment, taking his left arm with it. The force sent him flying back into one of the dirt walls behind him.

Tirr could only grunt in anger at his failed attack and rushed forward again only to be blocked by the remaining knights. He continued anyway, as there was no time. He needed to save as much energy as possible and healing the damage from this fire shard was too exhausting. He needed to end it before the Shard User recovered.

The knights slashed at the strange, fast child that dashed through them. He seemed to slip past their blades leaving only simple cuts and scratches as he reached where the Knight captain was just starting to recover.

Tirr leapt forward once again to go for the finishing blow. As he closed in, he saw the Shard user suddenly lift his head, smiling as he took a quick breath and blew out a stream of flame directly at Tirr. There was an explosion as the flames hit and smoke streamed out, screams from his own men caught in the attack fell on apathetic hears as Kork slowly stood, clutching his arm to his chest.

“Dumb brat.” He chuckled, “Don’t go around calling yourself a god with only that! Nowhere near enough to deal with an old bandit like me…”

Kork tried to take a step forward and felt a sudden pain in his chest, looking down in horror he noticed a dark and skeletal hand piercing through his plate armor. As he watched muscle and skin started to slowly form before the hand pulled back out.

He collapsed to his knees and turned around just enough to see two dark and burnt eyes staring down at him from what looked like a charred corpse. As he was frozen in terror the same hand slowly lifted and rested on his head.

“Wai…”

There was a pop, blood and bone scattered about as Tirr let go of the mess in front of him, focusing on his own body’s healing. The damage had been severe this time leaving him somewhat drained. Thankfully he had grown stronger since the last time he had fought thanks to his Apostle.

He looked around at the few remaining knights, who after most of their comrades had been burnt away by their own leader, held their hand up in surrender. The villagers had come down and held them captive, cheering in surprise at their own victory.

A burst of fire in the distance caught Tirr’s attention, and no signal from Doron meant things had gone wrong at the other staging area. He ordered the villagers to take the prisoners as he sprinted off, hoping he wasn’t already too late…