25th Day, Fourth Month, 44th Year, Age of the 23rd Calamity

Steam shot from a big metallic pipe. A loud sound of metal on metal emerged and a glowing red shell was released from an opening near the bottom side of the almost two meters long and fifty-centimeter wide tube. An engineer clad in red and brown clothes turned an iron wheel at the bottom of the mighty barrel and opened it. Another two put under moans and sweat a large oval piece of metal into it. A fourth added a thin metal case with the same diameter to it. The first put the lid back and closed it through the turning of the wheel. “Ready!”, he shouted under a storm of explosions and screams. “IGNITE!”, yelled another man behind the four.

“Ignition.”, yelled the first and put a small amount of heat magic into the case that was placed into the tube. As soon as the magic touched the inner of the case an ear-splitting boom thundered from the barrel followed by a burst of fire from the opening of the tube on the top. The fourth man surrounded the red glowing pipe carefully with small layers of ice that evaporated into mist as soon as it emerged. The man behind looked through field glasses where the projectile was supposed to land, while the four men repeated their process from before.

The aim was a wall of dirt that was approximately five hundred meters away. Behind that wall hid the enemy's troops. Through small openings emerged walls of ice wide enough to give protection for at least five men in a row. The ice was pushed forward around twenty meters or so, and then a new wall of earth grew out of the ground blocking the view of the mound of earth that was targeted. Their gunmen managed to destroy some of the ice walls and killed the enemy behind them but this wasn’t good enough. A mere gap of fifty meters was now between the enemy and the gunmen. The enemy archers could shoot their arrows a long time ago already but their magicians could stop most of them. But any closer than that and the enemy magicians could use their tricks too. And not to forget the cavalry that could burst out from the flanks at any time now.

Captain Galon Meriat clicked his tongue as he put the field classes down. “Correction. Elevation five two two.”

“Correction. Elevation five two two.”, echoed his aimer who turned a small knob.

“Ready.” “IGNITE!” “Ignition.”

Another loud thunder roared from the monster dubbed artillery sending its deadly projectile in a high arc to the newly erected pulp of dirt.

This time he got the satisfying eruption of mud and flesh he was hoping for. The resulting breach in the wall was enough for the gunmen to target the knights that were too close to the hole and had the poor luck to survive.

“Captain Meriat, sir.”,someone called out to him. A man slightly benched over and gasping for air held towards him a piece of paper. Like any other man of this battalion, he wore not a single piece of armor over his uniform made of simple cloth. “From command.”, he managed to say between his heavy breathes.

“Acknowledged.”, said Galon and took the scrap out of the messenger's hand. He overflew what was written onto it and gave a dissatisfied grunt. Annoyed he gave the notice back to the man who started to run to the next battery.

“Kick your goddamn speed up, ladies. If they come any closer we have to destroy our baby here.”

“Understood.”, shouted his man in unison.

The captain ground his teeth. According to the higher-ups, the artillery was their trump card. It was one of the greatest weapons ever created by any race. So it was of the utmost importance that it never felt in the hands of the enemy.

Even before the campaign started he and his men were told that if any information about this weapon was leaked every single one of them and their families would be executed for treason. He couldn’t remember how often he woke up bathed in sweat because of a nightmare. As far as he knew, those with the rifles hadn’t such strict orders. It was a secret embedded in a secret.

Those orders didn’t change even now. But he couldn’t understand why. The rifles worked the same way the artillery did. A bullet was put into some sort of pipe with an ignition case and with a little heat in form of magic the bullet got accelerated. Same thing. Only on a smaller scale.

He put his field glasses again in front of his eyes. The enemy hiding behind the ice walls pushed forward almost desperately. Bullets flung from the guns sawed through their protection just as desperate. And then it happened. An earthen wall was cast not twenty meters away from the frontline. Mere seconds after that dodos stormed on each end out into the flanks of the gunmen. Their own knights stormed forward to halt the storm. As if this was a cue dozens and dozens of knights rushed out through the small gaps in the wall towards the center.

It was no secret that the elainen knights were far more skilled than their kastalisch counterparts. Nevertheless the knights of kastal run past the gunmen to form a last defense line. But to captain Meriat it didn’t matter who would win this fight. He had orders.

“Point towards that damn cavalry and get the last shot out.”, he yelled. His crew eyeballed the aim and ignited the case. For the last time, the barrel roared its warcry.

“Alright demolish that damn thing. The cases too.”

His battle was over.

Why did you talk me into this? ‘What? I didn’t say anything. You just started to shout in agreement, didn’t you?’ No, you said we can't let them do what they want.

‘After you rose up for a standing applause, didn’t you?’ I did not.

Anyway, it is all your fault that I had to leave my paradise. ‘Yeah, just put all your negativity to me, like you always do, don’t you!’

It wasn’t even a full day since the King of Elaina gave his speech. Dozens and dozens of people marched through the city gates still cheering and then almost dispersed in all directions. No one of the townsfolk knew where they were supposed to go. I was a little confused too but Lutz pushed me in the right direction. But luckily some sentries were with us. They shouted and yelled to get the attention from everyone, which took quite some time. As they finally succeeded they ordered us to follow them and they marched in front aiming for the south. Under the sentries were a few faces I remembered but I had forgotten their names so I didn’t call out to them.

They walked orderly side by side each step taken with prudent precision. Behind them were us hunters. Not as orderly but still grouped together in divisions and veteran-apprentice groups. Behind us was the ordinary townsfolk. At the start, they looked like they just strolled around the marked but now you could saw tired faces on most of the people.

‘Don’t have any endurance now, do they?’ Well, they’re just normal people. They were not used to endless marches. ‘But we already took a break not long ago, didn’t we? Can’t imagine what help they are supposed to be, now can you?’ A wry smile formed on my face. But I could sympathize with those people. My motivation to march for who knows how long to wherever we were going to and pushing the hillbillies back was nonexistent. Maybe I could just stay behind when the time arrived and just let the others handle it. ‘You are unbelievable, aren’t you?’ What? Do you really think it would make a difference if I kicked them too? I don’t. ‘I’m shaking my head mentally at you.’ Also, there was never a word about payment and the caravan didn’t have enough food for everybody. So we hunters have to hunt our own food probably. ‘Turn on your heels right now! We are going back.’

I chuckled. This earned me the attention from Dirk.

“Pretty hyped, hu?”, he asked with a broad smile.

“Err, yeah of course.”, I lied. He nodded proudly. “That’s a hunter for you. Not like those behind us. There is only half as much as there was this morning.”

“Dey don’t 'ave any train'n whatsoever. It’s norra negative dat juss 'alf o' dem are ‘ere, its positive dat dere are still 'alf o' dem around”, said Lutz puffing out smoke. “It’s more o' a shame dat we lost a few ‘unters. A real shame fer de name we represent”

“What? There were hunters that left?”, gasped Dirk. Lutz gave a slow nod.

“Look fer wad is important, Dirk. De small things are most times more important as de obvious ones. Yous listun too, Natalie. Spear yous flappers opun fer anyth'n important, yous 'ear me?”

After concentrating what he said I managed to make sense of most of his words.

“Yes, I understand, Lutz.”, I answered with a broad smile. He gave a satisfied grunt.

27th Day, Fourth Month, 44th Year, Age of the 23rd Calamity

It was now two days since we set out on our journey to kick the billies back. I didn’t know when we started to call the Kastals billies instead of hillbillies but it made a lot of sense and went a lot smoother in conversations. As I feared we had to hunt our own food but it turned out that with so many professional hunters around this was not a problem. In fact, we had so much that sharing with the townspeople wasn’t a problem. A big part of that was that the amount of people halved again. But there weren’t only people that had left of their own accord. A few of them died. Mostly old folks, but some middle aged too. Lutz just said that they overestimated themselves and what's done is done. Some who were acquainted with these people took it on them to bring the remains back and it never affected the group as a whole.

Currently, the sentries and the chosen leaders of the hunters and townsfolk were together in a big tent discussing how they should operate when they came into contact with the billie army the next day. Lutz was under the chosen ones and he took me and Dirk with him, albeit we had to make ourselves small and if possible invisible.

“We got reports from the knights south-east. They have found a tactic that is working quite fine. But it needs a lot of magicians. How many are there under the Hunters?” The man that spoke was the same that was in the sentrie station, Mathew.

“About sixty to seventy as far as I have seen.”, answered a giant of a man. He was almost as wide as he was high, his muscles pulsating and pressing themselves through the thick fabric of his veteran tunic. He slowly groomed his beard that reached up to his waist while he spoke very slowly. “And around two to three hundred warriors, like myself.” Mathew nodded thoughtfully.

“We are thirty-two men, all proficient with the spear. I would suggest that we split into thirty-two smaller groups each led by a sentrie and at least two magicians in it.”

“Dat is sound by me. But ay 'ope yous don’t juss overstep us.”, threw Lutz into the conversation with a frown.

“No, of course not. In fact, each group will have a second in command which will be a veteran. There are enough veterans here?”, said Mathew thoughtfully.

“More than that.”, laughed the big hunter.

“Alright then the magicians will-” “Wait a second here!”, interrupted a young man Mathew. “What about us? The Voluntaries?”

Mathew let a few seconds go by before he answered, probably thinking how he should answer. “I want the volunteers to protect the rear line together with the apprentices.” He raised his Hand as the man opened his mouth. “There were a lot of cases where the Kastals managed to strike from behind without anyone noticing. That is an important task. I hope you understand that without you looking out for our back we could lose on a moments notice.”

The man made a grimace but nodded. “I understand. Even if it is not much, we will protect your back.”

While the man was not very happy about his assignment I almost jumped in happiness. Standing in the rear just watching. That is perfect. But the person next to me stiffened up and I could hear his teeth grinding. ‘Well, he really looked forward to kicking some billies, didn’t he?’ With a lot of effort, I managed to suppress a smile.

“As I was saying, the magicians will cast a two-meter high earth wall. It should be around ten meters wide and two meters thick. Between each wall should be a gap of roughly two meters.

Another magician will then cast an ice wall at the gaps and half of the group hides behind that. You are then supposed to move forward with the ice wall as fast as possible. I’m well aware that moving an ice wall is no easy task but I’m sure you can handle it. After a few meters, a new earth wall has to be cast to give the men left behind cover to advance and to let the caster regenerate. Rinse and repeat until we made contact with the enemy.”

“Wait, that is seriously your plan?”, asked the giant with big eyes.

“It may not be very deep, but as soon as we make contact they will break. Most of the enemy troops are garians. They rely too much on their new toy and don’t have many strong knights. Also, they haven’t seen a lot of battles and won’t have much perseverance.” I noticed that he didn’t say that we ourselves haven’t seen any battles either. ‘But those are billies. Garia or Kastal doesn’t matter, now do they?’ I guess not.

“Any other questions about the plan? No? Then let's discuss where we will most likely meet them and the terrain we will encounter.”

After that they discussed the formation of the groups, what if cases, and much much more. I didn’t listen to much of what was said since it was quite boring and somewhere in the middle of that I fell asleep.

28th Day, Fourth Month, 44th Year, Age of the 23rd Calamity

The day of our battle finally arrived. Everybody was in high spirits. At least most of the hunters. I couldn’t wait until it was over and we could go home. I missed my bed. And the Temple. Or rather the music. But nothing I could do about that at the time.

The thirty-two groups of around twelve members each had parted from the townsfolk and us apprentices a while ago and had already built the first defense of earth walls in the distance around one kilometer away. On each wall was the flag of the elainen Kingdom hoisted.

The sun was up for almost two hours as a wild roar thundered through the fields.

“Was that a monster?”, asked Dirk in shock. A wild murmur sprung from the townsfolk. “I don’t think-”

Behind the wall, the earth decided to erupt and spat huge junks of dirt and dust high into the ear with a scream so loud that I could feel it. An eerie silence filled the surrounding just broken from scattered hushed voices. “Oh gods.” “What was that?” “Is that from their weapon?”

Dirk stood there not even breathing. He probably imagined what would happen if you stand there. I certainly did. And I didn’t like it. ’We should get out of here, don’t we.’ We can’t. ‘Come on, we are put here in the back so we are not in the way. It helps nobody if one of those things came to us, now is there?’

Another roar growled through the air echoing loud and long from all directions. From the earth walls emerged shouts and I saw ice walls forming. Then another blast tore through the air followed by an eruption of dirt and dust half hidden behind the earth wall. Anew a roar thundered, two, five, ten. All almost at the same time.

This time the wall exploded in multiple places. Small figures were flung away as if an invisible giant kicked them. Many of those figures didn’t have the silhouette of a human anymore and the dust and dirt that got tossed into the air were darker. Redder. And the roaring didn’t stop.

“We have to do something!”, yelled Dirk and grabbed me by my shoulders with fear on his face. ‘Woah dude, don’t touch her so suddenly you little fuck!’

“Wah, What? But we can’t-”, I stammered but got cut by Dirk. “Lutz is over there, he will die if we don’t help him.” With these words, he started to run to the walls. ‘Let him go alone if he has a death wish, won’t you.’

I stood there freezing. My legs trembled. My hands were both pressed against my chest. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I didn’t notice that some others also ran towards the wall, while others ran away from it. More bursts erupted at the wall filling the air with dust. Some bursts were behind the wall some in front of it. Some came even close to us. ‘Natalie, we have to get out of here and fast. If we just stand around here some of those things will definitely get to us, won’t they!’ “Ye, yes your right.”, I answered the voice without thinking. But I didn’t move. My eyes were locked on the back of Dirk. What if he would die now? What if something had happened to Lutz? ‘You don’t have any obligations towards them, or do you? SO get the hell out of here!’

A sudden blast ripped through my ears and a horrible hot gust of air burned over me. I flew through the air and hit the hard ground with a cracking sound.

My vision was blurred, I couldn’t hear anything and the air smelled like burned meat. Worse than burned meat. My eyes focused on something in front of me. It took me a while to recognize it. It was black like charcoal and weird rosa and purple stuff with a dark red liquid came out of it. I didn’t understand what I saw. It was the first time I saw something like that.

No.

I saw something similar.

When I experimented with the fireball and used to much power on a monster. The smell was similar, too.

I noticed hair. Eyes that stared into nothingness. An open mouth frozen in agony. The shoulders. And the chest. Then there were the parts that should be inside a person.

Why are they coming to destroy our peace?

‘Why do they want to kill us?’

Why do they want to take everything away from me?

‘Why are the gods against me?’

Why is every bit of happiness taken from me?

‘Why is everything out to destroy my life?’

Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

“YOU WANT A FUCKING PIECE OF ME, DON’T YOU?”

“I FUCKING GIVE YOU FUCKING EVERYTHING!”

I kicked the ground and jumped forwards. The ground rushed past me. The wall was in front of me. I didn’t care for it and just tore through it. Some figures blitzed on the edge of my vision. If they didn’t wanna end like the wall they shouldn’t get in my way. Another wall stood there high and proud. Big junks of it flew with me for a short moment. No wall before me anymore. Just a wall of men clad in shit. Some stuff shot against me.

Annoying.

Small ice crystals formed around me and redirected them away from me. The blur of shit with legs came closer. Small fireballs emerged on both of my hands.

They got bigger.

Bigger.

Even bigger. As big as an adult.

Bigger.

I tore through the row of men. Some weird pieces and red fluids shoot in all directions. I didn’t even notice their features. My arms flung forward. A face burned itself into my vision. Its eyes became small in surprise and fear. The mouth formed a scream and it pulled its arms in front of it.

I grinned.

The fireballs flew right through it. Another explosion filled with dust, dirt, and shit shot to the heavens. In one second to the next a wide area was pierced by huge icicles which zipped out of the ground. Noise rustled in my ears. It was familiar but I didn’t care for what it was. There were fireballs in my hands that wanted to tear through shit. Some of the annoying stuff clashed against me. It showed me where more shit was. I dived into their direction. Arms shooting forward releasing justice. Burnt torn pieces were everything that was there now.

I looked around. Scanning where movement was. As soon as I found it my legs left the ground.

Anew my limbs with the flames of purification found their prey and left nothing but burned heresy. There were more. Running.

How could they dare? How could they dare to even think to desert the punishment of the gods? Flaming justice emerged on my hands. I let them grew. The light from them tore through the darkness that clouded my eyes. As soon as they were big enough I catapulted myself in their direction. The dark clouds couldn’t hinder my aim. The preys erupted like the ground before bursting their innards to the sky.

Next. The next one. I had to find the next. If it just wasn’t so dark. If I just didn’t lay on the ground. I had to find the next…

Lutz walked slowly behind one of the magicians of his group who had casted an ice wall. He hadn’t imagined the battle to be like this. He saw good men vanishing in a burst of earth and blood. Men who did stand their ground against terrible monsters. And there was nothing anyone could have done. He saw men behind their ice walls falling with just a crackle of the ice and a dump sound. Nothing more. He had never felt fear in front of a monster. Even when it looked grim he stood his ground with a smile on his face. But not this time. Dying without notice was terrifying. Not being able to see what kills you was the most horrible thing he could ever imagine.

“'ow far till we can put up de next wall?”, he muttered.

“Just a few more steps.”, shouted his sentrie.

Lutz bit his lips praying that he was still there in a few steps.

A loud bang erupted behind him, different from the ones that tore men and earth apart. Unconsciously he turned his head. What he saw stole his breath. A red silhouette bursted through the wall and tore huge junks of it with it. It flew past them in an incredible speed but he still could see what it was. Hair that was normally a bright red was dyed in dark red. The happy and carefree face that he had seen so often was twisted and sprinkled in red dots. The tunic that was grey this morning was as red as the new color of her hair. And the red cape of a veteran whipped violently in the air.

The next moment Natalie shoot into the ranks of the garian army. A splash of dark red blasted into the air followed by an explosion that was bigger than the ones he had feared. “What the fuck is that?”, shouted the magician in front of him in joy. “I have never seen any magic like that in my whole life and I saw the great magician fighting once.”, exclaimed the sentrie.

In the next moment, huge pillars of ice turned the enemy front in an icy forest. Screams of terror and agonizing pain were coming out of those deathly woods. And then.

“HAHAHAHAHAHIHIHIHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

A laughter that froze everything in Lutz’s body. It was as cold as the ice in front of him filled with a bloodlust he had never encountered before. More explosions emerged inside the enemy ranks but the sound of deafening eruptions couldn’t overpower the lough that was still going.

Loud shouts came from lutz sides and he saw how many abandoned their icy protection and stormed at the enemy that stopped shooting. “Fuck this, we are going too. Everybody forwards.”, screamed his sentrie and he ran past the defense. A thought stopped him from moving. A thought that nagged in his mind as soon as he recognized Natalie.

Did something happen to Dirk? Was the reason she was covered in blood because Dirk got hit? If this was the case, then Dirk would be dead. He couldn’t help him. Not anymore. But he could still help Natalie. The Natalie that threw herself into the midst of a terrifying enemy. With a prayer that dirk was still ok, he rushed out of his cover towards the enemy shouting a warcry. A few turned around to see them rushing against them. Less pointed their ‘guns’ at them. Most of those who saw the elaine troops running towards them turned right around and fled as fast as they could while throwing their weapons away to be at least a little faster. Lutz thought for a moment that they may think that whatever Natalie did, they could too. A few bullets hissed at him as they missed him but he stopped caring. Some of his brother in arms were already in sword range with the enemy. Magicians casted their complicated spells without any cover and threw them into the enemy. Finally, Lutz arrived in front of an enemy knight who had chosen to fight rather than to flee. With a quick slash from the side, his enemy fell. He looked around but he didn’t saw any other enemy that wasn’t running away. And then he noticed. The laughing was gone. He couldn’t tell since when but the missing of that laughter was even more terrifying than the sound of it. “Natalie!”, he shouted and looked fast around. “Master.”, somebody was calling from behind him. He turned around and a pain in his heart was removed.

“Dirk. You are ok. Are you ok?” He immediately ran towards his apprentice whose face was pale and terrified, forgetting everything else. “Yeah, I’m alright. But did you see Natalie? She suddenly jumped in front of me through the wall as if it was butter.” “Shit, right. She jumped into the enemy's forces. She has to be somewhere there.” He stared into the direction where the explosions were before and started to run in that direction. The troops of the enemy were all either fleeing or capitulating. Nobody was fighting anymore. From the corner of his eyes, he saw some hunters executing the prisoners. He acknowledged. “Natalie! Can you hear me?”, shouted Dirk and Lutz copied him.

After a short while, they saw a group of people around something. Lutz heard one of them crying. “Shit don’t go little girl. It's not your time yet.” A cold shower emerged on his back. “Please let this not happening.”, said Lutz with a coarse voice and walked slowly to the crowd. Dirk gave a small whimper but followed his master. Closer up he saw two magicians leaning over a small body, mending the wounds on her body. He thought he couldn’t be more terrified anymore. He was wrong. The small body was almost completely destroyed. Her limbs were angled in way more places that they were supposed to. The arms were black, burned in some places up to the bone. Her torso was littered with small holes from those cursed bullets. “Is she dead?”, lutz asked without any voice.

“Not yet.”, answered a man instead of the magicians. The two men whispering silent spells and pouring mana into the small frame looked like they had just swum through a river. More people arrived, but instead of just staring at the magicians and the body on the ground some sat next to her and started to chant silent spells too. Both of the magicians who had mended to her first stopped and fell gasping to the ground. “There is no way someone could survive even a tenth what she had to endure. If she survives this,” one of them said irregularly under heavy breathing. “She must be loved by the gods.”