Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 22:55

8th Camp, 2nd Defense Line, Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Sergeant Moric, Son of Stoor.

“How are you boys doing?” I asked as I stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the bonfire, “James, that ain't boozes is it?”

“Sir!”

“Sir!”

“Sir!”

“That’s enough of that, sit down you fools.” I cut my men off before they could stand up and salute. “Too cold for that.”

The three of them looked around sheepishly before sitting back down on the wooden stools they were issued. I did notice James tried to shove a bottle into the snow behind him, but I chose to ignore it for now.

“What brings you around lieutenant?” Gorp asked.

“Ain't a lieutenant anymore son, it’s sergeant now,” I said, my voice sounding more like a growl than I wanted it to.

Nothing to do about that though, it was my age catching up with me, that and the time I took an arrow to the neck might have something to do with it.

“Sir...That… I… We are sorry.” Wron said.

“Don’t you worry bout that, ain't your fault,” I said, but then added, “At least no more than it is mine.”

“Still…”

“I can’t believe that bastard dropped your rank,” James spoke for the first time since he hid his ale.

“That’s life, nobles like him, they do what they want, and us freemen get the short end. Nothing to be done bout it.” I shook my head as I said so. “But you boys, you still got a living to make, you need to learn to take that shit without making a mess of things. Me? I've got the last few years of pay saved up, and no wife or kids to spend it on, so I'll be retiring after this.”

“You will?” Gorp sounded shocked.

“Yah, time to rest these old bones of mine. I ain't as young as I used to be, mornings are rough anymore, and…” I drew my sword, a plain old thing that looked like standard issue goods, because it was. “The fingers don’t work like they should no more, I can barely hold this thing. Ain't gonna be no good in a fight like this.”

“...” Gorp just watched as I put my sword back into the sheath.

“Sir… I never did ask, but how long have you been a soldier?” Wron asked.

“How long? Hmm… Since our General was just a brat, that is for sure… she grew up well.” I said as I lost myself in thought for a second, “Probably about thirty years now I guess. I was a patrolman before that, since I was about fourteen? Sounds bout right.”

“Wow…”

“That’s a long time…”

“Yeah, Sir, how many fights have you been in?”

“I never talked about this?” I asked.

“No, sir. Well, I don’t think anyone asked?” Wron looked towards the other two who both shook their heads.

“I heard from another guy that you fought against the Empire and the Theocracy, he said you are probably the only one left in the army who went against both,” James added.

“Ain't no way that be the case son, lots o folks fought both of them, the Empire sent some troops into the swamps just a few months ago.”

“But… that was just a small skirmish, I'm talking about a real fight.”

“Last time what you call a ‘Real fight,’ happened, was a long time ago. Older than me for sure.”

“Didn’t they attack twenty or so years ago? My Pops said he was levied to fight them then.” Gorp mentioned.

“Yah, you be right, they attacked, but it ain't no fight. They sent three battalions, two of infantry and archers, about twelve hundred men, and then four hundred light cavalry. We met them with eight hundred trained soldiers and another thousand of conscripted civilians. And you know what we did?”

“No sir.”

“What happened?”

“Haha… We stared at each other for two days. Every few hours their horsemen looked like they were gonna charge and moved around, their archers would let lose a few shots, and then they went back to their lines. When it was all done, they just upped and left.”

“Er… Really?” Gorp asked.

“Yah, there was no fighting at all.”

“Pops said he saw a man die, said it really scared him. That’s what he said when he tried to talk me out of joining the army.”

“He mighta been right, some guys got unlucky, an arrow slid past a shield, something like that. I don’t remember the commander's name, but I know he was a local, didn’t want the conscripted soldiers to get too hurt, so he put them in the back. Normally they’d be in the front to blunt a charge, then the regulars would move up and clean things up, but this guy did the opposite, so it was the regulars like us that got showed with arrows. Well, it wasn’t too bad, we all had shields. Your father woulda been in the back though, near a field hospital, probably saw some of the wounded moving back.”

“Huh… I always thought he saw real combat.”

“No one saw real combat son, no one crossed swords. Our archers weren’t good enough to shoot them either, so no one on our side did anything.” I said, but then added an afterthought. “Don’t mean he wasn’t brave, we didn’t know there would be no fighting. We had numbers, but they had the better army, plus, one horseman is worth a lot more than a foot soldier.”

“Hey, Lieu- I mean, Sergeant, you mind if I ask you a question?” James asked.

“Pass me that bottle you got buried there, and you can ask all you want.”

“Er... yeah…” He said and then bent down to pull the bottle out before passing it to me. “I’ve been enlisted for two years now, but I've been at the Capital the whole time.”

“Yeah? And?” I asked as I took the bottle from him.

“You’ve been down south to the Canyon and Lakeside Domains, right? And I heard you served somewhere up north too, what’s the rest of the country like?”

“The rest of the country, eh?” I said as I opened the bottle and took a whiff, “Good Gods is this strong, what is it?”

“Ah… well…” James looked embarrassed. “My Ma makes it, she calls it Pig’s Piss. Said the color is right.”

“Ha, Pig’s Piss? Sounds right. Your mother sounds like fun. Good woman I bet.”

“She’s stronger than Pa, I saw her pick him up once and throw him out the door when he came home drunk one night.”

“Haha, is that right?” I said and took a swig of the foul brew, Pig’s Piss was a good name for it, “Well, you’re right, I have been down south, course it wasn’t called the Canyon or Lakeside Domains back then. They ain’t much different from here, warmer for sure, especially on a night like tonight with all this blasted snow. The Canyon Domain is pretty dry, it don’t rain much, and there's dust everywhere, it gets in your mouth, your eyes, everywhere. The Lake though, that is a nice place, warm but not hot, cool breeze comes off the water, even smells nice.”

“Yes!” Gorp clenched his fist triumphantly.

“Damnit…” And James looked down sadly.

“That where you two are going after this?” I guessed.

“Yeah, Gorp is going to become a marine next month, and James is heading to a fort somewhere in the Canyon Domain.” Wron answered.

“Where are you going son?”

“Somewhere in the Pine Domain, I hear they are setting up a port on the coast.”

“I don’t know much about the Pine Domain, I was at the border for a few weeks, but the soldiers over in the Quarry Domain needed help with some trolls, and I ended up with a broken leg from that. Got sent back home for a few months to get myself fixed up, and never went back.”

“I see, so the north is pretty dangerous too…”

“Not really,” I said as I finished James’s booze, “The Pine Domain is pretty safe, only the Barbarians to deal with, and they rarely come south. Now the Quarry Domain, that place is dangerous, the Barbarians are a lot more active there, though I haven’t heard much about them lately. The big problem there is the Danger Zone, most of those mountain ranges are still overflowing with rampant Mana, and all sorts of monsters. The Dark Crevices are probably one of the worst Danger Zones, them and the Forlorn Marsh down in the Steam-burst Domain.”

“I heard the Blue Abyss was the most dangerous,” Gorp broke in to ask, “I hope they don’t send me there.”

“They won't,” I said confidently. “You be right, the Blue Abyss is much scarier than the other four Danger Zones, but, it's underwater. No one goes in, and almost nothing comes out. And when they do, it’s a fish out of water.”

“Oh…” Gorp looked relieved, “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Well, you think about that, but don’t let it stop you from keeping watch,” I said.

“Are you heading back… to that bastard?” James asked.

“He’s the commanding officer, bastard he may be, so don’t talk like that. Might not matter that I got demoted, but you boys still got your life in front of you, no use wasting it by picking a fight with some noble brat.” I said sternly.

“Yes, Sir!”

“But no I ain't, I'm going back to my tent to get some sleep. The cold made my joints stiff and it woke me up. I just came out to warm myself at the fire and check on you fools.”

“Mmm, sleep well then sir.” Wron said.

“You boys stay warm. And James,” I stood and then tossed the empty bottle back to him, “Tell your mother she named this vile brew well. I know it keeps you warm, but no drinking while on watch, you go-GAH!”

I didn’t even see it, but something shot out of the dark. James’s head exploded, blood, bone, brain, it all splattered everywhere. Even as he fell, headless, another attack smashed into his shoulder, tearing his entire arm off and sending it flying through the air. Whatever hit him, then hit me, I felt a breeze near my neck and then I felt warmth spreading down my chest. One hit my hip and broke through my mail while digging into my bone and another one hit my left wrist, cleanly severing my hand.

“Wha!”

“At-attack!” I yelled, feeling faint.

“JAMES!” Wron yelled as he jumped towards James’s corpse.

Not a breath since he moved, something flew through the air. Wron was lucky, but Gorp, who had sat there shocked, suddenly pitched forward, a spear, six feet long, was sticking out of his chest, propping him up as he leaned forward. The spear… No… the shard of ice was thicker than my arm. Gorp tried to bring his hands towards the ice, but they fell away, the light from his eyes gone.

“Blow-Blow the Ho-horn!” I yelled as I dropped to my knees, I no longer had the strength to stand.

“The horn…” Wron was in shock, still trying to staunch the blood leaking from James’s mangled body.

“Bl-blow it…” I could feel my voice weakening, I was losing too much blood.

My hip was probably fine, my left hand would be a problem, but my neck wound was going to kill me much sooner. My scarf that I had been pushing into the cut was already soaked with blood.

“Ye-yeah” he stuttered as he looked around, and then seeing the horn on a rack near the fire, stood and ran towards it.

“NO! St-stay do-”

As I watched, Wron’s body was shredded to pieces as he moved. Bits of him splattered about, his head rolled towards the rack, one of his arms landed in the fire, his two legs fell limply where he last stood.

“...dammit…”

I crawled, through the blood and guts of my men, leaking my own life as I went. Ten seconds to get to the rack, another three to knock it over, and another two to bring the horn to my lips, but it felt like an eternity.

And it was too long. The horn was in my hand, the mouthpiece on my lips, but I had no strength to blow it.

“...shit…”

The fire was my only remaining chance.

I crawled back to it, this time slower. I had no strength remaining, nowhere near enough to use magic, even if I could do that in the first place. And using snow to put out the fire would take far too long.

But, since I was dying anyway…

I slowly drug myself into the fire, trying to smother it with my own body.

I could feel my face burn, my skin peeling back, my eyes that had already lost their sight began to boil. But even as I burnt, I felt no heat, my body just got colder and colder. I was halfway into the fire when my strength gave out and I fell into the burning ashes. As I choked on the ash, I couldn’t even cough.

I only hoped it was enough.

Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:07

Pine Family Bathroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

Unlike humans, and most other mortal races, Outsiders do not typically bathe, nor do they need to.

Humans sweat, because of stress, because of exertion, because the environment is hot. Their skin is fragile, requiring moisturization, so it produces oils. They also have no innate ability to clean themselves.

Outsiders do not sweat because their bodies are not mortal. They do not secret oils or other fluids, unless that happens to be a method of attack or defense. And mana can easily be used to remove any dirt or grime that gets on their bodies.

Thus, there is no need to bathe.

This is something I have recently discovered to be a shame. A great shame.

Bathing is wonderful.

“It is not too hot, is it Olivia?” My sister asked.

“It is fine.”

Apparently, many cultures have different bathing habits. Most of the wealthier members of the Fredirin Kingdom rely on wooden tubs filled with heated water, while the poorer citizens instead just towel off and occasionally dump a bucket of water over their heads.

In this case, we are a bit behind the nations to our south. The Theocracy lacks water since it is situated in a desert, they, therefore, rely on saunas. My brother Timothy finds these to be relaxing, having had one built, a small room with coal-filled braziers where water is splashed around and turned into steam.

Pamela occasionally uses it, but I do not see the appeal.

However, in the Crystal Jade Empire, that is even farther south than the Theocracy, they have a culture of communal bathing. Considering the Human need to be clothed whenever others are nearby, I find this habit or bathing together to be somewhat odd, but the large baths, filled with hot water, are absolutely wonderful.

“Are you sure? If it is too hot you can get out and sit here.” Pamela said motioning towards the stone benches surrounding the pool.

“Mmmm, I am fine,” I replied as I floated through the water.

Our mother seemingly enjoyed the large baths of the Empire, and she had had this room built when the Pine Estate was constructed. The room was a rectangle about thirty feet long and fifteen across, the front was sectioned off so that people could enter and get changed without the steam wafting out, and also so that when people did enter, the cool air from the hallway wouldn’t bother those inside. The pool was an oval-shaped crescent, benches were carved into the sides so that people in the pool could sit down, the pool itself was too deep to sit at the bottom for even the tallest humans. In the center was a raised platform where a large basin was built, warm water bubbled up through a pipe that ran underneath it, and then flowed back into the pool creating ripples and waves.

I was currently floating near that, letting the water splash over me.

“You look like you are enjoying yourself,” Pamela said with a laugh.

Unlike myself, Pamela had already stopped submerging herself in the water, and instead had pulled herself onto the lip of the pool, letting her legs dangle in the water.

“Um… Why am I here?” The third person in the bath asked.

“Because you smelled.”

Carla, who was sitting in the far end of the bath, and who still had a towel wrapped around her even as she was under the water, still managed to look indignant at Pamela’s words.

“Yes, because you smelled.” I followed up.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Carla complained, “And everyone there would smell.”

“Olivia did not.”

“Right, I was fine.”

“That’s… I don’t know how you managed to not smell, it was a sewer.” Carla said suspiciously.

“You didn’t need to follow me, you could have stayed and avoided smelling,” I mentioned.

“As your Guardian Knight, it is my duty to follow you.”

With Carla there when I met with Lin, I knew she wouldn’t let me go out by myself. To preempt that debate, I had decided to bring her with me. I probably could have convinced her to stay behind, but it didn’t seem worth it, and time was also a concern.

I did not, however, mention that the escape route that the Spectres were making connected to the sewers. Nor did I mention that said escape route was not finished, and that we would need to stay hidden within the sewers until it was done. And as it turned out, it took nearly two hours for the work to be completed.

“And follow me you did, into a sewer, and now you smell, so you needed to take a bath.”

“She brings up a point Olivia, how did you manage to avoid smelling like that?” Pamela asked me as she slipped back into the water. “Ah… that is nice.”

“Magic,” I replied, truthfully.

Odors are just residue stuck to an object, so all I had to do was, when no one was looking, cover myself in a thin layer of blood. That would capture anything that could leave behind a scent, and then my blood would break it down.

As I found out with Ula, a faint trace of blood would stay in the air, but that was only detectable then because I had bled heavily, and it took place in a small, enclosed space. In this case, I had done it outside, so any traces of blood would be blown away by the wind.

“Can… Can you tell me how to do that?” Carla asked hesitantly.

“I could tell you, but you would need to be able to use the same type of magic as me.”

“Knight Carla, you are looking somewhat red,” Pamela interrupted, “you should sit on the edge and cool down a bit.”

“Ah, yes,” Carla said as she pulled herself up out of the water and onto the edge of the pool. She crossed her legs and tried to scrunch up her body to better allow the small towel to cover her.

“You know, Knight Carla, you should grow out your hair a bit, it would match your figure.”

“Ah, well…” Carla seemed to be even redder than when she was in the water, “My hair is really unruly, I can’t even tie it down. And as a knight, I shouldn’t do much more than that. Plus… My figure is…”

There were, curiosities, in the memories I inherited from the original Olivia. There were things I “Knew” to be true. Whether or not they really were, I wasn’t sure, but I was confident in them for some reason. The thing was, I didn’t know why I was confident in them. They were things the original seemed to have picked up piecemeal through thousands of minor and insignificant observations.

One of those things was the standard of beauty for the kingdom.

My knight Carla did not have the ideal womanly figure, I could tell that even with the towel covering her, actually, the towel did little to hide her figure as it stuck to her body. Even then, she was just a bit too wide, her hips were small, there was almost no curve from her legs to her waist, her shoulders were just slightly too broad. Her limbs were not smooth and soft, but sturdy with muscle. She was just slightly off, however, and while she couldn’t ever pass as an elegant seductress, she did have the form of a beautiful lady knight. If anything, her only real problem was that she was just a little too short, she was shorter than Pamela, who was half her age.

“Your figure is fine, have you considered braids?”

“Er… No, I have not.”

“You should try it.”

“Maybe…” Carla said with a wry smile.

Carla’s thoughts were pretty clear as she scrunched herself up even further. While she did that, Pamela was reclining on one of the submerged benches. My sister was still growing, I knew because she had been wearing pants earlier today that didn’t quite cover her ankles, she also complained about her favorite shirt being too tight. But even as she was still growing, her figure was already superior to Carla’s.

My sister didn’t quite match the elegant seductress mental image I had inherited from the original Olivia, but she was very close. Really, the only difference was the demeanor, Pamela was just too easy going and almost… motherly, to pull off that look.

“Also…” Pamela began while stretching out her back, “You always wear trousers, I know as a knight you have to wear something easy to move in, but you should try to wear something that suits you better.”

“Er… th-that is… M-my Lady…” Carla stuttered unsure as to what she should do.

“Okay Sister, leave my Guardian Knight alone, she isn’t your dress up doll,” I said, saving my knight.

“Oh, alright, if you insist.”

“Thank you, My Lady,” Carla said feeling relieved.

“She is my Guardian Knight, and thus, my dress up doll. I will be the one to choose her outfits from now on.” I said smugly.

“...wha…?”

“Hahaha.”

Carla just gaped at me while Pamela laughed.

Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:12

Command Center, Eastern Keep, Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

General Frederica Canyon Fredirin.

“We have no contact with the first two defense lines!”

“Third defense line is confirmed overrun!”

“The fourth line won't hold, they need reinforcements!”

“Captain Vot’s company is moving in to reinforce.”

“It won't be enough, Lieutenant Colonel Tina’s battalion should be sent forward!”

“There is no time!”

“We are going to lose the fourth line if we don’t move them now.”

“It’s already lost! It has been breached in multiple spots, we need to fall back to the fifth!”

“Are you crazy!? There are 300 men holding that line!”

“And already half of them are dead you fool! If we send more there, we will only be sending them to their deaths.”

Even before I opened the door, I could clearly hear my staff officers yelling from the hallway.

Those idiots.

“SILENCE!” I roared, slamming the door open.

The noise and my appearance caused a temporary lull to fall over the six men and women in the room.

“Report!” I demanded.

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Sir.”

“Ma’am”

“Yes General.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“General.”

Six voices called out to me and six bodies went to salute.

“Forget that. Report.” I said again as I waved them away with my stump of an arm.

“Yes General!” Adjutant Kark began, “The attack started ten to fifteen minutes ago. There was no alert from the first defense line, and no alert from the second, but someone in the third must have noticed something and they raised the alarm.”

“Camp seven of the third line blew the first horn,” Adjutant Vai continued, “that alerted the rest of the line to a problem, and then camps one, two, and five also immediately blew their horns. By that point, the entire line was engaged.”

“We started mustering reinforcements, we assumed a fast breakthrough of the first two lines and that the third was where it was slowing down, we didn’t realize the first two were gone…” Urlis, another one of my adjutants stated with his tone devoid of any emotion.

“Two minutes later, the first horn sounded from the fourth line, camp two. Camps three and eight followed.” Adjutant Wiln added.

“At this point, the entire fourth line is under attack, we have confirmed that the third has been overrun, no one retreated from it.” Apz, my fifth adjutant said.

“There may be pockets of men left, but the blizzard is hindering vision, we can’t tell.” My final adjutant, Porso added.

“Five camps of ten men each on the first line, the second is just watch-posts, fifteen camps, three men each, the third has a company of one twenty, and the fourth has a battalion of three hundred. We’ve lost almost two hundred men in the first three, and more than double that are about to go with the fourth,” I spat out in disgust, my voice sounding worse due to my deformed lips, “Gods be damned. Alright. What are we dealing with, wyrms, drakes? Something else?”

“We… we aren’t sure,” Wiln started, but then looked over at Vai who was normally in charge of communications.

“General, the blizzard is preventing us from seeing them at this point, and we are getting… conflicting reports from the few survivors,” Vai said.

“Are men falling back from the fourth line?” I asked.

“No, as best we can tell, the line is holding its ground-”

“For now.” Porso interrupted, earning an annoyed look from Vai.

“But the fourth line sent men out to get reports, the enemy is capable of powerful ranged attacks, and most of the messengers and scouts never made it.” Vai finished.

“Anyone not under cover is getting killed, even some in the fifth line who were moving forward have been hit. Shards of ice it seems...” Urlis added.

“Shards of ice…” I said while thinking to myself.

The Bleeding Forest is named for the fact that everything in it is large and sturdy, and also violent. Nearly every creature within gets mauled in some way, every day, so anyone who stumbles upon one of them, will find it to be bleeding.

With the blizzard raging about, more monsters with an inclination towards ice and water magic would show up… but nothing that is capable of shooting shards of ice. Winter wolves have a cold breath that can leave a layer of ice on a man, and winter wyrms can freeze a man solid with their own breath. Up north there were supposedly spiked ice beetles, bugs about the size of a small horse and with a back covered in spikes of ice. They could launch those out, but they did not have that much range, took days to regrow, and could only be shot out at random, no real aiming was possible. And more importantly, they had never been spotted before here in the Bleeding Forrest.

Unless…

“Elementals…!?”

My adjutants all looked like they wanted to say something, but their silence was enough.

I spun around and rushed out of the room, my ruined leg making me limp, but hardly slowing me at all. I heard the six others follow me through the door, but I said nothing to them as I sped through the halls and up a staircase. Another hall, and finally I was at my goal, I pushed open a door only to have a blast of cold air and snow hit me in the face.

I stomped across the roof of the keep, ice and snow crunching underfoot as I moved towards the edge where two sentries were standing near an open fire. They both saluted, but I ignored them as I went to the edge and peered out into the snow. I could see the fires of the sixth defense line and the fifth, and many smaller torches as men moved into position behind the sixth, but the fourth was blurred by the snow. However, I was pretty sure that there were far fewer fires than the nine there should have been.

“Sunburst flare,” I ordered. "Now!"

“Er… General, if we do that, it will wake up-”

“Do it,” I ordered again, giving a death glare towards the man who didn’t immediately follow my orders, a sergeant I noticed by looking at his insignia.

“Yes Ma’am!” He hurriedly saluted and ran to make it happen.

I only had to wait for half a minute before one of the ballista mounted on the roof was angled towards the sky. A huge wooden shaft was fitted into it, but instead of a sharpened point that would let it fly smoother, and shred targets better, this one had a yellow ball fitted on the front. With a loud twang, the ballista fired, the projectile flew through the air, and into the blizzard where I quickly lost sight of it.

One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven…

When I counted to eight, the sky suddenly lit up. A golden glow illuminating the sky, even seeming to burn away the falling snow for a moment. The light faded in intensity, from the brightest sun at noon, to a golden glow.

But it was enough.

The first defense line was within the tree line, so I couldn’t see that, but the second, third, and now, almost all of the fourth, was gone. Red splatters and stains, mangled and ruined bodies were all that remained of the men who had guarded them.

And then their killers, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of moving, walking, statues of ice. They had no consistent form, some walked on two legs, some on four, some crawled, others slithered.

Elementals.

Their first wave marched through the remains of the fourth line, their second was just passing the third line, the third wave was about to reach the second line, and the fourth wave was just exiting the tree line. Their vanguard, if the formation of these mindless things could even be called that, was going to hit the fifth defense line in about a minute.

“All troops, this is General Canyon.” My voice echoed over the entire field thanks to the magic effect built into my necklace, “The fifth line is to fall back and regroup with the sixth. Both will fall back to the keep. All artillery squadrons are to fire at will. Grenadiers, fire at will, mage teams, fire at will. Concentrate all fire on the first group. Activate the keep’s wards, and raise the barrier.”

It took the first troops a second to begin moving after I finished giving my orders. The men and women of the fifth defense line began falling back, it was less orderly than I would have liked, but it became a chaotic mess once the advancing elementals started unleashing barrages of ice shards. Some were little more than daggers, but others were the size of spears and javelins. Over the blizzard, I couldn’t hear them, but I knew that the cries of dying soldiers were resounding across the field.

Before it could become a rout, the first ballista opened fire. Sharpened poles flew through the air, some even firing bundle shots, several smaller spears tied together that would spread in flight. Even one of the smaller catapults had let loose with a rock the size of a human torso.

Most of the projectiles missed, the stone kicked up snow but rolled harmlessly past two elementals. The bundle shots rained down over a group, breaking off a few limbs, but not really affecting them in any way. One of the larger shots landed right next to an elemental, the shock blowing it off its feet, all three of them, and another scored a direct hit on one of the bigger ones that looked like a giant ball on two legs, which became only one leg, one foot, and a bunch of shards of cracked ice afterwards.

The attack did not inflict the casualties I wanted it to, needed it to, but it did disrupt the elementals. And, it kicked up a lot of snow that obscured vision, providing cover to the retreating soldiers. The elemental’s ranged attacks sputtered down, only a few more men were hit before they finished crossing the two hundred feet to the sixth line.

Still, nearly fifty bodies lay bleeding in the snow.

More twangs reverberated around me as more artillery began firing, and as I watched, I saw a few bursts of light, bolts of lightning, fireballs, and hunks of rock begin being fired out from the final defenses. Only a few mages were capable of firing at targets at that range, but their aim was much better compared to the siege weapons.

I turned to head back to the command center when the entire keep under my feet began to glow, faint symbols and characters appearing over the stones. The Keep, at a truly ridiculous cost, had been turned into a magical array, by burning through an absurd amount of crystallized mana, the stone could be reinforced, until simple stone and mortar would be just as durable as solid steel.

And then, even as I stepped back through the door, I caught the sight of the barrier activating, a massive magical wall that surrounded the entire coastline. As long as that was powered, the only way in or out would be through this keep. It would keep the elementals from crossing the river, but it would also focus all of them right towards this location.

“General, what do we do?” Vai asked.

“...” This… was not an easy decision.

The fort might be able to hold against what I just saw out there, if we did everything perfectly, but the odds were against us. And if there were even more elementals approaching, we would have no chance.

We were caught off guard, we lost too many men too fast, and we had no time to set up formations and traps. We could rely on our defenses, but there was a very fundamental problem.

The monsters that usually came out of the forest were large beasts. They were strong, durable, but they were living beasts. To fight them, we relied on several tactics, but for the most part, those tactics involved pelting them with arrows and javelins while keeping them at bay with spear walls. On anything really dangerous, we would use the siege weapons, or send out higher ranking warriors.

But against elementals, ice elementals at that, arrows would have little effect, the same with spears. Really, what we needed were heavy blunt weapons, axes, or maybe double handed swords. Weapons used to crush and smash, not poke and let bleed.

Moral was also likely ruined.

No, this could not be won.

And elementals would advance tirelessly and unceasingly, we would not be able to defend and stall, they would plow right into us.

“We retreat,” I said resolutely.

“B-but..” A shocked Wiln stuttered out.

“We can’t hold here,” I said shaking my head. “We’ll be wiped out.”

“But a retreat is…” Apz looked unsure.

“Going to be a clusterfuck? I know.” I said with a sigh. “Elementals are going to be faster than our retreat, especially in this snow. We’ll need a rearguard to stall them.”

“That… Will require a large rearguard…” Urlis said in his standard emotionless tone, but I could sense worry in it.

“We are going to lose everyone outside soon, that will put our loses at eight to nine hundred. We’ll have about five thousand men left.” Kark said as he tried to calculate how many men we had to fight.

“Let’s wait until we are in the command room, the others should have arrived by now.”

It took us less than thirty seconds to return, and I was proven right, the formerly empty room now had several more figures.

“General.”

“Ma’am”

“Gen-”

“No time for that,” I said, “We need to retreat as soon as possible.”

Most of the room looked shocked, a few appalled, and a few thoughtful.

“You won't be able to escape, they’ll run you down.” Major Hervis Alarville, the commander of the garrison’s small cavalry company said.

I noted that he had said, “You,” and not, “Us.”

“I know. But we can not all fall here, we need to link up with the rest of the Capital’s forces. So, we’ll need to have people stay behind to stall them.”

“Mmm…” Lieutenant Colonel Lores scratched his graying beard, “It will need to be at least two full battalions. That doesn’t leave us a lot to work with after.”

“No,” I denied him, “I have… something like a plan.”

“Haha, a plan?” He said quizzically.

“First off, Major Korlean,” I said looking at the half-elf commander of the mage forces, “You need to have your people use everything they have right now, casting until they pass out. Major Alarville will have his men share their horses with them. But we need to do as much as we can now.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Major Alarville showed nothing on his face, but I couldn’t help but notice that the horseman looked relieved. Well, not that I blamed him.

“Lieutenant Colonels Jay and Zuu,” I said looking at the man and woman who commanded the sappers and grenadiers respectively, “I am sorry, but I need both of you and your men to stay. You are the only ones who are going to be able to really do anything.”

“...I understand…” Lieutenant Colonel Jay replied hesitantly, fear clearly in his eyes.

“Yes, Ma’am” Was the simple reply from the head of the grenadiers, anyone who used those handheld explosives was probably immune to fear.

“Knight Commander Deo, I am sorry, but you’ll need to stay too.”

“Yes…” He looked as if he were about to cry, but he still saluted resolutely.

“Major Pirtsen, you’ll take two companies of our best foot soldiers, we’ll arm them with any axes and hammers we can find, even work tools, and we’ll use them to defend the keep.”

“Got it. I was just thinking, it was about time for me to retire,” The grizzled old veteran said with a toothy smile.

“Then, Colonel Issold,” I said turning to my second in command, “you’ll be in charge of the retreat. We have already sent word to the capital, so ideally they should set forth to meet with you.

“Understood General…” she said, but then realized something, “Wait, where will you be general?”

“Ha, I'll keep an eye on things here.”

“No!.”

“You can’t!”

“That…”

“General, let me stay instead.”

“Silence,” I said as I banged my one good hand onto the table. “These are my orders, see to it. Issold, the first troops need to start crossing that bridge within minutes. We have no time.

“Yes… General…”

Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:37

Pamela’s Auxiliary Bedroom, 3th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

“Can you not sleep, Olivia?” Pamela asked me from her bed.

“Hmm… No… something is… bothering me.” I responded somewhat unsure.

“Hmm… Really?” Pamela said, having woken herself up a little bit more.

“Yes…”

Something was bothering me, but I could not determine exactly what it was. It was just a slight sense of something being wrong, it pricked at my skin, floated just outside of my sight, it hummed beyond my hearing.

“I won't say to come back to bed, but at the very least, you should stay away from the window, you will catch a chill.”

“Mmmm… I am fine.” I said, still looking out the window into the snowy night.

Pamela didn’t say anything, but I heard her shift and move about on the bed. A few seconds later, I felt her presence as she moved up beside me, and draped a blanket over my shoulders.

“You are cold,” She said as she slipped under the wool blanket next to me.

“I am?” I asked confused.

“Of course you are, the room might be heated by the fireplace, but if you stand this close to the window, of course you will get cold.”

Was I cold? I couldn’t really tell, temperature changes of this magnitude were barely noticeable to me, and would have no real effect on my body. I did not require food for energy, and since that was the case, I did not generate heat like a normal human would. The contraction of my muscles, the functioning of my organs, the flow of my blood, did produce some heat, but it was a far cry from what a human would normally create. However, being that cold would warrant concern if anyone touched me, so I normally forcibly circulated my blood to generate extra heat.

I had only been looking out this window for a few minutes, but the fact that Pamela could feel that I was cooling down indicated just how much I had let my attention lapse.

“I guess I am.”

“Here,” Pamela shifted under the blanket, going from my side to my back where she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her soft embrace. “You can borrow some of my warmth.”

I couldn’t actually borrow her warmth, at least as she meant it. If she held onto me like this, she would only waste her own heat as she tried to warm me. However, now that she was holding onto me, I began forcing extra blood through my veins, slowly warming myself up.

“Thank you.”

“Mmmm…” She said drowsily as she rocked back and forth, seemingly trying to lull me into sleep along with her.

“Pamela,” I said suddenly.

“What is it?”

“...” I hesitated.

“Olivia?” She said, sounding more awake now, and a little concerned.

“You know… my bloodline that I awoke… there is more to it than just magic.” I said slowly, unsure if I should really be saying this.

“I know,” Pamela responded, but she was probably referring to the inherited memories that come with almost all bloodlines.

“Not just the memories…”

“...What do you mean?”

I am… not really sure…” I said, hesitating. “I know the cold is not something that bothers me any longer. I do not get hungry or thirsty as often, and I do not get tired either.”

I wanted to say more, I wasn’t sure why, but I wanted to confide in my sister. The emotional part of me, the vestiges of the old Olivia wanted that, but the rational part of me knew I shouldn’t say too much too soon.

“I see…” Pamela said slowly, “Is that why you were still awake now?”

“No… well… maybe, something is bothering me, but it isn’t my own body. But I think my… changes… are what is causing this, at least, indirectly.”

“Then, what is bothering you?”

“I… I am not sure,” I said as I still looked out the window. “I think it… is the snow. Something… seems off with it.”

“You were not bothered earlier today, did something change when you went out with the soldiers?” She asked.

“...” I thought back to when exactly this sensation had begun. “I was fine earlier… I do not know, it is probably nothing.”

I did say that to reassure my sister, but, it wasn’t as if it was completely impossible that this was nothing important, actually, it was quite likely it was nothing important. My heightened senses, and the way I used to perceive the world as an outsider, were now being filtered through a human body made of flesh and blood. That filter was altering and affecting how those senses were working. There probably was something I was sensing right now, but because it was being done with a mortal body, it was being skewed in one way or the other.

There were also plenty of explanations for this to be happening in the first place. Snow tends to have strong elemental traces, and since I woke up, this would be the first time I had encountered anything with such traces. I could be sensing the snow itself, or the residue from the storm that produced the snow, or I could even be sensing the subtle changes in the Capital’s elemental balance as the snow fell. For all I knew, someone could be casting magic onto the snow, trying to melt it or collect it or do who knows what, and I was sensing their spells.

“Are you sure Olivia?” Pamela asked, her voice both tired, and filled with concern.

“Yes,” I said as I took my eyes away from the window. “Let us go to sleep.”