I sighed as I made my way up the rampart, hating every second I was out of the bounded field I had set up to filter out certain sounds from the Varden camp.

The sounds of many poisoned Empire soldiers for example.

I mean, I got it. We were incredibly outnumbered and any dirty trick was preferable to dying in a fair fight. It was why I had given Angela a few mystic codes that would help her sneak around unnoticed. Why I hadn't spoken out against her when she brought the idea to Nasuada.

It didn't make the screams any more pleasant.

I made a mental note to check in with Angela when I had a chance. Despite her normal rather irreverent attitude, she wasn't the type of person to be unaffected by this much suffering. Not if she chose to be a herbalist. That her profession was twisted to this extent was probably taking a toll on her. Especially since not many were going to thank her for giving the Varden an edge.

That would have to wait until later though.

The Empire was expected to attack at dawn, which was only a short time away, and I had been assigned a spot pretty far from where the witch, Nasuada, Eragon, or Arya had decided on. A tactic to make sure a desperate attack wouldn't target incapacitate all of us at once.

So I didn't have time to wander around looking for Angela to have a chat.

As the first rays of sunlight crept over the horizon I looked around at the men and women that were about to go into battle with me. Unsurprisingly a few of them seem nervous about what's about to happen, but fewer than I expected. So morale was good but it could be better. And I remembered the promise I made to myself the other day about opening the battle with a bombardment spell.

…hm, no sign of Murtaugh and Thorn but I wasn't sure exactly when they showed up to the battle anyway. Guess I just needed to target the army instead.

'My body is made of stars.'

There were a few cries of surprise as my mana surged and a spell circle appeared in front of me, the arcane symbols slowly rotating and changing as I made the calculations needed. Across the plains, the Empire's soldiers began moving and the Varden prepared to meet them.

The time for doubts, thinking, and waiting around was over. Now it was time to show the Empire they never should have come here.

"Nova Blast!"

-o-

"Die, you damn witch!" The last Empire soldier that managed to break through the defensive screen in front of me screamed while trying to stab me with a spear.

I calmly put an arrow through his heart and returned to searching for the magician that had redoubled his attempts at attacking my mind/soul.

Opening the battle with a bombardment spell did exactly what I was expecting for both armies' morale, but did come with the downside that I was now a high priority target for enemy magicians again.

Several of them were scratching at my mental defenses or casting spells at me in a desperate attempt to wear me down, but unfortunately for them my defenses worked differently than anything they had encountered.

My conscious thoughts and soul were hidden behind the incredibly territorial and vicious Hōgyoku that absolutely refused to let anything past a certain point so while Galbatorix's mages could launch all the probes they wanted, they couldn't do more damage than a metaphorical scratch. And my physical defenses weren't any less complete either. The Knight Armor spell made affecting my body directly with external magic nearly impossible unless I allowed it or they broke through and it became clear pretty quickly none of the mages Galbatorix sent were all that powerful.

That left physical assault. And the Empire was doing their best to not give me the time or space to do another Nova Blast by constantly sending troops at me.

I had also been ordered by Nasuada to not repeat my shower of explosive swords trick just yet because everything was pointing to this battle being a marathon rather than a sprint. The Varden needed me in the fight as long as possible, not ducking out because I exhausted myself.

And it was a good thing she did, because unlike the battle in Farthun Dûr this was less about getting slowly rolled over by giant rampaging barbarians and more about the two armies trying to grind each other to paste.

Sure, both sides had tactics to break through the lines and end the battle if left unchecked like the Varden's calvary and Eragon sortieing out to deal with a few ranks of soldiers or the catapults used by the Empire for a while before they were destroyed, but for the most part it was just hours and hours of killing that got neither side anywhere fast.

Yet the Empire still refused to send the trump card I knew they had hiding somewhere forward.

"The Dwarves! The Dwarves are here!"

A loud trumpet and cries from the east side of the battle broke out over the sounds of battle and I immediately began preparing a Nova Blast and searching the skies over the Empire's soldiers.

This had to be the thing that forced their own Rider out into the open, right? But there was nothing…

The only dragon I spotted was Saphira flying west for some reason.

Did I somehow change Murtagh being chosen as a Rider? That didn't seem likely. I barely talked to him, let alone doing something that would cause an impact large enough to make him incompatible with his unhatched dragon.

Maybe Galbatorix didn't like his chances facing off against both me and Eragon? While I'm sure the mad king had little care about his new Rider personally, it would be a blow to his reputation if he deployed Murtagh only for him to get taken out in his first battle.

Still, without the red dragon making an appearance that meant I had a siege spell ready with no target.

…well, it would be a waste to not use it I guess.

I picked out one particularly unlucky magician in the empire's ranks and unleashed a burning yellow beam of death. The Varden took up another cheer as their enemy's morale took another hit and I went back to hunting more magicians.

-o-

Despite trying to pace myself, as the day went on I could feel the strain of battle setting in from all kinds of things. Multiple Nova Blasts, the constant assaults from enemy soldiers, and some emergency frontline healing just to name a few. And by the time late afternoon rolled around I was eventually forced to take breaks to catch my breath.

It bothered me to stop fighting, especially since casualties went up a lot during my absences, but it was during those breaks that I finally got a clear picture on how the rest of the battle was going.

Hrothgar did actually arrive with an army of dwarves and was really pounding the eastern front and it turns out that the reason Saphira went flying the other way was because of a ship coming up the river to the west. A ship that just happened to be carrying Eragon's cousin because of course it was.

I had to admit I hadn't really thought about Roran much since he didn't really affect my goals. Hell, I barely thought about him now beyond demanding someone to keep an eye on the ship and inform me immediately if it looked like they were going to be attacked and overrun. The last thing we needed was Eragon's only family being kidnapped on top of everything.

But while the ship was doing a good job of demoralizing the Empire soldiers on the western front, it wasn't really more than a nuisance. Its weaponry more suited for ship combat than attacking an army. Hopefully the Empire commanders wouldn't–

My train of thought was quickly derailed by the sound of drums from the Empire camp.

I dropped what I was doing and shoved my way back to the ramparts just in time to see the shape of a flying dragon lift over the horizon. While I desperately tried making the calculations needed for a Nova Blast I watched as the Rider flew closer and closer through the heat haze shimmering in the air.

Man I really wished I had a proper device. This charge time was way too inconvenient.

I'd have to put finding a place with the proper tools to make one higher on my priorities list.

I pushed aside those useless thoughts as the new Rider flew directly towards our eastern flank. It was a race between my casting speed and the flying Dragon and it was going to be incredibly close. The Rider who could really only be Murtaugh raised a hand at the Dwarven army in preparation to cast a spell just as my own finished a second beforehand.

A cheer went up as the red dragon was swallowed by yellow light, but I could tell from the way my spell was splintering where it hit that the Rider had figured out how to protect himself from my attack. That didn't mean he was unharmed though. The cheers redoubled when a wobbly and scorched dragon emerged from the light and veered away from the army.

Those cheers were silenced when a second dragon appeared from apparently nowhere and cast a spell that struck the dwarven king, killing him almost instantly.

The heat haze!

That wasn't a mirage caused by the setting sun, it was a camouflage spell to warp light around the caster! How did the Rider pull that off?! Optical camouflage shouldn't have been a thing here let alone understood enough to do without needing enough power to drain hundreds of magicians dry in an instant!

For the third time in under an hour, I had to cut off my train of thought as the new unknown Rider turned and started flying directly at me this time.

I briefly entertained the thought of charging another Nova Blast since the last one had at least hurt one Dragon Rider, but abandoned the idea pretty quick. There wasn't enough time.

"Evacuate the area." I ordered a nearby captain, never taking my eyes off the dragon heading my way. "Send a runner to Nasuada and let her know I'll do my best to deal with this one. Have anyone she can reinforce Eragon in dealing with the other."

"Lady Lightbringer, we can still assist you here." the captain protested.

Brave of him, since I gave him a perfect excuse to not be in the path of an angry dragon, but pointless because regular soldiers were just going to be slaughtered or get in the way.

"Get going, captain. We don't have time to discuss this."

"My Lady…" He tried again but I just snapped at him to get moving and started shooting arrows at the incoming dragon. They simply bounced off the enemy's wards but every little bit helped.

If only I could use Gáe Dearg…

But I couldn't, so I Traced Kanshou and Bakuya instead and prepared myself for the initial confrontation.

The dark red dragon crashed to the ground mere feet from me and then my vision was filled with nothing but red scales and flashing teeth and claws.