Blades of Emmerlaine

She saw Leshii faces, corpses of humans bloated or decrepit, too many rows of teeth and green-black tar saliva that flew out of their mouths with the occasional teeth from their hisses. Hollow eyes that made her heart sink and her blood boil. Her stomach clenched; she spat out the fear, all the soldiers with her doing the same for their own reasons: disgust, anger, boredom.

These creatures were mutated forms that had only one purpose: to kill humans. Much like the daemon and the heretic, she bared her teeth. Humanity had one mission: exterminate them all.

They reached the front lines, where Hammod stood in command with Hendricks, who now turned to ride back toward headquarters.

“If we're going to get you’s in, your’s win, understand?” Hendricks said and rode off.

“Yinoyul walks in our shadow.” Gibson said, “We will win.”

“As your late father would say, Gibson.” Hammond saluted.

Gibson cracked a smile, “Not yet, sir.”

Chim tugged on her helmet.

“Relax, child.” Lloyd said, “You’ll do well with them eyes o’ yours.”

She gave him a stout nod.

Gibson turned to the group after the battle lines behind the front three rows had pulled back and prepared to push. Murmurs were exchanged on the front as the attacks proceeded. Chimi could feel a mass of mana congealing behind her, pointed at the Reisborn.

“Everyone here in this town dislikes you, Chimi. I cursed you, too. But we’re locked in an endless war with no end in sight across the entire fucking continent.” He raised his spear, “What Eleanor sees in your arse I hope is real, because if there ain’t anything special about you… Well, we’re fucked then, aren’t we?”

The Blades chuckled.

Chimi felt a tiny spark in her chest crackle, “You are terrible at motivation.”

“Don’t die, child.” Lloyd said, “Gibby here’s no speaker, just a killer of man and monster.”

When Gibson bared his teeth in a smile, his teeth now seemed too sharp. “Blades of Emmerlaine!” he whirled around and lowered his spear.

Another root smashed against the shield line, salted blades and arrows withered it away. The line readied to push. Acrid tastes of excitement and tension filled the air in the blink of silence, where the spell behind them bloomed. Large spheres of flame hurled into the line or Reisborn and exploded, that must’ve taken a few dozen Emmerlaine mages to cast. But the mass of mana had not been expended, and she blinked from the eruption of light. Gouts of white flames swept across the line of Reisborn, but their Lesnik mages were already in the middle of the attacks. Walls of earth were raised up to shield them, blasted away, and the hot shrapnel drew gut-wrenching shrieks barely audible. The mouths and teeth that flew through the air from their pain as bark bodies tumbled, crumpled and exploded.

Cold winds swept across the line of Reisborn from their Lesniks, which triggered the signal, “CHAAARGE!” Hammond bellowed.

The front line and those behind them began to push in with stabs of spears and bracings of shields. Boots stomped corpses of Reis spawn, hot-blooded violence, the fire of life. Slowly, a gap opened in the front line for them to go straight into the depths of the blight. The blackened ground was slick with the thick, oily substance that tormented the soil into forming a Blight. Buboes visible in the sacred earth, Chimi tugged her helmet and readied herself. She had to become a force of nature, an inevitability. The Blades began their charge toward the cursed land.

The ground quickly became a mulchy mess of tar, decaying trees and human refuse. The bitter air, filthy wet spice and a revolting plant stench that tinted vision a faint shade of yellow. She understood why Dad suggested a rag soaked in piss for dealing with larger, mature blights. She carried herself upright at attention. Kept pace just behind the charging Blades. A root came at her from her left, she shot it with an arrow, ducked under the swing as it withered away into black ashes.

Chimi nocked and loosed arrow after arrow, like in practice at every Leshii that attempted a flank. The trees began to tumble over one another. A branch surged at her from the left, ripped into her left cheek and brushed a few of her teeth with stinging cold and hot blood. She clung to the side of her saddle and shot another arrow through the pain, another arrow in the creature’s face for what it had done. One of Gibson’s men severed the decaying branch and pushed her back up.

Focus, Chimi, keep your eyes up and your shoulders back. When the fighting is done, then you can rest. That’s what dad would say.

She loosed another arrow at another branch on the flank. Shot two more, through the stinging pain on her cheek, she smiled in the rush of combat. It was unfettered ecstasy to have her heart rush, her blood race around her body and her muscles put to hard work. Another arrow, and another.

Ahead, Gibson led the charge with roars that belonged to some kind of animal. She felt her senses heighten with his battlecries. Her blood began to charge through her veins and heat a flame in her chest. Her mouth salivated with the desire to kill. They decimated the Leshii ahead of them with inhuman strength; four of them, together with salted weapons, blocked attacks. Stabbed trunks, then shoved the dying wretches aside.

They reached the festering sacks of black pus, bloated with leaking gleet darker than shadow. Mucus that leaked down festered in the ground and created buboes that contained seeds that would transform into more Reispawn. The blades took their spears and dragged them along the sack as they charged, tearing holes for Chimi to hurl the salt stones into. She felt a part of herself light up, something within herself at the point between her and something mythic that she dearly desired. Clutched it in her hands and squeezed. The last stone she hurled exploded inside the sack. She tugged down her eyeshield, held her breath, clamped her mouth shut, and turned her left cheek away to avoid any of the splatter.

Gouts of the blasphemous, profane liquid erupted across the Blight as they rode toward the portalspace. Chimi saw the tide turn from being somewhat distracted on the flanks to utter hostility. She could feel the large, singular eye that now focused on the Blades. Something special. Eleanor said.

“THEY’RE ENGAGING!” She shouted at the top of her voice.

“FORGE AHEAD!” Gibson shouted.

Chimi’s skin bristled, a rotten taste flooded her senses, “LESNIK SORCERY!”

Harsh winds nearly knocked them all sideways. Her horse whinnied but somehow managed to keep her from falling off with its movement. She clenched the reins and kept her feet dug in as the charge through the gap continued. She turned her head sideways to see that their way back was completely obscured by black tar that began to form into more Reispawn instead of a Vileroot. Mauled and gnarled trunks formed, offshoots distorted into serrated branches.

“Victory or death.” She whispered. Aetia guide me, Almiko show me the path. My ancestors watch over me, Phebris preserve my weapons. I go now to show you my worth and works that without which my beliefs are dead.

They approached the far end of the Reis, where to the right of them, the back of them, the left of them, the Reisborn gathered in blighted masses. She tugged her helmet and petted the horse lightly to comfort herself, then nocked an arrow. Thick fog began to fill the air as they crossed the in-between space between the regular world and the pocket world that all Blights form with an elder Lesnik-Crom as their centre point. In a mature state, you would kill both this and the Vileroot to turn the horde feral, but this one was immature enough not to disperse other spawn to create new hives.

The land began to sink as they crossed the barrier, and her skin felt an odd warmth that gave her a ghastly feeling. Space had shifted, and they found themselves inside a small wood with a clearing ahead where a humanoid Reisnik loomed in the middle. It did look too human, as if it had consumed someone the hive mind found worthy of the role and damned them to a potential eternity.

“We will return your blood to the Auresi, fellow man,” Annabella said.

Lloyd raised his spear, “Gibson’s way, we have no time.”

“Right, left, Chimi, open up once you have the gap.” Gibson said, “LET IT BEGIN, WAR AND EVERWINTER!”

War and Everwinter. Chimi had to hit this target, she nocked a second arrow and pointed while the Reisnik stirred to life. Once the Blades had encircled it, she loosed the arrows, but the creature blocked them with a crooked bark shield. Four arms, it used the free two to shoot arrows back at her. The force of impact on her kite shield hit hard, but she was strong enough through today’s experience to hold on.

Gibson hurled his spear at the creature, and it whirled and took it with the shield. Dropped the shield when it withered away and found itself fighting all the Blades at once. It was as fast as lightning, but the Blades were fast enough to run it through twice, then a third time. They dashed back from the creature’s spin. Chimi shot two arrows into the creature and halted it.

Lloyd, Gibson and three other men chopped limbs off the creature and reduced it to a stump of a trunk quickly. Stabs upon stabs, and it went down hard. Those teeth flew out with their shriek. The small detachment backed off once it started to spit vileness in the air, small trails of green smoke. Annabella lobbed her spear into its mouth, shutting it forever. They retrieved their weapons as Chimi heeled the horse toward them.

Now they had to wait for— hisses and screeches filled the air instead of the thundering of the Emmerlaine army. Panic broke out in a cold sweat.

“Orderly retreat.” Gibson pulled his spear out of the Reisnik; they formed up into a schiltron. The Blades wordlessly followed, eyes up and hungry for combat.

Chimi tugged her helmet down. She squeezed the reins, trying to crush the fear in her fists. She clenched her teeth and followed the orderly retreat.

“Bodies of your fallen brothers and sisters lie in the ground, all the way back to the first men and women who came to this land under Yinoyul’s guidance. The war singers who were granted the breath of Ashraielle sing this day to the birth of a new elite unit who will rise or go down in legend for being the few to stand against many.” Gibson raised his spear, “Prove your worth, children of Emmerlaine!”

Chimi had four arrows left. She doubled over dad’s lessons in her head. When to swing, when to stab, brute strength would be her friend in this regard, but she was a woman. Her body was certainly strong, stronger than most, but not enough for her to swing as he does and knock foes aside. When she saw the light in the air mix with dark scents that became visible, she closed her eyes for ten seconds.

She remembered her mother’s silver hair, her warm embrace, her father’s imposing figure and the mountain of calm. The stolid man and woman who supported one another, the beautiful winterlands of the Alba Steppe, rivers of mineral water. The dogs and cats of Emmerlaine, the people and her blessings of being allowed to live.

For blood and honour, for the maiden of Stars. By the grace of Aetia, take the hatred and anger we were born with and cast it into our weapons to extinguish the mockeries of life that bear down on us.

Chimi guided her horse to the side and prepared for contact. About three hundred meters, the gap was ten meters wide. It would be a hard ride, and she’d have to wait for the moment to strike. She took another ragged, icy breath. Steeled herself for the moment of breach.

Seconds later, roots and serrated branches whipped at the Blades. Axes were flung into the front line of creatures, appendages and trunks cracked, lost their colour and crumpled. She hit three of her four arrows, took two down and disabled the third. The fourth hit a loose root, failure.

Chimi gripped the reins with her free hand as she got a feel for her spear again. If she were to escape here with her life, she would surely be stood down for being an upstart, whether Dad liked her or not. To that end, she may as well just leave the military and go off on her own. She watched the line of Blades lock weapons with the sin-born trees. The Leshii and Lesnik copied styles from human combat, wielded their limbs like swords and spears. Arrows hit the Blades' shields.

Chimi charged for their back line. If she could disable the rangers and turn them around for a moment, the battle could shift. She saw Gibson shout at her but pointedly ignored him. A root came straight up at her. The force of impact cracked her shield. Splinters hit her eyeshield. Her feet nearly left the stirrups. She leaned under it, the horse leapt into the air, and she dragged her salted spear along the line of twisted creatures.

Another root took her off her horse. Nearly shattered her shield. She hit the ground hard with the barkskin’s screams low as a ground tremor. The Lesnik who had struck at her dashed toward her and lunged at her. Its arm struck her and forced her down onto he ground hard. Chimi lobbed her spear into the thing’s face and bared her bloodstained teeth. She drew her broadsword. Severed one leg. Then another and yanked her spear out and pushed it through the Lesnik’s human face. A pang of regret that was quickly silenced by the low growl of the tree creature. She wiped the blood from her face, spat out more of her own. The fires of combat, those little sparks, now felt stronger. She wanted to ignite them with the sacrament of slaying fell Fae.

Two Lesnik had replaced the one she had taken down when she retrieved her spear and shattered her shield with a joint forceful blow of a root that stabbed at her. She felt her shoulder crack when she was on the ground again. Shocks of pain travelled up through her teeth to her skull. She rolled away from an attack and severed another root with her sword. Flashes of memory hit her as she fought for gods given life. She spat blood, vomited the remnants of her breakfast when she took another strike to the same shoulder and screamed when she impaled one of the Lesnik on her spear. Witness my gift back to life. She clutched the embers.

A wooden fist cracked her ribs through the gambeson, memories that were not her own, a dying star, a light that shone across the land. She dodged another strike and felt her stomach twist as she felt warmth erupt, pale flames burst across her skin, and the Lesnik reeled and shrieked when the flames consumed it rapidly. She could hear the land around her sing.

The Blades were still locked in combat. They couldn’t spare her a glance without dying. She raised a hand at the mass of Lesnik, imagined the air, clutched it, and heated it. Pushed the flames from her body out toward it and… ignition. Constrict and ignite.

The fell Fae panicked, crooked branches tried to run away, but toppled over one another when the flames erupted into a condensed explosion at the centre, instantly razing most of them and leaving only large chunks of the Reisborn on the outside.

Chimi collapsed forward onto her face, and the scent of steel and iron flooded her nostrils. But she could breathe. That is all she required, to focus on her breath. She rolled over onto her back to see the skies clear to azure with white, fat, fluffy clouds plump with snow ready to fall.

“Chimi!” Lloyd and Gibson were at both her sides.

Gibson chuckled, “We owe you a fucking drink, don’t fall off yet.”

“She’s alive, you worrywart Yeomen!” Lloyd turned around. “Seb, get over here and give her a lookover, you lout!”

A man taller than both Gibson and Lloyd came over to her, “Listen to me,” he said, “Your wounds are bad, you might pass out.”

She somehow managed a small nod.

“Good.” He said and rubbed an ointment on his hands, “This will hurt.”

He pressed his hands on her shoulder, and Chimi screamed without a sound. Sharp pain kept her awake, forced her eyes open and her body to spasm, but slowly faded into cool sensations that slowed her heart and eased her down.

Horses and boots thundered on the ground. From the side, she could see Dad on horseback with all his men and a panicked Ishi sprinting toward her. The Blades stepped in her way as the father dismounted.

“What happened?”

“The barrier was not broken quickly enough. We were trapped.” Gibson said.

“And none of you—“

“Chimi is Rasu Reborn.” A woman said, “We saw it. She killed all of them.”

Her father’s mouth hung open, then he stared at her.

“Ravalel has lied to us, Commander.” She said, “Rasu is Reborn, and she is your child!”

She heard a hard slap, "Blasphemy!" Dad said.

The sound of murmurs and kerfuffle passed for some time while Chimi was barely conscious.

Minutes later, her father whispered, "You risk the entire army with your words. Go, wait for me in Gibson's camp. I've a plan for you, Blades of Emmerlaine."