The Battle of the Villages

Kyle rode as fast as he could towards the defenses that they’d built across the main road, hearing the sound of knights starting to charge behind him.

He stopped briefly to check on Benny, who was pointing out at the knights to Kari. “Benny? You’re on. Kari, they’ve still got some juice left. I’ll get into position. Good luck.”

Benny and Kari faced the oncoming charge, hearing Kyle gallop away to prepare. “If you’d told me I’d die alongside an elf,” Benny told her, “I’d have called you a fool.”

“The day is still young.” Kari gripped her staff tight, watching another wave of golden lights be fired as the knights approached. She pointed her staff above, creating as thick of a barrier spell as she could. It was thick enough that the sky almost appeared pink if you looked through it. “We have not died yet.”

“That’s my kind of talk.” Benny chuckled. “Pitchforks up! Brace!”

The defensive position began pointing their pitchforks out, ready to stab at any horse that had the misfortune of coming too close. Layers of farm tools were brought to bear, creating a thick wall of steel.

Benny pulled one of the longswords they’d stolen from the taxmen out of its sheath. He prepared to join the fray, taking a deep breath as he did so. “I’ll give you this, elf. You’re the bravest nobleman I know, and you’re not even a man.”

“A man’s pride would only get in my way.”

The golden lights crashed into Kari’s barrier, cracks spreading out from where they’d hit. In a split second, she saw no more lights coming and the knights were close.

Kari moved the barrier between themselves and the knights, watching the riders lose control as the fastest crashed headlong into it. She shuddered with each impact, looking to Benny….

“On my mark!”

Benny nodded. Kari dispelled the barrier, letting the horsemen who’d slowed down try to navigate around their fallen comrades to get at the peasants.

“Mark!”

The peasants thrust forward with their pitchforks, knocking the second wave down off their horses. Benny charged forward with his longsword, ready to strike the first blow. If there was anything he’d learned from the boss, it was never to ask your people to do something you didn’t have the stones to do yourself.

-----

York stared into the forest, waiting to see if anyone emerged. It was a little-known fact that dwarves had very keen eyesight, which he would tell to anyone who’d listen. Abagail and Meredith waited with him, Abagail’s pink orb flying over the treeline to find any of the Prince’s men.

The sounds of joined battle rang out at the main road, their situation growing more tense where they’d stood guard. They wanted to help, their instincts were screaming at them to move.

The pink orb returned to Abagail, with Blooby riding as it always did. The orb grew larger, expanding to show a column of knights spreading out in the forest. In the front were a dozen men in robes pulling out wands.

York grimaced when the orb closed. “That might be the bulk of their force,” he remarked. “Wands at the ready, lasses. We need to hold the line.”

The two women pulled out matching wands, with Meredith firing a red spark in the air to signal the others. “Do you remember,” Meredith asked, “what you told me when I said I was thinking of moving in with you in Trunsit?”

Abagail drank her entire flash in one go. “I think I said, ‘over my dead body’.”

“Never thought we’d be so literal.” Meredith twirled her wand in her hand, charging a spell. “Abby, if we don’t make it –”

“Don’t. Start.”

Meredith stood on her toes, rocking back and forth. “I was always proud of you. Even when you said you were doing jobs for the Prince, or when you kept saying I’m not your real mother.”

Abagail stood up straight, loosening her arm to sling spells at a moment’s notice. “You’re still not.”

“I know.” Meredith began casting a protective barrier around herself and Abagail. “I can live with that.”

The earth exploded beneath their feet and the fortification, with furniture and lumber and men sent flying. Only Meredith’s barrier and a last second counterspell from Abagail kept any part of the fortification intact.

The knights were charging at full speed right towards them, trying to pass through the holes the mages had created. Meredith and Abagail cast pink whips, slinging them around to knock knights off their horses whilst York continued to thrust into the charging mass with a pitchfork.

The cavalry was starting to ignore them, riding past in an effort to cause chaos. But no sooner did the first knight clear through their lines that a large war hammer smashed into the armored knight.

Fiona lurched into the fray, crushing bones and egos with each swing of the hammer. The reserves she’d helped keep behind for this situation were plugging holes in the line and stalling the knights.

Magic missiles barely missed her head as she kept taking out everyone she could. Other spells slammed into her body and started to take her toll. Fiona’s knees began to buckle as Abagail cast a flame wall to keep her opponents approaching her from the direction she was already facing.

Three mages had their mages pointed at the two, spells at the ready. Abagail could outspeed one, maybe two – but this many was too high an ask –

A blast of purple magic slammed into the lead mage, causing them to discharge their spell early – taking out the second mage in an explosion of power.

The third was too stunned to respond in time, and was turned into a block of ice by Abagail – and then smashed into pieces by Fiona.

Another blast of purple magic slammed into a mage trying to punch Meredith with a fist pulled from the earth. It was enough to confuse the invaders – what was killing them? Where was that coming from?!

From the rooftop of one of the remaining houses in the village, Kyle Wheatsman looked for more targets and kept firing towards the forest as he swapped out cartridges. Mage after mage, he shot them down to give the forest line a fighting chance.

Once he thought they’d gotten a break, he checked the main road. Most of the magic armors had waded into the fray, slicing through people with their clawed appendages.

That was his priority for that front, firing on ones that had gunned for Kari and Benny. Spell after spell, he knocked soldiers out of their magic armors and continued going through his cartridges.

As he loaded in the final cartridge, he saw the Prince himself start to lead a charge into the main road. He had another chance to take him out, this time in the heat of battle. Kyle took aim –

He stopped when he heard a deep fizzling sound in the sky. Looking up, one of the golden beams the magic armors had been firing was bearing down on him. There was no time to waste. Kyle dove off the room seconds before the house ceased to exist in a blast of golden light.

With a great effort, Kyle got back onto his feet only to hear a high-pitched humming grow ever louder. After a quick check he saw that the sniper wand had been bent – and that the cartridge attached to it was rapidly leaking mana.

Kyle threw the sniper wand as hard as he could away, watching it explode seconds later. He’d one final trick up his sleeve – and it would have to do when he started fighting the Prince.