Chapter 17 - The Magic of Battle

As the tusklings surged forward in a thunderous stampede, the ground trembled beneath their heavy strides. Their snarls and squeals carried across the field like the sound of some unholy drum, beating against the nerves of every man and woman on the wall. Maximus stood tall atop the battlements, his cloak whipping in the morning wind. His voice carried with the weight of authority, cutting through the chaos.

“All male mages, ready your earth magic! I need walls with spikes on my mark!”

The men straightened, sweat already beading across brows as they placed their hands to the stone and soil beneath their boots. Dust swirled around them as mana coursed through their veins.

Maximus turned sharply to the others. “Female mages, once the walls rise, use your air magic to drag them in! Pull those beasts straight into our trap!”

The order sent a ripple through the lines. The women raised their hands, air humming around them, hair and robes flaring in the gathering wind. Every mage on the wall vibrated with tense anticipation.

The tusklings showed no hesitation. They pounded forward, crude weapons raised, foam frothing at their mouths, eyes gleaming with animalistic bloodlust. No formation. No strategy. Only the raw urge to tear down the walls and slaughter every soul within.

Two hundred feet.

"Now!” Maximus roared.

The male mages slammed their palms against the ground. Earth erupted in a synchronized quake. From the soil rose jagged walls twenty feet high, bristling with deadly spikes that jutted out like the teeth of some monstrous maw. The tusklings had no time to react before a gale, conjured by the women, howled outward and dragged them forward. Bodies collided with sickening force against sharpened stone. Squeals ripped through the battlefield, piercing and shrill, as blood sprayed across the dirt. The reek of iron and unwashed tuskling hide mixed into a nauseating stench. Some of the younger mages gagged, one even vomiting over the parapet.

“Stand firm!” Maximus’s voice thundered. “This is only the beginning!”

The second wave was already upon them, clambering over the mangled corpses of their kin. Claws dug into flesh and stone alike as they used the bodies of the fallen as stepping stools, beginning to climb the spiked wall.

Maximus’s eyes sharpened. “Earth mages push it over! Now!”

A guttural roar rose from the men as they threw their hands out, veins bulging from the strain. The wall groaned, shifted, and with a deafening crash toppled forward, smashing down upon the tusklings that dared to climb. Bones cracked, tusks splintered, and a chorus of squeals rose, then silenced beneath the crushing weight. Dust plumed high, blanketing the field.

Cheers erupted from several mages, a brief spark of triumph. But others collapsed to one knee, chests heaving. Mana exhaustion drained their faces pale, sweat drenching their clothes. They weren’t used to channeling this much magic in quick succession.

“Status report!” Maximus barked.

The squad leaders shouted numbers. “Fifteen down on stamina!”

Out of fifty, that left thirty-five still standing.

“Only thirty-five left…” Aiden muttered, his stomach sinking.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. Maximus’s gaze was steady, unshaken. “Plenty still ready to fight. Remember, the guard holds the line at the gate. We are not finished.”

Aiden clenched his jaw and nodded. Negativity would only weaken them further.

“Why not let Aiden and Valerie replenish them?” Chloe piped up, eyes darting from the weakened mages to the couple. “Restorative Spring, it might buy us more time.”

Aiden met Valerie’s gaze. They both nodded, hands twitching toward one another, resolve building. But before they could act, Maximus’s arm shot out, halting them.

“No. Save your strength.”

Valerie blinked, heart tugged by the exhaustion she saw below. “Why?”

“Because when the Alpha comes, you two are the best chance this town has of surviving. Heartlink magic may still be unrefined, but it is stronger than anything we can muster.” His voice left no room for argument.

Reluctantly, they lowered their hands. Valerie’s chest ached as she watched the drained mages stumble toward the backline, some relieved for the reprieve, others cursing their weakness before nearly collapsing. Robert and Gloria rushed to meet them, guiding them out of the fray.

The field outside the walls churned again as another surge of tusklings crashed forward. They were larger, meaner, bristling with fresh rage. At the gate, twenty city guards formed up, shields interlocked, swords drawn. Armor gleamed, though the men behind it were pale, lips tight with dread.

Aiden’s eyes scanned the line until he found Jaxson—second row, steady and resolute. His jaw was set, his grip on his sword white-knuckled, but his stance unshaken. Aiden’s heart twisted. He thought of Avery waiting, her tears as the caravan rolled away. He prayed he could keep Jaxson alive to see their wedding day.

“Fireballs!” Maximus commanded.

The air ignited as the remaining male mages unleashed burning spheres. They arced high, then slammed into the tuskling ranks. Flesh seared, squeals filled the air as monsters dropped and writhed.

But these beasts adapted. The ones still advancing grabbed the bodies of their fallen comrades, wielding them as grotesque shields. They barreled forward, charred corpses absorbing flame after flame, until the distance closed.

With a thunderous crash, the first tusklings slammed into the gate. The guards braced, shields rattling with impact. Swords flashed. Steel met crude iron. Blood sprayed as the clash dissolved into brutal close-quarters combat.

More mages toppled from the wall, clutching their temples, their mana spent. Robert and Gloria worked tirelessly behind the lines, restoring what they could, but exhaustion crept like a plague.

Aiden’s nerves coiled tighter. They had cut the tuskling army to nearly half already, a staggering feat, but now…the tusklings were inside striking distance. The bravado that had carried the mages through the first wave faltered. Fear crept in.

His hand trembled until Valerie’s fingers slipped into his. She smiled at him, a bright light cutting through the darkness within him. Was it real, or just for show? He didn’t know. But it steadied him, enough to breathe.

Then Maximus stepped forward himself. Without hesitation, he thrust his arms forward, flames roaring to life around him. He hurled fireball after fireball, scorching the ground, scattering tusklings before they could overwhelm the guards.

The battle was only beginning, but his presence reminded them all—they still had strength left to give.

A hush fell over the battlefield after the last of the wave had been cut down. Smoke hung heavy in the air, carrying with it the copper tang of blood and the stench of burned tuskling flesh. Aiden forced his aching legs to steady as he surveyed the carnage. His pulse quickened—there were tuskling bodies piled high against the broken walls, their grotesque tusks jutting at odd angles. By his estimation, nearly sixty percent of their force lay dead on the battlefield. For a fleeting moment, hope surged in his chest.

We actually did it… we’re holding them back.

But then his gaze shifted to their side, and the illusion of triumph cracked. Out of the fifty mages who had stood proud on the walls earlier, half were gone—either collapsed from exhaustion in the backlines under Robert and Gloria’s care, or fled in terror when the reality of war had overwhelmed them. The remaining mages, many of them women who specialized in healing, had descended from the wall and were kneeling among the battered guards, pouring what little magic they had left into wounds that would have claimed lives if ignored.

His eyes caught on Jaxson. He sat on the ground, his armor dented and streaked with blood, a vicious gash carved deep into his thigh. Chloe knelt at his side, her usually playful demeanor stripped away, her hands trembling but steady enough to keep the healing light flowing into Jaxson’s wound. Relief tugged at Aiden—Jaxson was alive. But only thirteen guards remained out of the original twenty stationed at the gate, their numbers thinned like the flame of a candle in the wind.

Then came a sound that silenced all others.

A horn, deep and guttural, bellowed from the treeline. The forest seemed to shudder, the earth itself quivering under the weight of something massive approaching. Aiden’s heart seized in his chest. The shadows parted, and through them stepped a nightmare.

The Alpha.

He barreled through the trees as if they were reeds, shoving aside his own kind, crushing bark and bone beneath his bulk. Each step carried with it an oppressive aura that radiated from him, pressing down on the defenders’ chests like a heavy weight. His scar‑laced hide seemed less like flesh and more like a record of endless battles, each mark glowing faintly in the gloom as if defying time itself. His beady black eyes burned with a cold, predatory light that seemed to pierce every soul still clinging to hope within the city.

The tusklings stilled, their frenzied squeals quieting as their leader stepped forward. The Alpha stopped just beyond the field, planted the trunk-sword into the ground with a thunderous crack, and lifted his tusked snout toward the city.

His voice rolled out like thunder, impossibly deep. “To slay so many of my kin is impressive…human swine. Yet your strength wanes. I smell your fear. I taste your weakness.”

Aiden’s knees threatened to buckle. The Alpha was speaking just like Joana had said. It was almost too much to take in.

The beast’s words rumbled across the battlefield. “I will sacrifice every tuskling here if it means tearing down your walls. But you…you are different. Humans cling to life. I know you will not sacrifice yourselves so freely. So let us make this simple.” He raised his trunk-sword high, the blade catching the dull light of the overcast sky. “I call for a battle of strength! Send me your strongest warrior. If I am defeated, my army will leave this city untouched. But if I win…” His lips peeled back, revealing jagged tusks stained yellow. “…I will slaughter every last one of you.”

Silence. The weight of his declaration pressed down on them like a mountain.

Maximus exhaled slowly at Aiden’s side. “So,” he said grimly, “your theory about the Alpha was correct. Now comes the hard part.”

Before Aiden could respond, Maximus started forward, his broad shoulders set with determination. Valerie and Aiden followed instinctively, alarm flashing in their eyes.

“What are you doing?” Aiden hissed.

“What I must,” Maximus answered without hesitation. His voice was calm, too calm. “He asked for the strongest. That is me. I will face him, even if it costs me my life.”

“That’s insane!” Valerie cried, her voice cracking as her emotions surged. “You’ll die if you go alone! That pride of yours will—”

Maximus laughed, not cruelly, but softly, as though amused by the truth in her words. “Then perhaps that now makes Aiden a better man than me.”

Aiden stepped in front of Maximus, desperation roughening his voice. “Let us go instead. You said it yourself our Heartlink magic might be the best chance against the Alpha. Why does this have to fall on you alone?”

Maximus’s gaze softened but his words carried steel. “Because I won’t let the greatest hope this world has be crushed under the weight of some beast. You two mean more to what comes next than an old man like me ever could.”

Aiden’s protest caught in his throat, but before he could force it out, Maximus only gave him a steady, reassuring grin and stepped past.

They reached the shattered gates where guards, mages, and healers had gathered. Maximus halted, turning to face them all—Aiden, Valerie, Chloe, Jaxson, the weary soldiers, Robert and Gloria watching from the backlines. His voice boomed with authority.

“If I fall,” he declared, “Aiden and Valerie will take my place as Guild Masters.”

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Aiden’s mouth went dry. “What?! No, you can’t—”

Valerie stepped forward, shaking her head fiercely. “We can’t accept that! You’re the one holding this city together, not us!”

Maximus silenced them with a raised hand. “Enough. You’ve proven yourselves worthy. In all my years, I have never seen magic like yours. Heartlink, something long dismissed as useless, reborn through you two. You’ve overcome your demons and stood stronger for it. That is what makes a leader. That is what makes a Guild Master.”

Emotion swelled in Aiden’s chest. Tears stung his eyes as he forced a grin. “Hard for me to be a Guild Master when I already know you’ll be coming back. Don’t think you’re getting rid of us that easily.”

Maximus smiled, the weight of years softening his scarred face. “Then let’s hope you’re right. Thank you…for reminding me that there’s still something greater than myself worth fighting for.”

The three of them stepped out onto the battlefield. The Alpha lumbered forward to meet them halfway. His presence was suffocating, every step sending tremors through the ground. When he reached striking distance, he let out a booming laugh.

“Is this your champion?” His eyes narrowed on Maximus. “An old man? This is your strongest?”

“I am,” Maximus answered, voice firm. “But hear me first. If I win, you keep your word. Your horde leaves this city.”

The Alpha slammed the butt of his weapon into the ground. “I, Gortin Tusk, am no liar. My word is my tusk. Win, and we leave. Lose, and you all die.”

Aiden shivered at the sound of that name. Gortin. He wondered if his in-game characters from EarthRealm ever felt fear each time they faced a raid boss.

Valerie squeezed his hand, her grip trembling but resolute. Aiden squeezed back, meeting her eyes. He knew what she was thinking, that this was madness. But they had no choice.

“This will be one on one,” Gortin rumbled, his black eyes sliding to Aiden and Valerie, sending an icy dread through them. “No interference. Break that, and I gut you all.”

Maximus nodded once, then gestured for Aiden and Valerie to retreat. They stepped back, though every fiber of Aiden’s being screamed to stay. Valerie clutched his arm, her nails digging in.

“Please…” she whispered. “We can't let him die.”

Aiden had no answer. He only held her tighter. He knew interfering would be the end of them and the city.

Maximus strode forward, standing tall despite the enormous difference in size. “Anything goes?” he asked.

Gortin’s laugh shook the field. “Of course. It doesn't matter.”

Maximus’s lips thinned into a determined line. He spread his stance, readying himself. “Then let us begin.”

But he barely finished the word before Gortin lunged. The Alpha swung his colossal weapon with speed that belied his size. The air shrieked as the blade cut through it. Maximus had no time to react.

The impact sent him hurtling across the field like a ragdoll, his body slamming into the dirt with bone-jarring force. Dust erupted around him.

“MAXIMUS!” Valerie screamed, horror tearing through her voice.

Gortin’s laughter thundered, rolling across the battlefield. “How pathetic! This is your strongest?”

Aiden’s blood turned to ice as his eyes fixed on Maximus’s still body. His chest seized with terror.

There’s no way…No way we can beat this monster.