War

Immediately, irrationally, despite (or perhaps because of) the horror around me, I wanted to laugh. I had thought of the Grand Hunter as hammy before, but this took the cake. ‘The surgery table is set?’ In another situation, if I were watching this in a Saturday morning cartoon, it would be completely laughable. But with the Grand Hunter standing right there, flicking blood off his twin blades while the sounds of battle and death surrounded me, the effect was a sort of macabre humor that left me frozen in place as he slowly, almost lazily, walked across the yard toward me.

My odd reverie was broken by a gout of fire erupting between us, seemingly from nowhere. The wall of flame roared, almost burning me from its proximity, before dying down. Where had that come from?

Another burst of flame, this time on the other end of the yard. This one drove apart a clump of castle guards who had gotten back-to-back and were starting to make headway in the melee. This time, I had seen where it came from. It descended from the sky, not unlike footage I’d seen of airplanes dropping napalm. My eyes were drawn upward to see not an airplane, but a woman in a completely white robe that even obscured her face, hovering about thirty feet off the ground. As I watched, she made a gesture like throwing a baseball, and another ball of fire forced a dogman guard to leap off the wall.

I had never seen one before, but it seemed obvious: this was a sorcerer.

The Grand Hunter broke into a run towards me as the flying sorcerer looked in my direction and raised her hand in the same gesture as before.

Someone charged out of a nearby door and tackled me to the ground, causing the sorcerer’s fireball to miss. Arnya’s voice said in my ear as she lay atop me “were you injured?”

“I’m fine,” I squeaked, trying not to panic. “But the Grand Hunter—”

Arnya sprang to her feet, pulling me up roughly. That revealed what had happened to the Grand Hunter: he was now dueling Gwyn. Swords flashed in the moonlight as the two exchanged blows, Gwyn with upright formal-looking techniques and the Grand Hunter with a slithering style like a two-headed snake utilizing both blades in tandem.

Arnya said “I brought the rest of the castle guards. We have enough to drive off these ruffians! They ought to arrive from there any…moment…”

She trailed off because the direction she was pointing to had become a blaze of fire. The sorcerer woman had blasted a small wooden building with her flames, and the burning rubble now blocked the way. As if to make extra sure, the sorcerer threw a few more fireballs, stoking the inferno. Halfheartedly, Arnya said “they’ll find another way around soon enough.”

“We’ll all be dead by then,” I replied, shouting to be heard over the din. My voice was high-pitched.

Arnya pointed at the open gate, which was still unblocked. “I’m loath to suggest it, but Farsight’s army is there.”

“This was Farsight’s plan,” I shouted back, forcing myself to focus on the moment. I gestured at the open gate. “His servants must have opened this from the inside. I bet once these guys kill us, his army charges in to ‘save’ whoever’s left. Going out there plays into his hands.” A hooded figure ran toward us, club raised. Arnya just casually ran her sword through his chest and pulled it out without breaking eye contact with me.

The blood spattered on my face. It smelled of metal. I put a trembling hand to my face to wipe it away. It came back red in the moonlight.

This…this was too much. Why was Arnya just standing there?! Didn’t she realize people were actually dying?! The smell, the sight, the burning flesh all jumbled together in a sickening blur. When I came to a moment later, I was on my hands and knees, coughing as something smelly dripped down my chin. There was a pool of vomit just below my head.

A metallic clash made me look up. Arnya was blocking the sword of an enemy who apparently had just tried to behead me. She contemptuously twisted the blade, opening his guard, and delivered a brutally powerful kick to his neck. I could hear the snap as the new corpse fell to the ground.

She helped me up. “I am sorry this had to be this way,” she murmured. “I never thought this would…you come from a peaceful world, it seems.”

“I’m sorry,” I coughed.

“It is all right. Many men react this way to seeing their first true battle. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” She dispatched another enemy. “But I urge you to recover quickly.” She squared off against another foe, leaving me to lean against the wall.

This was pathetic. The first time the Witch Hunters had visited, I had sworn to fight to protect Kyn. This might be a fantasy world, but it was at least as messed up as my own.

And now, my mental defenses down from the stress of the moment, I could admit to myself: it wasn’t just about Kyn. I wanted to protect Arnya—although, I noted as she fought three of the Witch Hunters at once—she didn’t really need protecting. No, being completely honest with myself, what I really wanted was to stay with her forever. I couldn’t stand the thought of her vanishing from my life.

I sighed. Yeah, I had fallen in love with that green-haired woman. Head over heels, too. And I was going to do every possible thing I could do to fight for that love. So even though my knees still shook, my stomach still churned, and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, I pushed myself away from the wall, retrieved the small vial from my pouch, uncorked it, then downed the whole thing. It tasted faintly salty.

I waited for a moment as the fighting raged on. Then, I felt a jolt. I almost felt like my biceps were swelling in size, although a glance told me they weren’t. It wasn’t just my arms. My legs, core, back, neck, and even my tongue suddenly felt supercharged.

As Arnya dueled two Witch Hunters, I noticed a third one sneaking behind her, knife ready to plunge into her back. “Look out!” I shouted, dashing across the dozen feet between us. I collided with the knife-holding like a linebacker, but instead of the impact of a heavy body I was expecting, it felt like slamming my shoulder into a pillow. My target, on the other hand, flew back like he had been struck by a train, landing in a crumpled heap thirty feet away.

I breathed out slowly. So this was the power of alchemy?

“Rei, behind you!” Arnya’s voice called out. I felt someone hit my head with a pool noodle. But when I looked around, I saw a bewildered Witch Hunter holding a shattered sword. I punched and she also went flying. Huh. For a group who specialized in hunting alchemists, they didn’t seem very good at fighting one.

Arnya had also dispatched her current opponents, and we stood back to back with a moment of peace. “You are—” she began but whatever she was about to say was cut off by a blast of fire in our direction that forced us to dive for cover. The fireball hit an unfortunate Witch Hunter who accidently moved into its path. The stench of burning flesh made bile rise in my throat, but I fought it down.

The sorcerer threw another fireball, this time at a guard who was aiming a longbow at her. The bow burnt to a crisp instantly. She then turned her attention to a knot of fighting that might have gone are way, blasting it apart to give the Witch Hunters time to regroup.

I moved back to Arnya, punching another invader who got too close. I pointed at the sorcerer. “We can’t win as long as she’s around,” I shouted. “We need to counter her somehow.”

“I agree. Do you possess a potion with that capability?”

“I can’t fly,” I replied. Experimentally, I picked up a shield from a fallen warrior and threw it at her, as hard as I could. Without even looking, she incinerated the projectile before it got within five feet of her. Yeah, I had guessed it wouldn’t be that easy.

Arnya rested her hand on my arm. She reached into a pocket of her armor, pulling out the tiny vial containing a glowing blue potion. Before I could protest, she winked. “I believe this qualifies as an emergency, does it not?” She opened the vial, raised it like she was giving me a toast, and downed the contents. For a moment, she stood still, staring into space. Then her hair began to glow.