Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 19:17:26 +0400
From: Nell Bas <helledon12@gmail.com>
Subject: the lat feres/ the feri war 24

Happy reading!

			The Feri War
			 Chapter 24

My body might be in the air on Wren-eagle's back, but my astral self was
walking alongside Commander Fiori and her band. I didn't want to draw
attention to myself so I stayed invisible.

'The encampment is up ahead,' Rhett said, 'why...?'

'What?' Fiori asked.

'I don't detect any fires, or hear any movements. By now we should be
experiencing both.'

'The warlocks are there, though. The storm of emotions pelting my mental
shield is palpable,' Nick said.

'They're downwind. I can't smell them,' River said.

'Make no mistake, they know we're coming, Fiori. Engaging the Gollums must
have triggered the alarm,' Malik said.

'No. I think they knew we were coming even before that,' Fiori said.

'How? Do you think Doug and his people betrayed us?' Malik said.

'I don't think they did,' Maya said, 'although, I did have the odd
sensation of being watched back in Dougsfort.'

Alessa gasped. 'I felt it too. I thought it was just me!'

'Rye felt it too. I can still feel his uneasiness about the presence,' Nick
said with a smirk in his voice. Yeah. He knew I was there. Alessa too
knew. She tried very hard to suppress a giggle.  I was about to respond but
something stopped me. Something had triggered Nick's empathy. His mind
throbbed with alarming colourful flashes.

'Fiori, we're being corralled,' he said.

'I know. Notice how they are keeping their distance. They are pushing us
into what I suspect is a trap.'

'What should we do?' An alarmed Maya said.

'Let's push on. This is exactly what we want,' Fiori confidently replied.

The enemy warlocks flanking us didn't engage, confirming Fiori's trap
assumption. They were cautious because they knew we had shifters and other
sensory types of warlocks. Therefore, they kept to a good distance and used
glamour stones. But they didn't account for Nickolas. With his empath
abilities, he could detect anyone within his empathic radius; glamour
stones or not.  When the encampment came into view, Fiori halted causing
everyone to do the same. 'This is as far as we would go. They've waited for
us. Now we wait and let them come to us. They've doused their fire for us
not to see them so let's show them where we are. Fire warlocks! Light them
up!'

In pure amazement, I watched as more than a dozen fire warlocks from our
company released countless fireballs toward the enemy camp. For a moment
there, I thought I was experiencing one of those medieval movie night
scenes, where fire arrows rained down on the battlefield.  Everything from
tents, turfs, carts, and people was on fire. Two warlocks have to help
another who was ablaze. One rolled him to the ground and the other threw
dirt. The encampment was in chaos.

However, not everyone was in a panic. The fires did a lot of damage, but
they also revealed the massive barrier of armed men spread before us right
outside the perimeter of the encampment.  Strange, I could feel them but
couldn't see them even with my feri vision until the fire touched
them. Stoic like bronze status, their gaze locked on to us. Three men
astride horses led the enemy forces. They looked fierce and menacing,
especially the one who effortlessly deflected a fireball as if he was
merely swatting a bug.

A cold shiver washed over me. This is bad!

'Maya,' Fiori said.

As soon as she heard her name Maya pulled out a slingshot. Quizzically, I
watched as she released several tiny projectiles both at the enemy and the
camp. She was joined by the other mystics.

'What're those?' River said at the same time his twin said, 'What're they
doing?'

'We're ready?' Maya said to Fiori. But before our fierce commander could
give the command, the ground beneath our feet began to rumble.

'Maya? Are you doing this?'

'No!' Both Maya and Alessa said in unison.

'The warlocks,' Alessa said, 'they are charging!'

'They've figured out our weakness,' Fiori said. 'Closing the distance
between them and us would mean less long-range attack.'

'So they hope to overwhelm us with numbers,' Malik said.

The thundering noise of feet hitting dirt intensified. Yet, there were no
war cries. How come?

'With our combined powers, the mystics and I could wipe out half of their
forces before they can reach us. Just give us the go-ahead Fiori,' Malik
said.

Fiori exhaled deeply before releasing it with a heavy sigh. 'I'm afraid I
can't let you do that. Rye asked for minimal casualties and that's what
we're giving him.'

'What do we do then?' Reed said.

'Trust in your Commander and stop asking questions.' She turned towards the
troops. 'Shifters!  Take your beast forms and charge now! The rest of you
keep them at volley with whatever you've got.'

Without any hesitation, the shifters shifted and rushed to meet the
oncoming warlocks. I saw a few grins before the shift, which told me they
were eager to get some action. Enemy warlocks deployed their fires as our
fire warlocks tried to deflect them as much as they could. A fireball fell
right between Nick and Fiori. Cleverly, Nick transformed it into a wall to
block the enemy coming from behind us. It had the desired effect but they
had their magic which they were using to penetrate through.

'This won't last long. Alessa, the time is now. Do your thing,' he yelled.

Alessa released an energy ball into the sky right above us. Guiding it with
her hands, it enlarged while descending all around us creating a dome-like
structure. She created a shield. A shield powerful enough to withstand the
enemy blasts.

'Good job,' Fiori said.

'Wow! That was a neat trick. But the shifters are going through without
trouble. Doesn't that also mean the enemy could come right in?' Blackburn,
Fiori's second in command said.

'They won't. I registered our core signatures into the shield. Only we can
go through it.'

Impressive! While I've created shields a few times myself, Alessa's won't
hold for long. For that, she should have used azurite or pure ferilight
energy.

"We don't need it to last, Rye," Nick thought. "We only need to delay them
long enough to buy you guys time to accomplish your part of the
mission. Now go. I don't know how much longer we can hold here."

I couldn't argue with that because he was right. I nodded and phased out.

"Welcome back, sleepy head," Wren thought. I scolded him. This wasn't the
time to be joking.

'Looks like Fiori has everything under control down there,' Eric said.

'It looks like it, but I'm not too sure,' I replied. 'I think we should
make a move too if we want them to stay in one piece.'

'Understandable. Unfortunately, we have an obstacle standing in our way,'
Eric said.

'Our cover is blown.'

'What happened?!'

'The sentries spotted us because of the fireworks down there.'

That was troublesome. 'What do we do now?'

Just then we heard a commotion down on the battlefield. Cries of men in
distress. My heart skipped a bit when I thought it was our men. But then I
saw the source of the commotion through my feri vision. Huge trees have
sprung from the ground and attached the enemy warlocks. Men after men were
immobilized by creeping vines as if they had been caught in spider silk.

Maya!

So that was what the projectiles were for; seeds. I watched as Maya and her
sisters expertly manipulated the trees like puppets. It showed how powerful
and skilled the mystics were.

"Frightening isn't it," Wren thought.  I couldn't agree more.

We circled the battlefield away from the city. We have to come up with a
plan fast because I don't think Fiori and the others could last long. It so
happened that more men from the enemy camp were joining the fray.

What was left now is our part of the mission. How do we get past the
sentries?

"Rye look! Reinforcement! Doug and the Renegades have finally made it,"
Wren said. "Huh!  Ferard managed to destroy the mud monsters."

Sure enough, I spotted Doug forging his way through the battlefield. And it
looked like he was heading straight for the generals on horseback. One of
the generals saw him and dismount. He too made his way toward Doug. They
clashed with blows and kicks. I realized that their fight was on a personal
level. Didn't know what happened but they were dishing it out
now. Wren-eagle was moving, so I lost track of them in the throng.

I was busy scanning the battlefield when Wren abruptly banged left. "Watch
it!"

"Sorry, atsa. The sentries are firing arrows at us."

"Rye, connect me with the others," Seth projected. He was in eagle form so
he couldn't speak normally.

"What is it, Seth?" Eric said.

"I may have a plan if you don't have one," he said. "Dale and I would
attack the east sentry tower while Kaia and Robin take the west one,
leaving you free to approach the city."

"They already know we're coming, so I'm pretty sure they're on high
alert. Breaking up now will be to our disadvantage."

"Let's take the posts one by one then," Seth said.

"Worth a try," Kaia said.

"Ok then, let's take the western post first," Eric said.

According to Seth, another eagle shifter by the name of Evin was their
strongest and fastest flier.  His job was to taunt the sentry guards, while
we sneak up on them. The plan was easy enough but putting it into practice
was proving to be difficult. For one, the sentries were using bows and
arrows. Nothing special until I realized they didn't have quivers. They
were conjurors and could conjure and shoot fifty arrows per minute. Thus
shooting thirty-five more arrows than a typical archer can under a
minute. But I have to give it to Evin. He was fast; and agile. Although,
there were a few close calls that increased my blood pressure to breaking
point.

However, the guards saw through our ploy and shoot down one of the eagle
shifters. She was caught mid-air by a fellow shifter but she couldn't fly
with a bruised wing. I had to teleport her to safety.

We tried attacking the sentry tower a few more times using different
tactics each time. Alas, they all failed. And I believed our focus was
beginning to wane and our desperation was beginning to show. As a
consequence, we lost three more eagles in the process.

"I think it's time to level up," Wren projected. I saw what he intended to
do and kind of agree.  I called one of the rider-less eagle shifters over
and teleported to her back, leaving Wren free to do his thing.

'What's going on, Rye,' Robin said from her mate's back.

I didn't get to explain because they all witnessed Wren's transformation
into a mighty dragon.

"Yeah!" Seth cheered in his mind.

We pulled back and watched as Wren-dragon made a beeline for the western
sentry tower. They shot at him but his skin was too tough for their
arrows. He landed on the tower and dug a hole in the roof before breathing
fire into it. The guards hastily vacated the structure. One even jumped out
the window.

We cheered!

Wren-dragon wasn't done yet. He launched himself into the air and flew
towards the eastern sentry tower. On his way, he rained fire on the enemy
troops getting ready to enter the fray down on the battlefield.

He set the eastern tower ablaze before returning to us. "I'll get rid of
the sentry posts around the city. You guys stay back until the coast is
clear." I relayed his message to the others and watched him off.

Wren destroyed all the sentry posts around the walls virtually without any
resistance.  Just as we entered the city limit, I felt Charlie's core. He
was in the largest and tallest building in front of the city square where
four dozen warriors stood waiting. Amongst them was a large object covered
with drapes. Frankly, I dismissed it as something trivial. But I was wrong.
As Wren-dragon approached, the drapes were pulled off to reveal some sort
of contraption which bore the resemblance of a giant crossbow.

A paralyzing fear washed over me. Wren!

Before I could get the word out, they've already fired. I yelled with tears
in my eyes. That was why I missed the part where the projectile opened into
a huge net and engulfed the dragon.  Wings restricted, Wren-dragon could no
longer stay airborne. He roared and furiously spat fire as he fell to the
paved courtyard. Immediately, the warlocks rushed to subdue him further
with magically imbued ropes.

Seth screeched and swopped down at top speed. He grabbed the first warlock
he could get hold of and released him halfway back up. During that time,
Dale was already on the ground in beast form. He leaped from Seth's
back. The fierce tiger took down two warlocks before I teleported all the
eagle-riders to the courtyard to help.

We fought them off Wren as Robin work her magic. She was an earth
elemental, she used the soil from the cracks between the pavement bricks to
disenchant the warlock's rope. It took some time and we had her back.

A warlock rushed to intercept Robin and I sent him flying a few meters
off. I was a bit too rough but I didn't care at this point. Two more
warlocks closed in on me and I did the same to them. I heard a yelp nearby
followed by snarls. Eric was in trouble!

I turned to go to his rescue when a whisper brushed against my ear. "He's
here. Rye, he's here."

Instinctively, I looked up.

A miracle!

Fluttering down from heaven, a host of angels descended on us.

.....................................................................

End of chapter 24