Chapter 148: Unsheathing Euodias, the mortal blade. A Death Wish
Asher looked beyond the walls, toward the mage, the chief orc, and his 300 soldiers on wolfbacks.
All of a sudden, the mage pulled down the hood, revealing her young, smooth face that was scarily pale, even for a wastelander.
"Rise."
She muttered along with some other words. Asher looked around, expecting something to happen but nothing happened. It was until he looked at his feet that he discovered the wood had pulled out of place and bound him to the wall!
Since earth also included wood, the mage was bound to also control it.
However, to control dead wood to such an extent, the mage had to be a diamond-ranked mage at the very least!
The wood burst open, formed an arm, and bound his arms. Just as Asher was about to unleash his battle force, ten earthen arms bigger than the wall itself rose up with complete five fingers, each several times bigger than a human.
The arms clasped together and slammed on the wall! Many soldiers fell with the wall, their shocked screams falling into Asher's ears.
Both orcs and his men fell; most of them were buried under the rubbles and half of the wall on the left part of the main gate was gone!
The mage slammed her staff into the ground and the earthen spikes protruded from the ground in great numbers!
It somehow evaded orcs and went for his men and the Nimrim Guards. Seeing this, Asher grunted, broke free, and bellowed.
"Sirius!"
Awoo!
A huge white wolf burst out from the forest and unleashed flames on Chief Khan and the mage. By the time the flames died out, they saw earthen walls that were charred black.
"Little pest!"
The mage spat, and a thick spike rose up. Sirius sensed it on time and leaped out of the way. It dashed forward, but the mage rose up several walls to slow it down.
Khan led his men through a path the mage created for them and charged towards the wall but they encountered Sapphira flying towards them.
Her speed was appalling!
Swoosh!
In the next moment, she was before them. With her sword drawn out of its sheath, she swung it down. A misty crescent light swooshed out and cut down three strong orcs with their mounts!
Khan bellowed in rage, took his shield, and held it up. A beam of light shot out, blinding Sapphira and causing her to descend from the sky.
Without wasting this advantage, the orcs rode forth with their mounts but Sapphira's ears were even more sensitive than her eyes. She danced in their midst, leaving dead orcs as she closed the gap between her and Khan.
"Priestess!"
The cries of her people made her hesitate on her agenda of taking revenge. Looking up, she saw the fearsome clash between Sirius and the mage and chose to withdraw, but Khan wasn't going to let this damsel out of his grasp.
She was already within his reach.
There was no doubt that Khan saw her as one of his spoils of war.
He lifted up his cleaver and charged toward her. His wolf was surprisingly fast, able to at least reduce the gap between them. All of a sudden, Sapphir clenched her fist and a barrier formed before Khan.
Like a white phantom, she appeared before the wolf and beheaded it! Her swift swordsmanship took Khan by surprise, and before he knew it, Sapphira's sword was coming for his neck.
It turns out this wasn't the kind of damsel that runs away from danger.
Clang!
Sparks flew as he narrowly deflected the strike. Knowing she wasn't easy to conquer, Khan unleashed an overbearing strike, which Sapphira evaded and slashed her sword toward his elbow, but her sword rebounced when it hit his couter.
It was then she began to study the chief class orc's armor.
This armor had traces of magical ingredients. It wasn't the normal armor forged by blacksmiths!
"Come here!" Khan stretched forth his hand to grab her, but she flew out of his grasp and hovered midair.
"Sapphira!"
Asher's voice came from beyond the wall. She looked back to see that the wall was now ruined.
Yet, the battle raged on.
The orcs were in thousands and her side were loosing men in great numbers. Without the wall, reducing the number of orcs that came in, it became an open battle.
Not even Asher's elite men could handle the pressure. Their only advantage was the long range knights but they too were now in a delima as the battle field was too chaotic to easily differientiate.
There was a probability that the arrow would hit their men instead of an orc.
Without paying heed to Khan any longer, Sapphira flew toward the town.
Beyond the ruined walls, Asher's men fought against the tide valiantly. Nimrim Guards had fallen in great numbers. Only a few of them remained so the pressure on Asher's men increased.
The deaths counted in his troops were because of the thick earthern arms which were puling down buildings, walls, sometimes buring soldiers into the earth.
Their weapons refused to work on the mighty earthern hands.
Only Alex's weapon was relevant.
"My Lord, we should fall back." A King Swordsman said panting heavily.
Asher looked at them. Since most of them didn't have shields, their casualty rate would skyrocket as their strength dwindled.
"Fall back!"
As Asher was shouting, he saw Sapphira fly into the town and summoned a barrier which gave them slight rest.
"Let's retreat to the Council Hall."
She said hurridely.
Awoo!
Sirius pained cry fell into Asher's ears. It was an ambush attack from Khan when it saw that Sirius was surpressing the mage.
"Your wolf…" Sapphira looked at Asher, not knowing what to say.
With Sirius' attention deviated, the mage summoned more spikes that made the barrier temble violently. "Lord Asher, the barrier will fall and those spikes will take the lives of dozens at once."
Hearing what Sapphira said and the howls of his wolf, Asher ground his teeth.
Since his sword's scabbard could not damage the mage's spells, the actual blade would produce a different result.
Grabbing the scabbard, Asher pulled Euodia out of its sheath!