One Final Effort

Soren couldn’t see a thing as the dust had been kicked up and obscured his view of the battlefield. He waved his hands in front of him and kept moving blindly towards where he last saw his friends fighting Elenor. He had seen Dave and Emile run to give them support mere moments before he had freed himself from the fighting.

Soren kept going and suddenly with a large gust of wind, the dust around him was cleared and he could see Esta and Fenlar fighting one of the Acolytes. The Acolyte was a slender man wielding a giant scythe and wielded it with such proficiency it looked like a blur even to him. Esta’s armor was cleaved in several spots and blood was pouring from the wounds underneath, Fenlar was not doing any better as his wings were tattered by slashes and one of his legs was hanging limply half torn off. As the Acolyte got pushed back by a strike from Fenlar, Soren made his move. He lunged forwards piercing the man from lower back to gut with his spear. The Acolyte made no noise, only twisted his entire body around and swiped his scythe at blinding speeds at Soren. He only barely got his shield up in time and got sent several feet backwards almost falling down into the rifts in the ground after the earthquake earlier.

Esta took the opportunity to attack and did an overhand swing with all her might. The Acolyte tried to move but the spear in his gut restricted him. Having given her the moment she needed he was confident she would finish it. With a yell of anger Esta cleaved through the Acolyte splitting him down the middle and finally he laid still. Soren ran over to the two of them as they tried to prepare themselves for whatever fight came next. As he got to them he placed a hand on each and poured the last of his healing magic into both of them. He knew if it ever came down to it they were infinitely more important than he could ever be.

Esta looked at him and said “ There shouldn’t be any more of them between us and Elenor we need to…” she stopped as she let out a scream of anguish. She fell to the ground holding her head as she mumbled a single word “Brother”.

Soren had to get to them before it was too late and he was tired of not knowing what was going on. He grabbed his spear from the corpse of the Acolyte, lifted it above his head and slammed it into the ground. The impact made a loud crack and the pressure emanating from his spear spread outwards like an explosion dissipating all the dust in the air.

When he turned to look where his friends were fighting, he saw something that chilled him to the bone. Toad and Dhaenar lay dead and next to them was the corpse of Dave laying face down with a hand reaching towards his friends. It was then that he saw the truly terrifying part. Garcius was holding Leomaris by the neck with one hand and with a twist of his wrist Leomaris went limp and was dropped to the ground.

Garcius turned towards them and started walking with eclipse in his right hand. Soren looked to Esta with feigned confidence and said “Petir is not there, he got out. Now I need you to get up and get the others out of here.” Esta looked at him and asked “What about you?”. Soren simply opened the visor on his helmet and gave her a smile before turning back to Garcius.

He started walking forwards preparing himself when he noticed several other figures walking up besides him. On his left were 2 of the blood hunters, Kyran and Medath, and on his right were 3 members of the band - Nillamir, William and Amela. It seemed he wouldn’t fight alone after all. They all approached and started flanking Garcius and while they did, Garcius began talking “Now which one of you will strike first? And forgive me for asking another question, but do you know how you will die? “Because I do”.

With that proclamation the battle began anew. Soren charged directly at Garcius, trying to draw his attention while the others hit him from the sides. Soren went for an underhand stab towards his feet to slow him down but with a flick of Garcius’s wrist he was hit by a blast of magic that took all the strength from his body and he fell to the ground. He watched as Nillamir tried to stab him in the back but Garcius grabbed her weapon with one hand and cut her in half with eclipse. With a jump Kyran came from above with his weapons poised towards Garcius’s neck only to be impaled by a suddenly appearing spectral glaive. A maniacal laugh emanated through the air as Soren tried to stand up once more. He got to his knees and looked up to see Eclipse coming down towards him.

The first swing met his shield and caused Soren’s strength to fade once more as he felt the bones in his forearm shatter from the force. The second swing came from the spectral glaive and sent him flying backwards into the side of a rock. He reached down to push himself back up only to have his body fail him. As he looked towards Garcius he saw his own shield laying on the ground still attached to his arm. He reached up to remove his helmet and felt the necklace he had grace his hand. He took the helmet off and grabbed the necklace that his daughter had given to him. It was a small wooden carving of a knight that was now covered in blood. Soren’s eyes started to close and after a mere moment of struggle the darkness took him.

Soren started remembering the day that he had left to go fight Elenor, and the fact that he had left his family for this cause. The last morning he had with them he had told them he would return like he always had, and that they had nothing to worry about. His eldest daughter Thena had tried piling anything she could find in front of the door, so that he couldn’t leave. When he started removing them she yelled at him “Daddy, please! Daddy, don’t leave!.” Thena eventually realized he was going to leave no matter what, so she gave him the wooden knight to protect him, and now as he laid there broken and maimed he felt the regret from his actions weigh down on him. He had left them time and time again to go find some cause to die for with no care for who would protect them if he died.

With tears streaming down his face he grabbed the rock and forced himself to stand through the pain. The air escaped from between his clenched teeth as he tried to stop the weak whimper of pain to escape. He watched as only Medath and Amela were fighting Garcius as William had been crushed and his mangled corpse laid on the ground. To his right he saw Esta hurriedly helping the remaining people onto Fenlar. Soren locked eyes with her and did as he always did when faced with trouble, he smiled.

He saw his spear on the ground mere feet from Garcius but he knew what he had to do. Soren limped towards the fighting and watched as Amela was cut down, her hand lifted and ready to cast a supporting spell when Garcius slid in front of her, blocking her view from Medath. He laced his fingers into hers in a mocking gesture of comfort and squeezed until the glimmer of magic died. Amela opened her mouth in a silent terrified scream as Eclipse pierced through her chest. Only Medath was left standing. Medath threw everything he had at Garcius, his skill, his magic, his will and lastly his life. Medath swung towards Garcius only to have his sword hand be cut off, but Medath was not done. With his left he sent a dagger towards his enemy’s wrist. As Garcius dodged the blow by moving his sword hand out of the way, the blood pouring from Medath’s severed hand solidified into a spear and pierced through Garcius’s forearm.

The spectral glaive removed Medath’s head from his shoulders but the gambit had worked. Garcius’s arm started bloating up causing him to drop Eclipse. Soren jumped forwards grabbing his spear, stuck it into the ground and followed up punching with all his might. To his surprise he hit and poured all his magical energy into it. When Soren looked again he saw that Garcius was missing a part of his stomach where he had landed his punch.

It was then that Garcius moved like a flash and pushed Soren to his knees with one hand and the other he placed on his chest. Garcius kneeled down, so that they were face to face and said “Such a futile effort. You were always meant to die here”. Soren looked at Garcius and said “They’ll take it from here”. He turned to look at Fenlar and the rest flying away from the battlefield to fight another day.

As Soren looks back to Garcius, who’s hand is still on his chest, there’s a burning sensation that begins where the hand rests. A light shines from Garcius’ palm, and as it grows brighter, the pain inside Soren spreads from a burning within his chest to a wildfire raging throughout his entire body. He screams, out of defiance more than anything at first, but it quickly shifts to a scream of pure anguish, as Soren’s insides boil. He hears and feels his bones snap into a million tiny pieces, and his skin cracks, light shining through from within him. Finally, as Garcius pushes him away one final time, his eyes fill with blinding light. No longer able to contain the power within him, his body erupts.

As the explosion of energy dies down, nothing of Soren remains, except for a charred wooden knight.