67 chapter 67 - Fools hope (1/2)
Dodging aside feral ghouls and wild fighters Kenji crept back through the lines as the shadow Faun.
”Knight, you are ordered by Greenbeard to return to the back lines,” yelled Kenji when he had finally gotten close enough so that the Fae Knight could hear him.
Whipping his silver helmeted head to meet him, the Fae Knight had his wounded Velociraptor dance over.
”Greenbeard should know that it is best to attack now while the humans retreat. What reason did he give for me to fall back now?”
Kenji nearly felt sick seeing the several heads arranged along the the Fae Knights lance like a kabab. Thankfully the training from this body's Master Faun days held firm, and Kenji continued to restrain his horror.
”He wants to comply with the Far King's wish that the Satyr general will be tested. Only if his property is discovered does he want the Fae to intervene, and only then at his own order. Hence you must vacate this battlefield at once,” Kenji said, hoping in his heart of hearts that the so far unstoppable Fae Knight would just fuck off already.
”Well, he didn't need to send you to say that. Just make sure to go tell that 'general' that failing to harass the enemy while amidst their retreat would be a failing I would feel inclined to report,” the Fae Knight said before turning and leaping away, followed by his lone remaining elemental.
Able to breathe easily again, Kenji stiffened as he found himself far deeper behind the enemy lines than he had expected. The defenders retreat had nearly finished entering the Lord's estate and the Golden Goose fortress.
”Ah shit,” Kenji said, and ran after them as fast as he could. The surrounding streets and rooftops were filled with the enemy army, most of their remaining forces having poured into Tariak.
Distantly bursts of flame errupted, then huge explosions of magical fire followed by torrents more flame streaking through the air. Those wizards with fire spells had caste simultaneously at several carefully chosen alchemist warehouses, taverns and old building to build an inferno in moments.
Caught between the fast moving flames were the bulk of the enemy formation, Alamanc and two more accomplished wizards sending huge fireballs to explode amidst the saytr ranks. Passing a long line of smouldering hobgoblins, Kenji had the houses he was leaping past swiftly engulfed.
The timber broke beneath his feet, his Shadow Faun body becoming severely burnt as he pulled himself through the wreckage. By the time he was on the streets again he was a mess of molten flesh, the body soon callapseing which forced Kenji to continue on as his rat form and leave the Faun's body to be turned to ash.
Scurrying past burning timber and close enough to the ground to avoid the choking smoke, Kenji bound towards the Golden Goose fortress. Past endless marching feet he arrived to dive into the water and scurry up the stones, before turning back into the boy knight when upon it's walls.
The walls and the rooms within were filled to the brim with the defenders of Tariak alongside those families who had waited too long to flee.
Meanwhile Tariak itself was busy burning to the ground, the inferno filled with an army of satyric and monsterous screams. Horned figures flooded the moat as they sought to alleviate their heavy burns, while some few natural fire elementals spawned from the heat's intensity to add to the fiery destruction.
”This might just work,” Violet said, covered head to toe in thick cloth and attended to by Grey in her own drab robes.
”That's the end of the enemy army I hope. If they have reserved after this, well...at the very least a good chunk should have been able to retreat. Even pulling them in so far, enough saytrs would have been able to outrun the flames to regroup outside the walls.”
Even as he spoked Kenji could scarcely believe his own words, the otherworldly level of destruction completely consuming the entire town and everything within it. Soldiers and townsfolk started to sob heavily, tears streaming their cheeks as the destruction wiped away what had taken generations to raise.
Laying down on a crate, Kenji rested his eyes as he waited for the fire to die down.
”It's going to burn for hours, so take your time and rest up Kenji. I'll watch over you and wake you up if anything happens,” Violet said with a smile and ran her fingers through his fiery hair.
”Just for a little bit. Wake me up in five minutes,” Kenji yawned, and allowed his exhaustion to take him away and into a deep slumber.
Kenji felt almost immediately woken up by a tentative hand, a black eyes Violet smiling softly at him.