101 Out of Time (1/2)

I thought Luca and I were going to die. That was the thought racing through my head as the hundreds and hundreds of angry Magesong soldiers ran for us.

The death of their great general seemed to have caused them to snap, and like berserkers, they charged with no regard for the Darah army around them who had come to the defense of our great general. The result? A battlefield that was in complete chaos.

My first instinct was to point my sword toward Ardeen Spellweaver, the crazy bastard who caused said chaos, but he wasn't where I last saw him standing over his dying father after he and his Masked friend carved Great General Spellweaver up.

Other than the twitching body lying on the ground, its life ebbing as I watched, Ardeen Spellweaver was nowhere in sight. He'd just vanished into the chaos while we weren't looking. And this presented a new problem for me, Luca, and Darah. Every Magesong soldier present wanted blood and ours was the only one they could get to.

”General, I think we have to go…” I offered Darah my hand. ”We really need to go…”

With her free hand, Darah grasped mine and pulled herself up so she could climb onto Myth Chaser and sit behind me.

My hand was wet from her touch. I glanced down and found a sticky dark red coating my palm.

”G-general…” I glanced behind me.

Darah looked tired and paler than usual. Dark blood poured out of the wound on her shoulder. Still, there wasn't an ounce of defeat written on her face.

”Lend me your falchion, Dean,” she ordered.

I passed her my falchion with its shadowblade still drawn.

With my falchion in one hand and her golden sword in the other, Darah swung to the sides and parried the attacks of the first Magesong soldiers to reach us. Her next swings relieved our attackers of their heads.

”Dean…” Darah's voice was weaker than I was used to. ”I'll deal with these fools. You lead us out of this deathtrap.”

”Y-yes ma'am,” I said with furrowed brows.

Sure, she'd take the easy job and leave me to work on the harder one. That's what I thought, at first. But I couldn't even see the attackers whose shadowblades came streaking toward us while Darah easily parried each one and then sent them a counterattack that was a deathblow four times out of five.

In fact, Darah had fended off five enemies by the time I called on Luca to watch our backs.

”Anyone got a plan?” Luca asked. He'd just finished chopping off a hobgoblin limb with his ax. ”This is getting crazy!”

I glanced left and then right. Despite the haze of my vision, I could tell our soldiers weren't completely able to hold the Magesong soldiers back. And throughout all of this, my ears could still hear the wailing horns of the Scarlet Moon as they continued to blast and reverberate throughout the battlefield, only adding to the confusion.

”General, the way I see it, our army can't survive both the Magesong and Scarlet Moon attacking us,” I reasoned.

”Yes, although I believe we could make them bleed for every inch they claim on Trickster land,” Darah answered.

”But that's just a—”

”—a waste of lives,” Darah finished for me. ”I know, Dean… so what is your recommendation?”

”A strategic retreat, ma'am,” I answered quickly. I already knew what we had to do hard as it was to swallow. ”We need to get all our forces out of this theater of war so that we can regroup at a more defensible position… maybe even prepare for a long siege. It's the only way we'll survive against such overwhelming odds.”

It took her a few more seconds to respond than I would have liked, but once she'd decided, Darah called on one of her nearby guards to signal Thors and the other army commanders for a full retreat.

”What are you waiting for?” Darah demanded of the guard who was looking at her with surprise in his face. ”Fly, you fool!”

Half-startled, he nodded. Then he unfurled the gossamer wings hiding under his midnight blue cloak and flew into the sky where he was met by other pixies who seemed to have been waiting for him. They had a brief conversation in the air before dispersing in all directions. No doubt to relay Darah's orders to the other army commanders.

I looked up impressed. ”Airmail, huh?”

”Focus, Dean,” Darah chided.

”Um, yeah, sorry ma'am,” I answered. ”Whoa!”

I pulled on Myth Chaser's reins to avoid the trio of elves who'd appeared to attack us. Each one of them fell off their mounts, not to Darah's swords, but to the firebolts that hit them squarely in the backs.

”Dean!” Aura yelled. She reached into her pack and tossed me the item she took out of it.