158 The Sand Dune (1/2)

It's been five months since we rescued Ty. In that time, the Foolhardies had been assigned as an independent unit for an auxiliary military force commanded by Great General Grimthorn who was spending his days supporting Great General Garm in his conflict against the Sunspire Dominion.

It wasn't a full-blown war yet, but the dozens of daily skirmishes for control over the eastern oases of the Westersand Desert which borders both clan's territories was becoming a bloody and costly mess.

\”Dean, get down!\” Luca yelled at me.

I ducked just in time as a shadowblade slashed through the space where my head was only a moment ago.

Glancing up, I saw the wispy black vapor trailing the shadowblade's path mere inches from my face. The sight of it sent a familiar cold shiver running up my spine, reminding me that death had just brushed my cheek yet again.

\”Dean, keep moving!\” Luca yelled.

His warning wasn't necessary like that time when we foolishly climbed up the hilltop without backup to carry out a surprise attack against our enemies. As familiar as this situation was, I was a different Dean from that naïve fifteen-year-old boy.

Yup, sixteen-year-old Dean knew that right now wasn't a time for fear. It was a time for action.

I dodged a second shadowblade slash that came my way. Then I drew my falchion from its sheath and sent it snaking forward, and it bit into the neck of the kobold that attacked me. Thanks to its vibrating edge, my falchion's shadowblade cut neatly through the kobold's muscular neck from one end to the other, resulting in instant decapitation.

I kicked out at the kobold's body to avoid the blood splatter that came with losing one's head. Then I watched the lifeless form topple over just as the fairy's head rolled to a stop at my feet.

The sight of it sent a familiar sickening feeling into the pit of my stomach, bringing to the fore of my mind the guilt that came with murder.

I know it's been nearly a year since I first came to the Fayne and yet here I was feeling sorry for the long-snouted, fanged-creature that gazed up at me with lifeless eyes. I couldn't help it, and my brain refused to be wired any other way.

\”Commander?\” Pike called my name to grab my attention away from the dead kobold.

I glanced toward her and noticed the dark red splatter decorating the front of her leather chest piece. Her sword dripped with the red stuff too. Even that familiar metallic aroma clung to her.

\”Are you wounded?\” I asked.

Pike glanced down at herself before assuring me with, \”It's not mine.\”

I nodded at her before my gaze turned away from Pike so I could survey the battle happening around me.

Ten feet to the right of Luca's location, Edo had also just finished dispatching the elven archer who thought he had run to call for help. Kneeling on the ground a foot away from Edo, Varda was cleaning off her hammer on the vest of the elf she'd taken out.

I turned my gaze below me so I could watch Ashley and half her Shield squad climb their way up to our position while their boots sank into the ripples of sand, slowing them down more than I'd anticipated.

Admittedly, climbing the steep incline on very soft footing was a challenge even after I ordered my soldiers to drop all non-essentials to lighten their loads. So I couldn't really get mad at their sluggish pace.

We were fighting about half way up on the southern side of a massive sand dune that might as well have been a low, circular, barren hill.

On the dune's opposite side, a battle was being waged between a two-thousand strong Sunspire army and the independent five-hundred-man units of the Foolhardies and the Millennium Hawks.

Don't get me wrong though. We weren't working together. This was a competition between our two units. In fact, Al Sheridan and I had made a bet on who would be the first unit to conquer the sand dune and the oasis at the top of it.

Yes, there was an oasis at the top of this sand dune. A rather well-placed oasis that was strategically located at the edge of a series of oases skirting several chasms along the desert floor. Whoever held this oasis theoretically had the doors to shut or open the way to all those other oases.

If that wasn't reason enough, the oasis above this massive sand dune was the same one Garm had lost to the enemy many months ago. It was an oasis with a young mana pool at its center, making it a vital resource in a region that was scare with life if you didn't count the numerous monsters hiding underneath the sand.

\”All enemies silenced, Commander,\” Pike reported.

\”Good,\” I said, feeling relief flood into me. \”Otherwise, taking this long roundabout way to reach the top before the Hawks do would have ended in a disaster if even one of those guards alerted the fools above.\”

A loud thud reached my ears, and I turned around to see Shanks' war hammer lying headfirst on the sand. The troll himself was taking his time to looting the bodies of the three kobolds he'd singlehandedly taken down.

I was reminded that he agreed to freelance for us if I gave him looting rights to any enemy he defeated. Of course, he got to keep anything he found himself, no matter the worth of an item.

\”Find anything good?\” I asked.

Shanks was stuffing two bronze khopesh into his personal bag of holding when he looked over to me.

\”Bits and pieces… nothing much of worth,\” he answered.