204 Phalanx (2/2)

”You're not staying,” Edo guessed. ”Hold on.”

The half-ogre slammed the butt of his glaive down on the hard sand, and the force it generated exploded outward in a half-circle in front of him. This had the comical effect of blowing away several of the enemies in front of us.

”I'll hold them off for as long as I can, but you better hurry,” Edo said. ”It's still four thousand against us…”

”We've faced off against bigger odds,” I said patting him on his free arm. ”I don't suppose you know who we're up against.”

”Barducius the Tri-Horn,” Edo answered quickly.

It was just like Edo to be treasure trove of information when it came to officers in the Pavilion. I suspected that he'd memorized every officer name from every army in the clan just to be helpful to Aura.

I was just about to say thank you when I stopped. ”Wait… why's he called the tri-horn?”

”He didn't think two large horns was enough and so he had a third metal horn embedded onto his brow,” Edo chuckled.

”Dude's committed,” I chuckled back.

We each dispatched another enemy soldier, but pixies this time, and the sight of them made me remember Qwipps' task.

As if on cue, the sound of explosions rocked the ground nearby bringing with it the scent of burnt flesh and sulfur in the air.

”Bombardment's started,” Edo noted.

”Yeah,” I agreed. ”Still not as cool as Ty's icicles or Aura's fireballs though.”

”If you two are done chatting in the most conspicuous spot of this battlefield, perhaps it's time for us to move on?” Aura chided.

She twirled her staff once, then twice, and a third time, with each rotation spitting out a firebolt at the enemies charging at us.

”Aura, keep your mages with Edo's unit and begin bombardment from here,” I said. ”But I'm bringing Ty with me.”

A hundred and ten soldiers followed me to the right of Edo's right wing and into open desert. From there, we turned north and hooked our way into the enemy's right flank.

”Hey, Ty, do you remember that old movie, Snowpiercer?” I asked while I ran at the head of heavily armored dwarves.

”Um, is that the train movie where they couldn't stop because the world had turned to ice?” he asked as he tried to catch up to me.

”Yeah,” I answered. ”Think you can pull something like that off now?”

”That depends…” he huffed. ”What do you want me to do?”

”An ice train ramming into the enemy would be nice,” I huffed back. ”Maybe a ray of frost that can freeze them before they can mount a defense?”

At this point, the enemy soldiers had noticed us and started to shift some of their shields our way in an attempt to repel us.

I could have told them it wouldn't work because I brought the chosen one with me, but I'd rather it was a surprise.

Above the heads of the enemy's heavy infantry, I saw a satyr with a ridiculously looking metal horn attached to his forehead.

”Target sighted,” I yelled to the troops behind me, and then I spared a glance at Ty who'd sped up to run alongside me and said, ”Well, can you do it?”

”I can't do the train, but,” Ty stopped abruptly, and while I continued to run forward, he opted to raise both hands forward Hadouken-style, and said, ”I can try that ray of frost thing!”

The thing about Ty's magic that I've only just begun to notice was how it never seemed to follow the Fayne's standards. No chants required, almost zero casting time, and above all, no fixed structure. It was almost like all he needed was his imagination and the magic, or rather, the spirits just listened. It was actually really awesome, and in cases like this one, really useful.

Now, if I could just get Ty to use an element other than water, perhaps then he'd be unstoppable. Unfortunately, other than the time he'd summoned the Lord of Darkness, Ty hasn't shown a hint of inclination for spells other than his ice magic.

Oh, but the one thing Ty did need to cast his magic, believe it or not, was a name for his spells. The name helped to visualize what he wanted to be done, and in this case, Ty chose a rather appropriate name, ”Snowpiercer!”

I didn't see the spell come to life, but I did see the ray of white energy zoom past my left ear and explode onto the enemy's hastily formed shield wall.

”Boom!” I yelled. ”Now we're talking!”