48th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

Eight legions, one thousand mercenaries, 125 priests and 150 mages are marching out of Traford. In front of the army is Marquis Aving, his son, captain William Wylcey and I . The battlefield is at the Hawk Plains which is located in the nord of Pefals city, right at the border with The Magocracy of Thelonde.

Once we will get near the battlefield we will set up a camp and the we will wait for the other legions to arrive. Aving is coming near me and starts talking:

“With that armor and sword, our enemies will think of you as a swordsman” He starts laughing.

“Maybe that's a good thing. If they think that I'm a swordsman, they will let they guard down.”

“If you say so.”

“By the way, marquis, I thought that you said that the church wouldn't send any troops.”

“I don't know what make them change their mind, but I'm glad that they help us. With so many priests we will save many lives and we can heal our soldiers fast.”

“Yeah, but something doesn't feel right. I don't really trust those priests.”

“Zephyr, you have nothing to worry about. The church is working for the benefit of the kingdom and that's the only reason they send troops.”

“I you say so, I will take your word.”

65day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

***

It's been already seventeen days since we left Trafford, and now we finally arrived at destination. The travel, normally would take twenty five days, but because we went straight through the Narfest Woods e arrived eight days earlier.

Right now, the soldiers are building the camp and I'm going to see where the battle will take place.

Once I arrive at the battlefield, I can see a vast plain.

‘If I fight here, I will be in advantage. But for precaution I will start preparing the terrain.’

Without any delay, I started chanting a spell everywhere in the plains. After I finished I got back to the camp right before the dinner.

The night just passed and now it's morning. I'm in the commander's tent together with Aving, his son, and william. The scouts just arrived and William starts explaining how the thing are with the other army.

“The scout says that the enemy army is around 10.000 soldiers. They cleary outnumber us but they are barbarians. Their equipment is some poor leather armor and rusty swords.”

“So they have many men, but they are weak.” Aving says.

“They have mages or priests?” I asked.

“From what we can tell, they don't but they could be hidden.”

It is something that's bother me so I asked: “Do they have boats?”

“The scout didn't say anything about boats.”

“Get that scout here please.”

The captain gets out and in the next second comes back with a man behind him.

“What’s your name?”

“Troy sir!”

“Tell me Troy, When you were scouting, did you see any boats?”

“No sir.”

“Ok, you are free to go.” After the man leaves I start talking again.

“If they don't have boats, this doesn't sound too good.”

“Why are you so obsessed with those fucking boats.” The Aving son starts screaming.

The rage in his eyes is something I didn't understand. ‘Why is he so upset?’

“I was just curious about something. Now, let's get back to our business.”

“So, captain, how should we engage our enemy?” Aving asked.

“We will split in three groups and we will attack from the front and sideways.”

“And if we fail to defeat them in one battle?”

“Then we will retreat immediately and rethink the strategy.”

‘This guy is an idiot. How did he become a captain?’

After finishing the talk I went in my tent and start thinking at a better strategy.

72day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

***

The battle day is today. Our enemy started advancing toward us and we put our troops in waiting for a good ambush. Three days ago we united with the rest of the legions. The army in split in three parts, each one with seven legions and plus 300 mercenary, 50 mages and 15 priests.

The priests from the church blessed all the soldiers. After that they were too exhausted to enter the fight so they stayed back at the camp. I, Aving and his son were watching the fight from far away. Every part of army is lead by a captain so is no need for us to join yet.

When the signal is given, our troop starts running towards the enemy. Marquis Aving was expecting that our troops will sweep the floor with the barbarians. But to his surprise, when the armys clashed our men barely are able to fight.

“What the hell is this!” Aving screams out.

“Why the hell we barely beat them.We should wipe the floor with those barbarians by now”

“Don’t worry marquis, Let’s see how everything will be going.”

A few hours later, the barbarians the barbarians lost one third of their army and we barely 10 percent. The fear in from the marquis eyes, transformed in euphoria. Our army was beating up the enemy so every one would assume that we will be the winners .

I just wait for something to happen. I know that the battle won't be won this round and I was right. Six mages appears from the center of the barbarians army and they start to slaughter our soldiers. The marquis falls in his knees and keep staring at the battlefield.

“What the hell is that?” He asks.

“The are six mages probably everyone is at the fifth tier.”

“What!?”

“How could we deal with something like this. How the hell they have such powerful mages?”

“I will explain to you but first, give the sign for retreat.”

The marquis gives the sign for retreat and the army started fleeing. The mages and barbarian army didn't follow, the concentrate on regrouping.

A few hours later every soldier was back at the camp. I was in the commander tent with William and Aving. The other two captains died in battle.

“How the hell should we deal with this” captain asked.

“We already lost twenty five percent of our army. And now we have those powerful mages on our head.”

“Don’t worry, the mages ar not a problem”. Those two were looking at me like I was crazy.

“How?” Aving asked.

“I have method but I will need all the mages from the church.”

“Fine, so let’s say that you will take care of the mages. How we will take care of the army.”

“Just like before. We will use the same tactic. They won’t see this coming” I said.

“I see” Aving said. “Keep explain Zephyr.”

“It’s simple: I, your son and the priests will be leaving tonight and we will luring the mages in the nearby forest. Until tomorrow morning we should have enough time to get rid of the mages. Then you will attack the army.”

“Fine. If it’s our only chance, we must take it.”

“Are you sure that you can get rid of the mages?” William asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Ok, I will go and inform the priests.”

I'm currently moving through a small forest outside the plains. Beside me is Oswyn Aving, the son of the Aving marquis. He is a young man at a age of nineteen years old, with blonde hair and blue eyes. His body is not a huge chunk of muscles but you can see that he is a trained soldier. Behind us there are one hundred priests from the church, who will help me to put my plan on the move.

“How are you planning to beat six mages of the third tier?” Oswyn asks me.

“It's actually pretty simple. The hardest thing is to lure them here.”

“So, you want to use the priests aether to defeat the mages?”

“Something like this. The priests are a very important role in my plan.”

From my behind I hear a sound.: “Who long are you going to make us walk? We are already exhausted.” I turn my head and watch the little bug who is complaining.

“I guess that this place is good enough.” I said.

I arranged the priests before me and watched at them. They have an angry look on their faces.

“Oswyn take a step back, please.” The man that it at my right took a step back and watched me with weird eyes. I raise my hand and point it at the crowd of priests. I open my mouth and start uttering a spell:

[Mass explosion]

The aether starts flowing out of my body and surrounds every priest. A few of them who could detect well hidden aether, start screaming. In the next second, the priests start swelling and then they blow up leaving behind them meat chunks and a lake of blood.

A few seconds passed and then Oswyn lets out a loud cry. He is terrified. The blood is covering us and he is shaking like a child. He doesn't understand what happened. If we were attacked right now… how would those mages kill the priests so fast. Indeed that the fifth tier it means power, but something like this was beyond that.

I turn my head to him, and he jumps back a few metres. He is starting to understand what was just happened.

“W...Wh... Why did you killed them?”

“What do you mean? Everything is going according the plan. Those priests were send by the church to make sure that we lose the war.”

He starts to calm down but the fear is still in his eyes. He is more terrified by the fact that I own such power then the fact that I killed our allies.

“What do you mean by 'sent by the church to make sure that we lose'?”

“I will explain you later, but for now go and hide behind those trees.”

“Why?” He answers as he’s shaking like hell .

“Because the enemy mages will arrive soon. They surely sensed the power burst from now.”

At the hearing of those words, he didn't wait another second, and got behind the trees.

I take my meditation position and start casting some spells.