With that, Lieutenant Bligh turned and faced outwards again as Niall stood in place and waited. He could feel his left leg jiggling in place and willed it to stillness. Within minutes, a bugle sounded and the Lieutenant raised her arm to signal the advance. Niall marched forward with the others. His breath came in short bursts and he forced himself to take proper breaths.

Niall looked ahead as the fighting got closer. He was vaguely aware of the heavy cavalry reserve thundering off to their left to engage the Golem, but his attention was on the Bulvine rapidly approaching in front of him. The Bulvine emerging from the camp had split in two clusters with the larger group moving to engage the Gwillish Elite light infantry and a smaller group moving to engage them.

The Lieutenant brought them to a halt as the Bulvine thundered towards. “Defence Bravo” she called, her voice calm and commanding.

“Defence Bravo,” the Sergeant and Corporals repeated her order.

If it was not for the hours of training behind him, Niall was sure he would not be able to move. However, without his realising it he found himself crouched behind his shield, his spear planted in the ground as he had done so many times in practice.

He glanced left and right to check his patrol was in position. Huff and Tierra were either side of him and the grim determination on their faces bolstered his own courage.

He looked forward again. The Bulvine were now maybe fifty metres away and changed from walking to a slow, inevitable run. Niall could see the muscles flexing under their skin as they thundered forward. There was a shout from one of the horned warriors and their formations shifted even as Niall looked. Those Bulvine carrying war hammers moved to the front while those with bladed weapons took up positions behind them. Then they were upon him.

A Bulvine thundered towards him and with a cry swung his war hammer towards Niall. Niall realised at the last second that the Bulvine was aiming for his spear rather than him and managed to drop it out of the way before the shaft was smashed. Without meeting the expected resistance, the charging Bulvine was off balance for a moment. Hours of training took over and Niall moved his spear back to stab upwards.

His spear cut into the Bulvine’s belly, piercing through its leather armour. It tried to move away but it was a breath too late. In a movement that briefly took Niall back to the fight with the dire wolf, from either side of him Tierra and Huff slashed towards it. The Bulvine gasped and then fell.

Niall did not have a chance to savour the victory however as an axe slammed into his shield. In one movement he twisted his shield away, ripping the axe from the Bulvine’s grasp. At the same time, he pulled his spear from the corpse of the Bulvine he had just killed and stabbed it upwards. It found a gap in the armour of the Bulvine just under its armpit and with a gurgle the Bulvine collapsed.

For long minutes all was a chaos of noise and blows and blood and blurred movement. Then there was a hand on his shoulder and again the training took over as he smoothly swapped out from the front line with another member of the militia to catch his breath.

With a moment to think Niall looked around the battlefield. The first charge of the Bulvine had wiped out a large chunk of the militia regiment with only a few Bulvine bodies scattered amongst the Gwillish uniforms. Within moments the weak and the unlucky had been harvested.

In the skies the flying archers still fired at the camp, but it looked as if some of the Gwillish light cavalry had managed to retreat and were proving more elusive target. To the right, the heavy cavalry still engaged the Stone Golem. They were charging at it but, although they were hitting it, their lances seemed to have little effect. By contrast, the immense creature crushed two or three of the knights each time it took a slow swipe.

Niall’s heart sank. If this continued, it was clear the Gwillish forces would be defeated. Worse, the intervention of the Golem and the flying griffins had disrupted the terrain and the battle plan. A strategic withdrawal would mean either going around or over the cracks. Either option would mean that significant portions of the army would die during a retreat.

Then the moment for contemplation was gone as the order came for him to swap back into the line and another enemy slashed the blade of their axe at his face. Niall stopped thinking and simply reacted. Enemy after enemy attacked as Niall thrust and dodged and ducked. He tried to keep his patrol together but another of his new patrol members had been taken in the initial assault. Then a second fell to an axe that sliced into the artery in his leg. Niall, Huff and Tierra were the only ones left, their experience and Skill pulling them through.

Niall blinked to the keep the sweat and blood out of his eyes as he fought.

Blink. An order to retreat and regroup from the Lieutenant as a light calvary charge bought them a few moments. They regrouped in panting silence, far fewer than had set out that morning. No time to dwell. Pause, and then return.

And still the Bulvine came.

Blink. His spear snapped as a body fell away and he was forced to rely on his sword before he was able to snatch another spear from the cold grasp of an open-eyed corpse he realised he had regularly sparred with. He could not remember her name and that bothered him for the fraction of a second before he had to face another enemy.

And still Niall fought.

Blink. He responded to a rallying call from the Lieutenant who appeared everywhere shoring up the line where it was weakest. As the battle splintered, she pulled them back once more and reorganised a defensive front from what remained of the militia regiment. This time no ability to swap out, only to keep going. For a period, they managed to fight in a more organised fashion once more. However, eventually, a Bulvine made a suicidal charge into one side of the square. The defending troops managed to kill it but it opened a hole in the square. More, always more, Bulvine flooded through the breach and it was back to desperate personal combat.

Time lost meaning.

Blink. A fraction of a second between dispatching a Bulvine who fought bare chested with spiked gauntlets as their weapon of choice. He sensed he had got stronger and faster, and that his reactions had improved as the constant fight led to him gaining levels rapidly. At some point all those who survived had transitioned to fighting the Bulvine one-on-one rather than in groups. However, there was no time for Niall to dwell on that pyric victory as a Bulvine lowered its head and charged at him with its horns pointing toward his heart.

The sun inched across the sky.

Blink. A gap in the line allowed him to see Killip fighting three Bulvine a few feet in front of main line of militia. There was no way he was going to be able to beat them all. With a grimace, Niall started to move toward Killip to support him but then stopped. Something had happened to Killip’s spear. It was as if the spearhead had become translucent and extended out. Killip swiped with his extended spear head and, as it sliced into the chests of Bulvine surrounding him, it parted their armour as if it were not there. Then the next enemy reared up in front of Niall to block his view and he was back in a fight of his own.

And so the battle continued.

Blink. Glimpses of one or two other of the translucent weapons across the battlefield, but did no opportunity to look any closer as he struggled and fought.

Niall slashed across the neck of another Bulvine and then looked around wildly for another. There was none in front of him. He spun around. He had been fighting back-to-back with Huff. Despite their fierce efforts Tierra had been separated from them minutes earlier. He slashed at the side of the axe-wielding Bulvine Huff was facing and, as it dropped its guard, Huff pounced and finished it.

Both of them looked around. The battle continued but something had changed. The slackening of the pressure was not an accident. The Bulvine forces were no longer trying to flank the Gwillish troops. Their forces had been whittled down and they were concentrating their forces to break the centre of the Gwillish defence.

Niall looked around and knelt next to a woman who was groaning in pain on the blooded ground. He stopped as Huff put a hand on his shoulder. “First rule, remember? Heal yourself before helping others. You can’t Heal anybody dead.”

“But I’m not...” Niall aborted his protestation he was not injured as he looked down at himself. His arms were badly slashed, there was a gaping thigh wound that had soaked his trousers in blood, and, now he had stopped, he could feel his nose was broken.

Niall started to heal the wounds he had taken, then paused with his spear in the ready position as a scream came from the skies above. He crouched behind his shield and looked up, healing all the while. The scream had come from one of the griffins that were now soaring directly above them. They had moved away from the camp and were focussed on defending against a small group of humans that harried them.

“The Champions,” Tierra said reappearing to one side. “Finally. I heard they were held up clearing out a nest of Bloodaxes, but they’re here now which means the Sage must be on his way as well.”

Unlike the uniform nature of the Bulvine flying troops each of these humans was different. Two flew on the back of winged white horse. The one who sat in front wore gold and white armour. It was in stark contrast to the blood that dripped red from the end of the long spear he wielded with one hand. The horse and riders ignored the flying Bulvine and dove towards the front line. Twenty metres above the point where the lines of fighters met, the second man on the back of the flying horse leapt to the ground and disappeared for a moment. As soon as they had delivered their comrade, the man and horse spun in an impossibly tight circle and sought another enemy.

Another rode bareback on a horse that galloped on the ground. Rider and horse moved as one and the horse seemed to anticipate the needs of the archer as they rode rapidly across the battlefield. What direction the horse needed was done without the rider’s hands. Those hands were reserved to fire upwards with an immense longbow. As Niall watched he shot off three arrows. The first met and destroyed an arrow a flying Bulvine had sent towards him. The second and third were nocked to the bow at the same time and fired together. They flew at slightly diverging angles and shredded through both wings of one of the Bulvine’s mounts sending it, and its rider, spiralling to the ground

The third human was slight, but her attacks were equally devastating. She flew through the air without any visible means of support, a curved scimitar in each hand. Zeroing in on her next target she spun and flew headfirst towards it. The Bulvine and its mount spotted her as she attacked and turned to meet her, the bull and the eagle heads screaming in defiance. The woman did not stop or even slow. As she reached her enemy she swung her blades almost lazily and the heads of both the Bulvine and its mount were sliced through, the bodies and the heads falling separately to the ground.

As Niall watched, the man who had been dropped at the front line stood, and Niall recognised the figure of Aketeon towering above the rest of the soldiers. Without the constraints that had been put on him when he was fighting Niall, the Champion showed what he was capable of. With a flat bladed spear in each hand he swept around in a circle. All of the Bulvine soldiers within twenty feet of him froze and then fell, their bodies sliced in two by the Skill that allowed him to massively extend the reach of his spear.

Niall looked to his left. Despite the spectacle of what was happening in the skies and in the main battle. it was nothing compared to the battle that was taking place with the Stone Golem. All of the knights had withdrawn and Niall could see that they, combined with the light cavalry, were slowing the Bulvine advance in the centre. In their place to oppose the Golem was one, enormously fat man. He was bare chested and bald, his trousers worn tucked into his boots. The only weapon he carried was a war hammer.

Despite his ungainly appearance, the man exuded power and confidence. Niall gasped as he saw the man leap impossibly high to rise above the Golem and bring his hammer crashing down onto its head. Part of the creature’s face crumbled away and it stumbled to kneel on the ground. As it tried to rise the man swung again, this time from the ground, and the hammer smashed into its knee, sending it back to the ground.

The creature roared and swung a fist at the man. It headed towards the man but stopped as if it had hit an invisible barrier a foot above the man’s head. Even from his distance Niall could see the man wince in pain as his Skill took the brunt of the blow. Taking advantage of the creature’s momentary confusion the man made another of his improbable leaps to jump out of the way. It was good, but the creature was equally fast. Its other hand slapped at the man as he was in the air and sent him crashing into the earth. The man hit the ground with a thud. His body lay in the small crater the impact had created. Niall held his breath for a moment then let it out as the man rose from where he should be lying dead, brushed the dirt from his chest, and then started to run back to the stone monster.

“Niall!”

Niall broke his attention away from the other fights back to his own to see Huff shouting at him. “Niall. Are you OK?”

Niall shook his head. “Yes. Sorry. Lost myself for a moment.”

“Stop looked at the Sage and focus. That sort of thing is going to get you killed. Let’s move. We’re regrouping.”

A bugle sounded the rally call to Niall right and he turned to see Lieutenant Bligh gathering all those on this side of the battlefield to her. Niall followed Huff and, as he went, he picked up a spear and an undamaged shield from a body on the ground. He recognised the corpse as being of someone who had been in Trintor’s patrol. Not someone he knew well, but someone he knew nonetheless. He shook his head and moved on. Time for this later.

Around the Lieutenant, the remains of the militia regiment gathered. Tate was the only corporal who had made it and she had a bloody cloth wrapped over her right eye. Around twenty of the Militia company were there so far, all of them weary, and many with wounds their own Healing could not fix. Tired as he was, Niall went up to the first and after receiving a grateful nod for permission, he started to push his own Healing Spirit into her. He may not be as good as the full-time army Healers but he could do more than most. As the bugle sounded again and the rest of the survivors gathered, Niall continued to Heal where he could. The last person he approached was Killip. Even in the midst of the battle and the misery Killip found time to curl his lips into a sneer, but gave Niall a nod to continue. Ignoring his churlish behaviour, Niall touched his arm where a blade had opened a deep gash that cut to the bone and looked at it dull-eyed until the cut closed.

Of the militia who had marched out that morning, only around a half remained. Niall, looked around and realised that he, Huff and Tierra were all that remained of Patrol Theta. He took little satisfaction in noting that the majority of the survivors were those who had taken part in the extra training. Too many had been lost when so many more could be saved. Nonetheless he managed to crack a small smile as he saw Penton and Shannon had found each other and stood, holding hands. A small, sweet moment in the midst of the devastation.

The Lieutenant surveyed the tired and battered group, her bloodstained armour spoke of the effort she had been putting in to defeat the enemy.

“You have done well,” she said. “But I need to demand more. The Sage will deal with the Stone Golem, and Aketeon will hold the centre of the line while the rest of the Champions will counter the griffins and their riders. However, this battle is not yet over. If we’re going to get home alive, then we have to defeat the remaining enemy on the ground. Our orders to prevent the flanking still stand. This time we will be in support of what remains of the 4th Lowland Light Cavalry. They will launch a charge to crack open the Bulvine defence on the left and we will follow up with the 2nd Elite Light Infantry Battalion to take advantage of the breach. One last push, ladies and gentlemen.”