The Brightest Shadow, page 68
Some left, but a large number stayed. Tani was uncomfortably reminded of how many warriors in the resistance had considerable power, despite how little they had registered to her. They might not be as powerful as Destrela or Narenel, but they might be her equal or superior. It soured her thoughts about her training, though those thoughts had already become quite bitter.
"Here's what's going to happen." Destrela crouched down, somewhat lessening the effect of her standing above everyone else. "They shouldn't know we're coming, so we take a fast group to seize the gatehouse and keep them from closing it. If they do, we jump the walls and get the gate back up. Either way, they probably don't have the strength ready to resist us, so we let the main group get into Gerant. Once we do that, it's just a question of how much we win.
"Aryabaus definitely isn't here, and there's no sign of his Rhen dog. But they do have a Catai and some trained warriors. Your job isn't to clear the rabble, it's to stay alert for their strongest and intercept them before they can harm our soldiers. Stay in small groups so you can support each other, signal if the Catai or someone else strong shows up, and we should win this."
It was a rather simple plan, in the end. As grandiose as some made it seem, they weren't breaking the enemy's armies in this region, just taking out the strongest link they could manage. Hopefully, it was better than doing nothing. Better than raiding innocent civilians, in any case.
"This is the first blow to take back East Corah!" Melal leapt up onto the tree trunk beside Destrela, ignoring her venomous glance. "In this, we take revenge for all the Deathspawn have done to us! Next, we take down Aryabaus!"
"Calm down." Destrela stood up again, hand on the dagger at her thigh. Tani realized nervously that she seriously considered using it on Melal. "The goal is to destroy the enemy's strength in Gerant with few losses, then retreat and hit a stronger target next time. Not Aryabaus himself."
"But evil cannot be defeated until he falls!" Melal turned on her, almost shouting now. Her fingers shifted on her dagger...
At that moment, Narenel whispered at Tani's side. "Suggest that he lead the main body of soldiers."
"What?" she whispered back.
"He needs to be in charge of something or this will go poorly. At the head of the main group, at least he can inspire them. But he wouldn't take that idea from me."
Though Tani had been intending to stay out of the argument, she acknowledged that Narenel was right. And regardless of the righteousness of their cause, falling into infighting would benefit no one. She stepped forward and cleared her throat.
"Destrela... many of the soldiers are nervous, and for some this is their first real battle. Perhaps the Hero could lead them?" She wasn't sure if that was too much, and winced as all attention turned toward her. Destrela rolled her eyes, but Melal grinned.
"An excellent idea! Is there anyone here who dares challenge me for leadership of the vanguard?"
No one did, possibly because Tani didn't think that group was actually the vanguard. In any case, that plan seemed to work well enough for everyone. Destrela slipped off the side of the tree trunk, apparently more comfortable in the shadows anyway. Meanwhile, Melal raised his sword over his head.
"Then we attack! Today, we take back Gerant!"
Tani was startled by the responding roar and saw a familiar inspiration in the eyes of many around her. As strange as her head felt and as difficult as it was to think, she was better off than most present. Thankfully Narenel didn't seem taken in by it, his mental discipline serving him well. Tani also saw Slaten and Celivia look back toward her, but none of them could say anything.
When Melal ran off to lead the charge of the main group, Tani realized that she needed to be running. Though she was far from the strongest of her group, she was fast enough to keep up. The group of sein-trained warriors broke from the trees first, sprinting toward the gates of Gerant. For a moment before the violence, she enjoyed simply running.
She saw the guards on the walls notice them and begin to panic. As Destrela had said, they weren't prepared. Tani only had to dodge a single arrow that she thought would have missed her anyway, then they had closed the distance.
Destrela hit first, dagger through the chest of the mansthein soldier standing at the gate. She darted away to seize the gatehouse with Hanfel and Graenin behind her. That left Tani, Narenel, and several Coran men to guard the entrance to the gatehouse.
Soldiers began to approach, unprepared for an attack but not undisciplined. One rushed toward them, roaring, and Tani leapt forward to intercept him. Her hand twinged when she deflected his sword with her sickle knife, expecting a painful counter, yet he looked taken off guard.
It was a simple matter to hook his blade and pull it aside, then lunge out and strike his throat. The soldier fell with a choked cry and Tani stared down at him in surprise. After facing someone as strong as Subenor and sparring with equals every day, it was easy to forget how far she had advanced, even in her hand to hand combat skills. She couldn't feel happy about the mansthein man bleeding out on the stones in front of her, but she felt less anxious.
Another soldier rushed at her from the side, but Narenel stepped up and thrust through his chest before he even had a chance to block. He gave her a quick nod and Tani pulled herself back into a tactical mindset. She couldn't let herself become sloppy.
Her throwing knives would need to wait, since this battle might go for some time and she might not be able to retrieve them in the chaos. That left her holding off the average soldiers while relying on her sickle knife. She wished that she had spent more time training her hand to hand skills, but knew that she had been right to focus on her strengths. Though if she'd chosen differently, perhaps...
"Gatehouse is blocked open!" Destrela called out from above. So they had accomplished the first step of their plan without any major disasters.
More soldiers had come to face them, but they hadn't yet organized. Tani knocked away several blades pointed in her direction to let Narenel finish them off. Not honorable, but she needed to conserve her stamina.
Fortunately, at that moment the second group arrived. Slaten and Celivia weren't too much slower than her, so she doubted it had taken them that long to catch up. Instead, they rushed through the gate just as mansthein reinforcements appeared. Tani allowed herself to relax a little, letting Slaten's grim efficiency and Celivia's lashing whip help hold the line. In the open space between houses, against poorly armored and untrained soldiers, the bladed whip was devastating.
Could it all be this easy? As if summoned by that thought, Tani caught a whiff of intense mint. A moment later she saw the Catai charging down the street toward them. Intending to take back the gatehouse before Melal and the others could arrive, no doubt. Instead of wasting her strength on him, Tani leapt aside and searched for weaknesses. Though he looked like many other Catai, his mottled green skin was half-covered in golden paint. Perhaps a signifier of rank?
In any case, Veron jumped out of hiding to clash with him, blows flashing between them before Graenin appeared and a burst of green sent the Catai staggering to the side. Tani wanted to watch but pulled her gaze away from them, looking to see where she could be most helpful.
Through the gate, she could see Melal charging with all the untrained soldiers. They roared in one voice, following him as he ran with his sword held overhead. The light seemed to come with him, the sun overhead becoming blinding.
As Tani looked away and blinked, she saw a Coran man and a young boy on the street. It seemed they had been outside and become trapped by the abrupt fighting. Even as she watched, Coran and mansthein warriors began to fight closer and closer to them, just focused on their opponent, ignoring the two civilians as they pressed back against the wall.
Tani leapt after them, taking the nearest mansthein in the back of the neck with her sickle knife. The Coran warriors seemed surprised, so she pointed and put as much authority into her voice as she could. "Keep the fighting contained! The more we spread out, the more they can use their numbers!"
Fortunately, the Corans nodded and began to push the fighting back. Tani turned to the boy and his father and tried to give them an encouraging smile.
"The fighting will be over soon. Get into a building and you should be safer."
Her words were what it took for them to overcome their fear and run into one of the alleys. Tani kept an eye on them and any nearby fighting, but it seemed like they would make it. While she was looking, she saw that there were other Corans taken off guard by the attack. Though they had attacked at noon when many would be sleeping instead of working, they had still interrupted life in the city.
Helping them was one goal Tani could pursue without hesitation. She readied her sickle knife and headed out to do what she could.
~ ~ ~
Slaten focused entirely on efficiency. If he wasted unnecessary movements on untrained soldiers, he wouldn't be prepared to face a warrior equal to or stronger than him. Fortunately, the mansthein were scattered and he encountered them mostly one at a time. Even when they had more, they failed to use their numbers against him and so he cut them down with tightly controlled strikes.
Yet as efficient as he was, Slaten realized that he had become separated from the others. Celivia had been at his back, but she must have been drawn away when the Catai struck. He distantly realized that fighting in groups took a different kind of skill he had previously ignored, but it didn't matter for now.
Instead he cut down the next soldier to approach. This, he could do.
As Slaten stepped into a courtyard, he felt blades prickling through his body. Not one strong opponent, but several weaker than him. He started to back away, trying to locate a choke point, but at that moment sensed an axe swinging at his head. Only by throwing himself forward was he able to avoid it.
When he rolled back to his feet, he snapped his sword up to defend, but no one was attacking. How many? The man with the axe behind him, a fighter with a cudgel blocking the exit to the courtyard, an archer on the nearby roof. That third was going to be the first prob-
No, there was a fourth, a man with a bandage over one eye. Slaten barely felt him at all, but had a feeling that it wasn't because he was weak. The mansthein with the bandage spread his hands wide and grinned.
"Welcome to our little trap!"
A distraction. Slaten dodged to the side on pure instinct and felt the wind of the arrow pass by him. The two fighters blocking the exits had taken the opportunity to rush forward and they'd reach him in a moment. Their movements were perfectly coordinated and he felt certain that they were used to working as a team. If he let them do that, he would unquestionably lose.
Slaten whirled, swinging his sword with one hand to keep his opponent at bay. His other hand spun as well, gathering what Graenin called sky sein and releasing it from his hand in a streak of blue toward the archer.
It broke the bow in half, but when it struck the archer, it only succeeded in knocking him off his feet. A pale imitation of the skill he'd seen from Graenin, much less the overwhelming power he'd faced from the Zeitai. But enough to keep him from getting killed.
He aimed his sword at one warrior and his hand toward the other, letting a little light leak out. The truth was, he only had two bolts in him if he also wanted to defend himself, so the threat was almost empty. But they didn't know that, so for the moment he halted the rush from both sides. Any second now the leader would join the assault, so he needed to turn the tide quickly.
Though he wasn't strong enough to overwhelm weaker opponents like Subenor had, Slaten thought the same strategy would serve him well. He needed to target one and end things quickly or their numbers would wear him down.
The leader's visible eye no longer looked amused. He drew the short sword at his side and advanced at the exact same moment the other two attacked him again.
Slaten lunged straight for the leader, knocking his blade aside and driving him back. That opened his back to the other two, only a pace behind him. They quickly moved after him, attacking together... and getting in each other's way.
He kicked off the ground to reverse course, turning and deflecting one blade while he flanked them. Now he was facing only one of them, the other two restricted by the body in between them. They realized, of course, and tried to correct their positioning, but they were too late. His blade hacked into the cudgel-wielder's shoulder and the mansthein dropped with a loud cry.
Before he hit the ground, Slaten pulled his blade out and retreated. The man might be down, but the blow hadn't gone deep enough, so he would take some time to bleed out. Given how well they had worked together, Slaten had to assume he would threaten the area near where he lay. Still, though Slaten would need to avoid that area, he had reduced his opponents to two...
No, still three. From the corner of his eyes he saw the archer had gotten up and was creeping along the rooftop, a sword in hand.
Since the archer wasn't in position yet, Slaten tried to finish things first. He lunged at the two threatening him whenever they tried to surround him, keeping them from flanking him. Yet they were experienced and shallow feints wouldn't trick them, so he needed to put in real effort to ward them off. That meant they could wear him down without landing a blow.
And the archer would be in position soon. Slaten drew up his sein within himself and focused on speed, darting forward between the two fighters. They struck at him at angles so they wouldn't hit each other, but he had been counting on that. He ducked below the attacks and took one hand off his sword.
The burst of sein caught the axe-wielder's leg, knocking him backward and onto his face. Slaten immediately reversed direction, thrusting directly for the leader's chest. Yet the mansthein managed to dodge on pure instinct, Slaten's blade grazing his leather armor and glancing off his face. He managed to draw a little blood and cut off the wrapping that hid the scar where his eye had been, but didn't disable his opponent.
Then he'd failed. The archer dropped into the courtyard, the axe-wielder rose to his feet, and now there were three of them again. Slaten rose carefully, breathing deeply and focusing his sein.
His instinct was to fight cautiously, but that would get him killed. The soldiers might be individually weaker than him, but their teamwork was good. If they could use their numbers effectively, he couldn't hope to survive the fight.
Then there was only one way through.
Before the three could corner him, Slaten focused on the leader, driving him back again. The others immediately moved to strike at his back, so he used the same trick again, lunging back toward them. This time, they reacted quickly even though he was faster, moving to hit him from both sides.
But Slaten didn't even try to block the archer's sword. He knew it was slicing down toward his back and ignored it, instead hacking through the axe-wielder's arm. The blow removed his opponent's arm, but a second later the sword hit his back.
Slaten felt his skin break, yet the blade didn't penetrate deeply. The sein defenses flowing through him managed to hold, turning what could have been a disabling blow into a simple cut. And he had experienced those a thousand times while training with Celivia. Slaten didn't hesitate for a moment before thrusting his blade into the axe-wielder's chest.
Immediately he turned, putting the body in between him and the other two, but this time it wasn't necessary. They seemed taken aback by his tactic... and their eyes had become grim. The archer might not be as skilled with a sword, but Slaten knew that the next time, the blow would be one he couldn't shrug off.
Not that he wanted to. His back ached and the flow of his sein faltered several times before he managed to restore it. Slaten faked a smirk and acted like the injury had done nothing to him, but he was more drained than he had expected. Only the leader and the archer left, but if they knew what they were doing, they could still overwhelm him. Fortunately, they advanced more cautiously now.
They lashed out with a few exploratory blows and Slaten deflected them one-handed. He let his other hand hang at his side, where they'd notice it. Though he'd planned to generate a little useless light, he didn't have the strength to manage it for long. That would have to come later.
When they both lunged together, he saw his chance. He leapt to the side so he only had to deflect the archer's attacks, then shot his hand out in a sweeping motion and generated a flash of light with the last of the sky sein he had within him.
The archer saw his telegraphed movement, dropped back and braced himself against the burst of sein...
Blue light flickered uselessly around his defensive stance. But with his sword at chest level, Slaten swept his own blade over it, tracing a line just through the man's neck.
It wasn't a deep or powerful cut, but it was enough. The archer reached for his throat, trying to stop the bleeding, but it was too late.
At that moment the leader hit Slaten's side with a roar, driving him back several steps. It was all Slaten could do to defend himself, but that was all he needed to do. With every moment that passed, his opponent's allies bled out further and they would be alone. The man's fury petered out and he stepped back before his blows could become too uncontrolled.
"Dammit. They're all..." His remaining eye moved over the bodies, then he gave Slaten a bitter smile. "You're not bad, kid. We've taken down tougher than you, because a lot of warriors forget how to think. But you..."
Even though the odds were even, Slaten had exhausted most of his sein. His body was aching as well, both from the injury and the overexertion. The mansthein leader attacked him cautiously this time, relying on skill, knowing that his opponent didn't have much left.
Slaten started to worry... until he realized that the same was true for his opponent. The leader hadn't needed to exert himself as much, but the fighting had still required a lot of him. His attacks were nowhere near as vicious as they had been at first, allowing Slaten to deflect them without trouble. Though his opponent might be more skilled, his movements slowed with each exchange.
After so many desperate gambits, the ending was direct and simple. His opponent overreached and Slaten cut into his arm. Even as the blade dropped, he thrust forward and through the mansthein's stomach.
