The Amber Sword

The battle suddenly stopped in the valley, and the no one uttered a sound.

The only irregularity that broke the silence was the wings cutting through the air. Tagiv’s reactions were swift. The spellcasters of the Underworld had to deal with Harpy Witches or sub-dragon types, and anti-air spells were passed down from generation to generation; most of them were similar to the spell that Tagiv was casting.

The Witch Doctor raised two hands, combining a thumb, forefinger and middle finger to form a triangle.

“Tasdam! (Domain of Stagnation)” Tagiv’s shriek accurately voiced out the two keywords. The Witch Doctor’s anti-air spell was the usage of Rune Words. Legend depicted that these two Rune Words were uniquely controlled by the Northern Wind Witch, before she lost them on the continent, ended up spreading widely and allowing mortals to use them.

[The northern curse to wrestle the control of air away.]

Brendel recognized the Rune Words. Depending on the spellcaster’s abilities, the level of control would be different. A low-level Witch Doctor like Tagiv would only be able to affect ten flying units, and he would not be able to cast it a second time.

He glanced at the angels and indeed saw them being locked by some invisible curse. Their wings stopped their movements, and they fell from the height of a few meters, crashing heavily onto the ground.

Dust flew all over the area.

“What!” Scarlett saw the same thing and shouted involuntarily. But she was directly struck by an Earth Spirit Bear’s flail once her attention was divided.

“Don’t divide your attention. The angels are fine.” Brendel caught the staggering Scarlett. His expression was evident; he did not care about the summoned angels. He casually turned his gaze at her wounds and asked: “How are your injuries?”

Scarlett shook her head. Even after the Earth Spirit Bear’s increase of strength, it still would not be able to do much damage to a Gold-ranked fighter, especially when she was a God’s Acolyte. Her recovery and defensive abilities were one notch above the norm.

Brendel nodded and helped her up and frowned at the wall of Earth Spirit Bears. Tagiv was probably going to face a dire situation but they were no better off.

“We’re retreating.” He glanced at the enemies around him and said.

[Retreat? Do you really trust the angels so much?]

Scarlett blinked. They had spent a tremendous amount of effort to carve out a bloody path to the enemy leader who was less than a hundred meters away, would it not be a complete waste of time if they retreat from here? She could hardly believe that the angels would be able to subdue or kill Tagiv when they lost their ability to fly.

“My lord?”

“Obey my order,” Brendel answered in a low growl.

Scarlett hesitated for a moment before she nodded.

At the other end, Tagiv was truly indeed in trouble, just like Brendel predicted.

As a Witch Doctor and a reigning chieftain, it had experienced many things, and encountering aerial creatures in the Underworld was part of them. It felt slightly proud that it managed to bring down what he thought as Giant Eagles. It had read in books that these Giant Eagles were much bigger and violent compared to a Harpy Witch.

It knew that these aerial creatures had one common point, once they lost their abilities to fly, their movements on the ground were almost non-threatening.

Tagiv even took a step forward so that it could experience the echolocation better and ‘see’ the Giant Eagles for the very first time, with the notion of witnessing the two invaders’ troubled situation as well. It could almost imagine that the clumsy eagles beating their wings helplessly.

It was evident that Tagiv had never heard of griffins or angels, or even the famous dragons.

This mistake was fatal and irrecoverable. If the Witch Doctor recalled the Earth Spirit Bears, there would be a chance for them to block the angels’ path.

The first thing Tagiv heard was something different. The two ‘Giant Eagles’ that were knocked down dashed towards its direction at inconceivable speed beyond his imagination.

Tagiv then realized that it was in great trouble. There were only a few Camlu and Subterrane Dwellers guarding him, and they were no match for the angels.

Soon enough, Tagiv ‘saw’ that its guards were defeated with a few strokes of their sword swings, and two cold blades were placed on his necks. They were clearly not Giant Eagles but humanoid figures possessing intelligence. It quickly realized their intentions, and it raised its head proudly to silence their possible words.

“I...... will...... not surrender,” Tagiv spoke in Kirrlutz.

It had studied the language after it met up with Graudin, but the two angels’ lips never opened to answer it.

The Subterrane Dwellers in the battlefield momentarily paused when Tagiv spoke. Even though it spoke in a quiet voice, nearly all of them heard it. Brendel detected the change, and when he looked over at Tagiv’s direction, he could no longer see the striking goat-skull that hovered in the air.

However, the Earth Spirit Bears did not stop moving as they were less intelligent to pick up the change. Brendel and Scarlett had to keep retreating as the hulking creatures continued to attack them.

Brendel pulled Scarlett who was drenched in her perspiration to avoid a swinging flail, and carefully swung a measured strike to prevent himself from reaching Critical Exhaustion, but also made sure it was strong enough to force the hulking giants back.

However, he felt a bout of dizziness after his swing.

“My lord?” Scarlett was startled when she saw his body sway.

“I’m fine. We reached our destination.”

She took a long look at her surroundings. They were at the edge of the battlefield.

“What are we going to do now?” She asked with a little confusion. Even though the enemies’ leader was downed, retreating here did not solve their problems. Even if Tagiv were killed here, the Subterrane Dwellers at the lumber mill would continue their task. His plan did not seem like it was working.

Brendel whistled loudly in response. Very quickly, a streak of silver came dashing out from the dark forest.

It was the Silver Colt.

============ Amandina’s POV ===========

Amandina nodded at Cornelius and Raban’s gazes.

“Send your orders to your magicians to prepare their spells.” She said calmly.

Even though the nearest Subterrane Dwellers were mere meters away, she still kept her eyes on the wall’s strongest area of contention between the mercenaries and the creatures.

“Wait!” Jana’s voice came from behind.

A few turned their heads back and saw her sword cutting down a Subterrane Dweller. She had been commanding on the southern wall and had came back with difficulty by leaving a mountain of corpses behind her.

Almost every spellcaster in the area came from her mercenaries, and she knew her men would be effectively useless if they cast the spell. Jana was afraid that Amandina and the other two commanders did not know that fact.

“Amongst the spellcasters, only a few of them are capable of using the Silence spell. If you’re going to pool everyone’s mana to increase the spell’s Area of Effect, you’re going to use every bit. My point is, we only have one chance to use it and our magicians are going to be useless, are you certain you want to use it here?” She took in a deep breath and finished her words in one go.

“There are no other options. If we abandon the wall, this battle will be our immediate loss.” Cornelius said.

“Taking the chance and driving them off here will allow us to gain more time.” Raban followed up.

“And what next?” Jana asked Amandina in a serious tone.

“Next—” Amandina looked up at the moon. It was already after midnight. She looked back calmly at her and said: “There’s no next. The only thing left to do is to wait for our lord to bring back news of our victory.”

The answer made everyone stare at her wide eyes.