The rat folk musketeers forced a group of about a hundred prisoners at bayonet point. The group walked hesitantly toward the inferno.
"Get them running," shouted War mind. "those of you not chosen to die a fiery death. Now is your chance to die making a run for it. Guards if those not chosen to run want to try... kill them."
BANG!!!
One of the rat folk shot one of the slow walking chosen. A sacrifice dropped and the other prisoners looked back to see the slowest of their number drop. A walking rat put a bayonet into the second slowest man. A few of the men turned and squared up with the rat folk and where quickly shot. The rest of the men began to run in the direction of the walking fire ball.
The fire began to lash out at the approaching men. They caught fire like matches and began to scream and flail on the ground as they burned to death. A few men managed to doge the lashes and run past the fire. The following men seeing this found a little more hope in charging the fire than the rats and started to flee at full speed toward the inferno.
POP! POP! POP!
A bunch of the prisoners from the larger pool began to run and the guards fired. It sounded like a few men tried to run for it. The war mind was glad. He would rather not murder men who surrendered. If they died running at least they didn't die on their knees. Death was probably better than being a sacrifice as well. It was a shame the scourge did not take prisoners.
Those who were not going to be sacrificed were more useful as corpses than alive or escaped. That was not important to him right now.
He looked up to see the demi-dragon circling waiting for the moment. About half the men had run into or around the firestorm. The puppet held a saber as it followed behind the prisoners. The fire didn't seem to be waning. When the flames reached out the wall flickered a bit but not enough.
If enough people hit the wall at once it would work but making the unwilling do that would be difficult. The puppet would have to force an opening. The puppet speeds up and grabbed a man pushing him forward like a shield.
POP! POP! POP!
The puppet also picked up the sound of the ravens tackling people to the down to eat them.
The War mind hoped that the fire would not damage his puppet too much. This one was made mostly from his old body. That was something he would never get again. A rotten sigh escaped the unoriginal lips.
"NO! NO! NOOOOOO!" cried the human shield.
Another man caught fire and the Puppet acted. The shield was pushed face first into the fire. His body burst into flames and began to turn to charcoal. The fire began to flicker a little bit. Someone might be losing their nerve. The saber stabbed into the inferno. It came out cherry red and was cooking his hand.
"Bahhh!" screeched the puppet. He pushed the sword into the back of the chard body and pushed it into the center of the flame pillar. The flame sputtered a bit and the puppet heard someone scream in terror from inside the flame. The flames flickered and the puppet leapt into the fire.
The puppet felt the flames lick his skin. He was able to look into the terrified eyes of a man who had never been on a battlefield before. The fire pillar was an excellent protection, but it was slow and to defensive for battle. The War mind had never seen a fire mage on the battlefield before. His being here was unusual and the look the War mind saw in his eyes was the same one he had seen in hundreds of new recruits.
The War mind thought for a second about why he had seen so few mages on the battlefield and wounded about the Travelers supposed plans to keep mages out of the military. If mages stepped into the battlefield more often. A lot of them would become Brand.
The puppet punched the scared mage in the mouth. The man hit the ground and the flames dispersed.
Twenty-eight landed with what the crispy puppet thought was a scowl.
"You said wait for the moment," complained the would-be dragon.
"I thought I said look for your moment," responded War mind. "I looked and I saw a way to create my moment. You could not find yours faster than me. "Well we took the poor bastard alive. Looks like The Pail Scourge will get that second mage heart. By the way. Is my body still on fire. I've lost most feelings."
Twenty-Eight slapped the puppet with his tail. The puppet was nocked off his feet and patted less than gently with its tail.
"NO," declared the oversized bird as it picked up the unconscious mage. "You are fine."
The demi-dragon took to the air with the very important prisoner in its jaws.
"Damn oversized Bird," hissed the puppet.