I just smiled at Kace after he walked away, I when and sat down on the wall where the attack was likely to come from in preparation, I slowly uncaged my anger, I held these soldiers partially at fault for my imprisonment so my mana was eager for some more payback, it felt like a wild thing as if it had a will of its own and only my mental barriers kept me from losing all reason.
The angrier I got the more mana started to accumulate around me, Kace looked over in my direction with a little bit of trepidation on his face hoping that I still had some sanity left to guide the anger but only time would tell, he quickly went back to his duties of trying to get the men as prepared as they could be, being outnumbered more than 2 to 1 would put a damper in anyone courage but they had the defensive position and an incredibly potent firemage on their side so they still had hope.
Volk got Hazel, Fes, and Hes into a supporting position in the center of the formation, they were only trainee mages but that didn't make them useless in combat, he would use them as a quick reaction force, Hes and Fes weren't able to use their water mana to a great amount, they could only call up enough water to be able to drink, as that's what they used their mana for in the city when they were street urchins, having fresh water had saved them plenty of times from death but in for any combat actions the twins used pure physical prowess and an uncanny ability to fight as one.
Hazel was an Air mage like Volk and had trained in speed enhancement, she couldn't keep it active like a fully trained mage could but she could use it long enough to be much more deadly than a common soldier for a short period of time, so with the three of them, it made sense to put them into a position to close any gaps that appeared inside the defensive formation.
I hardly noticed the last minute preparations inside the formation all my focus was on the now approaching soldiers, the enemy mages were behind the frontline troops to be able to better defend against any incoming magical attacks. A dozen men formed a shield wall in front of a score of archers, this was a sensible strategy as they could use the range to thin our numbers before engaging us in close range and using numbers to overwhelm our position. This would have worked except I also could attack at range and when I judged them to be at the extreme of my range I stood up and let the last of my anger free to do as it will.
I stood on the wall and started to glow from the activation of my mana, this made me a perfect target for archers to shoot at and they didn't hesitate to shoot at such an unprotected target. Soon arrows were plunging into the earthen warks around me and a few even made it within a few feet of me but still I stood on the wall. My signature ranged ability started to form in my hands as I took a throwing stance and threw the Hardened fire spear with tremendous power towards the shield wall, it flashed through the space between the wall and the approaching attack in a flash before impacting a hastily raised earthen wall a few feet in front of the soldiers stopping my attack before it could do any real harm to the approaching soldiers.
A volley of arrows was the reply they sent and I spread my arms wide and pushed a wave of fire towards the incoming arrows, on contact the wooden shafts of the arrows disintegrated but the steel tips made it through intact and only Kace's quick thinking saved me from any harm as a thin rock wall pushed up in front of me stopping any of the arrowheads from hurting me.
Kace was upset that I hadn't even tried to dodge but he was also thankful because it required a lot less mana to form one thin wall in front of an obvious target instead of trying to stop arrows aimed at all of us so he just shook his head and prepared for the second volley.
The flames around me became brighter as fire mana visibly started to gather around me while my crown formed once again atop my head. Another spear formed and I threw this one at the approaching soldiers but this time I didn't wait for it to impact the once again hastily formed earthen wall before I threw another one giving no time for the other mages to defend against this attack and it collided with the left side of the formation piercing a shield and the man using it as if both were made of butter, the dying man started to scream as he tried to use his free hand to remove the burning spear from his chest but before he could move it even an inch he expired as the heat from the spear cooked the man from the inside out.
Fear gripped the approaching soldiers as they were ordered to start to sprint towards the defenders hoping to overwhelm them before too many of them died. They sprinted across the gap as fast as they could as I threw one spear after another at the soldiers missing a few times, blocked by the other mages a couple of times, and only managing to kill 4 more soldiers before I gave up on ranged attacks and jumped off the wall to run towards the attackers.
Kace was stunned to see the stupid boy jump off the wall but was too slow to keep me within the walls so he just screamed in horror hoping I would listen to him and come back behind the safety of the walls.
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