"Present, ARMS!" Captain Zhao roared, lowering the pike in his hands to point towards the enemy, his glaive still secure on his back.
The pikes of the formation fell down and formed a spear wall before them.
The black-armored warriors of Krodia rushed towards the spear wall, their shields raised in an attempt to smash through the formation.
"HA!" Captain Zhao signaled.
"HA!" One thousand warriors responded, and as one they thrust forward, piercing through the waves of enemies as if they were paper.
Several warriors grinned as they struck true, their hellish training fresh in their minds. Such maneuvers were child's play.
The Krodians tried to slow down to probe the shield wall, but alas, the millions of troops behind them were not so patient.
Gore and corpses began to pile up as the formation thrust forward periodically, reaping the souls of many.
But it could not last forever.
After a few minutes of nonstop arrow barrage, the War Mages were beginning to tire. Captain Zhao could hear their ragged breaths. Even the War Mages of Vrea, with their considerable mana reserves, could not hold such a barrier for long, the weight of the arrows stuck in the air pressuring them considerably.
Captain Zhao grinned, the Krodian generals were beginning to curb their troop's blood lust, the meat grinder was simply too much. They'd lost thousands by now, and while they had millions, why not let the arrows take care of them? By now, the mass of arrows hanging above the Vrean's heads loomed like the Sword of Damocles, threatening to take all their lives with a single slip of focus.
But Captain Zhao had a trick up his sleeve. The Avicus Barrier was not a normal barrier.
"War Mages! Auxiliary! Execute!"
The mages grinned, finally. Thousands of Krodians killed were nice, but they were holding up at least half a million arrows currently.
The Auxiliary Mages formed hand signs and spoke in the guttural tongue once again, adding their mana to the barrier before, as one, they slowly executed one hand sign after another.
Precision and coordination were paramount, and the mana cost was astronomical. But it would be worth it.
In the air, the arrows suddenly spun around 180 degrees, and pointed from whence they came. Once they were ready, Captain Zhao gave the order.
"FIRE!"
As one, the mages thrust their hands out once more, their faces twisted in a sinister smile, as the half-million arrows fired back towards the Krodian archers with the speed of a hawk, hunting for its prey.
Accompanied by the dark hale of arrows were the screams of thousands.
The Avicus Barrier was no normal barrier, it was a Vrean special that hadn't been used in millennia. Captain Zhao only knew about it since General Aquillus had taught him about its use.
Captain Zhao grinned. They had yet to suffer any casualties, and they had single-handedly wiped out thousands of infantry and taken care of hundreds of thousands of ranged units.
'Not bad for less than ten minutes of battle,' Captain Zhao patted himself on the back. 'Things were looking good.'
Just as he was thinking thus, the war horns of Krodia bellowed.
A shiver went down Captain Zhao's spine.
He saw three massive war elephants charging his position, trampling the Krodians as they rushed towards the battle. Those towards the front cleared a path to the Vreans.
"War Mages! Focus fire! Take the two on the sides down! I'll take the middle one!"
They soon began weaving the spells they were best at, taking their attention off the infantrymen and wreaking destruction upon the elephants and all those who were near them.
Captain Zhao took hold of his mana and began supplying his bulging muscles with massive amounts of mana. His form grew from 3 meters tall to 3.5, and he drew his pike back like a javelin, before throwing it with all his might at the approaching elephant.
As he released it from his grip, like a laser beam it cut through all in its path on its way to the elephant, a cone of air forming around it as it smashed through the sound barrier.
The massive pike fit for the hands of the giant Captain Zhao was ripped through the elephant, killing it instantly.
Zhao shrunk back to 3 meters as he shook his wrist.
'I'm really getting old if throwing a pike hurts this much...' He mused.
From his vantage point above his troops, he could see that despite all that he had done, it was only a drop in the ocean. There were no more arrow barrages coming, back the see of infantry was almost overwhelming.
Over time, the sun knights grew tired. They were honed and trained from a very young age, so it took far longer than it would for the average warrior. Even if they did have mana, it only prolonged their inevitable exhaustion.
The first Vrean to fall took an arrow to the eye, though it bounced off the mana barrier set up to cover the eyeholes. All it did was render his blind for a half-second and momentarily dazed. The formation had just thrust, but he did not pull his pike back. The Krodians jumped at the chance, ripping him out of the formation in his exhaustion.
When they were done with him, he was more a pile of viscera than a corpse.
One fell, then another. Soon, the formation collapsed, and Captain Zhao took immediate action.
"Fall back! Utilize your glaives!"
The Vrea started sprinting back towards friendly lines, and Captain Zhao took up the rear, holding them off for his troops.
"FOR THE FLAME!" He roared, as his form grew once again.
Every slash with his glaive took a dozen lives, but he could not hold an entire army, much less prevent any from chasing his brothers. Neither did he want to.
This was his role, his mission, his purpose.
It only took a few seconds before the injuries began to pile up. There were simply too many of them. For every dozen he slew, he took a hit, some shallow as a paper cut, others deep and gruesome.
Captain Zhao could feel his life slipping away, the blood loss was too much.
He grinned as he compacted all his remaining mana into his core, and grinned still as he collapsed the core, exploding in a blaze of glory.
"For the Flame..."
...
The Krodian generals knew it was a trap as soon as they saw the Vreans retreat. No way they would retreat, the golden angels moved forward or didn't move at all.
Unfortunately, their troop's bloodlust was insatiable. After hours of battle, they could finally see victory, they could hurt and even kill those gods of death their superiors feared so much.
They chased them through the canyon, even as they lost ground. The warriors were simply too fast, but the Krodians didn't give up.
Far above them, stood fifteen War Mages, clad in their golden robes. As the Krodians gave chase, the War Mages took their positions above, until the Krodians had gone too far, and it was too late to turn back.
The War Mages rained death upon them, fireballs, lightning bolts, earth spears. The canyon floor was stained red with blood.
In his tent, General Aquillus grinned.
"Those fools, they fell for such a classic trick. We may win this yet, Major Azey. Begin preparation for the next phase of our plan. Prepare the Rockfall for our counterattack."
"Yes sir. For the Flame!" Azey replied.
"For the Flame."
"I expect that this will give us some time and-"
A war cry, too close, in the wrong direction. The voices of millions of warriors suddenly crashed against the walls of the canyon, and the sounds of battle raged.
"What the hell's going on?!" General Aquillus shouted.
He rushed out of the war tent, only to see the purple garb of the Adal Sultanate.
Somehow, they had Warped an entire Army behind them, and now the Sun Guard had to abandon their plan.
...
"Lord Belmore, we just received word that the Adal have launched their attack."
"Excellent. Without such a maneuver, routing the Vreans without massive casualties is impossible, I see that now. It seems my fears were well-founded."
The Krodian general looked towards the mouth of the canyon as he pondered.
After a few seconds, he relayed his orders: "Begin the next phase of the battle plan. Flood the canyon, I don't care how many men it takes, keep sending in more until the Vreans are dead! I will lead the Blackguard, we must take General Aquillus. The secrets of Vrea rest with that man."
"My Lord, aren't you worried the general will be dead by the time you get there?"
"General Aquillus? Are you hearing yourself correctly? Are we speaking about the same General Aquillus?"
"I suppose you're right, my Lord. Forgive my impudence."
Lord Belmore scoffed, waving him away.
'Let's see how you get out of this one, Aquillus...'
...
"How the hell are we going to get out of this?!" General Aquillus roared.
He thought quickly. He didn't know the number of Adal troops, but they surely outnumbered them by a substantial sum.
He looked at Major Azey, one of his regimental commanders.
"Carry out the Rockfall immediately, we must cripple the Krodians and defeat the Adal first. We can't allow the Krodians to get behind us!"
"Yes sir!" He hurried away to convey the message.
General Aquillus quickly rallied his troops against the new threat, hoping he hadn't suffered many losses. As he made his way towards the battlefield, the ground quaked with his every step. He too was a little over 3 meters tall, with a massive and heavy glaive in his hand. He rushed towards the chaos, only to see thousands of Sun Guard slaughtered. Rage gripped his heart, a good quarter of his brothers and sisters had been killed by the surprise attack.
The warriors had regrouped and were now in fire teams of three, wielding their glaives with murderous intent. But even so, there were simply too many of them. One by one, fire team by fire team, they fell. The purple garbed warriors through themselves into the meat grinder with a fanaticism only matched by the Vreans, pushing their number advantage to its maximum effect.
By the time the Krodians arrived, there were only a hundred of the Sun Guard left, the surprise attack had been far too effective. They weren't ready, nor prepared for such a large number. Many were killed before they could even pick up their weapon.
The Adal had betrayed them.