It seemed like the pirates had sent all their force to the west side where the frontal assault had happened, which meant that the decoy had not worked at all. A long battle had ensued on the shorelines, where eventually the military had proven to be victorius, but not without strife.
Suddenly as if life itself returned all the mages felt their power again, and many of them instantly advanced with flight spells or started treating injured.
Dere'haj saw Samuel walk past her again all bloody, she opened her mouth to speak but she felt too ashamed for any sound to leave her mouth, but Samuel was too occupied with his own thoughts.
He quickly walked into the water that had turned into a red shoreline. But even so most of the blood on him was washed off, as he started hovering above the water. Eventually he found what he was looking for and flew back to shore.
There he lay down two bodies, one that was almost unrecognizable because it had been ripped into shreds from what looked to be a direct impact of a cannonball. But the red scales of Sarmah stood out in another shade of red to her blood.
The other corpse was missing an arm and leg and with open eyes of pain. Samuel knelt down and slowly closed Erica's eyes, Tere'he saw him and dashed over to him, "Have you seen either-" Her words got lodged in her throat.
Tere'he screamed out a loud no, as she fell on her knees next to Erica and embraced her and tried to heal her. She clung to the body with desperation until Dere'haj came walking and aimed one strike at Tere's neck that knocked her out.
She commanded two of her men to take care of her. Samuel saw two flags from the ships that lay in the water on the shore, he quickly retrieved the huge flags and used them to wrap up the bodies in silence.
His heart was pounding and his chest was hurting, he was dizzy and he could swear it had started raining. But he quickly finished up his task and with care put the corpses inside his shadow pocket. "Samuel I-I am so sorry!" Night's voice suddenly came through.
"I-I-I was trying to come out and warn you and scream and help but I-" Samuel could only hear her silent sobs before he replied using their mind link. "This is not your fault, don't ever blame yourself." His voice was devoid of emotion and it made her quiet as he stood tall.
He looked at all the soldiers that remained, they looked worried and hurt. The commanding officers were in shambles, Samuel walked over to the nearest flag bearer and yanked the flag out of his hand. Several soldiers watched with interest piqued.
Samuel tapped the earth twice and a small pillar errupted a meter or two into the air, he stood on top of it. Having magic back would feel great if it wasn't for the fact that everything had gone to shit. But he had a job to do and a friend to honor.
"Soldiers of Rejuan, all of you who are able to still move! All of you who are not needed to take care and guard the injured, follow me into the abyss." Samuel raised a sword towards the wooden fort.
"Or will you sit by and let your friends deaths be in vain, will you let their sacrifice go to nothing. Will you wallow in shame or will you stand proud alongside me!" Samuel roared out and made a magical embroidery on the Rejuan flag.
Every soldier could see the emblem of house Gillfall on the banner. "We haveto continue our mission, because we have a duty to uphold, and now we also must carry the honor of the fallen with us!"
His words seemed to rouse several soldiers and military officers as well, they slowly started standing up and gripping their weapons tight. Marines and Soldiers alike and started standing proud once more, even several mages stopped up to listen and rallied.
Samuel jumped off the pillar and Dere'haj was the first to walk up, she held out her hand and Samuel handed her the flag. "You heard the young one lads! WE FIGHT!" She shouted it out louder than Samuel had ever heard anyone shout before.
Several hundreds of soldiers drew their weapons and started mobilising, Dere nodded to Samuel and he sighed before started to run up that hill. All the battle ready soldiers started charging behind him.
"Get the ladders!" Some yelled. "Archers focus fire on the second walling!" Another officer yelled. "Battering ram coming through!" Several others that were carrying a large wooden ram yelled and several shields were raised around them.
They quickly got up the hill and reached the closed gates, the men with the ram quickly started charging it, and the few pirates that were at the gatehouse started panicking. Especially when a few ladders were raised, Samuel sensed it then.
That the anti magic field had not been removed, but it had been retracted to the fort, so with his last magic he used a jump and gravity spell and jumped, in the middle of the air the spell effect disappeared, but using natural physics.
He still came flying and landed a top the gatehouse, where he instantly ran a sword through a pirate who died with gurgling sounds, he saw that this side was suddenly left very unguarded, the pirates must have moved to intercept the other sides.
Gryphon knights were flying down from the airships that were moving overhead, A pirate came running up a stair case and swung at Samuel, he easily parried the blow and kicked the man in the chest which sent him tumbling back down.
Thats when the gate was broken apart and soldiers came rushing in and cutting their way through the few defenders at the same time as they conquered the walls with the ladders. Dere'haj was quick to run up to the top of the gatehouse where Samuel stood and raised the flag high for everyone to see.
The gryphon knights started changing targets after they saw it and went further in. Soon enough flags of Rejuan were raised all over the fort, Samuel and the forces he led through cut right into the back of the pirates as they finally reached an inner courtyard.
Where a huge half giant with two greatswords stood with a grin as Samuel came running inside with the soldiers. "So you have come to take my head! Know that you won't take the head of Cafragoz the dread pirate so easily!" The pirate started laughing, then he was suddenly on the ground.
He looked really confused as he saw a huge body standing tall without a head. Before he realized that it was his body, Samuel was in no mood for any games, so with elemental infusion and slow vision combined the pirate stood no chance.
As he landed behind the pirate leader the body slowly fell and all the soldiers started cheering, "Gillfall, Gillfall, Gillfall!" They didn't know his name, but they knew he was with house Gillfall because of the emblem he had shown on the flag.
Soon enough the magic field was removed once again and the entire fort was conquered, Samuel left the cleaning up to the decoy force that had been moving in late. Him and all the soldiers that had followed him also followed him out the fort and down to the beaches, except for a few that stayed to secure the areas they had taken.
Not a single soldier that followed him had died, many had gotten injured but that was all. So they surrounded him like he was their hero until they got back to the beach where many injured were in need of help.
Many soldiers patted Samuel's shoulders and thanked him before taking their leave to go help with their duties, Dere'haj had stayed behind in the fort to help with the clean sweep.
Samuel found Tere'he where she was laying unconscious still on the sand wrapped in blankets. Samuel sat down next to her and there he sat for at least an hour or two and just watched over her. He didn't want anything to do with what was left, eventually the airships started brining aboard injured and most people that were not essential to remain behind were sent away on the airships.
Samuel went with Tere'he who was placed on a makeshift bed on one of the airships along with many other wounded. The first airship quickly made it's way back to the coastline of Rejuan and Samuel sat in silence.
As the journey came to an end they were back at Port Crevin, where Tere'he was transported into her own room in a big hospital ward. The bigger halls were made into triage stations for most soldiers, "The perks of being a mage I guess." Samuel sighed and felt like he couldn't care less.
Mages were more sought after because a single mage was worth a hundred soldiers, but even so he didn't like the injustice, a life was a life and that day he had taken many.
Did they deserve it? Most probably yes, did his first ever friend deserve to die, most probably no.
But does that stop the world from being a cruel place, as long as people exist then there will always be cruelty and evil, but Samuel also knew there would be good.
Tere'he woke up in a daze, "What happened?" She asked at the same time as the door swung open violently and Bregane rushed in asking, "What happened?" While Sonya slowly walked in looking worried.
"A military disaster." Samuel replied coldly and reached into his shadow pocket.