The bell rang throughout the entire city, its meaning evident to the Zanian soldiers. For a few days now, the soldiers of the Zanian city of Krome had been fighting tooth and nail to defend their home; but now their mayor, someone who had led them to war every time, called for their retreat.
The soldiers gritted their teeth, their faces deep in contemplation, "RETREAT!!" But a voice called from the crowd, it was one of the higher officers of the city of Krome, "DO NOT QUESTION IT!! MAYOR MALVOZA HAS LED US THIS FAR!! AND SHE WILL LEAD US FURTHER!!"
The Kromian soldiers set aside all contemplation. Their faith in their mayor was tested again and again, and she never once failed them. A thousand soldiers began to slowly return to the city walls, the higher-tier soldiers assisting them.
But above the Aegis shield the champions of Zan and Dyrin were still going at it. Things had slowed down due to the fact they had been fighting for half an hour now, their mana pools had been almost drained; even Sevi, who had the highest mana pool on the side of the Zanians was starting to slow down, his rapid use of kutha and yutro starting to take an effect.
Meanwhile, trying to walk away, Bok was assisting Rapl, the Lich was blind, the side effect of using too much of his gift, "W-what's happening Bok? Where's everyone?" Rapl asked panicking for he thought that they had lost.
"Bad news Rapl, I got information from Nerio that Dyrin had more soldiers, ten thousand of them had landed near Krome, we need to go now," Bok remarked. Rapl's mind was still reeling from the fight, slowly he began to piece together all the information, "Don't worry, I'm sure everyone already knows, but I think due to your lack of mana, you didn't get the message."
It was true, Rapl had been exerting himself too much, he felt the mana lessening inside of him to where now he felt like he had exerted all of it. But behind them, Ja'Klei and Dyrin stood with no enemy, and still, their mana pools were up, "Dyrin, what should we do, everyone's mana is low, but it seems like they are retreating," the orc asked, walking up to Dyrin.
"We can't afford to let them get away, especially the champions, but we do not have too much mana to charge in right now," the pirate remarked, huffing and puffing, but also smiling, for he knew he had won his battle with the Lich. "Do you still have mana for a portal? If so grab some ercana seeds back at camp, you and I will relax and concentrate on regaining mana, and we'll lead the backup in invading Krome." After hearing Dyrin's command, Ja'Klei chanted a spell, creating a small portal, and through it, he got a bag of seeds.
Ercana seeds, a popular ration for warriors or mages in general. Gained from ercana plants, the seeds of it have special mana-restoring properties, tricking the body into making it think it is in deep rest, quickly restoring mana. Typically eaten in small amounts in soup or baked in bread, due to the risk of putting the consumer in a coma; but due to their desperation to regain mana, Dyrin and Ja'Klei consumed the seeds outright, although only a few.
They then sat down and meditated, concentrating all the mana in their body to return. Meanwhile, below the Aegis shield, the Zanian soldiers had been flooding in the city walls, Dyrin's lesser champions were trying to push past them, but they met heavy resistance.
With a wide swing of his tail, Rico cut down many pirates in front of him; the salamander was injured, but due to his thick hide, it wasn't anything too life-threatening. Aside from Rico, the red scars and especially the singular swordsaint were taking the brunt of the invading force.
With a singular swing of his blade, the swordsaint took out over three men, but above the aegis shield, he noticed that the Zanian champions were retreating. He quickly alerted the red scars of his plan as he sprinted back to the walls and up the stairs, "I need to cover their escape, there are five of them, if I just take on three at a time I should be fine."
The swordsaint jumped off the walls into the Aegis shield, immediately getting Dyrin and Ja'Klei's attention, "A swordsaint, this is getting dangerous," the orc commented, still resting. He knew he and Dyrin didn't have enough mana to fight the swordsaint yet, "What should we do Dyrin?"
The pirate was also worried, although his smile didn't show it, "To be honest with you Ja'Klei, I don't know," he replied, his voice calm and steady trying to gain as much mana as possible, "But we've had times like this, where victory is uncertain, but remember, we are still here."
Ja'Klei nodded at what Dyrin said, "Most of them were because you, Tuck, and Verti couldn't just wait," he quipped. As the swordsaint saw Dyrin and Ja'Klei resting, he knew he had to interrupt them, but as he was about to dash and attack them, the body of Sevi crashed into the swordsaint, and not a while later, a gust of wind was fired in their direction.
The swordsaint quickly recovered, and as he saw the wind coming at him, he prepared his blade. He swung as he made a Rend projectile, slicing the gust in half; Sevi recovered after, huffing and puffing, he knew he was close to running out. But it was the same with Sevi's opposition, Tuck, for he descended from the sky, his mana no longer being enough to support his constant flying.
The swordsaint saw this as an opportunity to strike, in under a second, he covered over fifty feet to reach Tuck. The wind mage's low mana made his Perception weaker, so as the blade was about to cut him in half, his life flashed before his eyes.
But suddenly, the swordsaint's blade was stopped by a shield, and the arrow-ridden body of Frieda appeared in front of Tuck, "Don't scare me like that again darling," Frieda expressed, an angered smile plastered on her face.
A barrage of arrows cut through the air toward Frieda's head, but with a powerful gust of wind, Tuck redirected them in all directions, "Says you with that back of yours," he replied, his voice more serious and his smile gone.
Frieda began to battle the swordsaint, with Tuck assisting with protecting her against the arrows. But both of them knew that they would not win if the fight continued, they only hoped for something to come.
And it did, noticing that due to the fleeing Zanians, the Huldian pirates had pushed closer to the walls of Krome; meaning that most of the Aegis was over Huldian lines. Verti noticed this, her battle with the ice mage was an intense one, and she knew she had one more big move before her mana completely ran dry.
"Getting tired?" Alex taunted, although she also was tired, she knew she had the upper hand in their duel. As Alex swung wide with her wand blade, Verti parried it, and with her blade held high, she infused all her mana into it. Knowing that it was a strike she couldn't block, Alex dodged, thinking she'd counter after Verti missed.
But with all her might in her small body, Verti slammed her massive blade onto the battered Aegis. And in that moment, the yellow ceiling of the battle broke, Bok and Rapl, already near the walls landed near the Zanian soldiers, but Sevi, Leena, Alex, and the lone swordsaint all landed near the Huldian pirates.
But while this was happening outside the walls, inside of it Malvoza and other officials rushed towards where they hid the civilians. Krome was a relatively small city of fifty-thousand people; big Zanian cities typically have another city underground to house the civilians in a war. But Krome didn't have one, for it was too small and no one thought it would be targeted.
As Malvoza and her officials made it to the back of the city where the civilians were housed, they began to annouce the retreat of Krome. Using magic, the officials increased Malvoza's speaking volume, "ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS OF KROME!! WE NEED TO EVACUATE!! I REPEAT WE NEED TO EVACUATE!! FOLLOW THE OFFICIALS INCHARGE OF YOUR SECTOR AND THEY WILL GUIDE YOU OUTSIDE THE CITY TO THE CITY OF MAGRI!!" The Mayor reported, leading to the civilians to begin panicking.
"WHAT ABOUT THE CITY!?"
"HAVE WE BEEN DEFEATED!!?"
"WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO US ALL!??"
To quell their worries, Malvoza added something to her announcement, "The city of Krome is not with the bricks and planks that formed it, but it is with the memories and people that made it a city, Krome lives in us all, what's important now is that we live, so that it may return, many young soldiers died today, do not let their deaths be in vein." As their mayor said this, the worries of the Kromian people were a bit quelled, their sights only directed now in retreat.
But as the officials began to guide the civilians, they noticed Malvoza walking away from her people and back to the battlefield. Outside the walls, seeing their champions now vulnerable, the Zanian archers increased their fire rates, bombarding the pirates' lines with arrows. "CREATE ESCAPES FOR OUR CHAMPIONS!! " the head of the rangers commanded.
Hearing this, the footsoldiers desperately attacked the Huldian lines, pushing past them to create ways of exit. Bok, now safe at the back, swung his blade as he fired wind projectiles hoping to help. Now behind the Huldian lines, Alex, Leena, Sevi, and the Swordsaint all huddled up and fought hard, for their lives depended on it; Sevi, who had been exerting too much of his mana, finally began to puke out blood.
"I… I can't anymore," the fire mage remarked one last time as he fainted. Being the strongest one there, the swordsaint fought to defend the champions, his swings were wide and mighty, cutting down many soldiers. But what slowed him down were the lesser champions of Dyrin, they had enough strength actually to block his swings and hurt him.
But suddenly, a loud bang was heard behind the champions. Alex turned to see what it was, only to see the large and scarred body of Rico blasting past the warriors of Dyrin, his thick tail and sharp teeth carved their way towards them. On top of Rico were the red scars, and as the beast appeared in front of the isolated group, the scars assisted Sevi, Alex, and Leena up; as magic and arrows tried to attack them, the scar's superior mana forbid any damage Rico.
"GOO!!" The swordsaint yelled as he ran next to Rico, his blade and the beast's tail combined with archer and footsoldier support paved the way for the champions to return to Zanian lines. Dyrin and Ja'Klei, watching all of this, scoffed.
"Ain't that somethin'?" The pirate leader exclaimed, a bit disappointed but not angry. But his gaze was quickly pointed at his champions, Tuck and Frieda were bloody and tired, the wind mage trying to assist the warrior to the backlines. Meanwhile, Verti the halfling lay passed out on the floor, some injured Huldian soldiers lifted her up as they assisted her back.
The battle outside of Krome's walls resulted in victory for the Huldian pirates, dictated by the victory of their champions. But it came at a cost, ten percent of their soldiers died in the clash, and they had lost over five lesser champions due to the swordsaint, red scars, and the mayor of Krome herself.
"Alright," Dyrin exclaimed as he stood up, "They're likely retreating because they know the news of the whole fleet coming, they must also have brought the civilians up ahead," he assessed as he turned to Ja'Klei, "I have a quarter of my mana back, I'll keep up the pressure, make sure to notify the fleet to continue the pursuit."
Ja'Klei watched as Dyrin walked back to the battlefield, he wore a worried smile, but also an impressed one, "Can't just stand back can you?"
The last of the Zanians had entered the Kromian gates, the Huldians followed as the war continued in the city. The injured champions lay on top of Rico as the swordsaint and the red scars fought to protect them. Soon, the fighters and the defenders met up with the group, each with a member lost, "WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" Rapl yelled, he was still blind but his ears heard the whizzing and howling of spells and arrows on the battlefield.
"WE'RE TRYING TO RETREAT!! BUT THEY ARE RELENTLESS!!" Leena remarked as she fired arrows on top of Rico, but as she pulled her bow back again, her pinky snapped, "Dammit, that's the last of my fingers." But still, even with all ten of her fingers broken, Leena laid her bow on her hand, and using her mouth, pulled back the string as she continued to shoot.
But as more Huldians entered the city, and began to flood the streets, suddenly the buildings began to fall on them. Many were crushed, and many more were slowed down, resulting in the Zanian soldiers slipping past the Huldian's reach. As Dyrin made it to the front line, he also wondered what was happening.
But that was when she appeared, with loose bandages on her body, and blood dripping from her face, Malvoza stepped up to hundreds of Huldian pirates. Dyrin, seeing her, scoffed, "It was you wasn't it Mayor? Using the earth to topple your city?"
But quickly Malvoza responded, "My city has gone, this is nothing more than a ruin." Hearing this, Dyrin's smile disappeared as he sighed. Suddenly he lifted his knife, and with it, sliced his other hand open in front of his soldiers, blood flowed down to his face as Malvoza wondered what he was doing.
Dyrin's soldiers were taken aback, but with a stern voice Dyrin commanded, "Get through the city, chase the retreating Zanians." And so they followed, avoiding Malvoza as they tried to navigate the ruined city. Dyrin stared deep into Malvoza's eyes as if he were trying to read her, "I challenged you to a fight to the death, my soldiers will not attack you unless you retreat," he announced as he pointed his knife toward Malvoza, "Tell me, Mayor who are you? It is Huldian custom to know every opponent you challenge, so that warrior may carry their memory wherever they go."
Malvoza's eyes widened as she didn't expect this amount of respect shown by a warrior who had been constantly attacking her city. But after a deep breath, Malvoza decided that if she was going to die, she might as well have someone to remember her. "I am Malvoza Yirikalis, from the Youha tribe. I am thirty years old, I spent fifteen years as a soldier of the central lands and ten of those years was as the mayor of Krome. I like salted Jhala meat and vegetable soup, I was going to propose to a street vendor soon before you all arrived, " she remarked in one breath, her voice steady throughout.
Dyrin's eyes widened in shock, typically his opponents would only give their name or where they came from. But Dyrin welcomed the surprising introduction as it was one he would surely remember, "You're making me feel guilty here," he playfully remarked with a smile appearing on his face again.
"You should, I worked two years to be friends with that street vendor, now I'll never tell him," Malvoza replied with the same playful attitude as if they weren't going to fight to the death. But soon that reality came as she lifted the blade, and Dyrin's knife began to ignite with flame, "I thank you… Krome…I thank you… Zan… I thank you… Lich, for giving me this kind of life," she whispered as she darted towards Dyrin.
"Fight, or die," Dyrin also whispered as he met her speed, and in the middle of Krome, Dyrin's steel clashed with Malvoza's.