Chapter 17 - Chapter 17: The Wall

We travelled to the wall within the expected timeline only stopping to rest in the inns along the way. Large crowds were moving away from the direction that we were heading to. Were it not for the talon's insignia on the carriages, our journey would have been a nightmare. Our first stop was the military headquarters in Midrain where all the Talons were present. I had travelled with my Pitch, my talking crow. Once I arrived here, I sent him to conduct reconnaissance activities. Miss Lavender and Mr. Albert went away to help treat the injured. Nathan and I joined the high level meeting where we were briefed on all that had occurred. "There are wyverns attacking a particular section of the wall with their fire breaths. Their objective seems to be destroying the wall to allow other monsters to pass through." The fire Talon started. "It is not uncommon for monsters to show a certain level of intelligence but I fear this is beyond anything that can be imagined. Every decision that has been made here seems to indicate that there is a mastermind behind it. The various monsters are showing an unprecented level of cooperation." The Wind Talon added. In summary, the level of coordination was mind boggling. The flying monsters would conduct flying sorties on various settlements then retreat. They would then focus on destroying a particular section of the wall after reinforcements had been pulled back to rescue the affected settlement. There was already a giant gap in the wall due to this destructive practices. The only saving grace was that low level goblins were targeting the area. The discussions were concluded and it was agreed that all Earth mages whether soldiers or not would participate in building a second wall far behind the front lines. Thus the formation was to have all combat troops stationed behind the old wall and a second wall to be built behind the troops to buy time in case the need for a tactical retreat arises. Five direct combat armies were formed headed by each Talon except the Earth Talon who was to spearhead the second wall construction. The armies were mixed having multiple people with different attributes to ensure greater chances of success. Since practitioners of dark magic were less than a hundred, each army received around twenty of them each. Dark magic users were instrumental in healing injuries. The numbers of the Talon's army were as followsDark Talon: 10, 000, Fire Talon: 130, 000, Wind Talon 100, 000, Light Talon 50, 000, Water Talon 200, 000. Each Talon received numbers proportionate to the role that they were fulfilling. The Dark Talons role was transfer and treating the injured. He was stationed behind the enemy lines to ensure that the field clinic where they could transfer the injured to recuperate was safe. Each Talon would have a Field hospital run by dark mages to conduct first aid services. The Dark Talon's army head quarter would act as the whole army's General hospital. I was allowed to choose where to work. I chose to follow Miss Lavender and was now part of the Fire Talon's army. Pitch, my taking crow returned later with some unexpected news. "Strong human in forest controlling monsters." Pitch said. I relayed the information of my findings to the talon that same day. Upon questioning Pitch further, it was determined that a human presence was giving out orders to the various monsters that would be considered intelligent. Do we have a beast tamer that has turned rogue? I wondered what the person's endgame is. Perhaps the shocking fact of all was that the person wore a uniform red in color depicting a fire mage in service within the Fire Talon's ranks. The face was covered therefore it was impossible to identify the culprit. We had to swallow a bitter pill that we had a spy in our midst. Miss Lavender and I made our journey to the front lines the next day. On the way she was explaining our roles as field medics. Basically, if a soldier in the field suffers an injury, it was our role to retrieve them and perform a first aid procedure on the battlefield. Depending on the condition afterwards, they may continue fighting or carried back to the platoon's field hospital. If the conditions were still terrible, the patient would be taken to the Dark Talon's General hospital where the skilled healers resided. All in all it was not a very complicated process. I was also trained how to remove harmful substances from the body and close up a wound once we arrived. I trained with patients who had minor injuries such as grazes and shallow cuts. This process was not difficult at all. In fact, at the end of the day I had healed over a hundred blisters on feet and hands. Of course I could not deal with serious cases such as stab wound and deep cuts at this stage. All I could do was provide relief services with loosening sore muscles, minor cuts and resetting broken bones. It is now the fourth day. I am constantly practicing by healing wounds of soldiers that are trying to deal with the skirmishes. The number of monsters is still too low to be called a war. I am now on the front lines where we are dealing with a small group of around 200 goblins daily. Most injuries here are minor hence I can deal with them. I have been practicing making runs and healing various soldiers and then retreating. This should come in handy once the dangerous monsters start coming around. My stamina although not at the level of others was a big help. I could run continuously for over 3 hours continuously while healing the different soldiers. In the afternoon something unexpected happened. Wolves appeared through the various gaps created by the wyverns constant aerial bombardment of the walls and targeted us. Specifically the four of us dark mages wearing dark and purple clothing and were practicing healing the soldiers. Of course they were no threat to any of us. Various membranes, tortoise shells, metal and rocks were equipped. Within 5 minutes, the 20 plus wolves were all dealt with by the dark mages they were specifically targeting. I crushed the skull of one by punching it, tore the jaw of another and kicked two of them like a football. They went and spattered their remains all over the wall. Of course I had both my metal membrane and barriers equipped on my whole body. Their fangs and claws did not manage to put a scratch on me. It should be noted that the wolves were faster and stronger than the normal goblins that were present daily. "Wow, you guys are very talented. Why are you not actively fighting with us?" asked a seasoned fire mage. "If we do fight with you, nobody is going to be there for healing purposes." Answered Miss Lavender. This is going to be trouble, wolves targeting individual healers. That is insane. I sent a report to the Fire Talon explaining what happened here in detail as well as my recommendation on increasing the level of confidentiality of key decisions. There was no doubt in my mind that the spy was among us.It is now the fifth day. I am heading towards the Fire Talon's headquarters to ask for a briefing about the second wall. I arrived there and was ushered in, I met the Fire Talon who notified me that the second wall was 80% done. Various supply routes were also formed to support the needs of the troops. I then explained once more what happened earlier and then exchanged some theories on why it happened. Various ground monsters were now observed at the edge of the forest. It was difficult to ascertain their types because they were far away but it was expected the earliest they would arrive here would be tomorrow in the afternoon. Our earth mages are repairing the gaps in the wall to prevent monsters from trespassing. The work on the second wall is almost complete so most of them have been reassigned duties within the five combat armies. Only our section of the wall was badly damaged, it seems they wanted to invade through this route because it was a plain. All the other sections have some type of obstacles except the area we were guarding. It was a large stretch of grass from the wall to the horizon. Today is also a very peculiar day. There were no monsters from morning and it is now in the afternoon. There is nothing to do so I am doing squats and pushups in my tent. I have realized that my speed although higher than that of a normal human, is very slow compared to other dark mages during our training periods. I can't really hope to match them with my small frame but I can improve to be better than yesterday. "Urgent report the monsters are breaching the wall. Everybody to arms." A voice was heard screaming. The spectacle that was observed was ne that I will not soon forget. Giant flying insects and animals were carrying goblins and ogres over the wall and dropping them on our side. They would then retreat to what I assume was to carry the others left behind. This is bad, they are treating the wall like an obstacle in steeple chase. The number of those flying was easily over a thousand. "There are soldiers hurt at the top of the wall. Let us go and heal them. Have your metal membrane on at all times." Miss Lavender told me. I went back and took my spear. It was helpful when I needed to cast spells with a high degree of accuracy. I followed Miss Lavender to the wall running as fast as possible. The different soldiers were firing off their spells without holding back. Thanks to my metal membrane and barrier, the few that managed to hit me did not inflict any damage at all. On the way, I swung my spear a number of times while casting a wind sickle over a wide area. The result was that all the monsters in front of our paths were dissected. We climbed the stairs and we each went to different directions on the wall. Half of the soldiers positioned on top of the wall were dead. That was a tough sight because I could recall some of their faces. I had healed some of their minor injuries before. There were claw marks, biting mark, some were burn to cinders and most of them poisoned. I could see them dealing with a large scorpion on top of the wall. It had a tough exoskeleton but it was also hurting apparently the constant attacks were doing some damage. I removed the poison from those who were alive and closed their wounds. They were still too weak to fight but could move themselves to safety. For the more serious cases like a person's arm was bitten cleanly off, I would remove the poison in their blood streams and stop the bleeding by closing the wound. I was doing all these while fighting against wolves who were feasting on the soldiers. I would kick them towards the forest, punch them on their head if they got too close and stab them with my spear until the tip was visible on the other side. Their attacks towards me were mere child's play. In half an hour, I had cleared all the monsters o the wall in my section. The troublesome scorpion was also put to death by the other soldiers. I healed the injuries of all those who could move and asked for their help to move those who were too weak or unconscious. Suddenly, the flying monsters started attacking us. "Humans. Must. Die." A voice said. I looked up and saw a large phoenix bird preparing to unleash a powerful heat attack. "How about you die." I said as I held my spear like a javelin. I then threw the spear with all my physical strength combined with wind magic forming a vortex at the tip of the spear. BOOM. A sound that can only be described as a sonic boom was heard. I was aiming for the chest but missed completely. The spear flew just next to the phoenix and then disappeared. "Arrgh, arrgh." The phoenix screamed. I missed, why is it overreacting? The phoenix flew out of control and crash landed on our side of the wall. The left wing was heavily damaged. The high speed of the spear managed to harm it although I had completely missed it. "No don't kill it. We are going to question it. Immobilize it completely and ensure that its mouth is closed." I shouted to a soldier who was heading towards it. By now, an hour after the fighting had started almost all the intruders were dead. We had suffered heavy losses on the first day of this full scale war. The total tally of the dead was 5,000 and the injured was 20,000. Out of the initial 130,000 soldiers, 25,000 which is 19% were out of commission on the first day. If this went on, we would only fight for four more days before we ran out of soldiers. The situation was dire. The other Talons reported that there were no attacks on their side but hordes of monsters could be observed ready to attack at any moment. A strategic meeting was called after we saved the belongings of the deceased soldiers and burned their corpses. The attacks had stopped a few hours ago but we remained vigilant. If we fought at night, we would suffer more casualties than we did earlier. The mood was tense and anxiety filled our hearts as we were anticipating for the next attack.