Chapter 14: Attack

When night descended is when the demons attacked everywhere. Prince Jacob's eyes went wide in fear as he saw a giant eye floating in the air shooting out powerful magic attacks at the creatures defending the grove. Jacob had seen many of the spirit beasts and their kin throughout the day and he was still struggling with the strange appearances of the half spirit beast people. What do they call themselves anyway? 

As the fear started to cause thoughts that had would not help him survive the strange eye that was attacking, Jacob was grabbed by the arm and rushed away. The child who pulled him along looked almost completely like a bird with no wings. " Where are you taking me?" 

" Somewhere safe. There will be more flying demons soon and they will be followed by those on land. My job is to move all non-combatants out of the line of fire." The boy looked at Jacob with annoyance. " You should have been moved earlier, however no one wanted to come near you. You had such a look of disgust on your face when you looked at us." The boys eyes narrowed. " Honestly, I prefer to leave you on your own. You clearly judge others by how they look instead of truly getting to know and understand them." The lad continued  pulling Jacob away without another word.

Jacob was shocked by the boy's words and worried about the fighting going in the air. Homes would occasionally burst into flames around them. Jacob watched as those fires would instantly be pulled toward one of the fire hawks or the cross breeds between humans and the fire hawks without causing them harm. They consume the fire element? What kind of magic is this?

He was still contemplating these questions when they reached an underground entrance in the middle of town. There were four guards around the entrance who didn't even look at the two boys. Their attention was on the fights going around the town. The corridor was made of stone that had shiny runes everywhere that created low level lights in various colors. Jacob watched the runes in interest as they walked to the end which opened to a hall that was big enough to fit an elder dragon.

" Holy..... this place...." Jacob exclaimed with wonder. The boy snorted and led Jacob off to the side. There were smaller alcoves where people were either resting or working. 

" You can rest here on one of the mats or you can explore around and maybe help with some of the work that needs to be done. " He shrugged as if he couldn't care less what Jacob would do. After that he released Jacob and moved on to a different alcove. Jacob sighed and decided to sleep. He was tired almost all the time right now and he honestly did not understand why. It was best to rest and recover from whatever was bothering his body. He could always help tomorrow.

Meanwhile outside the underground safe zone, more flying creatures appeared. They were fighting heavily with many fire hawks. Flames flashed the most in the sky. Lighting up the darkness with magnificent red/orange color. The demons slashed with claws and fangs and an occasional bit of magic. Sometimes lightning struck several hawks. Sometimes it was poison. The bodies of both demons and beasts would fall to the ground never to rise again.

The woman Jacob first met in this grove was named Violet. She cursed as she threw one of her axes into the skull of a demon war hound. The beast was as big as a small pony; with black and red fur, green glowing eyes and a blackish sludge coming out of its mouth. The axe she threw went straight between its eyes and instantly killed the beast while Violet kept moving. She jumped on the dead demon dogs back, quickly retrieved her axe and continued fighting with her family by her side. They all knew that there would be losses tonight. The point was to kill as many as they could before death claimed them.

Violet whirled and severed one of the heads off a giant. The other head was completely covered by arrows. Thankfully none of the defenders on the ground had fallen yet. A few had retreated back to the center grove for healing. New defenders replaced the wounded who went back. Violet hoped that this rotation strategy would keep the casualties to a minimum. 

Violet remembered her history lessons well. When the wild wood territories were first created by the spirit beast clans, all the strong clans had taken lands toward the center of the woods. They did not care that the weaker clans would die. That being said, they were so busy fighting against each other instead of working for the benefit of all and this had nearly destroyed them all during the first demon attack. 

After that, the remaining clans figured out that they had to work together to survive future attacks. The clans had been at war with humanoids as well. It only made sense to band together in order to protect themselves from the harsh world.  Of course, there had been constant debates. However most of those were long gone now. It was decided that those who were strong clans would have territories toward the edges of the woods. The weakest would be near the middle. The center was for all and could house anyone who did not wish to remain in their clans for whatever reason. The center became a place of learning for the young and a place to just relax for adults. It wasn't weak, but it also wasn't the strongest either.

Violet was determined to hold the line. Her clan would not be the first to fall. She knew many of her clansmen agreed with her as they fought with all they had and only retreated back if their wounds couldn't be handled by their own hands.