The Rain Comes

Three weeks later

Heavy rain drummed down around Hennet as he looked over at the war camp from the cover of a brush. The war camp could be barely seen through the sheets of rain that fell upon it like hail. This was good for him; the outposts from the camp wouldn't be able to spot him or his men, who hid among the trees of the forested hills that were just south of the camp. Without the rain the enemy would have still been hard pressed to see anyone moving through the heavy foliage.

He looked over his shoulder at the dozens of soldiers behind him. There were four hundred of them, a mix of syrn and human soldiers all armed to the teeth with various weapons. They wore brown gambeson armour under their green cloaks.

Their few numbers didn't match up to the thousands of soldiers that were in the camp, but they made up for it by them all being essence users. They were each trained in it, and so were far more formidable than the average soldier.

Hennet then looked at the four soldiers that were closest to him. His lieutenants; two human men, one syrn man and a syrn woman, were all seasoned veterans. They had all fought long and hard against the remnants of the empire, and now they wanted nothing more than to vanquish the enemy.

Sayen, the syrn woman, had her eyes tightly shut as if she was concentrating very hard on something. Her eyes fluttered open a moment later, and she gave Hennet a quick nod.

"Sir, our forces have begun their attack on the other two war camps," Sayen announced.

"Good, let us hope that the plan actually works, and that Milfsilla sends Gilderick to aid the other camps. We wouldn't want to fight him yet. Tell me when you've spotted him."

"Yes sir." She replied, giving another small nod.

Then she closed her eyes once more and focused.

"Sir." One of the human lieutenants spoke. "Shouldn't you let the rain wain a little? I can't even imagine how much essence you're using to keep this up."

"No, Estien It's fine. We need to stay hidden, and the rain will help with that. And besides, this doesn't really take a lot of essence to produce."

Hennet could tell that his lieutenant was still worried for him. His lieutenants were centrum knights themselves so they knew how straining such an ability would be. So, he instead said, "Look I'll lighten it up once Sayen has confirmed that Gilderick is in the other camps. All right?"

That seemed to reassure the man, and he nodded.

As the minutes ticked away Hennet watched the camp intently. He did not have to wait too long though before Sayen opened her eyes again and smiled.

"He's just teleported in sir. He is currently engaging our other forces."

"Good, then we'll begin our attack in earnest."

Hennet stood up and thrust his hand to the side. His sword formed a moment later in his grasp. The blade could only be described as a deep blue, flat raindrop. The base of the sword was wide, and the tip was as thin as a needle.

His own lieutenants had summoned their own swords. They each bared the resemblance of what a normal centrum sword would look like, an average longsword. Hennet's sword however didn't look like a longsword, for he had reached realisation. He was far more powerful than the average centrum knight.

He turned to look at his lieutenants, "Right! Estien, Gustin, you'll flank the sides of the war camp. Tanei you will strike from the back. Me and Sayen shall engage the front. If our odds are looking good then we will kill everyone, but if it looks like we are losing this battle then killing Milfsilla is the top priority. Understood?"

All three nodded.

"Alright go inform your squads, it is time for battle."

***

It had been three weeks since Evran had arrived in the war camp. In that time, he had spent it training with Gilderick, sparring with Dyrk and farming with Marie. Now though, he sat lazily on a box under a tarp while the rain poured down.

He had a bucket of grain with him, which he planned on feeding it to Betty, but the rain had suddenly come pouring down, forcing him to find shelter unless he wanted to soak himself and the grain.

So here he sat, waiting for the rain to pass. As usual, his simple tunic did nothing to stave away the cold the rain brought with it. He shivered slightly as he stared out absentmindedly into the distance.

"Blast this cold!" Evran cursed aloud as he jumped to his feet. He couldn't take the cold anymore, he needed to do something.

he reached over to the bucket and grabbed two handfuls of grain from it. Then he infused the grains with essence and willed it to change. A second later, the grains formed into small logs of wood which he then placed unto the ground.

He grabbed another handful of grain and changed them to rocks this time and started placing them around the logs.

After a few moments, he stopped and looked at his work. He had made a crude campfire. Not great by any means, but enough to start a blaze.

Evran crouched down and touched one of the logs again infusing it with essence. After a second the log burst into flames. With a sigh of relief, he cupped his hands around the small fire and blew softly upon it until the flame grew larger.

A smile spread across his face. This wasn't much, but it at least kept his hands warm.

He was thankful that Gilderick had taught him how to use his powers effectively. His sword would allow him to change objects into other objects when he infused them with essence, though this wouldn't work on living things. He had asked why that was, and Gilderick had told him that a person's own essence acts like a shield from outside influences.

Evran stared up from under the tarp and saw that the rain had started to let up. He made way to move but stopped as he noticed a black bird circle overhead.

'I've never seen a bird out in the rain.' he wondered as he stared at it.

Running boots pounding against wet mud brought Evran out of his thoughts. He looked left to see people running towards him.

"What happened?" he asked a man who passed by him.

"We're under attack! Gods help us its Hennet!"