The Witch

Balls of rising flames, billowing smoke and cracks of thunder could be seen and heard coming from the Walls. The cries of the wounded and dying echoed down the mountain pass, as the Witch escorted by her two handlers strolled without a care, walking up the gentle slope leading up to the Pass. As before, she has experienced many such battle scenes, except normally these scenes were reserved for large cities walls or huge fortifications.

The death cry of a Silverwing dragon screamed passed her head, its wings filled with gaping holes. Crunching as it slammed neck down first, its bones breaking and its bonded rider and crew crushed under its weight and speed of the fall. Mage Dular whistled as he watched the dragon crashed, looking intently at the twitching carcass with rapt fascination as he followed the Witch and her handlers.

"Have you ever wonder how something so large and heavy could fly?" Dular cheerfully asked, seemingly obvious to the chaos and bloodshed around them. The Witch ignored his question and continuing climbing the slope.

A Regiment of Spears parted way for them as they approached from their rear, the regiment's Imperial battle standard, a long staff, topped off with a figure of a diving dragon clutching spears with the letterings of figure nine, showed them that this was the 9th Fallowfall Regiment of Spears. The figure of the diving dragon was the crest of the Duke of Fallowfall.

Dular cheerfully greeted the soldiers, who stared back at them with dull eyes and grim faces. "Hurry along now, won't want to miss all the fun, yes?"

They exited the regimental lines and stood about 300 paces away, roughly 150 meters in human measurements and stared at the walls wreathed in smoke. The approaches to the main gate were blocked by two shattered frames of the monstrous 'Door Knocker' siege engines, flames licking out from the wreckages as the fire consumed the construct. The four dead land dragons, their hearts, and eardrums ruptured from the close approximation of the two spells explosions laid at where they had fallen over.

Dozens of slaves soldiers and Imperial troops huddled behind the massive carcasses as they took cover from the spells raining around them, ignoring the scorching heat from the burning constructs behind them. "Alright, do your thing now." Dular gave a theatrical bow to the Witch, gesturing with his hands as if inviting her for a ballroom dance.

She flinched slightly as a whizz buzzed over her head, making her instinctively ducked, but she recovered quickly and saw a 9th Regiment of Spears soldier behind her suddenly keel over and vomited blood, dying as he laid there, his companions started to drag him off to the rear and another spearman stood over in his place.

She looked at the featureless face masks of the two Imperial Lifeguards, both watching her without any movements or feelings and looked at Dular who stood watching her with a weird sicko smile. She felt very tired of all the fighting and killing suddenly, and the burden of protecting her people from the Empire weighting her very soul down to the thirteen hells.

If she died, her burden would be someone else, should she be selfish and wish for death? She looked at the trail of blood underneath the 9th Regiment, it looked some simple, just a spell from nowhere and she will be free of this life. She turned and looked at the walls, willing for one of the defenders to direct his magic at her, to kill her. And as if the Gods had granted her wish, suddenly the two Lifeguards leaped into action, one of them rising his shield, blocking a spell from hitting her. The loud clank of metal impacting and the force of the spell sent the Lifeguard sliding on his feet backward for several paces, before recovering while the other hunched over his shield, covering himself and the Witch with it.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"What the FUCK!" Corporal Drake jerked his head back as he blinked his eyes in astonishment. "Where did that came from?"

"He blocked your shot with his shield!' Private Kont explained, "He's good, very powerful too."

"Are you praising your enemy here?" Drake cursed as he ejected the spent cartridge from his M3 Magekiller. "That's some fucking OP equipment he has!"

"They appeared to be protectors of that female," Kont peered in his bino, "Great reflexes and intuition too. They don't know where we are, and of course, they retreated."

"Damn, I was planning on round two with them," Drake worked his M3 anti-material rifle's smoothly oiled bolt, chambering a new round into the breach. "Come on, don't think you can hide in the group of low leveled minions!"

"There, you see her? The silver head, center, fourth file from the front, behind the shields. 430 meters."

"Got her," Drake whispered, his scope aimed directly at her pretty head. He held he breathe, listening to Kont give the command and wind direction and was about to squeeze the trigger when she turned her head up and looked directly at him and smiled before closing her eyes.

"What the fuck?" Drake whispered as he worked his bolt again, sending the empty cartridge spinning out.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 150 meters in front of the Gate

The Witch sensed rather than saw the killing intent coming directly at her from a great distance. She looked up and in her mind's eye, she saw a man, with very short ears, lying prone, holding a huge long tube-like object, pointing directly at her and she knew at that moment, her time has come. She smiled at the man, thanking him in her heart for releasing her and closed her eyes, waiting for the spell to come.

Instead, she heard and felt a blast of wind, followed by a loud metallic clank again, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw the Lifeguard that blocked the spell earlier, lying clumped up in a mess of blood on a pile of 9th Regiment soldiers, missing his left shoulder. She looked surprised and spun around looking at the distance where the strange short-eared man was, wondering why didn't he kill her.

Before she could think of anything else, another loud clank and the second Lifeguard slipped backward, his shield heavily dented and deformed. The Lifeguard looked stunned, as he recovered and then his upper torso blew up. The few soldiers directly behind him also suffered the same fate, exploding into bits of meat and blood flew everywhere.

Despite seeing many battlefields, this was the first time she saw someone or lots of people exploding directly in front of her and she vomited out the acidic juices from her empty stomach, some of the weaker-willed soldiers also vomited or even started to retreat, citing angry commands from their officers and sergeants.

Dular laughed, his eyes crazed as he stood over the mangled body of the Lifeguard. "Wow, I want this spell so much!" He crouched down, poking at the gory remains of the body.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"Target in the open, 420 meters." Kont looking at the scene with his bino. "Good kill on those two tough sons of bitches."

"No, leave her." Drake tilted his sights up, looking at the Nazi looking elf crouching over the dead body. "I want that mage."

'Why didn't you shoot that silvered hair, girl?" Kont pressed, as he adjusted his binoculars.

"I am not sure, she looked at me in the eye and was ready to die," Drake confessed, "I just couldn't shoot her then."

Kont raised his eyebrows, turning to look at Drake and teased, "Someone's in love?"

Drake rolled his eyes, "Yeah right, serious time. let's kill something then we talk later."

"Hahaha, sure!" Kont sniggered as he returned to his task, "Alright, Target in the center of the infantry square..."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 150 meters in front of the Gate

The Witch stared at the chaos happening around her, and made a decision, she will escape the bonds of the Empire and fight them to death. With her powerful magic, she was sure she could deal a huge blow to their forces.

Another buzz blew by her head and she turned her head just in time to see Dular flew back several paces, his mouth in an 'O' shape, surprise in his face as half his lower half body was blown away by a powerful spell.

The soldiers looked with confusion and fear at the scene, their morale dropping rapidly as they watch one after another, high leveled fighters and mage getting killed from nowhere.

The Witch suddenly went down on one knee, her right palm pressed against the rocky floor. And a magic circle expanded out, her lips rapidly chanting a spell and suddenly jagged spikes burst out from around her, ripping into the men of the 9th Regiment.

Cries and screams rang out, as bodies were pierced by razor sharp rock spikes. "Kill her!" An officer in the 9th screamed, pointing his sword in her direction. The men finally having a target to focus all their pent-up fear, confusing and anger, roared out a war cry and charged past her spikes, their spears stabbing at her.

She slammed her left palm down, and another magic circle expanded out, and a stone wall punched out, slamming against the frontmost soldiers, denting their plate mail and breaking bones and internal organs from the force.

They crumpled down, blood streaming out of their mouths, drowning in their own blood and fluids. The rest of the men stood back, stunned by the attack. The Witch wasted no time, throwing another blast of Stone Spikes, impaling dozens of men with her attack.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"Oooo, I am starting to like your girlfriend," Kont joked as he watched the battle. "Ow! That got to hurt!"

"Shut your trap about what girlfriend shit," Drake yelled, "She turned against the Empire, she must be an ally."

"I know right?" Kont gave Drake a wink, nudging his eyebrows, and laughed at Drake's expression. "Alright, let's save your girlfriend."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 130 meters in front of the Gate

She was getting exhausted, taking deep breaths while wiping the sweat off her head. Her silver hair, stuck wildly all over her forehead, making her wish she had cut it short.

She stepped back, dodging another low-level Fireball thrown at her from the 9th Regiment support Mages and the remaining Battle Mages from Dular's company.

Kicking up a shower of pebbles, she quickly cast a spell on the fly, turning the pebbles into spikes, sending them flying into the raised shields of the 9th. Three meters long ax spears stabbed at her from all directions, wounding her everywhere, casting blood to stain her dust covered robes.

This is where I fall, she thought to herself. Dodging backward, she clapping her palms together and started a chant, pouring all her remaining mana into the spell. Just as she was about to finish the spell, a fireball slammed into her, sending her toppling backward, her magic shield flickering away as it deflected the spell.

She looked up to see a semi-circle of shields and ax spearheads facing her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come when a wet slap and something splat against her face. Opening her eyes and rubbing the wetness on her face, fingers came away red with blood.

She then noticed the soldiers stepping back, their shields raised up warily, on the guard against something. Another soldier blew up, and his unfortunate companions behind joined him in painting the scene red with gore.

An officer screamed something which she could not catch, and his head and helmet flew off, his upper torso exploding, bits of metal and meat flying backward, and the 9th broke. Some dropped their shields and spears, lightening themselves so they can run away faster. Another Officer yelled for them to stop, only to join the fate of so many others in exploding into a bloody mess.

She laid back on her back, feeling the wounds and mana burn creeping up on her. She smiled, wonder who was the rebel mage that saved her, was it that stranger with the short ears, before she lost consciousness.