Chaos in Irriton Grove Encore

Patches of black raced toward the perimeter wherein the party set up camp. The arcanists did not chase Hearth and Caspian as they deemed it useless. Instead, they shot arrows toward them but due to the evasive manoeuvre Hearth, they dodged it perfectly.

The arcanists regrouped and Caspian and Hearth caught their breath. Knights immediately stood in attention as the two came rushing.

"What's the problem?" asked an aged knight in plate armour.

"Arcanists," Caspian breathed.

"What? Where?"

"To arms, we are under attack," another knight shouted.

Rycharde and Evered went forward immediately.

"Where are they?" asked Rycharde.

"South, around thirty or forty, It's weird though. Some felbeasts are with them and it seems that they are attacking in groups. Like platoons of sorts," Hearth reported.

"Okay, everyone, set up a perimeter. Around the circle now, we need to hold out until Lord Blackfyre arrives. If they attack, we to stave them off." Rycharde commanded and then directed his conversation back to Hearth and Caspian.

"Sounds like there are whisperers in the mix," Rycharde said.

"Whisperers?" Caspian asked.

"Yes, arcanists who can control beasts with commands. We don't exactly know their limits yet, but it seems they are working with the shadow walkers," elaborated Rycharde and nodded then at Evered.

"Okay, let's set up a fire in the middle and around the periphery so that the shadow walkers cannot penetrate our ranks." Evered directed as he poured tar and firewood on the circle. The other people followed as he did.

Ulric hid on the outskirts just beneath the canopy to observe, they had paid these arcanists to see if they could produce some results. They wanted to know the fighting capacity of Bren's knights first hand and see if they would use the weapon, they had seen Hearth brandish.

Soon there were patches of black that were moving. It became harder to tell as night had come.

Rycharde and Evered squinted at the distance. Suddenly a hawk seemingly out of nowhere dove and grabbed a knight's visor. He and the fellow knights were stunned. Suddenly there was an arrow that pierced through the pitch black targeted at the helmetless knight. It was fortunate that he turned just in time and it punctured a cheek instead of going through his skull.

"To arms! They are here!" Shouted Rycharde.

As soon as he shouted a hail of arrows launched toward their circle. Two knights who were alerted put up an [Earth Wall] just in time but a few of the arrows pushed through and injured a few people but no hit was fatal as they put their shields up.

"These guys are smart," Evered breathed heavily.

"And accurate too, it's actually hard to produce such a volley of arrows with the trees all around," Rycharde nodded.

"How do we counter?" asked Hearth under the shield of the earthen wall.

"Well, we didn't bring enough arrows to return volley," Evered spoke.

"Aye, who would have thought we would meet a tandem of arcanists here?" Rycharde shook his head.

"Yeah, arrows don't do too much damage on felbeasts and Precantae," Evered nodded.

"Really?" Hearth asked as arrows kept falling.

"Yes, it's much more effective if you use melee weapons or spells on them,"

"We'll just wait for this volley, and use the wall to do a [Stone Barrage]"

After a few seconds, the arrows died down.

"NOW!" commanded Rycharde.

The wall broke down and spells poured forth spraying stones at the direction of the Arcanist's attack.

Rycharde tried to expand his aura to detect any mages in the area. But their scan was not enough to get into the range of the Shadow Walkers.

There was silence.

The knights squinted at each of their posts.

There came a sudden rush from the void, the pitch blackness from afar covered the felbeasts as they pounced coming seemingly from nowhere. A few knights were caught off guard and couldn't dodge the sudden lunge of the beasts. Some fell to the ground as they rolled around. The others tried to help them but their formation was broken and the reserves were also bombarded by rocks falling from the sky, brought by felhawks.

Chaos ensued while Rycharde shouted commands to keep the knights in formation. Some felbeasts tried to gather dirt toward the fire to extinguish it. Rycharde saw the move and he prevented it by commanding some men to fight the beasts. Hailing stones rained downward as the felbeasts threw them. Shields were on high but the men had a hard time defending from above and on the ground. A few knights gathered to use fire spells at the attacking horde as they didn't want the shadow walkers to come as it would be a dangerous fight.

"These guys are good," panted Caspian as he deflected a falling rock with his shield.

"Yeah, the shadow walkers and the whisperers have good coordination and it seems that they are very well versed in jungle warfare," Hearth observed.

"All right, five archers rally to me," Rycharde's voice resounded, "All of you target the felbeasts above, while you three shield them as they cover us. Don't use spells if possible, we need to conserve magic. We don't know how many of them are there,"

The knights nodded and shot the arrows, they were precise enough to kill the hawks as each fell down one at a time, however, with the engulfed darkness protecting them, they could target the beasts afar and could only shoot those who were directly above the camp.

"Alright, Leighton, I give you command," Rycharde told a middle-aged knight in black Armor. He nodded and walked to the middle and took his post.

"I guess we'll have to do that?" Evered asked Rycharde as he raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, looks like we will," Rycharde said.

"We need to break that shadow wall, that's where we get this headache," Evered added.

Rycharde raced toward the black wall, Evered at his side. Donning his war hammer he smashed felboars left and right. Two shadowy figures dashed toward him but he smiled. As a shadow pounced, he moved ten meters away in the blink of an eye.

Rycharde immediately blasted the shadow with a [Fireball] and the figure fell burning and screaming. The other figure stopped in his tracks but was hit by a large boulder as a knight's spell connected. Rycharde immediately smashed the skull of his opponent.

Rycharde spat, "You shadow walkers can't do with a bit more fire, can you?" Rycharde's flames sprayed toward the black wall but it parted.

"Change tactics, we attack now! Spearhead Formation!" Rycharde shouted as he rallied the men.

Five fire adept knights pushed forward as the earth versed knights supported them from the rear. Ten knights stood in the periphery to defend the camp. While Rycharde led the charge. The shadowy curtain slowly parted as the Knights advanced.

However, from the opening, a stampede of beasts charged.

"Inclined Wall! Pit of Despair manoeuvre" Rycharde shouted as he fell back.

Evered joined the vanguard as they raised an earthen ramp. Half of the earth mages in the ranks conjured a depression on the ground. The beasts were blindsided by the ramp and fell into the pits as fire mages cast their spells on the trapped animals. Blood and smoked mixed as hordes of beasts charred.

"Repulsion now!" Rycharde shouted once again. The walls cracked and jets of stones hailed toward the direction of the blockade. The shadows tried to run but they were startled at the sudden turn of events, they didn't expect a direct confrontation.

Their plan was to weather them with felbeasts. The encirclement slowly dispersed and a few stones hit the bodies of the shadow walkers, muffled shouts were heard from the blackness. The other knights were quick and cast fireballs as their bodies charred. Three of the enemy fell.

"Charge!" commanded Rycharde. The knights pursued full force but they were met with more felbeasts trying to ward them off. The shadow walkers also changed strategy and encircled patches of the skirmish. Chaos ensued as some of the knights began to be slowly engulfed in darkness. A knight was picked off by four shadow walkers as he was surrounded unable to see behind him.

"Fall back!" Rycharde commanded, "To me! Back to formation!"

It a tough battle, as the lack of visibility was exploited. The terrain was advantageous to the shadow walkers, blind spots were easily created.

As more shadow walkers gathered, Rycharde shouted, "NOW! Burn the trees!"

The periphery was suddenly engulfed by fire. Burning trees fell hindering the escape of the arcanists. The enemy was forced to engage the advance. A knight was encircled and killed but the five shadow walkers were also slaughtered in the unit's retaliation.

Most of the shadow walkers started to retreat south. The Knights wanted to pursue but Rycharde told them to hold.

"At ease men, gather the dead. We wait for Lord Blackfyre at the camp!"

There were looks of distress, they wanted to purge the enemy thoroughly to avenge their fallen comrades, but they conceded and did as commanded. As they were trying to gain their breaths they heard a primal roar.

Everyone's spine shuddered.

Rycharde looked at the beasts. He knew the contours of these creatures, the majestic aura they donned. The very same creature he had fought as he was commanded by two-year-old, years past.

"Fuck," Rycharde and Evered cussed at the same time.

Within their sight, four chimeraans appeared.