Raging Battle

"WHAT?!" Noble screamed. "What do you mean Counsel is with them?" 

Unwilling to get caught up in the discussion, Bramwell cleared his throat lightly. "We will be on our way now. Good day." 

He shut the door with his apprentice before any objection could be sent his way. 

Pen wished she could follow them, but her mistress's heated look held her in place. She dropped her eyes to the floor. 

"Counsel came by this morning to check on you, but you were still resting. When he heard the call to arms, he headed out right away. He sent a message that he had joined the royal guard for the battle." Pen pulled the paper from her tunic. "I was supposed to give it to you, but then you said you didn't feel well." 

"Where is the battlefield?" Noble stood and headed into the bedroom. She began to search through the closet for anything that might fit under one of her suits of armor. 

"It is on the north side outside of town. But you do not need to worry. The creatures have not been able to breach the walls in a hundred years. Today will be no exception." Pen picked up a dress that the professor tossed to the ground. "Can I help you find something?" 

"I doubt it. I am looking for something to wear to the battle." Noble found something that would suit her and nodded determinedly.

"What? But...you are not supposed to leave the palace!" Pen wrung her hands. 

"Don't they need every available fighter?" Noble clicked her tongue. 

"I don't know anything about war," Pen hedged.

Noble clicked her tongue. "Well, I know a thing or two about fighting. Counsel and the soldiers need my help. Please get Kosi some water and food quickly. I will leave momentarily." 

Pen snapped her mouth shut under the unforgiving glare of her mistress. She reluctantly complied. 

Nothing the woman could have said would have made any difference. Noble was going to see this clash for herself. 

'How could everyone have neglected to mention a hundred-year-old war?' 

Of course, when she thought about it, Counsel had mentioned that Brenna's parents had died in the war. She just hadn't realized "the war" was ongoing. 

'Does this blasted Nightmare have two conflicts?! That would be just my luck...' 

Noble's mind went to Counsel. Had he gone to confront the Queen and ended up in the middle of the action? She hoped not. Surely he had more sense than that. 

Though a battlefield would be a good place to make someone's death look like an accident. If the man really believed that Emira was trying to kill Lady Brenna, he might seek justice in a place where blood already flowed. 

'I need to get out there...now.' 

Making sure that Pen was in the other room, Noble summoned a suit of armor. It was less flashy than her Queen Bee armor, but it had a more suitable helmet. 

One that would hide her face and hair. 

"Kosi, let's go!" Noble marched into the antechamber with the [Ruby Tear] sheathed at her waist.

The Symncus took one last bite of whatever Pen had given him and bounded forward. He pushed his way out of the door before Noble and then knelt for her to climb aboard. This time the professor did not hesitate. She climbed on the creature's back and dug her hands into his golden fur. 

"Take me to the battle. We need to find Counsel." 

Defying the Queen's orders was likely to have consequences, but just now Noble could not worry about that. Something in her told her that if she stayed put, then any hope of conquering the Nightmare would be gone before the sun reached its peak. 

Pulling down the visor around her helmet, Noble leaned against Kosi's thick fur. The Symncus sprang into a run.

At first, Noble was worried that at least a few of the soldiers would try to bar her path like the men had at the front gate. But the remaining guards in the palace did not seem interested in facing off against Kosi.

'I guess word of his feral behavior has spread.'

She could not blame the humans, especially mundane ones, for wanting to avoid the frothy mouth of her ride. Noble would not want to face him either.

Spittle dropped from the Kosi's mouth as he ran at blinding speed. Before long, the pair was out of the palace and in the streets.

The professor did not guide the Symncus. She had no idea where they were going except outside the city walls. 

At least she hoped a war of a hundred years was happening outside the city and not in it. 

Kosi turned up an alley and headed straight for the stone wall. 

"This isn't the gate. What are you--" Noble felt her stomach flutter as the creature took a bounding leap.

His muscular legs touched the tile roof of the house closest to him, and then the Symncus turned to prepare for another bound. The second leap brought him to a higher rooftop and a third lifted the pair to the lower landing on the wall. 

Before Noble could catch her breath, the powerful demon was hurrying up a set of steps to the top of the wall. 

"Sorry!" the woman called to the two soldiers who were nearly thrown from the staircase. It was only Noble's covert use of her Ability that kept the taller soldier from tumbling to the ground.

The journey upward had required a vast amount of skill and timing, but Kosi had made the trip look effortless. 

'How often has he done that trick,' Noble wondered. 'Is that why the gatekeeper doesn't like him? It makes watching the wall more difficult when a creature can climb it so easily.'

Noble was forced to cut her musing short as they made it to the top of the wall.

The battle line was around a kilometer from the wall. Humans fought to stem the tide of Nightmarish creatures threatening to breach their home. 

Black clouds hung in the air, roiling above the ground like angry mist. 

As the floating Awakened started at them, a dark feeling of foreboding filled her. 

'What kind of clouds are those?' Her eyes widened. 

One part of the cloud pulled away from the rest. It hovered over the ground before dropping a large boulder from the sky. 

"What in two worlds?!" 

How could a cloud hold a boulder? Noble squinted to see where the rock had landed beyond the battle lines. 

Sitting in a patch of cracked ground, the boulder shook and disassembled into seven identical pieces. 

It wasn't a rock at all. It was a group of Nightmare creatures! 

Coming to a grim realization, Noble gasped. She looked up at the black sky overhead. Those weren't roiling clouds. They were a dense horde of monsters! 

Another part of the flock pulled away from the group and dropped another boulder. It, too, split like the one before it into seven beetle-like pieces. 

Together, the two contingents of beasts scurried toward the city and dove into the ranks of humans already fending for their lives. 

The battle was raging.