The First War Mage: City in the Sky

“Shriekers Left Flank!” The shout came from one of the guards directly ahead of Brimrose, and it continued to spread back across the entire convoy until all roughly hundred and fifty people had heard it.

The Guards in the immediate vicinity of Brimrose all looked to her for orders, which she hesitated only for a heartbeat to give out.

“Bring the rear guard forwards to the center, Elites move out on all flanks and guard all angles with the more veteran fighters! Bring everyone into a tight circular formation and don’t let the roped Shriekers out!” Brimrose shouted her orders in quick succession, the clack of metal could be heard as guards ran to other positions.

For a moment I was wondering where the Shriekers were, after all I couldn’t see them despite the fact that we were in the middle of an almost valley with large dunes on either side of us. But I quickly learnt how the guards knew they were here, and what gave them their name.

A terrible, ear piercing scream could be heard. It was somewhere between a high pitched howl of a pained dog, and the ferocious roar of a large cat, screaming, tearing across the entirety of the convoy, I felt my skin crawl just from hearing it. And it only grew worse as that one scream was followed up by dozens, if not hundreds more.

“You two stay close to me.” Brimrose spoke quickly once more, her gaze flicked down towards the two of us.

“Got it.” Tulip and I spoke in unison with each other, I glanced at Tulip for a moment, to which she just nodded, taking out her own blade from her ring, I followed and did the same.

“Where did you- Not important.” Brimrose asked as she took in the fact that the two of us had blades in our hands. “Stay behind me, if Shriekers get closer I'll be relying on you two to keep me safe while I use my magic.”

She didn’t wait for confirmation from either of us as she quickly moved to the ground, crossing her legs and closing her eyes, I felt waves of anxiety rushing through my body from the sudden responsibility, but a somewhat familiar tall Elf moved to stand near the three of us, I recognized the helmet and patterns well enough to know it was James.

My gaze snapped to my right as I heard a pained scream come from someone, only to see a Shrieker bite down on an Elven soldier's forearm. Even from the distance I could hear, and almost feel the crunch of bone underneath the massive force behind the beast's bite.

Yet that hardly held a candle to the appalling sight as the Shrieker thrashed its body around, with a slam from its tail and a terrible rip from its head the Soldier’s arm was torn clean off. His screams only cut short as more Shriekers joined the feast.

Dozens more came running in, they were nearly impossible to see in the sand they were kicking up by running. Their speed was so immense that the soldiers who clashed with them didn’t have even a semblance of a chance to react before being torn to shreds.

“What do we do?...” I asked in a low tone, I could feel bile building in the back of my throat. The thick stench of blood was washing across the desert, I felt ready to pass out just from the amount of it. And it wasn’t like I was unfamiliar with the stench of blood, and death, it was just much more pungent when it was on this level.

“We protect her majesty. Shriekers fear magic.” James stated, and I could see a few examples of it in front of me.

I tried to focus on the world of mana, even if it was just to keep track of the Shriekers at first it now made more sense who the Shriekers were going after first and foremost. The guards they focused on had almost no mana exuding from them, while they were visibly avoiding those who did have it.

The other Guards wearing silver armor were the most notable, each and every one of them was like a small beacon, they were acting like walls to funnel the Shriekers into five main routes.

In a circular area inside the center I saw a brilliant barrier of rich mana, veins the size of branches arched out from Brimrose to form the massive barrier where the Shriekers were beginning to panic and run around in circles.

From the outside I could see a similar barrier being constructed by the guards individually meeting together to pin the Shriekers who were in a full blown panic. The agonizing shrieking howl from the pack of easily a hundred of them growing so intense I was worried I would go deaf.

Tulip was having a similar reaction, falling to her knees, trying to cover her ears in desperation to get away from the volatile noise. Even Brimrose’s face was contorted with pain before an explosive silence covered everything, broken only by pained howls.

In an instant the earth in the circular region between the two barriers of mana became an ocean of spikes, the sand giving way to pits of death that rapidly filled back in, burying anything caught within its grasps alive to be crushed.

“Reform in a tighter formation! Prepare for a fight!” Brimrose shouted out again as she quickly stood up, she sent only a glance to James who quickly offered her a canteen to drink from.

“There’s still more?” I asked with a disbelieving tone, but my question was answered by the continuation of terrible screams from the right flank this time.

“That was just the first raid. Shriekers attack in multiple waves… Usually each successive wave is the older, more aggressive ones as Shriekers have no known natural lifespan.” James answered quickly. “Expect at least one more wave after this one, and none will fall for such a trick that easily again.”

“Guards with less magic move to the center of the formation! Stay close to the younger troops who can exude enough of a presence to slow their assault!” Brimrose shouted orders once more the instant she was done chugging the canteen down. There was a thankful glance from her as she offered it to James.

“Tulip stay next to me, Kirin, push as much mana out of your body as you physically can if a Shrieker gets close.” Brimrose spoke in a lower tone as she gave further orders to the pair of us, James was quick to move away to reinforce the right flank as more and more screams of pain could be heard.

I tried to take a deep breath, an attempt to steady myself as I held my blade forwards. My grip was so tense that my knuckles and fingers began to dye white as blood was cut off from them. My gaze settled on the right flank just tin time to see the first Shrieker break through, the limp arm of a soldier still holding a blade as if out of spite dangling from its mouth as it charged forwards.

“Kirin now!” Brimrose shouted.

I closed my eyes, focusing as quickly as I could, my racing heart making it so much harder than I had grown used to in my calm of meditation. Slowly taking one hand off of my blade I pointed a finger towards the Shrieker, its eyes widened with fear as its six legs slammed down into the ground in an attempt to slow down.

Yet it was too late for it as the rapidly charged burst of mana launched out from my finger, launching my arm back, I felt a painful pop in my bicep as a muscle was yanked violently. Yet the hole that shot straight through the Shriekers neck left it far more injured, a gurgled yelp escaping it as it fell forwards and began thrashing violently as it slowly bled out from its throat.

I let out a hiss of pain as I tried moving my right arm, I could still move it but it was extremely stiff. I at least knew this feeling, I had just pulled a muscle, something I had done a number of times in the mine. But I had no time to wallow in the pain.

My eyes shifted to Brimrose, just to see her dispatch another Shrieker that had broken through the ranks with a far more precise usage of her magic as a stone pillar erupted out of the sand into the mid section of the beast with enough force to send it flying.

“Kirin your right!” Tulip shouted out just in time for me to turn, I locked eyes with a Shrieker who’s gaze was behind me, locked onto Tulip.

I clenched my teeth together, biting back the pain, it was too close for me to charge another burst, instead I slammed my left foot forwards, plunging my blade forwards with my left arm in the same motion.

I was over extended, I knew that much in an instant, but the blade found its mark as the Shrieker tried to jump. It pierced the side of the beast, pulling back and scraping along its ribs in such a way that I could feel the blade almost vibrate as it scraped along each rib.

The pained howl of the Shrieker was silenced a moment after it landed hard on its side with Tulip plunging her own blade down into its skull.

Adrenaline was pounding through my body, my vision was starting to blur from it mixing with the anxiety, and the overwhelming nausea I could feel from the vile stench of fresh blood of man and beast alike. But everything fell silent, low barks from the remaining Shriekers sounded out as they began running up the hills they had attacked from.

“James get me a report on the dead! We need to get moving now before they come back!” Brimrose shouted out, she didn’t wait to hear confirmation before her gaze moved towards Tulip, and then to me. “Well done you two.”

“I thought… James said there would be another wave?” I asked slowly, clenching my jaw tight the moment I was done speaking as the Nausea redoubled when I looked down. I could see the decapitated head of an Elf gripped tightly in the claws of one of the Shriekers.

“There will be if we don’t start moving. Shriekers are not against cannibalizing, with so many of them dead they’ll care more about eating than hunting more.” Brimrose answered, she reached to her side, somehow pulling a small back from inside of her dress, out of it she pulled a few leaves.

“Chew on these, they’ll help with the Nausea, and the pain of that arm.” She offered forwards a soft, blue colored flowery leaf, with a glance towards Tulip, her face was as pale as a ghost, leaving Brimrose to offer the same to her.

I gently took the flower and popped it into my mouth. I was prepared for a bitter taste only to be surprised by a minty taste instead. It quickly washed away the stench of blood sitting in my mouth, and helped wash back the Nausea, though my arm was still throbbing I had to assume that it was going to take a few minutes to spread.

With the silence surrounding us, Tulip put her blade away back into her ring, which I soon followed in doing so.

“I am curious where you two got Spacial Rings… But that is for later.” Brimrose spoke mostly to herself as she walked deeper into the Convoy, guards were moving around, taking count of the dead.

“We would’ve been dead without them…” Tulip spoke in a low tone, relief was clear in her voice.

“We might have gotten lucky and they could have ignored us… But I doubt we would have been.” I answered, I couldn’t even force a smile to reassure her. “Let’s just hope not too many died…”

“Dad!” A pained scream sounded out from my side, I winced internally as I looked over to see the same young Elf that had come with the much older one to first bring us into the Convoy sat over the barely breathing remains of the older man. “Dad- Dad please…”

“Kirin… People are always going to die in places like this. The world is cruel like that.” Tulip spoke with a defeated voice. “You can’t prevent death… You can’t stop it, you can’t fight it.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t try. I have a chance to do something. I can’t change the world, but I can at least try and make parts of it better.” Tulip sighed as I spoke, shaking her head. I couldn’t help but question my own conviction. Why was I determined to help people when the world had been so cruel to me?

“Convoy move! The third group is circling back and we don't have any more time!” Brimrose shouted out. I could hear a pained wail come from the kid next to the supposed corpse of his father, only to hear James talking to him.

“Come on Ryo, we don’t have more time.” James spoke, when Ryo, the young kid didn’t respond James just picked him up to carry him with the convoy.

I stood still, examining everything around us for a few moments before jogging to catch up with Tulip who was already back at Brimrose’s side. The convoy was silent, no one had any will to joke around remaining, not after seeing so many killed.

“Sixty three guards injured, twenty seven dead.” One of the guards in silver armor Spoke next to Brimrose, somehow the silence grew even more after those words were stated. “Half of our convoy.” The guard continued before falling back into position.

“We keep moving until we reach Dust!” Brimrose broke the silence with her own voice, anger was clear in her tone. Anger over the death of her comrades. Yet, once those words fell silent, no further words filled the convoy for hours. Not until some managed to start breaking the silence with gentle words of comfort for those who had been lost.