Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (63 page)

Gaining control of his mind after a moment, Seth forced himself to focus on the world around him, effectively extracting himself from his subconscious. Looking ahead at the devastation the goblin had left angered Seth to the core, but he had no time to dwell on it at present. Seeing the great effect their single goblin sapper had achieved, the enemy had unleashed countless more to devastate the already weakening defensive line of Valdadore. Although the king’s knights and mages both targeted near a hundred of the sprinting beasts bearing torches and horns, Seth saw they were overwhelmed. Unsure of his current abilities Seth reached out with his mind, picking those racing goblins who drew nearest the defenders, and was amazed at how quickly he was able to find and isolate them. Grasping the nearest twenty beasts, Seth ripped their lives away leaving naught but ash and armor in their wake. As an added bonus, as several of them seemingly vanished, their torches fell to the ground, igniting their fallen packs, and explosions sounded from more than a dozen locations killing over a thousand enemy troops. Feeling the power of twenty goblins surge into him, Seth was relieved to find that such an immense amount of power was now easily manipulated, where only an hour ago it would have been unbearable. Taking the raging torrent of power within him and bending it to his will, Seth unleashed it in a horizontal column of green-yellow flame over the heads of his wolf men. So powerful was the blast, his own troops were forced to cower low to the ground beneath the torrent of flame, their fur singeing in the heat. The column of fire exploded into and through the front lines of the black horde, over ten yards wide. It laid a path of smoldering destruction where once stood over four hundred enemy troops. Again Seth reached out, and pushing his abilities he grasped all the remaining torch-bearing goblins, numbering more than fifty and extinguished their lives. The force of the dozens of explosions ripping through the black horde was nothing in comparison to the power that ripped through Seth in those same moments.

As the life power of more than fifty goblins poured like a tidal wave into Seth, he was overtaken like never before with absolute ecstasy. Every nerve ending in his body succumbed to the pleasure instantaneously, causing a shiver to run down his spine over and over again, looking to others like a seizure. Seth, fighting to control the power as his body was wracked by pleasure, fought to contain it for many moments as his body recovered from unnatural bliss. Having regained himself, Seth began to stride forward towards his men's portion of Valdadore’s defensive line. As he approached, his men made way for him to come. Realizing that Borrik and Jonas strode with him, thinking to protect him, Seth motioned for them to stay as he continued ahead. Reaching the front of his men’s line, where moments before he had blazed a trail of fire through his enemies, Seth strode into the charred wasteland as orcs and goblins, trolls and ogres alike all rushed to fill the hole in their midst.

Unleashing metered amounts of his power, Seth blasted those who got in his way with pure waves of invisible energy, sending dozens of bodies careening through the air to land dozens of yards away atop their fellows. As Seth waded into the ocean of enemies, many made way for fear of him and those who did not got a quick lesson in flying. One such troll even attempted to charge Seth. However, the troll simply vanished into a wisp of ash, causing his peers to retreat further from the approaching human. As Seth passed the black mass filled in behind him, making it appear from a distance as if a bubble was rising up through the black army. Though battle still raged all along the defensive line of the humans, and King Valdadore’s knights still plowed among the enemy destroying them en masse, and fireballs continued to erupt from both sides and arrows rained down like droplets of death from the heavens, here in the middle of the vast black army Seth found himself surprisingly cut off from the sounds of the conflict. Reaching his destination Seth stopped and turned to survey the defensive line from this angle and found, much to his dismay, he was not alone.

Surrounded on all sides by tens of thousands of enemy troops, forgoing any type of protection but his magic alone, Seth had stridden into the black horde with the intent of ending the battle singlehandedly. But turning around, Seth could not help but grin behind the ferocious mask that was his helm at Sara, who apparently had not gotten the message. The woman was crazy, it was true, but it was her love of Seth that made her so. Without any regard for her own life, the small woman he loved had come with him the entire way, with naught but her small crossbow to protect her. Though in her armor she looked opposing, and the enemy knew not if she was Seth’s equal, none had moved to engage her. As if to protect him, Sara strode directly to Seth, and turning as she passed, pressed her back into his as if they would fight the entire invading army together, back to back.

Seth focused the energy inside him, twisting it and bending it to his will. A power unlike anything else he had ever unleashed struggled inside him and Seth lent it to his purpose. Taking a deep breath to collect himself, Seth unleashed a magic like none the world had ever seen, his own version of a goblin sapper.

A ball of churning smoke and lightning erupted from Seth encompassing both himself and Sara at its core where it held for a moment crackling and hissing, and then Seth let loose the torrent building within him. An explosion of green and yellow electric fire lanced out from the sphere in all directions led by a concussive wall of air so strong that even the biggest trolls fell before its force, rolling and somersaulting across the ground as the electric fire chased the blast. It was like nothing anyone had ever witnessed as the unnatural fire appeared to jump like lightning from one burning creature’s armor to the next in an ever spreading wave, instantly combusting each body it touched. As the power raced freely away from Seth, it spread in all directions, flashing and flickering in a widening circle of destruction leaving no surface untouched. As the power extended it became less potent, leaving burning bodies where before nothing but charred bits and pieces would have been, and spreading further still it barely boiled the flesh of those it touched. Before the power had spread far enough to reach his own kingdom's lines it had faded away to nothing, though even at that distance men covered their ears from the initial blast.

Seth had succeeded in his attack, effectively leveling over half of the remaining hoard, over fifteen thousand dead with one blow. But the sudden release of power had two devastating effects on his body. The first was renewed pleasure that again left him stricken in an almost seizure-like state. The second was a sudden dizziness that caused him to falter and lose his feet. Landing heavily upon his knees in his armor sent a wave of pain through him, somehow increasing the lightheadedness to a nauseating level.

Garret, ears ringing unbelievably, silently congratulated his brother, knowing well only Seth could turn a living, breathing being to ash with a thought. The chaos that ensued among the enemy ranks as dozens of the goblins’ payloads exploded killing hundreds upon hundreds, and as Seth torched countless more, was a sight to behold. Garret swung his sword haphazardly, casually slaughtering whatever got in his way as he watched the rearmost lines of the enemy army attempt to push forward to fill in the holes created by Seth’s mass destruction. However, it appeared that the troops in the front lines of the black horde felt no need to get any closer to Seth. Still the battle raged down the line to either side, and Garret watched as Zorbin the dwarf sent enemies flying with his great hammer as he raced along the ranks of enemies atop his immense wolf Xanth. King Valdadore was just returning from the healer's tent. Looking around at the mutilated bodies and gore strewn about the battlefield, Garret watched as his brother strode into the black army with Sara at his back, flinging any enemy who stood in his way through the air with naught but a gesture. At this point Garret no longer bothered swinging his massive sword as, filled with both curiosity and fear, he stood transfixed, watching his brother and Sara as they neared the center of the black horde. Garret was not prepared for what his brother unleashed next.

One moment Seth and Sara stood, an island in a black sea of enemy troops, and the next there was a great ball of flickering light that danced in the center of the clearing where they had been. Then without warning the flickering light exploded outward in all directions, seeming to bounce from one set of armor to another like fingers of fire, grasping and charring everything in its path as an ever widening path of destruction spread like wildfire amongst the enemy ranks. Seeing the speed of the flaming light tendrils, Garret began to step back several paces when the shockwave from the blast hit him, causing him to stumble back further. Creatures raced to get out from underfoot. Fortunately for Garret, his ears were already ringing so badly that this latest blast caused no lasting ill effects on him. The black army was another story.

An enormous blackened circle lay at the middle of the enemy horde encompassing more than half its total size. For hundreds of yards in all directions around Seth nothing moved except for lazy tendrils of smoke upon a slight breeze. Piles of charred flesh and armor lay strewn about like so many pebbles upon a beach. The scent was unbelievable and putrid, and though he was able to control himself, thousands upon the battlefield retched, overwhelmed by the noxious fumes. Pinching his nose, Garret watched the thousands of troops surrounding where his brother stood, none daring to move against the magician.

Seth felt Sara coming to help him, but was forced to keep his eyes closed for the moment, the sunlight lending potency to his current nausea. Knowing he had cleared out all of his enemies for hundreds of yards in all directions, Seth felt assured he had time to recover. He settled himself to a more comfortable position, taking slow deep breaths and waited for the nausea to recede. Sara knelt down beside him at this point, and unaware of what ailed him, she stripped his helm off, all the while watching in all directions, assuring herself of their relative safety. Carcasses smoldered everywhere, and the stench and smoke made their helms stifling. After removing Seth’s, Sara too removed her own helm to better appraise his ailment. Seth did indeed recover faster without his helm, and a light breeze through the valley cooled his face and lessened his queasiness. After a few tense moments Sara helped Seth stand, and though he still felt a bit unsteady on his feet, he looked around to gather his bearings just as the deep rumble of a massive war horn split the air, and answering it with wicked war cries, black armored beasts from three directions charged across the still smoldering bodies of their peers to strike him down. Seth also dimly noted two massive, gleaming bodies surging towards him from his own lines as well as hundreds of leaping and bounding fur-covered bodies, but he knew instantly that they would not arrive in time to save him.

Taking another deep breath to steady himself as the masses of black-armored bodies closed the distance between them, Seth reached out to those closest, hoping he might turn the rest away if they believed him recovered. He stripped the life of near thirty beasts of varying races, but something peculiar happened at the last moment. All within a fraction of a second, as Seth stripped the life from those he had singled out, one of them vanished, and still linked to its life force Seth felt it reappear an incredible distance away, out of range of even his recently increased power. As the power of those he expelled to ash rushed into his body invigorating his senses anew, Seth turned his gaze to where the aura had been before vanishing, and dodged to the side, no time to prepare any other defense. The would-be assassin's arrow, just missing his throat and glancing off one of the spikes protruding from the shoulder upon his armor, sailed past Seth leaving him unharmed but the attack had not been fruitless.

Sara gasped as the unseen missile from seemingly nowhere sliced effortlessly through her flesh just above the neckline of her armor. Reaching up her hand instinctively, Sara clutched at the wound that seemed but a scratch, and managed a smile as Seth turned with panic written clearly upon his face. He managed a smile in return that quickly faded as Sara felt her fingers become wet with warm blood pulsing out from her neck in sickening quantities. Feeling suddenly faint, Sara began to collapse. Seth grabbed her and lowered her to the ground, placing his own hand above hers, trying to staunch the flow.

Seth was lost to the world in that moment as Sara smiled at him, her amber eyes swallowing him whole, her life’s blood gushing from the wound at her neck. Lowering Sara to the ground Seth attempted to put pressure on the wound, but the blood found purchase between and around both his and Sara’s hands, running down her neck and into her hair before beginning to puddle on the ground. Seth’s soul seemed to tear as he watched the color fade from Sara’s cheeks and heard her whisper her undying love for him. Seth could not bear to let Sara go like this. If only she had stayed behind with Borrik as he had intended, or perhaps if he himself had stayed upon the hill fighting from behind the defensive lines of Valdadore’s troops this would not have happened. Though consciously Seth was lost to the world around him, his subconscious felt those charging in from all directions and he also felt the power within him seeking release. Seth could think of nothing else but Sara, and before the recognition faded from her eyes, Seth made her one last promise.

"I'll save you, just hang on," Seth cried. With no regard to himself or those he targeted, not even knowing if it was among his abilities, Seth reached out. Pulling energy into himself from all those coming at him from all directions, he focused it and released it simultaneously with an ear-shattering, earth-rending, tearing sound. A great flash of blinding light erupted, and those around him, both friend and foe, disintegrated into ash as a great blast of air rushed inward towards where Seth had been kneeling over the devoted woman he had married only the day before.