Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (47 page)

Sydin joined her thoughts, directing her to go stand
with the other spotters. These were the spouses of Elven Venefica;
they too had stores slung across their backs. They would all stand
along the top of the hill, looking and directing their Venefica.
All of them would network their minds and in turn the command would
do the same. Everyone’s perspective was figured into commands. She
started to let the Mahann take her, but before she did she walked
over to Legon, kissed his cheek, and hugged him. There were no
parting words that she could think of, so she took her position.
She saw him and his guards walk to the frontline. She saw from her
eyes and his. She felt scared, but then the Mahann calmed her and
emotion left as she connected with the others.

The Dragons started to roar and a few took off and
hovered above them. The Iumenta were doing the same. Both armies
were mobile and forming into ranks. Legon connected with her and
she felt the wards that he raised around his men and Barnin’s unit.
There were the flickers of wards over both sides, and then large
ones from the dragons, designed to defend against the other dragons
and siege weapons.

She was in Legon’s head now, seeing the front line.
They looked down out of the same eyes to Feena, who was all but
screaming now. That’s when she saw it. Feena screamed, but as he
did it changed from a scream to a roar. As the sound changed so did
the cute little yellow cat. His canines grew, extending down past
his bottom jaw. His tail vanished into a stub. Huge muscles rippled
under the fiery fur and his eyes glowed bright with intensity.
Feena was far from a cat. His new form was some sort of animal, but
what was it? She reached in her mind. Years ago Arkin had showed
her a picture…what was it called? It was some kind of tiger, she
thought. Now that she listened there was no longer the barking and
howling of small animals. All on both sides were now full-sized
predators. She looked to her left and caught Mantic’s eye. He
winked at her; now she knew what familiars were for.

She looked to the sky above the Empire forces to see
the Iumenta dragons roaring and shooting flames across the sky. She
saw and felt the fire above her and she looked up to Iselin and saw
a jet of fire ripping from her mouth, stretching hundreds of feet
across the sky. It reflected off her armor and she felt the mental
presence of many dragons pushing hope out to the ranks.

She couldn’t feel much of her own emotions with the
Mahann, but she felt Legon’s as he stared across the field at a
group of gray-skinned Iumenta. The hate was so strong. His body was
vibrating, begging him to rush at them. Then her eyes caught a
flash of color that shot across the sky from an Iumenta dragon. The
ball of magic was deflected by Sydin. She felt Legon prepare to use
magic as she looked at Sydin. A gray-black light ran down his tail
and he flung it at the Iumenta. As he did she was blinded with the
light of hundreds of Venefica sending curses across the lines.

She clapped her hands to her ears as she heard the
thunder-like claps of curses hitting wards. The field was covered
in flashing light in every shade and color, like some nightmare
thunderstorm on the ground.

Above them it was the same. All of the dragons were
sending spells at one another. Every time she closed her eyes there
were new little spots of light. She felt Legon penetrating the
wards of a human Venefica, saw him slash apart a few of their
frontline men with a spell, and she closed the visual connection
with him, not wanting to see anymore. The armies would charge soon;
she could feel it. The other spotters were directing their spouses
to different parts of the Empire’s frontlines and she realized that
even though she wasn’t aware of sending commands to Legon, the rest
of the network was sending them for her. She engaged the Mahann
more and more fully joined the network and soon lost herself in the
vast sea of minds.

* * * * *

Legon felt his body wanting to rush forward. Feena’s
roars next to him echoed his feelings. An Iumenta Venefica stood
across from him with a large blue wolf with raised fur next to him
that was pacing agitatedly, growling at Feena. Then, mercifully,
the order came. He heard Feena’s claws digging into the ground as
he charged forward. He felt the wind against his face as he flew
across the open landscape.

Soon Barnin’s unit was falling behind them as he knew
they would. The sound of boulders crashing shook the ground, and he
looked up to see an orange Iumenta Dragon and Iselin collide in the
sky. Both flew through torrents of fire to crash together, letting
their chest plates take the force of impact. He looked forward and
saw the Iumenta closing, choosing targets; he squared off with a
raven-haired one.

As the space closed he dropped close to the ground
and leaned his left shoulder in. The Iumenta did the same. Pain
erupted all over his upper body as he hit the Iumenta. The two
shoulders plates made a horrible grinding sound when they hit.

In the moment of impact he felt the Iumenta’s
shoulder buckle. Like Iselin had said, he was heavy for an Elf, and
his body continued forward, his momentum too much for the smaller
Iumenta. His shoulder plate slid off the Iumenta’s and he turned
himself, bringing it against the base of his opponent’s neck. There
was a crack as the Iumenta’s neck broke. He dropped, rolled on the
ground and up, not needing to look back at the filth that was now
dead.

he drew the fenna and fell upon an Iumenta that was
getting to his feet after hitting one of his guards. The Iumenta
had his own fenna out, and soon Legon was consumed by the fight.
The Iumenta Venefica held back, waiting for Legon to lose strength
before he engaged him at close range, but his familiar and Feena
were rolling around, biting and clawing at each other.

One of Legon’s guards joined him in his fight against
the Iumenta. Legon’s early kill gave them an advantage that they
fully planned on taking. Soon the Iumenta was down, and Legon saw
that his guard was winning. He turned to his left to see one of his
men go down, a giant gash across his chest and through his lungs
and heart. He heard Barnin’s unit behind them and saw two Imperial
cavalry units approaching. Barnin’s men were outnumbered, but the
Iumenta fell back to let the horses do their jobs.

* * * * *

Barnin raised his shield and felt a blade hit it.
Poison was kicking and biting the other horse and he was doing his
best to kill the other man, but they were outnumbered two-to-one
and good armor or not, that wasn’t good odds. The rider to his left
slashed at him, hitting him across his back. He felt whip-like pain
where the blade hit. Thank goodness Legon had given them chainmail
and plate armor. The armor would keep them from getting cut by
other humans for the most part, but it didn’t protect against them
getting bludgeoned to death.

The Iumenta were retreating, letting the clumsy
mortals hack it out for awhile, but Legon and his guard turned on
the enemy cavalry. Barnin watched with detached horror as they
attacked.

It was one thing watching the Elves and Iumenta fight
each other. It was fast and difficult to follow, but he hadn’t seen
them attacking humans before. The Elves, his friend included, were
jumping from horse to horse slaughtering the men, who were
screaming in terror and agony. The Iumenta Venefica would be giving
them strength just like Legon did for them, and he noticed that the
men and horses were starting to get faster now. The Iumenta
Venefica were able to dump more energy into their remaining
charges, making them formidable, to say the least. This meant that
Barnin was now losing the fights that he was winning before. The
enemy was getting faster and stronger. He wasn’t sure how long it
would take, but soon they would be able to cut the armor with their
new power. Warm liquid splashed across his face and he turned to
see Ankle removing the head of a man next to him.

“I had that one!” Barnin roared.

“Yeah, that’s what it looked like, sir. Sorry
for saving your…”

He didn’t hear the rest of Ankle’s retort as he
turned his attention back in front of him. The Iumenta were back,
and this time they were on the side away from the Elves, tearing
their way through his men. He saw one, two, and then four men go
down. He had a faint connection with Legon and he tried to
communicate, but it was Sasha’s voice that answered in his
mind.

“He knows. I am directing them to the Iumenta.” She
sounded detached, the Mahann making her calm and unemotional.

Barnin saw Legon turning to them and they moved
quickly through the battle. He was putting away his fenna. Why on
earth would he do that? He jolted suddenly as he felt the spell
hit. There was a flick of purple around him as Legon’s ward took
the blow and he moved just in time to have a blue bolt of magic fly
by his head. The other Venefica was joining the fight.

Barnin yelled for his men to fall back and as he did,
Legon ran by him, drawing the fenrra. One of the enemy’s cavalry
got in the way and Legon slashed up with the fenrra, hitting the
horse’s midsection and slicing up through the animal and the
rider’s legs. The man screamed. Blood and organs gushed out of the
horse, covering the ground as Legon hit the rear half of the horse
with his shoulder plate and moved it out of the way.

Something wet hit Barnin’s face and he wiped it with
his fingers. It was blood. Then another drop. He looked around him.
It was like rain now. What on earth? He looked up. The pink dragon
and the gray Iumenta dragon were above them. They were slashing at
each other, their claws dripping with gore. Their tails swung out
to be caught by the armor on their opponent’s feet. Their
glittering armor was all but gone now. Only the real stuff
remained, and he saw as they bit and scratched that they were
wounding each other deeply, causing blood to pour from the cuts. It
fell like scarlet rain in great drops from the gray sky. Almost at
once the injuries healed. The dragons didn’t seem to notice that
they were bleeding all over the field. An involuntary chill ran
along his spine, and he looked to see Legon start to engage the
Iumenta Venefica.

* * * * *

Arkin felt his lungs burn as his broad sword severed
a man’s spine. This was not his kind of fighting. He was more used
to playing hide-and-seek before he killed someone. The constant
exertion was getting to him. It was getting harder to stand as
well. This area was all rock, and neither army was making any
headway. The ground was littered with bodies and, even worse, their
entrails. It slopped on his boots and made the flat rock slippery.
All his wards were also being pushed to their max. He was losing
people left, right, and center. The Empire had a higher Venefica to
normal soldier ratio than the resistance, and that meant casualties
on a large scale. He was doing everything he could to keep his
people alive, and sadly the more men he lost the easier it got.

Arkin ran up to a man in all black wooden armor with
some sort of cheese cloth over his face. Arkin swung at him and the
man raised his sword with surprising speed.

“
He must be trained in the Jezeer,” he
thought.

This whole unit that they were fighting was like
this. They all had the cloth over their faces and each was
amazingly fast, and they didn’t back down. Their skill was
formidable, but they weren’t Iumenta. His opponent was gaining
ground and Arkin had to duck so as to not lose his head. He tried
to change his style and trip up the soldier. Nothing. The soldier
countered him easily, almost playfully. Arkin knew the man would be
protected with wards form the Iumenta, so he couldn’t use
magic.

Pain erupted across his chest as the enemy slashed a
shallow wound across him, slicing his pectoral muscle and vein
beds. He staggered back as blood rushed out of his chest. The man
was coming up fast now, not wanting to waste time. He clutched his
chest and tried vainly to stop the onslaught. He fell back landing
on his tail bone, feeling it crack as it hit. The man was over him
now and raised his sword for the death blow. In that moment he saw
the flick of light, the flick that said that the Venefica
protecting the soldier was dead. Arkin shot his hand forward and
sent a fire spell at the man’s head. It evaporated in a cloud of
blood, bone, and brains that spattered his face. There was a
metallic taste in his mouth; he had forgotten to close it before
the spell hit. He rolled on his side and retched, seeing the blood
from his chest soak the ground. He blacked out.

* * * * *

Keither took in the field before him. It was an epic
story gone horribly wrong. His ears cringed at the sound of
grinding metal from the dragons. There was no progress being made
there. Then there was the sound of spotters gasping or shrieking,
then falling dead as their wives or husbands were killed in battle.
The river in the center of the field no longer appeared to be
running with water, but he knew that it was foolish to think that
it was all blood.

Both sides were taking heavy casualties. They had
gotten their wish. The forces were equal and as such neither gained
ground. This battle would not have a true victor. His eyes were
getting used to the flash of magic, and as he looked through the
seeing glass he saw Legon fighting an Iumenta Venefica. He was
using that large sword and both were sending spells in rapid
succession at each other, but it looked like Legon was slowly
winning.

Barnin’s unit was with Legon. The tall one, Ankle,
was fighting a man. The soldier fell and tried to get up, but Ankle
thrust down, stabbing the man in the chest. Keither saw the tip of
the sword exit the soldier’s lower back instead of his chest. He
saw another of Barnin’s unit on the ground, holding his hands up
futilely as he tried to keep a horse from trampling him. The horse
was trained well and reared up on its back legs and drove its front
hooves into his chest and abdomen again and again. Keither shook
his head and looked away. He noticed Sara and the Elves’ chief
medical officer standing by them.