Runt of the Litter - Tales from Alirast

Amelia's hands were shaking as she gripped the horn. Despite the seemingly positive outlook, she was terrified of this battle.

She knew they wouldn't make it through unscathed. Teary eyes looked around at her friends, all of whom were ready to do their jobs.

Fred would mend weapons and armor, Layla was on healing duty, and Malor would cast area-wide buffs and enchantments to keep the healers going.

And Trillia...

Amelia let her eyes wander up to the fortress walls, where she saw three figures standing. She had to fight.

For all their bluster and bravado, they weren't standing at her side. They had been relegated to support.

Malor put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "She'll be fine, honey. There are lots of strong warriors here."

Amelia nodded and took a deep, shaky breath.

-=====-

Stas wiped the sweat from his brow as he set down the wrench he had been given. "I need to head out to the battlefield."

The woman across from him offered a warm smile. "As do I. Even if I am considered a mechanic by my fellows, compared to the average warrior of your realm, I cannot sit on the sidelines. Shall we split up? I know you will be primarily fighting, but if you could keep an eye out for some of the more expensive golems, it'd be nice to keep them standing as long as possible."

"I'll do my best." Stas paused as she stood and began putting the tools up. The enchanter came over, imbued the carved enchantments, and left with the golem following close behind.

The woman was extraordinary.

Her knowledge of machines so outclassed his own that he felt like he was a new adventurer again, learning from an angry old cow about the ins and outs of fighting so he didn't embarrass their patron.

"Aurelia..." Stas started, then paused.

The woman turned to look at him with the same warm smile. "Yes, Stas?"

It wasn't the time. They had a battle to fight, and while the Eternals thought it would be over quickly, there was no telling how long the [Primordial] cleanup would be, especially without Lord Darktone to help.

Slowly, he shook his head.

"Actually, before you say anything. I have a small request." Aurelia said softly. The woman was tall compared to most on the realm but was still shorter than most of her fellows. Topping out at just over seven feet, she'd be short compared to Cordaos or even Amara.

Stas wasn't sure what her species was, he found that he didn't really care. Long black hair fell around violet shoulders, smudged with grease from machinery, and bright yellow eyes that did nothing to hide the deep wisdom in them.

"I don't often meet people who share the same deep love of machinery that I do. Alucard was the last person to grace my workshop who felt familiar. Sadly, he fell going toe-to-toe with a [Primordial] with only a battalion of golems. The silly man died buying us time."

That name, Alucard. That had been the man who wrote the book that taught Stas nearly everything he knew about machinery and half of what he knew about biology. The golems were created to mimic Alucard's species, so many of their important components were in the same place as his internal organs. A clever way to handle cross-compatibility.

"I'd like to see you on a regular basis. I know it's a bit forward, and there's also the age difference..." Her usual confidence waned in her voice. Stas wouldn't have it.

He quickly walked forward and took her hand in his own. "It would be the utmost pleasure, Aurelia. Once this fight is over, I will be sure to pick your mind for all the information you'd be willing to give me."

Her smile returned twofold. "I look forward to it, Stas! Let's go finish this quickly so we can get back to the workshop!" Stas gave her a grin and a nod as the two left to the surface.

-=====-

Cordaos stood on his own, a wide clearing around him so that he didn't have to hold back. Despite the pending battle, he stood with a smile on his snout.

"I'll join you soon, my love. Once this battle is over." Everything felt sore. It was like the centuries of battle had finally all caught up to him at this moment. Amelia had found a wonderful husband, and the two of them would be good leaders to the minotaurs once they were ready to settle.

Cordaos and Mort had already talked at length. Mort had no interest in being the leader, much preferring to hide in an alchemy lab and experiment. But he'd stepped up when needed.

Soon.

Soon, he'd see Maeve again.

Soon, he'd be able to hold her again.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Looking down at his hands, he slowly flexed them. One more good battle, he'd leave the [Primordials] to his fellow generals and these new Eternal folks.

Just...one more battle.

-=====-

Brutus rested the bottle on the nook of his arm, tipping it up and emptying the contents in one long guzzle.

He hadn't fought sober in decades, he wasn't about to start now.

"Lord Brutus!" The old duelist looked over his shoulder to see the Eternal General slithering up to him.

They hadn't told anyone, but Brutus had requested a duel with the old lizard.

He had never felt more assured of victory in a battle than he did in this one. "Lord Ashkru. Am I needed elsewhere?"

"No. This side has the fewest high-level combatants on it. You and Lord Cordaos said you could handle it, and while I believe that to be true, Geo and I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to add a third."

Brutus fished around in his item storage and pulled out another bottle, passing it over to the lizard. "Not gonna sit on some hill and give out orders?"

"No. Hope sits on a tower and watches the battlefield, then relays all the information to me. I relay concepts of action back to her, and she relays it to all area commanders."

The old duelist couldn't help but chuckle. Ashkru reminded him a lot of Alliyah. Leading from the front and able to multitask at a frankly heroic level.

"I won't say no to a good spear at my side, Lord Ashkru."

The serpent took a long drink of the booze before passing it back. "Don't look so worried. This is our purpose, Brutus." That caused him to give the General an odd look.

"We were created to fight the hard battles, freed from the shackles of a short, useless life. Given glorious purpose by his Lordship with the entire realm as our arena." Ash spread his arms slightly as he looked up. It was the first time that Brutus could remember seeing genuine happiness from the normally stoic leader.

"A fighter?"

Ash nodded. "Indeed. It saddens me that the world constantly seems to fall to barbarism and slavery. But I suppose I am grateful that at least his Lordship can find talented people worthy of a second chance."

Brutus pulled out his flask, handing the bottle of booze off to Ashkru. "To Lord Darktone and a life well-served. May our loved ones cheer us on and give us strength."

Ash took the bottle with a smile, raising it in a toast. "Here, here."

The first pod descended.

-=====-

Simon gripped Taz's torso with his legs, spear in hand as the two dive-bombed at one of the descending pods. A brilliant burst of energy from his spear sliced it open, causing thousands of small insect-like creatures to fall freely from the pod.

Taz whipped around mid-air, and a gout of flames engulfed the falling creatures and the pod.

A whip-like tentacle snapped out and hit him in the chest, and despite his armor shrugging off most of the damage, his maximum mana had fallen by one percent.

No debuff, no expiration time. Just less maximum mana, permanently.

A shiver ran down his spine as Taz rolled over another strike. "Don't let us get hit, Taz."

A positive response through their link was all he got, raising a hand and using wind mana to shackle as many of the flying creatures as he could so that Taz could pick them off, switching to his spear whenever they got close enough.

Another hit.

Simon gritted his teeth and prayed to Lady Miah for the strength to see Thea again. To see his home.

-=====-

Exardescere hovered in the night sky, wings spread wide and covering most of the battlefield.

His head turned toward the void.

"So many..."

The troll had come to see him a year ago, demanding that he and his clan fight off the eldritch with the rest of the mortals. Exardescere had dismissed the man without a thought.

Then, the brutal savage behind the gentle demeanor came out, and he watched one of his royal guards have their wings ripped out of its back.

Geo stood there with the same empty smile on his face, telling Exardescere that unless they all wished to be forever grounded, they would follow orders.

Shaking his head from the memory, Exardescere opened his mouth, and a beam of disintegration poured out and sliced through dozens of the pods.

Off in the distance, he could hear the rattling effects of thousands of lightning strikes in rapid succession. Quetzalcoatl had answered the call as well.

The dragons would need to hold a meeting after this battle and determine how to handle this Eternal fortress. Any group that was so casual about demanding obedience from dragons couldn't be suffered for long.

-=====-

Trillia tumbled out of the Aether, slamming into the ground near the healer's area. One of them ran over to grab her by the arms and drag her toward the tents.

She had lost about thirty percent of her maximum mana already. That was manageable since every hit only took one percent of your current maximum.

She had initially feared she'd only be able to suffer a hundred hits, thankfully the system wasn't so cruel.

But she was exhausted. Despite her traits that should have staved off such things in battle, she could barely manage to draw breath right now.

As the healers stitched up open wounds that refused to be healed with magic, Trillia looked at the blinking notification again.

WARNING!
Extensive soul damage detected!
Avoid going into the Aether!

The warning blinked a bright, easily noticeable red. Over and over.

It had been for the past two hours.

It didn't matter. This was Trillia's purpose. She didn't protest when the healer shoved a bottle of mana in her mouth and tipped it up. A hand slapped one of the wounds, and she felt searing heat seal the wound that they couldn't stitch closed.

"Good luck, Avatar." Trillia offered the woman a smile as she stood, taking a deep breath and throwing herself back into the nightmare-made reality.

All around her were floating husks that the Aether was tearing apart into mana.

Most of them were the eldritch, some of them were not.

As another shade tried to stab her in the back, her horns pulsed with mana and ended the thing. She took a ragged breath and moved towards the largest cluster of dark energy.

-=====-

Kain sat there in the empty void surrounded by the three husks of the other eldritch. He wished they were easier to find in the great expanse of space. He'd happily clean them all up.

Sadly, they were impossible to find until they were ready to attack.

He hadn't sent his consciousness back to Dawn yet; instead, he sat there in solitude, watching the battle rage on Alirast's surface. Watching his children in the Aether fight as one against the remaining eldritch.

He had no smile on his face. He'd never again be able to form a pact with people on Alirast. The realm felt so distant to him now.

Perhaps he could convince Dawn to change her mind in the future, but it meant hundreds, maybe thousands of years, with less interference from him.

And from all other powerful deities, after his temper tantrum and tearing his would-be assassin apart in the Aether, none of the deities were keen to cross him anytime soon.

If he couldn't form pacts, he wouldn't let any of the primordial class deities form pacts either.

He wondered if the realm would survive or if the people would fall into endless wars again.

"Echoes of Eternity, fill me with vigor and the power to move mountains. Heed my call and let my past preserve the future."

Fear crossed his face. No! You idiot!

Kain watched as dozens of echos raced through the Aether toward one of his beloved Generals.

The dim light of providence began to pulse.

Not now! Not in this battle!