The World of Strife

We headed back to our personal troops, but not before I exchanged several words with Alita. The dwarven girl was clearly happy to see me there. She even told me jokingly that she wouldn't expect us marching together into battle before spending a dreadful afternoon in the princess tea party. Life was full of surprises. I couldn't help but agree with that.

Indeed, life was filled with impossible surprises. This particular notion had carved itself into my soul since I died and reborn as an elf girl in a fantastic world. At this point, anything was possible in my book if it was paired up with the right introduction.

Anyway, we exchanged our good-luck wishes for the coming battle and went back to our groups.

Alita naturally didn't come alone either, she brought troops from her house and therefore was duty bound to fight alongside them, or even lead them. I didn't ask about that part, but wouldn't really be surprised if that turned out to be the case. Not that it mattered much right now. I should be focusing more on the battle ahead, but even saying it in my mind sounded ridiculous. How did my life turn out like this? Seriously, from selling cars for a living, ending up in the middle of medieval magical warfare seemed way too farfetched.

I reached our formation and stood along the line hesitantly. Come to think of it, where did the others go? I only stopped for a minute to talk with Alita.

Before I could make up my mind about that. Emrum pushed through the line of soldiers, grabbing me by my wrist and pulling me into the momentarily parted line of bodies.

"Ugh… seriously?" — I complained to the annoyed dwarf, who continued to push through the tight formation.

"Where were you, Lora?" — Emrum ignored my complaint and instead stated his own. — "Aria was about to throw a fit, don't disappear on us like that girl." — He shook his head then continued. — "No matter, stay in the middle of the formation and don't lose sight of me or Aria, do you understand?" — He shook my shoulder for emphasis. — "That also includes you, Camilla." — Emrum stated while turning to the pale looking human girl standing by my side, who nodded fervently.

Somewhere ahead of us a man shouted. — "Attention! The gates are opening, prepare to head out!"

I gulped, feeling the suffocating tension that traveled over the troops in the wake of those words.

Ariawyn stepped up to me, placing a reassuring hand over my shoulder, then squeezing it slightly. I turned my face, looking up at the taller elf. I could see a sea of frustration flicker in her eyes, likely the residual anger she felt from my apparent disappearance. I mean, seriously, I was only lagging behind like a minute or so…

The woman sighed, studying my expression. I likely failed to hide my own annoyance, or my fear of the battle ahead. — "I swear…" — Aria started with another sigh. — "You would manage to find a way to get lost, even if I put a leash around your neck… What were you thinking? The battle is about to begin!"

I stared at the wood elf, my fear momentarily forgotten by the raising frustration I felt. — "You…" — I felt speechless. This shameless elf, she already did that! What more does she… My thoughts froze as my brain processed the shit-eating grin on the infuriating elf's face. She was riling me up for her own amusement!

I turned my face away from her, deciding that ignoring the elf was enough of a reaction. Which predictively elicited a snort from Aria's direction, but I ignored it.

My attention was suddenly focused up ahead, as the heavy sound of metals grinding against metals filled the tunnel. The gate was being pulled open. My heart skipped a beat, eyes widened unnaturally as I stared ahead. Being taller than the average dwarf allowed me a good enough view of the battlefield. While seeing human soldiers in the various groups that arrived to defend the city wasn't rare, they were still an obvious minority among the present people.

The large metal gates parted slowly, as the wings of the door were dragged apart by soldiers pulling ropes. It was then that I caught the first glimpse of the other side. I had to blink several times to connect what I saw with the images I remembered from the time of entering the city.

The ground near to the gate was ripped out in long lines concurrent to the walls. There were dwarven and human soldiers already inside them, holding the entrenchments. Next to their lines were several crudely made fortifications created by compressed earth, some of them were already damaged or completely blasted apart. My eyes widened even further when I caught one of those destroyed fortifications, seemingly rebuilding itself on its own accord. It finished its regeneration seconds before a sharp light, followed by a thunderous roar, blinded my senses.

I bit down on my lips as the impossibly loud sound shook my bones as it travelled through the corridors.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw that the towering earth formation was now little more than a scorching mess scattered across the battlefield.

Once again, the previous sound of a man boomed above the army. — "Move out! Attack!"

After a second of hesitation, the entire army jolted forward. I quickly looked around. Seeing Aria, Emrum, and Camilla moving right beside me felt especially reassuring for some reason.

"Archers!" — Sounded a harsh, elongated shout from somewhere ahead of us. — "Shields up!" — Shouted another soldier, then another. — "Raise the shields!" — Until every soldier with a shield raised it above their head.

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I myself decided to raise my staff slightly off the ground and will my intentions into a dome like a translucent field of energy, that covered the four of us and a few nearby soldiers. It was a necessary thing to do, seeing that only Emrum had a shield among the four of us.

I could not have made the light shield at a better time since, in a mere few seconds, a curtain of arrows clashed into our lines. Most of them striking shields, while a few lucky ones have managed to strike true, hearing the occasional curses and cries of pain coming from the men.

My shield has deflected a handful of arrows, too.

While the arrows continued to strike us, the troops never paused, continuously pushing ahead.

The moment we passed under the opened gates and reached the magically made entrenchments, which were likely the shaper's handiwork who I previously met. The so far well kept tight marching formation seemed to dissolve with a practiced ease. The change between the forms of movement was so fluid and unexpected in fact, that I found myself baffled witnessing it firsthand. The previously strictly marching soldiers resembling any medieval army worth its salt at the clap of a hand changed to employ the chaotic trench tactics of the World Wars of my old world.

I would probably still be standing at the edge of the trench with a wide open mouth if Aria didn't practically kick me into the ditch. The disruption in concentration naturally caused my shield spell to flicker, then dissipate with a popping sound.

I didn't have much time to complain, however, as she immediately straightened me up and started to push and pull me as she pleased along the spine of one of the trenches that lead towards the enemy lines.

Meanwhile, I still struggled to grasp the situation. What was going on here, seriously? I don't know what I expected, but this was definitely not it! How am I even supposed to cast any spells?!

Another earsplitting explosion happened somewhere ahead of us. The ground rocked under my feet so much that I lost balance and fell on my side, desperately trying to cover my ears. Which were prickling from the painfully loud noise.

"Fucking elven ears!" — I cursed. — "I will end up deaf if this goes on much longer!" — I crawled to my knees, taking in my direct vicinity, small pieces of earth were falling down periodically around us, likely from the previous explosion. I shook my head, my ears still ringing from that accursed blast.

I looked around one more time, finally noticing Aria a few meters to my side, lying low at the nearest turn in the trench, along with several dwarfs from our house.

On my other side, Camilla seemed to be peaking over the edge and occasionally sending an arrow into the unknown. Her eyes suddenly widened as she staggered backwards. Fear mirrored in her dark green eyes as she shouted in alarm. — "Goblins! Goblins are climbing over the fence!"

At the mention of goblins, something seemed to snap in my mind.

Before I knew what happened, I was already on my feet, grabbing my staff and pointing it over the edge of the trench. Holding it like some sort of gun of all things, witnessing all the chaos and destruction around us, seemed to have given me a certain intuitive spark.

I formed a fist sized hollow ice ball, making its outer layer especially thin. When the desired construct appeared at the tip of my staff, I started to fill it to the brim with small razor sharp icicles. I put so many shards into the hollow ice ball that the entire construct became unstable from the internal pressure. Thin lines of cracks already started to appear on its surface when I finally shoot it towards the incoming goblins with a push of telekinesis.

I immediately ducked down, pulling along Camilla. The startled girl eliciting a girlish scream, which turned an octave higher when the sound of shattered ice followed by a wave of bone chilling coldness arrived. It was not over yet, though, as animalistic screams reached our ears, sending a series of shivers down my spine.

I pulled my limbs tighter around myself and Camilla as two bodies of black armored goblins stumbled into the trench. They were already bloodied and shredded when they fell onto the ground with a wet splatter of blood. Screaming and trashing in total panic, until the drop of a heavy axe meticulously ended their suffering.

The following sudden silence felt like a momentary respite.

I looked up into the eyes of the unfamiliar dwarf. The bulky man was wearing a double-horned helmet that mostly covered his face, but left out his dark brown eyes. Still, I couldn't miss the familiar sigil on his armor, the empty circle, which meant he was associated with House Dimhollow. Knowing that was enough for me as I nodded towards him.

The man nodded back to me appreciatively, as he said. — "Well done, lass! Continue like that, and by the end of the day, I might just start liking mages! Hahaha!" — With a grunt of effort, he pulled out the edge of his bloodied two-handed axe from one of the nearly decapitated dead goblin's remains. Splattering more blood across the floor with the released arc of his axe, then he spat on top of it for good measure. — "Good riddance!"

Emrum's voice came from one of the trenches directly connected to our own. — "Crom, is everything fine back there?"

The man laughed at that. — "I think I can see why you picked up this stray kitten, you cunning bastard. Your lass practically demolished them on her lonesome, I wasn't needed at all, haha! I pity the man who will end up being fooled by that pretty face. Ha! Not that it's my problem! How is it on your side?"

"We need to wait for the shaper, if he is done, we can push forward!" — Emrum's voice sounded once again.

The man grunted at that, then turned back to us. — "What now? Get off your dainty arses and keep at it! There are a lot more where these dogs came from." — He kicked one of the dead goblins for emphasis.

I slowly crawled to my feet, somewhat disoriented from my previous burst of adrenalin. I couldn't help but ask a question from Camilla, who seemed to have a better grasp on the situation. — "Why are we making trenches to push forward?!" — I shouted as another distant explosion shook the cave.

Camilla turned to me with a deadpan expression and said. — "Would you rather run headfirst into their line of fire, not even mentioning this siege magic? There have dark elves with them Selora, they are pretty good archers, remember? Anyway, it's a well used dwarven tactic when there is a shaper in the troops. It is true that mages are few among the dwarven people… Those, however, who accomplish the title of shaper tend to be the best of the earth mages in the realm."

I nodded to that and grasped my staff with a strengthened resolve, intentionally avoiding to look at the dead goblins near my feet. While the sight of blood didn't bother me anymore, thanks to my extracurricular activities regarding blood magic. The mangled visage of ruptured and shredded bodies still caused an uncomfortable lurch in my stomach.

Strangely, that sense of normalcy instead of disturbing me felt somewhat comforting in the midst of this absurd situation in which I have found myself once again.