Demon Diaries Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Ambuscade

Nunemund, 3rd day, 217th known year.

Draego moved silently and stealthily. The West of Gerud was covered with forest. He would have to cross the forest and head directly westwards to reach the bridge. That is where he would replicate the massacre yesterday. This time, however, he wouldn’t have to worry about reinforcements. His opponents would.

He entered the forest and spent almost six hours crossing it, while avoiding the camp a few hundred meters to his north. He slowed down further when he reached the edge of the forest. He spread a net of mana and sensed the twenty three presences near the bridge. This time, however, there was a response as one of those presences releases a similar net of mana.

Draego manipulated his net to entwine and confuse his opponents. This was what was called a ‘sensory’ battle. It was one of the most common forms of combat between two mages. One where one’s ability and skill at using magic trumped everything else. And the winner of this round, was Draego.

His opponent’s net crumbled and dissipated as he lost control of the mana within. Immediately, Draego pulled his own net back, dragging separated fragments of his opponent’s mana with it. The mana coursed through him without side effects and assimilated perfectly with his own. An added bonus for his efforts.

Draego made his way behind a tree at the very edge of the forest and surveyed the bridge area, easily spotting the angry mage and the subordinates around him. Fighting a mage backed by soldiers was not something Draego could accomplish on his own. However, he could agitate the mage into making a mistake. And that’s what he decided on doing.

He manipulated the net and immediately caught the mage’s attention again, taunting him. The mage responded as he expected. The mage threw out his own net to exact his position. Another battle erupted as the mage’s mana strands tried to course down Draego’s and Draego’s strands tried to rip the mage’s apart.

And, again, Draego won. A delightful feeling coursed through Draego as he realised he could almost just form a tenth spell now. Draego felt the mage was quite inept. In fact, Draego could tell this man had little to no practical experience in a battle of this kind. He himself, however, had practiced this several times in games of hide-and-seek with his adopted father.

The mage completely flipped out. He screamed and shouted in a rage, scaring the soldiers around him. Finally, he barked out orders to a squad, sending them towards Draego’s general direction. There were about eight men in that squad.

Perfect. Draego thought to himself. He drew his sword and walked back deeper into the forest. He spread out a mana net which didn’t reach more than a meter past the edge of the forest. It was more of an act of defense against the enemy mage than an attempt to monitor the enemy squad.

The eight split up. Draego stealthily made his way to one of them. The mana net easily informed him of where they were and which way they were facing. He snuck up to one of the soldiers, and thrust his sword accurately through the back of his neck, out the front. Draego perfectly ruptured the soldier’s vocal chords, leaving him unable to make any noise.

Immediately afterwards, he twisted his sword, severing several arteries, including the carotid. He let the man’s body fall, letting it also make a noise in the forest, grabbing the others’ attention. Before then, however, he was already gone. The soldier closest to the body rushed towards it, and thus towards the hidden Draego.

Just as she was about to rush past the tree Draego hid himself behind, Draego swung his sword horizontally towards the soldier’s neck, beheading her cleanly. The body was carried ahead due to her momentum, and crashed with a loud noise, attracting the other six.

Draego backed away and circled around them, disposing off of the one furthest from his first two prey. The other five grouped together, only for one to become prey to an accurate sword toss by Draego, the blade embedding itself into his back. He crumbled to the ground just as his companions crumbled to fear.

The other four ran out of the forest, back to the mage, in tears. Draego approached the dying soldier and ended his misery with a quick slash across the man’s throat. He sent a gaze towards the four panicking soldiers and started moving towards the edge of the forest again.

Time to play. He thought to himself as he let out a net of mana to search for the mage again.

~ X ~

In the village, a few hours earlier, Cessa finally arrived at the inn where Draego was staying. She looked around frantically, making the soldiers nervous. Finding neither Draego nor his group of children soldiers anywhere, she turned to one of the soldiers.

“There was a mercenary group who arrived here yesterday.” She started with a troubled frown. The soldier, much to her delight, nodded.

“Do you know where they might be?” She asked. The soldier gave her a troubled smile.

“No ma’am, I was there yesterday night, on the East wall, when they arrived.” He replied. “I was not informed of their movements thereafter.”

Cessa bit her lip. At this moment, the soldier, who had been indulging in a drink before being interrupted by the young lady, turned to look at a soldier who just entered the inn. The soldier was a young brunette, with a gorgeous, slightly chubby build.

“Ah, Trisha!” He called out to her. She gave him a weary and somewhat annoyed look. The soldier was visibly hurt by her behaviour.

“Don’t give me that look!” He responded. “Her ladyship is looking for the kids who arrived here yesterday! You had a break today, right? Do you know where they are?”

The girl blinked as she finally looked at and recognized Cessa. Then she gave a salute and nodded.

“They were asked to head towards and reinforce the West wall by their commander, ma’am!” She reported crisply, although her stiff wings displayed her nervousness. Cessa could tell she was still young, probably barely past her teens, just like the man before. Cessa frowned as she wondered why he went there.

Just then, a girl entered the bar. She immediately saluted Cessa. Cessa frowned, not remembering who this girl was.

“I bring a message from Commander Draego, milady!” She immediately answered Cessa’s queries.

“Speak.” Cessa ordered her simply.

“Milady,” The girl began. “Squad Commander Stephanie scouted an enemy military camp to our west. The personnel there was weakened after yesterday’s events and has further been stretched thin between the bridge and the main camp. Squad Commander took the liberty of eliminating their lookouts, leaving only around a score in the camp itself.”

Cessa smiled. A good chance to route out one of the enemy units and take down a couple of enemy mages. She thought of the same idea as Draego. Except, she was faster to catch on. She immediately turned to the two soldiers.

“Grab your bow and some arrows, both of you.” She ordered the two soldiers, hushing the remainder of the girl’s report. She herself was still suited in the same clothes and armor as the morning.

“Call Luke and the rest of your squad and meet me on the East wall, as quickly as you can.”

“Yes ma’am!” The two replied in a chorus and rushed up the stairs of the inn. She left the inn with an excited look. She rushed directly to the East wall, accompanied by the girl from Draego’s squad and immediately searched for anyone the same age as her. She found a single boy, waiting in complete combat gear.

She walked up to him. Having met her before, the boy got up and bowed to her.

“Your ladyship.” He gave her a light greeting. Cessa nodded with a slightly frustrated look on her face.

“Where is your commander?” she asked.

“He left to ‘visit’ the bridge, my lady.” The boy replied.

Cessa gave a wry smile. She waited for about half an hour before three squads of a dozen troops each gathered near the gates, led by a tall figure armored in full plate armor. She simply looked at the soldiers, whispering among themselves in curiosity and uneasiness, but still standing in an orderly manner. Cessa turned her gaze towards Luke.

“Commander Draego has discovered an enemy camp in a weakened state and paved the way for an ambush.” Cessa said, her voice resounding with steel-like resolve.

“It falls on us to wipe out the enemy before us. Around twenty soldiers, and possibly three enemy mages.” She paused for a moment and gave the soldiers a glance. They had stopped fidgeting and gave her words their complete attention.

“We shall march silently, strike swiftly and return gloriously!” Cessa said, drawing her glistening long sword and raising it high. The soldiers reciprocated her action by raising their own swords. There were no battlecries and no shouts for morale. This was an ambush, not a frontal battle.

They departed immediately afterwards, guided by the two from Draego’s squad. They made their way quickly to where Stephanie and her two companions were, and spread out to surround the enemy camp. The soldiers prepared their bows and arrows, ready to let them loose on the dozen or so soldiers outside the tents.

Cessa and Luke scanned the place for the three commanders. In a battle between mages, regular soldiers were of little use. It wasn’t as though soldiers were useless, but the number of soldiers needed to swarm a mage was immense. It was much more efficient and effective to split a battle between that of the mages and that of the regular troops.

Unable to find either after almost half an hour of waiting, Cessa signalled for the attack to begin. Arrows flew from all directions, with multiple skewering the fourteen soldiers outside the tents. Although not all attacks were fatal, and although a couple of arrows missed their targets, all the enemy soldiers were hit by at least two arrows.

Unfortunately, one of them managed to live through the volley, and let out a piercing screech. He was shot down immediately afterwards by the girl from the inn, Trisha. However, it was already a bit too late. “AMBUSH!!” A voice resounded across the clearing in the forest as about a dozen soldiers emerged from the tents.

Most unfortunately for them, however, another volley immediately sent most of them to their graves. The only ones left standing were two men who had managed to somehow avoid the arrows shot at them. Naturally, they were the commanders. One of them hasn’t come out yet. The thought came in Cessa’s mind.

“Luke!” She called out, and immediately, the plate-armored man drew a massive greatsword and rushed towards the two. His speed was such that it didn’t seem he was clad in full-plate armor. The two enemy commanders drew their swords and channeled their mana, preparing to face Luke.

Luke, simply sped up as he was, and crashed with all his weight directly into one of the enemies. The two were sent crashing and skidding across the ground by the momentum, with Luke getting up almost immediately and ending his opponent’s life with a quick thrust to his neck.

The other mage had his attention completely taken by Luke. Two squad commanders, both being Novice mages, took this chance to launch an offensive against the mage. The mage reacted immediately and cast two ice spears at them. The squad commanders channeled their mana and struck down the ice spears, but they were forced to stop.

The enemy mage turned back towards Luke, when his head was suddenly yanked backwards. Before he could realize what was happening, however, a blade slit across his neck, leaving a deep cut gushing with blood. As he fell, Stephanie rose behind him, seemingly from his shadow. Cessa, who had just made her way half-way to the commander, looked at her with a complicated expression.

“I specialize in…” Stephanie started with a shrug. “…‘subtle’ tasks, my lady.”

“Evidently.” Cessa responded briefly and turned towards Luke. He was wiping off the blood on his armor with a piece of cloth. Where he got that from, nobody could bother to find out. The other soldiers had already got to work, searching the bodies for survivors and the tents for valuables and other loot. Cessa took a quick look around before starting.

“Luke, Stephanie, follow me,” Cessa said. “The rest of you, take the loot back to Gerud, get it inventoried and stored.”

“Where are we going, my lady?” Luke asked. Cessa turned a determined gaze towards the west, slightly towards the south. That was where the western bridge to Gerud was.

“To take down the last commander.” Cessa replied as she started walking briskly.