Chapter Thirty
The battle arrived four days later. Like an impolite guest, who rudely imposes himself on his unwilling host, and takes what he can. So war brashly imposes itself on the lives of unwilling men, taking its fill of life and limb from the unfortunate.
And it is believed by many that it is the Spirit of War himself who riles up the peace loving populace to fight. For war rarely has a rational explanation.
The mass of Green's foot soldiers formed a green and brown gathering in front of the fortress, staying close to the cover of the impregnable stone walls, as archers and spear throwers took up position behind the lower battlement. Heavy catapults were assembled behind the higher second wall. The cavalry lay in wait, hidden behind the large doors at the front of the fortress. When the signal sounded, they would rush out in force, and hope to overwhelm Blue's men.
Andrew, Kiara, and Greybeard were with the foot soldiers on the ground. Andrew was armed with his trusty katana, Greybeard with round shield and broadsword, and Kiara, with a long silver spear. Finor led an archer company above.
A deep and steady 'wook woot' sound was heard. Taruals. The battle commenced, with Blue deploying his taruals and infantry first. The giant frog-like creatures spit out glowing blue-green balls—each one about half the size of a bowling ball—every couple of minutes. They rolled along the ground twenty to fifty feet before exploding violently, taking many of Green's men with them. Explosions rocked the battlefield.
Some of Green's soldiers tried to catch the glowing tarual orbs and throw them back, like a soldier would throw back a live grenade, but more than ninety percent of the time the bombs would only explode in their hands. Tens and tens of Green soldiers dissolved and evaporated, with many more terribly injured.
When a tarual orb rolled their way, Andrew, along with Green's men, ran from it and its noisy explosion. Green's army was in disarray.
In hand to hand combat, Green's men were slightly superior, but Blue had armed many of his men with guns. Green's blade armed counter was no match for them.
Blue's advanced weaponry dominated the battle. The bombs and bullets were doing their job.
"The tube weapons!" Andrew could hear Greens crying in dismay. "How can we stand against the mighty tube weapons?"
Green's soldier's were spurred on by something quite powerful though: an intense hatred for King Blue and his corrupt self-centered ideology. But it seemed that blasting guns and ripping bullets were stronger than mere hatred, and the battle was going Blue's way.
Then the soldiers of the Light finally arrived via Kilon, several hours after the start of battle.
The Archers of the Light took up position behind the first battlement. Their arrows were tipped with magical Light arrow heads that flew straight, passing through everything in their path before hitting the ground. The flesh and armor of Men did nothing to impede these special arrows or slow them down.
Thus, the special Light arrows would often pass through two, three, or even four of Blue's soldiers in a row, before hitting the floor. Nothing could stand in their way, save impact with the earth itself. Blue blood spurted everywhere.
An emboldened Andrew felt his spirits lift, and he managed to fight harder against the overwhelming ocean of Blue. Wave after wave of Blue soldiers crashed into the lines of Green, emulating the swells of the sea whence came their leader's inspiration.
The Light swordsmen fought ferociously, using swords beat into many interesting angular shapes that glowed with the radiance of the Light. The Light also enhanced their strength and aided them in their assault on Blue. Thus, the Light enhanced soldiers turned the tide of battle back against King Blue and his army.
Green's heavy catapults hurled projectiles deep into the ranks of Blue from behind the higher wall, taking out many men with each shot.
Andrew's considerable skill with the katana that he exhibited when fighting the umlenzi in the rainforest, and later against the ulthars in the Nenwé mines, stood him well in this battle. Now that Andrew was also enhanced by drinking from the Shimmering Pool of the Light he was only doubly as fearsome.
Men were dropping left and right all around him. Men were killed, men were injured. It was a painful scene, one of sorrowful, heart wrenching chaos. Andrew knew that he needed to disconnect himself from the horror of war, from the horror of what was happening all around him. To fight, and keep on fighting, until there was none left to fight.
Andrew did notice that the Men of the Realms did not really die in the usual sense of the word. Rather, when they got a 'death wound,' their flesh, bone and organs dissolved into a puddle of green or blue, which would subsequently evaporate. Body to liquid to spirit. He recalled Jonah explaining it to him, the Men of the Realms would often be formed again, to be sent back to the Color Realms. Although they could still be harmed, and they still felt pain.
This lessened the pain and horror of what he was doing a little. He wasn't actually killing tens and tens of men with the blade of his sword. Was he?
It was still an incredibly terrifying experience, not one that he would ever want to go through again.
He tried to emulate Kiara, who just fought and fought on, as if that was what she was made to do, without giving any thought to distractions such as morals or emotions. But he found the conversion from compassionate human to killing machine to be exceedingly difficult, perhaps even more difficult than physically fighting the battle itself.
The moans and cries of wounded men filled the air to join the steady 'wook woot' of the taruals and orb explosions. Andrew looked around in horror and shock. Men missing arms, missing legs, crawled around on the floor. Colored blood spewed from their gaping wounds to drench the battlefield. From the air it would seem like a giant brown canvas, painted in splashes of blue, green, and turquoise. The perverted art of the Spirit of War.
The battle raged the entire day and into part of the night. Andrew and the other soldiers grew weary. The fighting paused, finally, a couple of hours after dusk.
Andrew, along with the other soldiers, ate and slept on the floor in an effort to replenish the strength that ebbed out of them throughout the day, to be ready for another grueling day of battle tomorrow.
The Greens woke abruptly early the next morning to the sound of explosions rocking the fortress. Horns were sounded as they quickly returned to their posts to find many of the catapults in smoking ruins.
Andrew heard a whop-whop sound. Blue's high-tech helicopter soldiers were out in force, hanging from harnesses attached to the rotors. They were armed with spears and bombs to throw at Green's position behind the fortress walls, along with pistols. They were like giant flies circling the husk of a dead bug as they circled around the fortress, periodically zooming in to attack. Andrew couldn't help but stare at the spectacle.
Green's great advantage, the advantage that had kept him in this fight against the better equipped forces of King Blue was the mighty fortress walls and the cover they provided. The heli-flyers' mission was to neutralize that advantage and decimate the Greens behind the great walls. The high fortifications would do nothing to stop the aerial heli-flyers.
"Archers to your positions!" came the order from Green's generals.
Green's archers ran into position and responded to the attack, shooting back at the flyers with urgency.
But the backpack helicopters proved to be highly maneuverable, and Blue's aces zigzagged masterfully through the hail of arrows towards their targets. They wore dark blue helmets that covered their faces for protection. And they wouldn't just throw the bombs at Green's fortifications and fly off. They also influenced the bombs' path of flight with sorcery for maximum damage and impact.
Then the aerial assault stopped for several minutes. The Green's behind the walls were weakened, and they hastily tried to regroup and fortify themselves. Then the flyers regrouped, and a new wave of Blue's heli-soldiers attacked. This time they
carried with them other soldiers to drop onto the battlements behind Green's lines. These were Blue's top warriors, mostly swordsmen and axmen. Their mission was to make a beachhead on the ramparts and snatch the fortress from the very hands of King Green. Then Green's soldiers below would be caught in the pincer of the great blue crab.
Green's archers were forced to draw knives, or any hand weapon that they could find, to fight these new, ferocious warriors. All of Green's trained swordsmen were engaged below on the main battlefield, and the archers were typically not trained with any weapons other than the bow. If the heli-flyers kept it up much longer, Green might lose the advantage of the mighty fortress completely. And with that advantage would go the entire battle.
Then Teltibane himself rose into the air to meet Blue's death flyers. He used sorcery to shoot pulses of electricity from his hands at the electrical machines, causing them to short circuit and explode. Blue soldiers dropped out of the sky, long smoky tendrils trailing behind them, to crash and dissolve on the ground far below.
A great cheer rose up from Green's bowmen. Someone had come to their aid, at last.
But it wasn't enough. Teltibane was just one man, and could only slow the relentless assault of Blue's flyers, not stop it. Even as he engaged one wave, another flew by to attack the fortress. Andrew wondered if the fall of the fortress was imminent. He watched the waves of Blue's ocean crash onto the shore of Green, steadily eroding the sands, until there would be nothing in the way to stop them.
"It is time! Send out the Forklant Birds!" roared King Green.
Moments later a group of huge green and yellow birds, each at least three times the size of a Kilon bird, emerged from the rear of the fortress. They carried four riders each on a large saddle, who were armed with bows and spears. Some also carried buckets of water.
The Forklant Birds and helicopter soldiers clashed in a great aerial battle above the battlefield below. Andrew couldn't help but look up and stare for a couple of minutes, even in the midst of battle. The technological prowess of Blue, versus Green's nature.
The helicopter soldiers shot with great skill and dexterity at the great birds and their riders, pistols blazing from both hands. The precision bowmen atop the birds returned fire with their less sophisticated weaponry of bows and arrows. Green's soldiers also maneuvered the birds over the helicopters and dumped buckets of water onto the electric engines, causing them to malfunction.
Soon both majestic bird and cunning man were falling from the skies. Andrew even had to dodge a few of the falling birds.
The crackling and snapping sounds of faulty electric engines and the wild shriek of the birds added to the general din of the raging battle. The swift whoosh of arrows and the sharp clang of swords combined with the deep 'woot woot' sound of the taruals. The fast 'whop whop whop' of helicopter rotors mixed with the piercing cries of injured men. It was madness, chaos and confusion rolled together, with a dash of insanity. Men dissolved all over the place, some to later return to the Color Realms, others, gone forever.
The helicopter soldiers had better maneuverability and speed, versus the slower and more cumbersome Forklant Birds. But the bird riders went up against the heli-soldiers four men to one. United with the piercing Light arrows of the Light archers and the stunning electric rays of Teltibane, they managed to hold off the fearless, masked heli-soldiers of Blue. Green's defenses stood strong.