Preparation |A TBATE What-If?|

Chapter 6 - Simple Trick

? Pov

My growing unease surrounding the Lost Prince nags at the forefront of my mind on non-trivial occasion. He is dangerous. More of a cause for my unease than the entire enemy army put together. What was he hiding? Was it related to the djinn? I couldn't be sure, and my scouts have trouble searching lest they threaten the blasted treaty. Such a stupid thing. It is only inevitable that it will break and war among the clans will ensue.

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Eleanor Leywin Pov

My hands trembled with effort as I aimed my bow. Deep breaths, I told myself, drawing the string back before releasing it. A translucent shield came up to block my arrow, but a string of mana jerked it up over the shield, and then back down to the target. With a pained gasp, he fell to the ground, dropping his shield and axe.

An unadd, I thought, nocking another arrow. That's what the Alacryans called non-mage warriors. There weren't many mages gathered on the Alacryan side. We held the clear advantage even from the most pessimistic outlooks.

We had more mages. We had home-field advantage. We seemed to be pushing them back, but I couldn't help but feel a sense of apprehension. Things were too easy.

It was an ambush, the enemy should have been more prepared than this. Wouldn't they have turned away after noticing such a difference in overall strength between the two gathered armies? None of it made much sense if I was honest.

Mounted atop my bond, my beast-will-enhanced eyes caught a flash of lightning streaking my way.

"Down!" I said, and Boo lowered. The bolt shot right over where my head had been. That was too close.

Drawing back yet another arrow, I fired it at the mage responsible, but my shot was cut down before it could find purchase. The striker—as they called them—who had saved his fellow mage narrowed his eyes at me from so far away, and he took off in my direction.

I didn't even spare him a second glance as I searched for my next target. He wouldn't make it far. Lines of soldiers, augmenters or not, protected our archers and conjurers. A single rogue striker would be cut down without issue.

Arrows shot with cruel efficiency, finding their targets more often than not. My light orange core offered me ample mana to strengthen and guide my shots to where I wanted them. I was probably one of the stronger archers among our ranks today.

And so the battle raged on. Hours seemed to blend together as I watched man after man fall. Woman after woman. It was only the second battle I'd participated in, and yet, I hadn't become desensitized to all the killing. It was awful. But it was necessary.

Finally, they retreated.

Watching the Alacryans fall back, I halted the growing smile on my face. We'd won, but I still couldn't get over the fact that it all felt too easy. What were they going to pull? What would jump out at us, yet?

As if spoken into existence, a shrill voice called out into the crowd of gathered soldiers.

"I'm surprised." My eyes shot toward where I'd heard the noise. Others were slower to find it—if at all—but with Boo's will, it wasn't an issue. Except...there was no one there. The person the voice belonged to was hidden in the forest of trees that lay to the right of where the battle had taken place. "He didn't show."

One of the trees that signaled the start of such a dense forest sizzled. And I mean it literally sizzled. Bubbling wood emitted a nauseating scent as smoke carried it into the air.