The Element Table

Chapter 26: Battle for Luxia: Part 1

"It's a pleasure," Morgaine said, doing a small curtsey

He had no smirk or a smart reply for that.

"I want to introduce some more friends, but calling them all out by name will take too long," Henry said "Why don't you all just show yourselves!" he called out

Slowly, other figures came forward, stepping into the open space. Some of them were obviously knights, clad in their armour. Most looked like ordinary citizens. But they all had their weapons out, ready to fight.

"This..." Henry started pointing at the mass "...is our army!"

Caine was a bit surprised, he expected knights, and a few townspeople, not the multitude before him. But he couldn't let that get to him, he hand guardians to defeat and a kingdom to take over

"And this is my army!" he said, and the crowd of shadow warriors erupted in horrid battle cries

But soon enough the cries died down, and the tension was high. No one seemed to move as their stares intensed.

"Want to give up now?" Morgaine spoke

"Not at all" Caine hissed "I've been waiting fifty years for this. There's no way I'm going to give up!"

"We'll see about that" she smiled

Caine didn't like her confidence and was now ready to wipe that smile off her face. He glared at her. And she glared back, neither of their eyes wavering from the other. They both opened their mouths and the same words came out.

"Attack!"

Shouts erupted as the two groups ran towards each other, Caine stood back. Allowing his warriors to run past him. He wasn't going to fight, he had creatures to do that for him, and Abdul as his guard.

Metal clashed against metal, and the fight had finally begun.

Henry found himself among some sword yielding warriors. He raised his sword and made his move, sending the blade at the first creature to approach him. The blades hit each other, and the warrior's sword fell to the ground. Henry smiled, it seemed like shadow warriors weren't as skilful with a sword like himself. He slashed the now defenceless warrior, and it fell to the ground, turning into dust. His confidence rose, and he attacked the next warrior with vigour. One by one the sword yielding creatures fell. Henry stood over one of them, his sword held high, blade facing down.

"Caine should have really taught you all how to use a sword," he said before sending the lade down in its chest.

Not too far away, Ryia swung her axe at incoming warriors, cutting off limbs and watching as they turned into ash. Some of them held swords and spears, but it did nothing to stop the earth guardian. They were down within seconds of approaching her.

Morgaine stood at the centre of the crowd, spinning in every direction to the warriors coming towards her. She had no sword or axe, but a ball of light floating in her palms. She swung her arms, throwing balls of light at the creatures before her. The moment the light hit, they too turned into a pile of ash.

And that's what it was like for the next couple of minutes, metal clashing against metal, screams of pain and piles of ash blowing away in the wind. Soon the guardians and their army began to take over, and the number of warriors began to quickly decline. Caine noticed, and knew exactly what he had to do.

He took his stance, his feet apart and his arms raised over his head. He closed his eyes and spoke.

"Come forth!" was all he said

A few seconds passed before the ground began to shake. Some steadied themselves while others fell over unbalanced. It was like the day of the Sun Festival all over again. For a while, all that happened was the shaking ground, but then, behind Caine, the ground began to crack and opened up. The earthquake stopped, but everyone knew that wasn't the end.

From the three foot wide Crack in the ground, a hand sprung up. Then two, then ten, then twenty. The eyes of the kingdom's army widened. The rotten looking bony hands told them who...or what was about to emerge.

One after the other, shadow warriors hoisted themselves up from the crack and charged towards the Luxian army. Instantly the fight continued, and things were getting harder. More warriors were coming at them before they could destroy the one in front of them.

"Getting a bit overwhelmed?" Caine smiled at them

No one gave an answer, partly because he was right and didn't want to admit it, and partly because they were to busy to answer.

Caine watched the fight go on, smiling ever so often when a Luxian fell to the ground. Maybe this takeover was going to be easier than he thought.

The tides were beginning to turn, and the Luxians were getting pushed back. Morgaine and the others tried hard to not get distracted by wounded comrades but knew that it was time to execute the next part of their plan.

After hitting a shadow warrior with of her light orbs, she looked towards Henry. He looked at her, the same desperate look on his face. He too knew that it was time. She nodded at him and he nodded back.

He held his sword in one hand. Ready to fend off attackers, while a ball of fire grew in the other. Once the ball was large enough, he threw it as hard as he could, into the sky.

Caine, on the other side, watched as the flame went up, and up. The ball of fire hovered for a moment and the moon guardian waited for it to fall down. But it didn't. The ball burst open, flaring across the small area in the air. Henry heard the pop and knew that it was done, all he had to do now was fight and wait.

Caine was no dummy, he knew what that meant.

It was and signal. There were more fighters coming.

He looked to some warriors and called them over, instructing them to stand right at the edge of the forest.

He was going to be ready this time.