Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Victory and defeat

The general ordered everyone to attack. It didn't matter if there was no miasma. It didn't matter if they could wake up. It commanded them to advance against the reinforcements. It also ordered the ranged ones to reinforce their attacks, even if they ended up exhausted later.

Some of the newly arrived mages rushed to the rearguard of those who they had come to rescue, while some warriors spread out to assist those who had been too long maintaining the defensive perimeter. Likewise, the two healers spent much of their mana in recovering and stabilizing some wounded.

Admittedly, there were no defensive mages among the newcomers, but that didn't mean they were totally defenseless against ranged attacks. It was more expensive in mana, and needed all their concentration and expertise, but they could attack incoming attacks, causing them to collide and nullify each other.

They had been fighting in those corrupt lands for years, so their precision and skill weren't ordinary. They were able to discern between dangerous attacks and those that wouldn't hit the target, thus decreasing the amount of mana they required, which wasn't a small amount either.

Once the path was opened, and despite the attempts of the corrupted beings to overcome their defenses and cut off their retreat, the group that had been besieged gradually passed to the other side, orderly retreating to avoid their defenses being overcome. With the help of reinforcements, it was easier, although it is also true that these were quickly consuming their mana and energy.

When they crossed the siege and reached the miasma-free zone that Eternal Light had created, they weren't safe yet. The corrupted beings were rushing towards them through that area that at first they had preferred to avoid.

They needed to resist the charge of their enemies again, but conditions were now more favorable. Not only was this area free of miasma, for now, but they had many more troops available. Perhaps they were exhausted, perhaps their weapons and equipment had been shattered, but they could easily form a solid double line of defense, even with a third line waiting to replace them.

The losts encountered shields that still resisted planted on the ground. And the reinforcement warriors, who were a little tired but still in top condition, and were waiting for them with their weapons ready. And mages who had used perhaps more than half of their mana, but who still had almost the other half left. And with many others who were taking advantage to recover their energy before returning to battle, Eldi among them.

Furthermore, ranged attacks, whether physical or magical, had practically stopped, because the corrupt beings in charge of executing them had exhausted their power and resources. Therefore, they had full confidence in resisting.

A daring archer tried his luck, firing an energy arrow in the direction the general was. In reality, such an attack couldn't harm it, but, in its totally irrational state, that attack terrified it. A similar attack had wiped out some of its brothers, so it panicked and fled the battlefield, leaving its army without its leadership.

"There is no miasma! It's more important to hold them back than to kill them!" Caranlín shouted.

And so they did, using, to the extent that they were mastered, spells to slow, confuse, knock out, or push.

Soon, they began to wake up. The longer they stayed in the miasma-free zone, the more likely they were to do so. And, as it had happened after the Armageddon, their enemies turned against each other, but this time there was no one to push them back. At first, there were only a few, but their number was continually increasing. And if the awakened ones hated anything, it was what they had been.

After a while, the group in which Eldi was himself had barely to defend against the side effects of the fight between losts and awakened. And, soon after, not even that. They solemnly watched as the numerous awakened turned against their former allies, against those which had been like them, against those in the area with miasma.

Those from the miasma area were more, and managed to repel the awakened, but, in doing so, they went into the area without miasma and, little by little, they ended up waking up and turning against their own. It was a tug-of-war in which the army of corrupted beings was being reduced. Without the guidance of their general, they simply attacked without thinking beyond what was in front of them, causing the battle to be heading towards its inexorable end.

When the last of the losts was destroyed, the awakened turned against themselves, killing each other, in what wasn't a fight but an assisted suicide. They preferred to die rather than return to what they had been.

For a long time, there was only silence among the living. Normally, they would have been exultant to have been saved, to have survived, but the spectacle they had witnessed had left them speechless.

It took them a long time to react, to hug each other, to shed tears of happiness at being alive, to thank their companions and reinforcements for having survived an impossible situation.

Not a few hugged Eldi with thanks and admiration. If someone had been vital, if someone had changed the outcome, that someone had been him. Of course, he hadn't done it alone. They had all been essential, but he had accomplished the impossible, giving them the opportunity to fight where there was supposedly not.

There were many celebrations that night, and not only in their camp. It had been a great victory, one in which they had escaped alive and defeated thousands of their enemies, ruining their plans.

On the other hand, on the other side, in the heart of the corrupt zone, they weren't so happy. They had suffered many defeats that day, but none as disastrous and humiliating as that of the general which had fled the battlefield. It was tied, hanging from the branch of a corrupted tree, face down.

Many generals were surrounding it, wanting to finish it off to release their own frustrations. But they couldn't do it. They had to wait for their lord's judgment.