"Eat this!"
I heard Hana shout right next to me. By the time I turned to see what happened, they fired the crossbow at someone inside the encampment. Did the lizardmen break through our lines? The one they aimed for was much more sinister and dangerous, even than thousands of reptiles.
"The Elder?" I yelled, right as the bolt hit her. It threw sparks around, and I heard a loud clang over the noises of the raging battle. But the crossbow hit true, the bolt managed to penetrate all her defenses.
The blonde woman was just as surprised as we were. Hana's crossbow was stronger than the rest, and they did not idle around, reloading the weapon. The Elder fell to the ground, but it seemed too nice to be true. She survived a similar wound last time.
"Omerta, watch out, she's doing something!" I heard Hana yell at me and almost noticed it too late. The way her hand touched the ground wasn't to give her support. No, she prepared to drain our life forces again, and with so many people around, an attack like that would have been devastating. I couldn't shield everyone at once.
I needed to concentrate on a spell and make it quick. A bolt of lightning seemed like the fastest spell I could pull off. There was plenty of pent electricity in the air around us, I just had to give them a nice, juicy target.
"No, you're not!" The Elder yelled. She ripped off the bolt and thrust it into the ground before my lightning could reach her. It acted like a lightning rod, and she got away with my attack. Still, she was bleeding badly, and her spell needed serious concentration. As long as I kept hitting her, it should have been fine.
"Behind you!" Hana shouted, tackling me, and bringing me to the ground all of a sudden. I was concentrating on the Elder too hard myself. I forgot about the battle raging around me. The lizard's shamans broke my barrier, and their archers lobbed arrows through the gaps.
It would have been much better to be hit by those. The spell the Elder immediately unleashed was much more devastating. It happened to me the second time now and I was quick enough to shield myself, then steadily increased the radius towards my brother and other allies. But I was too late to protect everyone. Withered orcs and goblins fell one by one around us. The Elder seemed to be completely healed once again.
"What are you doing, orc witch?" Ember asked, distracted from the rest of the fight as well. "She almost hit me with something nasty."
"I could use some help," I confessed, swallowing my arrogance. I remembered how it ended the last time I fought her. "She is way too powerful for me, and I feel like she is somehow connected with the..."
I couldn't finish. The fight started, and she regained her strength, attacking everyone around her indiscriminately. I had to shield as many people as possible while looking for openings. It was tough with a thousand or more lizardmen behind our backs, but if I wanted to give the company a fighting chance, we had to deal with the Elder first. Ember did not waste time hitting her with different fire spells, but she had to restrain her powers.
"I see, another witch. And this one is only a child." The woman taunted us effortlessly between two offensive spells. "Who would have thought the Demon Lord already has to scrape the barrel? But don't worry, the younger you are, the more of your life force I can steal away."
"You freak me out, human." The Fire Witch answered, lobbing one fire arrow at her after the other. The mage defended herself with a watery aura, so it was time for me to send another lighting at her. It hit her but didn't do much damage. Hana on the other hand was up and standing again, and they finished reloading their crossbow too.
"No, one was plenty enough of that!" The Elder yelled, reaching her hand towards the weapon. I reacted too late, and it caught on fire. Hana would not let go of it before they got off the shot, but this time it missed.
They had to throw away the burning weapon and pick up a spear from the ground, deciding to go into a melee. Last time it was close, and it was only thanks to the gargoyle that she could walk away from those attacks. Now we were here too, to support them. Except the reptiles completely overwhelmed our defenses now that both witches tried to fight this woman. The orc warriors could only do so much against them.
"Ember, for crying out. Don't abandon the front lines!" Avalon shouted, backed into a corner by half a dozen attackers. Our eyes met for a moment. With a nod, we agreed that she'll deal with the lizards, and I take on the mage with my brother. I hoped it would be enough.
"They are breaking through!" A soldier yelled right next to me, only to be stabbed in the chest by a primitive spear a moment later.
"They are everywhere!" The orc shield walls started to waver. They were completely overwhelmed, but I had to trust the Fire Witch to handle the situation. I couldn't abandon Hana this time. They fought for all of us now. I had to concentrate and create some openings.
"Firewall!" The cat girl witch shouted, shielding my back from their onslaught. "Firestorm! Eat this all, suckers. You should have known better than to follow us here. Burn brighter, hahahah."
She was truly in her element. Despite her young age, she was frightening, I had to give her that, But I couldn't waste time on her. I created a barrier over Hana's body, but the Elder kept breaking through it. She was even more ferocious than last time. She came for revenge.
"Don't worry, I will kill you both before the lizardmen can get to you. I won't let anyone else take your lives, but me!" She was screaming, and I could barely protect the others from the collateral damage she caused.
Hana's attacks rarely got through, and I couldn't even hope to cast offensive spells. If Nati was here, could she break through again? The Elder was like a different person, probably on par with the Goddess herself, though I never saw her fight, and was gone for days now. Right when we needed her the most.
If anything, my brother at least drove her back. She could have caused much less damage and chaos within our ranks if we could push her out of the encampment, but there was another side to that coin. Apart from her tremendous punches, arrows fell on Hana too, and not just them, the lizards seemed to have concentrated their attacks right where the Elder was. It looked almost as if she controlled them.
"Fall back, they are breaking through!" Gorgon shouted somewhere near the southern side. An ogre collapsed right next to me and was swarmed with human-sized reptiles. They didn't even wear armor, just some primitive clothing, and spears, but their skin alone was so thick that our weapons could barely wound them. There were just so many.
"Argh, I'm hit!" Ember cried out, an arrow sticking out from her shoulder. The enemy shamans used this opportunity to strike her down as well. I grounded her in the last moment from the incoming lightning attack, but Hana became more vulnerable for some time. To make things worse, the raptors seemed to go crazy now. They broke free from their restraints and ran around, biting friend and foe alike. The situation seemed more and more hopeless.
The Elder did not waste her chance, transforming her hands into steel blades, she ferociously attacked my brother, cutting through their blocks as if they didn't even exist. The spear was broken into tiny pieces and the next moment, her blade hands disappeared inside their torso.
Hana collapsed, crying out in pain. There was nothing I could do about it, I was too slow, raging, and crying out as well, but it didn't help me to cast any faster. My mind was clouded by anger. I saw her strike down the only family I ever knew. Instead of defense, now I went all out on attack. First I increased the pressure around her, having the air push the Elder around, then once she was far enough from my severely injured brother, I threw a fireball at her, followed by lightning. She laughed hysterically, dodging nearly all my attacks.
Hana tried their best to get up, but those wounds were too deep. The blood loss was critical. No matter how much I attacked that woman, she held on. To make matters worse, the lizardmen broke across our lines at every single point, forcing me into a melee.
I could barely even see, tears blurring my vision, and I screamed louder than the battle raging around me. I wasn't about to go down that easily though. I fought myself through the enemy crowd while the Elder was out of reach, shocking, melting, and burning everyone around me until I got to where my brother had fallen. They were still breathing but already lost consciousness. And a lot of blood. Blood everywhere.
"I'm gonna kill you!" I screamed into the battle, but I could no longer see her. It was over. Our positions were all overrun, and I could only put a barrier around us, protecting ourselves for a few more moments. Ember still put up quite a fight, I had to respect that, but it all seemed futile.
More than half of their company was already dead, the rest of them dying. The Captains were valiantly fighting, pressed into a corner. Surrender was not even an option.
But as a ray of hope, I heard a familiar sound through the raging hell.
It was the battle cry of a wyvern, and not even just one. Four dove into the messy battle, clearing the ground inside the encampment. They immediately pitched up to regain some altitudes before the lizardmen realized what hit them, but their shamans recognized the danger and concentrated their fire on the beasts.
One went down immediately, but this was all I needed to pinpoint their locations and strike at the opening. Ember must have thought the same thing. We cast our offensive magic at the same moment.
The battlefield was engulfed in flames and sparks, our attacks hit true and managed to wipe out all of their shamans at once. We still lost most of our men, while half of the lizards were unscathed, but the wyverns gave us some hope. One of them landed right next to us.
"Fly to the village. Tell them to bring help!" I screamed at them immediately. I did not take no for an answer and pointed at Hana. "Take my brother with you. They are severely wounded. No time to lose, hurry!"