Chapter 16:
[Arria’s POV]
The breeze was strong at dusk pushing against Arria’s already cold face. She led the army in the front and pushed them hard to continue on their path without any breaks. The few that were weak and wanted breaks were already dead by her blade. Weakness was not acceptable to her and she would not tolerate it. If the tremulous hike to the south of Sudegam was too much for them than what use would they be in battle?
She knew that the elves would expect an attack from the north and would probably have the east and west scarcely covered as well, but the south was where she knew to attack. They had to travel all the way around the elven capital and far enough away from it to not arise suspicion. She had lived in Sudegam long enough to know where its weakest point for attack was. The southern border the road leading into the city expanded in all directions making a scattered pushed attack impenetrable.
Arria knew this was because they had no enemies to their south, only allied elf towns, or faerie towns, but the faeries never gave the elves any trouble. They weren’t allies, but they were smart enough to not be enemies. Arria remembered stories of them once being allied before thousands of years ago in a war against the dragons, but she wasn’t old enough to know for sure. There hadn’t been sight of a dragon in so long that they must have been extinct.
Arria hushed them back and tried to keep them quiet as she tiptoed forward to look through the opening. What she saw surprised her. She was right to assume that the elves wouldn’t be worried about the southern border, but what she saw was the humans being led by that same one she had fought protecting the south entrance. He stood next to the pearly white gates that surrounded the rest of the city with an army of men and a captain. The walls were too large to climb and so they had to use the entrance. Trees surrounded the gate and even continued inside. Elves were the only race that had wild trees continuing into it.
It posed her a threat, but it was still the best route inside the city. She could smell the fear in the air that night. The smell pleased her as her most favorite smell was fear. She turned back around to bark orders when she noticed elves in the trees.
“Attack from above!” Arria yelled.
The confused daerions and draeyks looked everywhere until one had fallen to the ground in a magic blast. They all cried out in terror as some pulled crossbows from their back to fire back at the elves hiding in the trees. Their arrows were almost ineffective against their magical blocks.
Arria scanned the trees noticing dozens of elves firing magic down towards them. She remembered the days when the elves feared all magic. That was until… “Aliuqa…” Arria whispered. The elves were always scared to use magic until Aliqua the dark skinned elf showed up. She showed them spells of nature and healing, but they were still scared of the black magic. The magic that Arria had to use to save mother… and she would have saved mother too…
The thought of her mother had her mind scattered and full of anger and hate. Hate towards the elves, especially the elves who cursed her magic while they had no problem using their own. The spell casters, and here they were and it was her chance to eliminate them.
“Everybody, fire arrows into the trees, and keep them busy. Hit what you can!” Arria yelled.
The draeyks and daerions obeyed orders in hopes that the undead elf wouldn’t come tear them apart herself. Meanwhile Arria licked her lips as she ran towards a tree removing two short blades from her sash. She jumped in the air and thrust the daggers into the tree and began climbing up almost faster than the eye could see. Pieces of bark slid off the tree and came crashing to the ground where she had stabbed it repeating with her daggers on her climb up. The nature of the tree didn’t matter to her though, as only the speed in which she reached the treetops and had the chance to meet her attackers.
As she arrived to the top of the tree she landed on a branch with another elf staring at her in awe. The shock was quite satisfying on her lips and it only made Arria smile with pleasure as she rushed at the woman slicing her in the chest and abdomen. She watched with warmth as the elf’s lifeless body dropped from the tree and crashed below onto the ground where the daerions tore her body to shreds.
She leaped to another tree where a terrified male elf stood in magic robes. She found it foolish that these elves chose to travel armor less, but they couldn’t maneuver as well with heavy armor and using magic didn’t require them the use of melee weapons… until now. Arria licked her lips as she swiftly ran for the elf dodging a few magic blasts along the way. She didn’t look back behind her where the part of the branch she was just standing on was blasted away and crashing down to the ground. When she reached the elf she was surprised to have one of her daggers knocked out of her hand by the elf’s mace. She held the other one tight with both hands deflecting another blow. She lunged forward knocking the elf into the trunk of the tree before switching her weapon.
With her sword in her hand now she was much more confident as she parried with the elf magician. For being a magic user he was quite familiar with the use of a sword, but he still proved to be of far less skill as Arria triumphed by chopping his hand off. With one last grin she sliced his neck letting him fall to the ground to his doom as well. These magic elves were far too easy.
A blast knocked Arria off of her feet as she sat on the branch in shock looking for her attacker. As soon as she saw the redheaded elf her face glowed in anger. She rose to her feet to only be knocked down by another blast, this time from a male elf on the same tree as the redhead. His blond hair was in braids in the front and the wind caught the rest letting it flutter behind his head.
Getting up again she had to instantly jump into the air to dodge another blast from the redhead. Anger filled her veins now as she realized she was being outdone by two mere elves. The thought of their unimportance of ranks defeating her was barbaric. She jumped onto another higher branch and circled around the tree finding cover. She shelved her sword and pulled a bow from her quiver. She pulled her favorite arrow from it, a fire-oak arrow that she had designed. The tip was made of a fire stone, that when penetrating a target the arrow burst to flame.
She held the bow and arrow with her right hand as she leaped from branch to branch searching for the redhead and her blond mate. Finally she found them and held to the branch tight securing her footing. The redhead quickly found her and sent a blast of silver energy her way. Arria grabbed some black powder from her pouch and tossed it to intercept the blast, which it did efficiently.
Now standing with a moment of opportunity she held the arrow tight in her hand as she aimed for the redhead. The arrow released in mere seconds and stuck straight into the redhead’s throat. She gagged for an instant before the arrow’s power kicked in and caught her body aflame before she clutched the arrow and fell off the tree into the abyss below her.
“Noo!!!” Yelled the blond elf.
With a raging passion the blond fired spell after spell Arria’s way, making her have to dive to a lower branch to avoid annihilation. Looking up at the previous branch she stood on brought shock to her eyes. It was only a pile of ash now trickling down to the ground below. She braced herself for another leap before another fury of magic headed her way. It was good she was so quick to leap onto the next tree as several spells hit the branch where she just was obliterating it as well.
She used the sharp nails at the tips of her gloves to climb back up the tree and stand before the blond elf. Another blast of magic came her way but she was able to raise her flamberge just in time to deflect the spell. She walked forward blocking a few more spells before the blond rose his swords out. He had two scimitars with beautiful designs and words on their curved blades.
His fury was magnificent and it only raised Arria’s respect for him. He indeed was infuriated with her and it was obvious why. The thought pleased her that she had taken something special from him. She was able to deflect all of his attacks with much effort as he seemed to be quite the gifted swordsman. She stumbled slightly and he took advantage to give her a slice on her cheek.
Irritation hit Arria now as the taste of her own blood dripping into her lips. She rose to her feet and knocked one of the scimitars from the elf’s hands. She took a step back now feeling her bloodied cheek and tasting her own blood before starting forward again. There was a look of disgust on the elf’s face at the sight of her tasting her own blood. It was what she had wanted, an opening. Quickly she was able to disarm him and she held her blade against his neck.
“Kill me.” He said.
“Why is it you wish to die?” Arria asked smiling at his wish for her to kill him.
“I have nothing to live for anymore. You took away from me the only reason to live, and if I cannot have my vengeance than there is nothing for me here.” He spoke softly.
She lowered her sword at the comment and looked deep into his eyes. His eyes were of passion, fury, and love. All the hope that was once in them was diminished and there was no fear. He welcomed what was about to happen to him. It took all the pleasure away from her kill and she shelved her sword.
“Better to make you suffer and live.” Arria said cruelly.
“No!” He yelled and rushed at her with his hands.
Arria pulled her right glove off quickly and grabbed his jaw with her bare hand. He froze as the touch of her skin seemed to drain his energy. Veins popped all over his face as it seemed the life drained from him and Arria looked healthier as if his energy was transferring into her.
“If not live, than a worse punishment would be to taint your love for her before you meet her in the underworld. Tell me, will she welcome you with open arms if the last thing you’ve tasted is me?” Arria questioned.
A look of terror flashed into his eyes but he wasn’t strong enough to resist. Her black lips shined with delight as they brushed against his still warm brittle lips. She felt stronger as his life traveled into her and her lust took over. Her tongue began to play with his and to his surprise his played back with hers. He could only watch in terror as his body did exactly what she wanted it to. A tingling traveled down her spine and to her groin as she realized it was turning her on. It wasn’t the fact that he was an attractive male elf, which she wasn’t ready to deny that he wasn’t. It was the fact that he loved another and was being forced by her will to pleasure her wishes. That was what turned her on more than anything. She shivered as she thought about it and bit his tongue hard ripping it out of his mouth before tossing his out of the tree and watching him fall to the ground. She smiled as she watched his mangled body torn apart and still in her teeth was his wiggling tongue which she spat out before continuing to look into the treetops.
Her smile turned to a frown as she spotted her archenemy. On the tree across from her Aliqua stared deep into her eyes. Arria’s anger increased tenfold as she dived to meet the elf head on. Upon landing she was surprised to find no magical attacks by Aliqua.
“At last we meet again.” Arria spoke.
“Yes… it seems you can’t stay away from your home.” Aliqua said.
“Trust me… it is not the good memories that bring me back.” Arria uttered.
“You will not find happiness in destroying us Arria… it will not bring peace to your mind.” Aliqua said.
“We’ll just have to see about that.” Arria grinned.
She pulled out her flamberge and thrust towards Aliqua who dodged with grace before pulling two unique daggers. Arria’s jaw dropped in awe as she looked at the two weapons in Aliqua’s hands. They had black and brown handles seemingly made of different material and the blades were eighteen inches long. The strangest part of the daggers was the blades as they were duel bladed but hollow in the middle. They were sturdy but separated shortly after the hilt to create two separate sides on each dagger. Arria had never seen anything like it before and wondered at the craftsmanship.
She didn’t have time to wonder for long as Aliqua came forward slashing the daggers for Arria’s flamberge to catch. The daggers didn’t seem as brittle as Arria would expect without a solid middle to them, but seemed stronger than normal daggers. They also glowed violet in color matching Aliqua’s purple robes. Arria spun around a few attacks until she was able to take a slice at Aliqua’s chest. Surprisingly to her the blade deflected off some armor that was hidden beneath the elf’s robes.
Frustrated Arria took her last dagger back off her sash and hurled it into Aliqua’s stomach. Aliqua shrieked out in pain as she backed up and held the dagger in her hand grabbing it tight in able to pull it out. Arria could hear the broken chainmail that it penetrated. A smile upon her face now she walked slowly towards the injured elf in an attempt to finish her, but her own dagger came flying back at her and she had to quickly duck feeling a strand of her hair fall into her face as it was sliced from her head.
Without a moment to lose Aliqua rushed towards Arria jumping in the air and dashing off of Arria’s head towards the ground. Arria turned and watched as Aliqua hit the ground by the entrance with the rest of the spell caster elves and quickly healed herself heading into the gate.
Arria cursed under her breath. It wasn’t supposed to start like this, their element of surprise was vanished, but there was no turning back now. Arria dropped from the trees into the front of her army that awaited her next order.
“Charge!” Arria yelled as she rushed toward the back gate.