I'm very sorry for the long delay since July...been really busy....and school sucks too...so this chapter is a little longer for your enjoyment....
And by the way...in this fic, there are actually a lot of people in the Golden Sun world. The game didn't show too many except at big events like Colosso for obvious reasons.
-------Shockwave-------
"What we have here is a definite attempt to cripple the fighting forces of Northern Angara, New Vale, Bilibin, Vault, and Kolima" said Felix, pointing to the towns-expanding-into-cities on the map spread in front of him and the other seven adepts. The mayor of Vale was there as well, Garet's father. Kolima's news had only just reached them.
"The question is why," stated the mayor. "Why would Lunpa, regardless of whoever is in charge, attack four peaceful towns without any plausible reason? We've had no quarrel with them, but apparently Felix has some information that he wished to share when all of us were here together." He nodded toward all seven world-savers.
"That info is what I told you could not be shared in a bird message." Felix looked around at the door and curtained windows. "Ivan and Sheba helped me in setting up a fledgling information network in a few of the cities and towns around the world. Hama helped out as well, since she has the power to communicate over long distances with other Jupiter adepts."
"Sort of like a spy network eh?" asked Isaac. He looked at the two adepts mentioned. "When did this happen?"
Ivan replied, "Well we thought it might be a good idea to keep tabs on the more influential people in the world. Tolbi and Lord Iodem is an example. We started all this way back. It was Sheba's idea on our way back from Prox."
Felix pointed to Tolbi, "And this is where our troubles begin. Tolbi has stepped up training and recruiting of its army. It's now more than several thousand strong and still growing, quite an increase if you look at numbers beforehand. Our source found records dating to around the beginning of the construction of the Babi lighthouse. These records said the entire army numbered around 1500. There's been an at least three fold increase and that may or may not include their special units."
"Special units?" questioned Jenna.
"Units specially trained for harder operations, such as assassination, theft, etc." explained Felix. "However, that is just the beginning. Lalivero is on the warpath as well probably rebelling against Tolbi rule. They've united a bunch of people who are unhappy with the Tolbians. Apparently, with rumor running abound about our journey to save the world, suddenly the world thinks war and conquest is ok. I believe that since the leaders probably know what really happened or at least the important parts of it, they think that since the world isn't going to end or die, it's ok to go try to take it over. That's my best guess and I could be wrong. Regardless, lots of fighting's going to break out."
"What about Lunpa? And the attacks here?" asked Picard.
"I'll let Garet explain that part," replied Felix.
Garet cleared his throat, "First off, casualties included the visiting merchant caravan from Kalay and three quarters of the fighters in the area."
Isaac and Ivan interrupted, "Three quarters!!!"
Once again, Garet cleared his throat and continued coldly, "I said three quarters that were in the area. Terrible, but not a catastrophe. A third of our battalion was out scouting or escorting a caravan to Vault. 45 were out hunting. This left the guards at half strength and these people were split into three shifts, taking turns at their posts. The first shift was completely wiped out in the first 10 minutes of the attack. 45 good Valeans killed by a cowardly sneak attack." His face became colder and harder.
Ivan glanced at the others to see their reactions to a usually good-natured Garet and the news that some people they might have known were now dead. Stone faces stared at the floor or were fixed on the table. Knuckles turned white as fists were gripped. He looked back as Garet continued.
"No civilian casualties, but the blacksmith and his staff were knocked out. Much of the weapons and armor on display were stolen. The people also report seeing some of the raiders on big wolves. Some were used to carry off stolen goods and others as mounts. All of this happened pretty fast, only a couple of hours. Luckily, their aim wasn't to kill civilians, but we ended up losing 104 soldiers. That's the number as of an hour ago. We're still missing some bodies."
Ivan interrupted, "Do we know how many attacked?"
This time the mayor answered, "It was hard to take an accurate count, but from the innkeeper's basement window, the innkeeper counted a good 4 to 5 hundred raiders coming through the gate and past the psynergy stone fountain. All of them were decked out in dark colors, mostly black, so it made it hard to see where they might have come from. The only reason we have to think they were from Lunpa was that the only prisoner we managed to capture screamed out, 'Lunpa will rise again!' before committing suicide with a pocket knife he had."
Mia gasped, "Suicide?"
"Highly disciplined soldiers do that," replied Felix. "Their objective seems a little ambiguous right now. It looks as if they were just trying to get some more weapons and kill of some soldiers. And maybe instill some shock and fear in the people. The mayor says that some of the raiders also used psynergy."
"Yeah, we saw some quakes and growths go off and the wolves seemed to have their own brand of psynergy." Was the reply. "Some fires happened but we're not completely sure those were psynergy started," said the mayor.
Discussion continued for another hour. The party left deep in thought, and for the most part controlling their anger. The Valeans found it harder to do so but after their years on the road they had seen people die and knew that they couldn't do anything about people who were already dead, except of course, avenge them.
"Let's get some food and rest," said Isaac, abruptly, breaking the silence as the party reached the town square. The intact Psynergy stone fountain flowed, sparkling peacefully in the diminishing light, betraying the feelings of the town as they slowly repaired the damage done and tried to get over the loss of life.
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Over the course of the next week, leaders of Vault, Kalay, Bilibin, Kolima, and Vale met to discuss courses of actions. Bilibin and Kolima were all for rushing Lunpa with everything they had, which wasn't much but the mayors of both towns were sure that if they contacted Xian, their forces would be bolstered with excellent swordsmen and women.
However, Kalay and Vault were all for sitting around and repairing damages, setting up better defenses, hiring more adepts and soldiers, and fending off any other attacks. Vale sat in the middle ground. Felix, Isaac, and the mayor all agreed that waiting for more information and building up a sizeable force would be a wiser course of action.
"We cannot sit behind our walls like rabbits!" was the argument Bilibin and Kolima had. The others made the point that the two aggressive cites had been dealt severe casualties and were in no shape to attack a well defended fortress. There was also no guarantee that Xian would help.
Kalay had suffered no raids or damages to their city but they had lost an entire trade caravan. They, along with Vault, wanted no wars or battles despite the attacks. They felt that a strong defense would be everything they needed.
The five cities bickered for two weeks, the talks going nowhere. Finally, each leader left to talk to their people and deliberate with their respective advisors and trusted friends. Bilibin and Kolima said that they would raise an army and pay Lunpa for what they did.
"Stupid," said Felix. "There is no way that two towns who've lost their best fighting men can take out the Lunpa fortress. Even with Xian's technology and soldiers, they don't stand a chance and that's assuming Xian would even help."
"I never knew Xian had soldiers," said Mia as the party walked away from the town hall.
"They started after we saved the world...as did a lot of the towns and cities," replied Sheba. "Our shiny new network picked up all the draft listings and the numbers for some cites. Our information does tell us that Xian's soldiers were all participants in their martial arts program so they were pretty strong to begin with. But now, they have organization, commanders, and strategy. Luckily, the informant also told us that Xian has no hard feelings toward anyone."
"Unfortunately, Altin, that mining town-turned-city, is looking for room for its people. Expansion is definitely in their plans and all the good ground around them to the east and southeast is occupied, although sparsely, by Xian folk. Things don't look too good there either. Lama temple has adepts nearby but a few adepts don't match up to a few hundred strong miners who want more land for their families and ever growing city," continued Ivan.
"Looks like the world's going to erupt in lots of battles." Isaac grimly said. He wondered aloud, "What can we do? After all, we are some of the strongest adepts in the world, there has to be something we can do."
Felix thought about it and excused himself from their table in the common room of the inn to talk to the mayor. The rest of the party sat at their table, quietly talking and debating on what they could do to stave off the impending Angara-wide war. Isaac soon left to join Felix and the rest of the town elders and one by one each person drifted off to their respective living quarters or to find somewhere to relax, which was something each felt wouldn't happen very often anymore.
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Isaac, Picard, Ivan and Garet walked out of New Vale's gate two weeks later. They had helped strength Vale's defenses and helped to form Vale's fledgling guard. Each new recruit is required to go through at least two weeks of intensive training, accounting for the fact that they should already be in shape. The four young men were on their way to Vault to review the Vault volunteers and maybe add them to Vale's now 200 and increasing Vale Defense Force. It was a cheesy name but it stuck after Garet made it up and proclaimed it in the town square.
Furthermore, the four were to continue down into Kalay to review the trade situation there and visit Hammet and at the same time escort a trade caravan full of Valean goods. They said their good-byes and headed down the one and a half day road to Vault.
Eight hours later, Ivan noticed something while sitting in a tree eating a sandwich, "Hey guys, I see light reflecting off some metal in the distance. Some dust too." Isaac scrambled up and brought out his spyglass. Sure enough, metal points of spears glinted in the bright afternoon sun and their movement could be seen through the trees near a road that led to the main road from Vale to Vault. There were enough reflections that told Isaac that there were at least a few hundred people walking in the same direction as they were.
"Definitely not friendly by the looks of it," said Picard, looking through his own Lemurian spyglass, its power amplified with Mercury psynergy. "They're a couple miles off, but they're definitely heading towards Vault. A group this big should have seen from Vale, unless they skirted around as far as they could from our town."
"We should go warn Vault," Ivan said. His hand gripped his sword in its sheath and he was about to jump down when Garet appeared right beneath their tree.
"Umm...we have visitors," said the redhead, Fire Brand in hand. Two wolves with riders burst from the surrounding foliage as well as two rider-less beasts, snarling and teeth bared. One whispered a word, and a small Quake attack shook the tree. Picard fell, caught by surprise. The Lemurian caught himself and landed safely on his feet drawing his blade in a fluid motion at the same time. Isaac and Ivan leaped down as well unsheathing their weapons.
"Don't let any escape!" Ivan said urgently, "We can't let them warn their main party that there are fighters here. Impact!" Everyone felt their strength increase and their speed quickened as Zephyr zipped around them.
"Legend!" Picard's Excalibur unleashed a trio of psynergetic swords on one wolf. The wolf shook off the attack, damaged but not down. "Huh..." He was distracted by an incoming Fireball attack as globes of fire circled around the quartet and pounded them a split second later.
"Focus on the riders," commanded Isaac. Flint assisted him in knocking off a rider but he was thrown into a tree by the rider's furry steed. "Not a normal wolf..." Isaac bounded off two trees using Zephyr's speed and struck a beast with Bane. At the same time, he unleashed Ground to keep one of the rider less wolves off of Garet, letting the Mars adept unleash a torrent of fire attacks at it, finally finishing it off with the help of Ivan's Destruct Ray.
"Cybele!" summoned Isaac. A great spirit of the earth materialized, and it showered the enemies with dirt as great vines lifted them up into the air. "Not too high, we don't want other people to see them being carried up into the sky," whispered Isaac. As if the spirit had heard him, his opponents were only dropped from a distance of 50 ft instead of the usual 300. In spite of this, the rider who had lost his wolf was killed instantly and the other wolves had trouble standing up for a few seconds.
"Ice Missile!" Icicles rained at their opponents, mostly missing as the wolves ran behind trees for cover but it served to scare and intimidate. No one thinks or acts well when they have sharp blocks of ice racing past them. Having had enough, or maybe he thought that these four young guys weren't worth the trouble, the still mounted scout made a break for the open, running between Garet and Isaac, bowling over Ivan with incredible speed. Zephyr had worn off, leaving them helpless to act as the suddenly extremely fast rider rushed past.
"No, do something about him!" said Garet. "Inferno!" Multiple balls of fire rose up, splitting and increasing in number and these speeded toward the fleeing scout. Suddenly, something bowled into Garet's back as he was concentrating on his attack. He fell forward, his dozens of fireballs dissipating without a strong mind behind them. The Mars adept flipped around raising the Fire Brand astonished to see Picard on the ground next to him gasping for breath.
"What do you think you're doing? I was about to get that guy!" yelled a frustrated and angry Garet. "Are you-"
"Hey, you were about to be punctured by that thing's claws. I'd rather have that guy get away then have a friend impaled," said Picard calmly. He pointed to where a Titan Blade was just disappearing and the warrior Asura was receding back into the spirit world. The huge wolf, it looked even bigger when dead, was spread out on the ground with blood gushing out of its massively torn side.
"Dire wolf...much stronger than any normal beast" Ivan said. "They've been seen over on the Kolima and Fuschin side of Angara, but I didn't know they were on these bastards' side. We'd better get moving to Vault. We don't know how many more there are." Sheathing his sword, he helped Garet get up, and followed Isaac and Picard who were already jogging at a brisk pace toward the town where Ivan had first met Isaac and Garet.
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"Go warn the mayor! There are armed men coming here!" said Garet urgently at the guard on Vault's newly finished wooden palisades. A guard disappeared from the top of the wall and the four rushed through the gate. They found about 40 men lined up. "Who are you?"
One guy stepped forward, "We are the volunteers for the Middle Angaran army, waiting for inspection and permission to head to Vale. Our men saw you running here from the main road."
"Uh...Middle Angaran Army? That's worse than our VDF," thought Ivan.
"We don't have time for that, how many fighters are here?" asked Isaac.
"75 sir! Enough to hold off any attack!" was the answer. Isaac looked at him, frowned and shook his head.
"75 won't be enough; we should evacuate the town as quick as possible. There are a few hundred enemies headed here, and we need to keep as many of you alive as possible," said Isaac. He gestured for Garet to go talk to the approaching mayor and his group of advisors and for Ivan to go warn the civilians. "Picard, what do you think?"
"Evacuating is probably the best thing to do. There's no way 75 can hold off 100 dire wolves or whatever else is there," replied Picard. Garet ran over.
"The mayor thought this might happen so he's given the order to evacuate to a shelter outside of town. What are we going to do?" Garet looked at the Vault soldiers escorting the town's citizens down past the inn and what looked to be a back gate.
"We'll help them get to safety and decide from there," replied Isaac. Ivan came back and the four of them tried to keep Vault's people calm as they abandoned their homes to an invading force of raiders. "If we're lucky, they'll just take what they need and leave..." said Isaac to no one in particular, an hour later as the raiders moved into the city.
Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be working for them. Fire and smoke rose into the sky, a beacon that could be seen for miles around.
"Damnit. They're burning the town...Why aren't they looking for the people?" said Ivan.
"Vault..." The mayor asked as he looked in horror on his burning town. "All that work for years and now it's all gone..." He was left speechless as everything he had worked for was ended by a single gesture from a dire wolf rider.
"We should get these people to Vale or Kalay once the road is clear," said Picard. "These people need somewhere to go, and Vale is the closest town." The mayor glumly nodded and motioned for his people to gather what belongings they had gotten out of the town and prepare to set out as soon as the sun went down. They agreed that moving under the cover of darkness was best; they would be less noticeable, though a group of over 600 people was hardly easy to hide. Moreover, the raiding party would be tired from their pillaging so it would be easier to run and hide.
Five hours later after they all had a bite to eat and gotten some rest, the village of Vault set out through the woods in several straight lines. The raiders had left in the direction of Lunpa 3 hours ago at a brisk pace. They apparently had plenty of discipline and order within their ranks. The black robed soldiers retreated quickly and efficiently, loading up their mounts with stolen gear and getting out seemingly without care that they had attacked an abandoned town.
"This worries me...why attack and burn a village that obviously knew they were coming?" wondered Ivan. "It doesn't make sense. If they were going to burn a town as a warning to the rest of Angara, Vault is too small for that kind of thing. I'm also bothered by the fact that they never sent people to look for us and the civilians."
Isaac answered, "Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing. It's strange and it makes me wonder if we're walking straight into a trap. I would have preferred to head toward Kalay, but the mayor was pretty adamant about going to the nearest haven. I hope that doesn't cost the lives of all these people."
Garet looked at the dark sky. "We should get there by noon tomorrow. Normally we could make it by mid morning but with this group, I'm not sure." They marched on, providing protection for the large group's right flank as they headed north.
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Felix drummed his fingers on the crenellations of Vale's gatehouse. The stone structure had its final stone put into place yesterday, and Vale's guardian wasn't feeling at ease. Sheba running toward him only confirmed his suspicions.
"I sense a huge party of people coming this way, and I can't tell if they're friendly or not. There are some strong adepts among them too," said an anxious looking Sheba. She gazed into the distance down the main road. The two were on duty for the second half of the night, both voluntarily after not being able to sleep. "Should we go scout them out?"
"Yeah, just the two of us. You have the Teleport Lapis?" asked Felix. He grabbed his Sol Blade and the two teleported down, taking with them just their weapons and leaving a note.
The pair rushed down the path. An hour later, slightly exhausted but rejuvenated through the Jupiter djinn Breath, they saw the Vault mayor leading a large bunch of people up the road toward Vale. "What the..." said Sheba. Confused, she looked at Felix, then at the group. "Hey look! Isn't that Garet?"
"So it is, I wonder why they're with all these people from Vault..." replied Felix. "Especially at this time of night." They watched as Garet went to the front of the column to talk to the mayor. "Did you get any word of a mass exodus from Vault?" He asked Sheba.
"Nope. Strange, usually something this big would be reported. If Garet's with them then Isaac, Ivan, and Picard should be somewhere here too, and if they're here then it should be alright," was the reply. Sheba straightened, "I'll go back to Vale and bring an escort for them. It looks like their going to Vale and a group this big shouldn't be walking around with only 4 adepts as guards."
"I'm going with you. They'll wonder where I am and it'll be easier for me to get a bunch of our men together," Felix said, which was true, since Sheba knew little about the organizational structure of the VDF or the men who were at the core of it. The two teleported off into the night, speeding through the air back to Vale instantaneously with the power of Psynergy.
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The rays of Sol broke over the treetops, shining on a large group of tiring families, guards, children, and adepts. They may have saved the world, but Isaac and Co. were still human. Isaac and Picard were providing rear guard, watching intently at their backs and at the trees around them. All it took was a few good archers hidden away and a few of Vault's people would be lying on the ground. Such a thing was unlikely but one never knew what could happen. Garet suddenly appeared from the long train of people.
"Guess what?" he asked.
"What..." Isaac and Picard said in unison.
"We have some visitors. Felix found out that we were bringing an entire town with us and he got us an escort from Vale. At least we can relax a little bit now" was the reply. The blonde and the blue-haired adepts sighed, thankful that Felix was such a great leader. Their peace was interrupted by a loud horn. The sound rang through the dawn sky. Garet looked into the woods, "What the hell..."
30 wolves erupted from the right and rear. Their riders unleashed a torrent of psynergetic attacks. Quakes, Fires, and Growths shook the ground. The women and children started screaming, husbands tried to calm their families and those who had weapons drew them, doing their best to defend their kin.
"Garet, get the civilians together and have them make a run for Vale. Picard and I can deal with these monsters," commanded Isaac.
"I'm not leaving the two of you here!"
"Yes you are! Go now!" Isaac threw himself at three wolf-riders who were harassing a young woman and her children. He tore threw one with pure sword work, unleashing Titan Blade on another. Picard joined the fray with his Excalibur. His Ice Missiles were especially useful in keeping enemies on their toes, dodging his cold, deadly attacks.
Garet gulped, launched some Eruptions and Fireballs, which didn't require quite as much mental strength as his higher end attacks, and dashed toward the middle of the civilian group as he tried to restore order and fend off attacks on the people at the same time.
Some foot soldiers ran out of the forest, spears lowered, black shields covering their bodies from civilian archers. They came in organized formations, spears not letting any one get too close as a mage in the center of each formation unleashed a whirlwind of attacks. Civilian deaths started to mount as the chaos was completed with the screaming and running of women, children, and older folk. All the men, as were some women, were trying to fight off the attackers but they were untrained country people, unskilled in the ways of battle with superior forces.
"Quake Sphere!" Isaac's psynergy rippled through the trees as enemy archers dropped from branches and limbs, and hopefully breaking their limbs or cracking their necks. His swordsmanship was fluid as always. Combined with Picard, they formed a circular dance, their swords reaching out as they spun with each other, tearing up one enemy box formation. Isaac found the mage at the center; he reached out and grabbed the front of his robe. Their eyes met coldly, and Isaac, seeing discipline and a hardness behind the eyes, beheaded him without care. He had watched this very mage send SIX consecutive Beam attacks at one Vault soldier, each attack burning the brave soul's chest and torso and sending him into convulsions from the intense pain of pure fire blasting into his body.
Picard and Isaac separated, each coming in from different directions to attack another box of enemies. The mage screamed and the soldiers packed together even more closely, resembling a porcupine. Dirt and rocks materialized from the sky as Spire attacks were launched at the two advancing adepts. Isaac sidestepped, dancing nimbly between each rock, slashing spear points with his lethal Gaia Blade.
Picard did his part as well; Shade shattered each spire that fell. Frost fell on the enemies spears, and he threw a grenade that Garet and Ivan had developed based on the smoke bombs they had picked up on their travels. The grenade exploded in fire and electricity. The ice shattered instantly, as did the formerly freezing wooden spear shafts, metal points dropping uselessly to the ground. He charged in, Excalibur tearing through bodies and his Dragon shield bashing through heads and light armor.
The two continued to fight, but they had their limits and seemingly endless amounts of enemies were filtering on to the now bloody battlefield.
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Felix looked on grimly as the enemy on his sword slid off. No one in his party liked killing people. They had all done it at some point, but no one felt good about it. His Odyssey crashed into a rider and his wolf, and Felix charged in. His eyes glowed with the power behind the most powerful single Venus psynergy. It was the only single attack that could kill a rider and his wolf, they were just that strong. Throwing aside another foot solider, he turned to lock swords with a large brute clad in black. The guy carried two throwing axes in his belt. Looking carefully, Felix saw that there were spaces for two more. He rolled out of the way as the sword rushed by him and thumped on the ground. Felix set his teeth, threw himself at his opponent, sidestepping right as the enemy jumped past him and landed a crucial blow at the neck.
Panting, Felix didn't notice an archer take aim at his torso from fifty yards away. "Damn," he said when an arrow half punctured his Valkyrie Mail, he quickly casted Ragnarok. "Must've been a super powerful bow and arrow set..." He felt no blood, but was worried that maybe after a year of not cleaning and using his armor, it was getting old. He tossed the arrow aside and watched Ivan clear out a whole grove of trees and archers with one Spark Plasma. "Ouch..."
The Vale Defense Force was doing well for its first major engagement. They engaged, pulled out, engaged again, and pulled out again. These actions allowed the enemies to frustrate and tire themselves out and at the same time take up their attention so the civilians could get away. They started to copy the enemy strategy of box formations and found out it worked brilliantly, as the enemy forces never thought they would work against their own tactics. But numbers were against the VDF. Only 60 soldiers had come out with Felix (Sheba had stayed back to organize a welcoming committee) and they were heavily outnumbered.
Ivan weaved through bands of enemy men in the woods, taking out select officers and mounts with his Jupiter psynergy. Today was the first day that he was fighting with two blades. He had trained far more in swordsmanship than the others as he was the weakest when they first started out. Now, he handled the Kikuichimonji in his right hand and the Phaeton Blade in the other. They were the only two swords that were fit for his light build. Light Surges howled from the Phaeton Blade, though it was a katana like the Kikuichimonji, and the warrior, Asura, swept out of the spirit realm to wreck havoc among the enemy raider bands. Ivan knew he worked best alone or in small groups, fighting like a scalpel, slicing off men and beasts to help others fighting the bigger battles. He grimaced as he killed five men in a combo of his swords and Shine Plasmas.
Garet was having trouble, girl troubles. Lots of women refused to leave their fighting husbands. Their staying caused confusion as allies tried to avoid them and enemies tried to use them as hostages. He grunted as he threw off an axe-wielding berserker. He sighed; there was no end to this. They had been fighting for two hours and both sides were tiring but not letting up. "Pyroclasm! Inferno!" Four more enemies dropped, their armor and clothing seared away. An arrow flew by, nicking him in the cheek; "Shit..." He applied an herb, quickly healing the wound and threw himself back into the fray.
He was tiring. It showed in his fighting. After guarding a large group of people, he was in no shape to be fighting for the time they had been fighting the enemy band. Panting, he threw up his sword to block an incoming great sword. The metal rang across the furious battlefield. Civilian numbers were starting to drop and the number of enemies wasn't decreasing fast enough. He turned, slicing through the enemy's armor and into his gut. The sword lingered in the body for two seconds as Isaac stopped to catch his breath. Those two seconds were two seconds too long. An arrow zipped into his thigh, reaching the bone and splintering it. Isaac fell, his right hand gripping his Gaia blade and dragging it out of the dead body. He slammed into the ground as an enemy rider smashed his back. Thinking he was dead, the rider rode off.
"The night march must be getting to me..." thought a weary Isaac. He judged that at least 2 hours had passed since the battle started. "Potent Cure..." Nothing happened. "Damn, must be drained..." He pulled himself up tiredly, lifting his sword as a quartet of spearmen closed in on him. Picard was busy dealing with two riders; Garet was protecting a family as they tried to flee the scene and his strength was obviously flagging. Ivan and Felix were nowhere to be seen. A dreaded thought passed through Isaac's mind. "Are there too many enemies to be handled? Am I going to die?" He had rare thoughts of death being imminent, but this was one time where it seemed closer than ever.
A spearman lunged, his leaf shaped blade reaching out and poking Isaac's increasingly heavy armor. Another spear found Isaac's left shoulder, scraping the armor and pushing Isaac around. The adept was out of psynergy, and he threw his belt knife at one enemy, lodging it in his throat. His hands came up with the Gaia Blade and blocked one spear, only to have another come in low. Isaac jumped out of the way and smacked his head right into the shaft of another whirling spear.
"Damn..." Dazed, Isaac could only make weary blocks. He saw out of the corner of his eye that VDF soldiers were falling. They were too inexperienced and new at fighting such great numbers. Too many black clocked soldiers were hacking at too few allies. Something punctured through his right boot and Isaac went down for good, the thigh wound and the bleeding foot too much for his fatigued body. The last thing he saw before blacking out from blood loss was a sharp metal leaf descending on his neck.
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A/N: Hmmm...that took forever to write...