Chapter 4: Moon's Valley

"In the grand high priest's name!"

The khalitzburgs kept on slamming their demonically charged warblades at the shale gates. They were doing it for the past hour already but the gate held still. Even their battering ram wouldn't work.

From afar, Champion Osiris watched the towering skeletal creatures. He frowned in disgust and turned to the blonde swordsman who was sitting on the grass beside him.

"Where is the grand high priest?"

The blonde swordsman stood up and dusted his lower armor.

"Hiding somewhere? He always does that and gives orders to those things." He pointed to the khalitzburgs. "Oh, and I remember Isis looking for you. She's in the central palace hall."

Osiris smiled, turned around, and started to walk towards the palace.

"You proceed when it opens."

The blonde swordsman looked at the gates which were heavily battered now. He tapped the hilt of his broad sword.

"Hurry it up…"

To his surprise, one of the khalitzburgs turned to the knights behind it.

"The gate's core has been broken."

The skeletal monster's voice sounded eerie and ghastly. The blonde swordsman stood in front of the knights and drew his sword.

Wizards were already preparing their spells to knock the battered gate down. At the command of their leaders, all of them pointed their fiery hands at the gate.

………………………………

"Knights of Heaven awaiting your command, you're Excellency."

Agranias gave a salute and the other knights of heaven followed. Abraxil smiled at their readiness.

"Give the elves fear. Ease their pain but do not venture too deep inside the caves. Let the other forces do as they wish but we cannot risk you getting…scratched."

All the knights of heaven mounted their horses and rode to the gates.

………………………………

"Courage, Necron. It's your first major battle against the final elven bastion."

Necron heard every word that came out of lord knight Salendriel's mouth. He was right. This is the biggest battle in his life yet.

The raydric-knight tightened his grip on the heavy zweihander he was holding. He looked at the lord knight beside him and then to the knights in the front line.

The wizards were going to let out a full barrage on the gates at any second now…

"Tell the wizards to launch. Now!"

At the sound of Salendriel's command, a barrage of fire and ice rained on the gates.

The mouth of the cave was covered with smoke and fog. It was still unclear if the gate was shattered.

"Lord Knight, the cloud is dissipating."

Salendriel nodded. The smoke and dust cleared only to show that the gates were indeed broken.

"For Glastheim! For the king!"

…………………………………….

Meothrinas drew his saber and signaled the commanders to move.

"The gate has fallen. To arms, my brethren! We will not allow this limited race to conquer us!"

All the elves along with the sohees and horongs let out a battle cry and rallied behind Meothrinas who charged towards the incoming humans.

"All of you limited mongrels…"

The elf king swung his sword around him, dismounting several humans and spraying blood on the cave's walls.

"Deserve to be…"

An arrow flew towards him and buried deep in his shoulder. Still, the elf king was undaunted and thrust his saber into the chest of the nearest human knight.

"Slaughtered!"

He twisted the sword and withdrew it. Its tip met the belly of another and punched through its plate. Meothrinas withdrew it sideward, ripping open the human and letting gore spill out of the cut.

A spear bolted towards the elf king. Meothrinas slid to the right, the spear barely missing him by inches.

On the corner of his eye, he caught sight of one of his hawk-helmeted guards getting impaled by a lance. Still, the elf king paid no heed to his comrades. They were at an advantage anyway.

Meothrinas drew another saber and slashed at another human knight who was going to charge past him. He withdrew his other saber and decapitated another. His scarlet armor was already tainted with blood.

"The elf king who managed to slip past me is here…"

Meothrinas looked around to see who had spoken. He looked up to see the same human wielding a pair of short swords that attacked him the last day.

The elf king turned around and ran deeper into the cave. The bodies littered all over the cave entrance made it difficult to move.

"I'm no match for that one! What are these humans, anyway?"

"My king, we can take the rest."

Five assassins darted from the makeshift village inside the caves and began to spread venom dust on the large cave entrance. It wasn't long before the humans charged through the cloud of venom and impaled the assassins with their lances.

………………………………………..

Kael nearly fell off his horse when a khalitzburg fell beside him. The skeletal creature had taken a lot of punishment from a barrage of shock arrows.

His unit was the nearest to the makeshift village and was already facing a large division of elves. The raydric-knight looked at his remaining forces and raised his broad sword.

"Onward for Glastheim!"

His sword met the neck of an elven knight and was driven deeper, sticking out of the other side. The raydric-knight withdrew his sword and slashed overhead at one of the soldiers called assassins, splitting half of his head.

'Damn! There's just too many of them.'

A sohee fell dead in front of him. After letting his horse leap over the fallen sohee, the raydric-knight whirled his sword, gashing a dozen of elven swordsmen.

Before Kael could pull his sword out of an elf's chest, a javelin flew towards him and punched through his shoulder pad; leaving a deep gash.

The raydric-knight pulled the damaged pad and threw it away. Before searching for the one who threw the spear, he spotted the hooded figure he saw before the battle. The person had taken off the hood and turned out to be a woman.

"Why, she looks just like…"

Kael watched her from afar. She had long black hair falling to her back but what got the raydric-knight's attention were her eerie red eyes that showed nothing but contempt for life.

The woman pointed her palm at one of the retreating elves and crimson lightning bolted out of it. She kept on hurling crimson lightning at every elf she could see but all she could do was sting them.

Kael turned away from her and pulled his reins. Before he could charge, the sound of a horn rang across the caves.

………………………………………

"Retreat?"

Kathris looked at the other hunters around her. They were starting to leave their posts and make for the cave exit.

The hunter divisions were stationed at specific locations in the caves to prevent the elves from advancing or escaping.

Kathris fumbled for another bolt but found out that she had run out of them.

"I guess I'll just follow…"

The huntress pulled up her crossbow and followed the others. The sound of the horn became louder and louder with every passing moment.

"Kathris!"

Kael rode past her followed by the surviving raydrics in his unit.

……………………………………….

"I guess it's time then…"

Necron withdrew his wet zweihander from an elven hunter's corpse. He stared at the makeshift village that was full of elven sentries and hawk-helmeted soldiers.

He couldn't charge in there by himself. He couldn't even move well in that portion of the caves because it was full of corpses in puddles of blood he cut down with his large sword.

The raydric-knight started to run for the exit but screeched to a halt when three elven knights appeared in his way.

"You human dogs…"

"Shut up and die! I'm in a hurry!"

One of the elven knights was soon impaled by the large bloody zweihander. Necron swung it sideward, cutting the elf's body apart.

Necron wiped some blood that sprayed on his face and turned to the other two. The elves had the look of horror on their faces. Necron thought they were afraid of him so he simply walked towards them.

"Get out of my way, boy!"

Necron felt someone's hand on his shoulder. The raydric-knight moved to the right to let the person pass. It wasn't him that the elven knights were afraid of. The person was a woman and oddly looked familiar.

"This is what my lord commands!"

She pointed her hands at the elves and crimson lightning erupted from them.

…………………………………

Meothrinas panted out of sheer exhaustion and sat down on a rock. His sabers were bloody and one of them was broken. It has been almost an hour after the humans retreated.

"It's going well as planned. They keep coming and we keep them away. Is this going to continue for another two years?"

The elf king looked at his people. They were starting to go home and rest.

"It was a glorious battle. It won't belong before…"

Meothrinas stood up and stared at one of the guards. He was shaking all over. The elf king tried to approach him but before he could, the guard seemed to swell.

It looked like that every vein in his body was inflating. Meothrinas held his saber. The king was sweating as he watched the guard. Before he could even call for help, the guard exploded in a fountain of bloody and gory parts.

"My king, everyone is showing symptoms of…Oh no!"

Meothrinas approached the hunter who stared at the pool of blood.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Before the hunter could even answer, almost everyone Meothrinas could see exploded, spraying blood everywhere.

The elf king stared at the hunter.

"Get everyone deeper into the caves! Don't let this spread!"

"But sir, most of our people was already showing the symptoms."

Meothrinas' eyes widened and started to run for the center of the village. Everywhere he looked, there were people running and crying for help. Almost every window in every household had blood splashed over them.

"This is…"

The smell of the caves suddenly turned foul. Soon, it was almost ankle-deep with blood. Meothrinas slammed his saber into the cold ground. His heart was pounding fast.

"Finally…it ends. My race is…lost."