For the first time in a long while, Kaldros felt truly alive. Finally being able to harness the full extent of his powers was exhilarating, magical energies flowing through his veins and bending to his will, becoming a greater weapon than anything forged by blacksmiths. Jumping backwards on ethereal wings, the young mage saw a group of Temur heading towards the softheels' position and flew towards them.
He tapped into the mana reserves lock away in his mind as crackling white lightning wrapped itself around his arm. Too late, the Temur realised their impending doom, looking upwards as coruscating bolts of electricity charred the flesh from the closet's bones. It then bounced between them, leaving a heap of sparking skeletons that were soon crushed underfoot as some Mardu youths charged over them. Although Kaldros did not enjoy killing, finding it to be a brutal necessity, he was enticed by the intoxicating feeling of wielding his magic to its fullest extent.
Kaldros then looked for his brother's familiar aura, and spied him in a desperate fight against a gigantic bear and a Temur that in any other clan would have been its handler, but in the Frontier it was its friend. The mage felt a pang of shock as Jakhan evaded the sword swing of the human but was caught by one of the ursine's huge claws. He was knocked backwards, blood pouring from a long gash on his exposed chest. Desperate to help his twin, Kaldros urgently flew in his direction as a vine wrapped itself around his leg.
Yelping in surprise, Kaldros was flung downwards face first, wildly trying to fly away and thrashing desperately. He hit the ground with a loud crunch, knocking the breath out of him but leaving the mage relatively unscathed. Kaldros had landed on his wings, the impact breaking them beyond further use – the mage didn't have the time to summon himself a new pair as the vine tightened around his leg, thorns gouging into his soft skin.
Ignoring the pain, he focussed onto his rage as purifying flames surrounded his body, healing him whilst also burning the root encircling his left leg. Pushing himself to his feet, Kaldros dropped to the ground as he sensed an incoming blow. Missing his head by centimetres, the axe was reversed and swung back at the Mardu, who infused his short-sword with corrosive Black mana and blocked the attack, cleaving the huge axehead apart.
Rolling to his feet, Kaldros finally got a good look at his opponents. A young Temur male, only a few years older than the mage himself and of a similar build to his own brother stood a few feet from him, baring his claw-weapons in anticipation. Further backwards was a Whisperer, her eyes hooded by a huge headpiece and channelling mana in preparation for another spell. Kaldros assumed that it was her that had ended his flight.
This is going to be a challenge, the mage thought, smiling grimly.
.*.*.*.
Jakhan heard his brother's cry of pain, and wanted nothing more than to run to Kaldros and protect him, fight side by side as they were supposed to, however that was not entirely feasible at the moment. He gritted his teeth – whatever mess Kaldros had got himself into, he would have to get out of it himself, as the older twin currently had more pressing concerns to handle.
The large bear snarled at him as he dodged a swipe of its huge claws, the pain in his chest intensifying as he twisted round to block the sword of the man. Jakhan swung his axe at the bear, eliciting a bestial roar as it sliced down its side. He then sidestepped the bear's wild counter-attack and feinted at it, causing the man to rush to his companion's aid, sword cutting the cold air in a wide arc. The twin sons of Carrok were both exceptional – Kaldros possessed huge amounts of magical energy, however Jakhan had immense physical strength.
He managed to halt his forward momentum that he had built up in the feint against the bear, and spun around in an incredible feat of strength, slamming the axe into the Temur and smashing his ribcage apart in an explosion of blood and bone fragments.
The Temur's bear companion, blinded by rage charged at Jakhan, but a well placed arrow hit it behind the ear and stabbed into its brain, killing it instantly.
Daciak, another softheel with some skill in the art of Dakla, the Way of the Bow, waved at Jakhan, the tall archer's brown eyes highlighting his sense of victory. Although Jakhan had no particular liking of the aspirant, as they had often come to blows when Daciak used to bully Kaldros, he was immensely grateful and waved back.
A shadow appeared behind the youthful archer, and Jakhan cried out in surprise as an imposing loxodon seemingly materialised out of the snow, the concealment magic catching them unaware without a mage to see through the deception. Daciak tried to run, screaming as a hammer larger than him was brought down, crushing the poor softheel to a bloody pulp. The brown-furred elephant-man trumpeted to announce its victory, the braying sound like a brass announcement of incoming death and turned its gaze upon Jakhan.
.*.*.*.
The gargantuan snow-horn trampled through Mardu lines, goblins and humans too small to stop it were flung into the air, crushed underfoot or gored to death on blood-slick horns. The charge was angled straight towards the large white orc situated in the centre of the battle-line. Carrok Warblade's mouth gaped open at the sheer stupidity or absolute bravery of the rider of the snow-horn – for who except the exceptionally powerful would dare to charge at the terrifying Khan of the Mardu.
Zurgo laughed bloodthirstily, the deep-throated sound causing Carrok's hair to stand on edge, and paced forwards, malice in his eyes. Sheathing his sword, the Khan ran at the snow-horn and intercepted its charge, wrapping his hands around the two horns and halting it in his tracks. Tensing, the imposing orc pulled outwards, tearing the furred mount in half and tossing the huge remains aside. The rider of the mount was thrown into the air and landed amongst a swarm of vicious goblins that stabbed repeatedly with poisoned blades, the man's scream masked by the horrifying roar let loose by the Khan. It split the air, the war-shout inspiring the Mardu to greater feats of bravery as they realised how much favour they could gain with their Khan watching.
In reality, Zurgo paid little attention to the rest of the battle, his gaze fixed on the rugged human in the distance.
"We are winning, my Khan," Azal quipped, and despite the fact that Carrok detested the other hand of Zurgo, he was forced to agree with the assessment. The Warblade scanned the battle-lines for his two sons, hoping they would survive the engagement and earn a great War-name for themselves. He beamed with parental pride as he saw Jakhan taking down a Temur warrior and his bear with another aspirant, his eldest son reminding him of himself in his younger years. He felt a pang of guilt as he watched Kaldros facing off two Temur, one another Whisperer, by himself wishing he could come to the aid of his son.
When he looked at Kaldros, an image of Cerelis popped into his head, a perfectly shaped woman with amber eyes and golden-white hair, that he quickly crushed. His beautiful wife had given birth the Jakhan at the noon of that day fourteen years ago perfectly fine, but after ten hours of unrelenting pain, she finally gave birth to Kaldros as well, and died.
For the first twelve years of Kaldros's life, he was consumed by grief at his perfect wife's passing, and as such ignored the young healer (as he once was), as looking at him reminded Carrok of Cerelis, and the father of the twins could not help but think that had only Jakhan been born, then Cerelis would have survived. Because of this, coupled with the fact that Jakhan excelled at the traditional aspects of Mardu warfare and was a model son, made Carrok reluctant to interact with his youngest.
Only two years ago, after a certain incident, he realised that shunning his son was insulting the memory of his wife, and resolved to act as a loving father. However, when he went to apologise to Kaldros, who was meditating on his own, the young mage had almost killed him, and said: "If you wanted to be my father, you should have started a long time ago".
Jakhan had told him to go slowly with his brother, stating that he probably found it difficult to accept Carrok into his life so suddenly.
"Are you ignoring me, you imbecile?" Azal growled at him, hatred prominent in his cold blue eyes.
"Anything coming out of your mouth is not worth listening to, worm" Carrok snarled back.
"You dare-" Azal shouted, stepping threateningly towards Carrok, who glared back.
"Enough!" roared Zurgo, immediately silencing his squabbling generals.
"The only reason we have the upper hand is because that bastard Surrak has not committed himself to the fight yet" the Khan laughed maliciously, "I intend to change that."
He then raised his voice: "Mardu, I need to fight the Temur Khan and claim his head for the glory of the clan. You must forge a path for me so that we can win this war. Glory and honour awaits!"
"Glory and honour! For the Khan and the clan!" cried the amalgamation of warriors next to Zurgo – his elite guard was composed of humans and orc veterans, exemplary fighters representing the pinnacle of Mardu ideals. They charged at the Temur in front of Surrak, cutting them down whilst sustaining heavy losses because of their reckless devotion to their Khan.
Zurgo ran at Surrak, drawing his sword and slicing it downwards to be blocked by the haft of Surrak's spear, cracking the ground underneath him. Surrak snarled at the Mardu Khan, his small eyes brimming with hatred and determination to protect his people.
Zurgo pulled backwards and stabbed his sword forwards while also charging up Red mana is his left fist, throwing a flaming punch after the Temur smashed his blade away. Surrak grimaced and took the blow to his chest, charring the flesh as he pushed his elbow downwards and brought his knee up, smashing Zurgo's face into the leather. Reeling, the Mardu Khan managed to dodge a spear-thrust and wrapped his biceps around it, muscles bulging as he snapped the spear in half and tossed the broken pieces aside.
Both of the giants circled one another, chests heaving – it was very rare that either of them were matched against of foe of similar power.
Zurgo spat blood and growled: "Do you remember Battle of the Staircase?"
Surrak refused to waste breath talking to the enemy and rushed at Zurgo, Green magic flowing around his limbs and augmenting his already god-like strength. Zurgo blocked a punch that could murder bears, and grabbed the Temur Khan's wrists, their muscles tensing as they matched in strength, the Green mana enchanting Surrak equalled by the auras of White and Black surrounding Zurgo.
"I was a simple Hordechief at the time, and barely escaped with my life. You fought with Kaijar Bonebreaker, the current Khan, who also escaped."
Zurgo tightened his grip around Surrak's wrists – the Temur Khan slammed his knee into the Mardu's abdomen and threw him backwards.
"He was weak, and because of that, the Mardu were weak. I killed him with my bare hands, and with me as Khan, the Mardu are strong again!" Zurgo smiled maliciously.
"However, he would like to say hello again," reaching into a flap in his armour, Zurgo pulled out a bleached human skull with a huge dent in the middle of it. He tossed it at Surrak, who smashed it aside – but the damage had been done. Titanic amounts of Black mana exploded from the skull, specially prepared by Azal with the help of shamans – with his knowledge of Sultai poisons coupled with their rage-fuelled magic, the Black enchantments were immensely powerful.
Surrak staggered, distracted for a brief moment as the Green mana around him sought to prevent the poisons from killing him, and Zurgo, quick as a flash, smacked his fist against the Temur Khan's head, knocking him onto the ground.
The Dragonclaw's vision blurred because of the violent concussion, and he was only dimly aware of the Mardu Khan walking slowly towards him. He tried to move, but the debilitating effects of the poisons slowed his movements as Zurgo rammed his foot into his face. Blood spurted from the wound as Surrak slid across the ice, and the Helmsmasher wasted no time, retrieving his sword from the ground and running at him.
"You should..." Surrak coughed up blood, "Pay attention to the wider battle."
Zurgo ignored him and swung his sword downwards in a vicious arc. An arrow flew from the distance, stabbing into the Khan's forearm and instantly freezing it in a block of ice, the Blue magic stopping Zurgo for a second as he melted it with his rage, but a second was long enough. A female Temur, carrying a bow on her back and wielding a hatchet shimmering with tricolour Temur magic appeared in front of Zurgo and deflected his second swing. A trio of Whisperers also teleported in alongside her in a flash of Blue mana, blocking the Mardu Khan off from their own. Yet more soldiers appeared around the Helmsmasher, loxodon and ainok taking up positions and surrounding the Khan. Zurgo roared at the sky in rage.
.*.*.*.
Kaldros blocked the older boy's swipe of his claws on a conjured shield of White mana while jumping backwards to avoid snaking tendrils of plant-life that launched themselves at him. He scoured the ground with death magic, eliminating some of the questing vines whilst yet more were animated by the shaman standing around 10 metres away from him.
I need to get them away from me, Kaldros thought, so he harnessed Red mana and released it around him, an explosion of fire radiating outwards from him.
As the mage intended for the flames to only buy him a few seconds of time, he was caught unaware when the Temur adolescent, shielded by Blue mana turning the fire into steam, grabbed his thin arms and yanked him out of his protective flames and elbowing him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. His attacker wrapped his arms around him, crushing him in a tight bear-hug which stopped his movements and starved the oxygen from his lungs.
Kaldros responded desperately, a huge lance of White light impaling the Temur and killing him before the Whisperer could protect him – however the large corpse fell on him, trapping him for a few seconds.
A ponderous vine encircled his forearm, thorns enchanted with Blue mana nullifying attempts to cast spells but also slowing its movements dramatically and drawing blood as they punctured his skin. Kaldros was dragged off his feet as yet more vines, most of them the faster, normal version, snaked around him.
Kaldros looked across the battlefield, which was still filled with clashing warriors – unlike earlier however, the engagement was definitely in the Temur's favour. Shock was his first response as he noticed something that had changed dramatically over the course of the battle. The copse of decrepit trees that the Mardu had dismissed was actually a huge forest – concealment magic on a vast scale had been used to hide not just warriors, but even the terrain itself. From the forest emerged a huge amount of Temur troops, the ambushers crashing into the Mardu lines as the battle slowly devolved into a route. He could see Mardu being slain on a vast scale, something distinctly alien to his young mind.
A vine wrapped around his throat, Kaldros releasing a strangled shriek of pain as the thorns dug into his neck, blood running down him and dripping onto the ice.
Terror flooded through his mind, the cold realisation that they were all going to die paralysing him in fear.
The young mage could see the Khan surrounded and beset on all sides by Temur attackers, snarling in frustrated rage at them.
Kaldros saw his brother battling frantically against a huge loxodon, the mammoth whacking him across the icy ground and stomping forwards to the downed Jakhan, hammer twirling in his furred hands.
He saw Atasha fighting against a large ainok – the Temur hacked the girl's leg and weapon arm off and shoved his snout into her stomach, teeth chewing into her as she screamed in horrified pain.
As the girl was devoured screaming and the vines tightened around his throat, Kaldros shut himself off from the noise and the pain, retreating inside himself. His mind was not safe either, Atasha's desperate cries penetrating the sanctuary he built for himself.
And then suddenly, Kaldros snapped.