Chapter 41

Last Line of Defence

Fire rained down on the gnoll horde, as Sephie and Amber, now imbued with draconic power, unleashed their breath attacks from above, killing gnolls in the dozens.

This counter attack, as ferocious as it was, had a secondary purpose; allowing the others to retreat and regroup, to get ready for a second push from their enemies.

As the allies had gathered just past the first of the outermost houses, Leonardo took a quick head count to see just how badly their people had been hurt. And he didn't like what he saw.

Casey, Richard, Percy, Sonia, Jack, Chloe, Hacker, Sharky, Donatello, Bill, Cam, Raphael, Louie, Kala, Sarah, several of the Nordlings, and more.

So many of his friends were injured, several of them very badly, and while Devina was doing her best to help them with her healing magic, she only had so much energy to spare, and that was not the worst of it.

Try as he might, he just couldn't spot Moe among the others, nor the orc that went by the name of Scorm. But what really made his heart sink was the voice calling out among the people.

"Mikey! Baby, where are you?!" Kate cried out, but there was no response, and the orange-masked turtle was nowhere to be seen.

Even though he feared the worst, Leonardo couldn't allow himself to fall into despair. Their focus had to be on survival, not morning their dead, lest they join them.

"Zaleria!" Leonardo shouted, hoping to catch the elven woman's attention wherever she might be at the moment.

"Here!" he heard a response, and instantly ran towards her.

He found her on the edge of the buildings, holding her staff high as yet another lightingbolt struck the horde from the storm above them.

"We got wounded!" Leonardo said urgently. "We need your help!"

"I understand. Show me."

The druid followed the turtle to where they had collected their injured comrades, and seeing them awoke painful memories with the elf, who clenched her fists so her knuckles turned white.

Taking a deep breath to calm her self, let her eyes sweep over the wounded one last time, then she placed one hand over her chest and traced a symbol as she whispered softly. From the middle of the group, a pulse of light washed over them, healing most of their wounds.

But only for six of them, namely Percy, Hacker, Richard, Casey, Jack, and Sharky. The others remained unaided by the light.

"I can only cast Mass Cure Wounds one more time, and each cast can only heal six people." Zaleria explained. "I've aided those most in need, stabilizing them. But you have to tell me who else you want me to treat. Who will be of most use in the rest of the fight?"

Leonardo did not like what he heard. He had hoped, perhaps too optimistically so, that she would have been able to restore everyone to peak condition. But now it instead fell to him to choose who would keep fighting and who would have to simply watch.

Devina was doing what she could to help as well, but even if she had more magic to use for healing than Zaleria, time was something that they did not have much of.

In the end though, it might not make any difference, as they might all still die before the end of the day.

That's when he made not one, but two decisions.

"Heal my brothers, Kala, Ragnir, Donk and Velnak." he ordered, and Zaleria nodded before repeating the process.

"So, we're gonna get back in the fire then?" Raphael asked as he rubbed his now healed wounds. "Works for me."

"Same here, but not just yet." said Leonardo, as he headed out to find another person in particular.

"James." he said coldly when he approached the chimpanzee. "We need the water."

"The water?!" James responded in shock, and then spoke in whispers. "But we agreed to keep that a secret, our most guarded secret even."

"I know, but it can help you original Mutopians to get back into the fight again."

"I don't know about this, Leo… Tyroth said-"

"He's not here now." the turtle cut him off. "Look, I'll take full responsibility for this later, but healing our fighters could be the only way for us to actually have a later. Is the secret really worth dying for?"

James sighed, he knew that Leonardo was right. They did not have any other options left, and very little time. With a nod, James took off in a sprint to his home, where he kept a small bottle of the magical water that mutated him and countless others, and they both prayed that it would make a difference.

As the defenders caught their breaths, Sephie and Amber were busy tearing into the gnoll forces, trying to do as much damage as they could before their power boost ran out.

With flames coating her dragon tooth daggers, Sephie plunged them deep into heads, chests and stomachs of any gnoll she faced, leaving wounds that burned even after the weapons had been removed.

Amber did similar work with her burning butterfly swords, quickly chopping off any appendage that got within range, leaving the enemies open for the swift killing blows that came shortly after.

But as she kept slaughtering gnolls, she felt how her powers started to fade, the flames on her weapons starting to flicker and flare, signalling that they didn't have long left before she and Sephie would revert to their non-dragon forms.

"Time's almost up!" Amber called out to Sephie.

"Damn it! One last sweep of fire then!" the gecko replied, and both girls quickly took a deep breath and each unleashed a torrent of fire upon the gnolls, further cutting down their numbers, before the duo took to the air and retreated.

But as they flew, Amber spotted a troll nearby, and having seen just how dangerous and tough they were, she just couldn't let such a threat be, and thus veered off her original course, without Sephie noticing it.

With the flames on her swords growing weaker by the second, Amber quickly engaged the troll, hoping to put it down fast enough to be able to catch up with Sephie again.

Swift slashes left deep cuts across the troll's body as it tried to strike down the draconic marine iguana, but she was too quick and her fiery weapons inflicted wounds that wouldn't heal. And as Amber managed to cut off first one arm, and then the second, she aimed her blades for the troll's chest, plunging them deeply into the flesh, but not before the flames had finally gone out.

"Oh no! No no no no! Come on, just a little longer!" she thought in a panic.

She could feel how the powers she had been given were all but depleted, and she could transform back at any second, but she were so close, she just needed one final jolt of power.

Even as she pulled out her blades to attack again, the troll hadn't slowed down from its most recent injuries, and lashed out with its mouth wide open, sinking its large teeth into the side of Amber's neck.

As her blood gushed out through her wound, her dragon features faded, leaving her in her lizard state, but she didn't give up. Even as her grip on her weapons faltered, she found strength in her determination, and began stabbing the troll over and over wherever she could reach it, all in an attempt to get it to release her.

Her vision began to fade, and the troll refused to give in to her struggling attacks.

With one final show of strength, she raised one blade high and managed to drive it into the head of the troll. Then, for one brief moment, her vision cleared and her eyes flashed red, as the blade once again erupted in flames, burning the troll's brain from the inside.

Its jaws released the grip on Amber's neck, but then the troll collapsed on top of her, pinning her to the ground.

Her vision started to fade once again, her strength leaving her. She had lost a large amount of blood and was still bleeding from the wound. Even if her wounds were healing, she just couldn't go on any longer, she was completely spent.

"Brother… I'm… sorry…"

Sephie landed amount the others, just mere moments before she reverted to her gecko form.

"Phew, cutting it close there, right, Amber?" she said as she caught her breath, but she got no response. "Amber?"

She looked around, but she couldn't see her sister-in-law anywhere. She felt as if a sphere of ice had formed in her stomach, cold and heavy, as she thought of what might have happened.

"No…"

She looked back to the battlefield she had just left, but there were still no sign of Amber, only the burning corpses of their enemies, and those still alive.

"Oh no… please, gods, no…" tears formed in her eyes and started rolling down her cheeks.

"AMBER!" she cried out and was just about to rush back in a most likely desperate attempt to find the iguana, but someone grabbed her by her wrists and held her back.

"Sephie, no!" Monalisa yelled, trying to stop her honorary sister from potentially suffering the same fate.

The gecko struggled against her best friend's grip for several heart wrenching moments before her strength finally ebbed and she dropped to her knees, crying.

Monalisa lowered herself down by Sephie's side, pulling her into a caring hug, gently uttering soothing hushes even as her own tears fell.

Meanwhile, Leonardo stood and watched the horde, now but a third of what it had been when they first engaged them, even as they were still reeling from the latest attack, they were still advancing.

By now, all of the injured Mutopians had been give the magical water, and thus had recovered from their injuries, but they were still all tired from all the fighting. The short break they had been given was not nearly enough.

Even though their numbers and those of the gnolls were more even now, the defenders were still at a big disadvantage, for the gnolls didn't seem to be affected by fatigue, driven by an unnatural hunger that spurred them ever onwards.

'I don't think we'll survive this.' Leonardo thought to himself, for the battle seemed nearly hopeless.

But he wouldn't give up, and he knew that neither would anyone else. They would fight to the bitter end, and no one would be able to say that they went quietly into the night.

Readying his katana, he looked at the enemy with a gaze of steel.

"This is it, people!" he said loudly. "This will be the final clash! So let's give them everything we got!"

What remained of the gnoll horde marched over their fallen kin, hell bent on finishing off their struggling meal before allowing themselves to gorge upon the field of corpses.

All the hyenas and witherlings had been slain, and only one troll remained of the original four, but the horde was still a force to be reckoned with.

They marched with an increasing pace, breaking into a sprint as they pursued the defenders, their snarls and barks drowning out nearly everything.

Except one thing.

"For Torgalia!" a collection of voices roared, and soon the galloping hooves of horses were also heard.

Reinforcements had actually reached them.

With shining metal armour, swords held high and shields tight against their bodies, a dozen Royal Riders, the kingdom's elite warriors came charging in from the West.

Following closely behind them, were two riders dressed in robes, one in white with silver, and one in midnight blue and gold.

The white dressed rider drew a wand from their belt, moving it in a special pattern whilst saying a short incantation. Seconds after, a beam of concentrated sunlight erupted from the wand, growing to a width of five feet as it swept across the gnoll horde, killing them en masse, while leaving the survivors temporarily blinded.

The black dressed rider produced a medallion from within their robes, and performed a few quick patterns with one had as they whispered, then pointing at one specific being, the last troll.

A thin, sickly green ray shot out from their finger, striking the troll squarely in the chest.

The beast was overcome with pain and roared, but its roars were quickly silenced as its entire body fell apart, being reduced to a pile of fine dust on the ground.

With the powerful spells softening up the already diminished horde, the riders was given more than enough time to engage the gnolls, crashing into them and cutting them down quickly and efficiently.

The defenders didn't waste any time joining in, as the reinforcements had turned the tides in their favour, and they all intended to not let a single gnoll survive this battle.

A few minutes passed, and the combined forces finally slayed the last of the gnolls, Leonardo piercing its head with his swords to make sure it was really dead, and he could at last allow himself to sigh in relief that the battle was over.

But the war, as far as he knew, wasn't.

What they had fought was no more than a third of the horde, at most, members that he figured had managed to escape Tyroth's personal battle with them.

Looking in the direction where the dragon had gone, Leonardo wondered just how it was going.

As Tyroth hadn't rejoined them as he said he would, something must have happened.

Given the incredible number of foes Tyroth would be fighting, it wasn't at all impossible that he simply couldn't disengage, that he wasn't done with them yet, but there also existed the risk that he had fallen.

Whether that was the case or not, there was still a risk that more gnolls might arrive at the village, and while they finally had a moment to collect themselves, that might not last.

For the moment, Leonardo decided that they should look after their wounded, search for survivors, confirm that their foes are dead, before they could risk venturing forth to investigate the main battle.

Until then, Tyroth, whatever his situation, would have to remain on his own.

The battle for Mutopia has ended, but it was not without costs. Just how high that cost was remains to be seen.

But the war itself is not yet over, as we have not yet seen the battle that Tyroth is part of. More on that next time.