Melody of War 6

“Here it comes!”

A cocky smile tore at Chain’s face as the glowing red antlered deer reared just before charging the maid and the Hero who joined her. Elliot twirled the silver spear he held and took a new battle stance. He likely could have killed the beast instantly but Chain was not unaware of this fact as she reminded him why they were out there.

“Try holding back a little you idiot or did you forget that I just said we came out here so I could stretch out a little and blow off some steam?”

“It is still one of the beasts that dwell in the dark night of the Builders’ Tree.”

“And I’m the Chainmaid.”

Elliot’s concern for the strength of beast that bore down on him and Chain fell on deaf ears as the chainmail skinned maid ran past him with her sword out behind her in a two handed grip. The black furred dear bared it’s fangs at the maid encouraging Chain to smile even more as she pressed her own charge. Faced with the fearless maid the dear-like beast changed tactics and reared up again with its antlers flaring with red electricity.

“Chain, watch out!”

As bolts of red lightning tore at Chain from the dear beast’s antlers Elliot leapt between the maid and her target and caught the attack with his spear throwing it to the side. Even so deflected by the Hero the attack retained most of its strength ands the outcropping of rock it struck into a cloud of dust and shrapnel.

“Thanks for the save you idiot but I can handle myself just fine.”

Insulting Elliot as she again ran past him Chain made to prove the truth of her words. Sliding to a stop in front of the deer beast the maid brought her sword up to split the beast in two but it was not so open and dropped its head catching the strike in its antlers. With a twist of its head it picked up Chain and threw her into the air. Again its antlers flared with red lightning and as before Elliot stepped between Chain and the beast.

“You’re really worried about me that badly after I held my own against you and the Bandit King for the most part?”

“Considering I know your skill with healing magic is not great and that you are focusing on Melody more than yourself; yes”

Elliot answered Chain’s question with a reminder of her own injuries and limitations in the field of healing magic as Chain landed and dashed past him after the deer beast again. Leading into a thrust as she closed the distance between her and the beast Chain disregarded Elliot’s concern as she aimed to strike past the antlers and for the monster’s head. For all of her skill and strength however the deer beast was itself most impressive as it leapt to the side and again caught Chain’s sword tossing her again as it reared up to cast its lightning. Elliot would not let the attack strike and leapt between the two throwing the attack into the distance. Landing he turned his attention to Chain as she entered her next charge.

“Somehow I don’t believe this straight forward tactic is working.”

“No but the exercise feels great!”

Elliot’s expression spoke volumes of his disbelief at Chain using the deer beast’s attempts to kill her as little more than a form of exercise. The smile that was spread across Chain’s face spoke fully about the truth of her words but the deer beast grew tired of its tiresome prey and kicked at the ground as it prepared to charge as its antlers flared once again. Neither Chain or Elliot were prepared for the lightning fast speed of the charge and Chain was barely able to throw herself to the side as the deer beast passed her in a flurry of shadow and crackling red lightning. As close a call as it was though Chain also took the opening provided to her by the attack and cut deep into the beast as she dove out of the way. A trail of red blood followed the deer beast to where it came to a stop atop a small rocky spire and reared up as it let out a chilling sound of rage and pain. Its antlers flared brighter than ever and the red lightning that crackled about them surged violently all before a bolt of red energy came down from above in the distance and reduced the monster to a spattering of viscera.

“What?!”

Caught off guard by the sudden attack against the monster Chain verbally expressed her surprise. She recovered quickly from her surprise however and sprang from where she was to the cover of a nearby boulder. Elliot was just as quick to act and was soon under cover in a similar position to Chain but not out of the maid’s line of sight. From their respective cover the two carefully peered out in the direction of where the red bolt of energy originated and saw a lumbering clockwork biped of brass and some three meter height atop a nearby cliff. It was armed with shield and bayoneted shoulder mounted cannon which exhaled a stream of steam implying it was indeed the source of the attack that slew the beast.

(A Sentinel? And one armed for combat at that. But what’s it doing here of all places?)

Perplexed by the appearance of the automata Chain’s thoughts were naturally full of questions. Hoping for some insight Chain let her gaze fall from the machine warrior to Elliot who watched it with gritted teeth. The tension the Hero demonstrated worried Chain and her worry was justified as Elliot twirled his spear about and set to hurl it as a javelin.

“Crap! Don’t be an idiot now of all times!”

Needing to act fast but not being able to risk exposing herself to the automata’s field of vision Chain spun down into a tight, twisted squat grapping a stone with her left hand and flinging it at Elliot just above the ground. Her throw was most impressive both with speed and technique as the thrown stone reached Elliot in an instant and curved up at the end of its flight towards his head. The Hero reacted on instinct to the attack and deflected the stone into the distance with a flick of his spear as he honed his combat ready eyes onto the source of the attack. His focus was greeted by the sight of Chain silently shushing him with a finger to her lips and an angry expression. A look of shock mixed with regret made its way to the Hero’s face as he realized the folly he nearly made but the sound of the deflected stone skipping off violently into the distance drew both his and Chain’s worry. For only a moment they both followed the sound of the stone before returning their attention to the automata atop the nearby cliff. Just as the two of them feared the automata had also taken note of the sound made by the stone. Seemingly unsatisfied by a lack of any visual object to have caused the noise it leapt down from where it had fired. Chain found herself holding her breath as the automata accelerated from a standstill to that of a galloping horse in a magic induced levitation that allowed the hulking metal biped to skim along just above the ground. As the mechanical contraption blew past her and Elliot’s cover and off after the stone Chain just as involuntarily sighed freeing the breath she never meant to hold.

“That was too close for comfort.”

“No thanks to you, you idiot. What were you thinking getting ready to attack a Sentinel?”

“I…”

Elliot could only hang his head in shame having no acceptable answer for the question Chain put before him as he joined the maid after the sentinel had disappeared. Having rose back to her own full height Chain again looked out beyond her cover for signs of any additional automata among the teeth of the towering onyx mountains to the north. Satisfied with the lack of any visual evidence supporting her concerns she turned her attention back to Elliot.

“Well, we seem to be out of the fire for the moment at least but it won’t do to stand around here. And now with Sentinels about we can’t risk keeping camp up here in the Teeth of the Stormroots. We’ll have to break camp and head back down to the grasslands and hope we can find some descent cover down there.”

Having addressed the situation verbally Chain sighed again before clutching at her left temple.

“Ugh. Who would have thought we’d bump into a sentinel out here in the middle of nowhere? But I guess the more important question is whose is it?”

“At the least we can be assured it is not one from the Elkhaust Empire despite my reaction betraying me to believing Lumirest’s enemies would follow me this far out.”

Though she did not take her hand from her temple Chain relaxed significantly and looked up at Elliot with a curious expression.

“Don’t you have enough enemies up here in the Northern Kingdoms already to worry about without thinking about your enemies from back in the Eastern Kingdoms?”

“True, but perhaps it is because I had not heard of any tensions between Highroot and their northern neighbors Brightrift beyond the Stormroot Mountains.”

Finally lowering her hand from her temple Chain placed it on her hip as she looked after where the Sentinel had disappeared. A frown crossed her face as she again pondered the meaning behind its presence.

“It’s definitely true that thing was armed for battle and being out here seemingly thinning the monster population makes it look like it’s trying to prepare a path for soldiers to follow. If there’s an army getting ready to pass through here though then we’ll be in for a hard time if we get caught in their path. On the other hand though that might mean there’s a path through the Stormroots nearby and we may be able to get out of Highroot without having to follow these stupid mountains all the way to their end in the Eastern Kingdoms.”

“It would alleviate a great deal of our travel troubles if that is true. Conversely though Chain if it is Brightrift preparing for war with Highroot…”

“Yeah, I get it. Ugh, what a mess this is turning out to be. For now though we better get back to camp and get ourselves somewhere safer.”

Copyright © 2018 Joshua D Tarwater