The Eternal War: The Dragon's Valkyrie

Chase

"Asura lan Flidois!" Casteil's voice echoed as a dark crimson flare crashed down into the street before her.

Her lips curled in cruel fashion as she watched the silhouettes of those charging for her being incinerated. Their screams only served to deepen her sick satisfaction, and she imagined her mother was among the burning.

"On me! Spear-tip formation, echelon right! We're going to tear this city apart!" she commanded. "If you feel like you'll be captured, you'd best take your own life! If you flee the city before it's our mission is complete, I'll see to it personally that your deaths are slow!"

The small contingent of oni she'd taken nodded and closed around her. Each one staggered themselves behind her with two on her right and one on her left creating an open triangle with her at its point. Casteil knew their mission would be near impossible now; still, she intended to burn as much of the city before being forced to retreat.

"That's the Wolf Queen!" one of the Le'Drian soldiers shouted.

Casteil gripped her spear in both hands and readied to defend herself. She looked at her surroundings. She was standing in a crescent shaped park of some sorts. Fences bordered gardens which rested in front of buildings. Benches were scattered along the edges of those gardens and by the stream that flowed through the park. There was a small pond that seemed to be the source of the water, and another drainage that carried Le'Dria's waste into a confluence of the two before spilling through the grate she'd entered from.

Casteil was at a disadvantage out here. It was too open. The enemy would surround her with ease given the chance, and if that happened, she'd be killed or captured within seconds.

"Elitus te' Edz," she spoke as lightning sparked and arced across the blade of her spear.

She could feel the electricity flowing down the haft and numbing her hands. Any weapon that came near her or her spear was sure to have a shock be delivered unto it.

The oni under her command followed suit as blue arcs of electricity surged around their spear tips as well.

"Advance!" she ordered, and they charged into the force that had been running down the street on their left.

Casteil and her party cut through the Le'Drian soldiers like they were weeds. Any blade that passed within inches of her body had a jolt arc along it into its wielder. The result filled the air with the scent of charred skin. She twirled her spear around, slashing it into any who got in her way, or parrying a blade that would otherwise take her life.

She bent backward as a sword passed over her. She turned and rammed the butt of her spear into the soldier, pushing a bolt of lightning into his body. The soldier flew backwards from the spark and toppled three of his comrades.

"Mana de Frin!" she shouted as she stood.

Five bolts of magical energy formed on the tips of her fingers. As they shot from her hand, they turned into a pointed shard and buried themselves into Casteil's enemies. One of Le'Dria's oni thrust a spear at her. Casteil parried it with the butt of hers. The electricity arced onto the spear's blade and ran up its shaft into the oni's hands. Casteil spun and thrust her spear into the oni's chest—sending him flying backwards.

A torrent of flame shot passed her and scorched five more soldiers. Casteil whipped her spear around, taking the head of another soldier. A bolt of magic struck her left shoulder. She let a pained grunt push passed her teeth. She couldn't allow the injury to falter her charge. She leapt into the air, using the bodies of the soldiers as steppingstones as she hurdled herself towards the mage that slung the spell at her. Each step pushed more lightning into the soldiers she walked on.

Casteil leapt off the final soldier as the mage backed up. Terror streaked through his eyes at the Wolf Queen's intent to end his life. Casteil raise her spear over her head. She wanted to see this man cut in half for wounding her.

"Gaius de' Rosargio!" the man shouted.

A pillar of earth rose from the ground. Casteil's spear slammed into it, sucking the lightning from her blade. The pillar blew apart from the electricity and force of her strike. Strands of her hair fell in front of her face as she stood up. To the mage, her crimson eyes looked like they were glowing. It was the last thing he saw—that and his blood spraying from his neck as he felt Casteil's spear tear it open.

Two other mages who'd stood next to him tripped over their robes as they fled. Casteil managed to grab hold of one of them by his hair. She smashed his face into the ground until it no longer resembled anything human. The other four in her command broke through the line shortly after, and they tore through the city as the soldiers gave chase.

Aside from the nearly hundred soldiers that had answered the call, the streets were vacant. Casteil surmised that most of their force still resided at the main gate. They'd planned to sneak up to it wearing the uniforms of Le'Dria's soldiers, but that was impossible now. Casteil and her oni slung fire spells into the buildings that lined the street they ran down. It was easy to outrun the other races, save for the oni and picha.

The screams of the people inside the homes pleased Casteil as they burnt away to ash. They'd hoped their walls would keep them safe through the night, but instead they'd become their fiery prison. The smell of burning flesh and smoke filled the air just like it had in Edge.

Horn blasts ripped Casteil from her thoughts of torment, however. She heard them coming from behind, then on her right, finally in front of her. They were using them to communicate their location and box them in. She needed to do something quick. They knew their city much more than she ever could, so it wouldn't take much for them to trap them.

"This way!" she shouted as she turned right down an alleyway. The alley was only wide enough to allow two people side by side. "You, fall back and defend the rear. Your death will be written in stone my loyal subject."

"Yes, your majesty! For the oni!" the soldier on her left yelled in response before dropping behind them all.

The confined space would make it an easy bottleneck to hold but impossible to survive. Casteil and the others continued to charge through the alley. She could see a cross-section ahead. Straight likely went through to the next street, while right clearly went the way they came. Left was probably another alley way.

Casteil had to make a choice. Straight meant she and her fellow oni might run into the group they heard on their right, but left could either be salvation or a dead end. She glanced over her shoulder. A wave of relief washed over her when she saw no soldiers following. Sadness followed. Remorse swelled deep in her stomach next. She wished she didn't have to ask for his life—a true onian life—but she knew the salvation to her dying race laid beyond the cliffs of The Abyss.

Four more horn blasts echoed through the alley in succession, two behind her, which must've meant they found the man she left behind, one in front, and one to the left.

"We're going right!" Their reveal had given Casteil the clarity she desired.

The alley they turned into was narrower than the last. They collapsed into a file and tore through, starting fires on every building that wasn't already ablaze. After a short while, the alley began to curve to the left and spat them out into a dark square.

Casteil stopped as the other two fanned out on either side of her. There were two ways out aside from where they came from. Crates and barrels were stacked on the sides of the square, and it looked like at one time it had played host to a small market. However, now it was barren and forgotten—only a lone, dried up fountain remained in the center.

"Told you they'd come this way," a woman's voice echoed from above. "What's the one thing a predator never does? Look up."

Oni laughed as they descended from the roof tops. Casteil counted at least eight—each wielding a different type of weapon. The woman who'd spoke landed on the other side of the fountain.

That voice... why's it so familiar?

The woman leapt on to the top of fountain. Her hair was silver with yellow ribbons tying two balls on either side where her horns would've been. Two braids fell down her back from under the ribbons, and her red eyes burrowed in to Casteil. "What's wrong Caste?" a smile grew across her face. "Don't you recognize your own mother?"