Ashes of the Fallen

The man to my left exploded in fire as numerous fire blasts hit him. He continued to run ahead while clearly already dead, as his body started to wobble and lose steam, eventually tumbling forward into the dirt below.

Ignoring his sad end, I met the swing of an axe head-on as sparks flew from the impact of the metal. He buckled from the impact as he braced himself by digging a heel into the ground, but it was too little too late as I slipped the halberd down behind his shoulder and hooked his neck.

Yanking forward the man tripped himself up and fell to the floor, where a quick stomp on his head sealed his fate. At that very moment, a fireball hit me in the chest and sent me flying backwards in reaction. My leather scorched and my face singed, the minor burns on my arms were easily ignored.

My stamina on the other hand, had taken a huge hit.

I was down to sixty percent already.

Pushing forward, I ran back into the thick of things as I watched two players engage in melee combat with two warriors. The player used a low side-sweep from his sword to distract the warrior as the rogue rolled deftly to the left and stabbed the man in the side with his short sword and dagger. Before the warrior could pull back to defend himself, the swordsman lunged and thrust the sword into his chest, ending his life.

The second warrior managed to land a blow to the swordsman's shoulder as the player winced in pain and jumped back, only to be healed as the rogue got behind and ended another one of my soldiers with a flurry of stabs.

Reaching my men too late, I dropped a heavy swing on the swordsmen as he attempted to parry. His iron sword shattering upon impact with the axe-head as shards of metal scattered the air. In a blink, he looked at me as I kicked the rogue away from me and brought a circular swing around, lopping the head off of the man in front of me.

Turning to face the rogue, he tumbled and rolled while throwing daggers at me, only to harmlessly land in my thick leather armor. Tired of the shenanigans, I dropped the halberd and began a lightning bolt, and thrust my arms out before he could react.

A feint, he jumped thinking he had dodged.

But I was still casting, and as he fell to the ground and looked up with a smile on his face, I returned a smile of my own. Lightning shot forth from my palms in an instant as it smashed into his chest and rendered him immobile for a second. Grabbing my halberd once again, I raised it up and quickly lowered it down, executing the helpless rogue.

With his lifeless body before me, I risked a glance across the battlefield.

Only looking around for a second, I noticed our numbers had dwindled. Half of our force had been decimated as buildings had started to catch fire. The closest cabins were ablaze with smoke billowing into the sky as a cloud of dark gray ash banished the sun.

In the shadow of the ash, I stood alone.

A glimmer caught my eye as I turned my head slightly in time to see a wave of frost bolts and fireballs heading in my direction. Swinging my halberd wide with the broad-side of the head impacting two frost bolts, the ice shattered and frosty mist sprayed harmlessly over me while a sidestep and a duck allowed me to avoid the rest.

Their casters had wizened up.

Another wave of spells came as I continued to run, dodging by way of leaps and rolls. Closing the distance between the casters, a few of their remaining melees dropped what they were doing to cut me off. Engaging them immediately, I cut down a rogue with relative ease as I met blows with another bastard sword.

The claymore easily parried my halberd with its hefty weight and forced me back. He followed with a wide-arcing swing to my left that I braced for with both arms, meeting the edge with the iron shaft sent shockwaves through both of us as we recoiled from the impact. Recovering slightly quicker, I lunged forward and thrust the spear-tip out but was easily deflected as he brought his sword around.

Pulling back and readying myself once more, the rogues and swordsmen that had surrounded me pulled off and ran in another direction, undoubtedly to push other flanks. I tried to raise an arm, to stop one of them with an arc lightning, but I was immediately sent backwards as a heavy swing rocked me.

The man knew how to counter and our weapons were evenly matched.

I wasn't going anywhere.

A few casters had rotated slightly, to get an angle on me as a fire blast shot through the air and impacted into my shoulder. The sudden explosion blinding my left eye as pain registered in the blistering heat. Grimacing from the pain and wincing as my eyes were left watering from the flickering flames, the bastard sword made its appearance in a quick flash.

Only catching the glimmer of the sword in the sun, I rolled backwards as it clipped my arm and took a chunk of my triceps with it. Right arm impaired, while lying on my back, the man quickly ran forward in an attempt to execute me.