A Soldier's Life
chapter-51

I remained on the wall as the cool night air helped the sweat evaporate from my skin. The coldness caused goosebumps to appear on my exposed skin, and I shivered slightly. I studied the field of fog and could see lights appearing in the enemy’s camp through the rising haze. The activity was increasing and soon was completely obscured by the thickness of the fog. Konstantin barked, “Eryk, get below in the tower.”

I looked around me, and a dozen of the regulars were on the wall; eight had simple longbows. These were not the expensive composite short bows the legion used. As I walked by the regulars, I could sense their tension. Most of these men would be dead if the outer wall fell tonight.

I descended the steps on the wall, and the city looked eerie as the buildings were fading away in the fog. I entered the tower to find everyone spread out in the room, catching some nap time. Konstantin threw me a heavy blanket from a crate with a mirthful smile, “I think it is going to be an exciting night. Get some rest.”

I moved to a wall and used the blanket as a pillow. My head missed the comforting embrace of my griffin-down pillow. Brutus sat next to me and did the same with his balled-up blanket. Konstantin sat on my other side, but he had brought his bedroll.

With my eyes closed, I asked the air, “So how bad is it going to get?” I knew it was Konstantin who was going to answer and waited.

He did speak after a moment. “We are outnumbered three to one. If they breach in their assault tonight, they will run rampant through the city.”

I nodded. I decided to consume a minor dexterity essence. I pulled the dark yellow ball from my space and popped it into my mouth. It should have been long enough since I consumed the apex healing essence not to have any essence indigestion.

Konstantin rasped, “You are just taking that now?”

I came up with an excuse, “I was thinking of selling it.” My nerves in my hands and feet started tingling with electricity. “But with the coming battle, I thought it best to use it now,” I added but never opened my eyes.

Konstantin decided to give me advice, “I told you earlier about fortifying attributes. I do not know if you have consumed a dexterity before, but you are young and fit right now. Try and get at least one essence for each physical attribute before you get too lazy.” His voice was laced with wisdom and mirth at the same time.

Brutus asked, “How long does an essence fortify an attribute?”

Konstantin answered on my other side, “Years—at least a decade from my experience. Castile’s last lieutenant, Donte, who retired, saved a dozen minor essences of the constitution in his time. He thought he could hold off old age if he took one every six years.”

Brutus had some disbelief in his voice, “Would that actually work, stay young forever with essences?”

Konstantin laughed, “No, but it does help you fight off disease and illness. You still age normally, but Donte thought otherwise.”

The conversation continued between Brutus and Konstantin but focused on spear tactics. It was an information exchange about techniques employed when fighting multiple foes. I tried to pay attention, but my eyes had been shut, and I fell asleep.

The tower rocked and woke me to dust drifting down. “Catapult!” was sounded from above. A shout came down the stairs, “Ten bundles of waste arrows!” It was Delmar’s voice, and I jumped up to grab two of the imperfect arrow bundles. Six of us responded, and we brought twelve bundles up the stone stairs.

In the tower, our company archers were blindly firing into the fog. The tower rocked again as I went to fill Regis and Pavel’s arrow barrels. Castile was standing and focused out into the fog. I was heading back down the stairs when Gregor’s voice from the neighboring tower bellowed, “Now, Castile!”

Castile looked agitated at the order but pulled a scroll from her duster. I was behind her, and the scroll was layered with spell forms in silver metallic ink. It was way too complex for me to even begin to fathom. Castile channeled her aether into the scroll, and a stiff breeze formed from behind us. It began to increase to a massive gale as Castile’s hair whipped around her. The archers’ hair under their helmets also blew in a mess, but they did not stop firing.

I looked, and the fog was rolling back toward the army camp like a wave of white. The land below us was being revealed, with the strong light of the blue moon now visible in the sky. There were dozens of enemies with scaling ladders revealed. Delmar yelled down the stairs, “Switch arrows, bring up the good stock!” I heard activity and waited for the men to rush up with the better arrows before descending.

Our archers started targeting men one hundred and fifty yards from the wall. Blaze, our best archer, was just pulling and releasing. Although I lost the arrows in the low light, I could see the lead men carrying ladders stumble and break their stride. Adrian hissed, “We used our trick too early.”

A sweating Castile rasped back, “I know, Gregor is a fool. Get what kills we can before the fog returns.” Castile was focused on something else with her magic, but I could not tell what it was.

The tower shook, and Delamr announced, “No need to fear the stoneworks is reinforced with aether. But if you see one of those rocks coming at you, duck!” This got some chuckles from the archers. Adrian was directing his best archers at certain targets to slow the advance.

In the other tower, Gregor yelled again, “I have a mage! Straight away from the gate, Castile.”

“I can not help; I have two mages sneaking up on my left with the ladders!” Castile barked back, irritated at her mage partner’s whiny tone.

“Griffin, a shout rang from the right,” and all eyes scanned the sky. I could see it, a milky black shape flying high above, out of arrow range. Now, it was diving on us, approaching quickly.

Blaze yelled, “Castile! Give me a boost. It will be within range soon.” Castile paused her actions to cast her wispy black tendrils around an arrow Blaze was notching.

A ball of fire appeared, highlighting the griffin and the rider as it dove toward the tower. Castile quickly waved her hands and clapped them, the light vanished. “I dispelled the fireball. Now Blaze!” He aimed for a pair of heartbeats, following the griffin that was trying to escape after its failed attack. He unleashed the arrow, and the large dark shape let out a piercing cry and began to plummet rapidly.

“It is going to crash into the city,” Blaze announced and returned to firing out onto the advancing scaling ladders. Delmar swung around and noticed me standing there watching the action. I thought I was going to get yelled at. Instead, I received orders.

“Eryk, take two others and make sure the griffin and rider are finished,” he barked, returning his attention to the approaching army. I turned to obey, and just before I descended the stairs, a three-foot boulder slammed into Regis, crushing him and continuing into the city with him plastered on it. A lightning bolt struck Gregor’s tower, causing everyone to be blinded momentarily. I blinked and followed the griffin as it spiraled into the city. Getting an idea of where it was landing, then I rushed down the stairs.

I quickly looked and picked two men with spears next to them, “Brutus and Felix! With me! We have to confirm a griffin and its rider are dead.” I rushed out the door, and the two made to catch up with me. Exiting the tower, I oriented myself and waited for the two. I moved at a light jog, figuring the quicker we got there, the more disoriented the beast and rider would be from the hard landing.

Felix was next to me, “If it landed on a roof, it would be a pain to get up there!”

Brutus got next to me on the other side, “Did Blaze shoot it down?”

“Why are you asking? What does it matter?” I asked with my eyes focused ahead, figuring out where to go. The streets were empty, but large wooden barriers in alleys were ready to be deployed, which hindered us from taking shortcuts.

“We have a large silver waged on whether or not he would shoot one down,” Brutus admitted.

“You owe him the silver. There!” I pointed. A large creature struggled in the dark shadows of a narrow side street. “Glowstones out!” I said, racing forward.

The griffin was trying to stand, but its wing bent downward, and a bone protruded from its front right leg as well. “I do not see the rider,” Felix commented as we approached swiftly. The beak of the griffin snapped at us as we approached. Brutus and Felix flanked the creature with spears in hand. I noticed a figure in the alley behind the griffin. The figure was wrapped in a dark cloak and was using the wall of the building to stand.

“I see the rider. The griffin is blocking the alley to protect it. See if you can distract it long enough for me to get past.” Brutus lunged at my comment, and I moved in the opposite direction. Felix added in his own spear work, and they slowly pulled the griffin away from the alley opening into the street. The rider, seeing this, started hobbling away down the alley. I moved to take advantage of the gap and raced forward.

The griffin lunged at me, clawing with its talons and snapping with its beak. I managed to get past it because the beast could not move well with the broken leg. Brutus drove his spear into the beast’s neck. It went deep, and Brutus yelled, “We got it! Get the rider!”

I sprinted into the alley to catch up with the rider. The smell of urine was prevalent. I thought, for being injured, the rider was moving decently fast. I caught up to the rider and hacked into their back with my short sword. Just before my sword connected, she spun, parried my blade with a dagger, and rolled away into a crouch.

My glowstone was out, and I could see her features now with her cloak in disarray. They were right; the riders of the griffins were small, elven women. The elf woman was maybe 5’8” but with a small frame outlined with tight black clothing under her dark cloak. Konstantin was right about their beauty as well. Large emerald eyes were on a heart-shaped face. Golden-brown hair graced her head, and it was pulled back into a tight ponytail. Her fierce and determined visage marred her beauty on seeing me. “I will kill you, legionnaire!” She spat threateningly.

Some blood trickled from her lips after her threat, and I wondered how badly she was injured from her crash. My training told me all her weight was on her right leg as her left was injured. Large booms sounded toward the outer wall, and she smiled wickedly at me, “Your city will return to us, and the duke’s army will not save you!” She taunted me and slid a step back in retreat.

I was finding it hard to attack her. She looked like a female teenager, albeit with pointy ears. My past life instincts told me this was just a girl. I relaxed slightly and stood. Maybe she would be okay with being taken prisoner? “Can you just…” She dropped her dagger and pressed her hands together. A large ball of fire formed between her hands. Fuck.

I stepped forward to get her within the ten-foot range of my dimensional space. I had to angle the cube down to get her into an open portion of the cube. My mind churned what to do—remove her head? Her heart? In an instant, I had outlined a box around where her heart was. I saw her as a young woman, not an enemy, and it felt wrong, so I enlarged the box to her entire body and sent her into storage. There was a brief tug-of-war moment as she resisted going into the space, but she vanished.

As expected, my aether bottomed out, and I got slightly lightheaded from emptying all my aether. Well, it worked, but what was I going to do with an elf girl trapped in my dimensional space? I turned and returned to Brutus and Felix, who were stabbing the griffin. It was almost dead, barely moving and bleeding out. “I got her! Let’s get back to the tower. Those explosions do not sound good.”

Injured men were already retreating from the outer wall as we entered the main thoroughfare from the Trader’s Gate. We went against the crowd but quickly found our company carrying Castile away from the tower. Konstantin spotted us, “Back to the Legion Hall. The enemy has too many mages!” We fell in with our company, but I noticed we were three men short as we ran from the outer wall.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is not or will ever be a harem tale. The MC will have relationships (most likely not with this elf). That being said, I was debating back and forth on the elf. Kill her and take the fire essence? Keep here in his dimensional space with no one knowing, and somewhere down the line, release her to some utility….she casts her formed fireball at an enemy. Her brother is threatening to kill the MC… “Oh? Did we kill your sister? You mean this one?” Or even just release her eventually and let her go. I don’t know….lots of options. He mainly imprisoned her because of his reluctance to kill a young woman. Let me know in the comments if an edit is needed (this is the third edit so far on this chapter). I mean, the MC has a griffin egg…a dungeon essence collector…a magical pendant from a dungeon…he basically likes to collect things. Sorry, I am rambling. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!