-Callen-

  Fullart paused briefly, organizing what he knew, but that information was several steps secondhand from Nightshade. Instead, I took the lead, speaking up first.

  “Paladin Korin, let me share the situation since I’m likely the most knowledgeable.” The man gave a faint nod, signaling me to continue. “Refugees from Woodside and Portten have been successfully brought into the town. Our defenses consist of this wall and an inner castle. The wall has been armed with earthkin weaponry, and our town has three knights, Sir Fullart, Sir Torulf, and Sir Gunther; two guardians; and a fire mage. I’ve the strength to stand as a knight, and the captain of our guard, Reesia, is able to hold her own briefly.”

  I paused and took a breath as I let Nightshade share an update on the enemy with me.

  “Our enemies have between twenty and twenty-five knight-level fighters, three of whom reach the minimum for a viscount. The tribal markings suggest a united force of three different tribes acting together, but their behavior is odd without any internal strife or even verbal communication.” I finished the report and waited for the man's response. I noticed the grim resolution on Fullart’s face as I shared the full scale of the invasion. I paused as I realized I almost forgot our most important ally.

  “We also have the protection of a druidic plant.” I kept the information about Nightshade as vague as possible to avoid affecting the condition of our allies. While I couldn’t be sure Nightshade was a druidic plant, she did mention a previous bonded companion, and it was the best analogy I had for Nightshade’s support.

  “Ah, that must be why the information is so thorough for an enemy so dangerous to investigate. Ah, I remember, our temple has records of the two guardians of this town. The Wither Tree and the other, which is less taught about by necessity. If it is actively cooperating, then the threat must be something significant enough for such an ancient being to feel threatened. Paladin Robert, go back and inform the queen that we may need her personal intervention as the local flora feels threatened, and she will understand.” The youngest of the knights saluted before breaking from the formation and rushing back to the gate.

  “This outer wall is certainly impressive, but fighting at the edge of the woods will give the enemy a decisive advantage. We need flat terrain where elven mobility is limited. I suggest we withdraw into the inner castle and recover as many of the earthkin's mounted weapons as possible while we can. Our best chance is to overwhelm the enemy under a concentrated assault by heavy weaponry. In terms of direct confrontation with the numbers arrayed against us, as they are overwhelming, the best we can hope to achieve is buying time for more volleys of the heavy weapons.”

  The man was planning the defense around the objective of receiving minimum support from Nightshade. I couldn’t exactly correct him without revealing Nightshade’s current vulnerability, but that just meant Nightshade was free to intervene as she deemed necessary, which should work well with Paladin Korin’s plan. Still, his comment about how little we could achieve in a direct confrontation hit hard, but he wasn’t wrong. I remember how decisively we flipped the battle of the River Fort in our favor when we tipped the odds in our favor by even a single knight. Now we were outnumbered 25 vs 10ish, and some of those 25 were significantly more dangerous than a normal knight.

  I got to work helping the guard move the ballistas by storing them in the void so we didn’t need to carry them the whole way. In the meantime, Nightshade kept me updated on the movements of the elves. During this time I finally was able to recover from my earlier mana expenditure. The elves themselves seemed hesitant to initiate the attack.

  Thankfully that bought us enough time to move and rest the weapons on the walls of the shelter/castle. Teams of earthkin and guards were assigned to each, and everyone leftover stayed with the civilians. Our boats were prepared to take everyone they could fit in case of the worst. However, more concerning was my loss of connection with Callia and Paladin Robert, who never returned after going back to the capital. All I knew was that Sis wasn’t dead but for some reason had been unconscious most of the day.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Together the best fighters in town sat on the walls: Paladin Korin and the three men with him, Sir Fullart and the knights of our town, and Reesia and I, all waiting and watching the outer wall in the distance. The town guard all waited, hiding behind the ramparts for the signal to begin the attack. There was a quiet tension in the air as we each braced ourselves for the hardest fight of our lives. I took a deep breath as Nightshade informed me that the elves were advancing. I and several others noticed the elves scale the wall before jumping inside.

  I noticed flowers blooming around Nightshade's tower, serving as a temporary deterrent as the elves split into teams of three searching the town. It didn’t take long for one of the teams to target the castle. Time to hide was over. I had one role in this fight: do everything in my power to protect the ballistas.

  For the first time since we started fighting, I noticed something inconsistent. The elves attacking us appeared emaciated when I viewed them through Nightshade’s memory, but in my eyes, they appeared to be the epitome of health. Before I could contemplate that, the team approaching the castle stopped. Clearly they recognized the presence of humans without the ability to hide. Korin leapt from our position, and everyone followed while I took my position at the top of the gate.

  No words were exchanged as Korin slammed into the ground and sent himself flying towards the elves in a blazing charge. They tried to maneuver around him, but Korin easily caught one with a swipe of his greatsword, cleaving the elf in half. His men followed but not fast enough to catch any of the elves. The other elves began desperately fighting while withdrawing, but the small team stood no chance. However, while the other two were overwhelmed, I noticed the first elf, who had been cut in half, stood back up. I jumped forward, abandoning my post as I summoned a boulder over the elf. I fell onto him, pinning him to the earth, but somehow, despite being crushed like a bug, the elf started to push up and started crawling out from under the boulder.

  I checked back with the others and noticed they had ‘finished’ another that was standing up again.

  “Look out! They aren’t dying to lethal strikes!” I gave the only warning I had time for before the elf I pinned freed himself. He rushed me and tried to strike me with a punch, but he was so sloppy. At some point he had lost his weapon and now was relying purely on stats. I ducked under the high-speed punch and created an airburst on the surface of my palm, blasting the elf upward.

  I focused my sense of mana trying to figure out how they were recovering because it didn’t seem like any skill I had ever heard of. Then my attention turned back to where the body had been originally split in half. I felt something like a veil of mana hiding the upper torso of the elf. I dodged to the side as the elf tried punching me with his fall. I used that dodge to get to the veiled location. My mind and my sense of mana conflicted in a manner that gave me a splitting headache. I forcefully mobilized my mana zone, slamming it against the veil. I felt it give way, and the elf attacking me suddenly didn’t have his upper body or even life. His legs dropped to the ground, revealing the withered body that I had seen through Nightshade's senses.

  I didn’t have any more time to contemplate this, as the others had successfully pinned the elves, stabbing and cooking them, trying to get them to stop moving. However, instead of the swift takedown we hoped for, the other elves had noticed and arrived in force. I gulped nervously as we stared down 22 pseudo-immortal elves.

  Void Gate Duty

  Callia released the gate shortly after Callen went through the other gate following the paladins. Callia struggled to balance the necessity of her role in bringing reinforcements with the reality of leaving her family alone to confront the dangers without her help. Still, Karia’s declaration to invite volunteers from the royal knights gave Callia more than enough reason to wait. Even if only two knights joined the battle, it would be worth it for her to wait here.

  As she waited, Callen signaled her that Nightshade was sending a messenger through for the queen. Callia opened the gate, and one of the paladins came through.

  “The queen has gone to invite the royal knights,” Callia informed the paladin, but as she finished the statement, the chamber doors were knocked free of their hinges. Callia blinked in surprise as a disheveled and pale woman broke into the room. However, even more pressing was the shiver of absolute terror crawling up her spine as a face eerily similar to Lexia's locked eyes with her. The eyes glowed with a frenzied hunger Callia was too familiar with.

  “Mine,” A voice cracked out dryly from the woman as she stumbled towards Callia. Before Callia could move to action, the Paladin jumped between them, loudly shouting.

  “It’s the craving, Callia; you must flee! Do not let her partake of you. I will stall her as long as possible!” Callia hesitated; fleeing here would mean abandoning Port Town, but the Paladin’s warning wasn’t complete. “That is the second queen; we have no hope of prevailing! Quickly, you must reach Karia!” The fact that the normally composed paladin completely skipped Karia’s title spoke volumes of how urgent his warning was.