Book 2 Chapter Fifteen: Relieving the Siege part 2

FIFTEEN

They moved together through the edge of the woods to the far side of the village. With the squad of shamans and hob killed their section had grown quiet. Goblins and ogres still ran about, but there were less and less of them as the remaining defenders were able to focus fire on the walking behemoths. Taoya led the way, weaving between the trees with grace that belied his strength.

“What is your ability?” Roan asked, turning to look at Harris as they got closer to a more active part of the battlefield. If he’d remembered correctly he’d been told that Harris was a good defensive fighter, but not what it was he managed to do. Darren often kept Harris close to him though.

“Nothing special. I emit a small slowing field around myself. Let’s me slow down ambushes,” Harris said, shrugging with a single shoulder.

“That’s a good ability,” Roan said. He now understood why Darren kept him around. If Harris was stronger he’d be a great counter to any type of high speed blitz attackers. Combined with Darren’s increased perception the two would be a deadly combo.

“Thanks, but you should see the stronger members of my family. They’re impressive, I’m just a runt.” Harris’ voice held hints of bitterness in it that Roan could identify with. It was the same bitterness that had been in him every time he’d seen one of the elites use their bloodline while he was stuck with just muscle and skill.

“You need to explore your bloodline after this.” The intrusive thought floated by his conscious and Roan added it to the long list of things he had to do as fast as he could.

“Quiet. Look at that,” Taoya said, breaking them from their conversation and pointed over toward where another quartet of shamans were scaling the walls. Climber corpses dotted the ground at the base of the walls, thrown over as the attackers had secured the ramparts.

“Think the hob is in the village itself?” Roan asked.

“Yeah. With its speed and strength it’ll be a menace if I don’t have room to move,” Taoya said, grimacing as he thought of it.

“Retreat then. Fight another day. This village is lost even if the false-dragon does not arrive.” The thought was the same cold, pragmatic voice that had been whispering in his ear since he’d entered the tower. Roan fought it down, wrestled the instinct to leave as fast as he could and save his life.

“We’ll have to be careful. Pin it down and give Taoya a clean shot on it,” Roan said. It felt bitter to say the words and part of him rebelled against the idea of risking himself in the town. Roan shoved that part down and into the pit of his being. He couldn’t allow himself to be ruled by fear, not here and now.

“Shamans first. There’s a pair of ogres guarding their ladders and a ton of goblins in the way. We’re going to have to be fast,” Taoya said. He started to walk forward, breaking out of the protection of the forest and picking up speed as he did so. Roan followed right after with Harris a step behind, the two of them hopelessly outmatched by Taoya’s speed. The long strides the man could take ate up the ground in moments and he crashed into the backs of the goblins like a landslide.

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