The High Prophecy

Chapter 9: When The Mist Blows Away PT.1

Chapter 9: When The Mist Blows Away - Part One

Jon moves closer to Markus, who suddenly and panickedly starts chanting. He looks at Markus, trying to figure his pattern. As soon as he does, he also joins the chant, only more furiously. They both follow a deep tune, Jon an octave lower. The earth starts to shake beneath them. The swordmen start to exchange looks, they are shaking, but not entirely because of the earth.

Before the trail of explosions reaches the prince, Markus manages to raise a giant magical ice shield out of the earth, almost two meters high but extremely wide to protect a majority of what remains from the army. The explosions finally stop at the shield, Markus's friends and several dozen to a hundred men at least are saved. Jon's chants empower the shield and  it a few extra layers of sharpness, causing it to cover the entire line between the explosions and the remaining men.

As soon as the explosions calm down, they stop chanting, causing the shield to disappear. One of the knights still alive behind them, panting, barely manages to utter his next words;

"W-We are no match for the wards- y-your highness!" cries the knight. "Let alone the Dark Lord!"

"Stand your ground!" cries Markus, unsheathing his new sword and walking forth, with a valiant and confident gaze upon him. "The day Nexonia falls to the Dark Lord is the day I die!"

The dark army had already started marching towards them. Jon moves back to stand by the warriors. Markus gives him a quick look, eyes widened, a subtle expression of worry is now starting to show.

"You've got this." says Jon, nodding to him, in an attempt to destroy this sudden slight of worry, as he continues his enchantments on the men.

"Archers, engage!" cries Markus, staring into the battlefield. To this cue, the archers atop the wall set their first line of arrows loose, sending them flying towards the incoming army. Hundreds of arrows start raining down, gracefully penetrating the dark army.

Markus and the other swordmen march forward, preparing for the battle. They are quickly surrounded by dashers preparing to lunge at them.

Markus and his men start to take them out, one by one, or at least they try, as the men are killed as quickly as they could lay their eyes on the dashers. They mercilessly tear the men apart with their razor-sharp claws and fangs. Markus starts to panic, his left foot tapping on the ground as he looks around himself, but he does not let his guard down.

Hod slowly lumbers closer, only stopping a distance away from the battlefield. He clenches his right fist and pulls it backwards, before launching it forwards, detaching and flinging it towards them at an immense speed. The fist starts emitting, and surrounding itself with, an aura of atrocious flames.

The fist leaves a large trail of smoke behind it, dimming the sky. As its shadow overcomes the archers atop the walls. The ones closest start to panic, attempting to run away, but in an instant, the flaming fist loudly crashes and takes down an entire section of the wall, almost instantly smashing and killing around a dozen archers and throwing off another dozen. The rock from the walls starts tumbling down, dropping like an avalanche and brutally crushing several more panicking swordmen below.

The dashers continue to pursue and kill the men, one by one. Markus starts looking around, his feet still tapping vigorously, sweat trickling down his face and feet. An idea comes to him. He starts chanting again and shoots an arc of ice from his hands, waving it around, freezing the dashers around himself, which makes it easier for the men to kill them with their swords, some even pushing them over with their hands and shattering them.

A new flung fist crashes into another side of the wall, very close to Jon. He hears a loud CRASH from above his head, quickly and panickedly stopping his enchantment and starting a new one, creating a magical shield above to protect himself and the men around him. However, due to the rush and lack of time, the shield is small enough for the falling debris to simply roll off the shield and crush the men on the farther end of the group. A cloud of dust blinds their vision outside of the shield. Another crash is heard and as soon as the dust clears, Jon looks around, and notices Hod's fist, dropped several feet away. He suddenly grows angrier, clenching his fist, obviously remembering a rather unpleasant detail of his past.