The Unwritten Wall of Time

CHAPTER FOUR - THE BATTLE FOR ATARAXIA, PART ONE

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SONGS OF WAR. ARDONIA, AND OTHER ASSETS OF SONGS OF WAR BELONG TO DAVID R.B. AND BLACK PLASMA STUDIOS.

The Deathsingers weren't trying very hard to be quiet. At least, it didn't seem they were. Hundreds of thousands of footsteps thundered as one in the dead of night, erupting from the tree lines at the perfect circle that was Ataraxia's newly constructed obsidian walls. It seemed Death had sent all of his troops to conquer Ataraxia. And no wonder, because not only was Ataraxia closest to Death's base, but it was isolated from the other Tidesingers settlements. It would take days for Tidesingers to reach here, even with teleportation abilities. Ataraxia was alone for the taking.

To mock the Tidesingers, the back few Deathsingers held giant barrels, with sheepskin from the cavern stretched tightly over them. These were the first drums in Ardonia, and indeed, the Deathsingers holding them pounded a battle rhythm that spurred on the troops of Death, and instilled fear in the hearts of the residents of Ataraxia. Banners of crossed bones flew, and as much as he might have tried to calm down the people of Ataraxia around him, Sendaris' traitorous heart pounded like a jackhammer with every beat of those accursed drums, ready for the army to strike against the walls of obsidian.

But the armies stopped almost two hundred metres away from the walls, and Sendaris breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the Deathsingers would give up with the obsidian wall in place, and maybe they would come back another day, in which time they would be able to set up better defences. After all, picking away at the walls that stretched hundreds of metres both above and below the ground would not be an easy task for the army, and in which time the army would be decimated. And as the archers from the watchtowers fired flaming arrows down at the army, and Voltaris leading a group of Tidesingers to fire fireballs at them over the obsidian wall, Sendaris felt certain they would stand a good chance of wiping out a sizeable portion of Death's army.

But he had not realised these were not the undead, mindless mobs that could occasionally be found in the deep dark. These were controlled puppets, with abilities of Tidesingers, as Sendaris found the fireballs and arrows hitting a blue barrier not unlike the one Mendoris had erected earlier in the day. The Tidesinger's eyes widened, as the obsidian wall under his troops' feet was morphed into thousands of obsidian spikes, and Mendoris and the Tidesingers under her command gasped as they erected quick shields around the Tidesingers, which were tested to their maximum capability, glowing a bright orange upon the impact of the obsidian spears.

Sendaris swore as he realised they had done the one thing that they should never have done in a war: underestimate the enemy. They had done it twice, once by assuming Death could never return, and now by assuming the Deathsingers were mindless creatures. Sendaris and his archers teleported to merge with Nestoris' army, and swapped their bows for swords. Behind them, the settlement buildings of Ataraxia were destroyed by the obsidian spears deflected by Mendoris and her troops' hastily erected glowing energy shield. Thank goodness Nestoris had the foresight to move the underaged to the friends' secret underground forge. They would be safe there, with a small self-sustaining farm having been quickly set up by Voltaris.

Growling in anger, Kaltaris readied the troops under him, double bladed swords levitating on either side of him. Now, standing face to face with odds of a thousand to one, Kaltaris felt an insane smile come to his face as his double bladed swords flew towards the army, knowing that he was unstoppable. The Deathsingers would die for trying to hurt his family. But this bloodthirst turned cold, as another shield was erected, and he redrew his swords in the nick of time before they collided with the shields.

Behind him, Mendoris had recovered her breath, and as the second wave of now stone spears flew towards the Tidesingers, she again led her troops to shield the Tidesingers from the projectile. Panting from the heavy fire, Mendoris looked helplessly at Voltaris, who nodded his head. The battle must begin in earnest, and they could not delay any further, lest Mendoris' troops could not hold the shield any longer. Gritting her teeth from agony, Mendoris widened the shield as areas covered by the younger ones of her troops started to flicker, and go out. The pain forced her to her knees, and out of the corners of her eyes she could see the older ones under her command doing the same for those around themselves.

Voltaris had made his way to the front of the Tidesingers, and now stood like a protective older brother in front of his two friends, muscles twitching, ready for action. And as the drumbeats built up, Voltaris felt his lungs expanding quite involuntarily, and as it suddenly stopped, his lungs shriveled and forced out a bellow that sounded unlike his normal voice, and echoed about Ataraxia, with Tidesingers everywhere picking up the battle cry, charging to almost certain death as the ground shook with electric blue energy, contagious, erupting from deep inside, and filled the hearts of the Tidesingers with the desire to die fighting for their loved ones.

Metal on metal reverberated about the lands of Ataraxia, and the ground shook as the thousands of Tidesingers clashed blades with the hundreds of thousands of Deathsingers. Mendoris sought higher ground, climbing up the ruins of empty houses of Ataraxia to obtain a better view of the fight as her troops followed her to erect blue body shields about the Tidesingers about to be struck with a fatal blow. Using the sharpened ends of her bow, she and the more experienced of her troops fended off a small portion of the Deathsingers that had chased them up the ruins, while firing protective arrows that would expand at the feet of the Tidesingers into a full body shield, which would freeze the opponent when struck and allow an opportunity to counterattack.

Throwing her bow at a Deathsinger who was about to hit one of her troops from behind, she drew first blood, downing the first Deathsinger. The bow boomeranged back to her, and she fired another protective arrow towards Nestoris, which led Nestoris to kill a second Deathsinger. A cheer went up amongst those who saw it and revitalised the Tidesingers' spirits. Kaltaris, Nestoris and Voltaris worked together overtime with unforeseen fluidity and teamwork, with Nestoris and Voltaris guarding Kaltaris' front and back, and Kaltaris' double bladed swords flew around avoiding shields and weaving into the army of the Deathsingers.

Thanks to Mendoris and her troops working overtime and being multitasking machines, not a single Tidesinger had yet to be killed. However, the sheer number of Deathsingers forced the Tidesingers back, slowly, inch by inch, metre by metre. Soon, the Tidesingers were fighting shoulder to shoulder with their friends, and as much as Kaltaris tried to go onto the offensive, the Deathsingers were always too quick with their shields, preventing him from carving a proper path into the Deathsingers, and pushing the trio of friends back. Soon, there would be no space for the Tidesingers to swing their weapons.