Chasing a New Life

My favorite time of the year, Spring. This year it decided to wait until late April, and I wasn’t pleased at all. The birds started to sing, and the breeze mixed with the sun was the perfect feeling. The grass was still a bit brown and dead, but it was coming alive as well. The whole scene was amazing, it was the first day we could really train again, and I couldn’t have been more excited,

“Heads up” She didn’t need to say it, I already knew it was coming. A giant bull, called a minotaur, was charging towards us. It was around ten feet tall and blocked out the entire sun as it got closer. The ring in his nose, a golden hue, slightly shaking as he ran. I wasn’t worried; sure, it was my first taste of combat in six or so months, but I was confident. I’ve trained all those months and prepared myself to resume kicking some ass.

“I see, seems pretty weak, no need to worry yourself, I got this.”

“Alright, just don’t take too long, I don’t want to waste my day near you.” It felt like a cut through my heart, “No need to be like that, I know you care about me deep down.”

“You wish” she quickly retorted, “Just go get it over with.” I turned back to the minotaur. He was closer now and still not that intimidating. He may be a lot taller, a lot bigger, a lot stronger, and overall better, than me, but I am smarter and quicker. I win. I hop down off the overhang and ready myself. I summon my sword and start to walk, then jog, and then into a full out sprint. Getting closer, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and took in my surroundings. It was an open field, taller grass in some spots, with a few flowers maybe starting to grow up. The sky was blue and cloudless with a slight breeze to the West. I opened my eyes, darted upwards and thrust my sword into the minotaur’s chest. It screamed in pain and smashed down at where I was. Unlucky for him, I wasn’t there anymore. I blinked behind him and sliced the back of his calves, dropping him to the ground. Another cry of pain. He swung his arm behind him trying to catch me, but again, I was too quick. I jumped over and onto his arm, he tried to swing me off, but at this point it is all but over. I swing one final time at his head and end the fight. I fall to the ground landing on one leg and take a bow.

“Thank you for the fight, I appreciate your kindness.” I turn around and start walking back. My sword vanishes and I start a giddy jog back up to the small cliff. I get about halfway before I hear a scream, it was Lyra. I couldn’t tell what she was saying, but she was running towards me, waving her arms.

“See, I told you I would make it quick, didn’t even break a sweat.” As she got closer, I could see her face and it wasn’t happiness, but fear. I wondered why until I felt it. Maybe because I as carefree, maybe because I thought the fight was over, but I didn’t sense it, now I did. It wasn’t just that one minotaur anymore. What was it though? Where did they come from, the field was empty when I fought the minotaur? I turned around and saw hundreds, no, thousands of creatures. It was hard to see what they were due to the dust they were kicking up. Lyra finally got to me and tugged on my arm,

“Let’s go, we can’t stay here, we’ll be massacred.” She was right, but I wanted to stay and fight.

“We can’t lead them back to the base, what do you suggest my lady?”

“Not now, we can duck into the woods and head back. We must get back and warn the town. I don’t mind if you want to take out a few here and try to thin them out a bit.” This was music to my ears, I grabbed my sword out of midair, took another deep breath, envisioned a great flowing rapid, and pointed my sword to the horde. Water flew out of the sword at an immeasurable speed knocking down many and killing a few of the ones in the front, tearing their bodies apart with the raging current.

“I guess that’ll do, it’ll slow em down for a bit as well, let’s get going.” I grabbed Lyra’s hand and took off to the woods. It took about 20 minutes and a countless number of twists and turns, but we managed to lose them for the time. As I took a knee Lyra came up and slapped me,

“Don’t just take my hand like that ever again.” Shocked, I really didn’t know what to say other than “okay.” We managed to make our way back to the base. It lies within a small town of 800 people called Comstock. Most are just townsfolk selling their goods, working on the roads, gathering materials, or teaching others. It is quite a common little town, and I am proud to be from here. We are the only town, scratch that, only life as far as I know within 100 miles. The next nearest would probably be Griffinfork which is the capital. We don’t really care about the capital at all, it is just there. What we care about in reality is this horde of monsters and dealing with them. We head over to the training grounds to find James. He is working with a few younger kids looking to become mages/fighters. We head over to him and explain the situation. After digesting it for a few minutes he responds,

“I see, I will make preparations for watch and get all of our best on alert. How did these creatures come to find you?”

“I don’t know, I beat the minotaur and then the next second they were there. I didn’t see anything before, and we were in an open field.”

“This is just a thought, but it may be that the minotaur had been infused with some sort of magic that converted the body into said creatures, but with how many appeared, I would say we have quite a strong opponent on our hands. Get some rest, I will talk to you two later.” With that, Lyra and I decided to go to the wall instead of home. We are neighbors so everything works out, we have known each other are entire lives and are inseparable. We do have our clashes though, very regularly to be honest. We get to the wall which is just a 5-foot-tall stone brick barrier around the town. Nothing much but it works for what we need it to. The sun was now setting, and our exciting day was coming to an end.

“You could have helped a bit you know” I started the conversation. Lyra being her witty self quickly responded,

“But you said you were all strong and didn’t need any help. How dare I impose on you and your moment. I dare not.” She leaned against the wall and stared out into the sky.

“Hey Zach, do you think we can hold them off, there were a lot of them. What if everyone dies? What if we can’t stop it?”

“Never thought of you as such a worrywart Lyra, relax, we have a great town and skilled fighters to repel them, nobody will die, I promise.” I plopped my hand on her shoulder and instantly she stepped away, “Alrighty, good to give you some comfort.”

“I don’t need your comfort. I am fine, just asking realistic questions.” She said that last part with a little angst or anger. The rest of the night went rather quietly, we returned home, went our separate ways, and made plans to meet bright and early in the morning again to scout for the horde.

“Idiot, get up. Wake up. I’ll give you five seconds before this turns ugly.” I could hear the faintest sound of something but had no idea what. “Five, four, three, two, one, alright you little rat, I warned you.” A freezing stream of water woke me up. My eyes wide, clothes soaked, chilled to the bone, I looked up and saw Lyra wearing a slight smile. Good to see her smile, it’s been a while.

“I warned you, so I’m not sorry. Just if you were wondering.” She may be back to her sullen face, but I can still tell by the way she said that she was still giddy over what she did.

“No problem, thanks for waking me up and sorry for sleeping in. I appreciate it. Any news on the horde?”

“Yep, spotted Northwest of the wall about 500 yards out coming fast, get up and ready, we got a fight today.” This was happening; the fight was going to be real. I hopped up, got ready, ate a bit of bread, and left. On the way out I said goodbye to my mom and sisters. I can only hope they will stay safe during this. Next step was to go see James and see what he has planned. The news we got wasn’t good. James had told us the unfortunate circumstance of many of our fighters being out on hunts and missions around the area. We only had a total of five. Us three and the pair of twins who were only 15. Lyra and I were 23 with James topping us off at a whopping 62. We didn’t have the greatest odds, but that never stopped us. The twins were very strong for their age and James was no slacker even in his old age. The horde wasn’t moving to quick anymore, so we had an hour to prepare for the fight. All the residents who couldn’t fight, everyone but us, went to the base inside of the town. It wasn’t indestructible, but it was better than any of the houses in the town, not to mention it had enough space to hold everyone. Our plan was simple, the twins stay in the back and fire off some spells, the first twin, Jake, was more of a healing mage. He excelled at buffing allies, healing them, and supporting. His twin Jane was the aggressive one. She had very strong long range attack spells making it perfect for those two to stay in the back. James and I were to be on the front line. I would be switching between my sword and spells when needed. I was unique in the way that I could cast with my sword. No one else could do that. James was our pure fighter, so he was only good with sword skills and endurance training. Lyra would be between. On one hand she would be keeping an eye on the twins to make sure nothing will happen to them and two, fire off some attack and defense spells. She is unique in the way she can use attacking and defensive spells. We were all set. The battle was about to begin, the fate of our town and our lives would depend entirely on us five.

“Alrighty then, who else is as excited as me”

“Stop it Zach, focus up.” Lyra is still being sour. I shrug it off and charge. As I am rushing in, I notice that the thousands have shrunk quite considerably. The creatures clouded in dust were now clearer, the front lines looked like some goblins followed by some orcs and ogres. Goblins were no problem, I was more worried with the ogres, especially with the number of them. Over my head flew a giant fireball, Jane had thrown her first attack and it landed right smack dab in the middle of the horde sending a mix of dirt, blood, and body parts across the field. It wiped out nearly half of their collective. James and I leapt out onto the front lines. He was so quick slicing left and right, monsters falling at his feet. I flashed a quick grin and then turned my attention back to the horde in front of me. I started by imagining rocks jutting from the ground and four giant stone spikes formed, knocking some over, impaling some, and blocking others from advancing. I used this to then commence my true attack, darting back and forth from goblins to the orcs, I struck them down with ease. There were plenty of them, but their individual strength wasn’t even close to mine. I was a little off-balance from a swing by an ogre but felt comfortable enough to keep going. This is when a orc popped up out of nowhere and was about to land a crushing blow. In an instant a light blue ice barrier had formed around me. I got my balance back, took out the ogre, and the barrier exploded sending ice shards all around me. This not only killed the orc, but many other orcs and goblins around me. I looked back to Lyra, who stood there glaring at me, clearly unimpressed. I gave her a quick smile and a thumbs up, turned around and kept fighting. The rest of the fight went smoothly. James and I cleaved our way through the rest with support from the rest of our group. No casualties and no injuries at all.

“Hmm, that was good. I thought you said there were a lot more than that.” Obviously, James was skeptical and honestly, so was I.

“There were more, I do not know where they went, perhaps they lacked sufficient power to stay alive. Magic is rather fickle when casting that big of a spell.” Lyra was quick to jump in, saving me from thinking about anything. This answer was as good as any. I walked up to the twins and patted their heads.

“Good job you two, you helped out a lot there.” Smiles radiated from their faces, and it felt good to see them.

“Well, I guess we better head back. Nothing bad happened just like I told you Lyra.”

“Whatever, I saved your butt back there so don’t get all cocky for almost dying yourself. Let’s just get back.”

“Yeah, let’s go!” The twins shouting simultaneously. With our victory behind us we headed back to town.