Echoes of War, Ch 2: The Silver Army (Patreon)

“The cowards have finally come,” Sleset hissed as he looked upward, his eyesight piercing through the clouds of Verdant as he saw the approaching fleet of ships. “They wish to insult the Silver Lord and ignore his decree.”

Behind him, a wave of angry hisses rose up in agreement from the ranks of Silver Nagas and their first-generation descendants. They were arranged in an army four hundred nagas strong as they stood coiled at the edge of the Wild Spirit’s domain, at the edge of a small city that blended nearly perfectly with the forest. It was fifty miles away from the Wild Grove, settled on the slopes of the central mountains.

The original twenty-nine nagas had given birth to a great generation in the time since the Lord of Silver Stars had left them. Even Sleset himself had taken a mate, and he took this moment to glance at Tesera, his wife. She was standing at the head of the army beside the other Silver Nagas, her power radiating around her at Level 362. It placed her solidly in the middle ranks of the original Silver Army. All of them were Level 350 to 375.

The three main captains behind Sleset were closing in on 400, although none of them had reached it yet. Sleset had pushed himself the hardest to honor the Lord of Silver Stars and was the strongest at 394 now.

His oldest daughter Nasre’s emerald scales were gleaming as she stood in the second rank behind her mother. His three sons and four younger daughters stood beside her, the result of two vibrant clutches of children. All of them were over Level 200. The sight made him let out a hiss of old delight, his eyes narrowing with pride. They were tall and noble, coiled on powerful tails with stark emerald lines that stood out like jagged fangs across their scales, warning all who saw them to bow their heads.

Beside them, the rest of the younger generation stood in similar ranks that stretched back eight deep, each of them fifty nagas wide. Of the original nagas, nearly half had been female and many dedicated mate bonds had sprung up. It was normal for nagas to have three to five children in a clutch of eggs, and sometimes more, but their bloodlines were stronger than any he had ever seen. The lord had blessed their race with power and vitality and their nests had grown strong over the last century. He and Tesera had welcomed their first clutch nearly a hundred years ago and the second another twenty-five years after that. The youngest of them was seventy five now, a full adult for their race.

Nagas were long lived, even in their First Evolution, but now that they had reached the Second, there were many centuries ahead of them. It gave him the reassurance that they would survive until the Lord returned. That was his only regret in life so far, that his children were not blessed by the oathblood. Their emerald scales glittered in the green sunlight like a mark to prove they were the true descendants of Verdant, but they didn’t have the jagged silver crowns or the full power of their parents. Only the Lord of Silver Stars could grant them that.

“It only took them 120 years to overcome their terror of the Lord’s decree,” Ajoa, one of the three captains behind Sleset, spoke up with a scornful hiss. “I don’t know if it makes them stupid or just forgetful. Do they think that he was speaking in vain back then?”

“Without your efforts to oppose them, and your silver scales as a reminder of his words, they would have been here sooner,” Alora spoke up with a grateful nod toward the nagas. She was standing at the head of her own army of Wild Spirits. She was no weaker than the three captains and was approaching the Fourth Evolution herself. Three hundred Wild Spirits stood with her, their clothing blending into the forest and the stone of the mountains. Some of them held bows strung with their blue-silver hair and others were radiating with the magic of prepared spells as they looked into the sky and waited. Most of them were at the Third Evolution, and a handful were at the Fourth.

“This battle has been building for a long time,” Alora added, “at least for three to four hundred years as they expanded through the Border. Our home is too close to them for them to resist the allure of an Evolutionary Node like the Wild Tree.” She frowned as her eyes turned toward the grove and the tree that towered into the sky in the distance.

“While they have their own nodes, none of them are capable of guaranteeing strong choices above the Third Evolution. That level of node comes directly from the High Nine and is almost entirely absent in the Borderlands. Without one, they are at the mercy of luck and their individual efforts. Seizing the Wild Tree is too much of a temptation for them. Until now, they’ve only disrupted the trade routes and inched forward, so I wonder what finally gave them the courage to take this step.”
“The Astral Titans have been gone for too long, and the arrogance of the Blood Hunters has rarely been suppressed in the Borderlands,” Damen Asenya, Alora’s father and the head of the Wild Spirits, spoke up from beside her. “They could have long ago asked us for access, and struck up an agreement, but they would rather conquer than cooperate. It leaves us with no choice.”

His tone was clear, making it obvious that he would never bow his head to the invaders. He was wearing an ornate set of golden mail today, its surface like gleaming fishscales across his chest, and a dark wooden shield that radiated with mana was on his left arm.

“Their race is powerful and they take their expansion for granted,” Nares, Alora’s uncle with a disreputable history, shook his head with a scowl. “To them, we’re only in the way of their righteous cause.” He’d once tried to ally with the Blood Hunters and knew them better than most, but ever since the Lord of Silver Stars had appeared and purged the Outsiders here, he’d reformed his ways.

Now, he was firmly in support of his brother Damen and he stood with the rest of his family to oppose the invasion. Anger was clear in his clenched muscles as he looked upward at the approaching ships. He’d tried to make a deal to benefit himself once, but that had just been an agreement to allow the Blood Hunters to use the Wild Tree. There was no way he could tolerate their attack.

“How they think they can seize the Wild Tree, I don’t understand,” Alora said angrily as she shook her head. She was truly disgusted by the approach of the ships. “They must be blind from their own arrogance. The ancestor would never help them to evolve like this. Not everything can be had just because you want it.”

“Some people won’t accept reality until they are forced to choke on it,” Damen replied as he raised his shield on his arm and looked upward. A shining green and golden light covered his other arm, covering it in a radiant gauntlet and armor that went up to his shoulder. The air around him crackled with force as he clenched his fist. “Unfortunately, they badly outnumber us.”

They had chosen to make their stand here, miles from the Wild Grove itself, as a way of protecting it from the battle, even though this choice meant that Elasia, their grandmother and the strongest guardian of the grove, wouldn’t be able to help them. She remained at the heart of the forest, the last line of defense if they failed.

“It is past time for talking about this,” Sleset hissed as his eyes narrowed. The fleet was approaching swiftly, apparently intending to dive straight through the sky toward the Wild Grove.

He could tell that each of the ships was as strong as a Level 450 mage, its enchantments tuned for attack and defense. Hundreds of Blood Hunters stood on the decks. There was at least one Fourth Evolution on each ship, as well as fifty or more in the Third Evolution. The combined force was at least ten times stronger than the Silver Army and Wild Spirits together, and the power radiating from them was enough that Sleset felt his scales warping.

It was not a force that they could stand against, even with a handful of the Wild Spirits at the Fourth Evolution to help, but he had no intention of fleeing. He would live and die as a Silver Naga. Behind him, there was not a single tremor of fear in his peoples’ scales, only anger that the Blood Hunters dared to cross the edict their Lord had handed down. The younger generation had never met the Silver Lord, but their parents’ scales were proof enough of his glory. Their weapons were held in steady hands.

“Their reasons do not matter,” Sleset announced, “only that they dare to challenge the Lord’s decree. To let them land here is a dishonor that we will never allow. He commanded us to protect this world, and your people have fostered us well over the last century. Live or die, we will uphold our oaths. We go to meet them!” His commanding hiss echoed through the air as he flew upwards.

“WE GO!” Behind him, the four hundred nagas flew upward as well, their formation separating into ten diamond-shaped squads. Each of them was forty strong and led by at least two Silver Nagas. The elemental powers of the army were on full display as deadly currents of wind, stone, flame, and more gathered around them.

As Sleset flew higher, he studied the approach of the cowardly Blood Hunters. It had taken them 120 years to overcome their terror at the Lord’s decree and to convince themselves that it had never happened, but for the last few decades their greed was clear for everyone to see. They had encroached on one territory after another, like centipedes slowly crawling toward Verdant.

The desire for battle thundered in his blood, making his scales shine as jagged runes of venom and sizzling green acid appeared around him. It was unlikely that they would win this battle, but he would try anyway. A glance back at his wife and children showed him there was no trace of fear in their scales, only deadly intent.

His wife’s elegant features gleamed in the sun, her four hands holding a swirling spear of air and two slender shortswords made from the bones of enemies they’d conquered together. A flicker of hope steadied his hand as he hoped that she and their children would survive.

He’d prepared a message for the lord and recorded in a dozen places, some on this world and others in space, including at the lord’s old hall in the Blue Star system. One way or another, the lord would know what had happened and who had dared to cross his will. Sleset’s spirit would rest easy knowing the fury that would be unleashed when the Lord of Silver Stars returned.

Sleset’s four blades were drawn and his spells surged around him with crackling force. He could feel the building mana around the ship’s enchantments and he knew that in a moment it would unleash a rain of fire, but it didn’t slow him down.

Alora and some of the Wild Spirits were summoning rainbow-hued shields of mana across the area, preparing to receive the barrage, but he ignored it. All of his attention was on the first ship and the leader of the Blood Hunters there.

Kaisa Lorel. Blood Hunter. Crimson Hunter-Walker of the Wild Ways. Level 469.

She’d gained a few levels, but she was the same vile creature that had been there 120 years before, the one who should have fought against the Outsiders but had fled in terror, relying on the Wild Spirits she wanted to conquer to protect her. Her actions proved the Blood Hunters’ vaunted arrogance was nothing but the mewling of a toothless kitten. Her levels could only have been gained from poisoning her enemies to death.

Kaisa’s eyes were fixed on the Wild Tree in the distance, as if she barely saw the army flying toward her. Sleset could hear her speaking as he approached. Her words were directed to one of the lieutenants at her side. “Are the enchanters prepared to conquer the node when we arrive? They’ve prepared the node spike?”

“Yes, my lady,” the Blood Hunter replied. It was another one that Sleset recognized from the past, Hane Bosel, the Seeker of the Hunt-Diamond Spear that had been with her before. His level had barely increased, only rising from 439 to 442. “The enchanters say they need at least five ships to take over the node with any confidence. We’ll take up position around it in the next ten minutes and they can begin their work. It will surely be a feather in your cap once you tell your father about this. No other race has such a powerful node to call their own.”

“Good,” she replied. “I want to have the node secured before anyone else comes. It’s only a matter of time before the Blue Wild or Sprawling Point clan tries to interfere. There’s no way they’ll allow us to get this fat target without a fight. The only reason no one’s grabbed it before now was that we hadn’t stabilized our grasp on this region.”

“My lady’s fame will soar to the farthest reaches of the galaxy,” Hane replied smoothly.

Sleset hissed to himself in scorn as he heard their mewling. The toothless creatures had met the Lord himself, but they hadn’t heeded his words. Now it sounded like they’d completely forgotten his commands. Such arrogance could not be allowed.

“COME AND DIE!” At that moment, the roar of Sleset’s shout washed over the deck of the ship as his army closed in, pulling Kaisa’s attention away from the tree in the distance. She glanced down at the approaching nagas and Wild Spirits, and then she waved her hand idly, like she was shooing away a fly.

“Clean the trash out of the way,” she ordered disdainfully, barely looking at them. “They aren’t worth any more negotiations. I gave them the chance to join me years ago and they ignored it. They even had someone dress up as a Titan to try to confuse me, but it’s obvious that the Titans all died long ago. Whatever’s left is just a prize to claim for those who are strong enough. It’s their own fault for not being able to hold this node.”

“Yes, my lady,” Hane agreed. Then he turned to the Blood Hunters standing near the front of the ship. “Fire!”

At his command, the Blood Hunters activated the enchantments on the prow. The ship’s figurehead was fashioned like a stag and immediately a row of chaotic golden spheres appeared along its antlers. A dozen spheres rested on its spikes, roiling with runes and contained force as mana filled them. Each of them radiated with a powerful sense of elemental metal that threatened to explode outward in an instant.

As soon as the command was passed down the line, the other ships joined in without delay and more glowing spheres appeared. Roaring winds surrounded the spheres within half a breath as they shot forward. Each of them was equal to the full power attack of a Level 400 mage.

Although the Blood Hunters were arrogant, their ships were strong. They hadn’t reached their current level without reason.

The horizon of Verdant was awash with rays of terrible golden light as the spheres hurtled toward the Wild Spirits and the Silver Army. There were over a hundred of them that formed an overwhelming barrage. Shields appeared in front of the Wild Spirits and the nagas, but only a few were on the same level as the attacks. The strongest came from Alora and Damen, as well as Nares, their defenses stretched out like green and gold wings in front of the army, preparing to receive the attack for everyone.

The spheres exploded against the barrier like meteors striking a calm lake. Each of them erupted with an air-shattering roar, turning into crackling blades of metallic energy that spiraled out for dozens of feet. Enormous swaths of mana were torn away from the shields, even as the nagas and the Wild Spirits sent a wave of elements and attacks to collide with the attack, tearing it apart.

Damen was the highest level of the Wild Spirits at 467 and he raised his shield higher with a shout as he forcefully expanded the defense, hardening against the onslaught. At the same time, his face paled. He wasn’t alone, but as the strongest of the defenders he’d taken the brunt of the hit. Even at his level, he couldn’t block 144 attacks at the Fourth Evolution alone. Another strike or two like that, and his mana would run dry, even with the support of everyone around him.

In the wake of the explosions, Sleset let out a thunderous hiss that was echoed by the hundreds of nagas following him. Shimmering blades, jagged runes for venom, bolts of acid, arrows, and more flew through the air, turning it into an ocean of multihued elements as the nagas combined their elemental affinities with their race’s heritage.

From the other side, a whirlwind of green and gold magics rose up from the Wild Spirits, turning into a hurricane that tore through the skies. Winds whipped in a furious spiral that sliced through the remains of the attack as it grew larger and headed for the invading ships. Nares poured his mana into the spell with the rest, but he had double non-combat classes and couldn’t form a strong offense.

With his brother Damen, they were the only two Fourth Evolution beings among the defenders, compared to the dozen or more among the Blood Hunters. If each ship was counted as well, it was 24 to 2. If everyone else on the ships was added in, the number of combatants was similar, but there was no escaping the difference in sheer power.

“Flank from the sides! Take out their sails and break them at the knees!” Sleset’s order rolled across the ten squads behind him. The nagas responded instantly, flying out at an angle as they channeled their attacks toward the enchantments powering the ships.

They couldn’t let the ships continue to target them en masse, so separating was the best solution, even if it meant leaving the protection of Damen’s shield. Despite the danger, none of them flinched from the mission. Their powerful bodies stretched out like ballista bolts as they sprang toward the sails.

“Again,” Kaisa ordered from above, her tone indifferent. “They shouldn’t be able to last for much longer.” In front of her, Hane sent the command and a moment later, the sky turned to a storm of golden metal as another wave of spheres flew downward.

At that moment, a blue and white shimmer of mana in the air dissipated to reveal the lean angles of the Ice Drake closing in from the upper horizon, its enchantments burning brilliantly as it angled down toward the lead ship. Its protective shields were flaring at full power as a crackling spear of ice formed across the prow and lanced forward. Until they activated, it had been hiding behind an illusion.

On the deck, a group of nearly a hundred younger nagas and Wild Spirits were pouring their mana into the enchantments, led by Laimar, Alora’s other uncle. His face was grim as he directed the attack, his hands on the wheel. The deck of the ship was stacked with beast cores that had been arranged in a support enchantment, their mana fueling the ship.

The ship itself had been well cared for over the years, its graceful lines showing no marks of age. The self-repair enchantments on it had made sure of that. It was much smaller than the Blood Hunter warships, however, at barely half their size. As the ice bolt headed toward Kaisa’s flagship, however, it finally got her attention.

“Worthless prey!” she shouted, clearly incensed by the attack. “How dare you lay an ambush!”

She gripped at the air in front of her as a translucent crimson bow appeared in her hands. It shone with thorny runes like briar vines along its length and a long red arrow glimmered on the string. She drew the bow back swiftly, bending it into a half-moon arc, and released it in an instant. A whistling torrent of power split the skies as the crimson arrow headed for the ice bolt.

When the two met, the arrow sliced through the ice bolt in a shattering explosion of blue light and frost crystals, tearing it apart as it continued on toward the young nagas on the deck. They were barely 15 feet tall, their bodies still whipcord thin and their scales not yet as dark as those of the adults, but they looked on fearlessly as Laimar spun the wheel, attempting to turn the ship’s momentum into a dive. Each of them was gripping part of the ship, pouring their small amounts of mana into the enchantments.

Unfortunately, at the rate the arrow was approaching, they wouldn’t make it in time. The arrow tore closer, its length gleaming like crystalline blood as small thorns formed along the tip and across the shaft. Each thorn was filled with dense mana, ready to erupt outward and shred the deck of the Ice Drake.

At the instant that the arrow came within a hundred feet of the deck, however, it suddenly came to a halt, hanging frozen in midair. At the same time, a wave of brilliant silver flames that were filled with starlight washed across the battlefield, pouring over the nagas and the Wild Spirits who were fighting.

As the aura of that power touched them, they felt their muscles filling with new strength and their mana began to regenerate more quickly. Their spells formed more quickly, their weapons gleamed with a sharper edge, and their thoughts sped up, flying through the calculations of their battle plans. Instantly, their formations became tighter as they saw the flaws in their approach and closed them, giving rise to new strength.

As for the crimson arrow, it trembled as a golden hand appeared around it, locking it in place. The arrow had stretched out as it flew until it was nearly ten feet long, but the hand was so large that it covered it from tip to feathers, swallowing it completely with room to spare. A crackle of silver flames filled the air as the hand clenched down.

The arrow exploded, releasing a muffled shriek as the thorns along its length tried to tear outward, but none of them were able to escape from the grip. A moment later, a rain of crimson dust flew outward, disintegrating into the wind.

Around the hand, the form of a towering Titan appeared. He was three times taller than the Ice Drake behind him, his horns scraping the sky. Rippling torrents of starlight and silver flames wrapped around his body, giving him an ethereal appearance as if he had just stepped out of the heart of a sun. Silver rays spread outward from him, filling the sky with a brilliant aura.

Where the energy passed, the people behind him stood taller, feeling a new sense of strength, but when it reached the Blood Hunters, it burned like they were standing before the stars of the Void, forcing them to shield their eyes and summon their mana to defend themselves from the crackling fury that was scorching their skin.

“You dare to attack?” Sam’s words were a bright thunder that washed across the sky as he turned to look toward Kaisa on the deck of her ship over a mile away. “I know you, Blood Hunter, and your people. I warned you that this world was under my protection.

“You claim to be a hunter, but you are only a worthless coward. The last time we met, you had fled from your true enemies, hiding in a cave while protected by those weaker than you, the same ones you are attacking now. If you had tried, you could have fought then and gained some honor for yourself, but you hid instead. Do you remember that shame?”

His voice rose in a tidal wave of anger, crashing across the distance between them with a force that made her ship shudder. The enchantments on the planks began to smoke, releasing curls of smoke as hairline fractures shot through them under the force of his aura.

“How dare you come here now and even raise your head to look them in the eyes, much less attack them?!” Sam’s words swept across the sky as he raised his hand, reaching out toward Kaisa across the distance. As he did, the space between them began to warp, twisting like a shimmering pool as starlight poured in, making it seem like the Void itself was descending. “I will not be so forgiving this time.”

Dark and light streaks of starlight traded places with one another, inverting as the space between Sam and the ship warped in on itself, shattering under the force of his grip. Kaisa’s eyes widened in horror as she tried to leap away from the deck and run for her life, but the space around her was too strong to allow it. She could only stand there in frozen disbelief as the space around her crumbled.

As Sam’s hand closed, the ship was crushed under the force, shattering into a million fragments as its hull, sails, the Blood Hunters on board, and Kaisa at the front were torn apart by the spatial fluctuations inside the Astral Rift. As he opened his hand again, the waves of starlight reversed. Dark and light flowed back to their original places, leaving only a trail of ruin and some fragments of wood behind.

All across the sky, the nagas froze as they turned to look toward Sam, their eyes wide. They still held their positions in the assault, but at that moment they raised their weapons toward him and let out a loud and resounding hiss of welcome, their scales glittering in the light of his aura. Only Sleset kept his bearing, his voice rising across the distance as he shouted.

“I knew you would return, my lord!” His words held perfect confidence, as if nothing could be more true. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned to call to the rest of the nagas, his eyes settling on his wife and children as a fierce smile split his features. “All welcome the return of the lord!”

“WE WELCOME THE LORD OF SILVER STARS!” The voices of four hundred nagas roared across the sky, their weapons shining in the sun with the promise of a new dawn.