"Why is he so green? Prender, why do you look like you're about to throw up?" asked Kos. Prender was slouched on his horse like a sack of potatoes, looking distinctly unwell.

"You ever been in a battle before, boy?" Jandak demanded, and the young man glanced across. He was sandwiched between Kos and Jandak because he kept falling off his horse.

"It's not that. Fought lots of skirmishes aboard Windspite. Killed a few men." He swallowed convulsively. "Don't like horses. I'm too high up, and if I fall, I don't splash, I smack."

"Motion sickness from riding but not from being tossed about by the waves," I chuckled. "Well, the Fangs usually fight dismounted anyway. Classic dragoons, these blokes, ride to battle but fight on their own two feet."

"I can get down?" Prender asked as Kos and Jandak dismounted. The older men chuckled and helped him dismount.

I looked down from my perch on Wilson's back and smiled thinly. "Of course. There'll be a shitload of Souls to go around later this evening."

My army was arrayed across a spit of land. The river bent sharply here, looping out in front of us, with the legion formed up at the point where the curves curled closest to each other. The nomads were spread out on either flank, and across the water waited Jeremy's field army.

The air was thick with killing intent. My aura mingled with Aresk's as both our domains fed off the energy of the imminent battle. On the far banks, in series ranks, Jeremy's Beauties captained brigades of mortals.

Their armour was sculpted into graceful curves, metallic musculature showed on every torso, and the face plates of their helms were works of art. Long banners of rose-pink and gold trailed from the raised pikes as they stood waiting for us to try and cross the wide river. It was a good hundred metres of water, and it flowed deep and fast in places. It wasn't going to be enough.

A thin skin of ice had formed on the surface, not enough to hold any weight, but enough for Prender with Morana's Source to work with. The snow was a couple of inches deep. Both the legion leadership and the tribal chiefs and kings had argued for waiting until spring before campaigning further east.

Assimilation of the Source of The Cycle: 58% complete

I had explained, very emphatically, that I didn't have that option. So our horses were draped in blankets, and my troops were covered in furs over their armour. And we rode to war.

"I've got a job to do before we kick off, but I want you ready to cover Prender as he gets the Source to the water. We know they can lob arrows across the water, and it's easy to launch a magical bombardment at that range, so keep your mana for shields. You're clear on the plan?" I asked for the fourth time that morning, and the older men sighed as Prender shifted nervously.

"Mond, we aren't boys with no hair on our balls. We've done this shit before," Kos complained, but he quirked half a smile at the same time. "Only difference is these assholes use plant monsters instead of blobs of corpses."

"That's a significant bloody difference," Jandak grumbled as he spun his spear in one hand and rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension. "Maybe the snow will help us out in that regard. The land slumbers in the cold."

"That was the idea," I said. "We start when I get back."

I sent my aura out around me, and I could feel the strength I was drawing from the imminent violence. The premeditation aspect was clearly part of my divine mandate, or whatever the hell it was that gave me my domain. My own troops roared as my presence spread among them, the fiercest of them bright lights in perception, with dagger markings cut into both their cheeks. Then I reached out across the water and had a markedly different effect.

Officers glanced around nervously as their men grumbled and spear tips swung ever so slightly in their directions. Men scowled at each other, thoughts of being used as shields by their suddenly untrustworthy comrades running through their minds. The Beauties weren't immune either, but as my influence passed over them, they began to sing eerie, lilting songs of love, loss, and revenge.

Soon, the entire force was singing along, the basso rumble of the troops a background to the high, piping voices of Jeremy's Soulbound. Spears moved back to where they should be, and more than a few officers removed their helmets and wiped their brows.

Far back in the serried ranks, beyond the silk banners and beautifully crafted battle standards, lay my targets. A hill, half a mile behind the enemy lines, had been crowned with a tent big enough to put the Legion command tents to shame. Thick wooden beams, all carved with images of thorny roses winding around apple trees, held up satin sheets to keep the wind off. Inside, a dozen men and women, all thick with killing intent, examined charts and maps.

None of them trusted any of the others. They all had their personal forces deployed along the riverbank, and they all knew that the others would throw them and their cadres to the wolves if it would save some of their own power.

I focused my aura around myself and dissolved into tiny cubes, flashing across the distance and reforming, naked, unarmed or armoured and alone behind the command staff of Jeremy's army.

Words were unnecessary. As I appeared, a couple of them began to swing their heads in my direction. They died first. My aura solidifying, the semi-invisible blades flashing, turning them into mincemeat.

I cast Combustion and Wildfire. As my body ignited, I stepped forward into their stunned group, over the fractal lines of burning incandescence that spiderwebbed away from my body. They screamed and snatched out their swords, lunging at me, but I turned their blows aside with the daggers of my domain, semi-tangible chips of obsidian flickering away to dissolve into the superheated air.

Their skin crisped and blackened, but some of them fought back, glowing green as they poured their mana in Self Heal spells or triggered trinkets hidden in their rapidly burning silk underclothes.

I lashed out with my aura, and the tent exploded outward, the sheets were sliced into strips where they hadn't been burned, and flew away on the breeze. Body parts, neatly cubed, flew as well. The hill burned as I did my job.

Soulbound Servant slain x52

One thousand and forty Souls harvested.

I dissolved once more and reconstituted myself where I had begun, pulling my armour and blade out of a storage ring. Across the water, beyond the tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, the hill burned and smoked. I could feel the fear flowing out like a pyroclastic flow from that fiery summit, sweeping down over my enemies and turning their bowels to water.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Glimpse. Give Pertabon the sign, I sent, getting a happy caw in reply. There were going to be many eyeballs available, no longer needed by their current owners, in the near future, and the carrion feeder was ecstatic as usual in the face of a pitched battle.

"Come on. You two, run defence for Prender. I'll keep them off balance." We strode forwards, Kos and Jandak bantering about who would be the better nursemaid for the younger Soulbound. The rest of our line fell behind us as we walked, then with a rumbling thump, the legionaries stepped forward to follow behind us. Spears levelled, ancient trinkets charged and ready to unleash their spells.

We were outnumbered, as usual. My force was perhaps fifteen thousand strong, minus the reserves, and Jeremy had sent over a hundred thousand to oppose us. It was very kind of him to send me so many Souls to use to enhance my troops tomorrow.

Arrows and spells began to fly from the Beauties in the front ranks on the far side of the bank. Foolish, but an understandable response to four men calmly strolling ahead of a formation of Huskar. We certainly looked like the easier targets.

Pink portals tore open above us in sequence as one Fang or the other turned the enemy's attacks back on them. One portal would form ahead and above us to absorb the attacks, and its partner would appear off to one side, where it would spew all the spells and projectiles back across the river.

I stopped at the edge of the river, the grass giving way to dirt, which in turn surrendered to the water at the end of a short slope. I solidified my aura ahead of us, and the blasts of elemental magic detonated early.

The skies above us darkened, clouds appearing where it had been pure blue before, and they turned an angry crimson colour for a moment before I unleashed hell on the opposite bank. Explosions through grass, muck and body parts into the air, making Prender flinch.

Naromalis Humano Slain x 3591

Thirty-five thousand, nine hundred and ten Souls Harvested.

Soulbound Servant slain x284

Five thousand, six hundred and eighty Souls harvested.

"You've seen that spell before. I used it to cook the Kentanii ship that was pulled by the vile-dolphins, or whatever the fuck they were. Now is your time, bloke." I waved a hand at the water a few feet away, ignoring the explosions of magic thirty feet behind me where my aura met our enemies' attacks.

"That was on the water. I've not seen what it does to land," Prender gulped, eyes locked on the cratered moonscape of ash and smoke I'd created on the far side.

"They're reforming, and the next lines are moving into position. We need to get this done fast. Huskar don't like swimming, for obvious reasons," I chuckled, and he nodded quickly.

Prender moved forward, Kos and Jandak flanking him to intercept anything that made it past my aura. The young man knelt and pulled off the leather hood that housed Morana's Source. He dropped it to the side and briefly touched an ancient trinket the mage-Huskar had given him, where it lay under his tunic.

The water stopped moving. The arrows and spell detonations had cleared the thin layer of ice on this section, but Prender used the spell in the trinket to still the water. I checked from Glimpse's perspective, and a mile upstream of my northern flank, the river suddenly burst its banks and flooded out to either side.

An unfortunate side effect, but one that we had anticipated. By the time the flood waters reached my troops, they'd have cut through the enemy and taken the high ground on the far side.

Prender gently lowered the Source to touch the water, and it froze in an instant, the ice spreading out rapidly, leaving a smooth surface marked with odd fractal patterns as the molecules were forced to align so quickly. The ice spread out like a static ripple, sweeping across the river first to touch the far bank, then spreading up and down stream.

The army knew what to do. As soon as the freezing wave passed them, they charged, spells and trinkets flaring as they rushed across the temporary bridge. Iron hobnails had been hammered into the legion's boots, chipping up shards of ice as they stomped across the once formidable barrier of the river.

Nomads streamed across in their wake, the horses slipping and sliding in places, then knickering happily as they found solid ground. Their nomad riders put heels to flanks, and they flowed out like limbs of an octopus, encircling Jeremy's forces and raining enchanted arrows down among them. Blasts of fire, ice and lightning began to burst among the Beauties' brigades as the enemy desperately called up shields and launched counter-spells back among my cavalry.

"Can we go have some fun?" asked Kos, glaring jealously at the neat ranks of Huskar that had marched past them and were now jogging across the lunar surface I'd created with Burning Skies.

"I think, I think I'll pull back, if it's all the same to you," muttered Prender as he gulped at the sight of the legion rushing to battle.

"I'm up for some fighting," Jandak grinned harshly. "You can fall back to the wagons if you want. Can't get seasick on a wagon, shit-sitter!"

"I'm not a shit-sitter," Prender growled. "I've never stayed in a city longer than I needed to for trade. I'm not suited for this." He waved a hand as another legion squad reached the ice and stomped out across it towards the screams and the ringing of metal on metal that drifted through the smoke.

"No worries, bloke. You can fall back." Wilson landed next to me with a thump. I'm going to provide a little air support for the boys and girls. Good job, Prender. That was impressive control of the water."

"It was the trinket; my spell can barely reach fifty feet. I'll go then." He bowed hurriedly and backed away a short distance before turning and sprinting back through the legionnaires, using his enhanced physique and reflexes to slip between them without slowing.

"You blokes enjoy yourselves. We need these assholes to run, not die, so don't encircle them," I ordered as I jumped onto Wilson's back.

"There're only two of us, Mond. We couldn't encircle them if we tried!" Kos laughed, drawing his sword and giving it a couple of experimental swings.

"If we get behind them, they won't try and run through us. Which just means we need to stay in the heart of the battle where the blood flows the most!" Jandak grinned and sprinted across the ice. Kos squawked and took off after him.

"Let's go, boy," I muttered to the wolf, and his wings cracked down, flinging us into the sky.

The flanks were enveloped, my nomads had swarmed across with shrieking battle cries to both the north and the south, but they were keeping their distance and fighting at range. I saw a unit of lancers smash into a formation of pikes from the side before quickly peeling off and returning to the archers they were escorting. The dead lay torn and twisted, a tattered line of bodies across the snow.

The legion had crossed in seven places and established beachheads, behind which even more Huskar marched into position. They thrust forward, blasts from their long-ago enchanted spears sending blinding streaks of energy into the somehow still beautiful ranks of Jeremy's forces. Despite the dirt and dust in the air, the silvery armour and silken banners flew proudly, a sight that must have terrified anyone unlucky enough to catch their ire before us.

Without magic of their own, no nation could stand against one of my fellows from Earth.

The skies darkened and turned blood red again as I cast my apocalyptic spell in support of a legion, the fourth, if my memories of the battle plan were right. They had been partially encircled, having driven ahead of their brothers in arms, and were now bogged down by a few thousand soldiers led by some powerful Beauties. The shields of ice and fire kept cycling, dulling the impact of my troops' attacks.

Bright balls of energy fell among the enemy forces, rolling back across them, and the HUskar rushed in behind them, heedless, or perhaps overly trusting in my accuracy, of the risk to themselves as yet more fireballs fell from the sky.

Naromalis Humano Slain x 4137

Forty-one thousand, one hundred and thirty-seven Souls Harvested.

Soulbound Servant slain x312

Six thousand, two hundred and forty Souls harvested.

Nearly a hundred thousand Souls gathered already. And I wasn't done yet. It would come down to how long they could hold. The Beauties must have a powerful influence over the mortal soldiers to drive them forward into the same slaughter, again and again.

The sheer mass of men behind the front lines made it hard for them to bolt. The flanks were a trap; my nomads swirled and feinted, forcing any units that attempted to break out to fall back or die. Above them all, I flew on my wolf, turning the sky to blood and the land to scarred, cratered ruin. I was the Killer, and no one would ever doubt my power.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.