The Demonlord Chronicles

Chapter III – The Darkness of Light
20.
The smell of ashes was still in the air. A strem of sad amiration went through Srazih’s heart: The angels had carved out an extremely large area of the jungle. It was a deed only immortals could possibly accomplish... and it was a sad day, for that many trees to burn...
The sun had risen about one hour ago. The Wolven had started to assemble in the cover of the treelines. And likewise, the humans had started taking a long, yet massive formation on their side of the large clearing. And they were still shuffling around, large groups moving back and forth, more and more soldiers streaming onto the field. Opposed to the tight jungle, on this artificial plane the human army would be able to take full advantage of it’s overwhelming number. And the Wolven wouldn’t be able to use any of their traditional strategys, since there wasn’t a single tree in a one mile radius around the troops. This fight would be forced to be an open one... a fight the Wolven wouldn’t win by strength and bravery alone.
Srazih was sitting in a small tent, secluded from the surrounded world, staring into the campfire in front of herfeet , with only three choosen others nearby.
“So... what’s our plan, War-Khan?” Arderaik asked, pronouncing the title in a way clearly indicating he would have preferred the position to himself. But given he had been absent till a few hours ago and the fact Srazih had the most experience with humans, the choice of the elders hasn’t been that difficult, naming Srazih as the military leader for the war.
“Simply charging into them would be suicidal. We would take major casualtys during the charge and simply dont have the numbers to stand up in a straight fight. We cannot rain arrows at them from tree cover either, these damn immortals burnt down everything in range. And I don’t think we have the option to launch a magic-based assault. Not against the angel’s spellcasters, that is...”
“Human are wall. If wall broken, human not strong.” Srazih turned her head slightly. She still was unsure how to rate these ‘Black Guardian’s. Arderaik indeed had managed to find them and even bring them here... if these people were what they claimed to be, that is. Arderaik didn’t seem to be intent on telling her anything, either.
To make everything even more mysterious, this was the only ‘Black Guardian’ she has actually seen up to now. Some warriors reported to notice shadowy figures lurking in the surrounding jungle, indicating he was not alone... but Srazih had no number to work with. And the fact Têrr, which was his name and pretty much the only thing she knew about him, was always covering up his face and wearing a long cloak to hide everything but his green eyes...
“Yes, I thought about that as well. If we manage to get into the human formation, with enough warriors, we can cause disarray. If their shieldwall is broken up and we may even take down or distract their archers... But regardless from where we move in, there’s too much open field.”
“We fast. We reach enemy, they have one arrow. If they fast, two arrow. No more.”
Srazih assumed Têrr had learned the Wolven language from Arderaik, in a hurry. But at least they were able to communicate at all. “But, are you and your men strong and numerous enough to actually pull off a breakthrough?”
There was a strange, snarling loud, followed up by a few more. Was this some sort of laughing? “We do.” Srazih frowned. She wasn’t exactly ready to build up a battleplan basing on someone’s vague information she didn’t even know. She needed...

“Actually... how about us?” Hemlat offered. “Beast slayers train to survive against any odd. Only if you dodge or block a beast’s attacks, you can strike. I know my men and I can guarantuee that we would be able to reach the enemy’s lines, unharmed of arrows. It doesn’t pose a problem to put a breach into their line, either... though the problem is, we can only create one small breach... and without support we’ll quickly get encircled.”
Hemlat’s gaze was tacked upon the concealed face of Têrr and Srazih realized what he was suggesting. “Gah... the first time I ever take command of people, and right away you force me to a high-risk strategy...” She stared into the fire again. “In such situations I would wish the Wolven would have bothered with horses or suchlike... Cavalry would definitely be useful here...”
“We your cavalry.” Têrr said. “Send giant and men. If time, we follow. Together, smash wall. Then Wolven strike.” Apparently it wasn’t too hard to see her doubts about his words. Têrr squatted down, coming to eye-height with Srazih. “We guard jungle. We saw war future. We prepared. We are ready. We not disappoint Wolven brothers.”

The war drums started sounding, slow and steady. It wasn’t just motiviation, but a signal, as well. Srazih intended to inform the enemy of the coming attack. It was necessary. As soon as the sounds started washing across the clearing, the human rows appeared to become more lively, soldiers grapping their weapons from the ground, forming solid ranks.
Slowly, Hemlat’s group emerged from below the trees. He and his men were moving in a simple coloumn, with 2 men next to each other. Every warrior was wielding a large and thick wooden shield, angled forward to block incoming arrows. Srazih had seen the shields in the camp the beast slayers had erected, before... but actually she had mistaken them for placeable cover. Wearing such large shields of solid wood... well, Hemlat’s men were strong.
Though the formation was incredibly slow as well. Which probably was related to the thing hidden under the shields. Hemlat hadn’t told her the details, but she had seen something long, probably some sort of battle ram? Srazih prayed Hemlat hadn’t taken the idea of ‘smash wall’ too literal...
Srazih saw how the archers got in position, quite a few rows behind the actual shieldwall. Apparently the humans were exspecting Hemlat’s formation to be a distraction and wouldn’t send their archers out to engage him early. Srazih smiled. At least something was running fine.
Slowly creeping forward, meter by meter, the formation approached the human lines. Srazih could see how the archers raised their weapons... and then lowered them again, when one of the angels talked to the archery captain. Srazih got an unpleasant feeling when she saw the immortal stepping forth, taking a position right in front of the first soldier line, before starting to gesturing his hands in the air.
Magic. Even though they of course had exspected something like this... she prayed they had taken the necessary steps to defend Hemlat against it. With a loud, blazing roar, a large ball of fire grew in the hangs of the immortal, before he flung it towards the approaching troops.
Hemlat’s men didn’t react to the incoming magic projectile in the slightest, steadyly moving forwards, neither dodging nor fleeing. Then the fireball struck, exploding into a cloud of flames. The sound of cracking wood could be heard up to Srazih’s position in the treeline. Ignoring the wood splints around them, the formation kept moving forward. A few of the shields had caught fire and quickly were dispatched to the sides, replaced by reserve ones.
Realizing it needed more then just some flames to stop this attack in it’s tracks, the angel started conjuring magic again. On this try, he appeared to take more time and when he was done, he lobbed a quick volley of five projectiles, each one barely smaller then his first attack, at Hemlat’s troops.
The impact sounds waved across the trees, smoke, fire and wood flung everywhere. The force of impact caused the nearby ash to be catapulted into the air, creating a vast smoke screen that covered the results of this bombardment from either side.
Apparently deciding this should have been enough of softening up, the angel ordered the archers to fire and within mere seconds Srazih could see multiple hundred projectiles arcing high into the sky.
A multitude of battle crys ripped through the clouds, quickly followed by Hemlat and his men. The slow movement before had all been part of the plan. Still holding up their shields, which now had started glowing, inscribed with various runes, protective magic provided by Wolven spellcasters, Hemlat and the beast slayers charged, their speed incredible for such a heavy formation. Amongst common humans, that was.
The first volley of arrows struck the ground far behind them, the sudden change in speed easyly throwing off the archer’s aim. Now the humans started to look more worried, the archers hastyly preparing a second barrage. Srazih guessed it would probably be their last barrage, before the beast slayers would reach the frontlines. And, even with the mercyless immortals present, she doubted they would fire into their own rows.
The second volley of arrows rose into the sky. In perfect unison, suddenly all wooden shields were dropped to the sides and Hemlat’s men again increased their pace, now running in a full sprint. Once again the arrows went wide, whilst the front rows started to become hectic, when the carried ‘battle ram’ became visible: It was a spear, of inhuman proportions, easyly measuring ten meters in length, with a tip large enough to shatter anything in it’s way.
Without any trace of either haste or fear, a notably large and broad angel moved through the rows, pushing them aside and taking position right in the giant lance’s path. Srazih bit onto her lower lip. The angel seemed confident in stopping the charge. Given it was just a normal weapon... was the lance may even incapable of harming him? She prayed Hemlat knew what he was doing.
“It is time.” She heard a voice next to her, before a clock flew past Srazih’s field of vision, a dark figure emerging from below it and charging onto the field.