The Accidental Archmage - Book Five, Edmund Batara [best way to read ebooks txt] 📗

the first defensive wall. The mage could see the lizards batting aside the furious thrusts of the spears and pikes. But where a spear or pike penetrated flesh, the target immediately twisted to its side and speedily retreated, bring the weapon with it. Without long weapons, an increasing number of defenders were forced to rely on swords or axes.

The leader of the caravan continued to cast fireball spells around their formation. But Tyler saw that though it inflicted casualties on the attackers, each blast only slew a few – those in the direct center of the spell. The lizards appeared quite resistant to fire and from what he had learned of the mages of Adar, the First Mage knew the magical energy of the mage was limited, an observation forcing Tyler to rethink the initial area-of-effect spell he was going to use. Suddenly, some lizards started trying to jump into the middle of the square, using their dead brethren to gain needed leverage.

“This is not going to last long,” he heard Tyndur murmur. That comment swiftly pulled Tyler from his deliberation of the unfolding struggle.

Immediately, he cast lightning cloud spells to the left and right of the human defensive block, taking care and making sure that the effects of the conjuration didn’t reach it. Then the mage followed up with enchantments conjuring up Hephaestus’s fiery geysers above and below the embattled square, again with assiduous attention to where its effects would be felt.

Tyler figured the underbellies of the beasts were not as well protected as the rest of their bodies. As the spells wreaked utter devastation on the massed lizards, with bodies being blown up, incinerated, or set on fire, several huge examples of the creatures looked in their direction. That sudden movement caught Tyler’s attention and that of his companions.

“It seems that we’ll be saved the bother of walking down the slope, sire,” said Habrok as he readied his bow.

Kobu merely laughed, his weapon morphing into something longer. A naginata, if Tyler wasn’t mistaken. On the other side, Tyndur’s weapon suddenly burst into flames. The magical fire at first reached up to his elbows but receded and remained concentrated at the head of the weapon.

“Finally!” he heard the einherjar exclaim. Tyndur and Kobu increased their distance from the mage and Habrok, giving everybody the needed leeway to do their killing.

A loud screech sounded from the chaotic struggle below the party, a bedlam already marked with the loud crackle of lightning bolts, the defiant howls of fighting men, the characteristic hisses of the lizards, and the sound of steel and iron weapons in battle. At the distinctive call, a large number of the lizards left their main group still being decimated by lightning bolts and flames erupting from random areas in the ground. The separate mass of beasts started to swiftly move toward the escarpment, closing the distance at a frightening speed.

“I do believe you’re right, Habrok,” said Tyler as he let fly a blizzard of small triangular force blades. The transparent magical knives cut through the leading ranks of the lizards, slicing through faces, necks, and legs. The mage heard no reply from the ranger, but he saw arrows flying in the air and embedding themselves in the eyes of the approaching creatures. Occasionally, he could see projectiles tipped with flaming or crackling energy.

Quetzalcoatl’s gift, thought Tyler. I do hope this guy doesn’t run out of arrows.

The large lizards were stumbling over the remains of their dead kin, clambering up over those already piled up in front of the horde. Tyler then erected a low energy barrier in front of the attacking mass to make their progress doubly difficult. He could see the beasts slamming into the unexpected obstacle. Then he heard Tyndur complain.

“Sire, would it be too much to ask if you let a few through?” The First Mage could imagine a petulant tone in the request.

“Don’t worry, Tyndur. That energy wall will eventually break under the pressure of their assault. Though I am surprised no creature has jumped over it.  Look, more are joining the fun,” answered Tyler with some amusement.

Inwardly, the mage wondered if he was reassuring a petulant child, though the einherjar was always crabby when he felt he didn’t get his share of any fighting.  More and more lizards were abandoning the attack on the humans on the open plain and joining the massed assault on the small cliff. He kept on flinging force blades at the incoming mass which had noticeably and dangerously grown in numbers.

Barely a hundred beasts remained on the plain to harass the warriors in their square. Tyler continued using the blade spell which, of all the offensive spells available to him, consumed the least magical energy to create, and by now, was easily formed with but a moment’s thought on his part. To the mage, the magical formation of sharp shapes appeared very effective against enemies made of flesh.

Then the barrier broke as Tyler predicted and scores of lizards surged forward. He looked at the pattern of attack and found another proof that the predators were indeed intelligent. The mass formed a U pattern, the horns directed at their flanks. The First Mage continued with the blade spells, resulting in heaps of bloody body parts to his front. For the flanks, he created small barriers to delay the attacks coming from the sides and cast fireballs to the rear of each assaulting group. Some of the large lizards—which he guessed were the pack leaders—had already fallen.

The delaying walls on the flank shattered from the sheer force of the attacking crowd and a few beasts were already within reach of Tyndur and Kobu. Tyler didn’t stop to observe what they were doing; his focus was on thinning the lizards’ ranks, though he could hear Tyndur’s whoops of joy as he battled the lizards now charging him. Despite the massive casualties they had suffered, the beasts still continued their onslaught, a puzzling fact to the First Mage who observed that in comparison, animal predators on Earth