Four Horsemen Book 5 - Old Histories: Chapter 5

Petor crouched at the edge of the torn jungle, watching chaos unfold at the main ritual site. The once-pristine stone complex built into the hillside now bore deep scars from the battle.

The jungle that had hidden it had been decimated.

Smoke rose from multiple defensive positions where the Mardun fought to hold their ground, muzzle flashes lighting up the openings carved into the weathered stone.

He couldn't tell how many defenders there were, but there had to be between a hundred to a hundred and fifty champions sieging the ritual site.

The ground trembled as another champion unleashed a spell that detonated against the fortification, leaving a crater two meters wide. Chunks of masonry rained down the slope toward the harbor below.

Champions maintained a brutal suppressing fire, hurling spells with the force to deafen, blind and blast away meters of stone.

Blue-white energy scorched the stone black, forcing defenders to duck behind cover or risk being vaporized. The air crackled with released power, each blast carrying enough force to level a small building.

More champions focused their attacks on a single section of wall, coordinating their strikes. A woman wielding a war hammer enhanced with lightning struck in perfect rhythm with her companions, each blow sending shockwaves through the structure. The cumulative damage was beginning to show - hairline fractures spreading like frost across glass.

A champion with a maul struck the outer wall, the impact sending cracks spider-webbing through solid rock.

The defenders answered with disciplined volleys of gunfire, the sharp crack of rifles mixing with the deeper boom of heavier weapons.

Barriers flared with the impacts.

A cannon shot tore through a barrier and killed a champion, the hole was quickly filled by another champion—curses and yells for those hammering on the wall to hurry.

The champions shrugged off hits that would have dropped normal soldiers, their enhanced bodies allowing them to keep fighting through grievous wounds.

Stone chips that would have turned a normal human to flying mince was shook off or barely regarded.

A yell went up from the champions at the wall as a section broke down.

Cannons fired, tearing through the champions.

From a ridge to Petor's left another cannon added its fire. It punched through the barrier facing the ritual site—carving a bloody path through the champion's line.

Petor disappeared from his position appearing in the midst of the champions.

Petor materialized among the startled champions, inside their barrier and used Arcane nova—supercharging it with a burst of concentrated mana, targeting the group at the breach into the ritual site. The air crackled with barely contained energy as he unleashed the spell.

It went off in a whoump of dust and debris, the concussive force sending armored bodies flying like rag dolls against the stone walls.

Essence flowed into him, driving into his core as it filled with green.

He tore away power from those dead and wounded, grimacing as it rushed through his widened mana channels.

He unleashed a second and a third arcane nova upon the densest groups of champions upholding the barrier, he used root road to change position once more as essence crashed into him the flecks of blue appearing in his core.

The rush was heady and god-like, Petor felt every tree, every living thing within his expanded range, his dominion upon the living, to grow or gorge upon its power.

Cursed chain shot from Mya's position ripped through the collapsing barrier and three champions beyond it, the ethereal links wrapping around their victims before contracting with supernatural force. Their enhanced armor crumpled inward with sickening crunches.

Desari's elemental arrows sailed through the air with deadly precision, trailing ribbons of fire and lightning. Each arrow split into dozens more, creating a lethal storm that rained down where the barrier had been.

The ground shook as Valter crashed down like an avalanche, the impact crater spreading cracks through the stone beneath his feet. His thermal blade carved through a champion's enhanced armor like paper, alternating between searing heat and bone-chilling cold. The warrior's final scream cut short as frost covered his corpse, steam still rising from the molten slash across his chest. Valter's four animated suits of mithril armor descended from above, crushing champions beneath their weight and engaging others with mechanical precision, their coordinated attacks leaving no room for escape.

Petor spun away from a retaliatory strike, his spear creating three perfect illusions that confused and divided the champions' attention. The duplicates moved with fluid grace, each one a perfect mirror of his deadly technique. He cast Root Road, stepping between the rapidly growing plants to appear behind a champion attempting to rally his companions. The spear thrust through the champion's spine as Petor drained the life force from his victim, the surrounding vegetation withering as he channeled the stolen energy.

The champions fought back with devastating spells and enhanced strength, but their attacks lacked the coordination of Petor's group. Individual power meant little against the Four Horsemen's experience fighting together. Where the champions struck with raw force, Petor and his companions moved like a single deadly organism, each attack setting up the next kill with practiced efficiency.

A champion's hammer swing that could level a building passed harmlessly through one of Petor's illusions, the massive weapon creating a shower of sparks as it struck the ground. Before he could recover, Desari's arrows pierced his throat while Mya's spectral grapeshot shredded his companions.

Petor stepped through the roots, emerging behind two champions focused on widening the breach. His spear pierced the first one's neck while draining their life force. The second champion spun, hammer crackling with lightning, but Petor's illusions scattered his focus. The real attack came from below as thorny vines erupted through the stone, impaling the warrior.

Valter's thermal blade carved through the chaos, leaving alternating paths of frost and molten stone. His animated armor suits formed a deadly wall of steel, pushing champions back.

Mya's cannons cut through the champions, taking the pressure off of the scarred and pitted armors as they used the opening to kill the wounded and rush those that weren't prepared.

"Push them back!" A champion commander rallied his troops at the breach, his voice carrying over the din of battle.

Mya's response came in the form of cursed chain shot. The spectral ammunition expanded to wrap around their barriers, locking together and then contracted causing the barrier to darken as it weakened.

Petor slung a handful of hellfire thistle seeds into a group trying to flank the breach. The pods exploded on impact, thorny projectiles burrowing through armor before erupting into burning vegetation. Screams mixed with the crackle of supernatural flames as the plants grew through their victims.

The sounds of their armor imploding echoed across the battlefield as Mya's chain crushed the commander and his group.

Inside the breach, Mardun defenders held their ground with disciplined volleys. Rifles cracked in precise intervals while those with shotguns waited for champions to close the distance. Bodies piled up in the narrow opening, forcing attackers to climb over their dead.

Valter's armor suits stepped into the breach itself, their enhanced strength and coordinated movements creating a steel barricade. Champions hammered against their shields while Valter himself moved through their ranks, weaving through their attacks with ease.

More champions pushed forward, but Desari's arrows found those who'd lost barriers in the chaos. Each shot split into dozens, turning unprotected warriors into pin cushions before they could reach the fighting.

Petor and Valter fought alongside one another towards the breach and Valter's armors repelling champions.

The remaining champions broke formation. Their coordinated assault dissolved into panic as warriors scattered, abandoning their dead and wounded.

Desari's arrows cut down fleeing champions with brutal efficiency. Each shot split into a deadly rain, dropping armored figures mid-stride.

Mya fired another cannon, killing a half dozen, before she broke from here tree cover, her rifle in the shoulder as she cut down champions.

In a handful of seconds it was all over and Mya lowered her rifle before running towards Petor and Valter.

"Hold your fire!" Petor yelled into the ritual site. "We're friends!"

"Who the hell are you people?"

Valter's armors moved away from the breach, each sporting damage that would have killed a person if they'd been inside.

Bodies of champions littered the ground, some still smoking from Desari's elemental arrows, others crushed beyond recognition by Mya's chains. More lay twisted among the thorny growth of Petor's deadly seeds, pierced through by razor-sharp vegetation.

"We're friends," Petor said.

"I don't know of any friends like you," The voice continued with a dangerous tone.

"It's me gramps! Ain't no way to greet yer captain!" Mya said as she reached Petor and Valter.

"What did you, Joreck and Renna call me when you were younger?" The voice asked—skeptical.

"Gramps and you losing your memories, it's Lianne I don't know a Renna."

"What was the one you muttered under your breath."

"Uhh—I'm not sure," Mya wheedled.

"You don't tell me I ain't letting you go!"

"Fine! Fine. Grampa grumps," Mya barely coughed the name out.

"What was that?" the voice demanded.

"Grampa Grumps!" She says catching Petor's eye. "I was a teenager, of course I'm going to use a terrible nickname."

There's shifting from inside the breach and people talking, before an elderly looking man that seemed to have seen a lifetime of sun and hard work stepped out, holding his rifle, his footing sure on the bodies and rubble.

His grim expression trembles as he sees Mya.

She pinched her hat in salute. "Hey there Gramps."

"Didn't I tell you to call me Bedrick when I became your first mate?" He growled but there's no heat in it, instead there was a wetness to his eyes.

They hug one another and Petor looks away with the others and stabilizes his mana from making two arcane blasts that took up half of his mana capacity each.

Bedrick stepped away from Mya, his weathered face hardening as he surveyed the carnage around the ritual site. Bodies of champions lay strewn across the scarred ground, their enhanced armor twisted and broken. The acrid smell of smoke and burning vegetation hung thick in the air.

"We've got trouble at the temple," Bedrick said, his voice tight. "Champions are trying to breach it. They're after our people's souls."

Mya's hand tightened on her rifle until her knuckles went white. The temperature seemed to drop around her as rage rolled off her in waves. "'Course they fuckin' are."

She released her grip and looked past him and into the breach.

"Can you hold here?" she asked Bedrick.

Bedrick nodded grimly. "We've got enough people and ammunition. The champions surprised us and still broke their teeth on this position - they won't take it now."

Mya's gaze swept over Petor, Valter, and Desari. He could see the internal struggle in her eyes, weighing the request she was about to make.

"So where is this temple then?" Valter asked, his voice echoing slightly from within his armor.

"Could be a whole army there waiting to kill us?" Mya warned.

"We've had that, what four times now?" Desari said, checking her bow string.

"Well are we talking about fights with allied armies as one army?" Petor asked, adjusting his grip on his spear.

"You're getting to be as bad as her," Desari said dryly.

Petor shrugged unapologetically as Valter snorted in amusement from within his armor.

"Alright, well don't say I didn't warn yah," Mya said.