Breakthrough

Whatever we did, however we did it, as long as Luca and I did it together, it always felt like we would be victorious. Whatever the odds, the Dapper brothers would win the day.

Tonight was no exception. Even surrounded by enemies from all sides, I felt invincible just by having Luca fight beside me.

From right beside me, I watched Luca cut down a golden-haired elf almost mercilessly with one downward swing of his broadsword's shadowblade. And although it helped that elves rarely wore heavy armor, Luca's ability to make critical hits when it mattered was beyond mathematical probability.

I, on the other hand, just blocked the glaive strike of the she-elf I faced off against. I'd already seen the possible killing blow myself but chose not to act on it. This was to the fact that her long blonde hair and blue eyes reminded me too much of Aura.

The she-elf sent her glaive's shadowblade forward.

I dodged.

She slashed sideward.

I ducked.

But when she turned her slash into a downward strike, I raised my falchion with both hands and blocked the heavy blow that didn't seem like it could have possibly come from such thin arms.

It was at this point that a firebolt struck the she-elf right in the face, sending her sprawling onto the grass beneath me.

The smell of burning hair made my nose wrinkle.

The she-elf tried to get up while I was distracted by her hair catching fire but Aura appeared on my left and kicked her in the head, instantly knocking her out.

Then she turned her azure eyes on me and said, "You were pulling your punches."

A hobgoblin pushed past the Shield squad's shield wall and lunged for Aura. It never reached her as my falchion slithered right into its gut. Even with his chainmail shirt, the vibro-sword function of my shadowblade made easily cut a deep gash in its abdomen.

At the same time, Luca's broadsword came swinging down, effectively decapitating the hobgoblin before it could die from my strike.

"Sorry about that, Aura!" Ashley yelled from the front. She was standing at the very center of her squad's shield wall. "Slippery bastards keep getting past us."

"Um, that's because I told you to leave holes in your wall so we can sweep them up as we move forward," I reminded her.

"Well, I don't like it!" she yelled back at me. Then she held her steelbark shield and pushed it forward. "Brace!"

I heard the crunching sound as fairy bones broke against the weight and force of Ashley's charge. She was like a cannon plowing through soft-bodied limbs. And her soldiers struggled to keep up with her.

"We're almost through," Luca said excitedly.

"Luca, dodge!" I yelled.

He did as I asked and narrowly avoided a spear thrust aimed at his head.

It didn't escape me that we'd been a similar situation before but in reverse.

While Luca stayed crouched, I sent my falchion slashing toward the outstretched arms of the Magesong visere that had attacked him. The shadowblade cut neatly past his bronze bangles, straight into his flesh, crushed through bones, and out the other side in a shower of blood.

I watched as the visere backed away, screaming for all he was worth. If he was lucky, the trip back from the Fayne would partially heal his wounds. It did happen. If he wasn't, well, at least he was alive.

Another firebolt zoomed past me and struck the now handless visere, knocking him down to the ground.

I turned and found Aura with her staff raised like a sniper rifle in my direction.

"Aren't you happy to have me watching your back?" she grinned.

"Since when did you enjoy fighting so much?" I shook my head in dismay. "Luca and I are rubbing off you..."

"I'm not always prim and proper, you know," Aura argued. "I do enjoy fighting on occasion."

Even behind her mask, I could tell she was eyeing me playfully.

"Huh," I responded lamely.

There were a lot more things I wanted to say to her like how cute she sounded when she defended herself or how pretty she was in her golden half-mask or even how hot I thought she looked looking all warrior-like. I said none of these things, though. I was tongue-tied just looking at her.

"Can you two stop gazing into each other's eyes?" Luca, who had just finished stabbing the last Magesong soldier to get past Ashley's line, said to me and Aura. "We're through."

He pointed his broadsword forward and I followed his line of sight. 

The gray mass of soldiers that had covered our front from the beginning of our encirclement had finally been driven to the sides and given way to an open stretch of green grass. Beyond this free area, a smaller army of gray soldiers formed a neat little square formation around a figure riding a swifthart. Above this figure was the gray flag that was unmistakably that of a high ranking officer.

"Is that..." Aura began.

"The commander of the Magesong's center army," I finished for her.

"We really did it... we broke through their third line with so few soldiers," Aura's honeyed voice seemed surprised at our accomplishment.

"Not yet," I answered.

I glanced behind me.

"Thom, get ready to disengage and follow us through once you see Edo and Qwipps coming," I yelled.

"There's no need to yell," Thom insisted as he appeared beside me in a twirl of his black cloak. "We've already disengaged. The half-ogre and the idiot are already here."

He was right. Both Edo and Qwipps, each with a group of Darah army soldiers, just crashed into the right and left sides of our encirclement at nearly the same time. Together, they devoured the remaining Magesong soldiers positioned there.

Seeing this all take place like clockwork brought a warm feeling to my chest. It was always nice to see a plan come together like that.

Then I yelled, "Ashley, we're breaking through now!" 

As one, the entire force under my command charged forward. Together, we made it past the remaining Magesong soldiers and broke into the empty space between the enemy center army's third line and their command unit ahead of us.

In hindsight, this now left us exposed to any enemy units in the vicinity. Their third line had no choice but to let us through once we were past them as they needed to continue forward in an effort to stop our own center army from breaking through with even more soldiers. But there were plenty of other units that could destroy our puny force within reach.

One of these enemy units was the Magesong center army's five-thousand strong cavalry. They certainly could have annihilated us if they weren't already distracted.

Glancing left and then right, I saw the midnight blue flags of the Darah center army's cavalry breaking through on both sides.

In response, the enemy cavalry which was positioned in front of us split in half to repel the incoming Darah cavalry.

This opened the way for my tiny force to make a huge contribution to tonight's battle. After all, like Sun Tzu said, Balk the enemy's power; force him to reveal himself, and, quickness is the essence of warfare.

I couldn't help but smile while thinking I was surrounded by reliable people. Fila had found Thors and relayed my message. He'd done his job well. Now, it was time for the rest of us to do ours. Now, we had a chance.