Siege At Dawn I

Just like Siegfried said, Nina was assigned to the clinic where she would help with treating the wounded soldiers during the battle. However, being a water mage, she would only be able to handle the less life-threatening injuries. The light mages would handle the more severe cases such as severed limbs and other life-threatening injuries.

Although Nina had wanted to be alongside Kies on the battlefield, she lacked fighting experience and training. In addition, Siegfried instantly shot her down when she brought this up with him. No matter what she said, he wouldn't allow her to actually be on the battlefield. But Nina was fine with this since she knew that she would be of no use in a fight. She would faint the moment that she sees blood being spilled.

Here at the clinic, Nina only needed to deal with the lighter injuries. She could slowly build up a tolerance to blood while working here which wasn't such a bad thing she guessed.

"You must be the new water mage that they assigned to us," came a voice from behind Nina. She turned around to find a boy that looked younger than her. If she had to guess his age, it would be around thirteen or fourteen. But despite how much younger he looked, he was only slightly shorter than her. He had short blonde hair and the same colored eyes to match.

"Who are you?" Nina asked the boy.

"My full name is Heatherlord Jeinse," the boy introduced himself. "But everyone just calls me Heaths, and what is your name?" he asked Nina.

"I'm Nina."

"Alright Ms. Nina, I hope we can get along. We'll be working together from now on," said Heaths.

"You don't have to be formal with me," Nina told him.

Heaths smiled and scratched his head. "Ah sorry, it's a habit of mine," he apologized. "I've been taught to speak like this so my apologies if I've offended you in any way. Anyway, follow me, I need to show you around this place and introduce you to everyone else." Heaths said and then walked off humming a tune, not bothering to check if Nina was following him or not.

***

Kies sat next to a campfire just outside the walls of the kingdom along with a few other soldiers. They were tasked with keeping an eye out for the enemy in case they decided to attack during the night. Each of them was armed with a short sword and light armor so that they could run back and report any news quickly.

The soldiers with Kies were all tired and yawning and none of them were saying a word to each other. They were all too nervous and tired to do so, but Kies didn't mind this. He didn't know what they would talk about anyway since they were all likely here because they had no other choice just like him.

Strangely though, unlike the rest of the soldiers, Kies didn't feel tired at all despite spending all afternoon today training. The spirit had definitely done something to him but he didn't know what exactly.

When Kies heard that Nina was going to be assigned to the clinic, he was glad and a bit disappointed at the same time. She was safer at the clinic than on the battlefield, though a little part of him wanted her to be here. Kies was curious about what Nina wanted to tell him, but whatever it was, he needed to survive whatever was coming first.

Kies looked at the skies. The night had only just begun but the stars were already out. Kies looked up at them, remembering a few specific ones that he and Nina would always see whenever they went stargazing during the nights.

'I hope this won't be the last time I get to see them.'

***

At the break of dawn the next day, a horn rang out in the distance. Kies immediately shot up. The soldiers that were with him fumbled with their weapons as they woke up before retreating into the walls of the city. Kies took the ladder up the walls and looked out around. The enemy was approaching from every direction. Kies could already see that their numbers were much greater than theirs.

"What in god's name is that?" A soldier next to him called out. Kies looked at what he was pointing at and his jaw almost dropped. It was quite far away but there was a giant contraption slowly moving towards them. It looked like some kind of a siege weapon. Escorting it was a large group of soldiers, likely their main force.

"Are they going to ram our walls with that!?" the same soldier asked. The other soldiers were all panicking, unsure of what to do.

"Fire mages, burn that thing down!" someone ordered. At their word, a barrage of fireballs was shot towards the siege weapon, but before the fireballs could reach, a wall of light rose from the ground and blocked them.

"Sh*t, they've got a light mage!" one of the soldiers cursed.

Kies looked at the barrier that surrounded the siege weapon. There were too many soldiers to tell where the light mage was hiding. But even if they knew, they couldn't get past that barrier to the mage anyway.

"Launch the trebuchets!" someone shouted. From behind Kies, a wave of boulders was launched up into the air, flying back down and crashing into the barrier. The barrier wavered a little but still held strong. The siege weapon was getting closer and closer and the archers and mages launched volley after volley of arrows and magic into the barrier with no effect.

Kies scanned the barrier and found that there was a crack where one of the boulders had hit, but it quickly repaired itself. Without wasting another second, Kies gathered the winds in his hands and concentrated them into a small ball. He was still unable to shape it into a blade as he wanted, but it was enough to get the job done. Kies shot his sphere of wind at the crack. Upon impact, the barrier wavered again and the crack widened.

The soldiers all saw this and immediately started to focus on the weak point. "Over there! Hit it with everything you got!" a soldier shouted.

"Quickly, before it seals back up!" someone else added. In a matter of moments, the barrier was filled all around with cracks before it shattered.

"Fire! Shoot fire at it!"

In an instant, another barrage of fireballs flew towards the siege weapon. However, they weren't able to reach it. The enemy shot a barrage of fireballs themselves and they collided with the Silvian's fireballs midair, not letting even a single one get through.

"How is that even possible!?"

Kies knew that the Otanian empire had an extremely powerful and well-trained military, but he didn't expect them to be able to shoot down projectiles like that. And from the look of things, it seems that he wasn't the only one. The soldiers were all frantic now, shooting whatever they had at the siege weapon as it made its way closer and closer.

"What is it doing!?" a soldier cried out in alarm as the siege weapon started to wind up, making loud mechanical noises while it was doing so.

"Brace yourselves!"

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!