The Battle Begins

Minutes after the meeting ended the officials all began to scramble to organize their forces for the battle. Within fifteen minutes there were more than eight hundred basic mages, one hundred fifty intermediate mages, and ten advanced mages including Xavier's father. Xavier looked in awe at the assembly of mages before him. Their combined aura was terrifying.

Xavier's father came to him. "Go get yourself into position." He glared menacingly at Xavier. "Don't let me catch you entering the battlefield. If you think me sealing your cultivation is bad then I would suggest you don't even imagine what I'll do to you if you break your word."

Xavier nodded his head enthusiastically. He wasn't willing to find out what his father would do to him if he broke his word here. As the army departed Xavier hiked up to the bluffs overlooking the field on the other side of the river.

Intermediate mages began to cast water spells down into the sewers. The sluice gates had been closed and it caused the water level to rapidly rise. Xavier frowned. If they had had a battalion of advanced water mages, they could easily win this battle. All they would have to do is flood the sewers to drown the troglodytes. It was too bad that the mages they had with the water element couldn't maintain it long enough.

Troglodytes weren't aquatic but they could still hold their breaths for far longer than the mages could keep the sewers flooded. What they could do is use the psychological pressure to force the troglodytes where they wanted. Once their mages could no longer maintain the flooded sewers, they would open the sluice gates giving the troglodytes a place to escape. They would come out into the river and then onto the field adjacent to it.

About ten minutes after they flooded the sewers, they opened the gates. Xavier watched as massive torrents of water poured out. Troglodytes followed in droves. They came out scattered and swam to the embankment. The mages waited until there was a group of them gathered together before a small company of mages unleashed a dozen spells onto them.

After the bombardment that first group of trogs was either eliminated or crippled. Xavier was ecstatic and full of pride. This is what humans were capable of. In just a century they had developed to the point of fighting all these magic creatures. That was the adaptability of the human race.

As he watched, several mages stepped forward. They waited for the trogs to group together in the water at the edge of the river. They all raised their hands and summoned lightning to strike down into the water the trogs were in. They were all fried by the extreme voltage, their bodies now floated in the water as the current slowly dragged them away.

Xavier nodded in appreciation and surprise. He didn't think that there would be that many lightning mages in St. Joseph. Xavier continued to watch as the battle went on. For near an hour none of the troglodytes got more than fifty meters from the water before being annihilated by magic.

Then the situation began to change. The trogs began to quickly close the gap between themselves and the battalion of mages. Wondering what changed about the situation Xavier looked closer. He noticed that there were more and more infernal troglodytes mixed into the horde escaping the river.

The warrior level creatures began to form up and cast defensive magic to give them time to cross the gap. Advanced mages began to step forward and cast their advanced magics at the barrier created by the infernal trogs. The barriers fell and the intermediate mages cast their magic into the gaps.

The servant level creatures continued to fall but the infernal troglodytes continued to charge forward. Squads of intermediate mages came forward to challenge the warrior level creatures. Teams of five would face off against one warrior creature.

Xavier watched closely. Even with the numerical advantage the teams gave them they still were only holding the warrior level creatures back. Very few intermediate mages could go one to one with the warrior level creatures and win. As he watched Xavier thought that it was a good thing that there weren't too many warrior level creatures out of the river yet.

A short time went by. As more warrior level creatures came out the water, they began to push the battalion of mages back. The mages retreated in an orderly manner as they continued to slaughter the troglodytes. A little bit behind them they had set up earthen defenses. They slowly trickled into the defenses and began to hold position.

Xavier tried his best to learn from the tactics being deployed by the mages. Suddenly, there was a change. A hush fell over the battlefield. Abruptly a roar shattered the silence as a lizard the size of a dump truck came rushing out of the river.

Xavier's eyes widened, "Com- commander level beast!"

The lizard looked like a salamander but it was bright red. There was magma pouring from several large crevasses on its back. It was clearly a mutated beast. There were times when a magic beast would vary from the norm and become something new. This commander level being looked like a more prehistoric infernal troglodyte.

Infernal troglodytes were warrior level creatures with some control of the earth element. This creature looked like it had been mutated by fire elementium. Now the beast had some control over both of the elements.

It charged forward and was immediately within the defenses of the mages. The crevices on its back spewed out magma as it swung its claws in wide arcs at the mages. The mages began to be eviscerated left and right. Xavier choked down his disgust and horror.

This battle was more than anything he could have imagined. Even in the sewers with the hunter squad there hadn't been any instance when he thought it could be this bad. Viscera and blood flew through the air. Screams tore through the darkening sky.

By this point the battle had lasted nearly three hours. The battle line had finally managed to stabilize itself but was quickly disrupted again when another three commander level creatures came out of the waters. The advanced mages sprang forward in an attempt to steady the troops.

Two of the advanced mages were able to fight the commander level creatures one to one. The other commander level creatures were ganged up on by the remaining advanced mages. Xavier looked closer but didn't see his father among them.

"What's he waiting for?" Xavier wondered aloud. He didn't understand why his father didn't step forward to kill the commanders. Two more commanders came out the water within the next few minutes. The battle line quickly began to dissolve.

At last Xavier's father stepped forward. Lightning began to flash on his arms. He waved his arms forward and long bolts detached from them to lash the commanders. Three of them were hit and two of them exploded on the spot, blood and guts splattering across the field.

The last commander that had been hit was only barely alive. It was prone on the ground wheezing a few last breaths. A hush greater than the emergence of the first commander fell over the battle. Mages and creatures alike were stunned. Those were commander level creatures were dead with just one attack.

Xavier was really shocked. He knew his father had to be powerful but he didn't think it was to this degree. Most advanced mages couldn't even stand up to a commander by themselves let alone kill them and his father had just done it with one spell.

The other commanders shuffled back in fear. The mages surged forward and began to push the creatures back into the river. As they reached the waters there was low roar, almost subsonic in its intensity. A massive form began to emerge from the river, water cascading off a nearly ten-meter form not even all the way out of the water yet. Xavier shivered. The first monarch was on the field!