Battle at the Ridge (1/3)

There are only about 50 men or so behind Haalfrin, and they're so small compared to the rest of the battle that General Kaalhyme doesn't immediately notice their movement; he has other things to worry about, like guiding his cavalry from atop the cliff.

Once Haalfrin and his group make it to the hills, Haalfrin crawls up through the tall grass and looks at the cliff up above, and he notices a lot of flags with coded symbols on them.

'Hmm…,' he thinks, 'The general's certainly up there… but even if he's not there, those flags are probably what he's using to signal the rest of his army. It'll count for something if I at least destroy that place.'

The mage turns to the rest of his men and motions for them to follow him and keep low. There's only grass here – no shrubberies or trees… so these hills are the only thing hiding them from the battalion of scary horse riders that would otherwise stomp them flat with one run.

Haalfrin turns to one of the men and says, "I want you to peek over the hills and keep track of where the cavalry are and where they're headed. I don't want us running into them." The man gives a salute and crawls to the top of one of the hills.

Haalfrin then looks up and points to the cliff. "We're going to climb up the cliff and hit the general's tent from the side. That part of the cliff looks like it's not completely sheer, so we should be able to climb up without any gear.

Most of the men look over at the part of the cliff he's pointing to. One of them goes pale and hesitantly raises his hand.

"Yes?" Haalfrin asks as he pointed to the soldier. "You got something to say?"

"What about the archers on the ridge? We'll have no cover," the man says cautiously… but seeing that Haalfrin isn't reprimanding him, he continues with more confidence, "How are we going to get up without getting shot to death?"

Haalfrin thinks for a moment and says, "You won't be able to hold your shields up over your heads while you're climbing… I'll get to the top first. I can use my magic to get up a lot faster, and I'll distract them as much as I can. You'll have to climb up as fast as you can. Also… keep your shields on your backs, in case the archers down below turn around and shoot at you."

With their plans set in place, Haalfrin and the gang creep through the hills. They nearly encounter the cavalry's strafing runs once or twice, but hidden in these hills, Haalfrin's group has the stealth advantage. They have few people - enough to hide in the thickets, and they don't have loud horses stampeding everywhere to warn of their coming.

They make it to the base of the cliff, and Haalfrin looks up and mutters, "That's a bit steeper than it looked from a distance." He thinks for a little bit, then curses, "Wish I had some rope; if they have something to hold onto at least, they'll be fine."

Haalfrin knows it's too late to complain about this problem now, so he just gets on with the plan.

First, Haalfrin turns to Haman and takes Freyya's talisman out of his pocket. "Hold onto this for me… then give it back once we're all up the cliff."

Haman takes the scrap of paper, and he sees the intricate ink runes on it. Even a mortal like him can sense the power on it. "I'll protect it with my life!"

With that out of the way, Haalfrin moves his reinforcement spell into his legs. Then, his legs shoot out like a steel spring, and he runs up the steep slope rapidly.

With the talisman no longer near him, Haalfrin's baleful Death Aura is released once again.

The archers up the ridge panic. Some try running away, and the rest lose their proper aim as they're now shooting at him with quaking limbs.

Only 1 archer focuses even harder after being enveloped in death energy… After all, some people become hyper-focused when they feel like they're about to die, and they do things they previously thought were impossible.

... And being enveloped in Death Energy gives your spirit the feeling that you're about to die.

Even still, just one archer with reliable aim isn't enough to kill Haalfrin, for the mage is moving around too quickly.

Within moments, Haalfrin bats aside a single arrow out of the air with an open palm. Then, he jumps atop the ridge and starts killing the soldiers within reach.

Haalfrin shifts all of his reinforcement spell into his arms and a little into his legs, so he's able to move around quickly. His sword strikes are too fast for anyone to dodge, and too forceful for anyone to block without breaking bones.

Just to make sure his men down below know the coast is clear, he throws a couple of soldiers down the slope; they're sure to know Haalfrin is up there stalling for time if a couple of bodies take a tumble.

Looking around, Haalfrin is genuinely surprised at how few Alsa'ree soldiers are up on the cliff – only about 40 or so men. Haalfrin has no idea why this is so, but there's no point in thinking about it.

Even if there are't that many clan soldiers up here, and even if Haalfrin is currently superhuman, he doesn't have unlimited mana. There's no way he'd be able to take on every single soldier up here by himself.

… Haalfrin certainly would have died up here if his comrades hadn't shown up in time to back him up. Haman is over the ridge first, and he quickly stuffs the talisman back into Haalfrin's hands. Once the Aura is suppressed again, the soldiers around Haalfrin finally ease up.

After his 50 men join the fight, he takes on the role of a tactical weapon; where the line is about to collapse in one place, Haalfrin would go and disrupt the enemy. Where the enemy is about to give way, he'd jump in and help finish them off.

The Alsa'ree soldiers receive a signal from the general's tent, and they all back off and retreat closer to the command tent.

Haalfrin is about to chase after them, but he looks to his men first. They're all wounded and a bit tired, but they're in such high spirits that they look like they can go straight for another fight.

Our mage then looks over to the general's tent with a strange feeling. Some gut instinct tells him that there should be at least several mages inside – all of them more experienced than himself.

He looks over at his men behind him and thinks, 'Taking the men over there while there are several mages in that direction… They might all get killed… I might need them to get to the general, though...'

His eyes then fall on Haman, and he immediately makes up his mind.

Haalfrin turns to his men and waves in the direction of the open plains to their right. "There's nobody over there, and since we're up on the cliff, none of our officers are able to see you," Haalfrin says. "If you were wanting to run away, I'm not going to stop you."

He then points over to General Kaalhyme's tent, which is surrounded by entrenched formations of soldiers, and what he assumes are 3 mages perched on all 3 sides of the tent facing away from the cliff. "I'm probably going to die over there anyway, so you don't have to follow."

One man looks around hesitantly, then starts walking off in the direction Haalfrin pointed at. Seeing one break away, a dozen others leave after him. The last soldier to leave is Haman.

The boy gives one last look at Haalfrin. He only breaks away and joins the rest of the deserting soldiers when Haalfrin nods at him encouragingly.

With 20 soldiers gone, the remaining 30 men just stand there without moving.

Before he gets ready to charge, Haalfrin takes a brief glance at the battlefield down below through the side of his eyes.

Sometimes, you see something that hits you so profoundly that you can have an intense, detailed thought in just a moment. 'I think epiphany is the word,' Haalfrin realizes. 'Yes, I just had an epiphany.'

The brief glance Haalfrin gave the battlefield below shows a blanket of black mist that's so thick that he can no longer see individual armies – it's just black chaos with scattered spurts of blood.

And… something about seeing the death energy down below is… comforting to a strange part of Haalfrin's soul.

Maybe he feels this way because he spent so many long years stuck in a bed, being torturously decayed by time. He spent several decades feeling like he was already dead.

Now, seeing this battlefield where death reigns, Haalfrin feels more alive than he's felt in 2 decades. 'Yes. Here is where I belong - out with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other… Well, not a shield. I don't use those anymore.'

Haalfrin then draws his sword and points it at the general's tent. "Off we go then!"