Lingering Lightning

They saw the stone army before they could reach the hole, and the reality of their situation finally sunk in. Their numbers were massive compared to the storm army. Three times as big with the silhouette of the goliath just visible beyond the horizon. 

The soldiers around Lucien shuddered in fear, some of them stumbled in their march, but they were quick to recover. They just had to kill three stone children each, right? 

Lucien saw the grim look on the captains faces, none of them believed what they said. The storm army was going to die there, there was no stopping it. But that was exactly what Lucien needed to stop to survive the nightmare. 

'Fair, my ass.' He scoffed, he was just a mundane human, how the hell was he supposed to change the course of an entire war. 

He could see the blue sun peek through the hole in the clouds, bathing the area in its light. It was bigger than the sun he was used to, by a large margin. But his curiosity towards it had to wait, as the march suddenly stopped. 

The two armies had come to a standstill, less than hundred meters lay between them. They hugged the edge of the hole in the ground, every once in a while a bolt of lightning would rise up from the clouds below and touch the clouds above. 

Lucien looked back, he could barely make out an armored city in the distance. Multiple tall towers surrounded the city, and a wall tall enough to block even the goliath connected these towers. Was that the city they had to protect? Were they even there to protect the city, or did the army only march to kill the stone children?

He could not ask those questions to anyone without raising suspicion, but that was alright. He did not need that information to survive the battle. He stared at the sword sheathed by his waist, that was the only thing he could use to defend himself. An unassuming steel sword with a lightning bolt etched into the crossguard. 

Charging at the goliath with just the standard issue sword would be nothing short of comical. 

The stone army stood still in the distance, staring at the storm army. The goliath stayed behind them, its glowing red eyes gazing down at the humans. Now that it was closer, Lucien could finally make out its details. 

It was at least a hundred meters tall, with massive rubies as eyes that burned with a crimson flame. It wore stone armor, almost matching that of his own. It held no weapons, its clawed hands were enough to devastate any army. He could see pale white skin beneath the visor of the giant. It seemed almost lifelike, as if it would be soft to the touch. But it was still made of stone, and such was as hard as one. Its eyes pulsed with fire, and the stone children began advancing. 

"Prepare for battle soldiers!" their captain yelled, striking his round shield with his axe. "Let your weapons drink in your blood, and let the sky mother strike down our enemies!"

All around him his fellow soldiers twisted the handle of their swords and winced. The smell of iron permeated the air, and then the smell of ozone. Lightning fell like rain upon their weapons, imbuing them with its might, and the glow of purple electricity lit up the land. 

Lucien unsheathed his sword in confusion and followed the others, twisting the handle. He almost dropped it when a tiny needle pricked his skin and began drawing blood. He could feel the sword grow heavier in his hand as it filled with blood. The needle retracted and lightning fell upon him, flowing to his sword and staying there. 

He stared at it with awe, watching as the lightning danced across the length of his blade. And it did nothing to him, the lightning did not hurt when it passed through his hand. In fact it felt pleasant, almost as if an old friend had returned to him. 

Their captain was saying something, but he paid it no mind and continued studying his sword, specifically the handle. He twisted it again, this time with only his two fingers. He saw the needle come out of one of the gaps in the handle and retract again. 

But, if it only drew his blood how did it summon the lightning? 

He thought back to his attribute 'Stormborn', was it because of that? It said that he was a portion of the divine tempest. Could his blood attract lightning because of that?

"CHARGE!" His captain shouted, forcing him out of his thoughts. 

The soldiers around him charged ahead, their weapons crackling with lightning. At the same time, the stone army began charging towards them. And as the two armies clashed, the war fully and truly began. 

Lucien knew he was at a disadvantage, he had little information about the stone children and did not know how they fought. He was not even a soldier back home, he only fought for survival. 

He moved slower than the others, pretending to charge at full speed with his sword raised high. He observed how his fellow soldiers battled the stone statues, aiming for the gaps in their armor and the slit in their helm. However, if they missed the gap and hit their armor, the recoil would disorient them for just long enough for the statues to counterattack, wounding their soldiers gruesomely.

He shuddered, a single mistake could end his life. His grip tightened, and he walked closer towards the battle. 

'Something's not right,' he frowned, the stone statues never went for the kill even when they had the chance to. They only wounded the soldiers, never outright killing them. 

He took a deep breath in, 'Doesn't matter, just focus on killing them.'

He had seen enough, it was time to join the fray. He ran towards the nearest statue who was locked in combat with one of his own. The young soldier was struggling to hold it back, his arms trembled at the force exerted by the stone blade. 

In the chaos of the battlefield the stone statue did not hear Luciens footsteps until it was too late. Standing right behind it, he pushed his blade into the nape of the statue's neck where the helm separated from the rest of the armor. The sword slipped in surprisingly smoothly, almost as if it was stabbing flesh instead of stone, and ended the creature's life in an instant.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Stone Soldier.]

With the stone creature dead, he did not linger and moved on to the next one he could find. The soldier it was fighting had made a mistake and hit its chestplate, allowing the creature to stab into his collarbone and kick him away.

As Lucien got closer, it turned around to face him and swung its sword, getting rid of the blood on it. Lucien gulped, raising his sword which was still imbued with lightning. The statue raised its own sword in response and began walking towards him. 

Lucien breathed in deeply, 'Calm down, look for the openings in its armor.' 

He scanned the statue head to toe, it was hard to find a vulnerability in its armor. Its visor was the only place where he could find one, all the other openings were either too well defended or would not deal a finishing blow. 

The statue did not give him another moment to think and suddenly lunged at him. In his panic, he hastily raised his sword, meeting the blow head on. The blow jarred his bones, almost making him drop his sword, and pushed him back significantly. 

He could barely keep his balance as the statue kept exerting force on his sword hand. He had to switch to both hands just to keep it at bay. Taking a risk he lifted one of his legs and kicked its shin, but it would not budge. 

'God dammit, I am not dying here.' He grit his teeth, pushing back against the indomitable force with all his might. 

The soldier from before stumbled into his view, clutching his bloodstained shoulder with his free hand. His face warped into one of pure agony as he forced himself to move forward. 

Lucien focused back on the statue, he had to keep it occupied until the soldier got to it. He redoubled his efforts to force it back. The lightning dancing on his blade arced to meet the stone blade and swam down its length and into its arm. 

He could swear he felt the force weaken and he pushed back further until he was standing straight again. The wounded soldier had managed to sneak up to them by that point and was standing right behind the statue. He looked down hopelessly at his wounded right arm, grit his teeth and dropped his sword. 

The statue perked up in surprise, but before it could turn around, the soldier had wrapped his arm around its helmet and pulled it off. Lucien got a glimpse of its pale white skin and ashen gray hair before it jumped away and turned around as if to hide its face. 

"You want this?" The soldier taunted, holding up its helm. "Well, too bad." He hurled the helm above its head and far beyond them where it fell at the feet of another stone statue. 

The one they were fighting glared at the soldier and ran off towards the fallen helm. 

"Oh no, you are not running from me." Lucien said through gritted teeth and hurled his sword with as much force as his tired arms allowed. The blade soared through the air and hit its mark perfectly, stabbing itself into the stone soldier's head. He heard the ring of the nightmare spell as it dropped dead.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Stone Soldier.]

Only then did he realize, he just threw away his only weapon, and now he had nothing to defend himself with. 

"You know you don't have a weapon anymore right?" The soldier said, a hint of a smile on his face. 

"Shut up," He grumbled, his ears turning red in embarrassment. 

The soldier chuckled in response and bent down to pick up his discarded sword. "Here take mine, I won't be able to use it anymore regardless." He stared at his wounded shoulder, it would not recover anytime soon. 

He muttered a thanks and accepted the weapon, and the soldier headed back towards where they came from where a couple makeshift tents had been hastily put up to treat the wounded. 

He looked around the battlefield and his heart sank at what he saw. Dozens of human bodies lay strewn across the battlefield, and maybe half the number of stone soldiers. The ground was stained red with their blood and the ruby dust that flowed within the stone soldiers. 

Lightning struck the ground at seemingly random intervals, and Lucien began walking towards the nearest corpse. If his theory was correct, maybe he could kill the goliath. 

Kneeling down next to the body, he proceeded to make a clean cut at her neck, blood began flowing out instantly. Hurriedly dropping his sword, he cupped his hand around the wound and let the blood fill in. 

Nearly instantly a bolt of lightning fell upon him and into the blood, supercharging it and turning it purple. Lucien could feel the soft tingle of lightning flowing in it, and a plan began forming in his mind.