Draga Of The Vanguard - Chapter 12 The Battle Of Asfaleia

“Fire!!!!!” shouted me. In an instant, hundreds of arrows were fired and an arc of rocks followed. They entered the fog and some rocks came back out. Then the demon roared. It was a strange roar which sounded like metal being scratched…but it was a roar none the less. “It’s pissed. Kklos, now!”

The bald young man began speaking a dialect that no one present understood, and a magic circle was being formed. As the fog moved forward the mage’s incantation was completed. “Feel my power, you spawn of darkness.” he said as the magic circle grew larger than the fog beast itself. A huge gust of wind blew from this circle, blowing away not just the fog, but the surrounding clouds. Then the army saw the beast’s form.

It had a massive brown segmented metal body, which had long arms and small legs. Its torso was muscular but ridiculously smooth, which was suprising as they had expected to see raw muscle with some chest hair. Its abdomen was black and seemed to be the wrong shape for the torso…but somehow still did its job. Its waist downwards was extremely bulky, and soles of its feet were larger than the pits they had dug. Its joints were exposed, with strange ropes hanging out. Then they saw its face. It’s lower jaw was higher than its upper, and it didnt have a nose. It had a single large eye, but it looked strange. It had a dark blue cornea and a light blue pupil, but no iris…but the most prominent feature was that it was glass. Its body was lined with tubes releasing small amounts of white fog and it had a pairblades arranged like a shuriken on its shoulders, encased in metal at all points but up. Then its eye settled on the mage.

“That looks like….a giant metal golem.” said Morte as they watched it. It raised one of its arms and pointed it at the mage. “Haha! you dare to challenge m-” said the mage before he was interrupted by a large amount of white fog being ejected. It burnt him to a crisp, and he fell off his tower. “Kklos, but he’s a mage….RAISE THE BARRIER!!!” shouted a Vanguard commander present. The orders were followed and the barrier was quickly raised. Oil arrows; arrows with small ceramic pots containing flammable oils, were shot at the demon, coating it in the flammable substance. Fire arrows and flaming rocks came next. The metal beast released a small layer of white fog, and the flames were put out.

“What the hell.” me whispered to himself as he saw this intelligent counter. Then the beast moved forward, crushing the holes under his metal feet. It made its way to the wall, and was repelled by an invisible force. “Send the elite armors…no…don’t. We need to test other methods first.” said me as he took in the situation. “We’ve confirmed that the mysterious white fog is…boiling steam with salt…” said a Vanguard with an eagle. “The barrier should be able to repel it.”

“Those exposed joints…can’t we attack it there?” me asked. “I’ll give the order.” said the knight as he wrote a note and tied it to the leg of the eagle on his shoulder. He pointed at a tent below the wall and the eagle flew to it. A man came out and shouted some words. The trebuchets started firing at the joints. The demon had now shifted its gaze to them. “It seems it cares about that.” said me as the demon decimated the trebuchets with steam. Then it looked at the army that surrounded it and stretched out the hand that had burnt the mage. Nothing came out. The army was confused. Then the demon removed a giant metal cylinder from its arm and threw it at them. The attack was expected to a degree due to its slow movement speed, but many still lost their lives.

Then the demon did the same with the next arm and decimated the arm on his right. After this massacre, he reached for a protusion on its back and put it in its right arm. Then it pointed its arm and released steam on the army in front of it. “Get to the barrier!” a man shouted as they ran towards the wall, only to be roasted alive by steam. “Attack!” shouted another man as he led men riding horses to slash at its leg. Their swords had little effect and the heat of its body repelled further attacks. One man tried to punch it…only to recieve third degree burns. “Its time for Plan B.” me said.

The battle field was then gifted another scene. A small unit of knight in black full plate armor walked forward. Their helmets were horned and their shoulder pads were in the form of dragon heads. Their faces seemed to be on fire, and in their chests was a single red mage stone. The lingering steam did nothing to them as they walked forward in this field of death. They carried shields with screaming faces on them, which were made from the bodies of Glutton Kings. As they walked through this battlefield they inspired fear and hope. The demon sensed an overwhelming amount of fear and looked down to see a group of armed knights walking forward. He punched them…but he was blocked by a phalanx formation. They moved ahead and began to climb the demon with claws on their arms which easily tore through its skin. There were on their way to the joints.

The demon reacted to this infestation and began to smack its skin. But the people being smacked were unharmed; it was himself he was denting. “Gahaha! Face it! Face the power of the Vanguard’s strongest armor! A mere one eyed monster cannot hope to damage it!” shouted me. This…was true. The armor was made of wyrm scales and had several protective mage stones in it. You couldn’t punch like a god…but you could take a hit from one.

As the creature’s legs were infested with at least 50 of these godlike foes, the battle was won…until the demon did something completely unexpected. It fired one of the huge encased blades on its shoulders upwards and its eye released a bright light. The part he had fired had started to float in the air while forming a huge shining convex disk. Then he looked at it with his eye.

Never had people screamed like that, in the history of humanity, or in the days to come.