Never in Leon’s life did he think that the construction of a simple bridge could be so infuriating. He wasn’t an earth mage, but it didn’t seem that difficult to him, at least until the group finally reached a good place to cross the Naga River.
They had likely been followed, it was essentially impossible for them to have not been seen—though it was a possibility, it wasn’t one that anyone was willing to entertain. They had hours at the most before the 1st Legion would be bearing down upon them from the north, and probably not too much longer after that before the 2nd Legion came up from the south. They had to get across the Naga as soon as possible, because there were elements of both Legions that were certainly coming up from the eastern side, too.
In order to safely cross, the decision had been made to not try and force a crossing at any existing bridge. Those were almost all guarded, and besides, they would’ve had to go quite a bit further south to find a suitable bridge across the Naga south of the capital, and that would probably mean running straight into the 2nd Legion.
No, Minerva had decided, it was better to build their own bridge. They had earth and water mages, so constructing a bridge across the river shouldn’t be that difficult.
Unfortunately, everyone had underestimated just how deep and fast-flowing the Naga River was south of the capital. It narrowed considerably, causing it to cut deep into the earth and flow fast enough that to build a bridge with the strength and stability needed to support their crossing wasn’t an easy task. Water mages had to direct the flow of the river so that earth mages could build their stone bridge, and the strain of their task was such that they had to frequently switch out. Almost half of their elemental mages were tied up in shifts to keep the construction going.
In response, Minerva took control of the four thousand-strong force, having a few spare earth mages erect some small earthwork fortifications while the rest of the force got what rest they could. She then went back to supervising the construction of the bridge while leaving Leon and Roland to take charge of the watch.
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“You’re looking quite glum, Sir Leon,” Roland said in an amused tone. “You’re not thrilled at the prospect of keeping watch with me?”
Leon looked away so that it wouldn’t be so obvious that he was rolling his eyes. “Not thrilled at having to keep watch,” he grumbled. “Makes me antsy. I honestly don’t care what, I just want something to happen. I hate waiting around.”
“I can understand that, but there isn’t much else we can do other than wait around, is there?”
“There’s plenty we can do, like making some pre-emptive strikes on the 1st Legion…”
Roland chuckled, though part of it was to cover up his own minor disquiet at Leon’s statement. “We don’t know where the 1st Legion is, so attacking them would be difficult. Besides, whatever else, they’re still our countrymen.”
“So?”
“Look, I get that you’re a Valeman…” Roland let himself pause there just long enough for Leon to get concerned. Roland knew who he truly was, and little acts like this where the Paladin reminded him of this always frayed his nerves. “… and because of that, you might not consider the people of the Bull Kingdom your own. However, most of the retainers who are here now do consider the soldiers of the 1st Legion their countrymen, and I’d wager that most of those in the 1st think the same about us, as well. If we attack them first, then we cement ourselves as the enemy. If, however, we force them to make the first move, then we’re acting in self-defense. We’re still making our opening moves, here, but it would be better for our first large-scale engagement if they were the aggressors.”
Leon grimaced, but he whispered, “I guess that makes some degree of sense…”
“It may not pay off in a visible, tangible way that killing a handful of their soldiers would, but it’s not going to get a bunch of us killed in a foolish hit-and-run mission when they don’t have to be.”
“I’d hardly call it foolish,” Leon retorted. “Striking first will slow them down and give us more time. It would kill some of them, and—”
“Yes, yes, I know all of that,” Roland interrupted. “It’s a matter of philosophy, I guess. Or maybe principle? I don’t know, I guess Minerva and I are just hoping that the rank-and-file soldiers in the 1st Legion aren’t buying into the same shit that Octavius has been selling to his cronies.”
“An overly optimistic view, I think,” Leon whispered.
“And you’re too cynical, I think.”
Leon didn’t argue Roland’s assessment; he agreed with Roland on that front. However, if both he and Minerva agreed that waiting around was a better option, at least for now, then he wouldn’t try too hard to convince them to try something else.
A few minutes passed in awkward silence, which Leon was more than happy to continue. Roland, however, had other ideas.
“Sooo… You’ve quite the eclectic retinue…”
Leon raised an eyebrow and glanced over his shoulder at his ‘retinue’, consisting of Valeria, Anzu, and Lapis. The stone giant, despite its prodigious command over earth magic, had little experience in construction, and so wasn’t helping with the bridge. Instead, it was keeping vigil over the makeshift camp. Valeria and Anzu were also nearby, with the latter dozing in a patch of grass and the former quietly practicing a few basic moves with her new glaive.
“Uh-huh…” Leon muttered, not seeing Roland’s point.
“Well… I—”
Roland suddenly stopped speaking and turned his eyes northward. Leon projected his magic senses and immediately tensed for battle; he could see the front ranks of the 1st Legion appearing just over a mile away. There were no signs of either Legion on the other side of the river, though, and for that Leon counted their group unfathomably lucky. Still, it was only a matter of time until elements of a Legion appeared on that side, so they’d have to move fast once the bridge was completed.
The Paladin swiftly blew a horn, alerting the rest of the knights to what was happening. They had been resting in a loose formation, so once everyone began waking up and springing to their feet, it was only a matter of three or four minutes for them to form a line five ranks deep protecting the bridge.
Barely a minute later, Minerva came sprinting over. She’d already updated herself on their tactical situation once she heard the horn, so she didn’t require any explanations as to what was happening.
“Ursus, Roland, you two get down to the first line with me, I need as many of our sixth-tier people out there as I can get.”
“Got it,” Leon replied, a wide smile blooming on his stoic face. Roland agreed, as well, but where he immediately jumped over the lines of knights and earthen fortifications, Leon took a moment to glance back at his ‘retinue’, as Roland had called it.
Anzu, sensing the excitement in the air, looked to Leon and fluttered his wings. He wanted to fight, that much was obvious, but Leon was hesitant to bring him into such a conventional battle. He didn’t think his griffin would last long against a Legion shield wall. Reluctantly, he decided then to leave Anzu behind. Valeria and Lapis, on the other hand, he was not going to leave behind.
“I’ll be out front, probably locking down a sixth-tier,” Leon said to Valeria. She reluctantly nodded, clearly wanting to fight at his side, but if he was going to be involved in a fight that intense, then she wouldn’t stand much of a chance—for now, at least. “Lapis, you’re with me, Valeria, join the line. I’ll leave it to you if you want to use your bow or glaive.”
“Understood,” she whispered.
Leon moved to rejoin the rest of the group, pushing his way through the formation until he stood out in front. He caught the eye of Minerva, who was directing the available sixth-tier mages to where they needed to be along the line. With a few hand gestures, she moved Leon and Lapis south, to face the oncoming 2nd Legion along with four other mages. Roland, herself, and the remaining four unoccupied sixth-tier mages faced north since she could see more sixth-tiers coming from that direction.
Fortunately, there was no sign of either Earthshaker or Sapphire, so it seemed they didn’t need to worry about any seventh-tiers making moves. However, they also lacked Brimstone, and they didn’t even know if he was alive or dead.
The 1st and 2nd Legions each stopped about a thousand feet from their lines, just outside of the max effective range of most Legion bows—the bows could shoot further, but the arrows would lose too much of their penetrative power over such a vast distance, making them largely ineffective. From both Legions, a single sixth-tier mage began to calmly walk toward them, making no signs of hostility.
Minerva and Roland both moved at the same time, stepping toward the obvious messenger to negotiate and, at the very least, extend the amount of time they might be able to give their engineers to finish the bridge. On the south side, however, no one stepped forward. Leon looked around, a little confused until he noticed that the other sixth-tier mages were looking at him.
‘Oh… they want me to do this…?’ Leon wondered, his chest rapidly filling with dread at the thought. He took a few cautious steps forward, and when no one stopped him, sighed and continued walking. Lapis made to follow, but Leon stopped him with a quick wave of his hand.
“I’ll be enough, my friend,” he told the giant. “We don’t want to make them nervous…”
“I would prefer to follow you anyway, Leon, but I will stop here for now…” The stone giant didn’t quite move back into position, but it didn’t move any closer, either. It was clearly still in position to act if anything happened.
A couple minutes of slow walking later, Leon met with the Legion knight between their lines. He was quite large, about six and a half feet tall, terrifically well-built, with more obvious muscle than Leon, dark hair—either black or dark brown, Leon couldn’t tell in the dark—and light brown eyes. His skin was a bit more tanned than the usual pale shades of Bull Kingdom citizens, making Leon think for a moment or two that he was a foreigner, but when he spoke, he did with a perfect Bullish accent.
“I am Sertor Arellius!” the knight proudly declared, his name alone banishing Leon’s wonderings about him being foreign. He stood tall with his arms back just a bit to puff out his chest, almost looking like he was trying to intimidate Leon with his looks alone.
“Leon Ursus,” Leon replied with significantly less theatricality. He wasn’t as tall as this man, nor as muscled, but that wasn’t enough to prove fighting skill, and Leon had great confidence in his abilities. He wasn’t going to be intimidated by Sertor.
“By the order of His Highness, Prince Octavius, Regent of the Bull Kingdom, you are all hereby ordered to stand down and turn over the fugitive August to face justice! If you do not, then we will have no choice but to use force!” The knight spoke vigorously, but there wasn’t so much as a hint of genuine hostility in his voice.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Leon replied.
Surprising Leon, Sertor didn’t look angry, only a bit confused.
“Sir Leon,” he said, “why do you ally yourself with this villain? He is the one who killed your Prince! Prince Trajan himself died at the order of August, and yet his own knights now defend him?! This is unthinkable! Have you no loyalty to your Prince?” Sertor was an animated and expressive man, and he waved his hands and made a great many faces as he spoke. Leon, however, wasn’t swayed by the energy he was putting into his arguments.
“We do not believe that August is guilty.”
“It was proven that he was!” Sertor shot back. “The Assembly was called, and they pronounced him guilty!”
“That doesn’t mean he did it.”
“Then you are mistaken!” Sertor definitely declared, his voice beginning to rise in volume. “The Assembly has deemed August guilty, and so he is a fugitive from justice! If you will not hand him over, then the only explanation is that you are complicit in his crimes!”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Leon said, his voice cold and icy as he began to emit killing intent. “None of us would have ever harmed Prince Trajan.”
“Yet you defend the man who murdered him! Prince Octavius sent us a message telling us that all of you were attempting to launch a coup… I did not believe it at the time, ‘there was no way’, I’d thought, but it seems that he was telling the truth…”
Feeling an odd sense of static in the air, Leon began to channel his magic power. Sertor had gone silent, his eyes locked on Leon in a deadly glare or realization.
“I AM SERTOR ARELLIUS!” he roared. It didn’t seem to Leon that it was for the entire battlefield to hear, but everyone heard it regardless. Instead, it seemed that the knight was just a loud man, and his frustrations had gotten the better of him. “YOU ARE TRAITORS AND VILLAINS! YOU DEFEND A MURDERER, A MAN WHO SLEW HIS OWN KIN! BY MY NAME AND FOR THE HONOR OF MY LEGION AND THIS KINGDOM, I WILL BRING YOU TO JUSTICE!”
Sertor erupted in golden sparks as innumerable arcs of bright golden lightning reached out from his skin toward Leon. To anyone else, it would’ve been over in a flash, but Leon’s own lightning magic was already flowing through his veins so he held out his hand and projected his magic power, forming what amounted to an invisible shield around himself. Sertor’s lightning hit this shield with thunderous force, pushing Leon back more than a dozen feet but not once touching him.
Leon’s face split in an abject smile. Sertor was a lightning mage. Leon had never fought a lightning mage before, and his fighting spirit soared in the face of this new challenge.
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