David Bishop and the Legend of the Orb by T.C. Crawford (tools of titans ebook .txt) 📕

The army of volunteers and soldiers took up his cry, repeating his final words in an endless chant that rang down the lines, each man raising his weapon into the air, ready to take vengeance on those who took their homes, their families, their children.

“Charge!” screamed Captain Ryan as he started racing to meet the enemy.

“Charge!” screamed Erin as she ran after Captain Ryan with the rest of the men.

Her ears began to ring with the thunderous screams that now echoed all around her. The ground began to shake under their feet as they charged headlong into the enemy that was just breaking from the tree line into their training area. The two armies clashed with a loud bang and the ring of steel clashing against steel reverberated throughout the air like a shockwave. Birds erupted from the canopy above, fleeing from the sound of battle below.

Captain Ryan effortlessly dispatched man after man as he tore through the enemy lines, creating a vacuum of space in his wake littered only by the corpses of the men he had slain. Erin followed closely behind, swinging frantically after any who dared enter his wake of death and confront her in her battle rage.

The soldiers they faced seemed somehow different than the ones she had faced back with David. These men wore a darker uniform and had an expression that for some reason didn’t seem human. They were moving too quickly to get a good look and she didn’t dare risk the chance of losing her focus on the task at hand. Killing and surviving came first. They could inspect the bodies later.

As she followed Captain Ryan through the wake of destruction he lay before her, she could see that the others were delivering an equal amount of destruction to her left and right. They all seemed to be quickly dispatching the invading forces, but they were still vastly outnumbered. Something in her gut screamed for her attention, but she quickly silenced it, the battle waging around her demanding too much of her focus.

A man jumped out from behind Captain Ryan and lunged savagely towards Erin who was still dispatching another enemy. She quickly spun and avoided the swing while unleashing a deadly counter as she spun around in a complete turn. She planted her right foot and swung with all her might connecting squarely with the back of the man’s head. It exploded as the blade crushed his skull and splattered blood through the air in a perfect arc. She continued to spin with the momentum of her swing, causing her to turn around and start heading back in the direction of Captain Ryan who was now even further ahead of her.

He was in a fury of combat, dispatching soldiers left and right as well as directly in his path. He never slowed down, swinging in effortless grace as if in a trance with only one intention – kill. She quickened her pace to try to catch up to him and help with his charge through the center of the mass of enemies, but each time she got closer she was stalled by another enemy jumping in her path.

The effort of swinging her sword began to take its toll but she pushed past the pain, knowing to slow down would surely get her killed. Instead, she doubled her effort and let her rage and adrenaline power her limbs, swinging hard and hacking down anything that stepped in her path.

Moments passed that felt like an eternity until finally she could begin to see the flanks of soldiers to her left and right cutting through the enemy lines and thinning out their forces.

It was no longer a charge but a crowded scene of chaos. The two armies blended together creating a huge mass of bodies and metal. Both sides intermixed and seemed to close in everywhere around them. She had caught up to Captain Ryan who yelled for her to put her back to his as they fought to hold off the enemy forces.

They fought furiously for what seemed like hours, hacking away at any who dared enter their deadly arena. They spun around each other like dancers, slashing at anything they could reach with lethal precision. Limbs were severed and bodies were gashed and pierced with stunning efficiency. Every swirling cut they made met its intended victim with swift and merciless death.

Suddenly, the chaos and screaming began to subside like a long-awaited crescendo, the battle was finally over.

The two companions looked around at the landscape of death surrounding them. Their numbers had dwindled significantly, but they had defeated a force that had easily outnumbered them ten to one. They had fought and survived against insurmountable odds. Almost as if in response to their victory, the first rays of morning pierced through the thick canopy sending beautiful strings of light across their blood streaked faces. Erin almost felt the urge to smile…. almost.

It took them the rest of the morning clearing away their wounded and finishing off those of the enemy force unfortunate enough to still be alive and wounded.

Once their work was done, they began the arduous task of taking down their tents and packing away what supplies they could afford to carry with them as they prepared to move camp. With the amount of their forces they lost during the fight, they knew they could not defend against another attack of that scale and magnitude – they would have to relocate and regroup. Their only chance was to move to another location that was more defensible and further away in hopes they wouldn’t be found again.

Erin was charged with the task of counting their remaining force. During the attack they had lost a significant portion of their fighting force. Erin counted nearly one hundred dead with another hundred or so wounded. That left them with only around two hundred men who were still able to fight.

When she was finished with her task, she began walking through the battlefield to check