Four Horsemen Book 5 - Old Histories: Chapter 8

The battlefield churned like a cauldron, smoke coiling through the air as if the gods themselves had unleashed their fury. Every breath burned Petor’s lungs, and he fought the instinct to cough.

He tried to get enough moisture to spit, finding his mouth dry instead.

He used root road, appearing near the trenches that snaked through the temple's grounds.

His boots squelched in blood-soaked mud, making each step a struggle. The cacophony of war roared around him—shouts, cries, and the staccato whizz-crack! of bullets whizzing past raised the little hairs on his neck.

He stepped through the tangled web of life below. Emerging in a trench.

He was the furthest of the horsemen, his roots reaching out towards the temple.

Petor gripped his spear and grimaced—the trench was just wide  enough for him and a half meter taller than him, there were also twists and turns throughout.

Gonna be a pain in the ass with a spear.

Petor considered using root road but hesitated. Too many variables, too much chaos. A blind jump could land him in worse trouble. Better to advance the old-fashioned way.

The trench walls pressed in close as he moved forward, boots sliding in the muck. The sharp twist in the passage forced him to angle his spear awkwardly, the weapon catching on the earthen walls. A shadow fell across the path ahead, and a champion stepped into view, filling the narrow space.

Petor thrust his spear forward, but the champion's armored gauntlet knocked it aside with a metallic clang that reverberated up his arms. The champion's axe whistled through the air. Petor dropped low, feeling the wind of the strike as the blade buried itself in the trench wall.

Petor released his spear and lunged forward, grabbing the champion's breastplate. He slammed his helmet into the champion's with a resounding crack that left his ears ringing. His right hand reached back for his utility knife. A mailed fist crashed into Petor's side with the force to break bones as they tumbled backward, Petor landing on top.

"Fuck!" Another champion in the new section of trench he'd tumbled into yelled.

He needed to kill the first else the other would get him.

Utility blade free, the champion underneath him threw his arm up to block it.

He planted his right knee on the champion's right arm while his left hand trapped the other. The knife plunged deep into the champion's neck, tearing through flesh and grating against bone as Petor dragged it across.

The charging man yelled, Petor raised his shoulder and elbow, a kick smashed him into the eathen wall.

Root road activated instinctively, moving him back to his feet beside his previous position. A sword pierced the earth where he'd been embedded into the wall. Petor tackled his new attacker from the side. He stabbed his knife up  and under the champion's armor and into his back, driven by desperate strength.

Petor consumed everything he could from the man, life and mana.

The man was pinned awkwardly against the wall, his arms trapped as Petor kept him pressed there—yelling.

"Moving past!" Mya yelled stepping over him, her rifle fired, a much larger explosion detonating as the man under Petor slumped and essence coursed through his body, heady as the knowledge he was alive.

Another explosion rocked the interior of the trench, he turned his head as dirt rained down. He looked at Mya's back as she shot the champion who'd cast the spell, her rounds pierced another hurled at her, blowing up in the face of the champion that casted it.

Desari moved up to him.

"Where are you wounded?" She demanded.

Petor looked down at his armor, blood and dirt encrusted.

"Isn't mine, go!" He turned her towards Mya.

Desari looked over him once more before nodding and moving up the trench with Mya.

Petor spat out dirt from his mouth ad grabbed his spear, stored it and pulled the axe that was buried in the trench out.

He wiped his utility knife clean on the axe's old owner and slid it back into its sheathe and moved after Desari and Mya.

Reaching out to the plants he called on them to grab and impede, to harass the champions in the trench.

"I've got rear guard!" Valter yelled.

"I'm useless in here with a spear, Mya, Desari you good to take point and I'll harass with plants and keep everyone topped up?"

"Works, lets go, we need to keep momentum," Desari said.

Desari and Mya took advantage of his efforts. Desari's bow twanged, arrows streaking through the air like whispers of death. Each shot struck true, felling one champion after another, their cries swallowed by the chaos of battle. Mya followed suit with her rifle, each crack echoing like thunder as she picked off foes attempting to maneuver around Petor’s entangling plants and destroyed spells before they could reach her.

"Covering!" Desari said Mya, drew and activated a grenade tossing down a blind corner.

People yelled out before the grenade went off, dirt raining down as Desari moved past Mya to the trench, her arrows flying as she advanced. Mya raised her rifle and followed after her.

Valter's armor moved past Petor and stepped into the other part of the trench they weren't advancing through.

Petor directed more vines to ensnare another champion trying to flank Desari, thick tendrils wrapping around his legs and pulling him down to the ground.

A sudden burst of energy surged through Petor as he fed off the life essence of his trapped foes.

"Armor up!" Desari called, Valter's armor moved up, moving to cover the two  branches of the trench Desari was at, they fought as she advanced past. Mya stored her rifle and drew revolvers, walking past the intersecting trench and fired, storing the empty guns.

The sounds of fighting ended as Petor snared those at the next corner up ahead as they turned the corner, they fell, arrows hitting them on their path to their ground. Desari kneeled as Mya fired over her, killing another that rounded the corner.

"Standing!" Desari rose as Mya pointed her barrel elsewhere.

"Champions not in the corner but the other trench that dog legs to this one!" Petor yelled.

"Grenade it when we get there!" Desari said.

Petor passed the two sets of Valter's armor, several champions dead on either side.

"Make a hole!" Valter called out.

Petor squeezed to the wall, two more sets of armor rushing past him to support Mya and Desari.

Mya stacked up on Desari and threw out a grenade over top of the trench they were in and into the dog-legged other trench.

Petor lashed out with the plants that were around the trench, grabbing onto Champions and anything they could reach.

The grenade went off with a thump and the duo moved forward, Valter's armors stopped where they had been with Petor behind.

"I see the trench exit and the temple!" Mya yelled.

The armors moved up and Petor followed through to the dog-legged trench.

Desari and Mya ran up the sloped end of the trench, towards the temple beyond, the dead champions between.

Petor ran after them. Root Road spoiled me. Damn running.

Rounds and spells cut through the air above.

Valter's armors and he ran down the trench and spread out as soon as they were out of the trench's impeding sides.

The fight had shifted with the gun crews fighting with the champions within the temple.

The bodies and altered landscape spoke to their advance's deadly cost.

The temple loomed ahead, its once-pristine walls now scarred and smoking. Every instinct screamed at him to dive back into cover as spells and bullets tore through the air around them.

Serpentine to throw them off.

The ground trembled with each explosion from within the temple. Through the shattered windows, Petor caught glimpses of champions locked in combat with defenders. Blue-white flashes of magic illuminated dark corners, followed by thunderous detonations that sent debris raining down.

He threw seeds out at the temple to spread the plants and their roots as much as possible.

Need roots to have a road.

A champion appeared in a doorway, hands wreathed in crackling energy. Before he could cast, three of Desari's arrows struck him simultaneously, dropping him to his knees. Another tried to flank from behind a fallen column, but Mya's shots caught him center mass, the ethereal rounds passing through his armor like it wasn't there.

Petor reached out to the plants he'd seeded earlier around the temple's perimeter. Thorny vines erupted from the ground, forcing a group of champions to retreat from their position. The distraction gave Valter's armor time to advance, absorbing a barrage of spells that would have torn through flesh and bone.

The second set of armor used the first as a shield, coming around it and laying into a group of three champions.

Desari drew her sword, as Mya freed pistols—closing into near melee with the champions fighting at the breach.

Twenty meters to go. Fifteen. Ten.

A champion stepped out of another breach, hands wreathed in crackling energy. The spell formed into an orb that hurtled through the air toward Petor.

He  cast Shield of the Hero and tried to jump away from the epicenter of the spell, it slammed into the ground ahead, sending a spray of stone shards and dirt skyward.

The explosion lifted Petor off his feet. The world spun as he tumbled through the air, his armor scraping against debris. He slammed into the ground and tumbled before coming to a rest.

"Up you get!" Valter yelled, grabbing him by his armor and tossing him forward.

"Fuck, I just crossed this twenty meters!" Petor spat out dirt and blood, his ears ringing from the blast.

He drew his sling, the champion ducking back into the temple. Petor whirrled it and released it in the direction the champion had gone.

The emberbloom passed through the hole in the wall and detonated, the seedlings peppering the interior of the building.

He ran after Mya Desari and Valter's armors, dead champions and undead guardians slumped where they'd fallen.