Kapitel 48: Opening Shots

If there were historians who would come after the dust has finally settled, when the fiery winds from the storms that drenched the lands of magic finally calmed and the new dawn arose, they would debate how these storms came to be.

They would debate how did the first skirmishes between two countries escalate into a full-blown war. A war that would cause the lives of millions, displace millions more, and ultimately result in the destruction of the other state. The state that attacked was the one doomed to fall, they will argue while some would say that the state who attacked could've emerged victorious if they would have just been careful.

Regardless, the outcome has already been decided when they resorted to such desperate measures, abandoning their homes to fight the enemy. But who would defend their homes from an enemy they long considered a mere nuisance? how come such a state of power and knowledge be outsmarted by some men of metal?

The opening shots were the beginning of the end for that state. The end of their monopoly in their region. The beginning of a shockwave which shook the very foundations of the world from its feet and toppled the pillars which supported it.

The forest was brimming with activity, not because of nature, but because of the men who marched through it. An army 20,000 strong entered the forest that day divided into columns of 5 which were all 4,000 men and women strong. They wielded spears, swords, axes, and maces as they wore their blue decorated breastplates and helmets. They marched into the forest with mages to their front.

They were separated from the army, a whole new group composed of individuals with not only the ability to bend and control magic but the wisdom of great strategists and commanders. They marched forth from the army and into the forest they went. They covered themselves and avoided their enemies ability to detect them by using their magic to the fullest.

They hid among the bushes, the tall grass, the branches of the trees. They used stealth, something they worked hard upon.

They had blessings from a Goddess who almost had her positioned revoked and her powers stripped from her, but lo she was given one more chance to prove herself worthy. Using the pressure pushed against her, she utilized her plans to the fullest and used her powers directly.

The mages were now an elite group, with the aid of the goddess, their power was beyond their dreams and they wept in joy, knelt before her grace before embarking. Their hearts were now as hard as gold and their will tough as iron. Determined, they set out.

Disappoint their Goddess, they did not.

When the mages finally met their adversaries, they were careful and disciplined. They snuck through the foliage and used their enemies abilities against them. How did they accomplish this? It was simple for them, the Goddess watched as their scouts fell group by group at massacre and massacre whenever they took the perilous journey into the forest.

Through the goddess knowledge and observations, they managed to pinpoint the weaknesses of the enemy; they possessed great strength and skills but they lacked two crucial aspects that were common in Fiorg at determining the victors of war.

They lacked magic and numbers.

Magic was within every being and where there was life, magic was always present. Utilized effectively using orthodox and unorthodox methods regardless of the two, magic was the most powerful energy they knew of.

Numbers was another of their advantage, though at first they were outnumbered 25,000 to 20,000, there were millions of others waiting for their doors to be opened asunder and they shall let loose their revenge upon the metal men.

But that does not mean the powers of the metal men were something to be mocking. Nay, they lacked magic indeed but they possessed great technological advances not even the genius among genius in Fiorg could make with the use of magic. They were something different and out of this world, literally.

Numbers they lacked but skills they had plenty. Their warriors were not only tough but were agile and deadly. Their weapons spat fireballs and their swords always glowed a strange white hue whenever they wielded it in the battlefield.

Then, when the first shots finally happened. The drums of war and the trumpets of the fallen sounded and echoed throughout the lands. The sounds were powerful and heard by every creature, every monster, every human and every beastmen in the region. It struck fear within their hearts and it let them know, the horn made them know; that the war has officially begun.

The first skirmishes took place when the metal men were ambushed by the mages. They put up a fight indeed, even excusing three of the mages from life and their bodies were incinerated by the metal men's weapons. But the mages were indeed more powerful than the metal warriors, they used their magic and through the combination of fire, ice and spells, the metal men were slain.

Their bodies were torn by the spells which tore through their thick armor, their spells would normally just bounce off or do nothing but thanks to the goddess blessings, their magic was equivalent to their weapons. The metal men froze, melted or were simply battered. The two largest of these metal men stood longer and put up such a fight that they were worthy of every form of respect. But the mages knew no respect now, they knew revenge, for the deaths of their loved ones and the hundreds of thousands which were slain during that day.

The day forever remembered, "The Pope's Goodbye"

A day that was embedded in their minds and hearts and pushed them even further beyond their initial capacity to stage the utmost and purest of vengeance.

When the two biggest of their enemies finally were slain, the mages did not celebrate nor did they mock their enemies. They proceed to their path to pave the way for the millions who will trigger the judgment day for the men of metal.

But their enemies did not go down without dealing one more blow. As they thought the metal men were finally finished and their souls have left their bodies, they did the unthinkable. One by one, each metal puppet they slew, they would explode into a fiery of flames so massive and destructive that not even they could withstand all of it.

They were pushed back, bruised and scarred. They flew away and when they crashed down, trees were uprooted from the sheer power of their powers to not hit the ground alone. Although the enemy was then finally slain, they were dealt a dose of reality.

The enemy, until this day, until this hour, until this very moment. Was still, a mystery.

A mystery so dangerous, they could not risk carelessness.

To doom themselves was to be careless. That was a fact and the most important lesson imparted to them by the goddess before they went to the crusade.

And as they went deeper and deeper into the forest, it began to seem quieter and quieter. The encountered less opposition than the initial conflicts, they were beginning to doubt their destination. Did the enemy indeed have a fortress? If so, why the lack of defenses? A determined response? More patrols? It began to look silly.

But only when their army of 20,000 was finally inside the forest did the enemy finally revealed itself to the mages. The enemy indeed had defenses and their defenses struck them awe and horrific. The mages stumbled upon a strange clearing of trees and beyond that clearing was a peculiar hill which they crested.

They crested the hill and behold, the mighty walls of the enemy stood strong before them. The walls were unlike any other wall they have seen, it was half the size of their walls and thrice as thin but they glowed. They glowed a white color and section upon section of those walls stood a tower that was wide and menacing.

The towers posed danger, just glancing at these beasts made their weaponry known. Weaponry they did not know, things that the goddess did not fully understand. The one thing that was clear was that the defenses were stronger than anything but they knew their wills were stronger.

And so they decided to set camp, the mages and the army of 20,000 upon reaching their destination. They camped at the opposite side of the hill when they did, many nights have already passed. Who knows what the enemy was scheming behind those walls, would they mount a valiant defense? Or would they charge blindly at them and a great battle ensues?

They drank and they slept. They waited many days and nights and watched over those walls for anything that would prompt them to wield their swords. They were burning the eastern section of the forest entirely and with it did the black smoke covered the skies above them.

The smoke from the fires was thick and widespread until they finally blocked out the sun across their region for the wind was not in their favor. The wind blew the smoke above their lands but they paid no heed to it.

Little did they know that above that black smoke and the white clouds that were upon it. The enemy was gonna fall from the skies.