The Alchemist Chapter 19

Chapter 19

As we came closer to the Demon King’s palace, the darkness grew. There was a tension in the air that prevented much more than whispers between the troops. The clouds were speared with flares of orange and yellow, presenting an ominous presence.

We encountered plenty of resistance, even though all the towns in this direction had been looted long ago. The fields were barren, and the atmosphere was filled with soot.

We arrived at a valley, spreading as far as the eye could see to the left or right. Directly across, on the other mountain ridge, was a massive orc army.

The smell wafted across the gap and filled my nostrils with a putrid stench.

These were obviously bad guys. If they were such a threat, why did no one seem to care besides the Guardians?

Our cannons opened fire in a deafening barrage. The orcs returned with a wave of arrows thousands strong.

Claude gave the order to march. Our musketeers were placed behind a phalanx of shields. We marched down the hill towards the wall of orcs.

Once the muskets were in range, we opened fire, decimating the first layer of orcs.

The orcs broke formation and charged our musket phalanx. As they approached, our musketeers reloaded, and shot off another volley.

Hundreds of orcs dropped dead, only to be trampled by their brethren.

They smashed into the wall of shields. Our musketeers fixed their bayonets and the melee began.

At several points, the orcs broke through out phalanx, and brutal hand to hand combat began.

I was standing at the back of the army. As I was a valuable asset, without much offensive power, I was relegated to the position of observer.

Claude and the rest of the Guardians, though, joined the fray as soon as it began. Claude’s sword of angelic fire swung in wide, burning arcs, slashing through dozens of orcs at a time.

Itrim fired a longbow into the orc army, grabbing flaming arrows from his bag of holding.

Blasé tore through the orc’s front line, a twirling mess of daggers and kicks.

Drex rode Hypo around the flanks of the orcs, firing arrows into their midst.

Tanna worked with the artillery corps on coordinating cannon shots for maximum effect. Each shoot exploded over the orcs’ heads, causing massive damage.

And yet still, the battle came to a standstill. We were getting nowhere. The orcs kept coming, and coming, and coming. With our force of barely two thousand I didn’t think we could manage this.

Should we retreat? I thought. Surely Claude must be thinking the same thing.

All at once, the orcs stopped. They parted down the middle of their formation like a tide.

A monster rose from the earth and walked through the gap in the orcs’ army. Towering over everything, it was a goliath of proportions and boasted armor plating that covered it almost in its entirety. A gigantic axe hung from his hand, dragging a trench in the ground as he walked. The monster held up his axe and bellowed, loud enough to cause ringing in my ears.

“Demon angel!” yelled the brute. “Face me in single combat! We shall see who is superior!”

Claude stepped out from between our ranks, holding her sword pointed at the brute. “We meet again, Demisis.”

“I have suffered the humiliation you caused me for decades. I shall finally have my revenge,” said Demisis. He swept his axe through the air, the metal glinting in the sun, and then he stamped the shaft into the ground. A tremor ran through the soil.

Claude walked towards Demisis, her sword dragging behind her. She faced him, about five meters apart. The silence of both armies was unbearable.

Claude pointed her sword. “I’ll kill you this time,” she said.

Demisis’s lips curled up. “The same to you,” he said.

Claude’s form flickered and then disappeared. Her afterimage flitted around Demisis, the sword moving like a bullet.

Demisis blocked each strike with precision unfitted to his bulky form. His axe moved with impossible speed, singing as it sliced through the air.

Claude scored a minor hit on Demisis’s shoulder, spraying blood across the grass. Demisis retaliated by knocking Claude out of the sky, sending her crashing through the ranks of our army. She got up, stumbled, and the regained her balance. Again, her figure shimmered and the wind surrounding her exploded. The flurry of blows escalated in intensity.

Demisis slammed his axe head into the ground, sending a fissure rushing towards the army of the incursion. Men in heavy armor flew into the air and landed in heaps.

Claude swept her blade, missing Demisis, instead sending a sharp wind towards the army of orcs, decapitating two dozen in an instant. Blood rode the aftereffect.

Demisis leaped ten meters into the air and roared. Wings sprouted from his back, and flapped with the power of helicopter blades.

Claude took to the air as well. The two figures blurred out of sight, appearing to my eyes like two beams of color chasing each other through the sky. A sonic boom surrounded Claude, and the shockwave washed over me.

The clash of metal against metal reverberated through the air. Explosions of energy sent searing winds across both armies.

A firework of blood burst from Demisis, and his right arm came hurtling downwards, landing in the middle of the orc army. Droplets of red pattered down across both sides.

Demisis halted in mid-air. Claude hovered just ten meters away from him. She pointed her sword.

“It looks like you don’t have much longer left,” said Claude, her voice echoing across the landscape.

Demisis began to chuckle. His chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh, the sounds matching Claude’s voice as it rumbled above us. He held out the stump of his broken arm. A squirt of black fluid sprayed from the open wound, and a bulbs of flesh began to squirm. A new arm grew out of the hole, reaching out and forming hands and fingers. Demisis held up the new arm and flexed it.

“I’m not the only one who has changed,” he said, and then the battle continued.

The sonorous sound of clashing blades continued to wash across both armies. The mood among them began to break. Before, they were silent. Now, members of both sides began to cheer.

“Claude! Claude!” yelled the incursion soldiers.

“Lord Demisis! Lord Demisis!” yelled the orcs. They pounded their spears against the dirt.

The incursion soldiers followed suit.

Demisis lost another arm, the severed limp flying in an arc and landing on top of a cannon.

The fight continued. Blood was everywhere.

Claude struck Demisis with a huge blow that sent him careening into the dirt, sending up a puff of dust twenty meters high.

Claude held her sword above Demisis’s neck. “Your days of terrorizing are over,” she said.

She cut off Demisis’s head in a single, powerful stroke. The wake of the victory was silent. No one spoke a word.

The orcs, as one, charged into the army of the incursion. The battle began anew.

After just five minutes of all-out conflict, it was clear that our superior technology was actually going to win us the battle. Each shot from the cannons behind our lines tore through the enemy ranks. Our muskets both destroyed the front lines and sowed chaos throughout the enemy ranks. Claude’s fiery sword swept orcs up with the power of a bulldozer.

The orcs broke ranks and fled, their ranks thinning out.

“Pursue them!” yelled Claude, hovering at the front of our forces.

The incursion army chased down the running orcs, slaying them as they ran.

I had heard in a book somewhere that most casualties in medieval battles happened at this point, when the losing army routed. It certainly seemed like this was a true statement. Our army hunted down the orcs with generous ferocity.

The last of the orcs filtered into the close by forest, and that’s where our pursuit stopped.

Claude held up her hand. “Let them run,” she said, her voice echoing. “We have done our job.”

The army cheered, rhythmically slamming their weapons against their shields. Claude yelled in triumph, and was joined by our men.

Drex landed next to me, riding on Hypo. He offered his hand.

“You look tired,” he said, as I climbed on.

“I didn’t fight,” I said. “I don’t deserve to be tired.”

“With all the work you did to prepare for this,” said Drex, as we lifted off, “You have every right to be tired.” He circled around our army, so I could get a good look at it. “You’re a hero,” said Drex. “You saved lives, and your weapons were the turning point.”

I looked at the horizon, which was far off. “I just hope my inventions don’t cause hell on Earth like what happened in my world.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to prevent that,” said Drex.

“No one could have prevented both of the World Wars,” I said.

Drex shook his head. “You can do it. You have the backing of the pentaty, and us, the members of the Guardians.”

“I don’t think that’s enough,” I said. “I want my legacy here to be in good things, not death and destruction.”

Drex seemed to think for a moment. “I’m with you on that one,” he said. “I appreciate how you feel about that.”

We flew in silence over the army, which was beginning the process of burying our dead and burning the dead orcs. This battle was about as guiltless as possible, considering our enemies were monsters serving the demon lord. But, the people on the other end of the crusades—they were probably just like me, who happened to be on the wrong side of a religious schism.

And even then, the orcs appeared to be sentient. While they did smell bad and probably did not have good manners, they had about as much reason to be left alive as a normal human being. They only happened to have a bent towards serving an evil master.

And who knew if the demon king really was evil? Maybe his intentions were beyond our understanding and weren’t actually evil in the way we thought they were.

Whatever the case, I needed to keep better watch on how my technology was used.

Drex landed at the back of the army and we loaded up the rest of the Guardians. Itrim, Blasé, and Tanna climbed aboard Hypo, leaving the rest of the cleanup effort to Claude.

“Is the incursion over?” I asked, as we flew towards Brownfield.

“Mostly,” said Drex. “At least our part in it. Claude still has to clean up the remainder of the demon king’s army, and we still have to establish a perimeter so that the lands can be settled again.”

Tanna rubbed the sweat from her forehead. “Claude can handle it,” she said. “We’ve done enough already.”

“Are the soldiers getting paid?” I asked.

“As much as we can afford,” said Tanna. “Though, even with the starsilver lode, it isn’t much. They’re mostly volunteer anyways.” She paused. “But we can’t treat them poorly or they won’t come back next year.”

“Next year, eh?” I said. I looked at the approaching silhouette of Brownfield. “It’s funny how time passes so fast.”