The Foolhardies 158 The Sand Dune

It wasn't a full-blown war yet, but the dozens of daily skirmishes for control over the eastern oases of the Westersand Desert which borders both clan's territories was becoming a b.l.o.o.d.y and costly mess.

"Dean, get down!" Luca yelled at me.

I ducked just in time as a shadowblade slashed through the s.p.a.ce where my head was only a moment ago.

Glancing up, I saw the wispy black vapor trailing the shadowblade's path mere inches from my face. The sight of it sent a familiar cold s.h.i.+ver running up my spine, reminding me that death had just brushed my cheek yet again.

"Dean, keep moving!" Luca yelled.

His warning wasn't necessary like that time when we foolishly climbed up the hilltop without backup to carry out a surprise attack against our enemies. As familiar as this situation was, I was a different Dean from that naïve fifteen-year-old boy.

Yup, sixteen-year-old Dean knew that right now wasn't a time for fear. It was a time for action.

I dodged a second shadowblade slash that came my way. Then I drew my falchion from its sheath and sent it snaking forward, and it bit into the neck of the kobold that attacked me. Thanks to its vibrating edge, my falchion's shadowblade cut neatly through the kobold's muscular neck from one end to the other, resulting in instant decapitation.

I kicked out at the kobold's body to avoid the blood splatter that came with losing one's head. Then I watched the lifeless form topple over just as the fairy's head rolled to a stop at my feet.

The sight of it sent a familiar sickening feeling into the pit of my stomach, bringing to the fore of my mind the guilt that came with murder.

I know it's been nearly a year since I first came to the Fayne and yet here I was feeling sorry for the long-snouted, fanged-creature that gazed up at me with lifeless eyes. I couldn't help it, and my brain refused to be wired any other way.

"Commander?" Pike called my name to grab my attention away from the dead kobold.

I glanced toward her and noticed the dark red splatter decorating the front of her leather chest piece. Her sword dripped with the red stuff too. Even that familiar metallic aroma clung to her.

"Are you wounded?" I asked.

Pike glanced down at herself before a.s.suring me with, "It's not mine."

I nodded at her before my gaze turned away from Pike so I could survey the battle happening around me.

Luca had just finished slaying his second opponent, the dark-haired elven leader of this group of Sunspire guards. Next to him, Enna was in the process of slitting the throat of the kobold guard she was fighting against.

Ten feet to the right of Luca's location, Edo had also just finished dispatching the elven archer who thought he had run to call for help. Kneeling on the ground a foot away from Edo, Varda was cleaning off her hammer on the vest of the elf she'd taken out.

I turned my gaze below me so I could watch Ashley and half her s.h.i.+eld squad climb their way up to our position while their boots sank into the ripples of sand, slowing them down more than I'd antic.i.p.ated.

Admittedly, climbing the steep incline on very soft footing was a challenge even after I ordered my soldiers to drop all non-essentials to lighten their loads. So I couldn't really get mad at their sluggish pace.

We were fighting about half way up on the southern side of a ma.s.sive sand dune that might as well have been a low, circular, barren hill.

On the dune's opposite side, a battle was being waged between a two-thousand strong Sunspire army and the independent five-hundred-man units of the Foolhardies and the Millennium Hawks.

Don't get me wrong though. We weren't working together. This was a compet.i.tion between our two units. In fact, Al Sheridan and I had made a bet on who would be the first unit to conquer the sand dune and the oasis at the top of it.  

Yes, there was an oasis at the top of this sand dune. A rather well-placed oasis that was strategically located at the edge of a series of oases skirting several chasms along the desert floor. Whoever held this oasis theoretically had the doors to shut or open the way to all those other oases.

If that wasn't reason enough, the oasis above this ma.s.sive sand dune was the same one Garm had lost to the enemy many months ago. It was an oasis with a young mana pool at its center, making it a vital resource in a region that was scare with life if you didn't count the numerous monsters hiding underneath the sand.

"All enemies silenced, Commander," Pike reported.

"Good," I said, feeling relief flood into me. "Otherwise, taking this long roundabout way to reach the top before the Hawks do would have ended in a disaster if even one of those guards alerted the fools above."

A loud thud reached my ears, and I turned around to see Shanks' war hammer lying headfirst on the sand. The troll himself was taking his time to looting the bodies of the three kobolds he'd singlehandedly taken down.

I was reminded that he agreed to freelance for us if I gave him looting rights to any enemy he defeated. Of course, he got to keep anything he found himself, no matter the worth of an item.

"Find anything good?" I asked.

Shanks was stuffing two bronze khopesh into his personal bag of holding when he looked over to me.

"Bits and pieces… nothing much of worth," he answered.

Despite his statement, the troll was grinning from ear to ear, and I'd seen it enough times to know that it wasn't because he'd found treasure but because he liked spoils even if it was junk. To Shanks, loot was loot.

I shook my head. "Best wrap it up then. We're on the clock."

Shanks grunted an affirmative and went back to his work.

I glanced up at the sky.

Idunn was partially clouded by clouds which was ideal for our particular stealth mission.

"Luca, tell everyone to get ready," I ordered. "I'm going to check on Aura's progress."

I decided it was time to pull out my winning card, and so I knelt on the sand and closed my eyes. My hands tapped onto the coa.r.s.e sand beneath me. I breathed in the chilly desert air. After a few deep breaths, I reached deep inside me and called forth the power of my fairy gift.

It appeared in my mind's eye like it always did, that floating tarot card wrapped in the silver light of fairy glimmer—the Fool's card.

"Oh, great fool, let me see the unseen that I might know the unknowable," I whispered.

Heat concentrated on the surface of my eyes like I'd rubbed them all over with chilly powder. Seconds of painful stinging pa.s.sed into the familiar warm sensation that enveloped my sense of sight. And when I opened my eyes, it was like I was soaring just below the clouds with a clear view of the battlefield below.

As was the case with all locations that held a mana pool, not even my Fool's Insight could pierce through the veil of power hidden there. But the rest of the sand dune was a high definition map to my sight.

The northern side of the ma.s.sive sand dune was sloped gentler than its southern half which is why there were scarce patrols to watch over it. The enemy probably thought no one would be foolhardy enough to scale that steep slope. Well, they were wrong. But that also meant that the northern side was well defended by two thousand highly-trained fairy soldiers.

Still, our two independent units were doing fairly well despite the disadvantage in numbers and terrain.

Back in the old days, my first unit used to struggle to get up a hillside, but now that they were under Aura's command, they gained ground after ground up the ripples of sand and took advantage of the c.h.i.n.ks in the armor of the defenders.

Aura, breathtaking in her elven armor, stood at the head of our frontline formation. Her Hearthstone staff burned a bright crimson each time she launched a firebolt at her targets.

Beside her, acting like a force field that kept all enemies at bay, Azuma swatted away enemies who were foolish enough to try and attack Aura. And behind them, the power of the chosen one reached out to turn the sands above into a field of ice.

Ty was certainly pulling his weight, although I still thought he looked like a spaz in his flowing blue magician's robe. His Gandalf-like attire notwithstanding, Ty was basically a Sherman tank firing liberally at the defenders who just couldn't defend themselves from his power.

I was happy to see that they were following my recommended tactic in climbing up the sand dune. They formed a triangle formation with our heaviest hitters at the front to pierce through any enemy line.

It was working. I could see that clearly. Sadly, their tactics weren't working fast enough. At least not fast enough to get ahead of Al Sheridan's forces.

I turned my gaze on the Millenium Hawks and watched as they used several turtle formations to bulldoze their way up the dune's slopes.

The defenders arrows and javelins were no match against the hardened scutum s.h.i.+elds—the large rectangular s.h.i.+elds that were curved inward at the edges—employed by the Hawks' turtle formation.

"d.a.m.n, Al's going to beat Aura to the top at this rate," I realized. Then I noticed something else. "He's not there…"

A bead of sweat dripped down my face as a worrying thought pa.s.sed through my mind.

"What is it?" Luca asked, his voice seemingly echoing around me.

"Al's not with his unit…" I said.

There was a growing suspicion in me that I needed to confirm.

My vision zoomed toward the southern slope where I could see our sixty soldiers in a loose circle formation around me and Luca. I'd only just noticed that we were positioned more to the southwest.

Above us, the few scouts employed by the enemy on this side of the sand dune still couldn't see us. This was partly due to the chaos happening on the other side as all attention was focused there.

Then I saw movement on the southeastern side of the ma.s.sive sand dune which was just far enough from our location that we wouldn't be able to see them either.

It was a group of similar size to mine but with one big difference. These were mounted soldiers on swiftharts that could—and I couldn't believe it myself—traverse the steep incline as if they were mountain goats.

"s.h.i.+t!" I hissed as I realized that I was about to lose the bet. "We need to move… now!"