2 – The Hero

It wasn’t exactly fun, being the hero the Holy Kingdom depended on. It was nice, in some respects, sure. People liked him, loved him even, and tended to respect and revere him on the street. Which was nice, if a little... uncomfortable at times, but it really didn’t compensate for all the deathly situations he found himself put into.

Such as here and now, on the newest spearhead into Novosian territory, where Erin Dasia found himself leading another charge into the breach.

His pace was a swift, superhuman sprint, the Celestial Blade clutched tight in his right hand blazing like a silver sliver of starlight. He cut a bloody path through the mudmen and footsoldiers that made the bulk of Novos’ army, each swing downing a score of them in hails of blazing light.

Behind him spread an encroaching army of the kingdom’s soldiers, and on the high hills cannoneers and crossbowmen had taken vantage spots and were raining down fire. The endless chorus of explosions stretched out into the distance, and Erin was sure he could feel his teeth rattling in his skull. He never quite got used to that cacophony.

His blade spun around, impossibly fast, the edge elongating at his will until it was more like a whip than a sword. And whatever he struck be it metal, compacted earth, or flesh, he sliced it in twain and left burning tracks in the wake of each slash. Anyone foolish enough to get too close to him, well, they did not live long enough to regret their folly. From afar people could barely glimpse the flickers of silver as they lashed too and fro.

There came a flurry of flashes in the sky above, sparks of magic rapidly colliding in sprays of white hot matter that were nearly blinding to stare directly into. A particularly large flash lit up the stormy sky, and Cole came rocketing down to the ground with his body wreathed in a whirling orb of crimson light.

“Damn,” he uttered, coming to a halt a few strides from Erin. The boy saw it as a chance to take in a few breaths. His stamina was immense, same as all his physical abilities thanks to the power the Celestial Blade sent churning through him... but even he could tire, and this battle had been one protracted push, and he felt a burning in his lungs and his muscles by now. “Imperial wizards?” he asked. Novos seemed to have an endless supply of them.

“Two,” Cole said, his voice hoarse. His own chest was rising and falling, veins risen on his wrinkled brow. “Strong ones.”

Erin managed a wry grin. “Need a hand, old timer?” He couldn’t help but tease, even in times so dire. Perhaps, some part of him thought, it was a kind of coping mechanism. War had defined the majority of his life at this point.

“No, smart arse, I don’t,” he replied, shooting Erin a glare. He flicked his arms out, the flowing sleeves of his dark brown robe fanning outward. At his command, his eyes ablaze like twin lightning bolts, a great gale swept out and blasted a swathe of armed enemy soldiers aside. Cole worked his wrinkled jaw. “This has always been the risk of pressing into Novos’ territory. His mages are more numerous, his magicka more potent the closer he is to his heartland.”

Erin gave him a cheeky grin, sweat dripping from his brow. “Hasn’t stopped us yet.”

A lightning bolt swept down from the heavens, hurled their way by some speck in the sky. Erin flicked his blade out, inhumanly quick, and bounced the bolt straight up into the heavens. He barely even felt the jolt as it ran up his sore arm.

“Time was he used to have the Wight on hand to eat us back if we made incursions like this. Now though... now the Wight’s dead. And that bastard will follow soon after,” Erin said. He pressed on, a flickering stroke decapitating a pair of mudmen.

That was the hope, at least. But hope was the greatest weapon Erin had, something he could always feel at his back. It was the force that had helped him get this far, the thing that helped him climb from the pit of despair when the Wight and his pack of mad dogs had destroyed his home town and slaughtered all he held dear.

It still was the worst day of Erin’s young life, a nightmare he doubted he would ever fully wake from. Yet he had taken that pain, that injustice, and used it as a fire to fuel him further.

He hoped for a better future, a better world.

And soon he’d make that better world a reality. One step at a time.

The old wizard at his side scoffed. The muddy earth churned and he floated upward, uncaring of the arrows and crossbow bolts that broke against the shining crimson surface of his barrier. “The Wight may not be in the way, but don’t get cocky, Erin. Novos has plenty of other monsters in his menagerie. An endless sea of the bastards, feels like.”

At that moment, as if the universe conspired to make the old man right, there came a thunderous boom that made the earth rock under Erin’s feet. Then another, and another.

Erin cast his gaze up, just in time to see an armoured colossus striding their way from across the battlefield. The shield walls parted to let it pass. Little over nine feet tall, encased in gleaming plates of dark blue armour, it seemed like some manner of misshapen beast that had been decked out in a specially designed set of magical gear.

“Case in point,” Cole said, turning and spitting onto the mud.

Erin managed a smile. Well, this one would give him a bit of a challenge, at least. He gripped the Celestial Blade tighter in his hands, and the white hot edge of it shone brighter. He could feel it pouring more power into his body, dulling some of the aches and pains he felt.

He didn’t think his stamina was infinite, even with the sword empowering him, but thus far he’d yet to encounter a battle that totally drained him or left him utterly flagging.

Usually, however, the aftermath of a battle hit him like a runaway cart and it would take him a while to recover. Even now, so deep into the war, he was still learning things about Rhonde’s greatest heavenly weapon.

Well, at the very least that made every battle a little more exciting.

His aura flared around him, white hot flames that curled around him in scalding wisps. Erin broke into a sprint, making a beeline for the giant. His first blow glanced off one armoured thigh, breaking off a chink of the metal but otherwise the beast was unharmed.

Some kind of dense, magically reinforced alloy. Wasn’t his first time meeting such a thing. He landed more blows, cut burning red tracks in the armour, but each blow bounced off as if he were trying to break down a brick wall with a rubber hammer.

A massive armoured fist rammed into Erin, the blow hitting with a sound like a clap of thunder, and he was flung clean off his feet by the force of it. He sailed through the air, faster than a cannon ball, and collided with a great mesa of rock. It shattered apart around him, and it was only a hard shove from Erin that kept much of the debris from landing atop him.

He rose up in the crater he’d formed, giving an annoyed huff. A few aches and pains flickered through his body, and he sucked in a pained breath through his teeth.

“Nasty punch you got there.” The giant was already storming toward him, the spiked knuckles of his gauntlets gleaming in the light of Erin’s blade. “But I can hit harder.”

He moved swiftly, faster than the human eye could follow, and his heel thudded into the beast’s helmet with a thunderous bang that dented the metal and sent him reeling. They struck back and forth at each other, the impacts shaking the battlefield.

But for every blow that struck Erin, he healed just as fast and regained his footing to counter. “If you think that you,” Erin ducked under a swing and stepped closer, “or anyone else on this damn planet can keep me from killing Novos,” he sprinted and slid between the armoured beast’s legs, slashing the backs of his knees in passing. He landed harshly, the earth shuddering under his weight. “Then you are dead wrong!”

He leaped atop the downed giant and, with one swift stroke at the gap under his helmet, shaved his head clean from his shoulders. The wound smoked, a trail of red hot flesh sizzling on the severed stump of his neck.

“Whatever it takes,” he said, taking in a few deep breaths. “Whatever it takes, I’ll save the world.”