The shouting had long since become noise. A dull roar, like waves pounding a cliff. I huddled somewhere in the mess of bodies, three rows of shields and spears between me and the front line. I could barely see past the helmets in front of me, but I could hear the monsters - the scraping claws, the wet snarls, the cracking of bone against shields.
They were a countless, snarling, ripping mess of flesh and claws. The mages spells were working, they carved through the air like little fires that landed with ground shaking impact. The monsters were held back.
Then an arm ripped through the gate, an arm so big it looked like a tree trunk. The line was breached
The whole line flinched, under the swarm that kept coming . The man ahead of me stumbled; his shield dipped. Something long-armed and grey lunged through the gap. I saw only a blur, then a spray of blood - hot droplets hitting my face before my mind even understood what had happened.
The soldier dropped to his knees.
His hands clamped over the wound in his throat, trying to hold in a life already spilling out between his fingers. His eyes… locked onto mine, wide and pleading, as if he expected me to do something. Anything.
I couldn't move, didn't move . Those eyes held me like chains. Everything else - the screaming, the metal, the stench - fell away.
Then I heard thundering steps.
A monster broke through the gap, charging straight at me. Its jaws gnashed, close enough I could hear the wet click of bone on bone. I wanted to lift my sword. I wanted to step back. But my body wouldn't obey. Those fading eyes kept me rooted, dragging me down with him into that moment of helplessness.
The monster was closing in, my mind went blank.
And the world exploded.
A shockwave slammed into us, throwing the beast sideways into me. We crashed to the ground together - me choking on dirt, pulled out of my stupor, it twitching, half its body simply… gone,missing, as if carved out of the world. My ears rang. My head felt stuffed with wool. I crawled backward, scrambling out from under its weight, hands slipping in mud and blood.
I blinked through the haze. A tower had collapsed somewhere behind me - or maybe beside me? It was hard to tell. Everything was smoke and falling stone and the screams of men and beasts.
I staggered to my feet, then stumbled away, itching for safety. Instead I ended up deeper into the battlefield. Into the swarm of monsters. Into the chaos. My vision tunneled. Shapes moved around me, but I couldn't tell friend from foe. All I knew was the ringing in my skull and the sting in my ribs every time I breathed.
Another tower fell - I felt it before I heard it, a vibration through the ground that knocked me off my feet.
Then darkness.
I awoke on my back, staring at wooden beams, wrapped in bandages stiff with dried blood. The healers told me I had half a dozen broken bones. They said I was lucky.
I remembered the dying soldier's eyes. His blood. The monster's roar. The tower collapsing.
I heard of great feats that had unfolded, the sword saint had cleaved through the horde. The high mage's miracles. I didn't witness any of it.
All I know is that something saved me. Maybe blind chance.
But it had to have been the high mage's blessings..