Finn and Tai came to the same conclusion as Michael and yelled out to the rest of the group.

“Find solid ground! Archers watch the trees! Mages get something fucking BIG ready!” yelled Tai.

Gemini was scattered in an ugly long line with smaller groups trying to find footing and clustering together to prepare for attack. Luckily the Cantalians didn’t seem to have slowed their harrying of the enemies lines. That bought them extra time.

Michael and the others found a solid piece of ground where their feet only sunk slightly into the ground and turned to face the approaching column of Burndan soldiers. Now that they were closer he could finally see how they were managing to maintain their pace in spite of the terrain. They seemed to be floating over the ground as they walked, until Michael realized that they were actually walking on what appeared to be a barrier, the same kind he used as a shield, that must’ve been summoned by mages within the column.

“Marcus-”

“I know, I can see what’s going on,” he raised his rifle and started to scan. “I can’t tell which one’s the mage!”

“Here,” said Ollie, raising a hand and firing, not the fireball he had growing in one hand, but a colorful burst of light in the shape of an arrow that burst right in front of one of the approaching soldiers.

Marcus pivoted and fired, dropping that mage and starting to reload again. A large number of the approaching soldiers dropped onto the ground and lost their footing. As they did, Ollie let loose his fireball and a dozen of them were caught in the explosion of flame.

A second fireball and a number of arrows started to slam into the slowed troops from a short distance away and Michael realized that Clara and Alvarez were just a dozen yards away along with Finn and Tai.

While they peppered the approaching enemy, Michael, Pyotr, and Davi took position right where the ground began to solidify to give themselves the advantage.

The troops in front of them that were still marching on floating barriers all dropped at once. They were ready and so none of them lost their footing. As they charged they were peppered by spells, arrows, and bullets before they reached the Gemini forces that had gathered together.

Michael met a spearman head on, catching the speartip on his shield with a grunt before smashing his mace downward to break the shaft of it and then rapidly shifting his mace into a sword on the upswing to slash across the man’s throat.

“That’s new,” said Pyotr as he dodged a spear himself before sending out a quick slash with his longsword cutting across a man’s face before giving him a crippling kick to the chest that knocked him back into the approaching soldiers behind them.

Michael shifted his sword it back into a mace as a knight approached. He blocked the knight’s swordstrikes a few times before crushing his pauldron into his shoulder and smashing his shield into his faceplate. The soldiers were as strong as they had been during the fight the previous day, but now their footing was worse and that made all the difference.

Davi seemed to be enjoying the increased traction he had compared to his opponents. His full strength strikes causing even those that managed to block them to stagger backwards and fall into the mud.

One of the winged in the trees loosed a rock from a sling and managed a full strength blow on Marcus’s shoulder, causing him to stagger as his shoulder blade cracked.

Michael raised his hand toward his friend, healing him with his hands' golden glow even as he blocked another spear strike.

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Very suddenly, the soldier he’d been fighting’s eyes widened and he attempted to disengage. Michael went to strike him as he fell back, but his flight was quick enough that Michael missed.

Once the soldier was out of his range he raised his hand and sent out a small magic flare like they’d seen in the last fight. This one popped with golden light.

That was when the battle very suddenly changed.

Those enemy soldiers that had been pressing in on the mercenary groups and those Cantalians they’d managed to catch up with all shifted their focus. The ones in front of Michael all suddenly doubled in strength as noble titles flooded them, and the winged all began to flock toward them.

Michael raised his shield to catch the sudden flurry of stones from the winged, and narrowly managed to parry a spearthrust, just after that a knight thrust a sword at him that he was barely able to deflect with a small shield spell.

“They’re targeting me! Everyone else fall back! I can fall back while taking damage if I keep healing myself.”

“Until you take an unlucky blow to the head. Fuck you,” said Davi carving his way through two soldiers that had moved to cut him off from Michael.

“Fuck you twice,” said Pyotr as he dodged a spear and ran his sword through a man’s eye as he fell in on the other side of Michael.

Marcus and Ollie fell back a bit, but they too stayed in range to help. Ollie created a new shield to deflect the winged’s rocks even as he threw out bolts of lightning with another hand. Marcus had stopped firing his rifles and switched to his bow an arrow. He was either out of ammo or didn’t have the time to keep reloading.

Michael called on the gods to light his mace aflame with divine power. He smashed his way through a knight’s armor, his chestplate caving as he lit aflame, and then shifted his mace into a sword to run a spearman through. After that the fight became a blur as that fire that had been inside him since he’d learned the name of the god of strength roared.

He risked a moment to activate his Eyes and could see that the rest of Gemini was falling back. Luckily, it seemed that the Cantalians were taking advantage of the distraction that Michael was creating. Their blowguns and hit and run attacks were softening the assault and then, very suddenly, the Burndan front line that was attacking him seemed to fall back.

Michael held his position, not wanting to lose his favorable footing or turn his back. He could sense that the noble titles were lifting off of his enemy as well.

“They’re channeling something!” yelled Ollie as he moved toward them marking a half dozen men that were behind the rest of the Burndans and seemed to be muttering something. Michael watched as all the noble titles that had left the men that were attacking them settled on the sorcerers as they finished channeling.

Marcus managed to drop one of them with a well aimed arrow, but it was too late, the sorcerers all unleashed their spells at once.

The color and sound seemed to drain out of the air around all of them, creating a brief moment of grey silence, then lances of pure magical energy, thick as trees, blasted toward them. Michael was moving to raise his shields, both magical and real, in front of Davi, when he felt a sudden push and was knocked to the side.

There was blinding light and sound as the lances of magical light disintegrated everything they hit. Trees fell as their trunks were cored, and Michael could smell burning ozone. There was a ringing, but not in his ears, rather in the magicka channels of his body. As if they were resonating with the raw power that had just narrowly missed him.

He pushed himself up, and felt a heavy weight on his back. He strained a bit, keeping his eye on the enemy line. Luckily two trees had fallen between them and they all seemed to be just as disoriented as Michael was. Their mages were bleeding from the eyes and ears, and were being carried backward by those few with the sense to think to do so. One of them was clearly dead, his eyes seemed to have exploded as if they’d been rapidly de-pressurized.

As the weight that was on his back fell off of him, it splashed into the mud next to him, a suit of headless armor that was missing most of its chestplate. Michael blinked, not fully understanding what he was looking at. The armor was wide, the largest suit of any he’d seen. A bastard sword was still clutched in its remaining arm.

The ringing in his magicka channels started to be matched by a ringing in his ears as he finally realized what it was he was seeing. His breath began to speed up as the fire in his chest that had been temporarily extinguished by the power of the spell that had been thrown at him began to burn so hot he felt as if his entire body would catch flame.

“Davi,” he said in a weak voice, only audible to him and whatever gods were listening.

His body began to shake as tears started to fall from his eyes. When a rock from a sling bounced off of his armor, he went still. He turned his full attention back to the enemy soldiers in front of him.

“Durand. Give me strength.”