Categories > Games > Guild Wars > Halcyon's War
Disclaimer - as I'm typing this whilst doing my security work I think it's safe to say that I don't own GW, do you really think I would be working night security at a building site if I did.
Chapter 4 - The Invasion
The next morning saw Mhenlo, Cynn, Devona and Aidan setting off for Rin before Malios was even awake. When he did finally get up he looked much better than he did the night before. Mhenlo had fused the broken bone back together before they went to sleep; all that remained was a dull pain. After washing in the visibly diminished river, Malios sought out Prince Rurik. He was again at where the actor's stage used to stand, now it looked like a giant crystal formation, and he appeared to be deep in thought. Nearby, Sir Tydus was issuing orders to ten men who wore the uniform of the regular Ascalon guard.
"Prince Rurik," said Malios as he approached, "are you ready to move out sir?"
"Yes, yes, let's go."
The group of thirteen headed off to what used to be Green Hills County, each and every one of them staring in dismay at what was left of their once proud home.
"Malios, we must be quick here," began Sir Tydus, "our scouts have reported that a large contingent of charr is heading for the eastern gate. Grast has positioned significant forces to meet them. We are going to check the western gate then see if we can find Barradin and Althea. When we find them we will head east to the gate and you can head to Fort Ranik and assess our remaining forces there." Of course Sir Tydus knew of the feelings that Malios had for the young ranger he had sent out to Fort Ranik during the attack yesterday. Both he and the prince prayed that she survived if only for Malios' sake and that for him to be effective as a warrior he needed to know one way or the other whether she is still alive.
The western gate was clear and the guards reported no trouble after the attack died down. The group continued on. They came across a few stone elementals that used to roam Green Hills County, being made of stone obviously allowed them to survive the magical attacks. As they crested a ridge they saw a sight that horrified them all. The charr had blasted a hole in the Great Northern Wall and now they were pouring through four at a time. Or at least they would be if they weren't being held back y Duke Barradin and his men.
Sir Tydus turned to one of his men, "Quick! Get back to the bunker and tell the king of this attack. Go!" The man ran of as quick as he could, but he would never reach King Adelbern as he would be waylaid by three hulking stone elementals. Sir Tydus, oblivious of the fact that he would receive no aid continued, "we must aid them, the dukes men are dropping fast." It was true, Malios could see about fifteen dead Ascalon Guards amongst all of the charr corpses. Both sides were moving the bodies when they could to make the fighting easier. Duke Barradin and three of his guards were currently at the head of a force of about ten remaining warriors. Due to the rubble of the wall a narrow corridor had been created meaning that a small force could hold off a much larger one, but would eventually tire. Two archers stood behind the warriors firing when they had a clear shot. With them was Lady Althea, a Mesmer of considerable power, a mistress of Illusion magic and the betrothed of Prince Rurik. "You three archers with me, the rest of you with the prince."
The group ran to the battle site, the archers and Sir Tydus immediately began firing at the charr, the six guards joined Barradins' men while Malios spoke quickly with the prince.
"Prince Rurik, please stay back as long as you can, Ascalon needs you now more than ever." And with that Malios began wading through the waiting soldiers to get to the second line. He began casting what healing spells he could, (and would continue to do so throughout the battle) which gave the men ahead of him a second wind. Suddenly the man in front of him, next to the duke, fell leaving the duke open to attack from a second charr. Malios reacted immediately, hurling his hammer with all of his strength knocking the charr backwards onto the sword of the charr behind. Malios drew his sword, as the dead man was dragged out of the way and joined the front line next to Barradin.
"Barradin swap out with one of the fresh men, we have reinforcements on the way, we must hold till they arrive. We swap out when we tire and head to the back of the group." Malios was loud enough for all of the men to hear him and his tone brooked no argument, "Sir Tydus, conserve your arrows, but cover the changes," he bellowed. The three other front men fell back as soon as they could and were replaced immediately. Even with this plan Malios knew they had no chance of surviving for long. Not stopping his fighting (he had already killed four charr, including the one from his hammer throw), he surveyed the small battlefield, there were already hundreds of dead charr. The Ascalon army was obviously better trained and a formidable fighting force but the charr were more numerous, much physically stronger and were deadly even without a weapon as Malios saw when the man beside him had his throat slashed by the claws of the charr he was fighting.
Half an hour later and Malios had just killed his 50th charr, while six more Ascalonians had been killed, he would've died too by now if he hadn't taken a shield from one of the fallen. He had been forced to retreat slightly as the men beside him had died for fear of been surrounded. He was very grateful that only one charr ranger had come through so far as it had killed two and caused Malios to lose his helm. He had had to block an arrow with the shield and he was unable to duck in time to miss an axe swing from the charr he was fighting. The axe clipped his helm, knocking it off, and the force of the swing meant to remove his head sent the axe flying as it slipped out of the charr's grip. The charr was able to react and attack first, as Malios was a little dazed, and raked his claws across Malios' face causing three shallow cuts to appear starting above Malios' right eye and diagonally left. The first to the bridge of his nose, the second to the top of his upper lip, both luckily missing his eye, and the third which started just below his right ear and continued across his lips stopping at his chin. Battling through the pain Malios stabbed the charr through his neck before changing places with the man behind him and falling back towards the rangers.
Prince Rurik met him and helped him to sit. "Malios, are you ok?"
"I will be," Malios replied before wiping his sword on his bare upper arm and handing it to the prince, "hold this up so I can see the wound."
The prince did as instructed and Malios, looking through one eye as the other was closed to keep out the blood, passed his hand over each cut individually whilst muttering some words and the wounds closed up leaving scars that a better monk would be able to do something about later, now though he needed all of the energy he could get.
"Ok, I'm ready to get back in there," Malios said as he stood up and took his sword back from the prince, "that's enough resting for now."
"Yes and I'm joining the fight now. No argument Halcyon," stated the prince, as he said this a very big problem appeared at the breach in the wall. Four charr elementalists' came through followed by rangers. Prince Rurik bellowed out, "Sir Tydus concentrate all your fire on those spell casters and rangers as soon as they are in range."
Malios and Rurik pushed their way to the front line with Barradin not far behind. When one of the men at the front fell the three of them formed a wedge, with Malios at the front, swinging their weapons at any charr they could, and pushed their way towards the charr elementalists. Two of them were calling down firestorms on the beleaguered Ascalonians, whilst the other two and the archers began attacking Malios, Rurik and Barradin with flares and exploding arrows. Malios blocked three arrows with his shield only to be hit in the chest with two flares, staggering him. Luckily his fathers armour seemed to absorb most of the energy but his upper arms and neck were burnt quite badly. Arrows flew overhead from the six Ascalonian rangers (including Sir Tydus) taking out the four rangers as Malios fell upon the first of the elementalists. Rurik and Barradin turned round and defended the three of them from numerous charr warriors whilst Malios efficiently killed all of the spell casters.
Now they faced a serious problem, one that Malios had tried to avoid since entering the battle, they were completely surrounded by the charr. Standing in a triangle they continued fighting a battle that gave them little hope of surviving the day. Sir Tydus and Lady Althea had been forced to concentrate their fire on the front lines of the charr as three more guards died relatively quickly. The others were working harder trying to push themselves towards the three leaders. A rain of arrows flew overhead taking out six charr and Althea's illusion magic was wreaking havoc on other charr as it would bypass whatever armour they were wearing.
Rurik, Barradin and Malios were now fighting their way back to their men, but it was very hard going. There must have been over thirty charr between the small group and the rest of the men, considering the narrow confines of where they were fighting it was unlikely that the two groups would be able to reach each other. Each of the three powerful men would take out one charr for it to be very quickly replaced by another not allowing them to advance. However, despite their best efforts they would not be able to get back to their men in time.
Suddenly the charr pushed forward and the Ascalon line could not hold them back. Two men were crushed under the body of a charr as its comrades stepped onto it to move forward. The other six were cut down with swords, axes and claws. The rangers and Lady Althea, under the command of Sir Tydus, were standing ten meters further back. Six arrows and a ball of purple energy flew quickly at the advancing charr, they fired again and once more before the charr fell upon them. Sir Tydus stabbed one charr in the eye with an arrow, pulled it out and fired it point blank into the neck of the next. Lady Althea fell when she was hit in the head with the hilt of a crude charr sword. Sir Tydus was putting up a surprisingly good defence with a sword he had taken from the charr he stabbed in the eye, proving why he was such a well respected soldier and commander of the Ascalon army. However, he didn't last much longer as the charr surrounded him.
He was hit in the side by a partially deflected axe, which broke two ribs; the sword was knocked out of his hand as he stumbled over the headless corpse of one of the rangers. Dropping to his knees, jarring his ribs in the process, he was kicked in the head forcing him onto his back. The next thing he knew a charr had firmly planted its foot on his neck. His last thought before unconsciousness took him was 'where are the reinforcements.'
Malios and Rurik had both seen these events and fought with a renewed ferociousness that surprised the charr. Their sword swings were so powerful and accurate that the charr armour was completely useless. Prince Rurik's fiery brand sliced through armour and bone as easily as the flesh in between the two. While Malios didn't have a sword made of fire, his attacks were accurate enough to completely avoid the charr armour. Duke Barradin, not aware of the fate of his comrades or daughter, was surprised when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. He hadn't realised the other two had begun to move off, which allowed one charr to do to him what had been done to Lady Althea.
Seeing that Althea and Tydus were still alive, the two remaining men stood back to back and killed anything that came into range. The charr bodies were piling up around them, forcing some charr to actually climb atop them. One such charr was able to bring a quick end to the fight. It jumped right at Malios, who was barely able to get his sword up in time. Malios' sword pierced the charrs' heart but the dead weight forced Malios to the ground where he was kicked repeatedly. He saw Prince Rurik falling to the ground with blood rushing from a serious head wound, realising that Rurik wouldn't last long, Malios threw the last of his energy, as a healing spell, at his prince, saving his life. Nearly passing out, Malios was quickly disarmed and his still alive comrades (Duke Barradin, Lady Althea and Sir Tydus) were dragged towards him and Rurik.
A loud barking could be heard in the charrs guttural language coming from a charr commander that had just come through the breach. The commander was followed by charr carrying the supplies to build a cage. Malios felt a slight relief at that, they were to be held captive rather than killed outright. Of course, every man and woman of Tyria had heard some horror stories of what the charr did to their prisoners, but they were still alive, and the longer they were kept that way the great the chance for their reinforcements to arrive in time.
After being thrown into the cage rather harshly, Malios bore witness to a conversation between two commanders. Malios gleaned enough from the barking and gestures to realise the charr were attacking in more places than just Ascalon. Banfazz Bonfur, judging by the crest it wore, would be taking a large contingent of charr across the Shiverpeaks to attack the Dwarves, if necessary, and then on to Kryta where, Malios could only assume, they would meet up with other charr forces.
The other commander, whose crest Malios did not recognise, would sweep through Ascalon and on towards Orr where they would destroy the spiritual centre of Tyria. What followed was a disturbing sight for Malios. Thousands upon thousands of charr came through the breach before forming up and moving south at a steady pace through the remnants of Green Hills County. Malios could only pray that Mirrax would survive.
The five captured Ascalonians were guarded by two charr overseers and a warband of twenty. A few hours later Sir Tydus began to stir. Malios had done his best to treat everyone's wounds and Sir Tydus was quickly emulated by Duke Barradin and Lady Althea. The three of them awoke to find an exhausted Malios checking on an unconscious Rurik with all of them being in a charr holding cage.
"Malios," Sir Tydus rasped before taking a sip of water that Malios offered him, "what happened after they broke the line?"
So Malios explained, not for the last time he knew, what exactly had happened. At the end of the tale Althea was cradling Ruriks' head on her lap.
"Will he be ok?" she asked Malios.
"He should be, but from what I can tell he has a slight concussion, which I am not skilled enough to treat. It'll heal ok on its own, but he will be out for a couple of days."
***
The next two days were long and boring for the prisoners. They were given food and water every morning and night but that was their only comfort. Rurik was awake long enough to eat and drink but spent the rest of the time asleep.
On the third morning after the attack and four days after the searing, Malios saw a figure crest where he had stood himself before joining the fight days earlier. The figure had long flowing red hair, he couldn't see the face as the sun was directly behind the persons head. At its feet stood a majestic feline. Malios felt his heart soar and his hope followed as he whispered one word.
"Mirrax."
A.N. - sorry about the very long wait, but I found this chapter very hard to write. Next chapter we follow Mirrax as she split off from Malios and headed for Regent Valley.
Chapter 4 - The Invasion
The next morning saw Mhenlo, Cynn, Devona and Aidan setting off for Rin before Malios was even awake. When he did finally get up he looked much better than he did the night before. Mhenlo had fused the broken bone back together before they went to sleep; all that remained was a dull pain. After washing in the visibly diminished river, Malios sought out Prince Rurik. He was again at where the actor's stage used to stand, now it looked like a giant crystal formation, and he appeared to be deep in thought. Nearby, Sir Tydus was issuing orders to ten men who wore the uniform of the regular Ascalon guard.
"Prince Rurik," said Malios as he approached, "are you ready to move out sir?"
"Yes, yes, let's go."
The group of thirteen headed off to what used to be Green Hills County, each and every one of them staring in dismay at what was left of their once proud home.
"Malios, we must be quick here," began Sir Tydus, "our scouts have reported that a large contingent of charr is heading for the eastern gate. Grast has positioned significant forces to meet them. We are going to check the western gate then see if we can find Barradin and Althea. When we find them we will head east to the gate and you can head to Fort Ranik and assess our remaining forces there." Of course Sir Tydus knew of the feelings that Malios had for the young ranger he had sent out to Fort Ranik during the attack yesterday. Both he and the prince prayed that she survived if only for Malios' sake and that for him to be effective as a warrior he needed to know one way or the other whether she is still alive.
The western gate was clear and the guards reported no trouble after the attack died down. The group continued on. They came across a few stone elementals that used to roam Green Hills County, being made of stone obviously allowed them to survive the magical attacks. As they crested a ridge they saw a sight that horrified them all. The charr had blasted a hole in the Great Northern Wall and now they were pouring through four at a time. Or at least they would be if they weren't being held back y Duke Barradin and his men.
Sir Tydus turned to one of his men, "Quick! Get back to the bunker and tell the king of this attack. Go!" The man ran of as quick as he could, but he would never reach King Adelbern as he would be waylaid by three hulking stone elementals. Sir Tydus, oblivious of the fact that he would receive no aid continued, "we must aid them, the dukes men are dropping fast." It was true, Malios could see about fifteen dead Ascalon Guards amongst all of the charr corpses. Both sides were moving the bodies when they could to make the fighting easier. Duke Barradin and three of his guards were currently at the head of a force of about ten remaining warriors. Due to the rubble of the wall a narrow corridor had been created meaning that a small force could hold off a much larger one, but would eventually tire. Two archers stood behind the warriors firing when they had a clear shot. With them was Lady Althea, a Mesmer of considerable power, a mistress of Illusion magic and the betrothed of Prince Rurik. "You three archers with me, the rest of you with the prince."
The group ran to the battle site, the archers and Sir Tydus immediately began firing at the charr, the six guards joined Barradins' men while Malios spoke quickly with the prince.
"Prince Rurik, please stay back as long as you can, Ascalon needs you now more than ever." And with that Malios began wading through the waiting soldiers to get to the second line. He began casting what healing spells he could, (and would continue to do so throughout the battle) which gave the men ahead of him a second wind. Suddenly the man in front of him, next to the duke, fell leaving the duke open to attack from a second charr. Malios reacted immediately, hurling his hammer with all of his strength knocking the charr backwards onto the sword of the charr behind. Malios drew his sword, as the dead man was dragged out of the way and joined the front line next to Barradin.
"Barradin swap out with one of the fresh men, we have reinforcements on the way, we must hold till they arrive. We swap out when we tire and head to the back of the group." Malios was loud enough for all of the men to hear him and his tone brooked no argument, "Sir Tydus, conserve your arrows, but cover the changes," he bellowed. The three other front men fell back as soon as they could and were replaced immediately. Even with this plan Malios knew they had no chance of surviving for long. Not stopping his fighting (he had already killed four charr, including the one from his hammer throw), he surveyed the small battlefield, there were already hundreds of dead charr. The Ascalon army was obviously better trained and a formidable fighting force but the charr were more numerous, much physically stronger and were deadly even without a weapon as Malios saw when the man beside him had his throat slashed by the claws of the charr he was fighting.
Half an hour later and Malios had just killed his 50th charr, while six more Ascalonians had been killed, he would've died too by now if he hadn't taken a shield from one of the fallen. He had been forced to retreat slightly as the men beside him had died for fear of been surrounded. He was very grateful that only one charr ranger had come through so far as it had killed two and caused Malios to lose his helm. He had had to block an arrow with the shield and he was unable to duck in time to miss an axe swing from the charr he was fighting. The axe clipped his helm, knocking it off, and the force of the swing meant to remove his head sent the axe flying as it slipped out of the charr's grip. The charr was able to react and attack first, as Malios was a little dazed, and raked his claws across Malios' face causing three shallow cuts to appear starting above Malios' right eye and diagonally left. The first to the bridge of his nose, the second to the top of his upper lip, both luckily missing his eye, and the third which started just below his right ear and continued across his lips stopping at his chin. Battling through the pain Malios stabbed the charr through his neck before changing places with the man behind him and falling back towards the rangers.
Prince Rurik met him and helped him to sit. "Malios, are you ok?"
"I will be," Malios replied before wiping his sword on his bare upper arm and handing it to the prince, "hold this up so I can see the wound."
The prince did as instructed and Malios, looking through one eye as the other was closed to keep out the blood, passed his hand over each cut individually whilst muttering some words and the wounds closed up leaving scars that a better monk would be able to do something about later, now though he needed all of the energy he could get.
"Ok, I'm ready to get back in there," Malios said as he stood up and took his sword back from the prince, "that's enough resting for now."
"Yes and I'm joining the fight now. No argument Halcyon," stated the prince, as he said this a very big problem appeared at the breach in the wall. Four charr elementalists' came through followed by rangers. Prince Rurik bellowed out, "Sir Tydus concentrate all your fire on those spell casters and rangers as soon as they are in range."
Malios and Rurik pushed their way to the front line with Barradin not far behind. When one of the men at the front fell the three of them formed a wedge, with Malios at the front, swinging their weapons at any charr they could, and pushed their way towards the charr elementalists. Two of them were calling down firestorms on the beleaguered Ascalonians, whilst the other two and the archers began attacking Malios, Rurik and Barradin with flares and exploding arrows. Malios blocked three arrows with his shield only to be hit in the chest with two flares, staggering him. Luckily his fathers armour seemed to absorb most of the energy but his upper arms and neck were burnt quite badly. Arrows flew overhead from the six Ascalonian rangers (including Sir Tydus) taking out the four rangers as Malios fell upon the first of the elementalists. Rurik and Barradin turned round and defended the three of them from numerous charr warriors whilst Malios efficiently killed all of the spell casters.
Now they faced a serious problem, one that Malios had tried to avoid since entering the battle, they were completely surrounded by the charr. Standing in a triangle they continued fighting a battle that gave them little hope of surviving the day. Sir Tydus and Lady Althea had been forced to concentrate their fire on the front lines of the charr as three more guards died relatively quickly. The others were working harder trying to push themselves towards the three leaders. A rain of arrows flew overhead taking out six charr and Althea's illusion magic was wreaking havoc on other charr as it would bypass whatever armour they were wearing.
Rurik, Barradin and Malios were now fighting their way back to their men, but it was very hard going. There must have been over thirty charr between the small group and the rest of the men, considering the narrow confines of where they were fighting it was unlikely that the two groups would be able to reach each other. Each of the three powerful men would take out one charr for it to be very quickly replaced by another not allowing them to advance. However, despite their best efforts they would not be able to get back to their men in time.
Suddenly the charr pushed forward and the Ascalon line could not hold them back. Two men were crushed under the body of a charr as its comrades stepped onto it to move forward. The other six were cut down with swords, axes and claws. The rangers and Lady Althea, under the command of Sir Tydus, were standing ten meters further back. Six arrows and a ball of purple energy flew quickly at the advancing charr, they fired again and once more before the charr fell upon them. Sir Tydus stabbed one charr in the eye with an arrow, pulled it out and fired it point blank into the neck of the next. Lady Althea fell when she was hit in the head with the hilt of a crude charr sword. Sir Tydus was putting up a surprisingly good defence with a sword he had taken from the charr he stabbed in the eye, proving why he was such a well respected soldier and commander of the Ascalon army. However, he didn't last much longer as the charr surrounded him.
He was hit in the side by a partially deflected axe, which broke two ribs; the sword was knocked out of his hand as he stumbled over the headless corpse of one of the rangers. Dropping to his knees, jarring his ribs in the process, he was kicked in the head forcing him onto his back. The next thing he knew a charr had firmly planted its foot on his neck. His last thought before unconsciousness took him was 'where are the reinforcements.'
Malios and Rurik had both seen these events and fought with a renewed ferociousness that surprised the charr. Their sword swings were so powerful and accurate that the charr armour was completely useless. Prince Rurik's fiery brand sliced through armour and bone as easily as the flesh in between the two. While Malios didn't have a sword made of fire, his attacks were accurate enough to completely avoid the charr armour. Duke Barradin, not aware of the fate of his comrades or daughter, was surprised when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. He hadn't realised the other two had begun to move off, which allowed one charr to do to him what had been done to Lady Althea.
Seeing that Althea and Tydus were still alive, the two remaining men stood back to back and killed anything that came into range. The charr bodies were piling up around them, forcing some charr to actually climb atop them. One such charr was able to bring a quick end to the fight. It jumped right at Malios, who was barely able to get his sword up in time. Malios' sword pierced the charrs' heart but the dead weight forced Malios to the ground where he was kicked repeatedly. He saw Prince Rurik falling to the ground with blood rushing from a serious head wound, realising that Rurik wouldn't last long, Malios threw the last of his energy, as a healing spell, at his prince, saving his life. Nearly passing out, Malios was quickly disarmed and his still alive comrades (Duke Barradin, Lady Althea and Sir Tydus) were dragged towards him and Rurik.
A loud barking could be heard in the charrs guttural language coming from a charr commander that had just come through the breach. The commander was followed by charr carrying the supplies to build a cage. Malios felt a slight relief at that, they were to be held captive rather than killed outright. Of course, every man and woman of Tyria had heard some horror stories of what the charr did to their prisoners, but they were still alive, and the longer they were kept that way the great the chance for their reinforcements to arrive in time.
After being thrown into the cage rather harshly, Malios bore witness to a conversation between two commanders. Malios gleaned enough from the barking and gestures to realise the charr were attacking in more places than just Ascalon. Banfazz Bonfur, judging by the crest it wore, would be taking a large contingent of charr across the Shiverpeaks to attack the Dwarves, if necessary, and then on to Kryta where, Malios could only assume, they would meet up with other charr forces.
The other commander, whose crest Malios did not recognise, would sweep through Ascalon and on towards Orr where they would destroy the spiritual centre of Tyria. What followed was a disturbing sight for Malios. Thousands upon thousands of charr came through the breach before forming up and moving south at a steady pace through the remnants of Green Hills County. Malios could only pray that Mirrax would survive.
The five captured Ascalonians were guarded by two charr overseers and a warband of twenty. A few hours later Sir Tydus began to stir. Malios had done his best to treat everyone's wounds and Sir Tydus was quickly emulated by Duke Barradin and Lady Althea. The three of them awoke to find an exhausted Malios checking on an unconscious Rurik with all of them being in a charr holding cage.
"Malios," Sir Tydus rasped before taking a sip of water that Malios offered him, "what happened after they broke the line?"
So Malios explained, not for the last time he knew, what exactly had happened. At the end of the tale Althea was cradling Ruriks' head on her lap.
"Will he be ok?" she asked Malios.
"He should be, but from what I can tell he has a slight concussion, which I am not skilled enough to treat. It'll heal ok on its own, but he will be out for a couple of days."
***
The next two days were long and boring for the prisoners. They were given food and water every morning and night but that was their only comfort. Rurik was awake long enough to eat and drink but spent the rest of the time asleep.
On the third morning after the attack and four days after the searing, Malios saw a figure crest where he had stood himself before joining the fight days earlier. The figure had long flowing red hair, he couldn't see the face as the sun was directly behind the persons head. At its feet stood a majestic feline. Malios felt his heart soar and his hope followed as he whispered one word.
"Mirrax."
A.N. - sorry about the very long wait, but I found this chapter very hard to write. Next chapter we follow Mirrax as she split off from Malios and headed for Regent Valley.
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