[KoJ] Interlude XI: The Titan Killer

Hirsh crashed through trench after trench engulfed in his rolling wave. The land was a muddy bog even before his water hyle sank into the earth, but now, the enemies defensive burrows flooded mere moments after his passage.

The bright lines of the markings across his thick cage of his antlers was as much a trumpet to his charge as the loud crashing waves and buzzing saws that twisted around his form. The Henosis soldiers ran. They fired their weapons in desperate hopes of stopping the enemy mage. Neither was effective. As Hirsh passed, spinning blades of water rushed down enhanced and unenhanced alike. Those that escaped his initial salvo and found refuge underground quickly found themselves drowning in water that clung to their airways.

He moved fast. Water clung to his lower half and carried him through the front line with the power of a tsunami. Empire soldiers dropped like flies, but he knew it wouldn’t make an impact. Their trenches were too wide. Even as he speared through their defences, there was still far he had to breach before he reached anything vulnerable.

Already, word of his strike had reached the soldiers in the bunkers further back. They fled in all directions. He was given the option to chase them down, or continue forward. No… there was no option. The only option was to continue his task and push on as hard and fast as he could. Every second mattered, after all.

His mission was to eliminate the artillery emplacements. Henosis had been shifting them forward in the past weeks, and their own weapons lacked the range to return fire. The pact nations had lost too much ground. Any more, and the eastern oil-fields would be exposed. Once he was done with the artillery, he could go for the command posts and whittle down some of the enhanced soldiers of Henosis, but his focus had to remain on the artillery until they were destroyed.

Albin was doing the same to his south, and a Luis team to the north. If this strike failed — if Henosis continued to annex land — then the blow would be devastating to the Pact Nations. They would be in an unrecoverable situation. More than they already were. The war would continue to spiral, and even if that snake of Ceph’s decided to wipe out the empire, the pact nations would collapse under the damage and casualties.

As Hirsh rolled over the landscape, he destroyed all forms of logistics he saw. Roads were mulched, and rails twisted into scrap metal. There weren’t enough Beiths and Inner Circle mercenaries in this offensive to cripple their enemies infrastructure, but anything to slow down the Henosis would be appreciated by their front line.

The antlers of his arm scraped against those of his chest when he saw the volan spearing through the air ahead of him. With how fast Tavi flew, Hirsh knew the news wouldn’t be good. He braced himself for the worst.

“Abandon mission,” the small flying creature shouted as soon as he was within hearing range. “One of Henosis’ elite is en route.”

“One we know?” Hirsh asked as Tavi curved in to fly by his side.

“Crusher.”

Hirsh halted immediately. Pact Nations intelligence didn’t know the man’s name, but they’d nicknamed him Crusher for a reason. As an earth mage of roughly the strength of a Beith, it was one of the worst match-ups for Hirsh. He’d take any of the physical fighters over this.

For the Empire to delegate an appropriate response to him so soon meant the rumours of instantaneous communication were true. They’d completely eliminated the need for enhanced runners to deliver commands. The Pact Nations’ historic supremacy in communication speed because of their great volan population had disappeared.

A perfect counter being sent out this quick would usually indicate a mole. But they’d avoided that by randomising the mercenaries and their targets. Not to mention the Mercenary Order’s temporary coup against the nation leaders to take strict command over all operations.

As he floated on a fountain of water that kept him just above the marshes, Hirsh cast a glance back the way he came. It had always been protocol to retreat if you were completely countered. Only because of that policy, had their mercenary numbers not been whittled down to nothing in the past year… even if it felt that way.

But could they afford that anymore?

“I cannot stop,” he declared, and roared his wave into another weaponised force of nature.

Henosis had sent someone who should kill him nine times out of ten, but he was lucky it wasn’t greater than that. The empire had Inner Circle equivalent elite to spare. If any of those had come for him, his single digit chance of survival would drop to zero. The fact that there was a chance… that pushed him forward.

Tavi opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn’t form the words. The Volan knew just as well as he how much was riding on their success. He nodded, and that was that.

They didn’t have to wait long. Mere moments after bringing his tsunami to crash along the muddy surface, Hirsh found his target crest the distant hills. The albanic shot along the surface, rocky earth rise behind him, leaving a tall, craggy wall in his wake.

Hirsh veered to the left, and the mage glowing with amber lines moved to intercept. There was no question. It was Crusher, and he was here to crush Hirsh.

The distance disappeared far too quick for the khirig’s liking. One moment, they were horizons away from each other. The next, A wave crashed against a mountain of earth.

Hirsh threw himself over the stone that imitated his own wave only to watch in dismay as the tsunami broke against the moving cliff-face. Water scattered everywhere, but the earth didn’t break. The albanic mage’s wave swallowed a good portion of his, and buried it beneath the surface, where Hirsh could no longer influence it.

Pushing out more hyle from his reserves, he spread strands of water through the air to retake control of the lost water now raining down on them. The sun and the blood moon were swallowed by the sudden downpour and the land went dark, but none paid it any mind. Still barrelling through the air, Hirsh twisted the ball of water that surrounded him into an oversized buzz-saw and shunted it towards his enemy. The heavy rains gave him at least that much movement.

Crusher was ready. A pillar of earth rose to pierce his spinning ball of water, but the immense speed and cutting potential of liquid proved too much. Hirsh’s saw shredded through the pillar as if it weren’t there. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Crusher had faced a water mage. He had already disappeared by the time Hirsh crashed through his stone pillar.

He didn’t bother to look around for his target. The moment he hit the ground, he pushed water out beneath him as hard as he could. When facing an earth mage, nowhere you stood would be safe. It was why the damn discipline was so popular.

As expected, spears of earth shot out from where Hirsh would have landed. His water carried him forward, rolling along the surface and never keeping still. With eyes scanning the earth, he waited for the albanic to make his reappearance. Already, he had blades spinning along the surface, prepared to rip the man to shreds as soon as he rose above the surface.

Even if the Henosis elite could feel through earth, the only contact Hirsh made was through his water, which already flooded the marshland. He would have to rise again to actually target him.

Well, unless he decided to strike at everything.

And that’s what he did. A wall shot up in a circle around Hirsh, only to bend inwards and crash down on top of him. He managed to cut through enough of the wall to escape, but more of his resources was taken beneath the surface where it couldn’t be used.

Out of frustration, Hirsh gathered water into a narrow beam which pierced the surface below. He was determined to regain at least some of that water, otherwise his internal hyle levels would drop too low. His pressure stream cut easily through the first metre of hard stone, but once Crusher realised what he was doing, the earth softened. Mud flowed in to fill any space his stream cut. Hirsh tried to snatch control of the water in the earth, and while he succeeded, he couldn’t do it quick enough to stop the opposing mage from rebuilding the barrier separating him from his water.

This was why it was so frustrating to fight an earth mage. They could just play the long game. With unlimited resources available to them, it was as simple as parting an opponent of their own hyle. On land, they were masters of attrition, just as water mages were on water.

Hirsh had already lost a significant amount of water, and considering they were deep behind Henosis’ front line, every extra second this battle went on, prospects would get worse. But… he didn’t need to win the fight to succeed.

His opponent was blind, so Hirsh dropped his protective bubble — sucking it back into his inner hyle reserve — and thrust away. He made sure the pushing streams would continue to cut into the earth, while a flood of water would hide his escape. Hirsh rocketed through the air, trying to gain as much distance so that when he landed, Crusher wouldn’t sense him.

It cost him a small lake worth of water, but it worked. Hirsh rushed along the surface in his original path, while kilometres behind him, the earth suddenly collapsed in a sinkhole. Another effort to snatch away his water. Crusher wouldn’t be duped for long, but it might be just enough for Hirsh to reach the artillery.

Tavi fell in line with him again as they passed the line of hills. “Do you have a plan to get back?”

“No. Haven’t had much time to think,” he grunted as he felt his hyle reserves. Down to half. It’ll be enough to get the job done. “Just lead me the right way.”

Intense white light flashed in the corner of his eye. Hirsh turned, only to find the southern horizon engulfed.

The light expanded rapidly, before disappearing only for an immense ball of flame to tumble skyward, collapsing into smoke and ash. Below, the earth trembled. An involuntary shiver rolled down Hirsh’s spine as he watched clouds flatten beneath the path of a powerful shockwave.

Tavi landed on his antlers, and Hirsh dove beneath the his water as a deafening crack slammed over them. The upper layer of his watery cocoon was sprayed northward, out of his control. Branches were ripped from trees and debris scattered along the earth. The roar of the explosion shook his chest, and rattled his antlers, but after it passed, it left them with a low rumble that didn’t cease.

The Titan-killer.

He’d heard about their new bombs, but he’d never thought he’d be so close when one went off. The Pact Nations had already lost a third of their Inner Circle mercs to the horrifying weapons. Elites, killed by weapons, not other elites. It had been unheard of until this war.

Hirsh couldn’t stop staring. The cloud of ash burned as it rose and twisted. As he watched, he realised it wasn’t as close as he thought. The origin was far below the horizon, and yet the intensity of the blast had made it seem many times closer.

He’d laughed off the idea that any weapon could kill a Titan, but this? It no longer seemed so far fetched.

With a shake of his head, Hirsh rose from the protection of his water. Regardless of the countless deaths such a weapon had surely caused, he still had his mission. He would not fail.

Not a kilometre had been gained, when a second bomb erupted. This time, to his north. He ignored the light. Ignored the slam of pressure as it knocked him off his line. It took everything for him to ignore the deaths of his friends that had surely perished.

He had a mission. Even if it had become pointless, he would succeed.

He wished more now than ever before, that Ceph could convince that snake. They needed a Titan if there was any hope of beating the Titan-killers.

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Next Chapter

If you haven't read YF, then I already know your first question, and the answer is yes. :D

(unless i guessed wrong, and your first question wasn't 'Henosis have nukes?') (albeit inscription instigated and not all that radioactive)