A Thousand Lives I've Seen

84 - A Dream in Winter

Roland quickly fell into line alongside the rest of his allies, a deep frown on his face. As far as he could tell, their best option would be to break through to Gustadolph as soon as possible and do what they could to tear him down. The rest of the Aesfrosti forces would likely fall into disarray from there. Without Sycras around to take control of the situation, there would be no one to step up and lead, and ideally, that would be all it took to end the battle quickly and painlessly. 

Roland knew better than to expect it would be that simple though. In fact, he already knew it would be anything but. Gustadolph was making his way down from his perch at the top of the gate, but it would take time before he reached the forces from Wolffort. On top of that, Gustadolph had powerful ranged magic at his disposal, and the best person to take care of him was Dragan... But Dragan would be hit just as hard by his magic in return. Roland knew Gustadolph wouldn't take them seriously though, so perhaps they could take advantage of his overconfidence to turn the tides and bring him down. 

Before that though, they needed to outlast the Aesfrosti forces headed in their direction. The strongest soldiers of their group--Avlora, Maxwell, Flanagan, and Groma--took to forming a front line while everyone else fell in behind them. Lionel's whip peeked in between his allies to snap at any enemy that got too close, and Groma was quick to follow up with punches that sent her foes sprawling. From there, the enemies were easy enough to pick off using magic or other ranged attacks. Anna snuck in and out of the foes' ranks, delivering swift stabs with her dagger when she could before retreating and vanishing into the shadows once more. 

Roland was glad he hadn't been put on the front lines for the fight since it gave him more time to keep an eye on Gustadolph. He knew he needed to concentrate on the obstacle right in front of him--the Aesfrosti soldiers--but it was difficult to focus on them when he knew Gustadolph was plotting his downfall at that very moment. Gustadolph was doing a fine job of it too; his smile hadn't faded once since the battle began. He barely seemed to care that a fight was raging just a few steps away from him. His smile never faltered for even a moment, and as far as Roland was concerned, that was all the more reason to wipe it off his face with blood across his fingertips. 

Maxwell and Avlora were leading the charge, but forward progress moved slowly. No one wanted to step into Gustadolph's massive range and risk being forced to retreat by one of his ice spells. Gustadolph hadn't unleashed his full might against Sycras, but he would never hesitate against someone he dubbed his enemy. He could have easily wiped out half of their forces in the blink of an eye if he wanted to, but he found it more entertaining to wait, and that made it all the harder to approach him. 

Roland tore his eyes away from Gustadolph to find Avlora swerving out of the way of an attack from an Aesfrosti swordsman. She delivered a harsh blow in return, but before the soldier had the chance to escape, Corentin cast down a wickedly powerful ice spell. The man was left frozen in place with no other choice but to sit there and take a follow up attack from Hossabara. Roland saw the soldier sprawl backward through the air, but he never quite caught a glimpse of where the man landed. Roland doubted he would ever be standing to fight again after a blow like that. 

Flanagan readied his shield as a particularly strong lancer arrived in his range. He blocked the first blow before thrusting his shield forward, and the soldier staggered. That was the last mistake they would ever make though as Anna had already seen the sign of weakness. She appeared behind the lancer with her dagger laced with poison. After two quick slices, the lancer was forced to retreat, but he only made it a few paces away before he collapsed to his knees and then fell into the snow fully. 

Because of how closely gathered everyone was, they were easy targets for Aesfrost's mages. Gustadolph was far from the only one on the field who knew how to use ice magic, and one of the mages gladly took advantage of the clustered positioning to deal a devastating blow to Roland and his forces. Roland snarled, but before he could ask for the mage to be dealt with, Dragan responded by summoning a massive fireball that consumed the mage in an instant. Lionel lashed out with his whip for good measure, and the mage's silhouette fell into the snow. Roland turned to thank Dragan, but he was cut off by a sudden rush of healing magic in the air around him. Cordelia had taken care of the fresh set of injuries before they could fester and impact anyone's performance in combat, and Roland was glad she did.