Gladiator Wars

Chapter 29: The Second Great War

Hama's Point of View

One Week Later

"Ready?" Victoria asked. She wore armor that held the rose and snake crest of Motonishi and her sheaths that held twin katanas.

"Never!" I replied.

"As usual." Daniell muttered. He wore armor very similar to Victoria's, but with minor differences such as having swords and no cape.

I attempted to give Daniell a playful punch in the arm, but he sidestepped and I hit Viktor instead. Viktor gave me a small glare and turned back to playing with his potion bag.

The four of us stood in a line, surveying the soon to be battlefield. Despite what I said earlier, I was ready to fight and use my powers. I streched my dagger-throwing arm, aka my left arm.

We're all clad in the different and might I add majestic armor of each of our kingdoms. My armor was silver, dark green and had the elven symbol of The Treehouse and four fireflies.

I returned my attention to the valley that would be where we met Bale and his fiends in battle. It was pretty for sure and I felt bad that it would be scarred by battle. It would sadly be forever haunted by the ghosts of this war, just as we would be.

The valley had many trees that were very spread apart from each other, many small hills and a river that branched off into smaller creeks towards us. Behind us on the flatter part of the hill stood our camp filled with about two hundred and fifty soldiers, pirates and elementals.

We have been waiting for Bale and his goons to launch their attack for two days and we were starting to get restless. Their camp could clearly be seen on the other side of the valley and their people.

"How much longer do you think they'll take?" Johnnie asked joining us. Catherine and him were given Motonishian armor and they weren't exactly happy about it.

"No idea." Daniell replied. This conversation was starting to become tense. Although those two had stopped fighting out right, it wasn't hard to sense that this whole thing was a ticking time bomb.

Then I spotted something. I grabbed the binoculars that Viktor had hanging from his belt and looked through them. I saw a group of twenty something people gathering around their part of the river. I watched as they started to do indistinct movements.

"Guys?" I asked, but by then they had also noticed made their own telescopes and binoculars.

"What are they doing?" Asked Viktor.

"Magic for certain." Victoria stated.

"On the river." Johnnie added.

"That doesn't make sense. That river is enchanted so no one can pollute it with magic. The only thing they could be doing is changing its course." Daniell analyzed.

I looked through the binoculars once more and I realized that they had finished whatever it was they were doing. The river now flowed toward us and much faster than before. I looked at our camp and saw no change except for the river.

"What's that?" I heard Viktor say panic creeping into his voice.

Again, I looked through the binoculars. I saw black boat-like objects fastly approaching our side of the valley. As I looked longer, I realized what they were.

I turned and ran to warn the others. The others joined me in our fevered sprint, also knowing what was about to happen. I turned my head to the left and saw that the objects had caught up to us and were now making their way to camp.

I shouted at the top of my lungs trying desperately to save others, but my shouts of warning were quickly drowned out by the sound of the bombs exploding. I dropped to the ground to avoid getting hit by any shrapnel that was flying through the air.

As I raised my head up, I realized the explosion had hit our armory that had been filled mostly with metal and explosives. Although we had protection enchantments on the armory, this weapon had been designed to destroy any such spells and cause maximum damage.

I also saw many dead comrades and fellow soldiers. I got up swiftly and ran through looking for the living. I was vaguely aware of my friends doing the same. I found unconscious people, wounded people, dying people and mainly dead people.

I numbly helped others to safety, looking for familiar faces. I did a head count and saw Victoria helping Joseph, Daniell carrying an unconscious boy, Heath and Natalie helping others with the help of Viktor, Johnnie assisting a wounded Catherine. I couldn't see Ron and Morgan though.

I sprinted back in the moment I could. I searched for Ron's lemon blond hair or Morgan's dirty blond hair. I made my way in looking for them two. After much panicked searching, I saw an ashen face Morgan and a dizzy looking Ron.

I ran over to the two and helped Morgan with Ron, who was tripping on his own feet.

"You two okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, but Ron hasn't spoken a word since he found me." Ron said stumbling along. I repeated what Ron said in my head and it didn't sound like a dictionary's version of right.

"You mean Morgan, right?" I said. Ron looked confused for a second, but then decided.

"That's what I said." Ron answered. It was more than likely he has concussion and he needed to medical attention.

"Let's get you to a healer quickly." I said finally.

"Their army is advancing." Morgan said not once breaking his emotionless facade.

I looked behind me and saw he was right. Bale and his armies had formed ranks quickly while we dealed with our damage and they were now marching toward us. They marched toward us not to meet us in battle, but to slaughter us.