Invincible

Chapter 6

And so it was that Sigmar was flying over his vast company of knights to reach the northern border as soon as their mounts could carry them. They had left at first light and had only stopped once to feed the horses and let them drink  from the fresh streams of water they had encounterd along the way. The knights were traveling lightly so they could reach the borders as soon as possible. The ground forces were following a day behind them and they would also bring the needed supplies. 

After another day riding the compagny and Sigmar who had landed to ride with the men saw a very bad sign. There was black smoke rising only a few minutes riding from their position. Sigmar rallied the men and they started riding in the direction of the smoke. Weapons drawn he expected an ambush along the way to the village. But instead there was nothing on the way, even the sound had forsaken this land now. There was an unnatural silence, Sigmar feared the worst for the villagers. But even his worst nightmares couldn't have pictured what had happend to the village. Corpes laid everywere, the villagers had been slaughterd. Limbs were everywhere, no one had indeed been spared. Even children who were hiding at the local school had been mutilated and beheaded without mercy. Outside a barn he finally found a corpse from one of the attackers and Sigmar's heart stopped at it's sight. 

The beast was nothing he had ever seen before. It's skin was a dark green but it's eyes shocked Sigmar the worst. They were redder than blood, they had an unnatural glow even when the beast had laid dead for hours. Sigmar couldn't imagine what terrifying sight it would be to see such a beast looking at you before it killed you. The beast still held an axe almost as big as hitself. To wield such a weapon in combat could only mean they were incredibly strong. He suddenly heard cat noises behind him. Shandra had arrived with her people's warriors riding giant sabertooth cats. They were almost all females he saw. All wore bows and very light armour, Sigmar guessed they would be very nimble in that kind of armor and he hoped none of the beasts would come close to them because he feared in close combat the elves wouldn't last long to the might of these beasts.

A few minutes past when Sigmar heard one of his men's horn being blown and he hoped the beasts weren't trapping them in the village. But instead one of the knights had found a surviving villager in the rubble of one of the collapsed houses. The man was in a very bad shape and Sigmar had him brought to the priests who had traveled with them. They patched the man up and when he had eaten a little bit the prince was informed he was fit to speak to him. 

The man sat straight in bed when the prince entered the room. "my lord, it truly is an honor to meet a prince in person." Sigmar sighed and replied: "Skip the formalities my friend. Would you please  just tell me what did this to your village? To all the surrounding villages? "the man saddened and spoke:

" I do not know what they were my lord, I had never seen such beasts before, but i saw what was leading them."He looked at the prince. "Their leaders are humans my lord, They definitly were controlling the beasts from a distance. I think they were mages, I saw one shoot a fireball at one of the houses. I was lucky he didn't fire one at the house i laid in. " The prince was shocked. Would the mages be behind these savage attacks on his people. Whoever it was or whatever they did they would not escape the swift justice Sigmar would bring to them. 

After burning the villagers corpses, the company decided to make camp in the now abbandond village.Sigmar sat with his mentor Abbadon and asked:"My lord, do you think this whole attack is a trick from the mages ? Did they really betray our peace treaty we made with them all these years ago?"
Abbadon sighed"I do not know my prince, all i know is we need to get to the bottom of this and stop the one responsible for this!"

Sigmar wished Thasja was by his side, maybe he would need to fly to Almerdan to consult with her and with her master Khel'Dan. Maybe they knew who those rogue mages were. But what if they were involved and this was a conspiracy against the kingdom of Lordemar. Sigmar was far too worried to be able to sleep, Tomorrow they would ride further north, and something told him tomorrow they would find what was waiting for them, he could only hope they wouldn't be prepared for them. But his last thought was again of Thasja before falling asleep hoping she wasn't involved in what was going on in the norht. He just wouldn't know what he would have to do if he stood against her in battle. His heart would die with her if he had to slay her. Sigmar finnaly fel asleep, but his rest wasn't meant to be

He heard battlehorns of his men and invincible making some wild noises. It seemed battle had found them instead. "This is going to be a long night" he said before reaching out to his sword. 

He left his tent and shouted to his men:"Fight my warriors! For king and country ! FOR LORDEMAR!"