Guardians of Solas: Raid on the Holy Capital

Chapter 20: Beachhead

Alesha

I looked around and saw the mist that Aram and I had been stuck going through just a few days prior, except this time it was on our side. And it was really just surrounding our little fleet as opposed to blocking our vision as well. I watched Tamir wave her staff around and admired her skills. Then I frowned and looked at my reflection in the water. She doesn't deserve my admiration, the way she looked at me and treated me, why should I treat her any better? So I just leaned over the side and watched the water go by.

I looked up and saw the many ramshackled boats on their way to the same destination as us. Each one carried ten Sentinels, put together by taking two Sentinels from the five Orders taking part in this part of the raid. The Scouts and the Assassins were set to come later, except Taylor, since she was leading the attack. Taylor decided to join my group in our raft, since the only other option was a raft with Paxus.

I was about to trace my finger over the dark water, but whispers began of the beach just up ahead. I turned around to face my comrades. We all nodded at each other and readied our weapons. Aram grinned at me for a moment, then went back to serious mode. I did the same. He looked at Tamir and held up five fingers. She looked and watched him count down.

Five, the ship rocked as it hit the dirt. Four, everyone stood up. Three, we hopped off the boat onto the wet sand. Two, the Knights moved into turtle position. One, the Warriors moved behind the turtle. Zero.

The wall of mist fell and arrows instantly flew at our heads, followed by dark and fire magic of all sorts. Paxus, who was in front of the turtle, pointed his sword towards the brilliant flashes of light. "Forward!" he shouted, and the turtle made its slow approach toward the never ending tide of fireballs and arrows. There were enemies packed in as much as they could on wrecked city buildings. Clearly the diversion didn't work as well as they planned. I bit my lip. Or is it just they had an informant, or do they just have that many soldiers? I shook my head. I couldn't be worrying myself with useless information like that; I had to focus on the task at hand. I crouched and gripped my blade as the turtle inched toward the line of fire as the Archers and Mages began bombarding the enemy.

The turtle had only moved a few feet by the time the middle most Knight was incapacitated by a fire blast. I looked back and saw him fly back several feet. Eva ran over to him to treat his injury. Lucky for him there wasn't much blood, or at the very least it was too dark to see. I looked back up and saw that arrows were flying through the hole and unprotected Warriors cried out as they hit the ground.

"No!" I shouted, but I had no idea what to do. I looked frantically around but it was too dark, I could barely see. I didn't see the arrow come right for my head, until it stopped an inch from my face. Aram threw the arrow into the sand and put a hand on my shoulder.

"We can heal them or mourn them later. Focus on the battle. But we really do need to do something about that." We looked to where the gap was. The rest of the fighters had moved behind the cover of the rest of the Knights, but the gaps had taken a toll on our forces. The Knights were trying to move tighter together to close the gap, but with how slow we were moving, they couldn't close it up fast enough to prevent other holes from opening.

Then the worst thing possible happened. The Knights stopped and tried to push together, but they just wound up falling on each other and our wall of protection fell to pieces. People started running around only to be taken out by an arrow. Some tried to regroup, but without the protection of the Knights, they were taken out by precise arrow fire and magic.

My head began to spin as I watched the operation fall to pieces. The wounded screamed as everyone else ran for the boats. I covered my ears and tried to drown the terrible screams I heard. I fell to my knees and searched around for my friends, who were nowhere in sight. I slunk down and sat on my calves. I wanted to stop it, but there was nothing I could do. I heard a cackling noise and looked up to see a fireball heading toward me and I was going let it consume me, but then a dark figure jumped in front of it. He was pushed back several feet and his right heel hit my forearm.