When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 7. 5 Poison pt. 1

'So much for a few hours,' The Spartan thought and moved to the nearest entrance of the tunnel. Ajihad, Jörmundur and the dwarven king were all responsible for leading their division and driving the urgals out of the tunnel, but so far they weren't doing anything worthwhile. They had barricaded the entrances to the tunnels with rudimentary wooden defenses and they had actually sat up cauldrons of boiling pitch above the tunnels.

He couldn't have that. Now that everyone was resting in the long lull before battle, they were at their weakest. And the pitch would only hinder him for his plans, so he had to do something about that too.

While dwarves were grinding their axes, men were inspecting their chain-mail armours and Eragon was spying on Arya, the Spartan moved to the tunnel. Occasionally, messengers would run through the encampment and shake the soldiers out of their stupor, but it was always some sort of false alarm.

Every minute they were sitting there like dead bodies was a minute that they could be reinforcing their perimeter, scout the area or gain advantages. These men were woefully unprepared for a fight.

He grabbed the cauldrons of boiling pitch and removed them from their suspended position above the tunnel, positioning them so that no man could easily knock them over.

'What are you doing?' Aeraleth asked him from her position next to Saphira. The two dragons seemed to be very glad that they had each other, but their bonding only annoyed him.

And he didn't know why. 'Prepping.'

'For what? The tiny men all worked so hard to prepare themselves. Why are you prepping their work away?'

'Their work stops me from moving.'

'Can't you ask them-'

'-no.'

'I could have foreseen that. Did you know that Saphira does not like you?'

'Yes.'

'She states that you smell of death and destruction. I must have been acclimatized to a high degree before, but I have only noticed that now. Why do you think that is?'

'Remember the war against the Covenant?'

'Yes?'

'It was a big war.'

While he worked at altering the entry to the tunnel, he heard Orik the dwarf saying something about going to sleep, 'for the night was still long'.

'Aeraleth,' He snapped.

'What is it little soldier?'

'The kid's going to break his body sleeping in his armour. Tell your new friend to warn him.'

Aeraleth snorted in amusement and then withdrew her consciousness from his mind, leaving him alone to continue working.'

He positioned the rubble so that one well-placed kick would cause it to collapse completely, preventing anyone from exiting for a while. He had already placed the boiling pitch so that he could dose the tunnel with the black stuff when everybody was secure, which only left the wooden stakes. His plan involved having the troops pour into the tunnel with their pikes so that the urgals would be forced to fight in a narrow line, but the three leaders hadn't felt much for that.

No matter.

While Eragon carefully removed a part of his armour before going to sleep, he spotted Arya still sitting on her rock, watching over the boy and his dragon.

It was strange that she didn't need to sleep either. He knew that he could function after four days without sleep, but the elven lady looked as sharp and ready as the moment they had started waiting. An innate racial trait?