The Hedge Wizard

Hump held his breath as the red fog rolled in like a mist of blood, covering the land from sea to mountains. In the distance, he could make out the red eyes of monsters, like wisps over a lake. They swarmed forward like a tide, their feet beating the ground like churning earth.

Silence fell upon the city as if the world was holding its breath. Hump stood upon the walls with Bud’s company—they’d been assigned a stretch beside the north-east gate. It was a key location that couldn’t be allowed to fall.

As far as he could see, Alveronian soldiers stretched out over the walls, packing the battlements tightly. They watched nervously, fingers on their bowstrings or spears, gazing out at the advancing host with unblinking eyes. Hump could sense their fear. He felt it too. There were no shouted orders or hurried preparations—these people knew their business.

Hump and his party stood upon the same stretch of wall that had been breached. The very same place where Bud had held the line against a host of demons, earning himself the title, Frost Knight. The rest of the company were with them, almost everyone carrying their usual equipment along with extra crossbows, throwing spears, and piles of stone and alchemical flasks piled at the base of the parapet.

To the right, Hump spotted Marcela and her own party amongst a gathering of soldiers atop the northeast gate—a key defensive position, and one Hump and the others were to prioritise reinforcing if it came under severe attack. She caught his eye and held a hand up before pressing a fist to her chest. Hump repeated the gesture.

“I’m glad we left Nisha back at the apartment,” Hump said quietly.

Celaine stood next to him, her bow in hand. “Mhm. How is she?”

“Nervous and feeling sorry for herself. She’s watching through the window. I’m trying to reassure her that everything’s okay, but she seems to be able to sense something strange to this fog.”

“It’s for the best we left her,” Celaine said. “This is one of those times when the risk is really too much. There’s no way we could watch over her in the chaos of… that.”

The fog came closer, consuming the plains before the walls. Even the sun was lost to it, casting the entire fortress in an eerie red glow. The beat of monster feet grew louder, pounding the ground like war drums. Screeches and groans rose in a horrifying chorus of hunger and hate. Hump glimpsed the shadow of large creatures, whipping tails, and glowing appendages.

“What can your eyes see?” Bud asked, staring out at the scene.

The knight seemed stoic in the dim light—a man that had accepted his duty and was willing to die for it. He saw the same calmness in Dylan and Emilia, both veterans of attacks like this. Hump felt nothing of the sort. He clenched his fist around his staff nervously, counting the seconds and crossing his fingers that luck was on their side today.

“Much of the force appears to have come from the Dead Marshes,” Celaine said. “I see undead amongst them, along with bog beasts I’ve heard of in the area. Other beasts are amongst them—drakes, and stags, and wolves to name a few.”

“Like those that attacked us outside of Stonebark Forest,” Dylan said.

Celaine nodded. “But there are many more of them, and bigger too. There’s a group of giants over there,” she pointed toward the northwest. She moved her hand, trailing over the fog, highlighting nothing but shadows. “There are hundreds of highland trolls, a few large salamander creatures amongst them. I see more intelligent monsters too: goblins, kobolds, beastwalkers, even minotaurs. Harpies take to the sky, along with monstrous birds and flying lizards. There are at least two wyverns flying about.”

“It’s like every monster in the Fallen Lands has come together to destroy us,” Hump said in disbelief. “I’d only ever heard of the Red Fog, but never imagined it like this. Even monsters that should rip each other apart are working together, focusing only on slaying us.”

“How many can you see?” Dylan asked.

“Thousands. More than I can count. They swarm over the land as thick as ants around a nest. Most seem to be ordinary monsters, but I can see a few demons starting to join the horde at the back.”

“Oh, there are definitely thousands,” Emilia said. “This one shouldn’t be as bad as the last wave though.”

“Brilliant,” Hump said with false bravado. “Then this should be a walk in the park.”

One of the central bells chimed three times in quick succession. “Blessings!” came a distant shout. More repeated the cry, until it carried all along the wall.

The sonorous chanting of priests filled the city, their voices cascading through the streets and up the ancient walls, reverberating deep within Hump’s very being. He sensed divinity in the sound, and even he felt the fear leave him, replaced by steadfast determination. The moat that lay beneath the city walls erupted with sparkling essence, its waters transforming into a shimmering cascade of golden light. Its radiance climbed the walls, spreading a luminous aura that repelled the encroaching fog in a grand display of faith and spiritual might.

Bud released his own blessings along with the rest of the company, their auras encompassing all of them. Strength filled Hump. He looked over the men and women around him and saw a sternness to them. He’d seen them in action in the dungeon node chamber and would trust them now too.

At the same time, a myriad of blessings unfurled across the defenders on the ramparts, manifesting in a cloud of all different colours, bolstering soldiers beyond their mortal capabilities, enveloping them in empowering auras, ready for the assault.

Wizards and Chosen Sorcerers stepped up to the walls and prepared their own powers, levelling staffs and wands at the fog. Essence gathered in their focuses, gleaming bright as stars, saturating the air with such dense power that it condensed upon the battlements, dripping like dew. Hump felt its cool touch on his skin like sweat.

He added his own magic to the mix, gathering essence to his staff as he aimed it over the parapet, a spell on his lips, though limited in strength. These monsters would be the easiest to deal with. He’d been instructed to save his essence for more powerful foes that would come later.

The monsters were nearer now. Their roaring screeches so close Hump could pick out independent ones. Still, they held their spells and arrows. Still they waited.

Then the bell sounded again. In an instant, essence stones embedded in the earth two-hundred paces from the walls erupted with power. The fog was shattered, revealing the horde of monsters within—hundreds of them rushing over the land. Their eyes burned with the red light of the fog. Hump spotted no demons in the first line of the attack. Many were undead or simple beasts, but there were larger creatures amongst them like trolls and razorclaws.

“Firebeam,” Hump shouted, letting loose his gathered essence in a ray of heat.

At Hump’s side, Celaine released her own arrows, shining with the silver light of Power Shot, piercing through the fog at targets Hump couldn’t even see, but that were no doubt powerful.

All along the walls, spells of every kind burst forth. The air howled and roared and thundered all at once. The air trembled with essence. The very walls quaked beneath the onslaught of power. It fell upon the ranks of demons in a barrage of explosions and mayhem. Blood, dust, dirt, and stone clouded the air as bodies were torn apart. Hump’s Firebeam pierced the troll he’d aimed at, then he tore his staff along the line, reaping havoc wherever the blazing ray struck.

Hump thought he’d witnessed powerful essence in the past. He’d participated in the battle between the warlock force and Sheercliff, witnessed the fight between Wizard Starrick and their leader, Anthony. He’d seen the Shattering of Sheercliff and the destruction of the Seal of Osidium. This level of combined force was something new though. The closest thing he could compare it to was the glimpse of the War of the Firmament he’d had after looking into the Eye of Gius, Lich Queen Irila’s father.

It was pure death and destruction, yet the monsters threw themselves over the corpses of their fallen comrades with no regard for self-preservation.

As the first spell barrage ended, a second shout came along the walls. “Bows!”

“Bows!” roared Bud.

Soldiers pressed up around Hump, levelling crossbows at the approaching demons and letting loose arrows and bolts into the swarming enemies. There was the crack of arrows against dirt. Others found their mark and sent monsters squealing to the ground in a tangle of uncooperative limbs. People standing behind them took the spent crossbows to reload while handing those against the wall loaded ones. Bows twanged, arrows whizzed onward, monsters died in their hundreds.

Hump watched with admiration as the soldiers kept their composure, loosing off the next volley swiftly, then the next, fearless before the quickly closing horde.

“There’s a big one coming over there,” Celaine said. “A stone wyrm.”

“Got it,” Hump said, following her finger and searching the fog.

As the next bell rang, Hump gathered his essence for another spell, this one bigger than the last as he spied the stone wyrm thundering across the plains toward them. The giant reptilian creature with jaws of massive fangs and vicious claws. Its tail whipped behind it, sending any monsters that didn’t give it space flying away in heaps.

He couldn’t use his spellbook here amongst so many—not unless there was no other choice, so he fell back on his own magic, stepping into the chalk circle he’d scribed upon the floor. Hammering his staff into the focal point, he fuelled it with his essence, the runes of the spell formation answering.

When the order to attack came, powerful spells erupted along the walls as other casters unleashed magic to take down the larger foes.

Hump’s eyes were only on the stone wyrm. “Magma Pit.”

There had been few occasions where he’d released the spell to its fullest, but this was one of them. The ground collapsed beneath the wyrm. Heat erupted. Dozens of creatures fell beneath his wrath.

Yet the tide was barely slowed. They reached the moat in moments, leaping over it and at the wall. Many died beneath the golden aura of the priests, others made it through covered in burns, somehow still scrambling to climb the stone wall before falling back, consumed by the waters.

Soldiers went for the alchemical vials now. Dylan grabbed one and tossed it at the base of the wall, crashing amongst a handful of monsters and sending them to the ground in a heap, their limbs broken and amputated from their bodies. More fell, screeching as arrows, stone, hot oil, and magic rained down upon them.

Hump levelled his staff and unleashed a cone of fire, sweeping it across their ranks. The stench of burning flesh and foulness filled the air. Some threw themselves into the moat, only for the holy power within to consume them as they writhed desperately within.

Screams came from all around him, on both sides of the wall. A man fell to the ground from the company over as one of the monsters spat putrid acid over their face. He clutched at his dissolving face, screaming as the coating of green acid ate away at him. In seconds he went still.

“Flyers!” Celaine shouted.

Her warning was echoed along the walls as silhouettes descended from above. Some plummeted to their doom, their bodies scorched by the radiant barrier over the moat. Others made it through, crashing into the defenders. Along the battlements, panic ensued—a dropped bottle ignited a fire, engulfing several soldiers in flames. They fell screaming and flailing until a quick-thinking sorcerer doused them out with a jet of water, saving their lives. Medics moved up and down the stairs, dragging wounded down to safety while reinforcements came to take their places.

Hump looked up as shadows descended. Some fell screaming as they crossed through the radiant aura of the moat too low, crashing to the ground with burns across their bodies.

Despite their best efforts, the enemy’s sheer numbers began to tell. Corpses piled high in the moat, forming a gruesome bridge for others to cross. The larger beasts, impervious to archer volleys, soon reached the fortress walls. Hump levelled his staff at the face of a giant and unleashed Molten Stone directly into its face, decapitating it before it could move. Its body fell back almost comically slowly, crushing more beasts beneath it.

Emilia danced along the parapet, leaping up upon the walls and lashing out with her rapier at any that came close, her blade a whip of death. Celaine’s arrows never stopped, slaying weaker beasts with her shadow arrows, while saving her more powerful blessings for any that could truly threaten the walls. Bud and Dylan waited, poised for any flyers that came to close, and ready for when the melee began.

Down at the moat, a keg of oil burst apart amidst a crowd of demons just as they prepared to climb the walls. The stench of burning flesh filled the air as they screamed.

Through sheer numbers, they bridged the moat, filling the waters with bodies and building up to the walls. Down below, he could hear monsters attacking the walls, tearing at them, beating at them with their claws. They shrieked with rage and climbed up, pulling themselves over the parapet where men were waiting with sword and steel, carving them from the wall. Larger creatures came too, unphased by the arrows. Those were the ones that the likes of Hump and Celaine were expected to handle.

There was a thundering crash as a massive worm-like creature tore at the wall, sending debris tumbling into the moat. Hump felt a sting on his cheek as a splinter caught him, carving a thin line below his eye even through the protective blessings around him.

As the dust cleared, the creature was still there, lodged against the wall like a makeshift rampart. Invaders surged over the creature, leaping onto the wall with wild frenzy. The flow of arrows thinned as sword met vicious claw, making way for even more creatures to reach the top of the walls.

Hump unleashed his magic with relentless ferocity. Those that got too close were sent flying from the walls with a simple Essence Blast. Others he met with a barrage of rocks or Molten Shower, laying waste to any that approached their section of the wall. But as the nearby companies struggled beneath the mass of bodies, the fighting drew closer.

Bud’s sword blazed with frostfire as he raised it over head. “With me!”

He led Dylan, Henrietta, and others of the company in a charge at their left flank where the defence was weakening, pushing toward the monster that still clung to the wall. Minutes passed. The battle blurred into a violent dance of death. Bud managed to reach the giant worm creature and send it crashing to the ground, but others took its place. Trolls reached the walls, carrying wide, heavy ladders with space for four men across. The horde of undead piled higher, a mound almost as tall as the wall in places. Time passed in a blur of spells, blades, and blood.

But Hump held the wall. He stood his ground, trusting in his allies to be there when he needed them as he unleashed what devastation he could upon the enemy.

Hump wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he felt essence touch his mind and an urgent voice in his head.

“Wizard Humphrey?” It was Wizard Aldric’s voice.

Hump frowned, a mixture of concern and surprise. “Aldric? What is it?”

“Warlocks are active in the city and are controlling the fog, directing it at the fortress. Our reports place them in the east, near the Sapphire Docks. Squads are already on the way, but I want you to speak with Sir Robert and have your company go too.”

“We’re holding the wall,” Hump said. “Is there nobody else?”

“No. You were right about what the warlocks are targeting. The Temple of Sanctum is under attack. Destroy the fog. Leave the temple to the big guys.”

With that, the connection was gone. Hump turned back to the city to see fire spreading amongst the streets near the harbours.

“Bud!” Hump shouted. The knight hacked down a hobgoblin and turned to look at him. His face was half coated in blood. “We have new orders. Warlocks are in the city and causing the fog to come this way. Wizard Aldric has asked us to assist at the Sapphire Docks.”