Chapter One
War cries split the quiet night as the night sky lit with fire. The cold air of early winter heated noticeably as white-hot tipped burning arrows arced Muranth’s way. There must’ve been an entire goblin tribe swarming out of the mine, including the tribe’s shaman who was either a wizard or fire sorcerer. He wasn’t sure yet.
“Shit,” he muttered, as ten goblins riding dire wolves leapt out of the mine to join the fun.
He channeled his magic and transmuted it to earth, as a powerful pulse left his hand. It weakened as it spread out, his magic too diffuse at that distance to be overwhelming, but as it hit the burning hot metal arrowheads the arrows lost much of their momentum and started to fall far short of their position.
He shifted his crossbow to his right hand and channeled more earth magic, surrounding the bolt in a nimbus as he aimed and pulled the trigger. The deadly bolt shot out and moved impossibly far and quickly with the aid of his magic. It hit the shaman dead on in the chest, but it merely bounced off.
“Wizard it is,” he muttered, a fire sorcerer couldn’t have shielded against that, and would’ve dodged.
Shar giggled, “Would you like some help?” she asked in a bright chipper voice, as she sent balls of white-hot fire into the charging goblins.
The explosions as they hit the ground at the goblin’s feet were blinding as the white-hot flashing fire, and almost ten of the goblins charging them were screaming and on fire as they hit the ground.
A surviving human miner muttered behind them, “They’re crazy.”
He snorted, and he didn’t disagree. He was having fun even as his raptor gaze took in the crazy number of goblins charging their position, and so were his women. They were several miles north of Baybrook in the hills where Uradia mined for their metals. It was still pretty far from the mountains most of the evil monster races were concentrated, but they’d obviously mined too deeply and had broken into a rare goblin cave system.
A few of the miners had escaped and made it to Baybrook, with stories of their comrades being tortured, so they’d set out immediately instead of waiting for dawn. They were also obviously spotted on approach, because the goblins had rallied to push back and kill anyone approaching the mine.
Nysa sent out a lance of water magic that slammed several of the goblins into one another. She smirked, as several of them stopped their charge in outrage to kill the goblin that had run into them. Goblins weren’t exactly kind to their own, and they weren’t the smartest sentient evil race either.
“Shar, take the shaman, would you? Willow, help her do it.”
It was actually Tansya, but they all called them both Willow when they were out, everyone but them and the princess thought they were the same person, an elven nature sorceress.
That was about all the planning they had time for as the goblins closed in range. Oh, they’d planned before arriving, but their plans had all revolved around cave fighting, not a whole tribe rallying outside the mine on open ground.
He transmuted a stream of magic into water magic, and he shielded himself with an anti-water shield. It was oddly shaped, to prevent anyone from getting close enough to stab him in the back, or to come at him more than two at a time. It’d also protect from other raw magics, but not arrows, bolts, or thrown weapons.
Tansya grabbed Shar’s hand, and she dragged her over to a tree and they both disappeared.
He laughed and bet Shar loved that, not.
Then the goblins were among them as he shifted his shield and wickedly curved bastard sword to his right hand, and he went to the bloody work he excelled in. He’d gotten quite a bit more dangerous the last six weeks, since the elves had sued for peace. He channeled two more streams of magic with barely a thought, transmuted them, and as he shield bashed one goblin with his shield, which sent out an explosion of fire sending it flying and setting several others on fire, a blast of lightning left his sword and took a dire wolf in the chest. That last attack cooked the dire wolf and the goblin riding it. His lightning had grown quite a bit stronger since last time he’d fought the resistant wolves.
His beautiful water nymph not to be outdone, moved like a thresher through the goblin attackers. She used her magic more subtly, more a precision instrument than Muranth’s current sledgehammer approach. To be fair, he’d just started his mastery of all the elements, he had a lot to learn as far as applying that magic went. No weapon came near Nysa as she danced through them, cutting throats with her short daggers as she held their bodies still for a split second, and no weapons came near her as she nudged their arms to foul their aim.
She sent out a blast of water magic that lifted at least ten into the air and pushed them back as it then forcibly slammed them back against the ground. She’d done that before in battle, and without really thinking about it Muranth channeled and transmuted fire magic and bathed them all in a plume of flames that raked across the ground and their bodies.
Even as his sword whipped around to cut the throat of the goblin that he’d shield bashed.
Inky shadows shot from the shaman and he popped a quick dome of water magic over the three miners that had accompanied them back. The death spell the shaman had sent their way failed to find a way through Nysa’s or his two shields, but he could barely see through the inkiness for the duration of the spell as he waited for it to fail.
“Down!” he yelled, as the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Arrows whistled over his and Nysa’s head, as well as two of the miners. The third screamed out, obviously not ducking fast enough. He hoped the man would live until the end of the battle so he could be healed, and then dismissed it from his mind as he rolled back to his feet.
The night lit on fire again, but this time it was for their side. He could see his succubus and the tree nymph glowing as the white-hot fire left Shar’s hand and then slammed into the goblin shaman’s flank. The nymph had taken them to his flank through the surrounding trees, normally that would take a split second for her, and he had to assume Shar had slowed her down somehow.
Regardless, it was still faster than it would’ve taken to run around to the flank in the outside world.
Tansya wasn’t idle, as he felt her nature magic as she attacked the shaman’s two personal guards, who were both on dire wolves. Tansya and Willow had been a hell of a surprise, they hated the touch of metal so they wouldn’t wield swords or knives, but with a staff and bow they were incredibly deadly. They might not have been natural warriors and were peaceful by nature when given the choice, but for him they fought with a ferocity that never failed to take his breath away.
It was in part, their nature magic, which enhanced their already fast, limber, and supple bodies with speed, strength, and awareness through enhanced senses. Really, he almost felt bad for the poor goblins as Tansya smacked them around so Shar could focus on the shaman.
Damn, they really turned him on when they went all fierce for him.
Even more so than Nysa, not because Nysa wasn’t hot putting down enemies, because she was, but Nysa had always been a hunter. Tansya and Willow were usually sweet, shy, and harmless, it was their nature unless under threat.
Tansya was in sorceress robes of light tan, while Nysa wore dark blue and his succubus was in red. Their lack of armor had bothered him in the past, because even he got hit once in a while as an enemy snuck through his guard. So, a few weeks ago he’d put all those dragon scales to good use, and under those robes they wore skintight dragon armor.