The improvements had been minimal at first. I focused on martial training and retreat tactics. The former leaders and elders had not approved of my strategies because they still viewed the humans as rebellious but incompetent slaves; animals to be put down, not skilled warriors to be feared.
At first I could do little more than attack their supply lines. Kaiyer took notice and would divert part of his army to protect the lines, allowing us to attack somewhere else. My efforts did little damage overall, but we were killing his warriors and increasing the confidence of my own.
Gorbanni and Thayer were my ideal targets. Their armies were strong in open combat but lacked any finesse or strategy. I easily scored victories against their forces and tested my army against Alexia and Malek. Malek was easier to outwit than Alexia and a few attacks against him were victorious.
Shlara was brilliant and problematic. The woman anticipated my plans and was always a few steps ahead of me. Strategies that worked on the other generals had almost laughably pathetic results against her forces. I began to understand the power structure of Kaiyer’s army. Today I would finally crush her beneath my boot and take Kaiyer. Even if I lost half of my army, the other human generals would not be able to stand against us without their leader or his genius general.
Thinking of Shlara made my jaw clench. The humans we captured spoke of her beauty, intelligence, and unparalleled combat prowess. Some said she and Kaiyer were lovers, others said they were not. The thought of the human fucking my lover brought the scent of blood to my nose and clouded my vision with rage. Of course he would have found another to share his bed after so many years without me, as I had with Relyara. But though the woman was affectionate, intelligent, and trustworthy, both of us understood her place. I still loved Kaiyer.
I wondered if Shlara knew that Kaiyer felt the same about me. I wondered if he still did.
Kaiyer had to understand that I had no choice in killing his brother. I needed to tell him, explain what had happened. I had never meant to cause him pain, but was forced to by the ridiculous politics of my tribe. Things had changed. I was the leader of the entire Elven race. We could be together now, no one could stop me.
The army of humans below screamed a terrible shout that rolled off the ocean and up the hill toward us. The dark figure on the black horse raised his arm and then his army lifted their flags in a colorful response. Gorbanni rode to him. The two men had a short conversation before a dozen cavalry flanked the pair. Kaiyer lowered a wicked-looking lance of screaming skulls.
Then the group charged up the hill toward us.
“They took the bait,” Relyara muttered under her breath. “By the Dead Gods he is fast!” The terrible armor and giant black steed had outpaced the rest of the cavalry by at least three horse lengths. I stared in astonishment as the lead quickly increased every second. By the time Kaiyer was halfway across the empty space of the battle meridian he was ten lengths ahead of his escort.
“What is he doing?” Relyara asked in surprise and fear.
“He is giving us the battle.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing either but there was no other explanation. As soon as Kaiyer hit our lines he would be swarmed and captured. His guard would never be able to defend him in time.
Yet his horse just seemed to run faster.
Arrows and magic slammed into the ground between the lead figure and the first line of cavalry. My troops were trying to hit Kaiyer, but his speed made him a difficult target. He was three quarters to our front row of pikes within a few more seconds and I realized that any command that I would give to my generals to target the other lines would be too late to do any real damage. Was he intending to distract us? Did Kaiyer know that he would be too tempting a target and that my warriors would want the glory of taking him down before he reached my lines?
My guesses mattered little. Ilttaia’s front line of pike warriors were given the signal to raise their long spears. The weapons were anchored into the ground and dozens of the lances pointed at the massive black warhorse and its skull-armored rider. It didn’t matter how strong Kaiyer was in combat. Riding full speed into a wall of pikes would incapacitate him.
If it didn’t kill the man.
There was an explosion. A crash of thunder so strong that it rang a hundred times louder than the human war cry. Every Elven winced at the sound and I almost expected the ground to sway. For a few seconds it was hard to comprehend what had happened at the impact of Kaiyer’s charge. Dozens of Ilttaia’s warriors were dead. Some were covered in blood, others trampled by the giant black horse, and three were impaled together on the length of Kaiyer’s skull-etched lance.
He was almost halfway through Ilttaia’s foot soldier ranks but still three hundred yards down the slope from my position. He dropped his lance and then pulled out the mace that he was rumored to wield with incredible power. He made one downward swing with his left hand and three Elven heads exploded into a mist of blood and brain.
“Shit,” Relyara and I said at the same time. The entirety of Ilttaia’s forces seemed to converge on the lone human and his horse. The animal was almost as fearsome as its rider. Every time Kaiyer attacked with his mace and blocked with his shield the creature either kicked, stomped, or spun into the mob of my warriors. After only a few more seconds the leader of the humans had killed four more of my warriors and his mount had tallied just as many.
Ilttaia’s warriors had recovered from the surprise of having their target in the depths of their ranks and they began a more coordinated attack. The mob of warriors backed away from the spinning horse and a few of the Elvens with shorter spears made dual attacks at the man and horse. His shield was always in the way, or the horse skipped to the side of each attack.
Then the rest of the humans collided into the ranks of pike warriors.
The troops had been so distracted by Kaiyer’s penetration into their lines that they seemed unaware of the oncoming charge from the rest of the army. Dozens of humans and scores of horses were impaled on the grounded pikes, but more cavalry than was acceptable made it past the first two lines. Death sounded all around, filling the air with anguish and the scent of blood.
One of Ilttaia’s warriors grabbed Kaiyer’s armored leg and was rewarded with a strike to the skull. He was unbelievably fast. His arm blurred when he attacked like a hummingbird's wing. The only indication I had that he struck anything was the death and explosion of blood that emanated from the body of his victim. The horse spun again and its armored hindquarters brushed aside some spear strikes aimed at his master.
“This is impossible!” Relyara gasped from my side. I could only nod and fight the lump forming in my throat and the cold pit of anguish that grew in my stomach. Kaiyer must have killed twenty or more of my soldiers in little more than a minute and he showed no signs of tiring. Gorbanni was trying to beat a path through the throng of my other warriors but I doubted the man would actually succeed.
One of Ilttaia’s commanders, Kilotrra, managed to jump on the back of Kaiyer’s horse and wrestled with the human’s shield. Other Elven warriors seized the opportunity and moved closer to thrust their spears into him. He tipped over precariously with Kilotrra’s efforts and a cheer of jubilation swelled up from the surrounding Elvens.
Then Kilotrra was thrown from the back of the horse. She still clutched the skull shield, but Kaiyer had slipped out of it to keep from being taken off his mount. The angry steed stomped and galloped purposely to its side and the brave woman was crushed beneath the monster’s hooves.
Kaiyer was shieldless now, but it did not seem to matter. He was able to make larger sweeping strikes with his mace and quickly smashed three warriors that had attempted to impale him with their spears when Kilotrra had seized his shield. The horse spun again and I noticed that many of the spear strikes had pierced the creature’s armor and its night-black hair was dripping with dark red blood. The animal wasn’t magical and would eventually fall. When it did, Kaiyer would not have the height advantage and my soldiers would have an easier time capturing him.
A spear warrior made a quick stab at Kaiyer from his flank and the human dodged out of the way at the last fraction of a second. Then his armored hand came up and grabbed onto the lance. The horse spun sideways and the leader of the human army ripped the weapon out of the hands of my warrior. A split second later, the spear spun around in Kaiyer’s hand and my lover was able to jab, stick, and thrust the spear into the surrounding crowd to keep the tide back.
Then Gorbanni and a few of his guards made it to Kaiyer.
“Fuck,” I sighed. Capturing the man would take an exponentially greater number of lives than I had planned. I glanced over to the side position and saw that the line tasked with holding Shlara’s troops was intact. At least one part of this battle was going as planned.
“He can’t keep this up forever.” Relyara seemed to read my mind. “His horse is halfway dead. See how it moves?” I returned my attention to Kaiyer and saw that the horse lashed out with its massive back legs again and killed two of my soldiers with precise blows to their skulls.
“Yes. The creature appears incapacitated.” I sighed and continued to watch Kaiyer, his horse, Gorbanni, and their guards push through the lines of Ilttaia’s troops.
The longer I watched Kaiyer in battle the larger the knot of ice in my stomach grew. The man seemed to somehow see in all directions. He would lean over his saddle to smash one of my kin with his mace and then almost turned to smoke dodging spear thrusts aimed at his armor. The combined efforts of my entire army must have amounted to hundreds, perhaps over a thousand attacks aimed at his body; other than the loss of his shield, they had accomplished nothing. I realized that I had made a massive mistake and completely underestimated his power. He was not a man anymore. He was not my lover. He was something else. He was a force of nature, like a tornado or an earthquake whose only purpose was the destruction of my race.
I had created this monster and I would never be able to stop him. My people would die at his hand and humans would again rule this world, despite what the Gods wanted.
Finally, Kaiyer’s terrible horse staggered and pitched sideways.
I felt the scream of victory escape my throat and the sound was repeated by every one of my kin who had seen the beast collapse. It was a symphony of joy and the song seemed to invigorate my exhausted troops.
It had been Ilttaia who felled the horse with a massive cut to its chest. She was one of the few warriors in my army that felt comfortable wielding a two-handed sword. It wasn’t a very practical weapon in traditional pike lines, but my general normally stayed midfield, and if the battle ever reached her position, she used the long weapon to kill the humans effectively.
Kaiyer jumped off his horse mid-fall and the long red cloak he wore seemed to spread out over the sky as a sea of blood. He aimed his spear and then dove like a black-feathered eagle.
Right into Ilttaia.
“No!” Relyara screamed beside me. Kaiyer’s spear ripped through the chest of my general’s armor and came out the other side into the ground of the battlefield. Without pause he grabbed her massive sword with his right hand, twisted sideways, and cleaved two other warriors in half with the long blade. Blood, organs, and bone sprayed through the air and almost seemed to become a part of his red cloak.
I heard cracking below me and I realized that my hands had snapped the thick wooden railing of my command platform. I took a deep breath and forced calm through my body and mind. Ilttaia was dead. She was not only one of my more intelligent generals, she was also a friend and talented warrior.
A cheer from below ripped me away from the sadness of my loss and I looked from the wood railing to see that one of Gorbanni’s guards had fallen off of his horse and was about to be executed by Juilytian. The large warrior had been Ilttaia’s lover and I imagined my sadness was more than matched by his fury. He raised his polished sword over his head and was about to bring it down to end the human’s life.
Kaiyer was suddenly in front of Juilytian and he ripped Ilttaia’s sword across her own lover’s neck, lopping off his head before he could land the killing blow on the fallen human. Then he threw the two-handed sword to his side like a spear, it traveled almost forty feet and pierced the back of another of my warriors who was poised to take Gorbanni off of his horse.
“How is this even possible?” Relyara’s voice shook with terror and I could smell the bitter vegetable scent of fear radiating from her. “He wasn’t even standing next to Juilytian. He was almost fifty feet away. How did he cover that distance so quickly? Does he possess magic we don’t know of?”
I could only shake my head in response. Kaiyer had pulled the spear out of his guard’s side and fended off half a dozen of Ilttaia’s warriors. They were frantic now, desperate to avenge their leader, and I knew that Kaiyer would soon fall. Sure enough, Gorbanni and his last guard were taken off of their horses and a cheer went up amongst the remaining forces of Ilttaia’s troops. Kaiyer would not be able to defend himself and two others at the same time. I looked back at the front lines and saw that the rest of the human ram cavalry was still tied up with the first row of Elven pike warriors. It would be five more minutes until they made it to their commander and by then he would be dead and Kaiyer captured.