Brother Willim and his fellows fall into line behind him to follow. He glances back and sees them there. “Stay here with the others,” he tells them.
“No, we go with you,” Brother Willim replies.
Shrugging his shoulders, James continues marching toward the oil and pitch spread across the base of the palisade. A quick look to the palisade shows the warrior priest is no longer there. Where did he go?
As James reaches the range of the crossbowmen lining the walls, a volley of bolts flies forward only to be deflected by his shield. Brother Willim and the others are using their staves to knock the bolts from the air before they can reach them. Small bursts of tingling sensations tell James it’s not skill alone which is allowing the bolts to be deflected by the staves.
He comes to a stop ten feet from the edge of the oil and pitch. With all his might, he throws the torch forward. As the torch leaves his hand, the gates of the palisade open to reveal the warrior priest.
The torch hits the oil and pitch, igniting a raging inferno. The heat from the flames forces him to back away quickly. The Hand of Asran backs away as well. Suddenly from beside him, he hears Brother Willim gasp.
Returning his gaze to the inferno, he sees four creatures emerging from the flames. Half the size of a horse and looking like a large wolf, these creatures turn their red eyes on James and the priests of Asran. One raises its head and howls then all four spring forward.
Dreading another encounter with these creatures, James backs away quickly. Over the winter, he’s worked on various methods to deal with them should he ever encounter them again. He reaches into a small pouch on his belt and removes one of two glowing crystals contained within. Throwing it into the path of the charging creatures, he turns and races away.
Brother Willim and his men turn as well and break into a run.
When the lead creature reaches the crystal, James cries out, “Encase!”
A flash of blue light and the creature becomes encased in a block of ice. The red eyes within begin growing dim as the ice steals the heat, and thus its life, away. The other three bound around the encased creature and continue the pursuit. James tosses down the remaining crystal in their path and a moment later, another of the creatures is immobilized in ice.
“What in god’s name are those?” Ceadric cries out.
“James called them hell hounds,” replies Jiron. When Ceadric draws his sword and makes to go to his aid, Jiron stops him. “Swords won’t harm them,” he explains. “This is something James has to handle on his own.”
Gazing at the events unfolding before him, Ceadric slams his sword back in its scabbard with a curse.
The fire continues to rage, though it is starting to subside now that the fuel sustaining it is being used up. A portion of the palisade is on fire and they can see men working to put it out before it’s destroyed. Black, noxious fumes roll over the battlefield, most of it rolling back over the Empire’s forces.
James turns and faces the remaining creatures, the shield around him shimmers in the sunlight. Just as before, the creatures strike at the shield causing a jump in the amount of magic required to maintain the barrier. This time, however, he uses the knowledge gained from the last time he faced these creatures and the shimmer of the shield turns slightly blue. When one of the creatures again raises a paw to touch the barrier, it pulls it back with a yelp as the coldness of the shield burns it.
The creatures pace around the shield as they try to figure a way in. As they pace, the ground under them suddenly erupts as vines rise from the earth to ensnare them. Casting a look to Brother Willim, he sees the Hand standing several yards away, one of the brothers lost in concentration.
“The warrior priest!” another brother says as he points toward the now dying fire. The flames seem to roll back as a path is cleared through the fire. Making his way through the now cleared area walks the warrior priest.
“You take care of the creatures,” Brother Willim tells James. “We’ll deal with him!”
James nods his head just as the sun overhead is blotted out. Glancing to the sky, he sees a large dark mass approaching from the east. Then the dark mass abruptly descends from the heavens rapidly. At first afraid this may be some ploy of the warrior priest, he’s soon to learn it’s in fact a large flock of birds. Hundreds, thousands of birds consisting of dozens of species both large and small, dive toward the walls above the palisade and begin attacking the crossbowmen and soldiers lining the top. Pecking, scratching, tearing, they stop the hail of bolts that had begun again once the fire subsided enough for them to see.
Distracted by the sight of the birds, he fails to pay close enough attention to the circling creatures. Before he even realizes, they both simultaneously strike the shield. The abrupt spike in magic required to sustain it takes his breath away. The creatures howl in pain as the cold of the shield burns them, but do not relent. They begin pushing their way through, the acrid smoke coming from where the shield burns them fills the inner area of the shield.
Starting to cough, James is finding it more and more difficult to draw a breath without inhaling the nauseating smoke. He increases still further the amount of power to his shield as he drops its temperature. It drops to a certain point and then ceases to fall any further. Having two creatures of fire forcing their way through must inhibit its ability to become colder.
Each of the creatures has a foreleg inside the shield, their snouts now beginning to press through. James knows he can’t prevent them from coming through and when they do, he’s toast. Toast, he almost chuckles at the pun.
He does have one more ploy to attempt, but to do it he’ll have to drop his shield for the required amount of magic he’ll need. The problem there is that when he drops his shield, he’ll have but a split second before the creatures are upon him. Realizing he has no choice, he closes his eyes and prepares.
The sound of an explosion from outside the shield comes to him but he doesn’t allow it to break his concentration. When he’s ready, he turns to face one of the creatures, the other is behind him. As he drops his shield he leaps to the side just as two more shields, one around each of the creatures spring into being.
When his protective shield dropped, the creatures were propelled forward by the force they were exerting to breach the barrier. Then a fraction of a second before they struck each other in the middle where James used to be, the shields encasing each spring into life.
The battle between the warrior priest and the Hand of Asran wages behind him but he doesn’t let that distract him from the creatures before him. Snarling, biting, scratching, the creatures try to escape their confines. Unlike the shield they tried to breach that had surrounded him, these shields move with them sort of like a hamster in an exercise ball. The magic used to sustain them is much less than when they were trying to breach his protective shield.
Concentrating now on just one of the encased creatures, he decreases the temperature of the shield, which is possible now with the heat of but one creature to contend with. Also, he begins shrinking the shield in around the creature until it is barely able to move. The outer shell of the barrier begins to frost from the coldness within, he can feel the creature struggle mightily to escape and increases the strength and integrity of the shield as he continues collapsing it.
Spots begin to dance in front of his eyes from the struggle to maintain one shield while collapsing the other. His throat dries up and his breathing becomes labored. Behind him, he hears a cry as one of the brothers falls in the battle with the warrior priest, the sound of birds still fills the air.
Now down to the size of a basketball, the shrinking shield finally collapses completely and disappears as the creature dies and vanishes. Turning to the remaining creature, he begins shrinking its confining shield same as the other. This time, with but one shield to maintain, the draw of magic isn’t nearly as bad. Still, his inner reserves are all but depleted and the effects upon him are becoming more pronounced.