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Seeing his chance, Jiron moves forward quickly and engages the first man before he has a chance to recover. A quick series of blows at the unbalanced soldier soon has him falling to the ground, his life’s blood draining rapidly from the mortal wound in his side.

His partner, having regained his balance, draws his sword and advances upon Jiron.

Horns sound from all over as more forces rush to join in the fray. Foot soldiers begin swarming toward them from the direction of the encampment.

Crumph! Crumph! Crumph!

The northern force begins to be decimated as they start to feel the brunt of James’ magic. As the rear riders make it through the falling debris from the explosions, they start to fall as James begins knocking them off their horses with stones.

As he continues taking out the force coming toward them from the north, Jiron faces off with the remaining soldier from the southern force. Deflecting the man’s sword with skill honed through years of fighting in the fight pits back in the City of Light with one knife, he follows through with his other and leaves a red trail along the man’s forearm as he opens up a six inch long cut.

Jiron sees Aleya moving behind the man he’s fighting, going to the men she felled with her arrows. Whenever she gets one removed from a dead man, she immediately turns and fires it at the oncoming horsemen to the north.

“Get the horses!” he cries at her as he agilely moves to avoid a thrust by the soldier.

She glances to him and he jumps back to disengage from the soldier as he points to where several horses who weren’t either killed or wounded have congregated. Nodding her head, she leaves her arrows in the dead men as she rushes over to the horses.

Reengaging the man, he feints to the head and when the soldier raises his sword to guard against the attack, he lashes out with his foot, taking him in the knee. A snap can be heard as the knee breaks and the man cries out in pain. Falling to the ground, he’s easy prey to Jiron’s knives and soon lies dead.

A quick glance shows the advancing footmen from the camp are still a ways away. He turns toward the advancing northern force and sees James has already reduced their number significantly.

Crumph!

Another explosion sends more riders and horses into the air, leaving only four from the original force of thirty left moving in their direction.

James is visibly tiring. The hard run earlier, plus the magic is taking its toll. He arcs his arm back and sends another stone flying as it takes out the lead rider, leaving three on the way.

As he gets ready to throw another stone, an arrow whizzes past and strikes the lead horse square in the chest. The horse stumbles and falls, tripping the horse next to it. Its rider is thrown and hits the ground hard, breaking his neck.

The remaining rider rides straight toward them, James and Jiron dive out of the way. The rider’s sword comes within bare inches of James’ head as he passes. Turning, the rider comes again at James, intent on trampling him with his horse’s hooves.

Just before he reaches James, Jiron leaps toward the rider and pulls him from his horse. A quick thrust with a knife leaves the rider dead. Getting up, he looks around just as another stone from James takes out the remaining advancing soldier.

“Get on!” Aleya says from where she sits atop one of the horses she’d appropriated. With two others in tow, she rides over to them and they quickly mount.

The tingling sensation of a mage doing magic suddenly washes over him. Looking to the approaching force from the camp, he can see a rider in a hooded robe, galloping fast as he begins pulling ahead of the footmen. “Jiron!” he exclaims as he points over to the approaching mage.

Jiron turns just in time to see a glowing ball of fire materialize above the mage and soar with lightning speed toward them.

James summons the magic and creates a barrier in the fireball’s path. A great roaring explosion erupts when the fireball connects with the barrier, spraying flame and fire in all directions.

Spurring their