Lord of the realm

Chapter 209: Attack the legion

Ba’narussa began her descent, spiraling down toward the legion’s position. As they dropped below the tree line, as the full scale of the enemy force became clear, Jaenor felt his power surge in response.

Golden-red energy flowed around him, his eyes blazing with light that made even demons look away. This was what he’d become, something beyond normal human capability, something that could stand against armies.

Time to prove it.

*

Ba’narussa hit the legion’s flank like a heavy boulder.

Her seven heads struck simultaneously into their formations, each one tearing through demons with contemptuous ease. Her claws raked across the ground, opening bodies. Her tail swept in massive arcs, crushing dozens with each swing.

Jaenor leaped from her back while she was still moving, and where he landed, demons died.

His origin aura manifested as pure cutting force, blades that extended from his hands in sweeping arcs, each one cleaving through multiple targets. He moved through the demon ranks like a hurricane given human form, leaving devastation in his wake.

A Black Orc tried to coordinate a defense, shouting orders to form a phalanx against the assault. Jaenor appeared beside it before the orders finished, and his blade took its head off cleanly. The body remained standing for a heartbeat before collapsing, and the demons around it broke and ran.

But there were so many of them.

For every dozen Jaenor killed, two dozen more surged forward. The sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm through attrition rather than capability.

Then his companions hit the legion from multiple angles.

Baren transformed mid-leap from Ba’narussa’s back, his human form exploding into draconic magnificence. His scorched orange scales caught the light as he crashed into a concentrated mass of Black Orcs, scattering them like bowling pins.

His claws tore through their ranks with devastating efficiency. His fangs closed on a Black Orc champion, one of the larger ones, probably a sub-commander and with a violent shake, he ripped it apart. Blood sprayed across his scales, and he roared a challenge to anything else brave or stupid enough to face him.

The Black Orc horde tried to respond, tried to form ranks that could threaten a dragon. Spears were brought forward, the long polearms that could theoretically reach past his immediate defenses.

Baren’s response was to launch skyward, his wings beating powerfully, then dive back down with all his mass concentrated into a single point.

The impact created a shockwave that flattened demons in a thirty-foot radius, and the Black Orcs’ formation shattered completely.

Meanwhile, Taeryn and Darian had engaged the legion’s regular soldiers, corrupted fighters who’d once served noble houses or provincial militias, now fighting alongside demons.

These weren’t mindless monsters. They were trained warriors with actual tactics and coordination. That made them dangerous in ways pure demons weren’t.

Taeryn’s spear work was a thing of brutal elegance. He’d always been fast, but recent battles had honed his speed into something approaching superhuman. His weapon found gaps in armor with unerring precision, each strike disabling or killing.

He fought defensively, using superior mobility to avoid being pinned down, making the soldiers chase him into positions where they were vulnerable. When three tried to surround him, he led them into a killing zone where Darian waited.

The black knight’s sword swept in devastating arcs, and the three soldiers fell in pieces.

Darian had positioned himself at a chokepoint between two burning buildings, creating a narrow corridor where numbers meant nothing.

Soldiers tried to break through, tried to overwhelm him through sheer weight of bodies. He cut them all down with methodical efficiency, his armor absorbing hits that would have crippled unprotected fighters.

Raelana supported them both with tactical barriers.

She didn’t try to protect everyone; that would have spread her too thin. Instead, she created obstacles that funneled enemy movements, forced them into disadvantageous positions, and bought seconds that Taeryn and Darian converted into kills.

A group of soldiers tried to flank around Darian’s position, thinking they’d found an opening. Raelana’s barrier appeared directly in their path, and they crashed into it at full sprint.

While they were stunned and disoriented, Taeryn’s spear found them.

But the witch sisters, they were the real threat.

Elizabeth and Katerina had positioned themselves at the legion’s rear, coordinating the overall response to this sudden assault. Their origin energy blazed with corrupted power, tainted by whatever dark bargain they’d made.

And they were looking for opponents worthy of their attention.

They found them.

*

Morgana and Rena approached the witch sisters with grim determination.

They’d split off from the main assault specifically to engage these two, partly because someone needed to and partly because Morgana felt personal responsibility.

These were Coven witches, women she’d worked alongside, whose corruption represented a betrayal of everything the Covens claimed to stand for.

Elizabeth saw them coming and smiled, a cold expression that held no warmth.

"Well, well, well, the Morgana Arkwright. I’d heard you were reunited with your nephew. How does it feel to revive a cursed bloodline?"

"Better than betraying my oaths and slaughtering innocents," Morgana shot back.

Katerina laughed, harsh and mocking.

"Oaths. You still believe in those? In the Covens’ pretty lies about protecting the realm?"

She spat on the ground.

"We were tools. Disposable assets sent to fight and die while the Mother Supreme played politics in her tower. At least our new masters are honest about what they want."

"They want you dead," Rena said flatly.

"Once you’ve served your purpose. That’s what demons do; they use and discard. You’re too stupid to see it."

"Ah, what have we become?" Katerina stared at Rena and said, "Even a child is lecturing us."

"And you’re too weak to matter," Katerina snarled.

She attacked.

Origin energy manifested as force lances, concentrated projectiles that could punch through stone. A dozen of them launched simultaneously, each one aimed with killing precision.

Morgana’s barriers appeared instantly, layered defenses that caught most of the lances.

But Katerina was a Battle Witch; she’d trained specifically to break through defensive techniques. Several lances penetrated, forcing Morgana to dodge rather than block.

Rena wasn’t a target of that initial assault. She was too obviously non-threatening, small, and minimally powered.

Both witch sisters dismissed her as irrelevant.

That was a mistake.

While Katerina focused on Morgana, while Elizabeth prepared her own assault, Rena moved. She’d been trained by the coven, and one of the key lessons was simple: when your opponent underestimates you, make them pay for it.

Her crossbow came up, the bolt already loaded. Not a normal projectile, this one had been infused with origin energy, making it more lethal.

She fired at Katerina’s exposed side, aiming for the gap between armor plates where ribs would be.

The bolt struck true.

Katerina screamed, surprise and pain combined, and stumbled.

The wound wasn’t fatal, but it was disabling enough to break her concentration, to make her origin energy techniques falter.

Elizabeth’s response was instant and furious. She turned toward Rena, her hands already weaving patterns that would have torn the smaller woman apart.

Morgana hit her from behind.

She seized Elizabeth’s own power as it manifested, used the witch sister’s momentum against her, and redirected the attack back at its source.

Elizabeth barely managed to throw up a shield before her own technique would have killed her. The explosion of energy sent her flying backward, crashing through the wall of a nearby building.

"You’re working together," Katerina snarled, one hand pressed against her wounded side.

"How touching. The master and the peasant, thinking they can fight real warriors."

"We don’t need to fight you," Morgana said calmly.

"We just need to delay you long enough for Jaenor to finish with the demons. Then he’ll deal with you personally."

Morgana was aware that the witch sisters had consumed the dark origin energy, and she could detect how they surpassed their previous levels. She couldn’t kill them at her level and could only make them stop.

Fear flickered across Katerina’s face before she could suppress it. She’d heard the reports and knew what the Arkwright boy had become.

"He’s occupied," she said, trying to sound confident.

"Fighting three thousand demons. By the time he’s done, we’ll have—"

"Three thousand demons?" Rena laughed without humor.

"He killed a demon legion led by Pride himself. Your little army is nothing."

Elizabeth emerged from the collapsed building, her armor cracked, blood running from a cut above her eye.

"Then we’d better kill you quickly and assist our forces," she said.

Both witch sisters attacked simultaneously now, coordinating their techniques the way only people who’d fought together for years could manage. Elizabeth created barriers that channeled movement, while Katerina launched projectiles that forced defensive responses. They wove their powers together, creating combined effects that were greater than the sum of their parts.

It was devastatingly professional. The kind of teamwork that came from hundreds of battles and absolute trust in your partner’s capabilities.

Morgana and Rena fought back with everything they had, but they were outmatched.

The dark origin was more volatile and had much more destructive ability than the origin energy Morgana used.

They were losing.