Guilty Gear fic: Chain of Command - part 2
Title: Chain of Command
Part: 2/3
Summary: Ky didn't become commander of the Holy Order at sixteen without leaving a story or two behind him along the way.
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Word count: 3680
Notes:
I dithered a bit about how many of familiar attacks Ky should be able to use at this stage of the timeline, but eventually decided to err on the side of what would make the battle scenes more interesting. First part is here.
The six attacks on the facility where Ky had completed his formal training over the last year had included two which had been intercepted by the Order before they were close enough to be seen as more than the flicker of magical fire and the shriek of dying monsters in the distance, a third which came so close before the Order’s forces swept in that Ky and a number of other advanced students had been left psyched up for battle and feeling slightly foolish, and a fourth in which undergraduates had only participated as an arguably superfluous supplement to a small unit of soldiers - permitted as a training exercise. The remaining two attacks suffered no such interruption, and everyone down to students who were years Ky’s junior had fought long and hard by the time reinforcements finally came. That total did not include another three encounters with lost or injured Gears which had become separated from larger forces and strayed close enough to the town to be spotted and dealt with. By the time the Order got around to signing him on officially, he could already take down a medium-class Gear single-handedly.
The clerks who waved through the few pieces of paperwork required may not have known all those details, but that didn’t matter - Ky already came with more recommendations from his instructors than anyone in their history. Those forms could have included a birth-date that made him two years younger that the minimum allowed and they would still have conveniently managed not to notice it long enough to sign him up. If he’d been even a year or two older, he’d very likely have been given officer rank even with no formal field experience whatsoever. The Order was desperate for people with half his talent and none of his experience.
The difference that came with his new status was only that battles came more often, were better planned for and, often as not, he had the chance to see them coming. Hours or days could sometimes pass between the initial briefing and the attack. There was time to prepare - or to over-think and get nervous.
Ky had more to think about than he’d ever had before.
He shifted uneasily, flicking a hand in a futile attempt to discourage a trio of flies that had been plaguing him ever since he’d stepped from the airship. It was still far too warm for comfort, nevermind that the sun had set the best part of an hour ago, and there was no easy way to cool himself down that wouldn’t risk giving away their position. Huddled on the ground too close together in too many layers of the Holy Order’s uniform, the heat was far from welcome. Ky recalled the burst of pride he’d experienced on the first time he’d worn his new Order uniform - still not so long ago - and wondered whether this sort of discomfort was just what he’d earned for his vanity.
Only a few feet in front of them, the ridge which provided most of their cover ended and the ground sloped down and away sharply until it reached the bottom of an old, dry riverbed. On the far side it rose again in mirror image, finally flattening off again under thick vegetation which provided just enough cover to hide another unit of their troops in the dim light. How long ago and for what cause the river had ceased flowing this mission had given them no opportunity to learn, but it had once flowed long and hard enough to cut a narrow valley into the landscape, and it was this that the Gears were using for cover on this leg of their journey inland. It may not have been nearly large enough to conceal them from view altogether, and not at all from above, but in wide grassland country where imminent Gear attack would be associated with raging monsters which would be seen from far away - and where watchtowers and guards were few and far between, it offered a rare opportunity for a stealthy advancement. It was only fortunate that the Order had become aware of this movement before it got any further inland, there would have been precious little chance to do so otherwise.
Already, Ky could make out glimpses of movement in the distance as the Gear force approached, the tallest of the larger bipedal classes bent double to walk on all fours so as to make the most of the cover the river valley provided. Though still some way off, the whole procession was eerily silent. The roar of an enraged large-class Gear in battle was not a sound easily forgotten, these were living weapons which fought with little more sense than the wild beasts from which the majority of them were derived. To see this many moving with such quiet purpose was unsettling in a way not even the sight of them in battle had ever been.
Gears under the command of the Commander Gear, Ky’s memory echoed at him, recalling the conversation from some hours previously. Sol might not have thought much of his analysis, but seeing this in action now it was harder than ever to guess what other answer he could have expected.
Judging by the quality of the light and speed at which the Gears seemed to be moving, Ky guessed there had to be at least another twenty minutes to go before the leaders drew level with the furthermost of their forces and the signal would go up that the ambush should commence. Night was falling fast, another part of the elaborate plan they were following. The darkness - so it was hoped - would give them the cover they’d need to remain hidden until the time was right (another failing of that fancy uniform was that it had scarcely been designed for camouflage). It would also put the Gears off guard, since the enemy was very much aware that humans did not willingly launch attacks at night, for the very good reason that most classes of Gear had far better night vision than humans. Of course, their captain had come up with a plan to deal with that as well…
Ky only hoped the phase that followed would go half as smoothly, letting the thought cross his mind one last time before making himself squash it down and concentrate. He’d been able to think about little else all day.
He knew this was a battle like any other, that finding the calm and focus to allow himself to place all his concentration into the task he’d been assigned had to come before all other distractions. He knew the plan he had been ordered to follow. He knew that the plan was flawed - perhaps fatally so, that a soldier who appeared to know more about fighting Gears than anyone else in their regiment had told him it would be worse than he’d ever imagined - that they were to fight a fool’s battle and men all around him would lose their lives here today. He knew that the reason his hands had started shaking the moment he loosened his grip on his sword had nothing to do with the temperature. He knew he had done everything in his limited power to change this when he spoke at the briefing. He knew the importance of following the chain of command, that whatever he might think of the instructions he’d been given, his only option short of that short of outright insubordination was to obey.
It did not cross his mind that he could die here today. They had a war to fight and win, a hundred years of terror to avenge, God’s will to carry out. He had too much left to do to let himself die yet.
He could hear the Gears moving now, the thunder of feet large and small in the riverbed directly in front of where he lay, though he couldn’t risk looking up to see anymore - not when they were this close. Somewhere mixed in with the rumbling in his ears was the sound of his own heartbeat, faster than even the combined patter of feet of the smallest Gears, counting down the milliseconds that were left. Surely there couldn’t be more than another minute left to go.
The flash when it came was bright enough that Ky saw it clearly even though its nearest source came from behind his head and his eyes were shielded. All along the valley, powerful magical light sources burst into existence at carefully selected points, illuminating the prospective battlefield with an intensity near daylight. Instantly there came the deafening roar of dozens of startled Gears, as eyes that had been adjusting for the gloom over the last hour were suddenly assaulted by brilliant, white light. Yelling at the top of their lungs to be heard over the cacophony, officers on both sides of the riverbed screamed out the command to charge, scarcely necessary after a signal so unmistakable - already men were rising to their feet. For one brief, crazy moment, this was pure exhilaration itself.
Ky’s unit leapt from their hiding place and on to the ridge almost as a single man. There were black spots in the corners of Ky’s vision, but he could see the Gear army now clearly for the first time, a swarm of small and mid range class creatures milling around below them, no less fierce for their disorientation at such a sudden attack. And right before Ky’s eyes, the largest Gear he had ever seen so close was rising to its full height. It kept on rising until it towered over their heads, even with its feet still flat on the riverbed far below. It was a twisted creature, two-footed and bald but for a few tufts of wiry hair that stuck like bristles from its skin, just humanoid enough to be far more hideous in its deformation than familiar.
There were gasps from the men either side of him, the rattle of weapons being raised and grips shifted. Ky found himself not so much scared as suddenly and acutely aware that things had gotten very bad faster than he’d ever imagined they would have. The giant Gear let out a roar, deeper in pitch to the sounds its companions had been making scarce moments before, and raked a long taloned arm down towards the men beneath it - faster than any creature that size should have been able to move. Ky dived to the ground even as others to the left and right of him did likewise, all making it to safety just in time. At the end of the line the very last man waited almost too long in indecision over which way to run, then threw himself out of the way at the last moment, only to be hoisted into the air as the tip of a claw snagged on the fabric of his overcoat. He was lifted a dozen feet upwards before the material finally gave way and left him cast off in mid air. He landed with no more grace than could be expected, his sword jolted from his grip on landing with a yelp of pain.
Seeing his men’s hesitation rising into terror, the officer in charge of the unit looked from face to desperate face. “What do you think you’re doing? Stand and face it! Prepare the most powerful offensive magic we have to fire on my mark. This is the purpose of the whole magical division, we can’t let one monster take us down!”
Men raised their heads in response, moving too slowly to figure out how to obey. The officer had been the first to make it back to his feet and had turned his back to the battlefield to address them. He never saw what was coming. Ky made himself look away as the claw closed on the man and lifted him skywards - this was not going to be something he wanted to watch.
Flame flickered in the corner of his vision as the man to his left abandoned his weapon and put his full concentration into readying a spell - not an attempt to follow the officer’s last order, this was pure reactionary impulse, no thought in it at all.
“No, there’s not…!” Ky started to yell, knowing even a Gear couldn’t miss what the man was doing, but he wasn’t seeing anything past the ends of his own fingers. Cursing, Ky grabbed the spellcaster by the arm and dragged him down, barely in time to make any difference, the descending claw still raked across the soldier’s chest in a spray of blood.
Another poorly aimed fire spell bounced off the thick hide of the Gear’s shoulder and did little more than enrage the beast. None of the other men dared even try.
This was madness. They were at the worst possible height and distance to tackle a Gear of this size - all it had to do was reach out and pick them off one by one.
“Fall back!” Ky yelled at the other men. “From here, we’re nothing but targets! Everyone, back over the ridge!”
“But our orders were to hold position no matter…” another soldier protested. Ky did not wait to let him finish.
“What good are orders to dead men? Hurry!”
Around him, men stunned enough to take instruction from anyone left still sensible enough to give them hurried to obey. Ky looped his own arm around the back of the injured man and dragged him to his feet. The wound was serious, but if they could just get clear he might yet survive this. The man was barely fit enough to move his legs at a supported stumble, and Ky didn’t much like his chance of being able to get them both out of the way if the Gear came back for them again - so much so that he was briefly relieved to glance over a shoulder and see that the creature had been so distracted by the sight of the rest of the unit running that it had forgotten its wounded prey. Relief faded fast when he saw the giant Gear taking its first lumbering steps out of the riverbed in pursuit. Of course it would have to follow them; it could even be turned to their advantage if it gave them the chance to regroup on more favourable terrain, but there were still men down there - some of the injured and struggling up from further down the slope - and at this rate the Gear would reach them too quickly.
He had to do something - and do it now, even without a good plan in mind, or it would be too late. Ky dragged his companion the last few feet to the relative safety behind the ridge, turned and ran back. Bringing a hand through a sharp arc, he channelled just enough magic through his fingertips and released one of the lightning projectiles that had made his last instructor drop his clipboard when Ky had first demonstrated it all those months ago and swear it was past time to retire. His aim rang true, the bolt hit the Gear directly below its left eye, making it roar in pain and allowing the two men helping the last wounded soldier to slip through its claws.
The recoiling beast gave Ky a little time to start his next move, and he couldn’t afford to waste that. As soon as it figured out where that blow had come from it would be on him in seconds - this had to be finished now, before what advantage he had was lost. There was no hope of outrunning something with legs longer than he was tall in country like this. Acting on little more than instinct, Ky made for the one opening he had to attack. He raced towards and under the giant, to where its left foot rested on those vicious claws, and thrust his sword as deeply as he could into its ankle. He took a moment, consciously making himself forget every rule and overrule every habit he’d learned in his last five years about control, and channelled every volt of magic he could muster through the blade.
The Gear did not roar - it screamed, as every muscle below its knee clenched involuntarily. Feeling the monster lose its balance, Ky pressed a foot against its skin and wrenched his sword free - and none too soon, as the creature reacted on instinct to lift its wounded foot into the perceived safety of the air, but misjudged its balance on one leg and began to topple over backwards.
One disadvantage of being the tallest thing that stood on high ground - it had that much further to fall.
In the riverbed below, small Gears scurried left and right to get out of the way before the giant fell. The Gear landed nearly head first, only lucky that the river bed was too soft and sandy to split its skull on impact, and lay there, stunned and groaning.
“Now!” Ky heard himself yelling to the other men. “This is our chance! Charge!” He took off down the slope without another thought, barely aware of the ache in his sword arm, picking up speed so fast that it was only by luck that he managed to keep his footing on the unfamiliar ground.
Blocking his path was a half-stunned Gear of one of the smaller classes, ‘smaller’ meaning only that it was nearly twice his height. Ky leapt, mid-stride, and swung his sword to slash through its throat before it ever realised he was coming, and landed again without missing a step. So intent was he on his target that even the Gear had been little more than an obstruction to him - he’d barely seen it was there. He was almost to the river bed before it ever dawned on him he may have rushed in too hastily. There were plenty of other Gears down here still, and not even the fall of the giant had startled them for long. But it was too late to stop now, Ky gathered his magic again, finding more than he would have believed he had left, and let his momentum carry him charging into their midst at the centre of a crackling ball of lightening.
The effect on the assembled Gears below was… surprisingly satisfactory.
Ky hesitated long enough to wonder what he’d just done. It had been no more than the most impromptu kind of tactics, magic focused and released in bursts at speed, riding in on his own power with little or no conscious control, but the results on the half a dozen stunned or wounded Gears lying in his path spoke for itself. It might seem inelegant in principle, but it would be an invaluable trick to master. If he could just find a way to refine it slightly, to waste less power…
He shook himself, this was hardly the pace to stop and think about such things, when the enemy was getting back to its feet either side of him. After that showy entrance, enough damage had been done that the odds had shifted rather more in his favour. As he whirled and slashed at his foes, Ky was surprised to discover that there was a part of him that was enjoying that. It was exhilarating, to fight for almost the very first time without having to hold back for fear of getting too serious against a sparring opponent, or mind his footwork too closely under the eyes of instructors watching for the slightest technical mistake. As much as Ky had always prided himself on his control and ability to keep his head in the worst of situations, this - sang his blood - was what battle was all about, yourself pitted along against the strongest opponent you could just barely beat. This was where you found out how good you really were.
The last Gear went down under a well aimed bolt of lightening without ever getting the chance to recover from the previous blow, and Ky whirled through a full 360 degrees, first in one and then the other direction before he realised there was no longer a single living Gear within a dozen yards of where he stood.
It suddenly dawned on him that in the heat of battle he’d completely forgotten what first brought him charging down here - the downed giant Gear. He whirled around again, discovering as he did so that the last skirmish had carried him further away from it than he’d ever intended, and laid eyes on it again just in time to see the giant’s head being pierced clean through by a pillar of ice. The other men from his unit milled around it on both sides.
Far from wasting his effort, Ky had played a vital role in holding off enemy forces long enough to give the other men the space and time needed to ready the killing blow. Several of them were looking at him with a new kind of respect. Even though Ky may not have had any kind of formal authority over them, right then they would have followed him anywhere he led.
The lull in that part of the valley wouldn’t last long.
“Everyone, fall back,” Ky called to the other men. “We can regroup behind the ridge. There’ll be plenty more giants left tonight, we need to be ready!” Even as he said it and the others moved to obey, he couldn’t fight down a shiver of elation, finding himself light-headed in a way not even the use of so much magic so quickly could account for. The battle might be desperate but it wasn’t unwinable - if he and a small troop of inexperienced soldiers could take down a Gear of this size so quickly, what couldn’t a whole army do?
Glancing quickly over a shoulder, Ky ran back up the slope.
It was then at that moment that three of the light spells illuminating the battlefield went out in quick succession, and near absolute darkness swept in from every side.
ETA: On to Part 3
Part: 2/3
Summary: Ky didn't become commander of the Holy Order at sixteen without leaving a story or two behind him along the way.
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Word count: 3680
Notes:
I dithered a bit about how many of familiar attacks Ky should be able to use at this stage of the timeline, but eventually decided to err on the side of what would make the battle scenes more interesting. First part is here.
The six attacks on the facility where Ky had completed his formal training over the last year had included two which had been intercepted by the Order before they were close enough to be seen as more than the flicker of magical fire and the shriek of dying monsters in the distance, a third which came so close before the Order’s forces swept in that Ky and a number of other advanced students had been left psyched up for battle and feeling slightly foolish, and a fourth in which undergraduates had only participated as an arguably superfluous supplement to a small unit of soldiers - permitted as a training exercise. The remaining two attacks suffered no such interruption, and everyone down to students who were years Ky’s junior had fought long and hard by the time reinforcements finally came. That total did not include another three encounters with lost or injured Gears which had become separated from larger forces and strayed close enough to the town to be spotted and dealt with. By the time the Order got around to signing him on officially, he could already take down a medium-class Gear single-handedly.
The clerks who waved through the few pieces of paperwork required may not have known all those details, but that didn’t matter - Ky already came with more recommendations from his instructors than anyone in their history. Those forms could have included a birth-date that made him two years younger that the minimum allowed and they would still have conveniently managed not to notice it long enough to sign him up. If he’d been even a year or two older, he’d very likely have been given officer rank even with no formal field experience whatsoever. The Order was desperate for people with half his talent and none of his experience.
The difference that came with his new status was only that battles came more often, were better planned for and, often as not, he had the chance to see them coming. Hours or days could sometimes pass between the initial briefing and the attack. There was time to prepare - or to over-think and get nervous.
Ky had more to think about than he’d ever had before.
He shifted uneasily, flicking a hand in a futile attempt to discourage a trio of flies that had been plaguing him ever since he’d stepped from the airship. It was still far too warm for comfort, nevermind that the sun had set the best part of an hour ago, and there was no easy way to cool himself down that wouldn’t risk giving away their position. Huddled on the ground too close together in too many layers of the Holy Order’s uniform, the heat was far from welcome. Ky recalled the burst of pride he’d experienced on the first time he’d worn his new Order uniform - still not so long ago - and wondered whether this sort of discomfort was just what he’d earned for his vanity.
Only a few feet in front of them, the ridge which provided most of their cover ended and the ground sloped down and away sharply until it reached the bottom of an old, dry riverbed. On the far side it rose again in mirror image, finally flattening off again under thick vegetation which provided just enough cover to hide another unit of their troops in the dim light. How long ago and for what cause the river had ceased flowing this mission had given them no opportunity to learn, but it had once flowed long and hard enough to cut a narrow valley into the landscape, and it was this that the Gears were using for cover on this leg of their journey inland. It may not have been nearly large enough to conceal them from view altogether, and not at all from above, but in wide grassland country where imminent Gear attack would be associated with raging monsters which would be seen from far away - and where watchtowers and guards were few and far between, it offered a rare opportunity for a stealthy advancement. It was only fortunate that the Order had become aware of this movement before it got any further inland, there would have been precious little chance to do so otherwise.
Already, Ky could make out glimpses of movement in the distance as the Gear force approached, the tallest of the larger bipedal classes bent double to walk on all fours so as to make the most of the cover the river valley provided. Though still some way off, the whole procession was eerily silent. The roar of an enraged large-class Gear in battle was not a sound easily forgotten, these were living weapons which fought with little more sense than the wild beasts from which the majority of them were derived. To see this many moving with such quiet purpose was unsettling in a way not even the sight of them in battle had ever been.
Gears under the command of the Commander Gear, Ky’s memory echoed at him, recalling the conversation from some hours previously. Sol might not have thought much of his analysis, but seeing this in action now it was harder than ever to guess what other answer he could have expected.
Judging by the quality of the light and speed at which the Gears seemed to be moving, Ky guessed there had to be at least another twenty minutes to go before the leaders drew level with the furthermost of their forces and the signal would go up that the ambush should commence. Night was falling fast, another part of the elaborate plan they were following. The darkness - so it was hoped - would give them the cover they’d need to remain hidden until the time was right (another failing of that fancy uniform was that it had scarcely been designed for camouflage). It would also put the Gears off guard, since the enemy was very much aware that humans did not willingly launch attacks at night, for the very good reason that most classes of Gear had far better night vision than humans. Of course, their captain had come up with a plan to deal with that as well…
Ky only hoped the phase that followed would go half as smoothly, letting the thought cross his mind one last time before making himself squash it down and concentrate. He’d been able to think about little else all day.
He knew this was a battle like any other, that finding the calm and focus to allow himself to place all his concentration into the task he’d been assigned had to come before all other distractions. He knew the plan he had been ordered to follow. He knew that the plan was flawed - perhaps fatally so, that a soldier who appeared to know more about fighting Gears than anyone else in their regiment had told him it would be worse than he’d ever imagined - that they were to fight a fool’s battle and men all around him would lose their lives here today. He knew that the reason his hands had started shaking the moment he loosened his grip on his sword had nothing to do with the temperature. He knew he had done everything in his limited power to change this when he spoke at the briefing. He knew the importance of following the chain of command, that whatever he might think of the instructions he’d been given, his only option short of that short of outright insubordination was to obey.
It did not cross his mind that he could die here today. They had a war to fight and win, a hundred years of terror to avenge, God’s will to carry out. He had too much left to do to let himself die yet.
He could hear the Gears moving now, the thunder of feet large and small in the riverbed directly in front of where he lay, though he couldn’t risk looking up to see anymore - not when they were this close. Somewhere mixed in with the rumbling in his ears was the sound of his own heartbeat, faster than even the combined patter of feet of the smallest Gears, counting down the milliseconds that were left. Surely there couldn’t be more than another minute left to go.
The flash when it came was bright enough that Ky saw it clearly even though its nearest source came from behind his head and his eyes were shielded. All along the valley, powerful magical light sources burst into existence at carefully selected points, illuminating the prospective battlefield with an intensity near daylight. Instantly there came the deafening roar of dozens of startled Gears, as eyes that had been adjusting for the gloom over the last hour were suddenly assaulted by brilliant, white light. Yelling at the top of their lungs to be heard over the cacophony, officers on both sides of the riverbed screamed out the command to charge, scarcely necessary after a signal so unmistakable - already men were rising to their feet. For one brief, crazy moment, this was pure exhilaration itself.
Ky’s unit leapt from their hiding place and on to the ridge almost as a single man. There were black spots in the corners of Ky’s vision, but he could see the Gear army now clearly for the first time, a swarm of small and mid range class creatures milling around below them, no less fierce for their disorientation at such a sudden attack. And right before Ky’s eyes, the largest Gear he had ever seen so close was rising to its full height. It kept on rising until it towered over their heads, even with its feet still flat on the riverbed far below. It was a twisted creature, two-footed and bald but for a few tufts of wiry hair that stuck like bristles from its skin, just humanoid enough to be far more hideous in its deformation than familiar.
There were gasps from the men either side of him, the rattle of weapons being raised and grips shifted. Ky found himself not so much scared as suddenly and acutely aware that things had gotten very bad faster than he’d ever imagined they would have. The giant Gear let out a roar, deeper in pitch to the sounds its companions had been making scarce moments before, and raked a long taloned arm down towards the men beneath it - faster than any creature that size should have been able to move. Ky dived to the ground even as others to the left and right of him did likewise, all making it to safety just in time. At the end of the line the very last man waited almost too long in indecision over which way to run, then threw himself out of the way at the last moment, only to be hoisted into the air as the tip of a claw snagged on the fabric of his overcoat. He was lifted a dozen feet upwards before the material finally gave way and left him cast off in mid air. He landed with no more grace than could be expected, his sword jolted from his grip on landing with a yelp of pain.
Seeing his men’s hesitation rising into terror, the officer in charge of the unit looked from face to desperate face. “What do you think you’re doing? Stand and face it! Prepare the most powerful offensive magic we have to fire on my mark. This is the purpose of the whole magical division, we can’t let one monster take us down!”
Men raised their heads in response, moving too slowly to figure out how to obey. The officer had been the first to make it back to his feet and had turned his back to the battlefield to address them. He never saw what was coming. Ky made himself look away as the claw closed on the man and lifted him skywards - this was not going to be something he wanted to watch.
Flame flickered in the corner of his vision as the man to his left abandoned his weapon and put his full concentration into readying a spell - not an attempt to follow the officer’s last order, this was pure reactionary impulse, no thought in it at all.
“No, there’s not…!” Ky started to yell, knowing even a Gear couldn’t miss what the man was doing, but he wasn’t seeing anything past the ends of his own fingers. Cursing, Ky grabbed the spellcaster by the arm and dragged him down, barely in time to make any difference, the descending claw still raked across the soldier’s chest in a spray of blood.
Another poorly aimed fire spell bounced off the thick hide of the Gear’s shoulder and did little more than enrage the beast. None of the other men dared even try.
This was madness. They were at the worst possible height and distance to tackle a Gear of this size - all it had to do was reach out and pick them off one by one.
“Fall back!” Ky yelled at the other men. “From here, we’re nothing but targets! Everyone, back over the ridge!”
“But our orders were to hold position no matter…” another soldier protested. Ky did not wait to let him finish.
“What good are orders to dead men? Hurry!”
Around him, men stunned enough to take instruction from anyone left still sensible enough to give them hurried to obey. Ky looped his own arm around the back of the injured man and dragged him to his feet. The wound was serious, but if they could just get clear he might yet survive this. The man was barely fit enough to move his legs at a supported stumble, and Ky didn’t much like his chance of being able to get them both out of the way if the Gear came back for them again - so much so that he was briefly relieved to glance over a shoulder and see that the creature had been so distracted by the sight of the rest of the unit running that it had forgotten its wounded prey. Relief faded fast when he saw the giant Gear taking its first lumbering steps out of the riverbed in pursuit. Of course it would have to follow them; it could even be turned to their advantage if it gave them the chance to regroup on more favourable terrain, but there were still men down there - some of the injured and struggling up from further down the slope - and at this rate the Gear would reach them too quickly.
He had to do something - and do it now, even without a good plan in mind, or it would be too late. Ky dragged his companion the last few feet to the relative safety behind the ridge, turned and ran back. Bringing a hand through a sharp arc, he channelled just enough magic through his fingertips and released one of the lightning projectiles that had made his last instructor drop his clipboard when Ky had first demonstrated it all those months ago and swear it was past time to retire. His aim rang true, the bolt hit the Gear directly below its left eye, making it roar in pain and allowing the two men helping the last wounded soldier to slip through its claws.
The recoiling beast gave Ky a little time to start his next move, and he couldn’t afford to waste that. As soon as it figured out where that blow had come from it would be on him in seconds - this had to be finished now, before what advantage he had was lost. There was no hope of outrunning something with legs longer than he was tall in country like this. Acting on little more than instinct, Ky made for the one opening he had to attack. He raced towards and under the giant, to where its left foot rested on those vicious claws, and thrust his sword as deeply as he could into its ankle. He took a moment, consciously making himself forget every rule and overrule every habit he’d learned in his last five years about control, and channelled every volt of magic he could muster through the blade.
The Gear did not roar - it screamed, as every muscle below its knee clenched involuntarily. Feeling the monster lose its balance, Ky pressed a foot against its skin and wrenched his sword free - and none too soon, as the creature reacted on instinct to lift its wounded foot into the perceived safety of the air, but misjudged its balance on one leg and began to topple over backwards.
One disadvantage of being the tallest thing that stood on high ground - it had that much further to fall.
In the riverbed below, small Gears scurried left and right to get out of the way before the giant fell. The Gear landed nearly head first, only lucky that the river bed was too soft and sandy to split its skull on impact, and lay there, stunned and groaning.
“Now!” Ky heard himself yelling to the other men. “This is our chance! Charge!” He took off down the slope without another thought, barely aware of the ache in his sword arm, picking up speed so fast that it was only by luck that he managed to keep his footing on the unfamiliar ground.
Blocking his path was a half-stunned Gear of one of the smaller classes, ‘smaller’ meaning only that it was nearly twice his height. Ky leapt, mid-stride, and swung his sword to slash through its throat before it ever realised he was coming, and landed again without missing a step. So intent was he on his target that even the Gear had been little more than an obstruction to him - he’d barely seen it was there. He was almost to the river bed before it ever dawned on him he may have rushed in too hastily. There were plenty of other Gears down here still, and not even the fall of the giant had startled them for long. But it was too late to stop now, Ky gathered his magic again, finding more than he would have believed he had left, and let his momentum carry him charging into their midst at the centre of a crackling ball of lightening.
The effect on the assembled Gears below was… surprisingly satisfactory.
Ky hesitated long enough to wonder what he’d just done. It had been no more than the most impromptu kind of tactics, magic focused and released in bursts at speed, riding in on his own power with little or no conscious control, but the results on the half a dozen stunned or wounded Gears lying in his path spoke for itself. It might seem inelegant in principle, but it would be an invaluable trick to master. If he could just find a way to refine it slightly, to waste less power…
He shook himself, this was hardly the pace to stop and think about such things, when the enemy was getting back to its feet either side of him. After that showy entrance, enough damage had been done that the odds had shifted rather more in his favour. As he whirled and slashed at his foes, Ky was surprised to discover that there was a part of him that was enjoying that. It was exhilarating, to fight for almost the very first time without having to hold back for fear of getting too serious against a sparring opponent, or mind his footwork too closely under the eyes of instructors watching for the slightest technical mistake. As much as Ky had always prided himself on his control and ability to keep his head in the worst of situations, this - sang his blood - was what battle was all about, yourself pitted along against the strongest opponent you could just barely beat. This was where you found out how good you really were.
The last Gear went down under a well aimed bolt of lightening without ever getting the chance to recover from the previous blow, and Ky whirled through a full 360 degrees, first in one and then the other direction before he realised there was no longer a single living Gear within a dozen yards of where he stood.
It suddenly dawned on him that in the heat of battle he’d completely forgotten what first brought him charging down here - the downed giant Gear. He whirled around again, discovering as he did so that the last skirmish had carried him further away from it than he’d ever intended, and laid eyes on it again just in time to see the giant’s head being pierced clean through by a pillar of ice. The other men from his unit milled around it on both sides.
Far from wasting his effort, Ky had played a vital role in holding off enemy forces long enough to give the other men the space and time needed to ready the killing blow. Several of them were looking at him with a new kind of respect. Even though Ky may not have had any kind of formal authority over them, right then they would have followed him anywhere he led.
The lull in that part of the valley wouldn’t last long.
“Everyone, fall back,” Ky called to the other men. “We can regroup behind the ridge. There’ll be plenty more giants left tonight, we need to be ready!” Even as he said it and the others moved to obey, he couldn’t fight down a shiver of elation, finding himself light-headed in a way not even the use of so much magic so quickly could account for. The battle might be desperate but it wasn’t unwinable - if he and a small troop of inexperienced soldiers could take down a Gear of this size so quickly, what couldn’t a whole army do?
Glancing quickly over a shoulder, Ky ran back up the slope.
It was then at that moment that three of the light spells illuminating the battlefield went out in quick succession, and near absolute darkness swept in from every side.
ETA: On to Part 3