XX
“We fight tonight. Generals, gather your troops.”
“Not yet,” I interrupted. “Our guilds won’t like it. We just marched non-stop for days with no real rest or recovery.”
“There is no other choice. Your guilds should have been well trained, Ulterium, like my men, for times like now. We have to seize this advantage before it turns against us.”
“What about the Excavators?” Tarsus jumped in. “They’ll maul the best of your army; those sand dwellers don’t rest at night, you know.”
“Like I said, there is no other choice. If Geonyte assembles his army in time, we would lose more men than anticipated. But if we act right now, we can end this war. As for the Excavators, we would lose men either way to the inevitable. So we fight, tonight.”
“Did you forget about Tyrannust? His legion’s probably made it to Gee Oluun by now, aiding the overlord in assembling his troops.”
“I am fully aware of Tyrannust, and I don’t assume so much, as you do, Tarsus. We have to take a chance. This is our only shot.”
“Fulcan, just listen to Ulterium and I. Consider the cost. The risk is too high, and it’s not only about our men. Our men are more skilled than your best warrior, might I add.”
Fulcan glared at Tarsus, a tight face of accreting rage opposed by an unrelenting mien.
“Your army will not appreciate a thirty minute nap before marching towards Gee Oluun,” Tarsus continued, ignoring Fulcan’s gaze.
“Do you see any other option? We will do as I say. And you will speak no more about it! Generals!”
“How about the Excavators?” Tarsus repeated, evading the king’s command. “The capital city is miles and miles away from this crag; your army will be completely decimated by those sand beasts by the time they reach the city!”
“And if it means some men will die to save the lives of the rest, so be it!”
“Your men will hate you!”
“My men will obey me!”
“Fulcan, this battle isn’t just about you! Our nation is at stake! We need your men to survive!”
“We have so much at our advantage! Time is on our side! We have more men, more resources, more fighting power - we have the upper hand! We seize the moment now, or we watch our very nation crumble!”
“Just wait! There’s a greater chance of survival if we wait!”
“I will not lie in wait like you...a coward, that’s what you are! This is a chance I will take!”
“Coward? If I’m a coward, then what are you?”
“The king!”
Silence filled the tent. The entire crag was noiseless. Surely the men and women outside had awoken and overheard the exchange.
“I don’t give the smallest damn if you’re the king. Exile me if you wish, your majesty. Do you not care about your men? Were you placed in power to watch them die?”
“There is no more question about this. Know your place, boy. I was placed in power to lead, to make executive decisions, and not to be questioned by a coward. Go home, Octavius, you and your men, as you asked for. General Ehud, gather my men. Tonight we ride to the Gee Oluun. And tonight we will celebrate as victors, not cowards.”
I stood there silently. I didn’t know what to say or do. I had known Fulcan most of my life, but I strongly disagreed on his decision as well. Tarsus stormed out of the tent, infuriated.
“Fulcan, give me a minute,” I requested.
“Follow that renegade and go home too, if you disagree with me. I don’t need men who don’t cooperate.”
Without speaking any further, I quickly ran out of the tent, catching up to Tarsus.
“Tarsus! Where are you going?”
“Home!” Tarsus quickly responded loudly, pacing forwards briskly. “Like the damned king told me to!”
“So you’re going to leave us after all we’ve been through? Abandon the army? Abandon your guild?”
Suddenly, Tarsus turned around, grabbed me by my collar, and dragged me down behind a sand dune with a great force.
“Do you really think I’m going home?”
“What are you doing?” I yelled, brushing him off me and regaining my footing.
“Shut up and get down!” He hissed, pulling me down again. “Let me explain, now that we’re out of earshot!”
We were concealed behind a tall dune a couple meters away from the crag.
“There’s no changing of Fulcan’s mind, so what can I do but help?”
“What do you mean?”
“As much as I hate that damned king right now, as much as I want to stick my fist through his head, I’m putting this feud aside for the greater good.”
“That’s a first.”
“Don’t push me,” Tarsus glared, clenching his fists.
“Sorry,” I apologized quickly.
“If we don’t aid that king’s foolish plan tonight, the entire army will be gone by the time they reach Gee Oluun. The Excavators are merciless. I know what they are like, and mind you, the king knows nothing of them. Have you studied them before?”
“Not extensively. Why?”
“They go crazy when the scent of flesh is nearby. Like I said to Fulcan before, we’ve had personal encounters with these creatures. On this deserted island, if we want to get the lot of the army to Gee Oluun, we’d have to lure them off the path Fulcan is about to take.”
“Well why aren’t you telling Fulcan this?”
“Are you kidding? If I did, I'd be surrendering from that argument! I’d rather have him think that I was abandoning company, just to have him see my resourcefulness and beg for my help in the end.”
“You’re always like this, aren’t you? Maybe you should just humble yourself once in a while.”
Tarsus glared at me, stone cold.
“So...how do we bait out the Sand Excavators?” I added, quickly changing the topic.
“With men.”
“Are you saying-”
“Get your men and mine here, and I’ll explain to everyone all at once. Oh, and if you encounter Fulcan, please do me a favour and punch him. I’ll be watching. Go!”
I ran back to the crag and woke up the rest of the two guilds. Instructing them to go towards the tall sand dune, a firm hand suddenly gripped my shoulder as I turned around to leave.
“So you’re going as well?” Fulcan’s voiced bellowed. “Are you following that traitor home?”
I shook the king’s hand off my shoulder.
“Fulcan, you’ve known me for life. Don’t let my actions deceive you now. As for Tarsus, I can tell you he is a man pure at heart.”
With that, I turned around and fled from the crag with the two guilds.
“Go home! All of you! I never needed any of you!” Fulcan shouted behind us, enraged. “A shame Roslyn even met you back at Tenebris!”
“So, what’s the plan?” I started, crawling behind the dune.
“I just started falling asleep!” Kadava grumbled angrily. “What’s going on?”
Other guild members starting complaining too, tired and frustrated.
“Quiet! Long story short, the king’s exiled me and the Night Guild, and he also thinks your guild is leaving him and going home.”
“What?!” Kadava exclaimed.
“Shut up!” Tarsus hissed, pulling him down. “Now the king and his army is about to take out Geonyte. But he won’t make it far before the Excavators destroy his entire army.”
“So Fulcan thinks we’re leaving him, but we’re helping him? What is happening? And why are we even marching now? The army hasn’t even rested yet!”
“That’s exactly what I told the king. It’s a bad idea all in all, but he is the king, and I can’t change what he decrees.”
“Geonyte doesn’t have an army right now,” I interrupted, clearing the confusion. “Well, according to the scouts Fulcan had sent prior to us setting foot on this island. But keep in mind, the scouts just came back tonight, so the news isn’t completely new. Anyways, King Fulcan decided it was best to march to Gee Oluun tonight to take out the overlord before he is able to gather enough men to strike us. But Tarsus and I are concerned of the risks, if not the danger of the Excavators, the fact that Tyrannust may already have men on this island. Above that, Geonyte may have already assembled a small army at hand. The journey to Gee Oluun from here is around two days, and in two days, the overlord could have done so much. This would be a huge risk to take.”
“And yet they’re about to march,” Calliphar spoke, peering over the edge of the dune. “Look at his men! They’re staggering and swaying; they’re clearly exhausted!”
“As are we!” Pyrrhon added.
“They’re about to go? We have to act fast,” Tarsus replied. “The plan is simple: flank the army to bait the Excavators out so that Fulcan and his men will have a clear, straight path to Gee Oluun. You see the light in the distance?” Tarsus pointed east beyond the crag. A very faint speck glowed in the distant, and it wasn’t visible if you didn’t squint. “That’s Gee Oluun. There’s only one path, if it isn’t already evident,” Tarsus spoke, tracing his finger along an elevated desert trail that led to the horizon. “Note how the sides of the straight path depress downwards, both the left and the right side? We will be travelling in those makeshift valleys, flanking the left and right side of the path the army will travel. The valleys will conceal us from their view, and it’s also shallow enough for us to communicate with each other through signalling. The deeper we venture into the island, the more Excavators we will encounter.”
“If it takes two days to get to Gee Oluun, how are we going to camp? There’s no ‘safe-zone’ out there from the Excavators, especially if we’re travelling via the depressed valleys.”
“I might know a place or two,” Tarsus casually spoke. “Tell you something, I was thirteen when I first explored Gee Oluun.”
“So how do we bait out the Excavators?”
“Excavators attack from behind. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear a low thundering sound and feel the ground rumble before they leap out and maul you. And like I said, the closer you are to the heart of the island, the more Excavators you’ll encounter. So here’s the plan: we run ahead of the army, distracting the Excavators from devastating the warriors. When the Excavators are in the air, slash at their head and they’ll be gone in no time. Let’s hope we can get all of them.”
“A few notes to add in,” Calliphar spoke. “Sand Excavators are faster than you think. It may be easier running backwards - they’ll never attack from the front; only from behind. Also, if there are more than two people travelling together, the Excavators signal for backup to target the party. They ain’t pretty when they come in a cluster. We learned that the hard way.”
“That’s how we bait most of them; travelling in groups in both depressed ridges.”
Kadava looked at me and mouthed, “This isn’t a good idea.”
“We’ll split into four groups; two groups of four and two groups of three. Foku, Mirage, Drog, and Arcanor, flank right. Calliphar, Lexon, Chrikhil, and Pyrrhon, flank left. Konkurra, Kadava, go with Ulterium and flank right, ten meters ahead of Foku’s group. Sylvan, Glo, follow me. We’ll be flanking left, ten meters ahead of Calliphar’s group. You guys decide on formations within your groups.”
The fourteen guild members began to organize themselves quickly into the groups arranged by Tarsus before he added a final command.
“One last thing...make sure the army doesn’t spot you. The valleys should be able to conceal most of you. Just don’t do anything dumb. We’ll reconvene on my signal to make camp. Everyone clear?”
“Yes sir,” voices answered in unison.
“Let’s get at it!”
The four groups quickly formed, and we poured out from behind the dune towards the crag. I led Kadava and Konkurra to the right, and soon, the groups of guild members had formed four vertices ahead of the army, two groups in the right bank, two groups in the left. Tarsus raised his weapon in the dark night, reflecting the moonlight from his curved blade to signal all groups to halt. King Fulcan was still busy gathering his men, waking the dazed soldiers up from a short slumber, giving us time to advance ahead of him.
“Konkurra, Kadava, we’ll be travelling in a straight horizontal formation. If they attack from behind, we’ll have three blades ready to face them.”
“Sounds good.”
Kadava armed his two battle kunai while I took out my krises. Konkurra equipped a long bladed pole arm, her choice of weapon an elegant, intimidating selection.
“Konkurra, I’ll let you lead. I don’t know much about the Excavators, but I heard your guild has had previous encounters before.”
“Yes sir. But what Calliphar said back there isn’t entirely true, by the way. Some Excavators jump from the left or right side once in a while. Just make sure you have eyes behind and besides you.”
“Thank you for telling us. I’ll make note of it.”
Tarsus and his group was forty meters across from us, barricaded by the elevated sandy pathway. After a minute or so, he raised his shuang-gou and rotated his blade three times, the moonlight glinting off his hooked weapon that signalled us to start moving. At once, all four groups jogged ahead in unison. Low trembles began to quake the ground beneath, the vibrations coming closer and closer to us.
“They’ve sensed us already,” Konkurra remarked. “Get ready.”
I glanced backwards, and the Army of Light had begun their march as well.
To the left of us across the vast desert trail, little silhouettes began to hurl upwards from the ground, higher than the banks, unpredictably towards Tarsus’ group, all falling to the deadly swings of the group’s blades.
Suddenly, the ground burst behind me as an Excavator leapt up towards us. With a swift swing, the sand dweller split into two by Konkurra’s long pole arm.
“Thanks,” I nodded.
“Don’t mention it. There’s more from where that came from.”
More and more rumbles shook the earth behind us. I glanced backwards occasionally, looking to my right and left every now and then. Kadava, on my right, followed my actions, with the same personal experience I had in dealing with these creatures. Konkurra jogged alongside, keeping up the pace at ease, a poised position ready for the sand dwellers. She stood near the slope of the trail, ready for any Excavators to pop out from the side as well. A trail of dust rose as more Excavators began burrowing towards us.
“They’re grouping up. Get ready for the unpredictable,” Konkurra stated, contradicting.
The night wind picked up as we ran towards Gee Oluun. The army was slowly advancing forwards with no sign of sand beasts devastating the marching warriors yet. Somehow, Tarsus’ plan was working.
The first wave struck us by surprise. One by one, Excavators came from every which way, deflecting off our blades. Suddenly, five of them jumped out at once, overwhelming the three of us. We moved around swiftly, aiding each other in the fight against the beasts. I was pushed to the back, with Konkurra and Kadava leading in the front, creating a triangular formation.
The Excavators were not only fast, but huge. Each one was the size of a full grown man, and weighed the same as well. They were more like worms, a long, bulky creature with no eyes, arms nor legs, but a spike-coated dermis with many spiny fins that evidently helped them burrow underground swiftly. The Excavators also possessed a large caudal fin, which flailed rapidly during the jump upwards to help them gain both speed and height midair. The head was the most intimidating portion of the sand dwellers, a large circular mouth with many rows of barbed teeth that could penetrate the toughest armour.
“Oh no,” Konkurra whispered. “The winds are going faster and faster. A sandstorm is brewing.”
I looked ahead, and she was right. The sand began to swirl beneath our legs as we advanced further and further, the night wind howling against our skin.
Out of the corner of my eyes, two Excavators leapt out towards me on both sides. Without thinking, I extended both blades outwards and spun around, coincidentally catching a third Excavator behind me midair.
Distant grunts soon grew louder than the swirling storm of sand. The Excavators had begun targeting the main army now, devastating the warriors and crippling the footmen. Though we tried to mitigate the damage dealt to the Army of Light and Purity, the sheer number of Excavators outnumbered all of us.
“Cover your face! Grab anything you can and cover your skin!” Konkurra yelled, pulling her shirt up to cover her nose and mouth. “The storm’s headed directly towards us! We have to close our eyes, or we’ll be permanently blinded!”
“Do we keep going?” I replied, straining my voice as I wrapped my cowl tightly around my head. “I can’t see Tarsus now; the sand is too thick!”
“Ulterium! To your right!” Kadava quickly interrupted.
Without thinking, I blindly swung rightwards, slashing a multiple of times until I hit something.
“The army’s stopped moving!” I continued.
“Are they crazy?!” Konkurra replied. “If we stop now, we’d be a living feast for these creatures!”
“Well this storm isn’t settling!”
“Keep going! I’m certain Tarsus is still moving ahead!”
Two dwellers were caught by my blade behind me, and another one fell to my right.
“This isn’t good! We can’t see the Excavators, and now we can’t even hear them!”
The wind grew stronger and stronger; the storm was unforgiving. The sand pierced my skin, shards of glass stinging my arms and legs, searing my flesh. The howling gale was impossible to see through, a wall of brown and black beating down on us.
“Spread out! I don’t wanna hit one of you accidentally!”
The three of us quickly dispersed along the bank, slashing blindly every which way, some blows landing on the leaping Excavators. The thick sand had completely blocked out the full moon; darkness engulfed us as we moved towards the growing sandstorm.
“The army’s beginning to move again! Good call, Konkurra!” I remarked, stealing a glance at the army behind us before snapping my eyes shut again.
“Maybe they’ve lost too many men to the dwellers, stopping in the wide open! Maybe that’s why they’re moving again!”
“How do we know where to stop?” I asked. “Tarsus is out of sight now so he won’t be able to signal us to halt!”
“We’ll just have to wait until the storm passes! It won’t be for a while!”
Suddenly, my right leg gave way as rows of teeth sank into my flesh. As I tumbled down, I hacked madly behind me, catching three Excavators off guard. Someone tripped across my scratched leg, falling face first into the sand.
“Are you alright?” I asked, helping him up.
“I’m fine! What happened?” Kadava spoke.
“Sorry! Something got my leg and I fell. It wasn’t a deep bite. Keep going!”
“Are you guys good?” Konkurra yelled behind her.
“Good as gold! Keep going!”
The Excavators were now attacking in tight groups. Konkurra was right when she claimed the unpredictability of the worms; there was no pattern or formation, the Excavators just kept leaping out from behind or from the side chaotically. Some would leap out in close succession, others in groups of two, three or even four. The most I noted was five at a time together, all falling to both of my blades behind me. There was only one similarity between every Excavator: they all jumped up at roughly the same height. After realizing this, I saved my strength from slashing wildly behind me to only swinging my blades at a chest height behind and beside me.
The storm was endless, and our pace was slowing down. We had been running for miles through the unrelenting storm and Excavators. My arms were sore and my legs were burning. Thankfully, the Excavators had also taken a toll from the vicious sandstorm, the untamed gale knocking many Excavators backwards upon jumping up, throwing them far behind us. With no way of contacting any of the other three groups, we kept running blindly through the sudden night storm, fending off sand dwellers by the hundreds.
“Augh!” A choking voice suddenly gargled through the rough winds, followed by an inhuman scream. Kadava fell down beside me, knocking me over, tumbling onto the desert ground. I opened my eyes, immediately feeling the burning sensation from the sandstorm. Overcoming the searing pain, I looked up, and Kadava was lying in a pool of dark blood, unconscious. As I regained my footing, slashing at oncoming Excavators, I looked down and tumbled backwards. Half of his left leg was missing.