Eory wiped his forehead, feeling dazed from the hot weather and the red miasma choking the air. Sweat dripped into his eye as he unleashed arrow after arrow into the hearts of several doppelgangers. He heard the battle cries of Pollyanna resounding across the battlefield. His eyes followed the cries to the source, and he saw the woman throwing herself into battle against a dozen doppelgangers. Eory lost his concentration for a moment, thinking about how beautiful her bladework and footwork was, and how lovely her untamed hair looked when it lurched and swayed during battle.
He snapped back to action when Them said, “Eory! Pay attention! Stop daydreaming!”
It wouldn’t have been the first time Eory started daydreaming on the battlefield, and he was glad that Them was always there to wake him up. Eory fired an arrow and it missed. He gritted his teeth, firing another, and that one hit its mark.
Eory breathed out a sigh of relief, and continued launching arrows.
Suddenly, another battle cry resounded across the battlefield. Eory’s eyes scanned the battleground, looking for its source as it did not sound like Pollyanna’s. His eyes zeroed in on a fairy woman launching blue magic at dozens of doppelgangers. Eory didn’t recognize the woman at all. Maybe she’s new? Eory was good at recognizing faces, and assumed that she must be if he didn’t recognize her. Unlike the Arrozan Royal Family, who mostly had blonde hair, the fairy woman had pitch-black, short hair. She had the body type most fairies seemed to have; stick-thin and lithe, and yet she was wielding a heavy axe. Eory blinked curiously. How is she doing that? Magic?
Regardless, his gaze was drawn away from the woman by the imminent danger of the approach of a “Spider.”—doppelgangers who could ascend the fort walls effortlessly. The spider was down on the battlefield, a yard away from the fortress walls.
The shift captain, Eli, shouted from down below, “We have some spiders! Look out battlements!”
Eory focused—his hands feeling firm and confident on his bow—and fired three arrows. Two damp arrows met their mark—piercing the fiery hearts of the spider and stunning it. A recruit on the ground shoved their axe into its heart.
A different spider began ascending the iron surface of the tower faster than Eory could blink. Dozens of arrows flew at the doppelganger, and all of them missed. The spider leapt over the parapets and stabbed the first recruit it saw with a black blade.
Eory’s heartrate went up, but he swallowed, forcing himself to focus. He grabbed a blade, ready to engage the doppelganger at close-range if needed—as he did so, he caught sight of the bracelet that was still clamped around his arm, inhibiting his magic.
Eory felt something bubbling up under his skin as he did every so often—certain it was pent up magic—and doubled over in pain from it, wishing he could take the bracelet off.
The crowd of recruits standing on the battlement parted with a shriek, trying to get away from the doppelganger. The creature slammed its blade into three more recruits before Them finally got a clean shot of it and unleashed an arrow into its chest. Eory’s heart was pounding. The captain on the top of the battlements shouted, “Back into formation! Stay focused!”
Eory dragged himself to his feet with a shuddering breath—not out of fear of the doppelgangers, but out of fear of what might happen to him if he didn’t get the bracelet off soon.
The problem was, was that only Maruka had the key to remove it, and Maruka had disappeared.
***
Eory was beaming when his shift ended and it was announced that only three people had died. It wasn’t the best result, but it wasn’t the worst. The largest amount of conscriptants that died each shift was ten, and the lowest was zero, so three wasn’t bad. Eory was even happier that it was none of his friends that had died.
Lately, Eory and his friends were assigned to a morning shift, so they had more time before the day ended to do other things. After eating a snack before dinner, Eory was ready to go practice the blade with Terran. He was excited; it had been two or three weeks since they had last practiced.
Eory asked Them while they ate, “Do you want to practice with us?”
But Them merely shook his head and said with a wink, “I saw a new girl on the battlefield whose melons were visible even from the back! I gotta go check her out!”
Terran and Eory looked at each other, rolling their eyes. Clearly, the waif was exaggerating as always. None of the women in the iron tower were particularly well-endowed, except Eliita. Eory wondered if the waif actually had a well-endowed lady to see, or whether he just wanted to be alone. I need to ask him what’s been bugging him lately…
While he and Terran headed to the sparring room after eating, another thought was salient at the back of his mind. I think I’ve finally made my present to Pollyanna as perfect as it can be. I hope she likes her armored bear… I'll give it to her tomorrow night. Tonight, I just want to apologize to her.
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