Chapter 58: Invasion.

Chapter 58 - Invasion.While Lee didn't care about the empire, he shared the farmer's sentiment. It would be tragic if the two armies clashed, no matter what the reasons were. This time the emperor's arrival was a blessing.

Lee didn't know, but the regular soldiers in the valley also heaved a sigh of relief. While most of them followed their generals for years, and would fight to the death on command, the cause of the confrontation, the treacherous assassination of Mark Hardwood, didn't make any sense. And no matter how angry and despaired the old Hardwood was, even he intuitively knew it.

That was the reason for the lengthy negotiations, and that was the reason why the emperor managed to arrive on time, along with his cavalry regiment, and symbolically split the armies, ending the confrontation.

Neither side was going to attack the cavalry since all of them were the part of the imperial army, especially with the emperor present.

What the armies below didn't notice, but what didn't escape the eyes of the onlookers, were the strange ripples on one of the hills, right across the one Lee and the two old farmers were standing on. At first it seemed as if the view in front of them was a vertical reflection of a water surface and someone threw a rock in it.

And then another at the exact same spot, and then another. And then a long vertical tear appeared, splitting the top of the hill in halves at first, and widened right after that, transforming into a dark-purple square-shaped hole.

At that moment everyone in the valley noticed the phenomenon, and speechlessly stared at it. But before any heated discussions began, a swarm of people rushed out from the hole and directly charged at the army below.

A quick thought this is how you attack! passed though Lees mind, but he immediately clenched his fists at the following sigh. From the distance he couldn't see what the invaders looked like, but when the wave hit the imperial army, pillars of fire shot to the sky, erasing lives of hundreds of soldiers in an instant.

"Heavens!" The farmer's wife exclaimed, while the old man slapped himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.



But Lee was clear – the people who attacked were all superhumans, or how they were called here – elemental warriors.

All of them seemed to own a fire spark, and at some point the assaulting wave was colored red with flames. And the worst part was – like a flood they kept coming out from the strange, dark purple hole and it seemed there was no end to them.

Seeing their peers getting massacred, a complete panic enveloped the side of the army that was hit first. Fortunately the imperial cavalry lived up to its reputation, quickly regrouped, and under the emperor's lead, charged to intercept the attackers.

Lee fought against these cavalry forces in his previous life, although back then they were called the royal cavalry. And, of course, he didn't take on a whole regiment, but only a handful horsemen. He trapped and killed a few, but in the end died as well, thus knew they weren't pushovers.

It was just as impressive to see the imperial cavalry similarly lighting up in red flames, and piercing the enemy like a hot knife cutting butter, but then the strangest thing happened. The invaders, earlier covered in flames, suddenly stopped their advancement, and Lee could swear the flames disappeared in an instant, and their side from bright red changed to dark yellow color.

And the next part was even more confusing. The imperial cavalry's advancement suddenly ended as if they had hit a rock wall. And then the real massacre began. Lee cursed himself for not having an eagle's vision to see in more detail, but even with his human eye he could discern how the defending forces were dismantled.

At first there was the cavalry regiment. It got stopped, there were fire explosions blooming all over the place, and then the invaders advanced, in a similar fashion they did earlier, turning into a wave of fire.

There was a short interruption though. Lee's guess was that it was the mighty blood demon Valen Sunwell, The Emperor, who valiantly stormed trough the rows of attackers. And wherever he went, fountains of blood followed.

Countless enemy heads flew off their shoulders, but the attackers once again stopped and instantly changed the color to dark yellow. From what it looked like, it slowed down the lone warrior quite a bit, and in the end he drowned somewhere in the middle of the yellow wave.

That was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the defending forces began to scatter in panic. The attacker's weren't stopping though. They rushed after the ones who tried to escape and killed them, and those who stayed to surrender were similarly executed without mercy.

When the first people died on the slope of the hill Lee and the two farmers stood on, Lee finally woke up from stupor.

"I think you should run!" He said, and rushed away, while the barking dogs charged towards the attackers.

There was no way he could do anything to help the two elderly, but then he realized he couldn't outrun the monsters of this level as well. But, he was a kid! Why would soldiers of any army harm children? But he was not going to test out their mercifulness.

Lee stopped and quickly looked around. The farm most likely was going to be thoroughly searched, thus it was foolish to try to hide there. He didn't know the area, therefore it was too risky to try and find a natural hideout.

But then he got an idea. Behind the farmhouse, on the very top of the hill, grew a couple of thick pines. He rushed towards the closest one and quickly scaled it.

After climbing around two thirds of it, Lee stopped and hugged the trunk, pretending to be a part of the tree. The foliage was thick enough for him to remain hidden if no one decided to come up or cut the tree, but at the same time he could see bits and pieces of what was going on.

Few deep breaths helped Lee to calm down, and even though his heart was still racing, he felt kind of safe. The two farmers below were different, though. They were sitting on the ground, hugging each other, while the wife was hysterically crying, but several invaders were already climbing to the top of the hill.

Finally Lee could observe them, and was stunned to realize he had never seen the kind of armor they wore. In a way it reminded him of the plate armor worn in the middle ages, but it didn't look as heavy, and the material didn't seem to be a regular steel or iron.



The weaponry of the attackers was also slightly peculiar. In the left hand they held a shield, probably in the size of a large buckler, and in the right – a sturdy spear. The shafts were clearly not wooden, and it was obvious that the weapons were rather heavy. In addition to those, the attackers had short swords or large knives at their sides, some even two.

When the first two attackers arrived and found the elderly couple, they glanced at them, and to Lee's great surprise, passed as if they weren't there. Judging by how they handled the imperial army, Lee expected the invaders to be ruthless slaughterers, but contrary to his expectation the only things they slaughtered were chicken and livestock.

Indeed. Without lingering around, they directly began to kill every living thing except for the two elderly humans, and pile up the dead bodies in one of the wagons belonging to the farmers. They even brought over the dead dogs and threw them in the pile of dead chickens, goats and the remains of the only cow the couple had.

Fortunately, the horse Lee arrived on last night, ran off somewhere, and he didn't have to witness the death of his savior.

***

Lee stayed up on the pine tree after the sun set. From what he could gather, it seemed there were several thousands of invaders that arrived and began to methodically plunder.

At first it seemed weird, but then he saw how under the cover of the night they kept bringing rows of wagons packed with wares, mostly food, towards the strange rift across the valley.

He had no clue who these men were or where they came from, but they worked like a well oiled machine, scavenging the area. It was hard to imagine what was going on in the capital, but it was clear that nothing but a pure chaos could follow such disaster.

And just when Lee began to consider the actions of the invaders reasonable, he noticed that most wagons and carriages they brought were filled with children, living, crying and despaired children.

In the darkness, under the torchlight it was hard to tell what age they were, but when the sun came up and the never ending flow of wagons went by, Lee saw that the captured kids ranged from four, maybe even three, to probably ten years of age.