Section Five: War is Hell
Finally, Sampetra Isle was within sight. The ordeal was almost over! The sails were broken out, the oarslaves put to work, and all the tricks were used to get there quickly. Kylar was mostly left alone, as the crew heard about his rampage from all three witnesses. At this time, he was standing at the bow of Freebooter, giving orders to Venomfang, who was largely humbled by Kylar’s powers. The attack plan was quite ingenious, but it will not be described here, as it has no impact whatsoever on the storyline at this point. Freebooter pulled up to the harbor, with all archers in the bow, scanning the dock for any Hartkan soldiers who dared show their faces. The INSU ships docked there were now abandoned & half destroyed by enemy vandals. The group of archers covered the dock while the close-range fighting beasts jumped onto the dock. Kylar and his archers were the last off the ship. Tolenia swam off, submerging toward the south end of Sampetra. "Hey! Where’s she going?" Slashclaw shouted. Kylar quickly clapped a paw across her mouth, whispering, "Quiet! You want the whole island to know we’re here? Don’t worry about Venomfang. She’s taking her position." Dingeye commented, "What do we do now?" Kylar responded in a murmur, "You, Silvereye, and Slashclaw take a few beasts back to the palace and report in. Bring back as many reinforcements as you can get. We’ll hold the enemy back as long as we can until they…break through us. If they get too close to the palace, Venomfang will take care of them. It’s gonna be okay." It all sounded easy. Pulling it off was a completely different story.
Sliverpaw was ready to pull off a tactical victory on INSU. The battering ram was ready, his troops were read--y, and he was ready. If there were any doubts about the morale of his troops, they were quickly dispelled by the cheers brought up just by seeing Sliverpaw in his battle armor. Out of it, you could mistake him for any other beast; in the armor, he was an incredible sight. He made a short speech, then began the march to Ublaz’s palace. The remaining three thousand or so beasts in the Hartkan army were slightly weary and hungry, but not enough so to make a difference. As the taverns showed up on the right, Sliverpaw became aware of a long line of beasts covering the landscape ahead of them, with a lanky ferret out in front. Sliverpaw walked right up to Kylar, staring eye to eye at him. "So, Mad Eyes sends bilgewater to deal with us. I suppose he’s ready to surrender now?" Kylar used a small amount of telekinetic energy to knock Sliverpaw up and a few yards backwards. "Don’t count on it, you lazy excuse of an officer. INSU doesn’t surrender that easily." Sliverpaw climbed to his paws, dusted himself off, and without warning, slung a knife towards Kylar that sank deep into his chest. He gasped momentarily, slumped forward, and collapsed. The weasel chuckled. "Didn’t even see that comin’? Serves ya right!" Returning his attention to the remaining INSU beasts, he shouted, "Are ye gonna come quietly, or do we hafta use drastic measures?" "We choose to fight back!" Slashclaw, Dingeye, and Silvereye charged over a low hill, followed by a huge force. The reinforcements had arrived!
(NOTE: The remainder of Section Five of Invasion : Sampetra includes graphically described violence. If you have a weak stomach, please stop reading now; you may lose your lunch!)
As the INSU reinforcements charged to assist their brethren, the Hartkan soldiers sped forward and slaughtered the first defense line. Instantly, the gut-wrenching smell of copper again filled the battlefield. The soft soil of Sampetra’s lowlands mixed with blood and gore spilled by the slain beasts. The archers on both sides began launching a deadly hail of arrows on each other, causing horrendous wounds on anybeast hit. The front rank of Hartkan offense began to buckle, and the cutlasses and broadswords wielded by INSU fighters were infinitely more maneuverable than the heavy, clumsy spears, pikes, and halberds held by their opponents. Even so, the sheer numbers of Hartkan soldiers began to take their toll, and the defensive strike was pushed back. Above the sounds of battle, Slashclaw yelled to Silvereye, "We can’t hold out much longer! Call a retreat!" "Wait! The taverns! Grog is flammable!" It took a moment for Slashclaw to understand what Silvereye was saying, but when she did, an idea sprung to mind. "Call the retreat anyway! We’ll worry about it in a few minutes!" The INSU ranks made one last strike down the center, then made a tactical retreat up a steep hill. Total casualties: INSU, thirty-five wounded, twenty dead. Hartkan troops, forty wounded, fifty-seven dead. Elapsed time: Three minutes, twenty-two seconds. Dingeye made a quick run down towards the palace, and told Tolenia of the happenings, and what was required of her. She reluctantly agreed. Altogether, Sliverpaw was feeling euphoric after his tactical victory. The food was cooked and brought out to the troops, but hardly a beast had taken a bite before a strange keening wail filled the ears of every Hartkan soldier. Fear and terror began to well in the hearts of everybeast. After a few silent moments, the INSU troops charged Sliverpaw’s forces-backed up by the biggest animal anyone had ever seen-Tolenia Venomfang! The Hartkan wavescum ran away from the huge snake as if their lives depended on it-and it did! The screams of beasts impaled by Tolenia and injected with poison drowned out the cries of those facing Death incarnate for the first time. The few lucky escaping Hartkan soldiers were rounded up and executed. The acidic smell of Tolenia’s venom was enough to knock out anybeast not accustomed to it. The effects of the venom themselves were enough to slay those just watching. First, a numbness came to all parts of the body. Then, huge blisters boiled up all over the victim. Finally, the venom paralyzed all of the nerves in the body, and the victim died of asphyxiation. Total time: thirty seconds, if they didn’t die of blood loss & shock. Not pleasant at all. Sliverpaw was one of the escapees, but he wasn’t caught. Instead, he dodged into one of the taverns to watch the carnage at a safe distance, but what he found was so much more scary; Kylar leaning against the bar, dagger sticking out of his chest, no apparent wounds at all, stony expression. Suddenly, the door behind Sliverpaw slammed shut, and another Kylar, identical to the first, was standing there. Immediately, there were about ten Kylars, all identical, staring at him quietly, standing still. Sliverpaw spun around, not understanding any of this. He finally snapped, and charged at one, which disappeared in a puff of smoke. With nearly rabid anger, he proceeded to attack all of the phantoms until only one remained. Certain of his victory, the weasel lunged at the ferret, only to have it too dematerialize right in front of him. Another Kylar -the real Kylar- stepped out of the shadows, still with the dagger lodged in his chest. "I really thought you’d be smarter than that. Ah, well. No one expected invaders to be intelligent." Sliverpaw charged at him, only to be knocked back into the bar by a blow from Kylar’s mind. The young ferret continued, "Ah-ah-ah! Not a smart thing to do. You obviously don’t know who you’re dealing with." As the weasel stood back up, he muttered, "You may have the edge on me by using dirty tricks, but I’ll prevail in any kind of physical combat. Come on! You and me, right here, no tricks!" Kylar dropped his crossbow and cape for better maneuvering. Sliverpaw took a tight hold on his battleaxe. "Are ye ready ta die this day?" Kylar’s eyes narrowed to slivers as he drew his knife. "We’ll see who dies now!" The fight began under very dangerous conditions. First of all, one of the INSU archers had hit Tolenia, causing her to go ballistic and attack any and every INSU beast. The remaining hundred or so Hartkan soldiers had huddled up near the tavern Kylar and Sliverpaw were fighting. And most troubling of all, Slashclaw was off to gather the material for fire arrows; like Silvereye had said earlier, grog is flammable, and the Hartkans were standing right next to a tower of barrels containing the Corsair drink. Kylar and Sliverpaw circled each other with extreme concentration in their eyes. Sliverpaw made a sudden swing with his axe, but Kylar ducked and returned the favor with a jab of the knife to the belly, producing a slight nick and an outburst of profanity from Sliverpaw. Kylar had to leap backwards to avoid an executioner’s slice and landed on his tail. What he didn’t see was a faster-than-light stab to his left shoulder, courtesy of the spear-like tip of Sliverpaw’s axe. This one wasn’t expected, and the blade sank deep. Kylar roared in pain, shoved a long wooden plank onto Sliverpaw’s head, and proceeded to sink his knife deep into the thigh of his opponent; right in the exact spot where Kylar had been stabbed before, and pulled the knife down through the bloody flesh and muscle to the kneecap. Sliverpaw was now immobilized with pain, but it didn’t matter anymore. Kylar had won, fair and square. He refused to accept it, of course, but he knew it by the wound inflicted upon him. That same wound told him he had minutes to live. The roof of the tavern was torn open, and Tolenia Venomfang, dripping blood, gore, bodily organs, and poison from her fangs, glared down upon Kylar. The ferret backed up to the back wall, the one of which a stack of grog barrels were piled, and waited for the end to come. The snake surged forward as Kylar ducked, and punched a hole through the back wall, right next to the huge barrels of grog. Kylar leapt outside through the bartender’s door out to the back, facing a hundred Hartkan soldiers, Tolenia Venomfang, about twelve giant barrels of grog, and a slew of fire archers. Kylar had two more words before it all went to pieces: "Oh, great." The fire arrows flew on a straight trajectory, finding their targets in Tolenia, Hartkan soldiers, and the grog. Unfortunately, they didn’t catch fire. Instead, a huge shockwave emanated out from the tavern, and a fireball incinerated anything still standing. However, all of the beasts standing next to and near the barrels were blown away by the blast’s concussion. "Hellsteeth! Is that what you had in mind?" Dingeye yelled over the ensuing explosion sound. "No. Not quite," replied Silvereye, still looking at the flaming remains of the taverns. Now, they had won the battle and the war, but at a terrible price.
The night passed. An intensive search had produced nothing to confirm the death of Kylar. Not even one burnt hair. Slashclaw and Dingeye were standing guard over the crater created by the blast, hoping for the best and expecting the worst. The pair called down to a searcher, "Hi, you! Any trace of him?" "Not yet" was the reply. Suddenly, another sound came to their ears: "Here he is! I found him!" They rushed over to a fox, dragging Kylar out from under a pile of rubble. He wasn’t breathing and there was no pulse. There were huge amounts of blood all over him. With a sad look in their eyes, Dingeye, Slashclaw, and the fox stood back up and were prepared to report back in when coughing came to their ears. When they spun around, Kylar had leaned on his right arm and was trying to clear the dust out of his system. Dingeye ran over and pounded him on the back to help. When he had finished, he looked up at his friends and asked, "Did we do it? Did we win?" "Yeah. We won. How are you? Are you okay?" "I guess. I need something to drink, though." When Dingeye’s canteen was woven in front of his face he sputtered, "No! No more grog, no more grog!" After a few minutes, Kylar was propped up in a sitting position, and Slashclaw shouted, "Waitaminute! How can you have that wound," pointing at the dagger, "and still be among us?" Kylar chuckled, and cut through his tunic to a point where he could remove the point, which was lodged in a hardtack biscuit. "That’s how." "Oh."