Galena stepped up to the very edge of the light covered bridge and took a deep breath. The first step onto the bridge very much felt like preparing oneself to jumping off the edge of a cliff. She casually tossed the ires a little way into the air before catching it in her hand once more. She looked to her left and saw Tark, Taura, Morgo, and nine of the fighting underground elves. To her right stood Elenio, Nina, and the remaining ten of the fighting underground elves. They had decided to join her at the front lines to help her with exploding the ires.
She looked at Tark once more to which he gave his head a brief jerk, indicating to lead on. Galena didn’t respond, but started her journey across the bridge. Like Morgo predicted, the light didn’t block all the dark magic, but it did help. Galena couldn’t help feeling slightly more tired than she had been and depressing thoughts kept creeping up on her. Visions from Mira’s cave kept floating around in her mind, but instead of making her want to turn back, they fed Galena’s resolve, making her stand taller and feel more powerful. She would make sure her family and friends stayed safe.
The bridge seemed to go on forever and with every step, Galena’s nerves felt as if they would burst from her skin. Looking sideways, she saw the same held true for all the elves. Elenio’s thoughts and emotions were jumping all over the place to the point where Galena briefly considered blocking him. She was having enough trouble managing her own feelings at the moment. Tark’s jaws were clenched tightly and Morgo looked more like he had when she had first met him.
Galena could see Rau’s forces now. Just as they had predicted, they stood blocking the exit from the bridge. She could see hundreds of the bright, red torlics, the whip-like fingers of the narooks snapping this way and that. earagos stood menacingly above the rest of them, cruel smiles on their faces. She saw hundreds more creatures that never saw the light of day until Rau called them to war. Some had sharp spikes all over their bodies. Some were covered in an ooze. There were creatures with hundreds of eyes, and some with excessive amounts of limbs. Some looked similar to the torlics, but much more menacing because they were unfamiliar to her. All of these creatures together brought goose bumps to Galena’s skin. These were the creatures created by the same dark magic nightmares came from, and all were various stages of horrible.
As the elves continued the passage across the bridge, several new creatures pushed their way through the mass of dark bodies to the front lines. It was the dreaded tookoos. These creatures Rau designed himself. They were the guards of Blackwell for a good reason. They were fashioned after Rau with the exception of being able to manipulate shadows. They stood as tall as the torlics. Their black bodies, blended in with the surrounding environment, making them difficult to see if you tried to focus on more than their outlines. They were incredibly powerful and very able swordsman, much more so than any of the other creatures the elves had fought against so far.
“How many of the tookoos do you bet I can take out?” Elenio asked Tark.
“Five fewer than me,” Tark called back.
“Oh yeah, well I have six ires in my hand, so I think I’ll have more than anyone,” Morgo joined in.
Galena rolled her eyes. Leave it to her family to start making bets on how many they can take out before a big battle. “I think you all need your heads examined by a healer after this. You’ve clearly lost it,” Galena muttered.
“I second that,” Taura added.
Tark smiled crookedly.
Blackwell grew to huge proportions, blocking everything behind it from Galena’s view. The land before it moved and shifted with anxious movements of all of Rau’s army. It was an intimidating sight and Galena felt rather sorry it might be her last. No, I mustn’t think that way, she scolded herself silently. The creatures at the end of the bridge were developing more features with every step they took until they were a mere twenty feet away. Stopping, Galena looked as menacingly as she could manage given her stressed out nerves. The monsters didn’t look too intimidated. Galena wasn’t sure how to feel about this, so she settled for just not throwing up.
“Ready?” she called. The battle cry of every elf in their army met her question. The shouts of all the elves caused Galena to shudder, pride swelling up in her. If she were one of the bad guys, she would feel a little nervous right about then. This however, didn’t seemed to hold true with Rau’s army as she heard snorts and laughter.
“ON MY SIGNAL!” Galena heard the discreet sound of hundreds of ires getting ready to be thrown. She knew for the elves toward the back to be able to reach the enemy with their ires, she would have to help them out with wind. She prepared herself to bring a gale up to accomplish that task among all the other things she felt she would have to do.
Instead of sending up a column of light like the ones she had in the past, she decided to get started with the enemy confusion and shot bolts of lightning from the sky into the biggest group of tookoos. She watched with great satisfaction as the giant beasts were blasted off the cursed rocks that they soaked so much dark energy from. The remaining tookoos looked a bit more alarmed and a great deal less confident than when the elves had first started their march across the bridge, much to Galena’s amusement. See, we are something to take seriously, she thought smugly to herself. She looked sideways at Elenio and Tark and saw they’d noticed the tookoos reaction too, judging by the huge grins on their faces. Galena smiled as well. With the fleeing of the tookoos’ confidence, hers grew.
“That was fun to watch,” she heard Morgo call out from somewhere beside her.
We really do have issues, Galena thought.
She saw Elenio’s grin broaden when he registered her thoughts in his own mind. “No, I think we’ve just finally reached our breaking point,” Elenio shouted, still grinning mischievously.
“Are you two going to stand there and debate our craziness all day or are we going to earn our freedom back?” Tark joined in, tossing his ires in his hand lightly before preparing to throw it at the enemy.
“Nope, I’m good. Let’s go,” Galena answered back, shooting several more bolts of lightning into the black mass. With the last bolts of energy rushing to the creatures, the elves as one threw the ires at the shifting mass of dark creatures, helped along by a gale of wind. The glass orbs scattered throughout the enemy before bursting into liquid fire and spraying the monsters with flames so hot they were blue. Creatures collided with one another and ran screaming in pain only to meet other creatures howling with rage and agony. The chaos they were hoping to create filled the air as the dark creatures struggled to get back into their position with no success.
“ATTACK!” Galena screamed for all she was worth, feeling her throat strain with the effort. The elves ran at top speed meeting the chaos full on and finding no resistance. Elenio engaged a tookoo, staggering slightly from the strength of the creature’s blows.
“By the way, I’m currently winning that previous bet,” Galena shouted to him as she engaged several torlics and a dark creature with black skin and beetle like eyes that covered its entire head.
Using wind, she swept the torlics away and far into the ocean before engaging the dark creature that moved with incredible speed. Galena found its thousands of eyes allowed it to see in many different directions, giving it the chance to see things before they really got started. After attempting to cut into it several times with her sword, Galena turned as she set the thing ablaze.
“See that coming?” she muttered.
“I’ve got three down,” Tark shouted somewhere behind Galena.
“I’m up to five,” Elenio called back.
Galena just shook her head before using a blast of wind to remove several dark creatures from her path. She needed to get to Blackwell. She had an appointment to keep. Galena ran her blade across the backside of a charging earagos causing him to burst into light while she spun around, spraying liquid fire from her sword.
“That was new,” Elenio said a little breathlessly as he came up next to her.
Galena looked at her sword appreciatively. She really needed more time to figure out what she was capable of with this weapon.
Tark and Taura came up beside her, engaging a group of narooks. One of the monsters managed to wrap its long fingers around Tark’s neck, but his victory was short lived when Taura cut through his fingers. Galena came up beside them, destroying two more with a single swipe. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she looked around and saw the elves were pushing the enemy lines back.
The sounds of battle rang all around her. She heard grunts of elves as they swung their swords, attacking the enemy at every turn. She heard the whistling of arrows sailing overhead into the bodies of more dark creatures causing them to burst into flames. Galena fought on, growing more tired with every swing.
The castle grew larger with every fallen enemy until Galena could clearly see the main entrance. It looked like a large yawning maw in the middle of a monster’s head. The thick wooden doorway was dark with age and corruption. It stood large and imposing, threatening Galena away with the dark secrets that it held within. It was through these doors that Galena watched with resignation as the one she dreaded the most stepped through and onto the landing. She stopped, staring at the creature that had ruled them for centuries. He was no taller than Fala, the tallest elf she ever saw. Muscles rippled through his shoulders, arms, and chest. His legs also showed signs of great strength. Shadows wrapped around him, swirling within his form. He was solid, but not, almost like his outer shell was made of glass showing everything inside. He seemed to move without really moving and the blade at his side was twice as long and wide as the Sword of Lumina, making it incredibly intimidating. His eyes searched the battlegrounds all around until they landed on Galena. It was time for her to make her last stand.