Defence

I awaken to the sound of the announcer monotone voice echoing through the battlefield. I scan the fountain around me and notice four other summoned all with the same baffled looked on their face. The confusion sets in as I take a step forward, shocked and dazed I look back at one of the others in the fountain and notice they are also moving almost as if possessed by a higher power. I look down at my hands and notice the essence of magic slip through my fingertips, my hands turn to ice yet I feel no pain, and an empowering surge rushes through my entire body. Involuntarily I grab a solid iron staff from the ground that must belong to me. The iron in the staff shatters and reassembles into ice.

I look around as I’m running down a path, following what appears to be goblin like creatures. I try to communicate with them and slow them down although they ignore me and keep running on the path. Confusion sets in “what’s going on?” Iwonder. I attempt to follow hoping maybe they will lead me out of this maze and to safety.  I rush past these ancient towers made of stone with huge inscriptions on them, unsure of what purpose these serve I keep running, running uncontrollably.“Why am I unable to control my movement?” I ask myself as I am thrust past another tower further and further down thepath, past more and more trees.  All of a sudden I encounter what appear to be another set of goblin creatures charging towards us down the lane, before I have a chance to take in what is occurring in front of me they raise their swords. There I was, scared and confused when from behind me the Goblins that I was traveling with raise their weapons and charge into the oncoming pack ahead of us.

The sound of steel clashing into armour surrounds me as my hands glow a brighter shade blue. I raise my arm towards one of the ferocious looking goblins that stand before me.  A surge of power rushes through my chest and out my arm. Suddenly,a spark of frozen ice projects itself from my palm and strikes the goblin. It felt natural, I didn’t feel any pain. I looked down at my hands again as the realisation set in, I am different, and I am chosen.

I raise my hand again as I uncontrollably dance around the battlefield, destroying those opposing goblins that stand in front of me as if my purpose was clear. Abruptly, a golden glowing shroud falls over me, “I am not alone here” I stuttered to myself. A tall golden elf like creature approachesbehind me, armed with an arrow in one hand and a Bow in the other, she races forward and jumps over a goblin whilst shooting an arrow into another one in front of us. Nothing was said between us but it felt like we knew each other. We were here for a single purpose although we had no idea the journey that lay before us.

Before we had a chance to gather ourselves we encountered another pack of goblins charging towards us. The smell of blood was heavy in our nostrils, we were ready. The golden elf raised her bow and held the arrow drawn and ready to shoot. Her woven leather gloves grasped the feathered tail of the steel arrow as she let it fly. With precious and lightning speed the arrow ripped through a tree to the side of us and into an oncoming goblin. “That’s one for the Ranger,” she sang as she retreated to the ancient stone tower. The stone wasslippery; the inscriptions bizarre, and there were five eyes beaming from the top. The opposing goblins approached the tower as if they were to attack the stone structure. Quickly, thetower activated itself and shot forth a ball of fire and destroyed the minion. With an amazed look on my face I realised that we were all working together for a greater purpose, we were united at a higher level.

The two heroes stood side by side as another wave of oncoming goblins approached, this time though they were approached by what appeared to be a tree like creature holding a large two-handed blade. He charged forward and attacked one of our goblins, slashing though the reinforced metal, the deafening sound of pain surrounded our goblins as he torn though their body.

The one who called herself the “Ranger” moved forward to get a greater look into the distance. The mists seemed to part before her and close up again as she passed. The cobblestones were wet and slick under her feet. She heard a goblin yowl plaintively. This battlefield was a living jungle, and the trees roamed everywhere, especially at night. In the fog all trees are grey, Ranger thought. In the fog all trees are killers.

We yelled out to the tree like stranger, demanding he tell us what he was doing and why he was attacking our minions. Without haste the stranger slashed through another goblin and snarled at us out of the corner of his glinting eyes. This was no ally of ours we needed to be cautious. The sun started to set and the sound of the nearby jungle rumbled with life, unsure of what we were about to encounter we rushed back to the safety of the tower.

It was true. Caution must be taken; a big, hard-looking tree like man in ringmail, with heavy a forged steel longswordsheathed at his hip and another sword being used to obliterate these minions. His crimson cloaks were bordered in aassortment of gold, and black lions with red eyes that stared upon their enemies. When I glanced at the face beneath the gilded, lion-crested helm, my staff began to glow with power. The gods have given me a gift. My fingers clutched hard at Rangers arm. “Come with me, I’ve got a plan.”

Ranger wanted to hear more, but there was no time. My frozen hands grasped the leather armor of the elf and we were off, into the dark jungle. We rushed through the never-ending line of threes and shrubs, all of which appeared to have their own unique personality and colour. It was remarkable, the essence of life sings out from the wood almost as if they are communicating with each other. I’m snapped out of my dream like trance as Ranger yells at me with a sharp question. “What do I call you anyway?” “Mage would be suiting I supposed” Ireplied. “Ranger and Mage, I like that’” smirks Ranger as we stop to catch our breath under the watch of a large oak tree.

In the distance I can still hear the sound of our friendly minions being slashed apart by the enemy hero we had encountered earlier. We quickly darted through the tree line and down to a running river. Something was different about this river, we looked into the water and the moonlight cast our reflection back to us. With great shock and amazement our reflections spoke to us. “The one whom you seek to destroy is the Treeant” with a stunned look on her face Ranger replies “And who is that supposed to be?” the reflections ripple in the gentle flow of the river and softly spoke “He who holds a curse over these forest, the destroyer of your minions, Destroy him and the forest will be yours to mold”

The images in the water disappeared swiftly and we were left with sense knowledge but a shroud of questions. “Well what other choices do we have?” says Ranger, as she looks closer into the water, attempting to see if any more magic appears. “Let’s wait in the shadows of the tree line until the Treeant is attacking our tower with his minions and cut him off” Ranger splashes from water on her face and picks up her Bow from the riverside “Let’s do this” she replies as she checks her quiver for more deadly steel arrows”

The heroes rush back through the forest still covered by the cracks of moonlight that trickle in between the trees overheard, the sound of steel on stone can be heard from beyond the trees ahead we knew right there that our tower was being destroyed. With haste we jumped out from behind the shadows to see the Treeant with his back faced to us furiously slashing into the stone tower. Ranger grasped her bow and set her stance firmly, She held the arrow in her bow with so much power golden dust started to radiate from the tip.

My hands began to glow a pale blue as I charged towardsTreeant. The magic grew stronger inside of me as I moved closer. Right then, he caught a glimpse of me from the corner of his eye. He swung around with great speed and raised his sword high above his helmet. I shot quickly at his feet in an attempt to freeze him before he could reach me, he swiftly evaded my attacks as he charged closer. Realising my imminent danger I encased myself in a shield of ice right as his blade struck me. The attack slashed off a layer of ice as I gazed upon him face to face through my ice protection. Ranger had gone unnoticed during this time and had aimedTreeant up perfectly. Her golden arrow flew across the lane and into the side of the enemy piercing his bark like skin.

He fell to his knees in pain as his blood turned from red to gold, struggling to breath he grasped onto the grass that lay beneath him. I freed myself from my ice protection and lent in closer with my hands ready to strike if need be. “Fools” hemuttered, “this is all but a game” he fell to the ground as the golden blood poured from his wounds. Silence fell over us quickly after that; his body lay there lifeless as we looked at each other.

“A Game?” snaps Ranger. “Well we did see other’s when we all started together in the fountain, we need to find these others and really find out what’s going on here” replies Mage.As they were speaking, the corpse of Treeant began to slowly dissolve into the ground, all that lay in his place was his sword covered in his golden and red textured blood.

The sun started to rise and filter in through the surrounding forest, the sound of a rooster’s “cok-a-dodeldo” echoed through the entire battlefield almost as if it was the same voice as the announcers at the very beginning. “Maybe this is a game,” remarked Ranger “It would explain these sounds we’re hearing”. Without knowing exactly what happened toTreeant after his death we started to head away from the goblin infested fighting lane and head back towards the fountain.

We followed the same cobblestone path we took when we arrived although this time we felt safer, we had some understanding of what was going on around us, or so we thought. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a flying courier, or something of that nature. A small treasure chest with wings attached to it. It was flying back in the direction of the fountain. This was a most bizarre sight indeed. “What purpose did this serve” I muttered to myself as he entered the entrance to the fountain.

As we entered the safety of the fountain we felt at ease, it had the power to heal those in need and also acted as a market place for those who wanted upgrade their weapons. Although there were no merchants, the fountain offered endless amount of forged steel weapons and enchanted trinkets for those whom dare put their hand into the water of the fountain and ask.

As we were basking in the presence of the fountain a hero appeared right beside us. Quickly alerted Ranger grabbed her bow and aimed it at the Ogre creature “What are you doing here?” She snapped furiously at the stubby two-headed creature.

“I’m dead” one of the heads replied “I’m not dead”, the other head interrupted “Fountain make good spawn, fountain bring life” one of the heads replied as the other nodded swiftly. Ranger looked at Mage confused, “I think I remember seeing this “thing” when we woke up in the fountain”

Mage enquired, “So you went off and died? And now you are back to life in the fountain?” “Yes”-replied one of the ogre’s heads.

I looked back at Ranger “So, does that mean Treeant is alive again? Maybe in his own fountain?” “Maybe this is part of the game” replied Ranger.

We gathered our equipment and set off, leaving the Ogre standing in the fountain, his two heads constantly arguing with one and other. Waves of Goblins we’re still continuing torise up from the fountain and head down their lanes with the inevitable fate of death. We ventured back into the foggy jungle, following what appeared to be deep cat like footprints along the way. “So what are we doing?” Mage swiftly pondered. “Well, if the enemy has their own fountain like yousuggest maybe that’s where this all ends” replied Ranger. “That makes sense; the goblins are endlessly pushing in that direction as if they know where the enemy fountain is”

With a slight change in course we diverted from the footprint trail and headed back to the lane. Dashing through the forest we could see all sorts of tree’s moving around, uprooting and relocating themselves. We arrived at a cleared part of the forest within arrow distance of our tower, the sound of its stone falling due to the constant battering of goblin swordsechoed in the background. “We need to make sure we’re alone here” said Ranger. “We need to make sure if we go out thereTreeant and some of his cronies are not waiting for us” she added. As Mage was about to reply the faint sound of tree roots moving grew louder and closer. With weapons drawn the sound suddenly stopped. “Something is here” whispered Mage.

An old scratchy voice spoke slowly from all around us “May we be of some assistance?” “Who’s “we”? Show yourself!” snapped ranger aggressively. “We are the forest, or should I say the forest is us” the voice softly spoke. Half a dozen old oak trees suddenly surrounded us. Unalarmed we lowered our weapons, “Yes, we could use your help” replied Mage.

“We need to scout the lane ahead of us and make sure it’s safe for us to push and destroy the enemy tower” the tree’s shook their iron like branches and started heading for the lane. The voice gently whispered back to us “Let the forest guide you”. We slowly crept behind the ascending army of trees, as they moved in sync one by one towards the lane.

The sound of goblins being crushed grew louder, something was out in the lane causing havoc. The trees didn’t waste a minute; they waddled out of the forest and surrounded the unknown enemy. Encased in bark and tree roots, the villain could not escape. Ranger wandered over to the scene with her Bow drawn swiftly. “Who are you?” she snapped to this restrained entity. “You can call me, The Bounty Hunter” it replied hastily.

“Do we have a bounty on our head?” muttered Ranger. “Lady, I don’t know who you are but you think you can help me out of these trees?”. Ranger started to peel back some of the iron bark that encased The Bounty Hunter when suddenly he cloaked himself in a shroud of invisibility. A faint mechanical laugh echoed around us “Fools” he taunted from his invisible safety. Each footstep Ranger could hear she fired an arrow into the wind, hoping to hit the invisible predator.

The taunting subsided and the lane went quiet. The blue magic faded from Mages hand’s, the threat had moved on for now. Confused as to what had just occurred Ranger fired an arrow out of frustration towards to enemy tower directly hitting it in one of its five eyes. The tower shattered almost instantly, the stones flew out in all directions and dissolved into the ground. Our wave of goblins that had been fighting the tower kept on the path towards the next tower and into the unknown. “Do we dare push up to the next tower with our goblins” asked Mage. Ranger gave a quick snarl and grunted “Well of course, I just worked out how to destroy these things”

The two heroes crept up further and further into untouchedterritory, they could see the next enemy tower ahead of them, it was ready to start attacking anything that got close. The tower shot fireballs at the crowd of goblins surrounding it. Moving cautiously, the mage stood behind the crowd of goblins using them as a shield so she wouldn’t be hit. “Rangerwaits behind with me, it’s safer”

It was almost like a natural instinct for the Mage to plan herevery move, the way she dodged attacks. Ranger watched in awe of Mage, the way she dodged the attacks from the tower, she moved gracefully like a like the calm of the river. The tower fell to sandstone quickly, the goblin minions rallied behind us as we moved up to the last and final tower. We could see the sparkle of the enemy fountain just beyond this last tower. It glistened with red following water, on the edge of the fountain we could see a figure with its back turned to us, reaching into the water of the fountain.

“Let’s destroy this tower quickly and see if we can solve this never ending puzzle” said Mage. With a charged arrow Ranger shot he tower in its vulnerable spot and it crumbled to sand. We climbed up a small set on stairs and into the fountain area. The unknown stranger that was standing here just before is no longer around and our goblins have started attacking the fountain.

I felt a swift brush of wind brush past my cloak; I swing around hastily to see nothing but the ruins of the destroyedtower. It was then that Rangers voice could be heard loud and clear. “Mage, Watch out!” before I could turn back to face the fountain Treeant and The Bounty Hunter were both lunging towards me. I felt their cold swords rip though my cloth armor as I fell to the ground. My body getting warmer as my ice staff begins to melt. Ranger fired shots in the direction of the two villains but they were able to flee as the arrows narrowly missed them. Ranger rushed over and picked up Mage in her arms. “We will try and get you to safety” she said frantically running away from the fountain. The life was being drained out of Mage one inch of her body at a time, fading between the fingertips of the hooded golden elf.

Before Ranger could get any further away Mage had completely faded away to nothing but ripped cloth armor. Ranger was filled with rage and stopped in her tracks, slowly turning around and raising her bow. Unknowing what had happened to her friend she stormed back to the fountain and unleashed a barrage of arrows at it.

The fountain began to crumble, slowly but surely Ranger and her goblin allies were destroying the enemy fountain. Not for a moment did Ranger think that this would bring back her lost friend but she had no choice, as if she was possessed by a higher power to destroy this structure.

The fountain had fallen and a sudden silence settled over the battleground, everything was frozen. All Ranger could see was a destroyed fountain that slowly faded away to black.

I awaken to the sound of the announcer monotone voice echoing through the battlefield. I scan the fountain around me and notice four other summoned all with the same baffled looked on their face. Shocked and dazed I look back at one of the others in the fountain and notice they are also moving almost as if possessed by a higher power.