Emily has to give it to the camp: they handled this a lot better than she expected them to. In her mind, she imagined absolute pandemonium sweeping through the camp, people panicking and rushing around in fear as goblins flooded the rows between the tents, tearing fabric down as they hunted every last one of them down.

  Instead, once the initial shock of the goblin horde surrounding them died down, they called out the alarm and manned the walls with grim determination.

  For a while, the archers were managing to keep the horde back by themselves. The gate was lowered down, the archers knelt, and goblins died in waves. But then, as archers flagged and the bulk of the horde caught up with the beginning scout, men with spears and swords stood side-by-side with the archers; slicing down any goblins that managed to scale the walls using their crude ladders.

  For a while, that seemed to work well for the humans. Whenever a ladder was put up, it was knocked down. Whenever a section of the wall was struggling, men would rush over to reinforce it, cutting down any goblins that made it up and tossing their bodies over to the other side.

  Until the bodies began to pile up against the wall, forming a ramp that the goblins rushed up in a tide that nearly overwhelmed the poor humans in one fell sweep. The little green men scurried like ants and hit them hard, flooding over the one side and rushing down into the camp below, to get sliced down and shot by the army waiting down below to substitute the ones on the wall.

  When it happened, Emily’s heart seized in her chest, watching as people were swept up by the tide, disappearing underneath it, never to be seen again. She ran her hand through Blue’s chest feathers, the ostrich lying down placidly next to her with his hood still on as she sat on the cliff edge and watched the chaos down below.

  “Did I take this… A bit too far?” Emily asked him, as men formed a spear wall at the base of the stairs, holding back against the horde and stabbing them mercilessly. She glanced over at the fluffy boy, as he lets out a loud snore.

  For a moment, she thought that that was the end of the humans. She stood up on legs that long fell asleep, as she prepared her mana for what she was planning on doing.

  Until a flash of fire swept across the top of the walls, and the goblins screamed, before the smell of cooked flesh and burning filled the forest with its smog.

  Emily squinted her eyes to try to make out exactly what happened, finding the flames coming from a single source that slowly walked across the top of the walls, pointing downwards to assumedly burn down the pile of corpses that the goblins were still using to mount the wall. Smoke filled the night air, as the humans swiftly closed the gaps that the flames left behind, once again cutting down the goblins as they tried to climb over.

  Emily let out a sigh, as she sat back down again, feeling a slight amount of remorse for what she had started. Before she hardened her resolve and waited for the perfect moment to arrive.

  More time passed, as the horde grew in size and complexity. Battlements were pushed to the wall carrying goblins at the top, who leapt from the wooden contraptions to the wall in an attempt to establish beach heads. The mages would burn them down or destroy them with earth, the heavy hitters not holding back at all as the battle drew out more and more, the horde sweeping out as far as the eye can see.

  Occasional flame bursts lit up the night, as fire mages swept their flames across the enemies. But over time, those became less and less frequent, as the mages burned out their mana and had to stop or risk mana burnout.

  Which is when it finally happened.

  A large metal contraption with wheels was rolled up towards the battle, pulled by massive chains that dozens of larger goblins tugged on, crushing the horde underneath them as they wheeled over. On the top of the contraption was a large cobbled-together throne, a single goblin resting on top of it, heavily laden down with shiny jewellery and metal. The contraption rolled to a grisly stop, and the battle fell into a lull for a moment, everyone turning to look at this massive abomination of metal and pointy bits, waiting to see what happens.

  A voice shouted out from the top of it, loud and commanding.

  And the goblins went feral.

  All of the goblins rushed the camp, crawling over each other’s bodies and crushing each other in their race to get to the top of the wall. Some crawled up on the bodies of their friends, some leapt from wooden contraptions yet to be collapsed by mages, and others simply used wooden poles and ladders to get to the top, swiftly overwhelming the tired mages and men on the top.

  They started trickling in to the camp below, small fights breaking out here and there in isolated pockets in the streets, the camp breaking out into pandemonium as every soldier fights for their lives. Emily sits up quickly, shaking out her legs and taking a deep breath as her hands start to glow.

  “Okay, okay. It’s time.”

  She turns to Blue and tugs off his hood, the ostrich’s eyes opening blearily as he blinks away the sleep. Emily looks at him affectionately, giving him a quick pat and snatching her hand back just in time to avoid losing her fingers to his snapping beak. Emily glares at him for being rude enough to ruin a cute moment, as she gestures behind him.

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  “Go on, Blue. I’m going down below.”

  Blue looks around in curiosity, as he sniffs the air, turning down to stare at the battle down below. He turns back to Emily and stares at her in a way that has Emily’s hair standing on edge. For a moment, Emily wonders if she needs to blast him with some wind to get him to stop staring at her like a snack…

  Before Blue spots something down in the camp, his pupils dilating as he turns around on a dime and disappears in the night’s darkness.

  Emily lets out a sigh of relief, as she turns to look down the cliff, gauging the distance to the bottom again.

  “This is going to be such a dumb way to die if I get this wrong…”

  With a few breaths to psych herself up, she glances down at her hands, seeing the brightness of their glow before leaping off of the cliff towards the camp below.

  She falls for a second, her stomach turning as gravity pulls her swiftly towards the ground below. She holds out her hands and blasts the earth below with a blast of wind, tearing into an unfortunate tent below her and scattering its interiors all over the area but slowing her down enough for her to land only slightly painfully on her feet. She loses her footing and rolls, her back digging painfully into scattered items before she pops up on her feet again, her cloak catching on a tent pole and tearing with a horrendous ripping sound.

  She looks around and finds that the area is, luckily, abandoned - all the troops having already rushed to hold against the horde and leaving the rest of the camp abandoned. She turns until she’s oriented towards the prisoner camp, rushing there as fast as she can, her heart pounding as every second ticks down and the horde overwhelms the camp more and more.

  After a few turns and getting turned around a few times, Emily finds the prisoner tent, sprinting towards it with relief that swiftly turns to dread as she finds four nervous-looking guards standing outside, glancing around, their weapons held in tight hands.

  Emily lets out a deep breath or two and approaches the four, trying her hardest to hide her wobbly legs and to look like an irritated noble. She cycles her mana towards her hands again, causing them to glow brighter, as she gets right up to the guard closest to her, the man turning to look at her in confusion before lowering his weapon at her.

  “Hey, halt! No one is to approach the tent!”

  Emily looks at the spear with contempt, as she stops walking, staring at the man with fury. The other three guards quickly scurry to back him up, all of them lowering their weapons at her.

  She takes a deep breath, preparing her lungs for what she’s about to do…

  Before she channels her inner Wall Commander, shouting as loudly as she can.

  “What the hell do you four think you’re doing, wasting time here when there’s a whole darn… I mean, damned war going on?!”

  The four flinch at her shouting, looking at each other with uncertainty, before one of them that Emily assumes is in charge steps closer to her, a confused look on his face.

  “We were commanded to keep the prisoners secure, uh… Miss…?”

  Emily steps up closer to the man, looking up at him with all the intimidation she can muster while still being a head and a half shorter than him and weighing probably half of his weight while soaking wet.

  Luckily for her, a lifetime of taking shit from people above them and having the ability to shoot death from her hands gives Emily the edge, in this case, as the soldier takes a nervous step back from her.

  “Orders have changed from the Commander! The front lines need you, soldiers!”

  The four look at each other with an unsure look, some understanding passing between them. Emily feels her heart skip a beat, as she realizes they don’t believe her.

  “We don’t work under the Commander, ma’am.”

  She takes another deep breath, a slight tendril of mana snaking around her heart and then priming around her head, as she puts her all into one final attempt at going the non-aggressive route.

  A pulse of mana pushes out from her and sweeps over the men, and they glance at each other nervously.

  “Well, if you don’t want to die a horrible death, you’ll damn well work under whoever ensures that doesn’t happen!”

  The men stare at Emily with rapt attention, their faces going a shade paler as they gulp.

  “Now, are you going to support the front lines, like a good soldier of the army? Or are you going to die here, knowing you could have prevented it?!”

  The soldiers snap to attention, saluting Emily, their voices squeaking in nervousness. “Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”

  Emily cocks her head and looks at the head guy with confusion. “Wait, yes as in you’re going to the front lines, or yes you’re going to die here?”

  The men look back at Emily with confusion, then they look at each other for confirmation, before turning back to Emily. “Yes, we’re going to the front lines, ma’am.”

  Emily lets out a sigh of relief, as she nods her head. “Oh, phew. Okay. Good.”

  The two stare at each other for a second, neither one knowing exactly what to say, before the awkwardness becomes too much for Emily and she clears her throat noisily to break the tension.

  “Alright, then. Well, what are you waiting for? Move, move, move!”

  The soldiers panic and rush off, leaving Emily alone with the unguarded tent. She looks around once again, nervous about anyone coming to stop her.

  Finding nothing, she prepares herself for whatever she might see, and opens the tent flap, stepping into the darkness with her hands outstretched, the glow of her mana lighting up the interior and a spell ready for any trouble she might find on the other side.