The Foolhardies 82 Clash of Clans

"You seem pretty discontent with just watching from the sidelines," said a voice that always seemed like honey being poured down my ears.

I shrugged. "Nothing we can do about it. Your aunt thinks the unit's too weak to be of any use tonight..." 

I really was irritated by the fact that the Foolhardies were down for the count. Literally. In one night, we'd lost another forty soldiers. Many of whom were with us since the formation of the unit. Guys like Shaqs who we can't ever replace.

The thought of my fallen comrades made my forehead crease.

"Great General Darah is simply looking out for the unit's wellbeing. She knows how understaffed we are at the moment," Aura insisted.

The business-like way she explained it made me glance over to my partner-in-crime, wondering if she even felt the loss as much as I did. Seeing the wetness in her beautiful eyes and the frown on her pretty lips, I really had nothing to worry about. Aura wasn't unfeeling like other fairies were.

The constant need to remind me that Aura was different from the bastards who stole Luca was always a sore spot for me. It wasn't like I didn't trust her. It was more like I was just too prejudiced against the fay. Sure, I enjoyed hanging around Varda and Edo and even Qwipps, but I could never really let go of the hate I felt for fairies—the creeps who stole my family's happiness.

Aura noticed the internal turmoil inside me like I was a mood ring she could easily read. Her hand reached out for my shoulder, and I let her stir my emotions away from annoying stuff like guilt and fear.

My eyes returned to the battlefield below but my thoughts were far from the fight. "How are Luca and Pike?"

Aura stood at my side, watching the same scene I saw.

"Berrian's done what he can. He spent the rest of his spells as well as half a dozen of our regular healing potions," Aura reported. "He's ordered them on bedrest for the duration of the night. Perhaps more… We're lucky you found them when you did."

I nodded. "Yeah…"

"Dean… about this new power of yours," Aura began hesitantly. "Are you sure it's safe to use?"

"I've only used it once… and the drawback was a bit more intense the usual stuff," I admitted. "On the bright side, I feel like my capacity to use Fool's Insight has grown… Maybe I can even use Basilisk's Eye more than once a night now."

"And you've tested that theory?" Aura asked.

"Nope. Maybe when we're done with this crazy war," I said right before glancing sideways at Aura and asking, "Why? Do you know something about Fool's Insight that I don't?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Aura shook her head. "No… it's nothing like that. But you know that Fool's Insight is special even among fairy gifts, right?"

"You're talking about the five senses of insight that your brother told me about?" I confirmed.

She nodded. "Even my family's records have no account of just how powerful the five sense gifts are… Your sight, in particular, has proven to be a remarkable asset in battle." Aura gave me a wan smile. "I'm curious to see just how much more you'll grow with it… but I'm also worried the power might be too much…"

"For a human, you mean?" there was no anger in my voice when I asked this question.

"N-no… for anyone, really," Aura insisted. Her bright blue eyes gazed intently back at me. "Promise me you'll let me know if it begins to feel like too much?"

I patted her lightly on the shoulder. "You'll be the first to know when I go crazy." I smiled mischievously at her. "I promise."

Aura laughed in that lyrical laugh that always made me smile back. "You're already crazy, Dean Dapper. But let's not go over the edge, okay?"

Aura wrapped her arms around herself like she'd gotten cold from the passing breeze. Seeing her like that made me feel the chill myself. It was the kind of cold you could feel in your bones.

I glanced down and picked up the blanket I'd been sitting on before she arrived. Then I dusted it off and draped it across her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said in a soft voice.

This, of course, made my face so hot it must have been redder than an apple.

"The boy touched with fire," she mused. "You must be happy that our enemies consider you a threat enough to have named you."

I groaned. "Luca told you about that, did he?"

Seeing the blush on my face only made Aura's smirk wider. "It suits you."

I scratched my head. "Y-yeah… I thought so too. Although I'm not sure why they'd call me that."

Aura patted my red hair with one of her delicate hands. "I could think of a few reasons."

The sounds of battle disrupted our playful banter, and it forced us to turn our attention back on the battlefield below.

You could hear their war cries from a mile away. Even the final death rattles of soldiers cursing their opponents as their lives ebbed to nothing. There were also the sounds of a thousand arrows swooshing through the night sky and then falling down with a thud on shields and armor, along with the occasional agonized screaming of a direct hit. But worst by far were the boom-boom of cannon fire and the following elemental explosions that came after their projectiles found their mark.

Even from the safety of our hilltop, Aura and I pulled back as columns of fire and tidal waves of water erupted against the  Darah army's formations. And if it wasn't for the arcane shields cast by our magicians, the devastation of the Magesong clan's spell cannons would have cut our troops in half.

"Damn," I raised my arm to shield my sight from the colorful explosions. "Guess whoever took those cannons down didn't get them all…"

"That was Al Sheridan's work… he runs an independent unit like us too," Aura answered.

"Huh," I said as I dropped my arm. My eyebrow rose at the realization that Darah had someone else she relied on to do the dirty jobs. "I've never met him."

"He's not very sociable. Mostly keeps to himself and his unit," Aura admitted.

Whatever I was about to say regarding this other independent unit was drowned out by the horns of war blasting all over the three battlefields, signaling that a change in formations was about to begin. The cannon fire and other projectiles stopped as the infantry units of both sides began to charge forward once again.

If anything, the smaller scale battles were even fiercer than the previous night with all three Darah armies engaged against all three Magesong armies in a brutal melee clash.

The right and left armies—which had held back on all-out war during the previous night—were now full of scenes similar to ants devouring a piece of food that had fallen to the floor.

I couldn't hear the clashing of their shadowblades, but I could somehow feel the bloodlust spreading out of these battlefields. It was as if many of the soldiers fighting down there had forgotten the causes they answered and had become nothing more than beasts seeking the fresh kill. It was insane.

In contrast to the intensity of last night, the center army seemed content to send their cavalries out to test each other. But Thors at the lead of a thousand strong cavalry was all the difference necessary for our side to prove stronger. The fact that the enemy center army no longer had a general who could match up to him in terms of battle strategy meant the enemy was continuously pushed back.

"We did that," I whispered, to which Aura responded with, "Yes, we made it possible for the center army to dominate the field tonight."

"The war might be over sooner than we thought," I joked.

I regretted it as soon as the words escaped my lips. You never joke about things like that because it's like you're inviting karma to screw shit up for you. And it did, big time.

Another war horn sounded behind the Magesong center army. The unfurling of banners followed. And just like that, the center army had the reinforcements it needed to stand their ground.

My eyes scanned the flag flying high in the air. It was a gray flag with the symbol of an outward-facing palm, its two fingers holding lightly onto a thin wand-like blade.

The enemy raised a second banner beside the first. This one was a white flag with a black wand at its center.

I scowled. "Hey, Aura, can you call Nike over? I need her to send my message to the McCord brothers."

Chapter end