Wraith's Lament, chapter 3: Chapter 2

Prendergast wasn’t sure how they did it, but they had. They’d subdued three corrupted rhakos with one metaphorical stone. The fourth and largest one, however, had taken advantage of the chaos to flee the woods, and it’d taken its malevolent wisp army with it.

“What do we do about the leader?” Samawat asked, as he and his windhound finished securing the last of the leather straps around his rhakos.

Kali pulled out a scrap of paper, crumbled it in her hand, then raised her hand skyward. A pillar of bright blue light shot out of her palm and above the trees, bursting into a corona of sparks at its zenith.

“The speculatores should be here in 10 minutes, tops. And until then, I’ve got my best legionarii posted all along the west wall.”

Prendergast could feel his rhakos wriggling underneath him. He stomped on it with one foot until it stopped. ‘And the wisps?’

“The rhakos’ apparent affinity with them was… unexpected. But rest assured, my soldiers are prepared for every possible contingency.”

*

“We are NOT prepared for this!” the centurion howled, as a swarm of corrupted wisps pulled and ripped at his uniform.

Sure, General Kali had briefed them all about this situation well in advance. ‘Be on the lookout for any corrupted rhakos coming out of the Haunted Woods.’ But she hadn’t briefed them about the glowering red wisp army following in its wake. And now they were floating right up the walls and wreaking havoc among the ranks.

The Perardua moon tower had been generous enough to send some of their elite tyto warriors as backup, but even their javelins flew right through the fiends. How could you kill something that was technically dead?

Worst of all, they kept whispering their disturbing last words into his ears, echoes of a war long lost.

‘Keep moving, my dear. You’re being so strong…’

‘They’re coming over the ridge--!’

‘So cold…’

‘Kill ‘em all!’

The man waved his iron gladius about, which seemed to at least repel them. In his brief moment of respite, he glanced along the wall and noted that his fellow legionarii had discovered much the same.

“Sagittarii, nock arrows! Aim for that beast with the glowing eyes. Legionarii, cover them.”

The longbowfolk lined up along the parapet, with their fellow soldiers forming a shield wall around them, but the corrupted rhakos was long gone. It could’ve gone anywhere by that point.

“Doy blimey, the legate’s not going to like this.”