The Champions by Jeremy Laszlo Page B

were at least two
hundred of the bone-clad warriors, each twice to three times as tall as a man.
They hit the wall of spears and shields in a single blow, driving the defenders
back all along the line. Spears bristled, but to little effect against the
large opponents. The warriors clad in bone were a breed of berserker and cared
little for their wounds.
    Blow after crazed blow the bone-clad warriors landed,
sending men flying in twos and threes. In seconds hundreds were dead as the
champions of Valdadore rushed to protect their common troops. Borrik was the
first to retaliate and Garret watched as the beast man swooped down among the
enemy, hacking and stabbing whilst throwing fireballs as well. It would take a
full minute to make it back to the rear lines, and by then thousands would be
dead, maybe all of them. Fireballs began to lance from Valdadore’s mages, but
it was merely a feeble attempt to scare the enemy away. Neither the mages nor
the archers dared shoot into their own troops. As Garret and the other blessed
soldiers of Valdadore raced back to their rear lines, they all watched in
dismay as thousands were slaughtered upon the weapons of their foes.
    One instant two armies faced each other across a field of
battle as Garret and his primary force raced to save their weaker allies. The
next moment an explosion sounded unlike anything ever heard before as two
entire armies were thrown from their feet by the wall of air blasted out in all
directions.
    So strong was the blast, shields were ripped from the hands
of soldiers and were caught up upon the blast and thrown hundreds of yards
away. Those closest the blast were dead, and the next nearest who survived bled
from their pores. Nearly all bled from their ears.
    Picking themselves up off the ground, both attacker and
defender alike looked for the source of the blast. None could miss him.
Standing near the center of the battlefield was an enormous man that none had
even heard tell of in legend. Standing close to ninety feet tall the
gray-skinned man raised his four massive arms in defiance, and screamed in
rage. Just yards away from the immense giant lay another four-armed man,
identical to the first but smaller. This one lay face down, several bones bent
at odd angles. Enraged the enormous beast began striding towards the
beleaguered Valdadorian line. With each step the ground trembled, and those
already fighting to regain their feet were tossed to the ground again.
    Reaching the line the enormous four-armed beast began
plucking Sigrant’s troops from Valdadore’s line and hurling them back at their
own army. The bone-clad warriors began to panic and flee in all directions but
the giant beast would have none of it. Some he scooped and hurled, others he
squashed beneath his feet as they sought to elude him.
    Garret watched as the giant beast singlehandedly destroyed
the bone-clad warriors to a man. He knew his brother’s work when he saw it, and
was impressed by the massive creation. The giant warrior had saved thousands if
not tens of thousands of lives.
    Hearing cries from the lines of Sigrant’s troops, Garret
spun anew to face the enemy, and again he was too late. Fireballs, lightning,
ice, and water flew across the field. Every mage the enemy could muster had
singled out the same target. Garret turned again.
    More magical blasts than a man of any size could take struck
the immense man over every portion of his body. Lightning blasted a hole
through his flesh in over a dozen locations as fire blistered and peeled his
skin. Giant balls of ice smashed against his skull and face but the enormous
man remained upright. Though pain showed clearly upon his contorted face, he
glared defiantly across the field at the enemy and began to sing a song of
battle that echoed across the land, shaking the very earth beneath them. It was
a song Garret had heard the day before and returning his gaze to the great
warrior he recognized his father just as the second volley of magical