The battle continued as the knights and town guard chased the pirates and remaining rebels towards their last stand. They had leveled the battlefield, almost taking out the magic users' wide array of combat capabilities. Now it was a brutal head-on collision with swords and shields, spears and arrows flying around the place.
Those who concocted this revolt were now panicking. Yes, they were armed, but most of them were simply townsfolk without much formal training in the end. While others have some militia training of some sort, those sessions didn't come often and were only called upon during wartime when a much larger force was attacking Helwind.
Knight Captain Adam, tired but still fierce and willing, and his men pushed forward, breaking the places where the enemy barricaded themselves. The spineless cowards were now trapped in a fortified building in Lowwinds, their backs against the wall, nowhere left to run.
Lord Jouse arrived after some time, and he delivered a message of finality. He rode to the front on his warhorse, armor gleaming despite the smoke and blood, and his voice carried across the battlefield.
"Hear me, citizens of Helwind and subjects of the Kingdom of Mindrift. Lay down your weapons and be spared from death. Anyone who still bears arms and sides with these fools and outsiders would be shown no mercy."
Of course, even with them being spared death, they would lose all their privileges and would instead be branded on their necks with a slave mark. They would be sent to the mines and would be forced to atone for their sins through labor. Or they could help rebuild Helwind, but this time they no longer will have the comfort of their status and homes. They will be viewed with disgust by the people, especially now that they have sided with the magicians.
"It is not too late, and you have been fooled into a false sense of security. As you can see, we can definitely match these people. They aren't superior to us. Thankfully our king has blessed us with such equipment to combat these types of scenarios."
The murmur started among the citizenry who heard it. Of course it was propaganda mixed with a bit of truth and a lie. Lord Jouse was doing a bit of image control, pinning the blame on the outsiders and the leaders of this revolt.
Then the rest was echoed by their own citizens, encouraging their friends and neighbors who took part in this madness to stop and come forth to surrender.
Of course this had an enormous effect on the morale of the revolutionists. But the pirates worried they wouldn't be able to survive.
"Lies!" shouted Bonaks from the building's second floor window, his voice hoarse and desperate. "You know damn well those are lies! They're manipulating you! Either way, you will be treated worse if you surrender. I say it's better to die fighting for what you believed in than to live like you're dead. I'm sure you will become slaves!"
Of course that was true in a sense, but either way they were still being manipulated.
Some of the smarter ones felt guilty for their actions. They started to break down the barricades from the inside so that they could surrender. But the pirates saw this and they stabbed them instead.
"Stop them! Stop what they're doing! They'll kill us all!" Kanton shouted, driving his sword through a rebel who'd been pulling boards away from a window.
They stabbed the deserters, and the townsfolk who couldn't act fast enough had been pulled into the momentum, killing their friends and families in the process. But it was only after they had committed the deed that they realized what they had done.
"No... no, I didn't mean to..." one man sobbed, looking at the body of his neighbor at his feet. Blood covered his hands, and his eyes were wide with horror.
But there was no time for regret. The battle raged on.
Within an hour, the knights eventually made a breakthrough. And as you could imagine, it was a slaughter. Because it was an enclosed space, the magic users could pool their attacks and create a more powerful and effective use of the magic, and soon destruction and mayhem would ensure they took out anything that tried to breach.
Knight Captain Adam organized the assault carefully. "Archers! Crossbowmen! The enemy can't move well in there! Aim for the windows and doorways! Pepper them with arrows and bolts!"
The knights fired arrows once more. Now that the enemies couldn't move well, they aimed their crossbows and bows towards them and unleashed a storm of projectiles into the building.
The enemy shielded themselves with the remaining townsfolk, using them as human barriers against the arrows. And they sent their own magic towards their enemies. They had managed to save their mana for this final clash.
Bonaks stood in the center of the main room, Kanton to his left, Daks to his right. All three were wounded, exhausted, running on rage and desperation. But they still had magic. And they would use every drop of it.
"On my mark," Bonaks said, his voice cold. "Give them everything. Everything we've got left!"
"We'll kill ourselves too," Daks said, with fear apparent in his voice.
"We're dead anyway," Bonaks replied. "But we'll take as many of these bastards with us as we can."
He raised his hands, fire gathering in his palms. Kanton summoned earth and stone. Daks called upon wind to fuel the flames.
"Now!"
An explosion erupted as fire, wind, and earth elements combined into a giant mass of destructive power towards their attackers. The spell was massive, unstable, far beyond what any of them should have been able to cast individually. But together, pooling their remaining mana, they created a cataclysm.
The blast tore through the building's walls, causing significant damage not just to the attackers but to themselves as well. The whole building exploded into smithereens, wood and stone and bodies flying through the air.
Surely enough, many had died in the initial blast. Survivors groaned in pain with shrapnel embedded in their flesh and missing limbs. The knights somehow survived due to their equipment, but still a lot of them had died, especially those who were already weakened. I mean, what could normal humans do at the end of the day? It's not like they could strengthen themselves with magic.
The smoke cleared slowly, revealing the devastation. Where a building had stood moments ago, now there was only rubble and ruin. Bodies lay scattered, some moving, most not.
Knight Captain Adam pulled himself up from where the blast had thrown him. His armor had saved him, but he could feel bruises forming all over his body. His ears rang from the explosion.
"Report!" he shouted, his voice sounding distant even to himself. "Who's alive? Sound off!"
Groans and calls came back. Maybe thirty of his fifty knights still lived. The rest were dead or dying. Of the three hundred soldiers, perhaps half remained standing.
The cost was terrible. But they had won.
Now the enemies' heads were cut off and brought to justice. They have won the battle, but it was a costly one.
The remaining town guards and knights rushed into the ruins to finish off any surviving enemies and rebels who still didn't surrender after the lord's final warning.
Even Brina rushed in. She'd been in the second wave, protected from the worst of the blast by the knights in front of her. But now she moved forward with the others, sword in hand, looking for survivors to capture or threats to neutralize.
Unfortunately, there was still someone who could use magic that was alive even after all of that. It was Bonaks, the leader. He lay in the rubble, half-buried, one arm twisted at an unnatural angle. But his other hand still worked. And he still had a little mana left.
Brina just so happened to see him forming magic in his palm, aiming it towards Knight Captain Adam, who was unaware that he was being targeted. The captain's back was turned, his armor damaged, the Antimaether coating burned away by the explosion.
"Watch out!" Brina screamed.
She didn't think. She just moved. Her body reacted before her mind could catch up. She pushed Knight Captain Adam out of the way but was instead hit by a lance of fire.
And because she didn't have the proper equipment, she was hit full blast with magic. The fire punched through her stomach like a spear, burning and tearing.
Brina collapsed, and several guards swarmed Bonaks and cut his head off in one clean stroke. His body twitched once, then went still.
She started bleeding on the ground. She could feel death approaching her, cold and inevitable. The pain was beyond anything she'd ever imagined. She tried to breathe and couldn't. She tried to speak but tasted blood instead.
Others rushed to stop the bleeding. A healer nearby, a town guard hired magician, came to help her. She had sustained a wound on her stomach that had a gaping hole in it, the edges charred black.
Knight Captain Adam searched the bastards nearby, going through Bonaks's pockets with shaking hands. Then he found a vial of healing potion, recognizable by its red color. He knew these bastards were like cockroaches, so there was no way they wouldn't have such a last measure with them.
He rushed to let Brina drink it and also poured it on her wounds. He understood how the enemy had used it before. "Live! You hear me? Live!"
Brina felt like dying. Her life ebbed and flowed before her eyes. She saw her parents, smiling at her. She saw Ren, laughing at something she'd said. She saw Wynstead before it burned.
But then she was being pulled back to life with Knight Adam's words, with his command to live.
Then she was being swallowed in a warm embrace of mana for the first time. She was being held by it, cradled by it. She could feel it coursing through her body and repairing the wound, albeit slowly. But it was faster than before. This one was normal quality, not like the low quality the pirates had used.
The healing magic from the potion and the healer combined, working to seal the terrible wound. The pain began to recede, replaced by a strange tingling sensation as flesh and organs being knit back together.
Knight Captain Adam felt guilty that a recruit had tried to save him, and now it had almost cost her her life. Thankfully, these cockroach bastards were arrogant fools and kept their best potions on them. So he didn't leave a single drop and made sure to pour everything on Brina. In a sense, she had saved him and he owed her his life.
"Stay with us," the healer said, her hands glowing with soft green light as she worked. "You're going to be alright. Just stay awake."
But Brina couldn't. The exhaustion, the pain, the shock, it all overwhelmed her.
Brina collapsed into unconsciousness but was now far from harm's way.
Around them, the battle finally ended. The remaining rebels threw down their weapons. The pirates were all dead. The revolt was over.
Helwind had won, but the cost was written in blood on every street, in every smoking ruin, in every body that would never go home.
Lord Jouse surveyed the devastation and felt the weight of command settle heavier on his shoulders. This was their victory. But it tasted like ash.