Short Excerpt Updated

Dense air permeated the southern hills, weighing on Fenryr's chest like a massive boulder. Fenryr's nostrils flared with a stinging irritation, the sulphuric and sickly sweet stench of decay assailed his senses, contorting his features in disgust. His breaths came deep through his mouth, with an almost throat puncturing sore dryness, yet unfulfilling, as though the inhales were meaningless motion, without substance, without result. 

Obscured by the ethereal crimson substance, floating about in wafts and wisps, like fog clouds, five distinct, almost human silhouettes stood atop the hill, moving in a slow but deliberate pace down with the ghostly emanation in tow. 

Fenryr squinted his azure eyes, straining his magic senses, observing the entire area, yet, the more he felt out the dense aura draping the desolate landscape like a funeral shroud, dulling even the full moon's silvery blaze, the more he convinced himself. The five silhouettes had a distinct presence, but they too drowned out under the multitude of others. 

‘Strong, weak and everything in between.. It could be their main force..’ 

Fenryr's hairs stood on end, sweat gleaming with a pale ghostly light on his forehead,

“Alright, you report back, I'll take a closer look.”

He instructed the wiry figure by himself. The pair sheltered by a particularly large outcropping of rock formation lining the road. 

“No need, we know it's the main army…” sounded the stammered reply, under the clinking of armor pieces as shivers jolted through the soldier's body.

Fenryr's glare, ablaze with a cold flame, darted to the young trooper's green, widened round eyes.

“We can't report that unless we are certain… Tell them there's a larger force present. I'd estimate about two hundred, we'll know more in a bit.”

*

Row upon row of black steel armored forms snaked beyond the hilltop, the rhythmic thunder of boots mesmerizing Fenryr in a grave, cold sensation of doom, creeping up on his spine. 

The lines reflected a semblance of order, or as he observed more closely the sheer number of lower demons created a mass of bodies where patterns were bound to emerge for an outside observer, yet Fenryr's experience told him, the fragile illusion of order was kept alive by one thing: fear. 

His vantage point, leaning against a smooth carriage-sized boulder rising some thirty feet above the road, shielding him from sight suddenly felt uncertain and insecure, as legion of foes marched by underneath. The rhythmic pulse of silence implied a chant of sorts had kept every single one of those bodies in near-perfect pace.. Even though no gargling nor black helmet-muffled raspy, grunted obscenities of words rose to underscore the pulsating sense of doom, his mind inserted pieces, barely articulated sounds, fragmented and grotesque expressions characteristic of demon's chatter he recalled from those days long gone. 

‘Two hundred… More like a thousand.. They've gotten reinforcements from somewhere.’

His thoughts halted, like panic stifled words stuck in the throat before articulated release, he felt it, the sudden electric stirring within himself. 

‘Not now…’ his aura threatened to surface against his will, betraying his presence. If there ever was a moment Fenryr hoped for depleted magic power, it had to be this one. 

The groups of helmeted figures wouldn't see him from their angle, not unless they were to turn around, knowing what to look for..knowing that he wasn't part of the arc-like protrusion of rock formations looming overhead. 

 Holding his breaths back to slow but deliberate inhales and exhales, Fenryr focused his attention inward, calming his regenerated energy reserves seeking freedom from under his concealment spell..

The crimson flow under and amidst the demons seemed like an earthbound cloud, something intangible, barely existing but still there, reflecting off the coarse ebony, armor plates, the jagged, naked swords and axes. 

‘Intimidation… Is that it? Where are the siege weapons though..’

*

With no choice, Fenryr waited as the lines and stragglers passed far enough not to notice his movements.. If his senses were right, the siege weapons had to be still on the other side of the hill, faint presences emerged from further south, the flickering void-like auras, unmistakable signs of demonic presence registered clearly in his mind.. 

‘Twenty.. No, more like two hundred.. And.. Mortals?’

The jolting realization almost pushed a surprised epithet out his throat. 

*