The marines in the Royal Legions were equipped differently compared to the soldiers Leon was more used to dealing with. Their shields were smaller and a little rounder at the corners; their swords were a little bit longer; their bows were also larger and more heavily enchanted. They also largely had lighter armor, with some equipped with little more than cloth gambeson and a few pieces of leather on their limbs.

But, if these equipment differences worried Leon at all, those worries were quickly put to rest as the marines displayed astounding skill with their bows. The first handful of pirates that came into range were quickly cut down by Legion arrows. Leon followed that rough volley up with an explosive arrow, with the blast tearing through the surrounding foliage and opening up the slope a little bit for more Legion arrows.

The members of Leon’s squad participated, as well, with Alix, Gaius, Marcus, and Alcander all pushing the cheap bows Leon had tested his enchantments on to their limits with how quickly they were firing their arrows. Maia didn’t use such weapons, however, and contented herself with pulling water out of the extremely humid jungle air, freezing the drops into tiny darts, and almost uncaringly sent them careening into the jungle. She hardly seemed to care about the battle, though Leon noticed that she still used her magic with unerring accuracy.

But the flood of pirates was unending. In the first couple of minutes, about a hundred of the pirates were shot, but Leon’s handful of explosive arrows hadn’t just cleared the slope a bit and thus extend the range of the Legion bows, but had also considerably widened the amount of space the pirates had to work with. Their marching column burst out of the bottleneck that the jungle had forced them into, sending the pirates scattering in small groups out onto the slope. They poured out in numbers great enough that soon, the Legion marines couldn’t keep up, and some of the pirates were finding some cover.

Leon was gratified to see that some of his mines then went off, killing a few of the pirates. But then, a huge fireball came hurtling out of the jungle aimed squarely at Leon. He reacted as quickly as he was able, projecting his magic out of his body to try and catch the fireball in a desperate attempt to stop it.

This fireball had been thrown by the red-haired seventh-tier mage, and Leon knew if it exploded on him, then most of the people around him would be injured at the very least, including his squad.

Leon pushed with all his might, time practically slowing down as both magic and adrenaline hit his brain. The fireball almost moved in slow motion as it crawled through the air, Leon’s magic wrapping around it like fingers around a small ball.

The fire burned away most of Leon’s magic power, but he had more where that came from. He kept pushing, kept trying to push against the power that pushed the fireball forward. It was draining, leaving Leon feeling like he was pushing against an entire mountain, with sweat starting to bead up on his forehead, but it produced results; the fireball slowed nearly to a stop about ten feet from his chest, the dense cluster of fire roiling and spinning as Leon and the fire mage fought for control.

All around him, Leon could also see more magic being thrown around as the stronger of the pirates started to step up. Unfortunately, there weren’t any marines in the company capable of responding, leaving Maia alone in her response—a great water dragon appeared upon the slope and came crashing down into the pirates, crushing many.

But Leon couldn’t pay too much attention, for he felt a slight change in the fire mage’s magic power. She clearly wasn’t in the mood to play tug-of-war with him over her fireball, and sensing what was coming, Leon widened the scope of his magic power. A moment later, the fireball detonated in a great conflagration, a shining example of nearly yellow-hot fire that showed just how much a seventh-tier fire mage was capable of.

Leon was also a seventh-tier fire mage, though, and the fire expanded in front of the marines like burning oil across glass. His projected magic power acted as a kind of shield, blocking the fire from expanding and causing damage.

When it finally died down, Leon breathed a sigh of relief and some minor fatigue, the task of blocking that one fireball taking almost as much out of him as a handful of lightning bolts. He didn’t let himself get too carried away, because he could see the fire mage throwing fistfuls of fire into Maia’s water dragon, blasting huge chunks of water off of it as the water was flash-vaporized into steam.

Conjuring a lightning bolt in his hand, Leon took a step toward the lip of the ridge and hurled the bolt with great might. It sailed across the distance between himself and the fire mage faster than anyone else could see it and exploded across her body. She wasn’t wearing that much armor, and so was thrown back by the force behind Leon’s attack. Half a dozen pirates around her were showered in sparks hot enough to melt through their chainmail and sear flesh, leaving them collapsed and screaming in the wet jungle dirt, only granted mercy when the enchanted bows of Legion marines filled them with arrows.

They were doing well, Leon could see that, but the pirates were slowly pushing up the slope. As stronger mages with better equipment started appearing from within the jungle, the Legion’s arrows started having less and less effect, and many of Leon’s mines had already been tripped, killing dozens of pirates but not stopping their charge. Soon enough, only Maia’s water dragon was having much effect on the front line, and he could see the red-haired mage getting back to her feet, some of her clothes torn and burned, leaving portions of her chest bare enough for Leon to see just how badly his lightning bolt had burned her; the exposed areas of her upper chest were covered in the jagged and spiraling fractal patterns of black lightning burns, while blood seeped through here and there where her flesh hadn’t been entirely cauterized.

They could hold for a little bit longer, Leon could see that. With himself keeping that fire mage at bay and Maia dealing with the rest with her water dragon, their position was still fairly secure. But Leon didn’t want to wait until their enemy had almost fallen upon them to order their return to the fortified camp. That would be too late.

He sucked in a breath to start shouting at his marines to fall back while another lightning bolt started to take shape in his hands, but just before he could start with either, the female fire mage raised a hand and conjured some kind of white gemstone set in a palm-sized diamond-shaped chunk of polished turquoise. The gemstone glowed for just long enough for Leon to see it, then flashed, and Maia’s water dragon collapsed into nothing.

A moment later, Leon heard Maia gasp in pain as her arms curled into her chest.

Leon didn’t need anything more than that. He hurled the bolt at the fire mage and then roared, “BACK TO THE CAMP!”

The Legion Centurion and company Prefects repeated his order, and the marines abandoned the ridge to sprint back through the half-mile of jungle toward the camp.

But Leon’s eyes, instead of watching that or keeping his eye on the battlefield, went to Maia. He did his best to watch the battle with his magic senses, but in his mind, she took priority. She’d collapsed to her knees beside him, her eyes wide and watering in pain, her arms still folded and clutched against her chest.

In that moment, Leon felt a great many emotions—rage, concern, and empathy were the biggest ones—but in his mind, he had only one thought. With one swift motion, he wrapped his arms around Maia and scooped her into his arms, then leaped up onto Anzu. He didn’t need to hold Anzu’s reins, so he just held Maia close and shouted at his squad, “All of you! Move!”

They’d only stuck around a few seconds after the marines had started retreating, and with Leon’s order in their ears, their pace doubled. Still, they were all constantly looking back over their shoulders, and didn’t seem to relax until Anzu caught up a moment later.

Leon ground his teeth together in frustration as Maia shook in his arms, their connection communicating to him nothing but pain. Whatever that woman had done to his river nymph, it was clearly more sinister than just dispelling the magic that Maia had used to conjure the water dragon.

Leon breathed deeply as rage began to grow into his dominant emotion, and he began to haphazardly toss out explosive mines as Anzu ran, not bothering to leave them anywhere concealed, just throwing them to ground or onto jungle foliage as they passed. They might have less impact being left where they could be easily seen, but Leon didn’t care. All he could see or think about was the river nymph in his arms.

At the very least, his explosive mines kept the pirates from catching up too quickly once the marines retreated. They hadn’t lost a single marine in the entire engagement, and by Leon’s estimation, probably killed or otherwise incapacitated about one or two hundred pirates. Not that many as far as their entire group went, but not an insignificant number, either.

They also held off Jormun’s people long enough for the entire camp to wake up and get in position, and for nearly all of the scouts to be recalled back to the camp. Once Leon’s squad and the Quick Response Force streamed through the gate, it was shut and barred. The battalion of marines had taken up their positions behind the palisade wall on a number of platforms that acted as both ramparts and towers, and with a few basic enchantments woven into the walls to keep the pirates from simply leaping over or knocking the walls down, it was about as secure of a position as Leon’s group could build in the handful of hours since they’d arrived at this location.

Still, as Leon came back to his senses, he knew that it wouldn’t be enough if something more drastic wasn’t done. Aside from him and Maia, the marines only had a small handful of mages capable of using elemental magic, whereas the pirates, going just by what he’d seen back at the ridge, had at least three times as many, if not more, and one of them was a seventh-tier mage, to boot.

And now, it seemed they were down one river nymph. Maia was still shuddering in Leon’s arms, not responding to anything he did to try and get her to wake up. Her aura was shaking violently, and Leon sensed a lot of pain through their connection, enough that didn’t think Maia was going to wake up anytime soon, let alone be in any kind of position where she could help them.

That she had been put into this position both terrified and enraged Leon. That item that the red-haired mage had used… he had no idea what that might be, or what its restrictions might be. For all he knew, if he tried to stop that mage, she’d be able to use the same thing on him, putting him into a similar state as Maia.

But as he took a deep breath and cast his gaze around at the marines taking up their positions on the wall, or just behind it acting as reserves or helping to bar the gates, he knew that he couldn’t just wait for the pirates to come here. The jungle was thin enough this far up the volcano that he had other options, and he had to pursue them if he didn’t want those pirates to eventually surround the camp and overwhelm their defenses.

He just couldn’t bring Maia with him.

With a heart-wrenching amount of resolve, Leon slid off of Anzu’s back, told his squad to wait for him for a moment, and carried Maia into his tent. There, he laid her down upon their bed, then turned to Anzu, who’d followed them inside. He took the griffin’s head into his hands and looked him straight in his blood-red eyes.

“Keep her safe. I’ll be back in no time,” Leon said quietly. He and Anzu could understand each other well enough at the best of times with tone and body language, but he hoped that the griffin could understand him a little bit better in this moment.

The griffin seemed to grumble a bit as he opened his beak and made some kind of watery growl from his throat, but he brushed past Leon and laid down next to the bed, his eyes on the door of the tent, one wing protectively covering Maia’s slightly convulsing form.

Leon spared enough time only to press a small handful of healing spells onto Maia and to pat his griffin on the head before he ran back outside and took stock of the situation.

Immediately, he used his magic senses to check up on the pirates. It seemed that, despite the powerful mages on their side—their seventh-tier fire mage, in particular, looked to still be in good fighting condition—they were advancing much slower than they were before. Leon surmised that they were waiting for more of their people to exit the denser parts of the jungle so that they could pursue his marines with a wider front, and from what he could see, his explosion spells were still giving them some pause and slowing them down.

So, he had time. Not a lot, but enough to do what he needed to do.

By his estimation, he had too many marines for the amount of space he had on the camp walls. Their rudimentary ramparts only had so much room, leaving about half of his marine battalion to stand in the empty space between the palisade and the tents. Many of these marines were guarding the gates, and others were acting as reserves, but there were a couple hundred he could pull, especially once he considered the terrain.

They were relatively high up on the slopes of the volcano, with ridges, cliffs, and ravines fairly common, keeping the jungle from growing too dense and restricting movement. Leon could see a place between the walls and a nearby ridge not too far to the north where, if he moved those marines he could spare, would keep the camp from becoming surrounded and subjecting the pirates to enfilade fire from both those marines and the walls of the camp—thanks to that ridge in the north and the cliff on the camp’s south side, the pirates could only approach from the west. If he did it this way, he’d even be able to pull more marines off the other sides of the camp wall and consolidate their defenses along these two fronts instead of the entire camp wall.

To an extent, this is what the Tribune in charge of the marine battalion had already done since Leon had informed him of where the pirates were coming from, but this way, they could commit more of their forces to this battle.

His mind made up, Leon only spared the time to project his magic senses out one more time to ensure that there weren’t any more pirates coming in from other directions—his strategy would leave the camp vulnerable to such attacks—but as far as he could tell, they were clear.

With nothing more holding him back, Leon grabbed his squad and swiftly made his way to the Tribune, who was on one of the central ‘towers’ that they’d built along the palisade, keeping an eye on their preparations. Leon explained his plan as quickly as he could, and while the Tribune had a few objections, he had no plans to offer other than hunkering down within the camp and trusting in the hastily-build walls.

In the end, he reluctantly accepted Leon’s plan, and started to bark orders to shift their lines accordingly, leaving Leon with about three hundred marines he could pull from their reserves.

By the time Leon had explained to the Centurions of these three companies what was happening and gotten his entire flanking force out of the camp, the pirates were starting to close in, having assembled enough of their massive force to significantly widen their front line. The explosive spells Leon had thrown around as he’d retreated were still slowing them a bit, but not as much as those that he’d placed with a little more care.

Making another snap decision, Leon ordered his squad and the Centurions to keep going while he made another play.

“There he goes again!” he heard Alix shout as he activated his invisibility ring once more and tore off into the jungle. The Centurions knew what to do, he could trust them to carry out his orders. He just needed to buy them a little bit of time.

He moved through the trees like a ghost, barely detectable even by the standards of experienced rangers. As he closed with the pirates, he drew his bow and prepared a few explosive arrows. With all the trees in the area, he had to get a little bit closer than he would’ve preferred to get a clean line of sight, leaving him with not too much time to pick his targets.

His eyes found the nearest fifth-tier mage in the enemy force, and without hesitation, he drew back an arrow and loosed. His aim was true, and the arrowhead sank into the man’s exposed neck, the spell tied to it detonating only a moment later, enveloping his body in flame as well as half a dozen other pirates who were close by.

The pirate lines rippled in shock as many of the weaker members paused a moment in fear. Their coordination was lacking, and it seemed clear to Leon that none of them expected another attack like his before they reached the walls of the Legion camp. Leon merely smiled and selected his next target, a sixth-tier mage who was starting to shout in the Islander language something that Leon couldn’t understand.

For this man, he chose one of his stronger Thunderblast spells instead of his explosive spell arrows. He aimed, drew, and loosed in one smooth motion, his arrow sailing across the couple hundred feet between them, but glancing off the man’s plate armor. Leon didn’t mind, though, for a moment later, the man and at least fifteen nearby pirates were consumed in a storm of lightning and booming thunder, tearing their bodies asunder and sending their nearby fellows into a panic. The armor kept the sixth-tier mage’s body relatively intact, but the man himself had been killed by Leon’s spell arrow.

‘Should’ve been wearing a helmet, idiot,’ Leon smugly thought to himself, seeing how the man’s face had been charred and rent beyond recognition in the moment before he hit the ground. The man wearing a helmet probably wouldn’t have changed his fate, but at least he would’ve died with a recognizable face.

Leon then fell back a ways, not taking any chances with letting the pirates get too close. He took a few more shots with his bow, explosive arrows and one more Thunderblast spell wreaking havoc in the lines of the pirates, slowing them down and giving his marines more time to prepare. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get another shot on the female fire mage, because she was staying well behind the lines making sure the pirates kept moving forward instead of retreating under this unknown pressure.

Or maybe Leon’s lightning bolt had injured her more than he’d thought it did, he couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t exactly wearing a lot of armor and had taken his bolt head-on, so it was possible she was just trying to get through the pain while projecting an air of confidence, Leon couldn’t say for sure.

Leon regretted not getting another shot on her. He would’ve loved to put her down for whatever she did to Maia, but he was doing his best not to let his desire for revenge cloud his judgment. He killed about half a dozen higher-tier mages with his spell arrows, along with about a hundred more pirates before falling back to the line of marines he’d led out of the camp.

He reappeared next to his squad and one of the Centurions in the center of the line.

“Fucking hells!” Alix almost shouted in alarm, her cry echoed by several other marines who were startled by Leon’s sudden appearance.

“Sorry about that,” Leon whispered.

“Did whatever you just did go well?” Marcus asked, seemingly not startled in the least. “Sounded like it did, if all those explosions are evidence of anything.”

“Yeah, they were slowed and they lost some of their leaders,” Leon said. “They lost most of their mages who can use elemental magic, too, so this should be pretty easily solved with conventional means. These people are not well armored.”

“That’s good to hear…” the nearby Centurion stated, her speaking up reminding Leon that he was supposed to be leading these people.

“Keep an eye open out there,” Leon said as he started to creep further down the line, “don’t wait for me to order it before you open up on these people! You see a good shot, you take it!”

The marines had done a pretty good job of clearing the area immediately in front of the camp’s walls of foliage during the camp’s construction, and all the stumps left over broke up the battlefield enough that it would be difficult for the pirates to charge en masse. Leon was optimistic about their chances of winning this battle even with how badly they were outnumbered.

His squad followed him down the thin line of marines, all of whom had their bows out and were ready to engage at a moment’s notice. It was dark, but Leon did his best to make sure his presence was known up and down the line. He didn’t want the rank-and-file to think he’d abandoned them before the real fighting began. No matter what happened, he couldn’t allow the marines to be pushed back because they weren’t willing to stand their ground after seeing Leon disappear.

By the time he returned to the center of the line, the first of Jormun’s troops were starting to appear in the distance, and the marines had already started to open fire. Their enchanted bows were accurate up to a range of about a thousand feet, ensuring that they could open up long before the pirates could. Of course, the pirates were still deep enough in the jungle that they had plenty of cover, but they still bled for every step they took.

Leon didn’t join in the shooting gallery just yet, and neither did his squad. He simply kept an eye on the battlefield as much as he could, constantly looking around the camp even though his focus was on the advancing force. He did not want to be flanked, and at the first sign of enemies appearing where they shouldn’t be, he’d have to react as quickly as he could.

With their fire mage commander in the back, the pirates pushed on despite the withering arrow fire from the marines. Dozens were cut down every minute as they entered the marines’ field of fire, but inevitably, they managed to push far enough bring their own weapons into range, those pirates who were more heavily armored managing to push to the front of the lines and tank enough arrow fire that those behind started taking fewer and fewer casualties.

Leon scowled as a few marines started to fall from Islander counter-fire, and he almost personally responded. However, he managed to control his instinct and keep his attention where it needed to be, which soon proved fortunate, for he noticed the seventh-tier fire mage and a pair of sixth-tier mages in the back abandon their position, foul looks on their faces, as they ran for the ridge on the extreme end of Leon’s line of marines. Leon knew that if they got up there, they’d be able to rain down their magics upon his three companies with impunity, which would likely break their lines and allow the pirates to more easily surround the camp. If that happened, then the battle would be lost.

“Shit…” Leon muttered. No one else could respond to this threat, no one else was strong enough. He had to move. “Keep shooting!” he shouted as he started running for the southern end of that ridge. “All of you, shoot as well!” he ordered his squad.

Marcus and Alcander complied, though neither looked too happy about it. For a moment, Alix and Gaius both looked like they might argue, but a quick glare from Leon was enough to get them to back down and follow his order.

And so, he was left to quickly scale the ridge. Given how high he could jump as a seventh-tier mage, and how much his armor now enhanced his strength, he could practically scale the entire thing in a single bound.

Unfortunately, the fire mage and her two companions were able to do likewise, and when Leon’s boots touched the ground at the top of the ridge, he was almost face-to-face with those mages.

“Look at you, little Leon Raime,” the woman said as she grinned and came to a halt, her companions doing the same. “Jormun has spoken about you…”

Her statement was bait, Leon knew that. He could see a hint of panic and alarm in her eyes as he stood between her and the perfect vantage point to murder hundreds of his marines. She’d also done… something incredibly painful to Maia. Leon could sense through their connection that his river nymph lover was starting to recover and the pain was lessening, but his muted fury was not assuaged in the least.

He wasn’t going to play her game.

In a flash, he returned his weapons to his soul realm, raised one hand to his ear, conjured a silver-blue lightning bolt, and hurled it with as much force as he could muster.

The woman was fast enough to flinch and duck. Her companions were not, and it was the man at her left that was Leon’s target. He was sixth-tier, but dressed in nothing more than mail and a simple helmet—neither of which seemed to hold any robust enchantments—and when Leon’s lightning bolt exploded upon his chest, he was hurled backward like a ragdoll, his armor now glowing from the heat of Leon’s attack.

The other sixth-tier mage moved quickly, but his battlefield instincts weren’t that great; instead of responding to Leon, he raised his hand and started conjuring a globe of water, possibly to use to rapidly cool his comrade’s armor. Leon didn’t give him the chance to do anything, though, blasting him enough lightning to cause his muscles to seize and bring him to the ground, the globe of water falling apart and soaking the ground at their feet as his control lapsed.

That was all Leon was able to do to them, however, for the woman was now upon him, a great gout of flame erupting from her hand and speeding in his direction. Leon raised his hand, again trying to use his own expertise in fire magic to halt the blast in its tracks.

He was only successful in slowing it down, but it gave him enough time to dodge out of the way and let the blast sail harmlessly sail past him.

A moment later, however, the woman snapped her fingers, and a fiery explosion was detonated right next to Leon. He hadn’t even noticed her magic congealing there.

Fortunately, the enchantments in Leon’s armor kept him from having to do much to defend himself. He was lifted off his feet and tossed around, but he landed with only slightly less than cat-like grace, and lightning filled his body as his family’s sword appeared in his hand.

The woman, perhaps thinking that he was going to charge, conjured a wall of fire between the two of them, clearly hoping to deter that tactic.

But Leon was undeterred. He trusted in the enchantments he’d placed in his armor, and when he charged, he went right through the fire. He barely even felt the heat, while the woman’s eyes went wide in surprise and terror. She was taken so aback that she was only just barely able to summon her own arming sword to deflect Leon’s lunge before his blade sank into her chest—the weapon itself seemed to be made of some kind of golden metal, and while its shape was rather uninteresting, its pommel was a large ruby that glowed with magic power, showing that this blade was more than just strange metal.

Leon saw the burns on her chest start to tear open as she strained against his strike. Both of them were practically drowning the top of the ridge in killing intent, but Leon felt hers start to sag as her resolve wavered and fear began to overtake her. She was strong, perhaps even stronger than he was, but his armor made up for that difference, and then some.

He fully intended to press her, but it seemed she wasn’t so willing; her blade suddenly ignited in a flash of golden fire that blasted the two of them apart, and when Leon righted himself dozens of feet away with a wince of pain, the woman had already turned around and started running away with great speed.

Leon almost gave chase. She was right there, and with his lightning magic, he felt like he could quickly catch up, but her sudden strike had done a number on his armor, overwhelming his defensive enchantments and letting that golden fire scorch his skin. His magic power easily fought off anything that entered his body, but his arms and his upper chest were stinging with pain. She must’ve sensed his gaze filled with killing intent, though, for she came to an almost sliding halt, turned back toward him, and swung her blade at him.

A wave of golden fire was ejected from her sword and sent in Leon’s direction, a wave much larger and much more powerful than the blast that had separated them only a moment before.

“SHIT!” Leon shouted as he hurriedly switched from lightning to fire magic and raised his defenses as much as he was able. His armor could handle her normal attacks easily enough, but this was something on a whole other level.

He jumped backward, not wanting to take this golden fire head-on. He sailed over the lip of the ridge and plummeted toward the ground more than a hundred feet below. For just a moment, time seemed to almost stop as golden fire nearly washed over him, but gravity had wrapped him in its greedy grasp and had already started to pull. He fell just out of range of the wave of fire, and a moment later, slammed into the wet jungle ground below.

All the air was forced from Leon’s lungs, but with his armor and his seventh-tier strength, he suffered nothing more debilitating than that. With the intense golden fire slightly spilling over the edge of the ridge as if raging at his escape, he couldn’t honestly say that being a little winded was that bad.

With a quick pulse of his magic senses, he saw the female fire mage taking the opportunity to run away, while occasionally casting hateful looks over her shoulder at him. The rest of the pirates, too, were breaking and running as the marines kept up the pressure and prevented them from gaining much ground near the camp.

Leon sighed as he pushed himself back to his feet.

It seemed that his side had won this fight.