Olimpia

Excerpt From The Legion's Scholarly Manual On Casting—

The requirement to protect one's body is what makes the minimum standard for achieving the second tier of telekinesis so comparably high. And while many can enhance portions of their bodies with small amounts of psy, the truth can not be denied.

If one desires to be a knight, they must be within the top 60% of all casters regarding psy reserves. And even then, unless they were in the top 40%, they would need to control five or even six strands if they wished to avoid damage to their body.

Because, like many things, the more psy one has, the easier it is to avoid backlash.

The greatest ability of a Knight, and by far the most underrated, is that of conjoined castings.

Once a Knight shifts their psy into an elemental aspect, they can extend their strand into their element, then use the psy to control and shape it to their will. Though a source must be present for a knight to control.

When two elements are combined, the result is not a linear progression of power, as the elements can amplify or suppress the other in interesting ways.

The change isn't just an increase in power. Our grandest structures were mand by Knights combining their power.

As the Knights combined their wills while infusing their elemental powers, a structure can develop a will of its own.

The result could be one or more of many things, such as making the structure more durable, able to repair itself, and in some cases, opening and closing doors.

How such structures come about is still a mystery, but no one can say they don't exist.

**********

"Ready," Joxin said in a calm tone. The shield bearer next to him tensed in preparation, "Shift."

At the word, the shield bearer standing in the space between the crenelations of stone on the ramparts of the Middle Fort slid to the side. Raising his bow and stepping into the small gap between the shield and his stone cover, Joxin released his arrow at a beastkin climbing up to the western bridge.

Before he could see if his shot connected, he stepped back into cover. Joxin might not have seen it, but he was confident he would connect. Whether the wound would make the beastkin fall to a watery death was another matter.

Joxin was decent with the bow. He picked it up as a young adult living on the Great Plains, though his skill never really progressed as hunting wasn't his thing. During his decade of service, while going out on patrols in bum fuck nowhere, it became a lot more important. It was the only way to guarantee fresh meat.

Tracking through the southern border of the Great Forest and the Swamps was… well, he actually missed it. The smell took some getting used to, but the constant warm temperature was enjoyable. And it was where he learned of his natural talent for surviving in nature. Though the ending was… less than pleasant.

None of that mattered at the moment. Joxin could be one of the worst archers in the legion, but as long as he knew how to aim and fire a bow in a direction, he would still hit something. That wouldn't be as effective as what he was doing, but it didn't change the truth. There are too many beastkin on the bridge.

Not that he was taking his time to aim, Joxin roughly lined up his shot with the shadows racing up the ladder, releasing the arrow, and before stepping back into cover again.

Joxin's shots might not be hitting a target as often, but they were more effective than one of the half-dozen arrows sticking out of the larger beastkin.

His middle-aged partner, who Joxin had no idea what his name was, started sliding back into place before the arrow was fully off Joxin's string, almost clipping the arrow shaft mid-flight with his shield.

And yet, before the legionary could fully cover the slit in the battlements with his shield, a spear clipped the shield's edge. The older man twisted and shoved his shield to the side at the contact, sending the spear to spin and clatter across the ground, coming to a stop at Joxin's feet. If the man was a moment later, Joxin would have taken the spear to the shoulder.

The older man only gave the briefest look to the spear as he flicked his wrist, sending out a tendril to grab the spear and send it flying back the way it came.

Screams and shouts sounded to Joxin's left, but they blended into the cacophony filling the air. Hardly noticeable among the clang of metal striking metal and wood thunking into flesh and stone. But every time Joxin heard a scream, he performed a quick survey of the mental network, knowing his time was coming soon.

Joxin was fortunate in his placement on the walls of the Middle Fort. He wasn't standing above the gates and was swept away when the fist of water smashed them to pieces.

Then when those fighting in the gap of the western gate were pushed back, half of those on the battlements were forced to fight off those beastkin leaping to the top of the walls and were still fighting.

Luckily the knight arrived to push back the mage beastkin, but there were still plenty of the normal beastkin left to kill them. And without the walls, they were in trouble.

The weird thing was that while Joxin didn't see the fight, he heard the impacts at cracks of air when their weapons were swung and hit. And as soon as it stopped, the knight disappeared again, leaving the battle to them. Where in the cursed elementals are the knights?

But that was a question that didn't matter to him. All he had to do was his job. And with how close Joxin was to the Northern Tower of Middle keep, his job was to keep firing his bow.

"Ready," said Joxin, his voice in no way making it above the din of battle, but his intention of being ready to release his arrow was passed to his partner. "Shift," Joxin said after a moment.

When Joxin was releasing the arrow, his aim was thrown off as he jerked in surprise and concern. No longer caring what happened to his shot, he spun around and crouched down, the more pressing worries in the forefront of his mind.

"We have flyers incoming!" Sounded a voice in his mind after the blare of mental warning to look up and north, which caused him to miss his shot. "Archers on the walls, keep them off the troops!"

Looking up towards the sky, Joxin's eyes caught on the walls of the Western Fort of the Triad.

Fire raged outside the walls, and on ramparts — lit by the backdrop of raging crimson and smoke — were the outlines of those struggling for dominance.

Along the outside of the wall, only a few of the siege towers still stood whole. Most of them were skewed to the side or partially collapsed, with only a single wall or post still standing, skeletons of what they were. The towers that still stood had dark figures with gleaming eyes pouring out of them, joining the melee on the walls.

What Joxin could not understand was the massive holes on the inside of the walls. It was like something was trapped inside of the walls and exploded outward, sending the massive bricks of stone to knock over the buildings in their way.

In the brief moment he watched as his eye went to the sky, Joxin saw a portion of the wall shake like a swaying tree as more stone bricks flew out of the gaping wound.

Looking up to the sky, Joxin saw nothing but the dark clouds churning overhead.

Then a crack of branching lightning forked across the heavens, and he saw beastkin by the thousands. They already looked to be breaking up into groups, diving towards different sections of the Triad, some even looking like they were going to the Southern Fort and its city.

All that changed when one branch of lightning after another began forking into their formations, dropping their now charred forms from the sky by the dozens. And then hundreds.

Within seconds, the formations of the beastkin were shattered by the azure power of lighting. Then seven suns of purest white burst to life across the sky.

The brightness burning in the sky made Joxin duck his head and cover his eyes with his free hand, but he did not turn away.

Even knowing the fight was still raging around him, taking on a momentary new ferocity with the night suddenly being banished, arrows and spears striking with newfound precision.

Joxin did not care. He didn't even raise his bow to fend off the beastkin diving closer to the Middle Fort even now.

"That is power," Joxin whispered, his eyes burning with wonder.

From the moment he saw a knight wield the earth to kill a melka, stalking through the tall grass of the plains up to the clan tents, saving a child's life, he had wanted to be one. To wield the might of the Elementals themselves, what greater feeling could there be?

Not that he would know as a child, but to a child's mind, there couldn't be anything greater.

How many children dream of becoming a knight? Standing in front of a legion, fighting a hoard of beastkin stretching to the horizon, and having them all look at you with amazement. Holding them back with the powers of the elements.

And yet, so many children can never achieve those goals no matter how hard they try. They simply have too little psy. And of those with barely enough psy, they don't have the dedication to train themselves up to standard.

Joxin did have the will to train, but his psy reserves were right on the border. And maybe, if he was honest, a little under the required level.

It might have been a childhood pipe dream, but he never really gave up believing he would one day become a knight. When the offer came to join the scouts, he took it.

Everyone knew that scouts were, more often than not, more skilled than knights when it came to skill. They just didn't have the power to back up their skill.

Instructor Green was the personification of such a statement. In truth, Joxin had never met anyone so skilled, and it gave new life to his childhood fantasy.

But what the beastkin were doing, that was something else. It went beyond the primal powers of nature into the realm of fantasy. Like the stories of the miracles, the old gods could perform.

It was common knowledge that knights could only use what was already around them, though Joxin knew the strongest had ways around the limitation.

But as a rule of thumb, a knight aqua couldn't make water in a desert, and a knight electro can't make lighting from a clear sky. The forces they used were powerful and savage in their efficiency but limited.

What he had heard and seen about the beastkin's powers, they were far more versatile and mysterious.

Like the brightness lighting up the sky, the longer Joxin looked, the more sure he became that he was not looking at a ball of fire. The orbs were such a pale yellow that they bordered on white.

Then the seven different orbs of light streaked across the sky, leaving faint yellow lines in their wakes. For less than the blink of an eye, the orbs darted forward, jerking and dodging from side to side as bolts of lightning lashed out, then they all exploded in a growing field that was hundreds of yards in diameter.

The only sound was a resounding hollow thump from the explosion that could be heard all across the battlefield.

Then the explosion vanished in an instant, and in its place was a white and bright orange lump falling from the sky in the center of a hole in the clouds. Bolts of power cracked out their fury, branching between the open area as new clouds quickly filled in the space.

While lighting rumbled, none of it struck at the beastkin.

"Snap out of it and shoot your damn bow!" Shouted the older man while stomping on Joxin's foot.

In all his years in the legion, he had never seen a knight die in battle. He heard of it happening while fighting the Imperials, but seeing it was something different…

Raising his bow, Joxin took aim at a diving beastkin, releasing his shot. Before the arrow made it, he had already strung another arrow and was tracking a target next to the first.

"Fuck!" Joxin cursed as his first arrow missed the beastkin as it swerved out of the way.

Holding his next shot, Joxin waited until the beastkin leveled out their dives before releasing his next shot. Before quickly ducking behind the wall.

Joxin heard the thunk of the beastkin hitting the wall, but he could not smile as tens of legionaries all along the walls were skewered through the back and fronts by thrown and thrust spears.

Putting another arrow into his string, Joxin took aim at the bastards.