Wizardness

As soon as the fist crossed the line into the frozen pitched battled, it became a real pitched battle. The blade of the closest halfling tore through a man. Sending his guts cascading to the ground. The hafling whirled and lunged towards the fist. Dar’kid acted quickly and put a knife into their throat.
“Save the Blue!” Tobias yelled. He loosed an arrow into the nearest target.
Tobias and Red paired up, while Giggles and Raven went in separate directions, focusing on the flanks. Dar’kid wen straight into the fray. Plain hung back, searching the sky for targets. Tobias focused on targets on the left, the ones baring down on the blue targets. He launch arrow after arrow.
The halfings had some sort of armor on. Arrows skittered off their mail, off of shields, or off of their horse’s barding. Tobias forced himself to slow down and be more discerning with his targets. He couldn’t blindly hope to hit his targets.
“Breath before you release.” Silverthorn said to him.
Tobias breathed out as he released, but found his arrow missed wide by a few inches. “Fuck.”
He drew back again. “No, hold your breath! Breathe out after you release and breathe in before you aim.”
Tobias took a few quick breaths to sync his breathing. It was a frustrating few seconds as another blue knight was killed. He loosed an arrow into the killer. He punctured the halfling’s eye. Toppling the small thing off its horse.
“Good job. Now keep an eye on Dar’kid. He’s in the thick of things. You’ll need to help make sure his back is covered.” Silverthorn whispered.
Tobias’ eyes darted towards Dar’kid. The halfling looking to sneak up on him was hit by a bolt. It seemed Red had similar coaching.
Tobias hear a cry from the sky. He glanced up to see a large bird. He staggered back, that was a huge bird. There were several people riding its back.
Its head suddenly rocked back. It quickly beat its wings, trying to find it balance in the air. Its head jolted back again. Then again a second later. Suddenly, its wings drooped and the animal fell from the sky. The people on its back jumped off with fabric fluttering behind them.
“Look to your prey!” Silverthorn called.
Tobias tore his eyes from the sky to find three halfings stalking Dar’kid. Tobias took a breath and quickly loosed three arrows. One for each target. Two hit, one missed. Tobias cursed and drew back a fourth time, but Dar’kid spun and dispatched the third one.
Tobias turned and started to deal with other targets.
Raven suddenly screamed. Tobias turned towards her, Red was already acting though. She was unleashing bolts as quickly as she could. Some massive bear was attempting to maul Raven. Raven was blocking the claws with her staff, but she was bleeding. She staggered back and flicked her staff back. The blade of her weapon burst through the bear’s chest.
The motion lurched the bear towards her. It threatened to collapse on her, when a pair of bolts pushed the bear’s head back. Jarring it enough to miss falling atop Raven.
Tobias turned back to his targets and saved several more blue targets. He checked on Dar’kid. He was a whirl of blades and wind. He seemed to be in two places at once. The halflings weren’t sure how to deal with him. Tobias turned towards Giggles. He was gasping. His arms were covered in sweat. He was down on his knee.
Large plants were advancing on him. Tobias loosed several arrows at them. He didn’t know where to hit them, so he tried their large main head. Some looked like vicious sunflowers, others looked like large fly traps.
Giggles pushed himself up to standing. He held his hands out and his axes returned. Tobias saw them cut down at least three plants. Tobias continued to loose into the plants. He couldn’t tell if he was doing anything other than distracting them, but it was enough to get Giggles on his feet again.
“Fist, form up. We’re getting too spread out!” Tobias cried. “Let’s form up on Laughing man. Slow walk backwards to him.”
Tobias reached Giggles’ side first. The man was spent. He wouldn’t be able to continue much longer. Dar’kid was there next. With them being farther back from the fight, he’d have less to do. He put an arm under Giggles.
“Thanks.” Giggles said, his voice a whisper over the din of battle.
Despite their compromised position, both Dar’kid and Giggles continued to throw, just one handed instead of with both. Tobias continued to shoot into the fray and at anything that came their way from their left flank. His left forearm was completely metallic now. His normal skin was completely gone.
He pulled again with his right hand and loosed. He caught a halfing in the throat lunging towards Red, as she came up on Tobias’ shoulder.
Tobias felt the ground shake as another bird crashed into the battle. He saw it land on a charge from the Red forces. A few of the riders were thrown off the back of the bird and slammed into the Blue lines.
Tobias could feel the fist grow ever more weary about him. Despite the continual draw and loose of his bow, he was fine. It struck him like a fist. This was another part of his spark. Silverthorn. He glanced at his arm. It wasn’t the same dullness as the rest of the metal skin. Even his fingers drawing the bow string was brighter. As if it was turning silvery.
“Fist, we will operate in shifts. Dar’kid, Giggles switch off. Raven and Red switch off. Plain, rest as you need. My spark is keeping me going.” Tobias called.
“No. We switch, too.” Plain responded.
“Fine.”
“Dar’kid, Red, and Plain rest!”
Suddenly the air round him calmed as they took a few moments breath.
Tobias counted 100 of Dar’kid’s breaths. “Switch!”
Tobias stopped and suddenly felt a crushing weight of exhaustion. His breath was ragged and his vision swam. He took deep calming breaths. He imagined his exhaustion leaving his body. A technique his father had taught him.
He counted to 100 and then called “Switch.”
His bow felt like it weighed a million pounds. He counted as he pulled and loosed. It was impossible work. 100 couldn’t come soon enough. The fist fell into a routine, but they were getting pushed to breaking. The blue lines were being pushed back and collapsing. The plants were closing in. The bears were looming larger and larger.
A flash of light cut across the battle. It felt like god was among them. Tobias could feel his weariness leach out of him, his muscles suddenly strong again. He stood.
They were suddenly back at the range. He blinked against the brightness of the sky. They’d been in there for hours, it was nearly dusk when god had come.
Behind him, he heard clapping. He spun. Commander Lee was applauding with a look of genuine pleasure. “Well done! You’re the first fist to survive to that point. The losses you allowed were significant and probably unrecoverable, but you managed to finish the training program.”
“Good work fist!” Tobias cried.
The fist patted each other on the back. Tobias sighed in relief.
“Now, go for your 5 mile run.”
Giggles wasn’t the only one that groaned.