"Lord Amblix," the messenger yelled, "the Loians have arrived as the mages have predicted...what should we do?" Indeed, the Loians had finally arrived to Elmentle, the capitol city of Amblix's Realm, yet they were still days away from arriving to a good location near Elmentle and preparing for a siege. The army approaching was no small threat either, there were thousands of healthy, bloodlusting demons organized into an effective fighting force consisting of orcs, goblins, and other evil creatures. You probably wonder, 'how was such as large force allowed to pass all the way to Elmentle safely?' Well, that is just what I will tell you about first...
One year earlier, in the Underworld, Dan Lee funded and supported many projects which created and tested several powerful spells and weapons. One project Dan Lee had been particularly interested in was the weaving of a transportation spell which could transport anything within a mile radius a large distance despite whatever weak magical barriers may lie in-between. This spell was so powerful that it required an incredibly large amount of mana as its power source. Such a large amount of mana can not be contained by any one person so that he may cast the spell whenever convenient. It had to be contained in an enchanted contraption of some sort which Dan Lee also supervised the building of. At the time, Dan Lee had no significant need for it except to transport his army quickly. After rising to the surface world, he still had no real need for the spell, until he met the resistance that Amblix gave. The Loians tried many times, unsuccessfully, to reach, capture, and destroy the capitol city. Amblix's many successful battles encouraged many young villagers to join the Armies of the Realm, thus, making it extremely difficult to get within even 50 miles of the capitol. Only recently, the Loian warlocks had finished building and preparing the first prototype portal mechanism which they named, 'Death Timer'. It had taken the Loians several years just to contain all the mana into the contraption they made which itself took even longer to make. Immediately after he had received news of its completion, Dan Lee ordered that it be brought to him right away. As ordered, Death Timer was brought to him along with a powerful warlock who had helped create it. Several days after the arrival, Dan Lee had a Loian army prepared for combat and the warlock began his mental link with Death Timer. The warlock named, Ashou-Ron, spent days creating a link with the magically glowing black box that he had helped to create. On the tenth day, Ashou-Ron had finally activated the box and and sonic blast of dark light echoed out through the several ranks of the army. When the mist cleared, the Loians found themselves before a large life-filled forest. The scouts reported that the capitol city lied only 10 miles ahead of them. After the magic waves had settled down, Ashou-Ron let out a terrible blood-curdling scream and he and the contraption exploded, killing everyone within a few yards. Dan Lee looked over at the remaining pieces of the warlock, then at the ashes from Death Timer and said, "A once in a lifetime chance...hmpf." He had no care for the warlock and was satisfied with being so close to the city. The device which gave the Loians a chance for the destruction of the Realm gave away their plan at the same time. The magical waves caused so much disturbance that every magic weaver in the Realm felt its presence, even the council of mages who advised the King. In the capitol city, many mages are appointed the job of monitoring different lands for any signs of invasions or trouble. This magic wave set all of the mages of the Realm looking straight at Dan Lee and his invading army. The King, Amblix, was alerted right away, which brings us to the beginning point of this story...
Amblix stood in the cool breeze overseeing the busy builders renovating the city to prepare for the siege. He wore his best suit of enchanted armor with his sword, Elvendor, sheathed by his side and held two pieces of paper. When the a young, stout-looking boy showed up, he said, "Ah, messenger, I have two letters which must be sent ass soon as possible. This one is for DarKDemoN, and the other, for Apokalips. You have been informed as to where they are and remember, the security of this Realm lies in you sending these two letters. Farewell." The messenger took the letter and walked a few paces back to saddle up his horse. Before he left, Amblix came over and gave the messenger's horse a pat off with good luck. The past day, every professional builder and his apprentice had been hired or volunteered themselves to begin developing siege defenses. Already, the city walls had been raised, thickened, and reinforced. Every eighth of a mile along the quarter mile long wall, a catapult was stationed on top with its complement of large, heavy rock boulders. Several other mechanisms which were in storage for just a situation were brought out and placed in strategic locations along the wall. Also, an outer moat was built which was filled with petroleum and covered in a light layer of dirt which made it look like ordinary land. Every few feet for about half a mile, there were deep ditches, covered up by grass, each of which ended in fatal, steel spikes. The local townspeople gathered as much wild fruit and game from the surrounding forest as possible and stored them in warehouses located deep within the city. After three days of building and preparation, Elmentle was quite ready for a siege that could last years. At the end of the third day of siege preparation, Amblix stood next to one of his generals and spoke, "This looks as prepared as we can get...now, we must obtain the element of surprise..."
The general nodded back to Amblix and responded, "Yes, lord. We will have every guard tower and scout on a 24 hour watch. We will know where the Loians are before they come within 5 miles of this city."
The following days were filled with fear and dread. The townspeople spent most of the time in homes which they had reinforced with metal frames administered to them by the local metal workers. Suddenly, one night, the long awaited magical alarms went off with a shrill that a person could hear from miles away. The mages and soldiers rushed form their beds, to their posts on the wall. the catapults and other mechanisms were manned and swordsmen and archers took cover behind the large slabs of stone that stuck out of the wall. The mages were spread along the wall about every 30 yards and at the ready. Amblix had ordered that the rest of the city armies be stationed in squadrons far behind the wall in case the Loians broke through. When Amblix climbed to the top, he looked through his telescope to see a tiny spec off in the distance accompanied by many others of its appearance in straight line that spread across the horizon. "There must be thousands of them..." he said. Within an hour, the Loian army was within archer's range and they were already being hailed upon with arrows. The mages took care of this dilemma by casting fire shield which burnt the arrows to ash. "Archers, at the ready! Draw explosive arrows! Long distance!" yelled Amblix. At this call, the archers drew their bows back with the arrow knocks settled against the strings. At the next command, the archers released the strings and thousands of arrows went flying straight in the enemy lines. Huge balls of fire engulfed the frontline demon warriors, giving all them a gruesome and painful death. Amblix then then ordered that all long distance units to fire at will. This included the catapults which required much attention for reloading and handling, but created extreme disorder in the beginning ranks of the invading force. The boulders that were launched would hit the ground at enormous speed and explode, launching several head-sized rocks straight through the bodies of unfortunate enemies too close by. As Amblix looked through his telescope again, he could see the Loian army more closely, though large in number, they looked extremely battered and Amblix could tell that it was from the half mile of spike pits and forest traps. Then, Amblix straightened as he spotted Loian warlocks. It seemed like they knew he had spotted them because they suddenly cast spells of bloodlust on the soldiers. Filled with searing rage and anger, the motivated Loian demons charged fiercely towards the city walls with absolutely no fear what so ever. In response, the catapults fired simultaneously, hailing exploding boulders onto the several warlocks hidden within the invading army. The bloodlusted soldiers ran ignorantly into the oil moat, just where Amblix wanted them. He waited until several hundred had been sucked into the oil moat when he took out his bow and a an arrow. Mumbling some ancient incantations, the arrowhead lit on fire and Amblix fired it straight into the moat. The black liquid exploded along the whole length of the moat engulfing everyone in it in eternal flames and brightly lighting up the night sky. The Loians army stopped its advance as soon as they saw their comrades engulfed in searing flames.Amblix took this chance and ordered that all ballistic capable units fire on the Loians, who were still quite a distance away. Archers fired their explosive arrows and catapults launched their boulders into the sky while the mages fired streams of fire, death chilling frost, or any other spells that they could muster. Even the swordsmen stationed on the wall armed themselves with throwing axes which they heaved at the enemy below. On ground level, before the great wall of the capitol, Loian blood splattered everywhere and demon limbs flew as confusion dominated the battlefield. Some tried to climb up ropes they threw over the wall, but all of the ropes were eventually cut, letting the demons fall to their deaths. After hours of being helplessly killed, the Loians simultaneously fled back into organized ranks behind the blazing moat as if they were called back. Next, together, they moved back, giving up their ground, apparently to find a safe distance in which they could set up their camp. Amblix ordered the cease fire and the soldiers cheered as they watched the enemy slowly retreat. Amblix knew, however, that the battle wasn't over, not by a long shot. As the local messengers sent in their reports from different parts of the wall, Amblix reviewed them and was relieved to find that there were few casualties on their side.
The next morning, most of the walled soldiers were still awake with adrenaline pumping. They couldn't sleep without knowing that a surprise attack could come at any time. Even the mages did not rest, they simply meditated behind the safe barricade created by wall. Amblix himself was thinking deeply as to what the results of this battle might be. He still hadn't received word from neither Apokalips nor DarKDemoN which could have resulted if the messenger ran into a Loian patrol army. The absence of two of his best generals could result in the loss of the capitol, which might even cause a chain of disorder among the other Armies of the Realm patrolling the borders. After a while, Amblix cleared that situation from his mind for he had more pressing matters to attend to. At day break, the messengers were sent on their run delivering breakfast to the soldiers on the wall. A few hours later, the archers and other soldiers were rested and fed and a few minor repairs were made. All of the blacksmiths in the city worked around the clock replenishing magical arrows for the archers and crafting new swords. The sun rose diligently from the wide;y expanding horizon and again, the soldiers waited for the next attack.
It was day four of the siege and nothing much had happened since day one except for a few skirmished between the scouts from both sides. It was already mid-afternoon when the alarm went off with its deafening shrill and everybody rushed to their posts in surprise. A few moments went by and nothing happened, they thought to themselves, ' A false alarm?' Suddenly, a large ball of fire came crashing into a catapult, close behind Amblix, shattering it to flaming splinters and killing its crew. As the soldiers look around bewildered, a large army of Loians shimmered into focus. They had been cloaked the whole time, but had accidentally set off the magical alarm by approaching to near to the walls. Balls of fire came hailing down from the sky destroying catapults to splinters and sending soldiers flying from place to place. Amblix gave the order for the soldiers to fire at will and rained a storm of exploding and other enchanted arrows onto the enemy far below. The King had never expected this because he thought he had seen all the warlocks perish during the first battle. As he looked through his telescope, he spotted three warlocks in the open casting their mischievous spells that were creating so many casualties. Amblix uttered some ancient words of wisdom while holding a stick that began to glow green. He thrust it into the air and let it find its own way to the target. The stick, now only a green glow, flew into the unsuspecting warlock and exploded into a tangle of green, thorny vines that engulfed its target and crushed him to death. The other two warlocks turned surprisingly towards Amblix. One warlock, while looking, much terrified, at the vine-crushed corpse was caught off guard by a boulder which pounded his bones into the dirt-packed ground and killed the soldiers surrounding him. The third warlock was not so easily deceived, he quickly conjured a swirling, red mass, which formed a vortex releasing two searing balls of flame towards Amblix. One ball crashed down behind Amblix blowing two of his soldiers off of the wall to fall to their deaths. The second ball made a direct hit on Amblix's chest but his armor absorbed the magic and only sent him flying off the ledge safely onto the the top floor of the wall. He quickly recovered and withdrew Elvendor. Rising up once more, he concentrated deeply on the magnificently crafted sword and it began to glow a chilling blue. He counterattacked by heaving his spinning sword into the air where it curved sharply and burst straight through the horrified warlock's body, turning it to ice and shattering it to pieces. As the nearby Loians watched the Elvendor, it dissipated in the air and reappeared in the King's hands.
The battle was at a stand still when everything suddenly went quiet. The Loians below had taken cover under their shields seeming to wait for something to happen. Everyone on the wall was so concentrated on the problem below that they had never bothered to look up. An explosion rocked the wall and Amblix looked to his right in time to see a whole top section of the wall crumble to pieces with the people on it in a mass of fire and dust. When he looked up, he counted twenty five balloon flying machines hovering in the air and launching exploding balls at them. The black cases crashed down on the wall killing several soldiers. When the mages tried create shields above the wall, the Loian archers shot them down, for shield generating took much concentration and time. After an hour, the wall suffered so much damage that it looked like it was going to collapse. Half of the soldiers were already dead or dying and the near future looked grim. One moment, when Amblix looked up, he had only a split second to raise his metallic shield which created a magical dome over him. But the explosion still had enough impact to crush Amblix into the stone floor, creating a deep dent from his enchanted armor. As he stood back up and looked over the wall, he saw the flying machines come closer and closer, and the fall of the city come nearer and nearer.
"Get the reserve army ready for battle. If any more bombs come down, the wall will crumble and the Loians will be open to the city!" yelled Amblix to his general down below, on the safe side of the wall. Soon enough, the reserve army was organized and ready to meet the cruel battlefield. Just then, a loud animal-like call rang up through the air. Next, a glowing streak, which Amblix recognized as an Elven crafted arrow, flew through the sky and into one of the flying machines. The Loian contraption exploded in a series of fireworks and came slowly crashing into the Loian soldiers below. As the surprised walled soldiers looked beyond the Loian army, into the forest, they saw another army, just as large as the reserve army in the city. Apokalips stood in the front of his army, the Avengers, grinning evilly at the Loian prey below. Lining the trees were the Elves of Waterdale, who were old friends of Amblix and one of the finest clans in the art of archery and warfare among other things. At the command of a sturdy, strong looking Elven general, the archers fired their arrows which turned to glowing streaks in the sky knocking the flying machines down one by one. The thousands of Loian demons below ran around in circles in pure fright, as the remains of the machines dropped heavily on them setting many of them on fire. Then, another loud but wavelike call came from the east. When Amblix turned to look in that direction, he smiled as he saw an endless, wide line of red uniformed demons emerging from the forest with DarKDemoN leading in front. When the last of the flying machines came crashing down and the fires settled down, the Loian soldiers seemed relieved for a moment, until they looked off in the distance to their sides. First, Apokalips ordered his army to charge, following the pattern, DarKDemoN and his clan also began to charge. Both armies clashed loudly with the Loians from different sides, pushing them towards the wall.
Amblix yelled to the general below, "Open the gates and let the reserves out! This is our chance to turn the tide!" As ordered, the gates were opened as the screaming soldiers charged out of the city to clash into the Loians from yet a third side. The walled soldiers and archers cheered as they began picking specific targets to take out. A few moments later, Amblix himself rushed out of the city gates to join his companions. Loian demon blood could be seen everywhere on the battlefield. Amblix cut his way through the Loian obstacles between him and Dan Lee. When he finally approached his target, Dan Lee thrust a quick ball of fire at him. Amblix deflected it with his shield and swiped Elvendor through the air. A rumbling wave passed through the sky and crashed into Dan Lee, sending him flying through a nearby tree. Amblix dodged the falling tree and ran straight for the Loian King. Dan Lee let off a few bolts of fire which were easily dodged before he was bashed into and hit the ground hard. Amblix recited a small phrase and Elvendor radiated a bright blue color, he then swung the sword at Dan. A blue wave emerged from the sword and passed through Dan's arm freezing it solid and then shattering it. He screamed in agony from pain as white flames sprayed from the wound. Seeing Dan off guard, Amblix thrust his sword into the Loian King's waist, forcing it all the way through until Dan was only two pieces lying on the ground. More white flames came spraying out of his body and the corpse slowly wrinkled to ash, not even bones were left behind. Just as Amblix turned his head to look around, a bright flash of electricity sprayed past his head and hit a demon lunging towards him with a dagger. The assailant was knocked down but slowly crawled onto all threes with dagger in hand heading for the King. The magical blast had apparently fried a whole limb off of him. Another bright streak of red collided into the demon, decapitating him. The next moment, Apokalips was standing next to his King, with small sparks of electricity still engulfing his sword, while DarKDemoN walked past to retrieve Lucifer, which had decapitated the Loian demon. After what had just happened, Amblix calmly bent over to investigate the corpse of Dan Lee. He looked suspiciously at the magically sparkling fluid which gushed from the open wounds. "A clone...I knew it was too easy..." he said to himself. DarKDemoN and Apokalips exchanged grim faces and helped Amblix up.
"Yeah, he's probably sitting back in his fortress laughing at us..." said Apokalips disgustedly, "Can't even fight his own battles." As he looked around, the combined forces of Amblix's armies and his allies were just about done finishing off the Loians, most of which were fleeing into the forest. Within a day, the Loian deserters would all be dead by either the traps in the forest or from the local scouts who were just as deadly in the forest as a highly trained archer hunting an animal in the open. Unknown to them was that the real Dan Lee was watching the battle the whole time from only a few yards away. He had magically camouflaged himself as a tree and was frowning at the destruction that he saw around him, the destruction of one of his own armies.
He whispered under his breath, "Next time you may not be as lucky as you were now...I will take this Realm eventually, and destroy your foolish armies..." As he finished, he withdrew a small piece of a sapphire and tossed it on the ground as he made complex gestures with his hands. The sapphire glowed brightly and Dan Lee rippled out of existence and back into his safe fortress to devise his next plans...