Dark Lord Rising

What did happen next was shocking to everyone there.  Unnoticed by any of the combatants, storm clouds had begun to gather over their heads.  While it got darker where they stood, unnaturally, the rest of the area was bathed in sunlight.  With life and death struggles all around, no one much was interested in the weather at that moment.  Perhaps they should have been.  As the smirking ogres advanced on their soon-to-be-dead foes, lightning struck down from the sky.  In a cacophony of cracks and booms, with the light blinding everyone around, the electrical bolts seemed to be everywhere at once!                 

In less than a minute (felt like an hour), sight and hearing started to clear.  Landar looked around.  On the ground, but unhurt were his two friends.  Kyrillos was kneeling, a look of confusion on his face.  Cletus was on both knees, not sure what was happening, and certainly not sure what he should do next.  Directly in front of them lay a dozen ogres, chests blackened and smoking, unseeing eyes wide in surprise.  Behind them, the vrill and the bulk of his remaining forces stood, unsure of what was happening.  To its credit, the vrill took no more than a few moments deliberation to decide what to do.  “No act of whatever gods or demons they pray to will save them twice,” his voice sounded less confident than he would have liked everyone to believe he was.  “Move forward and kill them!”  

A voice, a woman’s voice, clear and firm, spoke up somewhere close to the fight. It seemed to come from everywhere at once.  It was not a shout, yet everyone in the glade could clearly hear her.  “Stay the hell away from my son and his friends, or every one of you will die where you stand!”

Searching frantically for the source of the voice, the humans saw her first.  On a small rise, overlooking the unfolding scene, stood a woman.  She was standing in the shade of the storm clouds, backlit by the sun that drenched the rest of the forest, the three surviving members of their ill fated mission could only see her in outline.  Her face was in the shadows as well.  With the wind blowing her long gown until it billowed behind her, her hair wildly whipping about her face, she looked like some terrifyingly beautiful vision of a goddess of war.  Dramatically, lightning snapped above her.  She was a frightening sight to behold to the legion of darkness.  To those few remaining humans, she looked like an avenging angel.  Surrounding her were other women, dressed in similar fashion, but not of the same stature as this overpowering female.  In front of them were male warriors dressed unlike Landar or Cletus had ever seen.  These unusual men were tall and lean, dressed in tanned animal hides.  They wore soft leather boots that reached to their mid calf.  Their skin was burned a dark bronze from generations under a hot sun.  The men each had a very wicked short bow drawn, arrow pulled and ready.

As confused as Landar and Cletus were, a realization was dawning within Kyrillos.  I'll be damned, he thought, how did she know we were here?