Great Invasion (2)

The Kushan elephants reach the Holy See's line first, and the feeble resistance does nothing to slow them, many defenders crushed beneath the animals. Cavalry follow, cutting down anyone the elephants missed. Owen grows frantic as the surviving soldiers flee back toward Vritannis' walls, seeing no path to victory against so vast a force and understanding that the previous night's raid was only a preemptive strike meant to sow confusion.

A single arrow tears the head from a Kushan rider, and two more drop two more men. The archer is Irvine, alone on a far hill, who looses a whole bundle of shafts that each strike home with uncanny precision. As the Kushan push toward the city, their cavalry inexplicably veer off course and pour into Vritannis' moat rather than the gate. Near a small floating black mass, Rakshas, an elephant takes a dart to the ear, jerks, calms, and turns away, while the other elephants rampage out of control and trample their own soldiers. Owen and the Kushan alike are stunned. Unnoticed by anyone, a third army has beached its boats below a cliff and begins a treacherous climb up its face on horseback.

The twenty-three-page chapter continues the field battle of the Millennium Falcon Arc and ran in Young Animal issue 02 on January 12, 2007. It showcases Irvine's marksmanship and Rakshas' covert sabotage of the Kushan elephants, both softening the empire's advantage before the reborn band's arrival. The unseen third army climbing the cliff sets up the ambush that follows.