“I’ll be alright, it’s all so big, I just need to sleep, I think.”
I knew what she meant, I wanted to go out and end the battle now, destroy all the evil bastards and be done with it. But it was too big for that, no one was that powerful, not even the masters in the city. It would take time, and it would take working with others. We had to just be a small part of the whole and work together. I’d be happy when things went back to normal.
I also knew I wouldn’t be sad to see this island fall behind me. That was probably just another illusion anyway, what we’d find out there would probably be just as bad.
She finished cleaning her armor, and we both got into bed. She leaned into me, and I put my arms around her and pulled her close.
She shivered, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
There were tears in her eyes, and I kissed them away, then lovingly kissed her lips goodnight as I held her tight. We were both exhausted, and neither of us had been in the mood, or probably even imagined to be after such a horrid night. It seemed surreal, but the intense emotions we felt broke over us like a tidal wave with that kiss. Call it relief we were alive, or call it an attempt to escape the horror of the night, or some kind of life affirming act, but that kiss led to further intimacies.
I did feel a joy in it, as I drowned in her, but there was no doubt there was desperate life affirming edge when we joined as one. I loved her, and I told her so over and over as we coupled with deep love and desperation.
There was no doubt in my mind, that she was my strength in that dark time of this new life, as I was hers. It was quite a bit later when we drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Eighteen
“Morning… umm, afternoon even,” Lara said shyly as Gwen and I sat down.
Steve nodded and grunted in greeting, his mouth was full. It was dinner food, but it was our breakfast.
“Any news?”
I started to load up my plate with meats and vegetables.
Steve swallowed, and replied, “Not sure, Anlyth and Lyre went to find out how the day shift is doing, we still have a couple of hours to wake up and relieve them. I’m pretty sure the cloak attacks stopped, at least we haven’t heard any screaming in the city. I’m not sure if that’s because they ran out of soldiers who could infiltrate and keep us busy that way, or if the dark elves are simply confining those activities to night time.”
I nodded, “I guess we’ll find out in a few hours. Either is possible.”
Dark elves didn’t really like the sun, although it wouldn’t truly harm them. They just preferred to fight under darkness, I just wasn’t sure if that would apply in this case. This was battle after all, not a sneak attack. Then again, maybe all the dark elves were on night shift, it was possible they let the gray dwarves lead during the day.
Lara said, “I wonder how they do it, detect cloaking I mean. I don’t know a way, and we can’t feel magic either, if it’s cloaked. It would be nice if we could set up some kind of detection net.”
That was true, we were told the walls would do it, but I had no idea how either.
One of the nearby soldiers said, “Blank spots. You’re all journeyman?”
We nodded.
He said, “At journeyman you can only detect active spells or enchantments outside the body. Expert isn’t any better that way, except you’ll be able to control spells and magic after they’ve left your body.”
That was true enough, and why I was looking forward to expert. For our journeyman levels and earlier we had to build the spells with a slight delay of activation, especially damaging spells. The spell itself as a whole needed to be activated as set while within the body, after leaving it the tiny delay would expire and a ball of fire, or lance of ice would appear. It would be foolish to activate the flames and heat of a fire blast spell inside our bodies for instance. At expert level we could create spells outside the body and control them, instead of inside the body where it was unchangeable after leaving the body, which meant streams of fire, and even changing targets while the spell was still active would be possible at expert levels and above.
That opened up all sorts of possibilities I was eager to explore.
When he was sure we understood, he continued, “Master levels aren’t good enough either, not really. They do gain the ability to feel inactive spells, and even feel what kind of spell an enemy might be building to attack with, but that still won’t detect a cloaked individual. The big breakthrough there is combining spheres. However, a grandmaster of a magical sphere can feel the magic field itself that encompasses the whole planet, not just spells and enchantments. So in truth, the grandmaster grand enchantment doesn’t truly detect the cloaked people, they detect the part of the magical field that’s occluded in the shape of a person, or people. Since the cloaked spells not only cloak the people inside it, but also the magical field itself.”
“Indirect evidence because that part of the field is missing? Thanks for explaining that.”
The guard nodded.
Not that it was useful now, for us anyway, but it was good to know.
Lara frowned, “So what would happen if a bunch of people with control air cast the spell over the city, even just a few molecules thick of a blanket. At that thickness, a square foot of air would be huge in length and width. They wouldn’t have to do anything with the air, just connect to it and feel it. Wouldn’t they know if a cloaked person crossed that barrier, and pushed those air molecules out of the way?”
The guards mouth dropped open, and then he closed it and looked thoughtful.
“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.”
He jumped out of his seat and ran off, half his meal forgotten.
Steve snickered, and kissed Lara, “You’re a genius.”
Lara blushed furiously.
She wasn’t usually so painfully shy anymore, at least not around us when the six of us ate alone, but in a large crowd even when talking to just us she was obviously a bit flustered at being the center of attention, or from being kissed in public.
It was a good idea, I just wasn’t sure if it would be easy to implement before darkness fell. Maybe the spell itself, but a whole new strategy would be required to go along with it. The person would have to call out orders and give directions, maybe the undying could be split up a bit more, since they only came down five at a time. It also wouldn’t stop it, just cut down on the dying as our response time would be faster, and not depend on the screams of victims. Still, even that slight edge was more than welcome.
Anlyth and Lyre came over and sat down.
Anlyth said, “They’ve lost about a hundred and twenty, and two whole groups of undying. A little over a third of what we lost on the night shift, but the fighting has been lighter, and there have been no major rushes on the walls. Lucky us, they seem to be reserving the major pushes for the dark of night. The enemy dead was about a third less as well, we’re still facing close to eighty thousand of them.”
Gwen asked, “When will they be done with it, I mean until they retreat.”
Anlyth shrugged, “They’ll retreat when they’re down to ten to twenty thousand I’d guess, based on history. They’ll also sack any defenseless towns or villages they missed on the way in, by then the horde’s scouts will have found them all. It’s why we evacuated them all as well, losses we expect.”
Lara asked, “What about farms?”
Lyre patted her hands, “Don’t worry. We’re prepared. They attack pretty much every two hundred years so it’s easy to prepare, we have enough food put away to feed everyone even if all our farms are destroyed this year. By next year, the villages and farms will be rebuilt. Even if something unforeseen should happen, the humans won’t let us starve, they too have a great surplus of food in preparation.”
Anlyth grunted, “Not to mention those of us with life sphere magic, we can grow whole fields of crops in just hours in an emergency. Oh, and if any of you care, and I know you do, Faelyn was not following orders,
but his own twisted sense of justice to not allow the condemned to retreat and live despite their hard-fought battle earning it. He has been judged, busted down to a common soldier, and if he survives the war he will be hung.”
Anlyth said the word hung with disgust, almost as if distancing himself from the concept.
“Is there a significance to that?”
Lyre nodded, “I suppose to you it won’t make much sense, dead is dead, but in our culture the manner of death is significant. There is some honor to dying by beheading via sword, or even stood against a wall and shot by arrows. Hanging is reserved for those without honor.”
Anlyth nodded, “It will make him reckless in battle, and formidably effective. He will wish to go down in battle under steel, arrow, or spell rather than face such a dishonorable end. There is justice in it, he faces the same end he forced on others, even if he survives the war.”
That… was horrible. But, at the same time it made me feel a little better. I’d jumped to conclusions and wrongly judged the human, elven, and dwarven kingdoms’ leadership, betraying them hadn’t been part of the plan, or their choice.
That gave me a thought.
“What happened to the northern fort, did any escape there?”
Anlyth shook his head, “They weren’t as successful as we were in figuring out the dark elves plan. The command team was slaughtered, and the walls were overrun quickly as they attempted to fight off the dark elves. We got lucky there, if you hadn’t discerned their plan and we hadn’t called a warning to dispel magic at random, they wouldn’t have attacked us before they were in position and ready.”
Huh, so we’d lost less than five hundred, but they’d lost close to fifteen thousand in the last twenty-four hours if they had eighty thousand left, a little less. That was something like thirty to one. There was no need to get overconfident though, so far they’d been holding back the most powerful races like the giants and ogres, and outside of squad leaders for infiltration groups they’d held back the most cunning of their forces as well, dark elves and gray dwarves.
They probably wanted to wear us down, eventually we wouldn’t have enough numbers for two whole shifts, some of the day people would be transferred to night for the harder fighting, and we’d lose even more as a result. Eventually if we didn’t whittle them down enough, we’d all be on the walls constantly. We had to beat them before that happened, or they’d roll over us at that point with their most powerful warriors.
Well, hopefully they’d call a retreat if it got down to that.
Point being, our thirty to one kill ratio was only that good because we were fighting the dregs of the horde, the orcs and hobgoblins, and probably the weakest ones. Most of those, at least that I’d faced, were in the apprentice levels with a journeyman leader. No need to get cocky. It wasn’t hard to push back that feeling either, not when the dead bodies of so many innocent and defenseless elves were stuck in my head from last night.
Steve filled the two of them in on Lara’s idea, and as we ate we waited for word on if tonight would be any different.
I also took the time to plan things a little better, last night we’d been run a little ragged and hadn’t had time to discuss tactics. It’d slowed us down, perhaps we could save more tonight.
“Anlyth, I want you to keep a constant detect life tonight. When we breach a house, ignore the two or three orcs in the main room and head for the room where the enemy is torturing the elves that live there. Lyre and Lara will go with you, the first to help you kill, the second to heal the elves and keep them from death if we can. Maybe those few second will make a big difference.
“Gwen and I will take out the other two or three in the main room before we join you, she can protect me if they rush to melee range.”
That was of course, assuming the enemy would be doing it again tonight. It was quite possible we’d be stuck on the walls, or maybe they’d have another plan altogether for a distraction that pulled some of us from the walls.
Gwen said, “I should breach the house first then, and distract them, otherwise they’ll just get in Anlyth’s way when the three of them try to run past.”
“Good point.”
She was so sexy when she had a good idea, which happened often, but I was smart enough not to say that out loud. I don’t know why, but respect and being impressed with who she was seemed to amplify the love and attraction I held for her beyond reason.
By the twinkle in her eyes I got the idea I wasn’t hiding anything by keeping my mouth shut.
Lara said, “I could hit Anlyth with one of those spells, I think I’d regen enough mana by the time we hit the next house. You know, the one that ups dexterity by about twenty-five for a few seconds and makes him impossibly fast. Long enough to get him in the room and kill at least one of them before they even knew we were in the house. Especially if you and Anlyth did any healing, that spell takes a ridiculous amount of mana, even for a few seconds.”
Another great idea, I felt a little guilty not taking the time to plan better last night, but as I’d said we’d been run ragged, and the screams of the tortured and dying innocents didn’t lend itself to clear thought.
“Good call, we’ll do both. Hit Anlyth with the spell as he crosses the threshold. Then you and Lyre follow as quickly as possible in case he gets in trouble.”
Anlyth asked, “You sure you can take three of them in close quarters?”
I nodded, “I can shape my magical explosions, I’ll hit all three of them with a stream of fire as soon as I’m through the door.”
It wouldn’t be a true stream of fire that continued to do damage, I’d just shape the explosion so it left my hand in only three very specific directions in the form of tubes. The houses were relatively small, the main room maybe twenty by twenty feet. Even at the furthest away, the three enemies would take sixty percent damage. I could fill up the whole room with fire, and just route it around all our people, but that would blind everyone for a moment which made it a bad idea.
Of course, now that we had a good plan, I was almost sure tonight would be different from last night. That’s just the way things worked.
Gwen squeezed my leg under the table, and her eyes told me I was being a pessimist, even if neither of us were talking out loud she could read me as well as I could read her.
Time would tell…
Chapter Nineteen
We relieved them at dusk, as the sun slowly sank behind the horizon. Things started out similarly to the night before, except the flyers. Lara’s idea was acted upon, but we weren’t positive how effective it would be. In any case, my pessimism was rewarded, and the distraction changed. It was also a lot worse than the night before.
Perhaps they were trying to conserve their dark elf troops, or maybe it had just taken them a day to build their own siege engines. The enemy charged the walls, as arrows and spells pinned us down, and at the same time large boulders shot over our heads and the walls. The wall of air couldn’t stop them. Much like Gwen’s or Lyre’s arrows, the boulders were spelled to release their magic on impact.
The first volley landed in the city, and exploded in fire, or the boulder itself exploded into sharp shards like a big grenade. Other spells of darkness, death, water, and air were involved too, although only one damaging spell per boulder. Just like we couldn’t all stack spells on one arrow, the enemy and magic itself was limited that way, for all but the master level and above who could combine spheres. This fire wasn’t controlled to prevent collateral damage and burning.
If anything, it was controlled to burn as much as possible.
The enemy was kept out of the walls, and weren’t in the city, yet the city was in trouble. Fires spread, the forest like atmosphere, vines, trees, bushes, and grasses only helping it to spread.
“Dispel the boulders!” the commander yelled.
We, the other groups of undying, and the soldiers weren’t idle. Spells and other attacks flew from the walls at the charging enemy. The elves on the ballistae started
to shoot at the siege engines, the large harpoon sized bolts were also enchanted with burning spells, but there were a lot of siege engines and they were protected.
There were also many in the city who moved to put out the fires, several houses were already rubble, and my mind shied away from the death toll of innocents, even if it was probably relatively small at that point. Still, it was being handled so we stayed on the walls.
The next volley of boulders wasn’t nearly as effective. While light shot up off the walls, the ones with light magic directly below the boulders flight path unraveled the spells on the boulders. Earth sphere wielders followed up, and they pulverized the boulders into dust mid-flight. It took less magic than trying to reverse their momentum and toss them back at the enemy.
Ineffective or not, the boulders still did their job well as the barrage continued every fifteen seconds or so. The point of them wasn’t just to kill, but as a distraction. They took a large number of light sphere wielders and earth wielders attentions away from securing the walls, and from the charging enemy horde as they started to scale the walls.
Until the Earth wielders started to reform the boulders into stone spears, and then started tossing them down at the enemy.
My fire blasts took out swaths of the enemy, as did Gwen’s darkness, Lyre’s lightning, and Steve’s death magics. Lara and Anlyth like the other light and earth sphere wielders were focused on stopping the boulders, though Lara did enhance our stats as well. Over time, I was taking out hundreds of enemies, much like the others, although some to a lesser degree, but it still felt like emptying a tub of water with a thimble. The horde was overwhelmingly large.
It went on for quite a while, and I started to feel a little numb as the adrenaline tapered off, and my heart stopped racing so hard. Battle was the new normal. Some of the soldiers were dying from bow or spell, and I knew the risk was there but was kind of inured to it. In a siege like that, chance was a big factor, there was a much bigger chance of a random arrow finding me than in a small skirmish.
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