Chapter Twenty-Nine
Congratulations! You have thwarted the enemy’s plans to sap the southern wall of Stonefort. As usual, you bumbled your way to success! You have earned two million Experience Points!
You have leveled!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Fire sphere to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Water sphere to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Life sphere to journeyman level nine. You have earned a Thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Meditation skill to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Sneak skill to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Builder skill to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Hunter skill to journeyman level nine. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
The rush of new sub-concepts kept me occupied for a moment. We’d just finished collapsing the U tunnel, all that was left was collecting our earnings for the completed quest. I realized I’d never actually asked what the reward was, probably a few gold pieces each.
“Damn.”
Gwen asked, “What?”
I shrugged, “Not a big deal, but we never fought, so we didn’t have our stats elevated when we leveled.”
It wasn’t much, but three percent added up when it came to HP, Mana, and Stamina gains. Especially now that we were in the thousands.
Lara blushed, “Oops?”
I shook my head, “Not your fault, none of us thought of it.”
Cassie said, “We’ll remember next time, we should just have boost on all the time, whenever we’re questing anyway, fighting or not.”
Lesson learned. Still, I now had just over nineteen thousand mana, and my mana shield had fifteen thousand of it. That was nothing to sneeze at.
“Plan?” asked Gwen.
“Why don’t we see if we can snag a deer on the way home, and well spend the evening in. Unless you all want to go to a tavern?”
Cassie said, “I’ve had enough of celebrating in large crowds recently, and just relaxing at home with Dan and the rest of you sounds good to me.”
Everyone else agreed.
I nodded, “Alright, we’ll take care of our new concepts in the morning, then hit the castle after lunch to collect our reward and see if she has anything else for us to do?”
We all mounted up and headed northwest on the road toward Southmere. The ride felt a lot shorter, and was far more pleasant, without Dalin around…
The next five days passed quickly, and pleasantly.
That next morning it was a lot easier to focus and apply the new sub-concepts. I still struggled with the anger I felt toward the evil races, but Gwen’s advice had helped even if I struggled with it. I’d long known I had to focus on the ones we did save, and not dwell on those we couldn’t. But it had been mostly an empty sentiment even if I’d known it was true, because I’d had most of my focus on the evil races instead. Now, I fought for the love of my life, my good friends and those in my party, and the innocent lives in the cities.
It wasn’t just a sentiment, or an ideal, it was the way I focused and tried to make it a way of life. Not that it was easy, or that I didn’t still struggle, but despite those struggles it was still easier to bear. The anger was still there, but it wasn’t growing, and it felt contained, controlled, and I channeled it into my actions as I focused on the better things in life.
The princess didn’t have anything new for us, although she did give us all ten gold for discovering and thwarting the purpose of the tunnels. We spent most of the five days relaxing, hunting, and just spending time with each other. It really helped me get to know Dan and Cassie better, and even Lara and Steve to a lesser extent.
There was no doubt they all had my back, and they all believed as Gwen and I did. Not about everything, but about why we were fighting, and how fiercely we would protect each other. Not to mention our commitment to our relationships. The small differences of opinion just enriched us in my opinion.
It was also what we’d all needed, there’d been too much death with only a very short window of celebration between battles, we also needed a calm moment in the storm just to live life and relax. I’d been dreading the third wave, the third horde of evil races that would invade, kill, loot, and pillage the human cities if we couldn’t stop them. But, by the end of the five days I was relaxed, and I started to get itchy.
We’d talked, enjoyed our meals, hunted, and just sat around. Sure, we practiced a little, but only a couple of hours a day. Outside of that and taking an hour or so to jump in the ship to go pick up Cassie’s and Dan’s enchantments on that fifth day, we didn’t do much.
We shared our meals, and our days, but at night we usually split up as couples to spend intimate time together. I’d never loved Gwen more than I did at the end of that five days, we’d spent a lot of time talking, dreaming, and other things. I wished we could start our lives and family together sooner, but we had a long road ahead of us on this world before we could. Thousands and thousands of years.
It was the morning of the sixth day when we got the news that the enemy was on the move. Another horde around a hundred thousand strong was marching north. Their forward elements and scouts were expected in a matter of hours, and the rest of them by later that evening.
We got in the ship, and we were about to head south when I got a message.
I laughed, “Looks like the princess wants a lift.”
Gwen snickered.
I lifted off, and then headed for the city to land behind the castle. Normally we weren’t allowed to fly over the city, but exceptions were made, and had been made in the past. I supposed picking up the crown princess and leader of the Southern Kingdom military definitely counted that way.
We landed a short time later. Annabelle didn’t keep us waiting, and she came out in just a couple of minutes. She was talking to another noble I hadn’t met, and she talked fast. As she approached the ship she patted his arm, and then smiled at us as she jumped in the ship.
She snorted, “Charles acts like I’m made of glass, let’s go before someone runs out to interrupt with a stupid question.”
I launched us into the sky, pointed the ship southeast, and we shot forward.
Lara asked, “Boyfriend?”
She sighed, “Fiancé. I love him, but he’s so damned overprotective I want to strangle him sometimes. At least it isn’t political though.”
Cassie said, “You don’t sound so sure?”
She grimaced, “I’m sure Charles wants me for me, and not my title. But… my father is wily. He kept trying to set me up with much older and boring as hell men. I’m pretty sure he planned on my negative reaction, and he did it all to a purpose. Charles rescued me more than once at my father’s gatherings, I suspect that was my father’s real trap, and exactly who my father wanted me to end up with. We danced so much that I knew him and already liked him before he made his move. Whatever the reason, I’m happy with Charles, just not about being manipulated into it.”
Gwen said in an unsure voice, “Congratulations?”
Annabelle smirked, “Thanks, and sorry for venting. There aren’t all that many people I feel comfortable enough with speaking my mind, and never inside the castle. I’ll be commanding the defense on the walls, my aunt will be dealing with their masters and maintaining the grand enchantment. If the worst happens, I’ll need you to take me back to Southmere to finish things off.”
She sounded really confident about that, but I hoped we could stop them at Stonefort. There were a lot of farms between the two cities that’d be lost.
“How many soldiers?”
Annabelle replied, �
�A little over three thousand soldiers and over six hundred undying, about half of which are in the journeyman levels. We have those mini-ballistae they have in the north, but we also have a built-in air defense enchantment to take care of arcing arrows shot from a distance. We don’t have to dedicate air sphere wielders for that purpose. Granted, we should have at least twice that to get closer to ten to one odds, but we’re well trained. The orcs and hobgoblins aren’t our equals in battle, and they’ll fall easily. There are much fewer amounts of the stronger or more cunning evil races.”
Gwen said, “Shit. Jason, tell her about your ice spell, we should have done it last week, so the soldiers had time to learn it.”
Annabelle raised an eyebrow, “Ice spell?”
I nodded, “It’s not a damaging spell really, more crowd control, which I guess is why it isn’t intuitive. We only used it if the enemy got a foothold we were having trouble keeping up with. Basically, send out small needles of ice at every target in sight along the wall, the needles all have the same concepts of gravity manipulation that allows this ship to fly embedded in the spell from the start. It just lifts them and throws them over the wall. Some will resist of course, and others the ice just rips out of the body if it isn’t deep enough and secure, but on average with that spell we cleared almost seventy percent of the enemy along a whole side of a wall, with only one spell caster.”
I could see her thinking it through, she had all four elements and the sword after all, so was familiar with the idea.
Annabelle said, “That’s brilliant as a purely defensive, oh my goddess we’re all going to die, spell.”
Cassie and Lara giggled.
She grinned at them, and then said, “I’ll pass it on when I brief my wall commanders, that spell could make the difference between being overrun or winning. We have all day to prepare, and the spell doesn’t sound difficult in theory, it just uses concepts we don’t normally combine. I also suspect it will start a rash of practical jokes in the ranks.”
I snorted, but I didn’t deny it. I’d seen some of that back north, after the battle and everything had calmed down. No one got thrown over the wall or anything, but a few had tripped when they were suddenly a lot lighter, or heavier.
Gwen said, “You’re always welcome of course, but weren’t you going to build your own ship?”
She sighed, “I did build my own ship. It’s still mine even, but my scouts need it more. If you couldn’t help me I’d have taken a horse, and reclaimed my ship if Stonefort was lost, but now they can keep it for the duration of the invasion. We’ve seen the elves in the sky too.”
Lara said, “Just monitoring, to verify you stop them.”
She nodded, “I figured that, they’ve been flying around the edges of our kingdom and over the enemy’s, not through ours. I wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions anyway, even if they had been, but it’s obvious they’re not spying on us and are even being polite about the whole thing. Speaking of elves… Lyre and Anlyth?”
“They stayed behind to rebuild, they won their war.”
She just nodded thoughtfully.
The city came up and we started down. Honestly, I’d went a bit slowly, so we could finish our conversation. I could have gone the ten miles easily in under a minute. The nearby farms were already obviously abandoned and would be shortly destroyed.
Stonefort itself was really just a big garrison and fort, but it did have some normal citizens and housing in the back of the city. The middle of the front of the city from the gate was just a main market street, but on either side of that was barracks, warehouses, and large drilling areas for training new soldiers. The gate itself was on the western wall, but of course the enemy would be attacking from all directions.
Annabelle had us land close to the keep, and then we went to the parade grounds to check in. We were assigned to the center of the southern wall during day shift, the commander of that wall was another noble of expert rank, Marquise Jonathan Nevins. He looked to be in his fifties, and he had the same facial structure as Marquise Nevins in Southmere, so was probably the latter’s much older brother, father, or maybe uncle. I didn’t ask. Either way, it was daytime, still early morning in fact, so we were on duty immediately.
It was just an hour later when we heard the Water Sphere wielders discussing my spell, so that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about. As long as they weren’t coming over the walls in a constant wave, or the soldiers with the Water Sphere weren’t all dead, in any case.
Some soldiers handed around hot bread rolls stuffed with beef and vegetables for lunch, and that was about when we spied a few enemy scouts.
Honestly, it was a long boring day, and we kept the conversation to a minimum despite that. It was all about discipline and paying attention when on duty, which I agreed with even if it was annoying at the same time.
It was mid-afternoon, a couple of hours before dinner time, when the horde itself came into view. It was my third time seeing it, but it was still intimidating as hell as they fanned out and started to surround the small garrison city.
My communicator went off, and I looked quick and then smiled as I looked up, my eyes scanning the sky. I couldn’t see any scout ships, it was probably cloaked being over enemy territory.
It had read, Good luck, kick some ass. -Rylla
I sent her thanks back, and then got my head in the right place. It wouldn’t be long now before it started. Hopefully the last sustained battle in the war, as long as we held Stonefort that is…
Chapter Thirty
Predictably, it started with a hail of arrows from about thirty thousand bows, and the charge of many thousands of orcs. The air spell started up, it wouldn’t stop all arrows, but they’d have to get a lot closer to fire them at the right angle to get through.
We also responded with close to four thousand spells, arrows with spells, and bolts from both crossbows and ballistae. Except for Lara of course, who cast an enhancement spell on the party, and anyone else within fifty feet to either side.
Hundreds of orcs, over a thousand really, just died as the front of the charge was wiped out in fire, ice, air, water, death, and darkness.
We took cover behind the ramparts as our spell craft was returned with interest. It was a good thing so many orcs, not to mention all the giants, ogres, ice wolves, and trolls didn’t have spell casting ability, or we’d have been truly screwed. As it was, far too many of the hobgoblins did, and all the gray dwarves and dark elves.
The fire and other spells hit the top of the walls, or they detonated as they passed over us and hit us indirectly in the area of effect.
At the same time, there was a pop and loud explosion of stone.
We peeked back up, and I saw there were ropes with pitons embedded in the wall, all along it. I knew a magical piton would have been repelled, so it had been done with pure physical force, which the wall’s enchantment couldn’t do much against.
I released the fire blast I’d had ready, even as I considered this twist, and the orcs started climbing the walls and ropes. The ones on the ropes were moving much faster than the ones scaling the walls.
Jonathan yelled, “Air, cut the ropes, water and earth prepare to ice and impale.”
I assumed Ice and Impale meant the same thing as Ice and Spike, just different terminology in the order for the same thing in the Southern Kingdom.
After another barrage meant to suppress more than anything, I stood up and let off a fire blast into the endless horde, killing a few handfuls, and wounding others.
I also saw blades of air slice the ropes, and several climbing orcs fell to the ground. Almost at the same time, I heard the crunch of stone as more pitons with ropes were added. I could feel the orcs on the walls themselves who were about three quarters up, so held my next volley in anticipation of his order, which came a second later.
“Water and Earth, now!”
I reached up and iced the wall, while Dan cast at the ground and created a field of spikes on the bottom. The sam
e thing was being done by others all across the wall, and the cries of rage, pain, and even some death cries reached my ears as the orcs fell onto the spikes.
Cassie cut the ropes on the new closest pitons, and another set slammed into the wall. Except this time they hit the sheet of ice. The ice cracked of course, but they didn’t have enough force and momentum left to dig into the stone below, and just fell.
Lara flung out a mass heal, and the nearby wounded soldiers started to heal quickly. Honestly, it was more her and the other healers with life magic that would make the biggest difference in overcoming the twenty-five to one odds. We’d die a lot faster without those efforts, mine included on the rare instances I healed instead of casting to harm. It was a big advantage, as the evil enemy weren’t really the healing and caring types.
Gwen was shooting arrow after arrow with darkness. Based on the sounds of battle below, I guessed she wasn’t using darkness for damage, but to turn orc against orc, and create a little havoc and death that way.
There were plenty of dead against the wall now, and Steve put aside his crossbow for a moment as he cast a mass raise undead spell. Around sixty corpses got up, which slowed down the flow of orcs gaining the walls by a lot in conjunction with the spikes. They had to fight to get to our section of wall, and they had to be careful while doing so.
Between the undead, the spikes, and Gwen turning orc against orc their charge was already seriously faltering.
I sent another fire blast, taking out another fifteen or so, and damaging more. I wished I could do something more to speed things up but defending against a horde was definitely a team sport.
Without the need to cut more ropes, Cassie released a bright coruscating ball of lightning, which exploded into multiple chain lightnings out in a circle from the target she hit. A bunch in the middle died, and more were stunned and hurt on the edges.
Island Kingdoms' War Page 20
