Island Kingdoms' War

by D. L. Harrison

  Giants started to charge, with Ice Wolves flanking them on both sides. It was almost not fair, because we’d all seen it before. We knew the giants were going to toss up the ice wolves and as many orcs as they could before they were taken down.

  Jonathan might not have seen it, but he was aware of the tactic. Possibly they had spies up north, or simply from records of past invasions.

  “Fire! Take down the giants!”

  Me, and every soldier along the wall with fire stood up at once, and then shot out fire blasts at the giants. It was a good plan, it let everyone else focus on keeping the orcs off the walls.

  I put a little extra mana into it, not sure what level the giants were or how many hit points I could expect. The giant went up like a roman candle, hidden behind a hot white fire as it enveloped him, along with the Ice Wolves, and any surrounding orcs and hobgoblins within a fifty-foot radius.

  All the giants were targeted, many by more than one Fire Sphere wielder. Mine died, as did several of the others, and their blackened bodies collapsed. Most of the wolves died as well, but they were highly resistant to fire so more wolves than giants continued the charge, even if they had lesser hit points as a rule. There were five of the former, and fifteen or so of the latter left alive.

  It took another concentrated volley to take the rest down, but none got close enough that they could start getting a foothold anywhere. I hoped the other three walls had done just as well, but I was far too focused on my part of things to even think about looking.

  “Ice and Impale!” Jonathan yelled.

  I iced the wall the best I could, while Dan built a fresh field of spikes among the ones already there, or at least the ones that hadn’t been broken yet.

  Lara continued with mass heals, often tossing the spell farther along the wall both ways if those near us weren’t wounded. The only other thing she was doing was refreshing the bonus enchantment every few minutes.

  Cassie must’ve used that expensive boost spell Lara sometimes used, and had boosted her intelligence by a whole lot for a few seconds, because the field in front of us exploded into lightning as six balls of coruscating lightning left her hand in less than two seconds. They all landed in different spots, and six one-hundred-foot-wide circles of lighting erupted in the enemies ranks.

  “Wow.”

  Cassie grinned, “There’s a price, I’ll be sitting here for a minute. It probably evens out all the same given regen time for all the mana I just used.”

  “But it looks cool,” I said as I sent out another fire blast. It was almost numbing in its repetitiveness, but fire did better damage than ice did, especially in area of effect. It was why I only used that sphere on the wall.

  She giggled.

  It was about an hour in, and despite all the destruction we’d barely even put a scratch into their huge numbers. Maybe five percent? They didn’t seem like they were letting up either, it seemed insane, but eventually we would tire, maybe make mistakes, especially at this level of intensity.

  That’s about when the dark elves moved up, as if they knew we were mentally tired, and they dropped a curtain of darkness on top of the ramparts. I got nervous fast, about not being able to see the enemy, especially because the last thing I saw was the rest of the giants running forward, they’d held back half in reserve. Fortunately, Jonathan wasn’t slow on the uptake, and his voice rang out behind us a moment later.

  “Light! Dispel!”

  That took a few seconds to happen, and light exploded from Cassie and Lara, and many others along the wall.

  The giants were already close, and they were reaching for nearby orcs to toss up.

  Except, they’d already had time for a first toss with the darkness there, but we didn’t discover it until the cloaked dark elves landed on the wall, and their cloaks were automatically dispelled. They still had the surprise though, and were out in the middle of the wall, as they released spells into us and all the soldiers taking cover against the ramparts.

  My mana shield drained by two thirds, ten thousand hit points, as we were engulfed in white hot fire, and a rain of ice, earth, and darkness spikes. We outright lost ten percent of our forces, as three hundred guards just died. Twenty percent of what was on the walls at the time, it was ten percent of all our forces including the night shift, in one brief moment of vulnerability and surprise.

  Gwen was seriously hurt, and she cried out in pain. So was Steve, seriously hurt I mean. Cassie used a bow, and Dan used a sword, but they were primarily magic casters and had enough mana in their mana shield to brush off the attack, as did Lara. Their mana shields were gone, but they must have had ten thousand or so, opposed to my fifteen. Gwen and Steve on the other hand, must have only had four or five.

  It wasn’t a good thing, but the attack was so bad that everyone’s focus shifted in a panic, and we all blasted the dark elves with whatever spells we had ready before they could cast again. The dark elves all died to overwhelming spell damage, because we still highly outnumbered them. On the bad side, that meant the giants tossed orcs up onto the walls without any resistance on our part, not to mention the climbers got that much closer to the top.

  Jonathan yelled, “Fire! Giants. Earth! Deal with the foothold, the rest of you, business as usual.”

  Lara dropped a mass heal, Steve and Gwen almost immediately looked better.

  Earth spells and sword met the orcs on the walls, and they waited for next wave.

  I hit the closest giant with a fire blast taking it out, and I started to slowly feed my mana shields back up to fifteen thousand. It’d take me about a minute. I could do it faster, but not without compromising my ability to attack effectively.

  Cassie took out a giant as well, despite not being fire, choosing to finish off one of them that had only been damaged.

  Steve cast raise dead, where his radius could encompass six of the dead giants, as well as Ice wolves and orcs. They immediately laid into the enemy with devastating attacks that once again stalled the flow of their troops at the walls.

  Their bid for a foothold was well done, but it hadn’t been enough for them to hold it. Still, the losses had been horrific, and it was still the first day of battle.

  Once the giants were dead, after the next volley of fire, I joined Lara in healing all the soldiers along our wall. There were other healers as well, but Life, Light, and Death were the rarest choices people made, so every bit counted with so many wounded. My fire attacks were among the most powerful, but there were a lot of Fire Sphere wielders on the walls. They could do without me for a minute or two.

  It was two hours later at twilight, when second shift relieved us. I was mind numbingly tired. It’d only been three hours, not a full day, but unlike the northern hordes this one wasn’t letting up. I estimated we’d killed ten percent of their numbers, a full ten thousand, in just a few hours. In past battles, it had normally taken a full day to kill that many. It was them though, they just never let up, it was a never-ending charge on the walls, and it didn’t look to be letting up anytime soon as I took one last glance before leaving the walls.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Lightning queen.”

  Cassie said, “Fireman.”

  Huh, that was awful, maybe I should reconsider.

  “Cassie?”

  She grinned, and then nodded.

  Gwen poked my side.

  “I thought of a similar fire spell, but it would take me five times longer to build it, so it probably isn’t worth it.”

  Even if it would be impressive. I could build five spells as one, and skip it across the horde, leaving a fire blast explosion every hundred feet. It would also cost five times the mana, each sub-spell would need its own mana reserve for damage. Given that the time it would take to cast was the same as five normal fire blasts, it was sort of pointless, because I could aim five different spells better in the same amount of time. It just wasn’t as cool, which I really needed to get over.

  I had some ideas for when I hit expert le
vels, but that didn’t help me now.

  “So, is anyone else feeling numb?”

  Lara smiled wanly, “Yes. I’d kill for a coffee.”

  I grunted in agreement. At least this world had bacon, but no coffee was a crime. I could grow coffee beans, even create them, then roast and grind them, but I needed a template first.

  Gwen snorted, “It was a bit much. Food and sleep sound good to me. Good news, at this rate we’ll be dead, or they will, within thirty hours. Umm, another twenty-seven.”

  We moved into the mess hall, a little bit stuck in our hazy heads. It truly was mind numbing. That improved a little as our bodies relaxed from the adrenaline, and the constant sharp focus we’d needed the last three hours. The food helped us perk up as well, as we dug into platters of beef, pork, venison, and veggies to restore our bodies. It was a hearty meal, but we needed the energy and protein badly.

  I started to feel a little like myself around the time I dished seconds on my plate. Felt like myself, but still exhausted.

  We finished up dinner in silence for the most part, though from the few comments made I knew that the others were looking forward to moving on as much as I was. Fighting hordes sucked. It’d be good to leave this island too, see what else was out there. Maybe spend a few days on the beach on those islands, and then run some quests where only we were in danger.

  We could grow, and we could see knew things.

  Soon, just as soon as we killed all the evil bastards outside the city.

  Of course, there were no guarantees how anything would end up, but I hoped.

  We all turned in for bed, we could hang out and talk in the morning over breakfast, when we were awake and fresh. It would also give us a few hours to get in the right state of mind to relieve the night shift.

  It was just after midnight when I woke up. We’d been asleep maybe five hours. I’d wanted to wake up at three. It would give us time to have breakfast, digest, and talk as we woke up and got in the right headspace, before we relieved them at six.

  So why was I up three hours early?

  A few seconds later it hit me, my detect life spell was running, and I could feel dark elves, gray dwarves, and a whole lot of orcs underneath us. Like, in the cellar underneath us, not deep down in a tunnel. A split second later, six more orcs inexplicably appeared on my radar.

  I opened my mouth to call out an alarm, but a loud horn went off waking us all up, as the enemy rushed up the stairs and into the room.

  I didn’t even really think about it, my mind aligned with water and I filled in the stairway doorway with ice, blocking many and locking several orcs into the ice itself as we got up.

  The sounds of explosions and screams reached my ears from inside the city. What the hell was going on, what’d happened?

  I pulled on my robes and boots, and then started killing. Others who were primary spellcasters started to follow suit, protecting the others as they put on armor. It was brutal and wicked, and I still couldn’t get my head around it.

  The ice block exploded, and I and several others sent explosive fire down the staircase, as surely as some nasty enemy spells and warriors came up out of it. It was pure chaos as we defended ourselves, while warily keeping an eye on the door that led outside. There was fighting out there too, but so far we’d only had to deal with what was flowing in from the basement.

  Several of the soldiers and undying died, though luckily not from my group, before we had a solid grip on the room. We finished getting our equipment on, and we raced outside.

  The tops of the walls were completely overwhelmed, and there were enemies running around all over the place. I didn’t even know where to start, and was fairly sure the city was lost, though that didn’t stop me from casting fire spells, and healing when necessary. The six of us were all covering each other in the center of the damned street.

  It was just a matter of time until the wall completely fell, then we’d be blasted from above too.

  Annabelle’s voice boomed out over the city, “Fall back to the keep!” She’d obviously used an Air Sphere spell for that.

  We headed that way with a bunch of soldiers, and several groups. We were fighting the whole way there, and it still felt a little surreal, all the explosions, the city on fire, and the enemy all over the damned place. They came from the houses, the barracks, the stores, all from the basements. How? They shouldn’t have been able to tunnel in.

  When we got to the main street, I could see Annabelle and her aunt by our ship. When groups of soldiers fought their way to her, Catalina was teleporting them out forty or fifty at a time. The city was definitely a loss, and we were in retreat. Surrounded, but thanks to Catalina able to escape. I looked back at the walls, there was no way they could disengage, and I realized then that those fifteen hundred soldiers and three hundred plus undying were dead already, it was just a matter of time.

  The gate was also being attacked from within, it would only be minutes until they overcame the gate tower and managed to open them for the horde.

  When we arrived, we popped open the ship, and piled in as Catalina sent the last large group out, there might be others in the city, but there was no time. Those two jumped in the ship as well, and I took off straight up.

  “What happened? They were in the basements, came out of our own buildings.”

  Catalina looked absolutely exhausted.

  “I sent the soldiers just a half mile north, with instructions to move quickly to Southmere, and to gather the farmers for safety. The closest the destination the less energy it takes to fold space. I only managed to save about a thousand, we lost over two thousand soldiers this night, and at least half if not more of your undying.”

  Annabelle said, “We also killed almost twenty percent of the enemy, they can’t have more than eighty thousand left.”

  Catalina shook her head wearily, as if that didn’t matter, “It’s my fault, I didn’t even consider what they did as a possibility. One of their masters must have the Life and Water Spheres as I do. I noticed about two hours ago the attack on the grand enchantment and walls had lessened. I took it as a blessing, thinking one of them had gone to seek their rest. But no, what they started to do was teleport their forces into the basements throughout the city.”

  She spat out in self-disgust, “Senile old idiot. All I had to do was scan the city for life and I’d have known it, but I never thought it possible. You see, you can’t teleport anywhere you haven’t been, and don’t know intimately. A landing point must be memorized, perfectly, or someone could end up in a wall, or with a table through their middle if precautions are not taken in the spell.”

  My mind spun as I tried to figure out how that was possible, until it hit me like a brick.

  Oh shit, “The traitors?”

  Catalina said grimly, “Got it in one. Yes, the traitors. They must have allowed the dark elf master access to the city. He or she must have snuck in many of the buildings to memorize teleport points, just in case the noble traitors of the city failed to deliver it. It’s also probably why they attacked us so incessantly and hard on the walls, to keep our minds and worries there, instead of inside the city.”

  Gwen sighed, “There were dark elves in Southmere as well, in the castle itself.”

  Catalina nodded, “Just so. It will still be difficult, but we are prepared now and can avoid being overloaded with large numbers before it’s too late. My brother the king, and I, will be able to detect them when they come in now that we know to look. My niece will set up quick reaction forces throughout the city. There are close to six thousand guards in the main city, and a thousand more that will be there before the night is out. At the very least, we will put guards in the castle’s underground rooms. It took the enemy around two hours to transport so many in the city, we won’t give them the time.”

  “Can we block a location once it’s known, like fill it with ice, or stone, or just slap a table in the spot.”

  Catalina laughed, “Yes, but I wouldn’t count on it ki
lling anyone, not unless the caster is an idiot, but it will at least cause the spell to fail, and secure that teleport entry point against further invaders.”

  Lara asked curiously, “An idiot?”

  Annabelle answered this time, even if she couldn’t cast the spell she obviously knew about it.

  “If the spell is done right, there’s a way to tell that something is on the other side, so you don’t appear in anything solid just because someone rearranges some furniture or leaves a mop out. It’s possible to do a spell without those concepts added, but masters that foolish usually end up dead quickly.”

  I frowned, “But how would a water and life master detect earth, or another thing that wasn’t water or life, like a wood table, or a corpse.”

  Annabelle answered again, “Because water, earth, and air all have the same concepts to measure mass and the micro-gravity effects of mass in a given area. If the mass felt, or measured, is more than what the mass of air to be displaced is expected to be, then there’s something in the way and the spell will abort.”

  I nodded, that made sense. I wouldn’t have minded thousands of them dying that way, but merely stopping them would still be much better than nothing.

  The city came into sight.

  Annabelle said, “It’s going to be a long night, take the rooms in the Champion’s wing, try to get some sleep. I imagine the enemy will catch up with us tomorrow night. It’s not a far way to go, but they’ll take most of the day tearing Stonefort apart, and looting and burning farms. It will take the rest of the night to get things ordered, your assignments should be ready after breakfast.”

  I guessed that special permission was for Cassie and Dan, who weren’t champions. It wouldn’t be easy to get back to sleep, but we really could use a few more hours.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, and orange juice. At least breakfast was something to be looked forward too. We’d all woken up a little bit ago, had taken a bath, and had gotten ready for the day before meeting up in the dining room. The table was packed with good food, and none of us were in a hurry to get to the walls. We were also all obviously determined those evil asshats wouldn’t be taking this city.