Then, from overhead: “TREBUCHETS, THEY’VE GOT TREBUCHETS! INCOMING, INCOMING!”
I looked overhead as their trebuchets fired, hurling a circular cluster of ghouls over the walls.
“What the hell is the point of that?” I asked myself, because the impact from hitting the ground would either outright kill the ghouls or render them immobile.
As the ghastly balls of flesh landed behind us, I saw why.
The ghouls were nothing but a protective barrier. Hidden under the barrier of necrotic, reanimated flesh were bone knights.
“BONE KNIGHTS BEHIND US!” I shouted to every soldier around me, then dug my heels in to brace the gates one last time.
BOOM!
The gates began to crack at the hinges. Another hit like that and they’d come tumbling down.
Behind me, the bone knights had cut down half the soldiers I’d sent to fight them. They were coming in close. Rusticus was hammering the last few nails into the brace when one of them came up behind him.
“Rusticus, behind you!” I shouted, but it was too late.
The bone knight punched its sword through the stout armorer’s back, with the blade then jutting out through his massive belly.
“Damn you, ugly bastard!” Rus shouted, before wheeling around and crushing the skeleton’s head with his hammer.
Now, with the gate braced, we’d bought ourselves some time. I left the gate and caught Rusticus just as he tumbled to the ground, with blood gurgling over his lips.
“Let me see your wound,” I said as I pulled his armor apart, then gasped at the gaping hole in his belly. Arterial blood spray was shooting out, and I knew at once that my healing skills wouldn’t be enough to help.
Rusticus grinned at me. “Looks like you’re gonna have to fix your own armor from here on out, lad,” he said. “Now come on, help me up. Ol’ Rus wants to die on his feet.”
I choked back a sob as I helped him up. He managed to stand under his own power, even with the massive blood loss.
Ahead of us, the bone knights had finished off the squad of soldiers. Me and Rus stood shoulder-to-shoulder. “Remember lad, the first thing about armoring is, never let the tiny problems TURN INTO BIGGUNS!”
He charged into their number even before I could, with one last, dying burst of adrenaline. The old armorer laughed heartily as he smashed through the skeletons, not caring in the least when they hacked away at him.
I charged in behind him, Dayfire blade glaring hellfire red as I slashed through them, but by the time the last one fell, One-Armed Rus had already taken his dying breath.
I waved down more squads of soldiers to man the gates. As I was doing that, I heard Sir Lucien calling out to me from atop the wall.
“GAMELORD!” he shouted. “SPRIGGANS!”
Jesus Christ, what the hell were they going to throw at us next?
I hurried back up to the wall and saw that the approaching spriggan elders weren’t simply in league with Lord Blackfyre. No. Their bark had gone gray. Their leaves were gone. Their eyes glowed bright red as they lumbered toward the city.
“Zombie spriggans,” I said.
Yet, one of them loomed taller than them all. I had no idea how they were able to move his corpse to reanimate it, but I knew him on sight, just by his towering profile against the purple pre-dawn sky.
They’d reanimated the Spriggan King, and he was shambling quickly, right toward the city gates.
“FOCUS ALL FIRE ON THE SPRIGGANS!” I shouted. “BUT NOT THE BIG ONE!”
Sir Lucien cocked an eyebrow. “Gamelord, we should be focusing all our efforts on the big one.”
I grinned at the old knight. “Hell no. The big one’s mine. Felaxia!”
I ran the blood mistress, took her hands, and closed the Soulguard over them.
“Gamelord, what are you doing?” she asked.
“Hit me with as much magical fire as you can,” I told her.
“But—”
“Trust me,” I said.
She nodded, and promptly filled the palm of the Soulguard with fire, which it immediately absorbed.
“More!” I shouted.
She cried out in determination, sweat dripping from her face, and she hit the Soulguard with flames until it was glowing bright red.
SPELL ABSORPTION SKILL INCREASED +1
Up and down the line, the archers and blood mistresses were raining down arrows and fireballs on the spriggan elders, while the Spriggan King closed in on the gates.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Earthman,” Duke Gladios said.
“I’m almost certain that I am,” I laughed. When the Spriggan King was roughly fifteen feet away from the gates, I cast the short-distance teleportation spell.
I vanished.
I emerged right in front of him, hurtling toward his undead wooden head, screaming as I blasted him in the face with the fire I’d absorbed into the Soulguard. The zombified Spriggan King growled and stumbled backward. My forward momentum carried me right toward him, and I thrust the tip of the Dayfire blade right into his glowing red eye.
The massive spriggan’s head instantly went up in flames. He stumbled backward, then went tumbling down to the ground, with me along for the ride.
I leaped off him to safety right before he collapsed into the horde of undead beneath him.
Behind me, the soldiers on the wall cheered as I hit the encroaching undead horde around me with a quick TK force bomb, pushing them away long enough for me to teleport back behind the wall, directly behind the gates.
MYSTICISM SKILL INCREASED +1
LEVEL 25 REACHED!
However, being right behind the gates turned out to be a bad place to be, even if going up a level had restored all my stats.
“LICH LORD!” someone called out.
I turned my head upward just in time to see the bastard swooping down on his wyvern. I tried to attack the wyvern with a TK blast, but Lord Blackfyre cast a massive destruction spell before I could.
Right before it could strike me, Sir Lucian appeared and tackled me out of the way, mere feet from where the multi-elemental destruction spell exploded.
A violent ball of electricity, flame, and ice struck, not just the gates, but the entire surrounding portion of the wall, as well.
Me and Sir Lucien looked on in horror. The last thing I saw before the section of the wall came down was Felaxia and her blood mistresses hurling fireballs at the lich lord, right before they were lost in a cloud of collapsing debris.
Though it stung my heart to watch Felaxia die, we did breathe a quick sigh of relief when we saw that Duke Gladios had escaped the collapse. He was several yards down the wall, helping a ragged group of infantrymen push back a fresh horde.
Ahead of us, the dust began to settle. The gates were gone, along with that sizable section of the wall.
Just beyond the cloud of dust, we saw the undead, storming toward the breach in the wall.
“FALL BACK TO THE CASTLE!” Sir Lucien cried out. “FALL BACK, FALL BACK TO THE CASTLE NOW!”
Chapter Nineteen
And that was when things turned grim.
Our defenses had momentarily collapsed. The undead were pouring in over the standing battlements and flooding in through the hole where the gates used to be.
We were fighting in the streets trying to hold the horde off so our soldiers could retreat. The undead were everywhere.
Whenever I had a moment to look through the collapsed section of the wall, I saw thousands more reinforcements storming toward the ruined gates.
As we made our way back to the castle, archers in the windows did their best to aid us with fire from above, but it was a losing fight. Duke Gladios, Sir Lucien, and I had to make a decision.
“Lads,” Duke Gladios said. “We can either hide in the castle and be overrun, or hold them out here until the civilians can evacuate.”
Sir Lucian was resolute, as always. “Dying here is as good a place as any,” he said.
I had to agre
e. I used my mana to give the Dayfire blade a good charge as the horde surrounded us on the castle steps. “Hopefully the civilians can make it to Silverton.”
The duke was just about to order some of his men to escort the civilians through the secret passage under the castle when, suddenly, the castle doors flew open.
Duke Gretchen Elfblood, clad in her silver knight’s armor, came rushing out with several hundred Silverton soldiers behind her.
I laughed and raised my sword. “Well, it looks like Silverton came to us!” I shouted, then we charged the horde.
As glad as I was to see the Silverton forces – they must have come in through the secret passages under the castle – I knew that we were still just delaying the inevitable. At least now, we might be able to push the horde back long enough to safely fortify the castle. In theory, we could have still evacuated the civilians, but there was no telling how far they’d make it with the undead chasing them down.
The silver-shimmering tide of Silverton infantrymen joined our ranks as we crashed against the horde, pushing them back several yards at once.
I was all out of mana, having drained it to recharge the Dayfire blade, so I slashed hellfire into any ghoul or skeleton or lich that came my way.
For one sweet moment, it seemed like we might push them all the way back to the ruined gates, but then Lord Blackfyre came swooping back down atop his wyvern.
I hurried along, hoping to hurl my Dayfire blade through his chest when he got close, but the lich lord knew better than to get within striking distance of me.
Instead, he swooped down toward our center mass and struck our troops with a massive fireball that once more made our line collapse.
Just as he flew away, a fresh surge of undead stormed through the ruined gates. We were seconds away from death.
Well, until Pandora arrived.
She came flying down, beating her fairy wings madly as the white mysticism magic crackled all around her. She landed right next to me, at the front of our dwindling forces, and screamed as she hurled a massive TK blast that floored every last creature in the incoming horde.
She wasn’t done.
Baring her teeth in rage, twin balls of mysticism magic swelled over her palms. She screamed again, “FOR HOMEHOLD!” then shut her fists tight.
It was a goddamn miracle.
As the mysticism magic swirled around her like a hurricane, I watched in utter disbelief as, by sheer force of will and magic, Pandora undid the damage to the wall.
In a swirl of movement, the bricks and steel were restored, like watching the wall collapse in reverse. The horde that hadn’t breached the gates came to a smashing halt as they ran into the unforgiving barrier.
Now, the horde that had made its way inside the city found itself cut off and vastly outnumbered.
Pandora turned to me, grinning as the magic crackled in her eyes, and I saw that her reconnection with mysticism was now complete.
Pandora grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in for a passionate kiss. The moment our lips parted she said, “Go to Bella, now!”
I shook my head. “But the battle…”
“Earthman, I’ve only delayed the inevitable,” she said. “The battle will be lost if you don’t go to Bella. She can help us, Earthman! She’s ready for you!”
Well, this was certainly an unexpected time for sex, but I was nothing if not a guy who knew when to take orders.
I rushed into the castle, flying up the stairs toward my bed chamber. In each window, I glanced out to watch the battle. Our forces, led by Pandora, Duke Gladios, and Sir Lucien, were re-manning the walls again, giving us a critical breather against the onslaught.
I was running fast, bobbing and weaving because all the archers that had been stationed in the castle windows were now running in the opposite direction. Once or twice, they almost trampled me as they ran down to return to their places on the battlements.
ATHLETICS SKILL INCREASED +1
EVASION SKILL INCREASED +1
Finally, I made it to my floor, ran down the hallway and threw open the bed chamber door so powerfully that I nearly ripped it off the hinges.
She took my breath away.
Previously, when Therena had tried to seduce me by taking Bella’s form, she’d made herself into Bella while wearing her traditional Mananymph kimono. I remembered how incredible the fake Bella had looked.
Well, the fake Bella didn’t come close to comparing to the real thing.
Bella was wearing that exact kimono again. Tight and made of a light fabric, with two slits for her thighs, and she wore a thigh-high stocking on each leg that hugged the curvature of her thigh.
When I saw her, I could barely speak.
She didn’t turn to me just yet. She was gazing out the window, at the battle that was once again raging at the wall.
“I can help them,” Bella said. She turned to me, her eyes bleeding desire, and a nervous smile crept across her face. “And I’m ready for you,” she purred.
I couldn’t control myself any longer.
I stormed across the length of the bed chamber and pulled her into my arms. She gasped as I kissed her neck and she frantically began unclasping my glass armor.
I shrugged the armor off, onto the floor, and kissed her as I carried her over to my bed.
We’d have to be fast, and I wished like all hell that I could have taken my time with her for our first encounter, but just feeling her lips on mine, her body against mine, let me know that I was going to love every single second of it.
“Oh!” she cried out as I pushed her thighs apart then gazed at her virgin treasure between her legs, glistening and untouched.
I ran my tongue up the length of it, grunting in satisfaction when her body convulsed from the sensation.
I was growing harder than a rock, and I wished I could have remained down there devouring her all day, but I sadly didn’t have time.
Not that I wasn’t eager to see what she felt like, though.
She reached down to undo my pants as I pulled her kimono off, leaving her naked save for her thigh-high stockings, and I nearly screamed in pleasure when she grabbed me and pulled me into her.
I gazed down into her eyes. Not long ago, she’d been so afraid of letting me into her heart, so afraid of trusting me.
She’d been hurt so much in the past. Betrayed, enslaved, controlled.
But now she was free. Now she was letting me in.
Seeing her desire for me rippling in her eyes made my entry inside of her so much more intense.
I framed her face with my hands, breathing heavily, pushing the hair out of her eyes as her chest heaved, as her face scrunched in uncontrollable pleasure as I pushed into her.
“…champion…” she whispered, her voice hardly audible.
I gripped a porcelain thigh and squeezed the soft skin as I pulled back, then thrust in again.
Her fingers dug into my shoulder blades, her eyes never wavered from mine. I kissed her again, and her mouth was so sweet, I knew at once I could never forget that taste.
Her hands slid down to my waist, she dug her fingers into my skin. As I stared into her eyes, I saw a green spark of illusion magic in her retinas.
“Earthman…”
Her bare chest heaved again, her small nipples firm and erect, and I saw goosebumps break out over her supple skin as I pushed inside her again.
Now, there were green sparks at her fingertips. She arched her back, pulled me tighter into her depths, and as I felt her nectar trickling down my base, she opened her mouth wide and screamed.
“Yes!” she shouted.
Her walls grew tight around me, speeding me toward release. I pushed into her, harder and harder, until the steady tingling in my loins grew to an explosion.
I threw my head back as I came, as the green mystical and ancient runes flashed in my eyes.
SKILL UNLOCKED: ILLUSION MAGIC
I gasped and shuddered as I finished spending myself inside her. For a precious few momen
ts, we merely lay there, our naked, sweaty bodies tight against one another, and I kissed her.
“Allow me to punish this undead horde, Champion,” Bella said.
I stood up then stood aside. As Bella got to her feet, sparkling green illusion magic twirled around her as she made her way to the open window.
By the time she actually reached the window, she’d encased herself in angelic white armor from her neck down to her toes.
She looked like an angel now, more than ever. An angel going to war.
I stood watching, mouth agape as she raised her fists and the green illusion magic crackled about her fingers.
“AAAAAAAH!” Bella screamed as she reconnected with her most powerful illusion abilities.
I had no clue as to what she was planning…until I saw the divine cavalry rushing over the horizon.
Ten-thousand illusionary seraphs gripping flaming broadswords crashed into the horde throwing itself against our walls.
I watched in shock as Bella crushed the undead under the horseback angels, hacking and slashing the undead to bits with their righteous magic.
A huge cheer went up along the wall as the seraphs mercilessly cleaved the horde almost in half, utterly obliterating every ghoul and skeleton attacking the city.
“…oh!...” Bella gasped as she drained every last bit of her mana during her attack.
I ran to catch her, as she suddenly collapsed, and down beyond the wall, the seraph cavalry disintegrated into sparkling green nodes.
I grinned, ear-to-ear, and Bella laughed. “I might have overextended myself just a little,” she said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said, then scooped her up and lay her back down upon my bed. “You rest up, little soldier, because you just saved our asses.”
I kissed her, but by the time our lips parted, she’d already fallen asleep from the sudden exhaustion.
I wanted to get back to the wall, but I pulled up my Second Sight first. I’d learned a few illusion spells during the binding process and I wanted to get a quick rundown about my new abilities.
MINOR INVISIBILITY
EFFECT: CASTER INVISIBLE FOR 60 SECONDS
Monstergirl Quest Book Two Page 16
