by Steve McHugh
I closed my eyes and activated my fire magic. When they opened, I was able to see despite the darkness. The colors were all variations of orange and red, but it was better than not being able to see at all.
“They’re just beyond the ridge,” I said. “Several hundred of them. They’re in a long line. There’s no battle formation that I can see. I get the feeling they’re going to run at the city all at once. Otherwise I see no benefit in what they’re doing.”
“You can see them?” Gilgamesh asked, surprised. “Impressive. What is the enemy we face?”
“I don’t know. I can’t make out features, but several of them are in armor.” I watched as the line broke and something much larger than the other fighters walked through. “That would be Asag.” I didn’t even try to keep the anger from my voice. The monster had killed someone I’d considered a friend, and tried to kill me, too. I owed him for both of those actions, although I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I needed to be faster and smarter than when we’d last met, but more importantly, I needed to put him down quickly before he could kill anyone else.
“Asag is among them?” one of the soldiers said, his fear carrying to all those around him as several soldiers exchanged concerned glances. “The devil comes for us!”
“The devil?” Gilgamesh laughed. “Asag is a giant rock: a being that used too much power and twisted himself into something evil. But he can be killed. There is a layer of nothing between his rock and skin. If you can break that rock, his skin is just as easy to pierce as yours or mine.” He raised his voice. “All of these so-called demons can be killed—” He raised the arm of the nearest soldier, showing everyone the sword he carried. “—with this: with steel. Their heads and hearts are just as fragile as a human’s. They are destroyed just as easily once pierced. Yes, these are formidable opponents, but you are all seasoned warriors: men who have faced death and found it wanting. Come the morning, you can regale your loved ones, your friends, even your next conquest with tales of your victory.” There was slight laughter at that, and he had the full attention of everyone on the battlements and those waiting below by this point.
“You can tell the tale of fighting beside heroes and gods, and you can tell them that for one night, there were no differences. This night, we will drive this evil from our land, and come the sunrise, we who remain will tell our children fearful tales of what happens to those who wish to do us harm. They think they can scare us? Well, let’s show them just how afraid we are. We are all soldiers tonight. We are all warriors. We are all brothers.” He raised his maul high into the night and a great cheer went up.
“And sisters,” Irkalla said from beside me. “I don’t want our part to be left out.”
I hadn’t heard Irkalla climb the stairs close by—I’d been too busy paying attention to what was in front of me—but I was glad to have her on the wall with us. “Any woman who wants to fight and bleed beside me gains the right to be called my brother-in-arms,” Gilgamesh told her.
Irkalla rolled her eyes as Gilgamesh walked away to talk to some more of the soldiers.
“He means well,” she said when we were alone. “He really does believe that calling us ‘brothers’ is a great honor. I doubt many would agree. Would the Amazonians have been happy being called brothers? Would any woman?”
“None I know of,” I told her.
“Progress. And that is why Avalon will lead the world, and why our little group will be lost to the annals of history, folded into Avalon and forgotten.”
“I doubt you’ll ever be forgotten.”
“Maybe not forgotten, but certainly no longer the first name that comes to mind when thinking of the powerful gods and goddesses of the past. It happened to the Romans, Greeks, Celts, and anyone else who was folded into Avalon. It’ll happen to us, too. And frankly, it’s for the best. Like I said, progress is the name of the game here. That’s why we’re fighting tonight: because not everyone can see progress when it’s staring them in the face.”
“And you’re okay with coming into the Avalon fold?”
“We get to keep our power base; we get to keep a lot. And we have influence inside the Avalon power structure. Frankly we’ll have more of a say than we do now. And I for one am sick of standing on the sidelines.” She leaned on the battlements and bellowed, “Will you all get a bloody move on? We don’t have all night!”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’ve spent far too much time in Avalon arranging this deal. I appear to have picked up some of the traits from those there. It’s not considered ladylike, but then no one ever accused me of being particularly good at pretending to be a lady before.”
As Irkalla stood beside me, ready for battle, I saw exactly why her reputation was so formidable with everyone in Avalon who’d spoken of her. “I’ve never been against women who fight, swear, drink, or speak their minds. Those who are, are either idiots or terrified they can’t out-think, out-fight, or out-drink them.”
A sly smile spread across Irkalla’s lips. “You missed one.”
“I don’t think battlements are the best place to discuss women out-fucking men.”
Irkalla’s laughter turned more than a few heads. “I’m going to like you, Hellequin.” She raised her hand, palm out, and closed her eyes. “Vampires. There are vampires out there.”
I scanned the scene in front of us. Beyond the city gate was a large wooden bridge, which covered a dry moat. Beyond that was a collection of boulders and rocks strewn across the open plain alongside a few plants and trees. It was some distance before the plain turned into hilly territory, and by then the well-worn road stretched out away from the city, merging with the rest of the landscape. In short, the city wasn’t going to be easy for any attackers to take, but these weren’t human attackers.
The soldiers had managed to extinguish all of the torches outside of the city, but that just made it easier for the vampires. They should have left things alone, but hindsight is always a wonderful thing.
“Can you tell how many?” I asked.
“No. It’s more than a dozen, certainly. They’re too far away for my necromancy to pinpoint them, but I can feel their anger, their hate.” She turned to me. “They come.”
The alarm went up as shapes in the darkness began to charge at the city. Dozens of creatures ran toward us. I drew my jian and waited for the inevitable.
Archers fired volleys of arrows, but only a few of the creatures were killed outright. Even those with serious injuries managed to drag themselves toward the city. Apparently death at our hands was preferable to being left behind for whatever creatures hadn’t joined in the initial attack.
I didn’t have long to wait as creatures sprang up onto the city walls and began scaling them. Boiling oil was poured over the sides, splashing over several of them, and the screams of the attackers tore through the night. But those climbing the walls were much faster than the humans manning them, and it didn’t take long for the attackers to reach the apex and climb over, killing those who stood before them.
Two attackers hissed at Irkalla, their vampire teeth already bared. She moved her hands forcing them to drop to their knees. She stabbed each of them in the throat with daggers I hadn’t seen before, and a few seconds later the bodies of the vampires slumped to the floor. Heat rose off them as they turned to dust.
“These vampires are young. The masters and elders wouldn’t have dropped to their knees so easily. Someone out there is making vampires. I would like to talk to them.” She didn’t make it sound like that would be a pleasant conversation.
I kicked another vampire off the battlements, and cut the head off a second as he dropped beside me. A third screamed in rage as he launched himself at me from several feet away, but a whip of fire from my hand sliced him in two, both halves turning to dust as they fell into the city.
Somewhere in the darkness a horn sounded and the earth began to rumble. I looked over the city walls and reapplied my night vision. Asag was running full-pelt toward the cit
y gates close to us. Next to him were a dozen smaller creatures.
“We have a big problem,” I said to Irkalla, who was busy killing more vampires.
“Asag?” she asked.
“And his friends.”
“Gilgamesh, we’ve got ekimmu on the way!” she shouted to the large man, who was currently flinging vampires off the battlements with ease, his huge maul knocking them aside, destroying bone and organ alike.
“We need to protect the gates!” Nanshe shouted up from below. “If they make it through, a lot more people will die.”
“I will take the Teutonic Knights to one of the other gates,” Nabu said from beside her. “Nanshe, take the Templars to the third gate. Hold it for as long as you can. There are others of our group already there—they will aid you.”
Nanshe nodded and ran off into the city.
“Hellequin, can you, Gilgamesh, and Irkalla hold here?”
I looked over the wall again, and found that only Asag remained; the remainder of the attacking force had run to different parts of the city walls. “I really hope so!” I shouted back.
Any archers still capable of firing rained down death on Asag and his creatures, but most of the arrows bounced off his body. For the most part Asag ignored them, and even ignored the badly wounded but still-alive vampires, who were tossed over the side onto him. He swatted them away with barely a loss in stride before he reared back and struck the gates.
The entire wall shook with the force of the blow.
“Anyone ever fought this thing before?” I asked.
“I will stop him,” Gilgamesh said, launching himself over the battlements, down onto Asag.
“Idiot,” Irkalla snapped, just as a dozen small rock monsters clambered over the walls and began pulling men to their death over the battlements, or cutting them open with their sharp claws.
Using my wind magic to knock them back seemed to do the trick, and my whips of fire were able to cut through one monster. The others decided that avoiding me to take on easier prey was a better use of their time.
“They’re an extension of Asag’s power,” Irkalla told me. “I’d advise you to destroy as many of them as possible.”
The blows against the city gate had ceased while the sounds of battle between Asag and Gilgamesh rang out below.
“What if enough people attacked Asag?” I asked. “Would he be forced to take these little things away?”
“I have no idea. Only one way to find out: I assume you mean you.”
“You’re more capable at dispatching the vampires quicker, and the little rock bastards seem to ignore anyone with actual power. They’re only here for the humans. We can use that to keep them occupied.”
“Go. I’ll make sure these little things don’t cause too much trouble. Maybe some hammers would help even the odds; I doubt they like them. How will you get out of the city without the gate being open?”
I climbed up onto the edge of the battlements in response. “Best of luck.”
Irkalla nodded slightly at me before rushing toward the fighting as it spilled off the battlements and down onto the area just in front of the city gates.
My air magic slowed me down enough that I hit the ground outside of the city with an impressive noise and a lot of dust, but no actual injuries. Starting a fight with a broken leg is hardly the best idea.
Gilgamesh was on his knees in front of Asag, who had one massive fist wrapped around his opponent’s maul and was trying to wrench it free of his grasp. Gilgamesh was bleeding from a dozen cuts to his face and body, and Asag’s face appeared to be chipped and dented. War had been waged between the two.
Asag saw me, released his grasp on Gilgamesh’s maul, and kicked the still-kneeling man in the chest, sending him tumbling down the steep bank behind him. It wasn’t a long way down, nor overly deep at the bottom, but even so, I couldn’t count on Gilgamesh’s help for the next few minutes.
At almost seven feet tall and wider than two men, Asag was still every bit as imposing as when I’d fought him before I’d arrived at the city. Rock jutted out of every part of his body, forming plates that overlapped one another, leaving only the inside of his mouth and eyes free from it. His hands more closely resembled claws. He had the appearance of a smaller, but no less deadly, mountain.
“I tracked you for days,” Asag said. “Your pathetic coward of a guide wouldn’t let you face me.”
“He told me you’d kill me.”
“I will.”
“Come on, then. We don’t have all night.”
Asag charged toward me, bringing his considerable rocky bulk to attack. I moved aside of his blow and raked my sword along his ribs to test the strength of his rock skin.
I put enough distance between us and sheathed my sword: it was all but useless. I remembered Asag’s scream of pain when I’d used my fire magic the last time we’d met, and an instant later, a whip of fire ignited from one of my hands. I flicked it toward Asag, who moved back slightly, but not quickly enough to tell me he was concerned about it.
I walked steadily toward him, the whip trailing along the ground, scorching the earth, until I was close enough, then I flicked it up toward him once again. He stepped back, and at the last second, I removed the whip and threw a ball of flame at him. Asag raised his hand to shield his face from harm, and I darted forward, changing the whip of flame for a blade, which I brought down on his arm.
I hadn’t really known what effect it was going to have; I was just trying anything to see what could make it through Asag’s tough skin, so I wasn’t expecting the monster to scream in pain and anger. His eyes locked with mine as the blade of flame cut through the rock and bit into whatever was beneath, and I knew he knew that I’d confirmed his weakness: magical fire. Asag swung with his good arm, but I removed the blade, darted aside, reignited it, and plunged it into his side. Asag cried out once more as several of the small monsters he controlled jumped from the battlements above me, landing with a crash.
I twisted the blade and pushed it in further, but my attention wasn’t wholly on Asag, so I didn’t see him swipe back at me with his enormous arm. He caught me in the chest, throwing me aside as if I were nothing. The breath left my body in one go as several of my ribs broke, and my magical night vision flickered on and off for a few seconds. When my sight was steady, I used the wooden bridge beside me to get back to my feet as Asag barreled into me, driving me over the bridge and down the bank where Gilgamesh had fallen. Water and grime filled my nose, eyes, and mouth, and I rolled onto my side, blindly trying to use the reeds and plants that littered the banks to pull myself out. I was trying to get the muck out of my eyes when I was lifted from my feet and thrown aside, colliding with the side of the bank, but thankfully not rolling back into the muck at the bottom.
My chest was on fire, and I was pretty certain I’d done more than just break a few ribs. I needed time to heal. I crawled toward the nearest tree, hoping to use it to get me back to my feet.
“I’m going to crush you, Merlin’s little man,” Asag said, his face close to mine, his hot breath making me feel sick.
I didn’t even see the blow to my stomach, but I doubled up and vomited onto the ground all the same. I couldn’t remember the last time something had hit me that hard. Asag picked me up, his claws raking over the flesh on my shoulder, and once more I found myself sailing through the air. I landed roughly, feeling my wrist snap, but used air magic to get the muck off my face. Unfortunately, that just let me watch as Asag walked up the bank toward me.
I scrambled to my feet and looked around. I was outside the main gate once more, but I was not going to go down without a fight. I limped to the other end of the bridge and watched for Asag to climb the bank. His little monsters had vanished, and as he walked into view, I saw the last of them merge with him, healing him.
“Neat trick,” I said through clenched teeth.
“My next one is ripping your head off.”
I placed my broken hand against my chest and felt t
he blood there. Power flowed through me as my blood magic ignited. Asag paused; he’d probably seen Mordred use blood magic, but while I was nowhere near as powerful as he was with it, I was no slouch.
I flexed my fingers and my blood magic began to block out the pain of my broken ribs and other injuries. Using blood magic in such a way that you ignore your own limitations and injuries was incredibly dangerous, but so was being dead. If I didn’t do something, the latter was much more likely to happen.
Asag, now seemingly fully healed, walked methodically toward me. “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me, little man.”
I breathed in, ignoring the pain in my ribs, and held my breath as Asag walked closer and closer, each step reverberating over the wooden bridge. I held my place, blocking out the noise of soldiers yelling at me to run, to move aside.
Asag stopped only a few paces away from me. “You going to use that flame blade on me again, boy?”
I ignored him and used as much blood magic as possible to mix with my fire magic, giving me the power I needed. And I breathed out.
The flame that left my mouth was almost white hot. I was glad I’d used my air magic to coat my throat, lungs, and mouth before trying this trick. The flame hit Asag’s face before he even had time to register it. Just as he was about to speak, he screamed in pain as the flame torched the inside of his mouth, along with his eyes, blinding him instantly. It was then that I saw that the rock plates didn’t quite overlap by his neck, leaving the skin beneath exposed.
I reignited the flame blade and drove it up into a gap between the rocky plates of Asag’s neck before removing it, stepping around to his exposed flank, and driving it back into where his liver would be, cutting through the plates as if they weren’t there.
Asag dropped to his knees as a silver tar-like substance flowed out of his wounds. He swiped at me once again, but I’d already removed the blade and stepped around him to his back, where I drove the blade into his spine.
Asag fell to the ground as the gate to the city slowly opened. Irkalla ran out, followed by Nabu, who steadied me as my blood magic shut off and my body roared in pain. He helped lower me to the ground and placed me up against a tree.
