by Frank Morin
A cresting wave of earth erupted from the courtyard below. Wide, but thin, it arced just above soldiers’ heads and smashed monsters off the wall by the dozen. As the wave of earth avalanched down onto the swarm below, it erupted back up onto the wall, spreading in a thin sheet across the white stone.
As more monsters tried swarming up the stone, the earth swept their claws aside, denying them purchase. Verena laughed, impressed and so very relieved. She hadn’t seen that particular trick employed before.
With the wall momentarily clear, defenders regrouped and set themselves again. The earthen slippery barrier wouldn’t hold for long, but those precious seconds might have saved that section of the wall from getting completely overrun. From what Verena could hear from other gates, the situation was dire, but no section had fallen yet.
Denied access to the city via climbing the stones, the swarm redoubled its efforts to breach the gate. Somehow they seemed to sense it was a weakness.
Some of the bigger monsters smashed into the gates, shaking them despite the heavily reinforced timbers and complex locking mechanism. They were led by some of the biggest monsters Verena had seen so far. Some looked like giant, armored torcs, as big as oxen, while others walked on two legs, roughly humanoid, but vastly larger than people.
They were armed.
Those giants carried clubs a full ten feet long, spiked and studied with steel. Verena shuddered to think what those clubs could do to a person. Even a personal defensive shield might not be strong enough to protect against a blow from one of those.
She felt a growing conviction that the queen had been playing with them all winter. She’d sent relatively weak summoned creatures against them, dumb creatures that were easily identified and dispatched. They’d grown confident, assuming they could defeat any monsters she created.
They were wrong, and that misplaced pride might kill them all today.
No, she refused to believe it and drove the thoughts away. Still, they clung to the back of her mind, whispering that she would fail, that all of her work would prove insufficient, that Builders could never stop a fully ascended Petralist, that she was a fool. If she listened to those fears, they would weaken her and steal her courage.
She might fail, but it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.
The entire tower shuddered from the impacts as the monsters battered the gates with awesome strength. The soldiers manning the communications glanced down nervously, but did not abandon their posts.
Those magically enhanced monsters would batter through the gates in less than a minute. Other monsters continued trying to swarm up the walls, clawing through the earthen defenses by sheer volume.
“Call for Sentries to try buttressing Army gate,” Verena told the lead officer in the tower, who nodded and moved to relay the order. She hoped it would buy them some more time.
As the monsters began reaching the top again, the soldiers charged in to knock them free. Now that they’d survived the first wave, the brave men and women of Merkland began quickly adapting to the unique challenges of the siege.
Battle joined along the walls with incredible ferocity. Soldiers charged in with axes and maces, led by Boulders, while tertiary Petralists slung elements at the monsters and strove to deflect the creatures’ blasts of fire and water that they spat in deadly waves.
For the moment, the defenders held and Verena allowed herself to hope they might actually do this.
“Help! The water-bound are cascading up the wall like an upside-down waterfall,” a panicked female voice shouted over one of the speakstones behind Verena.
She turned to listen as the operator tried to ask for details. The woman wasn’t listening, but continued shouting. “Adrian and Dunbar tried to stop them, but they were. . . . It ripped. . . . Oh, Tallan’s Fury! Run!”
The voice trailed away in a scream of terrified pain that sent a shiver of dread racing down Verena’s spine. She doubted that unknown woman had survived.
More reports poured in, nearly overwhelming the bank of speakstones.
“Section four overrun. The siege weapons are gone, most of the defenders swept off the wall. The water is smashing everything!”
Another voice shouted, “Spitters retreating from sections two through five. Hostile forces are pouring through the breach. Flooding in the eastern reaches of the city. Monsters are reforming inside the walls!”
Verena rushed to the communications officers as they scrambled to relay messages and coordinate routing reinforcements to that sector of the city. The problem was, every Spitter and Water Moccasin was already committed. It would take too long to plug the gap.
She grabbed the senior officer’s shoulder and asked, “The shield! Find out if they’ve targeted the stones that form the shield.”
The woman’s eyes widened in understanding. Verena did not know her name, but could see she understood the danger. If enough quartzite blocks were broken out of the mechanical matrix fueling the city-wide shield, it would collapse.
Using obsidian, she linked remotely to the shield, and when she flickered her Builder senses across it, she grimaced. The flying monsters were still battering it relentlessly, with several of them high atop the peak of the dome, out of effective range of the defensive mechanicals. They were rapidly draining the shield’s reserves, which did seem much lower than they should be.
She didn’t need to wait for the officer to report on what the water-bound monsters were doing. Somehow they understood to disable defenses. The shield was about to fail. The city would lie defenseless beneath the aerial swarm.
“The citywide shielding will collapse in a moment,” she stated, switching back to the officers line.
“Those flyers are too fast,” General Wolfram stated. He spoke fast, and behind him Verena heard screams and shouts of battle, mingled with the deep roaring of angry monsters. He was positioned atop the southern stretch of the wall, above Lord’s gate, right in the midst of the heaviest fighting.
Verena said, “Prepare your forces to defend against aerial attacks throughout the city. I will activate the Draw.”
“Can you do anything else?” Lady Briet asked.
“Yes. I’m headed for the Swift.”
She did not wait for their reply, but linked via obsidian to a series of backup mechanicals positioned around the city.
She activated them all.
Then she headed for the Swift. She emerged from the gatehouse and stepped into pandemonium.
Soldiers everywhere were shouting and cursing and pressing forward against horrific monsters. Explosions of elemental fire and water battled back and forth, sometimes catching soldiers and catapulting them from the wall. Enormous monsters were constantly lunging over the parapet and snapping at soldiers.
She felt immensely grateful they had shipped so many personal defensive mechanicals to Merkland. Again they saved dozens of lives. Most of the soldiers flung from the wall activated personal shielding, surrounding themselves in temporary, shimmering spheres that protected them from the brutal impacts. Others managed to activate blind coal gauntlets that allowed them to slip through otherwise deadly attacks from snapping jaws and raking claws.
For the moment they seemed to be holding their own, but those personal defenses only worked a couple times before running out. She hoped they would last long enough.
General Rory charged past Verena, shouting a wordless battle cry. He tackled a gigantic monster with arms as big around as his torso just as it lumbered up over the parapet. Rory plowed into the beast and with a mighty heave of his stone-hardened muscles, lifted it right over his head, then slammed it to the stones.
Tomas and Cameron attacked it instantly, each wielding a pair of heavy battle hammers that had to weigh thirty pounds each. They smashed the monster’s skull flat within three heartbeats, even as it raked deadly claws across Rory’s stone-hardened skin, shredding his already tattered battle armor and scraping gouges in his granite-like flesh.
The injuries did not bleed, although
Verena knew they would when he released granite. Hopefully Healers would be ready to assist immediately, or he would suffer greatly. Rory lunged to his feet and threw aside his destroyed battle jacket, revealing his muscled torso, perfectly defined in rippling, living stone.
He glanced at Verena and saluted. “Don’t dawdle, lass. Those flying monsters are making a mess of my men.”
As if to punctuate his words, a long, leathery monster swept past overhead, its long body undulating through the air like a snake, propelled by wings that seemed far too small to keep its bulk aloft. It sported a dozen stout limbs, with deadly claws, and it spewed a gout of orange flames toward Verena and Rory.
Even as Verena moved to activate a personal shield, the flames rebounded away from them, caught by a nearby Firetongue. Laughing like a maniac, with orange flames dancing in her long, black hair, the slender woman drew the flames into a white-hot spear that she then plunged into the face of another earth-bound monster climbing over the wall. It erupted with a hideous death shriek, air blasting in every direction, and the queen’s voice rang out all around them.
“Feel my fury, unworthy servants! You will all die miserable, painful deaths.”
Verena grimaced. Hearing the queen’s angry voice above the din of desperate battle sent a shiver of cold fear trickling down her spine. It also firmed her resolve. Wow, she hated that woman. She moved toward the inner edge of the wall, above the courtyard.
The battle raged all around her, men and monsters crashing together in desperate struggle, with elements blasting all around them, punctuated by screams of men and summoned creatures. She smelled blood and fire, scorched hair, and a strange musky scent from the dead creature that Rory and his captains had just shattered. She needed to get into the fight.
The Swift rocketed toward her and she adjusted the controls for it to slow to a hover next to the inner edge of the wall. As she leaped aboard and quickly fastened her safety harness, the gate nearby shattered and huge monsters the size of oxen charged inside, bearing down on the defenders already massed to meet them.
Other monsters followed in a wave, at least twenty of them, among the largest and strongest of the entire horde, including the huge humanoid ones she’d spotted earlier with the clubs. A pair of fire-bound monsters roared through the gap also, wreathed in living flames.
Only then did Verena realize that Shona herself, flanked by Erich and Anika, led a full company of mixed Crushers and Fast Rollers charging to meet them. Shona wielded a heavy mace, reinforced for use by Boulders.
She max-tapped granite, raised the mace high, and shouted, “Merkland forever!”
41
A Target-rich Environment
Shona charged the huge monsters pressing in through the shattered gate, and Verena had to admit she was an inspiring sight, rushing into battle at the head of her small force, showing no fear in the face of the terrifying horde. Her forces surged into the breach behind her, shouting battle cries and leaping into deadly peril.
At the same time, the shielding over the city flickered and crumbled. Hundreds of flying monsters screeched in victory and plunged down toward the unprotected city.
Even though Verena knew the shield was about to fail, she softly cursed the timing. They were facing breaches from too many sides. She could sense the tide of battle beginning to turn against them. They had to turn it back fast, or momentum would sweep them all away with it.
A few of the rapid-fire siege weapons that had not run out of ammunition opened fire on the plunging monsters. They had heard the warning that the shield was about to collapse, so had plenty of time to aim, correctly reading the path the flying monsters would take when the shield gave way.
The exultant monsters flew right into a barrage of high explosives that shattered half a dozen of them in the first volley. The rest of them banked away, scattering like a flock of giant, deadly sparrows, diving and twisting so aggressively that the siege weapons could not hope to keep up.
Those were the ones Verena had to deal with.
She activated her window shielding and banked away from the wall, but glanced back once to check on Anika. She was fighting one of the giant, lumbering humanoid monsters with her usual flair, dodging a downward blow that shattered cobblestones and sank a foot into the ground beneath. Max-tapping granite and laughing with the thrill of battle, Anika looked every inch a legendary battle maiden.
But it was Shona who raced right between the monster’s legs, smashing one knee with her mace before plunging even deeper into the melee.
There was much Verena did not like about Shona, but even she had to admit Shona did not lack courage. If she was not such a cold-hearted wench, she could be quite inspiring some of the time.
Despite their bravery, the swarm of monsters was just too thick, and the tide swept right over the defenders, knocking many of them back and simply overrunning others.
The monsters met the furious onslaught of the mighty Petralists with horrifying brutality, smashing aside dozens of dauntless warriors with enormous sweeps of their weapons and claws.
Most of those plate-armored Boulders of Shona’s personal guard recovered quickly and plunged back into the fight with fresh battle cries. Reinforced by four-man squads of Crushers, they fought to drag monsters down, often beating at their limbs to reduce mobility. Most of the monsters towered over the soldiers, so they had a huge advantage.
The fight was so vicious that Verena swung back around and fired a missile down into the face of a huge, rock-like monster that was shrugging off Boulder hammers and stomping soldiers flat. It was just opening its craggy jaws full of craggy teeth when the missile whooshed right into its mouth and detonated.
The monster’s head exploded and it collapsed into a pile of rocks that began dissolving as the elemental power fueling it fled. Its death wail shrieked over the square, a cackling laugh in the queen’s voice that shouted, “You’re all going to die and no one will mourn you!”
Shona alone had continued pushing deep into the monster horde, shouting curses at the monsters that dared invade her home. She ended up in the middle of the invading horde, separated from support, and was buried under an avalanche of raging summoned monsters.
They swarmed over her, a brown and crimson tide of terrible fury, raking and biting and trying to rip her to pieces. The other soldiers of her company fought valiantly to reach her side, but they would arrive too late.
Singing a boisterous battle song, Erich heaved one of the enormous monsters in his path high overhead and smashed it down onto one of its companions so hard that both monsters exploded. Anika rushed past and dove right into the enormous open maw of another huge creature before ripping its head off from the inside. Their remarkable bravery was inspiring, but it would not help Shona.
Verena needed to fight off those flying monsters. That swarm was already plunging down into the city, largely unopposed, and she almost banked away. Shona had chosen to lead the charge and she would live or die by the strength of her own hand.
Only, she could not do it.
Shona was still a companion, one of the leaders of the revolution. So as Verena fired another missile at a huge monster that was leaping high into the air, aiming for the inner edge of the wall, she activated the speakstone paired with Shona’s direct line. “Shona, can you hear me?”
The missile exploded into the back of the jumping monster, ripping it to pieces. Shona’s only response was a gasp, then a scream. Verena also heard sounds of chomping and grinding, as if from huge teeth sawing at Shona’s granite-hard torso.
“Do you have any blind coal?” Verena demanded as she pivoted around for an attack pass.
“I’m kind of busy right now,” Shona cried, then screamed in rage. “You Tallan-cursed servants of a psycho hag. Give that back!”
It was a good sign that she could still curse at the monsters, but idiotic bravery could only get her so far.
“I can help, but it’ll hurt if you don’t have blind coal,” Verena pressed. She’d
give Shona one more chance, but if the haughty noblewoman continued to refuse her help, she’d leave her to her fate.
“I have one little piece, but it will only last for a second or two.”
“That should be enough. Activate it on my mark.” Verena did not wait for acknowledgment. A fire-bound monster was rushing toward the pack, and while the others held Shona down, it might succeed in pouring living flames down her throat and crisping her from the inside like the one had tried to do in New Schwinkendorf.
“Hurry.”
“On three . . .” Verena triggered another diorite-tipped missile.
“Two . . . one . . .”
The missile shot away from the Swift.
“Now!”
The missile accelerated to blinding speed as it shot across the short distance down to the pile of monsters and Shona.
It struck in a glorious explosion of fire and destruction. It shattered several of the monsters instantly, and catapulted several more back. It also knocked Erich flying. Verena had not even seen him closing on the pinned Shona.
The fire-bound monster seemed to grow, morphing into the shape of an enormous nuall hunting cat. It tipped back his head and roared with newfound strength. Just in time for a dozen spears of ice to punch through its head and torso from the walls up above. The monster exploded in a second wave of fiery destruction, charring the melting corpses of the other destroyed monsters.
Shona emerged from the firestorm, with her recovered mace in hand, raised in victory. Wreathed in flames like that, she embodied the image of a high lady battle maiden perfectly.
Verena grimaced and banked away. Just like Shona to turn a potential disaster into an opportunity to awe her followers yet again. She had courage and class, and knew how to use both of them.
It was super annoying.
Time to get to work. Verena accelerated into the sky. Her delay might have saved Shona, but it might have cost other lives in the meantime. Flying monsters raced back and forth across the city, targeting anyone that moved, although they seemed smart enough to focus on soldiers.
