by Han Yang
She shifted the kiss to a passionate one. “Come spend time with your daughter before she has to go with me.”
I touched my forehead to hers, ignoring the others. “Dismissed!”
Tarla led me by the hand towards our room. I’d do anything for my family, and while I didn’t want to, I’d die to give them a brighter future.
CHAPTER 26
Moonguard City
8 Days Later
“Well this sucks,” Asha said from my side.
We stared out at the horizon together, seeing the enemy rowboats in the tens of thousands approaching the city. Beyond the spires, the main armada bobbed in the waves, unwilling to lower anchors.
They had arrived yesterday, waiting for the cover of night to send their ground troops forward. For the most part, all the rowboats navigated around the spires, aiming for the beaches to establish landing zones outside of our field of fire.
“You think it’s about time?” Asha asked.
The moon shone down brightly, illuminating the scene. I couldn’t help but feel like the elva should have waited for sunrise. Since I felt they should have waited, this left me curious as to if this was a ruse.
“There’s no giant elva leading the way. Surely they’d have to know we’re defending the spires and beaches,” I said.
“Well, they’re avoiding them for the most part. They may not know how capable you are,” Ike said.
“This just seems… off,” I said in a gravely tone of complaint.
“Everything we have seen from the elva has said their conviction is stronger than their will to preserve life. If King Korbi is a god upon the elva, he’ll likely only expose his secret if perilous times arrive,” Asha said in prophetic way.
“How far out is the northern army they dropped in Podoni?” I asked Ike.
Ike said, “Leor said they were cut off by an army of dran that shouldn’t be there. The elva infantry keep trying to get south and keep finding fights they don’t want to take.”
I walked to the balcony’s edge to glance at the roof. Hounds snored peacefully, skeletons walked patrols in odd patterns, and the inside of the city was quiet.
“Where’s his dragons?” I asked indirectly. Mainly, I wanted to voice a concern.
“We’ve never seen them on the ships. My best guess is that they are dropping an army in the Coorg Woods or something,” Nick said.
“Right. That’s what I’d do. I also think he forgot that I can raise the elva. Or maybe he pushed off the fact that I can as merely a rumor,” I said with a huff. “Or like Asha said, he doesn’t care if they die and has something planned that we can’t predict.”
“Your orders, Sire?” Ike asked.
I slapped the hard stone and said, “Unleash holy hell on these landing craft. I don’t care if most are out of range. Let them know we’re not welcoming visitors. Send the signal.”
“At once, your Grace,” Ike said, raising his horn to his lips.
I plugged my ears, waiting for the echoing noise to die down before removing my fingers.
The tops of key spires opened trap doors. Ramps were slid into place, and siege engines were rolled onto their firing positions.
While they worked, I ordered a mental command to my minions to patiently wait. When the timing was right, they would spring the traps I had set.
I watched the scene unfold, knowing most of my surprises would take time.
The bright moonlight and cloudless sky let me see just fine with my human eyes. The crack and snap of ballista as well as catapults unleashing ruined the quiet night.
Boulders arched high, their flight path giving a gentle rise before a swift fall. Ballista bolts twirled rapidly, only the outside spires attempting to cross the range.
Large geysers of water erupted amongst the rowboats. Distant shouts to row faster reached us on our perch. A few shrieking cries from startled elva drowned out the rowing cadence.
The reality was that we didn’t have enough stones landing in the mass to sink more than a fraction of the massive fleet of rowboats. On both the south and north side of the spires, the rowboats gave the towering structures a wider berth.
This simple spacing helped them while it limited us, and I couldn’t help but feel they knew they teased our range.
The second round of catapults firing cracked the night, and I noticed something different. Ike grunted in surprise as well.
“There’s less firing,” Asha muttered.
“No dragons strafed the catapults or roared out in -” Asha paused, pointing to a particular spire that had just fired a stone.
I squinted but couldn’t make out the details at this distance. I pulled out my spyglass, raising it to my eye. After some hectic searching, I found the correct spire. A nature dragon snatched a catapult in its maw and silently flung it into the sea.
The crew who manned it splattered the area in a grisly end. I mostly saw body parts and not a single orb. The dragonriders likely had orders to clean the field as they went, or the dragon swallowed the bodies, directly ingesting their orbs.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Easier to unmask your dragons at night without them ever being noticed. The rowers were bait, so we would bring out the siege engines,” Asha said. “They can row the big boats through the maze with less fire with a single trap. Shit, indeed.”
“While bad, because losing anything is bad, this could have been worse. We have to expect the enemy to have a brain,” I said with a sigh. “Go ahead and signal for the siege crews to tuck back into their towers.”
After a blaring call, my troops retreated to safety. Those who survived would be on edge, and now that we knew the dragons lurked in the night, pulling them back out would come at a steep cost.
We watched the landing teams row closer. After ten anxious minutes, the rowboats neared the shore, finding themselves only a few hundred feet from dry land. They sang a song in unison, a tale about a maiden and how her entwining with nature would protect the strong.
“If only they knew,” I said with a snickering laugh.
The rowboats entered about fifty-feet of water with poised elva scouts standing on elevated platforms. The keen eyed archers studied the dark waters, attempting to detect anything trying to stop their landing.
They wouldn’t, and I set it that way. The lead boats hit thirty-five feet of water.
Crack!
A rowboat slowed, the crew shouting at each other about water. The elevated scouts scanned intently, trying to find a threat as crew commanders ordered their rowers into a frenzy to reach the shores.
Crack!
Snap!
A spear shot through the bottom of a rowboat, impaling an elva.
The wounded male cried out in horrific pain, and as quick as the spear shot up, it dove down. An elva slid a dagger across his throat and quickly absorbed his orb.
“They don’t want me raising the dead, so they do at least know they aren’t holy,” I said in disappointment.
The enemy continued to row for the shore, and as the beach seemed within reach, more and more spears popped holes into rowboats.
While I observed the increased activity, I reflected on how we had come to a logical conclusion that this was going to happen. The enemy needed to rush to reach us. Clearly, King Korbi had decided time was of the essence as I grew more powerful, else they’d have sailed north for additional troops.
That meant landing troops to assault my walls, and it logically made sense for them to skirt the spires. Anticipating this, I staged layered minions near the shore. Ogres in the deep, matogators next, then lidka and minotaurs, followed by humans and dran. As the seafloor rose, the height of the troops adjusted.
Twenty-thousand minions rested under those waves, ready to defend the landing points of the enemy. They had sat there for five days, concealed and prepared for this very moment.
At twenty-feet of water, huge splashes revealed matogater skeletons and revivals breaching. One by one, the lead rowboats teetered unti
l they tipped violently or slowly slipped beneath the surface.
“Diabolical,” Asha said. “It’s like you’re cheating.”
“War is not fair, it is about winning. They struggle to fight in the water. You can’t shoot a bow under the surface. Well, maybe you can, just not going to kill all the minions down there with bows. They should have never tried to land in rowboats,” I said.
“Yes, but if they brought their main fleet closer, you would have swarmed the larger ships,” Nick said.
“Exactly. Their only option was to land in Yookree, and that would simply take too long, so now they are paying the price of a rushed invasion.”
I condensed my magic, watching the scene on both beaches unfolding. None of the rowboats neared the pebbled shores. Instead, a jam of boats clogged the way and pandemonium ensued.
Elva struggled in their heavy armor, and I paused my spell as I watched them die.
“Something’s not right,” I grumbled, holding onto my spell.
“What?” Asha asked.
“Hmm…” I frowned, doing another inspection of my surroundings. Nothing stood out. The only commotion came from the distant shore, and it made no damn sense. “Why sacrifice your soldiers? He found the catapults. He can’t win a fight under the water.”
We waited patiently, and I figured something was up. I continued to hold my magic, letting the situation develop.
My patience proved prudent when numerous sensations started pinging my bellybutton notifications.
“Ah, there it is. What is happening?” I asked.
Ike, Asha, and Nick all shrugged.
The speed at which the boats capsized or sank decreased, and when I checked my display, I let out a gasp of shock.
218 ogres, 172 orcs, 133 lidka, and 17 humans have died beyond recovery. Find their orbs to recover 15,747.069 Zorta.
“They’re dying in droves,” I said with a groan of complaint. “What the hell is killing them?”
A massive shark breached the water with an undead matorgator in its mouth. A chomp sliced the head off the body. I barely made out a saddle on the back of the shark, unable to see what species controlled the mighty beast. As soon as they appeared, the rider and mount splashed back into the depths.
I mentally ordered my troops into shallower water, ensuring they condensed their formations but kept their heads below water. Last thing I needed was highly skilled archers picking off the exposed.
“Mermen. I never knew King Korbi had them as allies,” Asha said, solving the riddle of who rode the sharks.
The alerts slowed. My minions secured the shallows, and the school of massive sharks stuck to the deeper waters. The elva stopped rowing, causing me yet again to pause in concern.
“Unbelievable. This is bullshit. They have shark riders. Who does that?” I exclaimed.
Nick snorted and said, “The mermen, clearly. You know King Korbi had time to prepare. This is not boding well. I suggest we retreat and sacrifice the troops in the shallows.”
“I - I - I… not yet. We’re being out maneuvered,” I said in frustration. “However, we still have more tricks to try before we flee.”
“There’s at least a thousand elva dead out there on the water,” Ike pointed out.
“Yes, and suddenly they’re not stripping the orbs off their dead that are in their own boats,” I said.
Ike gestured to a rowboat, and sure enough, the orbs of the dead had vanished. Those who fell in the water, their orbs bobbing with the waves, were eager for me to raise the dead.
“The rowboats are retreating. You lost a lot of your key soldiers,” Ike said. “I think that was the whole reasoning. You relied on ogres to break infantry lines, and those sharks chewed them up with ease.”
Shadows flickered on the land near the shore, and Asha pointed it out. “They’ve staged dragons. That means something else is coming, and they are just -”
A rumbling shook the foundation of not only the keep but the entirety of the city too. Raining shingles from roofs crashed down, breaking into bits upon impact. A gargoyle nearby toppled in endless flips until it smacked the ground.
We tried to see what was happening, each of us spreading out on the balcony. A single source didn’t reveal itself, and I started to worry.
All across the city, undead raskers ran around like headless chickens, trying to find trouble. I even had the damn things swinging at air in case a hidden foe lurked.
While we wanted to install wards against cloaking, we simply didn’t have the time except for in the throne room and the balcony I currently occupied.
A shimmy of dirt north of the city became a growing mound. That mound spilled off piles of soil until a large opening spawned. Dirt cascaded forward as ogres with shields moved the loose ground out of the way.
Metallic clanging preceded my eye-catching chains stretching from the ogres’ necks.
“Outta my way, ya slouches,” a cyclops roared.
The immense being kicked dirt and ogre alike. The cyclop’s feet stomped the ramp's exit over and over. Once it was smooth, out marched hundreds of Podoni soldiers in neat formations.
A rumbling to the south forced me to groan in complaint. A second opening started to form.
“I swear, these troops never showed up once. I would have seen them marching towards us, and the southern army disappeared, meaning this was always a scenario for them,” Ike said, justifying the surprise. “The above ground elva must have been a ruse, and I fell for it.”
“We’ve been out maneuvered. My minions in the shallow are doomed,” I said sadly.
“How many sharks did you kill?” Nick asked.
I scrunched my face in frustration. “Not sure. I haven’t unleashed my spell yet. I feel like I’m still missing something, but I guess this won’t get any better until I try to turn the tide.”
The burning ball of power in my core begged to be released, and I added every bit of energy I could before -
Whoosh!
Before I could even check my stat, a voice boomed, “Got you.”
From under the keep, on the roof of a random three-story estate, an elva blossomed. King Korbi had long, flowing white hair. A bright illuminance turned night into day, and I saw a golden crown encircling his head. He carried a unique weapon, something between a spear and trident.
His outfit bespoke of his regal standing with the fine white, blue, and gold. He rose from ten feet to twenty to a hundred to two hundred, and even as he continued to grow, he swatted at my balcony.
Nick slung me under his arm and rushed me into the throne room as if I were a wee child.
Boom!
The balcony shattered as the palm crashed into the stone. Ike didn’t move quick enough and splattered from the hit. Asha leaped onto the roof, the ping of his bow sending an arrow careening off the thick flesh of the titan.
I scrambled for the descending spiral ramp to the bottom of the keep. “The asshole was right under our nose the whole time,” I managed to say between labored breaths. “If we survive this, I’m so hiring mercenaries to do wards.”
Snap!
Ballista turned inwards, unleashing a salvo into King Korbi. I wondered how much, if any, damage those would do. I certainly could only guess as I took flight down the ramp. My vision was squarely focused on ensuring I didn’t trip and fall during my descent.
I received my answer when his voice boomed, “You’ve been defeated. Why bother flinging your little sticks at me? Give up, demon.”
When I reached the base floor of the keep, I heard the roar of Peth.
“Oh, how quaint, you have a tiny fleet of mages channeling arcane magic. Someone must have tipped you off. The creator will make them pay,” King Korbi said in a snide tone.
The floor shook, and an end table teetered before falling from the intense jarring. The wood broke, and I struggled to stay on my feet.
“We need to get you safe,” Nick shouted. “To the safe room.”
I paused, panting out breaths to say, �
��Retreat with the living legions. Pull everyone out besides the arcane mages. The city is lost even if we defeat King Korbi.”
“Are you sure?” Nick asked sadly.
I nodded, and he sprinted away to try to escape. Every second counted for both of us as we tried to save as many of our people as we could. With those units being ordered to flee, Nick’s role in the battle came to a sudden end.
I bolted for the side study, finding a scattering of books ejected all over the floor. I yanked a shelf out of the way that covered a hidden entrance then raced into the dark tunnel.
Tremors reverberated through the very foundation. Each step from the titan crumbled buildings and sent sprinkles of grit raining down.
I ran my hands down the wall, finding the cutout I had studied before. A flicker of light seeped through a crack in a trap door. With a solid yank, I ripped the hatch open.
The sounds from outside faded, but I could feel the vibrations from the titan hurrying to the docks. I dropped down the chute, letting my hands slide down the metal vertical poles for the stairs.
My feet smacked into the stone and numbed from the impact. A single light illuminated a torture chamber. In the middle, a comfy bed waited. I ran and jumped into the comfy spot.
A whoosh of magic washed over my body that I recognized all too well. A champion’s connection magic.
“Not good,” I muttered.
Every second counted, and I spared a few to raise the dead.
All orbs you were connected to have been consumed.
“Shit!” I screamed with unbridled fury.
That meant King Korbi could collect the dead from a distance. I’d struggle to win this fight competing against him for orbs. It also hit me like a ton of bricks that he had forever killed Ike.
Instead of reeling from the revelation, I had to focus on keeping everyone else alive.
My chant for obedience only hit the second line when I shot out of my body. I soared up and through the city, finding the alpha ogre outside the estate where I farmed demons.
I synced into the body, seeing a blast of arcane magic soaring over the harbor bay. My mages fired golden spells out of the ships in the harbor. To my utter shock, King Korbi rolled to hide behind a warehouse.
