The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege

by Tony Johnson

  Underneath the dead horse Steve saw his jousting opponent. The man’s leg was awkwardly bent. Steve winced, imagining the pain. His foot must have gotten caught in the stirrup when the horse went down. A leg should not bend in that direction, Steve thought. It looked like it had snapped right out of the jouster’s pelvis, almost like his leg was coming directly out from the side of his hip. Steve couldn’t even tell if the leg was attached to the rest of the jouster’s body or not. There was a growing pool of red, soaking into the sand underneath the warrior.

  Steve knelt down next to his dying warrior brother. They may have been jousting opponents, but all warriors were part of a brotherhood. It was a connection that grew even closer in one’s final moments. Steve clasped the shoulder of the injured warrior in a caring embrace. His face was pale and his breathing was too shallow for someone who should be in excruciating pain.

  “What’s your name, friend?” Steve asked as calmly as he could manage.

  “Cyrus. Pleased to meet you, Stephen Brightflame, but this may be the shortest friendship the both of us will ever know.”

  Steve nodded reluctantly. “You know my name?”

  “Of course, it’s all I heard while I was here. This city loves you. You would have won the championship for them. You’re an excellent jouster,” Cyrus said.

  “That’s only if I would have beaten you. We never finished our match.”

  “That’s right, I was just about to make my comeback,” Cyrus said as he laughed sarcastically. The laugh turned into a cough of blood that trickled from his mouth.

  Steve didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t going to lie and tell him he was going to make it out of here alive, because both he and Cyrus knew that wouldn’t be true. The dying warrior turned his head and spit blood into the sand and then wiped his mouth.

  Steve realized that Cyrus looked to be only two to three name days older than him. He’s too young to die. Steve shook his head sideways as he thought that if one of the boulders followed even a slightly different trajectory, it could have been Clyx dead with him trapped and bleeding out underneath his horse. He remained silent as Cyrus used his remaining strength do deliver his final words.

  “You know I was born in this city? I grew up here. Then I met a girl from Casanovia. We moved there after we got married. She’s there now, pregnant with my child. Her name is Emma.”

  “Any other family? Your parents?” Steve asked in a caring voice.

  “No, I…I never knew my parents. Emma and our baby are the only family I have. Please send word of my love to them.”

  “I will do it in person. I promise you.”

  “Thank you. You know I always wanted to die in Celestial. Place of birth, place of death. Makes everything come full circle, doesn’t it?”

  Steve knew it was a rhetorical question, but even if he had answered, Cyrus wouldn’t have heard it. Cyrus succumbed to his injuries and died. Steve reached out his hand and closed the warrior’s open eyelids.

  Steve stored the promise he had just made in the back of his mind before standing up and looking at his horse. “You ready, boy?” Steve took it for a “Yes,” when Clyx snorted. He put his jouster’s helm back on and mounted his horse, sliding into the leather saddle. With reins in one hand and Brightflame in the other, he took a moment to look around.

  There were broken boulders on the arena floor and in the stands. Half of the arena seating was carved out of stone. The other half was made of wooden bleachers. Almost all of the bleachers had burned down. Bodies lay scattered everywhere. Some were missing limbs. People were crawling on the ground in pain, taking in their final breaths or worse, screaming their final screams. Others had been burned and charred black, to a point of unrecognizable gender.

  A screeching phoenix monster above the open aired stadium spiraled out of control. One of its wings was frozen solid in ice. It crashed down into a pile of debris. The screeching stopped on impact. Steve smiled, looking back at it as he galloped out of the death filled arena. His smile turned upside down when he saw a dead warrior lying next to the phoenix. I guess it wasn’t an enemy monster, he bitterly thought.

  Steve exited out of the eastern side of the arena and analyzed the scale of destruction. Now that his view of the city wasn’t blocked by the walls of the stadium, he could see much more of the devastation. The flaming boulders had wreaked havoc on the section of Celestial he was in. There were huge pillars of smoke rising up from buildings all around him that had collapsed or been completely burned down. Steve followed the pillars with his eyes and looked up to the sky. Amazing colorful blasts of elements were being shot between enemy and friendly flying monsters, exploding into a bright flash when a target was hit.

  Ty will be up there within minutes. Steve thought about where his own duty as a warrior would lead him. In the far distance, high above the buildings, he saw the top of the King’s Tower. He lashed his reins against Clyx and headed north for his destination, the castle.

  Along the way, he used Brightflame to cut down monsters from behind that were also headed to the castle. Some of them he killed seconds before they were about to kill a Celestial civilian. People were running and screaming in the streets. Many were limping or bloody. Some were carrying the lifeless bodies of loved ones. Everyone was trying to get into the protection of their homes and avoid the death and destruction from being out in the open.

  Steve was trying to put the pieces together and understand the attack as he rode. Why didn’t the warriors in the outer towers sound their alarm horns? The monsters must have gotten catapults into the farmlands to launch their flaming boulders into the city. They should have been seen from miles away. Somehow, monsters were already in the city. For the first time in Celestial’s history, the enemy had made it past the inner wall.

  The inner wall was one of three fortifying walls in the Celestial City. The other two walls were the castle wall and the outer wall. The outer wall separated the wilderness from the farmlands. It marked the end of the actual circle of Celestial. It was the shortest of the three walls, at only ten feet high. It was high enough so that monsters or wild animals would not be able to vault over it without ladders or some sort of aid. The next wall was the inner wall, which separated the farmlands from the buildings of the city. It stood at fifty feet and was much thicker than the outer wall. The castle wall was the partition between the city and the castle. This barrier was the tallest and thickest, standing at a massive seventy-five feet high.

  Just like how the three barrier walls grew from shorter (on the outside) to taller (closer to the castle), the buildings of Celestial were built similarly. From far away, the Circle City was shaped like a giant tent. The buildings around the edge were shorter, but gradually inclined as they moved closer towards the King’s Tower (the highest point of the castle and the exact center point of the city).

  The farthest buildings from the castle, closet to the inner wall, were the smallest and shortest. This was the largest section of the city that featured the most houses. They belonged to the less fortunate residents. That was not to say they were poor though, because compared to any other city in the kingdom, they were financially blessed.

  Tiny snakelike dirt roads maneuvered in between the small houses, alleyways, and dead end streets. If someone didn’t know where they were going, they could easily get lost in the tangled maze.

  The closer you got to the castle, the wider and larger the roads grew, just like the houses. There were fewer of these larger and taller buildings of course because the circumference of the circle got smaller the further you traveled inwards, towards the center. Celestial was designed purposefully with the better looking houses located where they were, so that the people who headed from the edges of the city to the center would be able to see the possibility of luxuries acquired after a life of hard work.

  Further in, closer to the castle, was the next ring of the city. It had cobblestone streets rather than dirt. These buildings were even taller than the last section. This was the bus
iness, education, and commerce section. Families walked here and stayed for eight hours each day for work. Adults went to their careers while their children went to school. About fifty percent of the population worked in this part of Celestial. The other half headed in the opposite direction and worked the farmlands on the other side of the inner wall or in the ocean if they lived near the south.

  Steve could see from where he was that parts of the inner wall had been demolished. Catapulted boulders had broken through parts of it. Monsters were aggressively entering through the openings. They were also coming in over the inner wall by way of ladders. From the top of the wall came the loud clanging of metal on metal. Steve watched as warriors were overrun by monsters. There were too many for them to handle. Countless monsters kept coming over the barrier. Even more came in on flying monsters, easily slaying the few warriors who attempted to stop them.

  Maybe there are too many breaches. For a moment, Steve considered turning around and heading to the wall, but he couldn’t. He had his orders. His duty was to go to the castle.

  Steve had been in battles since he officially became a warrior at the age of seventeen. He had grown accustomed to scenes of chaos, but what he was witnessing today was different. This was not an ordinary attack. Monsters were never in groups this large or organized. This was a full scale assault that the warriors were unprepared for, especially on this weekend when they were allowed to relax a little more than usual and enjoy the festivities and celebration.

  This is what it looks like to be taken over by monsters. The moment Stephen realized that was the moment he began to fear. He knew this day would go down in the history books. Either the monsters would successfully siege the Celestial City and take control away from the people, or the warriors would prevent the largest monster attack ever known. He hoped the result would favor the warriors, but from what he was seeing so far, it looked like it would be the first option. He removed that thought from his mind as soon as it entered because it was his job to try to prevent that, even at the cost of his own life. As a warrior, he was a primary target for the attacking monsters.

  Steve wasn’t scared to die. Chances were that if he died today, it would mean that the city was taken. I don’t want my life to pointlessly end in vain. Steve could not imagine any scenario in which he would still be alive in a monster controlled city. Even if he was the last warrior versus an army of monsters, he would fight them with every last ounce of strength until he could not physically lift Brightflame anymore. He would rather die fighting to save Celestial, than live to see his city fall.

  Unfortunately, before the end of the day, all Steve would see was darkness.

  Chapter 4

  Steve was nineteen, having just had his nineteenth name day four months ago. He was in the prime of his life. Steve was not the smartest, strongest, funniest, handsomest, or most charming man, but he tried not to compare himself to others. He had an unproven theory that when the good god created his people, he gave each person either a lot of one personality strength or a little of many different personality strengths. Because of this, some people were good at doing certain things, while others weren’t. Steve knew some people who were good at mathematics, but didn’t have an ounce of creativity. Other people had a high level of intelligence, but were socially awkward and difficult to have conversations with.

  Steve was happy with who he was and felt that he had a personality that had a little bit of everything. He was the complete package. You couldn’t get much more average than Stephen Brightflame. Most people didn’t want it that way. Most people wanted to be unique. Being unique meant being remembered. For example, an athletic person would be very popular because he or she would be known as “the most physically gifted person.” Steve would never say it out loud, but why would that person be known as the “most athletic” rather than the “least intelligent?” People tended to focus on the positives in people. After thinking about it, he realized that was better than the implications of the opposite. Having people focus on the best parts of themselves helped their self-confidence and increased overall happiness.

  Steve tried his best to see everything from both an optimistic and a pessimistic point of view. As a warrior, he had been trained to always visualize the full picture along with the good and bad consequences, regardless of personal feelings. Besides, being popular was not important to Steve. He would rather have few very close friends, than a lot of people that only knew his name. By the end of the day, he would come to realize he had both.

  Out of the four races, Steve belonged to the Human race. Humans were known for their good communication, public speaking, and leadership abilities, but were prone to sicknesses if they were not physically fit. If there was a race considered to be the opposite of Humans, it would be the Elves. Elves did not have the aptitude for being great leaders or having a silver tongue like Humans. You would rarely see a person of Elven decent leading warriors on a battlefield. They understood tactics and strategy as well as anyone else, but it was not their fortitude to draw them out and enforce them. The strength of Elves was that they had good metabolisms, were very healthy, and were not easily infected with disease.

  Giants and dwarves were exact opposites. Giants were known for their size and physical strength, but they lacked the talent of building and blacksmithing that the Dwarves were renowned for. Dwarves were the exact opposite of Giants in that they were the smallest of the four races and were not as strong as Giants. Usually the weaknesses of each race were the butt ends of lighthearted jokes told by members of opposite races.

  All four of the races had different lifespans. The lifespan of an Elf was the longest at about 150 name days. At 75 years, Giants had the shortest life expectancy. Dwarves (sometimes called halfmen) tended to live until around the age of 125. Humans had an average lifespan of 100 years. Steve knew, in his line of duty as a warrior, that his life expectancy was much, much shorter than the one century average. Still, a day did not go by that he would have been willing to trade in his adventurous life for anything different.

  Standing tall at 6’4, Steve was still a head and shoulders shorter than the minotaurs he and Ty just defeated in the arena. He had heard of some Giants who stood over the heights of minotaurs at eight feet tall. However, unlike the monsters who seemed to survive longer the larger they were, Giants had a short lifespan for their size.

  Steve’s years of training as a warrior had taken him to his peak physical fitness level. He had a strong upper body. His arms were well-toned and muscular, due to having to carry a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left every day. He could run with all that extra weight for three miles before having to slow his pace.

  As he made his way towards the castle, it seemed like Clyx was moving, but their destination never got closer. He wished he was already inside the castle because every couple of blocks it was one heartbreaking sight after another.

  First there was a screaming man engulfed in flames rushing out of his burning house. He stopped right in front of Clyx yelling, “Help me! Help me!” There was nothing Steve could do as the man stumbled into the Fluorite River, burning alive. The cold, refreshing water could not save him from the severity of the burns he had already received. Steve watched as the man fell into the river. He saw a puff of smoke and heard a sizzle, but the man was motionless, floating, face down in the water.

  Next, Steve felt a lump in his throat as he saw civilians standing in the street, pointing up at a burning building. Two people on fire jumped out of their windows from the top floor of their four story apartment to end their scorching pain. Their bodies hit the hard street with a sound that should never be allowed to enter ears. Steve felt like he was spending an eternity staring at each death he saw, when in reality he was looking away or closing his eyes from the gruesomeness as soon as it happened.

  The sound of bells ringing snapped Steve back into the chaos ensuing at regular speed. The bells were coming from the castle, meaning that its draw bridges would be going up in five mi
nutes. The job of the warriors in the event of an attack was to hold off monsters as long as they could so that as many civilians as possible could flee to the castle or to the warriors’ watchtowers for shelter. Located in the center of the city, the castle was considered the safest place to be. However people felt safe enough to go back to their homes and bolt their doors.

  The sudden ringing of the bells meant the monsters had successfully breached and advanced far enough into the city that the warriors now had to retreat into the safety of the castle or the watchtowers. Steve had only heard the sound in city-wide test drills. Hearing the bells now and knowing it was not a test, made everything so much more real. Retreat. Steve hated that word. It means giving up. It means failure.

  The castle bells must have inspired Clyx to run faster because he started sprinting as if his tail was on fire. Steve ducked down behind Clyx’s head, creating less wind resistance and making himself and the horse more aerodynamic. The only time he would sit up was when he was using Brightflame to slice open monsters.

  The enemy’s numbers grew smaller and smaller as more and more people appeared in the streets closer to the castle. The monsters have not advanced this far yet.

  Steve was heading through a large merchant section of Celestial. Sellers were packing up their merchandise, bundling up their tents, and heading home or to one of the watchtowers, whichever was closer. There were even more vendors and shoppers than usual because of the weekend’s events. Everyone was trying to act as calm as possible.

  In the practice drills held once a year, civilians were walked through what to do and told not to panic. The drills worked well, because everyone Steve saw in the scattering crowds was being civil to one another. There was no pushing. People were not selfishly trying to save themselves at the cost of others. There were even brave Celestial natives who stood at street corners and collected tourists who were visiting the city and did not know where to go. They are leading them back to their own homes for protection. Steve also noticed that the quick-thinking crowd had left an aisle in the street open so that warriors could quickly get to where they needed to be.