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

by Tony Johnson

  Clyx was sprinting as fast as he could, considering he was wearing heavy jousting armor. The buildings were quickly whizzing by when a huge flaming boulder was launched behind Steve. He never saw it coming until it was too late. The boulder stayed in one piece as half of it crashed into the front of a building, sending stone debris flying through the air. The other half of the boulder smashed through the cobblestone street, creating a crater in the ground only a few feet from Steve.

  Even though Steve was on his horse, he felt the shock of the impact through his saddle. The blast launched Clyx and him upwards, sending them barrel rolling through the air. Steve was ejected from the saddle in midair. He briefly saw the blue sky, with little colored dots of flying monsters among the clouds, followed by sideways buildings. Then his head smashed hard into the stone street.

  If he hadn’t been wearing his red jouster’s helm, his brains would have painted the street red and purple. He removed the broken helm and angrily cast it aside. The impact made a sharp metal edge cut open his forehead. Blood was running down and getting into his eyes.

  Steve was surprised he hadn’t been knocked unconscious, but almost wished he had been because he felt horrible. The ground was swinging back and forth as he was on his hands and knees, trying to get his bearings. It slowly began to adjust beneath him, but now Steve felt like his stomach was swinging back and forth. A rush of nausea ended with him throwing up a vile greenish color from his stomach. There’s the breakfast I had this morning. He watched between his hands as it slowly spread around the stones of the cracked cobblestone street. Steve tried to remain as still as possible until the unstable ground finally came to a rest.

  There was a high pitched ringing in his ears. Every fifteen seconds, when the castle bells rang, the chime bounced around inside his skull, making the ringing even more painful. Steve realized he could not hear anything out of his right ear. He reached up his right hand and touched it, only to find his fingers covered in the blood that was pouring out from inside his ear.

  Steve lifted himself up slowly and looked around, trying to get reoriented to his surroundings. Next to him was a huge boulder. A third of it was sunken into the cobblestone street in a huge crater. The building it had hit was already a raging inferno. Steve could feel the heat coming from it, even being on the far side of the cracked street. Many other people had been launched by the impact of the boulder. Some were starting to stir, but most lay motionless. Broken wood, stone, and glass from the building were scattered all across the damaged road.

  As Steve’s eyes continued to scan over the wreckage, they darted back to where he saw the sun gleaming off moving blue armor, struggling to move under a pile of rubble.

  “Clyx!” Yelling the name sent a jolt of pain through his head. Steve dizzily stumbled over to where his horse lay on his side. He was badly injured, Steve could tell, by the rapid rising and lowering of his abdomen and a steady stream of blood flowing down his side. Clyx was snorting in pain while he struggled to get up, wildly moving his head and kicking his legs. But the center of his body didn’t lift off the ground. Steve quickly brushed off the debris that covered his horse, trying to find the source of injury.

  Then he saw it.

  Clyx had been impaled straight through, from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, by a sharp piece of splintered wood.

  The horse’s eyes looked back at his master. They were watery from the pain he was feeling. Despite the pain, the stallion was struggling to get up, wanting to continue to serve his master. Steve gently petted Clyx’s head to relax him. The horse began to breathe more calmly, and stopped trying to move, as if Steve’s touch had let Clyx know that he didn’t need to suffer much longer.

  “You were a great horse, buddy,” Steve said. Memories flashed through his mind of seeing the colt born in the stable, naming him Clyx, training him, taking him into battle against monsters on countless missions, having children feed him carrots, and then winning the Celestial Qualifiers and advancing far into the abruptly ended tournament. Steve had known Clyx before he even met Ty. Clyx was his oldest friend and best companion. The stallion took in one long breath, and then slowly let out all of the air from his lungs.

  The adventure filled life of Clyx, the carrot loving warhorse, had come to an untimely end.

  Chapter 5

  The head-aching sound of the ringing castle bells let Steve know he had no time to mourn over the loss of his animal friend, even though that was all he wanted to do. The constant buzz in his left ear had subsided, but remained in his right ear, where blood continued to flow out of. He tried to open his mouth as wide as he could. Sometimes he could feel his ear pop by doing that. But it didn’t work this time. He could hear nothing in his right ear except for the annoying buzz.

  As Steve sat on the ground, he took off all of his lower armor except for his low cut, red steel boots. With the set of greaves protecting his shins and the cuisses protecting his thighs both removed, Steve would not have to continue traveling with the extra weight. It didn’t matter when he wore it while riding Clyx, but now that Steve was walking on his own, and on a time limit, he needed to be as light as possible. He wished he didn’t have to remove the defense providing armor in case he was attacked by monsters, but it was a worthy compromise, all things considered.

  Steve also unclasped his blue warrior’s cape that hung from the back of his plate armor. Capes were an optional part of the warrior outfit. Steve usually didn’t wear one, but he was today since he thought it would look cool flapping behind him as he jousted on Clyx. Now, as he realized, it only felt like a tight encumbrance, annoyingly chaffing his neck.

  The warrior staggered as he walked. Everything was blurry. He had hit his head very hard on the stone street, and was feeling the effects of a concussion. It was the second one he had had in his life. They were not fun. Buildings seemed to grow tall and then short, wide and then narrow. He walked over to the buildings and put his right hand up against them, dragging his fingers along their sides. Touching something stable seemed to help his balance and stopped everything from jumping around.

  Out of his good ear, Steve could hear the thundering impacts behind him as flaming boulders continued to slam into buildings. How have they launched so many? Twenty had crashed down since the attack began, and that was only on one side of the Circular City.

  Monsters have never had that kind of ammunition, let alone the artillery to fire it. Celestial had twelve of their own catapults, spaced evenly around the city, just inside the inner wall. No matter what direction an enemy invaded from, Celestial always had every catapult ready and loaded. Steve heard the snap of a catapult somewhere from the east. The sound was a sign of hope for Steve. Warriors were still fighting.

  Maybe monsters haven’t broken into the city from the east. Either that or some warriors are not retreating. Even though the castle was sounding the call to retreat, warrior commanders were given the option to have their clans continue to fight if they could still do damage to the enemy without risking too many of their own men’s lives.

  Between how far Steve had traveled on Clyx and the distance he had dizzily stumbled, he had made it far enough towards the center of the city to get himself out of range of the monsters’ flaming projectiles. That meant that there were no more burning buildings, which meant no more smoke. It was easier to breathe as he picked up his walk into a jog and his jog into a run.

  Steve was unsure if he would be able to physically make it all the way to the castle after hitting his head. The dizziness and nausea were beginning to leave him, but there was an odd feeling of a dull ache in the back of his head that beckoned him to fall asleep. My only option is to head to the nearest watchtower.

  The warriors’ watchtowers were evenly dispersed all around Celestial. Even among the taller buildings of the city, these towers reached at least three times higher towards the sky. Still, they were great lengths shorter than the magnificently high towers of the castle.

  There were twelve watchtowers in to
tal. Four of them were located outside the inner wall, rising high from the farmlands. Each one was equally spaced apart and served as a distinct mark for the north, south, east, and west. The south tower was unique in that it rose out of the Darien Bay, and also served as a lighthouse for incoming ships.

  From the four outer watchtowers, warriors watched over the workers in the fields to make sure there were no monster attacks from the surrounding wilderness. It wasn’t easy for a monster to get to the civilians before they were spotted. Beyond the outer wall there were miles of empty plains surrounding Celestial. Whether a monster came north from Whitebark Woods, east from Valpyrio Heights, south from the Darien Sea, or east across the Prairie, they would be seen long before they even reached the farmlands. Warriors would blow into their tower’s large warning horn if they spotted even one monster. The long and deep vaarooom sound could be heard by anyone in the farmlands. It even reached the ears of civilians in the city. After hearing the alarm, field workers would retreat into the watchtower for safety while warriors would be sent out to deal with the enemy.

  The watchtowers not only served as a lookout, but also as an armory where every type of weapon was stored. Even off duty warriors were always on duty. If there was ever a major attack (as it was today), they were required to equip a weapon and armor at the nearest tower and help out if needed. King Zoran commanded that every warrior be assigned a role to play in the defense of the city if there was an attack, despite the fact the city had never been penetrated before.

  There were eight towers that stood on the inside of the inner wall (within the city). Warriors from these towers watched over Celestial for any signs of fire or disasters. They also watched the four outer towers for distress signals.

  Each tower had five to ten warriors on guard day and night. Every warrior had to spend at least one day, every fortnight, in their assigned tower. It was a boring job, because usually the street patrols took care of any problems in the city, but the warriors made the most of their time in their watchtower. It served as a therapeutic day and allowed each warrior to relax his stress filled mind from the difficulties of his job. If a person couldn’t find a warrior on street patrol, they would always be able to alert the warriors stationed in the nearest watchtower if a crime had been committed or if they saw something dangerous about to occur.

  The watchtower Steve was closest to was led by Commander Ostravaski. Steve didn’t know Commander Ostravaski personally, but out of the twelve commanders in charge of each watchtower, he was said to be the strictest. Rookie warriors always dreaded being assigned to his tower. Warriors were not allowed to switch where they were drafted to when they graduated from Warrior Training.

  Steve turned and entered into the plaza Commander Ostravaski’s watchtower was in. The tall stone tower loomed over all the buildings surrounding it. Civilians were funneling in through the large set of doors.

  Steve was in a plaza called “Big Square.” It was one of four main road plazas in Celestial. The three others were called Oval Plaza, Diamond Plaza, and Little Square Plaza. Out of all four, Big Square was the largest and most heavily trafficked. It was considered an iconic landmark of Celestial.

  Through the center of Big Square Plaza ran the Fluorite River. In the night, the water was an amazing sight because the riverbed was full of Fluorite Crystals. Fluorite Crystals were glowing energy crystals that came in every color. They were very common, so they weren’t worth a lot, but they were beautiful to look at. The crystals illuminated the Fluorite River, giving the water a subtle glow and sparkle as it winded all the way to the castle.

  The Fluorite River supplied most of Celestial’s freshwater, but it did not reach the entire city. To correct this, when the city was first built, a long aqueduct was created that carried water from the northwestern part of Lake Azure, all the way down to Celestial. The aqueduct was built at a gradual decline (so that the water always flowed downwards), and used conduits to get through the hills of the Evergreen Forest that blocked its path. A city between Lake Azure and Celestial called Almiria was responsible for the treatment and sanitation of the water to make it drinkable, before it continued to flow down the aqueduct. The aqueduct ran diagonally through the Circle City on huge stone pillar arches, starting in the northwest corner before exiting into the Darien Sea from the southeastern corner. If people did not have immediate access to river water, they would be able to obtain their water from the aqueduct.

  Ostravaski’s Tower (as it was called by civilians) was one of two watchtowers that the aqueduct ran directly through. The aqueduct was a part of the actual tower. A lot of people had headed to one of these two towers during the siege. If an attack was bad enough, and they thought they might be trapped inside the tower for an extended period of time, they knew the aqueduct would provide an infinite supply of water.

  Steve ran towards the warriors’ watchtower which stood only 100 feet away. About halfway to the tower he heard a great sucking in of air above him. He looked up and saw an injured brown dragon shoot an elemental blast out of its mouth. The brown ball of energy crashed into the bottom of the watchtower. The direct impact took out a huge chunk of the stone wall. The brown dragon was brought down within the minute by an onslaught of arrows from warriors in the tower. It had known it was dying and wanted to make one last major attack. The dragon fell down onto the top of the aqueduct, bounced off, and crashed down hard onto the plaza’s stone floor.

  Distant screams brought Steve’s attention back to the tower. The entire cylinder fortress above the puncture hole twisted, ripped, and separated from the base. It began falling over like a tall tree that had been chopped down by a lumberjack. It was slow at first, but then the fall seemed to speed up. Warriors patrolling the top of the tower fell far down to the ground, as the floor they were standing on slowly tilted from horizontal to vertical.

  The shadow of the falling tower covered Steve. He sprinted across the plaza, trying to avoid being crushed by it. If he would have turned backwards and tried to outrun its height, he would have been dead before even clearing half of the tall tower. As it were, he didn’t even know if he was fast enough to outrun the width as it came down. Behind him he could hear the terrible sound of the crumbling tower with just his left ear. The flat stones underneath his feet began to shake like an earthquake as the sound of destruction got louder and closer.

  Steve did not turn around to look. He had enough trouble focusing on what was in front of him because of the dust that had been kicked up from the debris. It caused a dark, dense cloud of gray to spread over the plaza. Then Steve noticed another obstacle.

  Ostravaski’s Tower was pulling down the connected aqueduct with it as it fell. Across the entire plaza, the aqueduct columns were being torn from their foundations. Steve was trapped between the falling tower behind him and the collapsing aqueduct in front of him. He couldn’t go back and he couldn’t stop. His only hope was in continuing forward. He sprinted towards the aqueducts and crossed under one of the giant arches. Huge stones crashed down all around him.

  Steve kept sprinting forward, dodging and vaulting over the fallen debris and rubble. He felt like one of the parkour entertainers who raced through streets and on the tops of buildings doing acrobatic flips and daring leaps.

  Steve glanced back for the briefest of seconds behind him. He had successfully gotten past the trajectory of the fallen warriors’ watchtower. Through the dust he saw its thousands of bricks scattered across the plaza floor. But while looking back, he also saw that the main frame of the aqueduct arch he had just passed under was coming down on top of him in one large piece.

  Steve jumped through the air in full sprint and dove down into the Fluorite River. The arch of the aqueduct plunged down into the water after him, just a few feet away. The force of the weight of the crashing stone bricks pushed the river away from it. Steve tumbled along with the huge wave, crashing into burned, dead bodies bobbing up and down as they were all carried along by the river. He was propelled 100 meters, all t
he way to the other side before hitting the bank.

  The drenched warrior threw Brightflame up onto dry land and then used both his hands to pull himself up. He tried to catch his breath, but all he could breathe in was the expanding dust that filled the air from the crumbled debris of the watchtower and aqueduct that had spread across the plaza and over the river.

  How many people took shelter in that tower? How many people just died? The thoughts raced through Steve’s mind as he looked back at the wreckage he was almost a part of.

  After a fit of trying to catch his breath and choking on the dust, he stumbled north on the road that ran parallel to the river and led directly to the castle. Steve’s hearing was barely at half capacity and now that the dust stung against his eyes, he felt vulnerable with his lack of main senses. He walked far enough to get out of the reach of the lung clogging dust.

  Hearing the castle bells at closer intervals beckoned for his feet to cycle faster. Steve looked up at the insanely large castle not even a half a mile down the road in front of him. It was always a majestic sight to see, especially as he was on the castle’s face side.

  He looked behind him to see the wreckage of Commander Ostravaski’s Tower. The ruins started to appear through the settling dust. Also appearing in the dust was a horde of monsters. Some of them were stopping and picking up weapons and armor out of the tower’s rubble, but most were sprinting towards the castle. The two bridges that spanned the river and connected Big Square to the road Steve was on were bottlenecking the monsters, but they were still closing in on Steve faster than he could run.