At least, he assumed the portal led to Hell. Nathan wasn’t certain anymore, given Kadria appeared to have come from a normal world at some point in her life. Her words often confused him, but he preferred to keep things simple when it came to the demons.
Whatever the Messengers were, the demons were simply brutes. They came in hordes and were stupid and vicious enough that Nathan felt no twinge of guilt when he obliterated them.
The altered structure of the twin valleys made it easier to not look at the teardrop shaped rift in the fabric of reality. The cliffs blocked off Nathan’s view. All he saw were the hordes of demons massing in the clearing.
Perhaps he shouldn’t say that was “all he saw.” The sight of thousands of demons was worrying, even if Nathan had become had inured to it.
“There’s a lot more than last time,” Fei said. She bit her lip and ran her finger over the sapphire embedded in her collarbone.
“We also have a bigger wall this time,” Nathan said. “But yes, this is much worse.”
Fei, Sen, and Seraph clustered around him on the wall. None of his soldiers joined them, but they weren’t alone up here. The battlements were lined with summoned automatons, and dozens of repeater ballistae swiveled on their perches.
The automatons on the walls were of two types. The first, and least common, were the massive steel knights that Nathan used to guard the fortress. These halberd-wielding monsters were expensive to maintain but could defeat demons in melee combat. Perfect for holding the walls against a horde of beasts trying to climb over them.
The other type of automaton would fold within seconds of encountering the demons. Literally, in fact. Their bodies were made of woven bamboo, a rare material from Kurai that certain nobles prized for its flexibility.
Nathan used it because it was lightweight and he could make ten bamboo automatons for the energy cost of a single metal one, or a hundred for one of his behemoth knights.
Each of the automatons held the rough approximation of a human shape and had exaggerated pointy ears. But the bows they carried were made of wood, and so were the arrows they pulled from their quivers. Like the repeater ballistae, their quivers were connected to the binding stone and their arrows were replenished using magic. Massive stocks of arrows and crossbow bolts had been amassed in previous months.
These bamboo archers couldn’t fight hand-to-hand, but they could shoot as well as any human archer. Their job was to lay down an endless barrage of arrows. Quantity trumped quality against demons, at least when it came to conventional weapons.
Slowly, the demons began to march toward the wall. They had drums this time. Their roars echoed along the valley to the beat of massive drums deep in the clearing. Many of the demons beat their weapons together, and the clash of steel became almost deafening.
A red wave of angry, animalistic bestial creatures rolled onward.
With the snapping of dozens of springs, the catapults unleashed their boulders. Many crashed down short of the demons, with only a few striking true. The demons jeered.
They stopped a few moments later as the boulders bounced and crashed through their massed ranks. Nathan’s battlemages had been hard at work modifying the catapult ammunition to hold together on impact. Vera had devised the spell that the battlemages used.
In Nathan’s timeline, the technique was common. He doubted he was the first to come up with it here, but it was unique enough that Vera had to create and teach the battlemages something new.
“I’m not seeing any heavies,” Nathan muttered. He had enhanced his vision with magic and was scanning the ranks of the demons. “I expected a lot of them, and maybe even a few greater demons.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Seraph said.
“Not when we’re dealing with a Messenger.”
Fei tilted her head. “What’s a greater demon?”
“A demon that’s greater in size than a normal demon,” Sen said. She held her hands out and began casting a pair of third rank spells.
“Yes, but no,” Nathan said. “The demons down there are technically known as demon grunts, or sometimes lesser demons. We just call them demons because most invasions never see anything bigger.”
“They don’t usually need to send anything bigger,” Seraph said. “Several thousand demon grunts can easily take out an unprepared duogem Champion.”
Nathan nodded, grimacing. “But they do get bigger, and nastier. Heavies are still lesser demons, but they’re bigger, wear heavy armor, and carry weapons almost as big as they are.”
“Hence the name, I imagine. Heavy armor, heavy weapons, heavy demons,” Sen said. “Creative.”
“Greater demons are far bigger, and far nastier. They can also use limited magic,” Nathan said.
Fei’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “But that’s cheating!”
“They’re invading our world. This isn’t a game of chess,” Nathan said. “A greater demon can be defeated by a monogem Champion, but given they come with a horde of other demons…” he trailed off.
Quantity beat quality.
“But they’re not here. Instead, we have those friendly fellows,” Seraph said, pointing to the totem-carrying demons with ash-colored skin.
“Unfortunately,” Nathan said.
Nathan was beginning to wonder if he’d been misled. Kadria had compared the Twins to herself, so he had expected a demonic army similar to the one that attacked him in the Far Reaches. Back then, Kadria had almost exclusively used an endless horde of heavies, greater demons, and similarly massive demons.
She had been a bit of a size queen, and not one for technique in her minions.
Instead, all he saw were endless grunts. And now shamans.
This boded poorly. Shamans generally came with Messengers who relied more heavily on magic. Nathan realized he had never seen how Kadria fought, as she had crushed him almost instantly. He might have been hasty in his preparations.
“They look like sorcerers,” Sen said. Flames surged from her hands and turned countless demons to ash, but the horde kept coming. They continued to chant to the beat of the drums.
“Shamans. I don’t know much about them,” Seraph admitted. “I know the foxes hated them. They don’t mass up like human battlemages, and they hide behind other demons.”
The shamans lifted their totems in the air as one, and glowing red squares hovered in front of each. Fei gasped.
“They’re using sorcery,” she said, pointing.
Nearly thirty seconds later—an eternity when it came to a mere fourth rank spell—each totem spewed forth a torrent of small fireballs. They crashed uselessly into a shimmering wall of light that appeared in front of the wall.
“Did they really think they could pierce the wall’s barrier?” Sen asked.
“Maybe not, but now they know there is one,” Seraph said. A harsh intake a breath followed her words. “Look!”
A shadowy figure bounded up the valley. Demons went flying in every direction when they got in its way. The figure was massive, standing more than twice the height of a demon and was far wider and longer.
It bounded in front of the advancing demons, and Nathan finally saw its monstrous visage. It had a warped face that almost looked human, with multiple rows of bestial fangs and elongated glowing white eyes. Four muscled legs covered in orange fur pulverized volcanic rock, and its claws dug deep. At its end stood an arched tail that looked like a scorpion’s. A second glance confirmed that it wasn’t, as scorpion tails didn’t have several glowing black quills at the end.
“Manticore!” `Seraph said.
Before anybody could react, the manticore’s tail fired its payload. The black quills burst forth. They slammed into the barrier like the shaman’s spells, but the effect was different.
Where the quills struck the barrier, a black light began to eat away at it. The hole rapidly grew larger, but its growth slowed after several seconds.
The result was clear, however. The manticore had punched a hole in the defensive barrier. Nathan
estimated that it had to be at least a hundred meters wide.
The quills regrew on the manticore’s tail before Nathan had the opportunity to process what had happened. Another hole opened up in the barrier, before the first even began to close.
Then the shamans began to cast their spells again.
“Fuck,” Nathan swore. He spun and shouted over the walls. “Take cover. Barriers up. Shields up.”
The officers down below echoed his order. Soldiers pushed wooden shields into place while battlemages began casting protective barriers. Many rushed behind the walls if they weren’t currently manning a siege weapon. Most didn’t, preferring instead to continue operating their weapons or supplying ammunition. Boulders continued to fly overhead and crash into the demons.
A jet of flames shot out at one of the shamans and turned him and the demons surrounding him into ash. But dozens more were unharmed.
Unsheathing his sword, Nathan snapped off a spell and turned the head of another shaman into red mist. Nathan’s automatons unleashed arrows and bolts into the horde, but the shamans were well out of range.
The shamans’ spells finally finished casting, and countless volleys of flames surged toward them.
Nathan estimated that if every spell hit, he’d lose at least a quarter of his troops. He began to reach for the binding stone, ready to reinforce the barrier using brute force.
Waves of power stopped him in his tracks.
Seraph’s gems flashed repeatedly as she pointed her tonfas at each incoming volley of flames. Each time, a wave of energy blasted out and snuffed out the incoming spell.
One made it past, and Seraph cursed as it crashed into the crew of a catapult. Soldiers ran up to the injured crew while battlemages put out the flames with their spells. Within moments, the catapult was manned by a new crew, as the magically reinforced frame had survived.
“I’d forgotten you could repel spells that were weaker than your magic,” Nathan said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Don’t,” Seraph said. “And save your power for the real enemy. Protecting us is noble, but it’s meaningless if we lose.” Her eyes were hard, but she gave him a small smile. “I joined you because you were willing to make that difficult decision at Fort Taubrum. You snuck in and stole the binding stone while others risked their lives, knowing that you were winning the battle in exchange for a small sacrifice.”
“Your talk is sweet and all, but did you forget we’re in a life-and-death battle,” Sen spat.
Her arms glowed with power as she channeled a pair of fourth rank spells. Orbs of lava bounced forth, crashing into the demons. A pair of squares glowed around the length of her greatsword, and she swung it in the direction of the manticore. White-hot fire coiled out from the tip of her blade like a whip, then hardened into lava upon impact.
The molten rock burst against the manticore’s hide. Black, bulbous veins pressed their way to the surface of the monster’s skin in response, but it appeared otherwise unharmed.
A stream of ballistae bolts slammed into the manticore with even less success.
“The manticore is a greater demon. Its body is pumped full of as much magic as a Champion,” Nathan said. “The automatons can’t hurt it. Only we can.”
With a mental gesture, Nathan commanded the bamboo archers and ballistae to fire on the horde instead of the manticore. Fei shouted an order as well, and officers within the walls below redirected their fire.
“If I can’t hurt the thing, then that means…” Sen said. Then frowned. “Ifrit thinks I can take it out with my new fifth rank spell.”
“There’s bound to be more of them,” Nathan said. “Fifth rank spells will tire you out fast. Save them for when we don’t have the ability to take it out the easy way.”
“Isn’t blowing it up with magic the easy way?” Sen asked, not expecting an answer.
The demons had caught up to the manticore, but the shamans were holding position. Given there was now only a few hundred meters between the horde and the wall, Nathan couldn’t wait any longer to deal with the manticore.
If he did, there would be too many demons for even him to handle.
“The manticore is the highest priority,” Nathan ordered. “Seraph, you run interference and take overall command. Fei, gather up your knights at the postern gate closest to the manticore. Sen—”
“I can guess,” Sen interrupted. She brushed her bangs aside, and Nathan noted that her brown hair had gained more white streaks recently. “Melt every demon between the postern gate and the manticore?”
“That’s a nice start. Then try to keep them distracted.” Nathan tried to ruffle her hair, but she batted his hand aside.
“I’m not a beastkin. I like my rewards to be a little more substantial,” Sen said.
Fei grinned and pressed herself against Fei. “You seemed to want the same reward that I got last night, when we arrived back at Fort Taubrum.”
Sen’s face flared red, and she pushed the catgirl away.
Rolling her eyes, Seraph turned away and focused on the enemy. More volleys of flame soared overhead, and she blew them away well before they reached the walls.
Nathan waited a few minutes while Fei gathered up her knights. The demons reached the walls, despite Sen’s efforts and the sheer amount of firepower being poured onto them. Their numbers were limitless.
Each boulder crushed a dozen demons. Archers and ballistae felled a hundred every minute. Entire swathes of the brutes were reduced to screaming piles of ash every time Sen waved her hands in their direction.
And now the defenders in the walls poured enchanted boiling oil through gaps in the wall. The demons screamed and fell. They tried to climb the walls, and now their flesh and arms melted off due to Sen’s special concoction.
They kept coming, however. The drums continued their ceaseless beating in the distance, their tempo rising slowly and the demons becoming more and more ferocious along with it. Nathan wondered if there was something magical about the drums.
Messengers were capable of mental magic, after all. Kadria was proof of that, given her ability to manipulate the memories of people. Were the Twins using the drums to push her demons into a frenzy?
A signal reached Nathan from the bottom of the wall, and he leaped down. Fei stood outside a narrow gatehouse with a hundred armored beastkin knights. A hundred beastkin of various races saluted as he arrived, and he waved them off. Far too many tails wagged violently as he approached Fei.
Most of Fei’s knights were women, and he had overheard the sorts of things they said about him. Notably, he knew what they wanted to do to him, if they weren’t terrified of Fei’s reaction if they horned in on her territory.
“Do they know what we’re doing?” Nathan asked.
“Killing the manticore?” Fei suggested.
“No, we’re killing the manticore,” Nathan said, his finger shifting between Fei and himself. “They’re keeping the horde of demons off us.” He sighed when Fei’s mouth formed an “O.”
Turning to face the knights, Nathan slammed his fist into his chest in a salute. The knights returned it, the sound echoing across the entire valley.
“I spoke before the battle. You all know this is your first real test. I won’t repeat myself,” Nathan said. The beastkin met his gaze resolutely. “Captain Jafeila and I will take down the manticore demon threatening our catapults. Your duty is to protect us from the demons. That means you must hold a defensive line. You may not be Champions, but know that you can still fight like one.”
He slapped his fist into his armor again. A hundred beastkin returned the salute in deafening fashion.
With that, he slammed his fist into the release switch for the gate. The stone wall hiding the postern gate rumbled, then slid out of position. The steel portcullis rose at the same time, and soon they had a passageway into the valley that the demons were unaware of.
Fei charged through first, her arms wreathed in blue fire. By the time Nathan caught up with her, the clear
ing was an inferno of melting demons and azure flames. Piles of goo dripped down the valley. Demons screeched as their bodies collapsed.
Behind Nathan, the first of the beastkin knights came to a screaming halt. This was their first time seeing their captain in action. Their tails weren’t wagging anymore.
Nathan raised his sword and roared. He pointed toward the manticore, which was still a few hundred meters away.
The beastkin came to their senses and cheered in return. The rest of them cleared the postern gate. Behind them, an automaton activated the switch to close the gate. Nathan or Fei would need to command it to reopen the gate when they returned. They couldn’t risk the demons getting inside the wall.
A meteor crashed down into the demons between them and the manticore. Flames coated the ground. A wall of fire cut off the demons trying to advance toward them.
High above them, Sen waved cheerfully. Nathan waved back.
The manticore roared at them as they approached.
“Split,” Fei shouted. “Defensive lines.”
The beastkin knights didn’t hesitate. They cut their way through the demons either side of the manticore and left plenty of room for Fei and Nathan to do the dirty work. Their enchanted weapons glowed brightly as they cleaved through the thick hides of the demons. Their armor gleamed with magic and deflected blows. A few knights went down, but they were pulled back by their comrades.
Nathan saw at least one go down permanently. This was a battle, and death was a permanent companion.
With a bestial roar, the manticore blew apart the ground with his black quills. Fei coated him with blue flames in return. It wasn’t enough to end the fight, and she hesitated for a moment out of surprise. Every demon so far had been killed instantly by her gem ability.
“Down,” Nathan barked. He darted forward and yanked Fei back by an arm. His sword glowed with a third rank spell.
The manticore’s claws pulverized the ground where she had stood. The next swipe crashed into Nathan’s sword, and a barrier of light exploded into existence.
Rolling away, Nathan drew on his sorcery. Fei righted herself and muttered an apology.
Heretic Spellblade 2 Page 18
