by Rosie Scott
“If the dwarves are desperate enough, I believe they'll do anything,” Uriel replied. “And they are desperate because we've taken Olympia. Their attack came late, after all. It's possible that is due to travel time from Hallmar, or it's possible they have a hidden army in that forest that has struggled with the land.”
“If they have anything in that forest, Zephyr should find them,” Kirek said.
“Zephyr's going north,” Altan argued. “If the dwarves brought cannons, they'd be focused on bringing them here. Monte and Pisces don't have walls.”
HUUURRRNNNNN!
The war horn surprised all of us. It echoed out from Azazel's tower, so I stared up at the open windows to find him watching us.
“They are advancing!” He yelled down at us. “Bringing siege ladders!”
“Already? That doesn't make any sense,” I breathed, confused.
“It doesn't matter if it makes sense,” Kirek replied, breaking away from the group to walk toward her gathered army in the streets. “I'll lead my army out to meet their flanks once they are comfortable climbing the walls. We will crush them.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Altan agreed, before jogging off to do the same.
“We need an army in the streets to quell any rebellions,” I insisted before everyone could go in separate directions. “They aren't allowing us any time to strategize. We cannot let this ruin us.”
“That's the intent,” Cyrus agreed. “There's something else to this attack, Kai.”
“I will keep my army here,” Dax offered, having listened to my concerns. “I'm assuming you'll want to be on the frontlines. Only you and I know your spell, correct? I can protect the defenders here.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Dax.”
Uriel's jaw tensed as he watched Kirek and Altan gather their troops. “They are rushing into this without fully understanding the risks.”
“It's just like them both,” Cyrus said with chagrin.
“Join me on the wall,” I told Cyrus and Uriel, watching as Maggie and her soldiers aimed their ballistae at the oncoming troops. “Just because they are rushing into this doesn't mean we have to.”
Twenty-five
Thousands of dwarves marched toward the wall of Olympia like a melting puddle of blue. There had to have been forty thousand men here. If that were the case, we outnumbered them three to one considering our casualties from Olympia's takeover and the second batch of underground reinforcements. Hammerton couldn't know how many soldiers we had behind the walls, of course, but they had to know we couldn't have taken Olympia without a massive army. Launching an immediate assault like this was foolhardy unless they had something else up their sleeves.
“Azazel!” Though I stood on the wall, I stared up at the tower he'd stayed in. His eyes met mine moments later from through the westward window. “Keep your eyes on the lookout for anything suspicious!”
Azazel nodded and disappeared from the window. Seconds later, he was first to attack. Black arrows flew out from the keep, arcing over waving grasses and into the masses. One by one, dwarves started to fall, and their brethren simply stepped over them and carried on.
A few other archers took Azazel's firing to mean they should, and impatient arrows were released over the wall, though most floundered and ended up sticking out of the ground.
“Archers, hold!” Cyrus commanded. “Save your arrows until men are in range!”
The soldiers listened. Azazel continued firing with deadly accuracy, and my eyes scanned the battlefield for movements. The boars were being kept back from the advance. So were the ballistae and onagers. Our foes knew they needed to face us on the field to utilize most of their units.
“This stinks to the high heavens,” Uriel murmured beside me, the statement mirroring my thoughts.
Cyrus screamed orders for our archers to fire as the army drew ever closer. Thousands of arrows flew over the wall and into the masses like a horde of wood and steel. Hundreds of foes fell to fatal wounds, but hundreds more blocked the ammo with heavy shields. Arrows dotted the landscape like wayward grasses, and some even clashed in their trajectory just to fall to the ground harmlessly.
The dwarves came in waves of thousands. The first wave carried heavy siege ladders and large board shields to protect them from ranged attacks. The second carried melee weapons on their belts, shields on their backs, and heavy crossbows which they prepared to fire now that they were in range. Most of us on the wall had guards made of metal or magic, but as the first volley of crossbow bolts flew toward us in streaks of silver like deadly rains, many of us also braced for impact.
Shik! Shik! Shik!
Clearly, many of the dwarves had aimed for my general vicinity, having seen my bright red hair and the prestigious armor of the two Sentinels standing near me. Though all of us on the wall were targeted, we were hit the worst. Cries of pain rang out from multiple voices as our soldiers were shot, and my right arm was splattered with blood as Uriel's life shield was overwhelmed. The healer cursed and squatted behind the battlement, his fingers searching for and finding two separate bolts. As he started to heal himself, I gave him another shield.
Our foes were still minutes away from reaching the wall. My mind filtered through the spells in my repertoire and found one which would work wonders from this distance.
Creatius le funel. In my left hand, harsh winds raged around their circular barrier. Creatius la bolta a nienda. In my right, veins of flickering purple-blue lightning danced around their confines, pleading for release. I lifted both hands up to the sky, allowing the spells to mix as they rushed forward.
A tornado roared forth from the wall, already halfway to our foes by the time its funnel hit the ground. Throughout its raging gray winds, white-hot flashes of bright energy sizzled with a need to feed on the moisture of flesh. The ranged soldiers who had prepared to shoot a second round re-evaluated. The first few waves of dwarves scattered, and a siege ladder or two was dropped in their panic.
The twister hit in the midst of the first few lines of dwarves, picking up bodies and gear alike, shredding both and leaving limbs and weapons to fall over the masses like heavy rain. Some of the foes which managed to avoid being picked up by the winds were electrocuted by the lightning which licked out from the tornado as it passed. The funnel continued through the army until its energy depleted near the farthest ranks, leaving a scar of torn grasses and mangled bodies throughout the landscape.
“Fire!” Maggie's voice echoed out from the wall on the other side of the tower between us, and dozens of ballista and onagers were fired into the dwarves below. Darts tore through air and flesh alike, and clay balls full of poisons exploded against heavy armor in splashes of color. Some of the ammo exploded into a yellow-green liquid which melted exposed flesh, leaving bodies hissing and smoking as they folded to the ground. Others broke open into splashes of maroon-red, and as soon as the liquid hit a solid surface, it evaporated into thick droplets of vapor. Right as it rose into the nostrils and mouths of nearby soldiers, there was pandemonium. Some of the affected dwarves fought their own kin, and others fled from battle. One man even turned his sword against himself, stabbing so far through his own gut that he was skewered to the ground when he fell.
Mirrikh's child-like laughter echoed out in waves against the stone as he witnessed his poisons in action. Calder yelled orders for his beastmen to transform, for the dwarves were nearing the walls.
Undeterred, the Hammerton Army marched onward. More foes fell by arrows and magic alike as they finally walked beneath the shadow of the fortification. With protesting creaks, the siege ladders were hoisted up against the wall. Our men immediately tried to kick them down, but many were held in place by the dwarves below. I hurried up to the nearest siege ladder, grabbing onto its end to test its material. It was made out of wood; I could not disintegrate it. That was not my only idea, however; as the first dwarf neared the top, I reached a hand out to the ladder.
Ades material in masse. Opaque black energy appeared above my palm, so
dense that it did not swirl. I transferred the spell into the siege ladder, burdening it with many times its own weight. The wood groaned with its complaints, and even though the first dwarf prepared his weapon to swing, the alteration magic cut his moment of bravado short.
Snap! The ladder broke just at its center, overwhelmed with excess. Screams rose from men and women as they found themselves falling back to the bottom of the wall, landing over one another with the echoes of broken bones. The first dwarf managed to hold onto the embrasure of the battlement for a few tense seconds before his fingers slipped in his own sweat.
Cerin had no access to alteration magic, so he met the dwarves in battle at the top of the next ladder down. He leeched from the first few foes, and their dead bodies fell down the rungs and tripped up the comrades below them. The necromancer released death magic at the ground beneath his boots, and black tendrils slithered up and over the battlement, racing to the dwarves at the bottom of the exterior wall. Terrified screams were muffled through the wall as the dead rose to battle with the kin looking to climb into the city. Still, dwarves kept coming up the ladders. For every one that was stuck in conflict with the dead below, many more looked to take their place. As Cerin blocked hits of hammers and axes with his scythe, Uriel aided him by thrusting his spear toward the dwarves from over the battlement. The two worked well together, for as each foe came to battle with Cerin, Uriel's spear came in from the side like an unwelcome surprise.
Cr-rr-k!
The stone vibrated beneath my boots. I couldn't see the western gate from here, but the sound and vibration of its movement were unmistakable. Kirek and Altan were finally leading their armies out to flank the dwarves. In the grassland ahead, the dwarven cavalry took note. Orders were shouted, and the boars moved into position.
I focused on leeching and refreshing shields. The battle on the field ahead was mostly out of my hands because it was out of reach of my magic. As Cerin and Uriel fought together to my right, I aided Cyrus to my left. The second Sentinel got the upper hand against one dwarf, and the foe fell from the side of the ladder with an open and bleeding throat. The next screamed with rage as he rushed to the top, lifting a heavy ax above his head. Cyrus was too far from his throat, so he took advantage of his foe's lightly armored legs. Cyrus punched one katar toward the man's knee. The pointed blade broke through the man's patellar tendon, completely separating it from the knee and rendering the leg useless. The dwarf's enraged screams turned to bumbling sobs, and the man fell backward at the mercy of the rupture. Some soldiers were tripped up as he fell, and Cyrus took the break in the onslaught to thrust water magic toward the ladder. More foes soon swarmed the Sentinel, but it wasn't long before the siege ladder weakened and fell apart as the wood saturated with water.
In the grasslands between us and the forest, a new battle was beginning. The armies of Altan, Kirek, and Marcus gathered in swarms of yellow and black. Altan's troops focused on flanking the foes closest to the wall, while Marcus and the other giants were determined to dismantle the dwarven siege weapons. Kirek and her army marched to face the cavalry.
The boars charged first. A few of Kirek's soldiers who were dual casters of earth and death built golems out of the ground nearby. Some transformed the earth into stone first, but others just made golems out of mud and soil, leaving some of the monsters pulling themselves to battle looking as if they had green fur since the grasses stayed rooted. The rest of the soldiers followed Kirek into the action, but as usual, the Sentinel attacked first.
Both of Kirek's hands thrust toward the ground, and the earth started to tremble. Few of the boars were fazed, but as the land broke open at their hooves, their confidence ended up getting them killed. Some of the animals fell into the opening earth, taking their riders with them. Others dodged the cracks and switched routes, but their charge was no longer as effective as the animals were broken up.
The rest of the boars broke through the spell, whether by jumping over their new obstacles or missing them entirely. Kirek did not fear as one of the mounts looked to charge her, its rider seeking the glory a Sentinel's death would reward her. Kirek pulled both axes from her belt, stalking toward the boar as if it was the one who should be intimidated.
The boar screamed with gusto as it rushed her, and Kirek spun to the side, pulling her body out of the way of its charge just as it neared. As the Sentinel completed her spin, her ax swung fiercely toward the boar as it rushed past. The blade was deadly accurate, slicing just between the animal's upper and lower mandible in mid-battle cry. Kirek let go of the ax's handle, so she wasn't tugged by the animal's momentum. The boar ran itself into the ground just meters away, dead by a horizontally split skull with its lower jawbone hanging loosely beneath the stuck blade. The Sentinel yanked her weapon out from the corpse, using it next to decapitate the thrown rider. When the ax cut completely through the woman's throat and sunk into the ground, Kirek used her free hand to disintegrate the armor of another nearby boar. She then retrieved her second weapon and ran after a dwarf like a predator hunting its prey.
Not all soldiers were as fearless as Kirek. Many of the men and women in yellow were run down and trampled by the beasts, and some were thrown into the air like ragdolls. One boar with particularly weighty tusks was in the midst of fighting with the majority of a mutilated torso still hanging over its ivory like a prized trophy. I found it better not to wonder where the rest of the body went.
Marcus and the giants stampeded toward the dwarven ballistae and onagers even as they were fired. The ballistae were useless against the giants, for the large darts barely made dents in their superior heavy armor, and the large men and women were strong enough to overcome the momentum of the hits. The onagers, however, fired stone and clay ammo into the masses of giants with greater success as they neared. The stones didn't break the heavy armor, but some of them knocked the giants out cold with one good hit to the helmet. As we had surmised, the dwarves had their own alchemical surprises in store for us.
Some of the ammo didn't work against the giants since they were too tall to be affected by most of the breathable toxins below. All of the other poisons worked just fine, and some of the giants halted their charge as their armor was eaten through by caustic acid before it spread to the skin beneath. Marcus yelled orders at his men I couldn't discern from my distance, and they trudged ever onward. Giant clubs, hammers, and maces collided with siege weapons, leaving many of them in piles of rubble as the dwarves scrambled to get out of the way of foes who towered at many times their height.
My attention was drawn to a line of dwarves nearest the forest. They weren't part of any army currently fighting as far as I could tell. The majority of the Hammerton Army here was in the midst of a raging battle with our own soldiers, but these men and women quietly watched from the shadow of the pines. Each of the dwarves had an ammo bag at their belt like the woman in Monte who had thrown balls of acid into the crowds. So far, none of it was being used.
“What the...?” Cerin's voice pulled my gaze to him. My lover clutched his scythe with both hands, and he trembled with a leeching high. His boots were covered with blood, and a few bodies were on the stone beside his feet. Next to him, Uriel breathed hard with effort, but though his spear was covered in matter, it found no new foes to strike. Cerin stepped toward the outer wall to glance down the ladder before him, finding it empty.
I scanned down the line of ladders. Those still ramping up to the wall were completely empty. I could hear Altan's army still in the midst of battle with the dwarves below us, so it wasn't as if we were out of foes. They'd merely abandoned the idea of scaling the wall.
“Kai!” Azazel's scream was hoarse with alarm from the tower standing tall just meters away to my right. An anxious feeling of foreboding rose to my throat, and time slowed as my eyes found the forest from across the battlefield.
The Griswald Forest was now barely visible from behind plumes of rising smoke. The dwarves with the ammo bags that had been doing nothing earlier were sl
owly retreating to the outskirts of the battle, though some still held clay balls in their hands. Across the area they'd been guarding, heavy smoke rose from where they'd thrown their ammo.
It's a smokescreen. There was no reason to throw poisons at the edge of the forest. That's not where most of the battle was taking place. As the dwarves retreated from the area, they were unaffected by anything in the air. The smoke was simply to impede visibility.
Azazel was yelling warnings from his tower, but I couldn't find the words within them. Through the thick gray clouds of smoke rising from the edge of the forest, dozens upon dozens of black circles appeared. I realized I was looking at the barreled ends of cannons.
My head throbbed with the pain of a leeching high, but somehow I could feel it when an ache sliced through my heart as my fears were proven right.
I swallowed hard and murmured, “Son of a—”
BOOM!
There was no warning. I'd barely heard the sound of cannon fire before I was flying through the air, a high-pitched ringing screaming at my brain from the close proximity of my injured ears. I heard muffled screams from seemingly every direction at once, and the echoes of crumbling infrastructure.
Time lied to me and said it was hours before gravity embraced me, when in reality it was only seconds before I landed on the ground with such force that it felt like my lungs collapsed. I blinked slowly, my head disoriented by my raging ears. There was no life shield around me, and it was grass beneath my hands, not stone. The force of the explosion had thrown me out of Olympia and into the plains beyond.
I turned my head to find the wall. A giant section of it was utterly obliterated, carved out as if a huge beast had taken a bite out of the stone. Blocks of it were scattered everywhere. Over grasses, over bodies. Azazel's tower had been hit, and much of the top floor was caved in.
BOOM!
The sound barely daunted me because my ringing ears hardly caught it. In rapid succession, multiple sections of Olympia's wall exploded with direct hits as if the stone was little more than splinters of wood. I'd never seen anything like it. These cannons were too powerful. It should have taken multiple rounds of firing before the wall collapsed, but it was falling like it was made out of parchment. Along the wall, hundreds of allied soldiers were falling or flying through the air after nearby explosions.
