by Rosie Scott
As the first cannon fired, I hoped to the gods it wasn't the latter.
BOOM!
The cannonball hit stone before the air was filled with whipping echoes of airborne limbs. Many of us were splattered with blood before we were aware that multiple soldiers were rendered disabled and broken by the force of the ammo as it barreled downhill. Vhiri and beastmen alike were in various states of mutilation over the road, their blood slowly following the path of the cannonball as it continued to flee from the scene.
It only took one hit. Our men were panicking, running into one another as many tried to flee. Some ducked into the alleyways when they could, getting out of the target zone. I glimpsed Uriel pulling the wounded to the side of the road to heal them. Kirek and Cyrus were both yelling orders, trying to prevent pandemonium. The beastmen who could fly finally took off into the air. To their credit, none of them fled. The skies above us were cluttered with the berserkers as they flew forward.
Schew-schew-schew-schew!
Just as quickly, the air was filled with bolts from repeater crossbows. Some beasts fell back to the main road, at the mercy of multiple hits. Animalistic cries reverberated off of stone as many of the injured beastmen tried to crawl to safety.
Where are the assassins? It was a desperate plea. I'd offered to be the distraction they needed, but I had no energy and no means with which to regenerate. Now, when we needed them most, they weren't showing up.
“Kai, energy!” At first, I thought Azazel was asking me to give him a high. Instead, he had taken a short break from shooting, and one hand faced a dwarf manning a cannon at the edge of the nearest roof. The man was tugged off of the roof with telekinesis, and he collapsed to the stone street with the crunch of broken bones.
I thanked Azazel and leeched from the injured dwarf, replenishing my reserves. Soldiers passed by me to continue up the street as I directed my next spell toward our panicking men.
Ralli a multipla. Robust red energy whirled around both palms just before I thrust it toward the ground. Red fog rippled out around me, affecting everyone in its path. Frightened and fleeing men were flooded with new courage and turned to march forth again. Though I felt some of my own worries over the whereabouts of the assassins dissipate, the spell otherwise had little effect on me. Perhaps the illusion magic could not grant valor to those already in possession of it.
Jakan had taught me this spell years ago in the underground, but this was the first time I'd needed to use it. Nevertheless, I inwardly thanked my fallen friend for his aid. The new burst of morale kept our men moving forward, and the confusion in the streets dissipated.
The siege weapons were reloaded and fired once more. A clay ball burst against the chest of one of Kirek's soldiers, breaking open and releasing a light gray powder. As if the alchemy mixture itself was triggered to work by the air, the dust started to dissipate on its own, sizzling as if it were boiling oil. A handful of soldiers collapsed to the road, their skin and armor peeling off rapidly with severe burns. Not all of them died right away, screaming with fear and pain as their bodies boiled alive.
Two dwarves were in the middle of reloading a cannon on the rooftop nearest the wall. I yelled out words of encouragement to my men in preparation of another onslaught. In the midst of my shout, however, Nyx appeared out of thin air just behind the dwarf holding the cannonball. She grasped the man's long hair with her left hand and brought a dagger up to the bottom of his jawbone with the right. He dropped the cannonball in sudden fear, but it was too late. Nyx tugged the blade through veins and ligaments, releasing his blood over the ball as it rolled to a stop.
“Tunnel rats!” The other dwarf screamed it as he hurried to stand behind his cannon, pulling an ax from his belt. His comrades behind the other defenses heard the epithet, and many of them were distracted by the dozens of assassins who dispelled their invisibility and met them in open battle. Some of the defenses were fired at our army nonetheless as we slowly approached the wall.
The dwarf who had screamed his warning prepared to go into melee battle with Nyx, but she was too impatient. She whipped a Naharan throwing star toward the man during his advance, and he fell back to the rooftop. The star was retrieved from his throat a moment later, and she broke out into a run across the roof, jumping over an alleyway to another. There, the two dwarves that had been manning repeater crossbows were already dead from Azazel's arrows. The crossbows were large enough to stand behind, their curved laths a few feet in length. The clips extended down to the ground, where broad bases kept the weapons stable while allowing their wielder to turn and aim.
Nyx set her sights on the nearest repeater crossbow, turning the weapon ninety degrees to face the dwarves across the road. The weapon was tilted up, and then Nyx pulled the trigger.
Schew-schew-schew-schew!
Dwarves and their siege weapons alike were sprayed with dozens of shiny silver bolts. Prickled bodies fell beside abandoned defenses, and one dwarf fell off of a rooftop by the force of the bolts alone. Screams of panic rolled through the air from the dwarves, and sarcastic laughter echoed out from behind the crossbow, where Nyx was having the time of her life. The onslaught only stopped when the weapon ran out of ammo. Without missing a beat, Nyx rushed to the next giant crossbow, angling it toward more foes before a second bout of steel bolts zipped across the skies.
The assassins were causing such chaotic distraction that our army finally reached the gate. It stood tall enough over the street that the air felt cool with its shadow. The battle between dwarves and assassins was muffled through its obstruction.
Leura hurried through her men, reaching out to the metal gate and using the earth spell I'd taught her years ago to disintegrate it. Solid metal degraded into silver sand and black bits of carbon, slowly caving in the door at its center. The metal above the affected area creaked with weakness. Leura shouted out directions to the earth mages under her command, and soon the efforts to collapse the gate were multiplied.
I spent the few moments of reprieve to heal one of the flying beastmen who'd been shot out of the air. Our army was a clog in the streets as we waited for the gate to fall. The stone beneath my boots shuddered with vibrations of our military and the giants, for the farther up we traveled, the closer the two primary paths and assault forces came to meeting.
“Kai Sera!” The yell was distant and muffled behind the remainder of the gate. I was still far-off from the wall, and as I healed our wounded, I was crouched. Therefore, it confused me enough to stand and search for the man who called my name. I wasn't aware any foes could currently see me.
The metal gate was all but destroyed, the upper metal of its doors having collapsed over silver and black sand. Upper Griswald revealed itself through the crumbled infrastructure. Though the assassins were causing havoc on the rooftops, some of the defenders paid no mind, their attention on the army wishing to break through the gate. At the front of that army was Leura, clad in the prestigious armor of a war general and with a head full of fiery red hair.
“Leura!” I screamed. “Get back! They think you're me!”
“Let them!” The Sentinel yelled back, both hands building balls of fire.
Some of Leura's soldiers filed through the gate around her as she prepared her spells. Then, suddenly, it was as if time stopped. An entire segment of her army stilled as an amber mist billowed into the air from a shattered clay ball at their feet. Everywhere it went, people went still. Soldiers who ran by the scene were hit and stopped in their tracks. The mist reached Leura's nostrils, and her magic dispelled as her mind was affected.
The rest of our army came to a standstill, and many men started to retreat. The mist was spreading over the road like a fog, and no matter how many people were hit, it continued to flourish. I was left utterly confused as to its purpose other than stopping our charge. Then, all at once, soldiers started to defecate and urinate in their armor, and the air grew thick with the stench of scat and ammonia.
“Nerve agent, Kai!” Azazel abrupt
ly tugged me back a few feet. “The spell! Use your spell!” It was a vague order, but I understood it.
Generat le shouer del bind y flud toxin de viral. I sent the teal energy into the air, my heart racing in my chest as the mist moved ever outward. Teal rains started to fall, the water of the spell overtaking the fog and binding its toxins before the life energy disabled their effect. The air was cleared of the amber fog, but the soldiers were still affected. Many of them vomited over their feet, and when I caught another glimpse of Leura, she was drooling.
It was terrifying seeing dozens upon dozens of soldiers in such a state of helplessness, especially since they didn't appear to notice. None of them were screaming. None of them were fleeing. They merely stood around much like they were corpses of an undead army while losing control of their own bodily functions. It made them easy targets for widespread devastation, and that's precisely what the dwarves had counted on.
Multiple onagers were fired, and balls of acid burst open in the midst of the standing crowd. The awful stench in the air thickened with the caustic bite of offensive alchemy and the metallic release of blood as our soldiers melted to the ground by the dozen. Leura was covered head to toe in a direct hit. Formerly smooth and perfect skin melted beneath a plume of smoke, and both emerald green eyes were completely eaten, giving a glimpse into the bloody backs of her sockets. The only thing left of Leura's face was her bright red hair, which fell in clumps around her body as it finally collapsed.
On the other side of the gate, the dwarves were cheering. The battle was far from over, but as far as they knew, they'd just killed the most-wanted woman on Arrayis. The rebellion was squashed. The War of Necromancers could lose relevancy and fade into oblivion now that the woman in charge of starting the largest world war in our planet's history was dead.
The only problem was that Kai Sera was still very much alive. And now, she was very angry.
Thirty-four
“Stay back.” The order was given to all of my Renegades, but my next directive was given to Azazel. “I leave you in charge.”
Azazel wanted to argue, but he decided to accept my request. Perhaps he knew it was a marvel that I was giving fair warning at all. It was the first time I felt self-control as I succumbed to rage. I wasn't sure if I was slowly growing into managing it, or if it was because the vengeance I sought was over the death of someone I hadn't known very well. Regardless, my friends knew I was preparing to cause mass destruction, and that it was going to happen whether they stayed out of the way or not.
Bilda te fasad. My body went invisible. If I was going to separate myself from the rest of the army, I had to take precautions against being bombarded. Our soldiers were still hanging back from the gate after seeing Leura and her men melt to the ground, so the dwarves were no longer targeting the main road as they waited for us to advance. Instead, as our armies stayed back, I stalked forward, stepping through a gap in the opposite side of the gate from Leura's sizzling corpse.
The never-ending shadows of Griswald further kept my approach a secret as I moved up the main road, the clattering of steel a mish-mash of noises in the air on either side of me as the assassins continued their assault on the rooftops. I passed by them all, heading for the next section of defenses so I didn't have to worry about hurting friendlies. Many of the dwarves here were merely waiting to assault our forces since they couldn't use particular weapons against the Alderi mixed in among their own men. I set my sights there, ducking into a pathetic excuse of an alley just long enough to build two enervat spells. I was invisible, but the black energy was not. Most spells I was thinking about using would alert the dwarves to my location. Though every fiber of my being lusted for destruction and battle, the logical side of my brain yelled reminders to be strategic.
I leaned out from the corner of the alleyway, quickly thrusting both arms forward at two separate locations. The black magic darted through the street and to two rooftops. One of the spells exploded against a dwarf's chest, sucking her life force out through her skin before the fog spread out to a few companions. The other was less accurate, colliding with the wood of a prepared onager. Even still, the magic spread across the rooftop when it hit, seeking life in the vicinity before promptly squashing it out and returning it to me.
“Necromancer!” The dwarf who screamed it started to panic as he realized he couldn't find me. As the black magic imploded back into my chest, however, he pointed to the alleyway, newly alerted to my location. “Invisible necromancer!”
With a new leeching high massaging my temples, I dashed across the street and to the next alleyway up. The echoes of my footsteps were drowned out by the surrounding sounds of battle. Siege weapons were angled toward the main road, and I hid in the cramped alley just as they were fired.
Crack! Sss...
Two balls of ammo burst open where I'd been standing earlier, and alchemical liquids sizzled as they rolled into the cracks of stone and ate up any organic matter they could find. Next came curses and confusion as the dwarves realized they missed me. I built new death bomb spells in both hands, before ducking out, aiming, and firing.
Two groups of dwarves on separate rooftops dropped dead, and the energy sizzled as it fled back to me. The siege weapons were fired once again, this time at the second alleyway. I rushed across the street, and when the energy imploded back into me in the middle of the road, the next round of ammo was fired there.
My head was throbbing with pain as I hurried down the next alley, discontent to simply wait at its edge. The dwarves were battering the main road over and over again with their weapons, targeting multiple side streets now that they knew I'd taken shelter in more than one. I heard calls from a few to stop since they were wasting ammo on only one foe. Some of the weapons stopped firing, but the most frustrated dwarves insisted on bombing me out of my hiding place.
Unbeknownst to them, I was no longer hiding. I'd just needed to gather enough energy to cause mass destruction, and now that I had it, I focused on getting to higher ground. In the back streets of Griswald, two methods of getting to the rooftops revealed themselves to me. There were simple iron ladders on some buildings, and at dead ends of clusters of structures sat metal lifts worked by dwarven gears and pulleys. I judged that the latter would be too noisy, so I chose the simpler route.
Iron rungs were cold and rough on my palms as I pulled myself up a ladder on the side of a three-story building. When I reached the top, all of Griswald's remaining exterior defenses laid out before me. The two main roads intersected just ahead where the mountain's girth shrunk to a point leading to the underground city. Some distance away on the other path, I saw the giants still paving the way for the armies of the Sentinels behind them. Farther back, a few of the giants had fallen in battle, collapsing buildings with the weight of their corpses.
While on higher ground, it was easier to see how the defenses were set-up. Multiple siege weapons were positioned on each roof closest to the road, every one manned by at least one dwarf. Carts of clay and stone balls were bountiful throughout. Most of the containers were wood. I assumed the dwarves had used the mechanical lifts to pull the weight of the ammo to such a height, and perhaps they'd used temporary lumber bridges to wheel the carts across rooftops. After all, the buildings were so close together here that even I could jump over the alleys easily, which was a good thing to note since I foresaw having to do so.
The primary strength of the dwarves by far came in the form of their various inventions and machines. What they lacked in magical fortitude, they made up for by engineering solutions out of earthen resources. Their main weakness, then, was a simple one we'd exploited plenty of times thus far in Hammerton, and one I planned on taking total advantage of here.
Their many inventions could be used against them.
I did my best to hide my hands just below an abandoned cannon as I built two balls of fire. The element sizzled and crackled with a lust for destruction that nearly matched my own, the protective magical barriers vibrating rapid
ly against my palms. When the spells threatened to explode in my own hands, I forced them up into the skies.
If any of the dwarves noticed the fire hovering in thin air before the spells were cast, they had no time to voice their protests. As if the city wasn't already shadowed enough, it darkened like we were in the midst of a moonless night. Dwarf and Vhiri alike gasped and murmured nervously as the heavens rumbled. I'd forced most of the energy from my high into the magic, so even if the fire mages understood what spell prepared to unleash, they'd never seen one so powerful it turned the skies black.
Giant balls of fire hurtled toward upper Griswald, each one accompanied by a high-pitched whistling. Even before any hit the city itself, one crashed into the peak of the mountain, bits of rock exploding outward from the impact before it tumbled down to gravity's embrace. The meteors were so loud in their descent that I could hear nothing else, but as the shadowed rooftops went bright with approaching flame, I saw the dwarves screaming.
BOOM!
Half of a tall residential building crumbled and collapsed under the pressure of the first hit, sending one of the dwarves tumbling to his death as his skin bubbled and leaked with burns. The others were safe from the collapse, but the cart of ammo nearby was crushed, and multiple alchemical agents seeped over the stone. The acid hadn't reached the soldiers, but the powdered poisons did. Dwarves fell beside their defenses, boiling alive from their own creations.
BOOM!
The next meteor hit in the exact center of another roof, collapsing two siege weapons and exploding a cart of ammo. Liquid and powder alike sprayed violently out from the area, splattering defenders in a wide radius with various caustic concoctions.
BOOM!
Flaming bodies flew through the air in flashes of orange light. Upper Griswald was a beautiful display of dark shadows and spots of fire. Most of the destroyed siege weapons were burning like beacons. Though the rest of the top district was bombarded, few of the fires spread since everything was made out of stone. Nonetheless, by the time the skies cleared, the vast majority of the remaining defenses were rendered obsolete. If they weren't destroyed entirely, those with the ability to use them were dead either by alchemy or fire.
