by Jeff Sabean
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On the West side of the city, Shenroc watched from the shadows of the wood line as his sister and her warriors engaged the elves.
“I should be with them,” he muttered to Heishi and Aki, who were standing beside him watching the fight.
“We will need you more here, my friend. They must know this is our weakest side, and they will eventually send a large force this direction as well. Be patient, we will see our share of blood before this is over,” Heishi replied, fully understanding his friend’s desire to get into the fight.
Still muttering, the half-orc stomped away from the humans, grumbling about not being out front where he belonged.
“Is he going to be a problem, Top?” Aki asked, watching him go.
“Nah, I think he just wants to prove himself after his sister killed him the other night.”
“Fair enough. But I think we should keep Di’eslo close to him. He’s been teaching me how to close wounds and knit bone back together like he does, but I have a feeling that one will need more healing than I can offer.”
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To the East, Fion and his army watched in silence as the orcs engaged with the elves.
“Our forces are stronger than the elves on that side,” Dracorex commented, grinding his massive teeth as he watched the carnage. “We should go assist the stupid orcs before they are overrun.”
“I disagree. They are trying to draw us out. Our army stays here,” Fion replied, not turning his eyes from the battle to the North.
“Then let me go. You promised me death and destruction, Fion,” the dragon snarled.
Realizing he was about to lose control of the beast, Fion nodded in agreement.
“Allow me to set a commander over the army here, and I will join the battle to the North with you. We will destroy as many of their warriors as possible, but I expect they are attempting to draw you and Mialin out, so you may need my assistance.”
“I need no assistance, but if you want to join the bloodbath you may assist me,” the dragon replied, his yellow eyes glinting in the sun.
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Krait reached her target quickly, watching as he expertly swung that two-handed axe of his, cutting down two and three goblins at a time. He turned to face her and smiled through the black goblin blood that covered his face.
“So, you want to die so early in the fight?” he taunted the orc war chief.
Her response was to charge him, snarling as she kicked bodies of goblins out of her way. She led the attack with her shield, deflecting a short thrust of the larger man’s axe and ducking as he swung the butt of the weapon toward her skull. She followed with a chop to his knees with her axe, which he side-stepped and maintained his balance as he squared up with her again.
He feinted a straight jab with the axe, pulling it back and kicking straight out underneath her shield, connecting solidly with her chest and pushing her back into the stack of goblin bodies and knocking her off-balance. She growled as the cutting blade of the massive axe came down toward her exposed skull, rolling to her left and swatting the blade away at the last second with her shield.
The spike caught between the blade of his axe and the handle, and she held it there as she regained her footing and slid her axe underneath, making contact with the barbarian’s unprotected ribs. As he gritted his teeth in pain, she could see that the strike enraged him, and he jerked his axe toward himself and pulled her to the side as his weapon ripped loose of her shield.
“Just for that, you die slowly,” he bellowed, throwing his axe at her like a spear.
She deflected the blow easily, wondering how he could be stupid enough to throw away his weapon, then her eyes widened as he dove toward her, a dagger in each hand.
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Dracorex and Fion sped toward the fight, the dragon unable to contain his excitement as he watched the bloodshed. In truth, he did not care who won this war as long as he could kill as many of these puny mortals as he could in the process.
They swung wide over the fight, staying out of range of the city’s ballistae, and the dragon laughed as arrows flew from below and bounced off his scaled chest. They turned and flew past the front line to where the elves were pressing forward to join the attack, and Dracorex let loose a line of acid breath, the elves melting beneath his fury as he roared in pleasure.
A second roar caused the two to spin toward the city, as a green dragon lifted above the wall and moved steadily toward them.
“Do you know this one?” Fion asked his mount as they watched it come on.
“Yes, that one is called Oldrino the Loud, and her rider is called Ai’nzo Hiju’u. Separately they are both rather weak, but together they can be formidable.”
“Should I be worried?”
The dragon sneered in response, then rose to meet the incoming attackers.
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Trodgen tackled Krait, bringing her to the ground with him as he slashed and stabbed with both hands. She blocked most of the blows, but the ferocity of the attack proved to be too much for her and several times his blades slipped through her defenses and found the creases in her armor.
Desperately, she slid her knees to her chest and kicked with all her strength, sending the rolling barbarian away. She tried to stand but was unable, so she struggled up to one knee and looked down to see her blood flowing freely. Trodgen gained his footing and stalked toward her, smiling at the unarmed orc. She dropped her head, apparently accepting defeat, and as he brought both blades down toward either side of her throat she pushed forward with the last of her power and tackled the barbarian. His eyes opened wide with shock as she deflected both blades with her armored forearms, grabbed him by the shoulders, and bit into his neck, ripping into him with her tusks.
She fell to her side as he stopped moving, staring at the sky and waiting for death to envelop her, content that she had killed the leader of the elf army.
Chapter 19 – A Daring Plan
To the West, Ja’ade and Mialin prepared to join the attack as they saw Oldrino fly over the wall.
“We will not have surprise on our side this time, sister,” Mialin stated calmly. “And we do not know who else may be hiding inside the city waiting for us.”
“I have never met the third dragon defender,” Gabrielle interjected, standing beside Di’eslo and watching the battle unfold. “I have heard there is a large red dragon but have never heard his name or seen him.”
“Beautiful, a red,” Ja’ade muttered as she climbed on her sister’s back.
Before the two could depart, the side gate of the city opened for the first time this day, and warriors began marching out and forming into ranks.
“It would appear we will have our own problems to deal with on this side,” Heishi stated, halting the two from leaving. “This is not going to end well.”
“It would appear Fion will have his war today, and my sister is attempting to end it quickly,” Gabrielle replied.
“We are nothing more than a speed bump, lady. They will roll right over us unless the sisters Xyrstiina are able to push them back,” Heishi answered as he watched the ranks continue to form on their side of the wall. “There must be thousands of them already, and we have what, a few hundred?”
The group watched solemnly as the warriors marched toward the woods, knowing they could never hope to stop them.
“Well, it’s been real,” Aki said, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “I couldn’t pick a nicer guy to die with.”
To the shock of the small band of warriors in the trees, a boulder flew over their heads and crashed into the front ranks of the warriors marching their direction. The army stopped, tightening their line to replace those crushed by the boulder, then began to advance again.
“What was that?” Heishi asked, spinning around and seeing Yutri walking toward him through the woods with a smile on his face.
“That was my secret weapon, human!” Yutri called as a hand full of hill giants came stomping thro
ugh the trees behind him.
Shenroc ran to meet his friend, embracing him, then pushing him back roughly.
“What took you so long, you oaf?” he said gruffly, trying to hide his relief at seeing his friend alive.
“I had to prove myself worthy,” the giant dwarf replied, looking as if the answer was obvious.
“Now that you are here,” Heishi broke in, looking back and forth from the approaching army to the giants approaching, “How many reinforcements did you bring?”
“I have over fifty giants on the ridge of the mountain preparing to rain boulders down on the city wall, my friend,” he replied smugly, then saw the thousands of elves marching toward them and the smile faded from his face.
“I need to hold this area for as long as possible. Can you handle that?”
“You will not be with us?” the confused dwarf asked, staring at the approaching army.
“You have the woodland elf archers to assist you, but my team has a mission to accomplish, and if we fail the entire assault will fail,” Heishi replied gravely.
“Then we will not fail,” Yutri replied as two of the giants picked up one of the logs from the side of the road and hurled it the two hundred yards from the wood line into the ranks of approaching elves, flattening a half dozen of them.
The shouts from the approaching elves as the log rolled through them sparked the giants on the ridge into action, and a hail of boulders began raining down from above, pushing the lines of warriors back.
“Slow them down as much as possible,” Heishi pleaded, then flashed a cocky grin. “We’re going to go have some fun.”
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A short time later, Mialin flew high above the city carrying a large basket. Ja’ade was standing on her back looking down at the city, unable to hide the grin on her face.
“Are you sure you know what you are doing?” she called down to the basket where the members of Ronin Team, Shenroc, Di’eslo, and Gabrielle Anaoilin were riding peacefully.
“This is the easy part,” Heishi called up to the dragon rider with a grin. “Taking out all those defenses will be the hard part...”
With that, he looked over the edge of the basket, and seeing that they were over the front gate, he waived to Ja’ade, and jumped out. With a grin, each member of his team jumped behind him, then the slightly less enthused Shenroc, Di’eslo, and Gabrielle followed.
“These humans are insane,” Ja’ade remarked, watching the group drop to the city as Mialin angled to join the assault to the North.
Ripping through the sky, Heishi wondered if this would be his last jump. His team had shown the shadow elves precisely how to construct the parachutes, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going to die. He refused to let it bother him as he watched the city growing larger beneath him and focused on angling toward the western tower of the northern gate. If his team was not able to disable the ballistae along that wall, the orcs would never breach the wall.
He continued to drop, and when he estimated he was around a hundred feet from the tower he pulled his ripcord, holding his breath as he watched the silk parachute deploy above him. As he gained canopy control, he let out his breath slowly, grinning that his plan seemed to be working so far. He glanced to his left and right and breathed easier as he saw each member of the assault team floating down beside him.
“That was the easy part, I suppose,” he said to himself as he floated over his target tower. The elves below him looked up with startled faces as his shadow enveloped them. “I guess they have never seen a flying human before!”
He was still about fifteen feet above the tower when he unbuckled his chest strap, then reached up and grabbed hold of the risers on both sides and pulled them down as far as he could, collapsing the sides of the parachute. He let out his breath, then let go of both sides at once as he reached five feet above the ground, causing the chute to flair and slow his descent greatly so his feet touched down lightly just to the side of the ballistae team. He felt everything around him slow down as he unbuckled the leg harnesses as he landed, letting the parachute float over the wall onto the battlefield. He hit the roof running, smiling at the surprised elves as he pulled his pistol from its thigh holster and put two rounds center mass into all three before they could react.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Tiane coming down on the eastern tower overlooking the gate, the young sniper using his flaming kamas to cut away the risers above him and dropping the last few feet to the wall. He rolled forward and tore into the team of elves at the ballistae on that roof, making quick work of them. He glanced over to see his team leader staring at him and grinned.
“I’ll come down softly when I’m your age, I guess,” he yelled at Heishi as he ran to the crenellations of the wall to set up a position where he could take out the ballistae crews further down the walls.
“Everyone’s a comedian,” Heishi muttered, trying to hide his smile as he watched the rest of his team landing along the wall and taking out each of the ballistae teams as they did, effectively securing the center of the wall for the orcs to begin their assault. “Make sure you destroy these things before we move out,” he called out to his team as each dispatched the defenders.
He watched as the team quickly set charges on each of the ballistae, then he descended to the lower level of the wall as they ran to meet him at his position. When the first guard came up the stairs that led down the wall to the city, Heishi nodded and Zatus detonated all the charges simultaneously, destroying the ballistae so the guards could not put them into operation again.
“We need to move quickly now, or our element of surprise will be wasted,” Heishi told the team as they rushed toward the shocked guards. He slid his sword from its saya, igniting the electricity on the blade and slicing through the first guard as shots began to ring out from above. Trusting Tiane kill the defenders further down the wall, he led the charge down the stairs of the wall, exiting on the street level.
“Now that we are inside, it is your show, lady,” he said, waiving Gabrielle forward. “If we are lucky, they will not know that you are with us and we can avoid killing more than we have to.”
She led the companions through the market district, attempting to avoid the groups of guards rushing past. Following her lead and hoping stealth would be their ally, the team put their weapons away and followed as quickly as possible without drawing suspicion. They ran through the streets, which were full of non-elvish vendors milling about while the city guards yelled at them to return to the inns until the threat was destroyed.
Almost on cue, shadow elves began pouring out of the inn run by Ethanicus, having snuck through the tunnel under the wall and through the basement of the inn. Behind them, Mialin and Ja’ade were attacking the wall itself, raining fire down on all but the tower where Tiane was keeping up a steady hail of bullets. It would not be long before the gate was destroyed and orcs would join the shadow elves on the streets, causing chaos and destruction.
As confusion ruled the streets, Gabrielle led the assault team straight for the gate to the castle where she knew her sister would be hiding.
Chapter 20 – The Dragon King
As Heishi and his team were assaulting the city, Fion was flying above the battlefield. Looking down, he spun in his saddle and used his staff to focus his thoughts, a sinister smile on his face. As he watched, the skeletons of dead warriors below began to stand up and attack the shocked elves, creating massive confusion among their ranks.
“That is a cute trick,” Dracorex remarked dryly as he turned to intercept the green dragon headed toward them.
“It ought to keep them busy for a while, I would say,” the smug shadow elf replied, clearly impressed with his handiwork even if the dragon was not.
“Do you fancy yourself a god now, raising the dead?”
“No, they remain dead, I am simply controlling the bones myself, and you are interrupting my concentration.”
As the two dragons closed on each other, a blast of pois
on breath shot toward Dracorex, which he deftly dodged. He angled away from the elvish army below as arrows bounced from his armored belly, knowing that sometimes archers were able to get lucky, then let loose a blast of acid, reveling in the screams of the dying as he avoided another discharge of poison from Oldrino.
The shadow dragon beat his wings harder, attempting to climb into the sky, but the green dragon was able to reach him, and her teeth sunk into his left leg, bringing a screech of pain. As she whipped her head violently, she slung him to the side and released him, giving her rider a clear shot at Fion.
A smile plastered on the face of the thin high elf, he launched a green bolt of energy toward the shadow elf, who created a barrier of wind over himself just in time to deflect the acidic bolt and send it into the elvish army below. Unfortunately, deflecting the blast broke his concentration, and the skeleton army fell in place as Fion focused on defending himself. He glanced below and was relieved to see that the orcs had taken advantage of the confusion caused by the skeleton army and were pressing forward through the ranks of elves.
“We need to get away from the battlefield or this fool will destroy our army as well as his own,” Fion called to his mount, who growled an unintelligible response. “I know, you do not care who is destroyed, but I want to win this war...”
Still grumbling, the dragon shifted his flight path to angle along the West side of the city and head toward the ocean. Luck was on his side as he proved to be faster than Oldrino, and he pulled ahead of the green dragon as he raced toward the ocean. As they flew over the army marching toward the tree line, he even slowed briefly to breathe a blast of acid over the elves, dodging ballistae bolts from the city’s walls as he laughed evilly.
