Birth of a Demon City

by Hyougetsu

  The biggest problem, though, was Thuvan’s walls. They were larger and sturdier than Ryunheit’s, and protected by the city’s prized ballistae. They fired bolts with enough force to skewer through charging cavalry and destroy siege equipment. Considering how tough the city’s defenses were, I honestly wondered if anything other than a surprise attack would work.

  “We’ve finished surrounding the city, sir,” Kurtz whispered in my ear. He was in charge of handling the gunpowder—or Dragon’s Breath, as he called it—that the Demon Lord had given me. I’d brought him along in case a frontal assault looked hopeless and I needed to blow the whole gate off its hinges.

  Thuvan strictly regulated the traffic coming in and out of the city, which was why there were only two gates, one each at the north and south. They liked to keep their technology a secret, so they kept a tight grip on the flow of information. However, this also meant we only needed to focus our assault in two places. Master’s 1000 skeleton soldiers, Melaine’s 300 wax corpses, and Firnir’s 1500 kentauros were stationed at the south side. The undead would be used to take the walls, while Firnir’s troops would be used to storm the city.

  On the northern side, Melaine had taken control of the 2000 Bone Spears Master had given me. Once we’d finished our encirclement, Firnir sent off a messenger to demand the city’s surrender. Her messenger didn’t even make it to the gates before he was turned into a pincushion by a hail of crossbow bolts. Looks like they’re not interested in negotiating.

  The kentauros bristled with anger. Firnir’s messenger had been clearly unarmed, yet the humans had shot him anyway. They wouldn’t be satisfied until they had their fill of blood. A short distance away, Firnir waved her spear at me.

  “Vaito! Could you send the undead soldiers in? Thanks!”

  ...You could stand to act more like a commander, you know. Well, whatever.

  I nodded, twisted my fingers into the appropriate sign, and chanted, “You who have returned from the Gate of Gevina, you who have been barred from the Gate of Haurun, behold. In my right hand, I hold the frozen sun.”

  The spell used to command the undead never changed. By the way, Gevina was apparently the dark afterlife where spirits slept, and Haurun was the glittering world where spirits went to get reincarnated. I didn’t know whether eternal rest or eternal reincarnation was better, but either way, it got these guys moving. The undead soldiers stirred at my words, and I ordered them to advance.

  “First wave, raise your shields! Watch out for arrows!”

  The skeletons raised their shields in unison.

  “Your target is Thuvan’s southern gate! Charge!”

  500 skeletons raised their spears and shields and marched forward as one. Before they were even halfway across the field, a hail of arrows rained down on them. As I’d feared, Thuvan’s crossbows had a long range. They packed quite a punch, too. Plenty of bolts pierced right through the skeletons’ shields. While the skeletons may have been technically immortal, they still crumbled if their spines were crushed. Fortunately, they could lose as many ribs as they wanted and still be fine, which meant arrows were little threat to them.

  Because of their slow march, however, more than half of them had been incapacitated by the time they reached the gates. More of them had survived than I expected. If the kentauros had attempted such a feat, they would have lost far more.

  “Now it’s just a battle of attrition.”

  I nodded at Kurtz’s worried assessment.

  “For now, we just have to endure. At any rate, time for phase 2.”

  I spotted Firnir waving her spear at me again, and I ordered the second wave forward. Their advance was timed so that they started forward just as the first wave crowded around the gate. I’d based this strategy on my experiences playing tower defense games in my old life. Though I was on the attacking side this time.

  The first wave had taken severe losses, but thanks to their sacrifice, the second wave was able to approach relatively unharmed. After all, crossbows had to be rewound manually. At the rate the soldiers were firing, it was no surprise many of them were growing tired. Plus, a few of their weapons had probably snapped from repeated use. Furthermore, the second wave had Melaine’s wax corpses. As the name suggested, they were undead soldiers made of decaying flesh. In other words, zombies. Thanks to their unique characteristics, they were the lynchpin of this strategy. The spell used to summon zombies allowed them to stay active for extended periods of time. In that time, however, the corpses continued to decay, and their waxy, rotted flesh burned easily. They were essentially walking candles. Normally that would be a weakness, but here it would prove to be an asset. The skeleton soldiers escorted the zombies to the gate, acting as unliving shields. Once the zombies arrived, as per their orders, they blew themselves up. It was too far away to make out the aftermath of the explosions from here, but chances were, the field in front of the city had turned into a grotesque spectacle. No doubt the gates were splattered with flammable, rotted flesh. The southern gates were made of sturdy, dry wood—the kind that burned fast.

  Still, it was too early to celebrate. If Thuvan caught wind of our plans, we’d be in trouble. There were plenty of simple ways to prevent a fire. All the defending soldiers had to do was douse the gates in water and we’d be toast. Hence why I’d made such a big show of sending in waves of soldiers to attack. I needed to make it look like we were trying to brute force our way through. I’d never be able to order living troops to waste their lives so callously, but skeletons and zombies were already dead. They were just mindless puppets, devoid of both emotions and souls. Now that I no longer had to focus on commanding the undead soldiers, I took Kurtz and joined up with Firnir.

  “Thanks, Vaito!”

  “Everything’s going smoothly so far. Also, stop calling me that.”

  All that was left was to set the wax-soaked gates alight. Unfortunately, none of our troops could get close enough to shoot a fire arrow without first being barraged by the defenders’ bolts. And so I’d entrusted starting the fire to Master. The plan was to have her hit the gates with a bolt of lightning. If we’d had some copper wire, this would have been easy. No point in complaining about what we didn’t have, though.

  Gomoviroa’s childish face scrunched up in concentration, and she started casting a complex spell.

  “Sir, what exactly is Commander Gomoviroa doing?” Kurtz whispered, unable to hide his curiosity. That was what made him such a good engineer. The spell Master was casting right now wasn’t a lightning spell. Offensive magic wasn’t very useful in this world. Spells were usually centered around the caster, and had to follow the laws of physics once they were brought into existence. Which meant hastily chanted fireballs or lightning bolts were as likely to hurt the caster as they were their intended target. There were, of course, ways to guide spells so that you didn’t hurt yourself, but considering how long it took to construct such magic, you were better off just smacking someone with a weapon. While I couldn’t grasp the precise meaning of her chants, I more or less knew what she was doing.

  “She’s creating a pathway for the lightning right now.”

  “What exactly do you mean by pathway?”

  Normally, when lightning struck the ground, it was because a pathway of ionized air had linked a thundercloud to the ground. Said pathways were created when there was a difference in charge between the ground and the cloud...or something like that. Anyway, the point was that if Master just fired a lightning bolt off right now, it was more likely to hit one of the armored kentauros than anything. Hence why she needed to create the pathway first.

  “Essentially, she’s taking aim so that her lightning bolt hits where we want it to. If she didn’t do this, there’s no telling where it’d go.”

  “I see...” Kurtz enthusiastically wrote down everything I told him in his notepad. “Can you use magic like that as well, Sir Veight?”

  “Nope...”

  Please don’t remind me of all the magic branches I failed to ma
ster.

  “Splendid. I’m ready now.”

  Upon finishing the pathway, Master instantly launched into another chant. This one only took seconds. Converting the mana in the air into electrical energy was far simpler than creating an ion pathway. Master finished casting and swung her staff down.

  There was a blinding flash of pale blue light, and a thunderous roar that shook the very air itself. Master’s lightning spells were unbelievably powerful. The bolt slammed into the gate, rocking its very foundations. The globs of flesh ignited, creating a massive conflagration.

  “Yes!”

  Firnir leapt into the air and raised her spear high.

  “Alright, every—”

  I hurriedly stopped her before she could dash off.

  “Wait! The gate still hasn’t fully burned down! If you go now while it’s still standing, your men’ll be wiped out!”

  “Oh yeah.” Firnir scratched her head and lowered her spear. “Nevermind! Stand by a little longer!”

  The kentauros, who’d all been ready to charge, fell back into parade rest. Firnir was clearly a skilled leader, though she was a little too hasty. I looked over to my side and found Kurtz holding a long tube up to his eye and looking over at the gate. I didn’t know he had a telescope.

  “That’s a pretty nifty tool you’ve got there. Mind if I borrow it?”

  “You know what this is, Sir Veight?”

  Crap. Telescopes are probably cutting-edge technology here. I quickly came up with a plausible explanation.

  “You were looking through it, so I assumed it was observation equipment of some kind. From what I can tell, it uses glass to magnify things that are far away, right?”

  “I-Indeed. I’m impressed you could deduce that so quickly.”

  Surprised, Kurtz handed over the telescope. Upon looking through it, I could tell the south gate had all but collapsed. There was no salvaging it now. The soldiers on the walls were pouring sand and water over it in an attempt to douse the flames, but it was too little, too late. However—I had made one, fatal miscalculation.

  “They had an iron gate too...”

  As I watched, Thuvan’s soldiers lowered an iron grille into place behind the burning wooden gate. They had two layers of defenses. Thuvan was far better defended than Ryunheit had been. It made me a little jealous. Regardless, this was a huge problem. Iron didn’t burn. I told Firnir what I’d seen, and her expression darkened.

  “What do we do now, Vaito!? Is our only option to get the battering ram out and break through by force?”

  Our “battering ram” was just a giant tree trunk plated in metal. It would take a long time before a makeshift ram like that broke down the gates. And we’d lose a lot of men in that time.

  “Calm down. I made a backup plan since I thought this might happen.”

  I turned to Kurtz and said, “Bring me all of the powder.”

  “All of it!? Do you know how much is in that barrel!?”

  “I know. Just do it.”

  At present, Kurtz was under my command, so he just saluted and did as I ordered. It took a couple of dragonkin to roll the barrel of gunpowder over to me, but I was able to lift it up with one hand. A werewolf’s strength sure came in handy at times like these. The whole thing easily weighed around 100 kilos, though half of it was the barrel’s weight. I was no expert on gunpowder, but I figured that was more than enough to take out a gate.

  “I’ll be heading out, then.”

  “Wait, where are you going, Sir Veight!?”

  “To go blow up that iron gate...”

  “You’re one of our commanders! You can’t put yourself at risk like that!”

  While Kurtz was arguing with me, Firnir walked over and said, “If that’s your plan, I’ll help you out. Hop on.”

  “You’re the commander of this army. We can’t afford to lose you.”

  “And you’re the governor of Ryunheit. It’s not like you’re any less important. If you can be reckless, so can I.”

  Kurtz looked like he was about to faint, but I ignored him and asked, “Alright, I’m gonna need the help of your fastest kentauros. Who would that be?”

  I looked over at Firnir’s men, and they all turned to her. The young girl puffed out her nonexistent chest proudly and said, “The Demon Lord didn’t give me the title of Swift Gale for nothing. I’m our priestess, and our fastest warrior.”

  Upon closer inspection, I realized that the amount of mana inside her tiny body was far greater than that of the other kentauros. So she’s as much of an exception among her people as the Demon Lord is.

  As I was debating what to do, I heard a series of loud pops come from the other side of the city. Multicolored sparks erupted in the sky; a signal from Melaine. I’d left her a few dragonkin engineers so they could send messages with their fireworks, or as they called them, Dragon’s Jewels. Kurtz looked up at the sky with his telescope and translated the signals for us.

  “Enemies, main force, south... It appears the bulk of Thuvan’s army is headed this way!”

  They must have slipped out through the north gate. I’d told Melaine to keep out of their crossbow’s range. The city commander had probably taken advantage of that and sent his cavalry out under the protection of the men on the walls. Which meant they’d probably be rounding either the east or west wall soon to strike at us.

  There was no time to waste. I nodded to Firnir, and she raised her spear high.

  “May our ancestors watch over us!”

  She ripped off her helmet and threw it aside. Next, she unbuckled her armor and let it fall to the ground. She continued stripping until all she was wearing was a thin strip of cloth to cover her practically nonexistent breasts. Then, for some reason, she smiled.

  What the heck is going on? Half-naked, she raised her spear and shield high and shouted, “Defensive crane formation! Prepare to intercept arrows!”

  With practiced movements, the kentauros rearranged themselves. No human cavalry would be able to manage that as smoothly. Firnir walked up to the head of her troops and roused them with a speech.

  “I don’t need armor, for you brave warriors are my armor! So long I have you, I’m invincible!”

  “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

  The kentauros cheered. They weren’t cheering because their commander had stripped for them, either. Firnir’s speech had somehow gotten their blood pounding. The archers slapped their quivers while the fighters banged their spears and shields together.

  Now that I think about it, didn’t I read somewhere that kentauros considered extremely reckless stunts a mark of valor? Still, I didn’t think they’d go so far as to ride into battle unarmored.

  “Now is the time for us proud kentauros to show our valor! Let’s do this, guys!”

  “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  She sure was a charismatic leader. I could see why she’d been promoted to vice-commander.

  Before long, I spotted dust clouds on either side of Thuvan’s walls. It appeared the mounted archers had split their forces and come from both sides in a pincer attack. They were hopelessly outnumbered, and it was clear this was meant to be a surprise attack to take our commander’s head. Unfortunately for them, Melaine had already warned us about their arrival, and we were ready to intercept. Fireworks were more useful than I thought.

  “Steady, steadyyy!”

  Firnir waited, letting them draw closer. They were almost within bowshot, but still, Firnir didn’t make a move. Thuvan’s archers drew back their bows, and Firnir finally shouted, “Chaaaaaaaaaaaarge!”

  “UWOOOOOOOOOH!”

  Both flanks surged forward as one, like one large living creature. The kentauros ignored the arrows whizzing past them and made a beeline for Thuvan’s gates.

  “Let’s go, Vaito!”

  “You got it!”

  I shouldered the barrel of gunpowder and leaped onto Firnir’s back as she thundered past. I’d been worried we’d have to deal with ballistae shots coming from the walls as well as
from the mounted archers, but almost no bolts came from above.

  “If the crossbowmen above fired now they’d hit their own troops too.”

  Because Firnir had waited so long to charge, we were pincered between the mounted archers and the crossbowmen on the wall. Naturally, that put us in a precarious position, but this also meant that the defenders on the wall couldn’t fire their ballistae. The bolts were too unwieldy to aim with any accuracy, and they were just as likely to hit their own men as they were to hit the kentauros.

  Firnir was a lot smarter than I’d given her credit for. Not only that, but she really was a cut above the rest of her men. Even though she had a werewolf and a 100-kilo barrel of gunpowder on her back, she was outpacing them with ease. She was sprinting so fast that it was actually hard to breathe. She definitely lived up to her nickname of Swift Gale.

  In seconds, we’d closed in on the gate. Thankfully, a good number of our skeleton soldiers were still alive.

  “Line up! Raise your shields!”

  I had the skeletons create a path and guard us with their shields. A few defenders from above tried to shoot down at us, but thanks to the shield wall they had a hard time aiming, and most bolts missed. We safely made it all the way to the burning remains of the first gate.

  “Firnir, when I jump off, get as far away from here as you can!”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll figure something out!”

  As I shouted that, I leapt off of her back and dashed forward. I ignored the arrows flying past me and threw the barrel of gunpowder as hard as I could toward the gate.

  “Eat this!”

  I saw the fuse ignite, then a massive shockwave hit me and I lost consciousness.

  In hindsight, my plan was beyond reckless. For starters, I’d used way too much gunpowder. But I hadn’t wanted to hold back and not bring enough to blow up the gate, so I’d erred on the side of caution and used it all. Still, I’d overdone it by far.