Kinnese ended his thoughts as a barbed cudgel stuck him on his left shoulder blade. Staggering forwards, he cursed out loud as he dropped to one knee. Gods he was exhausted. Would it be too much to somehow get ten minutes to recover? Focusing what small reserves of Power he had built back up, he ignored the pain rapidly spreading through his upper back. Gripping his sword with renewed strength, Kinnese sprung up and spun, his blade slicing through the face of the watchman who had struck him.
“Don't die yet,” Alek taunted over the din, his voice just beginning to sound strained. “I need you as a distraction to keep all of them of me for a little while longer.”
“No promises,” Kinnese spit through grit teeth, and he felt a small push within him, like bile rising up his throat, to attack the Outrider, but he was able to force it down with a little effort. For one thing, he needed the Outrider as a distraction of his own if he intended to survive. And for another, in the state he was in now, the inhumanly strong man would make quick work of him.
For a few agonizingly long moments Kinnese and the Outrider fought, sometimes apart, sometimes forced back to back. Kinnese struggled to keep up with the fresh attackers, having to resort to the occasional blasts of his Power when his exhausted body and skill with the blade could not suffice.
“Wow, look at that,” Alek said suddenly, pointing across the city.
Kinnese took the brief halt in fighting to catch his breath, and his gaze followed the massive man's finger. On rooftops further up the slowly moving column of survivors was a fully-fledged magical battle between the monstrous mages and that fat Weaver, Egveny he recalled, from Tethis.
Egveny's appearance did not do a lot to inspire confidence in his combat abilities. The Weaver looked soft. Like a ledgerman forced onto a battlefield. But a blue aura surrounded him, and a seemingly crystal blue wall separated him from his enemies, and when spikes of sickly yellow magic shot out at him from the corrupted mages and their leader, he was able to deflect or absorb them with little effort. Again and again, his monstrous opponents hammered at his barrier, and the Weaver withstood it all. It couldn't last forever. Sustained spells like what Egveny was using took their toll, and the fat man couldn't endure forever.
But the Weaver wasn't alone. Naria was there also, looking beautiful amidst the chaos. The Witch stood on a rooftop behind Egveny, eyes closed, mouth moving, with her arms outstretched towards him. Her Power, her magic, was surging within Egveny, empowering his own spells. Egveny made a strange gesture with one hand, and a blue shock of energy that looked like lightning struck at the rooftop where the three mages stood. The blast missed, but it wasn't intended to hit them. Splinters of flaming wood and melted terracotta tiles flew up, and the rooftop began to buckle, staggering all three.
With the attackers momentarily distracted from hammering at Egveny's barrier, the Weaver took the opportunity to launch an attack of his own. The Weaver wound back, both of his arms curled up as if he were pulling a thick rope with each hand. Then instead of stopping his barrier spell, the Weaver threw the barrier at his assailants. The two corrupted mages were able to regain their footing in time to launch a brief onslaught at the oncoming blue barrier, but when their yellow Power collided with the blue wave, it did nothing to halt it, being absorbed instead. The blue wave of Power washed over the two mages, setting them and the rooftop they stood on alight with blue flame and they fell.
Only their leader, the middle-aged man remained. His face twisted in anger as the shockwave of magic washed over the thin orb of a shield he had erected. He drew his fists back, but before he could loose a spell, thick manacles of white light appeared over his wrists, and the Power that he drew in fizzled. Naria was now standing side by side next to Egveny, one of her hands outstretched. As the man struggled with Naria's bindings, Egveny raised a hand of his own, and a blue mist rapidly began to form at the feet of the man, rising up to his knees, then his waist before quickly solidifying into a sort of glass that encased him. The man howled in rage, his power surged and his wrists burst out of the white manacles. He quickly waved his arms about his body, and a spray of some sort of liquid burst from his hands, with enough force to shower upon Egveny and Naria.
Both Weaver and witch cried out in fear as they knelt down to duck under the spray, with Egveny raising an arm as if to raise a shield, and the liquid spray halted a few inches over their heads, hissing and sputtering as it poured onto and over the sides of the Weaver's shields. More and more of the liquid began to splash upon the rooftop around the two Weavers, igniting the wood and tile as rapidly as the liquid fire from the Bellkeep engineers had. Egveny's barrier began to crack and buckle as the caustic liquid eroded away his spell.
An arrow whipped past the two mages and passed through shield and spray alike, igniting as it shot through the air and embedded itself in the man's shoulder. The man spun with the force of the arrow, his spell cutting off almost immediately. He howled, frothing with rage tinged with pain. Then suddenly the man's howl grew more and more frantic, and he struggled to pull the arrow out of his shoulder. With a surge of strength, the man pulled it out, taking a large chunk of flesh with it. Snarling, the man extended his empty hand and another spray of the caustic acid spewed out. This blast was far weaker, and spluttered and spat like water struggling to spray out of a coiled and kinked hose. The acid couldn't even make it to the building Naria and Egveny were on. But the damage had already been done.
Naria and Egveny now found themselves on a burning, crumbling rooftop that began to buckle as one of its walls began to dissolve, and they were forced to flee before the building gave way beneath them. Their opponent rose to his full height, blackened blood oozing from his wound, and clapped his hands over his head once, twice, and a third time. Each time his hands clapped, there was a loud crack, like a peal of thunder. The man ducked as a second arrow darted at his face, and he disappeared.
A handful of seconds after the mages' duel, Kinnese, still watching on the rooftop with Alek, heard a distant rumbling from deeper within the city, as if in answer to the loud claps. The rumbling had a rhythmic quality to it that Kinnese couldn't quite place.
“That some kind of drum we're hearing?” Alek asked, standing to Kinnese's side.
“No...I don't think so,” Kinnese said, as the rumbling grew louder. “It almost sounds like...”
“Footsteps,” Alek muttered, and he pointed down the road, towards the head of the column of people below them.
A gigantic abomination, almost twenty feet tall, stalked out from one of the main streets, its massive feet crashing into the ground with every step. Its greyish flesh was knotted and slick, as if covered in pumpkin-sized boils and ruptured growths. Two large tree trunk-like arms hung low from its sloping shoulders, ending in deformed, twisted hands. A slack, dangled jaw showcased two rows of teeth larger than daggers that glistened in the morning light.
Halting for just a moment as it rounded the corner and found itself facing Garrey and his men, the monster's crooked, bulbous eyes regarded the Bellkeep soldiers with barely contained rage. Raising its huge arms, the monster lumbered into the ranks of soldiers, bashing its way through their shield wall and knocking aside the spears and halberds thrust at it. Arrows peppered it from Bellkeep archers atop the wall, punching through its flesh. But they did little to slow the monster down. Engineers scrambled to get their liquid fire projectors and scorpions ready, but they were too engaged with the monsters and watchmen on the walls. Without the engineers and their equipment, Kinnese didn't know how they could slow that thing down. They needed to give them time to set up.
Kinnese and Alek shared a brief, exhausted look before wordlessly racing down the wall towards the next group of beleaguered engineers.
Things were going well, Johan thought, as one of the mechanical golems impaled an abomination through the shoulder as it silently thrashed, its elongated claws mercilessly raking the golem about its face and shoulder. Seeing an opportunity, Johan thrust his sword upward into monster's back.
Yeah, things could be going a lot worse, Johan smiled.
The Bellkeep soldiers, arranged in phalanxes to make the best use of their shields and spears, had been able to effectively drive back or kill the comparatively disorganized watchmen. The abominations proved more difficult, as they would simply crash into a phalanx and scatter the men. The Outriders and the two golems Weaver Egveny had loaned them would then do their best to engage and distract the monsters while the soldiers regrouped. It was a hard, slow slog, and they were constantly outnumbered. A war drum of some kind had begun beating within the city, Johan's shoulders screamed at him to stop swinging his damn sword, and he was bleeding from a number of light to moderate cuts. But despite all of that that, they were slowly advancing, which was all that mattered.
“Who's beating that gods damned drum?” Ryker snarled as he, Vegard, and the woman Pela struggled with a particularly nasty monster. Its tail was barbed, and it was swinging it rapidly between lashing out with its claws. The three of them dodged and attacked around it, creating a storm of blades as they struck. But the creature was swift, and allowed no openings. With the rhythmic drumming Johan heard, watching the fight was like watching a swift and deadly dance.
“Not a drum,” Pela said as she blocked the creature's tail with her two short swords, her odd accent made worse as she grit her teeth. Her blades caught the tail, just for an instant, and Vegard took advantage. His legion blade swept down, severing the tail a few inches from Pela's blades. The creature lurched, its own assault halted and Ryker slashed the monster in the head, dropping it to the ground. “Good,” Pela said, nodding at Vegard. The big man gave her an odd smile with that swollen jaw of his and the two of them hacked at the fallen monster.
The rhythmic drumming increased in volume, to the point where the source had to have gotten close. Johan saw what was causing it, and breath caught in his throat at the sight.
“Fires in heaven,” he breathed as the giant abomination came into view, more of the watchmen and the smaller monsters streaming past it to engage the soldiers. Larger than any troll or giant he had ever seen, Johan was stunned. He had no clue how to fight it.
“Holy hells,” Ryker swore next to him. “Well that's piking that then, isn't it?”
The Underking, with Garm standing beside him, cursed in his native tongue. And for once, Garm didn't strike him for speaking out of turn. The scarred man gaped along with the rest of them, his greatsword momentarily slack in his hands.
All of them stood in shock for a moment as the giant smashed into the Bellkeep soldiers ahead of them, knocking aside or outright trampling the men. It spent a few moments fighting with the soldiers, an odd gurgling roar escaping its massive jaw as arrows, hurled spears, and halberds slashed and ripped into its flesh. A single spurt of liquid fire shot out from the outer wall, drenching the monster. The monster gurgled its roar a second time, turning its now flaming to face the brave engineers on the wall. As it turned, however, its odd eyes saw past the Bellkeep defenders locked in combat with the watchmen and smaller abominations. For the first time, the creature saw the massive column of cowering, screaming civilians past the lines of soldiers. It immediately trundled forwards, forgetting instantly the engineers readying a second blast of flame, heedless of the men that hacked at its legs and dangling arms. A lolling tongue unfurled from its mouth, dark saliva pouring from its mouth.
The creature never got through the defenders, however. Past the din of combat, Johan could see a man out of place appear out of the same alleyway the monster had come from. No, not a man, Johan soon realized. A tall, warped figure, one arm twice the length of the other, dragging along behind as the creature, wearing tattered robes tied in place with thick chains pointed at the soldiers, speaking some words that were impossible to hear. Then it clapped its malformed hands once over its head. The flames that had engulfed the giant died out rapidly, leaving a smoldering, melted ruin of flesh in its wake. The figure clapped again, and the abomination halted in its tracks, slowly turning back towards the soldiers. It seemed to fight against itself, like a dog struggling to obey its master's commands. Despite what its primitive instincts told it, the giant obeyed whatever it was told and turned, aiding its smaller brethren against the Bellkeep soldiers. A second burst of liquid flame licked out from the wall, but it was deflected a foot from the monster's shoulders, splashing its lethal payload around the monster amongst both attacker and defender alike. Arrows began pinging off of the invisible shield as well. Whatever spell that that mage had cast, it was hellishly effective.
“That,” Johan said suddenly, pointing his sword at the deformed figure leading the giant. “That needs to die.” Johan turned to his men. “We bring it down, the creature loses its protection and goes off its leash. Then we can worry about bringing it down or driving it away.” The Outriders nodded. Even the Underking acknowledged him. Life or death situations did a lot to bring people together, Johan thought. “No fancy tricks,” he said aloud. “We punch through and take that bastard down any way we can. Let’s get to it.”
The Outriders charged forwards down the avenue as one, with Egveny's two golems following suit. They reached the main skirmish line, but they barely slowed down. And yet, despite the urgency of his dash, Johan couldn't just run past men in need. As Johan ran through the melee he swerved towards any Bellkeep soldier in need along his path, his sword lashed out at monster and watchmen alike with lethal results. Be it the knotted shoulders or elongated necks of monsters, or the exposed legs and arms of watchmen, his blade found many places to bite. He could hear the clang of weapons close behind him as his Outriders engaged monsters in the same fashion, but he had no time to see the results of their handiwork.
A watchman wearing officer's stripes and gripping an ornate longsword in both hands sidestepped directly in front of Johan's path, bringing his blade upwards towards the Commander's throat. Johan pivoted, spinning forwards as his blade deflected the watchman's sword. The force of Johan's spin ripped the sword out of the watchman's hands, and as Johan came around in his spin, his blade again sliced out and took the traitor's head clean off. Never breaking stride, Johan charged past the fallen watchman and leaped over a second watchman's cudgel that tried to take him out at the knees. Stabbing downward as he leaped, Johan impaled the traitor in his shoulder, his sword coming free as he landed.
Johan found that he had broken through the main combat line, but he didn't stop running. Ahead of him stood the mage, or whatever it was, who was controlling the giant monster. The hooded figure was seemingly fixated on the giant, its hands and fingers moved frantically in some arcane incantations as it sought to do something. Protect it? Control it? Johan didn't really care, and he was on the mage almost immediately. Launching himself in the air, Johan brought his legion sword downwards in a brutal two-handed strike. At the last moment the mage realized its danger, snapping out of its trance raising its arms upward as if to raise a shield. A shimmering yellow plate of energy began to form, but Johan's blade smashed through it before it could fully form, the shattering magical shield sending odd shivers through his arms. Johan's blade cleanly sliced through the mage's crossed arms and split its hooded head like a log, embedding itself in the figure's clavicle.
The mage's body dropped like a lifeless puppet covered in gore, and it took Johan a bit of effort to yank his sword free. Behind him he heard the gurgling roar of the giant take on a different timbre. Turning, Johan saw the abomination staggering backwards as if struck in the chest. Its hands were scraping at its head as it fell back. A third lick of liquid flame shot out from the wall, catching the creature full on in its face. It roared and stomped towards the wall, heedless of the flames, when Johan heard multiple loud, deep twang sounds from the wall. The mobile scorpions had been readied further back on the wall and had begun firing their large bolts into the creature's throat and face.
The giant staggered backwards, bringing its flaming arms up as if to ward away the assault. The engineers on the wall cheered as their volleys d
rove the giant back into the city, away from the siege weapons arrayed against it. Its massive bulk, wreathed in flame, crashed through house and storefront alike as it retreated, howling in impotent rage. The watchmen and their accompanying monsters also broke and fled, following their massive champion. The cheer grew louder and, looking up to the wall, Johan could make out a massive figure joining in with the cheering engineers and he smiled. It could only have been Alek. Johan heard Captain Garrey shout orders and the soldiers, with the column of civilians behind them, began to march forwards again.
“Gods damn chief, save some for us next time,” Ryker panted, finally making it to Johan's side. Garm, the Underking, Pela and Vegard were right behind him. The two golems remained in the fray, crushing any Bellkeep traitors that they encountered. Garm nodded approvingly at his Commander as did, surprisingly, the Underking.
Johan paused a moment, his hands trembling with exhaustion and shock as he took another leaf-wrapped vigilate pill from a pocket and popped it into his mouth. Almost automatically, the other Outriders did the same, their eyes brightening and backs straightening noticeably as the vigilate took effect. Johan breathed deeply as the medicine's effects surged through his own body, strengthening and repairing his depleted muscles and forcing the fatigue from his mind. But now there was a slight burning sensation behind the refreshing effect, and his guts began to hurt in acidic protest. Johan knew his body wouldn't tolerate much more of the stimulant without doing some serious damage to his insides.
Johan was about to warn his men about overdoses when his gaze slid down the wall. Almost out of sight ahead of them was the Copper Gate. He smiled, feeling his adrenaline surging within him. “Save the praise for a few minutes,” he said to his men. “Our ticket out of here is just down there,” he pointed his sword towards the Copper Gate. “Ryker, take this sorry lot to the gate. Kill anyone or anything holding it against you that isn't friendly. I'll send the one of the golems with you. I'll take the remaining golem and touch base with Captain Garrey before linking up with Alek . We'll all meet at the gate.”
Chasing Down Glory: The Outrider Legion: Book Two Page 44
