The male caster unleashed the power he had gathered. With a wave of his hands, roots reached out, grabbing stones as trees and vines appeared in the breach, pulling in the surrounding stones as if armor, roughly filling in the breach.
Shadows converged together, growing into a bear Clan Spirit be- fore Ubi, who was getting up from the ground.
“You’ve brought honor to our clan young one.” “I don’t have a clan though,” Ubi said.
“We are all the same Kin, do not think that outside appearance is the same as their heart. I have seen Squirrel kin with the courage of fifty Bear kin. Ubi, I will lend you my power for this fight. De- fend our people.” the clan spirit said.
Ubi stared at the man, trembling. A Clan Spirit chose me? Filled with emotion he bowed his head. “Help me.”
The clan spirit shot into Ubi and he cried out and dropped to the ground.
“Protect Ubi!” Dion yelled.
With the power of that clan spirit, he can become a powerful cham- pion.
The guards fanned out, finding cover as they fired their cross- bows. The casters danced within their power, drawing in Dena’s strength for their own. The walls were a bloodbath as beast kin were being overrun.
The mages sent spells at the creatures on the wall, tossing them back over the wall and trying to control the breach that was getting wider with the long-range attacks from the more complicated beasts that were attacking from a distance.
Creatures started to jump off the walls at Dion and his group.
Dion drew on the power of his bloodline. His tattoos ignited as he stabbed his spear forward, catching one upon it.
It landed but didn’t know it was dead; it continued to claw at Dion. It scraped his armor as he tilted his spear to the side and dis- lodged it.
He drew the spear out and swung it, connecting with the side of another. He dodged to the right and another fell to his left, his guard cutting them down with their sword.
Two were cut apart by blades of wind, another catching stone rounds to the face, before being met with a crossbow bolt. The guard dropped the crossbow and brought out his hammer, striking another that had charged out of the breach.
The male caster used his hand to control the earth rounds and his staff glowed white as he used the wind to slice and pierce.
The female mage danced to the sound of destruction.
Dion flicked his spear clean of blood, falling on his training as he fought with his spear.
Creatures started to pile up around the entrance of the breach, increasing in number as more fell beyond. Creatures launched them- selves from the walls to rush the group.
A roar unlike the other creatures came from the breach.
One of the creatures walked forward. But there was a danger- ous power around them, one that made Dion’s bloodline shake.
The creature was transforming, drawing power from the fallen that were turned into dried-out husks. Embers burned them inter- nally; they turned into scattered dust as the creature stepped on them. The creature started to become less erratic and look like the ones that bombarded the city from long range.
The caster fired out her elemental energies.
A barrier of contorting light, looking like a wall of crystal, ap- peared in front of them as they pushed forward.
The creature looked at the wall that they had created. A victo- rious look appeared in their eye as they drew on the power around it. Its body contorted as its neck glowed and it unleashed a beam of power.
The female caster let out a yell as she was struck and tossed away, slamming into a building.
The male caster cried out, directing earth and air to attack the beast. It exited the breach and creatures flooded around it.
We can’t beat it, not with our power.
A hand touched Dion on the shoulder. He looked back to see Ubi. The air around him distorted and his tattoos shone with pow- er.
“Take care of the chaotic beasts. I’ll handle the Drafeng.”
Dion looked at Ubi and nodded. “Cover Ubi—keep the chaot- ic beasts off him!”
The Drafeng gathered more power as Ubi charged forward.
He grabbed a block of rubble with one hand and turned. He ran, hurling the block of rubble through the air and striking the Drafeng’s barrier.
The rubble shattered but the Drafeng focused on Ubi instead of the male caster.
The guards rushed forward with Dion, attacking the beasts rush- ing out, using the Drafeng as cover.
The male caster started to chant, casting buffs on them all.
Ubi clashed with the Drafeng. His hammer caused the crys- talline semi-transparent barrier to shudder.
Ubi attacked again and again. The Drafeng couldn’t create spells and each attack drained a portion of its power.
As Ubi attacked, his attacks became more fluid and powerful.
Arms appeared on the Drafeng’s body and it stopped using the barrier. It spat out a bolt of power.
Ubi dodged it, pushing forward. It cut out with one of its bladed arms. Ubi leaped up and swung his hammer, hitting the Drafeng in the face, snapping its head to the side. Ubi dropped to the ground and hit out its front left leg. It dropped to the ground and used its left arm to stab at Ubi.
Ubi deflected the hit with his hammer and turned, swinging.
He hit the right arm that was aiming for his back, head on.
It stuck into the beast’s chest and Ubi let out a yell. A bear su- per- imposed on him as he hit the side of the blade arm, burying it in the Drafeng.
The Drafeng let out a cry, dissipating its arm. A bloody wound appeared on its chest as it tried to get to its feet.
Ubi was hit in the side by the left blade, and he was tossed to the side. He hit a wall and dropped to the ground.
He was running as his feet touched the ground. His eyes were bloodshot and his size increased, his muscles bulging out.
Berserker.
His hammer struck the Drafeng’s newly formed arm, causing the air to shudder as their attacks caused shockwaves.
He traded blows with the Drafeng, pressuring it, so it was un- able to regain its feet. Its power started to decrease as Ubi’s hits rained down on it, striking it in the face repeatedly. The Drafeng’s head was smashed to the side.
Ubi raised his paw. His tattoos glowed with a fierce light as a paw superimposed upon his. His paw sliced through the Drafeng’s neck. The Drafeng’s head dropped forward and its conjured limbs
dis-
sipated.
Still, there was a flood of chaotic beasts coming in.
Dion was struck, even with the buffs. He grunted as he rolled backward, using his spear and strength to regain his feet.
There is no way that we can hold them off.
Fear threatened to consume him.
He let out a yell, rushing a chaotic beast, his spear stabbed into their side, hitting deep. The Chaotic beast lashed out hitting Dion and slamming him against a wall.
He coughed, feeling the weakness in his body. He was spent. Even staying conscious was an effort, he was operating on adrena- line and desperation.
He heard a scream.
He could tell it was a Beast kin.
Dion pushed himself up and stabbed out. He could see it now, the collapse of the wall. As the wounded fell there was no one to pick them up. The Chaotic beasts surged up the walls. The defend- ers were on their last legs, they had put everything into the fight.
Ubi was giving it his all against the Drafeng. Yells sounded down the wall. Dion turned, seeing another Drafeng appear on the walls, tearing apart their defenses.
They’re going to overrun us. Retreat? No, there’s nowhere to go.
Frustration, desperation, uselessness, these emotions welled up.
I will die here. The finality of that statement was a stone in his stomach. I’ve fought in the army, along the line, but if we lost a camp it meant we had to reposition. Now its my family on the line, my peo- ple.
Dion yelled out in frustra
tion, his eyes turning red and itchy. I just wanted Keze to live her life. How many futures of people too young to know life will end here?
He threw himself into battle, attacking the Chaotic beasts all out. Trying to get away from his thoughts as that pain burned from inside.
He stumbled a blade stabbing forward, killing the beast. A guard helped him up, the two grim men turned back to their work, their duty.
A scream came from a soldier pulled from the wall and tossed down onto the ground filled with Chaotic beasts.
Groups of guards rushed the Drafeng, paying heavily to land at- tacks on the powerful creatures.
Dion attacked wildly, stabbing at anything that was an enemy. He didn’t know how long it was before he was standing there with lead limbs. He was covered in blood and dirt, his eyes hollow.
What is that noise?
He looked to the rear.
Am I seeing things? Dion felt his heart and stomach were bring turned all as one.
The noise was roars and yells. It came from the men and women of the black Rags. People that had volunteered, those of the militia that were rolled together. It seemed all of Skalafell was there, neigh- bors, friends and family.
They ran through the streets, vaulting over rubble. Climbing over the buildings and digging their claws into the walls, rushing for- ward.
Their tattoos glowed with power as clan spirits appeared among them, or superimposed upon their bodies.
Seeing them, they were the wind in his sails, his entire body felt revitalized. He had sunk from the depths of despair and now gripped onto a thread of hope.
So what if we die? Our deaths may weaken the enemy so that an- other city, another town can survive. This is what we can do.
His blood boiled. He felt strength, a strength he had never felt before from deep within, the part of him that was more beast, more primal.
Dion raised his mouth and let out his war cry. It resounded through the streets. It was one of defiance.
Here we stand. Here we may fall, but you will know that you came here and met the people of Skalafell. You will know that you may break our bones, but the clans, our Kin will remember. By the ances- tors and by my word, I promise you this—Skalafell will rise!
He gripped his spear and changed his stance. He was moving be- fore he knew it.
Ubi let out a laugh and the guards set their jaws, but in their eyes there was pride; there was respect.
This was what it was to be a leader.
Dion sped across the ground. “FOR SKALAFELL!!”
A beast greeted him and it roared in defiance. It swiped at him as the wall behind it exploded. Another bolt hit the breach, ex- panding it as rubble rained down.
Dion threw his spear. As he dodged the swipe, the spear lodged in the chaotic beast’s neck. Dion jumped up and tore it out. He land- ed as another beast charged him.
An arrow hit the beast, causing them to stagger to the side with force.
A monkey kin appeared; his fists created after-images as the air snapped around him.
Fire appeared around his fist as he snapped it out. The beast was blown back, smoldering.
Dion ran forward. It didn’t matter who he stood beside; they all fought together now—watching one another’s back and attack- ing together, with only needing to say a few words between them.
He saw Jun appear. He threw his sword and buried it in one crea- ture’s eye. His claws flashed as he tore through their side. A kick sent them into their allies and Jun cartwheeled, grabbing a piece of rubble and hurling it, turning it into a weapon as it crushed a chaotic beast’s head.
He dug his claws into the ground and pushed forward, using his body and environment to push forward.
Mai appeared, covered in a barrier. He slammed into chaotic beasts like a battering ram. Needles formed in the air around him. They whistled shooting into the surrounding beasts. He bashed them out of his way, the ground cracked under his feet. Roots pierced out of the ground and into the charging beasts.
Their blood fed the roots as they spread through the ground. Mai ran forward through the chaotic beasts, he’d touch them al- most gen- tly as he passed. Like a wraith the beasts were unable to catch his shadow. Poison spread through their bodies upon con- tact. As they collapsed, threads of power entered Mai’s body, mak- ing him faster and his poisons deadlier.
Dion pulled his spear from another chaotic beast. He jumped off of their back, landing on the stairs to the walls.
His spear jabbed out as beasts rained down, hurled over the ban- nister. Blood covered the stairs.
The Chaotic beasts focused on Dion, taking the pressure off of the Beast kin that had been separated.
“Group together! Form a line! We will take the wall! Your fa- mi- lies are at your back!” Dion yelled.
They pushed up to Dion, helping one another. They stood next to him, working together, pushing forward, slowly at first and grow-
ing in speed. More joined creating a true wall of hardened steel and Beast kin warriors.
They chanted together.
Dion slipped on the blood, but another behind him stabbed their sword forward, killing a beast and taking his place.
They had just reached the top of the wall when there was a yell from behind.
Ubi charged towards them.
Dion cupped his hands, Ubi’s eyes lit up as he sped up, his arms pumping the two bloody axes in his hands.
He put his foot in Dion’s hands. Dion yelled, throwing Ubi.
He came down in a maelstrom of axe blades. His axe’s tore through Chaotic beast’s sides, giving openings to the line.
Others rushed up, to be tossed forward, the line kept advanc-
ing.
Now the beasts were the ones with the enemy all around.
The beast kin climbed the stairs, even the outside of the obser-
va- tion towers and the inside of the walls—anything to get to the top.
Dion turned to the line on the wall, it split, clearing the wall of Chaotic beasts and Drafeng, shoring up the defenses, stopping oth- ers from climbing over the walls.
Casters worked together with strong beast kin . The Beast kin carried rubble, pushing it back into the breaches while casters fused it together, using stone magics, earth magics or even trees.
Ranged attackers covered for them, keeping the Drafeng back.
Dion stepped up to the line that was growing thin.
He stepped forward, stabbing out with his spear it wasn’t ele- gant, but dozens of Chaotic beasts lost their lives to those simple and direct attacks.
Ubi hit a chaotic beast in the side and Dion’s spear shot for- ward, reaping his life. He pulled it out as the beast slumped, death claiming them.
Dion staggered forward, only to see that there were no more beasts or Drafeng.
He took the chance and looked around.
The fighting on the wall was calming as people pushed to the bat- tlements, attacking the climbing Drafeng.
Dion looked out at the Drafeng beyond the walls.
“We need to destroy the doorways, slow down the rate that they can enter Dena and then we need to kill off their queens, then grind the rest of them down.” Ubi’s clan spirit revealed himself, talking to Dion.
Dion looked at the army of beasts pressed up against his walls.
Long-range attacks sailed over his head, hitting Skalafell; other attacks hit the breaches that were being repaired, slowing down their work.
Dion tightened his grip. “I like the simple plans—there is less to go wrong.”
“Dion Lemar,” a voice called from the wind.
Dion looked over at a clan spirit, a small bobcat kin. Her ears twitched. She was alert to everything, but there was a soft look in her eyes as she looked at Dion.
Dion had never known his parents, his mother. Seeing this la- dy, Dion felt his heart had been squeezed, a bloodline connection that ran so deep he knew that she was his ancestor.
“Ancestor.” Dion dropped to a knee.
>
“There is a battle to be fought, Dion. I have fought, but I have de- voted my life and my existence to help people with crops and herbs,” the woman said.
Dion felt a yearning in his heart. “If-if you’ll take me, I would like to learn.” He spoke the truth, the complete truth; he wanted to grow to know her. As a lord, his worries weren’t battles; it was the people. Their food. The supplies they would need in the winter months.
The woman picked him up. “My name is Pheena, and I will pro- tect you with all my strength.”
Dion cleared his throat, filled with emotion. Without Tissis, he had few friends remaining. Only Keze gave her love freely. He had been a lonely man, with the man he thought of as his brother betray- ing him. It had made him closed off to the rest of the world.
Now he felt that he had someone else to rely on.
“We will protect you,” Ubi said and looked to the side.
Dion saw Mai and Jun, each of them filled with strength as they walked over, killing chaotic beasts on the wall left and right.
We will win. The clan spirits are with us now.
“I will do all in my power to protect you and Skalafell,” Dion said to Pheena.
“Ah, seems that I didn’t pick wrong,” Pheena said with a moth- er- ly smile.
Dion bowed his head as Pheena turned into a misty light that en- tered Dion’s body. His clan tattoos blazed with light and he dropped to his knees, dropping his spear. His body changed to ac- company the new strength.
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