Death Knight Box Set Books 1-5: A humorous power fantasy series

by Michael Chatfield

  en- emy that could come through it at any moment.

  We need to act soon. Standing and waiting here, not knowing whether our cover will hold wears on their minds. Giving them the or- der to attack will allow them to focus and bleed off that energy.

  Axion silently hurried those who were in the fortresses and the people who were on the supply train. The roads for the cannons were plain but it increased the pace that supplies could be moved up.

  After another twenty excruciating minutes, the supplies were in place.

  “Send up the call. Ready the army. Have the rear reduce their cannon fire and switch rounds. As soon as that cloud cover clears, I want the secondary fortresses firing right into the Drafeng camp!”

  Whistles called out to one another and the signal officers used different flags to communicate between one another.

  The bombardment ended and everyone tensed up. With the wind of the sea, the smoke started to clear in a few minutes.

  The final outline of the Drafeng camp appeared and the can- nons from the new fortresses opened up. Their cannonballs smashed through the crystal walls, exploding and killing Drafeng who had been watching the smoke cannons falling.

  Cannonballs landed in the heart of the Drafeng camp. Here the chaotic beasts were recovering and absorbing the mana to turn it into chaotic power. They were all clumped together and not ex- pecting the attacks. Mages worked with one another to bring down large-scale destruction spells upon the camp.

  Chaos now filled the camp. The chaotic beasts were surprised; the Drafeng didn’t know what to do and their command and con- trol was being torn apart with relentless attacks.

  “Have the mages add in their attacks as well,” Axion said. He wanted to make use of the chaos as much as possible. The more he killed here, the easier the advance would be.

  Meteor Impact seemed to be the go-to spell today.

  Meteors and cannonballs smashed into the Drafeng camp as though Armageddon had fallen upon them. The enemy were penned in by their camp. Many were now trying to flee. Hundreds, possibly thousands, had died.

  Axion saw a change in the chaotic beasts as they started to run through the breaches in their forward walls in an attempt to get clos- er to the army’s front line.

  “Have the army on alert. Defend against the chaotic beasts that are coming.”

  Archers from the towers used their bows to pour down steel rain on the chaotic beasts. The archers within the army’s trenches added in their bows. The melee forces of the army stepped out of their trenches and moved backward, using it as an obstacle; the ground behind them had been flattened out except for the archer and mage trenches.

  Chaotic beasts tore through what was remaining of the cloud cover. Cut down in droves by the arrows, they were laid out with the spells.

  They stumbled across the trench lines to be greeted with spears and shields of the First and Second Army. There was no mercy for them and the limited numbers of chaotic beasts that made it that far were able to do little.

  Drafeng and chaotic beasts worked in groups, sending out their chaotic beams at the fortresses.

  The left flank fortress was hit with such strength that a wall was blown apart and a cannon hurled away. Fortress walls were melt- ed. The chaotic power reached through the openings—cannon fir- ing ports and the archer slits. If anyone was unlucky enough to be on the other side, their fate was already sealed.

  The attacks continued to come in again and again, the two forces slugging it out.

  The Drafeng army couldn’t take the punishment that was com- ing down on them. Their army was falling apart and any group that seemed to be becoming cohesive, the cannon teams or the mages would target them to keep them a scattered rabble.

  A call went up and the Drafeng who had made it out of the camp scattered to the east and west, heading northward.

  “First and Second, up and at ’em! Advance!” Axion called out. Whistles were sounded and the armies marched forward, advanc- ing onto the camp.

  He turned to the messengers behind him. “I want cannons and personnel brought up. Have the Third Army push up with supplies. They will remain here at this point, ready to support as needed! We have them on the run—we need to push the advantage!”

  ***

  Khurok looked at the reports that Oru had given to him and that had come from the front lines.

  “Send out three more groups of reinforcements. We need to stop the armies to our south from advancing. Have Enya create camps dotted across the south. That way, if they are pushed out of one, then they have a place to retreat to. I want a Drafeng force at each camp to act as long-range support. Send out a company strength for each of the camps. We cannot let them reach the north. If they are able to find out what we are working on, then they could shift their forces from other regions to assist and push us into the sea before the har- vesters are completed.”

  “Leader.” Oru tucked his head in understanding. He waited as Khurok seemed to be thinking.

  “Increase the pressure in the north of the mainland and in the east. We need to distract them and draw their attention away.”

  “I will send your orders.” Oru turned and left.

  Khurok looked out of his conversion tower, over to the crys- talline structures that were being created on the plains. Conversion towers dotted them and the crystal was no longer clear. Inside it, chaotic power was being drawn in and stored, a power source.

  “With the harvesters, we can move freely across Dena, striking as we want, out of their reach. Converting the power of this world into

  our own. We just need time to do so. One week...one week and the first will be able to ascend.”

  Chapter: Hidden Might

  Unseen by many, Oru passed through one of the doorways that was in the north of Cheon, then reappeared in the Northern Basin of the Stoha Mountains and then again in Cresmond Peak. His pass- ing was unremarkable but the changes that came with the orders he passed on had a powerful effect.

  ***

  Cecilia looked at Cresmond Peak. It had once been a rugged and hilly area that emerged from the forest. But in the last day, it had turned into one of the bloodiest battlefields since the Drafeng had opened their doorways. The Drafeng had opened doorways among the uninhabited peaks. They had created their growing crystal fortresses around the main passes into the peaks. If they wanted to take it, then the forces of Dena needed to break through these fortresses.

  “It has been confirmed by the aerial scouts. There are at least five conversion towers among the peaks,” Allynna said to her mother. They were inside the unadorned command tent that was open to look at the peaks. Spells suddenly rained down on one of the passes. “Looks like they’re trying to make another break for it,”

  Cecilia

  muttered.

  “They charge down, and we tear them apart with magic.” Al- lyn- na sighed and shook her head.

  “They have to have queens up there supplying them with chaot- ic beasts. Although we can kill them as they’re coming down, we have to dedicate our force here to keeping them pinned in. Our at- tacks don’t just kill the enemy; they destroy the terrain, making it harder to assault the peak.”

  419

  164

  Horns called out as the armies prepared. A sea of chaotic beasts were descending the mountain.

  “That is a lot more than normal,” Allynna said.

  “Looks like they are going all out. Have the reserve ready—we might need them!”

  The archers, gunners, and mages did what they could. The siege weapons continued to fire again and again, coating the hill in at- tacks that killed the chaotic beasts, even the Drafeng, in the hun- dreds.

  Sending down the Drafeng—isn’t that reckless of them to do so? If they lose too many, then they will lose their command and control. What is going on? Cecilia felt that something was wrong. But she didn’t know what it was. As much as they had tried to learn about the Drafeng, they were a group from another planet. They had been able to capture
a few of them for a limited time but they were un- able to get much information on how they thought and the mo- tivation for their actions. If they knew that the fight was for the greater good then they would sacrifice themselves, as shown by the Drafeng who had burned out their bodies in order to create the at- tack that had shattered Skalafell’s shield and the wall.

  She didn’t have more time to think on it; she needed to com- mand her troops. Although the United Army was strong, the Com- bined Army was weak and just holding together.

  Drafeng came down off the peaks, their footing being lost on the craters and the glassed slopes, killed by the fall or by the attacks from the armies at the base. They hit the plains and started running for the wall that had been erected around the peak.

  A bloodbath ensued as they crashed into the walls and started to climb up them. The ranged attacks continued with the United Army but in their panic, the Combined Army’s ranged fighters fo-

  cused on the enemy right in front of them instead of weakening the groups that were coming after them.

  “Reports are coming from Shivernsin. It looks like the enemy there had started to attack without caring for the casualties as well,” one of the Guardians reported.

  “What about in the wilderness?” She looked over to another Guardian.

  “Guardian Flames have gone on the defensive across Dena. It looks like the doorways that we weren’t able to find are all attack- ing.”

  “Is this their push?” Allynna asked.

  “It might be. Make sure that everyone is alert. Have the rear guard keep an eye out. I don’t want to have Drafeng biting us in the ass.” Cecilia didn’t pay attention to the people who looked over in shock.

  A high elf saying ass! What a shock!

  “Focus,” Cecilia growled and they all returned back to their work.

  Chapter: An Oath Taken; An Oath Received

  Morning was just breaking on the second day since the Drafeng armies in the north had started to send wave upon wave of their chaotic beasts and Drafeng forward.

  The Drafeng crisscrossed in front of Shivernsin, using the cover of the other bodies to attack the walls with their beams, striking the mana barriers that appeared.

  Cannons lit up the day and the night. Dozens of barrels had been replaced; even two of the mortar barrels had to be changed out as they couldn’t take the repetitive firing.

  Archers and mages stood along the walls and within Shiv- ernsin, raining down destruction and being rotated out on a fre- quent basis to keep up their rate of attacks.

  “Even though they rush forward like mindless beasts, they are all spaced out so that no one cannon or attack can take them down in a short period of time. Even their Drafeng are hiding among them all and then as soon as they attack, they flee, drawing our at- tention and the archers’ arrows, allowing more of the beasts for- ward and covering the other Drafeng’s ranged beam attacks,” Gheta confided in Fysh- er. The two generals who had been fighting each other for years were now each other’s confidant.

  They knew more about each other than others knew about the people in their own families. He never thought that they would be working together to command an army, but there they stood—at the northern reaches of the world, fighting side by side.

  “Even when they are pulling back their forces, they crush an- oth- er one forward. It is like they are the mill stone, crushing their forces against our walls like grain.”

  424

  167

  “Though this grain has claws and beam attacks. The chaotic beasts’ range isn’t as long, but as soon as they can get off a beam, then they do.”

  Fysher grunted, seeing a pack of the chaotic beasts getting close. They shot out their beams and hit the wall, some of them be- ing stopped with barriers.

  The exterior wall didn’t have cannons, only large mounted shot- guns—repeating rifles, as the dwarves called them—as well as mages and archers.

  Beasts closed with the walls and were cut down in a blast from one of the mounted shotguns.

  A number had been able to get through the withering fire and at- tacks that the people of Shivernsin had laid down.

  Fysher checked his sword was free and ready to be used.

  Suddenly there was a ripple of light that seemed to pass over the battlefield. There was not just a large amount of Drafeng who had made it through the fire; there was a reinforced army hiding under- neath an illusion spell. Everyone had been stuck in a rhythm so that none of them must’ve noticed it.

  Horns were sounded out. The cannons and mortars fired at an increased rate. Mages were called from the depths of Shivernsin.

  The gunnery crews didn’t care about their weapons, about bring- ing out their barrels; they shot them as fast as they could re- load them. The Drafeng and chaotic beasts were pressing forward as fast as possible. Seeing that their cover was gone, the Drafeng opened up. Hundreds of chaotic beams shot at the walls, making the archers and the mages duck for cover as they tried to get out of the way of the in- coming attacks.

  This allowed the Drafeng to get more of their forces forward, taking the fire superiority away from Shivernsin.

  The shotguns and the repeating rifles sounded out. Small clouds of black smoke appeared on the walls as the Drafeng’s northern army

  jumped on the walls and started to climb upward. The chaotic beasts put their mouths in front of the openings in the wall; blasts of chaot- ic beams shot through, killing those on the other side and sand blow- ing out sections of the wall.

  People screamed as they were tossed from the wall. Rolling wood and stones were hurled from the top, crushing the Drafeng below, but they were boulders before the sea.

  The Drafeng had just gotten too much of their force in close. All of them were fresh-looking, new reinforcements from those in the north.

  Fysher let out a yell as he stabbed through an arrow slit, cutting through a beast; they let out a yell and tumbled back down the fifty- meter-tall wall.

  Gheta kicked her spear and slammed it forward through an- other opening. Their guards went to work, taking a slit and attack- ing the beasts climbing up past them to the top of the wall.

  Cannons and mortars whistled overhead, hitting as close to the wall as the gunners could get their shots.

  A blast of chaotic power killed one of Fysher’s guards and in- jured three others. Those close enough to feel the power but could still fight shoved their weapons through the hole, killing the beast. Guardians ran out of Shivernsin, their weapons covered in pur-

  ple flames.

  Mana was gathered and brought together as Fysher saw Claire standing at the peak of Shivernsin. She stood there, a goddess upon Dena—a war goddess with the world that bent to her will.

  “Die!” she commanded. With one hand, a black smoke emerged from the wall, covering the Drafeng and withering their bodies down to nothing; the other brought down a storm of light- ning. Spell for- mations appeared in the sky, opening and closing as thunder- bolts—the goddess’s own wrath—fell upon the Drafeng,

  seeking ret- ribution upon these creatures that had walked her lands.

  A Guardian leading a number of the dark elves stepped out among a sea of machines and golems.

  Each of the dark elves had glowing green magic around them that surrounded the golems and the Shivernsin war machines.

  They looked similar to Tommie’s own Gnominator.

  The golems and the machines ran forward across the open ground of Shivernsin to join in on the defense of the walls.

  There are no pilots in the armor? How is that possible?

  “Pull back into Shivernsin!” Anthony’s voice called out. The Guardians all turned from fighting to helping the wounded get out of the walls.

  Fysher gritted his teeth. With this newest rush, there was no way that they would be able to hold them all back. There were too many of the Drafeng. They were on the walls and pouring over the battle- ments. The Drafeng who had looked as if they were retreat- ing had joined in on the press forwa
rd and added their weight for- ward. The cannons and mortars were being hammered at range by the Drafeng, forcing the mages to focus on defending them and their crews in- stead of dropping their own attacks. The momen- tum was on the Drafeng’s side.

  “Come on, General Fysher. Our fight does not end here!” Gheta grabbed onto him. None of his guards paid any attention; they were like machines, trying to kill more of the Drafeng stream- ing past the holes in the wall.

  Those on the walls turned and fled into Shivernsin—some in ragged groups, others organized. Guardians ran back and forth, sav- ing as many people as they could.

  Anthony stood on the top of the wall, leading the Guardians as they barely held on.

  Tommie used his Gnominator as an extension of himself, tak- ing on Drafeng elites. His fist tossed one off the wall as he blew a group

  of Drafeng off the wall with his grenade launcher; his blade cut a chaotic beast that lunged at him.

  Anthony hurled lightning and fire. He leaned over the side of the wall and hurled his sword, cutting down dozens of the Drafeng be- fore the sword returned to his grip and he turned in black smoke. A sword missed him and he struck out with his glowing green fist, sending the Drafeng flying off the wall.

  “Pull back!” Claire called from the top of Shivernsin.

  Anthony raised his hand and a white power flowed from the ground. Stone reached up, creating slides.

  Guardians and the last defenders on the wall jumped down it, and rushed toward the entrances to Shivernsin.