Opening Moves (The Lion Knight Book 1)

by Aurelius L. Zero

  “Calm down professor”

  Leon began in a calming tone, trying to placate the panicking man.

  “We are not with that beast nor are we here to kill you. See, we have fought that thing before in the Umbra Forest but it escaped us. It is our job to hunt it down and terminate it actually.”

  “Re-really?” The scared professor pipped up in a hopeful voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh praise the lord for his ever wonderful mercies!”

  Leon developed a slight twitch as he witnessed the professor’s rapid change in behaviour.

  “Professor, now is not the time to celebrate just yet. That monster might still be around here somewhere.”

  “HIIIIIIIIIIII!”

  And he’s back to being cowardly.

  “We need to know exactly what happened to the men who kidnapped you and how you managed to survive.”

  “O-okay. It was around evening when we reached the tenth floor. The sun had just set and about half the soldiers in red armour were still alive. They kept asking me how to break the seal on the higher levels. I-I told them I didn’t know an-and they threatened to start cutting off my limbs one at a time until I gave them what they were looking for. Th-then the voice appeared.”

  The professor managed to rein in his emotions and initiated his retelling of the events of yesterday.

  “Aha, what do we have here? A party and little old me wasn’t invited? How rude.”

  “What the! Show yourself insect or else.”

  The Jaegers stood back to back in a circle weapons drawn, futilely searching for the dead man that dared to mock them.

  One of them gave Arno a violent boot, sending him sprawling to the floor in agony.

  “Now now, no need to be rude. Tee hee hee. Thanks for showing up though. See my pet is hungry and… you’re all on the menu.”

  On cue, a thunderous roar shook the room. Each of the Jaegers swivelled their heads frantically, trying to identify what sort of eldritch abomination was menacing them.

  It was Arno who noticed the interloper first.

  Face paling in horror as a being straight out of a nightmare clung to the ceiling, directly above the circle of Jaegers.

  A thick strand of drool dripped from the creature’s maw and landed on the pauldrons of one of the men.

  “What the?”

  Feeling the impact of a liquid on his shoulder, the man turned his head to look at whatever caused the mess and absentmindedly tried to wipe it off with his hand.

  The first clue he had that something was very wrong came when he felt a burning sensation in his shoulder and hand.

  Looking again, he was beyond shocked that his steel armour had all but melted away and the unknown liquid was eating into his skin.

  Terrified, he looked up to see what had dropped such a vile liquid on him.

  There he stared into the mouth of his soon-to-be executioner.

  Just as he opened his mouth to scream his warning, the creature dropped from the ceiling.

  A blinding flash of pain ripped through him. Dimly he was aware that he had been skewered by one of the many spikes sticking out of the beast. Blood splattered everywhere.

  His last sight was an impossibly large maw filled with nigh endless rows of razor sharp teeth. Pain consumed his world and he knew only darkness.

  Shouts and screams of anger and fear filled the air as the Jaegers put up a doomed defence against the unholy terror that had materialised in their midst without warning.

  Professor Arno received a front row seat to the massacre taking place in front of him.

  Initially ecstatic that someone might have come to rescue him, his hopes were dashed and replaced with abject horror.

  Much as he wished to be free of his captors, what was happening now went way beyond anything he would wish on his worst enemy.

  “HIIIIIIIIII! NOOOO! YOU WON’T TAKE MEEEEE!”

  Using his shout to give himself a burst of strength, the hapless professor stumbled to his feet and dashed for the balcony. Using the last of his flagging strength, he threw himself behind on of the broken pillars situated around the balcony and curled up into a ball.

  Hoping against hope that whoever was responsible for this would be satisfied with the kidnappers alone and forget about his unimportant self.

  He kept praying as the screams behind him died off one at a time, the roars getting louder.

  All the while the infernal laughter never seemed to cease.

  Once the last screaming voice had been silenced, one last roar was heard before silence engulfed the area. The place had gone eerily quiet.

  The maniacal laughter had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. There were no roars footsteps or breathing to be heard.

  Arno kept himself balled up in the corner eyes shut, not daring to open them in case the nightmare was right in front of him.

  Over and over he prayed for deliverance until exhaustion claimed him in an uneasy sleep.

  When he’d finally awoken the next morning, to say that he was relieved to be in one piece would have been an understatement.

  Mustering up his courage, he peaked round the pillar he had sought refuge in only to be greeted by a sight that made no sense to him.

  The entire room was clean. All the bloodstains had disappeared, even the bodies of the monsters the Jaegers had brought down had vanished.

  He was quite possibly the only living thing left in the tower.

  Completely and utterly terrified, Arno turned back and slid to the floor whimpering.

  Much as he wished to escape the tower, he was understandably afraid of running into the beast on his way down.

  And so he simply sat there with a vacant expression on his face, wondering how everything went to hell in a handbasket so quickly.

  Losing track of how long he sat there staring at nothing in particular. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching and balled himself up to hide yet again.

  Praying that whoever it was would not prove hostile and would simply let him pass if they discovered him. Arno closed his eyes and settled in to wait for them to pass.

  “And well, after that you called me out so that’s my story. Di-did it help at all? Ca-can I leave this place? Please?”

  Hearing his first-hand account, Leon and Noire both sympathised with the archaeologist. No one should have had to go through something like that ever.

  Wordlessly Noire, continued patting him on the back, aiming to reduce the amount of stress on him.

  “You have my condolences professor. For what it’s worth I am sorry for being so harsh on you earlier.. We didn’t encounter the beast on our way up but all the lower floors have been cleared. It doesn’t appear to be present in the tower so we can escort you down. And if you are fine with it, we can take you with us to the town of Albri. If not, then we will part ways once we have exited the tower.”

  “Oh thank you thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me. Um yes, I will take you up on your offer to head to Albri than-”

  SCREEEEEEEEEE

  His words were interrupted by Valor’s call. All turned to look up at the returning bird in surprise, despite not understanding what he was saying, there was a sense of urgency that wasn’t missed by Leon.

  Stretching out her arm for Valor to roost on, Noire received Valor’s report and her face paled immediately.

  “Squire Leon, Sir Geahart, we have trouble.”

  “HIIIIIIII, don’t tell me the beast is back!”

  Shaking her head in the negative, Noire’s worried face spoke volumes.

  “No it isn’t, but it is probably just as bad.”

  She paused to take a deep breath before dropping the bomb.

  “An army of Iron Wolves are on their way. According to Valor, they will have besieged us by the time we reach the ground floor.”

  “Iron Wolves?”

  “Mercenaries.”

  Leon spat out the word as a curse, face contorting into a snarl.

  “How m
any of them are there?”

  “A-at least four hundred squire. It would appear that the entire unit has come.”

  “DAMN! They’ve grown bold, to act like this in broad daylight. I don’t suppose Valor will be able to deliver a message calling for help from the army garrison by the imperial border?”

  “He could but by the time any help arrives, it will be too late.”

  Cursing under his breath, the puppeteer inquired as to how long they had left till the mercenaries reached them.

  A second slew of swears left him as he heard the answer.

  Due to the complete lack of monsters in the tower, the mercenary army would be able to march in unopposed.

  Leon was worried, he had nothing in his varied arsenal capable of taking down a hundred men, let alone four hundred.

  Worse still, he had to protect Noire and Professor Arno, limiting the options available to him.

  Being stuck on the top floor of the tower with only one way out did not aid matters in the least.

  For all intentions and purposes, they were boxed in. Unless all of them gained the ability to fly, they were in for the fight of their lives.

  SCREEEEEEEEEE

  Eyes widening at Valor’s screech, Noire made a dash for the edge of the balcony before peering over. Upon seeing what lay below, she stepped back with a soft gasp hands covering her mouth.

  Curious, Leon and Geahart strode over to have a look at what spooked her.

  “Siege engines. They have siege engines. Wonderful….”

  Directly below them marched the army of the Iron Wolves lead by a single figure on horseback. Nine rows of men fifty strong each were arrayed against them, ready to begin the offensive.

  But what really took the cake were the four Empire heavy siege tanks parked abreast.

  Flux conduits glowing with power, their main guns were trained on the Vitae tower.

  A soft yellow glow was emanating from the barrel, signalling that they were ready to fire.

  “Haaah…. Damn. This is going to suck.”

  Chapter 5: Assault of the Iron Wolves

  “Sir! We have the tower surrounded, one way in one way out. They aren’t getting away this time.”

  “Excellent work Denzel, keep up the good work and there might be a promotion for you yet.”

  “Yes sir! Thank you sir!”

  Denzel stood alongside his commander’s horse on a low hill overlooking the war effort.

  Before them stood the entirety of the Iron Wolves, four hundred and sixty-three men and four siege tanks appropriated from the Empire.

  Never before in the history of the unit had so many been deployed for any situation at all.

  Despite the overwhelming show of force before him, Denzel didn’t share his commander’s confidence regarding the battle to come.

  A large part of him wanted to believe that with so many, they could not possibly fail.

  The more cynical part of him however, insisted that things would not go according to plan. He was justifiably worried that they had attracted too much attention on their way here.

  The Iron Wolves were a formidable fighting force, but they were nowhere near capable of challenging the military. Should Albion’s military be deployed, they were looking at total annihilation.

  Unfortunately for them, Allant’s pride had demanded that they sortie en masse down the main roads.

  Ostensibly to strike terror into the lowly serfs, Denzel was nowhere near as naive enough to believe such an action would not have consequences.

  At this point, their siege was most likely a race against the clock.

  The border garrison must have been alerted to their actions and were on their way.

  Frowning, Denzel was trying to come up with a plan of action that would allow as many of the Iron Wolves to escape their nigh inevitable demise.

  While most of the mercenaries were simply cutthroats and bandits who were better off six feet under, not all were beyond saving.

  Despite him hating a good chunk of the men, Denzel still wished to be a good leader, and at the top of that list was not abandoning his men. It helped that there were a few of his true companions scattered among the rest.

  Turning his attention to his commander garbed in resplendent armour, a vicious scowl appeared on his face against his better judgement.

  He had no illusions about what Allant would do when the military showed up.

  The bastard would simply order the men to charge to their collective dooms.

  He on the other hand would escape on his horse as soon as things started going south.

  He wished in his heart of hearts that he had assassinated the man a long time ago.

  Fate had opposed him every step of the way it seemed.

  When Allant first joined the Iron Wolves, the previous commander Fareux had been taken in by the man’s big talk, fancy armour and moves.

  His ability to survive situations where so many others had died only served to boost his image.

  Unknown to Fareux however was that his survival was only due to his cowardice on the field.

  He had abandoned his comrades to save his own skin, at times even actively betraying them to the enemy to take out the competition.

  Many a good man in the Iron Wolves had perished in such a manner.

  Any who questioned Allant’s legitimacy too met a premature end.

  With the death of Fareux a few days prior, Allant was the only man left to take command.

  Everyone else who could had already been disposed of.

  While Denzel could lead the unit, he lacked the popular support to do so, too many of Allant’s sycophants had already infested the ranks.

  Thus in order to keep the unit together, Denzel had acquiesced to the promotion.

  Now though that decision was coming back to haunt him. The sole hope he had of keeping the Iron Wolves intact looked to be its undoing.

  In just three days, Allant had managed to undo countless years’ worth of work by moving his compatriots into positions of power. Denzel being the sole remaining member of the old guard.

  Giving a deep sigh, the vice-commander pushed the regrets out of his mind. If he survived the day, there would be time for regrets later.

  “Sir, the main guns are fully charged and ready to fire. We await only your command.”

  “Excellent. Light them up and flush em out.”

  Signal given, the siege tanks fired their opening volley.

  All four shells struck the tower and exploded with a thunderous bang. Black smoke spewed from the impact points and the ground seemed to shake from the impact.

  A chorus of war cries sounded from the assembled mercenaries as they witnessed the awesome power of their siege tanks.

  Reloading was done in a matter of seconds and the next volley left the barrels in short order.

  A second wave of explosions and cheers shattered the peace. The siege of the Vitae tower was on.

  -*-

  “Shit! They’re firing on us. Milady, do you have any barrier spells that can help us with this?”

  “Umm.”

  “I don’t know how much longer this place will remain standing under this kind of fire.”

  “Excuse me….”

  “I don’t have any spell capable of holding them off and neither does Sir Geahart.”

  “I umm…”

  “WHAT!”

  Leon roared in vexation at the hapless professor who kept trying to interrupt him.

  “HIIIIIIIII!”

  “No need to be so fierce good squire. The professor might have an idea to help us.”

  Seeing things were spiralling out of control, Noire did her best to smooth things over.

  “I… you’re right, I let my frustration get the better of me. My apologies professor, I meant no insult.”

  “Ummm it’s okay. It’s just… well we aren’t in danger from this bombardment.”

  On cue another round of explosions shook the tower and threatened to send all the occupants t
o the floor.

  “You! You were saying?”

  “Ummm this tower is one of the Zeonite ruins, it won’t fall so easily, if at all.”

  A further round of shaking interrupted his explanation.

  “W-well, it might still s-shake a lot though.”

  “Could you please explain Professor Arno? This is the first time I’m hearing of such a thing”

  “O-okay, well, I’ve made it my life’s work to study the Zeonite people, their works and hopefully one day manage to replicate them. An-and in my studies, I’ve found that most Zeonite ruins are made using a material and building methods unknown to us.”

  “And that helps us how?”

  Leon was impatient to know where the man was going with his words. In his opinion, a siege was hardly the best time to be discussing ancient building techniques.

  On cue, the building shook as another salvo landed on target.

  “We-well, the end result is that Zeonite structures are among the most heavily fortified in the world. This attack won’t actually do anything to it.”

  “Those are siege tanks professor, their guns are designed for the sole purpose of bringing down fortified structures, and I’d call this tower anything but fortified.”

  “No, Professor Arno might be telling the truth. I recall hearing of a story during the eighty days of blood that Imperial forces were unable to dislodge a company of soldiers who took shelter in the Autem Tower. If this tower is anything like that one, it should hold against the assault.”

  “I see, there is still the problem of the men though. I have a good sword arm and a keen blade but even I can’t hold off that many for long. Professor, does this tower have any defences that can be used against them?”

  “I-I don’t think so, this place wouldn’t be monster infested otherwise.”

  “So… not much help there then. I don’t suppose this tower has any conventional weapons stored here that we can use?”

  “If there are any I am unaware of their existence. One of the reasons I came to research the towers in the first place was that the ruins here are arguably the safest ones known to us. Monsters can be snuck past or distracted, Zeonite defences not so much. Ah ha ha ha….” Arno trailed off in sheepish laughter at that.

  “Never mind then, if they aren’t here, they aren’t here. Lady Noire, please stay back while my squire and I set up what defences we can. In the event any of them break through us, we will need you to set up a barrier to stall them until we can assist. Professor, can you fight?”