“Magma beasts!” Kate shouted.
She had read of these monsters, seen a sketch of one made by one of the Black on a mission in Hell. He did not fight one, had merely seen it from a distance. None had ever been seen on this side of the gate.
Six of the creatures tore up the ground to get to the shield wall. They had the form of large hunting cats, but they seemed to be made entirely of some molten material. Flames danced on their bodies as they moved, the musculature of the monsters clear even though it was hard to look at one directly because of their brightness. Their eyes glowed a savage white, and as their tails slashed the air, sparks and small flames scattered behind them. Mixed with the purple light seen through the peeps, it was almost dizzying.
Worse, everything the monsters touched seemed to smolder, if not catch fire outright. Already corpses burned where beasts had stepped on them. Some of the live demons who were unlucky enough to be in the way screamed and tried to put out the fire that contact with the magma beasts had gifted them.
“This is going to take all we’ve got,” Kate said, sending all nine Black who were currently on duty toward the line. “Wilfred?”
The Blue had worked it out with his sergeant to remain with her and the other Black, claiming they needed at least one dedicated Blue to bring them food and water and to run messages.
“Here,” he said, stepping up from behind the platform.
“Wilfred, will you please run as fast as you can and notify the Black that we need some reinforcements? I don’t like leaving the rest of the battlefield without support like this.”
“I’ll get it done.” The young man ran for the stairs.
Kate watched as her brothers made their way to where the magma beasts were tearing into the shield wall. Only three of the Blacks had shields. There would be some injuries from this fight.
Glancing back toward the stairs, she saw three more Blacks making their way up. It must have been time for them to rotate in. Good. Just a few minutes more. Even now, Wilfred was animatedly talking to them and pointing up toward the plateau.
On the field, the Black had engaged the beasts. They moved with precision, those with shields trying to protect those without while the others cut at the monsters. Thankfully, their weapons seemed to harm the fire creatures, if the screeches emanating from the ones struck were any indication.
One of the Black—Kate couldn’t see who from the distance—was trapped between two of the magma beasts. He cut at one of them, but the other raked its claws across his back, leaving a bright trail of fire on his shredded cloak. Kate hoped it wasn’t a deep wound, that the armor mitigated the damage, but it looked devastating.
The man didn’t make a sound, not that Kate could hear, merely twisted and rammed his long sword through the creature that had injured him. One of the shield bearers slammed the other cat, pushing it away from his injured brother. He swung his head toward the injured man and then jerked his head back toward Kate. The wounded Black nodded and loped back out of the battle. As he went, his motions became slower and less coordinated.
“Go and help that Black,” Kate shouted to a couple of Blues nearby. “He’s injured.” They took off toward the front line as she turned her attention back to the battle.
All around the battlefield, the demons were still pushing at the wall, testing its strength. Everywhere except the pocket where the magma beasts ruled, that is. The Black continued to fight, two of the brothers with shields pinning the beast that had been injured while another—Kate thought it was Koren himself—rammed his sword up to the hilt in the beast’s side. Another who could only have been Peiros slashed its throat out with his khruk, the distinctive crescent weapons only he used.
Four creatures remained, with eight Blacks to fight them. With any other creatures, Kate would have bet on the Black, but with only three shields, she wasn’t so sure. As the thought crossed her mind, another of the Black was slashed with those fiery claws.
We need more shields out there, she thought. And not wielded by the Red.
A glance at the three Black who were still making their way up the stair, and she made her decision.
“You,” she said, pointing to a Red who was taking a drink of water from a bucket. “Three Black will be here shortly. Tell them to have one man this platform. They need me out there.”
“Yes, ma’am” the soldier said, saluting.
Kate took off at a run, her view of the melee swallowed up as she charged through the Red to the line.
By the time Kate reached the other Black fighting the magma beasts, two more of the Black had been wounded. All three bore wounds that, if not still on fire, glowed like embers in a campfire. One of them was on his knees, seemingly unable to rise.
She sprinted toward the fallen brother just as one of the beasts sprung at him.
Kate knew she’d never make it if she tried to adopt a protective stance above him. Instead, she did the only thing she could think of. She dove right where the cat would be as it struck the Black.
Shield in front of her, sword alongside it, Kate flew through the air without a thought of how she might land. Just before the monster’s claws touched the downed Black, she collided with it.
She bent her arms to absorb some of the force of the impact, but even so, the world spun crazily for a moment and she lost her bearing. Her training paid off as, when she and the cat both struck the ground, she collapsed her shoulders and rolled, bouncing hard off a small pile of corpses and finally sliding to a halt on her feet.
Kate shook her head to get her vision to clear and focused on the magma beast she had collided with. It rolled to its feet two paces away, a large gash in its side about the size her shield would have made.
The beast stumbled and then regained its firm footing, glaring hatred at her. Kate launched herself at it and, batting its swipe aside, she drove her sword into its neck. The next swipe, which she also caught on her shield, staggered her and almost made her fall, but she turned the momentum into an off-balance spin and lashed out with her sword, cutting deep into its throat.
The fiery cat stumbled again, whining. Kate drove her sword into one of its glowing white eyes and twisted the blade until it stopped moving.
Kate spat at the creature as she pulled her sword out of it and turned in a circle to survey the area around her. Three more of the magma beasts were attacking the other Black.
“Can you move?” she asked the kneeling brother nearby. “Amrit! Can. You. Move?”
“Yes. Thank you. I’ll head out.”
Kate wasn’t sure he would be able to with the injuries she could see, but she nodded. The others needed her more right now.
“Help him off the line,” Kate shouted to the Red nearby. “At least far enough for the Blue to get him.”
The soldiers clutched their shields and stared at her.
“Now!” she yelled, and several of them broke ranks to do as she asked.
Without another thought, she ran to where her brothers were still trying to fight the magma beasts.
Between the three Black with shields and herself, they were able to focus on one of the creatures at a time, penning it in and letting the others harry it until they could bring it down. In a few minutes, Koren drove his sword through the last beast’s head, impaling it to the ground. When he pulled his sword out and away from himself, it sprayed fiery brain matter on the demons that had backed off to watch the combat. They screamed at the humans as they clawed at where the fire landed.
In a moment, the shield wall closed up around the weary Black, and they moved back to their stations, helping those injured as they did so.
“You shouldn’t have done it,” Koren told her, “but I’m glad you did. Shields were what we needed, but none of the Red were up to the task. Thanks for the help.”
“You know,” Kate said with a wry grin Koren couldn’t see under her mask, “a smart commander can always find ways to be part of the fun bits.”
37
“I have a feelin
g they’re testing us,” Kate told Pello Sirakov as she met with the high officers on one of the larger platforms.
“Testing us?” Halie Askona asked. She was present, though she wouldn’t be anywhere near the battle lines if it weren’t for there being no other members of the Guiding Council alive.
“Yes,” Kate said. “The group of demon commanders, the magma beasts, the way the grunt demons are sent in surges, they’re testing our defenses. They could have thrown them all at us at once, possibly overwhelmed us, but they didn’t. They’re unsure because they expected to be able to walk through the gate and destroy an Order that was divided and weak.”
“But to what end?” Major Gylan Gedde asked. “Why not simply throw everything at us at once?”
“What if they judged incorrectly? What if we withstood their attacks because they are bottle-necked here, and we were able to push back to the gate, even into Hell itself?”
“I understand the sentiment,” Sirakov said, “but it doesn’t add up in my mind.”
“Nor in mine,” Kate said. “There’s something we’re missing here. We don’t know enough. For now, all we can do is maintain the shield wall and try to survive.”
The reports were not good. Less than four thousand troops were left in total, along with a bit over five hundred Blues. They had lost nearly a quarter of their forces, and the night was not over yet. There seemed to be no end to the bodies the demons were sending at them. No matter how many they killed, the supply seemed endless.
They discussed strategy for a time, though none of them could come up with anything to do other than to maintain the shield wall and keep the troops as fresh as possible. With nothing further to discuss, the officers went back to their commands and Kate to her own area where the Black was stationed.
“Koren, are you good?” she asked the grizzled man when she climbed up alongside him on the platform.
“So I’ve been told,” he deadpanned.
Kate rolled her eyes at him. “I’m going to go get something hot to eat and maybe wash up. I’ll be back in less than an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Was that irony in his voice? She was so tired, it didn’t even matter. Let him have fun with it. If it kept his spirits up, then so be it.
When Kate returned, she felt a little better. Refreshed was probably not the right term, but at least things seemed less horrible and she was not as fatigued as when she had left.
“Anything new?” she asked Koren, taking his place in scanning the battlefield.
“No. A few surges, some groups trying to move around the edges of the plateau, with a half dozen of the demons falling off the side. Pretty quiet, really. For a pitched battle.”
Half an hour later, that all changed.
The demons had been feeding their line steadily, new grunt demons joining the fight as if they were in line at a restaurant. Then, for no reason and without any signal that Kate could see or hear, the demons backed off the line, opening up a gap between them and the shield wall.
Many of the Red looked to their officers on the platforms, but the orders made it clear that they were to stay where they were.
“Hold your ground,” the captain on duty shouted. “Do not advance. Do not advance.”
Was it some kind of trap?
The rotation had just occurred a few minutes past. The Reds that were relieved had gone down the stairs and were entering the fortress proper. The fresh troops, if they could be called such when they had already served rotations during the night, were in place.
What were the demons up to?
The demon army split down the middle and a huge shape appeared, coming through the gate.
“Goliath,” one of the under-officers shouted. “Goliath incoming.”
Kate cursed. She had seen one of these monstrous demons once before. They were not seen often because the firestones weakened them more than other demons. They no doubt would have used them if they had succeeded in destroying the large firestones, but they hadn’t, so this was simply a suicide mission for the gargantuan creature.
Still, suicide or not, Kate had seen what the sheer mass of these monsters could do.
“Archers,” the captain shouted, “nock!”
The squads of Red archers, relegated to trying to pick off individual targets well into the ranks of the demons during the battle so as not to endanger the shield wall Reds, nocked their arrows as one.
“Draw.” The archers pulled their bowstrings back, aiming at the fast-approaching giant.
“Fire.”
Dozens of arrows streaked toward the goliath, most of them striking the target.
“Fire at will,” the captain shouted.
There was a hundred yards to the shield wall, but the creature’s massive legs were eating the distance up quickly.
“Shield wall, prepare.”
When the goliath was within twenty yards of the shield wall, the captain shouted another order. “Archers, cease fire.”
Though they probably could have continued to pepper the monster with arrows, aiming high above the shield wall, it wasn’t worth the possible danger. The arrows did little more than enrage the beast in any case.
The goliath crashed into the shield wall and kept moving. Its forward momentum didn’t lessen until it had plowed through five ranks of the Reds. Following in its wake were the grunt demons that had moved aside for its charge. They poured through the hole the giant had made like wine through a tear in a wineskin.
Kate looked to the Black to order them into action and saw that half a dozen of them had already made their way almost to the gargantuan creature.
The Reds slashed at the creature’s feet or at the demons that followed closely on its heels, but their attacks were not coordinated and seemed to do little good. They valiantly tried to close the shield wall around the goliath to at least stem the flow of the smaller demons, but whenever they got close, the giant’s hand would swipe out and clear a hole again. Kate wondered how the demons controlled the monster. She didn’t think goliaths were intelligent enough to figure strategy on their own.
Three more of the Black headed out after the first half dozen. These men knew what they were doing. They didn’t need her commands. Once they arrived at the front line, the three went past the goliath and worked to close up the holes in the shield wall, slaying grunt demons as if they were insects.
Meanwhile, the six Black continued to harry the goliath, darting in and slashing at its feet and then backing out of the way before it could attack them. This one stood nearly twenty-five feet tall and seemed to be thicker than the one Kate had seen before. It also didn’t seem to be as weakened by the firestones as the first had been.
One of the Black, Kate thought it was Aurel, wielded a massive two-handed sword. He darted in while the goliath was swatting at the other Black, and he cut deeply into the back of the monster’s ankle. It bellowed in rage and dropped to its knee, its tendon cut.
The other Blacks continued their assault while their brothers hacked apart the grunt demons. Despite all their work, however, the holes were not closing in the shield wall. Too many Red had been killed or were being dragged away wounded, and there weren’t enough to maintain the ranks at the front line.
If they couldn’t shore up those holes, the demons would spread out and engulf the smaller number of humans. It looked to Kate like it might be the end of the battle.
There were no other Black on duty, and even if there were, the line could not be held indefinitely by so few warriors. It would take time for new Reds to come to rotate in. The demons’ timing had been perfect. The humans were in a trap she wasn’t sure they could escape from.
Cheering from the Blue at the rear of the forces caught Kate’s attention. Usually, cheering during battles like these meant that the Black had taken the field, or that a particularly difficult monster had been felled. Looking at the goliath, still on one knee but fighting fiercely, she saw it wasn’t the latter, and the Black were already in the battle
.
Wilfred was standing below the platform pointing back down toward the fortress. Kate followed his finger and saw a force coming up the stairs at a run. They were not Reds. They were dressed in…brown?
“Get up there, you miserable, malodorous, milksop maggots, you scabby sons of soft-headed simpletons. Show them you’re worth the red clothes they’re gonna give you when this is over. Go on.”
Phileas Darknoll, beard bristling, ran at the head of the unlikely group of what looked like two hundred soldiers with shields and swords. Recruits? Kate thought. Phileas’s timing was impeccable, as always. He’d get to the field long before the confused Reds who had just left their shift. In any organized manner, that was.
Though Kate’s heart leapt at the sight, the person running next to Phileas made it do flips.
Phrixus Achard, dressed in black and black cloak flying behind him, saluted her with his sword and flipped down his death mask as he ran past her platform.
The commander of the Black had returned.
38
The recruits following Phileas double-timed it across the field and filled in where the shield wall was the thinnest. The three Black continued to hold off the grunt demons until the wall was nearly whole.
Only four of the Black who were attacking the goliath remained. Kate couldn’t see where the others were. She hoped they were still alive.
Achard joined the four, drawing a short sword with his left hand to accompany the long sword in his right. With a nod to the others, he set to work slashing at the giant, trying to weaken it.
Aurel—Kate could see the grinning, bronze-colored mask now, and it was definitely Aurel’s—gashed the goliath’s thigh on the kneeling leg, causing the creature to bellow and do its best to squash the irritating pest. While the big man held the demon’s interest, Phrixus Achard ran at the monster from the side.
Order of the Fire Box Set Page 72
