Conqueror
Page 25
The monster towered over her, and she was mostly on the defensive because her reach was so much shorter against the bigger foe.
That Eldritch was joined momentarily by two more enemy mages, no doubt from the adjacent hallway—portions of their pale skin were bright red and sometimes blackened, courtesy of Abigail’s wall of flames. They hadn’t bothered to make themselves invisible.
Malem rushed the entrance. He held Balethorn in hand, though he didn’t remember drawing the weapon. Arrows struck the mages in rapid succession, thanks to Gwen.
The two Eldritch mages managed to lift their hands, pointing them at him and Xaxia…
Malem slid to the floor, tripping Xaxia. Deadly ribbons of green ripped past overhead, missing the two of them. The magic struck the wall and large green welts appeared, dissolving the edges and causing chunks of stone to fall away.
The soldier swung its trident down like a hammer, and Malem and Xaxia were forced to roll aside.
Multiple fireballs struck the mages and the soldier, forcing them back. More of Gwen’s arrows porcupined the lot of them, and the trio fell to the floor, where their bodies continued to burn.
The outlines of three mages and two soldiers appeared at the entrance—Malem knew the latter were soldiers because of the tridents silhouetted in their arms.
Stalagmites of ice erupted from the floor, their tips sharpened to finely-honed points. A mage and a soldier were impaled in the crotch at the same time, and both screamed terribly. The other three foes danced around the forming ice crystals, only to be met by dark smears of magic launched by Rathamias. They screamed in agony as black veins spiderwebbed across their faces.
Malem and Xaxia scrambled to their feet and mercifully ended them, along with the two impaled by ice.
Four more Eldritch crowded into the room, shoving past the bodies of the dead. Two soldiers, with two mages behind them. They hadn’t bothered to make themselves invisible. Word was apparently spreading that Malem and the other intruders could see through their guise.
The two in front suddenly became immobile, their eyes unfocused, dreamy. He realized that Rathamias had paralyzed them with his dark magic. He doubted it had worked on the mages, though.
Sure enough, green ribbons curled toward him and Xaxia; but he was already leaping to the ground. The magic continued toward the other members of the party…
Ziatrice vaulted in from the other bedchamber, via the hole in the wall, and took the impacts with her shield. Malem granted her vitality from the monsters as she dashed forward and leaped between the paralyzed Eldritch to cut down the mages. Then she spun and chopped off the heads of the immobile soldiers in one smooth motion.
He waited for the next attack, as did the others, but no more Eldritch came at them. Just like that it was over: the fighting had ended.
The sudden silence seemed strange: he had only just become accustomed to the cacophony of battle, and now it was gone. Not that he minded. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, listening to his own ragged breathing, and that of his comrades.
Malem reached out; he sensed other enemy soldiers rallying throughout the castle.
“One of the Eldritch raised an alarm,” Malem said. “I have multiple enemies incoming, making their way here from all over the building. I can’t sense them all… there might be more, closer nearby.” Sword in hand, he carefully peered out the doorway, in both directions. “Seems clear. Gwen, enter her bedchamber, and check the other hallway.”
The half gobling stepped through the gaping hole to the adjacent bedchamber and made her way to the opening.
Clear here, she sent. None of the Eldritch guards survived our attack.
Thank you. Get back here.
She returned a moment later.
“So what do we do?” Xaxia asked.
“The mission is a scrub,” Malem told her. “We have to retreat.”
“Well I know that,” Xaxia said. “I meant, how are we going to retreat? Considering it’ll be kind of hard to get to the basement now. They’ll be gathering reinforcements from the entire city to stop us.”
“If we can get to the rooftop,” Abigail said. “I know of another way out. There’s a small tower nearby… it’s an independent outbuilding, not connected to the castle. We leap across, climb down the spiral staircase, and cut across the courtyard to the guesthouse. In its basement, there’s another secret passage leading to the sewers.”
“Cut across the courtyard?” Gwen asked. “How far are we talking?”
“Not far,” Abigail said. “About twenty yards.”
“Still, we might meet resistance along the way,” Gwen said. “At any point along that route.”
“But certainly not as much as we would if we stayed in the main castle…” Abigail said.
Malem nodded. “If it gets too hectic, I’ll call in the monsters.”
“What about Nemertes?” Xaxia said.
Malem reached out, Breaking a nightbird that lounged on a roof nearby. He had the bird fly toward the castle.
“The dragon still sleeps,” Malem announced a moment later.
Abigail nodded. “As I told you, Nemertes can sleep for weeks.”
“It’s only a short distance to the adjoining tower,” Abigail said. “I doubt the dragon will wake up before we’re across.”
“Unless we meet resistance on the roof,” Weyanna said.
“Seems clear, for now,” he told her. “I’ll let you know if that changes.” He had the nightbird perch on a tower nearby—probably the same tower Abigail intended to guide them to.
“What do we do about her?” Weyanna asked.
Malem followed her gaze to the woman in the adjacent room who remained unconscious on the bed.
“We leave her,” he said.
“I’m surprised you don’t want to fuck her,” Gwen said under breath.
Malem shook his head, but ignored the comment. “Abigail, to the rooftop!”
26
Malem allowed Abigail to take the lead, and she led them down the hallway away from the bedchambers. The others followed close behind her, weapons in hand, minds ready to unleash magic.
“I should go first,” Ziatrice told Abigail. “You can guide me.”
Abigail nodded in acquiesce, and let the night elf take point.
The group rounded the bend ahead, bumping directly into two mages.
Ziatrice swung Wither and hewed them down; her shield took magical hits in turn. He boosted her with vitality from himself and the monsters.
Is that all you can give? Ziatrice asked in his head.
For now, he replied.
But that wasn’t enough to restore my shield.
He reluctantly fed her more energy. Eddy was going to revolt soon, at this rate. Maybe the basilisks, too.
Abigail guided Ziatrice past the steps leading down to the second floor, to the hallway that crossed in front of the extensive baths. He couldn’t actually see those baths, as the main doors were shut, but he remembered what they looked like when the rat had squeezed inside: pools of water, with towels and other amenities on shelves nearby. He didn’t sense any beasts inside.
Beyond the baths, stairs led upward to the next floor.
They continued to encounter minimal resistance along the way, and slew any Eldritch in their path; his beast sense told him the creatures were fast approaching from the floors below, however. Sometimes, in the lower hallways, the party even encountered the vanguards of those reinforcements, and had to dodge magical bursts. In such situations, Ziatrice swapped positions, moving to the rear to fling out her chains and draw in the enemies, allowing the party to rapidly finish them. However, eventually those vanguards became too profuse, as the main body caught up with them, and the Eldritch kept coming, forcing the party to flee.
They raced toward the final stairs that led to the rooftop.
“Still clear up there,” Malem said. He had the nightbird’s vision overlaid upon his own. “Nemertes is fast asleep.”
They took the stairs
two at a time, and burst onto the roof. It was essentially a wide battlement, enclosed by parapets that allowed defenders to fire down on attackers in the courtyard.
It had stopped raining, but the stones below were still slick; he didn’t have to worry about slipping, however, thanks to the ample grips on his boots. Remembering the dragon, he quickly sheathed his blade, not wanting the sword to disturb its rest.
He glanced at the tower to the west, where Nemertes resided. The dark form of the huge dragon was draped across the entire roof, its chest rising and falling in calm repose.
Still asleep.
This close, he had a better sense of its scale. The dragon was definitely bigger than Abigail in dragon form. His earlier estimate of three times as large was spot on. It was so enormous that it barely fit the roof, and its tail and hind legs drooped over the edges.
He didn’t sense it with his beast abilities, not in the least, but Balethorn did. Oh did it ever.
Though he wasn’t touching the blade, it called out to him, humming loudly from the scabbard. It wanted to drink the blood of the most powerful dragon alive. It was so loud in fact, he worried it might wake Nemertes.
Be silent! he ordered the sword. You’ll wake the dragon!
The sword hummed even louder. LET IT WAKE.
The dragon stirred slightly, shifting its head, sliding its foreleg further underneath its huge neck. But then the formidable beast became motionless once more.
Shut up your sword! Gwen said.
Can’t!
Abigail quickly headed in the opposite direction from the dragon, toward the tower where he had perched his nightbird. The sword’s humming died down as they put some distance between themselves and that dragon, and eventually became a disappointed drone.
Malem kept glancing in the direction of Nemertes however; he had the uncanny feeling the creature was watching them. In fact, one time when he spun around to look, he could have sworn he’d caught its lid closing, as if the dragon had in fact been observing them the whole time.
It was creepy as hell. But probably a trick of the dark.
He hoped.
They continued racing toward the far tower where the nightbird perched, essentially confirming that was the way Abigail intended to take. There was an open casement in the side that was at roughly the same level as the rooftop, and that opening was no doubt where the party members would be leaping across to when they reached the edge of the roof.
He had the bird look down to gauge the distance between the two buildings: the jump was only about a meter and half. Should be easily doable for all of them, considering that most of them had the strength of monsters.
But then streams of green magic rushed toward the party from that very casement.
“Trap!” Weyanna shouted.
Ziatrice took the impacts with her shield, and threw her ghostly chains into the darkness of the casement. She yanked, and pulled out an Eldritch mage, slamming it into the edge of the parapets of the current roof and letting the creature drop away.
But more Eldritch magic emerged, aimed past her, forcing the other team members to drop.
Behind him, the green outlines of Eldritch soldiers emerged from the stairs leading down.
They threw weighted nets. Malem, still prostrate, rolled out of the way. He scrambled to his feet as the net clattered harmlessly on the stone beside him, and drew his sword. It hummed anew, thirsting for the nearby dragon’s blood.
Quiet! he told it. You’ll kill us all!
FEED ME.
Another net came at him but he sliced it in half with Balethorn.
More ribbons of deadly Eldritch magic came in. He realized none of them were aimed at him, but his companions. They wanted him alive.
Of course. For Vorgon.
The team members dodged continually, positioning themselves behind the night elf for protection when they could. He had to keep seeping strength from the monsters to feed that shield. If he kept that up, he’d render the monsters useless.
So far, the blue dragon remained asleep. But for how much longer? Especially with his sword whining loudly like that. Not to mention the din of the battle.
The foot soldiers rushed them from the staircase. More emerged, and their bodies flared a bright green before they charged, becoming outlines; like the other soldiers, apparently they hadn’t heard the news that Malem and the others could still see them when they became invisible.
Abigail released weak fireballs. Weyanna small shards of ice. They were quickly tiring, the early stamina boost all but spent. Even Rathamias only unleashed token smears of dark magic by this point. Ziatrice was slowing, too, putting all of her efforts into maintaining that shield. She no longer launched her chains. Gwen was firing arrows at maybe a quarter of her fastest speed.
Soldiers went down from the magic attacks launched by the defenders, as well as Gwen’s arrows, but not enough. Malem and Xaxia were forced to fight as some of the Eldritch reached them. Magic attacks continued to erupt from the casement in front of them, blocking retreat via that route.
“I don’t suppose that shield of yours can cushion a fall?” Malem shouted at Ziatrice as he parried a blow from one of those big tridents.
“From short heights,” she said. “But not this high. And definitely not with passengers.”
“This way!” he said. He led the team to a corner of the rooftop, where they had at least some cover from the magic attacks from the casement.
“Make a defensive wall,” he ordered Ziatrice. He fed her stamina, and she thrust her ghostly chains into the stones of the surrounding parapets, and ripped the rocks free, piling them up in front of the party. She quickly formed a defensive bulwark, and the team crouched behind it, shielded from the enemy. For now, at least: green streaks of magic struck, slowly eating away the stones.
Gwen launched arrows from her cover, while Abigail and Weyanna continued to valiantly strike with their own magic, weak as they were. Rathamias participated, too, though he took long rests between attacks. Ziatrice remained down, trying to recover her strength. Xaxia and Malem were useless at the moment, given their short-range weapons.
He reached out experimentally, searching among the Eldritch, prepared to release the monsters under his control in order to free up slots. He found injured mages and soldiers alike, weak enough to Break, but before he could take them, their minds vanished entirely from his senses.
“They’re slaying their injured,” Gwen announced.
“Damn it,” Malem said. “So that’s how they want to play, is it? I’m calling in the monsters.”
“Finally,” Ziatrice breathed.
“Watch my back.” He sheathed his sword, muting its droning, and sat down cross-legged. He propped his back against the parapet behind him and closed his eyes: he planned to personally guide them in.
He reached out, hoping the monsters weren’t too pissed at him for leaving them behind and treating them as little more than fuel sources.
He switched to Khaan’s viewpoint and clamped down, taking control. It felt essentially as if he were the basilisk, and instinctively knew how to use all its powers, including how to exclude certain targets from its deadly gaze. Once he relinquished control and returned to his own viewpoint, that knowledge would fade, but he wouldn’t need it at that point anyway.
Breaking through the ranks of the army would be tricky. The army was likely being roused at this very moment in response to the disturbance at the castle, and they would be rushing toward the city gate. That meant the element of surprise would be on the side of the monsters, but it would quickly fade when the attack commenced. He’d need a way to protect the monsters from the deadly Eldritch magic.
He gave Eddy a mental command to unearth a huge tree to use as a shield. The ettin wrapped its arms around the trunk and heaved, ripping it from the earth. Then Eddy led the way, cresting the ridge that overlooked Tartan’s Vale, and then hurrying down into the valley beyond, moving as briskly, and as silently, as possible.
At the bottom of the valley, he ordered Hansel and Ophid to separate. The ghrip was to head west, the basilisk east. They were to follow along the outskirts of the valley, circumnavigating the enemy army, so that they could come in from the sides when he gave the signal. He instructed the monsters to quietly eat one or two Eldritch along the way, which would hopefully negate the invisibility attempts made by any other soldiers and mages along the way.
Meanwhile, he sent Eddy forward, and followed just behind as Khaan.
They moved stealthily at first, pausing along the outskirts of the enemy army to devour some Eldritch as he had ordered the other monsters to do. They caught the Eldritch by surprise, and killed them quickly, devouring them a moment later.
With the Eldritch blood flowing through his monster veins, he ordered Eddy forward at a trot, and followed close behind.
As the pair trampled onto the field, enemy troops quickly noticed them. The ettin flung that massive trunk back and forth like a giant club, and batted the Eldritch and their tents aside like so much refuse, clearing a path.
As Khaan, Malem cast his deadly gaze about, turning Eldritch to stone in waves on either side of Eddy. All around them Eldritch tried to become invisible, and failed—Malem could readily see their green outlines, and from the success of Eddy’s bash attacks, he knew the ettin could, too. Many of the outlines quickly became solid again as the Eldritch within them turned into statues.
Some enemies targeted with Khaan’s gaze didn’t turn to stone, and Malem assumed those were the stronger mages. He directed Eddy toward their outlines. Usually the survivors of the gaze attack managed to unleash magical strikes, proving his mage theory. Sometimes those strikes were quite powerful, judging from the profusion of green swirls, but Eddy merely held the tree in front of itself and the evil magic carved blast holes in the wood, leaving the monster untouched. Sometimes the damage inflicted to the tree was extensive, certainly, but not enough to penetrate the trunk entirely. At least not yet.