Hives Heroism by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org)

by Unknown

  “The question is… where are the adventurers?” Alethus murmured after a few moments, scanning the lines, then glancing toward Clarion, which was somewhat distant but visible, and the Shimmerwood. “They could be prepared to sally from the city, in the forest… or they could be behind the main lines, prepared to reinforce the soldiers when things get tough.”

  “I’d guess a combination, my lord. Or they might have prepared to punch down the middle once we’ve engaged, to try to get to you,” Minna said, looking back and forth cautiously. “I intend to have four companies guard each of our flanks, and keep the trolls in reserve to deal with any trouble spots.”

  “That’s your prerogative, general,” Alethus said, looking at her as he smirked. “As long as you’re cautious, I’m sure you’ll be able to tear them apart. Engage at your discretion. I’ll be heading out shortly.”

  “As you wish, my lord. I wish you luck,” Minna replied, bowing her head respectfully, and she gave him a rare smile as she added, “I look forward to hearing of how you succeeded.”

  “And I look forward to hearing about your success,” Alethus replied, laughing loudly for a moment, then he leaned forward and gave her a brief kiss. Minna stiffened slightly, then relaxed into it, a hint of red rising in her cheeks.

  When he broke off the kiss, Minna cleared her throat and asked, “Is that really the sort of example you want to set before battle, sir?”

  Chuckling, Alethus shrugged, glancing around the ranks of soldiers before he replied, his tone slightly wicked this time. “I somehow doubt it’s going to cause discipline problems, not when everyone knows perfectly well that you’ll crush them if they step out of line. Do me proud, Minna.”

  And with that he started toward the front lines at a steady pace, his smile widening as he moved.

  Alethus had been waiting for this day for years.

  Chapter 36

  Joy wrinkled her nose and moved from one branch to another, trying to mitigate the smell of the dead wolves. She didn’t know why they’d attacked such a large group of adventurers, but being downwind wasn’t pleasant. Her group was toward the middle of the adventurers, who’d spread themselves over a broad area of the forest edge, so she couldn’t move much, not without drawing an annoyed glance from Silverhoof.

  Moving did reduce the stench a little, to Joy’s relief. She settled down, watching as the Skyfisher army slowly moved forward, and Joy couldn’t help frowning, since the armies were very mismatched in some ways. To their right was Duke Dorma’s army, which was made up almost entirely of humans, with a few members of other species among them, and the horse-mounted knights.

  On the other side of the field, the Skyfishers had very different creatures with them. There were a couple of lizard-like creatures wreathed in fire, several stone elementals, what looked like a bull made of solid stone, a dozen oversized rodents the size of a wagon, and the flying lizards that Cora had called wyverns, and that didn’t even consider the huge creatures with the army that reminded Joy of the ogre they’d barely avoided in the Shimmerwood. The biggest difference was that instead of wielding a tree trunk, these ones were wielding maces like Stella’s. Huge, spikey maces that looked like they could squash Joy with a single swipe.

  “That looks bad,” Joy said at last, looking at the flying creatures as well. “They have even more flying monsters than I thought they would. The griffins might have a bad day.”

  “Yeah, unless the magi can shoot them down… but I’m guessing the bad guys have magi of their own, if they came here,” Brianna agreed, looking over the tree she’d crouched behind warily. The woman drummed her fingers on the tree, considering before she added, “Hitting them in the flank is not going to be fun, with some of what I’m seeing. Still, we should be able to do a lot of damage. I hope we can, anyway.”

  “I’m sure that we’re capable of that. We’ve fought them before,” Stella said, her voice cool and unruffled, almost serenity incarnate.

  “Maybe, but… wait, is that…” Cora began, but her voice trailed off as a figure moved forward out of the Skyfisher army, and Joy perked up.

  “That’s him, isn’t it? It’s Alethus!” Joy exclaimed, her eyes widening as the pale-skinned, dark-haired figure began to rush toward the army lines.

  “What?” Silverhoof demanded, the centaur straightening abruptly. “What in the hells does he think he’s doing? Everyone, we might be attacking sooner than expected!”

  The next moment Alethus sped up, and what happened after that made Joy cringe.

  The first arrows flew at Alethus, and he laughed, suddenly moving at full speed as he channeled mana into his boots, making it almost seem like he was flying. He could fly, but he didn’t feel like making himself into even more of a target than he already was. There was a reason he was targeting a formation that he was fairly sure didn’t have high-level people in it.

  Instead, his speed made it so the arrows and bolts landed behind him, then he extended a hand at the line of soldiers ahead of him and spoke calmly, focusing on an unfortunate man in the middle of a formation. “Chain Lightning!”

  A bolt of lightning lanced out from his hand at the man, and almost at the same time a glittering shield sprang up in front of the soldiers. The lightning slammed into the barrier and shattered it without even slowing down, then hit its target. The man convulsed and fell, smoking, as the bolt split and hit every other soldier within thirty feet of him, who staggered and fell to the ground screaming.

  Alethus was sure that some of the soldiers had survived, but he grinned broadly at the ripple of terror that swept through the enemy army, as well as the pale faces of those nearest him… including a small cluster of magi and priests. Unfortunately for them, he was practically on top of them before they could react.

  “Hell Quake!” he called out, jumping into the air, red magic swirling around his hand, and when he came down in the middle of the broken formation, he slammed his palm into the earth. The magic pulsed outward as the earth began to shake, and seconds later blasts of fire erupted from small fissures that opened, scorching those around him, including the magi blocking his way.

  The enemy was beginning to react, but Alethus didn’t give them time to start pinning him down. The two spells had eaten a fair chunk of his mana, so he straightened, pulling a mana potion off his belt and downing it in a single pull, then tossed it aside as he bolted past the army and toward the shrine, laughing victoriously as he did.

  Alethus almost hoped that some of the knights or griffin-riders would be foolish enough to chase him, since they wouldn’t last long and it’d make their army’s situation even worse.

  “Uh-oh,” Joy said, her eyes wide, and Silverhoof cursed loudly, then spoke.

  “Abigail! You’re in charge of the flanking attack. I’m taking a group after Alethus; he can’t be allowed to release that spider!” Silverhoof barked, glancing at the fire mage, then looked at the two closest groups of adventurers, which included Joy and her friends. “The nine of you are with me. Come on, people, we need to get you horses and to move.”

  “But, how’re we supposed to stop something like that?” Brianna protested, even as she stood to follow him, and Silverhoof gave her a grim smile.

  “Sorry to say, but sometimes what we need isn’t more power, but a distraction. He’s going to have to use more of his mana to break through the shrine’s defenses, so we might be able to take him down. Now move,” Silverhoof said, and he jerked his head to the north.

  Joy sighed, a sudden feeling of foreboding washing over her. This wasn’t going to be good; she could just tell.

  Chapter 37

  Minna watched coldly as her army slammed into the defenders like waves crashing onto the shore. The knights charged an instant later, and she smiled as they ran into the pikemen and salamanders she’d arranged to meet them. No horse liked fire, and the knights could roast in their armor for all she cared. Beyond that, Lord Alethus had also weakened the enemy’s defensive lines with his attack, so she’d already
given the orders to focus on that location.

  Glancing up at the sky, she smirked as she saw the griffin-riders fighting the wyverns. She might not like Phillip, but the man was an incredibly skilled warrior when it came to aerial battles. Unfortunately, the griffin-riders looked like they might be higher level… but on the other hand, that wasn’t enough to make up the difference in numbers.

  “Those should be dealt with soon enough,” Minna murmured, watching as fireballs and lightning bolts lashed out in either direction, while the magi blocked as many of the attacks as they could on either side. The defenders had a good position, that much Minna had to admit, but it wouldn’t help for much longer.

  The wave of fire that erupted from the east and washed over her pikemen made her smile vanish, though. Dozens of adventurers appeared from the forest to hit the flank, and Minna swore under her breath, as she hadn’t been expecting an enormous wave of fire like that to hit them.

  “Get the injured out of there! Tenth company, slow the adventurers while the trolls move to reinforce you. Giants, widen that weak point, and don’t let them recover!” Minna snapped, irritated that the enemy had done even that much damage, and the giants began to throw boulders at the soldiers trying to fill in the spot where Alethus had decimated them. Almost as if in response, the first enemy siege engines began throwing ballista bolts and stones at her soldiers, ripping holes in her lines.

  Still, it could always be worse, and they’d deal with the enemy if given a little time. She wasn’t going to fail Alethus.

  So she watched pitilessly as her former countrymen fell in pools of blood. She’d far rather they knew when to give up, since they were killing her soldiers.

  Wilbert’s mount didn’t want to approach the salamander, and he couldn’t blame it. He didn’t like charging toward a gigantic lizard-like creature covered in fire either, but he didn’t have much choice, not if they were going to have a chance to stop the army. It didn’t help the yawning pit in his stomach when he thought about the demon who’d ripped through their lines effortlessly, but at least he didn’t have much time to dwell on that.

  The impact of his lance hitting the salamander slammed Wilbert back in his saddle, and the creature gave a deep, throaty bellow of pain as the weapon ripped deep into it, staggering at the same time that Wilbert dropped the haft. His sword cleared its sheath an instant later and arced through the air, blinding the creature on one side as Wilbert raced past, heat scorching his horse and heating his armor, then he was past the beast and charging at the pikemen following the beast. He hoped the magi would deal with the injured salamander quickly, but as the highest-level knight present, he had to do what he could to thin the enemy numbers.

  “Wind Slash!” Wilbert called out, whipping his sword through the air. In its wake a brilliant green wave of energy erupted, lashing out across the battlefield and cutting down over a dozen soldiers in an instant, then it hit something harder.

  The energy slammed into the haft of a pike and cracked as it drove the woman back several feet, then the effect shattered, barely leaving a scar on the weapon. The woman wasn’t much different than the rest of the pikemen around her, but Wilbert’s eyes narrowed as she rolled her shoulders and smiled from under her helmet.

  “You must be the leader, hm? That means there’ll be a reward for your death,” the woman said, her voice barely audible over the battlefield as she took a combat stance.

  “Maybe, but you might have bit off more than you can chew,” Wilbert replied flatly, focusing on the fight in front of him.

  If he could deal with some of the commanders, his troops would take fewer losses. He had to deal with this quickly.

  The next instant he spurred his mount forward, and he didn’t have time to think.

  “What should we expect?” one of the other adventurers called out, a dwarven man who was in fine clothing similar to Cora’s, though instead of a staff he had several wands sheathed on his belt. The man was riding a horse, much like all the adventurers save for Joy and Silverhoof.

  “The shrine has been fortified, so you’ll know it when you see it. I’m hoping that the defenders will have held them off, but I’m not expecting it,” Silverhoof replied, his voice loud as he raced across the countryside. “It’s in a stone amphitheater of sorts, one carved into a hill and completely surrounded by rock. We have to keep him from using the key if we can. Try to distract him, and I’ll do my best to kill him. If we can get the key away from him, try to evacuate it to Clarion.”

  Joy was honestly having a difficult time keeping up with the horses, which finally explained to her why people would use them to move around. The only advantage Joy had was her ability to ignore obstacles. She dodged over a tree the others had to circle around, gaining a little more speed, and peered ahead of them. She thought she saw torches from somewhere ahead, but it was hard to tell with the sun setting. She also had to force herself not to look behind her, since they could hear the battle even from here.

  “What if he’s used it?” Cora asked, seeming to struggle to make herself heard over the wind. She did not look comfortable on the creature, Joy thought.

  “Then we’re screwed, and we need to run as fast and far as we can,” Silverhoof said grimly, his voice slightly strained due to the effort of moving. “It’ll take some time for the seal to release the spider, but there’s no way we’ll get far enough if it comes directly after us. I wish we could reseal it, but none of the merchants had the item necessary, and I couldn’t ask anyone to make the sacrifice involved.”

  “What sort of item?” another asked curiously as Joy glanced down at the silver-haired woman. It was a neat hair color she’d never seen on a human before.

  “That’s the problem; it can be almost anything with an enormous amount of light-aligned energy. Angel blood, pure holy water from a high temple, a sun-blessed topaz, a light golem core… anything like those. They’re rare, though,” Silverhoof explained. “Trying to find those is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The Seldrim guild was going to try to find one in the Blackstone Mines—”

  “Like a light elemental core?” Joy interrupted, her thoughts leaping to the crystal in her inventory. “I’ve got one!”

  Silverhoof nearly tripped, and the centaur slowed slightly, his head whipping around as he demanded. “You have what? How?”

  “She ripped it out of a luminous titansteel-laced elemental we were fighting in the Blackstone Mines,” Brianna said, a hint of shock in her voice. “I thought she’d sold it.”

  “I forgot about it,” Joy admitted in embarrassment. “I was thinking about turning it into a lantern.”

  One of the other adventurers made a choking sound at that, which Joy ignored. People were so strange sometimes.

  “Hells, well, maybe there is something to be done, but… no, I still can’t ask anyone to do that. Resealing the monster requires either an enormous number of powerful magi, or someone to give up their life,” Silverhoof said, and before anyone could say anything he added, flatly, “With no chance of resurrecting afterward. So don’t even think about it. We need to stop him first.”

  “Uh, we’d better hurry, then,” Joy said, peering ahead of them. “I don’t think the defenders slowed him down much.”

  Ahead of them, Joy could see a rocky, flat-topped hill. It had a large hole in the center, along with what looked like a tunnel in the side of it, and beyond it was an enormous rock formation. The rock formation looked odd, but as the sunset’s light played across it, Joy’s blood chilled as she made out the shape of legs.

  The legs attached to a central body that was partially embedded in the ground, which was the main reason Joy hadn’t identified it immediately. The central body had to be at least two hundred feet across, and with the legs extended… Joy shuddered, since she suspected the creature could cover almost an entire hive within the spread of its legs. She did not want to see it when it wasn’t stone.

  More to the point, below the hill was a palisade with numerous torches
next to watch posts, or at least most of them had been watch posts. The gate had been staved in as if hit by a boulder, and one of the posts was half-collapsed and on fire. Joy couldn’t see anyone moving in the camp, which was bad. Really bad.

  Silverhoof cursed loudly and redoubled his pace, not talking anymore.

  Chapter 38

  “He must have rammed the gate,” Brianna said, her words quiet, yet Cora shuddered anyway on seeing the damage that had been done. It reminded her of the horrible cracking sound from when Alethus had thrown Joy into the wall when she stabbed him. She could hardly believe how strong the demon was, and that hadn’t even been intentional. This had been.

  The gates had shattered, and in breaking them Alethus had snapped the support of one of the watchtowers, which was now on fire, providing lurid illumination for the scene of horror that was in front of them. Dozens of bodies littered the ground, most of them scorched by lightning or fire, but a few had met a grislier fate. One body of a woman was twisted in death, her skin turned pitch-black and with blood on the ground in front of her, obviously killed by some horrifying poison, while another four had been cut to pieces by a sword. The poison in particular terrified Cora, since she remembered being poisoned by Alethus. Considering this, he’d been toying with her.

  Past the small huts which the defenders had built, some of which were burning, there was a doorway leading into the hillside, one with a pair of stone doors that were ajar. The doors were carved with images of what Cora thought were human knights facing a vast spider, and she felt her fear grow just a little more. If the spider escaped, there was no telling how dangerous it would be.