Arrival

by William Dickey

  I regaled them with the details, before moving to my orders. “Titania, organize the knights and make sure they start manning the outer walls.”

  “Think we should do that already?” Titania asked. Manning the walls was exhausting. Standing up in full gear, the tenseness of waiting for the enemy to arrive, it wouldn’t do to tire our soldiers early.

  “Put 20 percent of our forces on the outer walls and another 20 percent on the inner walls. They don’t need to be on full alert. They just need to be handy in case. Keep the rest back, but make sure they’re aware of the situation so they can be called up quickly if necessary,” I said. “Rotate people every 2 hours to mitigate exhaustion.”

  “Zelus,” I said turning to the next problem. “How’s the setup coming?”

  “Still need more time,” he said. “Even if I use everyone I can on it, it won’t be ready until midday tomorrow.”

  “Use everyone. We need it ready as soon as possible,” I said.

  “What if the beastmen get here before it’s ready?” asked Titania.

  “Then we’ll have to hold them back long enough to make up the difference,” I replied.

  “Are the mages still condensing mana crystals?” I asked Rose.

  “Most are,” she said.

  “Have them stop. They’ll need rest before the fighting begins,” I said.

  Mages drew on their own mana reserves to create the mana crystals needed to power artifacts. However, artifacts lacked the flexibility of magic cast directly. In terms of equal amounts of mana, it was better in the hands of a mage, than in an artifact.

  “How is the packaged food coming?” I turned to Albert.

  Last week, I had Albert work with a couple mages to dehydrate and preserve a large quantity of food. I then had the food packaged and distributed to all the soldiers so that they could eat whenever the fighting lightened up rather than when it could be delivered to them.

  “I really don’t knov vy you inzisted on doze bricks. Ach! I am embarrazed I made dem,” said Albert. “You can’t pozibly call dat space age trash food. The taste is avful and zee dehydrazion process ruins the texdure.”

  “Have they been distributed?” I cut Albert off after letting him vent over his quality control issues for a minute.

  “Ja. Ja,” said Albert. “I had dem all pazed out three days ako. I dought I told you dat already.”

  “You probably did. I just have a lot on my mind,” I explained. “I guess that’s it for now. Be ready the real work is just beginning and all of our fates rely on the outcome.”

  They all left to rouse the troops. I stayed with Sagemeister Parcelles to monitor the beastmen, hoping to gain some additional insight that could give me an edge.

  From the limited view of the scrying window, I watched the beastmen army approach. It was larger than expected. According to the experienced diviner, the number was closer to fifty thousand than the original thirty thousand estimate. The one blessing, the beastmen march stopped by late morning, not resuming until a couple hours before sunset. I don’t know why I had expected them to act like people, only moving during the day. The beastmen could see fine in the dark. Their sturdier, often furrier, bodies were better suited for the cold. Why wouldn’t they prefer to travel at night and spend the hottest part of the day resting?

  When Parcelles closed the scrying window at sunset, the beastmen were moving at full speed. I knew they’d be here before morning so I left the great hall and went to the outer wall to oversee the defenses myself.

  Since the beastmen were arriving at night, my largest concern was insuring we’d spot them before they whaled on us like a bunch of scarecrows. To defend against this I had fires lit every 30 feet all along the ground outside the wall. It wouldn’t give us much warning but it was still better than none.

  I figured they’d planned to scale the wall and find a way to open the gate, but even if they hadn’t been spotted, it wouldn’t have worked. The gates were heavily reinforced. Not only couldn’t they be opened, I’d go so far to say that the gates were even better fortified than the wall itself. I could just imagine the irony if the beastmen spent their energies focused on the gates rather than the weaker stone façade.

  It was an hour before sunrise when a watchman spotted the formation of empty footprints and quietly notified archers around him. They all carefully took aim and let loose several quick volleys, peppering the entire area with arrows. No form of invisibility can defend against that sort of indiscriminant attack. Arrows punctured the gaps all across the invisible enemies’ armor.

  Four died instantly. Three others died in a second round of fire after the first revealed them by damaging whatever concealment artifact they used. Later, a closer inspection revealed three sets of retreating tracks so the final three escaped, but from the drips of blood, it was clear none remained unharmed.

  It was another hour before the beastmen struck in force. At least one of the invisible escapees had seen enough to know that focusing on the gate would be a mistake. So the beastmen army targeted the wall. We heard them coming before we saw them. Under the cover of darkness, hundreds of beastmen charged forward at full speed. The rumble of their armor plates banging against one another and the hollow thuds of heavy footsteps woke the few who could sleep.

  The first wave consisted entirely of large cat and dog beasts. Several were similar to breeds I recognized from Earth and the other conflicts I’d been involved in, wolves, tigers, and mountain lions. But others I’d never seen before, giant felines with neon striped fur, canines with reptilian scales rather than fur. I even saw a cat with giant protruding teeth that looked like a genuine sabretooth tiger and a three-headed dog that looked like the embodiment of Cerberus.

  Typically, the beastmen favored heavy metal plate mail that shifted with their bodies, but this first wave wore lighter leather garments. That should have clued me in on what was happening.

  It’s difficult to realize just how weak human beings are. Earth’s Olympics showcases a wide variety of human physical abilities. Who can run the fastest? Jump the highest? Throw the farthest? But why? The fastest man alive can run 28 mph, a cheetah can go 70. The strongest man can lift 500 pounds, a gorilla can do 2000. Many animals make humans look pathetic in the physical realm. Never was this disparity better demonstrated than right then.

  The 30-foot walls were made into a mockery as scores of transformed feline and canine beastmen leapt atop it in a single bound. Each carried long thick ropes leading down to the ground guiding a second wave on their heels. Men screamed in surprise for a fraction of a second before claws and teeth silenced them.

  City defenses fell into disarray as the inexperienced soldiers panicked under the pressure of an actual fight, allowing their attackers to secure their positions.

  As they landed, the beastmen returned to human form and drew the barbarous weapons slung across their backs.

  “Cut the ropes. They’re scaling the walls,” I shouted, trying to reorganize the defense.

  My orders rang the hearts of everyone around me, quelling the chaos as they moved as one to carry them out.

  My warriors charged hacking and slashing, but greater physical ability and experience allowed the beastmen to take out all who approached with ease. The beastmen on the frontline wielded swords that danced through the air with such speed all you could see were flowing glints of reflected torchlight. Meanwhile, those in the rear drew the equivalent to boom tubes and fired deadly bolts of lightning between the defending swordsmen. City defenders fell by the dozens, hopelessly outmatched by the enemy continually reinforced by others slowly making their way up the walls.

  ‘It looks like we have to rely on that creation of yours,’ said Mai.

  “So soon?” I said. I had wanted to save it for when a greater number of the enemy were lining the walls, more bang for the buck that way.

  ‘Things are already getting out of hand. If you wait too long you could be in danger,’ said Mai. ‘Besides you have plenty more things in y
our arsenal.’

  “Very well,” I sighed.

  I raised a hand and called forth my magic. It might seem strange I wasn’t using an artifact, but for reasons that would soon be made clear, I didn’t have a single one on me. For my ill practiced self, it took an effort to mentally trace the sigil and summon the requisite mana, but for something like this, my meager abilities were more than enough.

  A bright green fireball shot from the palm of my hand and into the night sky. The beacon moved in a high arc before ultimately exploding in a brilliant green flash high in the sky.

  This signaled the score of soldiers stationed all along the base of the wall to activate the devices set at their positions, the only artifacts on any of the humans along the outer wall.

  I felt it, a great surge of mana emanating from all the devices, creating a wave of nausea to cascade over me. I would have fallen over but luckily, I caught myself on a nearby battlement.

  All other mages were similarly affected. Many swayed as if seasick, greatly imbalanced by the unexpected surge of energy. I even smiled a bit as one particularly portly Sagemeister gushed his dinner all over a startled beastwoman’s face. The common soldiers were largely unaffected. Most were incapable of using mana and thus weren’t nearly as sensitive to its fluctuations.

  What I didn’t expect was how the beastmen reacted. Every single beastmen seemed briefly effected as suddenly their advancing halted and their attacks slowed. This suggested all the beastmen were sensitive to mana, despite none ever being seen casting sigils.

  The knights pressed this sudden advantage and upped the ferocity of their attacks. A dozen beastmen fell in seconds, allowing my men to surge forward but this wasn’t a good thing. Before those affected could recover from the nausea, the true effect of my devices kicked in.

  Every mana crystal inside every artifact within 50 yards of the wall exploded. Uncontrolled elements burst forth, bringing chaos to everyone within five or six feet of an artifact as fire, ice, electricity, light, gravity and even the forces of time swirled haphazardly ripping apart everything in their path. The energy only lasted a few seconds but that was more than enough. Some bodies burned, others frozen. A few were simply ripped apart and one looked like it aged a hundred years. Since none of my men on the outer wall carried artifacts, they were largely spared. Only the brave ones unfortunate enough to be close to the enemy were affected. I had the survivors sent to healers to clear the way for more fighting, but it didn’t come.

  Roughly half of the couple thousand beastmen near the walls died, many of the rest were badly crippled, the undirected mana taking only a limb or two. It didn’t take long for the beastmen to sound the retreat and regroup.

  ‘The superMIC worked surprisingly well,’ said Mai.

  “Yes,” I agreed. “After hearing descriptions of the way the human army was defeated, I knew the beastmen were using artifacts and just took advantage.”

  The device I’d just used was simply a bigger, simpler version of the one I used to cancel magical interference during the Millenius. It created a massive surge of mana that, in addition to disorienting mana sensitive individuals, disrupted the crystalline structure of mana crystals. The disruption caused all the stored mana to spew out, wreaking havoc with seemingly random magical effects. Since the beastmen artifacts only held small mana crystals, the destruction was limited to only a few feet of the artifacts.

  “How long do you think they will pull back for?” I asked.

  ‘A good while,’ she said. ‘They have many injured to see to. Then they’ll need to recollect all the remaining artifacts to make sure the no one in the next wave has them.’

  “I guess it’s a good thing they don’t know that was a one-off,” I said. The superMICs were artifacts and were themselves destroyed by the pulse. I couldn’t use them again.

  ‘After that last hit, I doubt any beastmen will carry an artifact ever again.’

  For the rest of the night the beastmen hung back, unsure of how to deal with my toy. Our soldiers got a bit of a rest, although none slept very well. We kept them all scrunched together close to the wall for when the beastmen hit again. It wasn’t a question of if, but when. I was upset I had to use the superMIC so early. Only a couple thousand beastmen were affected. If I had waited until the beastmen had over run the wall, I’d have taken several times more. On a positive note, the beastmen retreat gave Zelus enough time to finish preparations for my next maneuver.

  The beastmen made their response mid-morning. They’d camped in the plains to the east of the city and with the light of the sun, their positions and movements were visible. You might think it strange that the beastmen chose to remain out in the open, but they didn’t really have a choice. The ground around the city was relatively flat and all trees and buildings in the area had been cleared away in preparation for their arrival.

  At the first signs of beastmen movement, I called everyone to attention. Men flooded the walls to maximize our defenses for the next push so everyone was watching when the beastmen strangely organized themselves into two roughly equal halves separated by a large gap filled with only a dozen beastmen spaced at twenty foot intervals.

  Then the dozen started to shift. Like other times I’d seen beastmen shift, the experience didn’t seem pleasant. All beastmen grunted in pain from the shift if they didn’t outright roar.

  But these individuals were somewhat different. They each collapsed in a fit of horrifying gargled screaming as their limbs twisted and contorted at odd angles. Some even started vomiting blood. Most notably, after a moment they started growing. Most beastmen transformations were fast only taking a handful of seconds but these were taking much longer.

  Several minutes passed during which the dozen shifters turned into somewhat amorphous brown blobs that steadily grew until they reached ten times their initial size and hatched.

  The result was a dozen 30-foot tall creatures. They had the body of an elephant, the thick stumpy legs of an elephant, even the large ears and prehensile trunk of an elephant, but it was also covered in thick dark scales and had two large protruding horns that matched the more standard ivory tusks. Furthermore, stegosaurus-like plates lined the beasts’ backs and their eyes had a slit like quality that made it look vaguely serpentine.

  “Actually brought gilaphants,” Titania gasped.

  “What was that? Gilaphants?” I asked.

  “Are beasts from the centaur plains,” said Titania. “In terms of raw strength, are completely unmatched.”

  “How do you know all this?” I asked, but before I could get an answer, the gilaphants charged.

  The other beastmen followed close behind, ready to take advantage of the path cleared away by the massive gilaphants.

  ‘Hey Isaac, I know you wanted to hang onto that second trick, but I don’t think we have much of a choice,’ said Mai.

  “You don’t think the wall can hold,” I said.

  ‘Given the creatures volume and their density is approximately that of water means they have a weight of… And given their current charging speed, they’ll hit the wall with a force of… It doesn’t stand a chance,’ Mai concluded.

  “Begin the retreat,” I ordered as the knights slowly gathered at the staircases to make their way down the wall.

  ‘We need to buy more time,’ said Mai.

  “Archers aim for their feet,” I bellowed. Damage to their feet could render the gilaphants immobile or at the very least slow them down.

  Soldiers closest to the action swept back to the charging giants and loosed arrows as quickly as possible. The gilaphants were huge, aim wasn’t too important. The main problem was simply that they couldn’t cause enough damage.

  Hundreds of arrows struck the gilaphant legs but for every dozen arrows that hit only one or two would actually penetrate. The rest simply bounced off the beasts’ hard scales. The gilaphants slowed and two stopped altogether but it wasn’t enough.

  When the first gilaphant hit, the world turned on its head. The en
tire wall shook felling hundreds as they were knocked off either side and met a 30-foot drop.

  Then the next gilaphant hit. Then another. The wall swayed precariously like a large ship struck broadside by a series of massive waves. The only difference, a ship was built to sway back and forth. The wall wasn’t.

  The fifth gilaphant hit. The wall leaned over a couple degrees and a couple people near either edge of the top of the wall fell over the side. All just like the other hits. But this time the stones at the bottom of the wall shattered and the 100-meter section on which I was standing fell in towards the city. The spatter of people falling off the side became a torrent and even if they somehow survived the fall, they were doomed. Tons of rock would crush them to oblivion. No armor would be enough to save them. All that would be left would be a dark stain.

  As for me, I pulled out my flying claws and latched onto the metal grating of a chimney on a building 50 feet away. I quickly reeled myself in, freeing myself from a physically depressed fate.

  The few who survived, the soldiers who’d already made it down the stairs or the mages capable of levitation, were slaughtered when the beastmen army rushed through the gap in the wall.

  “Retreat!” I shouted, though I doubt it was necessary. “The wall is down. Retreat back to the inner wall.”

  People ran back to the inner wall at a panic accelerated pace. I rushed across rooftops, periodically aided by the claws to get from one roof to the next when jumping wasn’t enough. Everyone else made their way down the empty streets trying to stay ahead of the beastmen horde, but whether in their beast or their human forms, the beastmen were able to easily out run the rookie knights. Hundreds more were slashed down from behind as people pushed and shoved the mile long run to the inner wall, doing whatever they had to improve their chances for survival. I only managed to stay ahead because of my clear path across rooftops and the added speed of swinging from one rooftop to the next.