It took another twenty minutes to offload everyone, get them back to the tower, and situated in the dining area. Allistor checked in on Leila’s group, several of which he spotted milling around.
“Nigel, have Leila’s people begun exploring?”
“Yes, Sire. I have transported two hundred and thirty seven of them to other locations, many of them to multiple locations. I am tracking their whereabouts, and answering questions for several of them. Would you like an individual list?”
“No, thank you Nigel. That won’t be necessary. But I would like to know if any of them traveled to Orion.”
“Seventeen of the newcomers have transported there so far. Along with eight citizens who agreed to escort them.”
“Thank you Nigel. This new group has been given the same offer. Please allow them to teleport around and explore. And please give everyone a reminder at 4:00pm local time that they need to return here by 5:00pm.”
“Certainly, Sire.”
Allistor raided Meg’s kitchen storage, stocking up on more food and drink, this time for two hundred people. Finding Amanda and the others waiting for him in the lobby, Allistor headed back to Phoenix to start their search for the next Stronghold.
Chapter 4
Kira took the Phoenix up, and Juanita directed her roughly northeast from the parking garage. As they moved above the city, they could see that both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge had been destroyed, large sections right in the middle having been blown apart. There were cars on both bridges, but many were crushed and shoved to either side of the bridge, as if tanks had pushed through them.
It was the same when they reached the Williamsburg Bridge a moment later. This time the bridge had been blown apart closer to the Manhattan side. Kira hovered for a moment over the base of the bridge, and pointed downward. “I think that right there’s your Stronghold. But they’re in trouble!”
Allistor was noticing the same thing on the bridge monitors even as Kira pointed it out. The view beneath the ship was of several oddly shaped high-rises just west of the FDR freeway. The two buildings nearest the freeway and bridge intersection were enclosed in a standard thirty-foot high Stronghold wall. It encompassed both buildings, a couple parking lots, and a few acres of green space that looked like it had been partially cultivated. A double-wide gate was situated in the eastern wall, facing across the freeway toward the river flowing just a hundred yards or so away.
Outside the gate, the road was clogged with abandoned cars, several of which were on fire. Swarming between the cars and massing near the gate were hundreds of goblins. Smoke poured from one end of the building closest to the gate. Even as Kira spoke, balls of flame were rising up from the goblin horde, arcing over top of the walls, and impacting the building. The goblins outside were using bows and slings to shoot upward, while a group of them were pushing a truck to ram into the gates. Allistor could see humans running around inside the wall, and defenders shooting down at the goblins from the ramparts.
“Kira! Get on the weapons station and start firing! Nigel, take over control of the ship and keep us hovering just out of range of their weapons! Bjurstrom, get your people ready, we’re gonna be landing soon, and there’s a goblin horde below us. Open the cargo door and do whatever damage you can do from up here until then.” Allistor started running off the bridge toward the elevator. “Nigel! Get me Gralen, now! Prime, send a droid from the tower to get Harmon, tell him we’re fighting a goblin horde, and it’s lunchtime!”
“I have Gralen, Sire.”
“Gralen! We’ve run across a goblin horde, attacking a human stronghold. I can’t tell how many there are, but it’s a lot.”
“There are one thousand one hundred and eight hostile entities below us, Sire.” Nigel flashed up a display over top of Allistor’s map showing masses of red dots.
“You hear that? Gather up as many people as you can fit in your ship and get over here!”
“Right away, Allistor!” Gralen’s voice came back. “I’m getting the feed from Nigel here on Opportunity. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Gralen and his crew were currently with their ship, which was parked in Denver after returning from Orion.
“Shit, twenty minutes might be too long. Just come as fast as you can.” Allistor replied.
“Sire, Prime is relaying a message from Harmon.” Nigel made a hologram of the giant orcanin’s face appear in the air in front of him as he ran into the cargo bay.
“Harmon! I’ve got a horde of tasty treats down here for you. Over a thousand of them. Think you could grab some of your orcanin and my people, and get over here in your ship?”
“We’re already on our way, Allistor. A hundred or so of your people are joining my troops. It’ll take us about five minutes to load everyone, and another couple to get there.”
“Great! We’ll keep them busy. I’m sending you a raid invite, designating you as a Commander. Please include everyone on your ship. See you when you get here.”
Allistor was approaching the open cargo bay door, where the others were looking down at the horde. The two sisters were singing a battle song, stomping their feet to create a beat as they enhanced the damage of the spells their raiders were hurling downward. The ship’s guns were firing plasma bolts and repulsor charges into the horde. Each strike took down several of the little monsters, but they were hardly making a dent.
Bjurstrom looked up as Allistor approached. “Really wish we had one of those bombs on board about now.”
Allistor grimaced. “We used all we had on Orion. Gene’s guys might be making more, but it’s only been a few days.” Grabbing hold of one side of the cargo door’s frame, he leaned out. He saw one of the raiders toss two of Meg’s napalm grenades out, and watched them fall for several seconds before they exploded near the rear of the goblin horde that was still trying to bash open the gates. There was some confusion among the goblins, but when nothing happened other than a foul-smelling soaking, they shook it off. One of the shamans began casting another spell.
That was a mistake.
The moment the goblin began to summon the fireball between his hands, he caught fire. Followed quickly by dozens of goblins around him who’d either been splashed with the liquid from the grenades, or were standing in small puddles of it. In seconds, an area thirty feet wide became an inferno of screaming goblins. Allistor took a moment to Identify the shaman.
Goblin Shaman
Level 35
Health 6,270/9,500
“Nigel! I need you to take us down. Bjurstrom, I need three drivers for the Juggernauts. We’re gonna break up that group by the gates.”
The ship descended, moving a short distance east away from the horde. Allistor looked down and saw they were about to land on a wide patch of artificial surface that encompassed a dozen tennis courts in three rows. Plenty of room for the Phoenix.
The moment they touched down, Bjurstrom and two other raiders drove the vehicles down the ramp. Kira continued to fire ship’s weapons at the horde across the freeway, the plasma bolts screaming through the air above the Juggernauts.
A moment later, the lead vehicle smashed through the four-foot iron fence between them and the FDR, and sped onto the road. Allistor immediately saw a problem. He hadn’t taken into account the concrete K-rails that separated the northbound and southbound lanes. The vehicles had stopped, and Allistor could just hear Bjurstrom thinking about trying to ram his way through. He quickly scanned north and south as he jumped off the ship. There wasn’t a break in the wall that he could see. He picked a spot to one side of the Juggernauts, and cast Dimensional Step.
As soon as he was in range, he cast Levitate on the section nearest the lead Juggernaut. Immediately, he felt his gut twist and the blood burn in his veins as he tried to use his magic to lift the multi-ton section of concrete. “Bjurstrom, push it!” He screamed as he tried to hold the spell. The concrete hadn’t risen into the air at all, but when Bjurstrom advanced and slammed into the K-rail it slid along in front
of him as if it weighed almost nothing. The moment there was space for the vehicles to get through, Allistor cancelled the Levitate spell and gasped for air.
When he cast Restore on himself, hoping to ease the burning in his veins, the pain only got worse. So he pulled a healing potion from his inventory and drank that, instead. The pain lessened as he watched his three demolition drivers start to plow through the rear of the horde. Goblin bodies were flung aside, or were crushed under the oversized wheels. Others turned their attention away from the Stronghold and began to bash at the vehicles with clubs and spears. Shamans began throwing fireballs at the moving targets as they completed their first pass through the horde and were turning for another.
Allistor was debating whether to try and cast another spell, when he saw the defenders atop the wall dump buckets of what looked like oil onto the truck the goblins were using as a ram. A moment later a flare dropped from the wall, there was a deep whump! sound, and thick black smoke began to rise as the vehicle and monsters caught fire. The thick black smoke rose into the air, pushed by the breeze off the river to join the much larger column of smoke billowing out of the high rise. From where he was standing, Allistor could see the upper floors at the near end of the building engulfed in flames. The defenders atop the wall above the gates had to retreat before they were overwhelmed by the smoke.
Bjurstrom and his drivers were plowing through the back lines of the horde for the second time, but without the element of surprise. All three vehicles looked like moving piles of goblins as they pushed through, the little monsters covering every inch and pounding at the exteriors. The upside of this was that there were no more fireballs. The shamans had either stopped targeting the Juggernauts to avoid killing their own, or they’d all been run down.
On the other hand, goblins along the walls on either side of the gate had begun scaling dozens of ladders, and were reaching the top of the wall. Human defenders were hacking at them with machetes and what looked like kitchen knives, while others were firing guns at the climbing monsters, or trying to push the ladder tops away from the wall. But already there were goblins atop the wall in half a dozen places.
Bracing himself, Allistor ran closer to the wall, and the horde. When he was within one hundred feet, he chose a spot of relatively clear wall, and cast Dimensional Step. The moment he appeared atop the wall, his body screaming in pain again, he lost his balance. Only his recently improved Agility stat let him fall inward to land atop the walkway, rather than outward and down into the screaming horde.
Gritting his teeth, he got to his feet and started shouting. “Here! I’ve got weapons!” He began pulling plasma rifles from his ring, handing out his entire supply of six of them to nearby humans. “Just point and shoot!” They all seemed to get the hang of the weapons quickly enough, and began blasting goblins off of ladders as they spread out down the walkway.
He found a couple of Meg’s grenades in his inventory, and grabbed them as well. He chucked the first one sideways along the outside of the wall so that it smashed into several goblins at the base of a ladder near the burning vehicle. Instantly the napalm lit, and those goblins, along with the ladder itself, began to burn. Allistor repeated the process with another nearby ladder, using the flames from the first one to light the next two on fire.
Grabbing a man who was standing a few feet away stabbing a goblin in the face with a Bowie knife, he drew his sword and handed it to the man. “Hey! Use this. Keep them off me for like a minute, okay?”
The man nodded and began to hack wildly, knocking the top goblin off the ladder without a big chunk of its head. Allistor grabbed the wall with both hands to steady himself, and targeted the lead Juggernaut, which was still buried in goblins. He began to cast Storm, the burning in his veins not quite as bad as before. But as he channeled the spell, and the clouds gathered above the horde, the searing pain increased. He gritted his teeth and held the cast, watching bolts begin to blast the little green monsters off of his vehicles as they moved slowly through the AoE storm. As the strikes increased in frequency, Allistor let loose a scream of pain. Five seconds later he could no longer concentrate enough to hold the spell, and he let it go. Feeling dizzy, he stepped back from the edge of the wall and stumbled. The only thing that kept him from falling off the rampart was the man to whom he’d handed the sword.
As the man helped him lower himself to sit with his back against the wall, Harmon’s ship came screaming over top of them from the southwest. Speakers blared something in a harsh orcanin voice as weapons fire rained down upon the horde. Allistor couldn’t see what happened next, as he didn’t have the ability to stand back up and look. He produced both a health and mana potion, downing one right after the other, then held his head in his hands as he hoped for the pain to recede. The man with the sword returned to hacking at the goblins on the nearest ladder, splashing Allistor liberally in monster blood.
Less than a minute passed before the sounds of the battle changed. Allistor could hear the screams of terrified goblins and the roars of hungry orcanin, and assumed Harmon’s troops were making a charge. He looked up at his sword-wielding companion, and saw the man’s eyes widen. It occurred to him that the defenders probably thought their situation just got worse, that the orcanin were attacking them.
Slapping the man’s leg, he shouted “The big ones are friendly! Pass the word! They’re on our side!”
The man stared for a moment, then nodded and began to shout. Echoing shouts began to run up and down the wall. The man looked back down at Allistor, and offered him a hand up. Allistor gripped the man’s hand as tight as he could, and pulled. Now on his feet, he once again held onto the wall for support.
“I’m Angel.” The man shouted above the screaming. “Thanks for the help.” He held up the sword, then pointed over the wall. “That was some badass magic.”
“Allistor. And you’re welcome. Those big guys that look like orcs are called Orcanin. Allies of mine. They eat goblins.” Allistor gave a half-hearted grin as the man looked over the wall again and shook his head.
“They can have them.” He spat over the wall. The ladder in front of them had apparently cleared. Angel used the sword to push it away from the wall. He quickly scanned in either direction to confirm there were no more goblins coming over, then turned with a worried look toward the burning building.
Allistor shook his head. “You can’t help them right now. Focus on this fight.”
Angel nodded, his face grim, and began to stalk down the wall, looking for something to kill. Allistor let him go, leaning over to look down. The ladders within twenty feet of him in either direction were all down or burning. The juggernauts had freed themselves and were turning back toward the gates for another run. All of them appeared to be intact, though they were covered in goblin blood.
Harmon’s hundred or so orcanin troops had the remaining several hundred goblins trapped between themselves and the wall, and were happily scything them down with long swords and hammers. Allistor’s people were firing spells nonstop into the goblins closer to the wall, and the few who were still on ladders.
A small number of remaining goblin shamans cast fireballs from near the center of the horde. Some screamed into the orcanin line, knocking the burly fighters off their feet when they struck, singeing but not killing the tough orcanin. Other fireballs flew up and over the highway to splatter against the shield surrounding the Phoenix. A single fireball flew upward toward the wall’s defenders, targeting one of the humans firing a plasma rifle. It struck the wall just below the man, flames splashing upward to engulf his face and arms. Screaming, he fell back, dropping the weapon as he instinctively tried to cover his burning face with burning hands.
Allistor traced the path of the fireball back to the shaman, who was doing his best to blend into the horde. But his staff gave him away.
Not wanting to risk the pain of using more magic, Allistor pulled the Barrett .50 from his ring and set it upon the wall. He didn’t need the scope to zero in on a targe
t just a few dozen yards away. Using the gun’s sights, he took a few seconds to breathe, then squeezed the trigger. The shaman’s head exploded even as the round continued through the bodies of three more goblins in a line behind him before burrowing into the concrete.
Allistor heard Angel whistle from beside him before murmuring, “I gotta get me one of those.”
The sounds of screeching metal distracted Allistor before he could respond. The goblins had organized, working together to flip one of the Juggernauts onto its side. The vehicle continued to roll until it sat wheels-up on its roof, rocking back and forth, and spinning slightly as the horde pounded and shoved.
Harmon’s orcanin had decimated the goblins facing them, chanting and stepping forward in rhythm as they sliced and smashed the much smaller and weaker monsters. Nearly half of the horde was dead or dying now, and many of the remaining goblins were frantically trying to break through to escape.
Behind Harmon’s ever-tightening line, Allistor saw the rest of his raiders had formed up and were casting both dps and healing magic into the fray. Addy and Sydney were still singing, though Allistor couldn’t hear the tune above the din of battle. Looking down the wall, he could see several of the wounded defenders were receiving heals, but he couldn’t tell whether they were coming from his people, or the locals.
Taking aim at another shaman, Allistor saw three of them grouped together, each of them chanting and moving their arms, each waving a glowing staff. A chill crept up Allistor’s spine as he thought he recognized the spell. A moment later, something close to four hundred goblin fighters began to grow larger, and stronger, as their eyes began to glow a crimson shade of pure hatred.
Allistor squeezed his trigger again, causing one of the three shamans to burst like an overripe watermelon. Even as he targeted the next, he began to scream. “Get back! Get down! They’re going to explode!”
Angel immediately picked up the cry, shouting both directions down the wall, repeating himself to make sure the message was understood. Word began to pass down the wall, but it wasn’t moving quickly enough.
Shadow Sun Progression: Shadow Sun Book Four Page 6
