Two Necromancers, a Dwarf Kingdom, and a Sky City

by L. G. Estrella

  Old Man paused for a moment and then nodded sharply. “I can do it. It won’t be a pleasant trip, but we will make it down there.”

  “Then take as many of us as you can.” Barin raised the colossal war hammer he’d crafted out of broken pieces of armour and the like with his magic. The construct he’d surrounded himself in could easily wield it despite the weapon being larger than a grown man. “With me!” he bellowed. “We take the fight to the enemy!”

  They made their way to the edge of the city. For a long moment, Old Man simply studied the naval base. It might have been possible to use rocs or other fliers to make the journey, but with the naval base on full alert, they would almost certainly be brought down by its myriad defences. His gaze wandered until he found a suitable landing site. It wasn’t as close as he’d like, but he should be able to reach it. He closed his eyes and reached out with his magic. Space warped and twisted, and then Barin and the others who’d come along were on the ground. Not far away, the hulking, tattered form of the gigantic eldritch abomination continued its reckless advance. Most of its tentacles had been blown off, and several of its strange, claw-like limbs lay in the harbour. Its cylindrical body was pitted and covered in wounds, and its healing had either slowed or stopped entirely. Once it fell, the Sky City would bear the full brunt of the naval base’s firepower.

  King Barin pointed. The largest weapons were directly ahead of them, so their course of action was clear. Now was not the time for caution. They would have to wager everything on catching their opponents by surprise. “For the Broken Mountains!” he thundered. “Attack!”

  The dwarves charged forward, driven by a combination of desperation and grim determination. Some of their weariness fell away as they caught sight of the enemy. The poor bastards looked absolutely shocked to see them. They hadn’t expected a counterattack of this kind at all. They weren’t in anything even remotely resembling a defensive formation, and they seemed to be in the middle of tending to their supplies and equipment. As they rushed to ready themselves, the dwarves hit them with all the momentum of a boulder tumbling down the mountainside.

  Barin swept his huge war hammer forward in a broad arc, sending soldiers flying through the air. A mage blasted him with a shaft of fire, but the thick, interlocking plates of metal around him weathered the blast, and he simply grabbed another soldier in one of his construct’s giant hands and hurled him at the mage. The pair got tangled up, and he kicked a wagon full of supplies at them.

  “Target the mages!” he bellowed. “Don’t let them regroup!”

  The dwarves immediately hastened to obey. A crossbow bolt caught one mage in the throat, and another was impaled by spikes of rock. A third mage went down, struck by a dagger one of the dwarves had thrown.

  There was no time for finesse or advanced tactics. Instead, they simply needed to hit as hard as they could as quickly as they could to overwhelm the enemy before they could recover. Once their charge was blunted, they would be in trouble. Their fatigue and fewer numbers would weigh heavily upon them. But if they could take – and keep – the initiative, they might be able to sweep their opponents aside. At the head of the charge, Barin took blow after blow. His mighty construct shuddered with each impact, but he pressed on, crushing soldiers with his war hammer and trampling anyone foolish enough to stand in his path.

  As they continued their advance, Barin focused on two of the largest magical cannons ahead of them. They were each shaped like huge lighthouses, and they were clearly designed to engage dreadnoughts and other large vessels. Now, however, they were plying their deadly trade against the Sky City and the cosmic fungus.

  “Onward!” Barin bellowed. “Push!” Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light race toward them. Old Man turned, and his sword deflected an attack that would have reduced the entire area to cinders.

  “Keep going,” Old Man said. “I’ll deal with the threats over there.” He nodded in the direction the attack had come from. “I wager they have at least one Lord of Magic there, perhaps more, and turning our backs on a Lord of Magic would not be a wise decision.”

  “Then good luck,” Barin rumbled as Old Man vanished. “If they do have a Lord of Magic, it won’t be an easy fight, even for you.”

  They pressed toward the weapon on the right. His whole body ached from the strain of using his magic at such a high level for so long a time, but he had no choice. A blow thudded into his back, and his construct stumbled. He would have fallen if he hadn’t used his war hammer as a crutch. His eyes narrowed. He’d felt that blow even through all of the metal he’d surrounded himself in. If he were lucky, he’d be carrying a few bruises tomorrow. Otherwise, it’d be a handful of broken ribs. Hopefully, those would be the worst of his injuries.

  “My king!” one of his elites cried.

  “Go!” Barin waved the other dwarf onward. “Disable the weapon! I will hold them back!”

  He turned, and his jaw clenched. His opponent was a Lord of Magic, one of the elite mages of the Eternal Empire. The air around the tall, dark-haired man thrummed with power, and he gestured sharply. A huge impact rocked Barin, and his construct stumbled back. What? He shook his head to clear it. A pebble had hit him, but the force behind it had been unbelievable. Was it force amplification magic of some kind? It could be. Or was it something else? Was he an earth mage or possibly even a mage who could move things with his mind? With a roar, he surged forward. His construct’s large stride ate up the distance between them, and he brought his war hammer around in a short, swift blow.

  The Lord of Magic kicked the ground, and dirt sprayed forward. Every clod of dirt felt like a ballista bolt, and great chunks of metal were ripped off his construct. Barin cursed as he was again forced back. It had to be force amplification magic or something similar. The Lord of Magic grabbed a nearby piece of wood and threw it like a spear. It was headed straight for the middle of the construct – right where Barin was. He let his magic disperse and dropped free of the metal. The makeshift spear struck the remains of his construct and blew them apart like so much kindling before a dragon. Wincing in pain, Barin forced himself to roll clear of the debris and get back onto his feet. The mage was too far to strike easily, but Barin had always been good at throwing an axe. He hurled his weapon, and the Lord of Magic brought one hand down to slap it aside. The sound the axe made when the imperial mage hit it reminded Barin of a bell being struck. His axe was driven deep into the ground, and he saw the whole length of the weapon quiver like a reed in the wind.

  Another spray of dirt headed his way, and it was only the quality of his armour that kept Barin alive. The force of the attack threw him back, and he shook himself, ears ringing as he fought to get to his feet again. The Lord of Magic advanced, a few pebbles held in his right hand. But before he could put them to use, a barrage of needles forced him to retreat. It was one of the ninja rats. Somehow, though, the mage was able to sense the invisible rat’s location. He flung a handful of dirt, which pulverised a broad section of the nearby pathway. The ninja rat reappeared, bloodied and missing an arm. He snarled, and the Lord of Magic rolled his eyes before sending more dirt the rodent’s way.

  King Barin growled. The rat might not have been able to beat the Lord of Magic, but he’d bought him precious time. The king reached for a pouch at his waist and threw it. The Lord of Magic reacted instinctively and launched one of the pebbles at it – and the pouch exploded. Barin grinned savagely. There wasn’t a dwarf alive who didn’t carry at least a small pouch of blasting powder with them in case of an emergency. The Lord of Magic reeled back, and Barin forced himself forward. There was no time to tug his axe free of the ground. Instead, he threw his dagger. His exhaustion muddied his aim, but the weapon still managed to hit the mage in the chest. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a killing blow, and the mage drew his arm back to throw his remaining pebbles at him. However, he never got the chance.

  The ninja rat – the brave, wounded rodent that Barin had been certain was dead – had somehow managed
to survive. He was missing one of his legs now too, but he must have been able to avoid the worst of the Lord of Magic’s attack. The ninja rat threw a tiny mace and then leapt awkwardly and bit down on the imperial mage’s hand with all his strength. The dark-haired man screamed in agony and slammed his hand down on the ground, but the rat refused to let go.

  With a cry of exertion, Barin yanked a sword out of a fallen soldier and lunged toward the Lord of Magic. He drove the weapon into the man’s throat and then yanked it across, all but severing his head. As the man went limp, Barin stumbled over to the ninja rat. The rodent had tied a tiny tourniquet around the stump of his left leg while he clutched at the stump of his right arm. He was also bleeding from more than a dozen smaller wounds.

  “What’s your name?” Barin rumbled. “Bramante? An odd name for a rat, but a worthy one.” He gently lifted the rat up as one of the few healers to accompany them rushed over. “See to him first!” Barin ordered as he began to rebuild his construct. “He’s a brave fellow, and there’s not many rats that can honestly say they’ve saved the life of a king.” His gaze drifted to the path ahead. “There’s still fighting to be done.”

  Two more Lords of Magic had arrived, but a crimson shadow fell over the area. Amanda had come. The vampire descended from the sky surrounded by a cloud of blood, and the two mages were forced into a panicked retreat as the ancient vampire urged Barin onward. He nodded his thanks and smiled thinly. He’d let Amanda worry about them. He had a weapon to destroy. He arrived at the base of the tall, broad tower that housed the gigantic magical weapon. His construct got stronger the larger it was, and he’d managed to reach a height of roughly eighteen feet. It should be enough to bring the tower down.

  “My king!” It was the healer from before, and he was carrying Bramante in one hand. “The ninja rat says he is skilled in demolition. He says he can help you bring the weapon down more easily.”

  “Is that so?” Barin nodded. “Very well. If he thinks he can help, then he’s more than welcome to offer any advice he can.”

  Bramante squeaked some instructions, and Barin listened carefully. The ninja rat claimed to have identified several weak points in the tower, which should make it much easier to destroy. Barin took aim at the first weak point and drew his war hammer back. Hopefully, this worked.

  THUD.

  The whole tower shook from the blow. Screams of alarm came from within, but the tower’s defences had already been weakened by the cosmic fungi’s onslaught, to say nothing of the damage his forces had managed to inflict while he had been fighting the Lord of Magic. He urged the other dwarves to stand back as cracks spread from the point of impact.

  “You’ve a fine eye for demolition,” Barin said to Bramante as he took aim at the next weak point. His hammer struck truly once again, and more cracks spread across the tower. He attacked the third and fourth weak points with equal vigour, and the whole tower began to shake. Just a little more – there! A heavy blow to the fifth weak point sent massive cracks up and down the tower’s left side. A groan filled the air before first one stone and then another and another shattered. The tower began to lean to one side, and Barin ordered the others to get clear as he braced himself and slammed his war hammer into the side of the tower.

  BOOM.

  BOOM.

  BOOM.

  On his third blow, the tower toppled sideways and smashed into the ground. Its final attack went badly awry, and the beam of magical energy that had been aimed at the Sky City instead sheared right through one of the buildings near the harbour before vaporising a galleon. A ragged cheer broke out, and he pointed to the other weapon.

  “That’s one down! But there’s still one to go!” King Barin hefted his war hammer and did his best to ignore the weariness that filled him. “We need to strike while the iron is hot.”

  He caught a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye and raised the arms of his construct to ward off a deluge of razor-sharp ice. The attack came to an abrupt halt as a body flew threw the air and landed at his feet. It was a Lord of Magic, and several jagged blades made of blood had been driven through his limbs and torso. The man was still alive, but Amanda landed on him a moment later. Her booted heal crushed his throat, and she yanked several shards of ice out of her chest.

  “What happened to the other one?” Barin asked.

  “I dealt with him earlier.” Amanda reached down to grab the dead mage’s cloak as her tattered clothing threatened to give way. “He was quite powerful but overconfident. He assumed that blowing a large hole in my head with a piece of wood that had been accelerated to well beyond the speed of a crossbow bolt would kill me.”

  “In fairness,” Barin replied. “That would kill most people.”

  “Then it is fortunate that I am not most people.” Amanda nodded at the remains of the tower. “Excellent work. Now, we just have to go after the other…” She trailed off as a dreadnought flew through the air. The gigantic fungus had simply picked it up and thrown it at the tower housing the other magical weapon. The ship exploded as it struck the tower’s barrier, but from the way the barrier flickered, it couldn’t take another hit like that.

  And sure enough, the fungus’s next attack shattered the barrier around the tower. However, before it could destroy the tower, it was forced back by a fresh salvo from the fleet behind it. With a deep, echoing roar, the eldritch creature turned and lashed out with a barbed limb. Half a dozen ships were smashed into kindling, and the massive fungus raised the limb high only to lose it as a devastating blast from the magical weapon sliced through one of the joints. The cosmic fungus staggered and turned to face the tower again, only to be buffeted by more attacks from the fleet. It seemed confused, unable to settle upon which threat it should deal with first.

  “Come on!” Barin shouted. “We can’t rely on that thing to do all of our work for us. Let’s finish this!”

  It didn’t take them long to reach the other tower, but their enemies had not been idle. The loss of the other magical weapon had been noticed, and reinforcements had been dispatched to protect the other weapon. King Barin gathered more metal to his construct, which had swelled to more than twenty-one feet in height. Fire filled his veins. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer, but he couldn’t stop, not until they’d brought down this weapon as well.

  “Forward!” he cried. “For the Broken Mountains!”

  He rumbled forward, scattering soldiers as the others charged after him. It was brutal combat. The imperial soldiers were not as heavily armoured as the dwarves, but they were relatively fresh, and they could sense the importance of this moment. If they could hold here, the dwarves would be driven back, almost certainly while taking heavy losses, and the magical weapon would be free to continue firing on the cosmic fungus and the Sky City. But if the dwarves could destroy it, they would give themselves a much better chance of winning the battle.

  Barin led the way through the throng of soldiers. He crushed some underfoot, shoved others out of the way, and smashed yet more with his war hammer. His size was a great advantage against the regular soldiers, but against the mages, it simply made him a bigger target. Spell after spell thumped into him. Unable to shield himself from the barrage, he chose to attack. He smashed a ballista before it could fire and then used the broken remains of the siege weapon as projectiles to drive some of the mages back. One was too slow to duck and was struck by a beam of wood thicker than his waist. A dwarf dropped another with a well-placed crossbow bolt. These mages were skilled, but they were nowhere near as powerful as the Lords of Magic they’d encountered. So far they’d only run into four of them, but there had to be more. A naval base this important had to have at least double that number.

  Nearby, he caught a glimpse of Amanda taking to the air as a series of strange, glowing symbols surrounded her. They flashed, and white flame enveloped the ancient vampire. Above them, standing on more of the glowing symbols, was another Lord of Magic. He pointed and more symbols formed around the mael
strom of fire that had enveloped Amanda. The flames collapsed inward, and there was a sound like metal being pushed to its limits as a glowing sphere of blue light appeared. The sphere shrank, crushing the flames into a smaller and smaller space until the blood that had been scattered during the battle lanced upward. The Lord of Magic was forced to retreat, and the sphere shattered. Amanda emerged from it, and he could scarcely believe she was still alive. Even for an ancient vampire, the damage she’d taken was horrific. Her entire body had been charred, and it was obvious that the sphere had gotten small enough to break most of her bones. But before his eyes, the blood from the battlefield flowed into her.

  Within moments, Amanda was fully healed, and she wrapped the remaining blood around herself as she soared upward in pursuit of her opponent. Barin shook his head. He needed to stay focused. Amanda could handle it. After all, she’d already slain two Lords of Magic. Dealing with a third should not be beyond her.

  Slowly but surely, the dwarves’ advance began to slow against the seemingly endless ranks of imperial soldiers. Barin tried to push forward only to be driven back as a ballista bolt slammed into his construct. He reeled back but managed to keep his balance only to be struck by a boulder from a catapult. The metal around him threatened to buckle from the impact, but he delved deep into the dregs of his magic for the power to keep his construct whole. A ragged growl left his lips as he forced his construct upright again.