*Phew* The workout I got from setting up dozens of siege weapons was quite intense, and yet in a way refreshing, as I hadn’t felt this kind of burn since my body enhancement. Sure, Monroe was quite good at wearing me out with training in self-defense, but it never reached this level of bone-weary exhaustion.
Inaaya had left me at some point, possibly determining that I wasn’t likely to mess up anything too terribly, without being chaperoned around like a prepubescent child amongst dangerous toys. She returned a great while later with a refreshing drink that tasted fairly similar to lemonade.
The sour and sweet tang played against my taste buds in delight as my body enjoyed the reinvigorating liquid. I don’t know if she put anything magical in there, but I felt my body recover to some degree after drinking and relaxing a bit.
By this point, it had reached about mid-day with the sun shining nearly straight overhead, bearing down on our field of repressed mayhem. Still, there was no sign of approaching enemies, and I was starting to get both edgy and disappointed.
Inaaya was gazing up at the sun, as if gaining some form of insight that I was lacking. She nodded several times to herself before turning to me.
“It is time.” She finally said.
“Go light the stone on fire in that catapult, and set it off. It has been positioned to trigger the event we are expecting.”
My eyes raised in skepticism.
However, seeing as she pulled out a mundane fire-starter, lit up a long thin branch, and then handed it to me to get started, I decided to suspend my disbelief just a little bit longer.
*Phwoosh!* The stone lit up with a vengeance once it was touched with flame. Stepping back rapidly in alarm at the intensity, a firm tone sounded out in reprimand,
“Now don’t be playing around and shoot it off!” She cried out.
“Very well.” I muttered under my breath. Pulling the lever, I heard the repeated *Phawoooop!* as it sailed into the air. This time, trailing a tail of fire before it crashed down into the distance.
A small *wump* sounded out after which there was again silence. I couldn’t see in the light of day, where the flames might have lit up the distant surroundings, but something had to have happened . . . right?
Again, casting my gaze into the distance, I watched and waited for something, anything to change.
“Well?!” The old ladies voice broke me out of my dazed expectation.
“Are you going to reload the catapult or what?!” She exclaimed.
Rolling my eyes at her insistence, I did as she bade and then just sat down on the floor of the clearing, just outside of her cottage. I was beginning to think that this was all in her head as a made-up battle. Much like I’d heard of others doing back on Earth, as they re-enacted old battles with mock weapons. This just appeared to be so much more extravagant, which made the let-down even worse for me.
As I sat there, giving up on the idea of accomplishing anything other than a workout and playing with some large flammable toys, which in retrospect I admit was actually pretty damn fun! . . . I was now learning a new lesson to not blindly trust oddly knowledgeable elderly people.
Such decisive and seemingly harmless thoughts, however, were interrupted. . . Was I hearing or feeling something off in the distance?
It was similar to how a distant avalanche sounds when several miles away, like a light rumble of cascading thunder. Different from thunder, this sounded far more potent, in that such a natural disaster could reap lives in the thousands, and could make a person’s heart clench in fear for themselves as well as others within its impending embrace. The sounds which I began to hear beyond the obscuring foliage, started to give off a similar sensation within me, despite still not seeing what was making it.
“Better get ready young man.” The old lady warned me.
She had pulled out her staff, standing beside me to watch the impending invasion. Then turning back, she called out with a humored smile. “I knew you couldn’t resist watching a good fight.”
Turning back as well, I saw that Frank had drawn his rocking chair over the threshold of the cottage to join us in relaxed observation. A grunt was the only reply he gave to his wife’s gentle taunt.
Shaking my head in bemusement at this couples’ interaction, I braced myself with my staff for the impending fallout.
It wasn’t long as the thundering in the distance grew in volume and I began to see flashes of shorter darker green figures amidst the obscuring plant life. Inaaya again spoke up with a dry tone. “If you’d be a dear and start lighting up and setting off the catapults, I’d be greatly appreciative.”
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Shaken from my prior inaction, I quickly set to. I realized that despite the distance, these long-range weapons were exactly what we needed in the moment. Lighting one and setting it off, I forewent reloading them until all had been triggered. Multiple *Phawoooops!* sounded off as burning stones of death tore into the flickering foliage.
Distant cries of anger sounded out from the massing throng of diminutive green creatures. Still, they continued to rush in. By this point, in the midst of reloading, I was able to start differentiating their separate bodies as they charged without care. They looked to be holding weapons of some sort, but I still couldn’t tell at the distance they were at.
“That’s it.” Satisfaction oozed from her tone as Inaaya watched on, like a passive spectator. Then she turned to me. “You’d better hurry with the prepping of the catapults. Also, don’t forget to lower the range setting. We don’t want to overshoot them when they are doing us the favor of bunching together so much now do we?” Her expression shone with porcelain teeth grinning in anticipation.
I quickly completed the requested task. A new set of stones soaked in flaming liquid were soon soaring through the sky to once again tear at the deeper part of the approaching throng.
‘Why didn’t they just go around us?’ I thought. It was as if they were a moth drawn to the flame, yet this was more like an army of moths and but a single flickering flame to draw their attention.
I had to wonder at the timing of their arrival. Were they originally here for the city to my back in the distance? Where they planning to massacre the hapless Travelers as they went about harvesting the rare herbs and dispatching the even rarer wild animals? Or was there something else to their sudden appearance here?
All these questions I did not have answers to. And to be honest, in this moment they didn’t matter. What did matter, was that there was a veritable army of goblins, triggered like a furious fire ant colony by the initial flaming stone, and now they wanted blood. Mine and the elderly couples it would seem.
I could only hope that the magics Inaaya could wield were far more powerful than what I’d seen before. . .
Scratch that. Maybe Victoria could handle these vermin. Her display earlier in beating back the adolescent kraken together with Monroe by her side, had filled me with a sense of calm and enduring trust in her reliability. Even now, I had to wonder if she and master Monroe, or even Gertrude might be hiding in the foliage nearby to secretly offer aid in a desperate time of need.
I hadn’t seen any sign of them so far. However, it wouldn’t be fair to them or myself if I continued to expect them to always be there for me, to fight my battles when I falter. And so, with whitened hands gripping tightly at my staff, I mentally told myself that this was all I had to work with, as it very well may be, and I watched as the nearest bunch of goblins entered the clearing before us.
A veritable army broke out of the shadows and bore down on us with abandon. I cast several concerned glances at my elderly companion in war, as I worried that despite the many siege weapons at our disposal, it still would not be enough.
Already, I was rushing about to reload and adjust the aim of the catapults to deal with the closer enemies. It was unfortunately too far to effectively use the ballista, but it was almost time.
Another wave of *Phawoooops!* and several flaming rocks sailed into their crowded assault. This time, I could see the effect as it was far closer.
Blood and limbs exploded among the fire and stone which burst into their midst. I paused for a moment in my reloading to stare in openmouthed awe at the violent destruction.
“HAHAHAHA!” Grandma was off to the side cackling with delight, as if she was getting high from the bloodshed. Casting a glance back at the grandfather who was still lounging in the rocking chair, he gave her a bland look and simply shook his head and chuckled in weary exasperation. Other than that, he made no move to intervene or assist.
‘What was up with this crazy couple!?!’ The thought trembled through my mind as I returned to the task of resetting and triggering the weapons.
Despite my reinforced body, I was truly getting worn out and a bit afraid by this point. I was unsure if I was running on adrenaline, or if there was more to draw out from my elementally enhanced physique. Now apparently, I was getting to find out just how much I had been changed from my prior mundane self.
They just kept coming despite the beating they were taking. Although highly destructive, the flaming stones weren’t putting a large enough dent in the army of goblins to end their advance. They were already halfway across the clearing and nearing us to the point that I could see the whites of their eyes with my actively enhanced vision.
They were still a fair ways off as mundane eyes likely wouldn’t have even determined they were wielding weapons, much less see their expressions. With my enhancement, however, I could see their hatred and manic filled expressions, like it was a sea amid the treacherous field.
“Trigger the ballista!” Inaaya called out to me.
I was worried that it might be too soon, but I didn’t have time to debate a questionable action in this conflict. Running to do her bidding, with a *Shwuck!* the contraptions shook with terrifying energy as they released their payload of oversized arrows or spears. Shooting out into the crowd, they brought the front ranks to a temporary stop as many of the forerunners were pierced and thrust into the ranks behind them. This created a domino effect of viscera and blood splatter about five to eight victims deep, with each impact.
“That should be far enough.” A whisper that carried to my ears from Inaaya sounded out.
Before I could ask what she meant, I heard or more so felt an all-encompassing *WOMP!*
The very world felt as if it was going to invert as my vision doubled and the ground in the distance shivered. But then, the earth simply sunk in. Almost falling to the floor myself at the massive appearance of a sinkhole, I watched wide-eyed as the initially massed and bloodied army simply vanished from view as gravity did its work.
Brief cries of pain and outrage echoed out from those who disappeared from view. The many who had yet to advance into the open field hissed in fear and spite as their fellow troopers were vanquished, or at least halted by the earth disappearing beneath them. I had no idea if there were spikes or other traps at the base of that massive crater, which spanned near fully across the visible field. However, based on what I had seen so far of the granny’s ingenuity and calm, I suspected that the bottom had many nasty surprises for the angry green army.
Those behind the massive sinkhole had stumbled to a halt as they glared at us from a distance. I watched as many of them made cutting motions against their own bodies, and then began smearing their freshly spilled blood over their face and sprinkling it upon the ground.
I seemed like either a rite of vengeance or a maybe a crude spell of empowerment. Either way, their determination appeared set as they regathered their remaining forces and continued the advance.
My eyes began to burn with the massive strain put on them to see details at that distance. Magnified viewing was not intended for such a prolonged amount of time, and I had to release the effort to save my energy for more important things, like impending death.
What should have been a large setback to an advancing army in ancient times, was not enough to dissuade the remaining goblins from continuing their assault. Pushing to the sides to circumvent the yawning pit in the ground, they swarmed around the edges to reconvene on the other side.
I continued to follow the voiced instructions of my elderly host as I readjusted and triggered both the ballista and catapults. Watching how the dynamic of the crater impacted the flow of the battle, I felt that we might have a chance to survive this if the crazy lady had a few other similar such surprises hidden and waiting.
Time and time again, I followed her instructions to the letter. This resulted in horrendous destruction to the ever-shrinking army. I was beginning to feel like Inaaya had everything well in hand. Even some of her sense of confidence was rubbing off on me as I was getting excited to see what was next in store!
*Haha!* I laughed to myself at the undeniable thrill of this conflict! I had never had the opportunity to experience the like in real life. To be able to enact such a meticulous and massive plan to thwart such a terrible army or opponent was a gift few had the opportunity to experience, much less dream of.
It was like seeing the last few steps in a decades long endeavor or project finally coming to a close, achieved with your personal actions as a primary investor. Even if you have a strong sense that some massive undertaking is going to work out as you envisioned, it is still incredibly cathartic watching it unfold as it should.