Tamako wasn’t the most comfortable with how the AIs worked, and she was confused when Jen’s and Sam’s AIs messaged her for orders, but her orders to their AIs was simple, “Kill the goblins on the wall. Then Kill the rest, but don’t injure yourselves.”
Tamako didn’t know if Jen's and Sam's AIs were using the video feed from what she was seeing, or that of Jen’s bird, but she didn’t really care, as she watched their AIs turn world turn to lightning… and, she hadn’t even released her own secret weapon, yet.
Tamako jumped up on the top of the wall battlement, and kneeled down behind her shield. She then activated its’ enchantment that allowed her to see “through” the shield. She was initially going to target the goblins on the wall, but an electric grid formed across the outside of the entire wall, roasting the goblins that were climbing it. The other lightning strikes, were targeting the siege ladders and equipment the goblins were engaging. Tamako grinned at what she was now free to do. Contained in her shield, were hundreds of powerful, concentrated, lightning strikes that Sam had fired into its storage back when they were travelling on the road.
====
Even with almost half of the defenders down, Captain Wager didn’t give up. As Captain Wager readied his hammer, waiting for the goblins that were about to surge over the wall, he called to everyone, “Stand strong! Get Readddyyy!” Wager crowded the edge of the wall, preparing to bash the closest goblin, when he jumped back and yelled, “By the Decks, that hurt!”
The screaming, hollering, and burning stench of the goblins, told him that they fared far worse than he did, as he examined a lattice work of lightning, that he’d stepped on. He immediately moved forward again, but was careful not to get too close to the edge, where the lightning ran across the entire front of the wall. Captain Wager then jerked in surprise, and Sargent Splits, along with several others, literally dove to the ground, as lightning crackled loudly through the air, destroying the goblin siege weapons.
Sargent Splits hollered to Captain Wager, “Did you know Lady Domino could use lightning like this?”
Captain Wager was about to reply, when he noticed some type of massive lightning ray-beam exploding out of Make-it Take-it’s shield, and into the wave of goblin elite fighters. Her lightning beam only lasted a few seconds, but the swath of dead, burning, and half dead it left in its wake, as she passed the lightning beam across the elite goblin fighters, left Captain Wager speechless. Wager turned to his right, just shrugging at Splits, not knowing how to answer him, when Splits started emphatically pointing at Lady Domino behind Wager.
===
Lady Domino had leapt to the top of the wall to get a better look at what, or who, was able to use such powerful lightning attacks. Just as the little woman finished blasting the goblins with some sort of lightning shield, Lady Domino noticed her forces starting to swarm into, and fill the gaps on the wall, and helping move those that had been hit by the spears, out of harm’s way. Lady Domino knelt down, inspected, and smelled a guard where he’d been struck by a spear. She knew right away it was a sleeping potion, and gave a slight grunt of admiration for the goblin that came up with the idea.
Captain Wager jumped in surprise again, when he heard the booming voice of Lady Domino behind him. She announced, “Your friends and fellow defenders are simply asleep. It was a sleeping potion, not a poison! Don’t worry about them. I can wake them after this battle is over.”
Lady Domino lowered her voice, and said to Captain Wager, “Try to keep the little lady with the lightning shield from leaving. Don’t use force, so just follow her if she insists on leaving.”
Captain Wager replied, “Yes, my Lady, but I don’t think she’ll leave until her friends wake up from the sleeping potion.
Lady Domino nodded, and replied, “Good. That’ll give me time to finish this.”
Sargent Splits was using his magnification skill to observe the goblins, and announced, “Captain! It looks like a few of the goblin chiefs are starting to fight each other…Wait…the fights over. The rest are now kneeling to the victor.”
Lady Domino replied, “They’re not getting away.” She then pulled a smoking potion out of her ring, and downed it in one swallow. The potion caused her hair to go from dirty blonde to solid black. She reached up, activated her soundwave, calling Captain Crane Claw, and asked, “Are the guns ready?” She paused for a second, grinned, and then ordered, “Fire! And keep firing until I tell you to stop!”
Captain Wager ordered, “Prepare for incoming!”
As Lady Domino’s mana continued to merge with the potion in her body, her skin turned dark black, similar to the boom dust she was famous for. As the metal balls screamed overhead, she’d connect her mana to the dust in each ball, and then use her mana to force the balls to slam into the goblin horde wherever she targeted. When the boom-dust balls would fall to just above the goblins heads, or upon impact with the ground, she would ignite the boom powder inside causing the balls to explode, and turning the exterior metal of the balls, into deadly shrapnel.
As the front wave of goblins resumed their attack on the wall, Sargent Splits prepared his mace for the fight, and asked Captain Wager, “Why is she only blowing up the second and third goblin waves?”
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Captain Wager called out to the wall defenders, “Get ready! They’ll be at the top of the wall any second!” He stepped forward, and with a grunt, swung his mace knocking a goblin from the wall, then he grunted out an answer to Splits, “She’s killing the…” grunt smash… “elite goblins in the back…” block, smash, kick… “before they can get in range…” Captain Wager stopped his explanation as he hollered, “look out!” and smashed a goblin that had pulled up on the back of another goblin, and then leaped off its shoulders, to try and get up and over Sargent Splits.
Sargent Splits replied, “Thanks Captain!” as he continued to fight off two other goblins, knocking them both off the wall at the same time.
Captain Wager continued, “The elite goblins are the ones that can think. Only about 1 in 100 goblins are elite, and born with the ability to think as well as a human. They don’t care about the dumb goblins, but if too many of the elite start getting killed, they’ll…” Captain Wager was interrupted, as a horn from the goblin chief started to repeatedly blare, trying to be heard over the exploding boom-dust balls.
The goblins in front of Sargent Splits started climbing down, or dropping off the wall. He used his magnification skill, and announced, “It’s hard to see through all the smoke and fire of the boom-dust, but the second and third-wave goblins are starting to retreat, and head back towards the pass opening.”
Cheers ran up and down the line at Sargent Splits announcement, but Lady Domino showed no mercy as she continued to explode the steel balls into the goblin horde until they were all finally out of range.
While Lady Domino continued to pummel the goblins, Captain Wager was busy getting both the wounded and sleeping down into recovery buildings in the fort. After the last steel ball exploded, Captain Wager watched Lady Domino drink down a potion, and noticed her skin start to slowly turn back to normal. She then drank another potion that removed a sickly yellow that had been creeping into the sclera of her eyes.
Lady Domino turned to Captain Wager, and said, “Good job! Where’s the tiny woman with the shield?”
Captain Wager replied, “You mean, Make-it Take-it, she’s in a separate building, watching over her sleeping companions, Jenasta and Slam.”
“Which building?”
Captain Wager pointed to a building near the rear gate, where a guard was standing near the entrance, and answered, “The green building down there, ma’am. They’ve been very helpful in defending…”
Lady Domino interrupted Captain Wager, and said, “Thank you, Captain. I’ve got this. Nothing’s going to happen to them. Please coordinate with Captain Crane Claw to send out teams to loot and finish off any surviving goblins that couldn’t retreat. Once done, I want the loot divided amongst the defenders as quickly as possible.” Lady Domino downed another potion, jumped off the wall, landed on the ground, and then started heading towards the green building.
Before entering the building, Lady Domino hid her thoughts and drank another potion to still her mana. She then downed another potion, which caused her eyes to turn red, but it allowed her to see the heat signatures and location of Make-it Take-it (Tamako), Slam (Sam), Jenasta (Jen), and even the cat (Slim). Last, she pulled three more potions out of her storage device. These potions were inside of glass vials that were made to look like small steel daggers. She kept these dagger/vials hidden in her sleeve.
====
Lady Domino stepped through the door and immediately threw the dagger/vials directly at Make-it Take-it and the cat. Lady Domino’s eyes widened with surprise at the cat’s reaction speed. “He’s literally going to catch the damn vials!” she thought, as she started to grab for a few other very expensive potions.
Slim caught two of the potions into his storage space, and was in movement to get the third, when he felt Tamako’s spear moving behind him. Slim messaged Tamako, “No!!!!” but it was too late, as her spear whipped past him blocking the third dagger/potion, and breaking it all over the both of them.
Lady Domino sighed with relief as Make-it Take-it, and the cat, both instantly slumped to the ground. She checked on all four of them to make sure they were O.K. and comfortable, and then dosed them with another potion before performing a few other tests. As she left the green building, she waved over three of her personal guards, and ordered them to protect the building and those inside.
======
Captain Crane Claw found Lady Domino inspecting the enchantments placed on the gate. He waved away everyone nearby, and said, “We need to talk privately.”
Lady Domino took out two potions, threw one to Captain Crane, before drinking the other one herself. Her ears thickened and became more circular, and Captain Crane’s did the same after he drank his potion. The potion’s effects would last about 30 minutes, and would allow them to “hear” and interpret the brain waves of those close by. Lady Domino mentally said, “What’s your thoughts?”
Crane replied, “Wager thinks they’re heroes. Everyone thinks they’re heroes. You can’t just kill’em Dom.”
Lady Domino’s face was sad with an old loss, as she shook her head, and replied, “They’re not deck droppers. I'm pretty sure they just came to help out."
Lady Domino could tell that two of them were from Earth like Robin, but she wasn't going to tell Crane that until she learned more about them.
Crane’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and said, “You think they came out here just for the sake of helping, no one does that... well, except Master Hood would’ve back in the day.”
Lady Domino shrugged, and said, “Yes, and no. Their gnome anonymity masks show they are not as naïve as Robin was, but like I said, I do think they were here just to help.”
“Since you dosed them, what’re you going to do now, Dom?”
Lady Domino sighed with a slight bit of apprehension, and answered, “I’m going to wake them up, and apologize.”
Crane asked with uncertainty, “Do you think they might be good candidates for the Crusade?”
Lady Domino replied, “Probably. They're definitely trying to climb the Decks. I'm not going to tell them directly, because I don’t want anything leading back to us and our location. I'll plant the information for them to discover the Crusade on their 'own'.”
Crane nodded, “What about Wager? We were already talking about raising him up. After his performance here, there’s no doubt in my mind about his capability. Do you want me to bring him into the fold?”
Lady Domino sighed with disappointment, and replied, “No. He’s loyal and capable enough, but I think he’s too honorable. I’m going to put some effort into raising his levels and skills for the sake of the City in general, but I don’t think he’s right for the inner circle.”
“Works for me Dom. Anything else?”
“No. In a little bit, I’ll call you before I wake up our guests.”
Captain Crane Claw spoke out loud, and replied, “Yes, Lady Domino. I’ll have the guards ready.”