Niko awoke to the shrill sound of a ringing bell, he then banished any fatigue he felt with a wave of essence that jump started his body. Instantly, he and the others stirred, and it took Niko a considerable amount of self control not to accidentally throw anyone off of his body as he startled into action.
Yet, even with that, he took the moment to think on his ‘dream’ last night. Contrary to his expectations, he remembered its contents with perfect clarity. Considering the information he’d gained during his talk with Alterra, he’d have been morose to have lost the details.
‘Excellent,’ Niko stretched his wings and body out, banishing any residual soreness, ‘Now, we have a siege to win.’
He thought that, however he knew for a fact that this would not be so simple an issue. The Great Eye would not have asked them to intercede if this wasn’t going to be a problem. He hesitated to say that they could make the difference when an entire city couldn’t – arrogant though Niko might be on some topics, he didn’t think himself that powerful. They, at the very least, had the workings of the pilgrimage at their backs.
“That’s the call to arms alarm, the siege is about to begin.” Sasha called out, before adding, “Follow me. I know where we need to be.”
The others didn’t say anything to the contrary, following along quickly. There was very little in the way of greetings as they moved first through the building and then outside. Beasts rushed this way and that, a mad, but seemingly choreographed affair in which Niko felt they stood out like a sore thumb. They didn’t quite get in the way, however, as Sasha unerringly led them through the throngs of beasts, with Niko and Thokk acting as walls to their wedge of personnel, keeping them from being washed away in the groups of fast moving teams.
They arrived at their marshaling yard in just a minute, finding that they were not the first, nor the last, to have done so.
“Alright, you’re all now part of the Ironvine Group!” A beast with silvered armor laced with two green ribbons at the top of their chest spoke, the porcupine-ferret pointing out with long, sickle claws towards the eastern wall. “Report to wall section B2, congratulations, you’re center field!”
That declaration seemed suspiciously sarcastic, but Niko and the others didn’t have the time to quip about it. They followed both Sasha and the bulk of the group's path. At this point, Niko could see that the other groups they’d passed had all been moving in this general direction. ‘All manning the wall, then.’ He guessed, which made perfect sense.
In just a few more minutes, they arrived at said wall, and Niko found himself gaping at the changes that had taken place.
“Why is it twice as tall now!?” Niko gaped, seeing the already thick walls now sporting a second wall sitting atop it. It wasn’t just an extension, instead having been built atop the battlements. Even for that, they seemed to be oddly purpose-built, stable, and above all, covered with murder holes.
“We have an abundance of Ironwood thanks to the forest. There aren’t many who can work directly with the material, but we have plenty of stores of the stuff to set up and replace wall sections. It’s generally the last thing placed atop the walls, thanks to the sigils that get carved into the thing.” A voice spoke to them, startling Niko from his attention. He noted through his connection to Skye that she’d seemed to be capable of understanding the words as well.
“Prince Nivere,” Sasha greeted with a small nod, “Well met. Are you stationed at B2 as well? I did not think that Clan Greenscale would field you at the front.”
The Yaunz snake-like face turned into a mild, hurt frown, “Princess Sasha,” He greeted shortly, “Does it displease you? I did not think myself such an eyesore.”
“No! Nothing like that!” Sasha hurriedly explained, “It is more that I thought they might have you scouting the flanks, given your particular gifts in reconnaissance.”
To Niko, the Yaunz’ expressions were hard to read, but he was fairly certain he was smiling positively now. “Indeed, but reconnaissance is now being handled by those even more skilled. I’d just be found and skewered now!”
He’d said it with such confidence that Niko wondered if he had first hand experience with that.
“Looks like we’ll be in each other's care, then,” Ronald spoke, nodding to the humanoid snake-like beast.
Surprised, Nivere regarded him, and then swept his gaze at the group, “Indeed! I’m glad you’ve adjusted to the language! That seems… remarkably fast. Perhaps you have some beast blood in your linea—”
“I would remind the Young Master of our clan that such remarks are not considered compliments among the other races.” Another Yaunz appeared with what Niko guessed was a long-suffering expression. The light green-blue scaled snake gave a low bow to the group, “He means no disrespect, please understand.”
Niko saw the genuine distress in Nivere’s expression as he started to scramble an apology as well, but Ronald only gave them a gruff laugh.
“It’s fine. I could see how that can be a compliment, and for all I know there’s some truth there. My mother always said my father and I were as stubborn as mules.” He smiled broadly. The Yaunz chuckled lightly, relaxing, “But, as for business, where do we need to go?”
“Right this way,” Prince Nivere gestured, “The wall commander will be by shortly. Are you all familiar with Clan warfare?”
“Not as such,” Skye said, “No.”
“Well, unlike how you humans have armies that work as smaller parts of a whole, our peoples work as independent cells working to one goal.” Nivere gestured to the other Yaunz they were headed towards, along with other groups that were moving up wide staircases up the back of the wall, which was angled such that if one fell off of the back of the wall, they would land on a relatively sharp slope, but one that would mitigate much, if any, fall damage.
“We each contribute what we’re good at, and other teams will do the same. In such a way, it is… admittedly less cohesive, but we are not a military in the strictest of senses.” He gestured down the line, “There are exceptions, but for the most part, Riizen does not force any of its kin to pursue specific patterns.”
Niko nodded at that, seeing that it made sense. In a way, they were more an eclectic bunch of adventurers, whereas apparently entire armies in the lowlands could have individuals with similar patterns that could work well with one another. The idea sent a chill down his spine at the thought of a phalanx of warriors merging essence-barriers together to form a mobile wall. That was just the easiest of combinations, at that, and said nothing about the possibility of far more complex tactics.
Nivere pulled his thoughts back with, “We’ll be manning the walls, firing from these ports in the upper wall. As the enemy comes up in number, we seal them, and move up to the next row, or have someone already there, depending on how many we number. They are considerably well reinforced, but they’re not invulnerable, so keep that in mind so you don’t get attacked from behind. After battle is joined, there may be a call to abandon the ‘Shell’. Do not leave the wall entirely, merely get off of this extension to the wall and ensure you are not on the other side of it. You will not like what happens.”
“As for everything else, I'm sure the commander will go over anything you need to know specifically. We’ll be in the section of B2 right next to you, and we’ll all move around to assist as needed.” He dipped his head to them at that, and they returned the gesture, thanking him for the information.
When he left, Dachna grunted, “That’s a lotta stairs.”
“That’s the first thing you notice?” Mithel said, amused.
He shrugged, “I’m just thinking about how much fun going up and down those things all day is going to be.”
Niko groaned at that. At least they were wider stairs, so he and the other larger beasts didn’t need to worry about footing. Unfortunately, that was true only until the Shell portion of the wall, as the rest up from there was much smaller as it rose, fit more for smaller beasts. He figured that, if nothing else, it would make for a very difficult wall to climb, and a siege tower wouldn’t help all that much. There were no battlements for a ramp to sit atop of, only a tapered edge that wouldn’t give much foothold.
The gaps in the wall would be more than enough for the defenders to strike through to the enemy, so the need for a defensible battlement was moot. Given how deities-damned tall the thing was, he didn’t think anyone would be able to make a siege tower large enough to scale it.
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As he and the rest of the Wyldwalkers got into position, he realized he was wrong.
Very wrong.
“That’s one peck of a tower…” Niko uttered in shock along with the others near him. The wide branch that led down at a slight angle to the distant Dawr attack force was positively teeming with Dawr. More than that, though, were the five towers, set three in the front, and two behind, nearly at risk of falling off the edges of the branch itself if something happened. They were made of a faintly glowing, reddish wood that Niko knew to be Ironwood. It was, after all, abundantly available in the titanwoods.
“That’s going to be a little rough to bring down.” Stella commented, “It’s very heavy, though, so they’re going to be ridiculously slow. I don’t see any exterior wheels… It’s put together in pieces, too. Probably lowered one on top of the other. Does anyone see a crane or winch and pulley system?”
Niko immediately set his sights on searching for such a thing, and after only a few seconds, chirped a confirmation, “Yup, they’re using a pulley system, tying it off to branches in the forest and pulling the pieces up like that. They didn’t have these when we attacked, right?”
“No. I saw no such siege pieces.” Thokk rumbled in confusion, “Could this be another group?”
“I think it’s that, too, but we did see these.” Skye pointed at the tower pieces. “Those are the carts.”
There was a stunned silence as Niko took a closer look at what she pointed out. Sure enough, he could see that the various pieces resembled parts of the carts from before, just dismantled and put back together in a different configuration.
“Clever bastards,” Dachna grumbled, to which Charlotte chittered in agreement. Her eight eyes scanned the field, and Niko could almost see the gears turning in her head.
“Charlotte, you have an idea?” Niko asked.
“Friends…?” She angled herself slightly, as if to be hesitant while scratching the side of her own head with her expressive fuzzy antennae.
“Do you need to go out there to do it?” Niko continued, glancing to the others as he did so.
The spider nodded, much to the others' chagrin.
“Alright, I’ll go with her,” Mithel said, “We may as well be proper sappers while we’re at it. I’ve got lots of traps to set.”
The two clambered down the wall, before requesting a brief sortie out of the walls. Surprisingly, they were stopped, but only long enough for a call to go down the wall for those in B section to rally any individuals who could trap the way. Very few other combatants would need to go – the wall wasn’t the only stationed place here. All the way down the branch, there were already tens of combatants. In front of them rested barricades, more traps, and then a no-man's land between the enemy force and their own defenses.
Mithel and Charlotte wove into the frontlines as Niko and the others were collected by the commander. After explaining briefly what their abilities were, they were then taken off the wall and put into the ranks outside. Their abilities would be able to be used in both locations, but the commander planned on having them in the front ranks for the initial contact, and then to pull them all the way back to rest, and then place them on the walls for the first contact then. It would be grueling double duty, but there wasn’t anything to complain about.
‘Don’t like it?’ Niko joked, ‘Kill some Dawr, then.’
Still, he and Skye would be flying around the battlefield, harrying the edges of the enemy formation and providing covering support for anyone being overwhelmed. No one planned on fighting to the death at this stage, though it was certain that casualties would mount. Whatever they could trim from the enemy now, though, would help when the greater siege occurred. There was even the general hope that they would fail to breach the wall, but as the numbers of Dawr continued to swell, Niko felt a wall breach would be inevitable at some point.
He was worried about the snowballing effect Bant’s blessing would have on them. That, and he was worried about whatever else they might have in store for them.
“How are you doing?” Skye shouted from atop his back, the wind cutting through Niko’s feathers and her hair.
“Fine, mostly.” He answered mentally, “A little worried for something to go wrong.”
“Tends to happen.” Skye answered knowingly, “Still, there are only so many ways that we can get attacked, here.”
“Very true.” Niko smirked, looking down at the sieging army from far up in the air. He wasn’t the only one viewing the battlefield as a whole up here. There were other scouts abound, and he made certain not to fly into their paths, while still keeping more or less centrally above their own allotted wall. Neither spoke, but he could tell that Skye was at least as anxious as he was.
In a sense, they wanted the battle to begin already. The tenseness of the situation was only feeding the nervous energy on both sides of the field, and soon it would erupt. Niko didn’t need to be a strategist to feel it, either. The other fronts didn’t look all that different, though he did note that most of them had only one or two siege towers in total. One front, in specific, though, had eight of them. Niko wondered if that particular collection of Dawr were just that well prepared, or if they’d taken them from the others.
Whatever the case, it was certainly eye catching. If it were Niko, he’d throw all of his weight at a different section, counting on the defending army to overcommit to protecting that front.
‘Hopefully not this one, though.’ Niko glared back at their own collection of five siege towers. There were trebuchets being finished, too, but they would be of less use against the defenders before the wall, if only because Niko and the other flyers would be intercepting and deflecting the shots whenever possible.
A horn blew down below, one echoed in short order across every front. Dawr howled and, in a rabid cacophony, banged, rattled, and screeched out a discordant war-cry.
Niko and Skye didn’t even communicate then, of one mind as he banked down low, bringing them overhead of their own forces. The pair appraised the advancing units.
“Nothing but chaff,” Niko chittered in annoyance, “They’re going to build up a blood haze, for sure.”
“Good thing you can steal it, right?” Skye sneered at them, nocking several arrows with Firestorm flasks attached to them. They were effectively going to be spending money like water in this battle, but Riizen had given them a blank check. Mithel had gotten to brew many potions, and would hopefully have enough of one type in particular to finally put to use one of her battle tactics that she hadn’t been able to employ even during the majority of tier two.
They swooped low as essence abilities and spells rang out in a mostly-concerted volley from the defenders. The drove of about three hundred goblins staggered in the face of the strike, a fourth of them dying right off the bat. The Firestorm’s cracked into their midst, the conflagration no less than what had been sent before. Still, they ran forwards, just as a second wave of combined goblins and hobgoblins raced forward. Niko could see that there was a manic, crazed look upon their faces, with spittle flying as they screeched.
Dismayed at their charge into certain death, Niko wondered what was happening until he set his eyes upon one of the cowled Dawr Shamans feeding other Dawr something out of a pot that roiled revoltingly in his Aether Sight. It felt sticky, cloying, unironically making his eyes feel disgusting until he peeled them from the object.
Sharing the vision without his other revelations, Skye grunted, “I’ll see if I can’t damage it, but no promises.”
Shamans were their top priority Dawr to slay, given that they facilitated the easy transfer of the bloody energy. Niko cawed at that, before diving low once more. The initial wave of the goblins had all but been annihilated, with only a literal handful making it even to the first unmanned, trapped barricades. The hobs and other goblins' bodies seemed to take a collective breath as they tried to breathe in the bloody energy of their fallen.
Then Niko’s swoop took him within spitting distance, and with a flex of his will and soul, pulled all of it upwards to him, infusing his mark with stolen power.
For a solid second, the Dawr advance stuttered to a halt, shock apparent on their faces. Frankly, Niko was shocked, too; he hadn’t expected to be able to take even a fifth of that energy, let alone to be able siphon it inwards to himself like he had pulled the plug out of an industrial bathtub.
Then the moment passed, and Niko rocketed upwards, clad in the energies of the fallen. The reddish energy whorled around him, attaching directly to his frost-bitten sapphire feathers and the ruby red patterns upon his wings, as if giving them greater length and depth. The aura condensed on him like a physical thing, surrounding Skye as his rider, and seemed to almost arm him even as it buffed him.
“That’s one heck of a boost,” Skye grinned as she pulled back the drawstring of her bow effortlessly and to the max. She took aim at the Shaman, engaging her pattern as the blood energy around her swarmed over the head of her arrow with the intent and focus she showed.
She let loose a crimson streaking dart that expanded in midflight, making it appear more like a roaring comet.
The Shaman barely had the time to screech out a call for aid when the arrow hit their nearest defenders, Champions who had put their bodies in the way and called upon their patterns to protect them. Niko and Skye saw the aftermath, the splash of gore and tens of lesser goblins, and several hobs, all turned into rent meat and sinew. The champions that defended were only mildly better off, their combined defenses having managed to keep them alive. One was healing visibly, while the other was grimacing as they nursed what might have been a broken or fractured arm.
“The Shaman lived… This time.” Niko observed, “How did you do that? And can you do it again?”
Skye answered, almost giddy with the heady flow of energy, “I have no idea how, it just… happened. But I think… I should be able to? Yes I can, so long as you keep stealing that energy of theirs.”
Niko, still clad in a modest amount himself, looked at the still charging hobgoblin line that was now being battered easily, and smiled maliciously. “I can definitely do that.”