Chapter 90 Boom.
Lenna stood just inside of the northern gate of Safeharbor with her eyes closed. She was breathing deep and rhythmically to keep her nerves down as Isaac was out of reach. “Marie is with him.” Edward said from beside her. “If there was any one person I would trust to have my back, it would be her.”
Lenna nodded. “I know. Thank you.” She replied. “I am bait and I am more worried about him.” She said almost bitterly. Everything would be so much easier if she only had to worry about herself.
“Just don’t get yourself killed because you weren’t paying attention.” Fable said from her other side. “We don’t know if the drider skeleton will be enough.”
Lenna looked back over her shoulder at the towering bone drider that couldn’t even be properly called a skeleton anymore. Not with the bone carapace of its spider half and its ribs that had grown into plates akin to platemail. Kahtesh was between her and Shaeo. She looked down at the little dragon. “You’ll tell me if something is wrong with your master, right?” She asked and the dragon tilted its head in confusion at her. Lenna sighed. “It was worth a try at least.” She turned back to face the gate.
“If something happens to Shy because she is out there with those two I won’t forgive you.” Esk told his master.
“Trust in your team.” Fable reminded him.
“Are adventurers always this chatty?” Michael asked Edward casually.
“Yes.” Edward replied simply. “Mercs are either lucky, strong, or disciplined. Never all three.” He explained.
“Rarely all three.” Fable corrected.
Edward eyed the hero. “Point taken.” He replied.
‘Get ready.’ Izen spoke into Lenna, Fable, Michael, and Edward’s minds. ‘The Gate is opening in one minute.’ The receivers didn’t respond as that would just be needless mental clutter but instead triple checked their gear. The sudden synchronous movement caught the attention of the adventurers, soldiers, and guardsmen behind them and they all started doing the same.
The gate went up slowly at a crawling one inch per second. No one moved until it stopped ten feet off the ground. “Advance!” Izen ordered from above them on the wall. Two hundred and fifty men and women from various backgrounds poured out and lined up two hundred yards in front of the gate. They stood two men deep with shieldbearers in the front and everyone else behind them. The line was only a hundred and seventeen wide as the rest were close combat healers and mages who had opted to be outside of the walls with their party members. Those non-melee combatants were spread out behind the main line with enough distance between them to get out of the way or help if it looked like a part of the line would break.
Almost every adventurer Isaac and Lenna knew the names of were out in front of the city walls. They were there under the promise of five hundred gold plus spoils for every V’Nova soldier killed, double that for each mage, and five times that for every paladin. The garrison and guard were given the same offer. The human’s battle line was in high spirits considering who they were about to go up against but there was still an ever pervasive fear that couldn’t get snuffed out.
“FOR HONOR!” A cleric of the human god of war shouted from halfway down the battle line.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“FOR GLORY!” Another shouted from the opposite direction.
“FOR MONEY!” An adventurer screamed which received a chorus of laughter.
“FOR WAR!” The last of the clerics of war called out without missing a beat. They were all used to working with adventurers and soldiers and had long accepted their antics.
“FOR KING AND COUNTRY!” Michael shouted from half a dozen feet away from Lenna in a voice so loud it made her ears ring.
“FOR OUR HOME!” Edward yelled almost as loud. A pulse of magic washed out from the war clerics and suddenly fear was a long forgotten memory. The battle line had set their resolve and magic had helped them harden their hearts for the battle to come.
The approaching drow army stopped and a few of them pointed at Lenna and the drider behind her. She had her helmet off so they could all get a good look at her. There was some commotion in their ranks before the knight-paladins stomped it down with a few harsh words. Right when it looked like they were about to start moving again Fable handed Lenna a stone much like a sending stone. On one side it had a small hole and on the other it had a larger one. There was a simple enchantment carved and poured with gold over its surface and through the hole in its center. “Make sure they know it’s you.” Fable told her and she nodded.
Lenna put the stone up to her mouth and pointed the larger hole towards the drow army. “If my uncle wants a war, I will give him a war.” Her voice was stern, threatening, but measured as it rang out across the stone between the two small armies that would soon be painted red with blood. “I will show no mercy to my ex-subordinates so turn back now, or die like men.” She ordered and passed the stone back to Fable before putting her helmet on and strapping it in place. “They know.” She said simply to those around her and the drow battle line shifted into more of a wedge formation. The front section moved forwards first and sides moved in tighter.
“Here they come.” Esk whispered. The center of their formation was the only area without shieldbearers in front of them. They had a pair of mages and a cleric at their backs but no second line. Mark had a tower shield in hand and was standing in front of Esk while Claus stood in front of Michael. The middle three; Lenna, Fable, and Edward. Had no one in front of them to break the soon to be incoming charge.
“Charge!” They heard from one of the knight-paladins in the V’Nova force before the entire mass of two hundred heavily trained and mid to high leveled combatants began building momentum in their direction.
The V’Nova’s closed the distance. The pounding of boots on stone vibrated the defenders in their boots. ‘Hold.’ Lenna heard Edward’s voice in her head. They continued to close the distance. ‘Hold.’ He continued.
‘Any closer and they-’ Izen began to protest.
‘Fire.’ Edward cut him off.
“Fire!” Izen roared from the battlements. Over a dozen clangs of ballistae firing echoed off stone before sixteen bolts closed the distance between the walls and the V’Nova troops.
“Wal-” A V’Nova knight-paladin’s voice was cut off by ballista bolts slamming into massive reality shields and steel ones alike. Only six of the twenty wizards were able to get their silver plated arms up in time to deploy the massive reality shields before impact. Seven ballista bolts ricocheted off the reality shields and were sent skipping behind the force. Three more went straight through the infantry who hadn’t braced properly and lodged themselves into the ground. Two were deflected by well angled and braced, magically enchanted, shields. Those two were tossed further back into the battle line, injuring but not killing a few more soldiers. The final four hit stone between and around the mass of steel and bodies.
Edward grinned. “Boom.” He said and the world went orange.
Every ballista bolt was worth more than most guardsmen earned in their entire career. The bolt head was enchanted to meld into the stone and lock the bolt in place once it made contact to ensure that they didn’t ricochet. Their shafts were enchanted with not one, not two, but five fireball spells that were all set to go off two seconds after the enchantment on the head activated. The plan had been dreamt up by Alexander’s predecessor, a man known for his mastery of wards and array style magic. It had been almost impossible to keep the plan a secret so the drow spies couldn’t learn of their incredibly overpriced ‘level the playing field button’ as the old man had put it.
Lenna was glad that she had been looking at Edward and not their enemy when everything had exploded. As it was, she had to shield her sensitive eyes from the blinding light. She was the only one on her side that hadn’t needed to drink a Dark Vision potion in order to see clearly. She had to blink away the tears that were forming from the eye searing light. By the time she could get a good look at the carnage the V’Nova battle line was in pieces.
When most of the enemy started to get back up and reform ranks a wave of panic swept down her battle line before the heroic magics of the war clerics clamped back down and reaffirmed everyone’s resolve. Lenna knew why in an instant. The auras of the V’Nova knight-paladins had locked into place like fortress walls right before the explosions had gone off. The fireballs had punched through their auras but not without difficulty. With a great deal of the explosive force of the fireballs directed upwards instead of outwards due to the resistance of the paladins’ auras the damage was minimized.
A soft golden glow washed out from all of the hostile paladins as healing energies bathed the injured in warmth. The battle line was already almost entirely back together before the next barrage was ready to fire. “So much for an easy victory.” Edward grumbled from beside her. “But we expected something like this.” He said a bit louder. “READY!” He called out and every shieldbearer shifted slightly in anticipation of what was to come.