1:020 on the 75th day of Winter

With the design of the radios finalized I got to work making everything in batches. The metal case, nobs, dials, and buttons could all be made by hand so I left those for later. I had to use my printer spell to make the antenna, speaker, microphone, control cube, artificial core, and now, signal display. I could have, should have, used a different antenna design but to get forty watts of transmitting power in such a small device it needed to be made out of diamond for insulation and heat dissipation and graphene nanotubes wires for their extremely low resistance. As it was I could only make one at a time.

I got through sixty seven antennas before actually running out of mana. It wasn't a sensation I had experienced since being in the cave. The printer spell is extremely mentally taxing but doesn't actually use much mana. But here I was running dry. Oh well, while I recovered I set my mind to another design. With the lasers as powerful, compact, and safe as they are I imagine I could make them into something truly powerful. An array of a few hundred lasers could go from a powerful self defense weapon to an army killer. I was eating lunch in the central command building's meal hall, making notes on my design, when someone started yelling.

"The western bastion star has been breached!" he yelled. "All able bodied soldiers are commanded to report to the main hall for immediate deployment!"

He was dressed as a decade leader but wasn't wearing armor. I and half the room were already on our feet and marching for the door. I needed my armor so I ran upstairs to retrieve it. The outer wall of Cinder was broken into five bastion stars and the western one wasn't where the demons had focused their attacks on. It must have been a surprise attack or something similar. If it had fallen that would mean the whole city might soon follow.

By the time I made it to the main hall the room was packed with thousands of people getting ready for a fight. There was a group passing out weapons raided from an armory somewhere in the building. I pushed my way through the crowd to make it to the groups that were ready to head out.

"You, you, you and you. Form up." yelled a man in the armor of the legion. He and about ten other guys left the hall in a hurry. He hadn't pointed to me so I waited. I looked around for other mages to see if there was any organization happening. What was the best way for me to help here? A line of spearmen would just get in my way. My current power set was much closer to a gun than a sword so maybe that's who I should link up with. I looked around and spotted a cluster of unarmored people all holding guns. I jogged over to find Fresin standing at the head of a group of eight unarmored men and women with muskets. She held her long rifle to her chest as she looked around at the group.

"Theod, good to see you. Are you going to pick up a gun and join us?" she asked, her tone was as calm as she had been yesterday.

"I'm here to help however I can." I said. "And no, but I have some tools that are closer to guns than swords or spears."

I patted the laser rods in their holsters. She just raised an eyebrow at that. Then two more joined our group carrying a bundle of ammunition pouches.

"No time to waste." said Fresin in the same relaxed tone.

"Follow me."

And she was off running.

We didn't take the main exit, which was choked with armored soldiers, but instead took the stairs three floors down to an underground tunnel. We ran at a fast pace down the tunnel for about five measures before navigating through another building to a parallel tunnel. After another five measures of running in that tunnel we climbed ten floors to the roof of a building. It had a grove of trees. I was breathing hard at the fast pace but kept my focus as we moved through the cover. I could hear yelling and screaming from the streets below.

"Spread out." said Fresin, pointing to the edge of the roof. Her team moved into prone positions to set up their shots. I hadn't worked much with the rifle teams but I was impressed so far. I lined up alongside them, keeping an eye on the sky as well in case there were flyers. Looking down I could see a column of kith moving through the street without opposition. People were running for their lives to get away from the advancing demons. I took aim with both of my laser rods but waited for the order to fire. Fresin took one look at the column and then turned to us.

"Hit the ones at the back first." she said. "Then fire at will. We are trying to sow confusion so they waste time finding another route."

Then she lined up her own shot.

BANG!

At her shot I fired as well. I could see the light from two balls of plasma explode about ten feet and fifteen feet past the kith I was aiming at. I quickly dragged both my beams into its center of mass. I could see beams of darkness connecting me to my targets. At this distance they were scattering to the size of a quarter so they weren't really cutting anything. Instead they blackened and burnt the kith's exoskeleton in long twisting lines and caused it to scream in pain. After about three marks it collapsed and I moved up the column. It wasn't dead yet, but I only needed to glance down the road and see it lined with the bodies of civilians to squash any sympathy.

After three kith dropped from burns and bullets the remaining score started climbing towards our position. Their claws dug into the stone to carry them up at a fast pace. However, as they came closer the beams of my lasers got deadlier. About halfway up the building the dark lines started cutting through limbs. I managed to kill the leading edge causing them to fall on those behind them, slowing them down. That gave me time to kill them too. Once there were less than ten they broke and ran. My laser rods were hot under my grip so I stood and holstered them. Fresin and her squad were all staring at me.

"More like a gun than a spear." she said with a flat tone. We could still hear screaming from some of the kith that hadn't died yet. I looked at her with grim resolve.

"Right." she said. "Well that changes how we're going to do things."

Then she pulled out the radio I had given her. Turning it on she waited for a bit before starting.

"Fresin here, I happen to find myself with one of our heavy hitters looking for a fight. Where's the worst spot? Over."

***

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1:054 on the 75th day of Winter

With Fresin leading we cut a bloody swath toward the breach in the western wall. She had given the other three radios to other rifle groups that were supporting the iron skin legion. They exchanged a few words but she must have been putting together a picture of the whole battlefield because twice she had us duck into a random shop at street level only for a group of demons to come charging by a measure later. We managed to step out behind them and dispatch them both times without any injuries on our side.

Then the breach came into view. I was imagining the wall crumbling but there wasn't any visible damage on the wall itself. Instead it was only clear it had fallen from a distance by the number of demons swarming in the street. As we got closer I realized that half the street in front of the wall had collapsed into a large tunnel that the demons were coming from. They must have dug deep under the wall to get inside. The space between the city buildings and the wall was filled with demons of every type.

Facing them was at least one century of troops. They were supported by a dozen mages in the red and black armor of the iron-bloods. Lastly, at the tip of the spear were three of the Colossi. The giant metal golems were tearing through a morgeth with spears and swords. I recognized the distinct blue and white markings of my brother's colossus and hoped he was doing okay.

I moved forward to join the battle but Fresin put an arm out to block me.

"Just wait." she said.

I glared at her for holding me back but I also trusted her tactical judgment at this point. Then she pointed to the group of iron-blood mages.

"There." she said, tone finally showing a small amount of urgency. "The earth mages are who can actually end this. If we can't collapse their tunnel, they win. We need to get our earth mages to the base of the wall just on the other side of the collapse."

Then she ran forward. We soon reached the legion formation holding back dozens of kith and other demons.

"Theod." she said, pointing to where a group of mages were fighting the demons. "Put a bright yellow light right in front of those three there."

I pulled out three flash marbles from my belt, reached into their enchantments to set them to yellow, and threw them. Each landed near enough to their targets that they were soon disengaging from their fights and moving back towards us. There were two earth mages, one with dark skin and gray hair and the other with light skin and blonde hair. Then I saw a familiar face as she approached.

"Theod!" said Arin. "Good to see you! But why did you call for a pullback?"

I just pointed to Fresin.

"We need to put these two," she said pointing at the earth mages. "on that side of the hole so they can collapse it." She pointed to a spot on the other side of the battlefield through about five hundred demons. She had to almost yell to make herself heard over the din of fighting. "Fastest path is under the street. Follow!"

With that she was off and running. We all followed after and soon we had entered a building, descended three floors, ran down a narrow tunnel and started climbing stairs again. Finally we came out on top of the wall and were looking down on the battle.

"Now, how are we going to get down there?" asked Arin.

"We can use our magic to jump down but we wouldn't last long in that mess." said the older earth mage gesturing to his counterpart.

"I've got this." I said to Arin.

I moved over to a heavy statue of a lion that was carved into the stone of the wall looking out over Cinder. I pulled the repelling line and tool from my belt and tied the line around the statue several times to be sure. Then I fixed the decent tool to my belt and turned back to Arin.

"I'm going to need to carry you down." I said, kneeling.

Without a word she climbed on my back and locked her legs around my waist. I stood back up and started our descent.

"Give us thirty marks to clear the area then come down and start on the tunnel." I said.

They both nodded but the blond guy held up a hand.

"If this works the street will collapse into the tunnel. Be sure you're both well clear when that happens." he said.

"We'll try but don't wait for us." said Arin.

Then there was no more time to lose and we started repelling down. Arin gripped me tightly over my shoulders but was careful to not choke me around my neck. Despite the urgency I felt a rush of warmth surge through me at Arin's touch. I could feel her warm breath on my neck and it took my mind to all sorts of places it should not be going in the middle of a battle. When this was all over I needed to figure out my feelings.

About half way down, I felt her turn and she started firing lasers at the demons on the ground. I slowed our fall at the very end so as to keep my footing. We landed and Arin immediately slid off my back. I spun around with laser rods already firing, cutting three kith into pieces in as many marks. Arin was dodging and weaving through the melee, the laser sword I had made cutting through the enemy with deadly efficiency.

It occured to me that thirty marks is a long time in this kind of fight. It certainly felt like a long time had passed when I heard two thumps behind me to indicate that the earth mages had arrived. Arin and I were holding a small area near the wall clear of living demons. We were both careful to check our lines of fire to make sure we didn't cut through our allies on the other side of the collapsed street. A group of sekteth tried to surround Arin. I diverted one of my lasers to help her fend off the attack but then I had to duck a swipe from a kith's claw.

It was several measures of hard fighting before I felt the ground shift.

"Move, it's collapsing!" yelled one of the earth mages.

"Move now!" yelled the other.

I looked over and saw Arin boxed in by a morgeth and three kith. She was definitely not clear. I ran as fast as I could toward her while firing both lasers into the morgeth's beetle body.

There was a deafening CRACK and a plume of dust erupted from the hole. I ran past stunned demons as thick gray dust filled the street. Behind me I could hear that a part of the wall was collapsing as well. The street shifted below me as the dust washed over the whole field of battle. Large chunks of street fell and shifted and I had to step quickly to avoid slipping or getting buried.

I pushed forward in the direction I last saw Arin but couldn't find her in the chaos. I came upon a demon in the dust and I cut them down before they could react. Then I started coughing and had to pause to put a wet rag over my mouth. Moving forward I had to descend into a collapsed segment of the street. Then I found her. She was lying unmoving in a pile of rubble. She was covered in dust and her legs were buried under shards of broken cobbles.

My heart dropped at the sight. She hadn't made it far enough away in time. I ran to her and tried to gently shake her awake.

"Arin!" I said. "Arin, wake up!"

I checked the pulse on her wrist. It was weak. I started hauling rocks out of the way to dig out her legs. Her right leg looked fine if a bit bruised but her left was crushed below mid calf. The bone was sticking out and her blood was flowing freely. On the edge of panic I tried to pull her leg free of the rock. It wouldn't budge. I took off my cloak and used a laser to cut a long narrow strip off it. I took that and tied it around her leg in a tourniquet just above the wound. That slowed the bleeding but didn't stop it.

Trying to stay calm I needed to assess what was most likely to save her life right now. I was not first aid trained, in either life, but I had seen people die of injuries like this. If it wasn't the blood loss itself then it was the shock of blood loss. To treat shock I needed to get her feet elevated but I couldn't move her with her leg stuck like that. Weighing the pros and cons of it for entirely too long I decided that there was no hope for her leg, it was mashed into paste, so cutting off the remaining bits wouldn't make it any worse. I held my breath and, in one quick swipe, cut off the last pieces of muscle sinew and skin that were holding on. The smell of burning pork almost made me vomit but I held it in. Supporting her neck, in case she had a head injury, I moved her around to where her feet were elevated. Well, her foot at least. Checking her pulse again it was noticeably stronger.

With that done the next most likely thing to kill her was a demon. We were still on a battlefield after all. I stood and looked around. The dust was starting to clear and no demons were in sight. I was probably extremely lucky to not have been ambushed while trying to help Arin. Whatever, what's done is done. I looked back down at her. Seeing her there covered in rock dust made me think of the mines and of how she had saved me. It felt like a lifetime ago. This girl was so brave, strong, and I couldn't deny that she was beautiful. The sight of her hurt, the thought of losing her. It was clear to me now that I was falling for this girl.