Knight-Champion Marcus stood atop the battlements, glaring down at the army beasts and monsters that had gathered less than a mile away. He seethed as he saw the creatures walking around and acting like men. They even wore clothing! It was a mockery that he could not let stand.
And yet, he waited.
Meeting such a force on open ground, no matter how barbaric they may be, would see the bulk of his knights dead or wounded. They may have been primitive monsters and beasts, but as derogatory as those labels were, they were still incredibly dangerous. That, more than anything, spoke to the necessity of subjugating such creatures. Marcus longed to watch each and every one of those creatures branded and put to work as the Sun Goddess intended.
“What would you have us do, sir?” asked one of his underlings. Marcus turned to see a sniveling slip of a man – a waste of space that tarnished the very notion of Knighthood with his mere presence – staring at him with an expectant expression. “The walls won’t hold against such a force.”
“Nonsense. They are beasts. Even our flimsiest barricades are more than a match for such creatures.”
“But sir –”
“Do you question me, Cavin? Or is that cowardice I hear in your voice?” the Knight-Champion asked with a sneer.
“No, sir.”
“Good,” was Marcus’s response. He removed his helmet and looked down at the shiny metal. In it, he could see his reflection, and he couldn’t have been happier with what he saw. Strong jaw. A noble nose. Blonde hair with just enough of a curl to give him the heroic look he craved. He looked every inch the perfect Knight, which was an important factor. The Knights of Adontis craved perfection in all things, even appearances. It was why they had such a glut of infantry. Those were the castoffs. The men who hadn’t lived up to the standards of the knighthood, be it in performance or, as was more often the case, appearances.
Cavin belonged among them.
Marcus knew it, as did every other Knight. However, the weedy, little man had avoided such a fate because, according to Marcus’s superiors, Cavin was a tactical genius. As if such a thing was possible for anyone who looked like a better man’s sickly younger brother.
“Go back to the command center and let them know that we require no reinforcements. Our numbers are sufficient to deal with such a rabble.”
“But sir, that rabble completely destroyed Heartwood and killed every Knight in the Illuminated Forerunners Company. If you would allow me to offer some advice, I –”
Marcus’s hand flashed out before he could even comprehend his own reaction, and soon enough the sound of cracking bone filled the air. Then, Cavin hit the ground, where he remained completely unmoving. Blood pooled beneath his dislodged jaw.
Marcus stepped back so as to avoid getting blood on his boots. “Someone clean this mess up,” he barked. “It is –”
Just then, something huge stepped out from the horde of beasts in the distance. Even from so far away, Marcus could tell it was enormous. Perhaps fifteen feet tall, with broad shoulders – the thing looked like it was made completely from rock.
“Is that a golem?” he asked, but no one answered.
“Surrender!” came an echoing bellow that cut through the din of conversation on the battlements. Hundreds of Knights and more than a thousand archers and spellcasters went silent. The voice – which Marcus assumed had come from the giant rock-man in the distance – went on, “If you give up, we will spare your lives! If you resist, we will slaughter every person in the fort!”
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Marcus let out a loud guffaw – a sound that he hated. That horrible cackle was the only thing holding him back from further advancement, and he’d worked extremely hard to get it under control. Yet, sometimes, when he heard something truly ridiculous, it snuck out all the same. Such was the case when he heard the rock-monster’s demands.
He turned to his immediate underling – he was a Knight-Corporal named Dines, though Marcus hadn’t bothered to learn more. “Given the order,” he said.
Dines clapped his hand over his chest, and his plate gauntlets clanged against his breastplate. Then, he raised his voice and shouted, “Fire at will!”
The infantry complied with the efficiency of career soldiers. The archers among them raised their bows, took aim, and loosed their arrows. Some burst into flames mid-flight, while others took on an icy chill. Many more split into dozens of copies, and others among the flight of arrows showed no visible skill at all.
Marcus dismissed those out of hand. Certainly, he was aware that even invisible skills could pack quite a punch, but he also likened it to hiding, which in turn, reeked of cowardice. Men with those sorts of skills were the lowest of the low, and as such, they were beneath his notice.
Meanwhile, the few infantry mages among the force let loose with more magical skills. Fireballs, lightning, and spears of ice and earth filled the air, but Marcus found it difficult to believe that any of those sorts could affect any meaningful damage. Mages were worse even than normal infantry in that they rarely epitomized the values that any Knight held close to his heart. Instead, they were routinely thin or obese, short or gangly, or some other combination of undesirable characteristics. They weren’t just beneath him. They were beneath everyone but the beasts they used for manual labor. More than once, Marcus had wondered why they weren’t branded as well.
Even so, the volley of projectiles and magical skills was a reasonably impressive sight, and Marcus found himself watching in anticipation as the skills fell upon the rock man. Explosions tore into the ground, sending clouds of dirt billowing into the air as one shockwave after another ripped through the turf.
Still, the mages and archers continued to fire off their spells and skills, blanketing the area in unmitigated destruction.
However, the line of beasts and monsters, which were just out of range, remained completely motionless. That irritated Marcus more even than the fact that they’d risen up against their betters. By all rights, they should have fled into the wilderness like normal animals. And yet, they remained on the battlefield, showing more discipline than even the most steadfast Knight.
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But at least the insolent rock-man would be no more. That was a good start, and it would hopefully –
Before Marcus could complete that thought, something huge slammed into the wall. The point of impact was more than fifty yards away from his position, but it hit with enough force that it sent him flying backwards. Even as he hit the other side of the wall-walk, the sound of collapsing stones reached his ears.
He flared [Knight’s Recovery], which was just enough to clear his head. He shouted, “Report! What was that? Some sort of siege weapon?”
But no one answered. At level fifty-nine, he was the most powerful person in a frontier fort like Calway, and even that was only because it housed an air dock which was vital for the supply lines all across Adontis. So, if something was powerful enough to throw him from his feet, it was more than enough to knock his subordinates unconscious.
He glared at the useless hangers-on, then cast his gaze down the wall walk. A few of the infantrymen had started to recover, but most of the men in his vicinity were still out.
Then, there was another impact, this one just as powerful as the last. However, now that he had [Knight’s Recovery] singing through his veins, Marcus weathered the impact much more easily. Because of that, he was able to climb to his feet and cross the wall walk to look over the edge and take stock of the situation.
And what he saw shocked him to his core. He was so stunned that it took him a moment to identify the creature properly:
Colossus – Level 51
“Level fifty-one?” he muttered as the thing smashed a giant, bone-handled hammer against the wall again. “How is that creature only level fifty-one?”
And yet it was. His inspection skill, [Knight’s Eyes] was infallible, so he couldn’t fathom doubting it. Still, his surprise was palpable as the monster finally broke through the last vestiges of the wall.
“Knight-Champion!” yelled one of the infantrymen. He was a sergeant, and as such, he was probably reasonably powerful. For someone with a nose that looked more like a bird’s beak, at least. “We must fight it!”
Marcus took one look at the monster striding through the breach in the wall, and he came to the conclusion that to throw himself against such a creature would be beneath him. More, it would show a lack of command skill. So, he shook his head, saying, “No. I will leave it to you and yours, sergeant!”
And with that, Marcus embraced his enhancement skill, [Blessing of the Heavens], and ran away. His path took him further down the wall, and yet, even with all the speed he could muster, he could not outrun the destruction behind him. He shoved his way through the recovering infantrymen, shouting for them to kill the creature, but it did no good.
It was coming.
Crashing through the wall like it was made of paper, it didn’t even flinch when more skills fell upon it. Instead, it leaped to the top of the wall and laid waste to the men whose skills it had so easily endured.
But as quickly as Marcus fled, he could not escape its notice.
Suddenly, something wrapped around his waist, lifting him high into the air. Panicked, he flared his skills as he looked down to see a massive hand encircling him. Then, it started to squeeze. The vaunted armor of the Knights of Adontis crumpled beneath the pressure, but the creature didn’t stop there. Instead, it slammed Marcus against the wall with enough force to crack the stone.
He briefly blacked out, but with [Knight’s Recovery] active, he regained consciousness quickly. It didn’t last long before the massive monster repeated the blow. Then, it did it again. And again after that. Over and over, it slammed the cowardly knight into the wall, breaking bones and rupturing organs along the way.
Marcus lost consciousness on the fourth hit, but he didn’t perish until minutes later. The last thing he saw was a giant lizard creature climbing over the wall and sending a spear of pure light to lance through whichever soldiers had managed to survive so far. Then, he blacked out, and was no more.
* * *
With a roar, Zeke through the man in the shiny armor at another group of soldiers, then shifted to the nimbler unattuned version of [Triune Colossus]. In seconds, his body slimmed down, and he rocketed forward to continue the slaughter that had begun only a few minutes before.
The barrage of skills and arrows had surprised him, so he’d been forced to use [Shifting Sands] to get close enough to the wall to start tearing it down. Of course, he’d had to lead off with his Runebreaker technique, which shattered the fortification’s enchantment, but once those had been ripped to shreds, Zeke had relied on nothing more than his strength.
After it had fallen, the kobolds and beastkin that made up his army had charged, flooding through the breach only a few moments later. Meanwhile, Zeke had leaped atop the battlements to wreak havoc on the defenders. At first, he’d satisfied himself with killing a few of the weaker soldiers, but when he’d caught sight of the man in the shiny, elaborate armor, he’d expected a bit of a fight.
Of course, the man had been running away at the time, which probably should have clued Zeke into the reality of what would happen. However, he was still surprised that the man hadn’t fought back at all. Instead, he’d only tried to flee. Where he thought he could go was a mystery. The fort was already on the verge of falling, and so, there was nowhere to hide.
The only explanation was that the man was a coward, which was just disappointing.
“You really are bloodthirsty, aren’t you?” Eveline remarked as Zeke turned his attention to inside the wall. The fort itself was composed of almost two-dozen buildings. Some were more important than others, but the reason they’d assaulted the fort in the first place was the giant tower at the center. It was more than four-hundred feet tall, and there were docks every thirty feet. Most were empty – the airships that had been berthed there had already fled – but there were a couple that had yet to get underway.
Zeke intended to take a few of those for his own use.
So, he leaped from the wall, yelling for Silik and Pudge to accompany him. The two had been nearby, where they were busy slaughtering the enemy, but they broke off without a hint of hesitation and followed him to the tower.
“We’re going for speed here,” he said, slamming into the tower’s doors. They splintered under his strength, revealing a spiraling staircase. The center was occupied by a series of pullies that were probably used as an elevator for cargo.
The air dock was sparsely defended, and the soldiers who remained were quickly dispatched by Silik and Pudge. Zeke didn’t even have to lift his hammer, which made for an uneventful sequence where he just thundered up the steps. By the time they reached their first destination, the airship that had been docked there had already departed, but the second, they captured after the crew surrendered.
By that point, the final ship was well on its way, removing any chance of doubling the size of their pilfered fleet. Zeke watched it fly away with a sense of annoyance and frustration.
“You’re just mad because you didn’t get to fight anyone,” Eveline pointed out.
“I mean, how do they not have a champion here? The highest level I saw was that guy who ran away,” Zeke remarked. “And he didn’t even put up a fight.”
“It’s a minor outpost,” she pointed out. “You knew it wasn’t going to be an epic battle.”
“Yeah, but I expected there to be some sort of struggle,” he said, looking down at the fort. It was still mostly intact, but the kobolds on beastkin hadn’t hesitated to take their frustrations out on the soldiers. Even the ones who’d surrendered hadn’t lasted long. Even if he hadn’t issued orders to offer no quarter to the Knights of Adontis, he’d have had a difficult time holding the beastkin back. They’d suffered too much to let their enemies live.
“Their attitude is rubbing off on the kobolds, too,” Eveline remarked.
Indeed, the two populations had begun to intermingle – inevitable, considering they lived in such close proximity – and the kobolds had started to view the beastkin as part of their community. As such, they had much the same attitude toward the Knights of Adontis as the beastkin themselves.
“I’m going to have to start pulling them back, aren’t I?” he said.
“Yes.”
He sighed. Fighting a war was brutal, but if he let the kobolds continue down their current path, they’d begin to backslide. He wouldn’t allow that. So, while the knights didn’t truly deserve mercy, granting it was probably in his people’s best interest.
So, with that in mind, Zeke started back down the tower to end the wanton slaughter he’d started.