CHAPTER 22

The assault on Vinestone has begun. At first, the town's defenders with the aid of our half-dragon heroes seemed to be holding against the orcish assault, but soon Radais saw through the diversion to the real threat; the terramancy-wielding Earthbinder Clan had tunneled into Vinestone’s mine and had begun pouring out behind the town’s defensive line. Radais has one chance to stop the potentially devastating sneak attack.

“They’re coming up through the mines!” The dragon prince cried out as he glided down the street.

The warning drew the attention of a few of the soldiers running supplies. In the fog of war, it would still take a few minutes to mount a defense, but at least a handful of soldiers noticed the same threat Radais had and dropped what they were doing to follow him to battle.

The Earthbinder orcs were just exiting the tunnel making their way up the narrow path following the minecart tracks to the town proper and suddenly found themselves cut off by a wall of flame as Radias glided overhead and sprayed the ground before him with his flame breath. Thankfully it was just the Earthbinders and not the Shriekers so the fire would be a hindrance and not an aid. He used the hot air updraft of the fires as a sort of air brake and landed on the opposite side of the firewall. At this point his feet had officially touched the ground… and he still didn’t have a plan beyond ‘more fire’. The orc didn’t give him time to think as suddenly spears of rock shot through his flames forcing him to leap out of the way, one of the razor-sharp projectiles clipped his leg painfully, causing him to cry out.

The firewall didn’t last long as the well-trained and coordinated orcs instinctively split into teams. One team pulled the earth up and over the flame wall to smoother it out, and the other created pointed projectiles of earth and fired them through the flames as suppressive fire. They had been trained and properly prepared for a situation such as this.

Some of the town defenders further up the path set up an impromptu fire line to launch arrows, spells, and bullets back at the orcs.

As rock spears whizzed by one way; arrows, and spells the other Radais realized he was in the worst place possible for a shoot out, right in the middle of it! So he ran for the nearest cover, a small storage shed where the minecart tracks lead. He slammed through the door as the injury to his leg throbbed from the impact. His mind raced; he needed a plan, ANY PLAN, just … SOMETHING he could! In a wild gambit, he thought of an illusion. “DROP THE ROCKS!” He yelled as loud as he could and pretended to signal to someone above the orcs as he created an illusion of falling boulders.

A few of the Earthbinders heard the shout and looked up at the illusionary stones. Most people would instinctively leap out of the way, but not Earthbinders. They were terramancers, they could command the earth, make it float, and fling it in whichever direction they pleased with but a thought. So when the Earthbinders looked up and saw falling rocks they thought ‘opportunity’ not ‘threat’. They reached out with the magics and tried to command the falling stones to fly at their enemies; they were then shocked when their magic simply didn’t work. A few of the cleverer orcs realized it was a trick, but enough of them panicked and tried to leap in the mine to safety that it jammed up the flow of orcs out of the mine for a few seconds as the illusionary boulders fell through them then disappeared.

During those few seconds, Radais found a shelf full of alchemical mining explosives took an armload haphazardly tossed them into an empty mineart, pulled the parking brake, sprayed a quick flame on the explosive containers, and then pushed the cart with every bit of might he could muster. His injured leg screamed in pain as he put pressure on it, but he gritted his teeth and kept pushing, even using a flap of wings to get just a bit more force to get the cart moving. The cart rolled forward, slammed through the double doors, and followed the tracks toward the mine entrance.

The sight of a minecart on fire was enough to cause the orcs to flee back into the mine. A few had the presence of mind to attempt to use their magic to block or derail the cart, but thankfully the town defenders taking pop shots managed to hit them, breaking their spell focus before they could complete the spells.

The hissing, smoking cart rolled into the mine entrance amidst the screaming and running orcs and exploded in an earth-shaking KA-BOOM! As Radais had hoped, the wooden support beams of the entrance shattered in the blast causing the roof to collapse and thus seal off the mine.

Radais breathed a sigh of relief, he was about to congratulate himself, but he noticed the shaking from the explosion hadn’t stopped. In fact, it felt like there was a full-on earthquake and soon fell to the floor unable to stand as the ground beneath him shook violently.

At the wall…

Larxene noticed the shaking as it got so bad she couldn’t focus on maintaining her wind shield spell. It was then the smooth stone surface of the rampart titled beneath her as if she were on the deck of a ship being struck by a fierce wave. Reflexively she grabbed onto a stone wall to keep from sliding. As the shaking continued the entire wall began to sink into the ground as if they had sprung a leak and were being swallowed into the depths of the ocean.

“The wall is falling!” Someone screamed as the town defenders scrambled to get away. Larxene herself kicked off the wall and glided away using a quick wind spell to help push herself along. She was able to get clear just as the wall collapsed completely, burying countless soldiers in the rubble. As she landed she took out her rune bow to open fire on the shriekers charging the opening The next section of the wall began to shake and fall. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it appeared Vinestone was losing its primary line of defense.

Zhantaos heard the city gates slam closed with a metallic thunk as he carried the last two refugees in and handed them off to other soldiers. That’s when he felt the shaking and stumbled and fell to his knees. He looked back just in time to see the first section of the city wall fall into a sinkhole.

Xion was mending the wounds of the soldier that had taken an arrow to the chest. Something told her to steady herself so she spread her feet apart and latched on to the table with her free hand. The earthquake hit a second later, had she not been prepared the consequences to her patient might have been dire. Even as the ground shook she stayed focused on the mending spell and then helped the patient up off the table and out the tent as the shaking got worse.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

At the command post…

Grantar watched in horror as the first section of the city wall suddenly dropped in to the ground. He thought back to Radais’ warning about the mines and the horror of realization hit him all at once. The orcs had dug beneath the wall to create a sinkhole. The enemy was about to sweep the city's best line of defense from right out underneath them. He gave the order: “EVACUATE THE WALL! FALL BACK ACROSS THE BRIDGE! GET TO THE TOWER!” But he knew it would be too late for many of the city's defenders.

At the wall…

Without the defenders to hold them back anymore the first shriekers reached the wall and were struck by the flaming arrows fired by their allies. Some went so far as to grab whatever fire was handy and put it to their already oil-soaked clothing. They belted out echoing, nerve-wracking, ear-shattering shrieks as the first of them detonated.

Zhanatos spread his obsidian wings hoping to shield others as he grabbed anyone that was close by and took off running. He winced in pain as he felt Sharple from the gate slam into his back, but he ignored the pain and kept running.

Larxene noticed Zhanatos fleeing with a handful of others in tow and then watched in horror as the debris hit him. ‘There is no way I’m letting that idiot get himself killed!’ She thought as she ran forward, having to dodge and push her way through others running away from the destruction (as she damn well realized she should be as well). She reached the berserker and slipped beneath one of his arms to help carry him up the slope to the bridge.

At the mining shed…

One of the town defenders, a healer that happened to come by and was finishing healing Radais' wound when word of the wall falling and the order to retreat was relayed to them. Within a moment he reached the same conclusion about the actions of the Earthbinders that Grantar had, and swore at himself for not thinking of it sooner. It was a rather brilliant and obvious tactic now that it had been presented.

The soldiers were beginning to turn to leave when the dragon prince happened to look at the shelves and noticed the labels ‘lithium’, ‘sodium’, and ‘potassium’. All likely in powder form, common stables of an alchemist’s lab. Which presumably was what this shed doubled as given the alchemical explosives he found earlier. “Wait!’ He called out. “I need everyone to grab as much of this stuff as you can and carry it to the bridge, I have an idea!”

There was no time to question it. The soldiers grabbed whatever Radais told them to and took off running. They weren’t really sure who this half-dragon was, but he had been there to stop the orc sneaking in through the mine, so that was good enough to do what he asked as they retreated.

With the city wall either sunk or blown to bits the orcs began marching into the Vinestone proper, they still let the shriekers lead the way just in case those humans and elves had some trick up their sleeves, but a few of the more eager warriors began breaking ranks to race ahead to attack those that were fleeing or to begin pillaging. Mahk knew he should keep them in line, but a little leeway was fine. They had won, after all, Vinestone was a ripe fruit ready to be picked now. The information provided by their contact had proven to be perfect and the plan had worked as anticipated.

The half-dragon guardsman caught with Radais as he was directing the soldiers where to place the barrels, boxes, and jars of chemicals.

“I thought you were planning on staying at the command post?” Larxene questioned, forced to shout over the sound of the fleeing crowd, exploding orcs, and fighting in retreat. She noticed the tear in Radais’ robe and the recently healed injury on his leg. She knew someone should have stayed with him.

“Yes, well this day has surely proven that man plans and the gods laugh!” Radais replied in a shout as he used his dagger to pry the lid off another barrel. “Open these containers and get to the other side of the river!” He commanded. Thankfully the orcs were taking their time advancing up the hill, either due to caution or arrogance.

Grantar himself was one of the last to cross the bridge. He noticed the open chemical containers Radais and his team had left behind but thought little of it as he and his entourage fled across the bridge. He reached the other side to find Radais there already giving out orders.

“Anyone with earth, ice, or protection magic, reinforce this side of the bank! Be ready for the shockwave! Anyone with lighting, fire or anything else that can create heat get ready to warm the river. We need to make it boil!”

“Prince of dragons what are you doing?” Grantar demanded.

“I have a plan!” Radais replied with an almost manic grin. “They make my fire magic useless, they can disbelieve my illusions, but there’s one weapon no one can ever take from me. The sharpest and deadliest of all… science!”

“Oh yeah, he’s going full mad alchemist on us! This will be spectacular!” Xion cackled manically, still feeling the effects of the positive karma overload.

Grantar gave the Dragon Prince an uncertain look and Vinestone’s defenders, what few still remained, looked to him for guidance.

“Endothermic.” Radais began. “They shriekers don’t use the fire because they have fuses, it is the heat that makes them explode. I’m about to turn the tide on this battle. Trust me!”

Grantar blinked, looked out over the bridge and the river, and then nodded as the plan that had been laid out became clear to him. Re-enforce this side of the river, boil the water, and wait for the shriekers. “Do as the prince of dragons says!” He commanded and everyone sprang into action.

The orcs advanced and halted as they reached the bridge. Clearly, the humans and elves were planning on blowing it up; the barrels and such they left out made it obvious. It was of no matter though. The shriekers raced forward uttering their foul howls. The moment the first one stepped foot on the bridge the order was given and the charges began going off in sequence rending apart each section of the bridge and flinging the barrels into the water. It was actually rather disappointing. Mahk had expected something much grander or at least for the weaklings to have enough nerve to wait a bit longer to set off the charges. “Sherikers forward! Wipe them out!” He bellowed out. Without even the slightest hint of thought for the danger the charcoal-skinned mad orcs plunged into the water and began swimming.

They made it about halfway when the first one popped and the water splashed with the shockwave he made, then the river started to bubble as if it were a pot of water, then another shrieker exploded, and then another, and another, and yet more still and with each one that blew the river bank on the orc’s side trembled under the force of the shockwaves traveling through the water.

Lithium, sodium, and potassium that was what was in the containers Radias had positioned on the bridge. That was what fell into the water when the bridge was destroyed. As any alchemist could tell you, those three metals are known for violent exothermic (heat-giving off) reactions when they come in contact with water. That with the added magic was enough to heat the river to boiling.

Soon the shriekers were popping the second they stepped a toe in the water and the bank was giving way allowing the boiling hot water to spill over and pour out over the sloped town onto the orcs marching up the hill. The smarter orcs had already realized what was about to happen and were turning back to run down the way they came.

A moment later the retaining wall of the orc side of the river shattered under the barrage of heat and exploding shriekers causing the river to flash flood over the city like a bursting dam!

Soon the orcs found themselves being swept back down the hill they had just marched up, accompanied by some of their own forces exploding around them destroying the stone homes of the humans, which added more deadly debris to the flow of boiling water.

Mahk the undying screamed a curse as he was swept away!