Chapter 100: Metre Dash

I wasn’t particularly keen to go running through the streets, dodging fireballs for a second time in one night, but the alternatives were even less appealing, so off we went, chasing the best of a bunch of bad options. If anything, this second go around was even worse than before, because we were going uphill without pause, on roads as steeper than any I’d had the misfortune to see outside of a dedicated climbing route. The route was well lit, with the majority of the streetlamps still upright and intact, yet I still nearly tripped on several occasions. Part of that came from me keeping an eye to the sky the entire time, expecting to be flattened by another shockwave at any minute, but the dragon had either been killed or driven off, as neither its bulk nor any deafening roars caught my attention. In fact, the sky was entirely clear of enemies, the vultures from before seeming to focus exclusively on the Market District for whatever reason.

A few skeletons still attempted to bar our path, but I never even got as much as a swing in; Harvey kept ahead the entire time, dispatching them with a simple wooden stick and sharp blows to the skull. Only a few though, because most of the mobs were being kept at bay by the locals, who had caught on to the trick behind the summoning pools quickly enough, and had devised simple and practical solutions to deal with them. The most common trick was to dig around them, ensuring that newly spawned skeletons fell right into a pit, where a rotating guard carrying blunt weapons could easily dispose of them from high ground. A few pools were on fire, burning with acrid yellow smoke that smelled faintly of tobacco and cooking oil; no guards were needed here, just a steady flow of firewood to keep the flames roaring. Others failed to spawn anything at all, as burly workmen poured barrels of clear, hissing liquid that dissolved the ground where it spilled; some kind of industrial acid was my guess, easily enough to deal with a few bags of bones.

I didn’t see anyone destroy a summoning pool outright, though that might have been a case of survivorship bias, as there’d be no need for traps around them after they were gone; I wasn’t looking too hard for evidence either, as keeping up with Harvey was still the main priority, and true to his word he hadn’t slowed down in the slightest, maintaining a ferocious sprint the whole way.

[Pumpkin the Cat escaped.]

“There’s a lot fewer people than I expected,” Pumpkin remarked, rejoining us now that the threat of manual labour had passed. “Where’s all the civilians?”

I was somewhat envious of his ability to walk and talk, as I lacked the breath for it, but I was never going to beat a cat on foot, not when the average member of the species could beat Usain Bolt with time to spare.

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“This is a military city,” Kyle replied from behind me, at least having the decency to sound winded as he spoke. “Emergency drills are a fact of life, and most people outside the Slums obey the law, so as soon as the attack began, any non-combatants would have barricaded themselves in the nearest building, or headed to the nearest bunker. Anybody still outside is either a fighter or just really unlucky.”

Personally, I thought our little party was both, though I didn’t waste my breath correcting him, as I had little enough of it to begin with. Against all odds, we didn’t run into any trouble on this last stretch of a very fraught night, and I got to play the spectator for the remainder of our ascent, giving me a proper look at the defenders of Heaven’s Reach. As far as classes went, the overwhelming majority of defenders were Soldiers, in keeping with Kingdom policy on recruitment, though there were a few Archers, Mages and Healers in the mix. The former in particular were everywhere, killing skeletons, dealing with spawning pools, erecting and manning makeshift checkpoints and calming the few panicked civilians caught with their pants down. None of them paid us any attention, probably since we looked human, weren’t trying to kill anybody, and were running with purpose; they had enough on their plate as it was without causing more trouble for themselves. Every once in a while we’d see a Lieutenant, or even a Captain, all of them shouting a steady stream of orders to their subordinates.

[Intrusive thought: Kill a commissioned officer during the defence of Heaven’s Reach.]

“Go away,” I muttered, dismissing the prompt immediately.

There was probably a reward attached for doing so, maybe even a good one, but unless I was able to silence all the witnesses, doing something to stupid would only guarantee me a trip to the gallows after a drumhead court martial. Needless to say, that wasn’t remotely worth the risk in the circumstances. It might even be dangerous to think about it, given that no resources would be spared hunting down infiltrators after such a fiasco, so I put the idea firmly out of my mind, kept my head down, and returned my full focus to the run. I was panting now, even my newfound youth and fitness struggling against the punishing pace Harvey set; it felt like we’d been running forever, even if I knew it had probably been less than twenty minutes. When at last, Harvey stopped, I nearly ran into him from behind before I caught myself, coming to an awkward halt while still wheezing like I smoked two packs a day.

“Here we are, home sweet home,” Harvey sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old fashioned key that was more rust than metal.

My first thought was that the nondescript stone house was tiny. It was barely wider than me, standing straight and measuring from shoulder to shoulder, a single slice right down the middle of a long terrace, one townhouse among innumerable others, and that was just in my immediate line of sight.

“It’s not much to look at, I know, but it’s better on the inside,” Harvey laughed, as he stuck the key in and turned the handle.