“Knight-Defender!”
Finn heard a rousing shout ahead of his cohort as they moved quickly through the city. Since arriving, they had already amassed a small group of hopeful citizens who’d seen them and recognized the hero of Blackwood for what he was.
I guess it helps that I liberated this place not that long ago, he thought as he saw that the crowd had taken them to the walls, looming over the ancient stone buildings and warehouses. A rickety wooden lift was accelerating down, and from its side, there was a woman waving at them.
Diane of Malvas had been, in her former life on Old Earth, a librarian in Washington. The stocky, short-haired woman certainly had a learned air and a sharp intelligence, which was probably why the other refugees and people who called Malvas their home accepted her as their Council Chairwoman and Realm Founder. Her already dark skin had turned an even deeper umber since the last time he’d seen her, giving evidence to the fact that she had spent many hours outside making sure Malvas’s defenses had been rebuilt.
There was a hardness to her as well, more so now than when they first met months ago.
She wore part-plate over a dark undershirt, and at her side was a large battle-mace covered with spikes and swirling energy.
You got yourself a treasure too, Diane? Good for you. It was, after all, relatively easy to acquire experience when you were a Realm Founder—or easier, anyway, since you received additional experience based on the successes of your entire realm.
Yes, Diane from Washington appeared to fit into this place of crumbling spires and crooked streets, this white-and-gray tumbled-down city that could surely house fifty thousand more people if they were out there. As yet, Malvas was only occupied in the center and the near edge—the exact place where the battle was going to hit the hardest.
The lift thumped to the ground, and Diane immediately marched out with her close cohort of similarly attired lieutenants and captains.
“I am so glad you came, although I don’t know how you knew we were in trouble!” she said. As if to emphasize her point, there was dull thump followed by a quake as something very large and very heavy hit the city walls. “Those damn airships and the bird-men they have. They can just fly past us, picking off our wall guards, and pound the stones as much as they want, any time they want!”
There was a distant cry as the Malvas archers returning fire.
“In truth we didn’t even know the horde was coming for you, we only learned on the way,” Finn said, hurriedly filling her in on their own misadventures. He was about to leave the most painful part out, but then, reconsidered. Ultimately, honor forced him to admit it. “I fear that they are here because of me. I escaped Termulain a few moons ago, and it was enough for them to know that someone of my level was here in the New Zone.”
“Your level…” Diane rolled her eyes. “I’ll catch up with you yet, Troll-Slayer!”
That caused a ripple of amusement, and Diane asked if they had fed and rested since arriving. They had eaten, at least a little bit, as the citizens who found them had given them all food and the meagher healing draughts they had.
“I think we could do with a long sleep, but from the sounds of it, I am not sure Durzog will wait,” Finn said.
“I can show you the battlefield from the walls. I am sure just seeing you will bolster morale,” Diane said somberly.
Sister Alharrow cleared her throat. “We have other business here too, however, Realm Founder.”
Finn looked a little chagrined. He hadn’t wanted to admit that he was here for himself, for his family, and not solely for the good of Malvas.
How can I leave them now? Obviously, with Durzog’s horde between them and the outside world, the answer was that he couldn’t, anyway.
“Anything. Our home is your home,” Diane said immediately.
“My sister is…unwell. We believe that there might be an answer to her malady in the old records and libraries of Lord See,” Finn explained.
Diane nodded at once, although she shivered a little at the mere mention of the demi-god who had them all eating out of his hand like hapless devotees before he abandoned them to ascend.
“His chambers still stand. We have left them entirely alone, and no one dares go near them. I know that it is an issue we will have to address sometime, and sooner is probably better than later,” Diane said.
“Good. Well, Tobias and I will examine the books,” Sister Alharrow said. “As we are both on the Earth Path, I believe that we will have an affinity for finding clues of the Oldtree.”
Clearing up that little mystery, Finn thought as he looked at Rosa, who nodded at the walls.
“We are Defenders. Let’s see what we can do,” she said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Finn and Rosa quickly got into one of the lifts, and Finn had a chance to see the clever system of counterbalances and winches. The ‘drivers’ pulled on ropes, and the entire structure would accelerate up the side of the wall at near breakneck speed.
The higher they rose, the louder the sounds of battle.
WHAM!
The wall shook, and the Pyrrhic Blade jumped into Finn’s hands as he saw bits of the internal blocks shutter and fall.
“That wasn’t even close!” Diane shouted, pointing further along to where men and women in Malvas blues were running along the wall. “They started the cannons just before first light. I think it’s so they can keep us occupied while this Durzog assembles his horde!”
The lift clanked to the top and they heard the distant sounds of thousands of marching feet and snarling voices. The lift opened out into a squat stone hut atop the wall. Finn could immediately see that the wall itself was wide enough for three or four people to walk abreast. The crenellations on the exterior were short, only reaching up to his chest, and it looked as though they were long out of repair.
“Loose!”
A line of Malvanite archers fired a storm of arrows high into the air. Their necks craned as they watched the bolts arc across the battlefield and hammer into one of the airships. Finn was sure he heard a distant scream and saw a small shape fall off the side, but even a never-ending storm of arrows would do little against an entire air galleon.
They are just wasting their arrows, Finn knew.
“Fire,” he said, turning to look at Rosa.
“Wind,” she repied just as quickly.
The pair locked eyes for a moment then both nodded. A plan was formed, but there was another smash against the wall. It was much closer than the first. Finn felt the stones shift and the entire wall shook as he scrambled to the ramparts.
“There! Another airship!” he called, pointing to where the second of the three had flown below the height of the wall and skimmed along its length, firing cannons as it did so.
“Archer second group!” Diane called, snatching up a yellow flag and waving it. In response, a team of forty or so people ran up from the further hut along the wall, each with bows.
Finn saw immediately that they weren’t going to get there in time.
And their bows are next to useless.
“Rosa! It has to be now!” he said, jogging along the wall toward where the airship was rising and coming toward them.
“The first attack was a distraction!” Diane snarled as this second airship started to disgorge zephyrs, who leaped toward the wall. “Draw swords! Form up!” Diane shouted to the soldiers coming from the other side.
“Finn, I’m ready!” Rosa was a step behind him, leaping and twisting as she ran, like a ballet dancer. With every spin, streamers of silver-blue energy appeared to gather and swirl around her, concentrating into a whirlwind.
Finn jumped atop the battlements and swung his blade in a flaming arc. “NOW!”
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> Fire-Bolt. Convert Mana to Damage.
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Finn put 250 Mana into the strike, and the sweep of his blade released a fireball that was almost larger than he was. It flew like a comet straight at the rising airship.
An instant later, he felt a burst of power beside him when Rosa landed, sliding into position as she twirled her staff and slammed it forward. It released all of that gathered Air energy straight at Finn’s fireball.
The result was incandescent as the sharp blast of hurricane winds slammed into the fire and expanded it exponentially, turning a fireball into a flaming inferno cloud that struck the ship’s top deck.
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> You have struck the Level 30 Zephyr Airship for 625 points of damage.
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The firestorm engulfed the front of the airship and knocked it to one side as flames washed over the decks and sails. Wood had been blown away from its prow, and it tumbling toward the battlefield.
“It’ll hit Durzog’s troops!” Rosa cried in excitement, but it was not to be. Some quirk of aerodynamics or the insanely brave last actions of the zephyr pilot meant the air galleon sliced away through the air, crumpling into the distant fields before it plowed through several more, spilling fire, wood, and bird-men as it went.
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> You have defeated a Level 15 Zephyr Warrior. Experience awarded.
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> You have defeated a Level 17 Zephyr Navigator. Experience awarded.
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> You have defeated…
Finn and Rosa blinked as their updates and experience stormed into their bodies. There were more messages than Finn could count. He saw the purple celestial light shine from Rosa’s eyes and crackle over her body as she started to ascend.
Finn laughed savagely, but there was no time for celebration. They might have gotten rid of one of the airships, but Diane had run past them to deal with the zephyrs on her walls.
“Rosa!” Finn said, leaping from one battlement to the next. The zephyrs on the wall now had no way back, knowing that to flee was certain death from the archers, and were fighting for their lives instead of for conquest.
The first zephyr swooped at him, and Finn sliced off a good chunk of their flesh as he knocked them over the edge. The next was equally easy to dispatch in Finn’s heightened state.
“A Level 15 Zephyr?! That’s all you got?!” Finn could feel the roar of success and power thrum through him. Beside him on the wall, Diane charged ahead. Her mace glowed a dull blue with every strike.
They were winning, they were pressing through, when suddenly Finn felt a whirr of wind by his head.
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> You have been struck by the Level 15 Zephyr Warrior for 65 points of damage.
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This zephyr must have flown around him, but it wasn’t the damage that bothered Finn. It was the fact he was overbalancing and starting to flail toward the edge of the thirty-meter-high wall…
“Land-legs!” the zephyr crowed in victory, their wings beating as they raised their own taloned feet to strike Finn again and knock him from the edge.
Even if at Level 26, a fall like that would likely to be enough to kill him.
“Finn!”
The zephyr exploded as blue energy from the Staff of the Aethers smashed them aside. Rosa rose on her own personal storm, her eyes sparking with celestial power as she flew toward Finn. She held the staff out to him, and he grabbed it so she could drag him back to safety.
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> You have saved the Walls. Experience awarded.
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But there is still a huge army down there… Finn gasped as he thanked Rosa, and Diane was congratulating her troops while also tending to the wounded. Finn thumped himself against the battlements and peered across the sea of brutish forces in heavy armor.
There appeared to be one figure, larger than the rest, standing before his forces. He was a troll, but he was of a size that Finn had never seen before. Almost half-ogre perhaps, with long, thick, black dreadlocks hanging around his bare shoulders like a defiant flag.
That’s him, isn’t it? That’s Durzog.