“What are they doing!” Rosa shouted as she leaped to her feet and swirled her Staff of the Aethers. Even as she gathered her magic, Finn could see how she was visibly tiring.

No… Finn saw the three ships flying in a tight triangle formation, with one at the lowest point and the other two at the upper right and left.

They were flying fast. Very fast.

No, no, no…

“They can’t be!” Finn whispered. Seeing the trajectory of their attack, he shouted, “The gates!”

Were they going to fire everything they had at the gates, hoping to take out the massive wooden doors? They were moving too fast even for that, though, weren’t they? Fear leaped up into his heart as he realized just what the three airships must be intending to do. The lowest of them dropped lower and raced faster.

“Take out the lowest! Take it out!” He jumped up and started to run toward where the North Wall met the main East Gate. The front line of Durzog’s horde started to peel back and flee the front entirely.

Because maybe they’ve just been told what they’re about to do!

Finn whipped his blade through the air. He still had one good Fire-bolt left in his Mana. It might be enough to bring down the airship.

It has to be! he declared silently.

“Rosa! I need one hell of a storm!”

“I don’t have a lot left in me!” she said, but she was nonetheless twirling and twisting, making small stabbing movements into the air, creating sparks of silver and blue as a rising wind started to gather around her.

“Push it away! As far as possible!” Finn shouted as he threw his Mana into his blade.

The lowest of the airships was now screaming toward the gates, and Finn could see the tiny, swooping bodies of the zephyrs as they abandoned their ships.

Finn had no time to wonder if what he was doing was going to work. He threw his arm forward, pointing at the lowest airship as he bellowed with rage. A bolt of flame erupted from the Pyrrhic Blade and shot down from the walls. It hit the side of the ship and burst across the hull moments before Rosa’s air blast also hit and flung the ship aside.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

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> You have defeated the Level 30 Zephyr Airship. Experience awarded.

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The flaming ship rolled through the air as it broke apart, hitting the battlefield instead of the gates and skidding sideways to plow through a group of fleeing trolls.

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> You have slain a Level 15 Troll Warrior. Experience awarded.

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> You have slain…

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Energy flooded into Finn as the notifications overwhelmed him. He felt the exultation and saw the purple flickers of celestial energy all around him as he ascended another level. The force was so great that it drove him to his knees, but he willed his eyes open. . . and watched as he saw, in horror, that it had been a ruse.

There had been three airships, flying in formation. The lowest had been taken out, but the nearest one now dropped into the previous one’s position. Its zephyrs fled its decks just as the first crew had.

The third airship pulled up at an insane angle, rising until it skimmed over the top of the East Gate moments before its fellow slammed into the gates beneath it.

“No!” Finn shouted.

The gates erupted into a ball of flame. Had the zephyrs already planned this? There was a deep, sonorous boom that forced everyone on the walls to their knees, and a towering pyre of black smoke belched up from the gate.

“No! No, it can’t be. It can’t be!” Diane was already back on her feet, despite the ringing that must surely be in everyone’s ears.

Finn remembered scanning the trollics running back and forth with their barrels and leather sacks. Had they loaded the airships with flammable materials, explosives, in order to do just this?

And had Durzog been counting on the fact my Mana couldn’t take out two at once?! Finn snarled, pushing himself to his feet to run after Diane.

“East Gate! Reinforce! Be ready!” Finn shouted as he ran.

But there were just as many of the Malvanite guards running away from the attack as flames jumped through the tumble of wooden beams and bits of airship.

Flames are good, Finn thought. Flames will keep the invaders away as well as us!

“Don’t put the inferno out! Tell your people to be ready with reinforcements—carts, tree trunks, beams, tables, anything they have!” Finn skidded to a halt near the edge of the North Wall, seeing the pillar of black smoke engulfing everything ahead of them.

There was another thudding sound, and for an awful moment, Finn thought it was more incendiaries going off inside the burning ship, but it wasn’t. It was too rhythmic. It was the sound of war drums being beaten.

Finn, heedless of the smoke and the Malvanites fleeing on either side of him, walked to the edge of the battlements and looked out. There was the giant wreckage of the previous downed airship out on the battlefield, but Durzog hadn’t brought his forces forward. In fact, they were marching backward, further up the churned meadows to where the remaining tents and airships were camped.

“They’re going to wait it out,” Finn muttered to Diane at his side, who coughed as she held a hand over her lower face. “Durzog and his forces are going to wait out the bonfire we have below, and when it’s out, he will move his forces through. It will be a grind. A pinch point.”

Thousands of trained trolls against barely militia-level soldiers. Finn’s mind raced.

How could they possibly win against that?!

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> You have reached Level 27.