CHAPTER 73

* GILMORE *

“This is the worst plan you’ve ever come up with,” Karmandrian said as they raced up the tower stairs at top speed.

“We heard you the first ten times,” Pathos barked. He was holding a bow that was far longer than he was tall, made of rockwood, the strongest wood in the world, and a steel wire.

Alice burst into the suite at the top of the tower and looked around frantically. “This’ll do; there are a ton of windows we can shoot from, and those rockwalkers won’t be able to easily see us.”

Ace was behind her, carrying a giant bag of steel bolts on his back, thirty in all. “This is the top floor and no one’s here either, so, where’s Mrs. Guardman?”

“Maybe they took her and Sherrilynn with them. We won’t know until we can get this situation under control,” Pathos said as he headed to one of the windows to setup the bow.

“How long do you think they can keep this tower safe?” Karmandrian asked.

While on the way to the tower, they found two guardians and solicited their help in keeping the structure safe in case more boulders came hurtling toward it.

“At least thirty minutes,” Pathos said. “This place is pretty sturdy. Even if it takes a few more hits, it won’t fall anytime soon.”

“Whoa, look at this,” Alice called excitedly from an adjacent room.

The others ran in to see what she’d found. On the table was a large map with a myriad of red circles drawn on it.

“Is this some sort of battle strategy?” Pathos said. “They’ve marked major cities.”

“Whatever it is, it’s definitely important. Let’s take it with us for now,” Alice said.

There was a loud thud, and the tower shook, reminding them that their time was limited.

“Okay, let’s give this a try.” Pathos returned to the large bow. He’d already used mandamus to anchor one end to the ground and the other to the ceiling in a way that allowed them to still move it enough to aim. “Okay Ace, it’s all you. Do you know how you’re going to do this?”

Ace’s robe changed from purple to white. “I’m going to focus all of my adimus energy on strengthening myself, including my senses, I think that’s the best way.”

He notched a bolt against the steel wire and easily pulled it back despite the huge amount of force that was needed to do so. Then he swiveled the bow until he had one of the rockwalkers in sight.

“Alice, are you ready?”

“Ready,” she chimed.

“Three…two…one…go!” He released the string, and the steel bolt went flying.

“Mittius Mandamus Wind!” Alice commanded.

The already speedy projectile rocketed forward even faster, its trajectory being corrected as it soared toward its target. There was a loud crash as metal hit rock. The bolt scored a direct hit in the creature’s chest and then with a roar, the rockwalker disappeared.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Karmandrian said in awe.

“Don’t celebrate yet; we’ve got eleven more of these to go,” Alice said as she handed Ace another metal bolt.

With their combined efforts, they slayed another rockwalker before they needed to move the bow to another window in order to target more.

***

“Is everyone okay?” Jacob shouted over the roar of battle and boulders crashing.

The group had made it to the northern edge of the city with relatively no problems. Jacob led them through empty back alleys to avoid being spotted. He knew that given the heated nature of the battle, he’d end up getting attacked or possibly killed if the Fantasmal Forces identified him as one of Davron’s soldiers. The plan was to get Mrs. Guardman and Sherrilynn on the path leading to the quickener cave so they could then get to safety on their own.

“We’re all good,” Helena said as she came up behind him with Sherrilynn and Mrs. Guardman in tow.

“All we have to do is hug the rockface until we get to the northern path out of the city. That’ll take you to the quickener cave. Chief Barkwick says that’s where Fantasma’s troops have setup their basecamp,” Jacob told them.

They moved carefully along the base of the mountain that sat north of town, ever watchful for any sign of trouble. As Helena had assured earlier, whenever a pog did notice them, they ignored the group entirely, but they also offered no help, their only goal to kill the enemy soldiers.

“So much carnage,” Mrs. Guardman muttered when she saw the still body of a soldier lying face down. The grim nature of battle was having a significant impact on her as they passed by more and more fallen soldiers. She was jarred out of her musings by a sudden shout.

“Incoming!” a distant soldier yelled as a boulder came hurtling down from a rockwalker.

At the same time, they heard a guardian command, “Mittius Mandamus Wind.”

The boulder was shifted off course and came hurtling toward the mountainside. Because there were buildings and other obstacles between the soldiers and the mountain, no one knew the trio of escapees were there. All of them scrambled to jump out of the way of the huge boulder which crashed hard into the base of the mountain.

Jacob was the first to get to his feet. Helena was right beside him, a little bruised, but not badly injured. He pulled her up as he called for the others through the dust cloud that erupted from the collision. “Sherrilynn, Mrs. Guardman!”

“Jacob!” Mrs. Guardman called, panic clear in her voice.

They ran forward to find her kneeling next to an unconscious Sherrilynn, half buried in rubble.

Helena gasped. “Oh no.”

Mrs. Guardman was already feeling for a pulse. “I think she’s okay, just knocked out. It was mostly the shockwave that got her. She was thrown against the mountain.

Jacob knelt and placed his arms under her knees and back, lifting her up. Fortunately, Sherrilynn was small enough that he could easily carry her like this. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine once a healer gets to her. Let’s hurry.”

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***

Unbeknownst to everyone in Gilmore, Jansdimion was watching the battle discreetly from a cave behind one of the rockwalkers. He’d been mentantly sending orders to the monsters as he choreographed the ambush.

Things had been going exactly as planned. By now, almost two thirds of the forces brought to invade Gilmore had been killed. Meanwhile he’d only lost about ten percent of the monsters they used for the ambush. He watched with smug satisfaction as the remainder of the Fantasmal Forces were scattered about with very little coordination.

Suddenly he saw a flash of something in the sky, illuminated by the artificial light that the guardians were maintaining over the city. He carefully peaked out of the cave to see that one of the rockwalkers on the opposite mountain had been struck by a metal object and instantly slain.

“What in Alaman’s name…” He quickly scanned the mentant realm and realized that almost half of the rockwalkers had been dispatched without him even realizing it.

That could only mean one of the seal bearers was responsible. Even while he was thinking this, there was another flash and a sixth rock walker was destroyed, but this allowed him to determine the source of the projectiles.

He shouted to the rockwalker that was closest to him. “You, take down the tower immediately.”

The rockwalker howled as it raised its arm and another giant boulder formed in its massive hands. It immediately hurled it at the tower. The building withstood the impact fairly well, but the attack clearly caused damage.

“Keep hitting it until it comes down,” Jansdimion ordered.

He then mentantly contacted the remaining rockwalkers.

***

“We’ll just have to make a run for it,” Jacob said, though he didn’t sound certain.

They were hiding behind the nearly destroyed watchtower, close to the path that would lead to the quickener cave, but it was blocked by pogs and soldiers battling furiously.

Helena gripped her staff tightly. “We’ll never make it through all that. Even if the pogs are ordered not to attack us, we could get our heads chopped off just getting in the middle of the fray.”

“Jacob, Helena, why don’t you leave us here. You’ve taken us far enough. We can just hide here until the battle ends. You two should escape while you can.”

“Sherrilynn’s unconscious; we can’t just leave you with her,” Jacob countered. His mind was racing as he came up with the only idea that made sense. “Helena, if you used mentus to strengthen yourself, could you carry Sherrilynn?”

“Probably, why?”

“I’m going to go join the fight. If I do, I can make a hole for you guys and then you can get through.”

“That’s insanity,” Helena objected.

“It’s the only way. Don’t worry, once you’re through, I can slip out, they won’t even notice one soldier more or less in that madness.”

Jacob started to put Sherrilynn down, but then suddenly there was a massive explosion in the midst of the pogs, and a group of soldiers came charging through, led by someone in a purple robe.

“Holy moon, what was that?” Helena said in awe.

“Someone blasted a whole in the ranks. I think it was a guardian,” Jacob said. “Let’s go before the pogs regroup and the fighting starts again.”

He ran forward and the others quickly followed. None of the pogs made any move to stop them and soon they were on the northern path leading to the quickener cave. It was completely empty as all the soldiers had already made their way through. Jacob glanced back to make sure they weren’t followed but instead saw a powerful safe shield had appeared behind them, spanning the width of the path.

“I think they’re trying to organize some sort of retreat,” he said. “It’s probably because they’ve lost so many soldiers. There’s no way they can beat all of those pogs. They’d all be killed eventually unless they can find a way out.”

“Seeing the battle up close like that; it’s frightening,” Helena added, still awestruck. “Guardians have so much power. Will Lord Davron truly be able to overcome them?”

“Even guardians can’t kill the creatures of the Book of War,” Jacob reminded her. “I’m sure Lord Davron has a plan.”

“I hate this,” Mrs. Guardman said softly.

Jacob came to a stop. “Ma’am?”

“All of this fighting. We passed so many fallen soldiers, it’s just too much to bear. I don’t want that to happen to you two. I don’t want you to end up killed in some future battle. You’re both so young.”

Helena put a hand on her shoulder. “Mrs. Guardman, we—”

“I know, I know.” She shook her head sadly. “I know you’re fighting for what you believe, and you think this is the only way, but war never solves anything. Both of you grew up in war torn towns; you should’ve learned that lesson by now.”

Neither of them knew what to say to her as she started to cry. After a few moments, she took a calming breath and said, “Why don’t you two just run?”

“What?” Jacob said.

“You could both just run. You don’t have to return to Davron’s army, you don’t have to fight, you can just go someplace safe.”

“That’s part of the problem, ma’am,” Helena said sadly.

“I don’t understand.”

“Sure, there are a few places that have managed to avoid war,” Jacob explained, “but for most of the world, it’s just so prevalent.”

“Well can’t you just go to one of those—”

“I don’t want to run away from the problem,” Jacob said in a determined voice. “I want to help solve it, and this is how I can.”

“Me too,” Helena agreed. “Even if I could, I don’t want to hide somewhere safe when I know others have to go through this.”

Mrs. Guardman shook her head. “I guess I’ll just never understand.” She wiped her tears and put a hand on both their cheeks. “Just promise me you’ll be safe.”

“We’ll try, ma’am,” Helena said with a watery smile.

“The cave is up ahead, about ten minutes away,” Jacob told her. “Will you be fine if we leave you here? There’re no monsters anywhere nearby and we can circle back and find someplace Helena can quicken us. We should be able to easily sneak through when the soldiers start retreating.”

Mrs. Guardman nodded. “Sure, just lay Sherrilynn here. I know how to get us help. We’ll be fine.”

Jacob laid the still body of Sherrilynn gingerly on the ground. Mrs. Guardman then hugged them both before they took off back down the path.

As soon as they were out of sight, she pulled the dog whistle from her robe pocket and blew into it.

Immediately the small, black border terrier appeared. “Mrs. Guardman. I didn’t expect you to summon me again so soon. Where are we? What happened to Sherrilynn?”

“I don’t have time to explain, sorry. I just need you to run up the path. There should be a cave there with some of Fantasma’s people. Get someone to come here and help me with Sherrilynn, quick.”

“Yes ma’am.” Illusion took off up the path.

***

Ace, Alice, Karmandrian, and Pathos managed to destroy the rockwalker that was aiming for them, but the damage had been done, and they were forced to flee before the entire top half of the tower came crashing down into the city. Fortunately, they made it out safely, but there were still several rockwalkers left and they had to abandon the bow.

“What do we do now?” Karmandrian asked.

Before anyone could come up with an idea, cheers and shouting rang out in the distance. The foursome exchanged confused looks and then took off in the direction where the shouts were coming from. Dozens of soldiers and guardians seemed to be celebrating.

“What’s going on?” Pathos asked the closest guardians.

“The pogs started retreating!”

“After you took out half of those rockwalkers they probably decided to run.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Alice whispered to her comrades.

“Yeah, somethings off,” Ace agreed.

“Do you feel that?” Karmandrian said.

The ground beneath their feet began to shake and soon everyone was looking around in confusion.

“Is it an earthquake?” Pathos said.

“Look over there,” Alice pointed to the path that led to the quickener cave. Giant boulders were cascading down the mountain to block the path and the same thing was happening at the other exits to the city. “We’re being blocked in.”

“No, it’s worse than that,” Ace said gravely.

The remaining rockwalkers were stamping their giant stone feet continuously, triggering a massive landslide all around the city.

“They’re trying to bury us here!” Alice shouted.

Rockwall immediately took command. “Get to the center of town. Guardians, create a barrier.”

Everyone started racing toward the half-destroyed tower at the center of the city. Meanwhile several guardians tried using mandamus to slow the tidal wave of rocks, but it seemed nothing was working. Safe shields dissipated as quickly as they were erected, and even when they managed to slow some of the boulders, the momentum of the rockslide couldn’t be fully stopped. The rockwalkers continued to stomp furiously, bringing down huge sections of the mountains even as they hurled boulders at the tower and the people gathered near it. It was chaos.

“We’ve got to do something!” Alice shouted as she threw up another safe shield to protect them from a giant stone projectile.

There was a loud crash from above them. The tower had been hit one too many times, and now another huge section was toppling down onto the crowd below.

“Mittius Maximus Wind!” A commanding voice echoed loudly across the city, even over the roar of the landslide.

The falling section of tower was catapulted away with such force that it slammed into two rockwalkers and dislodged them from the mountain along with a huge chunk of the rockface.

“It’s Fantasma!” someone shouted.

Fantasma was jumping from rooftop to rooftop to stay ahead of the bulk of the rockslide until he made one final jump to land on top of what remained of the ruined tower. He quickly analyzed the scene below and spoke one final command to put an end to their peril.

“Mittius Maximus Earth!”

The rumbling beneath their feet increased as the ground shot up all around them. Buildings were completely leveled as a massive wall of stone rose twice as high as the remaining tower, surrounding them in a circle on all sides and stopping the onslaught of boulders and rubble in its tracks.