Time passed peacefully in our city at war. I had come to know more of the crustecar people as I accompanied my friends in their quest to learn about their lives. Moonwash was very interested in their crafts, of course. Meanwhile Granuel wanted to know about what they wanted. The crustecar people desired to eat more than the blandarines they could afford, and it was a great day if they could have a common meal of meats and vegetables. Some of them, a select few, even remembered what seafood was like, but their people seldom had the opportunity to taste what agreed most with their tongues. The oceans continued to taunt them with its proximity.
People came by every so often to maintain the moat and the natural traps within it. The mix of humans, belfegors, centaurs, and a lone ogre came from within the massive walls, and I noticed how they all looked very haggard and sickly. I then found out that while the traps and the moat were many layers of culpability removed from the casters, they still received a minuscule amount of damage from the metaphorical connection that remained. The despondence and irritability of these people were the result of a constant chronic pain that made their lives a mundane sort of hell. Even the crustecars, who did hold some sort of resentment for a lot of wall-dwellers, didn’t think too badly of them.
I learned of how money came into the crusteacar communities. They were mandated to protect the city from the cursetaceans as a way to atone for their sins, and they got paid for their contribution in a way similar to the subjugation quest we’d taken. Except in their case, their employer was the army and the city itself, and they received less coin for every hard-earned and painful kill.
“Why the rush?” I asked the crustecar man who was carrying a sack of cursetacean pincers for exchange.
“It’s dangerous to keep these things. These are…” he glanced at some passing soldiers and spoke more softly. “These are dangerous materials, and we might get arrested for possessing cursed items.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. You have the same quest as us, if offering a far lesser payout. Fucked up, by the way. But they know what it’s for.”
The crustecar man hesitated. “It’s… different if we possess it. My friends have been arrested for the possession of cursetacean claws, and we are trying to keep these things away from our lives and our homes so that… we don’t commit crimes No one here wants to be a criminal. But we still need to have the pincers exchanged if we want to live.”
“...I see,” I muttered after a pause. It was a good thing I had a helmet and a mask on when we stopped before the long stairs towards the military office, for my expression was hostile and ready to fight. “Let’s go then.”
“What?”
“Up there. Inside. We’re going to get those pincers exchanged, right?”
“Yes… but do you plan on going with me?”
“Yeah, duh,” I crouched down right beside my new acquaintance and whispered. “Listen. I’m literally the granddaughter of Golex the Hero.”
“Quit bragging.”
I snorted, some of the anger leaking out.
“No wait–I’m sorry!”
“No, no,” I halted his words. “I appreciate it. Now, this could backfire so you tell me if I shouldn’t, but I could come with you up there, and then complain about the price being too low. ‘That’s not what I was paid when I took those same quests. What’s going on here!? Are you cheating? Is that what the angels want? My grandfather would be very disappointed were he to see this!’”
“T-that’s…” he took a step back, unsure what to say. “I’m sorry, but… I kind of want to see the look on their faces, however…What happens when you’re gone?”
“I invoke the name of my grandfather, and hopefully that’ll be enough to scare them off?”
He slowly shook his body in the negative. “No. Maybe at first, but… they’ll only crack down on us harder. I’m sorry.”
“Oh.” I patted him on the carapace, mildly disappointed at not getting to act like an arrogant young master again. “Think nothing of it. It’d defeat the point if I only make the problem worse.”
~~~
We took Berry’s parents into the city proper and treated them to a very nice restaurant. They actually had some crustecar chairs hidden in some dusty room when we asked, and the food they served was very delicious.
Rob was just telling us about how surprised he was at how easily we were granted access into the city proper, when he hadn’t been able to come inside the walls for months. Crustecar entry was apparently very heavily regulated, and fewer still could ever stay here for more than a day. Inns were prohibitively expensive on their salary, and their applications were almost always rejected even when they did have the money to outright buy property.
“Why stay here then?” I asked, referring to Orila City as a whole. “Genuine question, no offense meant. I understand that you have things tying you here, like friends and family. And it’s most certainly a dangerous journey. You wouldn’t even be treated well, just better than what you have now, if you went further inland. But even if none of those were an option, you could… I don’t know, just fuck off into the ocean? There are crustecar kingdoms down there, right? They’re waging war, I hear.”
“That they are,” Larry chuckled, but there was little joy in it. “I understand that they’re trying to help, but it hasn’t worked. All they’ve accomplished was make things worse for us as their alleged ‘accomplices’ whenever they attack any part of Edengar!”
I disagreed. It was a valiant effort. But I held my tongue through the ebbs and flows of my emotions because they were the ones suffering the results, not me.
I really needed a fucking break after this. My rage had just gradually reached a new much higher plateau, and in a way, I was impressed at how well I was holding it together. My mental fortitude had been tempered, like a frog dumped in water set to boil later.
“To actually answer your question, I think the oceans would be possible,” Lena admitted. “But that’s only if we can survive the cursetaceans in the way. Maybe a hundredth of us could make it if we all go at once. We could also try to make it out during an engagement with our more fortunate and militant brethren, but we’re kept on a tighter leash and rarely sent out to actually fight whenever that happens to prevent our escape. Many of us are also admittedly hesitant to even do it, because we know how the others would suffer in our stead. The eggs and the children…” she choked, needing some time to cry and get the sobs under control. Understandably so.
“It is possible to flee to the inner cities and towns.” Rob added “We’ve sent Berry and Billy there before after all. But we can’t really do a mass exodus or anything. There’s the issue of us being granted the opportunity to use the drawbridges to begin with. It’s only lowered when someone actually important wants to cross, and they’ll never lower it for our sake. If we can somehow pull off a mass departure anyway, then we’ll just be branded as bandits. Sympathizers of Alderam, Friars, or Silvanis.” Those were the names of the crustecar kingdoms of the deep. The ones who lived closer to shore were those who wanted a more peaceful life, a different kind of existence and freedom. The crustecars I knew, or at least their ancestors and the older among them, were the loose crusteacar equivalents to pacifists and hippies. “Quests will be issued, armies will be mobilized, towns will not accept us, and we would be slaughtered.”
It was something that they’d experienced before.
~~~
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War arrived in Orila City. An army of crustecars carrying the crests of the underwater kingdoms emerged from the ocean, and they were joined by a veritable tide of cursetaceans greater than I’d ever seen. The size of the opposing crustecar army was a lot less than what our city could field, but if their more numerous cursed allies truly meant to fight by their side, then this would be a great and terrible battle indeed.
"What?" I asked. "What the fuck? Why are they not being attacked?"
"The cursetaceans only attack the people of the Angelore Empire," Larry replied. "They usually care not for the forces of other countries."
"But how would they even know? They attack anyone that tries to escape to the oceans, do they not? They don’t make any exceptions for the crustecars."
"Yes. That's true. But those crustecars are not from this country nor any part of the empire, so they are not the target of the cursetaceans’ ire.“ He looked back at me. “No one really knows how they determine allegiances. But if you are an Angelorian, then they will tear you to pieces."
“I see… But what about New Grandera? It started as a rebellion, so they were once Angelorian, were they not? Do they also get attacked? Or what about Edengar at all? This vassal kingdom did not exist when Cursifix made the cursetaceans, and I believe the people who once lived peacefully here were left well enough alone!”
Larry shrugged, and offered no further answer.
War cared not for my confusion, and it only continued its march forward.
Our own soldiers outside the walls were already in an uproar, and many more were streaming out of the city gates. People of different species gathered, from humans in their lighter armor, ogres that carried heavy weapons, centaurs ready to charge and impale, and so much more. There were also dozens of sundertops and tyranights, each one larger than most of the gathered people, and the inhexes flowed like a swarm in front of everyone else, ready to take the brunt of the attack, no matter how unwilling they may be.
The crustecars on the other hand were mostly ushered back into their homes, with only a portion allowed to participate with the promise of slightly better rewards. The rest were hostages, guarded by soldiers that the army had to take out of their ranks in order to ‘keep the peace’. The crustecars here could do a phenomenal amount of damage in this sort of chaos if they had the heart, but it had been beaten out of them already.
“What should we do?” Angerly asked, calm and collected, but ready to either run or fight.
“Well… we should… ummm… uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….” I hesitated and stumbled over my words, eyes darting around the entire outer-city. The cursetaceans had rushed ahead, and already the moat was overflowing with more and more of them. The crustecars on our side were sent to dispatch of them, and they screamed as they killed their entrapped enemies. But whatever vines and roots were planted on the moat were beginning to be depleted as more and more of the cursed monsters were spilling out, and soon a few managed to emerge from the mud before they could be disposed of. A crustecar woman was set upon, and she very quickly died to their claws and her own retaliations. “Fuck! I’m helping! FUCK!”
I charged forward before my friends could react. I gritted my teeth as I was forced to take action, for I wanted to do nothing in service of the empire. But innocent people were going to die, and these monsters had no concept of right and wrong. They would spare no one, and I would not let this community I’d spent the last month in die!
“FUCK YOU ALL DIE!!” Spittle shot out of my mouth and into my mask as my greatsword sank into the head of one cursetacean. My words echoed throughout the outer-city, and some people even cheered, assuming that I was only referring to the cursetaceans or perhaps even the crustecar army outside, but that was far from the case. This place was sick, people were right to fucking attack it, but I was forced to defend it anyway. My words were a promise to come back one day and make this city pay for this insult!
My party caught up behind me as I seethed, and I loosely led them away from the bridges where most of Orila’s army were gathering. My goal was to defend the homes of the crustecar people who were forced to be on the frontlines outside the walls, and I intended to do it while having as little of an effect on the greater conflict as possible.
Granuel kept me informed of what was happening just outside my perception, and I learned of how the army was dealing with the larger bulk of cursetaceans that were charging through the area near the northern bridge that had still remained raised. The monsters were hampered by the moat and the traps, and the soldiers here did a good job of killing them as they surfaced, but then the enemy crustecars made their move. Mud parted and flowed to aid the cursetaceans, plants and vines loosened their grips on the cursed enemies, and an earthen bridge began to form. Our side’s mages were forced to react, and they counteracted these changes to the terrain of battle while simultaneously pelting the enemy soldiers with projectiles of their own, but our spells and arrows rarely ever managed a lethal blow against the carapace of the enemy who were then pulled back to be healed. Crustecars could be capable of magic, especially of the water element, but so few of the ones who lived here were ever given the opportunity to try.
The bridge creaked, and it began to be lowered. The Orilan forces had finally decided that they could not just wait out the enemy forces from here, although there was a strong temptation to retreat back to the walls and allow the crustecar settlements to thin them out. That would’ve caused so much more problems in the long term, and they were smart enough to refrain from doing it.
What they weren’t smart enough to do, was to leave me the fuck alone.
“Maam.” A soldier came up to me, and I ignored him with a well-suffering growl.
“Maam!” he called again, unable to take the hint. “I’ve been ordered to direct you to the war about to happen outside. That is more important than the affairs here in the outer-city. The crustecars can always rebuild.”
I gave him a single glance. “No.”
“No?” he boggled, offended and confused. “My brothers and sisters in arms are dying out there! They have families waiting for them to come back home!”
So do the crustecar people. Their homes are literally being invaded right fucking now.
I killed another cursetacean, then moved on to the next one.
“Maam!” he panicked angrily when I ignored him again. “If it’s money you want, then you will be paid! We’ve been watching what you can do, and the leadership is convinced that you and your party can make a difference.”
“MAAM!” he shouted again, once I’d killed a handful more cursetaceans. “Please! I know you’re a Zharignan! I’ve been ordered to bring you–”
I turned around, grabbed his neck, then shoved my badge up his face.
“You’re right,” I rumbled with imperious fury. “I am the granddaughter of Golex the Hero. You will not order me around.”
I walked away and left the soldier panting and afraid.
A thud resounded. I looked to see that the bridge had been fully lowered, and our army marched out.
They were immediately met by the cursetaceans who shrieked and ran towards the path to the city that had opened up. Inhexes died to stall them, Sundertops and Ogres used their bulk to form a bulwark, and humans delivered precise strikes to end the lives of the accursed scum.
Parts of the battlefield darkened. The tyranights robbed so many of the enemy of their senses, and heavy and accurate strikes left cursetaceans dead with every hit. But the accursed tide was insatiable, and the sudden vertigo meant little when they knew to just keep ramming forward. A big engagement like this would always be in the cursetaceans’ favor as their claws reaped lives, and the chaos allowed them to take non-lethal damage that were only returned to their attackers.
This long and painful slog of a fight continued for a while, until another army appeared, circling around from outside. It was a flanking maneuver enacted while so many of the cursetaceans had thrown themselves into the northern front, leaving the other bridges less contested. Inhexes led the charge of this new group, and they violently jumped into the fray. The other soldiers followed to swiftly end the lives of the enemy while they were distracted, and spells were cast to cripple the unfeeling horde. The larger Orilan army already present began to regain their footing in this war as the cursetacean scourge were no longer focused solely on them.
But it wasn’t just the cursed beings that existed on the enemy side. The opposing crustecar army made their move, and they met the flanking Orila forces that had attacked their cursetacean allies from the rear. The sundertops were deployed offensively against them where they had previously been relegated to healers, but it was not easy to really properly hit the tough and agile soldiers that darted in between the cursetaceans. The sundertops could not fully avoid hitting the cursed monsters with their wide attacks, however, and they ended up taking more damage as the fight went on, but they compensated for this by being able to heal themselves. These massive quadrupedal soldiers had access to wagons full of sun mana, and they used these pseudo-magical-apparatuses that were also wagons to refill their stores.
The war devolved into a massive melee from there, and the forces of Orila gradually gained the advantage, for there was power in the diversity and sheer number of their troops. Strengths could be exaggerated, and weaknesses could be covered, as inefficiently as they may utilize their soldiers at times. The inhex in specific were not deployed in the best way, but that was to be expected for they were unwilling participants in this battle.
The Fortress City of Orila won in the end, as pyrrhic a victory it may be. So many people died to kill unthinking animals, meanwhile the actual sapient soldiers of the visiting crustecar army were able to retreat with remarkably little losses. They knew just where to push, when to put pressure, and they were very willing to let the cursetaceans die to cover their escape. The evil monsters were only the vehicle of a long-dead dragon’s revenge, and they would be back very soon.