Jonathan Tillman
On his way to the front gates, he saw a couple of faces furtively peeking out of windows, and one brave drunk who seemed to have chosen to meet the invasion head-on with a stuttering song. Aside from them, it seemed like everyone had gotten the news and was getting as far away from the attack as possible.
Twenty min of jogging through the city towards the point he had seen from the roof resulted in him finally emerging from a side street onto the extremely long promenade that started at the front gate and cut a straight line to the Teleportation Hub at the center. The crossroad he had found let out just a few blocks from the gates. Looking up, he saw that the battle for the gatehouse was almost over, the traitorous private house guards having slowly worn down the city guard veterans.
He glanced back towards the center of the city and could just barely make out the crowds in the distance, which would be massed like sitting ducks around the Hub until the spell was complete. Far beyond them at the other end of the promenade was the imperial palace, which stood aloof, somehow still feeling removed even at the eminent destruction of its seat of power.
“Human! Get out of the street.” Came a whispered shout from the shadowed doorway of a building across the street.
Tilly squinted at the origin of the voice. It was one of the extremely muscular and scarred guards Tilly had seen at the steps of the Cura. He was standing half hidden in the door of his building with a great vantage of the fight on the top of the wall. Tilly's Identify pinged.
Level 44 Empire’s Bastion
“I’m here to help, Lord Hiro sent me!” Tilly called back, suddenly aware of possible watchers from the top of the wall. He ducked back around the corner, keeping his line of sight with the soldier, but removing himself from the sight of any on top of the wall.
The soldier gave a hard nod of acknowledgment and glanced up at the wall, watching for a few breaths, before gesturing sharply for Tilly to make the crossing. Tilly sprinted from his cover crossing the wide street and ducking into the large doorway.
The soldier moved to the side to let him pass, keeping watch on the wall, and he entered into a large stone atrium with booths at the other end. The space looked like a processing area for customs and taxes for those entering the city. But Tilly barely registered the space, his eyes immediately drawn to the group that had claimed this as their base of operations. The entire room was filled with soldiers in different states of readiness. Some sharpening their already sharp swords, others playing dice and a few actually napping. Each had a torso-sized shield close to hand and a spear within reach. A few glanced his way curiously as he entered, but none seemed concerned, trusting the man at the door to not let anyone in that was a threat.
There was an air of confident menace that permeated this group. Looking over the room, Tilly got the impression that he might be amongst the last and greatest fighters the empire had to offer. He hadn't thought to ask but was sure they didn't hand out the class Empire's Bastion to just anyone. Off to the right of the door, Tilly spotted Linus speaking to a few other older especially grizzled-looking Satyrs. Tilly headed over to report for duty, and the small group around Linus parted at his approach, all hard men, giving him cool, measuring looks.
“Jonathan Tillman, This is about to become a very dangerous place. If you have a message, give it quickly.” Linus snapped, obviously short on time and patience. Tilly was suddenly so nervous he almost replied, 'Dangerous? Danger is my middle name.'
Instead, he coughed and looked around again. He had been in plenty of rooms filled with hardened firemen when a rookie walked in on his first day. Hell, he remembered his first day as a rookie. There was nothing like the divide between those who had been in the shit and those who hadn’t. Even with everything he had seen and endured the last week, he immediately knew he had not been in the shit like these guys. This wasn't another military unit. It was a family forged in Blood and Iron. As casual as it may seem, he could feel his otherness within their deeply ingrained prebattle rituals.
“I… Um. I'm here to help.” He said to the small group around the Commander. They stood there at ease, broken-in armor oiled and polished to a shine. Their simple weapons practically vibrated with a potential for violence. Before these practitioners of violence, the hatchets on his belt felt like little toys, and he wished he hadn't already stuttered in his answer.
“Ha! We would love to have you with us, little man!” Boomed a voice just beyond the leadership huddle. Tilly couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping as a huge muscled physique detached himself from the wall. Tilly was sure he was a Satyr like the others, but he didn't share the goat-legged feature many of his fellow soldiers. A large almost entirely goat head sat atop a perfectly humanoid body. Well, it would be humanoid if humans grew to be 10 feet tall. This guy could give the minotaurs a run for their money.
“Maybe when the press gets thick we can throw you over the line as a snack to the enemy!” He guffawed, His goat mouth somehow forming human words in an oddly fascinating display of dexterity.
Tilly’s mouth got ahead of his brain and he spoke without thinking, “Actually Gigantor, you hit the nail right on the head.” He snarked back.
Linus’s frown deepened at Tilly's pithy reply, “Explain yourself, Human. Time is short and this is no place for humor.”
“Look, I know this is a one-way mission for you guys, and I am sure you are more than capable of completing it. But I have been given something from the Imperial treasury. It can greatly magnify one of my Abilities. When paired with my unique effectiveness against the kind of enemy that will be coming through that gate, I have the potential to eliminate a significant amount of combatants in one go.” Tilly rushed through the situation, almost without taking a breath.
Linus paused, considering Tilly's words and weighing them against the risk of changing the battle plan at such a late hour. After a moment, he made sure Tilly understood the mission, “As soon as the final guards fall, the gate will be opened. The enemy is holding back and hoping to flood the streets with these Corrupted without losing any other resources. Our directive is simple. Form up in the center of the gate and hold for as long as possible. If you believe you can aid us in our task, then welcome aboard. What do you need to activate this item of yours?”
The disturbingly beady eyes of the giant/goat man drilled into him from over the commander's shoulder. Tilly had a hard time telling if he was smiling or snarling as he respectfully waited for the commander to finish the interrogation.
“Well, it should be straightforward once I have enough mana, but I need to gain two levels before I can activate it to its full potential. As for your plan, I can work from behind the front line and use my ranged attack, which is my best anyway. Once I am ready, I'll charge the ability as much as I can, but I need some way to get as far behind the enemy's lines as possible before releasing it. It is an area of effect that marks me as its center.”
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The Commander's hard calculating eyes shone for a moment at that final piece of information, “Alright, Gorock. You're on babysitting duty. Keep him alive and behind our lines. When he is ready, throw him. Everyone clear on the plan?”
“But Sir!” The giant recoiled as if struck.
“Shut your big mouth Gorock!” one of the well-worn sargents snarled. The goat man ignored the officer and looked like he was still going to object.
“You will do as I command, and on top of that, if he does manage to live after this half-baked plan, you are to retrieve him at all costs. If he can do what he says, they will need him at the center of the city.”
That declaration hit the huge soldier like a hammer blow.
“Sir, Please! I must die with you...the men... I will not run like a coward.” He pleaded, choking back what might have been a sob.
“There is plenty of dying to be had today. I'm sure you will have your pick of opportunity to die, but you will do so after you complete the mission." He said firmly, looking away from the warrior and scanning the large room. As he tallied up their resources one final time, granite resolve settled over his features. He became again what his men needed, something immovable.
"I have seen what he can do against this new enemy. If we can keep this resource available to our remaining citizens, then we will.” He finished.
“Sir!” Called the Soldier watching the gates, “They are breaking into the mechanism room now! You want me to activate it?”
“Hold on that.” He called back, brushing past Gorock and Tilly, the matter settled in his mind.
“Wait until the gate is a quarter open, then break it. We want them drawn to our choke point."
Then he turned to the room, and bellowed out, “All right boys, this is it! Form up on me!” As if by magic, every soldier in the room was rising to their feet, shield in hand, weapon at the ready. It was as if they hadn't been relaxing at all.
Commander Linus turned through the doorway and jogged out, followed by the 70 or so soldiers that made up the Empire’s Bastion Unit. Their movements were smooth and disciplined, showing no hesitance or confusion at the orders.
“Come on little man,” Gorock sighed, as he hefted his door-sized shield, and brought up the rear of the formation. Tilly looked down at some abandoned dice on the floor, took a deep steadying breath, and drew his hatchets. He found himself nauseous and thirsty all at once, but it was time to go. He was still so new... but he could feel the significance of this mission. This was the best place for him, and he wasn't going to back down from what could possibly save hundreds if not thousands of lives.
He shut down his mind and moved, catching up with the giant goat-man as he ducked through the doorway. Fighting fire had been one of the few things in life that he excelled at. He was decisive under pressure and could read a change in the environment even as fire raged all around him. But none of that set him apart from the crowd. The thing that made him different, was his ability to lean completely into his training without hesitating or second-guessing. Once he entered a burning building, everything else faded away until only muscle memory and instinct were left. The past was gone and the future narrowed to a razor edge of clarity. Take another step forward and do what you were trained to do.
Of course, he didn't have any training when it came to fighting with ancient weaponry against a charging horde of monsters…
The controlled shout of the Commander broke through the din of fighting on and beyond the wall, “First rank shield Up! Second rank, spears at ready! Third rank filter in as needed. If you see a brother go down, pull him back and fill the gap!” He never stopped advancing to the gate which was just beginning to crack open. The sound of men screaming and the inhuman gurgling roars of the Corrupted pierced through the sliver of an opening like a knife through sutures, reminding Tilly that thousands of soldiers had already fought and died today.
The gate continued to open outwardly and the soldiers in front of him flowed unhurriedly into formation, three lines deep. They might as well have been on the parade ground for all the concern they showed.
“Now Threstus!” Linus called to the soldier who had kept out of formation. The Satyr held a large conch shell at the ready above his head. At the command, he broke it against the wall, and the sound of crashing waves rose and drowned out the tumult of battle. Blue symbols raced up the wall from the point of the break and the private guards began to call and point out the Bastion’s activity to their superiors.
When the arcane symbols hit the top of the wall, the whole section above the gate lit up in glowing blue markings, and the sound of crashing waves turned into a roar that reminded Tilly of a waterfall. The traitorous guards above shouted in alarm, backing away from the edge of the wall and the brilliant azure glow emanating from the stone.
Then the deafening sound suddenly cut off for a long second of silence before water exploded like a geyser from the top of the wall, knocking all of those standing on the battlements off at an outward angle. Tilly realized this must be some sort of fail-safe embedded in the magic of the walls to repel an attack if the gatehouse was lost. No one had told the noble houses that this existed, even though they were the ones who had been assigned to hold the wall.
Screams of confusion and terror emerged from the battlefield beyond the wall as the private guards of the noble houses found themselves amongst thousands of mindless Corrupted consuming the dregs of the formations that had recently been the last of the empire's phalanxes. As hundreds of new soldiers fell in among their number, they gleefully turned and fell upon the new presence in their midst.
Through the 20-foot opening of the stalled gate, Tilly saw many of the guards take the three-story fall unscathed, only to be set upon by Corrupted. These guards may have been assholes, but they weren’t weak. Many grouped up in twos and threes to take out ten or twenty of the creatures before going down themselves. Tilly was starting to see just how well-designed this plan had been. Let the enemy proceed with their plan as much as possible while delaying them every step of the way. None of these counterattacks were designed to be decisive victories, rather they had been strung together to rob the enemy of momentum every step of the way.
“The Cult believes we are finished!” Linus bellowed, drawing attention to the now open gate. Corrupted turned from the recent distraction, and fixed their dead all-black orbs on the new prey.
“They think they have faced a true Phalanx and defeated it!” Linus shouted at them again, his voice rising in volume. He eyed the tens of thousands of Corrupted creatures that had once been citizens of the empire he had sworn to protect. Tilly saw rage there, blazing up from deep sorrow at all they had lost. But none of it softened the stony resolve that was carved in resolute lines across the commander's features.
“Bastions, Shields up! HOLD THE LINE!” His voice rang out in several octaves at once, and Tilly realized that the commander had just used an Ability. In one motion, the front rank locked their shields with a thunderous clang, and a golden light showed in an almost opaque barrier of radiance about a foot in front of the first rank.
The Corrupted seemed to understand that some sort of challenge had been issued, and howled in fury, charging toward the open gate, and the prey that filled the gap.
The Commander’s voice again rose, exploding in several octaves at once, “DON’T GIVE THEM AN INCH!” The golden radiance intensified and filtered back washing over all the ranks. It even shone on Tilly who had positioned himself about five feet behind the last rank next to Gorock who wore a melancholic expression. Or at least that's what Tilly thought it was. It was hard to tell on a goat’s face.
“Our glorious last stand and I'm stuck next to a Baby-Man…” He muttered to himself, just loud enough to hear over the din of the coming charge of Corrupted.
Tilly was barely paying attention, instead watching as three Buffs appeared on his HUD. He quickly pulled up his notification log to make sure he knew exactly what he was working with before he got caught up in the heat of battle.