People in armor marched down the street. Their red cloaks ran down their backs and their metal visors hid their faces. Dozens of them headed down to the lower levels of the city not even bothering to look his way.
Kiran simply stood out of the way with Silvy watching them march on by. It appeared evident to him, that the city was being attacked in some capacity. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for these soldiers to be marching out on the streets like this. It appears that nasty banespawn who tried assassinating me isn’t the only one causing problems in this city.
A loud bell kept ringing from the north. “Kiran. Silvy.” Rinas quickly walked up to him with Felmir and a couple of other bears beside them.
“What’s going on?” Silvy asked.
“The city’s being attacked,” Felmir said. “We must go now and fight.”
“What exactly is transpiring?” Kiran asked.
He trailed behind the big white bear as they moved at a quicker pace than the marching soldiers and city guard. “We’ll find out shortly. First, we must try to secure the southern gate. That is where all the fighting has begun to break out from what we have learned. We cannot under any circumstance let them take control of the gate. If they do, our entire city will become swarmed with them.”
The banespawn are that brazen to just attack the city like this? He knew it had been a questionable thing to just let them remain out there from beyond the walls of the city. At the same time, Lucias didn’t seem to want to just kill an entire large mass of people, even if they were these rather crude and hostile creatures. Given his reputation, he had practically speaking a heart of gold as far as Kiran could tell. Such grace came with a cost however by what he was witnessing, especially when given to being such as them.
Besides Rinas himself, several other members of the coalition were there with them including Abigail and Juna. Juna walked behind him while Abigail walked ahead of him with Silvy towards his right.
“Felmir,” Kiran said getting their attention. “Moments ago I was actually just attacked by a banespawn so they’re all the way in this part of the city as well in case you weren’t already aware.”
Felmir muttered some kind of obscenity he’d never heard before. “Rella, go and inform the others that even these parts of Valak have banespawn in them.” The smaller white bear known as Rella drifted off from their motioning group and ran towards the opposite direction.
People stuck their heads out from their homes. Soldiers ordered them to stay inside and barricade themselves in. He had seen many of the looks on their faces before. It was much like the kinds of looks on the people in Liall during that particularly dark and grim day before it fully became swarmed.
Lots of soldiers gathered atop the walls and the open gate ahead of them that sectioned off the middle part of the city. If the lower parts were to become flooded with banespawn, at least they’d have a way to slow down their ascent up and through the upper levels of Valak. They needed to prevent that from happening though in the first place.
“You know what, I really hate these creatures,” Abigail suddenly blurted out as she walked ahead of them. “This familiar you serve really should’ve gutted them all already. I know I would’ve if I were in his position and I’m not afraid to say that either.”
Felmir grumbled to himself. “Be that as it may, they have minded themselves until now.”
“That’s just an excuse,” she said. “These things are monsters. You can’t just let beings like them remain out there. You should’ve had them all slain and stomped out the minute they dared to camp right outside your walls.”
“I wish it were as simple as that. We’d have to sacrifice a lot of our people in order to kill them off and even then, I doubt we’d remove them entirely.”
“Alright, then have Lucias go out and do all of the killing for ya instead. I mean according to him, he alone is capable of such a feat so why hasn’t he done it?”
“He has his reasons,” Felmir replied as if he didn’t entirely agree with that decision.
“Oh, I bet he does, huh. Well, look at what standing by has done. Your city is now being attacked by them.”
“Abigail,” Rinas said.
“Yes?” she said in a strangely uplifted way.
“Let’s not argue at this time. We need to work together and help secure the city. Bickering isn’t going to change anything.”
“Alright, fine. If you say so.” She began to tightly grip her red-bladed swords appearing eager to kill. If there was anyone he was glad to have with them, it was her since she was quite the capable fighter. Although her willingness to participate in violence was a little disturbing at times. Perhaps that was what they needed during times like these. He just knew that if he had to fight alongside her, he didn’t have to worry about her not having his or other people’s backs out there.
By all appearances, they had a fairly well-rounded group assembled. Although, it was not the final composition that he desired.
“Hey Lar,” Kiran said telepathically. “Can you meet us at the front gate? We’re going to need your help as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll start heading that way right now. As I’m headed there, can you tell me what’s going on?”
“It looks like the banespawn are attacking the front gate for whatever reason.”
“Just great. More nonsense is exactly what we needed to deal with!” He began to wince due to how loud she got through this method of communication. “It’s just one problem after another for us isn’t it?” He heard her sigh which was somewhat amusing that he could hear that telepathically. “If there are any more problems that we have to deal with, I’m going to rip all of my hair out of my skull.”
He began to imagine his companion bald as she eventually pulled every last hair from that skull of hers. The image of her in his head with a bald head was not particularly pleasing to him. “Just meet us there, alright? And let everyone you’re with know as well over what’s going on.”
“Yeah, yeah. Already working on it.”
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Their telepathic communication ended. “I just let Lar know what’s going on,” Kiran stated aloud to Rinas.
“Good. We’ll certainly need her help.”
They had let one city fall. Kiran knew that he and the rest would fight with all of their being to ensure this one didn’t fall as well.
Valak wasn’t a place of origin for any of them in the coalition, but it was a place that welcomed them in warmly. Such a warm and welcoming attitude towards them meant that they needed to respond similarly. Plus they had the means to assist in defending it in some capacity. It was just too bad that many of the sorcerers and sorceresses in the coalition and outside of it couldn’t assist. They were still practically useless. Yorais still proved immensely useful however since she was so knowledgeable about all kinds of strange topics and matters that he knew very little about.
The nearer they got to the front gate, the more aware he became of the fighting going on. People and monsters yelled aloud as they fought and swords brushed up against swords.
He began wondering how these banespawn got in the city in the first place. If the gate was still closed, then they needed another way to get in. He supposed that they could’ve climbed the walls, but there was no mention of that happening.
So long as there weren’t too many of them inside, they should be able to remove the threat, but he had not been made aware of what kind of numbers they were dealing with.
Kiran tightly gripped the hilt of his sword and yanked it free from its scabbard. At least I can use this thing out here. It wasn’t of much use in that small room. If he could summon a sword, he could’ve instead summoned a dagger or something more suitable for a cramped environment. But alas, the wonderful world of magic was not available to him or most others currently. That’ll change soon hopefully, but we can’t continue working on that until this developing situation is dealt with.
The people in the structures they walked past hurried their way by them carrying some of their belongings in their arms. They were desperate to flee in the instance that the lower level became overran with monsters.
“Mommy!”
A man with a woman beside them grabbed onto their daughter’s hand leading them up the path they strode up. He looked over his shoulder eyeing the family feeling bad for them. They like many others, were just trying to get by, and then everything gets thrown into peril.
“This world is a real mess,” he softly said.
“What’d you just say?” Juna said speaking for the first time since they grouped up again.
“Oh,” he said as he walked in front of her. “I was just saying that this world is a real mess.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
It didn’t seem like it mattered where he went. Trouble would surely show itself eventually one way or another. This domain wasn’t any different. He didn’t imagine the others would be either if he ever ended up journeying through them.
Come to think of it, life before the fracturing wasn’t perfect either. All kinds of troubles existed back then and before encountering all of these conflicts, he had experienced plenty of it in his previous life that he had so far gained insight of. Little has changed for me.
Their entire group turned down a corner with a nearby lamp post going dark. The road widened to a more open space with buildings wrapping around it in a circular fashion. Directly across from them, the front gate remained closed still thankfully, but there were people fighting at the walls with banespawn eager to gain control of it.
“Let us assist them quickly!” Felmir muttered aloud in a hurry.
Their entire group rushed over towards the wall running for it. Steps led up it from the side but as they tried to make their way over to them, several banespawn jumped off the wall to block their approach.
One of them immediately charged for them lifting up a great axe into the air. A horn jutted out of their head and their skin had a slightly orange tint to it. They wore shabbily made attire with just enough fabric covering up their groin and legs. Their chest was entirely bare and muscular making them appear somewhat intimidating.
If there was one thing to be noted about banespawn in general, it was that they had a lot of variations between them. They came in all different kinds of shades, shapes, and so on.
He was still a bit unfamiliar with their origins however. It seemed that much like the monsters from the fifth domain, they came from another dominion or plane of existence that had something to do with the distorted reality or miasma as the people in this domain call it. Unlike the ones from the fifth domain, these monsters were not the same. They were much more humanoid in overall appearances. The monsters they had to fight in Liall were far more terrifying than the banespawn. At least the banespawn weren’t entirely monstrous in appearances and could be talked to.
Felmir jumped at an angle using their large mass to send the muscular banespawn backwards. They fell over on top of them and their great axe fell out of their hands. Felmir began eviscerating them by using his fangs and claws at the same time.
The other two banespawn nearby appeared hesitant after seeing how vicious Felmir had been to the largest of the three of them. Fighting a bear is never a wise choice whether you’re a scary looking banespawn or something else entirely.
Rather than fight them directly, the two fled in the opposite direction heading back up the wall. “Bunch of cowards,” Felmir said with bloodied lips. The look on his face quickly shifted however with widened eyes. “Look out!”
Without even thinking, Kiran rolled out of the way as something hard slammed into the ground. A puff of dirt went up in the air and flooded his nostrils as he breathed in.
He twisted himself around whilst stretching out his leg to secure his place as he crouched with a bent knee. He pulled himself fully up while bits of debris landed on top of him.
A giant war-hammer found itself yanked out of the cratered ground and pulled back to the shoulder of a large imposing banespawn who began to smirk towards him. “You weren’t expecting me were you?” Drexo began to laugh. “Know this Kiran. I meant what I said the other day. I won’t be leaving until you’re dead. And I fully intend on having you dead by the end of this.”
“Will you now?” he said. “A lot of people have wanted me dead. Are you so certain that you’ll achieve what they couldn’t?”
Drexo laughed a little more only for their face to settle into an unnerving expression. “Those who desecrate souls will always meet their end eventually whether it be by me or by another.”
Desecrated souls, huh? What is he even talking about?
He refocused on the current development spreading out his palm towards the others. “Go and secure the wall without me,” Kiran said, “I’ll keep him busy in the meantime.”
Juna and Silvy gave him a look that said that they fully intended to fight with him rather than leave him to fight Drexo alone. They came over to stand by his side eager to assist him against this large opponent.
Felmir furrowed his brow with a nod acknowledging his intention and the rest of them including Abigail and Rinas ran off to try to secure the wall that was full of banespawn trying to take control of the gate. So long as they could accomplish that task, they would be fine, or he wanted to believe that would be the case.
Kiran began to take up a stance. He pointed the pointed edge of his sword towards the banespawn that stood several feet taller than him. He figured that the size of their arms alone meant that they could crush him with them alone. He didn’t need a war-hammer to accomplish such a feat. I better be sure to not get hit by this guy otherwise I’ll be dead once again.
He looked over towards Silvy briefly.
“We’ve got this,” Silvy said.
Both he and Juna nodded their heads as a fight between them and Drexo would begin.