The enemy took the next day to lick their wounds and organize their remaining forces, but their positioning of troops soon made it clear that an assault would indeed be launched. The longer they tarried, the more we would chip away at them and the more time our forces had to recover from healing saturation.

Skull and I took time to review our Blessings and what Skills they provided, not just for ourselves, but how they would interact with one another. We came up with a combat doctrine and a few maneuvers we could employ, along with code phrases or motions to signal them. We had a lot to go over, for Platinum Adventures had a whole handbook that covered things like mind-control, doppelgangers, geases, time loops, supernatural manipulation of emotions or perception, and other such esoteric situations that may only ever remain hypothetical but would otherwise be disastrous if they ever actually occurred to the unprepared. Technically, there were several different published handbooks in circulation about such topics and other advanced concerns for Adventurers, but I digress. Our party was but one of temporary convenience for the duration of the war, and it would dissolve upon the end of it, so we had not really bothered with such contingencies. However, Skull and I would most likely spend the rest of our lives together, so such measures seemed to be prudent and a good way to get to know each other better.

I had a whole host of Skills under [Hoard] related to Skull as my [Dragon Knight]. These Skills fell in the part of my web related to companions, of which the only other one was Chooka, and not many Skills were available related to her, which was rather mysterious considering how much time she and I had spent together, especially considering how Skull had been my companion for such a short while and already had plenty of options available to me. I found it odd that people were under [Hoard], but pets, like The Boys or my Giant Frogs, were under [Social]. Perhaps things would shift around more as I unlocked enough Skills to create a new theme.

I had gained a huge chunk of Experience Points from the bombing run, and so I quickly sunk the lion’s share into Skills related to Skull. I grabbed basic ones, like ones to detect her location, her emotional state, her physical condition, and her mana reserves. There were more advanced ones that amplified her power and finesse with her own Abilities while acting in service to me, which would pretty much be all the time. I also grabbed ones to be able to share our perception feeds and my perception-related Abilities with her, or at least the information they generated. I also had one to summon her to me instantly if she were relatively close, or as a ritual if she were far away. The former was a quick teleport, but the latter was a temporary summon similar to what I had for The Boys.

I also purchased a suite of Skills for her to be able to ride me effectively in my dragon form for combat or whatever, as she already had proven quite competent at it for my human form, but that is quite a bit different than what the Skills aimed for. My Skills provided her with various means to protect me with shields, wards, barriers, and other terms that seem to mean the same thing yet have nuanced differences that I won’t bore you with right now. I remained unsure as to where the line between her Skills and mine were and who would need to be the one to acquire them to get some specific Ability, but she informed me as I purchased specific Skills if that also suddenly gave her a corresponding Skill, for which only the teamwork-oriented Skills did.

Skull, amazed at my ability to actively select my own Skills, eagerly conversed with me at length about my options and how best to leverage them. She had far more experience than I for the various forms of combat and how to survive in the world. Fighting monsters was totally different from fighting people, just as fighting an organized army was different from fighting a ragtag team of Adventurers, so she provided a wealth of useful input for my Skill selection.

It was near the end of spending my Experience where I had worked my way to a Skill that allowed Skull to be sucked into my shadow, where she could then materialize from it later. She demanded that I take it, for the versatility it provided to allow her to follow me anywhere and for me to appear alone remained too good and too rare to pass up. I could feel that she was already scheming all the ways to leverage it (by virtue of Abilities related to understanding her thoughts), and so I took the Skill as requested.

I had been keen on it too, but I would not have taken it if she were not inclined to indulge its use. We had a whole conversation on consent and what boundaries we wanted between being able to impose our will, thoughts, or emotions on one another as part of our Abilities. Overall, she was very comfortable with me taking control when needed and being able to spy on her. She is not a very private person and completely unafraid and unashamed of who she is, so she expressed no concerns that I could potentially detect her thoughts and feelings. However, she understood that she is the exception, not the rule, and so she would be in no way offended if I found myself disinclined to be as forthright. Overall, she was used to being in a relationship with a power imbalance due to the fact that she was a [Divine Champion] of a deity, so she found no fault with my hesitancy to be so open so soon with her.

We did find time to covertly practice the new Skill, called [In My Master’s Shadow], which was a bit on the nose and strangely worded considering it was MY skill. She popped into my shadow just fine as, over the course of a second, her body seemingly squished inward horizontally and stretched into nothingness vertically as it was sucked into my shadow. She popped out just fine a few moments later, promptly fell over, wrenched her helmet off, and retched everywhere as extreme vertigo and nausea overcame her. I know that is what happened because some of that sensation bled over our empathetic connection, not so severe that I felt it in an adverse way, but enough that I was made abundantly aware.

I tried to comfort her with equal parts laughter and concern at her undignified attempt to use the Skill, but she confessed that her Blessings are as cheeky as they are cryptic. Her Skills don’t reveal the limitations or underlying mechanics until after she tries them, and in this case she discovered that she was required to wait a certain amount of time before she could safely exit my shadow unless she wanted a repeat of what just transpired. With more experimentation and some dry heaving, she discovered that she needed about five minutes before she could pop back out, but that scaled in her favor with the intensity of my shadow in relation to my surroundings. She did unlock a Skill after a few more attempts that allowed her to feel when it would be safe to exit.

I had gained more respect for her after that. She was a real trooper to go through such an unpleasant experience time after time until she figured it out, and so I tried to muster my resolve such that I too would not hesitate in the future to go through unpleasant experiences if it would be to her benefit. I cleaned her up, as being covered in vomit was so passé, and together we rejoined the others upon the wall.

We had to wait a few hours for the enemy to finally assemble into attack formation. Apparently, our saboteurs had been more effective than predicted in our war councils. They had taken out fewer high ranking officers than expected, but way more sergeants and junior officers. As such, while the enemy had plenty of senior officers to give out broad commands on a strategic level, there existed a notable lack of anyone capable of providing directives on a tactical level to see all of that done. Not that the enemy army had been a well-oiled machine before, but the assassinations of their junior staff had transitioned them from cumbersome to unwieldy.

The enemy had perhaps five hours until sundown, and so the popular opinion was that they would launch a full assault, take a beating, and retreat at least for the day, if not withdraw from the war entirely. The enemy commander had a vested interest in keeping his head firmly on his neck, and so tucking tail and running home without even attempting a full assault was not an endearing technique to employ on his superiors if he desired such an outcome. We expected this to be more about honor and saving face, but the stench of desperation would soon mix in with that of blood and guts as the battle progressed.

Warhorns sounded the order to advance, and as aquilifers raised the standards to their full height, the accompanying bannermen initiated the march upon our heavily fortified position. The levies marched up front, each poorly trained and poorly equipped, but each also quite suitable for soaking up our artillery fire and the other nasty surprises that lay hidden.

I looked on in horror and disgust as men and women bravely and foolishly marched forward into pitfalls, traps, incoming spells, artillery fire, and all manner of devastation that Berkerin could muster. The enemy, lacking a sufficient number of [Mages] to maintain shields to block incoming fire, simply left most of the levies completely exposed, and those poor souls paid for it dearly with casualties quickly climbing into the thousands before they even reached our walls.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I could feel my anger rising, a seething rage at such callous and casual disregard for life. The armchair generals would safely sit out the war in the camp while their conscripted soldiers marched to their deaths. I pitied the footsoldiers who had no safe way to refuse the order. At best they would just be executed for cowardice. At worse, their families would also not receive compensation or would face punishment as well. These men and women were literally dying here and now so that their families would be fed and not evicted from their homes at the hands of their cruel masters.

Even Skull seemed to notice, despite my attempts to dampen what emotions bled over to her (of which she was totally aware of said dampening). How could such vile tactics be allowed, and those responsible for it be praised as virtuous? How could the gods, specifically the Holy Trinity that the Theocracy of Ulsfarh followed, stand by as such carnage was allowed to happen? Perhaps the gods were limited in what they were allowed to do in their eternal power struggle and sense of balance, perhaps they did not want to impose upon the free will of mortals, but all I knew is that the gods deserved whatever contempt they earned this day if they condoned these actions or stood by idly.

Skull put her hand on my back to comfort me, for she herself was also a little disgusted. Gulthar appreciated the fear felt by the enemy, but it fell into the realm of being foolhardy, as the actions of the enemy posed not so much a risk of danger but a near certainty of death. As such, the whole mass of fear wafting our way from the enemy was tainted by foolishness and hopelessness, similar to what prisoners feel on the way to the gallows, which is certainly not the kind of fear that Gulthar enjoys.

No, this was not a battle where the valiant could rise up and seize victory from the jaws of defeat. This was a wholesale slaughter with bodies literally piling up in some places as the enemy, forlorn yet undaunted, continued their advance. It took two whole hours just for them to make it to our walls, and by then, over a quarter of their forces had been wiped out. Siege ladders were brought to the front and hoisted into position as men scurried up one after another. None found ample purchase on our segment of the wall, for six Platinum Adventurers proved to be too much for levies. However, from what my sensory Skills could tell me, other sections of the wall experienced a more tenuous set of circumstances.

The enemy kept their elite troops in reserve, waiting for the beleaguered defenders to tire themselves out on fighting levies. As soon as the enemy established a foothold on the walls, the elites would be dispatched to assault that location. Unfortunately for the enemy, our defenders did not seem to tire. As far as I could see, everyone seemed to be fighting just as vigorously as before, even as the sun slipped over the horizon. I knew I did not have a Skill that helped me personally to this magnitude, and certainly everyone else did not either, so I suspected it had to be an effect as provided by some ritual. Considering my hunger felt sated and a slightly spicy flavor lingered on the tongue, I suspected it was related to the cooking ritual as led by Alterez.

Unfortunately for us, the enemy did manage to secure a foothold on the wall. Several in fact, despite the unflagging efforts of the defenders. I contemplated sending one of us to handle it as we were in no way at risk of being overrun. However, it appeared that I would not be the star of this battle, for another had taken the field to resolve the situation.

Above and behind us, almost to the top of the barrier around the city, floated Erethel Starweaver, Star of Final Night, as she unleashed the ritual she had been preparing for several days now. Outfitted with rather ornate and impractical armor of a celestial theme, she hovered there for a moment as she muttered out the last of her incantation. I moved my remote senses closer to get a good look and to listen in, and I saw that she indeed had the classical “boob armor” thing going on, the kind that would deflect any thrust to her chest right into the middle rather than off to the sides, but considering she was more of a [Mage] and a leader, she probably needed to look good more than she needed to be able to go fisticuffs with someone.

“... and through our pact, I call upon the promise forged by the bond of our blood. The stars have aligned, and let the heavens be torn asunder and crash into the world below. Until the dying of my light, I will shine alone in the heavens until the Final Night!”

Damn, I missed the start of her incantation! It sounded pretty cool, but it isn’t like I can just ask her what it is. Incantations tend to be rather flowery and ornate because that helps them stand out. Deities have to listen to a lot of petitioners at any given moment, even more so in a crisis, so having an oddly specific and long-winded phrase helps a god to pick out an approved solicitor of divine power from all the rest of the noise.

Few noticed at first, but near the end, anyone who could spare an eye to gaze skywards found out the result of Erethel’s ritual. One by one, the stars became visible and then sputtered out, quickly accelerating in a chain reaction until only one star remained, the one directly above Erethel, which itself grew larger and brighter. It shone not bright enough to be a sun, perhaps only an eighth of the size, but it remained the only celestial body visible in the night sky, for even the five moons dared not try to steal the spotlight.

And after a short while, streaks of light could be seen in the sky. No, not streaks, but falling stars, each heading down towards the enemy position. No mere Comet Barrage, Hellfire, Meteor Swarm, or other such spell, each powerful in their own right, these falling stars were infused with divine power and would pass right through any magical defenses the enemy could muster unless they too drew upon such potent divinity.

Apparently the enemy had prepared for this exact scenario, for Erethel’s moniker was not earned from quiet contemplation studying musty old tomes in some arcane library, but on the battlefield of wars past. The nature of her Abilities were no secret, but knowing it and countering it are two wildly different feats. In hindsight, I would argue that the cure was worse than the disease, so to speak, but the enemy clearly set a goal and met a goal, so I can give them props for that.

I know not what ritual they performed, nor what entity empowered it, only the fruits of their labors. The earth trembled and ruptured as grotesque worms surged skywards to intercept the falling stars. The smallest were hundreds of feet long and as big around as a house, while the largest were the size of warehouses and believably half a mile long. Their black bodies were covered with mouths, with larger mouths having smaller ones inside them, each one a hideous menagerie of teeth and oozing bile in seemingly unnatural configurations that would not conform with conventional anatomy.

Skywards their bodies rose, their hungering maws intercepting the falling stars, each one of which was a brightly glowing ball of light, as if each were a miniature sun. Sometimes the heads of the worms exploded or melted away from the force of the impact or the heat of the stars, but from their mangled bodies and mouths, more heads sprouted and lunged skywards. Few stars hit the ground, but a few proved sufficient as terrible explosions shook the earth and vaporized anyone even remotely close by. Mushroom clouds rose skyward as shockwaves rippled across the earth, ripping man and beast apart. Even behind our shields, the walls shook from the impact and the unwary soon found themselves bowled over from the blasts.

Still more stars fell, and still more worm-creatures rose up to meet them, oftentimes with the unwary or the unlucky being caught in their maws as worms sprung up from the earth. The bulk of the worms arose from the ground around the outskirts of the enemy army, much to the poor fortune of the levies at the front who found themselves devoured whole. The enemy command center appeared to be spared even a single hit, but the outskirts were not so generously protected. Even the elite troops took a beating with more than a few standards falling to the barrage.

A final massive star descended, its depth hard to gage, but by all accounts it rivaled the size of a palace. The worms’ bodies converged, some devouring others as they melded into one giant aberration of otherworldly flesh. I could feel the overwhelming pressure of magic, divinity, and even displaced air as the massive star crashed down towards the enemy. Undaunted, the massive worm rose to meet it, swallowing it whole, before its head exploded in a disgusting shower of gore. More heads sprouted from the mouths upon its body, and a writhing mass of them bit and tore away at the remnants of the star as it continued its descent. Ultimately, the worms prevailed, and their disgusting bodies seeped back into the earth or melted away into nothingness in quick order.

Not a trace of the worms or stars remained, but the results of their battle had scarred the earth. Massive craters dotted the landscape in a ring around the enemy command center, the craters less densely packed the further one went from the center until they faded out entirely. Their momentum crushed, the enemy retreated to regroup and recover from their devastating losses. The sky, equally exhausted from such a display of raw power, reverted back to normal, and without witnessing it, one would question if such divine intervention had even happened at all.

Apparently, that whole ordeal had caused a different flavor of fear, one that Skull was very keen upon devouring as she feasted upon the bounty it provided. With her mind not making much distinction between that upwelling of power and lust, she could no longer contain herself. Such fear of that intensity on such a scale, for both the defenders and the invaders, had overwhelmed her self-control. She picked me up, threw me over her shoulder, and carried me into the abode provided by Gulfore. She promptly stormed up the stars to the bedrooms, found hers, and threw me inside and onto a bed.

With a snap of her fingers, her armor had doffed itself, along with her clothes, and before I could so much as to try to snap her out of her state, drunk on power as she was, she had leapt upon me in order to indulge her pent-up lust. Technically, the battle was not declared over, so a lot of rules were being broken right then, but if anyone cared, no one came to stop us as we spent the night indulging our passions.