Debayur exploded with the light of a sun, raining down Worldbending magicks in arcs of fizzling purple fire. Each arc shot towards the top of the wall near the exit ramps, igniting into huge blazing portals. But though I was familiar with portals being purple, this one was filled with black. The sheer power of these voids being brought into existence made the ground shake, and the trees—sending giant seeds plummeting towards the city.
Goldmarch soldiers, charging after the retreating elves, were sucked into the voids—alongside a small handful of friendly soldiers too. As far as I could see from here, at least a hundred soldiers of the empire fell into the darkness, and likely more still were eaten by the voids elsewhere along the wall. Debayur had been true to his word; we just needed to use the advantage he’d given us.
Lore grabbed Val and I by the arm as he ran past us. ‘Didn’t you hear? We’re retreating to the inner wall!’
‘Yes, we heard, Lore,’ Val grumbled, running and shaking her arm free of the barbarian’s grip. She whipped her arm free and accidentally slammed it into Elandor’s side, who responded with a scowl but nothing else. I had no doubt that if we hadn’t been in the middle of a battle, he would have berated her.
On we charged, the Slayers, the Red Thorn, and the Sunalorian elven contingent, running along cobbled streets on the ground level of this towering city. Platforms and houses and whole places of business loomed over us, wedged into the trees in the outskirts of the city. Dirt dripped from their foundations as the many voids created an extreme quake that was rippling through Sunalor.
‘Watch out!’ someone up ahead roared, and I looked up to see one of the tree-embedded struts sliding out of its position, the quakes having shaken it loose.
Nothing happened at first, and I carried running, charging along the path through the trees and under where the foundation looked ready to fall. Just as I passed under it, an almighty creak announced not just the wooden strutting beam falling, but the whole building it was supporting. Screams and shouts erupted from behind me, but I didn’t look back, telling myself that I didn’t have the time but really just not wanting to see. I glanced around quickly enough only to confirm that the Slayers were all still with me, and I kept going.
Up ahead, between the wide trees, I saw the inner wall, and the majority of the city towering up behind it. If the outskirts fell to the enemy, many would lose their homes and places of business, but it was nothing compared to if this inner city fell. At the centre, low in this vertical city that stretched towards the treetops, between rope bridges that crossed between trees, I saw a beautiful and elaborate palace—one that looked like it had been conjured from the roots themselves, rather than built by elven hands. I almost missed my step, admiring it, before reminding myself that my being here wasn’t exactly an act of tourism.
More buildings fell behind us as the quakes reached their highest intensity, the trees themselves creaking from the strain, before—all of a sudden—it… stopped. I could only imagine that the voids, too, had faded away behind us, which meant that the enemy would be charging us once more.
‘Corminar,’ I shouted to the ranger running ahead.
‘I know,’ he called back.
We piled into the city through one of three visible main gates in the inner city’s wall, this bottleneck slowing our entry. Without speaking, the Slayers—as well as much of the Red Thorn, including Elandor—remained close to Corminar, who climbed atop the city wall to look down upon the field of battle.
‘Corminar…’ Val said.
‘I am thinking,’ he said, his eyes intense, looking from the roads of the outer city to the elves, bunched up upon the wall. So few of them looked like real soldiers, so few of them seeming ready for the next wave of attack.
‘Corminar!’ the witch insisted. ‘What are we doing?’
The elf gulped, shaking his head, and then stopped. ‘Where is Debayur?’ he asked me.
I shrugged. ‘Exploded.’
‘Of course he did.’ Corminar stared down the wall at the lines of soldiers so far from ready. ‘I suppose there is another way…’ He rooted through his pack, pulling out a herb for his alchemy.
‘What’re you thinking?’
Corminar ignored Val, turning to the elves. ‘Do any of you still carry your birthseeds? I am looking for the seed of a babel tree.’
Nobody responded, but Elandor was glaring at one of the members of the Thorn. ‘You will hand it over,’ he told them.
The elf in question approached. ‘Will I get it back?’ they asked as they handed it over to Corminar.
The Hero of Iranir crushed the seed with a pestle. ‘You will not.’
I cast my attention over the wall, back towards the harbour. There was no sign of the enemy wave yet, but it was coming. I could hear it.
‘Any time now,’ Val muttered.
Corminar held up an index finger to demand her patience. He merged the two ingredients into a vial, shaking it and shaking it, until it began to glow with the light of a completed potion—this one a dark yet vibrant blue. He drank the liquid without giving it a second thought, and didn’t react to what was surely a disgusting flavour.
When he spoke next, everyone nearby grabbed their ears. His voice boomed across the city, louder than… well, pretty much anything I’d heard before. At least we now knew what sort of potion that was.
‘Citizens of Sunalor,’ Corminar boomed, talking to all elves who still remained in the city. ‘My name is Corminar Cladenor, though I know that I am most often known as the “Hero of Iranir”. It is not a title I enjoy, but it is a title that has me standing before you, leading this defence.
‘I know that many of you do not possess warrior classes, or mage classic, or ranger classes. But that does not mean that you are not soldiers. That you stand here, today, willing to give everything for the city that you love—that is true heart, and that is what makes you a soldier.’
Between Corminar’s words, I heard that the city was silent but for the sound of the charging invaders. He had a whole city’s attention. They were listening.
‘But there is more to be done, if we are to repel these Goldmarch invaders, and if we are to retain our home. Here, on this wall, we make our last stand. We hold this wall, or we die. Though I intend to do my best to ensure that the latter does not occur.
‘I ask you now: form lines along the wall. Those with spears should stand at the front, and be ready to repel enemy siege ladders. Those with bows should stand behind, and should be prepared to fire upon my mark. We will rain a storm down upon the invaders.’
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The first of the enemy soldiers charged into view, followed by hundreds more. Thousands more, really. To look upon the remaining elven force, I couldn’t imagine how we could hope to win. But all we could do was try.
‘Arrows,’ Corminar ordered.
The enemies grew closer, charging the walls, war cries erupting around the city.
‘Draw,’ the Hero of Iranir said.
I noticed that the soldiers began to sprint towards the gates, not the walls in general; they were targeting the weakest points. They carried no siege ladders with them—Corminar had got that wrong—but I supposed they were still clamped in place on the harbour wall.
‘Corminar…’ I began to point this out.
The ranger nodded; he knew.
‘Fire!’
The elves released their first wave of arrows, and though so many fell short, dozens of enemy soldiers fell.
‘Ready!’ the Hero of Iranir demanded. ‘Fire!’
And again, more fell. But we were so severely outnumbered that even a dozen Goldmarch soldiers dying at a time would only get us so far. After three more waves, the enemy reached the gates, and Corminar gave the order to fire at will. While Goldmarch soldiers tore at the wooden gates, elves rained arrows down from above.
I poked my head over the wall for just a moment to see how many enemies had fallen, but realised that wasn’t important. What was important was the number left—and how quickly they were disintegrating the wood with their axes and fire magicks.
‘We need to reinforce it,’ I told Corminar. ‘It won’t hold.’
He responded by nodding, then giving his next order. ‘Those of you who do not have a clear shot: reinforce the gates. Use anything you can. The stones of the ground level buildings, wooden beams—anything that can add weight.’
The elves followed his command, some continuing to kill while orders stacked rocks and bricks against the gate. Before long, there was a pile there that the enemy couldn’t hope to get through. At least, not quickly.
But then something exploded. This wasn’t the explosion of advanced magick, like Debayur had given his last breath to summon; this was something far more basic. The wooden gate was torn apart by the blast, many of the stones and bricks behind it scattered with enough force to kill locals in one hit, and injuring others. I could only take some solace in the fact that we were atop the wall and out of the danger area.
‘What in hells was—’ Arzak started, and then another blast on the top of the nearby wall cut her off. This explosion threw off a dozen elves, and blasted debris over the lot of us.
My ears rang from the blast, and I blinked to keep my vision straight. ‘Wards!’ I shouted. ‘We need wards!’
‘Soldiers!’ Corminar boomed. ‘Those of you with sufficient magicks should begin to summon—’
Another explosion hit the wall, closer this time, knocking Corminar, Val and I from our feet. And at this point, Val realised what was going on.
‘It’s the mines!’ she shouted. ‘It’s the elven mines—they’re launching them back at us!’
Arzak grunted as she helped Corminar and me to our feet. ‘Hm. Hate Worldbenders.’ She looked at me. ‘Not you.’
‘Wards!’ Corminar shouted, getting straight to the point this time. ‘Summon wards!’
Dotted along the wall, the few elven mages began to follow his command, balls of glowing blue light encompassing some of the soldiers. But there weren’t enough of them. We couldn’t keep everyone protected.
Another blast on the gate down below cleared the path for the enemy, a couple of dozen spilling in instantly, some of them with those same glowing purple rings around one ear. I seized the moment to portal slice twice, grateful that the elves had never needed to magically reinforce these walls, and I dropped the top of the gate arch down onto the soldiers. But it would only slow them for a minute.
If these explosions kept coming, I couldn’t comprehend how we could win this. It was a stroke of genius on the enemy’s part, really, to use the elves’ own tactics against them. I wasn’t sure I would have thought of it, at least not in the midst of a battle. It took someone with—
I realised, then, what was going on.
Niamh was their commander. She was the strategic genius behind all of this. We’d assumed she would have been back on the ships, separated from the battle. And that was right, but we’d made one fatal assumption there. She was still giving orders. Those glowing purple rings around her field commanders’ ears? Those Worldbending magicks? She was using them to communicate. She was getting updates from the field of battle. She was updating her strategy in real time.
At that moment, I had to resist the urge to drop to my knees. All felt lost. How could we hope to compete with that? But I gulped, steadying my nerve, and focussed on what needed to be done.
‘I’m sorry,’ I told the Slayers. ‘I’m sorry, I need to go.’
Val and Lore looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Fair enough, really.
‘What?’ the witch demanded. ‘What in the hells are you talking about?’
‘There’s only one way of winning this,’ I told her. ‘We need to go kill Niamh. We need to go now.’
"Styk"
Level 16 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 44
Intelligence — 158
Dexterity — 101
Strength — 73
Wisdom — 57
Charisma — 33
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 45
Knifework — Level 36
Stealth — Level 19
Needlework — Level 12
Identification — Level 11
Abilities:
Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.
Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.
Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.
Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.
Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.
Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.
Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.
Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.
Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].
Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].
Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +900%