The bugles announced the charge. Faunia Vleren hoisted her frozen rapier into the air and howled out a frenzying battlecry, raised her horde of soldiers to attention. They roared out the same desperate, guttural cry as their leader. They slammed their swords against their shields in a cacophony of violent noise.
“For Calamon!” she shouted, “For Kylinstrom! For the Hunters!”
“FOR THE HUNTERS!” echoed her followers as they stormed against the walls bracing Cromer, and against the swaths of black-red soldiers barring their paths…
67.
And Again, For the Hunters
Cedric Castelbre walked the empty campsite the morning of the siege’s first day. They’d spent a week of valuable time in wait for Thelani’s people to arrive, and they hadn’t given the Cromerians a moment’s respite—their crop fields were razed to the ground, their farmhouses were destroyed to force the families back inside the walls. The army had spilled no blood yet except for what he’d spilled in Athica, but now the battle was begun proper; Cedric knew just as well as any other soldier that the loss of life was unavoidable.
If only we could have convinced them. We don’t want to change their way of life, but…
He looked down at the muddy ground.
What are we supposed to do? Rykaedi can’t have this land. And killing Arobella will only begin a cycle of unending vengeance from the Aeonic side. If she had called off her soldiers, maybe we could have prevented this… Even still…
He pushed apart the flaps which led to the sparse medical tent. It was big in there, the whole bumpy grass floor was covered in clean linens. There were four beds laid out on the left and right sides, and only one of them occupied by an unmoving person.
The past is the past. We can only keep moving forward.
“Arobella,” Cedric asked as he approached, “are you awake?”
The Aeonic Queen rolled over in her bed to face him. She looked weary, beyond exhausted. Her breaths were heavy and labored.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better…” she muttered, pulling the thin blankets up closer to her chin. “It’s cold out here.”
“The climate here has changed. It’s getting colder earlier in the year, now. It wasn’t like this when Kylinstrom was its own island.”
Arobella’s head rolled away from him.
“Do you want to go to Calamon?”
Her answer was somewhat sarcastic: “What for?”
“To fulfil that dream you had. You wanted to be a soldier—or rather, a commander?”
“They wouldn’t let me join.”
“Who says they have a choice?”
She turned her gaze back to him with scrunched brows that indicated her disbelief—and her familiar ire.
“I’m in charge of Calamon—to a degree. I can send you back on the Dragonsail with Marisol, she can take you in at Kyrrith. You’d be surrendering your lineage in Aeon—”
“It’s not that easy. You think we can all just run away from our problems. What makes it so fucking easy for you to say that? I was born into the Aeonic family—that alone prevents me from following some perverted sense of duty or greater purpose. It doesn’t matter what I want, nor how many fairytales I read about brave knights commanding men…”
“…I’ve spent my whole life running from my problems.” He fell onto his ass on the bed beside her. He awkwardly rubbed at his clean-shaven chin. “It’s not easy, I know. But… every time the going got tough, I moved on. It wasn’t always right—but there is a time and place for that choice. When my mother was killed by the Sylvet—when I was in Nelreign—”
“Fuck your life story. Tell somebody who gives a damn.” She rolled over again, turned away from him.
Cedric sat there for a breath, then two. He said, “The opportunity is there when you’re ready.”
And with that, he left the medical tent.
Faunia threw herself forward, launched her rapier through the chest of a man in red-black armor.
Fucking Sylvet again! She’s not going to let us take Cromer so easily—at least these ones I can worry less about killing!
She slashed the rapier sidelong through his torso, through his heart. Blood spurted out like a fountain, then drooled down like melting chocolate. She fell atop his body, low to the ground. Then came a heavy cleaver for her skull—
SLAM!
Viltar’s shield was over her head. “Not like so, Vleren! Steady yourself!”
“It’s okay.” She slapped her steel helmet twice with her hilt. A layer of ice grew over it. “Tirolith will—"
Three more assailants were already within their space.
“No room to breathe!” Faunia lunged from the ground. Icy tendrils burst from her back for the outermost two, instantly tore through their throats and let their bodies fall.
But the third one—Faunia’s leg snagged, she fell prone, smacked her chin off the dusty ground. The pain buzzed in her skull for only the faintest fraction of a second. “Ooph!”
The man underneath her suddenly spun over so he was atop her—she turned back in alarm. His eyes, violet! He’s undead, he’s—
Viltar cleaved his oversized scimitar through the undead’s back as his claws dug into Faunia’s skin, through the soft spots where her plate didn’t cover. The man over her rushed his spear straight down—
“As fucking if!” The air grew chill as a voice howled from nowhere. Tirolith lunged up the length of the spear, shattering its steel to shards of sharp metal as she ascended. Her bladed hand rammed into his gut. The blood pooled out and filled her ice, turned her crimson.
Faunia grit her teeth. Tirolith… don’t go too far.
Viltar grabbed Faunia’s collar and yanked her up from the ground.
“TIROLITH!” she screamed. “GO!”
Then came the burning red comet from the sky above, too close, too fast to react.
Faunia managed only to turn her head away before it struck.
THOOOOOM!
Bodies flew in the blast, limbs took flight separate from their owners. A smattering of blood splatted hard against all of them—Viltar tried unsuccessfully to wipe the red from his fur.
The rain of chunky blood and viscera was gone in a second. Then it became quiet. No more could they hear the sounds of steel clashing.
Faunia pushed through the crowd to the front, Tirolith followed close with her two arm blades spinning every direction, killing lingering Sylvet with every precise motion.
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Viltar chased them. He held his shield tightly aloft.
The three of them broke out into that clearing. A man swung his mace down for Faunia’s head and his own head came loose with a flick of her own weapon. Then she could see into the burning crater where a farm had once been, the flames forming a ring all the way to the wall beside the southern gate.
And in the center of that crater was Cedric Castelbre. Right on time.
“I thought you weren’t coming?” Faunia shouted into the pit of bodies and blood.
He looked at her somberly. “I wasn’t. I saw there were Sylvet here.”
“Worse than that!” Viltar pointed his sword at the ground nearby Cedric as some of the bodies began to squirm.
“Undead? Is Rykaedi near?”
Faunia said, “No—lookout!”
Cedric spun just as a black-armored horseman rushed at him. A great axe hung from his hand with an overbearing, horrifying size.
“Cedric!”
…And just like that, the horseman slumped over, hit the ground, and rolled up a storm of dust. The bodies stopped squirming and fell limp. The horse ran past Cedric in a frenzy, crushed through the other side of the ring of soldiers and vanished into the crowd.
He turned back to his men with crimson eyes. “He won’t be the last of them. Let’s get a move on.”
They cheered. Viltar couldn’t help but manage an exasperated smile.
Faunia’s eyebrows tilted in soft satisfaction. Her own lips quivered between joy and panic.
And then they were sprinting all in tow.
“Her main forces aren’t Cromerian—they’re Etherian, Sylvet and undead.”
“I know.” Cedric answered as they rushed the next shieldwall of men, only twenty feet ahead before the southern gate. They howled their warcries out as Cedric and Faunia neared. They battered their own shields.
I can spare them—but then I put everyone at risk. Right, Serkukan?
The demon only growled. Cedric’s arm began to bubble and grow until it was a huge amalgamation of red flesh. He thrust his arm forward and it tore through the entire line of soldiers, sprayed a fine mist of red blood into the air. The soldiers on the ends began to flee.
Faunia drew her icy bow and notched five arrows. When she plucked, all five of the men dropped dead at once.
The soldiers behind the two of them suddenly charged at the gate with their own fierce announcement.
Cedric stopped in place. Faunia turned back to him, “What’s wrong?”
“Something isn’t right. I don’t know, but I’ve got a bad feeling…”
KLACK, KLACK, KLACK.
“Not an Etherian… What is that?”
They scanned the blackened, stormy skies. There were flares of fire and magic of every shade, chunks of debris, all results of mage battles in lieu of Calamity. It would give them the upper hand against Sylvet, and especially against the anti-magic soldiers of Cromer. Thelani hadn’t a sizeable portion of mages, but they had enough to turn the tides of conflict in some sectors of the battle.
Then their eyes landed on a spot just above the big steel gate ahead.
Atop the wall of Cromer was a giant man. A man perhaps double the size of even the biggest ogres Cedric had ever seen. He was so immense in size, he couldn’t have been human. There was no way. He was slamming two giant curved swords together, all of him embroidered in shining gold and white.
“A fucking Aeonic…” Cedric growled.
“They weren’t fit to leave us alone. We have no choice. This is war.”
The southern gate sprung open with incredible speed. There were immediately dozens of gold-armored men and women pressed against the Calamoni forces, the odds suddenly turned against them as they poured out like a floodgate.
“They got into the fucking city without us knowing! How the fuck is that possible—”
Cedric’s furied gaze up at the big man on the gate stopped her own frenzy. “Rykaedi did it. She had to’ve.”
THOOOOOM!
Faunia winced as the storm of wind chased after his skyward propulsion. Then she turned her gaze back to the storm of men and women in the muck before her and her soldiers.
“Viltar! Kara Squad, on me!”
Cedric rushed at the man with absurd speed. That didn’t stop his two great cleavers from smashing together where his fist should have landed, shattering Serkukan’s jutting claws.
Cedric grunted, his momentum slammed him, too, into the blades.
The giant swept his blades apart and Cedric was launched in a spiral up, then down to the stone walkway below.
“What the fuck are you?” he asked as he struggled back to his feet. He didn’t realize his left foot had been severed. One silent command to Serkukan and it was replaced by temporary crimson armor.
The man's eyes were golden like a Hunter’s. His face was encapsulated in the frame of a golden lion, his entire body was coated in shimmering, shining plate. And he grinned like Kogar would have, inhumanly, without mercy. A demon.
He began a frenzy of downward swings that quaked the entire wall like a house of cards with every swing, marching forward like some abominable machine. Those heavy swings seemed to have no impairment to his blades, though the wall suffered greatly with every strike.
Cedric could only backpedal desperately.
What is this? Why can’t I kill him like I did the horseman?
“You’re one of the fucking Alisans! You’re a fucked-up experiment, aren’t you?”
Cedric’s back hit a parapet. He leapt up and a cleaver tore it in half where he once was. His wings caught him, and he swept back down as his black blade sprung forth.
“Antithesis… Stabilis!”
The cleaver came up and severed Cedric’s mainhand from his body. He wailed as he soared toward the thing.
The giant pointed his second blade right for Cedric’s chest. It was surely unavoidable—
Serkukan made a hasty shield from the blood leaking out of Cedric’s arm. It slid him off the point and ripped like leather, sent him spiraling through the air again. His wings caught him before he hit the ground—
KRRRRRSHHH!
A cleaver struck just in front of him again.
His Stabilis is limited to only a very close proximity, is that it? He can’t stop my speed unless I get too close…
Cedric flew backward and up.
Have I ever tried a bow before?
At Serkukan’s suggestion, Cedric flicked two fingers at the giant. A set of a dozen icy arrows launched out of the sky at the giant from behind Cedric. He looked back and, sure enough, there was Faunia, with Tirolith holding her by her armpits.
Cedric turned back to the giant and his face immediately flexed in alarm; a huge chunk of stone was flying at him, hurtled by this enemy.
Five whips leapt from his braced forearms, sliced the stones into chunks. Then another swipe of the whips cleaved them horizontal, letting the mess of stones fly past him, or gently bump against his armor.
Cedric grit his teeth. “Faunia, I don’t know how to kill the fucker.”
She stared at the soldiers below for a long time. Then she formed a cone of ice and shouted downward through it: “CALAMONIANS FALL BACK! LEAVE THE GATE, NOW!”
Cedric’s eyes lit up. “I get it.”
They watched as the hulking man ripped another chunk of parapet right out of the wall. He spun in place once, twice, three times… Then he flung it.
Cedric strafed past it and a giant crimson net followed him like a cape. It caught the chunk of wall and he spun with the momentum… Then he let the net snap.
KRRRRRNNNNNCHHHHHHH!
The world seemed to shake as the boulder struck just above Cromer’s main gate. The whole structure split down the middle of the arch. Soldiers on the bridges beside their battle watched on in horror as their bodies became weightless, as gravity became their enemy…
The big man fell first. It looked like the floor had given out beneath him. He fell straight down, slammed into the crowds of allies below and smashed them like grapes into a river of juice. It was visceral. It was horrible.
But we have no choice. Cedric’s palms began to bleed as he dug his nails in.
“Cedric,” said Faunia, “he’s still alive down there. That didn’t kill him—”
But Cedric’s gaze had fallen on something to the east, over her shoulder. “Faunia, is that…”
She turned back. There were miles of land covered in black swarms like ants. There were horses, flags, a swarm of dust as they charged. “The Alisans…”
Cedric grabbed her shoulder, turned her back toward him. “Tell me it’s okay. Tell me it’s okay to let Serkukan loose.”
“Cedric, I…”
“I need you to tell me. What we’re doing isn’t right—tell me it’s necessary.”
Her gaze hardened. “It’s necessary. For freedom.”
For freedom. He didn’t quite know what that meant. He didn’t really know how they’d gotten to this point anymore, or how everything had fallen so far apart. All he knew was that the whole world was against them, and they would all crush Calamon and Kylinstrom and everything he had left to care about if he left them to it. He could have done things better up until now, he was sure—but now he was stuck in the reality he’d created. The reality they’d created. Together.
His jagged helmet clamped down over his head. It flared crimson.
“Let’s fucking kill.” he said.
And then he was gone.