Omrai barked orders at the cannoneers, following Revin’s plan. Revin stood in front of the open gate. His hands trembled and his face was contorted into a tight grimace. Omrai had seen that look before, on men about to run.

But Revin didn’t run. He only looked down at the metal warriors ascending the steady slope. Two dozen saurians moved around him in unison, shoving rocks and boulders into piles to Revin’s left and right.

“The cannons are in position,” Omrai said to Revin’s mind. Men stood at the ready, but the cannons weren’t aimed down at the metal warriors. They were aimed at the cliff faces to the right and to the left.

“Good,” Revin thought to him, “The saurians are too.”

Revin looked down, staring at the oncoming horde. “Wait for it.”

Omrai also looked down, the enemy was getting closer. The swarm rushed forward, flowing over the mountainside. Metal water flowing upstream.

“We don’t have much time,” Omrai thought to Revin, nervous.

Revin waited a moment more, sweating and trembling. “Now!” Revin shouted in Omrai’s mind.

“Fire!” Omrai said, covering his ears just before the cannons fired. Still, the explosions were nearly deafening. Cannonballs shattered the mountainside to either side of the narrow valley. Trees broke and tumbled; rocks shattered. Avalanches began. They had aimed the cannons only cause avalanches in the over the flood of metal men in the lower valley, avoiding the city in the upper vally. A deluge of rock and trees tumbled down, smashing into the metal monsters from either side.

Revin stepped back as the saurians pushed piles of rock and rubble down the center, creating new avalanches down the center toward the enemy.

Tumbling stones and crunching metal echoed down the valley, smashing the metal warriors, crushing them between stones.

Omrai watched in awe as many metal warriors were destroyed, wave over wave. And in that moment, he smiled. Maybe there was a chance. His people fled for their lives down the main thoroughfare of the city, rushing out of the upper valley and into the Winding Canyon.

The earth suddenly pounded rhythmically. As he looked around, he was scared that Jebuthar’s ships had started firing, but they hadn’t. The saurians were stomping their feet in a steady beat, shaking the ground. Further avalanches began on the broken cliffsides, sending more rocks tumbling down onto the enemy.

“Omrai!” Kaiato’s voice said.

Omrai felt himself lose his footing. A great crack appeared in the wall, the whole thing shaking. A chunk of the wall started to lean, and Omrai frantically looked for a handhold as he began to slide.

Suddenly, a hand gripped his arm and pulled him to steadier ground. Kaiato looked down at him with a firm nod.

“Stop the pounding!” Omrai mindspoke to Revin.

He felt Revin’s anger and panic, he was enraged. Focused on crushing these machines that had caused him so much pain. Omrai spoke to Revin’s mind again.

“Revin! Stop now!”

Then, it all stopped. Revin finally got the message.

Kaiato helped Omrai stand.

“Most of the civilians are out,” Kaiato said.

Omrai nodded, they might get out of this alright.

✦✦✦

Revin frowned. Why had Omrai told him to stop? He was about to smash these things, wipe his scars from existence. Maybe the crushing of metal monsters could replace the memories of suffering men and saurians. Why would Omrai…

His frown deepened when he saw the wall. It had a large crack and a few crumbled pieces, right near where Omrai stood.

Oops.

Revin looked to the saurian to his left and to his right. Sure, these were all just herbivores, but they’d still been difficult to master. He had never mastered forty beasts before, and none so large. They hadn’t been as smart as the tyranno, but that had made them easier to master. If all herbivores were as mighty as these, he might have been inclined to master more of them back at home.

“Revin,” Omrai said firmly in his mind, “fall back.”

Revin complied. He caused the saurians to start backing away in an orderly fashion.

“And Revin,” Omrai said. “Good work.” There was a hint of gratitude in those words.

Revin smiled and looked down the steep rocky ramp. Thousands of metal monsters had been shattered. But thousands more climbed over their brethren, some pushing themselves up out of the upper layers of broken stone and trees. One even pulled a tree branch out of its shattered arm and continued to march regardless of being only one-handed now.

“Let’s go!” Omrai shouted as he came down the stairs. He turned and ran. Kaiato and other soldiers moving with him. Revin followed close behind, his heavy metal-weave mastersuit rustling and slowing him down with its weight.

Revin…

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Revin looked back down toward the hill. He could hear the mighty host clanking its way up.

If you surrender now, I’ll spare the soldiers here. Densal was going to kill all of you, women and children included. I am not her. But I will kill every man in a uniform. Unless you turn yourself over to me.

Revin looked down the main street to the back of the city. It looked like the entire city was trying to squeeze through one exit. It was far too narrow to get everyone in before the enemy made it up here. The soldiers who guarded the rear would be slaughtered, and the work of death would continue into the winding canyon.

Revin growled. “Omrai, you need more time!” He glanced back towards the top of the slope. A metal monster climbed up from below. It must have been part of the front lines, one of the few that weren’t crushed in the initial avalanches.

Revin felt a moment of panic. Imagining a spear through his chest. He tightened his fists and smashed his eyes shut. The memories… they threatened to overtake him. To drown him in blood and sorrow.

But Revin wasn’t powerless. His eyes flashed open, watching the metal monster climb from the pits of death. He took a slow, deep breath. For a moment, that was all he could hear. Inhale. Exhale.

He ran toward the monster.

“Revin, what are you doing?” Omrai shouted in his mind.

“Trust me!”

Revin commanded ten of his ceratops to turn around, pounding the earth, their tails waving. They let out a honk, a battle cry.

Revin drew the sword he’d stolen from his father and aimed it at the solitary metal monster.

It looked at him emotionlessly and reached for its back. But Revin already knew the rifle it was looking for wasn’t there.

He lowered his blade and sent commands to his saurians. Birdy squawked on his shoulder as he approached, flying mere feet in front of the metal monster as three ceratops surrounded it. Two of the ceratops locked horns around it, restricting its movement. The other ceratops stood at the top of the hill, looking down on the enemy.

Revin approached it slowly, lowering his blade.

“No! Revin,” Omrai’s voice said. “ We don’t have time!”

Revin ignored him and glared contemptuously at the metal monster. “Not so strong without your magic gun, are you?” Revin’s hand trembled.

The metal monster punched one ceratop in the snout, causing it to flinch and step back. Revin fell as he tried to avoid the other fist. In a moment of surprising agility, the metal monster grabbed the other ceratop’s horn and flipped into the air, landing on the ground right in front of Revin.

Revin’s eyes widened. He stumbled backward, waving his sword in a way he hoped was threatening. Behind it, a swarm of metal monsters emerged from over the hill. He’d stayed here too long. The enemy army had arrived.

Fight! He thought to the ceratops as hard as he could.

The first row of metal monsters didn’t stand a chance, half of them were missing weapons, and the other half worked to prepare rifles. With a frantic thought the ceratops targeted them, smashing them to pieces, spinning around and breaking or knocking down more of the metal warriors. The metal monsters tumbled in shards of metal and shattered gears.

The automaton facing him struck downward. Revin barely managed to block it with his blade, rolling to the side. He glanced to his ceratops, seeing yet another wave step over the ridge.

His eyes widened as they lowered their weapons.

“Run!” Revin felt Omrai’s voice echo in his mind.

The weapons fired, impacting the ceratops. They bellowed in agony and he screamed with them. He felt every ounce of their pain as the metal tore through them, sticking in their bones, the evil sorcery crushing them.

He gasped and blinked out tears. Hands trembling. He almost dropped his blade.

His gaze returned to the automaton. It charged; hands outstretched. With a scream of panic, he swung his sword in a frantic uppercut. The blade slashed the armor in the front, tearing it open. The inside emanated with that familiar blue light.

The automaton fell backward with his blow, and Revin jumped on top of it, even as the other automatons got closer. He willed his mind into it. Trying to take it. Taking another person’s mastered beast was forbidden at the Hiriv.

But he wasn’t there anymore.

As he dove into its mind, he felt a torrent of mental attacks.

You think to steal from me?

His eyes opened with the pain; a gun aimed at his head. He sent the mental lassoes one more time, jerking his head to the side just as the weapon fired. His ears rang with the painful sound.

Hundreds of automatons swarmed the top of the hill. Heading straight for him.

He let out a curse and pulled his hand out, swinging his blade at the recently reloaded enemy gun, bending the barrel with the blunt force of the impact.

He pushed himself up and stumbled back, cursing the weight of his suit. An automaton struck, he half blocked it and it glanced harmlessly off his armor.

He turned around and ran. A line of Ateyan soldiers with General Ebavo at their lead, stood or knelt with rifles at the ready. Revin gasped, but they didn’t fire before he passed. A series of loud explosion rand out from behind him, metal struck metal with loud pings.

Revin stumbled as another wave of pain hit him. One of his ceratops, still bleeding from the weapons of the metal monsters, was hit by Ateyan guns. With tears in his eyes Revin forcefully severed his connection, not wanting to feel it die. Hating himself for abandoning it in its moment of agony.

He just… he couldn’t handle that right now.

A hand grabbed his arm and he looked up. Omrai frowned. When Revin met his gaze, however, the frown softened into a look of concern.

“Come on,” Omrai said, “They’ll guard the rear. Buy us time.”

Omrai eyes glistened.

Revin looked ahead, watching as the people and saurians finally made it into the narrow exit. He wanted to feel excited as he passed through the gate and into the canyon, but he still heard the soldiers who remained. Shouting and firing their weapons. Fighting hard.

Screaming as they died. Just as Narazoth said they would.