“I’m sorry, come again?”
Calris was thoroughly confused. Were they talking about him? Everyone was staring at him now, and a lot of the gazes didn’t feel particularly warm.
“Jasmine, that wasn’t what you were about to say, right?”
“Cal, I understand you might find this overwhelming, but this is a good thing!”
“It doesn’t really feel like a good thing! If I’m a mage, how come it’s never cropped up before? And if I am a mage, it isn’t reassuring that all my predecessors were murdered. Likely by your predecessors.”
Ferez stepped forward, hands up in a peaceful gesture. “Easy there Calris. We are saying you share their power, not that you are one of them. We aren’t about to lynch you.”
“Really? Because Adept Alincia over there is trying to inch into my blind spot.”
For a moment at least, the attention shifted from Calris to the light mage creeping up behind him. Rory inhaled sharply and shot across the tent, grabbing his sister by the back of her cloak and dragging her back to her bedroll. Alincia pouted and shrugged her shoulders.
“I wasn’t going to do anything,” she said, before narrowing her eyes. “Unless he did something first.”
“Gods, you’re insane,” Rory muttered, gesturing for Ferez to continue.
“As I was saying before the interruption,” he began, openly glaring at Alincia. “These mages must have had a link to a hitherto unknown god, which means the nature of their powers is unknown. It could explain the phenomena you’ve manifested recently.”
Calris thought it over. It was a reach, but even so, it fit. His abilities were beyond what the known colleges could do, before now they hadn’t even considered the possibility of another school of magic, after all, why would they? Now though…
“If you are really descended from these mages,” Ferez continued, “then you could provide a crucial clue as to what transpired all those years ago. Including,” he added, with a serious look, “how we triumphed over the demons.”
“Alright,” Calris said, nodding. “So, what? You want to continue with the tests?”
“Yes, though if Jasmine is right, we may have a slight issue with the next experiment.”
From behind him, Calris heard Ban laugh. He hadn’t seen Ban move and, based on everyone else’s reactions, they hadn’t noticed either, but there he was. It was likely he had been there since Alincia had tried to sneak up on Calris.
“What is it, Ban?” Calris asked.
“They want to open the gateway again.”
Calris sighed and rubbed his face. They had barely survived last time, and that was with a full strength marine company on hand. If another army made it through the Gateway, there would be no hope for them here. He had grown a little more comfortable with the risks these mages would accept with their experiments, but this was insane, even by their standards.
“Ferez, are you sure that’s a great idea? It didn’t work out so well last time.”
“But we will be ready this time. We have four of the most powerful mages in the Six present-”
“One of whom has no offensive abilities,” Calris interrupted, ignoring the outraged cry from Alincia.
“-and we can stop them as they come through the gateway,” Ferez continued, ignoring Calris’ interruption. “We won’t let them build up numbers or momentum this time.”
Calris looked around the room. Rory was nodding to himself, and Alincia was a psychopath, so he was sure she was up for it. But he had a few aces up his sleeve left.
“Asim, what do you think?”
Asim scoffed somewhere in the back of the tent.
“I appreciate you asking for my opinion, Calris, but I know you are only asking in the hopes I disagree with the mages.”
“Worth a try,” Calris said as he shook his head. He knew that had been a long shot. “Ban?”
“Sorry, Cal, but last time that Gateway was open, I punched a monster so hard its head exploded. I’m keen to go again.”
Calris scratched at his scar. Even beyond the risk of tangling with a horde of monsters, he wasn’t in a rush to relive the burning pain from the last time the Gateway had opened.
“This is going to fucking suck.”
No one had anything to say to that, and silence descended on the tent. Calris shifted, feeling uneasy, but he realised it wasn’t just the silence in the tent.
It was the silence, period. He looked over at Ban, and realisation dawned on them both at the same time.
“Shit.”
They started running.
*
“Where are we going?” Jasmine shouted after Calris as they tore through the camp. Ban was just ahead of him, making for the perimeter stones as fast as they could, shouting warnings to bleary-eyed locals as they went.
“Something’s wrong. There’s no noise!”
“You are making plenty of bloody noise, Calris. What has gotten you so worked up?”
“Listen!” Calris said, skidding to a halt. “Actually listen. What can you hear?”
“Nothing! I can’t hear-” Jasmine stopped as she realised the same thing he had. “Gods, I can’t hear any noise from the jungle.”
“Exactly.”
“What does that mean?” she asked with growing unease.
“Insects go silent when something passes close to them. It’s a defence mechanism. They usually only sense animals within a few meters, though. For every insect at the perimeter to go quiet at once…”
Jasmine blanched. If Calris was right, then something was out there stalking them.
Many somethings.
“They won’t come past the stones though, right? You and Ban said so when we arrived.”
Jasmine’s answer came in the form of a shout from beyond the wall, followed by a cacophony of roars.
“If I were to hazard a guess, Princess, I’d say the rules have changed.”
They took off again, the wall now just a few dozen meters in front of them as more shouts rose to join the first, the rest of the sentries judging from the numbers. They had a galvanising effect on the Gundagaal. Instead of the panic Jasmine had expected, the tribesmen quickly gathered their equipment and formed into two groups, spears in hand as their chief shouted commands in his native tongue. One group joined Jasmine’s small party as they approached the gate, while the others headed back into the city.
“Where are they going?”
“There’s a small collapsed section on the other side of the city. We planned to defend them simultaneously in the event of an attack. They’ll stop anything getting in behind us.”
“My, my. You lot have been busy,” she panted as she caught up to Calris at the gate. He didn’t turn as he replied.
“Complacency leads to death out here. They never relied on the stones for protection. But whatever they have prepared, I don’t think it will be enough.”
He sounded ominous, and Jasmine furrowed her brow.
“Your tone of voice is not comforting, Cal. Wha-”
Jasmine’s breath caught in her throat as she glanced over his shoulder. Dozens of beasts stalked towards them; giant swamp drakes gliding through the water or stomping along pathways alongside vibrantly coloured birds that stood taller than a man. The drakes she had seen before, but the birds were new. They had prominent bony ridge plates on their heads and wickedly clawed feet that ended in sharp talons easily six or seven inches long.
“Orniraptors?” she asked Calris.
“Yeah. Aggressive bastards, they don’t even have the common decency to eat their kills, just leave you where you lay and go back to eating fruit.”
“Is it normal for the birds and drakes to hunt together?” Jasmine asked as she surveyed the horde, now eerily silent with the sentries dead and devoured.
“Drakes and other drakes don’t even hunt together. They’re extremely territorial and will kill each other on sight outside mating season. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
“That is… not good. What is the plan of attack? Or, defence, as it may be.”
Calris furrowed his brow, and his eyes glazed over, but he remained silent.
“Calris? Anytime now!” she said, a tinge of desperation creeping into her voice as she eyed the beasts’ advance.
Calris snapped out of his reverie, sucked his teeth as he eyed the horde once more, and then briskly spun on his heel to face the mages behind him.
“Right. Here’s the plan. Ferez, Jasmine, up on the wall. Your magic isn’t effective against the drakes, but it’ll hurt them, and turn those birds into roast. Kill or drive away any that are trying to get through the gaps in the wall on our flanks.”
Ferez nodded, flame erupting from his body and propelling him up onto the wall. Jasmine fancied trying it herself, but decided she hadn’t practiced enough since her last disastrous attempt, and so settled for climbing the old-fashioned way, the ancient structure providing plenty of handholds for even a novice climber like herself. Behind her, Calris continued issuing commands to Rory and Alincia.
“Rory, your magic should be effective against both species, but it’s limited in range, correct?”
“Yes, I- how did you know that?”
“Had a run in with one of your lot a little while ago. I took notes for next time.”
“I must admit, though gladdened, I am surprised you are alive.”
“Yeah? Well, he’s not. I want you on the wall too, but close to the rest of us. Break up the beasts as they charge and focus your efforts on the largest drakes, they have the thickest armour. We can handle the younger ones and the birds, but if one of the ancient bastards makes the breech we’re screwed.”
Jasmine scoffed and shook her head as she climbed. Did he seriously just claim credit for her and Asim’s work? If they survived this, she would be having words with him. She dusted her hands on her robe as she crested the wall and Alincia spoke up behind her.
“Soldier boy, what about me?”
“Patch up any fighters as they fall and get them back into the battle. We can’t let them whittle down our numbers.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. If Ban, or preferably Calris, was standing within easy earshot, she would have offered a bet that Alincia would be angry at her role.
“I can fight!” she protested. “The mace isn’t just for show.”
Jasmine smiled.
Called it.
“I’m sure,” Calris replied, “but I advise against trying to beat a swamp drake to death. They have thick skulls. We need you reattaching legs and stitching stomachs back together.”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Jasmine looked down, enjoying the plucky mage’s attempts to get into the frontline, and found Alincia glaring up at Calris.
“Fine! Next time we fight humans, though, I want in,” she shouted as she took up a position behind the spear wall. “And you lot! If you lose a leg, bring it with you. I can’t reattach body parts if they’re nestled in a swamp drake’s stomach!”
A few of the tribesmen gave half-hearted waves to acknowledge her, but mostly they focussed on the steadily advancing line of teeth and claws.
Jasmine sparked a few flames in her hands. Not that she had ever had trouble summoning them before, but she felt the need to double check. Just in case. The air was thick with magic as the others marshalled their powers, but there was something else underlying it all, a different magic that felt altogether sinister. She looked closely at the beasts as they advanced, almost shoulder to shoulder, and they reminded her of how the soldiers had advanced and retreated at the battle of The Keep.
“Calris!” she called. “Is it just me, or are they in a formation?”
Calris’ voice floated up from the gate, just out of her field of vision. “How do you mean?”
“The distribution of animals isn’t random. The birds are concentrated on the flanks and to the rear, and the largest drakes are all front and centre.”
“By the Pantheon,” he muttered. “Do you lot have any idea why this is happening? These animals shouldn’t be working together, period, let alone using military tactics.”
“I was just about to ask you.”
“How am I supposed to bloody know?”
“I don’t know, I thought, maybe…”
“You think I’m doing this?” Calris asked, outrage in his voice.
“No! Well, maybe. Not intentionally?”
“Enough!” Ferez’s voice rang out clear, silencing their bickering. “This isn’t you Calris. The Gateway isn’t open, so I doubt you have access to your magic. Something else is at play here. Jasmine, Rory, keep your eyes peeled. I sense the true enemy has not yet been revealed.”
“Because that doesn’t sound ominous,” Jasmine grumbled.
“Lose the attitude and get to work, Jasmine,” Ferez said as he shot a gout of flame into the flank of the advancing beast’s formation, incinerating the raptors and younger drakes caught in the fire. As if on cue, the rest of the beasts broke into a run, swarming towards the gate.
Jasmine had never seen anything like it. The ground rumbled under the thuds of armoured reptiles and giant birds as they trampled over each other in their haste to swarm the defenders; the air filling with muck and water as beasts ploughed through the swamp. In response, Jasmine unleashed, knocking about drakes with Flash Bombs and roasting the raptors with streams of fire. An ancient drake, easily nine meters long or more, burst through her flames and charged up the path, only to be engulfed in darkness. Rory focussed his attention on the hapless lizard for mere seconds before turning his attention to the next target, leaving a corpse of vaguely reptilian shape stripped of all soft tissue from the rear legs up.
Jasmine shuddered. She knew how powerful Umbral magic was, but seeing it used for full effect was still sobering, especially after her own magic had proven so ineffective. Armour, be it skin or steel, was worthless, just more matter to be stripped and cast to the wind.
Despite the largest beast being dead and the second largest quickly following suit, the horde came on undisturbed and crashed against the spear wall with a cacophony of roars, screeches, and shouts. The battlements hid the fighting from her sight, but she could still hear the awful sounds. She prayed the marines were alright as cries of pain intermingled with shouts of rage, the orders issued in the heat of battle drowned out by the roars of the jungle’s apex predators. Above the din, Jasmine could barely make out Calris’ voice.
“Ban, stop those raptors working around the side!”
“On it.”
“Asim, stall that drake until the Gundies can get around its side!… Or just split its head open yourself, that works too.”
“You there! Get back in the formation! Now! Damn it, he’s down. Alincia!”
“On it! Yes, drag him over here, that’s right just here and- HEY GET THAT LEG BACK!”
Jasmine heard the mage plunge into the fray to retrieve the man’s leg and turned her flames towards the gate to give Alincia some breathing room. She was vindicated as Alincia called her thanks up the wall, and Jasmine turned her attention back to the flanks of the horde, torching a half dozen raptors that had tried to break around.
Jasmine did not envy the tribesman. Losing a leg to a swamp drake would be traumatic enough, but having it immediately stuck back on to be returned to the fray? That would be positively surreal.
Despite the chaos and the screams, however, Jasmine slowly realised they were actually winning.
The men on the ground were mounting an effective defence. Between Calris’ leadership, the steel weaponry of Ban and Asim, and the tenacity and skill of the Gundagaal, they were holding the breech. From what little Jasmine could see, Alincia was patching the casualties up almost as fast as they came to her, and the mages on the wall were wreaking havoc on the tightly packed horde as it tried to break through the defenders. Rory’s magic seemed to be the decisive factor. Every time a large drake appeared, he stripped it to the bone before it reached the fighters on the ground.
The horde may have been a nightmare, a swarm of gnashing teeth and slashing claws, but they were still no match for the human fighters, and she redoubled her efforts, torching a flock of raptors that broke out from the main body. It was the final push needed to break the assault, and the surviving beasts scattered, the birds fleeing back to the safety of the tree line while the remaining drakes plunged into the water. Silence descended once again over the ancient city, broken only by the moans of bloodied warriors.
Jasmine cheered, punching her fist into the air.
“They’ll be singing songs about this battle for years to come!” she shouted, the adrenaline still pumping through her veins, making her feel alive. “I almost wish there were more of them! But we can exaggerate the story a bit, right?”
Calris’ voice floated up from the gate. He sounded… tired. “I wouldn’t celebrate just yet, Princess. The battle is yet to begin.”
“What?”
There had been hundreds of beasts, more drakes and raptors gathered in one spot than anyone had ever seen in living memory, and now they were all either dead or fleeing.
“They are running, are they not?”
“They were the skirmishers.”
Jasmine scrambled across the wall to the gate and glared down at Calris. “Ape, pretend I am just a highly intelligent, incredibly powerful and stunningly gorgeous mage that just torched a small army of monsters, and not, in fact, a soldier. What do you mean ‘skirmishers’?”
Calris stabbed his spear into the ground and wiped the blood and sweat from his eyes. He didn’t look happy. Jasmine frowned and looked around, realising the battle had not been as decisive as she thought. Bodies lay scattered about in various degrees of disassembly. Alincia had done an admirable job of healing the wounded, but even she couldn’t do anything when a man’s head was crushed in the jaws of a drake, or his throat opened by the claws of a raptor. She grimaced and shrunk back from the wall’s edge, feeling guilty for her cavalier attitude as Calris looked up at her, exhaustion written across his bloodstained features.
“It’s a common tactic in battle, especially a siege. Send out a bunch of sacrificial lambs and then see what the enemy has waiting. Someone or something is out there watching us, and now they know exactly where we stand. We have a few minutes while they decide what to do about Rory up there, and then they’ll hit us with everything they’ve got.”
“What do we do then? Stand and die?”
Calris shook his head, a small smile playing briefly across his face, and Jasmine was sure it was purely for her benefit.
“I didn’t say that. We hold as long as we can, see how the battle unfolds. We received a runner from the other wall section. The attack wasn’t as severe, but they still sustained some casualties. Now they have the measure of our defences, they’ll weight their attack on one spot or the other. We figure out which side it is, and then break out from the other one, head into the jungle and make for the Aluwai village.”
“And if we can’t break out?”
“We hold the wall.”
“And if we can’t hold the wall?”
Calris’ smile disappeared as he looked at her.
“We fall back to the college and take as many with us as we can.”
Jasmine swallowed hard, feeling her nerves rising as she digested his words. She felt at a loss as to how she had reached a point in her life, where charging through a horde of monsters to flee into the Marduk jungle was the best option left. As she fought her nerves and Calris issued further orders to the warriors, Jasmine spotted movement on the edge of the treeline.
“Calris, something is happening out there.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than two figures wearing Guild cloaks and carrying warped, brassy staves stepped out of the vegetation. Hoods concealed their faces, but the hairs on the back of Jasmine’s neck still stood on end as she felt their eyes on her. Behind them, the jungle swayed, though there was no wind to move the treetops. Below her, Calris cursed.
“Gods damnit, I hate being right all the time,” he muttered as a drake the size of a large house stalked out of the tree line to stand beside the hooded figures.
The tribesmen panicked, and Jasmine had to admit, she wasn’t far off herself. They had seen some large drakes in the last assault, but this? The beast was so mind-bendingly huge that it gave off a sense of wrongness for just existing.
“Calris, what the fuck is that?”
“Maw’Groth,” he whispered. “It’s supposed to be a jungle legend.”
“What are you on about?”
“That thing! The locals have told stories about a drake the size of a village for centuries. No one thought it actually existed though!”
“Well, it does, and it looks like it’s on their side. What do we do about it?”
Calris swore again and ran his hands through his hair. He looked at the warriors around him and back to the drake. Despite the surrounding panic, he looked calm. Concerned, of course, after all, who wouldn’t be? But even so, he seemed somehow resolved. Jasmine took a deep breath, using his resolve to reassure herself, and she slowly felt her heart rate return to almost normal.
“We kill it, obviously. Rory, what do you think? Can you handle something that size?”
Rory regarded it for a while, contemplating, then snapped his fingers and nodded.
“All is ash before Umbris. Soon as he’s close enough, I’ll target his head. It should be over in moments,” he replied, gathering darkness around his body in preparation. Jasmine took a deep breath and looked back out at the jungle.
Sure, the drake was bigger than it had any right to be and, sure, Pyris magic wouldn’t even tickle it, but against Umbral magic, it would wither away just as easily as any of the other drakes. They would still win this battle. But then she heard it. A loud crack from within the trees.
No!
She shouted for Rory to get down; her warning coming too late as he tumbled from the wall, crying out in pain.
“That bitch is here!” she shouted, ducking behind the battlements as another projectile buzzed angrily over her head. To make matters worse, an ear-splitting roar announced the charge of the mythical swamp drake, the ground itself shaking with every footfall. Cursing, she shimmied on her stomach to the edge of the wall and dropped to the ground as the tribesmen fled from the gate.
“Back to the college! Even that beast won’t be able to break down a building that size!” Calris shouted, before muttering “hopefully” under his breath. Jasmine ran to join him and the others as they tried to move Rory, which was made difficult since Alincia was buzzing frantically around them, trying to heal him.
There were tears in her eyes, and Rory looked pale.
“I healed the wound,” she said, turning to Jasmine, “but he’s still bleeding internally, and I can’t stop it. I don’t understand. What happened?”
That woman happened. Elizabeth. Jasmine scowled as she remembered how effortlessly she had been brushed aside in their last encounter. But this time would be different.
“Her name is Elizabeth; she has Resonance weapons that launch small metal balls from a tube using magic. It must still be in his body somewhere, we’ll need to get it out before it can heal.”
Rory coughed weakly where he lay. “Great, so now you have to cut me open.”
“I am afraid so. Asim! I need your belt knife!”
The guardsman ran over, the last warrior resolutely standing in the gateway as the others fled, and handed her a long, wickedly curved knife. Stylised like the halberds but made from mundane steel, they were mostly ceremonial, which meant they were ill suited for combat, let alone precise battlefield surgery. Still, it would have to do.
Maw’Groth roared again outside the walls. Much, much closer this time.
“We do not have time to excavate the projectile here,” Jasmine said. “We need to get Rory back to the college and hold off the horde long enough for Alincia to heal him.”
“Agreed,” Calris said. “Asim, Ferez, pick Rory up and get him back to the college. Ban and I will follow up the rear and stop them getting close.”
Asim obediently picked up their charge, Ferez holding his hands out to help before realising he wasn’t needed, and then they started running into the city. Jasmine didn’t move.
“I will stay with you,” she said, surprised by the steel in her voice.
Calris shook his head. “If something happens to us, they will need you to hold the drakes at bay. You should go with them.”
“I owe that woman for last time,” she replied, staring daggers at Calris and daring him to argue. Fortunately for him, he didn’t.
“Alright, but stay in front of us. I can’t afford to go wrestling drakes to save you again.”
“Oh, I think if either of us is going to need saving, it will be you.”
Ban shook his head with a groan and waved his axes to interrupt them both.
“This is cute banter and all, but there is a drake the size of a castle about to come storming through these walls, so can we please get a move on?”
Jasmine and Calris exchanged a brief glance and, agreeing Ban had a valid point, sprinted for the college. As they pounded along the packed earth path, she spotted drakes and raptors wading or gliding through the water beside them, threading ahead through the ruins so they could cut in and overwhelm them from the front and the rear.
Gods, but they are quick.
Jasmine knew the two marines behind her were forcing themselves to jog, to stay between her and the pursuing horde, and she could hear a flock of raptors rapidly closing on them. The rattle of steel in scabbard announced the two marines were preparing to defend her.
She shook her head, angry and ashamed, as she heard a drake launch out of the water behind them, its hiss cut short by the marines. But there were more out there, biding their time. If she were fitter, they may have been able to make it to the college before they were upon them. As it was, they had no hope. Calris called out from behind her.
“Jasmine! Keep running, Ban and I’ll keep them off your back until you get there.”
“You can’t take a flock by yourselves!” she called over her shoulder. She glanced back, and from the look on his face, Calris knew it too. More, he’d known it when he said it, but the raptors, now just a few dozen meters behind them, didn’t give him much of an alternative.
I will not be a liability!
Jasmine skidded to a halt and pivoted, unleashing a flurry of bombs that detonated across the flock, killing or stunning the birds moments before they were overtaken. She may not have the strength or endurance of a soldier, but she brought her own skill set to the table.
“Stop arguing and keep moving!” she shouted, allowing herself a satisfied smile before turning back around and coming face to face with a swamp drake rising out of the water. She fell back, startled, raising her hands reflexively in a futile attempt to protect herself before Ban dove at it from its flank, cleaving the front of its snout with his axes as Calris rammed his sword through its eye socket.
Without a word, Calris grabbed Jasmine by the hand and hauled her to her feet, half dragging her onwards as Ban drove his axe into another drake trying to sneak up behind them. It was the first of many, far more than Jasmine had counted just a second ago.
“Where the fuck did these come from?” Ban cried as more drakes swarmed towards them from the half-submerged buildings.
“The other breech must have fallen!” Calris shouted back as he slashed his sword at another drake, releasing Jasmine’s hand to better defend them both. Jasmine darted around his side and roared, throwing flame and driving the hissing creature back into the water.
“Gods be damned! We’re going to be overwhelmed! We need to hurry!” she yelled.
“Damnit I know but-” Calris stopped mid-sentence, a look of horror on his face, “Shit. Shit, shit shit shit! Elizabeth is after the Key!”
Jasmine stopped, taking a moment to understand the implications.
“Tenacious bitch,” she muttered. “It is still in our tent!”
“Go! Get back to the college. Ban and I will get the Key and meet you there.”
“I can come with you!”
“No, Jasmine! If the other breech has fallen, the horde will be at the college already. They’ll need you there to have any hope of holding them off.”
“But what about you?”
Calris smiled, and Jasmine was reminded of the arrogant, cocky bastard she had first met in the laboratory back in the Six. Except now, she found herself enjoying it a little. Maybe because he’d proven it wasn’t all talk. Maybe because he had proven to be more than just that.
“It’ll take more than a handful of overgrown lizards to stop us. I will see you after this, Princess,” he said, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a gentle squeeze.
“If you die, Ape, I will storm the gates of the Pit and roast the shit out of you myself.”
Calris flashed her one last smile, then turned and ran into the city with Ban, quickly disappearing between the buildings as the lion’s share of the horde set off after them. Jasmine watched them go and said a silent prayer to Val’Pyria before turning back to the college, fire swirling around her as she ran.