The castle shook again as the human forces continued their siege for the 8th day. The catapults and trebuchets fired non-stop since the start of the battle and continued to pound the magically enhanced walls and magic barrier behind them. With every explosive payload fired by the siege engines the whole castle would shake a little as the walls protecting the keep showed signs of cracking and wear.
In the keep's main hall sat a family of 3, leisurely eating while being attended to by tens of servants. At the head of the table sat a middle aged man with short and neat black hair and a small, well kept beard. His crimson eyes looking at the beautiful woman on his left while his hand held a silver fork carrying a small piece of meat.
"I have to say, the recipe your cousin got from the South really brings the spicy flavour of the beef to life."
"He did say he got it from a famed restaurant during his stay, Dear. I would expect no less from an establishment that made itself famous for its spice and flavours."
"You are right Dear Wife. As expected."
"And how are you finding it my sweet little Pandora?"
"It's a little too spicy for me but apart from that it tastes good."
"As expected, the young body does not tolerate the spicy flavour too well."
"It's ok, I'll still finish it."
"Stubborn girl. Don't regret it later when your lips burn painfully from the spice."
"I'd rather do it and regret it later than not do it at all."
"That's my girl."
The chat was interrupted by the butler.
"Sir. The outer walls are beginning to show signs of wear and some cracks have begun to form in places."
"Damn, so quickly? What about the barrier?"
"The barrier will hold for another day at most. But judging from the conditions of the walls, they have come prepared and found a way to get through our enchantments, enhancements and barriers. There may be little time left before it too falls to the siege engines."
"Put everything we have to strengthen the barrier. Divert power from the walls. They are a lost cause already. Give the barrier everything we have and buy us as much time as you can."
"As you command my Lord."
The butler left and the atmosphere at the table turned heavy.
"Do we have to run away?"
"No my little princess. We are not going anywhere. This is our home and no one can make us run from our own home."
"So we fight?"
"It would see so Dear Wife. It apart to be the best chance we have."
"Can I go too?"
"No my Dear Pandora. It is too early for you to participate in such a large scale battle. We will take you to the safe room and let you sleep while we deal with this. It should take no more than a few days."
"I understand."
"Thanks you for being so good. When this is over we will take you to train with some smaller groups. With your unique powers, combat is what you will naturally excel at."
"Okay."
The girl smiled at her parents, small tears collecting at the corners of her eyes from the burning pain on her lips.
"Let's move you to the safe room and get you comfortably asleep. We will come and wake you us once we're done outside."
Moving from the main hall to the grand staircase, the 3 walked down from the 3rd floor to the groups floor. On the groups floor the 3 moved down a well hidden and narrow secret passage to get behind the grand staircase. Behind the grand staircase, in a small room was a set of crude stone stairs leading further down.
At the bottom of the stone stairs lay a large underground room supported by huge, carved, square stone pillars. In the centre of the room lay 3 coffins. 2 large adult sized and 1 small child sized coffin.
The edges of the room were lined with layers upon layers of thin glass pipes reaching from floor to ceiling. Each pipe, filled with blood, was connected by smaller pipes to a device sat between the coffins. The long glass pipes all had a stamped copper plate reading '1 week' labelling each as having enough blood inside to sustain a sleeping vampire for a week.
"Come, child. Lay down. I will activate the blood supply while your mother inserts the supply needle into your arm. I do not expect you to need it, since we will most likely be back in a few days, but just in case, I will set it to use all the blood if needed."
"Come, lay down and relax. Everything will be fine. We will come back in a few days and go back to our normal lives. Now relax your arm and let me put the needle in. Just like that. There, now you're ready to sleep."
Turning to her husband at the machine, Pandora's mother spoke in a low and serious tone.
"Set the machine to it's independent power source and have it funnel the blood from the surface to fill the empty blood pipes."
"Why? We'll only be gone for a few days at most."
"Just in case anything happens to us. I want her to take the best chances of survival."
"Fine, it's done."
The machine gave a soft whirl and the room was filled with a deep red light. A few of the blood pipes which happened to be empty were surrounded with a red glow while a small magic circle hovered and rotated about the open top.
"That should be everything. Sleep well and see you soon, my daughter. I love you."
"Bye dad, be careful."
"Your mother will make sure I am. For you and for me."
"Sweet dreams my daughter. I love you."
"Bye mum. Keep dad in check and keep yourselves safe."
"We will."
With a final goodbye, the lid of the small coffin was closed and little Pandora went to sleep.
Unknown to any of them, aboveground, outside the walls, a vial concoction of the deadliest poisons, diseases, curse spells and alchemical compounds was being prepared by a group of hired alchemists. The vial brew would spell disaster for any that so much as sniffed the fumes. The curses would weaken the vampires natural resistance while the alchemical compounds ignored the resistance all together to lower their responsiveness and reflexes. The poisons and diseases would then wreak havoc in their weakened bodies till they died or were killed.
Each vampire hunter was equipped with a small hand crossbow and quivers of bolts that were dipped in the special potion as well as a long, curved knife, also coated in the potion.
An important looking man with a golden chest plate under his cloak stood near the alchemists tent, overseeing the distribution of the weapons and potion.
"Remember, never waste more than 2 bolts per target. There is a lot of the potion, yes, but we don't know their exact numbers. Point is, don't waste it if you don't have to."
A young soldier with a 'Messenger' badge ran up to him.
"Sir. The walls have begun to crumble, but the barrier appears to be getting stronger. We assume the vampires have diverted mana from the wall enchantments to the barrier."
"Indeed, with the walls already cracking the enchantments will loose efficiency, it is a smart choice to abandon them. The barrier, however, will not be so simple to take down."
Just then, a tall, thin man wearing a long robe and face mask left the alchemists tent.
"Do not worry about the barrier. We have something for that too."
"Another potion, I assume?"
"Indeed. The Mana Devouring Potion. It absorbs mana from whatever it touches and releases it into the air. Specifically designed to take down large scale barriers."
The tall man pulled a bottle of purple liquid from his belt.
"Get me a trough big enough to roll the siege engine ammo through."
"I'm on it."
The messenger ran off and soon a trio of large men carrying long wooden planks and buckets of nails came to the tent.
"We don't have one big enough but making one shouldn't be a problem."
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"Make it close to the siege engine ammo stockpile. And make it as water tight as you can, don't want to be wasting resources."
"Will do."
The trio took their long planks and headed for the large pile of siege engine ammo.
"We'll be ready to begin soon. As soon as everyone is equipped with their poisoned bolts, we can start."
"Very well. I will go oversee the siege engine ammo."
The trough was wide enough for 1 and long enough for 4 siege engine ammo. The tall alchemists made his way to the newly built trough and began filling it with the purple potions from his belt. Bottle after bottle emptied and after the 14th bottle, the floor of the trough had a finger thick layer of purple liquid sitting in it.
"Bring me an iron ball for a test. Carefully set it down on one end and roll it to the other. Good. Now carefully lift it out and set it in a free catapult. Good. Now aim high. Top of the barrier if you can. I want it to be in contact with the barrier for as long as possible."
Receiving a nod from the catapult crew the alchemists nodded back and shouted.
"Fire!"
The large iron ball sailed through the air and struck near the top of the barrier. It bounced back slightly before falling and hitting the side of the barrier again where it rolled down to the floor. It maintained constant contact with the barrier and left a long, fain line where it appeared to be thinner than the rest of the barrier.
"Good shot! Perfect! It works just as intended. You never know with these monsters, you may think they're using mana but in fact it turns out to be the blood of some poor unfortunate. But it seems the barrier would take too much blood to power and they used mana instead. Lucky for us. Not so lucky for them. Inform the rest of the siege engine teams! Get their ammo rolled through the potion before they fire! I'll go get more potions and have more troughs built around the stockpile."
The alchemists left for the tent as the catapult crew spread to tell the rest of the teams about the potion and where to aim.
Inside the castell, the butler found the now childless duo and informed them of the changes to the situation.
“Sir. The barrier is draining more and more mana by the second. It’s almost like every hit it takes wastes more mana than it should.”
“Are we sure there aren't just more attacks hitting the barrier at once?”
“There definitely are more attacks hitting the barrier now that we've abandoned the walls, it’s just that the mana consumption for each hit has gone up significantly.”
“I see. They must have an alchemists. Only an alchemists could do something like that with their siege ammo.”
“I see. It makes sense now. A potion to increase the amount of mana each hit takes sounds plausible with their tendency for warring with each other.”
“Indeed. Inform everyone, we fight. The barrier won't hold much longer. When it falls, they will likely try to storm the castle. When they do, we set up an ambush at the gates. They will only be able to move through them a few at a time. We take bows and crossbows for those less versed in magic and let the ice and lightning mages pepper them with Piercing Spikes and Chain lightning. We take as many of their back lines out as we can while they are blocked by the bodies of the ones in front.”
“What if they make other entrances?”
“Then we rely on claws, fangs and speed to take as many as we can before we fall.”
“It seems like your intuition and foresight have proven correct yet again, Dear Wife.”
“How so, Dear?”
“Turning on the independent power for the blood machine and letting it use all the blood and blood from the surface. It seems like we won't be able to keep our promise to little Pandora after all.”
“Wait you mean...”
“We won’t live through this battle. I can smell the horrible concoction their alchemists has brewed up from here. All I can say is try not to get hit or hit as little as possible. Although from the smell of it, anything deeper than a scratch with a coated weapon will leave you dying or worse.”
“I just hope they don’t find her.”
“Me too.”
The butler arrived in front of the pair after listening in. He bowed respectfully to the pair.
“Sir. Madam. I strongly advise you both to retreat. We will hold them off for as long as we can.”
The pair looked thankfully at the butler and all the nodding servants around them.
“Thank you, my friend. Thank you all. But, that, that is not an option anymore.”
Hearing the words, all the servants looked to the sky to see the barrier flickering out of existence. As the last of the huge iron balls meant to take out the barrier slammed into the castle, the gate exploded into chunks of wood and metal. Human after human poured in through the gate, only to be met with arrows, bolts, ice spikes and lightning bolts that snaked from one victim to the other. As countless more pushed from behind, the pile of corpses grew by the minute. Chunks of flesh scattered as piercing icicles ripped through the bodies, sometimes tearing a limb off as they passed through joints.
Outside the walls the commander and alchemists watched the situation just beyond the gate.
“This isn’t working. They don’t even have time to aim before they are killed. We need to do something quick. Or we wont have the numbers to take them out if this continues.”
“Your right. Someone get me 4 large wooden tubs, some lengths of rope and as many quivers of bolts and arrows as you can fit into 2 of the tubs!”
Soon after, 4 soldiers carrying a large wooden tub came running. 2 of the tubs were filled with arrows and bolts while the other 2 held lengths of rope.
“Put them down here. You 4 now quickly fetch me some cloth. Anything will do. Torn clothes, old blankets, anything that would soak in water. Go quickly.”
The soldiers once again ran off searching through the camp. The alchemist grabbed a tub and walked off towards the alchemists tent. Disappearing inside for a few minutes, he came out with another person carrying the tub filled with a bubbling green liquid. Setting it down outside the tent, the tall alchemists came for the second empty tub. Repeating the process, 2 full tubs sat outside the tent. The 4 soldiers ran back with rags, scraps of cloth, old clothes and old blankets.
“Cut them up into small parts and dump them over the arrows.”
“What are these for?”
“The mixture if only effective if it gets through the skin. The arrows and bolts have sharp tips, but the mixture is a very thin liquid so by itself it will just slide off the skin. We added a special formula designed to reinforce leather armour into the mix this time. It will make the cloth scraps stiff and rigid, extra shrapnel.”
“I still don’t get the whole tub part though.”
“Aah, right. When we put them together, top to top, we get makeshift catapult ammo filled with the mixture. When it’s fired it will hit the ground and because the tubs are made of wood they will shatter and explode all over the place spraying the area with shrapnel like the arrows and bolts.”
“Ooh, as expected of Sir Alchemists. Genius idea.”
The alchemists directed the soldiers to tip the content of the arrow tubs into the mixture tubs. Them the empty tubs were upturned and placed on top to create a sealed contained for the mixture. The soldiers tied the tubs together tightly and carried them over to a catapult.
“Load this in and aim at the ground in front of the mage vampires. Not too close to them, I want the splash to cover as big an area as possible.”
On the vampires side things were going much better than expected.
“Don’t give them time to fire! Keep hitting them. They will stop eventually.”
“Master Alexander! They appear to be doing something to one of the catapults! I think they want to hit us with something!”
“Everyone scatter and take cover! Keep shooting as you retreat!”
“It’s coming down on the mages! Run!”
The makeshift projectile shattered against the stone floor spraying wooden shrapnel, broken bolts and arrows, sharp stiff cloth scraps as well as droplets of green liquid all over the vampires. It was soon followed by another. Many of the hit vampires began to scratch at their wounds, trying to dig out the pieces of wood and metal stuck in them.
For a while nothing seemed wrong as the battle continued as it had before, but soon some of the vampires began to cough and feel faint or sick. Some had blurry vision and some got head aches. Most were hit by severe muscle pains and cramps. Eventually they became unable to fight. More and more human soldiers successfully made it past the gate to attack the weakened vampires. The soldiers charged at the few vampires still barely able to fight and overwhelmed them with numbers.
“I am sorry, Sir. I will be unable to keep you company any longer.”
“It is fine my dear friend. Rest well, and may we meet again, in another life.”
The butler smiled and plunged his claws into the 2 soldiers on either side that had stabbed him in the chest while ripping out the throat of the soldier in front of him with his fangs. Soon after the 4 bodies crashed to the floor, dead.
“I’m sorry, Dear Wife, but it appears as though I will be unable to accompany you any longer.”
“Stop with your nonsense, we have a daughter to go back to.”
“And for that I am truly, deeply sorry.”
“What are you...”
Turning to look at him, she saw the countless bolts stuck in his arms and back as he stood over her, protecting her with his body from the soldiers who had made their way around to their backs.
“I am so, so sorry.”
“Don’t be. She would be proud of you. As proud to call you her father as i am proud to call you my husband.”
With tears in her eyes she kisses him softly on the cheek. Feeling the warm trickle of mana he was sending her through the kiss she opened her eyes wide.
“Do it, and take all these bastards with us. For her. For everything she will loose because of them, and for us. For all the time with her we will never get to spend.”
Taking the over condensed and unstable mana thread from him she compressed all of her remaining mana into a similar thread. Holding each in one hand, she forcefully slammed her hands together. The unstable, compressed mana ignited like a fuse, creating a wave of pressure so great it compressed and ignited the loose mana in the air creating a chain reaction that covered the plains and nearest cities in a fire so hot it instantly vaporised anything it touched and sent a shockwave so powerful it levelled city walls and building on half of the continent.
And so, for over 95 thousand years, little Pandora slept. The machine dutifully feeding her blood from the near 5 million blood pipes.