The Call of the Coven: A LitRPG novel (Shadow Kingdoms Book 2)

by J. F. Danskin

  I press on.

  As I approach the main gate and the southeast tower beyond, I see Zakira has listened to my plea; she is standing looking out over the wall, flipping one of her knives in her hands. There is also a sword at her hip. She is frowning, though, gazing towards the plain and the Imperial soldiers beyond, her big dark eyes moving slowly from one side to another.

  “It’s daunting, isn’t it?” I say, coming to stand beside her, and she looks around and smiles at me. But her smile quickly fades as she looks at the scene outside.

  The Imperials have formed up, ready for battle. Soldiers have weapons in hands, and the two Knights of Dawn are by their war horses. There are not a thousand troops, I don’t think, but certainly many reinforcements must have arrived, for the enemy force is much larger now – at least three times the size of force that survived yesterday’s confrontation. There may be six hundred in all, or even more.

  Worse still, the siege engines which I saw yesterday have now been fully constructed, and are being readied around fifty yards back from the walls. Oxen are being harnessed to pull them towards the walls.

  “To be frank, we’re screwed,” says Zakira. “And yet more Imperial troops are on their way, people are saying.”

  “There is still hope.”

  “I disagree. Without Connor, I think there is no hope against that force. He’s a shadow knight, and could turn the tide. He also knows things… aspects of the defenses, locations, characters. If anyone would know a weakness, he would.”

  “Yes, I was hoping he’d help. So, I guess you still have no idea, yet, of where he…” I trail off.

  She looks at me, smiling sadly, and puts her arm round me and gives me a squeeze. “Try not to worry, Lucy. I promise, we will get the pods sorted. Our engineers have been called. But to answer your question – no. I have logged off a couple of times, and nobody can find Connor. All of his people here are looking for him, too. At least, all but three. His housemaster and two of his guards have also vanished. That is pretty strange, right enough.”

  “You think maybe he wanted to disappear? I mean, maybe he decided this cause wasn’t worth fighting for after all.”

  She shrugs slightly. “It is hard to tell with Connor. He knows more about this world than anyone. He probably could get out; he knows a lot of secret ways and hidden places. Even I only know some of them, and, well…” She trails off; her eyes meet mine and then she looks away.

  “Are you guys, like… an item?” I say. “In a relationship, I mean?”

  She smiles for a fraction of a second, looking down. “I think he would have liked that, but no. He’s a complicated guy. He’s important to me, but not my… type.”

  Just then, we hear the sound of horns blowing. I look back across, and see that both red knights are now in their saddles, swords drawn.

  The assault has begun.

  * * *

  The attackers surge forward in their hundreds. I see the mighty siege engines rolling forward, too. When they reach here, all will be lost. I have to ensure that doesn’t happen.

  To say that the defenders are not ready is an understatement – neither was I, and as far as I know, Mac-Shinter and the coven believe that they still have another day to get ready. But there are now shouts for help all around, and at least a few of the defenders are beginning to fire their bows. I can only hope that word reaches the coven soon.

  “Come on,” I say to Zakira, pointing at the rods that are still lashed to my backpack. “It’s time to save the city.”

  She follows as I sprint towards the south-east tower. We are close to reaching it, when I see a ladder top nestling in between the crenellations of the wall. I lunge forward to try to push it away, but it’s too late – mercenaries are already climbing.

  I hear a zinging noise, and then Zakira has a samurai sword in her hand. One mercenary reaches the top of the ladder, only to have his head lopped clear off. She then thrusts downwards, a deadly blow causes the next mercenary to fall screaming. Together we push at the ladder, and manage to shove it away from the top of the wall. It falls, with three screaming mercenaries still clinging to it.

  More defenders are now arriving. I see at least two dozen healers streaming out from the amphitheater, armed with bows. They stop just a few yards from its entrance, however; it looks like they won’t do any more than defend their own building.

  And then – to my surprise – I see Garner and Ta’rox making their way out, too, and continuing beyond the guild members. The big ranger is wearing a mask across the injured side of his face, but his bow is in his hand. Both of them are apparently ready to join the city’s last stand. The bravery.

  But I have no time to wait for them.

  “This way,” I call to Zakira, running into the tower and mounting the stairs. In mere moments I am back at the level with the ballista, panting, and I get to work.

  “Do what you can to knock out those wooden boards, please,” I call to Zakira. “I’ll fix this machine.”

  The task is not an easy one, however, for I have to remove the old rusted torsion rods before attaching the new ones. I feel so tense and stressed by the attack and my own flight across the city that I am rushing things; I drop one of my tools on the ground, and curse myself.

  Take a second, I tell myself. Breathe. You can do this.

  There is a banging, and out of the corner of my eye I can see Zakira kicking out at the boards, successfully breaking them off piece by piece. With each panel that she removes, more daylight shines onto the area where I am working.

  I look down towards the ballista. As I force myself to relax, it starts to feel like my crafting instincts are taking over. The metal moves more easily in my hands, and I somehow know how to get the moving wooden parts to shift enough so that I can bolt in the new components. It is helped by the ever-increasing light.

  There is now a clear and loud sound of fighting from along the wall, with screams and the clashing of metal. People are dying. I hope that all of this is not for nothing – that we are not too late to make a difference. I hope that Lugg is safe, too. With luck, he is with Josa and Mac-Shinter.

  For what it’s worth, I am ready. I pull a handful of the newly made ballista bolts from my backpack, and start to wind the winch.

  “Can you aim this thing?” I ask Zakira.

  “I don’t know – it’s basically a big crossbow, right? I mean, how heavy is it?”

  “Not too bad, actually. The mechanism is carefully weighted so that it’s not too much effort to move it…”

  I trail off, grunting in a way that probably gives a lie to my own words. The rail in the floor is in good condition, but it has not been used for decades of game time. Taking my flask of lantern oil from my backpack, I pour the remainder of it on the rail, and then push again. It takes a real effort to get it started, but once it is moving I manage to push the thing all the way forward to the window slot. And once it is there, I can see that I spoke truly enough – it is very easy to move the thing from side to side, or raise and lower it in order to aim.

  “I don’t have much skill with ranged weapons, you know,” says Zakira.

  “No worries,” I say, as my eyes rapidly scan the fields below the city wall. “I’ll do it, if you pass me the bolts.”

  There are two of the enemy siege towers in sight; one is almost at the wall to our left, and the other is already there to our right, near the center of the southern wall where the attack had already begun.

  I hesitate for a fraction of a second – clearly I should target the one that is already in place, right? But then I realize two things. One – that tower has already released its soldiers onto the wall. More are climbing it, but slowly. Secondly, the second one is gradually moving out of my line of sight…

  “Grab me a couple more bolts from the floor there,” I call out.

  I swing the great mechanism round towards the left, then pull at the trigger. It resists, and I look down, wiggling it from side to side between my fingers. And just
as I am about to get my tools, there is a mighty ‘twang’ followed by a scraping noise, and the bolt goes flying out towards its target.

  It misses.

  Falling short, the bolt does at least plough into a mob of belligerent Imperial troops, and I see several fall dead. But a miss is a miss.

  I turn, and see that Zakira – sword in hand – is already holding out another bolt. I set it, wind the mechanism again, and nudge the whole ballista up a little, then a little more.

  And fire.

  This time, I have a good feeling as soon as the missile exits the tower. It shoots down, almost in a straight line but with just a hint of an arc. Again, astonishing in-game physics. And then, with a mighty bang that takes a moment to carry to us, it hits the tower just to its lower left, passing right through the front leather cladding and then pulverising the wooden upright that marks the back corner of the machine.

  Enemy soldiers are scattered as the entire contraption collapses in on itself, and then topples over.

  Without waiting to observe more of the aftermath, I fire another bolt into the enemy’s command tent – to uncertain effect – and then focus on the wagon which contains the poison that the Imperials have been using to poison the river and the Great Swamp beyond. I hesitate. If my shot pushes the wagon into the small river, it’s possible that I will tip the entire batch into the water supply myself, making things massively worse for the lizard people, at least in the short term.

  But I think I need to try.

  The back of the wagon is closest to us. Focusing on the wheels on the right-hand side, I send out another bolt – and get a direct hit, first time. The two wheels smash, and rather than the wagon moving forward, it spins only slightly, then slumps to one side.

  Increase in weapon skill level: Ballista 19 (Dexterity +1)

  That’s not bad for a starting skill, thanks to my good basic level of dex. It’s not easy, but I’m getting the hang of it.

  Next I swing the ballista around to the right, grab another bolt from Zakira, and moments later hit the large easy target that is the stationary siege tower on the southern wall. It’s not such an effective hit this time, but again I do a lot of damage to enemy soldiers in the process, taking out at least one ladder. I fire a second and then a third at the same siege tower, by which time the contraption has collapsed at the foot of the wall.

  Now, I take a moment.

  And focus my attention on a figure below the wall. A mounted figure in red armor.

  Chapter 47: The Knights

  I turn to Zakira – she has one bolt left in her hand, and I quickly take it from her. As I do so, she looks towards the stairs, and I can hear why… voices are shouting from below, and it sounds very much as if enemy troops are climbing up towards us. We don’t have long.

  As Zakira pulls out her curved sword again and stands by the top of the stairs, I turn my attention back to the knight. He is riding up and down the back of the enemy’s lines, screaming at them to keep climbing the walls. On the walls themselves, there is carnage, but the superior numbers of the enemy are starting to tell, with the defenders being pushed back into pockets in a number of places. Arrows are firing up from the city itself – perhaps the Elemental Hand healers are helping after all.

  I focus. The ballista is ready. The knight is riding away from me, but I am fairly sure that he will turn. When he does, that is the moment. And sure enough, just as he comes level with the further tower, he wheels around and begins to ride towards me again. And the bolt flies.

  I don’t think he sees it before it hits, but the shot is true, and it cannons into his chest armor with enormous force and a sound like nearby thunder. It’s a really good shot, and he flies from the saddle. The horse is, I think, unharmed, but perhaps terrified by the noise; it begins to gallop towards the trees and the village of Lorn beyond.

  The knight is on the ground. Dead? It’s hard to see, but this time I don’t see any rise in my character’s overall level. I do, however, see a further skill boost, unusually soon after the last:

  Increase in weapon skill level: Ballista 20 (Dexterity +2)

  In another way, however, time is up. The voices in the stairwell are close now, and as I look back around at the room, a mercenary tops the nearby stairs. Zakira’s blade sings out, and he slumps backwards, bleeding from the throat. Another pushes past him, and she runs him through. I can’t help but be impressed by her skills. But at the same time, I hear dozens of pairs of footsteps approaching. We are surely finished.

  I approach, putting my hand to my morning star, but then change my mind and run back over to the ballista. I turn and crouch down behind it. If I can just disengage the machine from its tracks… I hear further clashing of metal on metal as I work, and Zakira grunts in pain; out of the corner of my eye, I see her pushed back into the room by two further mercenaries. But then, with a click, the machinery is free from its holds. I spin it on its central axis, and grunting again with the effort, I begin to shove it backwards.

  Both of the mercenaries that Zakira is fighting are distracted as the machine comes sliding towards them. One jumps out of the way towards the empty area of the room. The other foolishly steps back from the stairs… and topples backwards, just as one of his comrades comes up behind him. In an almost comical move, one falls on top of the other, and both crash backwards. I disengage the ballista from its tracks and give it a final push, after which it teeters at the top step and then thumps down on top of them.

  Zakira is now by the window, nursing a wound that appears to be bleeding badly. I rise from my crouching position, lifting my morning star, and strike at the merc who had moved to the back of the room. Perhaps because he had been focused on Zakira and I had previously been concealed behind the machine, he doesn’t notice me until too late, and the spiked ball crashes down upon his head in a blow that is almost too easy. He sinks to the ground, and doesn’t move again.

  The ballista is now lodged in the stairwell just as I had hoped, its new metal spars hooking into the gap in a way that – in combination with its huge bulk – will make it very difficult to move. Still, it’s only a matter of time before more enemies manage to crawl past and attack us. We need to take the only other way out.

  But I’ve already considered this. The back end of the ballista is now facing outwards from the stair and towards the window, and this end has the winch, around which is a spool of rope. Long enough? Strong enough? We will have to see.

  Clipping my morning star to my belt and pulling out the small jeweled knife, I slit one end of the rope to detach it from the ballista mechanism, and then begin unspooling it and feeding out of the window. I look at Zakira. “How bad is your wound? Can you climb down?”

  But her eyes are closed and she does not respond to my question.

  Shit.

  * * *

  I dart over to Zakira’s side, and touch the pulse at her throat, and then reach for her wrist. She has a heartbeat and is still breathing. I lift up the lower part of her tunic, and see a wound not unlike that which Lugg sustained the day before. I am no healer, but I can at least do my best to strap it up, and to help my friend.

  I treat the wound by strapping it with a long strip cut from one of my blankets (which I then discard), and then, from my backpack, take out the little red potion which Coruff gave me all those days ago. I do my best to pour most of it into Zakira’s mouth, then look around. There are enemies just below; they are pulling hard at the ballista which is starting to move, and as I administer the potion, a crossbow bolt fires up into the room. It’s not close, but it’s a reminder that I need to get us both out of here as quickly as possible. But there is no way that Zakira is going to be climbing down that rope by herself.

  As rapidly as I can, I winch most of the rope back up into the room, another crossbow bolt narrowly missing me as I do so. I take a moment to put the corpses of two mercs over the ballista, hopefully helping to block further shots, and then turn back to Zakira. She is moving now, her eyes flickering, but I
can’t wait. I hurry over, and after putting some knots in its length, I tie the end of the rope under her arms and around her. She has also dropped her samurai sword onto the floor of the chamber, and I replace that in its scabbard.

  I take one last look outside. The knight that took the ballista shot is still lying on the ground, and a cluster of Imperial soldiers are around him. I can’t see Snagaras either, but judging by the many mercs on the wall and the ones that have come into the tower, he is probably inside the city by now.

  The second of the Knights of Dawn, I see, is nowhere close – in fact, he appears to be retreating towards the lake and the swamp beyond, taking a contingent of around thirty elite soldiers with him.

  What’s his game?

  Regardless, it’s as good a time as we’re likely to get. I lift Zakira as gently as I can onto the window’s edge, leaning her against the tension of the rope, and then begin to lower her out of the window using the winch on the stricken ballista.

  Soon, she is out of sight, and I hear a thump and a groan as she swings out and then hits against the tower – but it couldn’t be helped.

  I continue to turn the winch until it is empty. Has Zakira gone far enough down, now? And will the rope be able to hold the weight of both of us if I now climb down after her? I am fairly confident; the rope is old and somewhat degraded, but the pressure put on it by operating the ballista has to be more than my weight, surely.

  Surely.

  Trying to reassure myself about this, I hurry over to the slot-shaped window and clamber through.