by SlyOkami
Their numbers lacked compared to the military and adventurer’s guild, as each of them stared at the marching mercenaries coming out of the four streets and converging back into a single army. Their numbers lacked, but they made up for it through finer equipment and better training than some bounty hunter and common spearman.
Thea glanced to either side of the military encampments that lay behind the wall, soldiers, adventurers and other mercenaries running about. Their expressions disheartened, as if an impending doom was hovering over them.
Not that it wasn’t.
But seeing their expressions elevate somewhat at the appearance of her experts, giving them a show of their ability merely through their march.
Just the fact that their presence was enough to inspire hope into many, made holding her position worth it all the more.
“Lady Selene, I did not expect the crimsons to appear…at all really.” said Henry as he suddenly appeared before her.
“And why wouldn’t we?” Thea asked with joking smile.
Henry on the other hand withheld his stern gaze, “I will not lie Milady, everyone, soldier, guildsmen and mercenary expected you and your people to retreat to the north. You being here…” he glanced up at the battlements, archers, engineers and other workers cheering at her arrival. “You made them all think, ‘We might just survive’…” he whispered, “If we do survive this, know that you have my and my officer’s respect.”
“I will take your respect, Henry.” she awkwardly said the name, still unused to her new authority. “But I’d prefer if you filled us in on how this is going down, together is how we will win this battle.”
“Win eh?” Henry repeated with a grin, “This way to the command tent, I was just on my way there.”
“Staff Captain Droy will join you.” Thea said, turning to the Staff Captain, “You’ve followed beneath my mother, you’ve followed beneath my father. You’re far more experienced than me in strategy, and I wholly trust your judgement.” She told him.
“I am grateful for those words Milady, but-” Droy began.
But Thea cut him off before he could continue, “I’m a fighter Droy, if I’m to lead I’ll do it on the field with my sword. I’m asking you to be our strategist at least in the midst of it, can you do it?” she asked him, determination in her eyes and tone.
Droy met her fierce gaze, “You have always been more like your mother, little miss.” he whispered before standing at attention and saluting, “I shall take on this task, Milady.”
“Hm, Droy is it? My people will provide you the details, do you have messengers prepared to run them?” Henry then cut in to ask.
Droy gestured at his helmet, “The Crimson Guard doesn’t need messengers to run orders, General.” pointing out a flat grey crystal within. “We magically convey them, much more efficient and much quicker.”
Henry’s eyes widened “I see…Err, well this way then.” he said while still staring at the magical device.
Droy followed after him, “We could provide you with communications, one platoon of ours could spread out among yours to do so.”
“You mean to say each of your men have those?…” Henry asked in bewilderment, “Yes that would…help.”
Thea turned away from the two commanders walking off, finding herself faced with twenty-three thousand expert mercenaries awaiting orders. (“Maybe sending Droy away wasn’t…No, I need to do this.”) She resolved herself, “How many platoons are there available?” she asked the closest officer, a bulky and fearsome looking woman with short black hair.
“Two hundred and twenty-one platoons of a hundred experts, sixteen platoons of fifty trainees. Milady.” The rugged woman promptly answered.
Thea considered the numbers while glancing about the fearsome force that stood before her, “Trainee platoons, spread out along the battlements and aid the workers with preparations. Do as the experienced tell you.” She then said, immediately seeing eight officers salute and jog off. About a thousand worth of trainees quickly breaking off from the rest.
Now she still had about twenty thousand more…standing around doing nothing.
“Milady,” One officer spoke up, a gruff, bald man with cold eyes. “One third of platoons are archers, should they break off and set up with the military?”
“Y-Yes” Thea stuttered a response, inwardly thanking the man for speaking up. (“I will get the hang of this.”) she told herself, “Archers and casters too, join the inner battlements, merge the melee fighters into adequate platoons too.” Thea ordered and the crimsons guard swiftly complied.
Several thousands of men and women wielding bows, crossbows, spellrifles and staves marching off with half the officers while the remaining melee fighters merged platoons to retain the hundred per officer.
Thea then grabbed the helmet she had strapped to her waist, a smoother design compared to the crooked wyvern-helms the army used. She put it on and tapped the grey crystal on the side, “Droy, I’m scattering one platoon among the military’s men and another among the adventurer’s guild.” she spoke naturally, hoping the Staff Captain was still in range.
“Received Milady, I shall inform the General and Guildmaster Voltair. I have yet to reach the command tent, I will inform you of the situation once I have.” Droy responded through the device, his voice coming out with a small bit of static.
Thea glanced at one officer and without needing to be told he saluted and began ushering orders, “Platoon 23, scatter along the east side upper battlements! Platoon 24, eastern lower battlements! Platoon 198, west side upper battlements! Platoon 199! Western lower battlements!” he ordered with mana infusing his voice, and the four groups from either side of the formed army marched off to the corresponding stone staircase taking up the wall.
The officer then held his own communication crystal. “23, 24. 198, 199. Receiving?” he asked before a response came back, too muffled for Thea to comprehend. She understood that these devices worked on a thought reading spell and sense merging spell, in this case connecting one’s voice and ears to another that was thought of. “Set up a communications perimeter along the army and guild squadrons, midrange limit.” He ordered before standing at attention once more.
Thea then continued, seeing that the officer was done with his orders. “I want five platoons on the east and five on the west edge of the encampment ready to counter any breaches in the wall beyond what the army is covering here. Then twenty platoons to form up by the gate, it is a tough door but not unbreakable. The rest of you, form up along the upper battlements, mainly cover any gaps the army and guild cannot or are at a disadvantage at. The demons may be barbaric but that doesn’t mean they cannot climb a wall and destroy our siege weaponry.” She dished out each order after the other, officers managing themselves and the rest of the numbers through the communications crystal.
Seeing all of them finally moving Thea sighed in quick relief, (“Maybe they do make it seem easy…”) she thought in embarrassment.
“What about us, Milady?” Nerick then asked with a joking tone.
Thea turned to the three of them, Nerick still wearing that dreadfully annoying smirk, Simon looking impressed and her sister Kayle looking at her with new found pride. “Uh…We’ll join up with the platoon closest to the gate, I want to have vision of at least it.”
“Aye, aye. Milady!” Nerick sloppily saluted, before marching off on his own.
“I will slap you unconscious.” Thea warned, watching him stomp away while the others followed with rolling eyes.
The four of them ascended the closest set of stairs, passing by the lower battlements where archers, mages, engineers with their repeater ballistae and cannons lay. Then higher, to the upper battlements where the melee fighters prepared themselves to defend the rest of the engineers and workers who manned the larger magical cannons and concoction lobbing catapults.
“Milady, I’m within the command tent right now. I will have a report shortly.” Droy spoke through the comms, just as Thea and
the rest reached the battlement’s edge. Gazing out over the fields dotted with farms outside the city, off at the burning forest beyond.
“Received, Droy…” Thea responded half-heartedly, her eyes locked on the forest’s edge. (“When?”) She asked herself, pondering when the demons will reveal themselves.
“Platoons 1 through 221 in position, communications have also been established along the wall Milday.” One officer reported through the comms.
“Received, continue from Staff Captain Droy’s orders.” Thea responded, “So…now we wait.” She said off comms.
And wait they did, long dreadful minutes of watching. Nerves held back within each of them, their throats drying as they stood with eyes peeled.
“Milady, they’ve been spotted.” Droy suddenly said, disrupting the chilling silence.
As did everyone else, workers pointing at the forest’s edge while the last bit of trees were felled aside. The miasma that permeated the ground suddenly rose into the air, adding onto the black smoke and turning into a misty dark purple fog.
The fog slowly moved forwards, then aside as suddenly loud drums began to play an agitated rhythm followed by low pitched horns.
Out of the fog they appeared, bursting through first were the fiends and hellhounds. Their snarls and yelps, their barks and howls deepening the dread that filled the wall’s inhabitants. Dotting out the fields entirely as they charged headlong, several hundreds of thousands of them.
Following after the bestial horde were arranged platoons of hellriders. Keeping at a steady pace behind the large beasts and wielding long molten bows. The demonic army did not end there either, soon after the flocks of furies flew out, while the main infantry of thralls led by pitfiends and their whips also appeared out of the fog.
The pitfiends whipped away much more fiercely now, agitating the thralls to keep up with the fiends and hellhounds at the front. The consistent drumming groups within their numbers furthering the thralls’ madness to run faster.
Behind all of them then appeared the goliaths, fog still clinging to their massive fiery forms as they stepped out. The Daemons bellowed in excitement, their profound laughter making many a man tremble in his boots. Their every step resounding, reaching the ears of all who presided on and behind the wall.
Then at the very back, the fog suddenly bursting aside as if to give them a clear view of what lay ahead.
The Demon Lords revealed themselves, hundreds of ancient monstrosities from the deepest wretches of the abyss. Not one similar to another, each an evolved state of some demon or the last existence of a long-forgotten race.
Some humanoid, some on all fours and some even serpentine in form. They varied greatly, from winged to even spider-like, these were the strongest of all demon kind and only beneath the Devils themselves.
Many should’ve felt relieved no Devil was present, but the sheer size of the armada charging towards their position shocked them all. This wasn’t what they were expecting, this wasn’t what they signed up for.
This wasn’t something they were prepared for.
“Catapults! Man those siege weapons damn you!” Someone shouted, breaking most out of their gasping dazes. The walls came alive, large contraptions of wood and metal turning and taking aim, above and within the walls.
“Wait for them to get closer!” Thea shouted, infusing her voice with mana to be heard. “Wait for them to get in range!” She said again, seeing many agitated workers above the battlement towers, ready at the triggers.
“All siege hold!” Someone else ordered, “Hold!” they said as the fiends and hellhounds at the front approached the catapult’s range. “Loose!”
Ropes stretched and wind parted as the massive contraptions spun, lobbing large crystal vials of blue or red liquid. The projectiles were countered by the hellriders, firing their hellfire imbued arrows and shattering many a vial mid-air.
But these projectiles weren’t meant for physical damage like lobbing a boulder.
The vials shattered, the liquid raining down upon the fiends and hellhounds. Where blue touched red, explosions began and then travelled throughout the downpour. Fiends and hellhounds were lit ablaze, the blast enough to kill dozens, the flames incinerating anything close enough.
Yet the fiends and hellhounds did not let up, as the fires dissipated they continued their charge. Stomping over charred bodies of their brethren, fearless if not more excited than before.
“There’s too many of them…” Kayle said as she stared in a daze, indeed the wall did not have nearly enough siege weaponry to target the entire front.
Thea inwardly agreed, (“Where did all these demons appear from!? How…How did they arrive so quickly?!”) she thought in brief panic. “I-It’s too late to rethink this now! Ready yourselves!” She told her friends and the platoon of crimson guard that stood ready around them.
“Damn it all to hell!” Nerick cursed as he unstrapped his spear.
“Oh, they come from hell alright brother.” Nervously chuckled one adventurer in response.
“Archers loose! Casters start chanting!” came out a bellowing order from below, arrows showering out from the lower battlements where holes were made for the archers to shoot out of. The arrows flew up, before raining down onto the fiends and hellhounds ahead.
Volley after volley were sent in conjunction with the catapults still blasting away at large groups, the other siege weaponry roaring to life with. Magicannons firing scattering explosive projectiles while the ballistae held their fire, waiting for the larger targets to get within range.
The fields were a massacre, yet still the swarm of demons had barely lessened even as they reached the wall. The fiends began to climb, digging their long and powerful claws into the stone like picks. The hellhounds though gathered at the bottom of the wall, having no ability to climb as easily as the fiends.
“Milady let us!” said the crimson guard captain as him and his platoon took a formation, gunlances at the front while the shield wielders waited behind them.
Thea and the rest moved out of their way, seeing that they were preparing for a volley of gunfire she unstrapped her sword and gestured for her sister to draw. Then at that moment, she remembered something, how the fiends came up in such a random fashion back at Beckton and how they…
“Shields to the front! Quickly!” Thea shouted magically, “Lancemen take formation at the back! Aim high! They’ll come leaping in!” she ordered not just at her crimson guard but any soldier or adventurer that was listening.
The mercenaries immediately did as told, the rest nearby, seeing their formation and hearing their orders decided to trust in what the kingdom considered the finest warriors. But the formation did not continue down the entire wall, high rank adventurers and military men ignoring the out of hierarchy orders.
“Droy, order all platoons to take a shield forward formation with spears at the back! Tell the spearmen to aim high!” Thea spoke through her comms, “And tell the archers to stop firing at the fiends! They’re wasting time and effort! Target the horsemen and flyers!”
“Yes Milday.” Droy promptly replied.
Suddenly arching lightning surged from below and out into the air ahead of the wall, mages casting short range spells meant that the fiends had climbed by the archer slits and over the lower battlements.
“Here they come! Steel yourselves men!” shouted what Thea now recognised as the nearby military officer.
“Lancemen assign shots! Don’t waste mana on what is about to get skewered!” Thea shouted her last order, now taking aim with her gunblade while Nerick stood with the rank and file, his new gunlance held high. Simon had rushed to the front, joining the rest of the shieldsmen.
Kayle also drew her bow, chanting under her breath to imbue powerful single shots instead of common albeit quicker to loose arrows.
They came, some clambering up the wall’s edge while others leaped right over. The battle truly began, as swords, axes and maces clashed with hide and claw. Spears slamming
into the ground impaling many a fiend while some either leaped over even the spears or that group hadn’t listened and found a demon standing in their midst.
Along with the fiends then also came the hellhounds, using the climbing fiends as stepping stones to climb up many a fiery canine found itself faced with a wall of shields. Some engaging the shieldsmen while others using the fiends nearby to leap over their formation and ravage into the spearmen at the back.
“Gunlances, split into two groups! Assist the front row!” Thea ordered, as she herself began firing at the leaping demons. Blasting a hellhound out of the air right then.
“Off and on back formation!” ordered the platoon captain, following up on Thea’s. In response the lancemen split into two lines, the back line aiming high while the front row fired over the shieldsmen. With each volley of cannonfire they’d quickly switch places, the line that fired moving back and aiming high while the line on the front taking aim lower and starting to chant before firing.
Unfortunately, not everyone was equipped with high magitech weaponry like the crimson guard.
The adventurers held their own as their veteran ranks unleashed bloody hell on anything within their purview but some of the military formations and less equipped mercenary groups were falling short. Hellhounds ran rampant among their spearmen while many fiends managed to land or climb up onto the battlements.
But when the furies arrived, chaos truly befall.
The Druvians held the numbers advantage while above the wall compared to the demons still trying to climb up, but the furies had no such issue. Thousands of them had died to volleys of arrows, rifles and magic fire but thousands more managed to reach the wall.
Any fighters that were lucky enough to evade combat till now, had no choice but to struggle for their lives as the winged humanoids swooped down like a swarm of large bats. Half the size of a human yet with claws just as sharp as a blade, they did not fight straight on, instead preferring hit and run. Swooping down in droves to then fly back up and away from their blades and axes.