by Jeff Gunzel
“The rebels!” he replied, his expression mirroring her urgency. “They’re approaching the walls as we speak. The watchmen say there are humans with them as well.”
“How many?” she growled, trying hard to push down her fear.
“Dozens. A hundred maybe. We’re not sure yet, but—” he hesitated.
“But what?” she asked, not sure she wanted to press the point.
“If the initial reports are true, Shantis is leading the rebel army, Priestess,” he muttered, eyes to the ground. On the outside, Filista kept herself calm and collected. But her insides spun like a top, panic coursing through her veins. Her body swayed back against one of her guards—the only reason she didn’t stumble back. “We still don’t don’t know if they’re actually going to attack, or if they are sending a silent message by posturing outside the walls. Priestess, either way you must fall back to the safety of the palace.”
“That’s where I’m headed, fool!” she shouted, but immediately regretted her quick reply. Her desperate response had made her look weak and cowardly. She took a deep, calming breath as her eyelids fluttered. “Dismissed,” she hissed, grinding her teeth. The soldier was off and running in no time.
She spun to one of her personal guard. “I know not what that worm intends to do, but she must not be allowed to breach these walls. Do I make myself clear?!” she boomed.
“Priestess,” he barked with a nod, chest puffed out.
“I need every soldier at the front gate, now! Gather everyone you see and be sure to spread the word.” She glanced at her other guards. “The rest of you go with him as well. I can make it the rest of the way back without your protection.” They nodded then hurried off towards the gate, flagging down other soldiers as they went.
Feeling exposed and vulnerable, it suddenly seemed like a long way back to the palace. She eyed the humans suspiciously as they sat on their rooftops, clacking bladed weapons together in anticipation. More than one sneered at her, grinding a stone along the edge of a long sword. At any moment one of these rodents might make an attempt on her life. Yes, she was feeling vulnerable indeed.
Cryton soldiers ran past her towards the front wall, weapons drawn and ready for battle. She found herself forcibly resisting the urge to run. The shouting, the clanging of readied weapons, clopping of horses, all the urgent clamor of the city seemed to assault her senses at once.
Faces appeared warped and distorted to her eyes, both human and cryton alike. Her heart began to race. Needing to calm down and focus, she stopped near an old stone building with the worn innkeeper sign still swinging above the door. In looked as though this place hadn’t been in business for quite some time. For now, it was as good a place as any to rest a moment while gathering her thoughts.
Have I underestimated my adversaries? Have these mere humans proved to be a bigger threat than I imagined? Were my lofty ambitions on this campaign misguided somehow?
Doubts swirled around her head as she watched another group of soldiers running for the front gate. Seeing them charge forward proved to be a subtle reminder that her troops were still game. They still had the enemy significantly outnumbered. No, it is they who made the mistake in coming here. I still hold the city and the defense of its great walls. Shantis, your marching worms are no threat to me! A meat shield made of both human and cryton flesh, that’s all they are.
She pushed herself off the wall and kept moving. She could see the palace gate just up ahead. “Mindless worms being led to slaughter,” she repeated out loud.
Once inside the gate, relief washed over her like cool water. Quickly dismissing the bothersome bout of waning confidence, she hurried up the steps. To each soldier she saw, she barked out commands to hurry towards the front gate. It was important they see her strong and fully in command.
“Oh, you there,” she said, motioning to Berkeni just as he scurried across the upper hall. The old man jumped a bit, then turned to face her. “Just the man I was looking for,” she said, sweeping towards him with a bounce in her step.
“Why are you looking for me?” he said, struggling with his limited mastery of the cryton tongue. He could understand the language better than he could speak it. She drew closer, that ever-present smirk puckering her lips more than usual. “The city is under attack, my queen. I don’t believe we have time for—”
Her closed fist pressed against his chest, cutting off his words. Stunned, he glanced down as a wet warmth spread across his front. She slowly pulled back her hand, a bloody dagger slipping from his chest inch by inch. Blood seeped down his front, trickling down and collecting near his ankle. Eyes wide, his lips worked wordlessly as he dropped to his knees.
“Did you really think I didn’t know you sent the witch beyond the wall?” she whispered in broken common tongue. “Such is the fate of any who betray me, human and cryton alike.” Berkeni tipped over onto the floor, lying in his own pooling blood.
* * *
Just outside the mighty walls of Taron, crytons stood in battle-ready formations, each with faces painted in white to distinguish themselves from the traitors within the city.
Their mightiest soldiers occupied the front lines, spear-wielding warriors who would hold the front line, pushing forward as needed. Casualties here could potentially be quite large, but they were ready to do what must be done.
The middle rows displayed their numerous archers, charged only with a single task: to let loose as many arrows per second as possible. Severely outmanned, keeping the enemy off balance with a constant assault from the sky should keep them from effectively mounting any significant offense.
The back end were the most skilled with their inborn abilities. By linking together, the energy circles would redirect each other’s power, sending it all to the lead cryton. He would in turn unleash hell as he saw fit. Organized and ready, there was no turning back now. It was win...or die.
“Stand with me brothers, and show no fear in the face of our enemy!” Shantis shouted, marching up and down the front line. “The day of reckoning has come to these traitors. Today, they shall pay for their treachery. But I tell you now, there shall be no quarter given. No prisoners taken! There is only one way left for these dogs to earn their release from our wrath, to gain their lasting freedom. Death is the only form of peace I offer!”
One by one, the traitors began to appear along the walls. Glaring down at their brothers and sisters, they shook bows and spears, spitting insults and taunts. They joined hands with each other, forming links and preparing for battle.
The sky began to blacken, dark clouds materializing from nowhere boiled and rolled. The clouds swirled and spun against each other as circles from both sides pressed hard for dominance. Jagged bolts of yellow lightning ripped across the sky, hammering into each other with a thunderous release of energy.
Shantis’s circles strained with effort, the lead crytons dripping with sweat, eyes blinking incessantly. Not only were they trying to deflect the opposition’s energy, but they needed to direct their bolts to strike down these great walls, walls that had never before been breached.
Amoshi weaved his way to the front line, drawing his white bow covered with colorful jewels. He scanned the top of the wall, mentally measuring both the distance and positioning of the cryton circles. The unassuming human reached back into his white quiver, drawing the only arrow present. Red-feathered with a black and yellow shaft, he notched and drew back while carefully taking aim. They were completely out of range for a normal archer, but Amoshi was anything but a normal archer. With multiple targets locked in his memory, the diamonds lining his eyepatch began to shine.
From an impossible distance, the heavy shaft thundered into the chest of a lead cryton. With the magical link suddenly shattered, several others fell to the ground around him. Stunned but not hurt, they looked about frantically, wondering what had broken the link.
Mere seconds apart, arrows began impaling the lead crytons of all the circles, shattering their links and disrupting their defe
nse. The war in the sky turned in favor of the rebels as black, boiling clouds absorbed the opposing ones. But the victory was only temporary as the enemies were quickly relinking. The rebels needed to seize the advantage before the window closed.
The circle leaders in the back raised their hands, pointing straight at the great wall. On command, thick bolts of energy snaked down from the rolling black sky. With deafening impact, they thundered against the stone, sending chips and flakes spraying about. Crytons on the wall went cartwheeling through the air, their charred bodies tumbling to the ground below. The blazing lightshow lasted only a few seconds. And despite the vicious assault, the wall held strong, with only superficial damage done to its outer core.
“It’s not going to break!” Addel shouted, not sure what to try next. She knew if they didn’t breach it soon, the enemy would regroup and start picking them off like sitting ducks. The situation had suddenly become desperate. She considered sounding a retreat.
Jade stepped to the front, wearing that same teeth-baring expression. She looked intense, determined, prepared to do whatever it took to avenge her queen. Face painted in white, her green dy-chita began to glow along with her eyes as she raised her hands from her sides. Immediately becoming a visual spectacle, archers on the wall began to fire at her. Arrows zipped down, but their trajectory shifted just before hitting their target. It was as if she was surrounded by a protective shield made of air.
“Jade, watch out!” Nima shrieked, watching on with horror as Jade seemed to be drawing the army’s full aggression. Arrows rained down from the wall, each one veering ever so slightly when it drew near her. The ground around her feet was thick with feathered shafts. The fact that she still remained untouched was impossible to comprehend. They couldn’t all have missed?
Deep down inside her, Jade could feel her chi twisting and rolling about. A glowing ball of energy, limitless in its power. Her dy-chita flared like the sun, glowing brilliantly as the balance of chi and nature swirled through her body like an ocean of energy. She had changed the shape of her chi before, pushing and pulling it to change its function. But now it seemed to move on its own, rolling about in waves with minimal command from her.
“You don’t fear the humans?” Jade boomed, her enhanced voice riding a wave of energy that seemed to shake the walls. “Well, you should!”
She slammed her fists into the ground...
Energy radiated in all directions. The vibrations of thunder with no sound rattled the bones of her allies, many dropping their weapons and falling onto their backs. A giant wave streaked towards the wall, rolling land that grew in size as it traveled. Still gaining size and speed, the surging mound of dirt flared upward, transforming into a pair of hands. Like charging elephants, the hands slammed into the great wall with deafening impact. Bodies and rock alike tumbled high into the air.
Choking dust rose up from the debris, sifting into the air like a billowing sandstorm. The soldiers behind her groaned as they slowly got back to their feet. The powdery dust began to thin, exposing what was left of the wall. A great deal of it had been blown to bits, along with nearly all of the crytons lined across its top. In a single attack, a third of Filista’s troops had been annihilated and the wall had been breached. Their army was back on its heels and the time was now. Jade marched into the thinning dust, her form disappearing without a trace.
Flashing hand signals, Shantis worked feverishly to get the front lines back into formation. Jade had gone in...alone! What was she thinking? Crytons stepped into lines, spears out in front and ready to charge on command. “Jade, wait!” Shantis called into the dust, just barely able to make out her fading outline.
Jade ignored her, methodically pushing forward as if in some kind of trance. Worried about their friend who seemed to be out of control, both Nima and Amoshi broke rank and quickly gave chase. Whatever her reasons for pushing on without the other forces, they weren’t going to leave her to die a fool’s death. They would stand by her side.
Stepping over broken bodies and rocks alike, Jade marched straight through the massive hole in the wall. Both her eyes and dy-chita ablaze, her face lit up the entire area with a ghostly radiance. There were still some survivors clawing at the ground, dragging themselves through the gravel. Many more soldiers could be seen running down the street, heading right for her.
The glowing ball of chi spun and twisted within her, changing shape with each passing second. “You traitors are the reason my queen is dead,” she growled, raising her hands in the air once more. “I would give my very life to trade places with her, to bring back the greatest leader this world has ever known. But since that is not a choice I am able to make, I shall send you all to the afterlife instead!”
The glowing ball of chi stopped spinning. The world stopped spinning. Like a coiled spring her chi tightened in upon itself, its power boiling, twisting, turning, preparing...
Suddenly, it erupted like a volcano. No longer did it elongate then shorten, slowly shaping from sphere, to funnel, to square. Simplicity gone, it flickered through dozens of shapes per second. Intricate designs flashing away inside her, the skies above grew dark once more. The winds began to howl, blowing her hair as it whipped around her face.
Whirling funnels of air descended down from the sky, twisting and bending in an angry dance of power before touching down around her. Five in all, they swept away any surviving crytons, shredding their bodies while sending wet body parts smacking against the surrounding structures.
From nearby rooftops and further up the street, arrows still streaked towards her. But even the ones that came close seemed to swerve at the last second, behaving more like boomerangs as they thudded into the ground around her. Nima and Amoshi just watched on in awe as Jade marched down the main street, a one-man killing machine that required no assistance. Shantis sprinted through the ruined wall, bow in hand with a horde of white-faced crytons just behind her. She too halted upon witnessing the shocking display of raw power.
Jade’s flickering ball of chi shifted at the speed of light, a complexity similar to snowflakes repeated over and over, yet never flashing the same shape twice. Strands of glowing energy flowed down from her fingertips, yellow, blue and green tails crackling along the ground as she marched. With a quick sidestep, she launching into a devastating spin, her body becoming a multicolored tornado.
A green tail lashed out from the living twister, cutting three crytons on a rooftop clean in half. The body halves slid from the roof in a trail of wetness. With seemingly infinite range, other energy strands lashed out, hitting moving targets over one hundred yards away. Each cracking lash boomed with power, the victim practically disintegrating while any close to the impact went flying through the air.
The twisters following her didn’t move randomly at all. Like living entities, they sought out the enemy, sweeping them up into the sky before launching their torn bodies a mile or more. They swept along, killing any stragglers Jade might have overlooked.
Jade stopped in mid-spin, the glowing tails of energy retracting back into her fingertips. Despite appearing calm and tranquil, her insides turned with a bloodlust she had never known before. White-hot rage, even more dangerous now that it was focused and controlled, pumped through her veins like lava.
“I won’t stop until the streets grow dark with your blood,” she growled, still marching methodically. “I need no army to stand at my back. I will kill you all myself!”
She raised her hands up in the air. On command, bolts of red and yellow streaked down from the churning dark sky, slamming into groups of soldiers running away. Charred bodies turned through the air, smoking body parts landing high up on rooftops.
By now, most of the remaining crytons were in full retreat, running back towards the palace. They hadn’t even engaged the rebel army yet, and already they were being thrashed soundly.
Jade sneered, her raging bloodlust not yet quenched. Seeing them flee like terrified squirrels was not enough. They needed to die for their betr
ayal, and nothing short of that would do. Ilirra’s name would be avenged in the grandest fashion the world had ever seen. “Run, piggies,” she hissed, swiping a hand across her own throat. “You cannot hide from me!”
Tiny explosions snapped all around her, leaving behind small spheres of fire. They hissed and crackled, each defying gravity as they hovered above her head. One by one they flattened out, forming circular blades. When Jade opened her fists, they zipped away like fiery arrows.
One of the wheels entered a cryton’s back, then exploded from his chest in a river of hissing blood. Steaming with baked liquid, the flaming wheel continued on its path, striking down the fleeing crytons. The other flaming wheels zipped back and forth, weaving between the soldiers as they removed heads and other body parts.
“Retreat!” screamed one of the crytons near the front as he pulled ahead of the pack. “Back to the palace. From there we can regrou—” A thrown axe slammed deep into his skull, splitting his forehead and taking an eye. Up ahead, a very large shirtless man stepped out into the street. Heavily muscled and wearing his trademark black mask, there was little doubt as to who this enemy must be.
Morcel twirled his remaining axe around his back, bringing it to rest up high in a battle-ready stance. The charging crytons began to pick up speed, determined to run him through in order to reach the safety of the palace. After all, he was only one man, and the menacing human behind them was a far bigger threat.
Morcel held his ground, watching as the fleeing army came at him like a stampede. He held...held... “Now!” he called out at the last second, his axe twirling about, shredding all bone and flesh that came within range.
Black masked men popped up all around, some on rooftops, others racing out from behind buildings. The men on the rooftops unleashed wave after wave of arrows into the back portion of the charging crytons. The ones on the ground met the charge head-on, cutting and slashing their way towards Morcel. But their leader was in no danger. With each sweep of his axe, Morcel sent more crytons into the afterlife.