by Atlas Kane
Gnashing his teeth, the victorious ape pounded his chest before charging back to his position near the Lower Gate.
The battle continued to progress, the light in the sky growing ever brighter. Two more waves came and were crushed by the charging boars or by ranged attacks. All was going well until something shifted.
It was imperceptible at first. A lull came where fewer monsters attacked. Cade felt it might be a good sign until he saw the first inky form of an abyss creature slink into view.
The real battle was about to begin.
Another surge of amalgamations charged the Lower Gate, and among them, abyss cats and raptors came as well.
Ketzal called another charge, and all around, monsters were dying. Cade had taken out a large portion at their core, another Explosive Cluster thinning their ranks. Yet those had been too quickly replaced. The boars had used all of the skills, Ketzal even activating a new one Bellows had earned after helping to defeat the elder turtle.
A wide ring of crackling fire had surrounded the boar, and it cut into the monsters all around him. For a few moments, Cade felt the latest wave would be broken as those previous had. But a large abyss raptor leapt over the fiery ring.
It landed atop Bellows’ back and tore through the hunter who’d been guarding Ketzal’s back. The Casmeeri villager tumbled to the ground, choking in his own blood.
The raptor moved closer to Cade’s beloved demoness.
His stomach cramped with fear and he aimed his blast staff. He fired a Piercing Shot that ripped through the raptor’s throat. The beast swayed but held fast, shaking its head to recover. Again, it moved to attack Ketzal.
“Come on!” Cade growled, urging his weapon to recharge.
Then nine daggers flew through the air and buried themselves in the beast’s torso and neck.
It fell to the ground, and earned Ketzal the reprieve she needed.
“Fall back!” the demoness cried. Bellows turned about, crushing more monsters beneath his massive hooves and sprinted toward the gate. All four of the saddled boars were herded through, and slowing, began to ascend up the incline toward their second position.
The Kotani Ma pulled the gate shut, bashing a stray monster that had managed to get through.
More and more abyss creatures were populating the ranks of enemies before them, and the real fighting began in earnest.
Too many foes to put down with ranged attacks alone, the creatures reached the Lower Gate and tried to scale the walls. Ten feet seemed like a nearly impassable height, especially considering the pit below and the spikes above.
Yet the mutated beasts and the abyss creatures were tenacious. More terrifying was how little each seemed to value its own life.
Whatever malevolent entity had entered this world and decided to attack them had done so with chilling efficiency. Not only had it summoned an army of its own kind, but using the poison of Tanrial’s unstable ether clouds, had turned a portion of this world’s own creatures against the Casmeeri forces.
Cade at last turned his weapon around and employed his axe.
Using Ratcheting Reach and Impulse Rod, he was amazed to see how strong and merciless his axe had become.
He stood shoulder to shoulder with Satemi and hacked down the rising tide of monsters. The fight continued endlessly, and his arms were leaden by the time the sea of monsters seemed at last to thin. Cade was covered in slick blood, and he regarded Satemi beside him. The warrior woman looked like a wraith, black and red blood coating her lovely features.
Cade panted, trying to catch his breath. The sun was up, and they fought well. One spearman had been pulled down off the wall, but he’d been their only other casualty.
Casting his gaze about, Cade saw his people were already exhausted, yet two hundred feet out, another pool of writhing abyss creatures was amassing. Knowing this might be their only chance to do so, Cade called the retreat. “Fall back! Fall back to the Upper Gate!” he screamed.
As the Casmeeri moved to follow his command, several stumbled as if from fatigue or hidden injuries. Wanting to bolster them at this moment of weakness, Cade used King’s Command. His voice rang out like brass and fire, echoing off the cliff wall dramatically.
Every one of the Casmeeri and Kotani fighters were invigorated, their eyes clearing of exhaustion. Then the retreat began with greater haste. Cade fired another Explosive Cluster into the enemy’s front lines, and Minda send an ether-infused leaf storm as well. Three other fighters, all fierce hunters, popped epic skills as well. The ground trembled, icicles fell from the sky, and a poisoned rain soaked the abyss monsters.
The attacks did little to defeat the roiling army, but slowed their advance enough to buy the retreating Casmeeri a couple minutes of precious time.
Yet the foe seemed to sense their intentions, and all too soon, they surged onward once more. Cade had made it back to the first barricade, and stood with Gemma and Satemi. They waited as long as possible, waited until the field below was covered in inky black bodies.
They had begun climbing the Lower Gate walls and were dropping down on the opposite side.
When the first had done so, Cade nodded to Gemma. She sent two fire arrows at the oil-soaked ropes and their slow fuse began.
Cade stood with Satemi, Sholl, and Vrin. A few at a time, the crazed abyss creatures reached them. No longer protected by a wall, the fighting quickly became desperate.
As a half dozen massive abyss bears trundled forward, with thirty seconds still remaining, Satemi pressed forward and triggered one of her ultimate skills. Swords burning red, she waded into them, cutting through flesh and bone with ease.
A brief pause had been earned and just in time. Cade grabbed Satemi by the arm and pulled her behind the barricade.
She fell atop him, and for an instant, he stared deep within her eyes. She was as terrified as he was, the whites of her eyes stark against the pitch-black blood of the abyss creatures.
He wanted to reach out to her, remind the woman how much he loved her. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright.
But, voice mute with fear, he pulled her into his arms and settled on a desperate embrace.
Then the world erupted around them.
27
Big Legged Woman
When the last of the falling rubble had come crashing down around them, Cade moved to peer around the side of the barricade.
What he saw took his breath away.
Most everything but the very foundations of the Lower Gate had been blown apart. Massive fragments of stone and twisted roots lay in heaps all around. The air itself was filled with a gray haze even the early morning sun couldn’t burn through.
Then he realized, it was blood.
Beyond, a hundred feet of mutilated bodies lay in a mound, their flesh unrecognizable pulp.
Even further away, he noted the edge of the attacking army, waiting a second longer before it began its assault once more. Their explosive attack had been incredibly effective, but when he saw a fresh line of abyss creatures surge toward Camp Casmeer, he knew the battle was far from over.
“Fall back!” he shouted, and those who had stayed behind to see to the explosives sped up the hill after him. When the group had made it halfway up, and the line of seething monsters were audibly getting closer, Gemma fired a signal arrow.
Out of harm’s way, the twin bark of cannon fire erupted from atop the Upper Wall.
Music to my mother fucking ears, Cade thought grimly.
Still, the cannons could do nothing about the abyss monsters who were right behind them. Such a shot would risk killing Cade and the others outright. So they sprinted like mad.
He was just about to spin around and engage the monsters when they came around the corner of a palisade wall and found Ketzal there, waiting to charge. As soon as they passed her, the demoness screamed an order to Bellows, and the two plowed through the encroaching enemy forces.
Though he feared for her life, Cade had to trust that Ketzal would be fin
e. The cannons did a good job at thinning the army out, and she’d been instructed to make but a few charges before retreating herself.
By the time Cade found his position atop the wall, he saw Ketzal and the other two largest boars committing to yet another valiant cavalry charge. The limp bodies of abyss creatures were flung in the air or skewered on the boars’ great tusks.
He could see them begin to turn about, heading the rest of the way back into Camp Casmeer proper, when two enormous abyss bears mauled a Casmeeri boar. They struck its flank at the same time, and with their combined weight, toppled the boar. As it fell, its handler, a young man Ketzal had trained herself as well as Pomre, Havasham’s lover, tumbled to the ground.
In seconds, they were overwhelmed.
The boar tried to stand, but a dozen abyss cats ripped through its tough hide and began devouring it alive.
Ketzal looked back, and Cade saw her struggle. She wanted to turn around and save them, but it was over in a few heartbeats.
When she faced the gate again, and rode Bellows through, the blood on her face was streaked with tears.
Cade wanted to go and comfort her, but the Upper Gate was closed shut, and the people of Camp Casmeer, once again, stood atop a wall, determined to stand before the abyss. He had his post to maintain, they all did.
Though they were terrible to see, Cade couldn’t help but marvel at the speed and prowess of their foes. Abyss scorpions clambered around the barricades with great speed. The cats and raptors climbed or leapt over the walls even faster. It looked like a tide of black death were pouring up the slope toward them.
“Gemma, now!” Cade called out to the tigress. She drew and fired another two arrows. Both struck the pitch-soaked patches of earth below. Fire leapt up and burned the creatures’ flesh. It crackled unrestrained and made a fifteen-foot pillar of raging inferno.
Yet though the flames slowed the abyss monsters down, they soon began to die down. Another few dozen had died, but it seemed their army had no end.
The cannons fired alternating rounds. At first, they’d shot the Shadow Shells, and though the damage was evident, the blackness eating holes out of anything it struck, it was too localized.
Satemi ordered them to switch over to the Bright Shells, and this made a much more substantial effect.
Each shell that burst sent a cloud of light-infused shrapnel through the abyss monsters. All of the amalgamations had perished, so the creatures of the dark that remained hissed and screamed as the light tore through their cursed flesh. Ten of the beasts fell for every round fired.
Yet still they came on, too many and too fast.
They smashed into the Upper Gate, and the defenders fought valiantly, using spear and sword and hammer to bat the foes down. At this close range, the cannons were useless, but Cade ordered them to continue their barrage, hoping to at least thin out the monsters who reached them.
Hundreds of abyss beasts scrabbled to overtake the Upper Gate.
Cade fired an Explosive Cluster, then activated Wyrm’s Wrath. Combined with Impulse Rod, Cade’s axe chopped down into more and more of the enemies. He split the carapace of scorpion creatures, hacked the heads off bulky abyss bears and lithe cats. Every attack was deliberate and deadly.
Satemi fought like a possessed woman, swinging her two swords in an endless combination of attacks. Ronden and Dan laid waste, stacking the bodies of creatures high. One enormous raptor managed to jump atop the wall, and Ronden broke its skull with a skill-charged hammer strike.
The abyss manlings had begun to fill the enemy ranks now as well, their sleek figures more powerful than their bulk should have allowed. Gemma targeted them specifically, knocking them down one at a time.
Yet they were fast and determined. A half dozen formed a tight wedge, and vaulted up the wall. With their arms condensed into the same spear shape that had ended Cha’s life, two of them managed to reach Rhionne. He was still manning one of the cannon’s firing as fast as he could. He was struck three times by the arm-sized spears and he fell, spitting out his own blood.
Boom Sticks and Acid Bombs were hurled, and though they broke apart pockets of enemies each time, they never quite seemed to buy them enough time.
More of the enemy collected. Other villagers used their greatest skills, one by one, and cut down their attackers, yet each time the reprieve only lasted so long.
“Now, Cade!” Satemi said, her eyes wild. “Do it now!”
He glanced around and saw the mayhem around him. The bodies below the wall were stacking up, giving the abyss monsters a better chance of attacking those above. The Kotani Ma was using both fists to pound in the heads of anything that came near, but already, his body was oozing the scorpion’s poison. Soon, he would be paralyzed.
Tessra fought with a pair of glinting shears, both her soul weapon and tools of her trade. The squirrel woman moved with terrible speed, lopping off scorpions’ claws and burying the scissors in inky-black eyes.
One of the abyss cats sunk its claws in her forearm, and she screamed, dropping her weapon into the fray. Dan swept the cat’s head off with his claws and sent a crackling chain lightning into the beasts that followed. He’d saved Tessra’s life, but crippled as she was, they’d still lost one more fighter.
Cade grimaced, thankful one of his own hadn’t yet been so grievously wounded.
Then he heard it, a cry that froze his very core.
It was Minda.
Another scream of pain, and he turned around and spotted her. An abyss scorpion had clenched its claw over her arm. The only reason her limb wasn’t shattered and useless was because her staff was in the way, bolstering the natural strength of her arm.
Still, the beast was slowly pulling her over the edge of the wall.
Cade wasn’t the closest, but he didn’t have to be.
Using Locust Leap, the Archon of Camp Casmeer launched himself over the heads of the defenders and slammed down near Minda.
He caved in the scorpion’s head as he did so.
Even dying, the beast refused to let go, so Cade activated Culling the Pack and swept off the claw with his axe.
Minda fell, clutching her arm.
She was alive though. Blood ran down her elbow, and tears stained her cheeks, but Minda was alive!
And then he felt his body explode with pain.
An inky black spear tore through his stomach, forcing him to his knees. Cade glanced over his shoulder to see Satemi cutting down the abyss manling that clung to his back.
Voices were shouting all around him, but he couldn’t respond. One of his lungs had been punctured, and he coughed up blood.
Another flash of pain broke through him as the spear-like appendage was removed.
A wave of hot blood poured down his belly.
His vision began to blur and fade away.
A hand cracked across his face, then he was staring into Satemi’s stern and loving eyes. “Mana Amelioration!” She screamed.
Thank you, warrior queen, Cade thought weakly, knowing that as shock settled in around him, he might not even have thought to try this skill.
He triggered Mana Amelioration.
There was no searing pain, no burn of healing powers, but an ocean of cool energy that seeped into his body and flooded the site of his wound.
Unable to stop himself, Cade moaned with the relief of it, and he looked down to see a dangling bit of flesh pull itself back into his abdomen.
The squirming of tissues assembling themselves anew captivated his mind.
In less than a minute, his body was restored.
Cade wiped his face and stood on shaky legs to survey the rest of the battlefield.
Satemi fought like a one-woman army, and Ronden was holding the line as well, but Cade’s absence was noticeable.
More of the villagers were falling back due to injuries of their own, and some were simply missing.
Vrin fought bravely, his spear dancing between targets with savage precision. But even as Cade watched on, a
raptor, jumping off of one of its fellows’ back, sunk its claws into his neck and chest.
Ronden roared and battered the beast off, but Vrin, the Captain of the Guard, had fallen.
And he hadn’t been their only loss.
“It’s time! Do it, Cade. Or we are lost!” Satemi urged him once more.
Squinting, Cade examined the army below.
Thank everything that’s holy, he muttered in the dark corners of his own half-shocked mind. There is an end to them after all.
Far below, where the abyss army still pushed to run toward Camp Casmeer, the sea of nightmare bodies had come to an end. There were thousands still, for a certain, but at least they’d thrown in their full strength. The time had at last arrived.
“Pablo! Do it! Unleash them all!” Cade cried out, swinging his axe around and cleaving off two heads in a single stroke.
The demon popped into view a second later, and said the most comforting words Cade had ever heard. “It is done, Cade. They’re coming.”
Cade’s face split into a hateful grin and he dropped an Explosive Cluster, then switched to his Burst Clip.
Leaning against the wall before him, Cade laid into the army. Each round tore through spine and sinew, bursting at the end and causing even more damage. He fired, a bullet a second, and didn’t bother with bursts. Full cyclic, Cade cleared a swath of the enemy away, their bodies curling and twisting in death throes.
“Hold on, Casmeer! Hold together. Help is on its way!” Cade cried in the brief pause his machine gunning had bought them.
The wide eyes of the villagers and apes, those still standing at least, looked to him with hope. Then Satemi screamed like a berserker, thrusting one of her great swords to the sky. The defenders took up her cry and renewed their vigilance. More abyss monsters filled in the places of those that had just died, and the battle resumed its fury.
It all would be hopeless, any of them could see that, but moments later, a shimmering army of golems poured from the forest grove far below. Out of the dungeon, Cade had sent dozens of the massive golems. They had cost too many dungeon points to rely on solely, however, and even while they crashed into the rear of the abyss army, palms sending blasts of searing light energy into the monsters, the most numerous of their new allies emerged.