“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Crystal asked, speaking up suddenly. She rubbed her hands together. “Sure, the guild may not want us to have it but that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow it for an undetermined amount of time.”
“You mean steal it,” I said, looking at her.
She smiled. “I’ll make you a deal, okay? You get the Etheric Flame, and I’ll find a way to get those old hags to give us the recipe.” She smacked her hands together. “I’d love for a chance to teach ‘em a thing or two after blacklisting Sally anyway.”
“Fair enough,” I said, nodding to her. “At some point between dealing with Nadine and the ravagers, we’ll go find us a dragon to slay and steal the recipe for Nexus Gateways.”
“See, I told you he’d go for it,” Sally said, smiling at Crystal.
“No, you didn’t. I told you,” Crystal replied as I turned back away from them. I had no place in that conversation, and I knew it. The important thing was that we had a plan. A bad plan, sure, but a plan nonetheless.
I could hear Sam still hammering away in her shop, and as I resolved to go check on her and Clarent, another rumble shook the ground so hard I fell on my ass. My eyes flicked to the horizon as a walking mountain of angry Darkness stepped forth from the trees.
Only that would imply the trees weren’t like toothpicks before it. Which they were.
30
The ravagers themselves were still too far away for me to make out any distinct features, and judging by their slow, plodding pace, I knew we had a few minutes before they actually got here.
“Get to the battle stations!” I cried, scrambling to my feet and sprinting toward the wall. As I moved, Sally and Crystal each grabbed me under one arm and hoisted me up into the air. Their wings beat at the air as they dropped me off on one of the watch towers.
That’s when I saw the horde coming. Lizardmen rushed forward out of the brush, tearing across the space where we’d cleared the trees. They’d be on the walls in seconds. While they weren’t low enough for the creatures to easily climb, the top sections of the walls were made of little more than reinforced wood. Given enough effort, their claws would tear through it.
We just had to keep them from doing so.
“Don’t deploy the ground forces yet,” I said, turning toward Crystal. “Get the archers ready. Let’s hope the practice we gave everyone works to our advantage.”
Crystal nodded to me before leaping from the tower. Sally stood next to me, watching the horde advance while the archer next to me readied her bow, waiting for Crystal’s command. A moment later, a bolt of fire lanced through the sky. It was followed by a wave of arrows as the archers assembled in each of the six guard towers unleashed their arrows.
The arrows cut into the lizardmen, slamming through their darkened flesh and spilling ichor across the battlefield. Dozens fell but it didn’t seem to matter because there were so many of them, they simply trampled over their fallen comrades in their haste to reach us.
“Ready the firewall!” I snapped, turning to try to find Gwen. “Wait, where’s Gwen?”
“I haven’t seen her,” Sally replied as the lizardmen hit the wall.
The sound of them slamming into the stone reverberated in my ears. The barrier overhead shimmered to life as the lizardmen tried to clamber up our defensive wall. As their claws gouged up into the wood, creating scalable footholds, I cursed.
“Never mind! Use the oil.” I looked at Polly who was standing next to me. “Signal it!”
“Affirmative,” she said, switching to a different arrow and firing it into the air. The blue sliver of metal arced upward before exploding like a bottle rocket that lit the sky. All at once, the team of girls on the ground grabbed hold of the two massive ropes lying at their feet. They pulled with everything they had, causing the barrels suspended above the walls to tip, spilling viscous oil down onto the lizardmen.
As it flowed over the walls, pushing them to the ground in a wave of inky darkness, I saw a fresh wave of arrows fly from the guard towers. Unlike the others, these were ablaze. The second they struck the coming horde, the oil burst into flame. The snap, crackle, and pop of the fire below swept outward on the back of the oil, turning the battlefield into a hellish landscape of flame and death.
The lizardmen kept coming through, running through the flames until they’d buried the fire beneath their bulk like sacrifice meant nothing to them.
“Damn. How many are there?” I wondered aloud as the first of the lizardmen reached out walls again. Once more we triggered the barrels, flushing them backward with burning death. No matter how many died, it didn’t seem to matter to the oncoming hordes. We’d been fighting for all of two minutes and had already exhausted most of our oil. Worse, from the look of the tree line, more were still coming.
This time, as the wave of flame washed them away, beholders lumbered onto the battlefield. There were so many that it seemed like the entire tree line had come alive. No wonder towns had fallen. Hell, this force might be able to siege Royal Centre. Then again, that was probably the idea, Nadine had insinuated as much when we had our teatime chat, and as much as I hated those assholes for being self-serving douchebags, I knew that if we didn’t stop this force here, many would die.
That couldn’t happen. One way or another, this army had to fall.
“Sally, find Gwen now,” I said, turning to the healer even though she had been supposed to stay next to me. “We have to be ready for her to lead the charge against the ravagers.”
“On it,” Sally said, leaping from the guard tower and disappearing into town. I watched her go for a second before looking at Polly.
“Polly, signal for the ground forces to be deployed.” I pointed to the beholders. “The second they come into range, signal them as priority targets.”
“Your wish is my command,” the guard replied, grabbing another arrow from her pouch and firing it into the air in one smooth motion.
Like before it exploded, but this time, it threw off green sparks. As the sky lit up like an emerald dream, a war cry resounded from just inside the gates.
Sheila and her cohort took to the air as the lizardmen came in for a third wave. They slammed down along the length of the wall in a tight shield wall formation, and I was glad I’d been able to upgrade the guards once again because a second later they were fighting the horde.
They threw the lizardmen backward as the guards who had learned Blinding Blade activated the Ability. While the lizardmen crashed ceaselessly against my wall of guards, the archers focused on picking them off.
A blast of cold ripped through the air, turning the lizardmen in front of it into icy shards as the closest beholder made a beeline for the guards.
Without even needing to be told, Polly grabbed a red-tipped arrow. She lined up on the creature and fired. It smacked into the top of its head and exploded, spilling red flame down across its face and causing it to scream in agony. As its bellows reached my ears, another arrow caught it in the throat.
The creature staggered backward before exploding into a pile of goo as the bomb on the end went off.
The battle continued like that with the archers focused on picking off the beholders. One would shoot the marking arrow which would light the creature on fire and cause it to open its mouth, then the next archer would plug it with an explosive one. As the corpses of beholders began to litter the battlefield, I almost started to feel like we might actually win.
Then the sky above tore itself asunder, revealing a Nexus Gateway. Unlike the others, this one was the color of a day-old corpse.
“What’s going on?” Polly whispered, bow ready to fire at the portal.
“I don’t know,” I said as the first of the ravagers broke through the tree line. Their huge, hulking bodies seemed to absorb all the light, so they were nothing but fifty story masses of inky blackness. Their every appendage seemed to be some amalgamation of teeth and tentacles. Huge black gills pulsed on the sides of their massive, bulbous heads.
31
“Did you really think it’d be that easy?” she asked, her voice a honey-sweet song on the wind, only this wind carried with it blood and death. She smiled down at me from the skies, her huge wings unfurled. As lightning crackled above and the rent she’d torn in reality pulsed, she flicked a hand at our town.
“You forget, Arthur. I have seen what the Builder can do.” She licked her lips. “Many times. I don’t know how you plan to defend this hovel, but I know that you can.” Her wings flapped as she flicked a hand at the Nexus Gateway, banishing it from existence.
“You haven’t seen anything,” I snarled, reaching for my sword. Only I didn’t have it. Sam still had it. Damn. To be fair, I didn’t know what I’d do with the weapon if I had it, but at the same time, I was powerless without it.
“Oh?” she raised a shapely eyebrow at me. “Well, color me interested. Show me what you have.” She gestured at the ravagers. “Bring him to me. The others you can eat.”
The creatures roared, and the sound nearly blew out my eardrums. Their scent, like day old garbage and Spam, hit my nose and made my eyes water. Still, I couldn’t focus on that, I had to focus on the plan.
“Fire the signal,” I told Polly, turning to her. The poor girl was shaking like a leaf, and as she looked at me, I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “Polly. Do you hear me?”
“Y-yes,” she said, swallowing hard as she grabbed her bow. As she reached for an arrow, Nadine flapped her massive wings, lifting into the air.
“That won’t hurt me,” Nadine said as Polly fired the arrow up into the sky. It exploded into a golden crackle that leaped across the sky.
“It’s not meant for you, bitch,” I snapped, glaring at her as the sky lit up.
“You know, you keep calling me names. I’m not sure I approve,” she said as Sheila’s guards sprang into the air as one, scuttling back through the barrier as quickly as they could. “And that barrier won’t help you.”
Nadine extended her hand. Scarlet light began to ripple across her skin, and the sky shrieked in pain. Darkness blotted out the signal arrow Polly had shot. The ravagers moved forward, their relentless steps chewing up the battlefield.
A crackling orb of pulsing crimson energy erupted from her hand. Tendrils of power flickered along its edges before slamming into the barrier and exploding into sparks. A scream like the whole of the world had been torn to pieces filled my ears, driving me to my knees as the symbols on the barrier went absolutely nuclear. They glowed so brightly, I could feel the heat of them baking the sweat from my body.
Horrific guttural laughter filled my ears as the barrier shattered into a billion scintillating shards of ethereal light. As they rained down around me, the sky itself opened into a swirling tornado-like vortex. Lightning crashed, and thunder boomed, and blood once again began to rain from the sky, and through it all, the only thing I could focus on was Nadine’s stupid laughing face.
Not the ravagers even though they were getting closer. Not Sheila and her girls as they scrambled to get the backups because Gwen and Sally hadn’t returned. Not even Polly who was screaming something at me I couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand.
No. I only saw Nadine and Agatha, and Agatha’s death. She’d died so I could escape, so I could save this town, and I wouldn’t let that sacrifice be in vain. Besides, I knew my girls could stop the ravagers. Or, at least, I had faith in them. Nadine on the other hand?
That bitch was mine.
I just needed my sword.
“Whoops, I think I broke it,” Nadine pouted, her eyes meeting mine. “Sorry.” Her teeth flashed. “I’m so clumsy.”
Then the Right Hand to the Empress, the Bringer of the Shadow, the Lady of the Blood Court, the Destroyer of Wills came for me. She was so quick that I could have sworn the afterimage of her still floating halfway across the battlefield was still there as she appeared in front of me.
She was huge and imposing in a way that made her seem larger than she actually was. Power rippled off of her, burning the wooden floor beneath her feet as she met my eyes. Polly, bless her heart, attacked.
“No, you’re not on the A-team. You don’t get to play,” Nadine said, snapping her fingers. Polly exploded into a fountain of gore that splattered across Nadine’s flesh, the walls, and me. As bits of Polly dribbled down my face, and my vision went red from rage, Nadine grabbed me by the throat.
She hoisted me into the air like I was weightless and marched me to the back of the tower.
“You know what is always so unfortunate about the Builder?” she asked, leaning in close so her breath was hot on my neck. “He can never fly. Pity.”
She released me, and I fell.
Sam caught me. Her huge pink wings twisted as we slammed into the ground. She cried out in pain as her wing shattered, the bones bursting through the thin membrane-like flesh.
“Well, that’s no fun. He was supposed to pop when he hit the ground,” Nadine mused from high above.
“Sam, are you okay?” I asked, trying to turn toward me, but before I could, she shoved Clarent into my hand.
“Take this,” she hissed through clenched teeth. Her face had gone white from pain as I touched the weapon.
Only it looked different, felt different.
My eyes grew wide as I realized Clarent was no longer a rusted hunk of metal anymore. The steel gleamed, and the fire was brighter than ever before. Energy spilled from the pommel as the symbols blazed with sapphire flame.
“What’d you do?” I asked as Sheila’s team engaged the first of the ravagers.
“I used some of the Dark Blood to enhance it. All that work with the Dark Blood gave me an idea.” Sam smiled at me despite the pain. Then she touched my chest. As she did a spark of power flittered across my chest before wrapping around the sword.
It glowed with light, and as I stumbled backward away from her, energy crawled across my body. Power unlike anything I’d ever felt before filled me as Nadine jumped down from the guard tower.
“Interesting,” she said, gaze flicking from me to Sam and back again. “I haven’t seen that in almost…” She trailed off, her head cocked toward the sky for a moment. “No matter.” Her eyes settled back on me as the energy coursing through me solidified into a set of sapphire armor.
Only it was more than that because, in addition to feeling like a bad ass, I could see things differently. I saw the world through the eyes of the Builder, saw all the Skills of my people laid out before me, saw an endless array of tooltips, and I knew them all.
What’s more, I saw Nadine for what she really was.
Someone I’d destroy.
32
Nadine grabbed me by the breastplate and flung me across the ground. I hit hard, and pain shot through me. My head went fuzzy and the tooltips and menus I’d seen before vanished into the ether. She stood there between Sam and me.
“Poor Builder,” she said, holding one hand out in front of herself. Fire danced between her scarlet nails as she strode toward me like a bored goddess. “You came, you built, you died.” She hurled the fireball at me as Sam crashed into Nadine, tackling her to the ground.
The fireball went astray, hitting the ground beside me, scorching the earth and throwing molten glass into the air. Sam had saved me, but at what cost?
I sucked in a breath as I scrambled to my feet. I wasn’t a fighter, wasn’t much of anything, but a few days ago I’d been less than that, and now? Now, I was the fucking Builder, and she wasn’t hurting anyone else.
In the background, I saw Sheila and the others attacking the ravagers. Tentacles lashed through the air, trying to down the girls as they peppered it with arrows, and I knew I just needed to buy them time. I could do that.
Nadine flung Sam away, sending the girl sprawling across the dirt several yards away. As Sam tumbled like a broken mannequin, I lunged at Nadine with Clarent. The blade blazed in my ha
nd, cutting through the air beside the dark princess as she lithely stepped by my awkward stab and slammed her palm into my chest.
The armor shattered into fragments of blue light as I flopped backward onto the ground. Pain exploded through me, and the taste of blood filled my mouth.
“You can’t stop me,” she said putting her foot on my chest and pressing down. I felt my ribs give, shattering as she continued to press onto my chest. “No one can.”
Something exploded against the side of her head, knocking her off of me, but I hurt too much to do anything but lay there. My chest was on fire, and as I tried to draw breath, I realized I couldn’t. The urge to cough filled me, but I couldn’t do that either.
I struggled frantically, trying to breathe as I clawed at my throat for air that wouldn’t come. Soft light wrapped around me then. As it did, I felt the twisted wreckage of my chest pull itself back together. I felt my cells knitting themselves whole, felt the fragments being pulled from my flesh as wounds closed.
Crystal took another step forward and fired her crossbow at Nadine. The explosive bolt took her on the side, blowing her across the ground but not doing any real damage. As the girl dropped the empty weapon onto its sling and pulled her revolvers, I realized that Sally had healed me.
I got to my feet in time to see her flying toward me, a chant on her lips. Blue light wrapped around me and as it did, time seemed to slow. I could see the dust motes kicked up from the battle in the air, hear every minute movement around me, even bear witness to the individual particles of the smoke coming off Crystal’s revolvers as she unloaded into Nadine.
The princess fell onto her back, a thin line of blood trailing from a split lip, but for all that damage she seemed unharmed.
“Which of you is going to die?” Nadine asked as Crystal frantically reloaded. The dark princess got to her feet and nodded at my two girls. “Only one. That way the other can live with the torment of loss.” Nadine’s smile went absolutely vicious. “Maybe I’ll flip a coin?”
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 18