Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia Book 9)

by Michael Chatfield

  Che’s eyes fell to these people, his inner greed filling them. “Target those with strong weapons. Let us see how able they are without their different arms!” Che said.

  One of the elders around him transmitted the message.

  “For those that kill them, they will be allowed to use the weapons! We will take their strength and turn it into ours!” Che’s lips curled upward into a sneer.

  Dwarven lines continued to advance but the other groups—the players, the skirmishers—ran through the walls, pitching their own battles against the Xelur.

  As the inner walls exploded, mounted forces once again charged inward like a virus infecting the citadel, spreading out in every direction and using their momentum to carry them inward and open up the Xelur. Many of them died as they entered the inner walls. The Xelur in here were a much higher grade than those that had been on the outer walls and had faced them on the plains.

  They had much better coordination and reacted in groups.

  Behind the mounted Emerilians, through the dust of the breached walls, those with Weapons of Power, players, and others rushed in. Different groups immediately raised their shields and Mana barriers as they created a solid base from which to fight the Xelur. Others used their speed to close with the Xelur and charge their ranks.

  Along the outer and inner walls, people climbed upward, topping the walls and fighting the Xelur on the battlements.

  The drop forces did everything in their power to open up the Xelur defenses and hit from every possible angle as more and more breaches opened up along the inner walls.

  The Xelur here cut down many who rushed through those breaches, but a number of them, mostly those who had hidden behind their shields and barriers, advanced forward, their attacks pressuring the Xelur.

  Che looked down at this all, unable to believe it. Through his mind, he continued to call those of his clan that fell to these Emerilian trash and useless, but in his heart, doubts started to creep in.

  “Send out the Grand Demon Lords to deal with the situation.” Che’s eyes flickered to an explosion along the wall. His face froze as another powerful stream of soul energy destroyed a section of the wall, killing those on the other side.

  “How dare they break the ten thousand soul’s shielding array!” Che yelled. The array was the strongest that the Ish’tal clan owned, its cost was incalculable. But here and there, the Emerilians were gaining access to the various soul array totems and mercilessly attacking and destroying them. The shield weakened and forced the main totem beside Che to take on the load that the others couldn’t handle.

  The resources and power that Che had poured into this couldn’t be compared. The clan would be ruined if all of these items and forces were laid to waste.

  Che let out a cold laugh that made even the other elders take a step backward.

  “You come to kill my clan members and to attack my citadel—you are truly extraordinary! I will use you to weed out the weak from the strong of my clan and then I will thoroughly destroy you, ripping the souls of you and your clan members out from the roots!” Che declared. Boundless soul energy rushed through his body and his veins. His abyss-black skin lit up with powerful Xelur runes that had been carved into his body. They shone like a beacon in the night as soul energy vapor seemed to coalesce around his body, unleashing a terrifying power.

  ***

  “Seems someone’s pissed!” Steve said. He had summoned a shield that covered his entire body. Lox and Gurren were on either side with their own shields, while Deia and Suzy used the cover to call down hell upon the Xelur through their minions and spells.

  Behind them, a wall of dwarves was followed by lines of DCA forces. The ranged casters waited behind the breach, unleashing their attacks from a safe distance, covering those of the drop forces without putting themselves in danger and thus making them a distraction for these advancing forces that moved forward under their metal shield turtles.

  The sides of the dwarves were already in combat, forcing the Xelur backward and away from the breach. The DCA were split up into three groups. Those providing support for the dwarves moved forward and those that were rushing the walls on either side moved to clear out the Xelur that lay within them. Many of them hadn’t moved through the breach but had climbed up the outer walls, opening up the wall and entering the different corridors of the inner wall or making it to the battlements and engaging in fighting there.

  The air above the dwarven War Clans was filled with the flashing and dazzling light of hundreds of summoned creatures unleashing their attacks upon the Xelur. They focused on single targets. With each Xelur that fell, they grew in power, taking fire away from their dwarven shield bearer masters and onto themselves, protected by the powerful Mana barriers the dwarves used.

  Here and there, shields and barriers failed as both sides hurled incredible power at one another.

  The players were a calculating group for the most part, but the people of the Stone Raiders had come to think of themselves as people of Emerilia. They knew that they could come back from death. They changed out their gear and put in the stat points that they had earned and then moved for the walls. The biggest threat to those advancing toward the castle was getting hit in the rear and cut off by the Xelur still on the wall.

  The Stone Raiders, DCA, and other drop forces of the Terra Alliance rampaged through the walls, paying special attention to the different soul arrays that powered the soul energy shield.

  As they fell, the shield weakened and the citadel’s impacts struck harder and harder.

  “Hold!” Lox planted his shield into the ground. Steve and Gurren did the same. If they advanced any farther, then their sides would be open to the Xelur. They raised their hands to fire Mana bolts at the Xelur. Beams smashed against the Mana barrier that overlaid their shields, not wishing to use their personal barriers as they needed to conserve energy in order to not run out before the battle had been completed.

  The dwarven line moved upward. Those behind Party Zero shifted, creating a gap for Party Zero to insert themselves.

  “Prepare to move!” Lox called out, looking at the formation. All three pulled their shields from the ground.

  “Forward!” Lox called out. Gurren, Lox, and Steve stood as behemoths among the dwarven line but they kept pace with them as they moved forward.

  “Show them the power of the Ish’tal clan!” one of the Xelur yelled out. The Xelur rushed forward, many of them being cut down by the ranged attacks but there was too many of them as they hit the dwarven wall.

  Lox felt his blood go cold as Grand Demon Lords that had been hiding now sprung forwards, their bodies alight with soul energy as they engaged the dwarven lines.

  The shields of the dwarves were shaken. Those behind the shields cried out in pain from the impact of the hits. They barely had time to react when the Xelur Grand Demon Lords hit again and again with savage energy that broke the dwarven shield wall.

  Lox looked to Deia. The Dwarves were his people; seeing them being cut up by the Xelur Grand Demon Lords had his heart burning with rage.

  The flames around Deia turned into a raging torrent but none of the heat escaped as her bow disappeared from her hands and they went to her swords.

  “Stone Raiders to the front!” Deia’s call was heard across the citadel.

  Stone Raiders among the drop forces, upon hearing Deia’s call, knew that she would only call upon them if it was a dire situation and the POEs were being slaughtered indiscriminately. In this case, they knew that their role was to hold back these enemies and give their lives if they must in order to protect their allies and the people of Emerilia.

  They surged with power. Those who had been playing it safe surged forward and those who could, burned their Mana and Stamina to finish off their opponents, rushing to Deia’s call.

  From around the citadel, they converged on Deia. Those with Weapons of Power followed them as they entered the inner wall of the citadel.

  “Leave none of them standi
ng!” Deia yelled,

  Lox and Gurren let out roars, their shields opening up. Steve tossed his shield back and away, pulling out his war axe as he rushed forward. From behind them, Suzy slammed her staff into the ground. Creations made formed from cores of all six affinities. Ten of the formed creations rushed to follow the rest of her party.

  “Stone Raiders!” one called out. The entire guild took up the call as they rushed forward through the dwarven lines that were in shambles, engaging the forces that were tearing into the dwarven shield bearers.

  Deia charged forward into the lines. Lox caught a glimpse of her. Any Xelur that came within five feet of her was cut down mercilessly. Her hair looked like flames as it danced behind her; flames moved along her blades and formed into plates of fiery armor.

  Her most powerful weapon was never the bow, but her two swords. Lox focused on his own fight. He pushed his power to the maximum, as he tore through the Xelur as if they were nothing but weeds. All of the training made his reactions as fluid as they were brutal.

  None that lay in his path were spared.

  Steve and Gurren ran beside him. Steve’s normally relaxed face was now solemn, his eyes cold. Steve’s axe moved in a golden blur of speed and power; with each movement of his axe, Xelur were felled.

  A Grand Demon Lord that was among the dwarves, being attacked by the summoned creatures as the dwarves tried to injure him badly enough he couldn’t recover, looked back as he felt three powerful auras closing in on him. He laughed and jumped to engage them.

  Steve, Lox, and Gurren jumped into the sky. White runes appeared on their bodies as they cut through the air.

  The Grand Demon Lord swept down at Steve. Lox and Gurren’s speeds increased, their swords coming out like gray ghosts.

  The Grand Demon Lord had a look of surprise on his face as he could only lower his arms in order to cover his sides that Lox and Gurren were aiming for. He let out a roar as Lox and Gurren’s blades dug deeply into his arms.

  “Shut up!” Steve yelled. Power surged through his body. His axe made the very wind shriek as it passed. Lox and Gurren’s attacks had made the Grand Demon Lord lower his war hammer so it was just below his chin. Steve suddenly appeared beside the Grand Demon Lord’s head. He was in the air so the Grand Demon Lord couldn’t do anything to move as Steve’s axe flashed across, smashing through the Grand Demon Lord’s disrupted soul energy barrier and into his head.

  Lox and Gurren landed like two warriors of legend as they landed among the Xelur in front of the dwarves who had been ruthlessly attacked by the Grand Demon Lord.

  “Pull the wounded back! Reform the line!” the dwarven leader called out. As the dwarves who had been fighting on the edge of life and death just moments ago listened to these commands, the shield wall reformed. Wounded were pulled back. Stone Raider healers quickly used Health potions to stabilize the wounded as well as potions to knock them out and send them back out of the fighting toward the platforms that were still dropping and rising into the sky, carrying out wounded with every trip.

  Steve landed his axe, taking down three Xelur as the Grand Demon landed lifelessly among the ranks of the Xelur. Shocked looks stared at the trio.

  Lox and Gurren had trained to the extremes in order to be worthy of the armor that Dave had gifted them. After being able to do nothing but be punching bags for the Grand Demon Lords at the northern castle, they’d worked to raise their strength to where they could suppress a Demon Lord completely and even possibly kill them.

  “I see another one!” Lox called out. He didn’t feel satisfaction in having killed a Grand Demon Lord; instead, he had moved past it and was already looking for others that had broken the dwarves’ lines.

  “Let’s go!” Gurren said. They cut a path through the Xelur. The dwarves they had saved surged forward, filling the gap left behind them and letting out roars of their own. Their eyes were red with anger and loss at their friends and the knowledge that they had only been saved by the actions of the trio who had come out of nowhere.

  Even in their anger, their actions were only more refined, their training taking that anger and turning them into a hellish wall of shield and sword.

  ***

  Jung Lee, Anna, and Dave heard Deia’s call. Anna unleashed a series of Air blades that killed anything fifteen feet in front of her as she ran and jumped from the wall and headed toward where Deia was. Dave was already surging ahead, with Jung Lee quickly catching up.

  They passed the inner wall, unleashing attacks from above and cutting down the Xelur that were engaged in fighting the different Terra Alliance drop forces that had made it onto the battlements.

  All across the Citadel, Stone Raiders as well as the more powerful among the drop forces rushed to Deia’s call, knowing that it would only be called if there were incomparably powerful and strong enemies that the forces within the inner walls had found.

  Jung Lee could feel the raging torrent of energy that Dave was giving off. Jung Lee’s eyes thinned as they crossed the inner wall to look upon the chaos of battle below.

  The dwarven lines had been smashed apart in several places and all of the breaches were under attack by the Xelur, who had revealed a great number of Grand Demon Lords.

  “We need support! For that, we need to destroy the soul array barrier!” Dave called out on the party chat.

  A way point appeared on their maps, highlighting the top of the tower in the castle.

  “We take that out and the flying citadels can give us support!” Dave yelled.

  “Very well. On our way,” Malsour said through the party chat.

  Dave, Anna, and Jung Lee fell toward the ground. Their impacts cleared a space for them among the Xelur. They faced outward, their backs facing one another.

  Dave held up both his hands. Mana bolts shot out of them, throwing the Xelur backward with each blast.

  Jung Lee came out of his crouch. His sword created a gray ribbon in the air, killing those within ten meters. He rushed forward; bodies fell around him as he moved with impossible grace. His , actions seemed feeble and almost lazy, as they focused on looking beautiful instead of being actually used to fight. These thoughts were instantly erased, with every movement of his sword, Xelur were killed as if they were nothing but rotten wood. He moved through those Xelur with a look of apathy on his face, as if his actions didn’t touch him.

  Using his affinity amplified senses, he could feel that Anna and Dave were no longer holding back. Anna’s blade, let out piercing howls that would make one’s heart tremble in fear. Her movements were even faster than Jung Lee’s. Her sword and body was covered in Air energy, allowing her to break through the air resistance that pooled around her and tried to slow her actions.

  “Grand Demon Lord this way!” Jung Lee said as his senses picked one up. He stabbed forward with his blade, clearing a path toward where he felt the energy coming from.

  The other two changed their movements so that they followed him.

  Around Dave, grenades appeared. He had only used ten or so before at one time, but now there were nearly a hundred. Dave’s attacks filled the air with gray smoke and arcane energy discharged from his Mana bolts. His grenades rushed outward, exploding and widening the path that Jung Lee had made from a meter to nearly five. The rippling grenade explosions tore apart the Xelur.

  Anna and Jung Lee could only kill those that were within a certain range of them and were limited in the number and speed that they could kill. Dave’s creations and abilities were made to kill people at any distance and were effective at any of those ranges.

  “Welcome the rain!” Dave yelled out. Pins fell from the sky, like shining raindrops; they were summoned within the soul shield so they couldn’t be stopped by it.

  Many of them were stopped by the Xelur soul energy, but a few penetrated their tough hide. The runes on them discharged power into the Xelur. Their, soul energy turned chaotic; many sustained heavy injuries while the weaker among them that couldn’t regain control of their soul en
ergy exploded as their energy ran rampant.

  The rain of pins spread over a one-hundred-meter wide area, but its effects were immediately apparent; tens of Xelur were killed either by the pins or by their allies soul energy turning into mana and exploding.

  “Move!” Dave yelled.

  Jung Lee’s sword cut down Xelur as he rushed forward. Now able to see the Grand Demon Lord ahead, Anna moved to his other side. The two of them automatically adjusted to each other’s fighting styles and opened a wider path. Dave followed behind, chugging a Mana recovery potion.

  A roar shook the heavens and the ground.

  From above, fifteen dragons led by Malsour passed through the citadel’s soul energy shield that now only covered the inner walls of the citadel and was fluctuating wildly.

  Xelur soul energy beams attacked the dragons. Grand Demon Lords made to attack but the dragons had come in from nowhere. They unleashed their attacks, not on the ground but on the tower of the castle.

  The stone exploded outward with the force of the dragons’ attack.

  They split into two, attacking the sides of the tower that were already greatly weakened.

  An enraged shout came from the top of the tower as five Grand Demon Lords jumped from the tower and unleashed their attacks upon the dragons. Their soul energy-filled attacks cut through the air and landed on the dragons. Their Mana barriers were broken through but only three sustained any injuries against their scales.

  Malsour let out a cry as his scales revealed a bloody line.

  “Watch out, one of them up there is extremely powerful,” Malsour said even as the dragons rushed out of the now distorted soul energy shield.

  The tower tilted and then dropped. On top of the tower, a massive totem with glowing runes could be seen. As it shifted, the soul energy shield showed holes where grand working shells made it through, landing on the tower and the castle, opening up the defenses of these structures.