Beyond All Expectations (Emerilia Book 8)

by Michael Chatfield

  Around Deia, a red glow became brighter and brighter, her hair like ribbons of fire. She whispered a final word.

  The ground itself shook. Cracks appeared as trees and siege engines fell over. Those on the ground had to try to reach out to stabilize themselves.

  A pillar of red-hot magma erupted from the ground underneath the Nerhoun. Its tentacles were burnt away with ease as the magma made it inside and up into the Nerhoun’s brain, killing it.

  Deia stopped pouring power into her spell as the smoking corpse of the Nerhoun flopped to the ground.

  The aerial forces that had exited the first eastern castle’s ono were all in the air. Seeing the last Nerhoun fall, they charged forward, their eyes filled with cold fury. Those Nerhoun had stopped them from fighting the Nalheim directly, from helping to defend the first castle.

  Now these aerial forces were filled with boundless fighting spirit as they rushed over the battlefield. Sky screams and gryphons were there to meet them as they collided in the air.

  The DCA and those with different types of bombs came after this flying vanguard. They targeted the siege engines and big groups of Nalheim. Mana bombs lit up the Nalheim lines as they fell from the DCA aerial forces.

  Grand workings fired from dwarven artillery broke upon the ground. Shades erupted out of portals in the midst of the Nalheim; the sounds of battle reached those in the air.

  The Nalheim simply had too many numbers to be defeated so quickly. Even under these attacks, their Mana barriers held for the most part or they were able to fight off a good number of the shades.

  They were not simple opponents.

  Their trebuchets whirled as they unleashed their payloads. These rocks had been changed by the Nalheim: where they hit, a disrupting attack would obliterate anything within thirty meters.

  The Mana barrier of the second eastern castle took hit after hit, shaking from the multiple and continuous hits. Gryphons and sky screams attacked the dwarven artillery and repeater batteries again if they could get free of the aerial forces.

  The Nalheim simply had more people, so they could fight off the aerial forces and attack the castle at the same time.

  War lizards, released of their burdens, charged forward. Some of them still pulled the remaining siege towers that hadn’t been toppled. All of the Nalheim rushed forward under the fire of magical spells and ranged weaponry. Their hope lay in the Mana barrier that protected them from destruction.

  “Move to the second castle!” Deia yelled, her spell already dying and leaving a small mass of cooling rock. Her party was better at fighting on the ground. If they were up in the air, the gryphons and sky screams could outmaneuver them and tear them apart.

  Party Zero responded as one, rushing for the castle with all their speed.

  The Nalheim aerial attackers noticed this and started to give chase. Disrupting attacks filled the air around them and struck their personal Mana barriers, taking a large amount of their Mana reserves with each successful hit.

  Malsour and Induca took to the air.

  Black and red magical formations appeared behind Party Zero. Arrows of flames and shadow tore through the pursuing forces as Malsour and Induca in their dragon form moved to either side of Party Zero.

  Suzy’s Air giant fell apart into Air creations that returned to her bag of holding.

  Party Zero landed on the castle’s walls, their weapons ready as they helped the defenders out against the oncoming Nalheim.

  Suzy tossed out multiple cores, as well as their base materials. Creations made from multiple different Affinities jumped over the wall to fight the Nalheim below.

  Malsour and Induca wheeled around the castle before coming to land on the north and south outer walls, facing west where the Nalheim were coming from.

  Fire atronachs appeared around Induca; as a magical formation appeared in front of Malsour’s mouth. As he turned his head, he projected out hundreds of black arrows, raking the Nalheim on the ground or those trying to attack the castle’s defenses.

  Anna, Gurren, Lox, and Jung Lee sent powerful attacks out at the trebuchets. The Mana barrier for the castle was quickly weakening under the Nalheim’s attacks.

  Dave fired arrow after arrow at the Nalheim war lizards and their riders who had climbed over the walls as the siege towers drew closer. He held up his hand; a ball of lightning formed before it shot out at a siege tower. The Mana barrier around the siege tower changed colors at a rapid pace before breaking through. Under the heat and power of that ball of lightning, the siege tower erupted into flames.

  Still, there were tens of other siege towers and the Nalheim didn’t have anyone in them for fear that what had happened to the first tower would happen to the Nalheim if they were in the others.

  There was a sound of breaking glass as the Mana barrier finally broke.

  Dave didn’t even pause as he continued to unleash arrow after arrow. They hit their targets and exploded as he had conjured explosive runes within the arrows.

  Although Dave was fast with the bow, Deia seemed as if she had been born with a bow in her hands. She moved across the castle wall, her flaming arrows pulling sky screams and gryphons from the sky one after another, not once losing her rhythm.

  She used different Fire spells on her bow with ease. She fired arrows up into the sky; a rain of flaming arrows dropped from the sky a few moments later. Her arrows burrowed into the armored siege towers before exploding into flames that were powerful enough to set the towers on fire.

  Even as they took out multiple siege towers, the Nalheim’s ranged trebuchets and their Mana barriers stopped too many from falling to Party Zero and the Terra Alliance’s attacks.

  “Melee fighters, get ready! We hold them here!” Esa yelled out.

  The player guilds and the POE pulled out their melee weapons, readying themselves for the coming battle.

  A section of wall was destroyed by the disrupting boulder that had been hurled at the walls. It hit midway up the wall and the unsupported wall gave way. People screamed as they fell downward. Dark mages exerted their power, stopping the debris from falling on those who had been knocked off the wall and trying to rebuild the wall with the rubble.

  The wounded were stabilized with healing potions and pulled back to the ono and Terra on the other side for further medical treatment if they were in a bad way.

  “Incoming!” Suzy yelled.

  Anna let out an angered shout. A spear of Air whipped out and impacted on the boulder, breaking it apart.

  More and more hits were landing on the walls, breaking them apart.

  Even the dismounted Nalheim only needed a few hits with their spears before they could make a hole in the thick wall.

  “POE, pull back to the inner courtyard and castle!” the second eastern castle’s commander called out.

  The POEs pulled back as the players fought with everything they had.

  ***

  A man made from soul gem crystals stood. He was covered in magical coding that was so compact that it looked to be stylish lines all over his body. These lines glowed as the glass-like surface of the soul gems changed its color to black. The man was all one color, with soul gem eyes and glowing lines of code across his body.

  “Well, should go get my axe back.” The man moved to the door of the workshop. He opened the door and entered Pandora’s laboratory. He exited, passing through the ono, and entered Terra.

  People gave him odd looks as he took off in flight, headed across the city before he landed where there were a number of wounded coming out of a teleport pad.

  “Unidentified life-form, state your name,” Aleph automatons said as they moved from their alcoves around the teleport pad to confront the soul gem-made man.

  “Dad, can I go out and play?” the man asked.

  The Aleph automatons didn’t do anything.

  “Bet that crossed your circuits a bit, Shard. It’s me, Steve. Going to get my axe back. See you in a bit!” Steve smiled, waved at the Aleph automatons, and f
lew through the teleport pad and out of the ono that lay within the second eastern castle.

  He touched down and ran through the castle. As he ran, black armor started to cover his body as he grew taller. The armor looked like the Devastator armor that Lox and Gurren wore.

  “Hope that they looked after Alex for me,” Steve said as he left the castle.

  A massive boulder slammed through the outside walls, breaking it apart.

  Steve held up his arm. A shield of metal appeared along his arm, deflecting the debris from the boulder flying overhead; it slammed into the castle, destroying a part of the castle and opening up the third floor.

  Steve’s shield disappeared as he looked over the people around him.

  “Nice, brought out the big guns,” Steve said, seeing Induca and Malsour both in their dragon forms. “I lose one body and everyone goes on a kick-ass spree.”

  Steve looked at a halfling who was looking at him with confusion. “You leave for five minutes and everything goes to shit!” Steve shrugged as another section of wall exploded nearby from another trebuchet’s hit.

  “Y-yeah,” the man said.

  Steve looked up to where a group were still fighting on the wall. War lizards were climbing up the walls and fighting them directly.

  “Should rename us Party Badass!” Steve laughed and shot off toward Party Zero.

  ***

  Lox slammed his shield into a war lizard, throwing it and its rider off the wall he stood on. He turned; his shield took a disrupting attack and then a spearhead of another war lizard rider’s spear. Lox’s sword jabbed out, opening the war lizard’s neck. The beast faltered, throwing the Nalheim off-balance.

  Lox pushed sideways with his shield, making the Nalheim’s spear go wide and leave them open as his sword stabbed outward again.

  The two blows had been just seconds apart. The Nalheim looked at Lox with two faces filled with disbelief.

  “The Prodigal Son returns! Bah bah baaaahhh!” someone said as they landed on the wall. A set of Devastator armor uppercut a war lizard in the face, forcing it upward before kicking it in the stomach and launching it into another coming over the wall. Both of them tumbled back over the wall.

  “Pow—right in the kisser!” the armor said. The voice wasn’t Gurren’s.

  “Who are you?” Lox asked.

  “Dude, I’m hurt. Like truly, if I had a heart, it might be broken.” The man casually slapped a war lizard head that raised over the wall and snarled at the man. “Talking here!” the man yelled at the war lizard that was tossed sideways because of the hit; its claws scrambled to find purchase as it fell toward the ground.

  Lox fought off a war lizard and its rider who had leapt onto the wall. A sky scream landed, blasting Lox in the face with a stunning attack.

  “Move, bitch!” The man grabbed a spear and hurled it through the sky scream and its rider with so much power that a fist-sized hole appeared through them both.

  The man jumped forward in a blur, seeing the war lizard as it lurched forward, its mouth opened to bite down on Lox’s head.

  “Get out the way!” the man singsonged as he kicked the war lizard in the face.

  It bit Lox’s shoulder.

  Lox recovered from the sky scream attack, moving his sword enough to deflect the Nalheim’s spear. He punched one of the heads with the pommel of his sword, releasing it and opening his palm to the other. A Mana spearhead took the second in the face, removing its face. Lox did the same to the other head he’d punched.

  “Lox, dude, where’s Alex?” the man asked.

  “You’re fucking insane,” Lox said, in his professional opinion.

  “Ha ha, dude—good one. But seriously, where’s my axe? I tossed it to you guys. Does Gurren have it?” the man said.

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull but now isn’t the time, buddy,” Lox said through gritted teeth.

  “Dude, it’s me—it’s Steve! I said ’tis nothing but a scratch before that asshole hit me in the face. Might have been better to tell you that I would come back in the new body that I was building, but eh, still good last words for the old get-up,” Steve said.

  Lox just looked at the faceless Devastator armor in front of him.

  “So, where’s my axe? Don’t want to fight with my hands the entire time,” Steve said.

  “Gurren has it,” Lox said blankly, his mind in a state of shock.

  “Woo-hoo! Don’t worry, baby! Daddy’s home!” Steve said, running past.

  Lox looked to the running Steve, or the man who said that he was Steve in Devastator armor.

  A war lizard jumped onto the wall and Lox didn’t have any more time to think about Steve coming back from the dead as he fought off the war lizard.

  ***

  Gurren was covering archers who were firing arrow after arrow into the skies and the creatures that lay below. He had just killed off another war lizard and was watching a siege tower that was next to a wall. Tens of Nalheim were already clawing their way up the inner ladders within the tower, ready to charge up and through the doors and bridge that would drop into the castle, allowing them to surge onto the walls.

  Then a fist tapped on his shoulder. He turned to find Lox.

  “What you doing over here?” Gurren asked.

  “Daddy needs his Alex,” the man said, clearly not Gurren, as he opened and closed his hand.

  “Who are you?” Gurren demanded.

  “Seriously, I blow myself up one friggin’ time and you lose all sense of humor. Party Bummer might be better than bad ass,” the man muttered to himself.

  “I asked once—I don’t want to ask again,” Gurren growled.

  “Gurren, gimme my axe! I tossed it to you lot and Lox didn’t have it, so you’ve probably got it. Also, you know why Suzy doesn’t have a soul binding contract with me anymore? Feels weird,” Steve said.

  “Steve?”

  “Yup. Like the new look? I was thinking the Trio of Darkness? Too punk rock?” Steve asked.

  “How? What?”

  “I’m not flesh and bone like you dolts—more runes and power consumption. Axe?” Steve held out his hand.

  “But the armor?”

  “Oh, well, I made it—not permanent right now, just a construct from a soul gem. Need some more materials before I can make my own version,” Steve said while Gurren stared at him and pulled out Steve’s axe from his spatial ring.

  “Oh, Alex, Daddy missed you!” Steve grabbed the axe and patted it lovingly. “I know, I know, I shouldn’t have thrown you at the hard floor—look at you, all scuffed.” Steve’s hand swung out, holding the axe, taking off a war lizard’s face with one blow before being cradled once more in Steve’s arms. “There, there, see—you’re perfectly fine now. Come on, Daddy’s gotta go to work.”

  Another person joined the Party Zero chat.

  “Hello, fellow mental patients! Miss me?” Steve said.

  “What? How is this possible?” Suzy asked.

  “Oh thanks. Seriously, you guys are the worst to surprise! Well, I kind of made a backup of myself within Pandora’s box. When I broke my other body, it started a process to upload me to my replacement body. Gears and coding is cool and all, but soul gems and magical coding is much better!” Steve said.

  “I wondered what the hell you were building in there,” Dave said, sounding a bit emotional.

  “Might have been nice to know,” Malsour agreed.

  “Well, I thought it would have been cooler this way, you mopey bastards.” Steve laughed.

  Gurren felt as if he were flying. He laughed, getting back his friend from the edge of death.

  “Well, good to have you back. Now we need to bleed these Nalheim. We’ve got nearly forty thousand people here. There are about one hundred and fifty thousand Nalheim. We need to hold for a half hour per Josh’s orders,” Deia said.

  “You people need to seriously talk to management about extended lunch breaks,” Steve complained.

  “Yeah, that’s our Steve,
” Suzy said, her voice shaky but filled with happiness.

  BAE Chapter 19: On a Razor’s Edge

  Dwayne moved forward with the forces under his command. They had all gathered from the different castles that surrounded Goblin Mountain. There were aerial forces, dwarven warclans, and warriors who rode various beasts. They marched through the teleport pad within Terra and exited into the first eastern castle.

  His notifications blinked at him but he dismissed them as he moved with the forces under his command. Kim was also with him.

  As they exited, the fighting forces moved to the eastern wall, where the Dark mages had made massive openings in the walls for metal doors that swung outward to show the Nalheim and the second eastern castle.

  Dwayne and his forces moved out of the castle gates. Dwarven warclans marched in cadence as the mounted riders moved with powerful grace upon their mounts. The dwarves formed into their warbands and warclans, making orderly lines beyond the walls, facing the rear of the Nalheim.

  Kim and her mages moved to the walls. Dwarven artillery fired nonstop, making it hard to talk without using the party chat functions. The mages spread out over the different casting balconies.

  In the distance, Dwayne could see the walls crumbling around the second eastern castle as well as the massive spells being hurled out by the defenders and the artillery shells that exploded upon impacting the Nalheim’s Mana barriers.

  Dwayne watched as the forces under his command moved with quick efficiency. His eyes continued to dart over to the second eastern castle as he saw Stone Raiders who were part of the fighting force push off the attacking Nalheim.

  They were on par with the Nalheim. It was a fierce battle but the Stone Raiders Portal Purge, Fellox Guild and the rudimentary Terra Alliance had a castle to defend. Players were willing to die for their friends, whether they happened to be POE or fellow players.

  Even with the terrifying battle, Dwayne could see the excitement on these players’ faces. I wonder what they would think if they knew the truth. He pushed those thoughts down, wishing for his forces to assemble quicker in order to lead their reinforcements into battle.