Stone Raiders' Return (Emerilia Book 6)

by Michael Chatfield

  The air above the formations turned into a sea of magical firepower, counter spells and attack spells annihilating one another.

  Kim let out a laugh as she lowered down to the ground.

  She had trained her people in groups of five: one to be the main caster, the others to supply power and alterations to the spell formation, decreasing the power draw and allowing them to use some of their strongest spells.

  A Phoenix of Fire seemed to force its way out of another caster’s chest. Another called down arcane lightning, the blue lightning leaving craters and glassy ground around the Mana barriers they hit.

  Loughbreck’s mages kept fighting with everything they had; their own soldiers with even a slight magical talent fired off any spells they had to try to counteract the incoming attacks.

  “Switch.” Kim moved away from the front of the casting balcony. The next mage moved up, Mana gathering around them. Kim cast arcane sight. Seeing the spell formation the caster had made, she and the other mages went to work, changing the spell, simplifying it, giving it power and greater structure.

  The air seemed to distort around their hand, first in a small swirl, and then growing into a massive white hurricane that slammed into the formations.

  They had moved forward, now within just three hundred meters.

  The barriers started to fail. Anyone who was unprotected was picked off with Dwayne and Esa’s forces’ long-ranged attacks.

  “Minefield!” Kim called out.

  Earth mages who had been staying their hands moved up, calling on their spells.

  Others cast their power into the walls.

  It sucked up the power. The earth shifted under Loughbreck’s troops as power activated spells that Florence and her people had been working on for the last day.

  Runes and formations seemed to glow under the feet of the oncoming army.

  Chapter 21: Shock and Awe

  Loughbreck was stunned by the power that the Stone Raiders’ casters were able to put out. Though most of his barriers had held, they had been enchanted by some of the best crafters in Gudalo and then fueled with grand soul gems and monitored by mages.

  He had thought that the Light spears were the strongest spells that the Stone Raiders could come up with, but that had been merely a cover. They’d used the bright weapons to mess up the formation’s night vision as other spells slammed down onto their positions.

  Thankfully, Loughbreck hadn’t skimped out on the barriers. He had made them a priority, considering they’d need to go up against Sigaird and his royal castle’s wizards. Otherwise, his soldiers would have already been leveled.

  However, those valuable barriers were being drained by these Stone Raiders, forcing his mages to channel their power into the soul gems and enchantments to keep them active.

  He cancelled his night vision; there was little need with all of the Mana that was being thrown around. The ground was smoking. Fires showed here and there through what was left of the fields. Craters of glass showed where lightning strikes had impacted.

  “Have that grand working ready to go as soon as possible! We need to crack that fortress open, now!” Loughbreck yelled.

  Once they were inside, they could deal with those mages a lot easier.

  A massive hurricane projected out from a mage, tearing through the first rank of barriers that were starting to fail.

  “Ground attack!” someone called out. The very ground shifted and moved.

  Loughbreck’s blood went cold as runes and spell formations started to rise. Power glowed through them, filling the lines and runes, and advancing toward Loughbreck’s position.

  “Traps! Get your mages to break those traps under our feet!” Loughbreck looked to his formations. There was no way of stopping his troops. They were disciplined, but now they were committed to the fight; there was no stopping them.

  They surged forward in their own groups, eager to close with the Stone Raiders and get some payback.

  “We only have the grand workings left,” the mage commander said.

  “I don’t care if you have to use a grand working! Stop those traps from activating!” Loughbreck yelled.

  “Yessir!” the mage said, rattled at Loughbreck’s clear anger.

  Mages who had been heldin reserve cast spells that sank into the ground, trying to stop the progress of the activating magic that filled the pre-made spell formations.

  Here and there, spell formations stopped, turning into burnt ground, though there were hundreds of the traps and it was harder to figure out what spell it was and then find a way to break it, than it was for the Stone Raiders to power it.

  A barrier-covered group stepped on a trap.

  Water spikes flew outward, tearing into anything that was within its area of effect. Mana barriers only stopped attacks coming in; they didn’t stop them going outward. Three different groups were within the range of the spell. Only one of the groups made it through relatively unscathed.

  More and more traps were activated. Explosions ripped through the air; hexes made people rip their armor off and claw at their faces. Light blossomed, evaporating barrier groups. Every Affinity seemed present and willing to tear into Loughbreck’s formations.

  His people made it within ten meters when they seemed to disappear, screaming as the ground gave way.

  ***

  “Prepare for bombing run!” Malkur yelled out. His word passed to all of his aerial forces. He cast a glance down to the forces that were now filling the fortress.

  Dwarven Warclans were at each of the three gates that led out of the fortress. Around them were the ground forces of the DCA.

  Elven rangers moved with four of the Dwarven Warclans. They wore simple leathers and some pieces of armor, but their economical motion and cold looks in their eyes sent an excited shiver down Malkur’s back.

  A hungry smile crossed his face as he continued to look over the formations.

  All of the Stone Raiders stood, waiting for Loughbreck’s forces. When he looked over the arrayed people, it wasn’t those forces that scared him. It was the Stone Raiders.

  Intermingled with the defenders, the Stone Raiders stood ready, their faces full of rage at the oncoming forces.

  They had fled at Selhi—they had needed to flee—but here, here they stood their ground.

  Mana barriers slowly covered the allied POEs. The Stone Raiders waited for their commands. With one word, they would pull back. Here they trusted in their POE friends and allies. For a Player to trust in an NPC to do their job, it took the Players coming to know the NPCs as their own friends.

  This kind of mutual defense had never been seen before in Emerilia.

  Stone Raiders’ melee fighters held the first floor of the wall, with their mages on the various balconies. Dwarven mages secured the Dwarven artillery and created Earthen pillars, rising up on top of guard houses and other firing positions that Lucy pointed out.

  The other forces sent by different powers were talking to Florence, who was organizing and sent them to either the wall or put their formations behind the Dwarves.

  Aleph automatons stood in the openings along the walls. All of them now had the same armbands that they had made for the DCA.

  They were still using their repeaters. Josh watched the artillery as it fired towards the enemy.

  Everything moved with quick efficiency. There was no time for wasted effort or half-attempts.

  Malkur looked back onto the formations that were attacking the Stone Raiders’ Guild Hall. Their army was nearly two hundred and seventy thousand strong. The forces within the Stone Raiders’ walls were close to one hundred and thirty thousand.

  The enemy’s front lines were now just ten meters away from the Stone Raiders’ fortress. The ground gave way. The illusion spells disappeared as the ground crumbled, revealing a ten-meter drop ending in cursed and hexed metal spikes.

  “Josh to aerial DCA—clear for bombing run,” Josh said.

  “Understood.” Malkur opened a channel to his f
orces.

  “Launch, launch, launch!” Malkur barked. Taking his own orders, he ran and leaped from the top of the wall. He quickly gained altitude and the aerial forces followed him into the sky.

  “High-altitude bombing run. Do not dive in,” Malkur warned, banking. Taking them away from the fight, he flapped his wings while moving the bands on his left wrist, which altered the commands for his chest plate.

  He wheeled again, coming in lower and faster than before; he pulled his wings in slightly to gain more speed. To his sides were two more flight leaders; the others followed behind.

  “Incoming spells!” someone called out.

  The Stone Raiders’ mages tried to counter-spell most of what was being thrown at the aerial DCA.

  Malkur adjusted his right wristband. He held his hands outward. Spearheads flashed into existence, racing toward the oncoming spells.

  They impacted one another, pushing some off course or destroying them. Still, a few got through. Barriers flashed into existence, but still some DCA were hit. Their flight partners dove, grabbing those who were wounded, banking away and returning to the fortress.

  “Ready bombs! Nearing drop zone!” Malkur called out. The air rushed past him as hebanked and dovepast spells and ranged attacks. There was now less room between them and the casters,forcing them to take evasive action or get hit.

  He fought against air currents altered by spells and dodged the more visible attacks. It was tiring work, but not one of them slowed or even tried to complain. The Stone Raiders had stood with them and they had vowed to do the same. Fatigue was nothing in their eyes; training had taught them to embrace the pain. It showed that they were alive.

  “We are entering the drop zone! Release when ready!” Malkur rolled to the side of an exploding fireball. The heat washed over him as his wings snapped back out, catching the air as he twisted his left armband.

  Swirled balls of blue light lit up the sky like Chinese lanterns. A few were caught by spells, causing the thin containment spell to rupture and explode in mid-air.

  Mages and archers from the attacking formations fired upward at the incoming bombs. They took out about forty percent of them. Another twenty percent went wide of their targets, but there were thousands of the bombs falling.

  Barriers took the impacts, showing their expert manufacture as many continued to hold. Others that had been weakened by previous attacks or swarmed with bombs ruptured. The defenders or different flights of the DCA paid them special attention before the now defenseless barrier groups rushed to join another barrier group or be cut down.

  Malkur twisted his wristband again, turning the bombs and spears off as he flapped his wings to gain distance between him and the formations that had now bridged the gap over the cursed spike pits.

  Malkur wheeled around in time to see a massive stream of water erupt from among Loughbreck’s ranks and slam into the Stone Raiders’ fortress wall in several places. The wall held on for a few seconds before holes started to appear.

  The water turned into minions of all shapes and kinds, charging to meet the formations inside.

  ***

  A savage smile crossed Loughbreck’s face as one of the higher-tier grand workings was activated within the Stone Raiders’ Mana barrier.

  The original spell was altered, creating a dozen arms made of water that seemed to drill through the walls of the Stone Raiders’ fortress. Runes flared to life, fighting the power, but they weren’t able to contain it all. The water opened up holes in the walls; the spell reverted back to its original function as Water spirits formed from the puddles, and charged through the new openings.

  Magical scaling ladders were tossed down, creating bridges through the new holes in the walls. His forces continued to charge onward.

  They had only lost thirty or forty thousand soldiers in the entire advance. Loughbreck hadn’t expected to lose as many, but he still had three more grand workings and he was confident in his soldiers’ abilities.

  Some of the Stone Raiders along the walls started to glow with different light, but it wasn’t the same light that came with mages.

  “They’re buffing their forces.” Loughbreck’s eyes thinned as the buffed forces left their positions, moving within the fortress.

  “Buff our forces,” Loughbreck said to the mage commander next to him.

  The mage commander made to open his mouth, but quickly shut it, sending out the orders.

  Loughbreck knew that they weren’t supposed to use the enhancements now, but rather against the royal palace. Though nothing about this fight with the Stone Raiders is going as planned! So far, they had shown themselves as capable adversaries. It was time that he thought of them as such.

  Ground-shaking booms could be heard from on top of the walls, followed by a whistling noise.

  “What is that?” Loughbreck turned to the lieutenant who had been relaying scouting reports. “The scouts report it looks like artillery of some kind, but the guns are pointed nearly straight up.”

  “Power all barriers on this side! Prepare to receive Dwarven artillery! Break out the soul gems for the barrier enchantments!” Loughbreck barked. His orders were passed out and acted upon as a whistling noise filled the air.

  Loughbreck looked up to the walls and within the fortress.

  Halos of expended Mana created cones around the artillery’s fire base.

  Loughbreck’s face hardened as he looked over the battle, opening his interface to talk to the different groups and see an overlaying map of the Stone Raiders’ Guild Hall.

  ***

  “Come on, you lazy sacks of slime! Shift that artillery! My grandmother could do better than you and she’s three hundred and seventy-nine!” the Dwarven artillery commander said.

  Lox grinned at the familiar sound as artillery cannon’s screws were rotated, bringing the barrels down from their elevated position and over to the breaches.

  “Rank seven to nine, to your sides! Move!” Warband leaders moved their people out of the way, creating holes between the Dwarven ranks facing the breaches.

  “My God! Put your fecking backs into it or I’ll have you lifting these damn artillery pieces to put a fecking backbone in ye!” Artillery commanders continued to “motivate” their forces. The burly artillery gunners finished their movements nearly as one, checking their pieces.

  “Gun five ready!”

  “Gun eight ready!”

  “Gun four ready!”

  Up and down the line, guns called out their readiness as Water creatures raced across the open ground between the walls and the Dwarven formations.

  “Archers, fire!” an Elven commander called out. Arrows flew over the Dwarves, slamming into the Water creatures and slowing their advance.

  The Elves had new arrows in their hands and were releasing within just a few seconds, their skill with a bow equal to a Dwarven shield bearers’ skill in shield formations.

  “Guns ready!” the overall artillery commander of the two Warclans’ artillery barked over the command net.

  Nearly any other race of creatures would have thought the tactic insane to fire through their formations and would have been blown over by the force of the cannons.

  The Dwarves nearest to the sides of the divide made through their formation slammed their shields into the ground, interconnecting them down their ranks.

  “Fire!” the combined Warclan leader growled.

  The artillery cannons bellowed behind the Dwarven lines, passing through the corridor created through the Dwarves’ Warclans. The Dwarves interlocked shields reinforced one another. They didn’t move an inch, even with a magical artillery spell passing just feet away from them.

  The Water creatures that had been advancing through the breaches in the walls were bowled over by the Dwarven artillery.

  “Reload!” the artillery commander called out.

  “Archers, fire!” the Elven commander yelled.

  Arrows once again rained down on the oncoming forces. Elves fired, and then b
owed as their fellows behind them fired. They came up again, pulling their bowstring and firing before they dropped again and repeated the process.

  In ten seconds, there were nearly fifteen volleys of arrows let loose into the air.

  “Artillery, ready!”

  “Elves, stay!”

  “Fire!”

  The Elves paused their firing, the artillery letting loose once again.

  It looked as if they would be able to hold off the attacking forces with their ranged attacks for about five artillery volleys.

  Then, the wall started to crumble as the attacking mages opened up the breaches, tearing down sections of the wall. Other breaches started to appear along the walls. Defenders moved away from them.

  “Artillery, change to fire directly on the breaches! Elves, clans! Form up!” the Warclan leader yelled out. At different locations, more breaches were opening. The Dwarven Warclans readied themselves for what was to come.

  Lox watched the clans move back into position. Dwarves marched out and snapped forward, recreating lines that had been pulled apart for the cannons.

  Artillery was adjusted and elevated to fire over the walls and into the enemy on the other side. Artillery commanders talked to spotters, asking for range, height, and various items to change their point of aim.

  Lox looked to Party Zero. They were on the second floor of the wall, looking down at the forces moving inside the walls. Aleph watched the stairs, making sure that none of Esamael’s second army made it up to the mages who were waiting there.

  Dwarves were the best at dealing with large numbers on the ground, so it had been left to them. The Stone Raiders, in the meantime, were moving around, casting spells. The Dwarven artillery broke open barriers with concentrated fire; the Stone Raiders sent in spells to clear out anything hiding under the barriers.

  Lox shifted his grip on his sword.

  “Anxious?” Anna asked, relaxing on a pillar, a grin on her face.

  “Just hate this waiting around crap,” Lox growled.