The First Seal

by Jared Zakarian

  She needed to find someone—no longer worried about her thirst but concerned about what was happening.

  ◆◆◆

  The battle raged on beyond the walls as magic and Drey’kan besieged the evil forces below, and archers filled the air with arrows, preventing the flyers from reaching the walls.

  The ground in the military’s outer ring began to vibrate. The soldiers looked around in curiosity as their footing wavered. Many hoped their neighbor could give them a reason for why the ground shook, but they could not.

  Suddenly, explosions erupted around the soldiers as massive tunnelers burst through clouds of soil; debris rained down and dirt billowed as the numerous mole-like demons propelled themselves out of the ground.

  The bulky creatures charged toward the nearest soldiers, ripping through their armor and confusing the defenders in a moment of shock and awe.

  The formations wavered but remained steadfast. Reserves of trained soldiers filled the gaps where defenders fell.

  Evil foot soldiers began to pour out of the newly made tunnels and used the underground avenues to infiltrate behind the primary defensive lines and the walls.

  The ranks of reserve swordsmen created multilayered ring formations around the tunnels, securing the weak points right before demons surged from their mouths, roaring and raging. The elven swordsmen sliced into the evil creatures as they emerged into the light. Their blades pierced their adversaries and withdrew superheated and molten.

  The elven forces were aware of the demons’ physical characteristics, made known to them by Caedmon Conn. Each soldier was outfitted with four swords on their belts, so that as one melted away another could take its place. When a soldier had used all his swords, he retreated behind the lines, allowing another soldier to take his place.

  Squires sprinted across the battlefield, heroically replenishing soldiers with swords as rapidly as they were able, a tactic never before needed, its trial run made in combat.

  The layered ring defenses with their squire supply chain held against the surging demons as they rose out of the ground. The archers rained death from atop the walls across the farmlands below. Trebuchets and catapults launched dense stone, and ballistae bolts hummed through the air. The sounds of war filled the atmosphere.

  Ehreion and Ireli released torrents of magic at the waves of evil. Fireballs blazed across the sky, raining down and burning weaker demons in an instant, stronger ones charging through. Ireli used the wind currents, throwing demons across the battlefield in gusts of undeniable strength. She swept her hands from side to side, blowing demons into the tornados and magma chasms.

  “Ehreion, their numbers are too great; they are beginning to break through!” Ireli shouted while gasping for air.

  Ehreion laughed crazily. “Watch this.”

  The dwarf stopped firing magic from his hands and looked up to the sky. He lifted his hands high, and his focus grew intense. His arms began to shake as he struggled and pulled at something beyond.

  Ireli continued to throw demons across the battlefield, burning them in the lava or throwing them high into the air with tornados to come crashing down in a crushing impact.

  After a moment, her eyes caught something descending from the sky. Her eyes widened as she watched massive rocks lit with fire falling through the dark clouds.

  “What is that?” she exclaimed.

  “Don’t know, but I made it.” He glanced over to her and smiled.

  She took a step back from him and his crazed expression.

  “You all right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, this is amazing!”

  The mammoth falling, fiery rocks slammed into the ground outside the walls, crushing demons beneath and rippling the lands around them as dirt flew in all directions and the ground shook from the sky-born attack. Demons flew in all directions.

  Ehreion kept the falling attack raging as rock after rock of fire descended across the destroyed farmlands below, battering their enemy as they struggled to advance.

  “Push them back with your winds!” Ehreion roared as he concentrated on the skies above.

  Ireli threw her hands out wide and pushed forward with the magic heart. Her hands pressed the air before her, and the winds wailed below, screaming past the demons and throwing them from their hooves. They tumbled and roared in frustration, their efforts succumbing to the Ikalreev magic.

  “They will need something more to get through this,” Ehreion said with crazed glee.

  Their onslaught raged, and the defense was holding at the outer wall while the soldiers below dealt with the tunnelers and their underground passageways.

  ◆◆◆

  On the main road, in the forge and trade district, waited Lyvnevar with his army of horsemen. They were set to charge through the outer gate as a renewed front should the defenses begin to waver.

  The elven horsemen were vigilant and prepared to sacrifice their lives for duty and honor, their armor expertly crafted and their swords sharp. Their armored horses waited patiently for their riders’ command.

  Around Lyvnevar was stationed a squad of dwarven war hammers, the guard detail that Baskla assigned to him. Their armor was formidable and intimidating, with the style and artistic touches of dwarven forgers.

  Lyvnevar’s army could hear war beyond the inner gate but held their ground.

  A sudden rumbling could be heard, and the horses began to stagger as the ground shook. A moment later, the ground burst open, and tunnelers exploded out through flying dirt and rock. Their massive clawed hands raked down at the nearest horsemen as they descended from their explosive emergence.

  The horses shied away from the sudden appearance of the dangerous creatures. Some horsemen were bucked off their mounts, and others were carried away as the horses sprinted away from the demons.

  “Hold formation! Strike them down!” Lyvnevar commanded.

  He turned his horse around and charged a tunneler with his spear pointed forward. The mole-like demon sidestepped and ducked beneath the long spear, grabbing the spear on its way under. The demon’s massive forearms pulled the spear and ripped the general off his mount with undeniable might.

  Lyvnevar flew through the air and tumbled across the ground. As his momentum ceased, he quickly gathered himself and stood up, preparing to defend. He focused and saw his spear was too far away. He quickly unsheathed his sword and lifted it just in time to parry a massive clawed hand as its raking attack barely missed his abdomen.

  He maneuvered, ducking and sidestepping another attack, then sliced the demon’s stomach. As his sword slid through and left the demon’s body, he could see the tip of his sword had melted away, leaving a smooth curved end three inches shorter.

  The general did not have time to think about it or fear his sword melting; he pushed through with resolve and maneuvered around another series of clawed attacks from the tunneler.

  Lyvnevar made a final dodge and planted a foot, then thrust upward with his sword. Its tip slid up through the tunneler’s skull and emerged through its crest. The demon instantly went limp and collapsed to the ground.

  He removed his sword from the demon but realized it was no longer usable as its metal was now partially melted. He tossed his sword to the side in visible frustration.

  Lyvnevar scanned his soldiers and saw they were in life-and-death struggles with adversaries three times their size. They worked together, but men still fell while they battled with the raging demons.

  “Aim for their heads!” Lyvnevar roared.

  He saw their strategies shift instantly and their stances redirect their attacks at the demons’ heads. It did not take long for them to kill the remaining tunnelers and establish control over the main road again.

  “Commander!” An elven soldier ran toward General Lyvnevar. “I have news from Baskla.”

  The general turned around and gave his attention to the approaching runner, but before he could respond, Saalkain leaped through the air and thrust a dagger into the running soldier’s f
orehead and another up through the back of his neck.

  “Saalkain!” the general shouted.

  The soldier was dead, and his body went limp. As the runner’s body hit the ground, it transformed into a deceiver with black skin and no face. Hidden daggers slid from the deceiver’s hands and showed the runner’s true intention: to kill the general in the chaos of battle.

  Lyvnevar was surprised. “Thank you, Saalkain.”

  Saalkain’s hood had fallen during his maneuver, revealing his Novrhaanian black skin.

  The Shadow Guardian removed his daggers from the dead demon and nodded at the general. “Be careful, they are beginning their strategic attacks from within. They will try again.”

  The ground began to rumble again.

  The two them looked at each other with knowing glances.

  “Defend yourselves; they are coming again!” the general shouted at his men.

  Tunnelers burst out of the ground and raced through billowing dirt clouds. One made straight for Saalkain, but he did not move. He pointed one of his loose sleeves toward the beast’s head and released his hidden daggers. They shot toward the creature, and four pierced its skull, several others barely missing on either side of its broad head.

  The tunneler fell and collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

  “How did you know?” Lyvnevar gasped.

  “I always go for the head,” Saalkain said with a confused glance. “You don’t?”

  The thin filament lines reeled in the daggers, pulling them from the demon’s head. They retracted into Saalkain’s sleeve, ready for use again.

  Lyvnevar didn’t know what to say in response, but he did notice something else that was unusual. “Why didn’t your daggers melt?”

  Saalkain looked at Lyvnevar but said nothing. His expression was unreadable. Without another word, Saalkain began to walk away, leaving the general to wonder if there was something unusual about the Shadow Guardian’s blades. Metal always melted when it pierced demon flesh.

  ◆◆◆

  On the outer wall above the gate, Gavina shouted commands at her archers. The air was filled with the sounds of war, and the ground in the outer ring was running with elven blood.

  She could see that the tunnelers were causing problems for Baskla as demons rose from the dark tunnels.

  The flyers had been kept at bay as they tried to maneuver through the endless waves of arrows. The number of full quivers dwindled, and the stacks at the archers’ feet grew smaller. The archers’ arms began to ache, but they pushed through the dull pain, knowing they had no other option.

  Gavina watched as meteors fell from the sky and slammed into the farmlands below, the shock waves rocking the demons and throwing them around chaotically. The oil barrels that the army had set in the fields below began to ignite and spray the enemy with liquid fire.

  Suddenly, a roar of screams rose from the ground behind the outer gate. Gavina looked down and saw that a massive snake had emerged through one of the tunneler passageways. It threw soldiers off their feet with a swing of its head, then devoured several others with its wide jaw.

  Yet another sight that Gavina found hard to believe; she was in shock at the abomination.

  The snake’s body was very long as it had not yet fully emerged from the tunnel, but its head was far from the tunnel entrance.

  Soldiers stabbed at it all along its length, but their blades melted away after the first strike. The snake brought havoc to the soldiers below as they scrambled to fight the beast. Dwarven soldiers and berserker-maidens entered the fray, slashing at the serpent’s scales.

  Just then, a scream ripped Gavina’s attention from the scene below. Her gaze whipped to the side, and she watched an elven soldier fly off the wall. A flyer screeched above the falling soldier and dove into the outer ring.

  She glanced at her soldiers and saw that the flyers had begun to break through their hail of arrows.

  “Men, target the nearest flyers! Bring them down!” Gavina commanded.

  Another screech sounded, and another archer found himself in hand-to-hand combat with a flyer’s talons. Those near him broke fire and advanced to help the struggling soldier.

  “General! I am out of ammunition!” an archer barked down the line.

  “Someone hand him a quiver!” Gavina shouted.

  “We are running out of arrows; what should we do, General?” another archer yelled.

  “Unsheathe your swords; protect your brothers who still have arrows! Archers, hold fire until you can guarantee a kill.”

  Gavina was worried about the scarcity of arrows but knew they would have to hold their positions on the walls for as long as possible. Swathes of demons fell beyond the city walls, but they still flowed from the tree line beyond the farms. She hoped the Drey’kan still fought in the forests to protect the city. The billowing smoke from all the fire made it hard to see much in the distance.

  ◆◆◆

  An elven runner sprinted around the rings of soldiers surrounding tunneler passageways and leaped over the serpent’s thick body, rolling over its scaly back.

  The soldier was covered in blood, red and black mixed together. His short sword was in his hand and was dripping with black blood. The runner was breathing hard but raced forward with elven grace, weaving through the growing chaos behind the outer gate.

  “Baskla!” the runner shouted, dodging exploding rock to his right as another tunneler erupted from the ground.

  “General Baskla!” His shout rose again as he wove through soldiers rushing to block the new passageway.

  “Over here!” Baskla yelled in return.

  The runner turned sharply and stood in Baskla’s presence.

  The seasoned general was calm and focused, his sword still in its sheath. He scanned his men’s formations and actively assessed the enemy’s tactics.

  “Report,” Baskla said as his attention remained on the soldiers.

  “The west wall has fallen! Orcs are battling with the demons in the outer ring. The archers have been decimated, and Nilver has had to evacuate the remaining men from the outer wall. Its structure is failing under gargantuan assault,” the runner said.

  Baskla showed no hesitation as he barked direct commands. “Run to the giants and trolls on the east flank. Tell them to move and assist the west wall. Now!”

  “Yes, sir!” The runner sprinted off toward the east wall.

  “Scindia Battalion, get those ballistae operational!” Baskla shouted.

  A formation of men broke off from a main unit yet to advance. They moved swiftly toward three ballistae that were sitting off the side of the main road behind the outer gate. Their original operators had been killed by the massive serpent after it had emerged from the underground passageway.

  “Maintain ring defense! Backfill!” Baskla commanded.

  Another formation of swordsmen broke off from a holding formation and sprinted to fill in gaps in failing rings around passageway entrances. The demons still flowed up through the depths, surging and raging to break through the elven defense.

  “Lieutenant,” Baskla said.

  A nearby soldier rushed over to him and stood at attention.

  “Inform Gavina to begin evacuating the outer wall. Order retreat to the inner wall,” Baskla calmly commanded.

  “Yes, sir!” The lieutenant sprinted away.

  “I need a runner,” Baskla barked.

  A new soldier ran up next to him and stood beside him at the edge of his peripheral vision.

  “Find Caed—” Baskla was cut off.

  A sharp blade exited the soldier’s face next to him, and as the life faded from the soldier, his skin turned black, and his face lost all detail.

  Baskla turned toward the dead deceiver, unfazed and without fear and somewhat annoyed. He saw the dark-skinned Shadow Guardian next to him, arm extended and holding a blade through the deceiver’s skull.

  “Saalkain.” The general nodded toward him, and barked again, “I need a runner!”

 
A new runner came to the general.

  Baskla turned to Saalkain. “This one?”

  Saalkain nodded to the general that the new runner was an elf.

  “Find Caedmon. Bring him to me,” Baskla said.

  “Yes, sir!” The runner sprinted off.

  Saalkain stepped up next to the general and watched the fighting alongside the weathered elf. The snake was wreaking havoc on the lines, and the tunneler passageways grew in number.

  “Would you like me to take care of that one for you?” Saalkain asked.

  Baskla turned toward him with a questioning glance. “The snake?”

  “Yes, would you like me to kill it?”

  Baskla waved a hand toward the snake in an annoyed gesture. “Be my guest, Guardian.”

  “Have your men point those ballistae toward the outer gate doors and have them ready to fire.”

  Baskla stared at Saalkain for a moment, not quite believing the guardian could actually kill the beast, then shouted at the soldiers, “Scindia Battalion! Rotate the ballistae! Load and face the outer gate!”

  “When I have it against the door, fire the bolts,” Saalkain ordered.

  “Fine.”

  Saalkain raced off toward the long serpent, targeting its hind length. He withdrew two daggers from hidden sheaths and leaped up onto the serpent’s tail. He jabbed both his daggers into the imbricate scales, piercing through the natural armor.

  “Vacunnul’olacer,” Saalkain whispered as he released the hilts of his two daggers. The two daggers moved by themselves and pierced deeper into the scales.

  Saalkain leaped off the snake and sprinted toward the outer gate. “Get your men back, Baskla!”

  “Eclipse. Pangolins. Separate and retreat!” The formations broke and split as men rushed left or right, allowing a path toward the main doors.

  Saalkain spun midstride and shouted, “Exe’incen.”

  The twin daggers exploded into flame, and a voidlike portal expanded outward from the daggers, several feet in diameter. The dark distorting space consumed a section of the serpent’s body and the stone beneath it.

  The snake cried out and hissed in pain as its massive triangular head wrapped around toward its tail. It looked at its tail as it vanished into the void. The spherical dimension shrank and blinked out of existence, taking with it a dozen feet of flesh.