Chapter 261 - Siege of Highgaze Fort

I cannot overstate how hard it is to write scenes with so many combatants in them! I'm trying really hard to break the habit of Hump standing around watching everyone (a common complaint about my books 😒). I think this chapter came out really nicely. Let me know!

Also, my beta reader hasn't got time to read today, so this has only been proofed by me. There may be some typos.

Hump had witnessed many skilled fighters in his time, but even a glimpse of Yunillia was enough to know that perhaps only Anthony was her match. She was a whirlwind wielding a spear of lightning. The weapon crackled furiously in her hand as she surged through the giants alone, appearing and disappearing in sparks of static as she moved from one enemy to the next. Lightning bolted from her, striking the enemies around her. The undead giants howled in agony as they felt its wrath, they skin crackling and burning, filling the air with smoke and the stench of burnt flesh.

Behind her, the rest of her party dropped to the ground, yet she hardly needed the help. She was too fast for Hump’s eyes to keep up with, even after his enhancements. In seconds, she’d slain half the giants and a whole host of skeletons and ghouls. The sluggish creatures didn’t even know what hit them as she felled them. Each thrust of her lightning spear cracked the air, sending giants back with smoking holes in them. She appeared in the air in a blink, striking at necks, eyes, and hearts. Her aim was perfect, and the moment after she struck, she was gone again.

This was her seventh blessing—her soul given life in the form of a weapon. And it was terrifying.

All along the wall, the Lich Queen Irila’s forces retaliated. Spirits rose into the air, throwing fire, or flying at her and stabbing with their spectral blades. More mortal spellcasters showed up around the walls, directing the undead with their magic. Being servants of the lich, they could only be necromancers. Their voices echoed through the courtyard, deep and powerful. While they spoke in a language Hump could not understand, he could sense the evil in their words. From their staves, they threw curses upon the battlefield, exploding through the air with flashes of purple and red light.

Leif and the rest of Yunillia’s party raised blessings and shields, defending against the onslaught. A hunter at the centre of their formation—a woman named Ardrell—began to chant. She raised her spiked club, a translucent green veil forming around her. Light pulsed, leaves manifesting in the air and floating outward on winds of essence. One by one, the rest of the hunters lit up with the same green veil, until Hump felt it too. He felt stronger and full of nourishing, healing essence. The weaker undead were repulsed by it, but those along the walls did not slow in their attacks.

Hump raised his own staff, gathering his essence as the hunters at his side responded with their own attacks. Arrows and blessings barraged the opposing wall, felling necromancers as others raised defensive magic.

“Fire Beam,” Hump said.

A piercing ray of fire erupted from Hump’s staff. Rather than concentrating all its might into a momentary attack, he released his essence more slowly, calling upon the runes of his Staff of Damnation to help him control his power. He heaved his staff to the side, slowly directing the beam along the opposing wall, bathing any in its path in fire. Undead fell burning, a necromancer screamed as his right hip was caught by the flame before another managed to raise a barrier.

Tessa emerged on the far wall alongside Finnian and Gawain, engaging with necromancers that were attempting to mount a counterattack. On the east wall to the left, a thicket of thorns sprouted all along the battlements, creating an entanglement of thorny vines that trapped and hindered enemies upon it. All the while Yunillia’s storm clouds raged above, striking at the enemies with lightning bolts. As much as the enemy tried, they were no match for the concentrated power of so many Chosen.

Necromancers, undead giants, spirits, skeletal warriors and ghouls—all were felled beneath their combined power, yet still more filled the gaps. What the lich lacked in quality, she more than made up for in sheer numbers.

But their objective was not to kill them all. Yunillia reached the first runestone, lunging at it, her spear of lightning pierced the essence stone at its core, shattering it instantly. Essence exploded from the broken enchantment and a mist of blue. Above, a section of the shield spell surrounding the fortress flickered for just a moment before becoming solid once more. It seemed they would need to destroy more than one of the rune stones if they were to bring the defensive ward surrounding the fortress down.

Searching the courtyard, Hump counted eight of them. Two or three should be enough to ruin the integrity of even the most powerful formations.

It seemed Yunillia thought the same thing as she moved onto the next in a blink. She stabbed, lightning cracking, but her attack rebounded from a shield surrounding the stone. There was a flash of light and her own lightning reflected back at her. She cried out as it surged through her and sent her flying back.

Cackling laughter came from the keep above. A woman peered down at them from behind the keep’s parapet, her face withered and her eyes shining with dark power. She carried a staff made of a single long bone, the top twisted around a deep purple heartstone. She was armoured in a dark grey battlerobe, a hood draping at her back.

Hump felt the buzz of essence in the air. The undead stopped. Every single one of them stared straight ahead, remaining stationary.

“Hold your attacks,” Yunillia shouted, then turned to face the woman above. “Are you Irila?”

The woman laughed even louder. “My master does not need to lower herself to deal with the likes of you. I am Aphina.”

“Never heard of you,” Yunillia said.

A sly smile broke Aphina’s lips, creasing her dry and ancient cheeks. “You will know me before your end.”

A spectral wraith appeared behind Yunillia, flying at her faster than any of the spirits Hump had seen previously. Leif was beside her in an instead, shield raised. The creature phased through him, stabbing at Yunillia with her knife, but Leif whirled around and slashed through him with his sword, carving the wraith into.

A mist of essence rose into the air, reforming above them.

“Hold, Shadowblade.” It was a man’s voice, but appearing atop the keep beside Aphella, all Hump saw was a walking skeleton. “There is no need for that just yet. And Aphella, you really musn’t bicker with mortals. It is not productive.”

He was a tall and clad in heavy black army, bearing an elegant sword at his hip. He wore no helmet, revealing a skull of clean white.

The skeleton turned to Yunillia. “I am Tharnok, High General of Queen Irila’s Army. Before the bloodshed begins, I wished to offer you a way out. You cannot win, mortals, time is our ally, but we do not need to be enemies. Submit, and this can end today. It was your god that waged war upon us.”

“Why even bother to speak with these nothings?” Aphina said. “My master has decided.”

“Irila wants results,” Tharnok said.

“Let me stop you right there,” Yunillia shouted. “You are invaders of our land, and all of you shall die for it, including your master.”

Tharnok let out a long, heavy sigh. “So be it. Your arrogance will be your undoing.” His tone conveyed genuine sadness, though why any undead would feel such an emotion was beyond Hump.

“You dare to challenge me,” Yunillia said, the tone of her voice changing once more to match that of Owalyn.

Hump spelt a chill to his core as her lightning spear cracked. In that strike, he sensed the power of her soul. A deep, unending pit of essence and will all contained in her weapon. In that moment, he realised he had so far only glimpsed a sliver of her strength.

“Pestilus, if you would,” Tharnok said casually, unaffected by Yunillia’s aura.

As Hump wondered what gave the general such confidence, a vile creature emerged beside the general, choking on its own breath in wet, phlegmatic coughs. It looked the rotted corpse of a demon somehow made to walk. Pustules covered its green, bloated skin, and mucus-laden saliva fell from too red lips. It stared at them with a goofy grin, raising its disproportionately small arms up at its side. The creature belched then started to laugh, the sound broken by its rasping breath as if even the creature itself was in constant struggle with its decomposed body.

A sense of dread came over Hump as the air thickened with a putrid stench. Green miasma expanded around it, slowly filtering down through the air and toward them., as if the very essence of disease had just been released into the world.

Hump wanted to puke. Fortunately, Thea, the spear wielding shaman, had a better idea.

“I invoke the Protection of the Wilderness,” she declared at Hump’s side, slamming the butt of her spear against the ground.

Essence chimed, and Hump sensed the pressure of her soul descend. All around the courtyard ethereal trees sprouted from the ground. They unfurled as fresh saplings, growing to be towering trees in only a few seconds, filling the fort with her essence. This was the fourth circle major blessing of one of Owalyn’s Chosen—the summoning of her spirit.

It repulsed the miasma, the stench vanishing and the air directly above them becoming clean. Yet still more of the green mist descended, building up around an invisible wall of holy essence.

“Kill them!” Tharnok roared. Darkness came over the world, expanding all around him as if he’d sucked in all the light. It descended on them, washing over everything before vanishing into the ground.

Dead giants rose again, skeletons reformed, spirits emerged from the ground and formed ranks in the air, even the necromancers that fell before were brought back, though they seemed sluggish in their movements.

“Enough of this!” Yunillia shouted. “Ado, destroy the shields. Leif, meet him on the ground and provide support. I shall deal with them. Stormlord’s Aegis!”

Storm clouds misted from her body, forming around her. Lightning crackled within, then there was a blindingly bright flash. Thunder boomed, and Yunillia flew upward, hurtling into the air and toward the top of the keep.

“She’s going to face them alone?” Hump said, stunned.

“This is Yunillia the Stormcaller,” Celaine said. “I know who I’d bet my coin on.”

“We have our own job to do,” Ado called. “Thea, maintain your blessing. Hump, you’re with me. Everyone else, keep Thea alive. We cannot let the Protection of the Wilderness fall.”

Hump gave Celaine a quick look. “Stay safe.”

She nodded. “I’ll watch your back.”

Hump raced after Ado, following him down the tower staircase.

“What do you want me for?” Hump asked.

The shaman barrelled his way through a host of undead, reaching the bottom of the stairs quickly.

He turned back to Hump with a feral grin on his face. “You're going to destroy some runestones.”

The tattoos beneath Ado’s tunic shone. Hump saw many he’d not seen before. They were smaller now, and as the light grew, spectral forms leapt from his skin. A pack of six wolves manifested, exploding forward as ghouls and giants came at them. The wolves weaved and danced through the fight, flying as they feasted. A bear emerged from another tattoo with a great roar, belly flopping one of the giants and sending it crashing into the keep. The entire courtyard rocked.

“Go!” Ado shouted, pointing to the runestone that was directly beneath Celaine and the others.

Hump raced for it, passing the gates to Highgaze Fort and coming to a stop before the runestone. He prepared a spell as monsters swarmed all around him, but Ado and the hunters above sent them scattering. Closing the gap quickly was Leif and his party, drawing much of the attention of the undead and spellcasters along the walls. Across the courtyard, Hump saw Finnian doing the same, his overly large sword in hand as he carved at one of the runestones.

If they both destroyed one, that would be three down. Enough that the formation would almost certainly fall.

Hump placed his hand upon the rune stone, calling upon his essence. “Melt Stone.”

The stone turned red hot and still he poured more essence into it. The stone started to smoke, yet it held firm. For a moment, Hump thought his approach had been wrong and that perhaps he could not destroy it this way after all. He reached for Owalyn’s power, and threw everything he had into it, willing the stone to come apart.

A droplet of molten rock leaked from the red hot centre, and then it was all melting. It folded into itself as lava flowed across the rune inscribed face, the essence stone at its core cracking. He staggered back, shielding his face as a puff of essence blasted him. There was a screeching sound like steam from a kettle as essence poured from the five remaining runestone.

The shield around the walls flickered. Essence poured from it, the barrier thinning until gaps to the outside world became clear, like holes in on fabric. The tears only grew greater as the wall faded entirely.

That was the signal. The sign the rest of Drakalyn’s hunters were waiting for. Any moment now…

Beyond the walls, the clouds parted. Beams of sunlight streamed through, pouring down upon the fort. Hump sensed Owalyn’s essence within it. A chant filled the air that reminded him of the one sung in the Temple of the Everflame, their voices deep and beating like drums. The shamans and priests were doing this. They broke apart the shadow the lich had cast across the land and let through the light.

The undead howled beneath it, the weakest of the army fading before its might.

Outside, the trumpet of horns and dragon roars bellowed. Now they just needed a way inside.

Hump turned to the fort gates. They weren’t part of the original plan, however…

“Ado, protect me!” Hump shouted at the shaman nearby. “I’m going to break open the gates.”