Chương 67: Two Battles

"Side Winders! Cover the left side! We've got to get the injured out!" Major Holfast stood between the encroaching swarm and his crew. A third of them were injured, and another third were needed to help them back to safety. This left just him and two teams to cover the retreat on the wide Eltershay Avenue. The spells from the towers were also dwindling. Some of the mages must have exhausted their mana pools covering their retreat behind the buffer gate. Most of the cover fire was now coming from the archers.

That was never a good sign. If only the buffer gate hadn't come down so soon. They only needed a bit of time for the healers to get everyone back into shape. But whoever repaired the hinges this morning must have messed something up because the entire thing came crashing down almost immediately. His forces were joined by the rearguard, who'd surged forward from the inner gate.

Now that fighting had moved into the inner zone, it was all hands on deck to keep the mucks from breaching the inner perimeter into the civilian sectors. With the reinforcements, they had enough soldiers to shield the injured, the first of whom were already at the inner gate. He only had to buy the healers enough time to get to work, and he'd have a full crew again soon enough. But it wasn't going to be that easy. His main crew was exhausted.

And the rearguard, while all valiant men and women, were the least experienced teams on the roster. They couldn't be expected to fare any better against a swarm that had overwhelmed a veteran crew. A cluster of mucks exploded in front of him. Then another one to his left. New mucks quickly pushed forward into the gaps, and they exploded too. Had one of the mages found a spare mana potion? Only, the [Fireballs] hadn't come from a tower. He spared a glance back for the source of the spells.

There, balanced atop the inner perimeter wall was a young woman, shining like an angel in the moonlight. He didn't know where she'd come from, and he didn't care, as long as her mana held out until all his soldiers could get back into the action. The adventurer met his eyes.

"Permission to go full blast?"

"Yes! Whatever it takes to hold them back!" he shouted. She grinned and switched to a different spellcasting posture, raising both hands in front of her with the pointer fingers pointing and the thumbs up—something he'd never seen used by any mage. Two hands suggested she would be multicasting. But that would make her an archmage. There were only two archmages currently at the bay, and he'd met both of them. Even if he hadn't, the woman before him was much too young. And then she unleashed.

The [Fireballs] came faster than he could count. And they just kept on coming. Mucks exploded left, right, and center. The archmage completely cleared out the second zone and then continued blasting into the first. He couldn't see over the wall that divided the two zones, but he didn't see any more mucks coming through the gate either. The archmage stopped and blew on her fingertips. With all the magic that had just flowed through them, it made sense that they'd gotten a little hot.

"Are you out of mana?" he asked, worried that she'd failed to pace herself.

"Nah, just out of things to shoot. Let me know when you guys are ready, and we'll retake the zones, okay?" He couldn't think of anything other than to say, "Yes, ma'am."

"What in Kalimor is she doing!" Maelle cried. Not only had Amberlin jumped from the watchtower—thankfully an awning broke her fall—but she'd then followed it up by leading a member of the ground crew on a jaunt across the rooftops into the hot zone.

"And after she promised not to do anything like that again!"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," the archer next to her said.

"It's all the normal people down there that we've got to worry about." The situation had deteriorated rapidly. The four towers together had barely been enough to keep a single stream of mucks from overwhelming the crew at the outer gate. But now with a second stream coming across the rooftops, the outer zone was filling up fast. Maelle kept up her spells, alongside the rest of the tower crew, to thin out the horde. The ground crew had completed their retreat to the buffer gate.

With the teams of both the outer and inner zones together, they were holding back the mucks—for now. But they held nothing back in reserve, had no time to rest. Maelle didn't know much about human stamina, but she did know that dawn was still a long way off. Everyone in the tower crowded around the guardrails. Those in the front had to crouch to give those behind them the room to point and shoot. With the extra firepower, the swarm was slowly thinning out.

"Keep it up!" the tower commander shouted. The ground crew was joined by two more teams. These came from the rearguard, who left only one team behind to guard the inner gate, the final barrier that separated the militarized zones from the civilian sectors. These extra teams were enough to tip the scales ever so slightly in their favor. Slowly the mucks were getting pushed back. Five yards, eight yards, nine yards, ten. The knights now had a bit of breathing room. But their progress stalled at ten yards.

Maelle spared a glance around the tower. Everyone was breathing heavily. They'd pushed themselves to the limit to achieve this much. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The mucks kept on coming. Ten yards became nine became eight.

"Just a little longer!" the tower commander shouted.

"Reinforcements are on their way!" The knights were back to five yards from the gate. The fatigue was making itself felt. Even Dory was slower than before. The ground commander blew his horn. Another retreat! The knights fell back into the inner zone and barred the gate. This bought them some time to heal and catch their breath. But this was it. There were no more retreats. Behind them was the inner perimeter, and that getting breached would mean mayhem in the civilian sectors.

The ground commander gave a signal up to the tower.

"Crowd control at the buffer gate!" the tower commander ordered.

"What's going on?" Maelle asked.

"We're relieving the pressure so they can open the gate," the archer beside her explained.

"Why would they do that?" she asked.

"If the mucks don't have anywhere to go, they'll start breaking things and finding their own way," he explained.

"Trust me, it's better this way." Maelle joined the others along the south side in bombarding the mucks pushing up against the buffer gate. The ground crew unbarred and swung the gate open, and the first mucks began pouring into the inner zone. The period of rest made a big difference. The knights fought with renewed energy and managed to hold the position at the gate until reinforcements began to trickle in. At first it was a couple of mages, who joined the tower that stood on the civilian side of the perimeter.

Then it was a team of knights and then another couple of mages. Gradually the balance shifted in the defenders' favor, and soon they had enough spare capacity to rotate teams out to rest. The battle continued through the night. At one point, the helpful archer next to Maelle tapped her on the shoulder and suggested she take a moment out to rest. She agreed, since Dory's team on the ground had just done the same thing. For a while it looked like they'd be able to hold out until dawn.

But then they began to lose ground. It didn't seem like much at first, a yard every now and then. Then the lost yards came faster, and longer, and before she knew it, they'd already given up half the zone. Everyone was tiring, while the mucks were constantly being replenished.

"When are we getting more reinforcements?" she asked the tower commander. He looked at her grimly and then turned away. The ground crew had stopped rotating teams out. The ground commander ordered the inner gate shut and barred, declaring that there would be no retreat. They were determined to stop the mucks from getting through, no matter what. Maelle caught Dory's eye. The knight gave her a half-hearted smile and turned back to her task.

While Maelle continued to shoot off [Firebolts], a sense of helplessness rose up in her chest. Why was she never strong enough? She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was the helpful archer.

"Just do your part," he said.

"That's all anyone can ever ask of you." She nodded and continued casting her spells. Meanwhile down below, Dory was doing her part, with her back to the wall. The tower commander yelled, "Prepare the oil!" A group of recovering mages shifted into action, with the help of the bards, distributing oil from the pots into small ceramic balls. An unused bolt of cloth was unrolled and cut into strips, which were then dipped into oil and stuffed into the balls, leaving one end hanging out.

"What's going on?" Maelle asked.

"Desperate measures," the archer replied. The mages took their handiwork to the edge of the platform, lit the cloth on fire, and began throwing them into the swarm below. The ceramic balls exploded on impact, catching the oil on fire while also spreading it everywhere. It turned out to be very effective at crowd control.

"Why weren't we using these before?" Maelle asked.

"Many reasons," the archer replied.

"But these are desperate times." It didn't take long for the first of these reasons to become apparent. Unlike with a spell or arrow, the oil fire on its own took a couple of seconds to incapacitate the mucks, and in that time they flailed about unpredictably. One tripped into the broken awning that Amberlin had left behind, causing the entire thing to go up in flames. Luckily the buildings in the area were made of stone, or that could have turned into a much bigger deal.

Another reason, she quickly realized, was that supplies were limited. The tower quickly ran out of oil bombs. The ground crew were once again pushed back to the wall. Maelle was squeezing out every last [Firebolt] she could. But the mucks kept on coming.

Dory was exhausted. Her arms were stiff and every muscle in her body ached. But she couldn't stop now. They were counting on her. Her parents. Her brother Remore. The governor. All the people she grew up with. Every civilian in the city that she called home. She had to guard this gate with her life. But what if she died and the mucks got through anyway? That just meant dying wasn't an option. She fought on. An intelligent enemy might have been able to take advantage of her weaknesses.

The way she left herself wide open. How the big wind-up telegraphed all her swings. But the mucks weren't intelligent, they were less flexible than she was, like they were still learning how to move their own limbs. Something struck her helmet. She swung. Another thing kicked her in the hip. She swung. Was she just trading blows with them now? She no longer had the capacity to take that thought any further. She'd been on the job since dawn, and fighting almost from the moment they arrived at the bay.

The only thing she was capable of anymore was mindless, reactionary swinging. No one told her things had gotten this bad. There was shouting. The words went through her head without being digested. Something dropped down from the wall beside her. It stepped forward and cleaved a muck in two. Then another, and a third. Quickly, efficiently. Like she was supposed to be doing. She tried to join in, but they pushed her back.

"Take a breather! We've got it from here." Orders were orders. She leaned back against the wall and slid to the ground. Above her was the warmth of fire. She looked up. There was a mage on the wall, the inner perimeter wall, casting [Firebolts] on the mucks. And he wasn't alone. All along the wall, an entire row of mages. Not up in a tower but down here with her.

"What's going on?" she murmured. The mage looked down and grinned at her.

"We heard you guys might need a little help! We've come from Eltershay Avenue." A healer dropped down and boosted her recovery. Some music started up, and she realized that the mucks had been pushed back, and there was enough room for the bards to take up their instruments again. After some rest, Dory rejoined the fray. There were so many knights around her, it felt like they'd brought the entire ground crew from the avenue. And then there were the mages—enough to fill an entire tower.

How could they spare so many troops? There would be time for questions later. She joined with the combined crew, cutting down mucks with renewed vigor. She caught Maelle's eye up in the tower and the fake lizardkin girl smiled joyfully down at her and waved. Together they pushed the mucks back, out of the inner zone, back past the buffer gate, and regained control of the outer zone. The sector was theirs again, even against the double stream. The battle, which had already gone on so long, continued on.

The swarm was neverending, but that no longer seemed to matter. They weren't getting past. And then at long last the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon and the mucks all burned away, leaving nothing behind. A great cheer erupted all around. They had survived the night.