51

Chapter Forty-Nine

The battle went badly.

"Get me to Astovin!" I snarled at Kassie and bolted from the Vault.

"But you have to restore monster girls!" gasped Kassie.

"There are soldiers on the wall! On my dungeon! I can't bring monster girls to life or repair the damage to the gates and walls. I have to do something. I'm not losing this fight! Come on!"

"Right, Lord Leo!"

I rushed to the teleportation hub and cast my spells. Strength of Mountains, Granite Flesh, Revitalize, Static Aura, and Metalcoat. I armored myself from head to toe in steel with that last one. Plate armor. I had strength, my body as hard as a rock, and energy, like I had drunk a thousand red bulls, poured through me.

I was ready for anything.

I grabbed my spear on the way. We reached the teleportation circle. Kassie joined me and cried,

"Asud Gu!"

In a heartbeat, I was beneath Astovin. I knew where I had to go. The North Wall. I heard the all-clear from the south wall, but the North was suffering horrendous losses. I raced upstairs and burst out of my governmental building, running through the streets.

Smoke rose in all directions. The air resounded with shouts and screams. I could see the north gate. The enemy had breached it. Feya surged down with her hippogriffs as enemy soldiers charged into Astovin itself, the defenders all dead.

They charged at me. A hoard of them armed with spears and swords.

I slid to a stop and roared,

"Metal missiles fly, let the spikes of Lord Nabu pierce!"

A volley of spikes slammed into the enemy soldiers. It ripped through armor, killing a dozen at the front of them. Real people, not monster girls. They dropped to the ground in spurts of blood. None of them vanished.

I swallowed the horror of what I did.

"Night devours, let the corrosive shadows of Lord Zuen burn!"

Dripping Shadows dripped from above them. The black, corrosive darkness devoured the men engulfed in it. Their screams burst from it for a moment before they cut off. Smoke rose as the darkness melted them.

"Izi Zum!"

cried Kassie. A spurt of flame burst from her hand and engulfed four or five soldiers.

From above, the hippogriffs' turquoise feathers ripped into the soldiers charging at me. They rushed down the street, racing over their own dead. I gripped my spear, ready to fight them as more words rose from my mind.

"Flames erupt, let the conflagration of Lord Gibil blaze!"

A massive fire erupted in the soldiers. The men inside screamed. Greasy, black smoke burned from the inferno It covered a large swath, burning them all the way back to the wall itself. I gripped my spear, watching the flames dance before me.

"Cholera's burning fever," breathed Kassie.

I nodded as I watched the horror I had unleashed. Men spilled out, their bodies engulfed in fire. They collapsed on the ground, screaming. My chest grew tighter, my heart screaming in my chest. I stared at the blaze.

The flames went out.

A hundred or more soldiers lay burned before the gates. Those on the other side were not charging forward. They fled. They ran back into the mass of their fellows, pushing and fighting to get away. Those behind them pressed forward.

"One more time," I whispered. I sucked in a deep breath.

"Flames erupt, let the conflagration of Lord Gibil blaze!"

I filled the gate tunnel with fire. It burned up the wall. More screams rose above the crackling of flames. Smoke spilled from the mess. I watched it burn. Kassie grabbed my left hand. I held it as I watched the oranges and reds dance and roil.

A cataclysm writhed before me for one more glorious second then went out.

* * / *

Lana Fulmine gasped as the fire burst out of the gate tunnel, engulfing the enemy soldiers trying to rush in. A scream of horror rose from those watching the inferno rage.

Leo,

whispered through Lana's mind as she watched the destruction.

The soldiers screamed and turned. They threw down their weapons and fled. They pushed into the soldiers behind them, reeling from the hungry fire that consumed so many of their brethren. The panicked men knocked over their allies.

It spread. The fear.

The attacking men screamed. Officers struggled to rally their men, waving swords from the rear. Lana sent a blast of lightning at one. He burst into flames. Feya soared over, her wand flicking. Light smote another.

The men screamed and fled from Leo's anger.

From the wrath of a dungeon builder.

Black smoke rose in the air. Lana banked from it, sickened by the scent. She watched as the hippogriffs and quetzalcoatls harassed the fleeing soldiers, driving them away from the walls. They picked off the stragglers, giving the rest reason to keep running.

Lana Fulmine stared down at a real battlefield. Those weren't prop dummies or extras. They wouldn't get back up. None of them vanished. The dead lay where they fell. She swallowed at the awfulness of it.

Anger burned in her for the king who led these men here. Who forced Lana and her family to kill them. There had to be a reckoning for this.

Chapter Fifty

"We need help!"

Ms. Trueno cried in Garnet's mind.

"On my way,"

Garnet said with her three vampires.

She soared over the east wall and spotted Ms. Trueno in a group of werebears, werewolves, and yetis. Baaghi and Bjorni were with them. Enemy soldiers surrounded the band, pressing in on them from all sides. It was clear they were dying.

The werewolf and werebears in their animalistic form clawed and bit down soldiers in rapid succession, but others were getting free. As the succubus beat her wings and soared with the vampires in their bat forms, she witnessed monster girls dying.

Bhaaloo and Maan were hacked down before Garnet could reach them.

The others were fighting.

Ms. Trueno's shouts battered down soldiers. Baaghi and Bjorni tore into the enemy with ferociousness. Yetis ripped with their savage claws. The remaining werebear and werewolf crushed soldiers with their sheer force and weight in their monstrous forms.

Nina and her phoenixes provided help from the air. Flames slammed down into the soldiers, but they were coming from all directions, scrambling over their dead in a mad frenzy to kill the monster girls.

"Go!" Garnet cried at her vampires.

The three bats tucked wings and dived. They hurtled for the ground and blurred into their naked, human forms. They landed amid the soldiers and attacked. They bit at throats, glutting on the blood they loved so much.

Garnet followed and swung her whip, ripping a spear out of a soldier's hands as he went to stab at Ms. Trueno. "Dark Lord Big Bro!"

* * / *

Ms. Trueno gasped as the spear was ripped out of the soldier's hands before it could ram through her scaled belly. The teacher screamed. Her thunderous roar threw back the man and others. They landed in a heap. The vampires had joined the battle, tearing out throats.

Udel, blood dripping down her face, leaped at another soldier only for a sword to swing and take off her head. She burst into motes. Ms. Trueno hated seeing monster girls die. More and more of them did as they killed soldiers.

Chaandi took a spear in the back.

Goloda, one of the yetis, threw herself into a knot of soldiers. She slashed and roared, ripping off arms and tearing off faces. Soldiers screamed as they died. They recoiled from her as she savaged them, their blood bright in her thick, snowy hair.

A soldier stabbed her in the back. Another rammed a spear through her chest. Goloda tore off that man's arm before she vanished, leaving him stumbling in horror before he, too, collapsed. Ms. Trueno roared again, knocking back more of the enemy.

Fire burst before her, consuming a group. Garnet swooped over, her whip tearing weapons from the enemy's hands. They stepped over the dead bodies of their comrades to kill them. They could sense the monster girls were weak.

Like sharks, they had gotten a taste of blood.

Panja vanished.

Bjorni roared and ripped into the enemy, the bugbear tearing men in half.

More fire burned from above. Palka ripped out another throat with her fangs, the vampire feasting on the blood spurting out. Chaos boiled around Ms. Trueno.

She roared with confidence. She would not back down. Men died. Their corpses piled around them. Something changed within them. They no longer were so bold in their attacks. No longer so risky. They cringed when the phoenixes swept over.

Then they ran.

It took Ms. Trueno a moment to realize that the enemy fled. She stared out at them running away from her group. They had survived. She looked around at her panting monster girls. They were splattered in red, smiles on their lips.

Baaghi roared in triumph.

"Kweh, heh, heh!" chortled from above as Garnet winged over, her red tail swishing behind her.

Ms. Trueno smiled. They had won. Those vampires and that naughty succubus had tipped the scales just enough. Not sure if the battle was over, she motioned her monster girls to get back to the wall. They might be needed somewhere else.

* * / *

Maya panted even though she didn't breathe.

She just felt exhausted.

Her body rippled as she stared down at the withdrawing enemies. The east wall was secure.

Chapter Fifty-One

Alizee soared over the next assault rushing at the damaged west wall. The crack was growing worse. Masonry tumbled from it. The wall looked unstable, damaged severely by those big boulder lobbing thingies.

Arrows peppered the walls, forcing the monster girls defending the battlements to duck behind them. Save Hagane. She let the arrows ping off her body as she watched the fresh siege ladders come up.

"Come on!" Alizee cried to her surviving harpies. The sirens had died, but they had done their job. Now they had to defend the wall.

Holes opened in the ground, swallowing soldiers here and there. The oreads at work, but they just killed one or two at a time. It wasn't enough to stop the crush of soldiers. Fresh ladders slapped against the wall and men went up them.

She slashed with her wind blades.

She struck a ladder, cutting off a soldier's arm and slicing through the side of the ladder. It creaked, groaned, then snapped in half. Men above fell into those waiting below. Her harpies swooped on other ladders, grabbing soldiers and pulling them off to drop them on the mass of enemies below.

Makeshift weapons.

Arrows filled the air.

Alizee danced through them with the grace of a cheerleader. She wove a path through the death to swing her arms. Blades of air killed soldiers climbing ladders. Fire burst from the wall, engulfing others. Smerta and Hagane fought, but they were losing defenders.

Hota screeched and vanished, the arrow that killed her falling back to the ground.

A howling whirlwind and a roaring firewhirl hurtled over the wall and into the siege ladders. Paetu and Esclava engulfed the enemy. The djinn threw men out from the ladders, hurtling them above Alizee. The ladders followed. The ifrit left her ladders burning, the men screaming as they fell to the ground engulfed in oranges and reds.

Daleitha followed. Her multitude of rainbow wings flapped as she sent blades of light hacking down into the enemy. In moments, all the ladders were cleared from the wall. Alizee whooped so loudly.

"Oh, yeah!" she cheered, putting her fists together and making a circle before her with them as her hips rocked back and forth. "We're fierce! We're hot! We're full of fight! You challenged us, now fear our might!"

"Nice!" Pihatu said as she flashed by Alizee.

* * / *

Hagane watched the ladders being destroyed. The soldiers at the bottom reeled now as Paetu and Esclava surged down into them. Natural disasters with intelligence. The soldiers screamed as they recoiled.

"Get them!" roared Smerta as she jumped off the wall.

Snezhinka, the last surviving yuki-onna, followed. The three salamanders--Astuta, Dolor, and Horca--followed, using their wings to glide over the enemy and breathe fire on them. The arachnes leaped off and fired their webbing. Damhanalla, Gaiste, and Greasai entangled soldiers that still had fight in them.

"Yes!" Hagane cried and leaped off the wall.

Hagane rushed at the enemy. She barreled into them with Smerta. They both swung their weapons, hacking them down. Paetu's whirlwind roared by, throwing dozens of soldiers to their deaths. Esclava's firewhirl carved molten death deep into the enemy soldiers.

They had no heart left to them.

The enemy broke.

* * / *

"South wall secured,"

Hagane reported.

That was all of them.

I felt sick as I stared at the blackened bodies in the north gate tunnel. Kassie still held my hand. She looked pale, a green cast to her eyes. This assault was over, but I had lost a lot of monster girls. Siwang's reinforcements burst out of his dungeon and surged out to take their places on the wall, but he couldn't fix the damage.

And his forces couldn't hold back another assault.

"Let's go," I called to Kassie and raced back to the central building.

The moment I was in my dungeon, I could feel that there were no intruders. No unwelcomed guests. I rushed down the stairs and to the teleport room. With her shouted words, we shifted into the heart of my dungeon.

I rushed to my Vault, letting my spells vanish from me. The clatter of metal fell away when I dismissed Metal Coat. I darted through the living area and opened my Vault. Souleen perked up at the sight of me.

I grabbed the Void Crystal and surged to the building section. I repaired all three gates and all four walls, especially the south wall. It had almost failed. We were secure, for now. I felt so sick as I sunk into the Crystal to revive dead monster girls.

I found my mother and whispered for her.

She spun out of the darkness as my hands fell from the stone. She shuddered as she appeared, her motherly breasts swaying back and forth. I stared at her, the pain welling up inside of me. Something in me broke.

"I don't get it," I whispered. "I didn't attack them. I never threatened the King of Myreman. Why are they here? Why did so many have to die?"