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Chapter 125 - Attack on Titan
🕑 Added 2019-08-03 09:27:37 +0000 UTC
The catapults have been mostly destroyed, one section of the wall still has burning bodies strewn across the battlements, and fires are spreading across the fortress town. One dragonkin is still fighting Dregana, though that should be over soon once Hestia reaches them. But now a squad of giants is coming forward to break down the gates and allow the flood of humans to push in.
Demons are running up the stairs to plug the hole in the defenses left by the dragonkin's rampage just now, while some are using water magic to help fight the fire. Nobody except for me will be able to stop the giants, but that would mean exposing my involvement in this battle to Zenlith.
"Exla!" In my desperation, I call out to the cloud girl still holding up the barrier. Arrows and rocks are pelting it, meaning that if she lets it go, all of that will hit the demons on the walls. Maybe I can take her place and keep up a barrier; it shouldn't constitute as fighting.
But what if it does? Then Zenlith would go all out and destroy the entire Dominion instantly. It can't be that the demons are going to lose only because I've been locked down. How were they able to survive all this time without me then?
"I don't know if I can do it, senpai." Exla replies with a look that tells me she's desperate too. Having lost the power to keep her brother in check really shocked her, but the thought that she can't do anything against him if he were to decide to reset the world is weighing her down.
Kamii looks at me, an expression of concern on her face. Then she walks toward me, and I wonder what she wants to do. But instead of jumping into my arms or stopping to talk, she simply passes me by on her way to the stairs.
"Where are you going?" I try to grab her arm, but she nimbly avoids it.
"Defend the gate." Her terse statement causes alarm bells to ring in my head. Her body isn't much stronger than a human's of her physical age, and only the crab pincer possesses a strange power. How is she going to hold the gate with only that cursed arm?
There's a squad of heavily armored demons posted behind the gate to plug it with brute force when it's broken down. She's already expecting that it will fall, so she's going to help them. On top of the wall, she can't fulfill her cursed arm's condition, but down there, she should be able to once the enemies surge in.
Terog, Zancrax, and Ireyo were placed near the gate and are now coming forward when they see Kamii starting to move. It was the right choice to bring her party along, as she will have people around her that she can trust her back with. Sazi isn't a fighter, so she's working as a medic in the sickbay in the far back of the fortress though.
In either case, I don't want the gate to fall that soon though. Once it's cracked open, there's no way to plug it as it was done in Arkaim; Erbilan doesn't have any golems like Ghann. Chandra should be getting in position soon, but she can't do much against giants either. I guess I really have to risk enraging Zenlith and go out there myself.
With this thought, I jump off the wall and transform in midair. Exploding outward, I turn into a giant version of myself, which I cover in plates of dragon armor. But instead of making it look like a suit of armor, it's more of a second skin that covers everything except for the joints. This way, I'll retain my mobility, which the enemy giants don't have.
The humans at my feet run away in terror, but the approaching squad of giants doesn't slow down. They seem to have proper discipline, quite unlike all the versions I've seen in fantasy. Understanding that I'm only one opponent, they fan out to scale the walls where I can't reach them. But this is as far as I can go intervening in this battle, as one look toward Zenlith tells me he won't allow more than this.
Bracing myself, I let out a deafening roar to scatter the already wavering humans. They don't rout completely because I'm not enough of a threat to the army as a whole, but they still don't want to be in the vicinity when two giants clash.
Even though I think they're able to speak, the female leader of the squad wordlessly gets into range, then performs a strange sideways step and nearly falls into a horizontal position before spinning around her own axis.
The hammer connects with my chin from below and sends my lower jaw flying off even though it's armored. This would have killed anybody else, but luckily, I'm me. But that wasn't a move one would have ever expected being performed by a giant wielding a massive hammer. Regrowing the jaw, I jump up just in time to avoid the sweeping follow-up swing aimed at my knees with pinpoint accuracy.
It seems she was briefed on my abilities because she doesn't look surprised at all that I'm still alive. That's also why Zenlith is allowing me to do this much; he may be thinking that I'll get a thrashing, which will lower the defenders' morale. But if he thinks anybody within the system can defeat me even when I'm not using it, then he has another thing coming for him.
When I land, she's already in the process of redirecting her momentum for another swing at me. But I charge into her range instead of trying to avoid it and grab the handle of her weapon. As if having expected that, she suddenly lets go and tackles me with her shoulder.
I also let go of the weapon and ram my foot into the ground to come to a stop. Then I grab her arm and twist my body around. It's not on the level of a Judo throw, but I succeed in throwing her over my hip, eliciting the first surprised expression from her.
As the giantess falls on her back, the ground shakes, and she gasps for air as all of it is pressed out of her lungs from the impact. Without speaking an incantation, I make the ground rise up and lock her in place with stone shackles. It's an application of Awhina's demigod ability, though really just another fantasy turned reality by the Imagination Engine.
This should be fine as I'm not doing anything over the top, right?
I don't glance at Zenlith because I'm sure he would put a stop to this if he thought I was violating his condition. Instead, I run toward the next giant as quickly as I can before he reaches the wall. Tackling his waist from the side, I throw him down to the ground and deliver a devastating punch to his helmet, which dents it and knocks him unconscious. Binding him in earth magic like the first, I look up.
At the rate I'm going, I won't be able to stop them all. They're tall enough to sweep the top of the walls of defenders with their different kinds of weapons, and they can pull themselves over to the other side and wreak havoc just like the dragonkin did. Only that there are more of them this time.
I see one of the giants shy back from the wall as a burst of fire flies in his face. It's not a dragonkin's breath but tribal magic from members of the Bakari clan. They don't have much range, so it won't keep the enemy at bay for long. Elsewhere, lamia archers are focusing their arrows on those coming their way, but the giants wear thick armor and only need to shield their faces to continue advancing.
Suddenly, a massive black spirit spear explodes the head of a female giant who's already in the process of climbing on top of the ramparts. Her lifeless body falls back down and crushes the humans that were following her lead. Hestia appears on the wall and spreads her wings in a threatening pose, but it only invites a volley of arrows from the human archers. Of course, she didn't come unprepared, as a tornado-like barrier surrounds her and sweeps the projectiles away.
On the other side, Dregana leaps across the wall and right onto a giant, who's taken off-guard and gets a faceful of flames. She swings her powerful tail and throws droves of humans through the air before charging at the next opponent of her size.
However, the giants are more disciplined than I thought, as the others don't falter when they see their comrades falling, and continue to advance. One, then two, and then four make it over. I follow them, knowing that I can only do damage control at this point.
As I vault over the wall, I see Hestia taking to the air and going for her next target. Dregana is already embroiled in a battle with an opponent that was prepared for her - unlike the first she brought down with ease.
"Ladders again!" Rhosk roars at the top of his lungs to rally the defenders, who have been thrown into turmoil because of the dragonkin and now the giants. "Hold the wall!"
I turn myself small when I see that the other side is teeming with my soldiers; I would have crushed them under my feet if I hadn't done so. Then I shoot out a tentacle from my arm to pull myself toward the closest enemy. Using my momentum, I swing around him and form a dragon blade on my hand, with which I cut through the back of his knee. As he falls, I bounce off a building and spin around myself to slash his throat in passing.
I'm not using the Imagination Engine anymore, just in case Zenlith is monitoring it while I'm behind the wall. The plasma breath is also out of the question, as that should be visible from the other side. That leaves only my real body's capabilities, which should be enough for dealing with these enemies. It will just take a little longer.
I spot one of the giants moving toward the gate where Kamii went to wait for the moment it gets breached. If he reaches them, she will be in danger, so I concentrate on this one first. Swinging myself on my tentacles and moving like a certain nemesis of a superhero with a spider motif, I quickly bridge the distance between us. But before I can reach them, I hear Rhosk's voice.
"Shoot her!" He sounds agitated, and when I look toward him, I see that he's pointing at something on the other side of the wall. But I can't worry about outside when there's this enemy on the inside, about to barrel into Kamii and the troops she took with her.
Then the gate explodes inward, the two wings flying off their angles and rolling out of the tunnel right into the demons on the other side. For a moment, time seems to slow down when I try to see where the little dark elf is, only to find dead and dismembered bodies flying through the air as dust is kicked up from the impact.
"No..." I whisper. Then I accelerate my swing, stab a tentacle right through the gaps of the armor the giant ahead of me wears. Penetrating his skin, I burrow deeper and then expand the appendage until he bursts from the inside. Disregarding the scattering flesh, I fall to the ground and roll across the floor, then get up from that crash which should have broken half the bones in a human's body. "Kamii!"
"I'm here." I hear her voice as she coughs due to the dust, and my heart jumps in relief.
"Are you alright?" Still, she might be injured, so I call out to her. My Chaos senses pick her up among other survivors, but I can't tell whether or not her body is whole.
"Yes." She replies with her usual terseness. "The gate..."
"It has been breached." I look over to see the legs of the female giant I engaged first, as she retreats from the wall. Not killing her was my mistake, as she has broken out of her restraints, picked up her hammer, and smashed the gate open. Already, I hear the human cheering approach, as they storm toward the hole in our defenses.
"To me!" Suddenly, Kamii appears from inside the dust cloud with a bellowed order. I never thought I would see her commanding troops, but the heavily armored soldiers behind her listen to her and answer with a battle roar. It seems Terog, Zancrax, and Ireyo are also unscathed. The little dark elf then addresses me again without looking in my direction, her eyes fixated on the gateway before her. "Take care of the giants."
"Be careful." I trust that she can deal with humans as long as she isn't alone. Aside from her party members, all the soldiers around her are kirali similar to Rhosk. While they aren't Petsobek, the elite among the elite, they seem better suited for maintaining a defensive line than the crocodilians who wield erratic weapon arts and prefer wild swings that endanger all around them. "I'll come to help you later."
With these words, I pull myself up and target a giant who has grabbed hold of a barrel of oil from one of the few unscathed catapults. She's most likely trying to locate our supply storage and burn it down. It seems that Zenlith has no intention of letting us fight the long battle, a strategy that favors the defenders when they have an easier supply route than the besiegers.
"Fatas!" I hear Rhosk's voice from above, followed by a whistling arrow ordering our air company to take off again. They're still resting, but it seems that they won't be given that leeway. No longer satisfied with sending one gambit at us after another, the humans are going all-out now.
Suddenly, the giantess carrying the barrel of oil trips over something. As I reach the apex of my swing, I see that some demons have pulled up a bunch of ropes along her path and entangled her legs. Now they jump on top of her and start hacking away with their weapons, but her armor is too thick. She shakes them off, rips off the ropes, and gets up.
It bought me enough time to reach her though, and I jump on her back just as she's about to start sprinting again. Throwing a tentacle around her neck right between the armor plates, I grow blades all along its length and pull hard in one direction, sawing her head off in one quick motion. No more mercy.
As her headless body falls over, the demons around me cheer. But there are still several more giants within the walls, each moving with some aim in mind. I see two smashing in the large doors to the storehouses as if searching for something. Three others are running around locating the last remaining artillery weapons we have and destroying them.
More and more of my troops start swarming them. I spot many bakari fire bursts while agile demons climb up using the armor pieces as footholds. One of the giants falls from having their ear pierced by a monkey-like demon wielding a curved sword. Another is tripped and beset on by a mass of heavyweight demons. Everywhere I look, the defenders are fighting back.
It seems that they can somehow handle them, after all. Thus, I quickly swing back to the gate, where Kamii and her troops are holding the line against an onslaught of armored knights. The humans weren't dumb and sent through their strongest as a vanguard instead of needlessly sacrificing lives to the meat grinder that always lies behind the gates of a fortress. The result is a stalemate of forces.
"Bring the oil!" I call out to some demons standing at one of the few still unscathed buildings and point at the gatehouse. The cauldron we used earlier to threaten to turn our hostage Fata into fried chicken has cooled down now, but the contents are still flammable. Even if I don't use any magic, we can physically light the area in front of the gate on fire.
As I reach the top of the gatehouse, I see that Hestia has dispatched two more giants on her side, while Dregana is clawing to get back over the wall after having finished off her opponent. Two dozen humans are clinging to her back and tail, stabbing weapons into the crevices between her armor plates to hold onto her.
"Morelit! Help her out!" I point at the Petsobek division commander standing by for my orders. There are currently twice the number of Petsobek in Erbilan than there were during the defense of Arkaim, but most are being held in reserve in case a retreat is in order. Only about two hundred of them man the walls, as a safeguard in case the enemy starts pouring onto the battlements.
"You heard Her Majesty!" Morelit is the third in command after Nilotec and Acutis and was stationed in Erbilan for a while alongside his fellow Kirali clansman, Rhosk. He's the fiery counterpart to the stoic fortress commander, and usually serves as a vanguard in open battles rather than defend against sieges. This is an opportunity to satiate his bloodlust.
Taking a dozen Petsobek, the division commander moves toward Dregana as she just reaches the top of the wall. More than thirty soldiers are clinging to her back now, with several of them in places where she can't reach at all. But the crocodilian warriors should take them out pretty quickly.
"Your Majesty, we brought the oil." The demons I ordered earlier arrive with several barrels and ask for further instructions. I grow four tentacles like extra limbs from my back and lift the barrels effortlessly before throwing them down right onto the heads of the humans trying to push through the gate. They shatter bones on their way down to the ground, where they break open and spray their content on those in the vicinity.
I repeat the process until there's only one barrel left. Taking out a piece of cloth from inside my body - one of many objects I keep there in case I need it - and stick it into the bunghole to let it soak with oil. Then I light it on fire with a tiny Ignis, one of the first spells I learned in this world.
The enemy right under us already expect what's coming, but they're locked in place because of the sheer numbers pushing from behind and the deadlock in front. Even though they displayed great discipline before, the thought that they could be among the first through the breach to achieve fame had them blinded. Now they'll pay for that overeagerness.
An explosion of flames spreads out across the mass of humans as the oil ignites in a flash. Screams of burning people echo through the gatehouse as they're unable to even roll on the ground because there simply is no space to move. But seeing the chaos, a commander further in the back calls for a temporary retreat.
It seems that we staved off the first wave. But as long as the gates are broken, they'll keep coming. And while we do have a lot of oil barrels in storage, it won't last forever. They're still scaling the walls as well, so this is only a short-term solution to this problem.
I could raise the ground to plug the gate, but that would most likely be considered a gross violation of Zenlith's condition. I've already done enough at this point, and he let it all go for some reason, but if I were to close up an entire pathway of attack, he could stop being so lenient with me.
Damn, I hate being at the mercy of somebody else. I prefer being the one in power - in many ways.
Dregana has turned back into her human form when she couldn't take the humans clinging to her body anymore. It seems they weren't just random soldiers but had means to hurt her through her dragon armor. There are cuts all over her body even after undoing her transformation, so it seems that damage carries over and isn't conveniently regenerated.
Due to her suddenly shrinking, several of the armored soldiers fall from the battlements or back to their side of the wall. But almost two dozen remain, who immediately get up and form a line right before the Petsobek led by Morelit run past Dregana and clash with them. To my surprise, they stand their ground against the assault from the much larger and muscular enemies.
In the air, a series of dogfights has started again, and I turn around to see Hestia taking off to join them. At least in that department, we're not at a numerical disadvantage, as Fatas are rarer than flying demons. And my fallen angel has the advantage of knowing things outside the magic system that her former brethren still adhere to. I'm sure Zenlith doesn't know about that yet since she hasn't used it in any exceptionally flashy way.
The oil is used up, and the flames die down, leaving behind a pile of roasted human bodies crumpled in their armors. For a while, the enemy waits to see what we might do next, but then they open a passage for a single knight in white armor. It's Colart, the second most troublesome Chosen Knight after Folke, but the one much better suited for overcoming this obstacle.
He raises his rapier, and for the first time, I see his unique magic in action, as it's no longer obscured by the Mirage Knight's invisibility. Seemingly out of thin air, spinning discs made from iron appear, slowly but steadily growing larger until they fuse to turn into a giant iron shield. It moves into position right above the gate and creates an umbrella to stop any more oil attacks from above, and the human army instantly begins to storm in.
Kamii and her party are still defending on the other side of the gatehouse, but they will be overrun eventually when they have to face this absurd number of enemies. Then again, the corpses will pile up into a mountain and might plug up the gate. But at that time are those going to be human or demon ones?
That's when I see movement on the left - from the enemy's right wing. A mass of troops is rushing through the opening between the formations and widening the gap like a wedge. Without slowing down even as the human army realizes what's going on and starts to react, they plow through them right toward the lineup of enemy catapults.
Chandra's second charge has begun.
