Ekological Chimera
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Chapter 35 - Serpent's Pass
🕑 Added 2024-10-29 19:19:12 +0000 UTCIn a long mountain pass named for its serpentine nature, a mighty fortress stood. Built-in one of the narrowest points of the pass, the fortification’s high stone walls blocked the passage entirely. No interloper could enter the Sarak Archduchy without the say-so of the local commander and so it has been for hundreds of years.
In that time, the fortress had never fallen. Not only because of its mighty construction and advantageous terrain but also because of its proud defenders. Since its inception, the fortress had been in the hands of House Avaren, a martial family extremely proud of their duty as the Archduchy’s first line of defence in the south.
Despite its proud history, the defenders now covered behind its walls even as the enemy massed well within bow range. The few Terran’s interspersed among the enemy taught them the power of alien weaponry quickly.
The gauges and occasional holes in the tall walls attested to that. Eternity’s knights had adapted quickly and managed to prevent a complete collapse of the fortifications with their miracles, but their shields were impenetrable from both sides.
The result of this was an awkward stalemate, where the defenders dared not peek from behind the battlements and the attackers dared not try to storm the fortress again, as they too had learned a painful lesson about the power of Eternity.
Siege towers could not stand against it.
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Frederick wasn’t so sure his Goddess-given powers would be enough anymore. He had been assigned to guard the Serpent’s pass along with five other Chosen, thus safeguarding one of only two land routes that lead to the Sarak Archduchy from the heretical south.
The young knight stood on the battlements of the ancient fortress carefully peeking at the enemy horde, soldiers and knights surrounding him.
The Custodian’s new orders hadn’t been exactly reassuring. Frederick wasn’t an idiot. He could read between the lines. She didn’t think their victory likely, but the young knight felt determined to prove the Lady wrong.
A few days ago he would have scoffed at the mere notion of losing. A defensible position, superior numbers and miracles? Then their group of six was reduced to five, as Thomas’ head promptly disappeared after he showed off his powers to one of the soldiers in the open.
The rest of them had been much more careful about the more flashy aspects of their Goddess-given powers as well as the usage of shields.
Frederick would be lying if he said that his comrade’s death did not shake him. It had shattered the veil of invincibility around them quite neatly, though the young knight’s fear was equalled by his thirst for revenge.
With Terran and traitor both massing for another attack, his opportunity would come soon. He and Aria were the lucky two selected to guard the front wall, while each of the last three Chosen took one of the remaining sides of the rectangular fort.
His gauntlets gripped the battlements with inhuman strength as another four siege towers started moving, the formations of southern soldiers shifting. This couldn’t be it. They had already tried this, to dismal results. His mind churned as he tried to figure out what trick the enemy was trying to play.
“Where did all the Terrans go,” he muttered, frowning. Frederick could still see some in small clusters here and there, but not as many as he remembered there being.
“Above!” A voice shouted, making Frederick crane his neck upwards.
He spotted the three machines just as they unleashed their explosive payload. The missiles flew true, but Frederick along with some of his nearby brethren managed to put up a shield just in time.
The resulting explosion and smoke made him lose sight of the flying things, so he reinforced the shield just in case. One of his compatriots didn’t share his caution, dropping his own portion of the shield and turning back towards the battlements, where he picked a head-sized rock and threw it at one of the siege towers, punching a hole clean through.
Frederick ignored this, squinting upwards as he spotted some kind of movement on the other side of the shield, much of it obscured by smoke.
‘Did they fly closer?’
Then he blinked, “Are, are those shoes?”
He swore as armoured soldiers started dropping from the hole in the shield above straight into the courtyard behind him.
“BEHIND!” He screamed, creating a shield just as the Terrans began firing, though more were still dropping in from above.
Then an explosion rocked the walls, making Frederick stumble and his shield flicker, while still more soldiers were cut down by the alien weapons.
Before he could turn back towards the battlements, Aria, the chosen nearest to his position shouted, “GO! I’ll hold the wall!”
Nodding to her, he jumped from the wall into the courtyard, projectiles hitting his shield all the while. His landing kicked a cloud of dust, but he had learned the lesson of reinforcing his body well.
His pendant shone silver as he advanced while the Terrans began retreating.
Then another of the Chosen jumped down behind them. Finlay, who had been guarding the rear wall.
This made the Terrans hesitate, letting Frederick catch up.
One soldier went up in the air, thrown by Frederick’s telekinesis, as another’s helmet faced the full brunt of his two-handed sword. Though he could not cut their armour, his strength was enough to pulverise the not-so-resilient flesh hidden inside.
As the aliens realised their unenviable situation, they began dispersing to the sides, until the first of them hit the silvery energy shield.
Frederick’s eyes widened before he quickly copied his peer’s technique, extending his own protection to the side, boxing the heretics in. Though weakened, it was still enough to protect him from their weapons.
What followed next was a methodical massacre as the two knights finished the remaining soldiers off.
Just as the last of them fell, an explosion engulfed the rearward wall. As the dust settled, Frederick saw that a giant hole had been punched through, much of the wall being reduced to rubble.
He could see one of the flying machines over the rear wall, rapidly approaching for another pass of the wall.
A hare-brained idea occurred to him then.
“Finlay! Give me a boost!”
The other Chosen turned towards him, her likely uncharitable expression hidden by her helmet.
“Quickly!” Frederick urged, jogging towards her.
Finlay knelt, letting Frederick put one of his boots in her hands. As the machine neared, she threw Frederick with all her Eternity-given strength.
The Chosen couldn’t help but let out a laugh as he flew, though it was silenced the moment he hit the aircraft’s side. At that moment, he poured as much of Eternity’s power as he dared into his sword before stabbing the machine.
To his delight, the sword pierced through the metal.
The machine did a barrel roll then, making him yelp, but he managed to hold on, if barely. Grabbing hold of a convenient metal protrusion with his off-hand, he pulled out his sword and stabbed it a bit further, closer to the machine’s front.
Then he tried to repeat his feat, but the moment he removed his sword, the machine barrel rolled again. Frederick fell on the wing, very nearly falling into the rotating blades, and was left dangling from one hand when the machine corrected its orientation again, sword in the other.
His breath came in rugged gasps, but his determination was higher than ever.
“For Eternity!” He screamed, jamming the enhanced sword straight into the rotor.
The spinning blades broke, throwing the machine off. The movement proved too much for the Chosen and he let go.
As he fell, he couldn’t help but curse at what he saw.
Though much more awkward, jets of flame came out of the machine’s bottom, stabilising it.
Grimacing, he focused on reinforcing his body to the maximum while shielding his head with his arms.
Then came the impact, rattling his entire body.
Frederick gasped as the breath was driven from his body, blacking out for a second, but miraculously, he was still in one piece.
Slowly, he raised his head from the ground, trying to get his bearings.
The battered knight lay on one of the fort’s four main towers, cowering archers staring at him in shock and disbelief.
Grunting, he stood up, ignoring the pain which suffused his body while thanking Eternity for his fortuitous fall.
He released a tense breath he didn’t know he was holding when he realised the situation was somewhat under control. The breach in the rear wall was held nearly single-handedly by Finlay, who even now fended off what looked like a full-on cavalry charge.
How the enemy managed to sneak hundreds of cavalrymen into the Archduchy’s lands behind the fort, Frederick did not know.
More Terran bullshit, he suspected.
The siege towers lay in ruins, the twin forms of Aria and Gregor standing proud and unbowed upon the main wall, handily defending their fellow warriors from Terran projectiles.
He smiled. They could do this.
