Chapter 80: Battle of commanders
Inside the cathedral, the children and residents incapable of fighting had gathered between the rows of crystal coffins.
Some sat beside wounded family members, and priests moved through the crowded hall treating those brought down from the walls.
The Saintess stood beyond the open doors with both hands resting upon her white staff, from the upper staircase, she watched winged beasts descend upon the ramparts and disappear behind the fortress towers.
Her expression remained calm, though her fingers tightened around the staff whenever another section of the defensive barrier flickered.
Ancient gears began turning inside the eastern bell tower, their movement shook dust from the stonework before the morning bell swung and released its first heavy note.
The sound passed through the cathedral and spread across the fortress, conversations stopped and the wounded raised their heads everyone inside the prayer hall turned toward the empty throne above the altar.
Pale markings remained upon its surface where a statue had once stood, several elderly residents lowered their heads and clasped their hands. The younger children copied them without understanding the reason.
The statue was gone, but the morning prayer continued.
Another toll reached the central ramparts, where the fortress commander sat with his spear across his knees, blood covered the stone beneath him.
Shadows and soldiers fought along both sides of the wall, cutting down one creature only for another to climb over its remains.
The commander raised his head toward the brightening sky, he set his spear aside and stepped onto the highest part of the battlement.
Several officers noticed the formations across his armour beginning to shine and none dared approach as he spread his arms.
The next instant air compressed around the fortress until armour tightened against flesh and loose fragments of stone lifted from the walls.
The pressure broke outward in a transparent ring, it crossed the defenders without leaving a wound.
But the beasts were not spared, scales burst open, bones twisted and flesh tore apart wherever the ring passed.
Creatures clinging to the battlements collapsed into pieces, followed by the serpents, drakes, and malformed predators crowded above them.
Within a breath, every beast near the walls had been destroyed, blood struck the barriers and poured down their pale surfaces.
Xingluo’s weapon remained raised toward an empty stretch of air, Su Lan and Ruan Mei stared across the cleared ramparts and several participants lowered their weapons without noticing.
The pressure faded, but the commander was not finished, he retrieved his spear and faced the enormous dragon waiting beyond the battlefield.
Its rider watched from between the creature’s folded wings, showing no reaction to the thousands of corpses now scattered around the fortress.
Formations ignited along the spear. and the commander drew it behind his shoulder and threw.
The weapon vanished from the ramparts with a narrow distortion and crossed several kilometres of open air before the spear buried itself in the centre of the advancing army.
Pale fractures erupted from the point of impact and divided the surrounding ground into thousands of sections, power surged through those cracks, engulfing every beast within the expanding circle.
Hundreds of thousands of creatures dissolved into pale wisps, the destruction reached them too quickly for a single scream to escape.
For the first time since the siege began, the participants could see the soil beneath the invading army.
Fresh ranks immediately poured into the clearing, beasts crossed the fading fractures from every direction, and another mass of wings covered the opening overhead. Within seconds, the empty ground had begun disappearing again.
The man seated upon the dragon looked over the destruction and laughed. "You think this will help you?"
His voice rolled across the plains, the advancing creatures showed no fear as they marched through the remnants of those erased moments earlier.
A black substance slid from beneath his sleeve and crawled over his hand, it swallowed his forearm, spread across his shoulder and tightened into cords resembling exposed muscle beneath a liquid surface.
The mass surrounding his fist continued growing and formed a long handle then expanded into the curved head of a massive battle axe, the weapon pulsed against his arm like another living limb.
The dragon lowered its body to launch, but its rider had already left its back, shattered air marked his path across the battlefield.
The commander vanished from the ramparts and appeared beside his embedded spear, his hand closed around its shaft just as the living axe descended.
Their weapons struck above the clearing and the ground collapsed beneath them, and the impact spread across the battlefield in a widening ring. Thousands of beasts were lifted from their feet and torn apart inside the pressure.
What remained of the shockwave crashed against the fortress barriers, several layers bent inward, soldiers fell across the battlements, and windows shattered throughout the outer district.
The commander wrenched his spear free and drove its head toward his opponent’s chest. The man avoided the original thrust, but space folded around the spearhead and placed it against his shoulder.
Metal and black flesh split beneath the blade, dark blood emerged from the wound only to disappear when the living material closed over it.
Tendrils burst from the axe handle and snapped toward the commander’s head. He severed them with a turn of his spear but the pieces curled through the air and hardened into hooks behind him.
The main axe came from the opposite direction, he caught its edge against the middle of his spear. Stone cratered beneath his boots, and the shaft bent until the blade stopped beside his shoulder. The hooked fragments closed from behind.
Releasing one hand from the spear, he drove his fist beneath his opponent’s ribs.
The blow launched the man through several ranks of beasts and into a formation-breaking pillar. Metal folded around his body, then erupted when the energy stored inside the weapon lost control.
The commander followed him into the explosion, pale copies of his spear descended through the smoke from several directions, forcing the living armour to spread into overlapping shields.
Most of the attacks shattered against the black layers, two slipped through and opened deep wounds across his opponent’s chest.
A blackened palm struck the ground, the substance covering the enemy commander’s body spread beneath the battlefield and erupted around his attacker in the form of enormous axe blades.
Several cut through empty air and one shattered against the spear but the final blade caught the commander’s armoured forearm.
Formations broke across the armour as the impact threw him above the battlefield.
His opponent pursued with a second axe forming over his free arm, both weapons expanded during the ascent until their blades exceeded the siege engines below.
The next collision opened a vast gap through the clouds.
Winged creatures scattered from the pressure, and the beasts upon the plains slowed beneath the two figures fighting above them but the hesitation ended as soon as the the dragon released another roar.
The horde surged forward again as creatures climbed over their dead fresh wings filled the sky and enemy fighters advanced behind the beasts toward the walls.
One of the living axes missed its target and fell toward the fortress. The commander broke away from the fight overtook the descending strike and caught it across his spear.
He forced the attack away from the ramparts, its remaining power carved through the army below, erasing another path between the beasts but more creatures entered the gap almost immediately.
Several defenders struck by the earlier shockwave had not yet returned to their feet.
The enemy commander saw where his attention had gone.
"You cannot protect them while fighting me." Black tendrils spread from both axes and twisted through the air. "How many blows can you stop before one reaches the walls?"
The next axe swept toward the commander’s neck, he turned around its edge, trapped the handle beneath his spear, and released the power stored within the formations covering his armour.
His opponent was dragged away from the fortress, tendrils shot downward and tried to anchor him to the battlefield, but the spear cut through them before they could tighten.
The base of the weapon struck his chest and launched him toward the upper clouds.
The commander followed, forcing their battle away from the soldiers, beasts, and damaged barriers.
His spear continued attacking across distances its shaft could not reach, leaving wounds before the thrusts appeared to land.
The black substance answered every attack with another shape the axes collapsed into shields, hooked limbs reached around the spear and enormous jaws tried to close upon the commander whenever he entered their range.
One thrust tore the living weapon from his opponent’s arm, the man caught the spear shaft with his bare hand, stopped its point short of his throat and struck the commander hard enough to send him through a bank of clouds.
The sound of each collision reached the fortress several seconds later, doors trembled in their frames, damaged towers shed loose stone and ripples spread across the defensive barriers.
Inside the cathedral, several children covered their ears and the wounded stared toward the open doors, but the residents before the altar kept their heads lowered as the morning bell continued swinging above them.
The Saintess remained upon the cathedral steps, wind from the distant impacts pulled at her robes, though she refused to retreat into the prayer hall.
On the ramparts, the officers recovered and began shouting orders, mana cannons rotated toward the approaching army, archers raised their weapons and the remaining fighters returned to the gaps in their formations.
The first winged beast struck the outer barrier and dragged its claws across the pale surface.