Downtown Druid

Darien had gotten used to the cannon fire. The sound of the blast followed by the shattering of the cannonball against the wall making blue sparks splash across it. It had become almost routine over the week’s assault. A few volleys had gotten through of course, but Darien’s portion of the wall hadn’t had any pierce the magical forcefield. Their mage was older, a retiree from the Academy rather than one of the young novices that were posted at the other sections of the wall. He’d been chosen because their area of the wall was one of the few that had a gate to defend, making it much more vulnerable if the mages’ field were to collapse. Darien had been grateful for that, until the old timer had fallen suddenly, clutching his chest as his heart gave out.

The enemy had seen the weakness his death had created, and immediately capitalized on it. With the magical barrier sealed, the cannon’s all fired at the gate. It didn’t fail immediately, it was a thick chunk of wood wider than he was, but he could feel the ground shake with every impact.

One of the shots fired went high and obliterated a dwarf that was firing his rifle from the top of the wall, his blood and viscera scattered everywhere and Darien howled as a piece of bone lodged itself in his cheek. He fought back tears as he pulled the long shard out and dropped it to the ground. He didn’t want to be there. He thought he’d be walking streets protecting poor defenseless mage girls going to light lamps in Uptown. He should be in bed with one of them, not waiting to be blown apart by a cannonball, or melted down by magefire, or run through with a spear.

He clutched his own spear tightly. He hadn’t even completed his sword training yet. He looked around at the other guards. There were only four or five of the twenty or so he could see that were wielding swords. He wasn’t sure if he felt comforted that he wasn’t the only one without one, or disheartened that most of them were greenbloods like him.

He jumped a bit as another cannonball hit the gate, this time it seemed to hit much more powerfully.

“They’re focusing the main cannons they’d been holding back on the gate,” yelled down another dwarf from the wall.

Darien’s sergeant nodded grimly at that information.

There were a dozen more volleys. Pieces of wood splintered, masonry from the walls began to tumble down, dust and smoke filled the air. Waiting was agony, but he was grateful the walls seemed to be holding.

“Go get me the merc and adventurer auxiliaries!” yelled the sergeant. “The first breach is going to be here.”