Runeblade

His prosthetic sucked. Not enough traction. Even putting a boot on it, the simple fact he wasn’t getting physical feedback from his footing led to him making constant, slight adjustments.

It was a considerable problem when the stones beneath his feet had been painted a consistent, slick ruby.

Thank the gods he’d lost his leg now, not a year ago. He had the dexterity to manage the impediment. That didn’t mean he had to like it — just another month or two and he could lob the damn thing back into storage.

Until the next time one of them got a limb ripped off, that is.

“Heave!” a sergeant yelled from down the line.

Guards and militia alike let out a roar, shoving forwards with their shield as they forced back the beasts. Two fell from the wall, and two more fell with spearpoints in their throats.

Despite their success, Kaius could see the sweat. The pallid clamour. Not even the rust red of dried blood — human and otherwise — could hide it. The defenders were exhausted. They were scared.

Their constant struggle had made them strong, but few were built for a drawn out battle like this. Even he was growing tired of the constant burn of his muscles.

He did what he could to lighten the pressure on them. Dashing along the wall, he charged into the narrow gap between the parapet and the guard's shields. A dozen beasts tried to capitalise on the sudden opening. Each one grew intimately familiar with the taste of his blade.

The beasts were weak. Endless, but weak. He could give the shieldwall a moment's rest, they deserved it after a night like this.

Kaius forced away the image of blank-eyed bodies being dragged from their positions, replaced by yet more men. There was always someone — three rotations of men on the walls, and he’d yet to see an entire squad make it through without losing someone.

At least he’d recovered a fair chunk of his mana. Once it was full, he’d get his own opportunity to rotate off — though he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. They needed him.

Ro and Rieker had insisted. When the Tyrant itself came, he needed to be sharp, not worn down from endless toil. Even Arc had agreed.

The sharp crackle of a communication artifact shook him from his thoughts. The command channel.

“Kaius! We need you, the northern wall’s been breached — large, invisibility or camouflage abilities, and unknown strength. Kenva’s following its trail, but can't pierce its cloak — I need her focused on aerial threats anyway.” Ro barked.

Shit, if Kenva couldn’t get through its Skill, it would be at high-steel at minimum. He was the best the city had at besting that sort of thing — but to abandon the wall?

He shot a look down the wall, at the exhausted rows of men who were pushing back the beasts. More would die if he left, more would die if he stayed.

Fucking war.

“I’ve got Steel teams coming to support the eastern gate, but I need you and Porkchop to go now — it's heading straight for the temple!”

God's scorn! That was where their healers were.

“On it!”

Kaius kicked off, the thump of an Expedient Shunt hitting him in the back. Touching down on a nearby roof, he only stumbled a little.

A little to his left, he caught sight of Porkchop diving from the wall — unsummoning his armour as he went to reduce the impact. His brother didn’t bother with a roof, not when he’d simply crash straight through it. Landing with a heavy thump, Porkchop’s armour reappeared with a pop.

He tore down the street. Kaius ran to meet him, jumping from roof to roof until he leapt directly onto Porkchop’s back.

Even weighed down with heavy armour, his brother was fast.

“Whats our plan!?” Porkchop asked as his claws tore up the cobblestones.

“Don’t really know — hard for us to get intel when the only thing people can see is that it's big, or maybe strong enough to break houses! Is it enough if only I can see it?”

They were able to share senses, but it wasn’t the same as seeing something personally. The shift in perspective would make dodging hell.

“It should be — probably not going to be able to pull off a perfect parry, but that's not really my style anyway.”

Kaius nodded, looking further into the city as he heard a crash. A drifting trail of dust cut the sky, revealing the creature's path. Every second that passed, he heard another crash.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Rotten roots, was the thing even trying to navigate, or was it just running straight through every building that stood between it and its target? More importantly, how the fuck did it know where their healers were in the first place! Even if the Tyrant was directing the beasts, surely it wasn’t actively doing so? It was a godsdamned army!

Grinding his teeth, Kaius simply leaned in close to Porkchop as he tightened his grip on his blade. He wished he had more of his spells. Necessity had limited his options significantly, but if he had Compel Obsession or Zone of Discombobulation he would have felt much more capable of slowing the creature’s advance.

As they raced through Deadacre, Kaius got a close up look of the devastation he had missed while defending the wall. It felt like every second building had been broken by the bombardment of the initial push from the aerial beasts.

Holes had been blown in roofs, windows had been smashed, and some houses had been utterly leveled. Fires lit the horizon in a hazy orange, too large and numerous to be explained by the watchfires that were scattered through the streets.

Tearing around the corner, he got to see one up close. An inn, consumed in a solid wall of flames — orange tongues slowly spreading to the surrounding buildings. The sight of it fixated him.

Left untended, the entire city might go up in flames.

“There!”

The call came from a nearby alley. A delver team, six strong. One of them clutched a staff, pale faced and drained thin — yet seeing the fire the man clenched his jaw tight and downed a tonic.

A bead of water grew at the tip of their staff.

It was barely a moment, then they were gone. They tore around another corner, growing ever closer to the creature that had broken into the city.

Kaius was oh, so tempted to take the opportunity to reinscribe as Porkchop ran. He knew it would have been idiotic — inscribing was volatile. No longer how swiftly he could inscribe his first tier spells, all it would take was a little distraction and they could destabilise. He didn’t fancy losing a finger right before a fight, let alone blowing a hole in his temple.

A deep bestial rumble rolled over the roofs from their left, followed by a crackling hiss. God's scorn, it was close. Some kind of reptile, maybe?

They had to only be a few blocks away, judging by the splintering crunch of broken wood he could hear. It was hard to tell — the dust the creature had kicked up had spread wide, mingling with smoke to obscure its source.

“Come on, we're getting closer,” Kaius said.

As he leaned in, Porkchop raced, taking corners at speed as they drew closer and closer to the source of the noise.

Crossing an open square, Kaius heard his communication artefact crackle. Kenva’s voice came through a heartbeat later. “I see the two of you! Take your next left and head to blocks, then take another — you’ll be behind it. I think.”

“How big is it? Can you tell at all?”

Kenva hesitated. “About as large as that drake you told me about? I can really only pick out where the dust is swirling around it, it's hard to tell. Long and low to the ground, rather than bulky or tall.”

Well, now he really wished he had more of his spells. Fighting large creatures was as much about managing distance and striking at exposed vulnerabilities. He was plenty confident at the damage he could do with his blade, but it was a pain in the ass when he couldn’t bloody reach anything important.

Regardless, they would just have to manage. There were ways around the restriction — worst came to worst, they took out its legs, exactly like they had done with the siege ogre so long ago. Plus, Porkchop wasn’t anywhere near as limited in his choice of abilities, and was plenty big himself.

Following Kenva's directions, they burst onto the street she suggested — right behind their hidden target.

He saw it immediately, its invisibility as strong as wet tissue when faced with his Truesight. Its body was lithe, yet still two full longstrides across at its widest. Three sets of legs jutted out from its body at right angles, its odd, wide stance giving it an undulating gate. Each of its claws may as well have been swords, and its body was coated in scales the colour of obsidian — light warping strangely over their surface.

The thing was moving steadily, a solid run rather than a desperate sprint. As it moved, its long, whip-like tail cracked from side to side — smashing in walls and shopfaces with every touch.

He identified it.

Nightscale Elder - Level 283

Beast, Ambusher

The heat in Kaius’s blood flared. Finally, something real. A battle that would make a difference — and a challenging one at that. Even if they’d fought higher level creatures, the night scale was large — larger even than the drake. Its physical abilities would be commensurate.

“Can you see it?” Kaius whispered.

“Yeah, kinda awkward though,” Porkchop said, pausing for a moment, “Unless you want to stay on my back? It’ll make the perspective shift a bit better.”

Well now, that sounded interesting. They’d practiced a little mounted combat before, but not against something larger than them. He could always dismount if it wasn’t effective.

“Why not?”

Porkchop charged.

“Go for the flank! Drawing it back towards the wall should be our focus.”

The beast was way too long to comfortably turn on the city street — even if it was strong enough to destroy buildings, the rubble would still hamper it. Levelling someone's home wasn’t exactly ideal, but it was far better than giving the nightscale room to manoeuvre.

Feeling Porkchop’s acknowledgement through their bond, Kaius seized his stamina. He was ready to activate Hellblade Investiture at a moment's notice, but not just yet. Not when it might give them away.

The nightscale was confident. Sloppy in only the way an apex predator could be. It must have heard them, yet it was so certain in its invisibility that it continued moving forward without a care in the world.

Right up until his blade erupted with a furious red glow.