As he stared down the rising rocky peninsula leading to the sturdy watchtower Gloomwood Manor had been tasked to retake, Drake found himself once more questioning his decision to agree to this assault. There was nothing he wanted more than revenge for the people the kromians had murdered on the beach a few days ago, but now, he was dragging his people into battle once more to get that revenge. He worried for them.
The manors and the capital guards had to retake the mouth of the bay. If they didn’t, the city would starve. Even so, it was possible Drake could lose more people today. No matter how well their plan went, it was unlikely his forces would suffer zero casualties.
So who would he lose in today’s fighting? Korrag? Emily? Lydia? He didn’t want to lose anyone, but given it was too late to back out now, he’d have to. His only comfort was everyone who’d come to help him retake this tower today had done so of their own free will.
While the view slit in his helmet was wide enough, he hated losing so much of his peripheral vision. It was an effort not to constantly glance side to side to check and see if someone was sneaking up on him. Still, going into battle without a helmet had not been an option, according to everyone. Some bullshit about keeping him alive.
This heavy armor made him feel clumsy. A full suit of ferrocite was far heavier than feathersteel. The way it was fitted was excellent, distributing the weight all over his body, but he wouldn’t want to run in this armor even if he still had Samuel’s regrowth rarity to bolster his strength... which he did not.
The rarity he would take into today’s battle had been a matter of heated debate with his advisors. No one had been all that pleased by his desire to give up Samuel’s rarity for something else. Even so, Drake refused to hang back and let his people take all the risks. Given the wide open battlefield, he’d decided to favor offense over defense.
Which was why he was going to see how much he could burnish Carl’s meteor kaboom.
It was the perfect rarity to take into today’s battle. He wasn’t going to be up close and personal with anyone, so launching what were essentially flying napalm bombs at a distant enemy was the best use of his rarity, and he’d seen what Carl’s flying bombs had done to the kromians on the beach. Drake was looking forward to seeing kromians burn.
He stood now at the base of the cliff leading up to his target. Lydia stood to his right, wearing feathersteel, and Emily stood impatiently to his left, clad in full ferrocite. Valentia was leading the zarovians today, alongside Cresh, and they were all bunched up behind the mass of capital guards standing in formation ahead. It was good to have those guys and gals to bolster his forces, because otherwise, his assault force would have barely numbered twenty.
With Nicole still off scouting and the capital guards attached to his forces in the process of checking their gear, Drake did one more survey of the battlefield. The mouth of the Alicean Bay was wide where it met the sea, and it really was a mouth when viewed from above. The bay itself remained shallow enough that small boats or wide, flat skiffs could move across it.
High cliffs surrounded the entry to the bay on this side of the water, falling open to reveal a yawning opening that reached the sea. A sturdy stone watchtower stood on the end of each cliff on each side of that open mouth. It offered a perfect angle to toss arrows, stones, or worse down on any invading forces who attempted to enter the bay. A number of ballistas were set along the cliffs as well, though all had been burned or wrecked by kromian invaders.
The watchtowers held another feature. A system of pulleys and gears inside would raise a chain net of metal spikes that would entangle or sink any boat that attempted to enter or leave the bay while the net was raised. One metal net was raised and lowered by both towers, and both nets were up. Even without a visible kromian force, that closed the bay.
Unfortunately, the watchtowers were no longer occupied by capital guards. They’d all been slaughtered or routed the day of the kromian assault, ensuring the metal nets could not be used to slow the kromian advance or retreat. Now those towers were likely filled with kromians. Drake’s people had been tasked with taking one of the two towers back.
He looked across the bay to the second watchtower, the one standing on the other cliff. Sky’s manor would be assaulting that one alongside their own force of capital guards, and he was almost as worried for her and her people as he was for his own. At least she had more experience in big battles like this. He hoped her losses would be light.
Armor clanked as the leader of the capital guards who’d been attached to his forces, a Sergeant Rosen, finally returned from his inspection of his own soldiers. Drake had two detachments of armored capital guards to command in addition to his own forces. That put his force at just under one hundred. If everyone had superpowers, it might be enough.
However, only his battle maids and JV team had rarities. His zarovians and the capital guards had only their armor, weapons, and skill. Fortunately, the kromians didn’t have any soldiers with rarities either, thanks to Prince Varnath’s decree that those with rarities must be purged. Drake might thank the prince for that before he put a crossbow bolt through his neck.
Rosen saluted as he arrived. “All’s in good order. We’re ready to move on your order, lord. The kromian army will not hold the tower after we’re through with them.”
“Great,” Drake said. “Just hang out right here for now. We’re still waiting on my scout, but it won’t be long. I’ll give the order to begin the assault once I know we’re good to go.”
“Understood, lord.”
Drake glanced at Lydia, who looked to be completing her own survey of the terrain. He didn’t like that she was wearing feathersteel instead of ferrocite, but she’d made it clear that using flutterstep tired her out far more quickly when in heavy armor. She had promised not to charge into battle, merely to protect him. He was going to hold her to that.
“You worried?” he asked quietly.
Face largely hidden behind her helmet, she glanced at him. “Why would I not be?”
“I’d tell you not to worry, but I’m worried too. That’s normal before a battle, right?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Lydia said. “This will only be my second battle.”
“Seriously? I thought you’d been in battle plenty of times.”
“The fight on the beach was my first real open battle, lord. Before you arrived, I rarely traveled beyond the manor before you took over. Lord Crow would sometimes command me to go with him when he departed, but it was never to engage in battle.”
“Right. Fighting face to face wasn’t the old fart’s style.” Drake considered. “I still wonder if I should have approached Lord Proudglade and asked for his shock spear rarity. Between the two of us, we could do some major damage to the enemy.”
“I doubt he would have shared it with you, lord,” Lydia said. “Just because he no longer seeks war with you doesn’t mean he’s willing to give us such a valuable gift.”
“Still, I could have asked. If for nothing else than to see the expression on his face.”
“I’ve been in several big battles, lord,” Emily chimed in. “They’re fun so long as you don’t die!”
Drake snorted. “You would think that.”
“Being nervous is normal,” Emily added. “I’m always nervous up until I pull out Chopper and start chopping souls. But once the killing starts, I’m fine! So just kill a kromian as soon as everything starts and you’ll slip into the rhythm of it.”
Drake couldn’t help but chuckle at her sincerely homicidal nature. “Thanks, Emily.”
Lydia cleared her throat. “If I may say so, lord, perhaps you are mentally reconsidering your path to this point because we cannot act?”
“So you’re saying I’m just restless, rather than incompetent?”
“I believe so. You continue to lead us well, and it is too late to second guess your decisions. We are committed to today’s battle with the forces we have now. Focus on that.”
Drake looked back to the watch tower. “Now that’s the kind of motivational support I was hoping for. Thanks, Lydia.” Before Emily could protest, he thumped her arm. “You too, murdermaid. I’m always glad you’re here to kill people I don’t like.”
“Of course, lord!” Emily said happily.
Nicole chose that moment to melt into view at his side. She wore her battle maid uniform and looked paler than he expected. Apparently, even feathersteel taxed her invisibility, which is why she wasn’t wearing any. That was the downside to making herself, her clothes, and her weapons disappear.
She’d been gone a long time. Drake knew using rarities consumed blood, and judging from the way Nicole was breathing, her pale skin, and her shaky posture, she had worn herself out scouting the tower and its surroundings. She wouldn’t be joining them in the actual battle, but Drake had expected that. The intelligence she could gather was more important.
“Tower’s empty,” Nicole said.
Emily stomped a foot. “That’s horrible!”
Drake frowned at her. “What? Why?”
“How dare they run off?” Emily demanded. “After all that effort they put in to take those towers, the least they could do is stick around and get murdered by us!”
Drake turned back to Nicole. “You’re sure it’s empty?”
“I have eyes,” Nicole reminded him tartly. “I found no kromians hiding around the tower’s perimeter. There are no kromians anywhere inside. I even managed to squeeze in through a window and found no one. A few bodies, our bodies, but nothing to stab.”
“I can’t believe we don’t get to kill any kromians today!” Emily continued ranting. She looked genuinely upset. “That’s not fair at all!”
“Settle down,” Drake ordered, then looked to Nicole again. “Why would they abandon the tower?” He asked that question of everyone in his general radius.
“Perhaps, after several days holding it, they had to return to the water,” Rosen offered. “Could they have dried out?”
Drake considered him. “Do kromians dry out?”
“They’re fish people, right?” Rosen asked. “Don’t fish dry out?”
Drake hadn’t considered that. He looked to Lydia. “Do fish people dry out?”
“I couldn’t say, lord.”
If the tower was empty, that suggested this trap was even more insidious than he’d believed. Had the kromians rigged the towers to explode? Could they even do that?
“I don’t like this at all,” Drake informed everyone. “We need to confer with Lord Skybreak and find out if her tower is empty. Emily, go tell Carl to send up a meteor kaboom.”
“Why me?” Emily asked petulantly. “If any kromians do show up, I’ll be too deep in the ranks to chop them. Send Lydia.”
Sergeant Rosen looked between them in obvious alarm. “How is your thrall disobeying a direct order?”
Drake remembered. Emily refusing his order must seem odd to Sergeant Rosen, given the average manor lord’s blood pact didn’t allow them to refuse. Given this man reported directly to someone who reported directly to the Judge, Drake didn’t need any rumors started.
“In battle situations, I’ve given my thralls permission to question my orders at least once,” Drake lied. “I’m still new at this, remember? So I’m taking it slow.”
“That seems... somewhat inefficient,” Rosen said tactfully.
“So’s getting my people killed. I’d prefer to avoid that.”
Emily huffed. “Fine, I’ll go talk to Carl. But if any kromians do show up while I’m gone, you better save a few for me!” She clomped away.
Drake glanced at Rosen. “Don’t mind her. She gets grumpy when she can’t murder my enemies. It’s a normal thing she does.”
“I see,” Rosen said cautiously. “To be clear, lord, I would never presume to tell you how to run your manor. I apologize if I spoke out of turn.”
Drake simply nodded rather than telling the man not to worry about it. In this case, he did want Rosen to worry. Better the man be too afraid to question how Drake ran his manor than ask a whole bunch of questions that’d force him to lie.
Moments later, a loud whistle announced a small fragment of flaming rock launching into the sky. Just like he’d done the night he suck the Asp’s boat and then made her explode, Carl had sent up a “flare” as they’d planned earlier today. That was the signal he and Sky had agreed on if they had to confer before the assault.
Lydia handed him Sky’s magic mirror. A moment later Sky’s face appeared within it, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Did you forget something back in your room?”
“Our tower’s empty,” Drake said.
Sky frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know,” Drake agreed. “But I trust Nicole. Why would they abandon the towers?”
“I can’t say,” Sky said. “But it certainly would make a great trap, wouldn’t it?”
Author's Note: Next week, Emily has the absolute best day of her life.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read Ahead on the Patreon
Chat on the Discord
As he stared down the rising rocky peninsula leading to the sturdy watchtower Gloomwood Manor had been tasked to retake, Drake found himself once more questioning his decision to agree to this assault. There was nothing he wanted more than revenge for the people the kromians had murdered on the beach a few days ago, but now, he was dragging his people into battle once more to get that revenge. He worried for them.
The manors and the capital guards had to retake the mouth of the bay. If they didn’t, the city would starve. Even so, it was possible Drake could lose more people today. No matter how well their plan went, it was unlikely his forces would suffer zero casualties.
So who would he lose in today’s fighting? Korrag? Emily? Lydia? He didn’t want to lose anyone, but given it was too late to back out now, he’d have to. His only comfort was everyone who’d come to help him retake this tower today had done so of their own free will.
While the view slit in his helmet was wide enough, he hated losing so much of his peripheral vision. It was an effort not to constantly glance side to side to check and see if someone was sneaking up on him. Still, going into battle without a helmet had not been an option, according to everyone. Some bullshit about keeping him alive.
This heavy armor made him feel clumsy. A full suit of ferrocite was far heavier than feathersteel. The way it was fitted was excellent, distributing the weight all over his body, but he wouldn’t want to run in this armor even if he still had Samuel’s regrowth rarity to bolster his strength... which he did not.
The rarity he would take into today’s battle had been a matter of heated debate with his advisors. No one had been all that pleased by his desire to give up Samuel’s rarity for something else. Even so, Drake refused to hang back and let his people take all the risks. Given the wide open battlefield, he’d decided to favor offense over defense.
Which was why he was going to see how much he could burnish Carl’s meteor kaboom.
It was the perfect rarity to take into today’s battle. He wasn’t going to be up close and personal with anyone, so launching what were essentially flying napalm bombs at a distant enemy was the best use of his rarity, and he’d seen what Carl’s flying bombs had done to the kromians on the beach. Drake was looking forward to seeing kromians burn.
He stood now at the base of the cliff leading up to his target. Lydia stood to his right, wearing feathersteel, and Emily stood impatiently to his left, clad in full ferrocite. Valentia was leading the zarovians today, alongside Cresh, and they were all bunched up behind the mass of capital guards standing in formation ahead. It was good to have those guys and gals to bolster his forces, because otherwise, his assault force would have barely numbered twenty.
With Nicole still off scouting and the capital guards attached to his forces in the process of checking their gear, Drake did one more survey of the battlefield. The mouth of the Alicean Bay was wide where it met the sea, and it really was a mouth when viewed from above. The bay itself remained shallow enough that small boats or wide, flat skiffs could move across it.
High cliffs surrounded the entry to the bay on this side of the water, falling open to reveal a yawning opening that reached the sea. A sturdy stone watchtower stood on the end of each cliff on each side of that open mouth. It offered a perfect angle to toss arrows, stones, or worse down on any invading forces who attempted to enter the bay. A number of ballistas were set along the cliffs as well, though all had been burned or wrecked by kromian invaders.
The watchtowers held another feature. A system of pulleys and gears inside would raise a chain net of metal spikes that would entangle or sink any boat that attempted to enter or leave the bay while the net was raised. One metal net was raised and lowered by both towers, and both nets were up. Even without a visible kromian force, that closed the bay.
Unfortunately, the watchtowers were no longer occupied by capital guards. They’d all been slaughtered or routed the day of the kromian assault, ensuring the metal nets could not be used to slow the kromian advance or retreat. Now those towers were likely filled with kromians. Drake’s people had been tasked with taking one of the two towers back.
He looked across the bay to the second watchtower, the one standing on the other cliff. Sky’s manor would be assaulting that one alongside their own force of capital guards, and he was almost as worried for her and her people as he was for his own. At least she had more experience in big battles like this. He hoped her losses would be light.
Armor clanked as the leader of the capital guards who’d been attached to his forces, a Sergeant Rosen, finally returned from his inspection of his own soldiers. Drake had two detachments of armored capital guards to command in addition to his own forces. That put his force at just under one hundred. If everyone had superpowers, it might be enough.
However, only his battle maids and JV team had rarities. His zarovians and the capital guards had only their armor, weapons, and skill. Fortunately, the kromians didn’t have any soldiers with rarities either, thanks to Prince Varnath’s decree that those with rarities must be purged. Drake might thank the prince for that before he put a crossbow bolt through his neck.
Rosen saluted as he arrived. “All’s in good order. We’re ready to move on your order, lord. The kromian army will not hold the tower after we’re through with them.”
“Great,” Drake said. “Just hang out right here for now. We’re still waiting on my scout, but it won’t be long. I’ll give the order to begin the assault once I know we’re good to go.”
“Understood, lord.”
Drake glanced at Lydia, who looked to be completing her own survey of the terrain. He didn’t like that she was wearing feathersteel instead of ferrocite, but she’d made it clear that using flutterstep tired her out far more quickly when in heavy armor. She had promised not to charge into battle, merely to protect him. He was going to hold her to that.
“You worried?” he asked quietly.
Face largely hidden behind her helmet, she glanced at him. “Why would I not be?”
“I’d tell you not to worry, but I’m worried too. That’s normal before a battle, right?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Lydia said. “This will only be my second battle.”
“Seriously? I thought you’d been in battle plenty of times.”
“The fight on the beach was my first real open battle, lord. Before you arrived, I rarely traveled beyond the manor before you took over. Lord Crow would sometimes command me to go with him when he departed, but it was never to engage in battle.”
“Right. Fighting face to face wasn’t the old fart’s style.” Drake considered. “I still wonder if I should have approached Lord Proudglade and asked for his shock spear rarity. Between the two of us, we could do some major damage to the enemy.”
“I doubt he would have shared it with you, lord,” Lydia said. “Just because he no longer seeks war with you doesn’t mean he’s willing to give us such a valuable gift.”
“Still, I could have asked. If for nothing else than to see the expression on his face.”
“I’ve been in several big battles, lord,” Emily chimed in. “They’re fun so long as you don’t die!”
Drake snorted. “You would think that.”
“Being nervous is normal,” Emily added. “I’m always nervous up until I pull out Chopper and start chopping souls. But once the killing starts, I’m fine! So just kill a kromian as soon as everything starts and you’ll slip into the rhythm of it.”
Drake couldn’t help but chuckle at her sincerely homicidal nature. “Thanks, Emily.”
Lydia cleared her throat. “If I may say so, lord, perhaps you are mentally reconsidering your path to this point because we cannot act?”
“So you’re saying I’m just restless, rather than incompetent?”
“I believe so. You continue to lead us well, and it is too late to second guess your decisions. We are committed to today’s battle with the forces we have now. Focus on that.”
Drake looked back to the watch tower. “Now that’s the kind of motivational support I was hoping for. Thanks, Lydia.” Before Emily could protest, he thumped her arm. “You too, murdermaid. I’m always glad you’re here to kill people I don’t like.”
“Of course, lord!” Emily said happily.
Nicole chose that moment to melt into view at his side. She wore her battle maid uniform and looked paler than he expected. Apparently, even feathersteel taxed her invisibility, which is why she wasn’t wearing any. That was the downside to making herself, her clothes, and her weapons disappear.
She’d been gone a long time. Drake knew using rarities consumed blood, and judging from the way Nicole was breathing, her pale skin, and her shaky posture, she had worn herself out scouting the tower and its surroundings. She wouldn’t be joining them in the actual battle, but Drake had expected that. The intelligence she could gather was more important.
“Tower’s empty,” Nicole said.
Emily stomped a foot. “That’s horrible!”
Drake frowned at her. “What? Why?”
“How dare they run off?” Emily demanded. “After all that effort they put in to take those towers, the least they could do is stick around and get murdered by us!”
Drake turned back to Nicole. “You’re sure it’s empty?”
“I have eyes,” Nicole reminded him tartly. “I found no kromians hiding around the tower’s perimeter. There are no kromians anywhere inside. I even managed to squeeze in through a window and found no one. A few bodies, our bodies, but nothing to stab.”
“I can’t believe we don’t get to kill any kromians today!” Emily continued ranting. She looked genuinely upset. “That’s not fair at all!”
“Settle down,” Drake ordered, then looked to Nicole again. “Why would they abandon the tower?” He asked that question of everyone in his general radius.
“Perhaps, after several days holding it, they had to return to the water,” Rosen offered. “Could they have dried out?”
Drake considered him. “Do kromians dry out?”
“They’re fish people, right?” Rosen asked. “Don’t fish dry out?”
Drake hadn’t considered that. He looked to Lydia. “Do fish people dry out?”
“I couldn’t say, lord.”
If the tower was empty, that suggested this trap was even more insidious than he’d believed. Had the kromians rigged the towers to explode? Could they even do that?
“I don’t like this at all,” Drake informed everyone. “We need to confer with Lord Skybreak and find out if her tower is empty. Emily, go tell Carl to send up a meteor kaboom.”
“Why me?” Emily asked petulantly. “If any kromians do show up, I’ll be too deep in the ranks to chop them. Send Lydia.”
Sergeant Rosen looked between them in obvious alarm. “How is your thrall disobeying a direct order?”
Drake remembered. Emily refusing his order must seem odd to Sergeant Rosen, given the average manor lord’s blood pact didn’t allow them to refuse. Given this man reported directly to someone who reported directly to the Judge, Drake didn’t need any rumors started.
“In battle situations, I’ve given my thralls permission to question my orders at least once,” Drake lied. “I’m still new at this, remember? So I’m taking it slow.”
“That seems... somewhat inefficient,” Rosen said tactfully.
“So’s getting my people killed. I’d prefer to avoid that.”
Emily huffed. “Fine, I’ll go talk to Carl. But if any kromians do show up while I’m gone, you better save a few for me!” She clomped away.
Drake glanced at Rosen. “Don’t mind her. She gets grumpy when she can’t murder my enemies. It’s a normal thing she does.”
“I see,” Rosen said cautiously. “To be clear, lord, I would never presume to tell you how to run your manor. I apologize if I spoke out of turn.”
Drake simply nodded rather than telling the man not to worry about it. In this case, he did want Rosen to worry. Better the man be too afraid to question how Drake ran his manor than ask a whole bunch of questions that’d force him to lie.
Moments later, a loud whistle announced a small fragment of flaming rock launching into the sky. Just like he’d done the night he suck the Asp’s boat and then made her explode, Carl had sent up a “flare” as they’d planned earlier today. That was the signal he and Sky had agreed on if they had to confer before the assault.
Lydia handed him Sky’s magic mirror. A moment later Sky’s face appeared within it, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Did you forget something back in your room?”
“Our tower’s empty,” Drake said.
Sky frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know,” Drake agreed. “But I trust Nicole. Why would they abandon the towers?”
“I can’t say,” Sky said. “But it certainly would make a great trap, wouldn’t it?”
Author's Note: Next week, Emily has the absolute best day of her life.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read Ahead on the Patreon
Chat on the Discord
