Hero Scout

The Lord Swan gave her an odd look, and an even odder one when she blocked a Faun"s arrow with her book. The leather clad tome on Fae servants survived without the slightest damaged, as if it"s pages were made of steel.

"We hold the walls, and the gate has been defended too," Lord Swan pointed out, before swinging his long silver sword over her head to decapitate a Satyr dressed in a.s.sa.s.sin"s black and with a pair of cursed knives in hand.

"The structural damage to the walls are severe at several points. a.s.suming that is planned, the enemy is working up to breaching your walls at several points. Upon which they will be able to overwhelm your defences. Also, your walls seem lost already."

The girl was right, Lord Swan knew. He could feel it in the tempo of battle, the instant Kenji had been flung from the walls the fighting there had become desperate as lumbering siege towers unleashed entire companies of Satyr warriors.

Arrows and magic might have wiped the walls clean, but a dark cloud of crows flew in the way. The enchanted birds sacrificed themselves to shield the satyr, who in turn slaughtered the remainder of those humans still fighting.

Gritting his teeth, Lord Swan gestured to a horn to blow - and halted. The horn still blew, but Grey similarly pulled off her cloak with the same urgency that the Lord Swan raised his Silver Sword.

Beneath Grey"s cloak was dozens of books tied together like plates of steel, and with her magical infusion they might as well have been.

Lord Swan meanwhile pulled down his Swan helmet, his silvery armour shining with a bright intensity soon met by his brothers.

Dancing over the walls came several powerful auras. Each were dressed like jesters, with wands in one hand and various spiked weapons the other.
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The colourful troop were covered in tinkling silver bells, their masks various painted faces. As they flew along the houses they sent little bursts of wind to snap necks or shatter archer flatforms, while not ones weapon remained clean of blood as they almost whimsically ripped apart the defenders limb by limb.

Neither did they care that Lord Swan knew that that were coming, making a grand show of their giggling destruction as they approached. One with a spiked fan send wind blades blasting even from a distance, those not parried ripping through wooden beams to send houses crashing down.

Another held a great spike tipped with feathers, and with a flutter of his hand ma.s.ses of wind birds blew into the sky were they could dive like homing missiles into the ranks of soldiers surrounding the Lord. Some few struck at Grey, yet she swatted them aside with her books with the same ease one would a fly.

"None of them are Fae, and half at least are using magical weaponry to use those spells. The one on the right is a red orc, the left is a pixie while the rest I have yet to discern," Grey said casually, as a huge jester with red skin beneath his cloth smashed a great bundle of sticks against Lord Swans sword, followed by a rush of wind. Somehow the twigs held against his blade, and the Red Orc Jester even managed to slip away while only losing one hand from the Lord"s lighting fast [counter attack].

The pixie was a hand high tall being of pure power, it"s wind whips shattering buildings like plates and crushing knight"s like tin cans. Yet Gray had done her research, and threw her "Book on the Fae races" at the creature. Infused with enough magic it was heavy enough to fly through the ruptuous wind, it"s iron spine making direct contact with the pixie.

Screaming she fell, her side a sizzling mess and her magic dispersing in an instant. Grey had to suppress a giggle as the iron book fell upon the pixie, who could only scream and sizzle while pinned beneath its weight. While not a real Fae, the pixie race still had that same weakness when it came to iron.

Appearing suddenly behind Lord Swan appeared a small figure with a blade that shimmered and faded from existence. The glimmering blade sunk right through Lord Swan"s armour and the boy vanished before Lord Swan"s shining sword could cleave him in two. Reappearing again the boy sunk his blade through Lord Swan"s arm, causing it to go limp, but was in turn cut across the shoulder by one of Grey"s razer sharp, magic infused pages.

A boy"s cry sounded out from beneath the mask, quickly shattered by the flat of Lord Swan"s blade. While Lord Swan and his knights drove off the remaining jester a.s.sa.s.sins to hide within the many buildings of Tariak, Grey cradled the injured boy.

His hair was a messy pigeon feather gray, his skin smooth and pale as the finest paper, while his lifeless leather brown eyes were crested with golden lines that reminded Grey of a fancy book"s border.

"I think they could be enchanted, just like those adventurers that opened the gate before," Grey muttered, tracing her finger against the boy"s soft cheek and admiring his near feminine looks. "The pixie especially is highly unlikely to have wanted to fight alongside a Red Orc, we should take them to lady Violet and see if she can break their enchantments. As allies their powers would prove useful."

"I"d prefer them dead," Lord Swan muttered as he peered about the wreckage of what was once his personal guard. "And definitely for them not to be near her, that purple elf is our only d.a.m.n hope of - you lot, send the message, full retreat to the secondary positions!"

Grey whipped up her head to find the cracking walls blasted to dust amidst a storm of h.e.l.lfire and slung stones. Those defenders that were not engulfed in dust and squashed by rock already fled, but sharp sounding horns soon directed what meagre reserves stood at the ready to start retreating as well.

"I told you we defended the main gate too heavily," Grey muttered as every place along the line bar the gate itself was on the verge of breaking.

"No, this is the best way. We"ll be able to pull back without being overrun, and until they control the gate the enemy cannot pull in their full strength with ease. They"ve just fallen into my trap, a.s.suming all is ready. Can you use magic outside of that book nonsense, girl?"

"Who are you calling girl?" Grey sniffed, and rose a hand bathed in black flame. h.e.l.lflame. It made her skin crawl to use.

"Good, can you cast fireball?"

Grey frowned as she nodded, "dad taught me. Why?"

"Because I"m not sure we have enough wizards currently to get this just right," Lord Swan whispered. As he watched the horned swarm envelope the back lines of his retreating forces.