Kingdom Of The Weak

A spread of arrows arched high in the fading sunset light.

"What do you think Joshu is doing right now?" George asked Tim, seeing the maddened Wilds in front of them charge in spite of the arrows.

"I think Joshu"s sitting in a tree." Tim said in a sing-song chant. "S-H-O-O-TI-N-G!"

The beasts roared. They crashed headlong into the sharpened stakes, ran right into the bear traps. Some of them faltered only to get bowled over and trampled by the beasts behind them.

"Something"s wrong with these Wilds." Remian observed to Mandy quietly. "I can"t imagine Carrie or Buff going berserk like that."

"And Vigil?"

"Only if you took away a steaming hot barbecue skewer from in front of his nose."

The Wilds neared 200 meters. They ran into the stakes, and some of them were impaled directly, but they barely even slowed.

"Double Line Formation!" Markus commanded. The Legionnaires formed up in two neat rows.

The Wilds neared 100 meters. Every Wild that slowed down or staggered instantly got trampled underfoot. The Beast Wave didn"t stop for anything.

"Javelins! Staggered sequence!"

The first line threw out their spears. Some of them stuck onto Wilds, but didn"t seem to make much of a difference.

The second line threw their spears out. The archers fired more arrows. Again, not much changed.

"Brace!" Markus yelled. "Shields up!"

With a concerted action, they linked shields to form a wall. There was no time for anything else. The foremost Wilds arrived and slammed into that shield wall with a resounding crash. Screams echoed all across the defenders. The charge of the Beast Wave tore right into them without slowing.

Remian gave his orders. "Team Mandy, light it up! Everyone stay back from the front lines, the beasts are going to spread out and… wait. What?"

They didn"t slow down. They didn"t spread out. Unlike the previous Wave, this batch seemed intent on plowing through and completely ignoring everyone. The defenders tried to stop them, to slow them down, but for the most part, there was no use. The Legionnaire formation was the only thing that managed to stop the Beast Wave. Everywhere else, the Wilds broke through the defense lines and charged straight on towards the walls unhindered.

"What the-?!" Kairos gaped. Standing behind the Legion as they were, the Adventurers Guild remained clear from the charge, but only just. "Since when did they…?!"

But there was no point asking any more. It was too late, far too late for questions or regrets.

The Wilds slammed into the measly wall of Frontier Town, also known as Fort Spoas, and broke through in a matter of seconds.

The defenses were breached.

With the sound of thunder, the Beast Wave broke through the town walls. A dozen or so were held back, and as many had been killed or disabled along the way, but roughly forty maddened Tier 3 Wilds tore through and charged straight into town.

Remian"s heart sank. The earlier light-heartedness and humor evaporated into nothing. Forty Tier 3 Wilds in an unprepared town…

There were roars, there were screams, and then everyone was rushing into town chasing after the Wilds that had gotten through. Only the Iron Legion remained outside, still holding off their dozen Wilds.

"Go! I"ll be with the Legion!" Kairos offered.

Remian nodded and went after everyone else. Mandy, Mindy, and the others were already running after the rampaging Wilds. They had scrolls out and Fire Bolts were flying fast and furious, but against Tier 3 Wilds, they may as well have been throwing stones.

"George! Find Joshu and get him back here, fast!" Remian ordered. "Everyone else, use Light and Smoke to distract the Wilds!"

At least that way they might hinder the rampaging Wilds a bit. Those Fire Bolts did little more than annoy them.

"Remian!" Max shouted. "Do your thing!"

"What thing?!" Remian choked.

"Your super-spell! Use it!"

They were counting on him, Remian realized. They didn"t know it was a fluke, and everyone seemed to think he could do it again any time he wanted…

But it was a fluke! To do it again, on purpose…

Could he?

Heart thundering, Remian drew a sigil in desperation. "LIGHT!!"

Out came a brilliant Light Orb, bright enough to turn twilight into early evening, but not quite able to burn through anything. It was a very nice, very big Light Orb, but merely a Light Orb nonetheless. The super-powered Light Bolt did not reappear.

"Oh, sc.r.a.p." Remian winced. Again, he tried to super-cast, tried to summon that previous desperation and emotion, because the situation really was desperate now…

Come ON, magic! I need this!! WORK!! "LIGHT!"

A second big fat Light Orb went sailing into the night sky turning early evening into near-morning light.

"Not THAT! I mean… Kill the Wilds!" Max shouted, as if he needed to clarify himself.

"I know!" Remian was at his wits end, flooded with too much frustration to summon that previous fear and desperation. "I… I…"

"DO something!" Max yelled.

"FINE!" Remian tried again, one last time. Draw the sigil, and… "LIGHT!"

But what emerged was fire.

It wasn"t even a bolt or an orb or anything Remian had cast before. In fact, what emerged was best described as a stream of flame.

"WHOA!" Tim almost got scorched as the stream raged past him to fry a hissing three-headed snake trying to break into the Frontier Inn. The hissing turned into shrieks as the snake writhed in fire, then into silence as the snake stopped moving and remained still forever.

"Yes! THAT!" Max exulted.

Remian turned to a green ape creature trying to batter the front doors of the church. "FIRE!"

This time the stream surged out like it was a certain impatient wolfcat wanting dinner. It fell onto the ape with relish and consumed it in moments.

"Faster! They"re getting away!" Mandy urged him, lobbing a smoke bomb into the face of the biggest Wild in sight, a Tier 4 sized six-tusked elephant.

"Fire!" Remian gasped, his throat sore from all the yelling. The Fire Stream slammed into the elephant which was already stumbling around blindly. A black patch appeared on its skin as it staggered, and it let out a scream of rage, turning around, blindly charging towards where the stream was coming from.

Remian ran for his life. He barely managed to get out of the way before the Tier 4 Wild bulled through where he"d stood, running right out the way they had earlier come in.

"Scatter!" Markus saw it coming and barked an immediate order. The Legionnaires formation spread apart as the elephant stormed through, trampling a pair of unsuspecting Tier 3 Wilds on the way.

"Melee!" Markus barked next, and drew his sword. The Iron Legion engaged the Wilds outside.

Screams and shouts and crashing sounds were erupting all over town. The gangs had completely scattered, each running straight to their own territory to defend their own a.s.sets and people. Mandy, Mindy, Tim, George, Jane and Kavitha had gone straight for the Frontier Inn, all trying their best to distract or burn an oversized Meerkat attempting to climb through the windows. The inn staff were fighting it off from the other side and appeared to be having a lot more effect.

One area of town had fallen silent, Remian realized. The entire west side had gone quiet. There were no more shouts or screams to be heard. Turning towards it, he saw various armored men patrolling in squads. The Burning Steel and the Blood Claw gangs were out in full force and had already cleared out their territory.

But they did not leave it. Two Burning Steel patrols and one group of Blood Claw gangsters were right there on the other side of the town center, looking straight at the Open Frontier Inn where Mandy and the others were struggling to help the inn staff fight off the Wild, and not a single one of them stepped out to help.

The message was clear; from here on out, it was every gang for their own.

"Move!" Remian drew a sigil in the air, the same one he"d been using, except that it kept changing shapes on him. "Fire!"

He roasted the Meerkat. The effort drained him even more. Remian found himself stumbling, his legs gone completely numb. It was hard to breathe, and everything seemed to be growing dark.

At that point, a shrieking porcupine three times bigger than Remian came dashing around the corner to attack the group trying to help the inn.

"Use it!" Remian gasped. "Mandy! Use it!"

Mandy hesitated for one moment. Then, she drew a certain wooden stick and pointed it at the porcupine. "Fire!"

Don"t tell Buff, but she was actually using his beloved Fire Ball Wand. Remian had her rent it as a last resort to protect herself, and she had to pay 400 points per month for "rental fees", but he also said not to use up its power unless she really, really needed to.

Mandy"s Fire Ball blew up in the porcupine"s face. The porcupine swung its tail even as it collapsed with a charred face. Spikes flew out at Mandy.

"Move!" Mindy dragged her sister to the side, avoiding the spikes.

Never again, Remian swore. Never again will I allow them to be in such danger! Next time a Beast Wave comes, we"re going to be fighting it from a fortified building!

"Fall back!" Remian panted. "Help… the Iron Legion."

"But…" Mandy turned to the north, where the Circling Raven gang fought.

"They have buildings, and slayers. They can handle it." Remian drew himself up. "Our role is best suited to support and distraction. That works best with a strong front line. I don"t want us to get killed for nothing. Go help the Legion."

"Well… I think we can still help the others a bit… Remian? Remian are you okay?" Mandy"s voice was fading. The world was fading. Blackness was closing in on all sides.

Hands were lowering him down, then carrying him up. Remian"s head swam as he was moved to a place that smelled of smoke and beer and overcooked food. Then, they were in a room, and he was laid down on a bed.

"Defend the inn." Mandy"s voice. Mandy"s sweet voice had turned hoa.r.s.e. Why was it hoa.r.s.e?

"Over here!" Mindy was shouting. "Here!"

Markus" voice, coming from the window. "Guard the inn! Double line formation!"

Markus? The Legion was here, in town? Why guard the inn…?

Right. It was because this was where they could get the most support. Outside town, they"d have their backs to an untold number of Wilds rampaging around. Inside town, fighting at the town center, with their backs to a building full of friendly scroll casters, they had protection and support from behind. They really should have thought of that earlier.

"We need to build an inn outside." Remian murmured, as the world drifted in a lazy circle around him and shouts and smoke filled the air. "Where we can safely cast spells from and support the Legion…"

Except they wouldn"t need beds or beer or anything else the inn offered, just the building… Remian"s thoughts swam hazily, making no sense and perfect sense at the same time.

All to suddenly, there was silence. Still muddle-headed, Remian looked up and asked, "What happened?"

"We did it." Mandy told him in relief. "It"s over. The Beast Wave is done. We"ve won."

"Really? Did we really…?" Remian murmured some more. "Then why does it feel… like we"ve lost?"

Consciousness faded.