The lightning devils stand at Thousand Song
As the walls were once more under bombardment in between the lulls of bloodpath waves, Zeno mused. Fighting day by day should have tired us out after years of holding down Thousand Song City, but at this point he couldn't help, but find the constant displacement of air, shattering upon their qi carved walls…tranquil. No, that's not quite the right word. That would imply he wasn't ready for combat. It simply became mundane after a while.
Even after he returned from Amaranths' ascension, new heavenly iron tipped boots and gloves in hand, the city held. Spring turned to winter many times and with every new spring the piles of bodies, not already flensed by their comrades or burned by us, would thaw, and provide easy marks for our ballistae operators seeking targets. On one such a fine spring evening, sun still shining high, reports indicated an enemy core marching on the gates. That alone wouldn't rouse the wounded scion of Angelus, but there was just one problem. Our allied sects died like flies and the only competent ally nearby that can face that idiot swaggering along a well-trodden path to breach our part of the wall, is herself currently held up elsewhere.
Setting his latest report from the wall down on the desk, the centurion with a fresh lightning scar across his throat rises from his wooden seat. "Optio Xia, you hold command the wall while I distract the enemy expert. Make sure lady Callista can reach us as fast as possible!" Not a second later she bowed in obeisance with her closed fists.
Pointing to Iohannis Zeno continued. "You help Alexandria and I launch us off the ballistae."
"Y-Yes, Centurion!" was the only reply Iohannis gave before running for his post.
The door closed; they start the daily ritual since the ascension of their comrade. Alexandria helps Zeno put on the some heavenly-water salve in hard-to-reach places in hopes of not aggravating his injuries in the coming battle she asks. "Is that really wise? Your wounds have only just healed enough for you to take to the field again in truth. Even the medics are not certain if a higher expert simply concentrating his will on you, might just break you."
Zeno, while doing his own part of the ritual, responds with a low voice. "Probably not dear, but what choice do we have? Our 'allies' die like flies in the siege, despite being in the same realm. Taking one of them with us is worse than useless. They would just be gutted for their arrogance and devoured as a snack by the core expert on their way. And Xia…isn't ready, despite our best efforts."
She speaks. "We could hail them with bolts behind the walls-".
He rebukes Alexandria softly with a scarred right pointer finger on her lips. "And we would suffer under the obvious artifact such a self-assured enemy has in his pockets. Why else would he walk directly towards this part of the wall after not being sighted for the last two years? That timing is not a coincidence!"
At that statement Alexandria raises her own voice, while putting the last glove of his armour back on for him. "If we must. At least the others don't have to worry too much. WE will destroy them this time!"
Done with the salve, Alexandria puts the container away. Meanwhile Zeno prepares his newest weapon, making sure the heavenly iron tips sit properly. More routine than any conscious thought at this point. A worrying thought occurs to him once more.
"Alex…a Pillar-"
Grasping his stubbled chin fondly, she whispers in the low light of the candle flickering. "Shush these traitorous thoughts dear. They wouldn't bother so late into the war and if there is even the merest hint of someone like that appearing, lady Callista would attend to them personally."
After clasping his armoured hands and enjoying a moment of silence together they head out; their posture reassuring everyone the couple pass by.
They reach the ballistae formation quickly. After making sure Xia is locked in combat with the rampaging wall scaling fodder, they load the specially prepared bolt into the contraption. Iohannis counts them off, lever in hand.
3
2
1
As Zeno's boots touch the bolt the smell of ozone, reminiscent of a thunderstorm approaching, the bolt glows and flies with speed barely seen by the juniors of this platoon. Their minds occupied by the board of colours overwhelming their senses, while the displaced air throws the nearest enemies off their feet. After the air clears, all can see the bat winged core expert removing the sizzling bolt from his abdomen with struggle. The wounds starting to heal before their eyes.
All assembled give the brazen attack a moment of silence and even distant juniors of allied sects cease their squabbling to admire the moment.
"You will pay for this pathetic devil once I have you in my hands!" Was the first response the red robed expert gave after much coughing, readying his bone spear against the two lesser beings.
"If." Was the only answer his enemy delivered with a devilish grin on his lips, saber at the ready beside his wife. Their battlefield already littered with paper talismans, with words of liminality and deception inscribed in intricate details.
With a shout of "
[Twin-headed Devil Avatar]" by the Golden Devils opposing their superior core expert, the battlefield returned to chaos.
--
With the glow of heavenly lightning obscuring the wall for precious seconds, Xia presses the advantage on the walls with a shout. "Advance, let no hunter of our subjects survive!"
Her comrades get up back into formation with practiced ease, waltzing the first-row enemies into paste before the breached kill zone beside them can comprehend the damage wrought on their assault leader.
The pushback followed promptly. As the hoplite pierces and bashes the row before them, the lesser fodder tries to crawl and grasp above their bodies. Any such notions are quickly punished by supporting drunkard allies throwing various qi filled utensils at the enemies, throwing the enemies farther than the first glance would lead one to believe.
Before long the second row falls as well, leaving only the leader on the walls and his goons. The defenders' luck doesn't hold. A volley of blood arrows pin down the righteous ones, forcing them behind a wall of qi reinforced corpses and various nooks.
With the hoplite dispelled and dispersed, the enemy declares his intentions to the fools opposing him. "Die quicker you dumb mutts. My appetite can't be sated with such an annoying wind dispersing your glorious smell!"
In retaliation a Strength Purity Sect expert charges at the assembled foes, throwing various weapons lying around with uncanny precision. The first two shots are deflected before he is forced to duck away in a nook beside the devils lying in wait for their moment.
In low whisper he greets. "Greetings fellow guardians, Han Weng is the name and throwing these beasts from the walls is today's game. Ready?"
Xia answers promptly with a nod and they wait.
Finding this gallery of death and misery amusing their enemy shouts to the dogs in hiding. "Come out, come out you shitty mutts! There is enough space for everyone. In my gut everyone even has equal rights!"
A distantly slurred "Fuck you an' the mutt you rode in on!" several rows in the distance gives the intrepid allies a chance.
And Han Weng gives them the "Go!".
As the offender is flushed out of hiding with a blast they use the opportunity, no discussion needed among these comrades.
Senior Spirit Boar throws his bottled concoction, and the blood arrow disperses the flying pig poison. While the leader only got partly transformed, his 'allies' oinks to the high heavens, unheeding of their impending doom.
Han Weng rushes the enemy leader with Xia at his back. Any pig not flying away from their charge, disperses they body promptly.
The archer, unused to his new form, quickly lays down a glowing talisman on a pig. Before Xia can pierce it with her spear, it bursts. The force of the blast, forces her behind her shield, instinctively using her wings to fall safely.
Her compatriot Han Weng continues the charge, forcing the archer into melee. Uncaring for the bloody caltrops on the ground, he punches through, lifting his enemy into the air. "Repent sinner!"
The archer tries to fall back but fails. Han Weng keeps him on his toes. Every second not spend falling back, is spend poking his enemy with an arrow. And for any advantage gained, Xia supports with poking from the second line.
That does not last long, as the next wave is already pushing up the wall, forcing Xia back to rally the troops. Her new enemy already in sight, Xia saw the waves leader eat a straggler before jumping once.
Standing on the wall he looks around before addressing Xia with a grin stretching from ear to ear. "Hahahaha, finally a bird with some flesh! Do you taste as spicy as you look?"
Xia responds through gritted teeth. "I-I am spicier than you can handle!"
"Well, your banter certainly can reach higher heights. Let this senior teach you to jump to higher levels!" His first is quickly batted aside by Xia's spear.
Despite the shock of seeing her enemy jump the entire wall in one jump, Xia quickly recovers her composure and responds accordingly. Using the length of the spear to her advantage she forces her jumpy enemy to face her spear-point with every kick. Where she cannot raise her spear, she bashes her shield to deflect. Her blood allowing her to last longer, keeping her shield up where other enemies would have faltered.
Even though Xia trained for decades to hone her craft to become a legionnaire, her past as an auxiliary shows every time her shield isn't raised in time and every step not taken towards her comrades for a new hoplite. Knowing that she can't do any better, she grits her teeth, ready to and willing to win by her endurance alone.
Seemingly tired of kicking he around, he jumps on high, ready for a tower kick. "Know your place spicy bronze b-!"
"Dynamic Entry!" shouts Han Weng as he intercepts the blood rabbit in the air.
*Boom*
The air displaces rapidly before Xia. Both fighters in the air get their hair sheared off by the blast. The upper parts of the wall to the battlefield in the breach torn off and her surroundings forgotten, Xia and her juniors finally saw why their Centurion saw need for the special ammunition. The wound on the enemy, allowed Alexandria and Zeno together to stall for time.
Her Centurion looks to the world as a double-headed demon, lightning arcing between the eyes along their bronze wings. The lithe war dancers armour, together with the unravelled wings, give them a terrifying presence. Attacks suffer the terrible lightning and their form wavering in between states of different postures, makes it difficult to truly gauge their place. All that reinforces one motion in Xia's mind. Pure fear of the unknown and uncertain.
Sometimes the form is hovering, sometimes it sinks into the ground, making the core expert strike the ground. After the dust clears more illusions appear over the battlefield, enraging the enemy more and allowing more chances for lightning to exacerbate the rapidly healing wound on his chest. Each strike by the core's lesser affecting him less and less. Their effort must be enough!
*thwack*
Another sneaky strike parried for her by her Strength Purity senior returned Xia's focus to the battlefield. As Xia turns around to face her enemies, she instinctively shears an opportunistic enemy junior apart with her bronze-tipped wings. Before long Xia returns to her comrades, a line forming on the walls again, as the bloody rabbit gets thrown of the walls by Han Weng. Spears already waiting to pierce and crush the enemy jumping from their chariots of hate trampling the skies of war.
--
With the nth hit and miss and another illusion dispersing before the bat winged expert, the
[Twin-headed Devil Avatar] disperses. Along with the last wing full of eyes, the uncertain feeling of a dream unfulfilled leaves the battlefield and the real combatants emerge out of the smoke. Before the saber wielding Devil can collapse, his partner wraps her left arm around him, supporting his weight as the other readies her spear at the enemy. Meanwhile clear fumes of Dream Qi begin pooling around her legs out of the remaining talismans. Her intention to [Phantasmal Jump] easy to discern, in Qi and stance. In that breath, she does not speak, for she would know words of hate known only wasted. She simply glares, ready to strike.
Seeing his own superiority acknowledged in the exhausted and bleeding state of his opponent, the expert gloats. "Ha, you foolish mutt, you could not entertain me for even a minute! Do you have any other tricks to show to me before I end your pathetic life?"
Raising a hand, with the other clutching an amulet around his neck, he answers. "I do, honoured senior!"
After a nod by the amused spear wielder Zeno responds. "I have met many a pot in my travel and none of them met my standards. It's very difficult as you no doubt are aware, good sir."
"It's LORD to you, mutt and get to it!" sneered Zeno's opponent.
Unperturbed by the contempt of his audience, he continues. "It took many years of searching for the right pot to contain and not spill me, but then it hit me from the sky like the worlds tribulation lightning, just as I met her."
Growing impatient the expert finishes Zeno's tale, who franticly investigates the sky for a sign. "And then you two fell love and she cooked for you, like a good woman? HA, a likely tale, foolish mutt!"
Alexandria cuts in. "Of course not you halfwit! I make way better food than that combat maniac ever could!
"Ha! That will make boiling you two in the pot in my gut all the better. Two foolish loving children returned to the soup they so love!" with the grating laugh of the enemy resounding across the wide barren field of packed and cracked earth inside Thousand Song; nobody dared to approach the lord and his newest toy.
The saber wielding Centurion asked in between the spear wielders bellowing laughter.
"Hey Lord pot!"
"What? Make haste you m-"
"Meet cauldron!"
With a "HURF" the expert pot met his cauldron and was no longer concerned with his new toys. Blades of water clawing at his supernal physique and their legate's qi clearly presenting herself as the culprit made sure of that. Rina Callista, Legate of the 302
nd Legion, has taken to the field. For her legion a balm on the soul of their morale and for her enemies a terror with an overwhelming Dao; wielding elements like only a Nascent Soul expert is supposed to.
With just that same surety reaching Zeno and Alexandria through her Dao, they
[Phantasmal Jump] to reinforce their comrades on the wall. With the Legions cauldron containing any spill over, stirring the pot and removing any unwanted ingredients was made significantly easier.
------
AN: Figuring out how to implement Rina saving Zeno was fun and hope I can be forgiven for such a blunt joke!
@no. ,
@ReaderOfFate
Words ca. 2572
