Antelligent Design

46. City Under Attack

The city of Midum is burning at an impressive rate. As we draw closer, the sound of combat begins to ring in the distance. Roaring monsters, shouting people and the clash of steel on claw. In a lucky break, the gates of the city are already demolished, overwhelmed by whatever creatures arrived before us. The wooden gates, no more than smashed timbers hanging on hinges pinned into the stone walls, make a sorry sight as we rush through them.

The walls are far less impressive close up. Nothing at all like those of Liria. A mere four metres tall and two metres thick, they’re hardly the kind of fortification that would keep out a monster horde. Then again, they weren’t intended to be. The only things they’d expected to have to deal with in this part of Liria were low-Level surface monsters and bandits. At the very worst, an attack from a neighbouring country. Something like a Dungeon monster invasion was never on the cards for these people, right up until it happened.

The rubble of buildings is strewn about our feet and the signs of battle are everywhere. Smashed buildings, doors ripped off their hinges, burned out roofs. The only thing missing is the remains of the combatants who’d fallen. Because there wouldn’t be any, naturally. Human or monster, the fallen are Biomass, ripe for the taking.

It makes for an eerie scene. Just like what I’d witnessed at the farmhouse, except magnified in scale a thousand times. It’s almost like running through an old ruin rather than a place with humans still fighting. There’s just no sign of anything organic. What were once inns filled with people, laughter and merriment, are now shattered. Their signs ripped down, walls knocked in and furniture destroyed. As we race past one, I can see the tables and chairs are upturned, and even the bar itself is carved right down the middle. Yet not a single sign of any living thing inside.

I get the feeling that whatever has happened here, didn’t happen quickly. There are signs of barricades on the streets, of houses torn down to create makeshift walls and open up space for archers. Spent arrows abound in the areas we pass through, scattered across stone or lodged into wood. It seems that once the walls were lost, the people engaged in a brutal fight, street by street, in order to try and survive.

I skitter over rocks and debris as the once cobbled roads of Midum are now cracked and strewn with the remains of the homes of its citizens. The deeper into the city we get, the louder the roar of combat becomes.

I look at Morrelia as we Dash with all our might, and the signs of her emotional state are clear to see. Clenched teeth, fierce glare, muscles knotting, all pointing to her barely repressed rage. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say she’s balancing herself on the very edge of her class feature activating. Aiming to berserk the second she catches sight of the foe.

It doesn’t take much longer to find them. Rounding a corner, we find ourselves approaching the waterline, the widespread of the… lake? Ocean? Laid out before me, along with the source of the fire. Large warehouses are burning, sending soot and smoke billowing into the sky. The people here are making one last stand.

Several warehouses, those made of the most stone, have been boarded and walled in with whatever they had on hand. Archers dot the roofs, firing into the hungering mass of creatures below. Men and women with spears defend the edges of the building, stabbing and pushing with desperate fervour to prevent the monsters from finding purchase on the roof. Centipedes, spiders and others climb straight up the walls, jaws clattering as they strive to sate their hunger.

Around the base of the buildings, more powerful beasts like crocas, hounds and bears, are attempting to batter the barred doors whilst fending off constant thrusts from spear wielders inside the building.

It can’t last.

The sheer mass of the monsters presses forward, unwilling to be denied access to the building itself, which they tear into with fang and claw. The stone scrapes and shatters beneath the blows, and the tough wood of the warehouse door is already splintering.

The croca-beasts, stupid fire breathers that they are, bellow jets of flame, seeking to ignite anything they can. Smoke rises. Something, somewhere inside had already caught alight.

The moment the creatures come into sight, Morrelia is off. Bellowing like a raging hell beast, she Dashes with all her might. Her entire body flickers out of existence before she appears halfway to the enemy with both her swords drawn.

[Better get in there, Tiny, or there won’t be anything left for you, by the looks of things!] I shout at the big ape.

The words barely reach his half-eaten, peanut-sized mind before he rumbles forward, knuckles pounding into the road so hard he shatters the stones as he hurls himself on, lightning crackling around his upper body.

[There’s a lot of monsters here, Crinis. Going to have to put you to work, I’m afraid,] I inform my sightless companion as I strive to keep pace with Tiny.

[Not to worry, Master], she assures me. [For having placed themselves in your way, I will allow these filth to taste true despair!]

I bet she will.

Although I don’t spy anything too powerful in the mix, there are still a heap of monsters. Easily over a thousand. I’ll need to deploy Crinis’ tentacles of mass dismemberment in order to chew through these numbers. Not to mention a few of my own spells that should prove handy.

As we close in on the backs of the unsuspecting monsters, Morrelia is already there. Her face frozen in a rictus grin of pure hate, her blades flash faster than the eye can see, sending waves of pure swordlight into the pressed ranks of the enemy.

Even in her berserk state, she isn’t so foolish as to dive directly into the middle of the horde. Instead, she dances around the edge and her twin weapons never cease their brutal motion. With the monsters dying by the dozen, they tackle this new threat, claws grasping for a chance to rend flesh.

Then Tiny arrives.

BOOM!

With an impact like thunder, Tiny descends like a collapsing mountain. He leapt high into the air, gathered all of his strength, and delivered a titanic blow to an evolved dragon wolf hound. The beast is smashed directly in half and Tiny doesn’t pause to admire his handiwork. Lashing out with his meaty hands, pulped enemies are left behind every time he strikes.

[Let’s do it, Crinis! Try not to kill any humans!]

Crinis reaches out with two tentacles to grasp my antennae before pulling them back toward herself. Crinis slingshot has been loaded!

Fire!

It’s shameful to say, but I can’t throw her that far with my antennae alone, they aren’t built for that kind of lifting. I do manage to launch her far enough that she lands within range of the nearest monsters. No sooner does she touch the ground than tentacles explode out from her body to wrap around the unsuspecting creatures nearby.

Poor things. I almost pity them.