Chapter 354: A Horrible Idea

The oil did not last forever.

What had begun as a wall of flame surrounding the fortress gates gradually thinned into scattered patches of burning ground. Black smoke still climbed along the walls, but the rivers of fire that had forced even the trolls to hesitate were disappearing.

The creatures noticed. One troll stepped through the dying flames, its legs burned nearly black from the knees down. Blistered skin had split open to expose the red muscle beneath, yet the creature barely seemed to acknowledge the damage. It reached the gate, lifted the tree trunk in both hands, and swung.

The reinforced wood shuddered beneath the impact. Another troll joined it, followed shortly by a third.

The Tower railguns had inflicted incredible damage, but their greatest weakness had become painfully obvious. They took too long to recharge.

Electricity gathered gradually between their enormous rails while the rest of the fortress struggled to survive the minutes between each shot. The ballistae fired continuously, archers filled the sky with arrows, and the upgraded lightning towers struck creatures approaching the walls, sometimes chaining through entire clusters of goblins.

It was not enough. The trolls were too difficult to stop quickly.

Ballista bolts pierced them without always killing them. Arrows disappeared into thick flesh. Lightning caused muscles to seize and skin to burn, but unless a strike reached something vital, the enormous creatures simply recovered and continued walking.

One troll reached the western gate with three ballista bolts protruding from its back. It still raised its club and swung, sending another thunderous impact through the reinforced timber.

A crack spread across the gate.

The soldiers behind it stared at the thin line running through the wood, but another impact landed before any of them could react and widened the damage. One of the upper hinges shifted, and metal screamed against stone.

"Hold it!"

Soldiers rushed toward the support beams and pushed against them, despite knowing their bodies would accomplish very little if the gate actually collapsed.

From the wall above, the spear wielder shouted, "Kill the ones at the gate!"

Her ballistae changed targets. Several massive bolts descended almost vertically and struck the trolls crowded beneath her. One creature fell with a projectile driven through its skull, but the others continued hammering the gate.

Kael watched from the northern wall, where his side was no longer completely safe either.

The enormous scar created by his improvised railgun had finally begun to cool. Fires still burned across the blackened earth, but the ground was no longer hot enough to completely deny passage.

Goblins tested the route first, stepping carefully over melted stone and the remnants of whatever creatures had occupied the area before the shot. Several died when lingering arcs of electricity jumped through discarded weapons, but the rest learned.

They abandoned their metal equipment and spread around the dangerous sections. Orcs followed them through the opening, and then came the trolls.

Kael’s defenses met them with everything they had. The towering ballistae punched through the approaching formations, lightning structures snapped arcs between goblins, and the railgun farther along his wall continued gathering power.

His troops were fresh compared to those defending the other sides. His gate remained intact, and his wall had suffered almost no pressure during the last portion of the battle.

That advantage was ending.

Kael closed his eyes and examined the energy moving through his body. He had recovered some internal energy, but not enough. His channels no longer felt completely empty, yet using Fire or Frost now would erase most of what he had spent the last several minutes recovering. He could probably activate one or two runes for a brief period.

That would not be enough for what was happening.

Another distant gate shook, followed by the sharp crack of breaking timber.

Kael stood. His legs felt much better after the stamina potion, and physically, there was little wrong with him. The exhaustion sitting deeper within his body remained, but he did not need internal energy to punch something.

He looked toward the southern section, where the burly climber was fighting three goblins that had been thrown over the wall. One landed directly among the archers and stabbed a soldier through the side before the burly man could reach it. He caught the goblin by the head and hurled it against the stone hard enough to break its neck, then turned toward the remaining two.

Kael started running.

A few goblins had reached his own battlements, but the soldiers stationed there still had enough breathing room to handle them. He crossed the connecting wall, jumped over a damaged ballista support, and reached the neighboring section just as another goblin lunged toward the burly man’s back.

Kael intercepted it, catching the creature by the face and driving it downward. The goblin’s skull struck the rampart with a sharp crack, but Kael did not release it. He slammed its head against the stone a second time, collapsing the skull beneath his hand.

A second goblin rushed him with a crude spear. Kael kicked the dead creature into its path, sending the corpse across the battlement and into the attacker. Both bodies tumbled away from the edge, and the burly man immediately stepped forward and brought his enormous sword down through them.

He glanced toward Kael. "Thought you were resting."

"I was."

"You look like shit."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

The gate beneath them shook again, and the joke disappeared from both their faces.

Kael glanced toward the nearest staircase. "You need to take my spot."

The burly man frowned. "What?"

"My wall."

"Why?"

"Because your gate is about to collapse."

Another impact answered him. The entire battlement trembled, and Kael heard timber cracking beneath their feet.

The burly man cursed and looked over the wall. Several trolls had crowded directly against the gate, taking turns hammering it with clubs and tree trunks while others waited behind them.

"It’ll hold," he said.

"No, it won’t."

"It was reinforced."

"By me, which is why I know how damaged it is."

The burly man looked at him, and Kael pointed toward the northern section.

"My gate is still mostly intact. My soldiers are fresh, and the turrets are doing enough damage to keep most enemies from reaching it."

"You want me to defend your side."

"For a little while."

"And you?"

Kael lifted Brokk’s Hammer. "I’ll fix yours."

The burly man understood immediately, but his attention returned to Kael’s wall. "What happens when yours starts breaking?"

"That’s why we switch now." Kael moved toward the stairs. "If I wait until both gates are almost gone, we’re screwed."

The burly man tightened his grip around his sword. "You sure you can repair it with those bastards hitting it from the other side?"

"No."

"That’s reassuring."

"I’ll figure it out."

The burly climber stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Fine. I’ll hold your side."

The burly man ran toward the northern wall while Kael descended into the southern gatehouse.

Chaos filled the structure. Soldiers carried reinforcement beams toward the doors while workers hammered braces into the floor. Every impact from outside sent dust raining from the ceiling.

A thick crack had split through the center of the gate despite Kael’s previous repairs, and one hinge had already come almost entirely loose. Another blow struck the other side, widening the damage.

"Move!" Kael shouted.

The workers recognized him and immediately cleared the damaged section. Kael raised Brokk’s Hammer and struck the gate.

The effect spread through the timber. Broken fibers pulled together as the central crack narrowed. Bent iron reinforcements straightened along the surface, while the loose hinge pressed itself deeper into the stone.

Another troll swung outside.

The impact shook the gate, and the crack reopened.

Kael stared at it for a moment before hammering the damaged section again. The wood repaired itself, only for another strike to split it apart. He struck twice more, drawing the broken timber together, but a tree trunk slammed against the opposite side before the repairs had even settled.

The entire surface bowed inward, forcing Kael to step back before it could strike him.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Kael repaired. The trolls broke. He repaired, and they broke it again.

For nearly a minute, he fought a battle against the gate itself. Brokk’s Hammer could restore the damage faster than ordinary workers ever could, but it did not prevent the next attack from immediately creating more. Kael was not improving the situation. He was merely preventing it from getting worse.

Every second he remained there also meant another gate somewhere else was being battered without him.

Kael stopped.

One of the workers looked at him. "Why’d you stop?"

"Because this is stupid."

Another impact split the gate, and Kael stared at the returning crack.

There were four gates. One hammer. One Kael.

He could spend the next several hours running from entrance to entrance, repairing damage as the trolls created it, but eventually he would be too slow. One gate would break while he was fixing another. The streets would fill with goblins and orcs, the defenders would be forced inward, and every carefully positioned defensive weapon on the walls would become irrelevant.

Repairs were not the solution.

The things causing the damage needed to disappear.

Kael looked upward. "I’m going in."

One of the soldiers frowned. "What?"

"Beyond the gate."

The officer understood what he meant. "Sir, the trolls are directly outside."

"I know."

"You intend to go out?"

"Yes."

"That is a terrible idea."

Kael smiled faintly. "I’ve had worse today."

He climbed the narrow staircase leading toward the upper gatehouse and emerged onto the battlement. Kael passed soldiers pouring the last of their heated sand over the edge, then looked down.

There were trolls directly beneath him.

A lot of them.

Goblins filled the spaces between their legs, while several surviving orcs stood farther back, waiting for the gate to break before charging through.

One troll lifted a tree trunk.

Kael jumped.