Chapter 359: Retreat

The western wall was worse. Much worse.

He could hear the trolls before reaching it.

BOOM.

BOOM.

CRACK.

A large portion of the gate had already been torn away. One section near the upper-right corner was completely missing, leaving a jagged opening through which goblins attempted to crawl. Soldiers stabbed through the gap with spears, killing anything that tried to enter.

The outer reinforcement bands had been bent, the oil was gone, and the defenders had nearly exhausted their supply of hot water. Outside, the trolls had gathered directly against the entrance.

Kael reached the battlements and spotted the spear wielder.

She was not standing on the wall defending it.

She was falling from it.

A thick rope had been tied around her waist as she dropped toward the enemy formation with her spear pointed downward. Kael watched the weapon enter a troll’s shoulder before she twisted in midair and tore the blade through its flesh.

Her feet touched the creature’s chest for barely an instant. She kicked away and stabbed a nearby goblin through the throat.

"Pull!"

Soldiers above hauled on the rope. The line snapped tight, and the spear wielder flew upward.

A troll swung at her, but she curled around the club and allowed it to pass beneath her. The momentum of the rope carried her back toward the wall, where her boots struck the stone.

She ran three steps vertically before the soldiers pulled again, lifting her over the battlement. The spear wielder landed in a crouch.

Kael stared at her. "That’s actually pretty good."

She looked up. "Redhead?"

"Need help?"

"I wouldn’t say no."

The spear wielder stood. Blood covered one side of her face, though Kael could not tell whether any of it belonged to her.

He looked over the battlement at the trolls gathered around the gate. "Same thing again?"

She grinned. "Try to keep up."

The spear wielder jumped.

Kael followed.

She descended first and drove her weapon through a troll’s neck. Kael landed beside another with Fire engulfing his fist. He punched, and the troll’s rib cage collapsed beneath the explosion.

The two moved through the enemy formation from opposite directions.

The spear wielder was fast, though not in the same way Kael was. Her movement relied upon momentum, reach and the soldiers controlling the ropes above. She never remained still long enough for the trolls to surround her.

She descended, killed, swung away and allowed the soldiers to pull her upward. Then she returned from another angle.

One troll raised both hands to catch her. The soldiers yanked the rope, changing her direction before the creature’s hands could close. She passed above its head and stabbed downward into one eye.

Kael attacked from below. His fist broke the troll’s knee, forcing it to collapse.

The spear wielder landed on its shoulders and drove her weapon through the top of its skull.

"Mine!" she shouted.

"You can have it."

Another troll approached. Kael activated Heft and struck once, folding the creature around his fist before immediately disabling the rune.

They cleared the gate quickly. Half the trolls focused upon Kael, while the others tried to catch the spear wielder. Neither group succeeded.

The ballistae continued firing into anything farther away, preventing reinforcements from reaching the entrance. Eventually, no trolls remained near the gate.

Kael climbed back over the wall while the soldiers pulled the spear wielder up. She landed beside him, breathing heavily.

"You really did get faster."

Kael looked at her. "You noticed?"

"You were already annoying to watch move. Now it’s worse."

"Thanks."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

"Hah," he laughed.

She stared at him for a second, "You have a girlfriend?"

Surprised, he said, "No,"

"Want one?"

"Not at this time, but I appreciate the sentiment," He smiled.

"Tsk. Never thought I’d get rejected even after dying."

He couldn’t help but snort as he jumped down to the gate.

Kael pulled out Brokk’s Hammer and examined the gate. The damage was too extensive for simple repairs. It needed replacement material.

Workers brought every usable plank they could find. Kael recovered broken pieces torn from the gate and hammered them back into place, then added fresh boards wherever the original wood was missing entirely.

It still was not enough.

He looked around until he spotted several troll weapons abandoned below the wall.

Tree trunks.

Kael pointed toward them. "Bring me those."

The workers stared at him.

"The logs?" one asked.

"Yes."

"They’re enemy weapons."

"They’re wood."

That apparently settled the matter.

Soldiers dragged two of the enormous trunks inside through a smaller service entrance. Kael cut away the damaged portions, positioned the remaining wood against the gate and began hammering.

Brokk’s Hammer did the rest.

The rough troll weapons flattened as their fibers shifted. What had once been crude clubs became broad reinforcement beams incorporated directly into the damaged gate.

Kael continued hammering until the opening vanished.

The gate no longer resembled its original construction. Different types of wood covered the surface, metal bands crossed improvised supports, and several sections were visibly thicker than others.

Kael stepped back. "Ugly."

The spear wielder looked down from above. "Will it hold?"

"It had better."

Another distant impact rolled through the fortress.

Kael turned toward the sound.

North.

His gate.

"Oh, come on."

He opened his map. The northern section was flashing with activity.

Kael ran.

His internal energy had fallen again, though nowhere near the catastrophic levels from earlier. He had used his runes sparingly, but several of the trolls still required more than raw force if he wanted to eliminate them quickly.

He raced through the streets. The closer he came to his own gate, the worse the sounds became.

Metal screamed. Wood cracked. Soldiers shouted from the battlements.

When Kael reached the northern wall, he found his gate on the cusp of failure.

The burly man had done everything he could.

Kael saw him outside the wall, fighting beneath the battlements with blood covering his armor. A long cut ran across one thigh, and one shoulder plate had nearly been torn away. His enormous sword moved slower than before, but every swing still killed something.

He had tried to imitate Kael’s tactic by jumping outside, drawing attention and keeping the trolls away from the gate.

The difference was that the burly climber had been built for direct melee, not constant movement. He could crush anything that entered his reach, but he could not move through the battlefield the way Kael did.

Several trolls had simply gone around him. Others forced him to remain engaged while their companions continued battering the entrance.

It was not a matter of skill. The man was good. Very good.

He simply was not Kael.

Trying to do the same thing Kael had been doing was slowly getting him killed.

Kael reached the edge of the wall. "Hold on!"

The burly man looked up just as a troll swung toward him. He blocked the strike, but the impact sent him sliding backward.

Kael prepared to jump.

Magic descended first.

A column of light struck the troll, and the creature screamed as Kael stopped at the battlement.

The mage stood farther along his wall with her staff raised.

"What are you doing here?" Kael shouted.

"Helping."

Another figure moved past her.

The spear wielder still had her rope tied around her waist. She jumped from Kael’s battlement, descended toward the battlefield and drove her spear through an orc attempting to attack the burly man from behind.

Kael blinked.

Then an axe flashed below, and a troll’s head came free.

Leonard stood beneath it with his golden hair stained by dust and blood. His long battle-axe was already buried deep in the neck of another creature.

He pulled it free.

Kael stared at him. "You too?"

Leonard looked up. "Don’t misunderstand!"

"Wasn’t planning to."

"If this gate falls, we all lose!"

"Still sounds like teamwork."

"Fuck you!"

"No thank you, I like women."

"Didn’t seem like it," the spear wielder frowned.

Kael laughed as he jumped.

All five climbers converged upon the final gate.

The mage remained above, sending lightning and waves of magic into the attackers. She froze groups of goblins and burned through orcs before they could interfere.

The spear wielder moved between the wall and the battlefield.

Down. Kill. Up. Turn. Down again.

The burly man held the center, using his enormous sword to create space whenever the smaller enemies attempted to surround them.

The Leonard attacked anything large. His battle-axe tore through orcs and trolls with brutal efficiency. He fought aggressively, but Kael noticed something different now.

The Leonard was no longer trying to position himself where he could steal the greatest contribution.

There was no space for that.

The gate was nearly destroyed, and everyone fought whatever reached them.

Kael landed beside the burly man. "You look terrible."

"Good to see you too."

A troll charged them.

Kael and the burly man moved together. The larger climber blocked the club while Kael stepped inside the troll’s reach. Frost covered his fist before he struck the creature’s chest.

Ice spread across its body.

The burly man swung, and his enormous sword shattered the frozen troll through the torso.

Neither of them stopped.

Another troll approached, but The Leonard reached it first. His axe opened the creature’s stomach, and Kael followed with a burning punch to the chest.

The troll fell.

The spear wielder landed on its back before the corpse struck the ground and used it as a platform to launch herself toward another enemy.

For several minutes, the battle became simple.

Kill. Move. Kill again.

The five climbers had spent most of the scenario divided across four sections of the fortress. Together, they were terrifying.

The mage controlled the battlefield. The spear wielder eliminated anything attempting to slip around the heavier fighters. The burly man anchored the group, while Leonard tore through the elite enemies.

Kael moved wherever the pressure became worst.

One troll died, followed by another and then another. The enormous siege creatures gradually disappeared from the northern approach.

Kael’s internal energy continued falling, but the attacks against his gate weakened.

Then something changed.

A sound rolled across the battlefield.

BWOOOOOOOOOM.

A horn.

The note was long, deep and powerful enough to carry across the entire fortress.

Kael froze.

His first thought came immediately.

The next wave.

He looked toward the horizon, but the goblins around the fortress began stopping.

It did not happen all at once. Those already fighting completed their movements. An orc swung its weapon once more before turning its head, while trolls farther from the walls slowly lowered their clubs.

The horn sounded again.

Then the army began withdrawing.

Kael stared.

They were not reorganizing or shifting toward another gate.

They were leaving.

Goblins turned and ran from the fortress. Orcs shouted commands and moved with them, while the surviving trolls lumbered backward and abandoned their clubs, their dead and even injured members of their own force.

The retreat spread outward. Thousands became tens of thousands as the enormous army that had spent hours throwing itself against the fortress began flowing away from the walls.

The burly man rested his sword against the ground. "What the hell?"

The spear wielder landed beside them and looked toward the retreating army. "Did we finish?"

Kael waited.

No notification appeared.

Leonard looked upward as though expecting the same thing, but nothing came.

There was no announcement, no declaration of victory, no warning and no timer.

The mage climbed down from the wall. "Wasn’t there supposed to be another wave?"

Kael opened the scenario information. The objective remained active. The evacuation was not complete, the crystal still required protection, and the forty-eight-hour mission had not ended.

Yet the enemies were leaving.

The horn sounded for a third time in the distance, and the retreat accelerated. Even wounded goblins crawled after the army rather than remain near the fortress. Orcs dragged some of their injured away, while trolls stepped over anything too slow to follow.

Kael slowly lowered his fists as the battlefield became quieter with every passing second.

That did not reassure him.

It did the opposite.

After hours of endless attacks, overlapping waves, siege monsters and enemies that appeared perfectly willing to die against the fortress walls, the sudden retreat felt wrong.

Deeply wrong.

The burly man looked toward him. "You think they gave up?"

Kael watched the army disappear toward the horizon. "No."

Leonard frowned. "Then why are they running?"

Kael waited for another system window, but none came.

That was what bothered him most.

"I have no idea."