Chương 107: 41 – A Simple Trap

There were bags under my eyes. I was sure. Everyone else looked the same. I patted Elsee on the shoulder, and she looked up at me, grim determination on her face. Her Archery skill and her Dexterity had both skyrocketed. Other people, less vital than her, could keep generating bolts. Elsee was needed up on the wall with us. I'd made her a helmet that she was wearing proudly. It improved the archery skill and would protect her from an arrow. They were coming.

They were arrogant, and that would be their death, but they were coming. I could see banners from the trees. The occasional slash of wind magic flashed green and white, usually accompanied by a falling tree. Neogon had explained that they were cutting them down for wagon repairs and arrows of their own. Before my eyes, the forest to the west was becoming a plain. They were well outside of bow range, and they surely saw our wall as a joke.

The enemy commander, whoever he was, must have felt supremely confident, and why shouldn't he? Twenty thousand against three?

"We're… going to die today. Aren't we?" Elsee asked. I shook my head.

"No, we aren't." I didn't offer any more words, though. They'd feel cheap. There was a very real possibility we might die today. If the enemy commander committed all of their soldiers to attack, we'd likely be overwhelmed no matter how good Neogon was, or how many bolts we'd made. We would make them bleed for every step, but it would not go our way. The cannon wasn't ready, but I had them wheel it out anyway. One cannon.

There was a second one, almost finished, but it would need some time before it would even be testable. An earth mage in Neogon's troops — not Captain Berkenem — had lifted the thing up onto our wall. The wooden scaffolding groaned with the strain but with some work, soldiers were able to roll the barrel onto the wall and position it over one of the wooden posts, aiming out at the distant Eschal army. Nobody except the smiths knew what it could do. Even Neogon looked skeptical, and he should.

There was no guarantee it would work, and even if it did, it might prove no more effective than a regular fire mage. I hoped, though. A bout of coughing struck me, and I doubled over. Elsee put her hand on my back, and it felt warm against the cold air. I was sick, but that wouldn't stop me from being here. I would rest and recover after this fucking army was gone.

"Mera, that cough is getting bad. Do you—!"

"I'll bear it," I said, recovering.

"I'll have to." When I stood back up, I glanced around at the soldiers and civilians. They perked up as I met their eyes. Most of them were older than me, but many were younger. Orphans from Mitoras, Lindolen, or towns even closer to the rift had all managed to make their way here. Many, usually those with no attachment to Pemolar's Hill, had taken the organized evacuation and continued fleeing up the Highroad toward Tacuria.

With the bulk of the Eschal army heading to Denarla, the Denarlan road north was almost certainly no longer safe. To Neogon's best guess, Mom's route home was controlled entirely by Eschal. It was enough to make me bitter. I needed a way to contact my family. A way to bring them home. A way to make sure they were safe. A way to make sure everyone was safe. But as always, I could only make what other people needed. Never myself. I let none of those conflicted emotions show on my face.

I was wearing leather armor, and held a crossbow of my own. My braids were tighter than usual, to make sure they didn't get in the way. The wind was freezing. I didn't flinch. I met the eyes of soldiers I'd never spoken to and friends I'd known my whole life, watching them straighten their spines in their best effort to emulate me. There was pity there, but also a surprising pride. I was sick, I was tired, I was cold, and yet I was still standing here on this wall, ready for whatever this war might bring to us.

The wall had been finished, and the scaffolding behind it was heavily reinforced to hold nearly the entire town. The scaffolding had been widened, and attached permanently to the wall, allowing it to support two rows of crossbowmen, lined shoulder to shoulder. It ran all the way from the beach, to the river.

"We only have one shot at this," I said.

"Neogon said we have to let them get in close. We need to surprise as many of them as we can." Public Speaking allowed my words to carry farther than they ever might without it. I wondered if that was why Neogon put me up on the wall here, near the middle. My voice could reach people in a way most couldn't. If necessary, I could be a rallying point. Despite everything so far, I was still expecting a scoff or an eye roll. I was… nobody!

Who was I to be giving encouragement to fully grown soldiers, some more than twice my age? Some girl who happened to be able to speak a little louder than most? A town story teller. It didn't happen. Nods were given, and hard gazes peered out over the plain of jagged stumps and the ruined memory of a dirt road, trampled under far too many feet and far too much troll blood. I just wanted all of this shit to end. Why now? Why here? How had everything gone to shit so quickly?

Three months ago, I'd been a normal girl, agonizing over whether I wanted to date a local boy? How might things have gone if that troll had never attacked me in the woods? Would we be stealing kisses down by the beach? Would our parents still be pushing us toward one another like the old gossips they were? Would Hadra still be here, or would that not have changed? Would I even know Mom had once been in line to be Duchess of Estermont? The title seemed so foreign on her.

Mom, overjoyed to sell crops and cook in the kitchen. Happy. She'd been a duchess's daughter. A princess in all but name, yet she'd chosen to live here and raise me. Mom with flickering candles of flame dancing around her, sword in hand, facing a woman who could command a dragon. The two images clashed so sharply that I could barely reconcile them. If none of this had happened… might I be wearing the wedding dress Hadra had given me now? Surely not. Too soon.

'We had plenty of time,' I would've thought. I wanted to wear it now. I didn't want to be here on this wall, wearing armor, and telling people to shoot to kill. Telling people we had to draw the enemy army in before revealing just how many weapons we truly had. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

When I'd finally decided I wanted to stay, live here in town as Mom had done and just be happy, all of it had been ripped away and traded for an adventure I'd never pictured. Reid gone, Dad and Mom gone, my best friend gone, and me left here to make sure they all had something to come back to. I narrowed my eyes as I saw it begin. A line of soldiers began advancing from the treeline. There was plenty of space, and they were spread wide, approaching slowly. They all carried shields and spears.

Behind them came mages holding staves and gemstones. The spearmen would protect them while their magic destroyed our wall. It was one of the plans Neogon had anticipated.

"Get ready, everyone!" I shouted. I would make sure they did have a place to come back to. Pemolar's Hill might not look the same when it came back, but its people would still be here. Crossbows cocked across the wall, a thousand clicks making the wall sound like crickets. The second row remained crouched behind the front row to hide our numbers. Those who were standing were dressed in ragged clothes, worn over armor. We presented a meagre defence. A ruse.

Twenty thousand soldiers, against the wounded, dying remains of a broken army. They advanced at a slow walk. Unhurried. I couldn't tell from this distance, but I felt like they looked worried. If they'd had scouts watching us mow down the army of trolls and goblins, they'd certainly be afraid to try an attack. Would they look like this? Would they attack at all? There was no way to tell. Neogon seemed to think they had a strong desire to preserve numbers.

Eschal's army had doubled in size as he'd fought them up the edge of the border, more and more reinforcements coming, but Eschal was a small country. It did not have the same number of people Tacuria did. Eventually, the lumbering armies of Tacuria and Denarla would rouse from their slumber, and Eschal would be crushed under their weight if they continued taking costly losses on the border. Hundreds of men, spread a few feet apart, advanced slowly and kept a wide formation that covered the entire open plain.

They at least suspected a large archer presence here, but they probably hadn't seen what we'd done to the trolls. Neogon had insisted that if their scouts had seen the rift spawn attack, they would either rush the beach or ford the river, and not even attempt to breach the wall, no matter how weak we made our defenders look. That they were attacking indicated they hadn't been scouting so far ahead. I grinned. I knew this was a win for us.

Those soldiers and mages were as good as dead, but everyone else didn't know that. Korlotom stood to my right, still lightly injured but healed enough to hold a crossbow. I could see his wide, terrified eyes as the sheer number of enemies began to look overwhelming.

"Neogon said this might happen. Don't worry. They don't know what we can do. This is their mistake. Not ours. We're going to win," I said, trusting in the general's words, hoping to the gods that trust wasn't misplaced. Tom nodded. He hadn't been involved in the planning meetings due to his injury, but his aim was one of the best in town. To my left, three men down, I saw another soldier aiming down. Where most of the wall was at least pretending to be calm, he was shaking.

His hand was trembling edging dangerously close to the release. I tapped the general on the shoulder, and pointed the soldier out. He seemed to understand the problem immediately.

"His name is Jakon," I whispered, and the General nodded before taking a few steps over, struggling to walk around the crouched men and women behind him.

"Jakon," he said softly, worried about startling him. The man's gaze snapped over, but he didn't fire.

"S-sorry," he apologized.

"It's fine, young man. Aim in front of the first soldier. Fire a shot, but only cock the crossbow at the first rung. We want to convince them our weapons aren't strong, and they're outside our range. Make sure you miss." My eyes widened. Smart. Get them cocky. Overconfident. A missed short range crossbow might make them rethink their wariness.

"Yes, Sir," he said hesitantly. The man snorted, but did as commanded, trading his loaded crossbow for an uncocked one from the man crouched behind him. He pulled back the string, using as much strength as he could to get the crossbow to the first rung.

"What if others fire?" Oshena, one of the soldiers crouched behind us, asked.

"If anyone else thinks that they missed the signal and shoots, we'll lose the surprise!"

"Lady Elmerina?" The general asked. I nodded.

"Do not fire," I said.

"Wait for Neogon's signal, even if you see a bolt fly." My words didn't linger with me. They… traveled. It was an odd skill that I'd discovered long ago. Until recently, I'd only ever used it to make sure people in the back of the bar could hear me while I was telling stories. It was a part of the Public Speaking skill. Today, I used it to issue orders, and could feel it take root in people's ears.

I'd spent an extra twenty points on Public Speaking, both because Neogon had insisted there was no such thing as sound magic, and because when he'd discovered my little trick he'd immediately considered it for uses exactly like this. Jakon fired, and the shot sailed out over the open plain, falling well short of the front rank of enemy soldiers. The man nearest to the fallen bolt paused, and then grinned. He lifted his spear. Another man, a field commander of some sort, seemed to agree.

He lifted his own spear, and the soldiers began to advance without the careful slowness they'd displayed before. Neogon grinned.

"It's the Blighted Spear Company. Damn mercenaries have been a thorn in my side for months. I wish we could've gotten more, but I'll be glad to put them on the chopping block first." I didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but I did know that the Eschal army wasn't so much a cohesive unit as a mix of many different mercenary companies, all under Eschal's banner. It sounded chaotic to me, but I hardly knew anything about war.

They advanced, their wind mages reaching the spot just behind where the bolt had landed, while the spearmen lined up, still not closing ranks. The wind mages raised their hands, and greenish-white light began to flood the sky above them.

"Target the wind mages," he said, and I issued the order. I couldn't exactly control where the sound went, only that it was clear to anyone in some undefined radius around me. A few of the enemy soldiers in the front ranks perked up, confused. They'd heard my order. I only had a moment to see Neogon smile.

"First rank. Fire," he said quietly.

"First Rank! Fire!" I bellowed, my words heard by every soldier on the wall, and probably even soldiers back near where the treeline had once been. It didn't matter. It was too late. The front row stood and aimed. Those who were already standing pulled the wooden triggers. The Blighted Spear Company only had a few moments to realize their mistake. The ball of wind evaporated as hundreds of bolts slammed into the line of mages.

Some of the spearmint tried to raise their shields, only to be shocked as the crossbows penetrated the wood and cut into arms and sometimes even body parts behind them.

"Wind mages! Deflect the bol–!" I heard the enemy commander cry before a bolt slammed through his throat. I thought Elsee had been the one to take that shot. By this point, I was well inured to the sight of blood and death, but I was still feeling horrible, and the sickening sight was too much. I bent over, feeling my breakfast coming up.

"Second rank, fire!" Neogon shouted, noticing that I could no longer deliver orders. I heard Oshena stand and set her loaded crossbow on the top of the wall, but before she could shoot, I heard a rush of air. A spray of blood, and the woman fell back. I turned, horrified. A lance of wind magic had struck her throat. She dropped her crossbow, desperately clutching at her neck. Blood seeped through her fingers, but her wild panic sent her backwards. The wall was hastily built. Crude. It had no guardrails.

The woman tumbled over the edge. I couldn't stop watching as she fell twenty feet below and landed hard on her back, but I did see a healer rushing toward her before I threw up on the floor of the wooden palisade. She might be dead. She might survive. To someone with enough Vitality, a fall like that might not even hurt. Her level was only 28, though. How high would her vitality stat be? I didn't have time to care. I wiped my face with my sleeve and stood back up. Nausea temporarily relieved.

"Sorry, sir," I said. He nodded to me and turned back to the slaughter below. If not for sheer luck, that might've been me, but as I looked down at the slaughter below, I realized that it had been a one-in-a-million lucky spell from below. The Blighted Spear Company was already nearly dead, each soldier peppered with bolts.

"First rank, fire," He said. Then he turned and looked up to his banner. The symbols on it changed. New orders for the soldiers positioned near the river and the beach. I didn't know what they were. I issued the order, my throat raw. The first rank stood back up. In moments, nearly seven hundred soldiers had died. We might've only lost one. I liked those numbers.