EA Chapter 36 - War in the Capital

“A monster attack,” Syri murmured in disbelief. “Right here in the capital.”

Luna nodded, her grim and unblinking gaze watching as plumes of smoke and ash began to rise from various points in the city. Being able to bypass capital’s walls and outer defences in an instant, the worst nightmare of any ruler. When her own capital was seized, it was only after weeks of a protracted siege, entailing a myriad of magical assaults and campaigns of subterfuge to undercut the defences she had spent a lifetime building up.

If her enemies could have just appeared in the heart of her empire with a thought... well the idea alone made her feel ill.

Soldiers were already rushing from the academy’s gates, moving in quick formation with their halberd rifles. She even saw Old Scratch leading one squadron, barking orders.

“Fifth squad, make for the Lower Market! Eighth, head for the Foundry Quarter! Third, Seventh, shore up defences here. Any refugees come our way, guide ‘em to the training platforms. Clerics’ll deal with the injured. Move!”

He looked up at the wall, as if sensing the presence of Luna and the others. Their eyes met, but he made no move to direct Luna back to the main body of the Citadel.

The old man gave her a firm nod.

Not that Luna needed the approval of someone else to act. But this would be a good thing to point to if Yifang wanted to give her grief once this was all done with.

“We need to head into the city,” she told her allies. “Make for the nearest smoke stack and kill whatever’s there. Once things are stable...” Luna pointed to the cyclone in the sky, “I plan on seeing what’s up there.”

“You’re mental,” Syri said. She huffed, smiling despite herself, and held one hand aloft. A golden glow formed around her wrist summoning a great silvery claymore from the ether that fell neatly into her hand. Despite being as tall as her whole body, Syri could handle the great blade as if it were utterly weightless.

It was not a construction of qi, Luna knew. One of the nifty little abilities of Paladins was their power to bind a chosen weapon to their spirit, summoning to them at will. At least, within a rather broad radius.

“But, yes,” Syri said, “we can’t let this persist.”

“Rema and I need to get our equipment, We can try and meet you later,” said Romula.

Luna nodded. “Closest to us is the central market,” she said, pointing to a plume of smoke belching up a few blocks from where they stood. “We’ll go there and try to quell the attacks. You can catch up with us there.”

Romula nodded stiffly. “R-right,” she said.

“Terrified?” Luna asked.

“Absolutely. It’s... this is huge... this is much more intense than a training exercise!”

“Yes, well, this is the sort of thing we were being trained to deal with. Remember your training, stick close to your allies, and you will make it through this,” She offered the twins a nod before turning to her two allies. “Are you two ready?”

Kiharu grinned, cracking her knuckles slowly. “Oh, damnation yes. Been wanting another opponent I don’t have to hold back against.”

Again Luna raised her hands, forming a pale bubble around the three of them, and another gale promptly launched them toward the nearest source of conflict. Luna spared a fleeting glance to the twins as they flew from the walls of the Citadel. It was risky, going on ahead without their healer, but they didn’t have much time to waste.

From on high it was easy to see the creatures that had been dropped onto the people below. A small squadron of gnolls was tearing through the street, pounding along on their massive knuckles, overturning anything in their path. Luna could already see a few corpses strewn about, the few people too slow to get to cover when the Ashborn first dropped.

A few city guards had taken up a defensive position, lances of light flying from their halberd rifles to try and slow the oncoming creatures. The shots hit hard enough to chip the stony skin of the gnolls, but slowing them down was the best they could muster. The rank and file of the Elthremian army could not use qi, and were ultimately no different to the normal humans of Luna’s old world. Yet they were trained soldiers, armed with weapons that could shred through solid steel.

As far as security forces went, there were far worse out there.

Luna lowered to the ground, her gaze fixed on the nearest and largest of the hunched creature. Twin beams of boiling crimson light exploded from her eyes, crossing the distance in an instant and slamming into the gnoll. The beast’s stony flesh boiled and splintered, much of it shredding apart as an explosion of magic tore its chest cavity open. The blast flung the gnoll away, its mass skidding across the cobbles and uprooting them.

Kiharu and Syri jumped from Luna’s bubble as they drew nearer to the ground, both girls deftly landing without issue. Syri moved first, making a beeline for one gnoll as it charged toward a trio of fleeing civilians.

The creature unhinged it’s long sloping jaws, revealing rows of pointed obsidian fangs. But Syri was in front of it before it could land an attack, sweeping her claymore up and cleaving its jaws apart in an explosion of dust. The beast recoiled, hissing, while it’s stony flesh was already regrowing.

But Syri was clever, the girl who always paid rapt attention in monster anatomy classes. She braced and thrust her blade forth, the tip sheathed in a sheen of golden light. The gnoll’s chest was punched open by the blade, which made a beeline for the creature’s crystalline core. The sound of it shattering echoed across the market, and much of the gnoll’s body started to fracture and collapse into ashen dust without the core holding it together.

Kiharu was just as quick, rushing toward one gnoll that had scattered a small squadron of guards. She grabbed it from behind, holding the larger beast by the waist, and threw the gnoll backward in a swift suplex that shattered a vast swathe of the cobbles around them.

The gnoll thrashed and snarled in Kiharu’s grasp, but the beastkin locked her arms firmly around it in an unyielding clinch. Luna seized on the opening, motioning to the restrained creature and firing a bolt of force from her fingertips. The slug of purple light punched through the gnoll’s stony hide as if it were damp cardboard, shattering the creature’s core.

Kiharu tossed the collapsing corpse aside, rising swiftly to her feet while Syri moved to join them. The soldiers were quick to regroup, throwing together barricades with whatever weighty furnishings they had to hand, others making for nearby rooftops to serve as vantage points.

Luna stared down the street, watching as more monstrous silhouettes came pounding their way. Hulking gnolls, followed by massive hellcats that prowled around on all fours, their tails aglow with plumes of lava.

The young woman smiled faintly, raising her hands. It was nice to have targets she didn’t need to hold back against. “Form up,” she told her allies. “We’ll cut these bastards down here and now.”

The first gnoll broke rank and rushed her, moving at a speed that would put a galloping horse to shame. It ducked and weaved around the incoming lances of laser fire from the halberd rifles. Luna took aim with one hand, a vicious grin breaking out across her face as a deathly pale light blossomed from her palm.

The thrum of a familiar power ran up toward her shoulder, her beloved Disintegration, heralding the wave of ghostly light as it flew from her fingertips. It struck the gnoll mid-sprint... and then it was gone, reduced to a cloud of ash blown away in the breeze.

Luna’s grin broadened to an almost painful degree as she exhaled slowly through her nose.

Oh, how she had missed being able to disintegrate an enemy with a thought.