Tanya's Third Life as a Barbarian Queen, Chapter XLVII

I will have the chapter as links to download at the bottom of the post. As well as a link to the Google Document page.

Kontia Gatehouse

Lieutenant Tara of the Tanaoi

The stone of the gatehouse shook as fire roared overhead. Smoke and screams filled the air. A wyvern wheeled about in the sky, its scales gleaming red against the sun. I watched as its belly began swelling with fire so bright that it could be seen though its armoured hide. The gatehouse shook again as its blast struck the street below, setting a wagon ablaze and causing roof tiles to shatter from the burning heat.

I pushed into the gatehouse, the stairwell stank of soot and stone dust as I dragged the bronze four-pounder up the winding stairs. Long and awkward across my back, a human, an orc and it would have crushed them flat, on better footing I could have carried such a weight without pause but it was...  It was just awkward. The barrel scraped sparks against the stone as I hauled it up, one agonising step at a time.

Behind me panted a squad of cadets, old enough to fight by my reckoning, pressed into fire-watch during the attack. They had buckets and axes and were ripping down structures to offer the overgrown lizards not a single bit of kindling for their ungodly flame. Now I had pressed them into battle, actual battle where they could prove themselves before the Gods. Powder bags, sabot crates, ramrods.

They carried it all with wide eyes and flattened ears after pulling it from the ruins of the western gatehouse. From the corpses of my squad. My company was scattered about the city, more than a few were the ash choking out the sky. These cadets were all I had left.

We burst out of the gatehouse just as a wyvern screamed overhead, its breath scorching the roof tiles. Fire bloomed in the street below, and the world shook beneath the blast. I dropped the cannon onto the parapet with a crack.

“Powder!” I barked at the girls scrambling to follow my orders. “Fast and ram it hard! Then the dart!”

One cadet shoved the charge into the muzzle; another followed with the long sabot round, the wooden petals wrapped around the iron dart. I drove it home with one thrust of the ramrod, my hands already raw from the heat of the barrel. She had already barked more than once today.

The wyvern swept low. I heaved the gun into my arms, cradling the metal against me, steadying the breech with one hand. The barrel pointed out at the sky, heavy as a tree trunk. I could feel my muscles burning, tendons straining.

I aimed ahead of the beast’s glide and shouted as one of the older Cadets pressed the copper plate on top of the cannon, an instant later it fired.

The cannon roared like thunder. The kickback slammed into me and I staggered back into the wall, pain lancing through my shoulder. My teeth rattled, ears ringing. The shot screamed past the wyvern, the sabot shedding clean, the dart missing by a span of wing. The cadets ducked as tiles rained down from its flame.

“Reload! Now!” I snarled, even as blood wet my lips where I had bitten my tongue.

They scrambled, powder and shot thrust back into the muzzle. My hands shook as I steadied the barrel again, braced against the stone lip of the wall. The second wyvern dive-bombed, its belly glowing with inner fire once more.

I roared back at it and the cadet pressed the copper again.

The cannon cracked my chest with its recoil. Pain spread like fire down my arm, but I held the barrel level long enough to see the dart smash into the beast’s flank. The sabot peeled away mid-flight, the fin-stabilised dart punching through scale with a spray of sparks. The wyvern howled, banking wildly, its fire spraying wide across a market below. Not a kill, but a wound.

The cadets cheered. I spat blood and cut them short. “Load it again!”

My chest throbbed, likely a broken rib. Every breath was shallow, aching. But I wrestled the cannon back into position as they rammed the next charge. I could not let them see me falter.

Another shadow crossed the gatehouse. A second wyvern circled higher, waiting for its chance. I raised the cannon, the weight like molten iron, and fought to line it with the angle of descent.

“Steady!” I chastised the young girl spilling powder onto the ground. “Ram it firm now, the dart!” They shoved the sabot in. The older cadet rammed it deep as I settled the fear and pain by gritting my teeth. I braced the breech against my hip, squared my stance, and waited.

The wyvern stooped, fire pooling in its throat.

We fired again.

The world became smoke and agony. The recoil drove me half a step back, my boots skidding on the slick ashen planks. My ribs screamed, but I allowed the cannon to sway back somewhat, turning my body into the recoil of the gun. The cannon would not abide total resistance, she had made that quite clear.

My eyes followed the dart. The sabot fell away clean, the finned spike flying true. It drove through the wyvern’s chest, bursting out its back in a spray of blood and burning ichor. The beast screamed, wings faltered, and it fell tumbling, crashing through roofs beyond the walls.

I sagged, coughing on powder smoke, shoulder blazing with pain. The cadets shrieked in triumph, ears high, feet stomping in excitement as they hopped about each other holding each other's hands aloft. 

I raised my hand, silencing them. “There are more! Reload.” I finished weakly

They stared at me soot-streaked, trembling. Soft, softer than any their age should be, but eager. They moved together, the words they used clear, concise they were ready for this and as they scrambled to their tasks. Powder in. Dart in. Rammed tight. I shifted the cannon against my aching ribs, ready to fire again.

Each shot tore at me, and each shot could tear another wyvern from the sky. Gods knew how her majesty handled it. I was about to open my mouth when one of the Cadets took out a cloth and wiped the blood away from my chin. I looked at her as she stepped back and gave me the Queens salute.

Then the brilliance of the sun was suddenly challenged. The sky became dark in comparison to a light at the middle of the City that flowed outwards growing larger with each heart beat. Wyvernflame played across the glowing expression of our Queen's power. For who else but her, and the Gods, could perform such a feat?

It was over, we had won again.

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Kontia

Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi

I was furious. No, beyond furious. I felt a murderous rage threaten to overtake me.

The screams of dying Wyverns could not sooth that rage as flames consumed who knows how many resources and valuable lives. Cannonfire echoed out across the city as artillery companies across the city did their best to cull the attacking flock of Knights before they could burn down the city and everyone inside of it.

Just when we had started to establish some measure of diplomacy Sadera struck like this. While Prince Diabo was a guest here no less. I could only imagine that if harm came to him it would be blamed upon me and my people.

I jogged though the city, adjusting the sizable chunk of quartz on my shoulder while I furiously pumped what mana I could into the mana-hungry lattice the rock was composed of. quartz was a rather poor material for mana conductivity. It had once been compared to the electrical conductivity of metals. With diamonds, garnets and rubies being like silver or copper while quartz was closer to lead or iron. 

Mana flowed into quartz just fine, as with all crystal lattices, mana seemed to be able to compress itself into the alignment of the material in a highly stable arrangement. It was simply easier to compress more into other gemstones, glass and some plastics could fill the role of a quartz crystal but were strictly worse. 

For the military grade equipment of the Empire something like quartz was seen as nearly useless and was only ever seen in civilian grade consumable products. Because while Quartz might not be the best it still worked and was a rather abundant naturally occurring crystalline structure.

I also assume it can be formed artificially, but that was only an assumption. In my second life most magical equipment employed synthetic rubies in large quantities. It had been very important as the number of mines that could produce the gemstones required for the war effort were near universally in Albish hands. 

I turned the corner of the street and watched in horror as the house I had assigned to Prince Diabo buckled inwards as flame ate away at the structure. If he was inside there was no doubt he was long dead.

Shit.

I turned heel and pushed though my burning city as carefully laid plans for this terrible eventuality were put into place. The plaza in the middle of the city had been designated as a rally point for civilians as it had a wide road leading from it to city gates in three cardinal directions. Kontia, while dense and winding in some places, was not a haphazardly constructed city, it was built on a grid and I was glad for that. 

The plaza was packed full of terrified people, rich and poor, human and otherwise. They watched in horror as what had been fourteen or so Wyverns harried their home in what I considered a very unjustified attack.

I watched for a moment as a Wyvern attempted to dive upon a wall with what looked to be a battery of three four pounder cannons as the crews took time to alternate their fire and keep the aerial target at bay. The Knight misjudged the tempo of fire and turned into the wall after two of the cannons had fired and offered the third the full body of his mount as a target.

The beast let out a pained roar but its momentum carried it onto the wall sending the cannons and what was clearly a terrified artillerywoman plunging to the ground far below. I turned away, there was nothing I could do for the women on the walls, I just had to hope that they had enough guns, ammo and luck to overcome the Wyvern Knights.

I began to circle the crowd, drawing attention as I did so. There were questions shouted at me but I paid them no mind, satisfying the curiosity of civilians during an active combat situation was a waste of time. I shifted the weight of the crystal on my shoulder, the one hundred and thirty three pound crystal was the only one of its kind I had found on the steppe and a rock of this size was rare even for quartz. 

I felt the faint hum of mana echo outwards from the crystal, the magical resistance causing my skull and teeth to tingle in sympathy with the formula weakly applied to the smokey rock. I had plans for this particular crystal so I did not want to inscribe a more permanent enchantment on it right now despite the efficiency gains of doing such a thing.

I did a double take when I saw him. Prince Diabo standing about in the middle of the plaza just slightly separated from any of the familial clumps of people. He was bereft of any bodyguards, and that was quite unacceptable, as he watched the deadly dance of the Wyverns overhead. 

His clothes and face was covered in a thin layer of black soot and his eyes looked red and bloodshot. Honestly what were the Wyvern Knights doing attacking the city while their Prince was currently conducting diplomatic talks? Did the right hand not know what the left was doing? That was the only explanation that made sense.

I adjusted the crystal again and strode towards him to get a better look, if he was wounded I would have to prioritise care for the man. The last thing I needed was another Prince dying on me. 

“There you are.” I prompted, causing him to jolt in place and spin about towards me, his mouth agape. He looked mostly fine and what good luck that was! Escaping from a burning building and being in the streets of Kontia alone? I would have to assign him new bodyguards if his own had passed away. Or perhaps just get him to bring more of his retinue across the river.

Right now any transportation was being conducted in small fishing boats that could carry five men at most the workers on the bridge had yet to establish a full scaffolding across the gap to allow people to cross.

I hope the Wyverns had not attacked the bridge...

I might lose my patience if they did. 

There was some disturbance across the crowd as, with their numbers dwindling, one of the Wyvern Knights turned his mount inwards towards the middle of the city. I sighed in disappointment as there was little else this could mean.

I would have preferred not to need to use this big rock, I was reasonably sure it was safe but that was just an assumption on my part. I watched as the Wyvern swooped down towards the people of Kontia in the plaza with murderous intent.

All of the power I had pressed into the Crystal, I tore from it as I worked a formula in my mind. I walked forwards, casting out my influence before me into a solid repudiation of the influence of the Wyvern upon reality. Its fire was magical in nature, of that I was certain, and that made things more complicated. 

A wall, a shield in a rough dome shape centered on me. It would be preferable to have it centered somewhat behind me but that would just make things more complex. I walked forwards as flame licked at the barrier of unreality with hungry tendrils of heat and light played across the barrier.

In an instant the formula protested its own existence and I reinforced its presence in turn. Light and heat exploded across the barrier too brilliant to consider as mana was fed into the gluttonous construct.

There was a thud of all things as the Wyvern Knight drove his mount into my spell as if kinetic force could do what mana infused flame could not. I set my teeth and drained the crystal of all the mana I had been feeding the glorified battery and turned inwards to my own reserves.

I had about four seconds.

More than enough.

I let the barrier expand exponentially, to grow uncontrolled and wild, unreality surged though the city but most of all it surged upwards. A layer of mana that had been lit aflame by wyverns. That had absorbed an unnatural, magical flame. The remaining Wyverns in the sky screamed as fire that needed no fuel to burn covered them from end to end and ate away at their bodies, at their riders. 

I had roughly half a second left before my mana was totally exhausted when I ended the spell. I took a deep breath, breathing in the ashes of my city as the great weapons of Sadera fell from the sky aflame. I turned to the Prince of Sadera, Diabo, a burning city reflected in his eyes.

“It’s time we gave peace a chance, don’t you think?”

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ALYiWmK5GbPK7XbGUQ6UfWAMikcyyjl2F6qEcQs7K44/edit?tab=t.0