41. Besieged

Dashing between eaves Lexi made her way toward the temple of Arks, as if they might provide some protection if she got unlike and became victim to one of the hurling boulders that near constantly flew into the city.

On her way, she passed a bakery, a line stretching out from it as if life had returned to normal. It was kind of amazing, that amongst such destruction all around them, people were living in almost normal conditions.

Her hand dipped into her pocket and squeezed the Earon’s ring. It was the only link she had to him, right now. Both he, Fane, and the soldiers themselves had forbid her from visiting him at the wall. Civilians without adequate combat skills weren’t permitted into the combat zones, and that included her.

Her thief class had been a rogue class, with very limited combat caps, and she never really tried to train them, anyway. She stole what she needed and got away before anyone knew what had happened. And that had been great for surviving the streets of Saner, but now?

Lexi shook her head. Lamenting on her current situation wasn’t going to help her get stronger. The priests wouldn’t let her take books from their library, but she was given free access, thanks to Fane’s connections and coin. And thankfully, they had both a book about Tricksters and a general one about rogue-class casters.

It turned out that the trickster was an illusionist specialty class. Unfortunately, the book hadn’t been written by tricksters themselves, and so wasn’t quite as useful as a real spellbook, filled with instructions and in-depth spell descriptions. It did, however, provide accounts of their spells, often in the third person, from other casters. But that was better than nothing.

One spell in particular had taken her fancy. She and Earon had talked at length about his own journey to learn his class and spells. And Earon had explained the importance of picking easy spells to start.

The author of the book believed that a spell called, puff, was a learner's spell. The spell created a cloud of dark smoke, either around the caster or directed at a target – though mana cost and difficulty changed greatly the further away the spell was cast, as it did with most spells. Not the most exotic or powerful-sounding spell. However, Lexi had already thought of several situations where she could make use of such a spell. Especially if she were doing so as an assist to Earon.

It wasn’t going to be easy to take a description and vague theory of how it works and turn it into a spell, but this was all she had, and she was determined to make it work.

***

“Hey, Earon,” Tyan kicked at his boot.

“Wha?” Earon stretched his neck and forced his heavy eyes open.

Tyan pushed a tin bowl into his face. “Stew. It’s a gift from our benefactor.” He smiled.

“Fane?”

Tyan nodded. “Pays to have rich friends, it seems.”

Earon took the bowl and brought it to his face. Oily mutton and woody herbs filled his nostrils. “Smells good,” he grinned and shoveled it into his mouth.

“I got a half dozen men already wanting to introduce you to their sisters.” Tyan chuckled. “Keep this up and you’ll have wedding proposals from half of Caedstad.”

Earon chewed and coughed as he forced down a chunk of mutton too large for his throat. “They should probably be chasing Fane, he’s the rich one.”

“Yeah, that guy kinda creeps them out. There’s something about him,” Tyan tilted his head. “You on the other hand.”

“What about me?” Earon glanced up.

“Nothing, you’re a good kid,” Tyan chuckled. “Plus, you’re a caster. Every woman from here to Ome is hoping to birth a few little mana-wielding devils. Combine that with a normal-looking young man who is surprisingly approachable, and well,” Tyan shrugged.

“Strange to hear that. People didn’t always feel that way about me. I must be doing something right, then.”

“Oh, you’re doing more than a little right. Just keep it up and don’t go all evil mage on us, okay?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Earon threw his cup and sent his dice rolling across the wall walk. Ones, three ones. Higher numbers were good unless they were twos. Three twos would have been an immediate win, regardless of what his opponent rolled. But three ones were the lowest possible score.

“Looks like you owe me another fifty coppers, Earon,” the scruffy soldier across from him snickered.

“Yeah,” Earon grimaced as he recoiled back. He still had a few silvers, thanks to their agreement to settle bets after the siege was lifted, but he was going into debt, quickly. At this rate, Earon would be taking contracts just to pay off his gambling.

“That’s some debt you’re building,” commented the near toothless Jagon as he widdled a stick across from them. “Already owe me two silvers. Don’t think I'll forget or forgive that debt just because your friend is feeding us.”

“I’m going to start winning soon.” Earon smiled and threw the dice down again, rolling a one, three, and four.”

“Three sixes, I win again!” Tyle, cheered as he scooped up the dice. “So, what’s that?” the soldier said, placing a finger against his chin. “I think you owe me two silvers as well.”

“Okay, I'm done,” Earon declared, getting up and walking across the wall. “No more games for me.”

“What? C’mon, how am I going to pay for my retirement?” Lambasted another soldier as he drooped into his chest, eliciting a playful laugh from the others.

“Stations!” Commander Tyan shouted, running out from the corner tower. “Somethings going on down there.”

Earon and the others rose and peered over the parapet. There wasn’t much to see, a few motes of smoke rising through the morning mist and the usual, tepid back and forth between the two sides, hurling the occasional missiles at each other.

“There!” Someone yelled as a shadow dashed between mantlets.

“Been a while since they tried something,” Jagon said from beside Earon. “Was starting to get bored.” He turned to Earon with a grin. “Well, if not for you losing all the ti-”

Jagon’s sentence was just short as blood sprayed across Earon’s face and he turned to see a bolt protruding from the man’s face for a second before he went tumbling down from the wall.

A few dwarven crossbows had begun firing bolts as a new siege tower rolled through the mist.

“Take it down!” Tyan commanded, pointing at the incoming tower.

Flaming arrows and bolts flew toward the tower, but the tiny flames they brought with them only served to highlight the incoming war machine.

A beam of light flew from another section of the wall. Since they were at the outer walls, which were lower than the inner sections, ranged attacks including spells were able to assist in their defense.

Earon knew rocks would have little effect on the siege tower, even if he increased the weight as much as he could. But what about an iron ball? They had been used by both sides through the siege and were easy enough to come by amongst the rubble.

Whilst the ball was smaller than his fist, it was heavy. Earon would probably need to reduce the weight whilst throwing, and then increase it after it had already gained momentum, which would cost more mana. He could also send a zap running through metal, he had realized, but that required a conduit, and the ball wouldn’t hold the charge, only transfer it.

However, he had a better idea. Earon quickly dashed over to a nearby soldier who stood beside buckets of tar, waiting for the enemy to get closer, and dipped his metal ball inside. Then he tore the cloth from his shirt and wrapped it, taking care not to tar himself.

Holding the ball in both hands, Earon steadied his thoughts and his breathing. Then arched back and threw the ball with a slight spin to it. His focus had to be perfect as he lowered the weight, then increased it as it left his hand, spinning with the motion of his throw and forcing his zap to spark outward and ignite the ball as it flew through the air.

Exploding in a puff of flame, the iron ball slammed into the incoming tower, smashing timber and sending a spray of wood shards flying through the air as it pierced into the machine, bringing with it a trail of flames.

The soldier beside Earon turned to him nodding, “Do that, do that again.”

Dropping down, Earon fumbled for another metal ball, then rose again, trembling as he hastily wrapped his ammo again, the siege tower still approaching.

“Well, help him, damn it.” Another soldier said as he watched Earon, and within seconds three nearby soldiers had taken to creating Earon’s makeshift ammo.

The second ball flung from his hand and powerfully smashed into the tower, but he had been too slow with his zap, and the attack had lacked flames. Not that it mattered. By the time his attack had landed, another readied ball was being passed to Earon.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. Doing it right was better than sending a hurried but failed attack.

Earon swung through his throw again, igniting the ball successfully and blasting the tower with flaming tar. Then he sent another only seconds later, and then another.

Over a dozen meters still separated the oncoming tower from the wall, and already it was ablaze, the increasing heat slowly igniting the timber, rather than just burning across it.

Huffing, and hunched over, supporting himself with one hand against the parapet wall, Earon took another metal ball. He focused and sent it flying a little further down, blasting a hole straight threw the tower and creating more flames in the process – then his vision blurred, and darkness followed.

A splash of cold water shook Earon awake. His hands instinctively patting himself down.

“That was really something,” Tyan said, standing over him. “The damned thing didn’t even make it to the wall.” He nodded toward the still-flaming wreckage several meters away.

Earon stretched his fingers and channeled his mana – it was weak. He had overdone it again. He sat and thought back to Trudels’s warning. Winning this battle and surviving was obviously the most important task right now, but he had to remember to restrain his mana usage.

“So, we pushed them back, I take it,” Earon groaned as he forced himself to his feet.

“We?” Tyan shook his head. “It was pretty much all you. Without that tower, there wasn’t much they could do.”

“Hey, I made three of those balls myself!”

“Yeah, yeah, you all helped out,” Tyan said, surveying the battlefield. “You know what, I’m starting to believe we might win this battle.”

A knot formed in Earon stomach as he looked out across the battlefield. Something wasn’t right. They were facing down a real army, with hundreds, maybe thousands of soldiers, yet he still hadn’t faced another caster. He wasn’t sure exactly why that might be, but he doubted it was because they didn’t have any.

“I hope so,” Earon murmured, his gaze cast off into the distance.