Four Horsemen Book 5 - Old Histories: Chapter 7

Petor watched through the hole in the roof as Mya's cannon shot struck the barrier around the buildings that the champions were based out of.

The barrier flared with the impact.

Petor commanded the stormvines and ever burning bramble to contract violently and stopped holding back their lighting and heat.

Lightning arced through the stormvines and the wood in contact with the everburning bramble started to smolder and ignite.

Petor threw the hellfire thistle pod high over the champion's building and activated the pod. It sprayed the seeds in every direction, covering the grounds between the temple and the champions and landing upon the roof of the building.

Petor reached out with his mana, commanding the network of vines and brambles to interweave. The stormvines twisted around support beams while everburning brambles snaked through windows. Lightning crackled between the plant tendrils as they pulled taut against the structure.

The building groaned under the crushing pressure. Cracks spider-webbed across the stone walls as the vines constricted with supernatural strength. Sections of roof tiles slid free, shattering on the ground below.

"Pull," Petor growled through clenched teeth, forcing more power into the plants.

The vines responded, tightening their death grip. Support beams splintered with sharp cracks that echoed through the street. A corner of the building crumbled, sending champions scrambling for cover.

They hacked their way out of the now covered doors and charged for the temple, trying to jump into the trenches, those above ground cut down by the gun crews.

Petor called on the boulder berries to unleash their payloads. The arced over the buildings, dropping down on the champion's trenches.

Mya's cannon boomed again, the barrier flickered the shot punching through a weakened wall.

Desari's bow sang, launching volleys of elemental arrows that peppered the barrier. Some attacks getting through where the barrier failed.

Valter and his armors shot over the barrier at the champions moving through the trenches.

Something groaned, another cannon shot went through the barrier, into the heart of the buildings and detonated, spewing bricks and timber across the ground.

The building dropped and leaned, falling towards the shop that Petor and the other horsemen were inside.

The building smashed against the ground, spreading its materials through the street.

Power surged through Petor's body, a familiar euphoric sensation that made his nerves tingle and his core pushed past its boundaries, Blue congealed at the center of his core of green—attaining Green mixed with blue.  The strain upon him diminished. His consciousness expanded, connecting deeper with the plant network he'd created across the battlefield.

He split his concentration directing the boulder berries directly. The plants contracted, hurling their explosive seeds in high arcs overhead. The deadly payload rained down into the trenches where champions scrambled for cover. Explosions rocked the ground as the seeds detonated, spraying seeds in all directions.

Screams echoed from the trenches as champions dove for whatever protection they could find. Their totem barriers flickered and sparked against the botanical assault, but seeds slipped through gaps in their defenses.

Petor channeled energy into the stormvines snaking through the rubble. Lightning crackled between the tendrils, finding champions trapped beneath fallen masonry. The air filled with ozone as electrical discharges illuminated the destruction. Bodies jerked and went still as the current found its marks.

The everburning brambles responded to his will, launching themselves forward into the trenches like living weapons. They wrapped around legs and torsos, searing flesh where they made contact. Small fires sprouted along the felled buildings, but Petor carefully modulated their intensity. He couldn't risk letting the flames spread to nearby buildings.

Through gaps in the settling dust, champions emerged from the ruined building. They staggered out of the rubble, weapons drawn.

The gun crews were merciless, withering fire cutting them down as they tried to find cover—few of them made it.

The battlefield was noise unleashed, people yelling, attacks hitting objects or people with devastating effect.

Petor watched it as he loaded, feeling and hearing the movement of the fight. He could read the gun crews were running out of ammunition or having to move positions. Their buildings were getting hit the hardest.

The champions were frustrated but forging on towards their objective, doing enough to distract and threaten the gun crews without dedicating themselves to the fight.

Life was inside the temple to them, death was above the trenches.Grapeshot tore across the battlefield from Mya's position, leaving a cone of destruction, ripping through flesh and armor alike. Flattening anyone that once stood in its path.

Petor grimaced at the sight and loaded up gale seeds into his sling and spun his sling to the point it sung and released, sending the seeds arcing over the champions to land outside the temple.

Within seconds, the seeds sprouted into full-grown sentinels, their blue petals tracking movement like predatory eyes.

They spat out seeds at any champion, or part of them that appeared.

Petor reloaded, taking note of his fellow's actions.

Valter's arbalest fired as fast as he could reload, his armors firign as well, creating a firing line on the second floor that was raking the trenches.

Following the arrows back, Desari had to be on the third story as well on the other side of the store.

The arrows split into several copies, raining down and hitting around the trenches. The soil seemed to become almost a liquid, collapsing the walls of the trench and washing over the champions before solidifying.

Champions fought out of the mud, to come out above the trench into the gun crew's volleys.

Petor spun his sling to unleash another load of galeseeds. He hurled them in a wide arc, the seeds landing in strategic positions before the temple steps.

A yell went up, holy light flooding over the battlefield, blasting away the glimmers of morning and making it brighter than midday.

Champions wreathed in holy power rushed out of the trenches.

Galeseeds contracted, spitting out seeds that Petor aimed for faces.

Champions fell others covered their faces as they rushed forward.

The temple's undead guardians ran out from the rent in the temple's wing to meet the champions, they fired pistols and wielded cutlasses and boarding axes, others hand chains with an anchor at the end.

Through the settling dust, a massive figure emerged from the trenches. The champion leader stood two meters tall, his armor radiating divine power that made Petor's plants wither at his approach. Four other juggernauts followed in his wake, their barriers deflecting shots and spells alike that focused on them.

A flag was attached to the back armor of one of the juggernauts, a thick barrier like muddy glass spread around them, its surface a network of interconnected holy sigils and runes.

Shots hit the barrier, flecks of light as the barrier stood firm.

"Forward, my fellow champions! The temple falls today!" The leader's voice boomed across the battlefield.

He launched a spell with his free hand into a cluster of the undead temple guardians. It detonated in their midst, turning their bones into shrapnel.

Another juggernaut champion slammed their weapon—an enormous mace wreathed in fiery runes—into the ground. The earth itself shuddered, sending shockwaves rippling outward that collapse a section of the temple wall the temple guardiand emerged from. The walls cracked and the roof collapsed and crush defenders beneath falling debris.

The remaining champions rallied behind their leader. With the juggernaut champions leading the charge, they pressed forward with renewed vigor.

The undead guardians slammed into the champions like a wave breaking against rocks. Holy light burned their bodies just by proximity, sending wisps of black smoke curling into the air.

The champions' blessed weapons cut into the undead's bone, making it sizzle and melt but the temple guards fought on with unholy vigor.

The trenches that protected the champions forced them into tight quarters as the undead attacked them from the sides of the trench.

Chains whirled through the air as anchors crashed down, crushing champions caught in the trenches. Pistols were fired into the lined up champions while cutlasses and boarding axes hacked at the champion's heads.

The very air seemed to splinter under the crushing force of their blows. Metal screamed and warped as blessed weapons met cursed. Each impact sent shockwaves rippling outward, shattering windows and rattling teeth.

Champions poured from the trenches like ants from a disturbed nest, their armor gleaming with divine light. They met the undead guardians head-on, holy weapons blazing.

The juggernauts and those with them plowed into the undead like a physical force.

Ranged champions fire was directed at a wall of the temple, it came apart, collapsing a section of the temple—the juggernauts and those with them forging a new path.

The gun crews fired as fast as they could reload, everyone on the line, the galeseeds spat as fast as they could, the champions fell but they buried their charge into the undead guardians and pushed forward.

The temple guards gave ground slowly, fighting with the relentless determination of the dead. But the champions' holy power proved overwhelming. Blessed weapons severed limbs and shattered ribcages. Undead warriors fell apart piece by piece, their bones left broken and smoking.

Still they fought on, even as their numbers dwindled. A one-armed guard impaled a champion through the throat with its anchor chain. Another, its torso nearly severed, dragged two champions down into the mud, climbing their bodies with daggers, till they were able to destroy it.

The champions were methodically destroying the undead defenders. The temple guards were being systematically dismantled, their eternal vigil ending beneath the god's fighters.

Petor launched more seeds, but the barriers around the leader's group held firm.

Not all of the champions were inside the thick barrier.

A cannon shot plowed through the grouped champions and detonated.

Desari's arrows cut through champions, Valter fired his Arbalest, sticking it through the back of one of the juggernaut's knees, causing him to drop, still fighting an undead on the way down.

The champions driven out of the trenches were being cut down, their totem barriers breaking.

A group got past the undead engaged with the juggernauts and rushed for the temple.

Galeseeds shot at them, but they cut through the plants as they passed into the building.

The remaining undead temple guards threw themselves at the juggernauts. Anchor chains wrapped around armored limbs while cursed blades sought weak points.

One juggernaut wrapped in three chains roared and pulled the undead towards himslef, his hammer smashing through two. He took a shot to the helmet, his head snapping back before he blazed with holy light, his helmet marred by the shot as he brought his glowing hammer into the undead that hit him, causing it to explode as holy light detonated in its midst.

Blessed weapons of the champion elite burned through undead bone. Guard after guard collapsed into piles of smoldering remains.

"Move! We need to move now!" Mya's voice carried over the chaos.

Petor watched in growing concern as the juggernauts methodically advanced. The gun crews were pressing forward, spells fell upon them, killing them.

In the open the champions had the spells and armor to deal with them.

Their lack of armor made them nearly useless against such heavily armored foes.

Mya bolted from their building, her coat whipping behind her as she charged into the fray. His heart hammered against his ribs.

"Well fuck," he muttered, taking two rapid steps he vaulted over the crumbling wall. He drew his spear as he dropped to street level.

Valter and his animated armor suits ran out of doorways, through windows, or smashed through the holed wall they'd been using as cover.

They spent their final shots before tossing them back to Valter, who stored them away with practiced efficiency before they drew their melee weapons.

Desari glided from her position drawing and releasing arrows on the way down.

She touched the ground running.

Petor's boots crunched on broken stone as he darted toward a patch of everburning bramble. Its flames cast dancing shadows across his armor. He used the Root Road spell, stepping through the network of roots he'd spread across the battlefield.

His eyes focused on the trenches and the battle fought there, spells and bullets exchanged, men fighting for their lives the land between them the reaper's domain.