Merosh stopped on the stone terrace of a building. It had a somewhat higher ground level then the steeply street besides it, where guardians rushed down and civilizants up. Both shouting in different tones, some commanding and instructing, others panicking and fearful.
And then there was Merosh, standing aside and calmly watching the scene. Here he was still at the inner rings of the walls, but high enough to see over. To see the black sea of billowing shapes and ignating sparks of red and dark in between within the distant sound of thousands bodys moving. He gazed at the scenery like an artist at a beautiful work of painting. But in fact he analyzed it.
There were a lot, indeed. How was it possible that they could came so close to
Vel Anir unseen in such large numbers? Were the scouts so bad or had Vel Anir just become so carelessly already?
Perhaps it would have been better if Merosh had taken his bow with him, which he had left behind - but now it was too late, he wouldn't return for it. The message had reached him just as he was snoozing in the bathtub, he had been quickly woken up by the thunderous knock on his door. He had had to get dressed quickly, his hair was still wet now and slightly dripping.
Merosh started to move. He still had some way to get to the far wall, where the other guards and
dreadlords were gathering. With a high leap he pushed himself with his magnetism farther then his feet alone were able. His clothes fluttered soundly in the sudden movement, before he landed on a roof of a deeper standing building - taking another, faster route, then the crowded streets could offer.
~
When he reached the outer wall, he tried to look for Barrin for just a moment, but quickly gave it up. There were just too many people and too many auras. Most of them stood still as the gates were closed, but those ranged soldier on the wall were in action. Merosh pushed his way through the crowd towards the wall, as he could also do something at a distance.
"AIM FOR THE BLACK CLOAKS!"
A shouting voice that rose above the noise. Merosh did not stop, but took a quick look. He could not make out the source of the voice in the crowd, but that didn't mattered. What mattered was the piece of information.
"NOT THE GHOULS! THE CLOAKS!"
Noted. Merosh reached the wall, it was even for him too high to jump, so he needed to take the stairs. He took four steps at once and arrived quickly at the top. Here, he walked to the next nearest archer.
"Give me your bow.", he demanded. After his fired arrow the archer glanced up and looked puzzled. He opened his mouth in objection.
"Give me your damn bow, now", Merosh repeated in a more insistent voice. What was he to react that dumb? The Archer finally handed him the bow.
That's it. He would have snatched the bow from his hand if he had drawn longer. Probably that's what Merosh should have done right away. He grabbed an arrow from the archer's quiver and drew the bow, aiming into the black sea. The bowstring was weakly tensioned for his standards, but that had to be enough for now.
He opened his flow of vision, trying to make out the black cloaks in the waves of the
undead. He was very good at distinguishing similar colours with the help of his vision, but there was probably a better way.
He infused his flow of vision with mana, enabling him to see magic and the aura of a person. And indeed, those of the necromancer were as clearly differentiated in colour from those of the undead as a signal light was from the darkness. Merosh did not need to improve his natural vision this way and could spare his eyes - this magic sight was enough.
He let off an arrow at one of these colour-contrasting spots. The first arrow seemed to miss because the colour remained unchanged. The second arrow shot let that colour
fade and with it a few dozen undead fell in its immediate radius.
While he barely noticed the trebuchet's projectiles, he could more than clearly perceive the summoned flickering flames in the sky - with his magic sight they were even brighter than with normal view. Both did their damage. The opposing towers exploded or shattered, providing the orchestra of battle din with new noises.
, a female voice sounded suddenly out of nowhere. Merosh took a quick glance to the side. A dreadlord holding an arrow but no bow, the tip enclosed in her hand and smiling at him. For a very brief moment he looked irritated. According to the emblem on her chest, she belonged to
House Virak.
"The only one ineffective seems to be you, standing uselessly around.", he responded, then he turned back to the battlefield. The woman laughed.
"Dumbass, I'm already helping you.", she answered. Merosh took a deep breath. He plucked the arrow from her hand and tapped the arrowhead under her chin.
"Watch your language for I won't hesitate to throw you down the wall.", he told her with a calm voice but warning undertone. At the same moment he noticed with his magic sight that the arrowhead was glowing. She seemed to have done something to it. The woman smiled, noticing his glance.
"Use it. Aim at the towers.", she advised him. Moving her lower jaw, the arrowhead cut into her skin, a drop of blood trickled down.
"The towers? With an arrow?", he asked unconvinced.
"Try it. You will see."
After Merosh himself could sense that the arrowhead was magically charged, he would give it a try. Letting go of the dreadlord he put on the arrow, aiming at one of the standing towers and releasing the bowstring. The moment the arrow hit, it triggered an explosion. The other dreadlord laughed and Merosh understood now. Seemed like that one dreadlord over here wasn't the only one who could cause explosions. He held out his hand.
"Quick, do more of them.", he advised her.
"With pleasure!", she answered, picking up the next arrows.
"Can't you blow away those towers just right away?", Merosh wondered.
"No, I do need direct contact first and time to charge.", she explained.
"How ineffective.", he teased her back for her words before. While she needed time to charge, he took other arrows to eliminate black coats in the meantime.
~
Something shook the walls. It was not the
dark magic that was shot against it, it did not come from the wall itself, but from the ground. Merosh turned around, only to see a ripping hole in the ground from which undead crawled. What? How could this happen now?
How many dreadlords were here that no one had noticed what was happening right under their feet. Merosh hissed a swear, but turned back to the towers. There were enough guards and dreadlords, they had to get along. He was more useful up here, shooting down necromancers and towers. But something else took shape in between.
At first it was not apparent what it was becoming, but the more it took shape the clearer it became. A
monster of rotten flesh and bones, pieces of corpses that grew unnaturally with it and made it huge.
"I'll give you an extra charged one for this, a regular explosion won't do it.", the Dreadlord besides him spoke.
"But hurry up.", he hissed. Merosh took a look around. Where was the other blast guy? Couldn't he at least fire an explosion at the monster? Looking for him he noticed someone else. A woman, rather still a girl, stood in a strange posture. With his mana infused flow of vision still up, he could see her magic. And what she did was familiar to him, similiar to his magnetism.
He had already considered toppling the towers away with his physical force, but they were outside his radius, too far away. Besides, it would have taken too much mana for too little result. Ineffective. He saved his energy for more useful actions.
The blast dreadlord guy beside the girl didn't acted, at least not with explosions. Only the girl and the trebuchet seemed to have any effect against the monster.
Merosh looked behind him. All the undeads now crawling out of various holes in the ground and wreaking havoc, it didn't looked like the guards and dreadlords had the situation under control. Merosh sighed. Were no one able to plug these damn holes? Was there not a single geomancer here? Just as he wondered, one of the holes collapsed and buried some of the crawling undead.
Finally.
"Hey, are you actually acting or just staring around all day?", the female Dreadlord beside him asked.
This time Merosh's eyes caught the person with that voice from before.
"Yes", he answered her in a calm, deep voice, whilst following the running dreadlord with his eyes.
"Now, I will really act.", he added. Merosh dropped the bow carelessly and jumped onto the railing.
"Hey!", he could hear the female protesting, but ignored her, as he took one step forward into free fall.
