Chapter 194 - The Colours of War

With the fall of the Tree of Damnation, everyone that remained in the academy courtyard was on their feet. They watched as Hump stepped out of the main building alongside Marcela and the others, a mixture of fear and awe on their face.

Marcela gave them the same speech.

“If we remain here and do nothing, our homes, our families, and our own lives will be forfeit,” Marcela said. “The carriageway is destroyed. The Pilgrims Steps are blockaded. There is no way out of the Upper City. Our only choice is to fight. We have a chance to change the flow of the battle, and I will not miss it.”

It was nothing fancy, but it was to the point. Hump could see that fear on the faces around him turn to reluctant acceptance. These were not your ordinary adventurers. They were nobles and Chosen, supposedly the best of the best, and they would defend their homes.

Marcela had organised them based on specialisations rather than parties, though Hump and Corvin’s parties were the two exceptions. Their mission was different. Their goal was not to join the battle, but to circle around during the distraction.

Marcela approached them separately. “Stay with us until you find an opportunity to leave. Corvin, you take your party with him. He’ll need your help.”

Corvin frowned at that. “I don’t understand. I should be on the battlefield with you.”

“This is all a distraction,” Marcela said. “If that tree remains, nothing we do will matter. It must be destroyed.”

Corvin’s frown only deepened. He let out a long sight and turned to Hump. “I take it there’s more to this plan than strong words? In case you didn’t notice, that’s a bloody big tree.”

“An item from the Daston vault that will grant the wielder the power of a gold ranker for an attack,” Hump said. “All you need to do is get me to the tree. I’ll take care of the rest… Theoretically.”

“Theoretically?”

Hump cringed and held up a hand, his fingers crossed. “I’ve never destroyed a Tree of Damantion before.”

“Right, of course you haven’t.” He looked at Marcela. “Are you sure about this? Maybe you should be the one to do it?”

“We discussed it,” she said. “I believe Hump and Bud to have the powers most suitable for its destruction. That’s another reason for you to go. The fires of Ordana will be effective too. If there was another way, I’d suggest it. When the moment comes, leave. Don’t say a word to anyone.”

“Understood,” Corvin said. “We’ll burn down that damn tree.”

As Marcela left, Corvin turned back to him. “So, how are we going to burn that tree down really?”

Hump snorted. “Like she said, we sneak around the back and stick them where they aren’t looking. With two armies of fighting to contend with, a containment field trapping them, and the shrine being their goal, who’s going to be looking for a handful of bronze rankers scuffling around the streets?”

“Probably some warlocks, if you’re seriously asking. And some monsters too.”

“We can handle them,” Bud said. “That was my blessing earlier. Our path is laid out for us, we just need to follow it.”

“That was you, was it? At least that’s one good sign. Well, I’ll follow your lead, Hump.”

Hump didn’t escape the irony that if any of them were going to lead them along some divine path, it probably wasn’t going to be him. Now didn’t seem the right time to mention it though.

“Right, I’m going to go say a few words to Arthur,” Bud said, gesturing toward his cousin.

“You sure?” Hump asked.

Bud nodded. “We may have our issues, but he’s still blood. I’ll be back in a few. Besides, you’ve got a visitor anyway.”

Hump frowned, and Bud toward a point behind him. Hump turned to see Luna approaching, a smile on her face amongst dirt and smeared blood.

“Good to see you,” she said. “How are you?”

“Good,” Hump said on instinct, then realised how stupid that sounded. “Well, managing. How about you? You look…” he trailed off, not sure what to say. Her face was weary, her hands were stained with dried blood. She’d tried to wash it off, but he spotted it in the creases of her hands and her nails. All in all, she looked exhausted.

“It’s been difficult. There were many wounded, and we’ve been doing all we can. It’s a relief that Lady Marcela is here now, but I fear what will come of those still with us.” Her gaze shifted to the battle nearby. “It’s hard to believe this is happening, even as I see it with my own eyes.”

“Yeah, it is.”

He felt the same way. A place like Sheercliff City had seemed untouchable. With silver rankers to protect it, and hundreds of years of experience defending its borders, it seemed impossible. But even ancient cities could be chipped away at. First, the refugees, then the food shortages, the fear mongering and the murder, and now, the warlocks were striking while they were weak.

“Well, I just wanted to catch you before we departed to say good luck and stay safe. I know it doesn’t mean much to you, but may the gods be with you today.”

Hump smiled truly at that. “It means a lot coming from you. When all this is over, I still want to have that date.”

She laughed softly. “I’d like that.”

There wasn’t much more to say after that. He watched her go with a heavy heart as she returned to the wounded. If the gods were truly watching today, they better pay extra attention to her. She was one of the good ones.

“That was cute,” Celaine said.

Hump glared at her, only for Emilia to laugh.

“It was,” she said. “You two are a good match.”

“It’s always heart-warming to see a devoted Chosen priestess and a blaspheming heathen,” Dylan said.

“Oh shut up,” Hump snapped. “We’re about to head off on what could very well get us killed. Can’t you spare me just this once?”

Dylan gripped Hump’s shoulder and sighed dramatically. “That’s exactly why we can’t. This may be our last chance.”

“Brilliant.”

Bud re-joined them then. “Last chance for what?”

“Making fun of Hump,” Celaine said.

“Oh! Did anyone mention how short he is yet?”

Hump narrowed his eyes. “No they did not you giant buffoon.” He sighed. “How’d it go with Arthur?”

Bud smiled slightly. “Good enough. I’m glad I went.”

Hump nodded. “Then unless anyone else has anything to say, we should join everyone else.”

***

Hump marched through the streets of the Upper City alongside more than one hundred adventurers ready to join the ongoing battle. One hundred adventurers with the courage to fight where even silver rankers might die. It was an impressive force to say the least. In the end, roughly forty bronze rankers, sixty iron, and a few dozen unranked students made up their small army. Perhaps separated, they would not come to much, but together they were a hammer that might be all it takes to break the warlocks.

Their feet thudded on the white paved streets like the sound of drums. Orders ran down the line, keeping them together, scouts directing their path away from packs of monsters or warning them of upcoming skirmishes. With every passing second the battle grew louder. An angry chorus of shouts and cries, and the echoing of steel and powers. Essence streamed outward from within the field of containment established by Countess Daston’s force, surging through the streets.

It stirred something in Hump, and he felt it in those around him too. An energy amongst them. Hump blamed the Chosen. They were feverish in their desire to hunt down the heretics that dared to harm their city, and they believed they had the gods on their side. Not that Hump wasn’t caught up in it a little himself. His heart hammered, fear welled in his stomach, but a thrill ran through them, caught up in the same excitement that surrounded him. This was a legend in the making. The saving charge of Sheercliff’s next generation. Somehow, Hump found himself a part of it.

They encountered another group of the goblin-like, corrupted by the parasitic plants. They were stranded outside the containment field and seemed to have lost direction, though turned to face them as Hump and the others approached.

Hump felt the blessings of Marcela’s force rise around him, auras of enhancement boosting his own strength and essence capabilities, rejuvenating his stamina, and bolstering his will. The effects built on each other, surrounding them in a cloud of different coloured blessings that misted away from them like a rolling fog.

The goblin creatures tried to charge, but they were torn apart in an instant, demolished before the might of blessings. Their corpses lay scattered on the ground, and they continued past them.

“When the fighting starts, we don’t fight,” Hump said. “Once the opportunity comes, we make a break for it and skirt around the containment field together. Celaine, you find us a path.”

“Will do,” Celaine said.

“Take Patrick with you,” Corvin said. “He knows Sheercliff better, and of all of us, he can keep up, and you shouldn’t be on your own out there.”

The rogue nodded. “I can keep up.”

Hump’s palms were really sweating now. They approached the containment field, a blue ring along the ground radiating streams of fiery essence into the air, forming a strange wispy barrier. Whatever it was, it was stopping the devastation within from getting out, so Hump liked it. And it was devastation. They’d arrived from the west side, on the right flank of Countess Daston’s force and the furthest point from the Tree of Damnation.

The battle took place on the edge of the Temple District. Buildings were blasted apart, entire sections levelled, leaving the streets covered in rubble. People fought on heaps of stone or wielded it as ammunition to launch into their foes.

Toward the edge of the cliff, Countess Daston was making her stand. She stood atop the Shrine of Osidium, the doors sealed shut behind her. With her, Roderick, Ricard, Vivienne, and many more of Sheercliff’s finest fought alongside her. Others lay dead on the ground around her, their tattered remains blood-soaked and burnt.

Hump’s stomach heaved at the sight of the Sheercliff army. Hundreds of fighters were trying to collect themselves and hold formation on either side of Countess Daston, while monsters poured in toward them, and the constant barrage of warlock magic assaulted them. And it wasn’t just warlocks—Hump recognised thugs like those they’d encountered in the alleys. He saw warlocks contorted by their monstrous side, turned more man than beast, throwing themselves into the line of Chosen and martials with no regard for their own life.

Hump fought to block out the nightmare. He tried to ignore the screams and the death—the smell of blood and burning and noxious poisons. Instead, he searched for their moment to break away. They were too close to the battlefield now. Once they entered the containment field, they’d lose their chance to break away, and there was no easy path through all the rubble. Not to mention, they’d be trying to run through the middle of a battle.

Orders came out across the line as they approached, and Hump spotted the last main street ahead, just past the carriageway and heading to the rear side of the Temple District.

“It’s time for us to go,” Hump said. “We’ll take the right street ahead, and circle around through the streets along the back of the cliff.”

Hump didn’t wait for anyone’s approval. He took the leading, moving with as much resolution as he could muster. He didn’t have to feel confident, he just had to look it, and if there was one thing he could do, it was bullshitting his way through situations he’d rather not be in.

Celaine and Patrick overtook him quickly, but Hump liked to think they got the message. They took a left soon after, moving onto another large street with the edge of the containment field cutting off the left side of it. From there, Hump got another glimpse of the battle through the wreckage of a building.

Marcela’s force had formed ranks along the outside of the containment field. He was familiar with the setup—one that would best make use of their specialities, each led by a member of Marcela’s party. Five core groups with their own roles to play. The warlocks still weren’t arranged to fight them, though Hump could see them trying to form groups to counter the new force. It was too late though.

Marcela formed a line of melee combatants along the edge of the field of containment, aura uses spaced out between them. The cloud of blessings was so thick now, it coated them all in essence, a mixture of buffing and healing powers boosting the entire force. As ready as they would ever be, Marcela stepped forward, crossing the threshold and entering the battlefield. Behind her, the rest of them followed.

Nina led the unit of ranged bombardment—area of effect blessings and spells that swept through a mass of monsters swarming on Countess Daston’s far flank. Beside them, Teff’s unit of single target ranged fighters coordinated their attacks on large monsters and warlocks, a stream of powerful arrows and magics homing in on more powerful individuals, obliterating them before they even had a chance to defend.

It didn’t take long for the warlocks to get their bearings, directing the strange, corrupted monsters in their direction, battalions of thugs and warlocks mixed in amongst them, and counter attacking with their own magic. Len and his group raised their defences, barriers and spellbreakers fighting back against the incoming spells. Explosions of light and power shot across the sky, impacting barriers and the edge of the containment field, or broken by other attacks.

As the warlock force closed in, Varris and other controllers created a line of impassable terrain just ahead of them, disrupting the monster charge before Marcela led her own warriors forward. The fight had truly begun.

Hump tore his gaze away. Far ahead of him, towering over the buildings that now obscured his view of the battle, the Tree of Damnation loomed. They were coming for it.