ASV 100

The majority of the Tarthans are not ready to walk let alone charge, but when they hear Val’s command and see Hero following after her, they are not about to let him join the fight without them.

Hero told Fara before running off to stay back and watch over the Tarthans with Sloo, but there is nothing she can do against a bunch of men and women just as stubborn as he is.

Whether they are ready to walk or not, they charge forward.

The collapsed section of the wall allows the infantry to charge in with ease. Once inside, they secure the gate to raise it up and allow the rest of Val’s forces to come inside of the city.

As for the city’s defenders – well, they are either so confused from what is happening that they don’t realize they are under attack, are too shell-shocked to understand anything right now, or they throw up their arms and surrender as soon as they are faced by Val’s forces.

So far, so good.

There is only one true concern that Val has: the monsters that wiped out the first rebellion so many years ago.

The entire rebellion was channeled into the same section of the city, and then the king’s “pets” were let loose on them. Whoever the monsters didn’t kill were killed by elite spellcasters finishing them off from afar.

While the latter isn’t a concern due to there no longer being aether for them to manipulate into spells, the king’s monsters most likely are.

Little actual fighting is had within the city.

What fights there are end up only being small skirmishes mostly due to the city’s guards panicking, and when they realize that they are being overwhelmed, they toss aside their weapons and surrender.

Val leads her forces towards the center of the city. The king’s palace stands between where the three towers once were, so Val has no idea what to expect when she gets there given that the towers have completely collapsed.

The closer they get to the center, the more destruction there is.

Homes have been destroyed, there are a couple of fires beginning to rage, and there are thousands upon thousands of wounded.

The city is devastated.

As much as Val wants nothing more than to march onward to the king’s palace and capture him, her heart won’t allow her to do that when she sees wounded and crying children trapped beneath rubble.

“Stop fighting! Help the wounded and trapped!” she orders her followers.

Being a military can wait. For now, they need to help those who need it the most. Regardless of these people’s past sins, regardless of whether they deserve to be helped or not, the only fact that matters is that they need help right here and right now.

Hero was worried that the Val he had come to know was beginning to change, but when it comes down to it, she is the same as what he always heard about. She is a brave, valiant leader who cares about the people and helps them as much as she possibly can.

Hero began worrying when she seemed so intent on using his power for fighting, but she only wanted to because it would help her get to all of this – get to the helping. She never had any ill intent in using him and his now-gone powers. Ever since the beginning, she has only wanted to change the world to make it as peaceful and fair as possible.

As for the rest of the Tarthans, they have already gotten experience in helping out at Trist after that explosion, so they know what they have to do here.

That is, until one of the beasts kept as a “pet” of the king roars and rampages out into the city’s streets.

It is a roar that many Tarthans know, and one that Hero has not heard since his time as Alpha back in Rivadel.

A vsaski tears through the wall of a building as if it’s nothing.

This vsaski has sharp scales almost pitch black in color, several horns protruding backward from the top of its head, and is twice as large as the one Hero once faced. Furthermore, it does not look like it has been barely fed such as the one he fought.

This vsaski is not only the deadliest variant of its kind, but it is a grown adult, healthy, and enraged.

Its fangs are sharp and strong enough to tear through the paved roads of the city and burrow underground.

Wohran runs up to where Hero is, panting and out of breath.

There has been much running today for his short legs.

“Is it running? You don’t think that thing wants to fight, do you?” Wohran asks.

“Maybe. Not sure. Don’t think it would be going underground if it planned on fighting,” Hero says.

The Tarthans are all on alert as they watch the streets for any sign of the vsaski emerging.

Yet, there is nothing. It seems as if the vsaski has no interest in emerging and wreaking havoc as they feared it would.

Then again, why would it?

Hero realizes what it wants to do. It may be a ferocious, terrifying monster known to be one of the deadliest there is in Tartha, but it is still another living being. It wants freedom and to survive. This is likely its best chance at escaping. Furthermore, when it saw how many Tarthans there were, it probably realized it would not be able to win. It doesn’t know that they aren’t as strong as they used to be.

It is not just the slaves who deserve to be free, but the monsters and beasts trapped and forced into small cages for entertainment as well.

Hero doesn’t want to see any living thing forced into a life that it does not wish for itself.

“Should we track it, sir?” Rat asks.

“No,” Hero says.

They return to helping the wounded.

A short time later and a guard runs through the streets shouting the news.

“The king is dead!”

“The towers crushed his palace!”

“The king is dead!”

Everybody stops what they’re doing when they hear it.

What little skirmishes are still being fought within the city all end when the news reaches them.

Val looks back at Hero with a smile and a relieved expression.

She feared they were going to lose more lives today because of him rejecting his newfound powers, yet there is even less fighting and death than she expected there to be even if he did still have his powers.

Even when it comes to the destruction wrought by the collapse of the towers, many of the city’s citizens have miraculously survived. They are not unscathed, but they are alive.

Val, Hero, and some of her other followers head for the city’s center.

Just as the guard said, the king’s palace has been reduced to rubble.

The guards outside of it are injured and trying to help one another. They draw their weapons when they see Val and the others approach, but when she sheaths her sword, they do the same.

“We have no intention of fighting you. If the king is dead, you have no reason to fight,” Val tells them.

One of the guards speaks up. “I saw his body myself while crawling out from in there,” he says, pointing at the pile of rubble that used to be a grand palace.

“Hey, you’re… aren’t you that girl? That girl from back then who inspired the first rebellion?” another guard asks.

Val nods her head and approaches him. “My name is Valaira Trist, and I was once a slave of this city. My voice is the one that inspired the rebellion, and now I wish to use my voice to ask you all to join us in changing this world. Rather than fight us, help us – help your city. Most of my followers are already working to dig your people out from the destruction. Won’t you join us and, rather than oppress your citizens, save them?” she offers.

A few of the guards look disgusted at the thought of helping those they consider lesser than them, but most look inspired. Their king is dead and the one who stands before them is a woman who has become a legend to the city’s lower class.

Dozens of the city’s guards kneel down and bow their heads to her.

“Please, do not treat me so formally. Treat me as you would a friend,” Val says.

“If that is what you wish, Lady Trist,” one of the guards says.

“Just Val is fine. Like I said, as a friend. Save the formalities for special events. Now,” she extends a hand outward. “Won’t you help me change this world?”

The guard accepts her hand.

“I’ve got a feelin’ she’s going to be taking all of the credit,” Rat says, popping up next to Hero.

“That’s okay. I don’t like attention, and she is important,” Hero says, watching how Val manages to inspire her once-enemies.

“This is your first siege, ain’t it, sir?”

Hero nods.

“It’s pretty different from the ones me and the others are used to, but I can’t say it ain’t a nice change of pace. Wait,”

Rat runs towards Val.

Val stops in her tracks when she sees Rat charging at her. Before she has a chance to ask what he’s doing, he leaps and pins down a man behind her with a dagger in his hand.

“Screw you! I ain’t serving no bitch ex-slave!” the guard shouts. He’s one of the few who looked disgusted when Val first spoke of them helping the city.

Rat looks up at Val. “What do you want me to do with him? Kill him?” he asks.

Val shakes her head. “Thank you, but just restrain him. This is not a world where we kill for one’s mistakes. Everybody deserves another chance,” she says, staring into her would-be-killer’s eyes as she talks.

The shame in his expression is obvious to all.

Any others who were thinking of doing the same reconsider their desires.