"You cowards!" The humans near the gate scream up at us from below. I laugh at the weak insults they throw at me in particular, and gesture for the archers to shoot at them.

The captive Fata is hanging naked from the gatehouse in an intricate rope tie that emphasizes her helplessness. She's placed right in front of the gates, so the humans can't use their ram without cutting her loose first. But a cauldron of boiling oil is placed right above her, signaling them that if they try to get closer, she'll turn into fried chicken.

"An ingenious use of a hostage." Rhosk praises me while looking down over the battlements with a thoughtful scratch of his chin. "This will keep them away for a while."

The ladders are being pushed off the walls or burned by bakari flames. At one point, Korenga was feeling so bored that she lifted one of those ladders into the air and threw it across the battlefield. That's when we first noticed the invisible barrier that had been erected in front of the enemy catapults, which have finished calibrating and are now being loaded.

"We have to do something about that." Chandra's expression is grim as she points at the enemy artillery about to rain rocks on us.

"It's alright. If they're allowed to use shields, so are we." I say and turn to Exla. She's been quiet all this time, trying to figure out how to cheat the system so that she gets back her absolute rights within the Imagination Engine. "Can you do that for me?"

"Oh, alright." Shaken from her thoughts, the cloud girl blinks her eyes. Then she tilts her head a bit before looking up at me with a questioning gaze.

"Shield the battlements from any incoming rocks, but leave holes for our own catapults." She wasn't listening, so I specify what I want from her again. It seems getting her full powers stripped was quite a shock for her.

"Ah, right." Exla nods with an embarrassed expression and raises a hand. Nothing happens, so I turn to look at her. "Oh, you wanted it visible?"

As if to prove her point, the first volley of catapult projectiles bounces off an invisible barrier covering the top of the walls, then rains down on the human army in a deadly rain. Even from here, I can see that the siege engineers are gesturing wildly to cancel the next wave. For the time being, they've been rendered useless.

I pet Exla's fluffy hair and give her a wordless smile of gratitude. With this, the defenders on the walls have some breathing room now.

The battle slowly grinds to a halt as the humans start to realize the futility of their ladder-based assault without artillery or even arrow support. With any and all projectiles bouncing off Exla's barrier, they don't have any means to harm the defenders without getting up here first. And the Fata bound in front of the gate dissuades an attack from that pathway.

"How is it looking?" I turn to Chandra, who's overseeing her troops preparing for a foray on the other side of the wall. There are secret passageways that lead through the mountains on both sides, which will allow them to stage a flanking maneuver, much like the one they made earlier. As the enemy troops are growing tired, they'll be able to take them off guard again.

"We didn't lose many, but a lot are wounded, so we can only field half the numbers from before." She replies with a frown. Not like we could ever match the humans in numbers, but having fewer than ten thousand to make a foray into the still nearly a million-strong army outside will be hard.

Then again, because of mountains, there aren't actually a million stacked up together, and many are still waiting in their fortified camp. They have the numbers to grind us down over time by swapping out the wounded and tired with fresh troops that are still resting. We, on the other hand, have too few numbers to employ the same strategy and have to use almost everybody to defend the wall.

"[Korenga, go with Chandra.]" This is the moment for the Black God to shine. Before, the marshal's division had been waiting in ambush throughout the night, not knowing when the humans would attack, so Korenga had to be left behind. This time, it's going to take place today, meaning that she can participate this time.

"[Finally some action!]" Swinging her arms as if warming herself up, she comes over with an excited expression. I hope the enemies didn't see it because they'll know something's up.

"[Make sure to stay with her. I'm not worried that the humans or their mages can do something to you, but Zenlith is over there. He's not someone you can beat with muscles alone.]" Maybe right now he can be, but I doubt he'll care about the rules if his life is in danger. And at that time, Korenga will get disintegrated just like Tahiri and I were. Only that I don't think she can return from that.

"[Can't make any promises. You'll have to come and get me if I go out of control.]" Delivering a slap to my back that would break a normal human's spine, she states with a laugh. I know that she can't think straight while in Black God mode, and will attack those she perceives as enemies until they're all taken out. A tactical retreat is not in her repertoire.

If the enemies were all humans, she would eventually be able to defeat them all on her own. Especially since they lack somebody like Rapania, who was working with Mataku and knew how to make Korenga believe that she couldn't use her powers by wrapping her in some painted cloth. But they still have Zenlith, who is sure to abuse his powers to shut her down if things don't go the way he wants them to.

"Give us a signal when you're ready. We'll distract them here with a feint so that you can get their exposed flank again." With these words, I send Chandra and Korenga off. The contingent this time is missing most of the regular cavalry, as they can't force nightmares through the tunnels. The horses with the burning eyes and manes may appear to be demonic, but only possess more powerful bodies than their regular counterparts. They still get spooked almost as easily as the ones humans ride.

"Is this it?" Hestia looks across the battlefield, where the humans have slowed down their assault on the walls. We've entered a stalemate, so it's easy to believe that we're at an advantage. But the Argos demon has calculated that we have killed maybe a hundred thousand by now, most of which were in Chandra's earlier charge.

It seems that the humans are brewing up something, as they don't fully commit to scaling the walls. With the Fata bound in front of the gate, they also don't dare to attack from that angle, but I thought it would only serve as a short-term solution. It's been a while now, and they still haven't attempted to cut her loose even if they'd risk losing her.

"Don't say that, Hestia. I'm sure they will come at us with something new very soon." Knowing Zenlith, he will be doing this like in a movie, using different methods one after the other instead of all at the same time. I'm sure it looks more cinematic that way.

"They will break themselves on these walls." Rhosk is oddly optimistic even though the enemies still have the overwhelming numerical advantage, which won't go away anytime soon as long as we can't land a decisive strike.

I focus my eyes on the elevated platform from which the enemy military staff is directing the battle. They look perfectly relaxed as if all this lies within their calculations. Then I notice that a dwarf craftsman has climbed up and is talking to them about something. The furnaces are still active, but it doesn't mean that whatever they were doing hasn't born some fruit already.

But what could they be cooking up that would give them even more of an advantage at this point? Then again, maybe they don't see their position as an advantageous one, considering we're up here and they're still down there.

From the camp behind the swarming army, a squad of giants comes forward. They aren't the type of unkempt mountain people with pot bellies and warty faces I know from fantasy, but human-looking men and women clad in armor that appears to be crafted from dragon carapace or the scales of some other reptilian animal. If it's the former, they'll be formidable.

Their leader seems to be a young woman wielding a massive hammer with a pointed end. It looks like something you use to smash in a wall during house alterations, and its target is fairly obvious. But that can't be what the dwarf came to report, as it doesn't look like any of their equipment was crafted by them.

I don't think we have anything to oppose giants with. There are some gigantic demons, but most are rare individuals that don't try to live among the more common races. Currently, there's not a single one of them enlisted in the Dominion's army, so we can only try to keep them away using our arrows.

But looking at their full plate armor, I really don't see how we can do that. The catapults could be the only thing that can harm them, but their speed is slow, and the projectiles can be evaded quite easily unless those giants are incredibly cumbersome.

Suddenly, an explosion in the fortress shakes the earth, and I spin my head around. One of the barracks buildings has been cracked open by something, and I look down to see a black metal ball lying in the debris. How did nobody see this coming? Was it made invisible by the Mirage Knight again?

That's when another ball impacts the building next to it, breaking through the ceiling and landing in the room below. Even from here, I can see that a demon's broken limbs are sticking out from underneath it, crushed by the projectile.

I look in the direction of the human army once again, but it doesn't look like the catapults did this. Then I find that there's movement behind the line of giants. Recreating a simple spyglass inside my eyes, I zoom in to see that two giants are spinning around their own axis with their hand holding something invisible resting against their right chin. They're doing shot put with those iron balls turned invisible!

"Exla, extend the barrier up!" I shout, but two more iron balls already land behind the wall. One of them shatters a catapult while another crashes right into a pile of weapons, scattering them as deadly shrapnel. Those aren't even the ones the giants were winding up, so I watch as they finish their movements to throw two more.

A few seconds later, something invisible hits Exla's barrier and slides down on it right into the enemy ranks below the wall. It seems that the invisibility only wears off when the projectile becomes hidden from view - meaning that Folke is out there using his power.

But another ball appears in midair above another building, apparently having traveled over even the extended barrier. While they don't cause too much damage on their own, they do have a psychological effect on the troops, who now have to fear giant iron balls raining down on their heads.

However, the bombardment stops, and only the screams of demons calling for help to find those lost under the rubble can be heard. Then, the first iron ball to land suddenly loses its form and opens up like a flower, revealing cloth padding, which is pried open from within as a naked man emerges.

"Out of the way!" Dregana suddenly roars while charging toward us. The demons standing ready on the road quickly dive sideways to avoid getting crushed by her massive paws. Even though she doesn't have much of an expression, something tells me that she's frantic. "Dragonkin!"

Right when she says that, the realization hits me and time seems to slow down as I turn my head toward the man who emerged from the opened iron ball. His face breaks out into a grin, doubtlessly having heard Dregana's voice boom across the area. Then, an explosion of fire spreads out with him at the epicenter, followed by four more - each coming from where the others landed.

The shockwave blows away the demons who have come to investigate, and from within the pillars of flames, five wingless dragons emerge. They immediately begin their rampage and charge through the ranks of the defenders like runaway trains. Two of them turn toward Dregana to stop her so that the other three can do whatever work they were sent here to do.

Hestia summons an array of black spirit spears and shoots them at the dragonkin closest to us. He's able to avoid them all by lunging behind a building, then peeks out to breathe a stream of flames in our direction. I create a shield around those in my vicinity just in time, but it causes the fire to spread sideways across the ramparts. Many demons are burned to cinders within moments.

"We're exposed here!" Rhosk, who was lucky to have been right next to me, roars while moving to order the defenders on the wall to seek shelter.

"No, the enemy soldiers will climb up here if you don't stand your ground!" I hold him back and point at the humans on the other side, who have begun to move again. "I'll take care of this, so stay here!"

I can't keep relying on Exla in her weakened state; she has to stay here to keep the barrier up, which leaves only Hestia and me to fight the dragonkin. Luckily, this is all behind the wall, so I can fight without Zenlith seeing me. I might be just deluding myself into thinking that he doesn't have some way to watch me even from a distance, but it should be fine as long as I'm not too flashy.

Maybe I should have asked him for more definite guidelines regarding what constitutes as fighting in his eyes, but it's too late now.

"Keep an eye on the Fata." I order the demons at the cauldron of boiling oil. I'm sure that the humans will take this confusion up here to free her. It would hurt to lose the deterrent that she represents - if not on a strategic level, then at least on a psychological one.

Running toward the dragonkin that just spewed flames at us, I leap off the battlements and transform myself. Along the way to Erbilan, with Dregana strapped into one of my seats, I stole a little of her genetic material so that I have the bulkier dragon form that she has. After all, maybe Zenlith can track my usage of the Imagination Engine and take that as me breaking his condition, but my transformation ability comes from outside the system.

The enemy, preoccupied with breathing flames through the streets to burn away incoming demon soldiers, doesn't notice until I'm right above him. His eyes widen in surprise before I crash right onto him while snapping at his neck with my powerful jaws. He's able to narrowly avoid it and turns around to do the same, but I slam a paw in his face and push him right through the building he was hiding behind.

But a dragonkin's armor has pretty much the same properties as a fully-fledged dragon's. The only difference is that the latter can fly and breathe plasma instead of fire - or at least the one I met was like that, and there might be different types. If I use plasma here, I could accidentally burn the entire fortress down, so I have to fight him physically.

The dragonkin bursts out of the rubble and charges at me, but I narrowly dodge him before sinking my teeth into the back of his long neck. He struggles to get free, but I lock my jaws and bite right through his spine. A shiver runs through his body, and his arms and legs twitch uncontrollably before going limp.

Letting go, I stomp on his body to make sure he's dead before turning to my next target. When I think about it, I should have just increased my mass to the maximum to crush him when I first dropped on top of him. No use thinking about what should have been; I have to concentrate on taking the remaining enemies behind the gates out.

I hear Dregana's roar and peek over the buildings to see that one of her opponents has mounted her and is biting her armored neck to no avail, while the other one's head is being held down by her front paw. I think she should be able to handle herself as her body is sturdier than that of the regular dragonkin, so I concentrate on the one going for our catapults.

Undoing my transformation, I fly across the building in my way and turn into a certain bipedal lizard in midair before I land on the street on the other side. The impact tremor alerts the enemy to my approach, and he turns around for a quick peek before rushing to get his job done. I'm sure they weren't sent here to take important members of the military staff out but to cause as much damage to our long-range attack capabilities as they can. It was a suicide attack from the start, and this one knows his priorities.

Running as quickly as I can, I bridge the gap between us in a matter of a few steps. However, that was enough for him to breathe a stream of fire that washes across the catapults like a wave, setting the wood on fire, and burning the crews that were too late to get away. Before he can take a breath to finish off the remaining catapults, I bite his shoulder and drag his entire body backward, causing his head to be pulled up and his breath to be fired into the air instead.

When he's done, I throw him down, then grab hold of his upper and lower jaw with my claws, and fire a plasma breath out of my mouth right into his. His neck melts from the heat, and I hold his severed head in my hands as his body twitches in its death throes.

At the same time, it seems that Dregana has successfully taken down one of her opponents by caving in his chest with her paw. The other one that was hanging onto her neck lets go and takes his distance to assess the situation. Out of the five dragonkin, only two are left now.

The one remaining on my side has climbed the wall a distance away and is using his fire breath to clear the battlements of defenders so that the humans can climb up. But that's when a volley of black spirit spears flies at him from the side, one piercing his shoulder, another grazing his left eye, and one more going straight through his right elbow. With the forearm dangling down uselessly, the dragonkin takes one more breath to do as much damage as he can before falling.

That's when I shoot a spirit spear right into the side of his chest, causing the flames to erupt from there instead of his mouth. The explosion rocks his body and sends it over the battlements, hopefully falling on as many humans as possible and crushing them underneath his giant frame.

"My Queen, the captured Fata has disappeared!" Rhosk calls out to me, and I spin my head around to stare at him.

"What do you mean, disappeared?" I roar, noticing that at my current size, my voice is thunderous and aggressive. I didn't mean to sound so angry. "Somebody cut her loose?"

"No, from one moment to the next, she was gone!" The Erbilan commander explains, and I instantly know what happened. Folke must have turned her invisible and then somebody else invisible cut her out of the ropes while Rhosk turned around to report to me instead of ordering the cauldron to be tipped over. By now, our valuable hostage must be gone already.

"Dammit!" I turn around to see how Dregana is doing, but Hestia flies past me.

"Leave this to me." She says and points at the walls. "The giants are coming."

I put my trust in her to help Dregana out, so I run toward the wall and scale it in one leap, during which I turn back into my regular human-sized self. Looking across the battlefield, I count seventeen giants walking toward us while the sea of humans parts for them. The one at the very front is the woman wielding the hammer, and she's making a straight line for the gate from which the deterrent has been removed.

It's just one thing after another.