Chapter 17: Similar Malice 1

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“Archers, take up cover positions! Infantry, crowd around the chokepoints with pikes out! Mages! Cast your support magic! Those with fire attributes begin casting flares past the walls!”

Various lesser commanders began ordering the karkan troops into position. A horn from a lookout was blasted thrice before a spear pierced his head from an unknown assailant.

“They are attacking already?! All of you, TO ARMS!” Inside the main portion of the firehouse, Musala Kasamir ordered his karkan subordinate commanders to the outside and lead the troops. “This damn Rainier… I didn’t think he would be this audacious.”

The time was two in the morning. Musala feared a night attack above all else. The karkans, in an effort to establish the ruined Vectoir into a colony city, were constantly wasting their stamina on various restoration projects and patrols on the wilderness surrounding the city. Thus many of the karkans needed a good night’s rest in order to be at top shape for the daytime.

Despite being recently awoken, the karkans rapidly sallied themselves and zealous fervor shook their senses. It was as if none of the sparsely scaled humanoids had any fatigue remaining.

“Gwaaaaagh!”

Musala heard several explosions sound off outside of the firehouse entrance, with his modified AK-12 equipped. When he arrived at the entrance, dust clouds billowing about. “What in the…” Then Musala noticed the bodies.

Seven bodies owned by the karkan military leadership lay strewn across the ruined portion of the city before him. Three were draped over arches with lifeless expressions, another was burnt to a crisp inside his own scales, two more were literally halfway into the ground as if they phased through. The most horrific death belonged to a karkan diced into many different sections, not even his limbs were whole.

“…Damn it.” Musala hissed under his breath. It seemed he had to take command of the karkan defenders himself. At least there were still the lower ranked officers around. “You four!” Musala pointed at four karkan soldiers with inflamed eyes. “Ignore the bodies and guard the firehouse!”

“What about the enemy!” The karkans were four youths who proved themselves in a team competition were allowed entry to be some of the first conquerors of the new karkan dominion atop the plateau. All of them wished to face the enemy directly, not to be forced to guard a location in the opposite direction.

“ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE! This is necessary for your race’s continued survival. If whoever placed these magic mines douse the firehouse, do you know what will happen?!” Musala knew that the firehouse was probably the most important building in any city.

Firehouses had several functions. The most obvious one is to act as a lighthouse for lost travelers. The second is to ward off monsters and beings that pose a threat to the city. Of course extremely powerful entities could easily bypass this system. The third is to serve as, for some, a place of worship for religious persons and fire attributed mages. The fourth is to act as reassurance for whoever lives in the city that they city has yet to fall, essentially this function boosted the morale of the soldiers defending whichever city it was in by a great deal.

The karkan youths realized their immaturity as they all looked at each other and back to their hero. ““““YES SIR!”””” All four of them shouted their confirmation before running past the gory corpses and up the stairs of the firehouse.

After the karkan youths sprinted past him, Musala himself began his solitary job towards the defensive line. Vectoir’s defenses were lacking in nearly every aspect. There were several gaping holes in the city walls were platoons of enemy forces could squeeze through. The crenellations on the top of the walls underwent a transformation from a defense addition into worthless defects on the walls. Sandbags were placed concentrically in front of the archer and mage formations.

Musala himself made his way up to the highest point of a tower where two mages he recognized were casting flare spells into the sky beyond Vectoir’s main walls. A third karkan followed Musala up with handaxes at the ready.

Turning to the karkan who followed him, Musala frowned. “Give me the run down on the enemy. Give me their race, estimated numbers, weapon composition… And most importantly identified officers.”

The karkan immediately responded. “The enemy is comprised of entirely arachnacosa with an extremely small handful of them to be humanoids resembling humans. Numbers of the enemy forces are impossible to determine, the majority of them are still hidden in the forested sectors. So far, we see mainly the traditional arachnacosa weaponry with at least fifteen percent to be ranged support and three percent of them to be magic casters.”

Although he said three percent of them were magic casters, this only meant those who completely specialized in magic. Those who fought in melee combat could obviously use spells if they cultivated their soul force and magical ability appropriately.

“And any officers?”

“One over there. You should be able to identify any arachnacosa officers by their polished armor. It’s clearly of higher quality than the basic troops. I would also be suspicious of the humanoids. The way they are standing in the distance seems… Imposing. At least compared to the main arachnacosa force.

Musala stared at the collection of humanoids pointed out by his subordinate. Unfortunately they were too far away at the moment, so he would have to do with one of the arachnacosa officers.

“Right then, I will take the first shot.” Musala licked his lips as he knelt by the crumbling parapet on the tower. He pulled his rifle into place and peered through the enhanced scope, taking aim. “Hm, over there… No good, I’ll probably hit an underling. To the left… Perfect.”

A single loud crack pierced the heavens. From Musala’s rifle came a bullet that shot faster than any arrow or magical projectile could and near instantly punctured the skull of the arachnacosa he took aim at. The half spider half human creature’s head bent back unnaturally before slumping down.

The three karkans on top of the tower stared wide eyed at their hero and commander. Rumors of Musala Kasamir’s bizarre weapon ran rampant around the remaining portions of the karkan race. Rudimentary rifles existed in Ademptis, but they were merely experimental mockups created by the more inventive races like the dvergar. At least, that was what Musala had found out when reading a text found near the patrol route of that giant metal golem.

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The arachnacosa didn’t even pay attention to their officer whose skull shattered before slumping down like a marionette with its strings cut. Their lust for battle completely drowned out their senses.

Rainier, who did see the rifle being fired off thanks to his extra sensitive perception, frowned. “That… I recognize that sound.”

“Lord, that arachnacosa was slain instantaneously. While there are many things that can kill with one shot, I have never seen a death quite like that.” Falth followed the sound where the bullet was fired off. “It seemed that this… Whatever it is, originated from that tower right behind the city walls.”

“Don’t worry about it Falth. I’m not certain, but I think that could be a weapon from my world. If it is, the weapon’s probably in Musala Kasamir’s hands.” Still, to Rainier, this possibly dangerous weapon could be a nuisance. He himself could be easily taken down.

‘Ganel, I order you to have someone to immediately incapacitate, kill, or disarm Musala Kasamir. Preferably keep him alive, if you cannot, then don’t worry and kill him.’ Rainier had used the mental connection he shared with the dhampirs to give Ganel an order. One of the things Rainier had tested was the range his mental link had. Much to Rainier’s benefit, the link could extend up to around two kilometers in range.

“Ganel will have someone take care of Musala shortly unless something unexpected happens.” Rainier informed Falth of the telepathic order he sent just now.

Rainier then turned around to look over the gathered forces. “Sharok, are the arachs ready to fight?” Although he could clearly see the near tangible bloodlust in the air, Rainier questioned the arachnacosa general anyways.

“Give us the order already! My axes thirst for their organs!” Sharok shouted crazily in the air, his heart and arteries throbbing madly.

Rainier smiled. He shot the karkans in the distance a vicious grin. “Then… COMMENCE THE ATTACK!”

The arachnacosa shouting died down for only a moment. Every single one of the arachnacosa from the back to the front row listened to Rainier’s enthusiastic cry. Starting with one of the demi-humans which multiplied exponentially, all of the arachnacosa raised their arms holding their weapons towards the night sky. Rough and violent cries threatened to throttle the planetary bodies surrounding Ademptis in space.

“KILL!” “EAT THEM ALL!” “NO MERCY!” “BLOOOOD!” There were no taunting or demeaning words in the shouting. The arachnacosa bellowed purely to satiate their natural instincts for death to their enemy.

The sheer ferocity in the arachnacosa’s fervent cries echoed loudly throughout the area. Rainier compared the loud shrieking from the arachnacosa to excessively fanatical fans inside a stadium for a sports game or a wrestling match.

Sharok scuttled past Rainier’s party and drew a throwing axe. He pulled his arm back and the muscles in his arm seemed to pulse as if being injected with hyperactive steroids. “ARACHS! MY PEOPLE! CHARGE AND SLAUGHTER!” After declaring his orders, Sharok threw the throwing axe as hard as he possibly could.

The axe seemed to glow a blackened red, Rainier noticed that some sort of magic was applied to the weapon. Whether that magic came from Sharok or an arachnacosa mage, Rainier didn’t care. What he did care about was the explosion that followed when the axe somehow traveled the great distance between Sharok and Vectoir.

Sharok sped forth with wave after wave of arachnacosa soldiers following him to charge at the karkan defenders.

“One must admire the ability to disregard one’s life.” Observed Nera calmly. “Such absurd folly.” Nera of course regarded the arachnacosa as lesser beings and looked down upon the mindless charging.

“I will ignore that outright insult to my race due to your position towards my….” Kosok Kre hesitated for a moment while he thought of a word to call Rainier. “Liege. The arachs have never visited the battlefield in force for over a century thus military doctrine is not our strong suit.”

Rainier raised an eyebrow to the large words Kosok Kre used. “Kosok Kre’s right, Nera. Still, that is why I am here.”

“Huh?” Nera wasn’t privy to Rainier’s mind, so she could only imagine what he had in store.

“Falth! Are the Ladia ready?” Asked Rainier while turning to the trusted elder of the dhampir family.

“Ready and thirsting for blood.” Falth himself revealed a set of fangs from his vampiric bloodline. He pulled out his polearm, sticking the blunted end into the dirt.

“Blood will come later! And I promise all of you can drink your fill when we win!” Roared Rainier to the dhampirs behind and around him. “Take out the flare magic in the sky and rain down magic behind their lines! Watch out for your disguised comrades and arachnacosa invaders!”

“LORD!” A communal shout rang into the air as the dhampirs aside from Rainier’s twin bodyguards spread their wings and jumped into the air taking flight.

“Kosok Kre take command of your people’s ranged forces. The four of us will be storming the central tower. Tero and Nera, carry Sataska and I to the tower where the initial attack took place on that tower. If Ganel hasn’t yet incapacitated Musala, Kasamir, then we will!”

Tero grabbed Rainier under his arms, hoisting him up with supernatural strength. Nera scowled as she did the same to Sataska. “Why do I have to carry this useless-”

“I will have you know that I, Sataska, am a queen and those that insult me will eventually face the penalty!” The evoant queen grinned with delight as she looked over to Rainier who didn’t even return the glance.

This would be the first time she officially and wholly fought side by side with her precious companion. In her mind, Sataska began imagining various scenarios where she and Rainier assisted one another in combat, gradually increasing the tension until her man could no longer stand himself and threw his body on top of her…

“Sataska!” Interrupting her from her trance state was her one and only beloved Rainier.

“Ahm?! Yes, darling?”

“Good lord woman, you’re drooling. I can see it dribbling down.”

When Rainier said this with a vague look of repulsion, Nera looked down at the evoant she was carrying and followed up on Rainier’s words. “Why we stand such a lascivious creature like you is beyond me.”

The wind rumbled past the group as they flew in the air. Rainier ignored the bickering girls as he began his own conversation with Tero. “I don’t understand you guys to be honest. Why are you dhampirs, or Ladia family to be exact, so obsessed with following my command?”

Tero, though physically older, was still mentally younger than Rainier. Thus he didn’t rightly understand the question. “I was always taught to follow my lord’s orders no matter the details. Besides, you unsealed us; that alone makes you worthy to lead my kin.”

“You see, this is what I don’t understand. I, by pure random chance, found your family’s coffins and unsealed you guys. Anyone could have come across you guys and pulled out the weapons sealing you all in your coffins. Why does that make me worthy to command all of you?”

Rainier looked at the rest of the Ladia family swooping around the sky like bats. They all were casting dark magic which covered the magical flares in the night sky like window drapes. Veils of misty darkness reached every corner of light from the flare magic like cancerous tendrils infecting a body.

“I’m not sure you realize, Lord, but removing a seal is not as easy as you think. If the soul force of the person trying to remove a seal is weaker than the sealer, then nothing happens. If the unsealer’s soul force is roughly equal, below or above, to the sealer then it is possible to remove the seal. And with your soul force… Well, for you it was as easy as plucking fruit from a tree.” Explained Tero with a strangely mirthful smile.

“It was just as easy for Sataska as well. Hm, well I shouldn’t wrack myself with heavy thoughts. I have a battle to win.” Rainier shoved all thoughts unrelated to the current battle out of his mind. The more unimportant thoughts he pondered, the more distracted Rainier was from what was important.

“Pitiful servant!” “Useless insect…”

Rainier looked back at the dhampir and evoant girls with lament. “Both of you shut it!”

The two girls instantly ceased insulting one another, looking at Rainier with a sort of pressure being placed on them.

“Tero and Nera, I know you both have it, so cast some sort of camouflage magic on us as we near the tower. I want to avoid being picked out of the sky by a stray shot or spell.”

““Yes sir!””

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Musala Kasamir scowled and clenched his teeth as he watched the wall of arachnacosa slam themselves against the walls. The majority of their forces, as expected, were centered on the chokepoints in the walls where crude barricades were built. Thankfully the pikes in place were keeping them at bay, but occasionally a lime green blob of acid found its way past the blockade and plaster itself on a karkan, forcing the soldier back to a healer.

He fired a few more bullets at supposed arachnacosa officers illuminated by the flares in the sky, killing them each instantly with a single shot. He loaded a shell layered with an explosion rune from the fire attribute into his rifle’s launcher, firing it off towards a group of heavily armored arachnacosa. The shell landed precisely on one of their heads, splitting it like a watermelon. The explosion then went off, sending a handful of arachnacosa to the ground, dazed. Their armor, fortunately for the demi-humans, protected them from most of the blast. Only four of the large group died from the improvised magic grenade.

The karkan archers proved to be efficient marksmen, as many of the arrow barrages felled a dozen or two arachnacosa each salvo of arrows. Musala often handed down exact coordinates where to fire arrows, leading the arrows to converging spots of arachnacosa forces.

“It’s… Getting darker? What the hell?” Musala noticed the light from the flare magic disappearing and flicked his gaze upwards. “They’ve got fliers?!”

Musala was shocked to see human figures flying around in the sky. They were waving staff like objects around in the sky directing magical energy around in the sky. Musala could just barely make out blankets of shadowy energy gently cover the flares in the sky like a soft blanket.

“The hell is that?! Hey, you, tell me what they’re doing up there!” Yelled Musala to one of the mages beside him at the tower.

“Sire! It seems they have darkness attribute casters and are blocking out the light in the sky. We’re trying to strengthen the light from the flares, but our mage’s combined soul force is too little to continuously cast flare!”

“Damn it… Abandon those flares, just randomly fire new flares and spread them out!” Musala dosed out several more orders regarding the reinforcements in the sky before a new problem hit them.

On the non-ruined portions of Vectoir’s walls, milky white wisps of coiling silk began spreading around. Numerous arachnacosa females gathered at the walls and launched spider silk onto the walls, forming a large spread of webbing.

Musala instantly noticed the danger this web posed. “BURN DOWN THAT WEB! FRONT ARCHER ROW, DRAW MELEE WEAPONS!”

Following Musala’s orders, archers just before the crenellations pulled out swords of all shapes and sizes from a longsword down. The fire mages responsible for burning down the web on time tried to do so, but were quickly blocked by shield bearing arachnacosa hooking their legs onto the makeshift web ladder to climb up and over the walls.

“Damn… Damn it all! We’re outnumbered clearly. Send a message asking for reinforcements from the cities.” Musala licked his lips. This was a challenge to the authority he was going to pose in the future. It seems this Rainier has a few tricks up his sleeve, we’re quite similar.”