Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Julia cut a diagonal slash toward Ithshar's trunk, but she tilted her body to the side just enough to avoid it. Ithshar was one of the most evasive combatants Julia had ever fought. She wasted no energy on overt or flashy maneuvers—she moved just enough to avoid a strike or to position one of her own.

Julia reversed and hinged backward at her hips, avoiding the top of Ithshar's staff, which whooshed past her face fast enough that she felt wind tickling her nose.

Ithshar took advantage of Julia's now off-balance position to step back, gaining a distance that gave advantage to her staff's reach. She spun it across her body until it tucked neatly behind her, parallel to her right arm—the top poking out from behind her opposite shoulder.

Suddenly, she lunged forward and, with a quick sweep of her staff, targeted Julia's legs, aiming to knock her flat.

Julia jumped over the strike and rode the momentum to the left—opposite the direction Ithshar had committed to. She made a motion as if to slash at Ithshar's trunk again, but when she saw the staff move to counter, Julia shifted the slash downward, toward Ithshar's leg.

Ithshar didn't change her staff's counter, choosing instead to kick her leg out and strike Julia in the shin. The blow pushed Julia's leg back, setting her off balance and turning the formerly useless staff counter into a direct threat to her head.

Julia could only follow the momentum and collapse to her hands and knees, ducking the staff, which passed overhead with a crack. She aimed herself directly at Ithshar and lunged, choosing to parlay the recovery into an attack rather than fall back defensively.

She ploughed into Ithshar's staff, which she held in front of her chest at a diagonal as a brace. The tackle pushed Ithshar back, but her feet remained firmly planted on the ground.

Julia drove her shoulder into Ithshar's staff, which in turn pressed into Ithshar's chest, grabbed her hilt with both hands, and pointed the tip at Ithshar's throat.

"Gotcha!" she shouted in triumph.

"You almost did," Ithshar chuckled, shattering Julia's jubilation.

Getting caught up in her near-victory, Julia had failed to notice that Ithshar had spun her staff just enough that it was pressed against the inside of Julia's arm. If the fight were to continue, Ithshar would simply swat Julia's thrust aside before striking her from below with the other side of the staff.

"Shit," Julia breathed in agitation. She was so close!

However, her mood was instantly recovered by the sudden arrival of a notification.

Julia's eyes lit up, and she pumped a triumphant fist into the air. She knew that the System didn't provide an exact quantification of one's skill with its numbers, but she also knew that anyone that had achieved Level 7 in Swordsmanship was a quality swordsman, without question.

"You have achieved something?" Ithshar asked, eyeing her from atop her waterskin.

"Yeah, Level 7 in Swordsmanship. I haven't gained a level in Swordsmanship in so long!" she exclaimed happily before also taking a swig of her waterskin.

"Ah, I see. Congratulations. I am not surprised. You have improved since you first arrived. Your feint was executed well, as was your tackle. Using an attack to get back to your feet was particularly inspired.

"Attempting to throw your opponent off-balance to recover your own was good thinking," Ithshar praised.

"Ha, that would make me happier if any of it were effective," Julia groused with good humor.

"Yes, yes. It is a tragedy that you cannot yet best me, who is many centuries your elder. This world truly is cold and cruel," Ithshar responded with a smile.

Before Julia could reply with what was, undoubtedly, going to be generational wit, the doors to the training hall burst open.

Turning, expecting to see some messenger sprinting in, Julia was surprised to see Elulis sashay through. Sahveth and Jallis followed behind her, Sahveth carefully and quietly closing the doors before shooting Elulis's back a withering look.

"Ithsharûn: Ithshar's squad reporting for duty, captain!" Elulis shouted with a mock salute to Julia.

"What's the word?" Julia asked, blatantly ignoring Elulis's obvious mockery.

"The Nashiin have halted their advance just a couple journeys from the walls. A fog has begun to rise around them, though, so information has become even less forthcoming than when they only moved beneath the water.

"The general consensus is that they are preparing their assault. They will likely strike at nightfall," she said, suddenly shedding her facetiousness.

"We've always suspected the water to be an impediment for them, despite being able to move across the marsh floor. It slows them down, makes their footing uneven, and can be leveraged against them by even a novice mage.

"We suspect that whatever they are preparing, it is to aid them in maneuvering during the assault.

"Whether this means they are constructing ladders, donning enchanted gear, or preparing some wide-range, grand magic, we cannot say," Sahveth informed, his tone the usual flat and professional.

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Julia noted that it was currently mid-evening, the sun only having a few hours of light left. She glanced over at Ithshar, unsure of commanding her squad.

"Do not look at me, Julia. We follow your commands. I am here if you have questions or seek counsel, but do not waste time seeking affirmation for decisions you have already made. You lead. We will follow," Ithshar said firmly.

Julia nodded and started toward the door.

"Let's make for the wall. We'll take up positions in the east. Unfortunately, we'll be taking orders from Avelrûn, but it does place us in the position where the fighting will likely be the most intense, so we have to take the good with the bad, I suppose," she joked.

She opened the doors confidently, attempting to project the bravado of a leader, but stopped short as they swung open.

The entire Thornalûn family stood there, geared for war.

There were Talnîr, Nadhem, and Sahira, of course, but also their parents, all five of them.

"Ah, the other members of Zahranûn are here," Ithshar said with a wide smile.

"Members of what?" Julia asked, her mind in disarray at the unexpected turn of events.

"Zahranûn: The Blooming Guard. The squad of the Dahm'Zahra, obviously," Talnîr said with his trademark smile.

Julia sighed, suppressing the heat that attempted to creep across her cheeks, but she couldn't suppress the warmth that rose in her chest, nor the fear that accompanied it. She was touched that her friends would join her in this fight, but she felt an increasing sense of weight and responsibility, for their lives were now in her hands.

"Thanks for coming, everyone," she eventually said with a small, touched smile.

"No need to thank us for the bare minimum, dear. Now, let's get moving. Night approaches," Sahmira suggested, throwing a great hammer over her shoulder just as casually as Julia might a linen bag.

Julia stood atop the wall, solid wood beneath her feet. It felt less like the wooden planks she walked upon in her home in Rockyknoll and more like the paving stones of the Striton streets. It even had a sheen that seemed to suggest polish, though she was positive that no one would be out polishing the wall with a battle on the horizon.

The top of the wall was rather similar to what she'd expect of a stone wall surrounding a human settlement, though with the caveat that it all seemed one large piece, rather than individual stones held together with mortar. The layout and key features were similar, at least.

Rather than the blocky battlements of parapets and crenels that Julia was used to, these battlements were made of twisting branches that appeared to grow out of the wall itself—which made sense, now that she thought about it. It was a wall of giant roots (or trunks?).

The battlements twisted around each other in a sort of wave pattern, with holes where the braided branches opened up to allow bows to loose every stride-or-so.

There were stairs leading down to the Veshari interior every ten strides, and in between those stairs were vines that one could climb up or slide down quickly. The arrangement had a staggered system of stairs or vines every five strides along the wall.

Julia marveled at the enormous construct as the sun spent its final rays, finally disappearing behind the treeline.

She knew that twilight would last for a few more minutes, as the trees were enormous. They covered much of the skyline, so calling the sun "set" when it disappeared behind them wouldn't be entirely accurate. Still, her fear and anticipation began to grow as the light faded.

Her squad stood behind a line of archers from the Thalûm'Dahm, though Julia wasn't sure whether they were dedicated archers or infantry that were using bows for the opening stage of the battle.

Avelrûn stood just a few strides from her, Yathil in front of him as though to protect him from any errant Nashiin arrows.

Julia had been eyeing the pair for most of the few hours she'd been stationed on the wall. She didn't know what he had planned, nor did she even know for sure that Avelrûn was the traitor, but she'd be ready for anything.

She glanced over the soldiers in front of her. They were a squad of about fifty, spread out evenly along the wall. This arrangement was echoed around the entirety of Veshari.

The Thalan'veth had numbers close to 50,000. That number seemed almost impossible to Julia, but she supposed that in a nation—for that was what the marsh essentially was—with around two million people, fifty thousand was to be expected. Those numbers were also after their year-long conflict with the Nashiin, so they were presumably even more numerous prior.

While 50,000 was a large number, it seemed small now that she observed how much wall there was to cover. It encircled the entirety of the city, after all. Veshari's trees contained most of its population, so although many people could fit in a single tree, the trees themselves were spread out far more than human homes.

This meant that whatever distance was actually required for the number of residents, it was exponentially more in practice due to the space requirements of the trees themselves. It was impractical to spread the 50,000 forces evenly across the wall that encircled the entire city.

What the leaders had decided instead was to position squads at key positions around the wall. They were mostly in small numbers of ten to twenty, and they covered great lengths of the wall by themselves. This would give them maneuverability to respond and move to areas where the battle was most intense.

The squad in front of Julia was so numerous both due to Avelrûn's presence and their position on the eastern quadrant.

The wall had been divided into four quadrants when the battle was planned, with the eastern quadrant receiving far more troops due to the expected intensity of the conflict there.

The eastern quadrant had around 25,000 of the total troops, so although it was only a fourth of the total area, it would receive half the available troops.

This left 8,000-9,000 troops for the other three quadrants each. The battle was planned with maneuverability in mind, so reinforcements could be shifted around the wall as needed.

This ability was largely thanks to Julia, who had spent the better part of the past day enchanting small slates of Motherbark to be distributed to key points along the wall.

The leaders, the Roots, were evenly dispersed along the wall as well, and each had one of these "speak slates," as Julia had taken to calling them. With them, the Roots could communicate with each other and coordinate the defense much quicker than sending runners on foot.

Julia was broken from her thoughts by the disappearance of the last light filtering through the canopy in front of her. The sky was now a deep red, orange, and purple, indicating that night was on the verge of falling.

As she gazed at the sky, her tension beginning to reach a crescendo, her Spiritual Sight picked up an anomaly that was fast approaching.

What seemed a pulsing and shifting sea of purple light was sweeping through the trees, flowing like a wave toward the wall, where it crashed against the wood.

Julia's eyes told her it was a dense fog, but her Spiritual Sight informed her that it was most certainly magical. It glowed with that same eerie, sickly purple Julia had only ever seen in the Nashiin's eye-flames.

The fog rose until it was halfway up the height of the wall before settling. Looking down from her high vantage, Julia felt as though she were looking over a cliff into a churning, roiling sea of wispy purple clouds.

Though the sight was surreal, it failed to invoke any wonder in Julia. Her mind was completely dominated by one thought only:

They're here.