Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Ravina crouched on the ice, her armor threatened to scrape, but she held it steady. No sense making it all this distance just to give them away at the finish line.

Truthfully, they should have arrived a day earlier, but the swamp was a challenge in and of itself. They had made good time crossing the Jizran Savannah, the terrain being mostly level, with only small shrubs to disturb their footing. The swamp had absorbed all that progress and more.

Not all the adventurers had the means to advance through the water, or walk atop it. They had to build rafts and barges to carry themselves across, lest they waste even more time trudging through the swamp on foot.

Surprisingly, Drego had proven quite effective here. He'd quickly dismantled several trees and fashioned them into effective rafts—effective enough for their purposes and time constraints, at least.

Ravina had thought he would object to making anything from the swamp trees, but he said many of them were already dead—even if they still stood. He had no objections to making use of them.

It had taken a whole day to push through the swamp due to having to maneuver around the trees and the constant attacks from the swamp creatures. However, the monsters also meant that there was no shortage of food, nor was there a shortage of burnable wood on which to cook them.

After resting just long enough for everyone to get a few hours of sleep, they continued on through the night, and all of the following day. At last, the marsh divide came into sight just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

They were prepared to continue with their barges and rafts, but they suddenly ran aground in some thick fog. When Ravina stepped out, she realized it was ice—not ground—that they'd beached on.

Several mages reported that the ice was not normal, so Ravina deduced it to be a tool of the undead—probably to make maneuvering easier—and decided to walk upon it rather than try to break it as they went. Not only would that be incredibly slow, it would undoubtedly give their position away.

Now, Ravina crouched just within the line of fog, looking upon a horror show.

Battered defenders shot arrows, threw jars of what was probably some kind of oil, and cast spells at a sea of undead below them. Calling it a sea was not hyperbole, either. The undead seemed to press against the wooden wall like the shoreline of the ocean against a beach.

Ravina spotted one of the likely leaders not too far in front of her. A behemoth of black armor stood with its arms crossed, surrounded by undead that were much better equipped than the rest of the army. It seemed to be surveying the battle, though it issued no orders. Ravina wasn't sure undead needed verbal orders, so maybe that was to be expected.

The true horror, though, were the…balls? What appeared to be balls of spinning limbs rushed the wall before leaping up to the battlements, killing several defenders from the impact alone, and flattening many more as they thrashed their limbs around.

One remained below and threw itself against the wall, bashing it over and over with its spinning arms. Ravina was too far to see if it was actually doing any damage, but she knew it was frightening. Judging by the size of the defenders, the wall must be a full climb high, and these creatures were a good third that size.

Ravina watched as the horrors were pushed off the wall somehow, falling back to and cratering the ice where they landed. She understood wanting to get them off the wall, but pushing wouldn't fix the issue. They'd just jump back—

As she was processing the tactical situation, she caught sight of a bright glow on the battlements, which then ascended into the sky in front of the wall.

"Julia…" Ravina whispered—she was still alive!

She couldn't see Julia very well, not just due to the distance between them, but also because whatever she was doing created such a bright light that her figure quickly disappeared, just a halo of a myriad colors where she was.

Ravina's jaw dropped open as three beams of light left Julia and zapped the three horrors, which then burst into gigantic columns of light that were so bright she had to cover her eyes with her arm.

When the light faded, she was again shocked to see a colossal hole in the wall—when did that happen? It wasn't the columns of light, surely. Julia wouldn't have blasted a damn hole in the wall—that daft girl.

She saw Julia and several others leap down into the hole from the top of the wall, and she instantly knew what she and her army were here for.

Turning around slowly to avoid any scraping, she carefully made her way back to her force, which was assembled just a few jogs back in the fog.

As she came into view, the adventurers all stood from where they were relaxing, taking what was probably the final rest before war. She looked as many of them in the eye as she could in a reasonable timeframe..

Finally, she spoke.

"Here's the situation: undead had some kinda gigantic siege weapon. My student, Julia, destroyed it, but not a'fore them bastards put a giant hole in the elves' wall.

"A veritable sea a undead are pourin' through the hole, tryin'a get t'all the civilians in the city, which is just on the other side a that wall.

"Y'all've been rightly worried 'bout our numbers—we're less than a thousand, and they're more'n a hundred thousand. Ye'd be daft not to be worried—but ya know what? That hole in the wall ain't gonna let no more than twenty or thirty through at once, and that's if they go side-by-side.

"Ya think a force of a thousand can hold off twenty undead at a time? Cause I'm bettin' it can," she said with a sinister smile.

Chuckles echoed around the group. Weapons were drawn, knuckles cracked, and spit hit the ice. The energy in the group was one of anticipation, with a small dose of fear.

This was good. A little fear would keep people on their toes but not stop them from doing what needed doing. Ravina had felt the energy in many adventuring groups on many missions—this was almost ideal.

"What say we show them bastards how boned they really are?" she asked with a smile, turning around and beginning to run forward through the fog, the sound of cheers and footsteps behind her.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Don't slip like a dumbass and ruin our entrance!" she shouted over her shoulder, breaking into a real run.

Laughs accompanied by raucous cheers filled the air, propelling her forward.

Mondan ran up beside her, seeming to just appear out of the fog.

"Where the fuck is Drego?" she asked quietly, voice muted.

"No one's seen him since we entered the marsh. Those riding the same raft say he just…disappeared. He didn't announce his exit or give any indication he was going to exit. He was just gone," he whispered back.

"Great…what-the-fuck-ever. We got our task. Ain't no difference if he's here or not," she reasoned, drawing her sword and charging out of the fog.

Julia surveyed the ground; the corruption had dissipated. The section of missing wall would normally fill with water, but the ice had somehow spread through the wall completely, beginning to freeze the marsh on the other side. As a result, there was simply a divot of ground between two huge chunks of ice where the wall used to stand.

Julia carefully sculpted the ice with her magic, making a ramp down into the divot on the Nashiin side and a sheer, smooth wall on the Veshari side. Hopefully, Nashiin would come down the ramp and lose their footing on the ice, while the wall at the back of the breach would make the climb up to Veshari slippery.

"Soldiers, give the approaching Nashiin all you have! Do not let them climb the wall! Kill as many as possible!

"Zahranûn, hold the breach!" Julia shouted with a magically elevated voice.

They had to hold the breach—none could be allowed into Veshari. The entire marsh's population of civilians were behind this wall. None could perish under her watch.

Julia grabbed her slate, again activating all the threads it had.

"Breach! There's a breach in the wall at Avelrûn's section of the eastern quadrant!" Julia shouted again into the slate.

She jumped from the wall and landed in the divot just as most of her squad arrived from opposite ends. The crunch of boots on ice was now clearly audible over the tumult of bows, throwables, and magic being launched from above.

"We need those reinforcements sooner rather than later! The bone horrors are destroyed, but the Nashiin army remains unharmed and marches on the breach! We will hold it as long as we can!" she finished, tossing the slate down, where it slapped against her leg.

Trixy slithered up her torso and nuzzled her cheek.

"Looks like it's our turn, Trix," Julia said with a small smile.

Trixy unwrapped from Julia's torso and expanded to her actual size. She was as long as Julia was tall, with wicked claws, sharp teeth, and lightning crackling along her fur. She cut a pretty intimidating figure—easy to forget when she was using her 'wrap around Julia' form.

Julia drew her sword with a shink, red flames licking the blade.

She'd be in this battle until it ended, for better or ill. She'd have to conserve her mana as much as possible—which meant lightning was out unless it was strictly necessary.

Julia's squad took up defensive positions, everyone understanding the situation without needing orders.

Tanks moved to the front, holding their shields at the ready. Skirmishers, those lighter armed and armored, but still melee combatants, took up positions behind them. This was where Julia positioned herself.

Everyone else, supports and casters, brought up the rear. There was no need to watch their backs this time, Veshari being behind them, so they all stared ahead, waiting for the inevitable.

The first Nashiin came sliding down the embankment, flailing its arms as it tried to maintain balance on the slick. Its feet barely hit the ground before Elulis smashed its skull to pieces.

Several more Nashiin began to slide down the ice, beginning the fight in earnest.

Skulls were smashed, leg bones crumbled before heads were stomped on, and darts of white flame flashed into eye sockets before the entire skeleton went up in flames. None that slid down survived.

This pace was maintained for a few minutes before the Nashiin changed tactics.

Archers took positions on both sides of the ice embankment, shooting arrows down on the defenders below, while the melee infantry continued to slide down into the divot.

Trixy zipped away from the squad and latched onto the nearest archer, ripping its skull from its body without effort. She zipped back and forth, tearing skulls and pulling limbs as archers continued to arrive and fill the space of the last she killed.

After a few more minutes, a rumbling sounded from the Nashiin side of the divot.

Ghûls burst from the ice, numbers uncountable. There were so many that they looked like ants swarming from burrows.

They must have been crawling underneath the ice, waiting for the order to advance—they were fantastic ambush forces. What's more, they had Wraiths on their backs. The gangly creatures had dessicated flesh that flaked off and became translucent, glowing pale purple before vanishing like melting snowflakes.

They clung to the backs of the Ghûls, riding them like a child might ride its parent's back.

Julia and her squad braced for combat, but the Ghûls rammed their claws into the ice all around the divot, completely ignoring her squad. They raced across the sides before climbing up the sheer face on the other side, heading into the Veshari interior. The sheer ice didn't seem to hamper their claws even a little.

"Shit!" Julia shouted, fumbling with the slate at her waist.

"Ghûls with Wraiths on their backs advancing into Veshari; repeat, Ghûls with Wraiths on their backs advancing into Veshari! They bypassed the blockade, ignoring our forces, and pushed into the city interior.

"Reinforcements on their way to help us should instead form a secondary defensive line on the east side of the city before advancing slowly and meeting these Ghûls and Wraiths head-on.

"That secondary defensive line can back us up once it's advanced and killed all the Nashiin that made it past our blockade. Prioritize defending the civilians!" Julia finished, dropping the slate to hang at her waist once again.

She looked around, taking note of her squad still engaging with the Nashiin that came down the embankment, as well as the ranged undead on top of it. She had no forces to spare to chase down the Ghûls, which were still crawling past them, even now. She had to hope that there were reinforcements on the way, and they would form a new defensive line to intercept them.

She grudgingly went back to killing Nashiin, trying to decide if she could leave things here to her squad to take a peek at the larger army beyond the wall, but she suddenly became aware of a low droning coming from the Nashiin's direction.

It was a low sort of rumble, and it grew louder with every second. Voices—it was voices, but coming from the Nashiin side…that couldn't be right. Only the Barrowlords or above had ever spoken, and their voices were very distinct. These sounded like actual people—actual people that were yelling.

The Nashiin stopped advancing down the embankment, Julia's squad stared in confusion at the undead who began turning 180 degrees around and leveling their weapons at the way they'd entered the divot.

A blast of fire shot out of the Nashiin's forces, crisping all in its path. A woman—a human—stepped out of the flames, accompanied by many others.

"What the f—Ravina?!" Julia shouted.