Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

Laze fed power into her bow, one arrow splitting to two, four, then eight before she felt her limit, then released the string. Straight down, her arrows swirled around one another like a tight swarm of birds, passing in front of the Pilish soldiers battling along the top of the wall, and into the horde gathering at the base. Eight simultaneous explosions ripped through hangnail bodies, blowing arms, legs, and other insides across the sapphire scales of a nearby seawyrm.

If the dragon-like monster even noticed, it sure didn't care. Powerful claws on the ends of short legs reached out to dig into the stone wall, while the wide jaws spread. Sharp teeth each the length of Laze's forearm made for an intimidating sight, but it was the powerful jet of compressed water that made Laze duck back.

"Look out!" she shouted as she dodged, the water cutting across the height of the wall like a scythe. More than a dozen unfortunate Pilish soldiers who hadn't managed to duck out of the way fell in pieces, parts of them tumbling the distance to the ground below. "Nidina, Nexin, going to need you over here soon."

"Little busy," Nidina said, her communication magic making it sound like she was right beside Laze – and not at the far end of the wall battling one of the blue humanoids. Unlike the others they'd seen, this one seemed to control pure, dark water instead of fog. Riding it like a platform with far more maneuverability than was fair, and able to shape it into weapons and armor – much like the Firestorm did with flame – the single enemy had managed to keep Nidina completely contained.

Maybe they wouldn't be able to call them mist-weavers after all…

"I'll come…" Laze started, then shook her head. "No, never mind. I can't leave here. Stop going easy on that thing. Nexin?"

"More showed up," Nexin said, the entire fortress town shaking as a ball of flame billowed like a mushroom from in front of the west wall. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Are you okay over there? You've been going all out for…"

"I'm fine. This is what I need."

"Understood," Laze said, turning her attention back to the monsters below. The seawyrm had managed to climb half the wall in her moment of distraction, despite the Pilish soldiers raining bullets on it. Most simply bounced off the thing's hide, and even those that didn't barely drew blood. The monster was practically a walking fortress.

Or, more accurately, a climbing fortress.

However, Nidina had given her a tip the first time one of the beasts had tried the same tactic, and Laze once again charged a salvo of eight arrows on her bow. As soon as the bolts were ready, she took aim at the seawyrm's head and held her shot. Held. Held… there!

Wide went the jaws to spit another slicing stream of compressed water, only for the seawyrm to instead get a mouthful of exploding arrows. Fire erupted out between the deadly teeth as if the creature breathed flame itself. More importantly, the fire also went in the other direction, down and into its throat. Claws snapped off the wall towards its face, the whole massive monster crumpling in on itself as it tumbled from the wall.

A tremendous crash shook the base of the fortress – and squashed almost a hundred hangnails – as the seawyrm writhed in pain. They really didn't like fire in their mouths. Where the seawyrm had dug its claws into the stone, however, had created easy handholds for the hangnails to scale. Like a swarm of creepy spiders – creepier spiders – the small monsters rushed up the newly created path towards the top of the wall.

When they weren't firing at the swarm of monsters on the ground, the Pilish soldiers were kept busy repelling hangnails clambering up in a dozen places. It had been like that for almost an hour, and as another wave of child-sized creatures crested the parapet, fatigue was clearly settling in.

With a quick glance to make sure no more seawyrms were lined up to make the climb, Laze doused and sheathed her bow, and instead drew a pair of sword hilts. A single blade of flame sprung from each hilt, before splitting into a second blade – forming two shallow V's of fiery death in her hands. Ready for the melee, she took a page out of El's book, then tucked at the waist and dove straight down into the battle.

Without her friend's skill at flaring, Laze took a more… direct approach, crashing into a line of hangnails cresting the wall. One, two, three small bodies tumbled off her shoulder – flame armor flashing with each impact – while her swords cut into hangnail backs on the opposite side. Twenty feet she flew then pulled up short, spotting Tas and Macer anchoring a block of soldiers holding against the worst breach.

The Pilish soldiers had attached long knives to the ends of their rifles – and even their pistols – as soon as the first hangnails had made it up, and those blades now flashed in the sunlight between shots. At such a close range, it didn't seem like either Tas or Macer could possibly miss – and they didn't – but there were just too many monsters, and the ends of their group was fraying. Until Laze arrived.

Heedless of errant bullets from the mad Pilish melee, Laze carved into the hangnails pressuring the group. A parry with her left sword caught six claws coming straight down for her, while her right sword cut underneath, splitting the hangnail at the waist. Before the top half even had a chance to hit the ground, she spun hard to her right, wings billowing in the other direction and washing over another pair of monsters. Hoarse screeches escaped their lips as their skin charred, and Laze chopped both blades down the back of the small beast in front of her.

One arm falling to the ground on each side of it, Laze kicked out. The heel of her boot slammed into its back and shot it forward to collide with one of its fellow monsters just as the beast was about to leap on a prone solider. Pinballing, the two creatures fell beside the trooper whose hand scrambled for his dropped pistol. His fingers closed around the weapon's pommel, and he swung it up over his chest, rolling to drive the knife's blade into the hangnail's side. Then, with the barrel pressed right up against the creature's skin, he started pulling the trigger.

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He didn't stop until the chamber went click, click, click, the gun empty until he had a chance to reload.

Two steps to her right, and Laze made sure he had time to do just that, meeting the next monster in line. The thing came at her with a mad frenzy of slashes, but her own twinned swords managed to keep them at bay. Really, it wasn't just Nexin improving in this fight. Without El, Nidina, and Dayne there to cover for Laze, she had no choice to step up. The first few clashes had resulted in painful hits along her flame armor – though none were strong enough to get through – but she'd gotten better with each engagement.

This hangnail struck out once, twice, three times, then pulled back for a fourth. Instead of trying to bring either of her blades back in like she would've before, Laze stepped in and brought her knee up. The child-sized creature took the blow square in its face, piranha teeth shattering as her flame armor flashed. As the thing staggered back, eyes crossed and body uncoordinated, Laze brought her foot back down then snapped her hips around. Sword following the motion, her two blades burned a hot line across its neck, and the body fell headless, while she continued the motion to stab a nearby beast.

One blade through its chest and the other in its head, the thing had a surprised look on its suddenly dead face before Laze pulled her weapon back. Another parry, parry, slash combo dropped one more hangnail, then Laze spun to find no more creatures left standing near her.

"Tas, you guys okay?" she asked, head swivelling left and right. The entire top of the wall looked clear. What could…

FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH, a line of incandescent flames erupted in front of the wall, from one end of the fort town to the other. Even with the protection of her flame armor, Laze felt the oppressive heat pushing her back, while the air entering her lungs was nearly scalding.

"Now I know how a barbequed steak feels," Tas responded when the fire dropped down beyond view. "But I'm alive enough to complain, which means I'm okay. Don't you think?"

"You could complain less and just be happy you're alive," Macer pointed out.

Tas had something else to say to that, but Laze didn't catch it, instead rushing to the edge of the wall to… yes. Nexin had arrived. Blades of plasma twenty feet long were busy cutting through any monsters brave – or stupid – enough to still be near the fort. The rest – the smart ones – were already fleeing back across the rocky shelf to leap over into the waiting sea.

Despite the carnage at Nexin's hands, there were hundreds – maybe thousands – of the things retreating.

"Keep firing!" Laze shouted. "Any we kill now won't come back later!"

Whether they heard her or not, the Pilish troops seemed to have the same thought. Pistols and cannons rang out their deadly melody, like a long peal of continuous thunder. Ground and bodies exploded from the impacts of the shells, while hangnail bodies dropped to withering gunfire.

"Soldiers, focus small-arms' fire on the hangnails," Tas shouted. "Our weapons aren't getting through those seawyrm scales; let the cannons worry about them."

For her part, Laze didn't rush out after the fleeing monsters. While she could rain down enough destruction from above to equal the entire line of soldiers, she instead shot up and then to the right towards where Nidina was battling the blue humanoid.

Had been battling.

As Laze shot in their direction, the enemy either spotted her or the general retreat, threw out a wave of dark water to intercept Nidina, then raced towards the sea. On the strange platform of dark water, the thing was nearly as fast as Nidina or Laze, but it had a good head start and seemed to have all its focus on escape.

Which wasn't quite enough, as it glanced over its shoulder to see if they were following, only to find eight spiraling arrows almost right on top of it. More of the same dark water rose from the back of the platform, just in time to block the attack. Block, but not contain.

The resulting explosion threw the smoking humanoid into the air, off the platform, and over the cliff.

Laze only caught a glimpse of the enemy before it vanished, but the body wasn't limp like a corpse should be. The thing had survived – which meant it would be back.

"What the Blaze was up with that one?" Laze asked Nidina as the other woman flew up to join her.

"No idea," Nidina admitted, looking a little frazzled but unharmed. "It used that water a lot like El or Nexin use their flames – like it could shape it into anything it wanted. And it must've been creating it from somewhere, because no matter how much it used, there was always more."

"Would you…?"

"I would've won," Nidina said, eyes narrowing. "I had it on the ropes. Really. But, if there are a lot more of them, this war just got a lot more difficult."

Laze nodded and looked down at the resulting devastation from Nexin's rampage. "Nexin can't be everywhere at once."

"Neither can we," Nidina said, elbowing Laze in the side as she did. "Saw you out there kicking ass too. Looks to me like Nexin wasn't the only one who needed this kind of practice."

"You're right. I've been relying on you and El too much," Laze said, looking down at her V-bladed swords. "I wish this whole invasion wasn't happening, but I'll make the most of it."

"I know, but, don't forget why you're here," Nidina said. "Yeah, you carved those hangnails up like El and one of her fiery pork bombs, but the biggest difference you made was rallying the troops. When those hangnails first came up the wall, I thought 'Well, that's it, good try,' but then… there you were. Sure, you fought your share, but the way you directed them where they needed to be. The way you saw where the line was going to break before it did – then supported it. El was right about you, burn it, it's not fair how often she's right, but you're good at this."

"I've had a lot of chances to watch from behind as you've all protected me," Laze said.

This time Nidina punched her in the shoulder hard enough she swerved in the air and her flame armor flashed.

"Ow!" Laze said.

"El told me to smack you if you started talking like that again," Nidina said with a scowl. "We'll talk about that later though. Looks like Nexin has finished mopping up, and Tas is waving at you like you've got the last cup of coffee in the country."

"Yeah, we should get down there and see how bad the damage is," Laze said, eyeing the casualties along the top of the wall, and the damage done to the cannons there.

"Do you think they'll be back?" Nidina asked as she looked out towards the sea.

"Yes, definitely," Laze said. "And… we probably won't be here for it."

"We won't?"

"No. I doubt this is the only fort town under siege, and we need to make sure the whole country is ready for this fight. We can get the message deeper towards the capital far faster than they can."

"You're right," Nidina said. "They won't be happy with us leaving."

"Or taking Tas and Macer with us."

Nidina looked at Laze, eyes narrowing. "You just said we'd move faster, but if we're waiting for Tas and Macer to keep up with… oh burn it! You want us to carry them!"

"We need locals to get other locals to believe us," Laze said.

"I hate carrying people," Nidina grumbled. "When do we leave?"

"Before the sun sets. Which means we have a lot to do. Let's go get started."