One month later:
POV Soldier Thomas The Tank:
A soldier peaked from the cover of a deep and muddy trench. His armour was covered in mud and dust, and his face was burned.
A high stone wall rose from the ground, throwing its shadow upon the burning fields. Tips of weapons and horned helmets glinted on its top, with hundreds of golden glowing eyes looking down.
‘Who would have thought that monsters could build? For how long will this war continue.’ he felt desperate after the month in the trenches.
Suddenly a giant blue energy orb fell upon a thick and tall segment of the internal walls and exploded in a blinding light, with cracks spreading through the stone.
Then more and more orbs followed, falling in volleys upon the walls of dark stone. The explosions resounded throughout the battlefield, with tremors rising ash clouds.
Thomas fell back into the trench, covering his ears which were painful from the constant explosions, while watching as a wave of stones rose towards the sky, hurled by giant catapults.
They looked like a swarm of tiny black dots in the sky as they rained at the walls and building behind them. The outlines of letters flashed on the massive stone blocks that the wall was made of.
Thomas felt hopeless watching the walls resist each of their attacks, leaving behind only cracks immediately repaired by the enemy mages.
“Advance soldiers, today we will breach the walls!” finally, the awaited order came, and waves of fear and excitement passed through the soldiers covering in the trenches.
Formations of thousands of soldiers rose from the trenches and stepped forwards, marching towards the imposing wall while carrying massive ladders.
They marched because they were taught so; it was their life and order.
Their blue standards fluttered in the wind, and blue semitransparent barriers enveloped them.
“For the king!” someone shouted.𝚘𝓥𝐥xt.𝐜𝔬𝑚
And more shouts followed right after, and Thomas joined, too, already imagining the enemy’s blood flowing down his blade.
“For the king!”
Cheers resounded through the battlefield as the soldiers kept marching forwards.
Lights flashed on the walls, and volleys of projectiles descended towards the soldiers, loudly whistling. The projectiles fell upon the barriers exploding or bouncing off, sending ripples through the blue surfaces.
Loud drums constantly drummed as the soldiers kept advancing towards the walls, their chainmail glinting in the morning sun.
The projectiles were flying above their heads in both directions, explosions constantly shaking the ground under their feet.
“Prepare the ladders!” The magical barrier shifted, creating openings for the ladders.
Thomas stopped, watching his comrades in the first lines. They brought the massive ladders hooking them at the tops of the tall walls, and started to climb up. They were rising higher and higher, closing towards the defenders on the walls.
Soon the ladders started to fall, one by one, screams resounding through the battlefield as the soldiers fell, breaking their bones.
The first soldiers reached the top only for glowing polearms to cut them down, splitting their helmets and skulls in half.
More and more soldiers kept climbing up the ladders, slipping on the blood of their allies.
The blood flowed down the walls in rivers, dead bodies falling and piling underneath the hard dark stone.
Thomas moved forwards, replacing the soldier before him. His knees and hands were trembling, knowing it would soon be him to climb that ladder.
“Keep pushing! Do not relent, and do not let the deaths of our friends be in vain!”
Suddenly a draft came from the walls, carrying and disgusting smell of rot. It was so intense and nauseating that Thomas felt his stomach move.
“Ignite the gas!” the shouts of enemies came from the walls.
And the next second, orange lights flashed across the walls. The air around them ignited in fire, the flames forming a wave that spread in all directions devouring everything in its path, passing through the openings in the barriers.
Thomas blinked, and terrible pain hit him the next moment. His skin was burning as he flew backwards.
He smashed against the ground and looked around. Everything was on fire, his friends and compatriots burning alive, with the masked battle mages looking around in panic.
POV Alesia:
The young elven girl looked with her big pretty eyes at the flames blazing around the walls, enveloping both attackers and defenders. The fire settled down as quickly as it came leaving behind burned bodies of humans sewn over the space before the walls.
‘This will not work for the second time, they will know of it, and their mages will counter it.’
She slowly descended the staircase, the heavy steps of her guards following shortly after her. Their polearms were looming over their heads with their capes fluttering on their backs.
She felt her heart hurt, seeing the stones raining upon the city she built, destroying the houses and killing the citizens.
‘I wanted to create the best city… yet they have come and are destroying all of my hard work.’
She wanted to destroy their skyships in revenge, but they kept floating in the distance, outside the range of their weapons.
A tremor passed through the city, accompanied by a wave of heat and magic. Alesia smiled, imagining the horror that would descend upon the humans, ‘It will not be long, and the master will wake up.’
POV General:
Multiple men in heavy ornamental lamellar armours with long blue capes stood around a map, discussing with grave yet at the same time excited expressions.
“We might have lost a whole attack group, but we have made an opening.”
“Let our men rest, and then we will blow up the charges and breach the walls.”
“Yes, tomorrow we will push with all of our forces, finally taking over this city.”
The general looked at the excited commanders around the table, feeling like they had all ignored one crucial aspect, ‘What about the wyrm? Maybe it disintegrated after our attack, but more likely, it just ran away, and it can attack us at any moment.’