The Vanguard swiftly resumed their push towards Heinburg’s outer walls. Even from a distance, Davon’s keen senses allowed him to watch as the city’s wall-mounted ballistae slowly turned to aim at the Vanguard’s battle lines.

  We’re still well out of range, Davon noted gratefully.

  Still, anxiety brewed in the back of his mind. He grew more and more apprehensive as they drew closer to Heinburg. He couldn’t stop himself from imagining what a ballista bolt would do to him, should a hit land.

  Calm down. You can see those things coming from a mile away. You could just Shadow-step to safety.

  Davon tried to reason with himself and push down his worries. But it was futile. His anxiety increased with every step they took towards the city.

  In an effort to calm his fears, Davon looked at the layered lines of Crimson Reaver soldiers standing between the Vanguard and Heinburg. That was a far less intimidating prospect. With the ambush beaten back, these soldiers were just cannon fodder, thrown out to slow the Vanguard down. Davon almost felt bad for them.

  “Trebuchets, fire at the battle lines! Carry crews, be on standby!” Grant commanded.

  Looking over his shoulder, Davon watched as the groups of Revenants who had been pushing the trebuchets along halted. The Vanguard engineers leapt forward to load the impressive war machines.

  When the trebuchet nearest to him finally launched its first projectile, Davon couldn’t help but flinch. The launched boulder flew through the air towards the Crimson Reavers with a terrifying whoosh and landed almost in the middle of the formation. The projectile’s impact echoed like divine thunder.

  Davon watched through the slit in the barrier in front of him as a whole section of the Crimson Reaver battle lines was obliterated.

  A war horn sounded from Heinburg’s walls, and the Crimson Reavers began their retreat in a panic. Before they could escape, however, several more boulders fell upon their formation, decimating them.

  “Cease bombardment!” Grant’s voice carried over the Vanguard’s steady march. “Move the trebuchets into position for firing on the ramparts!”

  While the Crimson Reavers retreated back into Heinburg, the Vanguard continued pushing slowly towards the walls. Just as Davon was estimating that the Vanguard frontline was about to enter the range of Heinburg siege engines, the city’s first ballista bolts came hurtling towards the Revenants.

  Thankfully, only six ballistae were mounted on the city’s walls. Still, when the bolts came flying towards the Vanguard, Davon heart froze in terror. He watched, helpless, as the projectile flew straight towards him… and was intercepted at the last moment by a golden barrier.

  The bolt bounced off of the Vanguard’s conjured defenses, landing in the snow. Moments later, a whole group of bolts collided with the barrier and fell to the ground, thwarted.

  “Trebuchets, take those ballistae out! Fire at will!” Grant commanded as the trebuchets slid into position.

  The Vanguard were able to maintain the barrier without slowing their approach. But the ballista bolts were not completely ineffective. Davon felt the barrier shudder with every subsequent volley from the city walls. Each impact sent a new line of cracks across the barrier’s golden surface.

  By the time the first trebuchet launched its projectile at the city walls, Davon thought the Vanguard’s barrier was going to fail any second. His attention was caught by the flying boulder, however, as it flew almost directly at the nearest ballista.

  The boulder collided with the wall, causing chunks of worked stone to fall to the ground. The ballista’s platform slid out of place and began tilting dangerously. It appeared to have been suffering from lack of maintenance since the Crimson Reavers took the city. Soon the entire contraption, along with the Crimson Reavers manning it, fell to the ground outside the walls with a thunderous crash.

  In sequence, the rest of the Vanguard’s trebuchets launched their projectiles as well. Two missed, leaving massive craters in the side of Heinburg’s outer walls, while another two landed squarely on their targets.

  Davon looked on as the Crimson Reavers, panicked, loaded more ballista shots. There was still a good chance that the Vanguard would see serious losses before the trebuchets were reloaded.

  Only then did Davon realize just how close to the walls the Vanguard’s frontline had gotten. Before the remaining ballistae could fire again, the Revenants leading the charge set down the barricades they were carrying. Ducking behind these barricades for cover, they shifted their formation, allowing the gathered archers to take point.

  In response, the Crimson Reaver soldiers standing on the ramparts drew their own bows, loosing a volley of arrows towards the Vanguard’s battle line. Most of these enemy missiles fell to the ground, repelled easily by the conjured barrier. But then the ballistae fired again.

  The barrier shattered.

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  Now, the Vanguard warriors had only their barricades for cover.

  At that moment, a second volley of boulders was launched by the Vanguard’s trebuchets, obliterating another two ballistae as well as a building beyond the walls.

  Through all of the chaos, Davon and his team continued pushing their siege tower towards the walls. They drew closer and closer to the frontlines, moving towards strategic holes in the wall of barricades left there specifically for the siege towers to pass through.

  Davon counted his blessings when he realized that the enemy’s sole remaining ballista was on the far side of the battlefield. He took a deep breath, letting his anxiety fade into the background.

  At least we won’t be getting shot at by siege engines. That’s one less thing to worry about.

  “Towers, hold!” Grant commanded, causing the siege tower teams to halt. “Catapults, thin the ramparts!”

  A volley of smaller boulders was launched at the Crimson Reavers on the walls. The enemy’s barrage of arrows ceased as they ducked down to take cover, but for most of them, this was a futile effort. The Vanguard’s boulders made short work of the city’s merlons, leaving exposed areas along the walls. With his cursory knowledge of warfare, Davon guessed those areas were the points where the siege towers would be installed when they pushed to claim the walls.

  Suddenly, the sound of a war horn echoed from within the city. It was a long, drawn-out wail unlike any war horn Davon had ever heard. Even before those echoes faded, Davon picked up on the noise of many massive feet running across the ground.

  A whole line of mounted Duelists hopped onto the rampart.

  At the exact same moment, the Revenants launched another volley of catapult boulders towards the walls.

  The boulders crashed directly into some of the Duelists’ leaping mounts, catching them off-guard. With painful wails, those beasts were sent back into the city, either dead or severely wounded from the impact.

  But the rest of the Duelists were undeterred. They urged their mounts forward and off the ramparts, leaping from the walls to land on the battlefield far below.

  Well, so much for them not showing up, Davon sighed.

  He focused on preparing himself for the battle to come. As much as he’d hoped to avoid fighting those things again, some part of him had wished for a rematch with the Red Plume. If nothing else, he wanted to prove to himself that he was able to best her.

  However, as Davon scanned the group of Crimson Reaver cavalry, he didn’t see her among them. He frowned. Though her absence was a good thing for the Vanguard, he was disappointed to miss out on such a worthy opponent.

  Count your blessings, fool, Davon chided internally. You will have more than a worthy opponent when Tenebris joins the fight.

  “Brace! Tower teams, reinforce the flanks!”

  Grant’s command sent Davon and the rest of his team into action as they moved to take position with the Vanguard’s main force.

  While running, Davon scanned the Crimson Reaver cavalry again. He counted fifty of the massive beasts, each with a Duelist on top.

  Seconds before the cavalry crashed into the Vanguard, the beasts leapt over the lines of barricades, landing only feet behind the frontline of Revenants. The Duelists dismounted their beasts, blades poised to strike.

  Davon raised his bow as the battlefield descended into chaos. With a line of the Duelists’ beasts between him and the Vanguard frontline, he couldn’t tell how the fight was unfolding.

  Trying to focus, Davon invoked the Scattershot rune and loosed a shot in the general direction of the Duelists’ mounts. There were enough of them that he didn’t concern himself with taking precise aim, opting instead to hit as many foes as possible.

  Davon’s shot landed squarely in the back of one beast, piercing its armor and sinking into flesh. Barely visible rivulets of blood trickled down the thing’s armor. Growling savagely, it turned to face its assailant.

  As Davon braced for the creature’s attack, Kai stepped in front of him, axe raised in a defensive manner.

  “One beast at a time, D!” Kai shouted over the noise of battle.

  With a roar, the beast bounded towards the two Revenants. But before it could reach them, a spear flew towards it at astounding speed. The weapon pierced through the beast’s chest and exited on the other side, taking part of the creature’s spine with it.

  Carried by the momentum of its leap, the beast’s body fell to the ground and slid towards Kai. The warrior raised his foot, placing it against the thing’s shoulder to bring it to a stop.

  Davon glanced over at Lyla just as her spear returned to her hands. Almost nonchalantly, she flicked the bits of spine from her spear and prepared herself for another throw.

  Returning his attention to the unfolding battle, Davon spotted one of the beasts with a Revenant held in its mouth. He raised his bow, taking careful aim while the creature thrashed its head, then loosed his shot.

  Davon watched as the arrow flew straight, striking the beast’s neck at the point where it connected to its shoulder. Staggering, the creature let go of the poor Revenant it had been thrashing about. Then it fell to the ground with a pathetic groan.

  Davon swept his gaze over the rest of the battlefield. Quite a few Revenants lay on the ground. A few were motionless, but most of them were just squirming in pain. The Crimson Reavers’ beasts and Duelists lay dead all around them.

  Since the initial combat started only a short time ago, almost half of the Crimson Reaver cavalry lay dead on the battlefield. Davon smiled with no small amount of satisfaction at the sight, but his celebration was short-lived as he spotted a volley of arrows bearing down from Heinburg’s walls.

  “Behind me, now!” Kai called out.

  Davon, Lyla, and several other nearby Revenants rushed to obey. Fractions of a second before the arrows impacted them, Kai raised his axe. A rune lit up on the weapon, conjuring a smaller version of the barrier the Vanguard had used previously.

  From the safety of Kai’s golden barrier, Davon kept an eye on the Crimson Reavers still on the battlefield. Then the war horn sounded again, a much shorter call this time. Almost immediately, the Crimson Reaver cavalry split off, the beasts bounding away as their riders seemed to teleport into the saddles.

  It was then that Davon spotted the Red Plume stalking along the ramparts. He could barely make out her movements, but he did manage to note that she had just tucked a war horn into her belt.

  Before anyone in the Vanguard could react, the Crimson Reaver cavalry made a swift retreat towards the city, gathering at the walls beneath the Red Plume.

  Leaping onto her own mount, the Red Plume lifted her voice, calling across the city and the battlefield alike:

  “We will not die for your pointless conquest, Tenebris!”

  With that, the Red Plume spurred her mount to jump off the walls, landing among her fellow Duelists. The whole cavalry turned and rode away from the city and the Vanguard ranks, leaving the conflict behind.

  Well… that’s a change of pace, Davon mused. I guess their infighting was worse than I thought.

  Then Grant’s bellowed command sent Davon and his team hurrying to resume their position by the siege tower.

  “Brothers and sisters in arms, prepare to push for the walls!”