The roar of hundreds preparing themselves to fight for their lives morphed into a cacophony of boots on stone, the chimes and clash of metal on metal, the sound of stagnant air as it broke against spells, and the screams of the dying.

  They thundered across the bridges, those who fell either tripped off the edges or got trampled, then pushed off to fall hundreds of feet to their deaths. The loss of life was minimal for how dangerous a charge it was. Merely fifteen fell in the first wave. [Clerics] hidden within the towers, spared the rest who should have died from a hail of arrows, spears, and spells with mana barriers along the bridge.

  Hidden amongst the casters were groups of [Archers] who launched three volleys in rapid succession, a unit skill of some kind, at the defenders before the first goblins reached the end of the bridge.

  The arrows did little besides forcing the defenders to split their attention between the volley and the goblins, charging them two at a time. The ranged support did little to begin with and three of the four who led the charge died within seconds. Only one of the brave fools survived long enough for the next grouping of two to join them. The goblins had to jump off their bridges, which rested on the crenelations and into the waiting mass of defenders.

  “They certainly aren’t cowards.” I remarked to Ellen as we watched a pair of orcs throw themselves into a waiting group of aranae warriors, spears and stingers poised to strike.

  “I don’t know if this counts as bravery or stupidity.” Mika said, surprising me.

  “When’d you get here?” Ellen asked, worry and relief painted across her face.

  “I got like halfway through carving the runes onto the wall when some officer demanded I stop and see the spiress.”

  Ellen and I shared a quick glance and a silent laugh.

  “What?” Mika asked, eyes darting between us.

  “Your runes make excellent bombs if you can pump enough mana into them fast enough.”

  “I… but… oh.” Mika muttered.

  “Well?” Ellen asked.

  “There are a couple of seconds where the mana in the absorption rune moves over to the valve rune. If you could force enough mana into the absorption rune before it could make that transfer, the mana would force its way through the valve, overloading it instead. Once a single crack in the rune exists, all the mana stored within would violently rush out and try to fill the air, making it explode.” Mika trailed off at the end, an idea hitting him as he talked.

  Ellen and I left him to his idea and turned our attention back onto the fighting. The smile that spread across Ellen’s face as she watched Mika work through the rune issue withered into a horrified snarl. Wave after wave of goblins threw themselves into certain death. Occasionally, a goblin survived long enough for two more to arrive, and most times, those new arrivals died with the first goblins, lasting only seconds more.

  The goblins caught a break, however, and in a dying slash, a hoblite killed one aranae warrior and seriously injured another. That opened a gap in the defense just long enough for the next two goblins to arrive uncontested. That snowballed as more and more goblins joined them on the wall until they held a small bubble of control around their bridge.

  They died with abandon, the press of bodies too much to overcome, but the goblins that arrived now had a chance to fill the gaps as soon as they opened.

  The same thing happened at the other bridge as well. A goblin got lucky, which led to them establishing a foothold on the massive wall. Both slowly expanded, but for every inch the goblins conquered, they paid dearly in lives and liters of blood. The footholds collapsed and reformed several times; each time they faltered, the aranae tossed the bridge off the wall. Costing the [Clerics] and [Archers] on top of the tower precious seconds hauling on steel chains to get the bridge back into place.

  It took hours for the goblins to secure footholds large and stable enough to no longer be at risk of collapse. As time passed, I saw signs of the Tier 2s, men and women barely more than a couple years my senior, hesitating to throw themselves into the meat grinder. I almost cringed as I watched a goblin smaller than most of his peers get pushed forward by an officer. A barbed aranae stinger that leaked a puss yellow fluid stabbed into his eye the second he looked back up. I longed to feel Iona’s grip on the back of my neck. I wanted desperately to feed my growing horror at the mountains of corpses into the Howling Winds.

  I’d never been sidelined like this before, always I’d been in the thick of the fighting. Able to drown out the battle and death around me as I focused on ensuring the safety of those under my care. Forced to sit out and watch like this, I got a glimpse for the first time at the grim logistics of a siege.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  ~~~***~~~

  When the spiress finally called Ellen, Mika, and I over to command, it was to reinforce the right tower nearest to the tunnel wall.

  The walkway to get there was so crowded by milling reserves, the dead, and the dying that it forced us back into the courtyard so we could climb the spire nearest to where we were supposed to be. During the climb, we passed at least a hundred aranae warriors waiting their turn to join the fighting on the overcrowded wall. Just before we exited the spire onto the rampart, I made a small prayer to Ylena and Iona, inviting them to see through my eyes.

  In time with the opening of the door, I felt Iona’s hand tighten around my soul and the passions drain from me. The section the spiress sent us to reinforce was bowing significantly already. We had to slow down before we could reach the fighting to weave through the crowd. As we pushed and shoved, a shouted command in the aranae language echoed over the sounds of battle and the women before us parted.

  They moved as if puppeted by a singular force, all of them stepping out of our way in time with the others. That left only the struggling warriors to hold back the goblin offensive for the five seconds it took us to reach the front.

  The goblins tried to take advantage of the opportunity, but the flashing tails and venom coated stingers of the warriors held them at bay. Barbed stingers easily pierced flesh and tore chunks as they left. The first goblin who hadn’t managed to block the tail seized up, his limbs contorting unnaturally as whatever venom the aranae pumped into him coursed through his veins. When his legs gave out, a warrior on the front dispatched him by stabbing her leg through his eye mask.

  The other goblin to get stung let out a hoarse scream. Yellow bile flooded from beneath their black face plate as they desperately warded off spear thrusts and blows from my hammer. I’m unsure what would have happened if the venom was allowed to run its course because Ellen ended the man’s life when she brought her maul down on the back of their skull.

  The gap they left in the goblin line allowed Ellen and me just enough time to get properly positioned within the aranae defense. The skinniest orc I’d ever seen was the first to test us and I had to eat a sword strike on the face of my shield in order to get set. Sparks flew as the skill enhanced thrust bounced off the boss of my shield. I ducked the follow up as the orc punched out with his sword hand, wicked spikes lining the basket hilt.

  The strike was sloppy, full of wasted movement. In regular conditions, I would’ve rushed forward to punish the error. The press of bodies kept me still and forced me to remain in line, fighting passively, defensively. Unable to dodge and weave as I would normally, I had to absorb blows with my shield more often than I’d like to keep my ground, taking root.

  It was Mika that provided the opportunity to strike. One of his golems rushed into the space between Ellen and I. I couldn’t see what he did but when the orc in front of me collapsed and the space around us rang out with a shallow snap and his agonized cries, I could guess.

  Sparing a glance around me, I noticed the goblins were too content. Even with all the loss of life, the goblins pushed forward relentlessly. This was not a real battle in their minds. The fort was as good as taken, they just needed to be the ones to actually do so.

  There is a principal to siege warfare in the forest. The mind breaks before the body does. The Emerald Ocean is so bountiful it becomes nearly impossible to starve out an enemy force. It is so filled with hidden escape routes that you never know if a force managed to partially escape. The only way to end a siege early in the Ocean is to break the morale of your enemy. You must force them to realize that holding this land will cost them much more than just blood.

  Iona’s grip firm on my neck. I made an example of the downed orc. Let the goblins be reminded the price of victory. I broke his knees and shoulders, never leaving the line enough to be caught out. Their echoing cracks and the orc’s screams turned heads on both sides. As I dragged out the death with strikes from my hammer’s spike and warded off blows from his peers, I could feel the weight of goblin eyes turn to their downed peer as he screamed.

  Minutes passed as I hummed the war hymn, patiently waiting for a gap I could exploit in the goblin line. Or for one of the people around me to create an opportunity where I could use the Willow’s Wrath style to its full extent. With every combat I was coming to see that being put on the defensive exposed one of the Willow’s Wrath’s biggest flaws, it required movement. In order to use my style, the way it was meant to be, I had to move. I had to flow and sway around my opponent. Locked shoulder to shoulder with the people around me forced me to rely on the fundamentals of shield and hammer work. Which validated my choice to select Beginner’s Hammer and Shield Arts as my first class skills.

  Ellen was the first to rotate out of the front line. Red rivulets flowed down her gore soaked chain mail in rivers. Her replacement was small for the warrior subspecies and died to a goblin sword stroke within seconds. The woman’s quick death meant Ellen was back into the fray before she could even do so much as take a rag to her maul. I had to overextend to defend her while she got her bearings. Goblins from the sides and back rows took the chance to try and kill her before she got settled.

  Ellen was not a defensive fighter by nature, and while it was a risk to interpose my shield between her and a blade as often as I did. Her style provided the benefit that any goblin fool enough to step within range almost immediately became a casualty of five pounds of steel. Frustrating as it was for me not to be able to counter-attack like I preferred, Ellen, Mika, and I made an excellent trio for this kind of work. Mika’s golems disabled and pinned down the goblins, Ellen killed them, and I stepped forward to defend our retaken ground.

  “Adventurers! Return to the spiress!” Someone called. The aranae accent made the words almost unintelligible.

  Ellen was the first to disengage, all three of Mika’s golems and me remaining behind to hold the gap until we got relieved.

  “Switch!” Ellen called over the chaos of battle.

  I did so, stepping back and to the left. The space I filled was immediately taken by two aranae warriors. Their tails flashed out in rapid strikes while they set their shields against their partner’s. A skill created a crackling orange barrier over top and between the shields once they touched.

  As we jogged back to the central spire, I had the time to observe all the corpses that littered the rampart. Goblin bodies, so long as they weren’t too mauled to move, were almost always tossed off the wall. Interior or exterior didn’t matter, the aranae simply wanted the corpses off their wall. Aranae corpses, on the other hand, were all treated with care, their legs curled up underneath them and spines curled backwards in death. Laborers placed those corpses in neat lines at the back of the wall.

  Exiting from the interior of the central spire and back onto the wall, I could finally gain a clear view of what we’d achieved. We’d reduced the goblin foothold in front of the right siege tower to a third of what it was. The far-right which previously threatened to break now surged at the goblins. Spells and projectiles still bombarded the towers themselves. The few lives that claimed seemed a poor tradeoff for the mana and resources spent.

  The spiress barely spared us a glance when we arrived and simply waved us to where Maggie still stood, not having moved since we left. She smiled as us as we neared, but didn’t otherwise say anything and the four of us settled back in to watch the assault progress in silence.

  Loss of life on both sides was massive; it’d only been half an hour since the bridges dropped and already hundreds of goblins were dead and fifty aranae corpses joined them. While the goblins were on the losing side of the equation, that was purely because they were attacking an entrenched position. Outside these walls, their numbers advantage would lead to slaughter.

  Their advance almost seemed inevitable, however. Through flesh and blood, they carved themselves a small tunnel between the two footholds. With this newly won ground, the goblins sent people between either tower to reinforce the other. I knew as soon as I saw the development that the spiress could not allow that to stand. It wasn’t a surprise when the order came down for us to break and shatter that thin line.