Sealed in Steel
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B2. 11 - Besieged by Shadows
🕑 Added 2025-05-13 10:38:50 +0000 UTCElian was pleasantly surprised by how much they accomplished in half a day. He thought convincing the townspeople to help would be difficult because it entailed venturing outside the walls for hours. The shadow beasts may hate the light, but there had been a few attacks during the day.
Lord Gustall’s rousing speech, bolstered by the offer of money, proved very effective. It was probably the money part that did the trick.
“Are you not afraid?” Elian asked an old man with a wooden right leg, hobbling to join the crowd streaming through the gate. “Many people have already signed up for this. Better if you rest.”
“Telling me to miss the easy coin?” The old man shook his head. “Don’t think so, lad. I’m not afraid of no shadow beast.” He leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, “A lot of us, right? Means less chances for me becoming a shadow beast’s meal if one does show up. That’s the trick of herd animals. Just go with the crowd. Works for them. Works for me.”
“If you put it that way…” Elian muttered, watching the old man laugh as he trudged along.
The herd strategy wasn’t what Lord Gustall had in mind to keep his people safe while they worked. Maveron and his horsemen fanned out to scout incoming shadow beasts. Haford and his mercenaries stayed to guard the townspeople should there be any danger.
The craftsmen that Verney had gathered were easy to teach. The process of making basic seals on the ground wasn’t so difficult. They tied sticks to both ends of a long string. One stick, stabbed into the ground, was the center of the seal. They used the other stick to outline the circle. It was a matter of shortening the string by wrapping it around the central stick to make spirals or smaller concentric circles. The symbols were where they got delayed. Elian made sure to teach them runes that didn’t have any adverse effects if the angles of their lines were slightly wrong. Wouldn’t want accidents happening.
A few demonstrations later and the craftsmen made their own seals on the ground. Didn’t even take a quarter of an hour. Having the craftsmen teach the rest of the townspeople was a different thing.
The first hour was chaotic. Hundreds of people spread like ants, laughing, making jokes, and even singing. They treated the whole affair like a party, with many bringing food and drinks. Verney had to shout at everyone to make them listen. The threat of not getting paid if they messed around stopped the merrymaking. To add to the seriousness, Elian helped a group make a flame amplification seal, which he completed himself. He threw a lit match inside, and a tornado of fire roared to the sky.
That caught everyone’s attention and enticed them to make their own too. They dug with shovels and sticks and pans—everything they could use. Others simply used their hands.
Elian darted from this hill to that, checking magic seal after magic seal. Most of them were abysmal. Expected. Some were outright unfixable. The townspeople were provided drawings as a guide, yet their works were not even a mile close to what they were supposed to copy. Elian couldn’t fathom what was going on with their minds as they drew on the dirt.
“Hear me, people of Golden Grove!” Lord Gustall boomed from atop a stack of crates as a pedestal. “To incentivize your labors, I promise the reward of a twentieth of your wages for every seal that your group completes. Twenty completed seals equate to doubling your compensation. However, our Penitent friend here will have to check your work. It must be precise! Fairness in our dealings—that is how things are in Golden Grove.”
“That worked really well,” Elian said, filing it away in a mental cabinet. After the promise of a bonus, the townspeople focused on their work.
“Let me tell you a secret, Penitent.” Lord Gustall beckoned to Elian. “I have anticipated this eventuality. And so, I offered wages lower than fair. This incentive would make the amount close to what I’m comfortable paying them for their services.”
“An excellent idea,” Elian said, less enthusiastically. The whole town was in danger, and their lord was still thinking of ways to rip off his subjects. Not that the townspeople were any better, just messing around, though many of their neighbors had died a week ago. Fairness in their dealings…
This was why humanity quickly fell to the Giants.
Yes, the Giants were, well, Giants. But they were few. Elian doubted they reached a hundred thousand in number, including their elderly, the women, and the children.
Compare that to humans numbering a few million. But humans weren’t united under one banner. Even those who supposedly were didn’t really cooperate, even in the face of death.
In the next hour, people got the hang of making seals. The work continued in the afternoon sun. Elian didn’t teach them how to activate the seal. A few unruly boys threw flaming torches into the other seals to replicate what Elian did. Verney rounded them up and hit them with a rod as a warning to other kids.
As night fell, the tired townspeople, caked with dirt mixed with their sweat, tramped to the gates of Golden Grove. Maveron and his men arrived half an hour later, bringing news of a buildup of shadow beasts in the distance.
“It’s going to happen tonight,” Maveron told Elian. They stood in front of the hastily built wall that covered the destroyed section of the old wall. “There are more of them… their glowing red eyes stared at us as they rolled in mists of shadows. They wait for the deepest darkness to reach their strongest.”
Elian gazed up at the sky. “No moon. The clouds cover most of the stars. But we have the flame seals.” He scanned the hills, pooling Aether into his eyes. Though he couldn’t quite achieve Aethersight yet, he could make out the blobs of hazy light that were the seals humming with Aether.
Dozens of seals were scattered through the hills. He had checked each of them, finishing their construction after the townspeople had left. He even upgraded some, adding lines that increased fire damage and widened their areas of effect. He expected the seals to be empowered by the thick Aether in the surroundings, left behind by the once majestic magical forest that covered this land.
“Tonight’s attack could be bigger than the one that broke the wall,” Maveron said, his voice strained by concern. “I pray that the wall will hold… but I sense it won’t. Deaths… may be unavoidable.”
“We’re much stronger than last time, uncle,” said a strong voice. It was Reese, joining them.
Elian had asked Verney if he could assign his eldest son to the gap. This Reese may be quite different from the person that Elian had made friends with in his previous life, but he’d still want to try. Also, he hoped to protect Reese during the fighting. It would be a great regret if Golden Grove were saved, but Reese died in the process.
“I join the battle,” Reese continued. “We have the Azure Roc Company.” He nodded at Elian, having gained a bit of respect after seeing the town’s improved defenses. “And an esteemed Penitent imparting his knowledge of seals. I’m prepared to lay down my life for the town.”
“Don’t get too carried away with heroics,” Elian said. He had seen many warriors putting honor and reputation above their own safety.
Reese frowned. “Are you calling me a coward? I’m not afraid of death.”
“I’m not saying you are,” Elian said. “But if you’re dead, then you’re not much help.”
“My death, if it comes to that, will not be in vain.”
“The good Penitent counsels you not to be overeager in fighting,” Maveron said. “Know your limits, dear nephew. You want to prove your mettle on the battlefield, but also keep in mind that our goal is to win, not to—”
“I’m not a show-off, uncle,” Reese cut in. He turned around and walked away. “I’ll check my equipment.”
Maveron chuckled. “Ah, the fire of youth. You’re quite young yourself, Penitent, but you’re assuredly more mature than our unproven prince of the sword over there. He wasn’t always like that. Changed by training abroad for three years, looks like it. In some ways, I am more than proud of his transformation. I am also concerned about his brewing stubbornness.”
“What was Reese like before he left?” Elian asked.
“A quiet boy who did as he was told… to a fault. A Manifested Armor construct that occasionally spoke—that was how Verney would describe his son. I don’t think he meant that in a good way.”
“Being too obedient is a problem for his father?”
“Reese didn’t have a warrior’s fire in his heart. Though he was quite good with numbers. Everyone thought he’d be a merchant while his brothers would walk in their father’s path. Reese was quite good friends with that Engall’s lad. Hinters, was it? Inseparable until Reese had a change of heart and wanted to learn swordsmanship.”
This could be why Reese took on Hinter’s name. Very possible that Reese wasn’t able to save Hinter and blamed himself.
“After a year at Sword Shard School,” Maveron went on, “under the tutelage of the famously infamous Master Abraham Ekron, we received word that Reese proved himself to be a prodigy. Verney was beside himself in pride. Two more years passed, and Reese returned to fight for his town. We now see that he’s quite… different. Bah, a real battle, with death right up at his face, would take his overconfidence down a peg. Then he’d change again. For the good, this time, I’m hoping.”
“Life-and-death situations do change people…” Elian said with a forlorn smile.
He met most of his friends after the Giants had destroyed their cities and towns, killing their loved ones and driving them away. If Elian met them again in this timeline, they’d be vastly different people than when he met them in his first life. Some might be the same, like Yanira, whom he made friends with before the Giants arrived. Even then, Yanira would see him differently as a Penitent compared to a bumbling, starving foreigner, struggling in the streets of Mist City.
Two hours passed. Elian stared at the darkness while eating dinner—a stewed feldeer with vegetables. A delicacy cooked in the kitchens of the castle. Lord Gustall was already celebrating before the battle even started. The lord also wanted to break open barrels of ale to ‘boost the morale of troops,’ but Maveron managed to stop him.
“We’d be passed out drunk when the monsters come, cousin!” Maveron exclaimed.
Another hour later, trained scouts with Energy familiars reported the approaching shadow.
Drums beat and bells tolled. The town was roused from its sleep.
“I’m at your disposal, Penitent,” Reese said.
“As we’ve talked about,” Elian said, “I’ll draw the shadow beasts’ attention, and you—”
“Quickly kill them,” Reese finished the sentence. “You’d be surprised at how quick my ‘quickly’ can be.”
Elian smiled. “We’ll see.”
Archers let loose their flaming arrows, filling the dark sky with twinkling streaks. The arrows landed on the furthest seals. Pillars of flames bloomed, lighting up the dark landscape. Dark silhouettes writhed in the flames; the shadow beasts were forced into their physical forms. The archers sent out another volley. This time, the arrows were lit to preserve the other flame seals for the succeeding waves.
Burning shadow beasts tumbled and fell as they were peppered with arrows. Only a handful reached the destroyed wooden houses outside the town. But the shadow beasts seeking shelter in the darkness of the ruins were in for a surprise. Shrieks echoed as Haford and his men emerged from the wreckage to ambush the burning shadow beasts.
“I should be there with them,” Reese mumbled. “I may not have their experience, but I’m more than a match for their skill.”
“It’s not about skill,” Elian said. “They’re just comfortable with working as a team. Think of a group of craftsmen who have known each other and worked together for years. One day, they’re commissioned to make a massive statue. Their patron, thinking that their group might take too long to complete it, hires another craftsman to join them. Imagine that you’re in that group and you’re forced to adjust to this new person, even though he may be skilled. It’s just—”
“Annoying and a hassle, I understand,” said Reese. “I suppose it’ll be even more annoying if this new person shows off his skills.”
“You admit that you plan to show off?”
“Perhaps, later,” Reese said, laughing. Good that he was warming up to Elian now.
The next wave of shadow beasts crested the hills, pushing through the wall of flames. These were bigger. Some were so big that they managed to break the burning seals as they stomped through them.
The archers released another wave of flaming arrows to activate the next line of seals. The next layer of the flaming wall arose, revealing the dozens of shadow beasts comprising the next wave. Many of them were bigger than groffs, with dark horns and spikes poking out in an abstract mess. They had heads with gnashing teeth growing out of their shoulders and flanks, looking like a bunch of monsters glued together.
Wave after wave of arrows rained on the stampeding horrors. Only a few of the monsters fell. Haford and the mercenaries fired their ranged skills at the frontlines of the shadow beasts to soften them up before the clash.
“Okay, let’s go,” Elian said, walking through the gap in the row of stakes. The drums commanded their next move. Verney, aided by their hired mage, had a bird’s eye view of the battlefield to decide their strategies.
“Finally, I can stretch my legs!” Reese unsheathed the twin swords on his back. They weren’t the swords that he carried when he joined Yanira’s party. This was quite unconventional for the region, for Raelyon warriors like Maveron preferred a broadsword held with two hands. The wider blade provided ease for the stored spells' circuitry.
“Watch where you step,” Elian cautioned as Reese broke into a run. “The flags mark the trap seals.”
“You don’t have to remind me. I’m not touched by the sun to run straight into a trap seal.”
“Remember, our job is to thin their numbers to preserve the trap seals for the bigger guys. Once your father sounds the horn to retreat—”
“Don’t worry, Penitent. I’ll retreat while carrying you on my shoulders if you want.” Reese extended his arms sideways. His swords glowed red. The snorting shadow beasts continued with their charge.
“I should go first,” Elian said.
Reese groaned in frustration, but he stopped running and stepped to the side. “Go ahead!”
Elian matched the charge of the shadow beasts, presenting his left shoulder to tackle them as he held his mace back. The shadow beasts headed for him. Ten feet between them. Five. Two. One.
WHAM!
Comments
MilkTheShark
This time, the arrows were lit to preserve the other flame seals for the succeeding waves. -> This time, the arrows weren't lit to preserve the other flame seals for the succeeding waves.
