If we didn’t, the lindwyrms would push through, and there’d be nothing to stop them from burning Khalkha to ash. I couldn’t let that happen.
♱
The lindwyrms crept ever closer, the embodiment of an approaching catastrophe. To stop them, I had my Swarms attack from atop our unreliable walls.
“Carrion Cannons, open fire!”
My Carrion Cannons fired at the enemy all at once, blasting the lindwyrms with polluted, rotting flesh. It had no visible effect on them, but they were definitely poisoned. By pelting them with poison, we diminished the enemy’s stamina, ensuring they’d be weakened enough for us to defeat by the time they reached the walls.
“Your Majesty, they’ll be in the Fire Swarms’ attack range shortly.”
“Yes, I know, Sérignan.”
As the Carrion Cannons continued blasting the enemy units, we ushered in Fire Swarms to bomb them. I didn’t like using them as cannon fodder, but I wasn’t at liberty to do otherwise. We had to stop those serpents from closing in on us, no matter what.
Forgive me, Fire Swarms.
I projected that thought into the collective consciousness as I sent them the order to self-destruct. The Fire Swarms, which lay hidden underground, blew up with thundering explosions. Sediment went flying through the air, and their blasts shook the lindwyrms. The gigantic serpents faltered, and though it didn’t kill them, they took visible damage.
The suicidal attacks didn’t stop there. A second and third wave followed, each one staggering the lindwyrms. But it wasn’t enough to defeat them. They really were among the toughest units in the game. Fighting them was so irritating.
With all the Fire Swarms dead, the lindwyrms surged toward the walls—our final line of defense. And then...
“Sérignan, you’re up!”
“By your will, Your Majesty!”
Sérignan jumped down the walls, landed with feline delicacy, and charged at the lindwyrms. Noticing the approaching enemy, the lindwyrms began breathing fire at her. But their fire breath was only as strong as the wyverns’, if not weaker, and it did nothing to stop Sérignan.
She lunged at one of the lindwyrms and thrust her longsword into its neck. For a second, it looked like its thick scales would deflect her corrupted holy sword, but Sérignan came out the victor. Her sword sank into its throat, releasing a gushing spray of blood from the reptilian’s neck.
Even though she had wounded that lindwyrm, however, the rest kept storming along, paying no heed to their fallen comrade.
“Sérignan! You think you can do this?!” I shouted, feeling my heart sink.
“I shall try!”
Don’t panic. Sérignan can handle this.
As powerful as they were, lindwyrms were still standard units. They’d always lose in a one-on-one battle with a hero unit. Sérignan would never lose to a lindwyrm. But the problem wasn’t whether she could beat them. It was whether she’d be able to beat them fast enough.
The lindwyrms were already closing in on our walls. It would only be seven or eight minutes before the foremost lindwyrm would make contact with our defenses. But just as that thought crossed my mind...
“I did it, Your Majesty!”
Sérignan had slain one of the lindwyrms, but there were still fifty-nine of them left. The situation was hopeless. Longsword raised, Sérignan slashed at another lindwyrm’s neck. Her attack was initially deflected, but after a few attempts, she was able to rend her target’s flesh. All the while, the rest of the lindwyrms continued their march uninterrupted.
Suddenly, I felt a violent quake beneath my feet. The wall opposite the one I was standing on had been bashed by one of the lindwyrms and was crumbling into shattered stone. The lindwyrms had begun their destructive charge in an attempt to destroy our walls.
Oh, not good. They’re going to break through.
The Toxic Swarms rained stingers upon them, but the dragons’ tough scales rendered their shots mostly useless. The most they could do was chip away at their stamina.
“Are you ready, men?!” a voice rang out over the walls, yanking me out of my pessimism.
“Yes, sir!”
Konrad and his men had built an impromptu battering ram and towed it close to the lindwyrms. Those men were surely about to die. The lindwyrms’ attacks were powerful enough to shake the walls, after all. A human wouldn’t be able to withstand the force of their charge. They’d just turn to red stains on the ground and nothing would be able to stop the lindwyrms then.
I saw that they were doing everything in their power, and it inspired me to do the same, lest I bring shame to my troops. The Arachnea wasn’t a weak enough faction to be chased away by a bunch of stupid snakes, after all!
“Toxic Swarms, open fire!”
At my order, the Toxic Swarms hidden behind the two layers of walls fired their stingers at once. The storm of stingers hit the lindwyrms, and while some of them were deflected, many penetrated the reptilians’ flesh. Those lindwyrms could effortlessly deflect one or two stingers, but not such a dense barrage.
Even then, they stayed on their feet and continued their assault on our walls.
“Haaah!”
Meanwhile, Sérignan downed a third lindwyrm, which had already been weakened by the Carrion Cannons and the Toxic Swarms. It looked like she was killing them fast and faster now. Had the poison finally started debilitating them?
“Let’s go, boys!”
“Kill those stupid lizards!”
Konrad’s men joined in with their battering ram. They bashed it into a lindwyrm, shaking its large form. They didn’t kill it, but they did manage to stall it for a little.
If we can just keep going... If we can just keep hitting them...
“Wyverns incoming!” yelled a lookout.
Oh, no. Not wyverns, not now!
I quickly shifted my attention to the aerial enemies. “Toxic Swarms, focus on the wyverns! Shoot them out of the sky!”
“By your will, Your Majesty!”
If the wyverns were to breathe flames on them from above, Sérignan and Konrad would be in danger. Sadly, the Toxic Swarms were my only units capable of firing into the air. Their stingers zoomed through the sky, but the wyverns deftly dodged them as they dived toward the earth. Several wyverns took direct hits from the stingers and fell to the ground, but a handful managed to get through the barrage.
“Keep shooting!” I cried, cheering the Toxic Swarms on. “Keep Sérignan safe!”
Encouraged by my words, the Toxic Swarms unleashed another intense wave of stingers. Their attacks shot down two-thirds of the wyverns swooping down on us, but the remaining third were nearing the ground. There was no time to shoot another volley.
The wyverns opened their jaws and sprayed the ground with fire, along with the lindwyrms standing over it. A sea of flames swelled up from the earth. The lindwyrms were mostly unaffected, so the majority of the casualties were Toxic Swarms.
Thankfully, Sérignan and Konrad weren’t in the wyverns’ line of fire. But the enemy wyverns were swooping down for a second attack, and my Toxic Swarms readied their stingers once more, even within the flames.
As the fight raged on between heaven and earth, the battle over the fortress was moving along too. Sérignan had killed seven lindwyrms, and her slaying speed just kept picking up. Konrad’s men were using their battering ram to stagger the lindwyrms, but the walls looked like they were on the verge of collapse.
At that moment, the balance was broken when a lindwyrm shook its head wildly and blew the battering ram back.
Humans couldn’t put up a fight against a monster like that, after all.
After knocking Konrad’s battering ram away, the lindwyrms were free to bash down the Arachnea’s palisades, leaving only a final layer of wall.
In that case...
“Toxic Swarms, fall back! Genocide Swarms, forward!” I ordered.
There was only one thing left to do.
“Raaah! Don’t falter, men!” Konrad roared. “Show these monsters what a mercenary’s pride is all about!”
Konrad’s mercenaries managed to pick their battering ram back up and smash it into a lindwyrm’s flank.