Four Horsemen Book 5 - Old Histories: Chapter 6

Petor followed Mya through the dense jungle, his boots finding purchase on the worn paths between thick vegetation. The canopy thinned as they emerged into the town proper, buildings of weathered stone and wood rising around them. We're in the town around the lake.

The volcano loomed ahead, its dormant peak wreathed in wisps of cloud.

"Temple's up there." Mya pointed at the volcano. "It lies along the main road that lead s from the harbor up to the lake and fields up here on the hill."

"What's the temple layout?" Valter asked.

"Gardens surround it and areas for kids to play. The building is laid out in a T shape. There's an entrance hall where people can give their tithes, pray and see the history of the Mardun. The wings further back that hold the classrooms. At the intersection of all that at the cross point of the T, there are stairs into the underground vault- where we keep our dead."

The crack of gunfire echoed across the island, followed by the distinctive thunder of cannon fire from the harbor. Closer, boots pounded on stone and voices approached.

"Those bastards at the ritual site killed half our squad!"

"Main force should have breached the temple by now. We need to circle around, hit their flank while they're occupied with the front assault."

Mya's hand flashed quick signals. The horsemen melted to either side of the road, taking cover behind walls and carts. Petor crouched behind a merchant's stall, spear ready.

Six champions rounded the corner, their enhanced armor scratched and dented. They continued griping as they walked into the ambush.

"We'll help them at the temple. Once we get those souls-"

Mya whistled, causing the champions to stutter-step, she fired, dropping one as she worked the lever action.. Petor burst from cover, his spear stabbing through a champion and his armor, he twisted and drew his spear back out. Desari's arrows found two throats while Valter cut through a man's leg, another's head and his armors latched onto legs and stabbed the champions from below.

Mya fired, killing a second before she dodged an attack, pulling a pistol from her holster and fired it upwards, through the man's chin. Petor withdrew his spear and killed one champion attacked by a set of armor.

Arrows landed with dull thuds.

"Finish them off," Desari said to Petor.

He nodded, killing the champions and sharing the power with the others, topping them up.

They left the bodies in the street, Mya reloading her pistol as they continued on their way.

Petor ducked as a blast tore through the building beside them, stone and wood exploding outward. The force knocked him sideways into a wall. His ears rang as he regained his footing.

Through gaps in the rubble, he watched champions unleash devastating spells that ripped apart structures around the temple grounds. Where peaceful gardens had once flourished, only churned earth and broken statues remained. Sections of the temple's eastern wing had collapsed, its pale stone walls blackened by fire and scarred by combat.

Undead constructs held the temple entrance, their enchanted bones gleaming as they traded shots with champions. Gun crews had set up positions in the lakeside buildings, their coordinated volleys keeping the attackers from fully breaching the temple proper and splitting their attack.

"We're not going to make it across that open space," May pulled out a rifle, a cask of powder and shot, holding it out to Valter's armor without ranged weaponry.

"We'll bring them down at distance."

She armed the remaining of Valter's armors as he took back the siege ballista personally.

Desari tapped Petor and pointed into a building, he nodded and followed after her, through the ruins of what had been a store along the main road.

They moved carefully over fallen beams and around toppled furniture, seeking vantage points.

Desari pointed to where a part of the roof had collapsed.

"If you can throw high it'll come down among them from above," Desari said, her voice carried on the wind.

Petor nodded and started climbing up to it as she kept moving for another vantage.

Petor reached the partially intact second floor, giving him his first clear view of the temple through a broken wall.

The main building rose three stories high, its architecture a blend of functionality and reverence. The stone was flecked and muddied, quarried from the island itself. Its wooden roofs were broken and burned in places by spell damage.

The entrance hall extended forward like the base of a T, while the two wings swept back to either side. Grand windows of colored glass - those that remained intact - caught the mornings coming light. Stone columns lined the front, providing cover for defenders.

Behind the temple, the volcano's bulk rose against the sky.

Spells hit the temple, causing its roof to shudder.

From his vantage point, Petor watched a group of champions dart between the houses to the temple's left. They gathered in doorways and behind walls, their armor glinting as they prepared for another assault.

Three champions broke from their building's cover sprinting across the open ground toward the temple steps. Covering spells from their companions forced the undead constructs to duck behind pillars. Those hit by their holy spells wailed as their bodies decayed rapidly.

The first passed a certain point and the Mardun gun crews on the right responded instantly. Coordinated volleys rang out, round shot tearing through the air. The first champion stumbled as multiple shots punched through his barrier and then armor armor. The second managed two more steps before falling. The third made it halfway before concentrated fire dropped him.

Their shots pointed out the barrier that covered the buildings they were in

From his vantage point, Petor studied the gun crews defending the temple's right flank. Unlike the champions with their magical barriers and enhanced armor, the crews relied on hastily fortified positions in the lakeside buildings. They'd knocked holes through walls to create firing ports, stacking sandbags and furniture for cover.

Smoke drifted from dozens of musket barrels as crews worked together. Their coordinated volleys spoke of drilling and discipline, but their positions remained vulnerable to magic and physical attack.

A spell blast caught one of the forward buildings, stone fragments spraying across the street. Two gun crews abandoned their position as the floor above began to collapse. They dragged wounded comrades and salvaged what ammunition they could before retreating to fallback positions.

Champion ran across the front of the temple, jumping into craters for cover as the gun crews fired back at them.

"They manned their guns even as their ships came apart around them, going to need more thank blowing up a building to throw them off," Mya muttered as she moved under Petor.

He continued up to the third floor that Desari had picked out.

When champions tried to rush the temple, concentrated volleys eventually overwhelmed even enhanced defenses through sheer volume of lead.

Still, without magical protection, a single well-placed spell could devastate their positions. The gun crews relied on mobility and redundancy, ready to abandon any position that came under heavy attack while other crews maintained pressure on the enemy. It wasn't elegant, but it was keeping the champions from massing for a decisive push on the temple entrance.

Then when the champions picked out the gun crews they blasted them with their strongest spells and pushed again, staying relatively safe except for those that were running for the temple.

Though the gun crews are going to run out of positions to move between and cover.

It was a delaying action a stalemate with no man's land between the temple and the two groupings of buildings.

Petor studied the enemy positions from his position.

The champions barrier covered the buildings that they occupied and extended beyond them.  He guessed the range to the rear of the buildings the champions occupied and back up slowly from the edge, pulling out his sling and loading it with ever burning brambles.

Petor Closed his eyes visually imagining the distance between his position the buildings the champions were in and his target beyond them just outside of the barrier's protection.

He spun the Sling lazily letting it release on the upswing arching out of the hole in the roof that he occupied high into the air.

He moved forward slowly not making any jerky or sudden movements that could draw the attention of an eye looking for motion.

He tracked the arc of the seeds as they scattered around the rear of the buildings the Champions were in and beyond the barrier.

He commanded them through his connection to begin growing spreading across the cobbled streets and through the barrier they continue to twist and turn constantly moving towards the building until they adhered to the side of it and began climbing upwards.

He mentally picked out three other locations around the building that should be blind spots based on the orientation of doors windows and broken walls.

Petor reached into his storage device, pulling out handfuls of seeds. With practiced motions, he scattered them in high arcs, the small pods landing just before the barrier's edge.

The brambles had created a lattice of burning vines across the stone walls. Their thorns dug deep into mortar and rock, spreading like a web of fire. Smoke curled up from where they touched the building. He reined in their nature, commanding them and stopping them from burning the wood that they dug their thorns into.

A volley of musket fire drew his attention. Three champions dove for cover  with only one dying and the other three crawling through the churned mud.

Not used to being in the dirt. Or fighting others as strong as them.

Petor continued his work—he didn't know when Mya might announce their presence.

A mound of dirt started to rise. Ah shit, trenches.

Petor loaded his sling with Stormvine seeds, carefully gauging wind and distance. He released on the upswing, watching the seeds scatter and land among the everburning brambles he'd launched before.

The vines sprouted rapidly, their smooth tendrils weaving through the brambles already established network, using them like a trellis. Unlike the brambles which anchored into the stone, the Stormvine grew more flexibly, spreading outward to create dense patches.

Petor stopped the stormvines from releasing their lightning and threw out another scattering of seeds, and another.

Bramble and vine weaved around the buildings, moving between windows and doors, spreading across the roof.

Should have layered an alarm into their barriers incase anything passed through.

Petor kept his movements minimal as he observed the results. One wrong move could draw attention to his position. The champions remained focused on their duel with the gun crews, unaware of the literal  growing threat.

A smile threatened to break out on Petor's face. Got to remember that one for later.

Stormvine tendrils snaked through gaps in the barrier, their leaves already crackling with stored energy as they climbed higher. Petor loaded Hellfire thistles and waited.

The trench from the champion building spread through the ground, going deep and piling up a high berm as it weaved towards the broken wing of the temple.

Can they see that from their vantage?

Two spells launched from the champions position, smashing into a building and spraying wood and stone outwards, another hitting dirt and throwing up a wave of  dirt.

Petor worked his jaw to hear again.

He moved to the back of the building in slow smooth motion before well out of view, then moved to a window behind the building and threw out boulder berry  seeds at the open patches of dirt he saw.

The boulderberries erupted from the ground, their stalks thickening rapidly as they drew nutrients from the soil. Petor fed their growth, encouraging them to spread in patches across the open ground.

they took longer to grow than the others, his mana split in three different directions with his spells.

Gunshots rang out, followed with spells, the exchange mounting and growing beyond just a skirmish.

Spells thundered against stone with greater frequency, the continuous crack of musket fire drowning out individual shots. Champions shouted orders, their voices carrying over the din as more of their number joined the assault.

Petor moved  back to the hole in the roof and peeked towards the champions buildings, their barrier was struck by dozens of round impacts.

Several spells rocked the gun crews' position, followed by shouts and running feet. Three squads of champions emerged from the buildings and started running through the trenches for the temple. Each squad had an ornate totems that projected overlapping barriers around them.

The building shuddered, tiles falling and bricks shifting, releasing dust as Mya fired a cannon.

Well shit that's one way to say hello.