Chapter 45: Rel Aid

The castle dropped away beneath them. For a moment, it felt as though the rope would split Relia in half and send her giblets raining down to the ground below, but her stats proved high enough, and a moment later the pain eased, leaving Relia to soar over the roofs and towers of Silverwall.

She gasped for breath. A hail of arrows followed them, and Rel frantically slashed one from the air, but the rest fell short.

She was treated to the sight of Lady Via disappearing in a rush of gold.

Then they were past the inner wall, past the outer wall, and sweeping over the dense jungle canopy.

“Uffda.” The rope binding Electra and Rel together creaked as the blond woman shifted. “That’s gonna bruise!”

Rel twisted, glaring upward. “How can you. Be so. Blaise!” Her words came out in tight gasps as the rope continued to constrict her middle. “We’ve left her for dead!”

Electra waved her hands. “Don’t go jerking around! This thing’s got the rope in its mouth.”

Rel stilled, as the rope creaked ominously. Above them, the skywhale gave a rumbling groan that reverberated through Relia’s bones.

“It…caught the end of the rope in its mouth?” Rel asked.

Electra nodded. “They, uh, eat the other type of demon. So Via told it to eat the little puffy demon she tied the rope to.”

They were hanging by a literal thread.

“We should…” Rel stiffened as the rope swayed again.

“Here, let’s climb up.” Electra offered her hand. “I don’t think I can lift both of us, but if you get up here and we pull together…”

Rel looked at her own hands. One was clenched around the rope that kept her aloft, the other wrapped tight around even more precious cargo: the mirror Lady Via had entrusted to her. With careful motions, Rel tucked the communication mirror into the clever pouch inside of her vest and cinched it shut. Then she took the other woman’s hand.

With a grunt, Electra heaved her up, putting them face to face. The blonde woman grinned. “Come here often?”

Rel groaned. “Please, just climb.”

Hand over hand, the two of them hauled their way up the rope. Rel fought the urge to squeak every time it so much as shifted, but soon enough they were at the demon’s mouth. It groaned and grumbled at them as Electra boosted Rel over the flat expanse of its nose.

Rel pulled Electra up after her, and a moment later, the skywhale spat out the other end of the rope—noticeably devoid of any other demon that may or may not have been considered food.

“Poof fluffy.” Electra wiped at the corner of her eyes. “We hardly knew ye.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Rel grunted. Then she made the mistake of looking down again. “Oh, oh bottomless seas.”

“Hmm?” Electra glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, yeah, it’s kinda disconcerting isn’t it?” She patted the skywhale’s translucent skin. “Kinda looks like we’re sitting on nothing.”

Rel forced her eyes shut, fingers digging into the smooth and nearly invisible surface of the creature’s skin. “How is this worse than hanging from a rope?” She felt the rope around her middle shift and almost screamed again.

“Relax. I’m just tying us in!” Electra raised her voice to carry over the rushing wind. “Didn’t think you’d be afraid of heights, but I guess that makes sense, huh?”

“I didn’t know one could be afraid of such a thing!” Rel pressed herself tighter against the demon as the rope tugged and shifted around her.

“I’ll have to remind Via to take you flying more often,” Electra replied. “There, done.” She placed a hand on Rel’s shoulder. “We’re all tied in, just take a deep breath and try not to look down.”

Rel nodded, pushing herself upright. The wind tugged at her hair and clothes, so fast and cold Rel had to shield her eyes as she slowly opened them again. Her other hand locked tight around the rope at her waist. It helped to ground her.

Even though the ground was so far below.

From the corner of her eyes, she could see the horizon, dipping away from her. The ocean sparkled to the west, still so vast—or perhaps even more so—from her great height. Relia’s breath caught, torn between terror and wonder.

Electra laughed. “Via would have some quote for you, like ‘once you have walked with your eyes turned skyward’ or something.” She put a steadying hand on Rel’s shoulder once more. “Just focus, hear me? We still got some work to do to make Via proud.”

“Right.” Rel took a deep breath. Her eyes tracked down for a moment before snapping back to the white line of the horizon. “Do you think she will survive?”

Electra quirked her lip. “I mean, I’ve never won anything by betting against her, so I’m not going to start now.” She pointed to the west. “Either way, we have bigger problems.”

Rel’s eyes tracked over, looking at so far a distance she didn’t even feel like she was truly looking down. Along the coastline, plumes of dust rose from the jungle, and even from this distance, she could see a path carved from devastated trees, leaving a thick scar of brown visible in the emerald green.

“The stampede,” Rel said.

Electra nodded. “They’re moving fast, too. Didn’t Llen say we’d probably have a full day?”

“The strongmaws and smaller monsters must be fleeing in terror,” Rel said. “They’re racing ahead, and the larger monsters are following in their tracks.”

“That could be a problem then.” Electa thumped the skywhale twice. “Hey, buddy! Think you can get us a closer look?”

The whale let loose a deep groan, banking to the right. Rel latched on to the harness as the world tilted on its axis.

She refused to close her eyes.

The wind nipped at her cheeks as they flew closer to the sea, hours of travel by foot racing by beneath them as fast as she could breathe.

“Do you still have the mirror Via gave you?” Electra asked.

Rel nodded, pressing her hand against the pouch in her vest. “What if I drop it?” she shouted back over the wind.

“Don’t!”

Rel swallowed around the lump in her throat, but still, if she left it unused it would be the same as if it slipped her from fingers.

“Get us right over them!” Electra shouted to the Skywhale. They still had a ways to travel before they arrived over the column of monsters, but by now Rel could pick out some of the larger members, hulking behemoths of the jungle replete with spine and claw.

“Did you even slow them down?” The words slipped from her lips unbidden, snatched away by the wind.

Electra looked over her shoulder. “What?”

“Did you even slow them down!”

The blonde’s face twisted into a grimace. “Doesn’t really look like it!” She scanned the stampeding horde, before her lips parted in a sigh of relief. “They didn’t catch the spikesaurus rex again.”

“The what?”

“The big spiny guy!” Electra gestured with her hands. “You know, the huge one that everyone’s so scared of.”

Rel’s eyes widened. “They had a jungle king?”

“Not anymore!”

Rel sighed. “The smallest mercy.”

“Hey!” Electra turned back to her, a smile on her face. “Sometimes that’s all you need. Now get the mirror out already!”

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“Ah, right.” Slowly, carefully, Rel reached back into her pouch and withdrew the mirror. She handled it with both hands, popping the clasp and holding the top of the mirror open against the wind.

An eye appeared in the circular surface of the mirror. It widened, going through a dozen happy shades.

“Dave!” Rel rubbed her throat. “The monster stampede is coming faster than we expected! I need you to connect me with Dee.”

Dave blinked, eyes going a worried, sickly green.

“Quickly!” Rel shouted.

The mirror’s surface flickered like a pond. It rippled once, twice, before the image resolved into Dee’s face.

The massive man looked haggard, his massive jowls all but drooping under the strain of running Lady’s Port. Still, his face lit up when he saw her. “Little Rel! You made it out?”

Rel shook her head. “Lady Electra and I did!” She looked to the side. “Mistress stayed behind to cover for us.”

At once, Dee’s face darkened. “My…brother?”

“He split from us,” Rel said. “He has to escape the city on his own, but…”

“No.” Dee shook his head. “If he’s in Silverwall, he’ll know how ta get out.”

Rel nodded. The three of them were born and raised in the slums of that city. Hopefully it would be enough, because right now, as Electra said, they had much bigger problems.

“The stampede is coming.”

“Aye.” Dee nodded. “We see the dust kicked up. We’ll be ready.”

“The dust is rising from the rear!” She looked down. They were nearly overhead. “The front runners have already raced ahead. They could reach the river within an hour!”

He grunted in surprise. “Already?”

Rel cast her eyes back to the horizon. She could see where the front of the stampede disappeared back into the underbrush, before the larger monsters knocked more trees aside to make way. “If not sooner,” she replied.

“We’ll be ready,” Dee said. “Can you do anything to stop them?”

“Electra?” Rel asked.

The woman worried her lip. “Might have a skill or two, but against this many?”

“Drive them away from the coast!” Dum shouted. “Send them inland.”

“Right!” Rel’s heart leapt in her chest. “Our defenses.”

“What defenses?” Electra shouted.

“You’ll see! Now get us to the river, we need to turn the stampede, drive it eastward along the riverbank.”

“Turn the stampede, she says!” Electra rolled her eyes. “Just get to the front, she says! No one ever says how!”

“What happened to a little luck being all we need?” Rel shouted back.

Electra growled. “Oh I’m gonna do it! I just reserve the right to complain!” She patted the skywhale. “Hear that buddy? We need you to get us back to Lady’s Port as fast as you can!”

The demon let out a rumbling moan, flapping its long not-wings once. Still, as fast as they flew, it would be hours before they made it back.

“That’s it, buddy.” Electra rubbed her hand along the translucent skin of its back. “Remember, the hero also makes it in the .” The world around them surged.

The wind ripped Rel’s breath from her lungs as they raced ahead, so fast she could barely keep her eyes open. “Get ready!” she shouted to Dee. “We’ll be there!”

He nodded once, closing the mirror. It took all of Rel’s focus to stow it safely away again. She tucked her face into her arms, even as Electra started to laugh.

“How are we going so fast?!” Rel could barely hear her own voice over the roaring wind. She felt like she stood in the path of a typhoon.

“That’s my second class!” She could hear the grin in Electra’s voice. “!”

“What?!”

“Now let’s get a little lucky!”

Somehow, impossibly, the wind kicked up behind them and pushed them even faster. The air itself howled around them like a living thing, screaming in Relia’s ear. Below, the land blurred, then Rel realized it was only the tears streaming down her cheeks.

She was raised on the ocean, but had never known a storm like this.

Rel tried to speak, but it felt as though the wind shoved the words back down her throat. She could do nothing but cling to the harness as they raced against the horde of monsters down below. A day and a half on foot between Silverwall and Lady’s Port. With a good horse, you could make that journey before sundown.

They reached the river so quickly Rel could scarcely believe any time had passed at all. All she knew was that suddenly, the skywhale began to slow, and suddenly she looked down and could see the lightning mill, its reinforced wooden wheel churning hard and fast in the high waters of the river.

“Take us lower!” Electra shouted.

As Rel blinked the tears from her eyes, she picked out three lines of Electra’s militia on the southern bank of the river, right in front of the wooden palisade. As she watched, the first strongmaws and twintailed panthers pulled themselves from the swelling river, only to be thrown back by a forest of spears in tight formation. So swollen was the river that it swept many of the wounded monsters out to sea.

But the battle was only just beginning.

More and more monsters poured from the jungle on the north bank. At the water, many of them paused, milled back and forth. Some scant few broke east, turning further inland, but most of the monsters tried crossing the river in small groups and were easily turned back.

Then Rel caught sight of something more concerning. “They’re climbing the water wheel!”

“Yeah, well, good for them.” Electra turned to face the jungle. “I need to charge up for this next trick, so let me know when a bunch more of ‘em show up!”

Rel nodded, heart caching in her throat as more and more monsters started to climb the water wheel. It spun, dunking half of them back in the river, but the rest clawed at the stone, sometimes even dropping down on the defender.

“Hold the line!” Rel heard a voice call as the militia pitched body after body into the river. “Hold steady!”

Rel caught sight of Dee as he rallied the spears, keeping them in formation and beating down any panther that tried to jump down from above.

If the stampede was only this, they would hold.

Then the larger monsters strode out from the jungle.

Even from on high, she could see that they easily stood at twice or even three times her height. All the beasts her mother warned her from exploring too far from the city walls: the long and sinuous form of titan cobras, the hulking spiked spines of the broadbacked apes, the writhing legs of collosopedes.

The smaller monsters at the river took one glance back, and leapt forward en masse, lest they be trampled and devoured.

“Electra! They’re here!”

“Need another minute!”

In moments, the river seemed to disappear in a tide of fur and scales. White plumes like rapids formed from a thousand paws beating at the current. The stampede formed a mass so thick that you could walk across it without so much as dipping your toe in the water.

“Ready to receive!” Dee bellowed below. “Don’t let them out of the water!”

The lines of militia lowered their spears.

“Forward step!”

As one, the wall of men and women drove their spears forward into the first wave of monsters. A wall of force, the product of countless skills working in unison forced them back.

But before they could so much as pull back their weapons, the next wave of monsters came clambering over the corpses of the first.

“Electra!”

The air started to crackle. “Almost there!”

The waves of monsters merged into an unending mass, pressing forward, clawing and surging over still bleeding bodies into a forest of spears. And the spears began to break.

“Hold! Hold damn you!”

The roar from a thousand throats drowned out the orders, and Rel could only watch as militia men began to fall. A gap opened in the front rank. Her breath caught as a row of reserves surged forward, spears glowing, to plug the gap.

But there were simply too many monsters.

Even the ones washed out to sea turned, limping back to the shore to engulf the formation from the west.

They needed to pull back to the gate, but could they even manage such a maneuver without breaking and routing?

Then Electra stood. “Look out below!” she screamed. From her pointed finger, a torrent of blue-white lighting issued forth. The boom struck Rel like a blow, sending her tipping backward against the harness. It blinded her, deafened her, stole the sense from her thoughts.

When her eyes returned, the battlefield had changed entirely.

The bolt of the gods’ own thunder had carved a jagged line across the northern beach, spreading into the water. It arced into the waters, and now hundreds of lesser monsters lay unmoving in the current.

As Rel watched, a frantic horde broke inland, fleeing from the river, from the thunder. Electra doubled over, gasping for air. A low laugh burbled from her throat as more and more of the monsters followed the splinter, sweeping out along the river.

“Can you do that again?” Rel shouted.

Electra shook her head, unable to speak.

The fleeing monsters curved back again, crossing the river upstream without opposition and turning to envelop Lady’s Port on two fronts. Rel smiled as a torrent of glittering feathers rose from the eastern fields.

Hummingbirds, as many of them as they could move.

The entire eastern side of the city had been turned into the most expansive grove of poisonous flowers Rel had ever laid eyes on. Monsters staggered, put to sleep by the spores and picked apart by the venomous little devils, before instinct took over and they fled further inland. Away.

“It’s working!” Rel pushed herself upright. “It’s working!”

“Not enough.” Electra cursed, and the sound sent a lance of dread through Rel’s chest. “Didn’t get ‘em fast enough.

Rel’s head snapped back to the river. The lightning had frenzied the monsters, and not all of them chose to follow the stampede inland. Scores, hundreds, threw themselves into the river, and onto the spears of the quickly regrouping militia.

But scores climbed up the water wheel as well, until it cracked, splintered, and with a groan even Rel could hear, the entire side of the Lightning Mill fell outward, crashing into the river in an avalanche of wood and stone.

Before the waves had settled, half of the horde poured up onto the new half bridge spanning the southern half of the river. The militia, which used to be anchored on each side of the building, suddenly found itself exposed in the middle of its formation. Men turned, tried to hold, but the lines weren’t deep enough, the ground too broken to close the gap in time.

Monsters poured into the breach like a river of feather and scale.

Men died.

“They have to pull back,” Rel whispered. “They have to get back behind the walls.”

Electra shook her head. “They’ll never get through the gate in time. And even if they do, the Mill was part of the wall! The stampede will just tear right through!”

“There has to be something you can do!” Rel turned, pushing herself to her feet. “More lightning! The river will conduct it, buy them time to retreat!”

“I’m outta juice. No mana, no electricity.” Electra slumped. “Maybe if I could get a generator but,” she pointed, “they just ripped it to shreds.”

“They’re dying.”

Electra met Rel’s gaze, blue eyes swimming with tears. “I know.”

“Damn it all!” Rel slashed her harness, turning.

Electra caught her wrist. “You can’t jump!”

“Watch me, I—!”

A horn sounded over the battlefield.

Then another, and another.

Rel’s head whipped around, looking for their source.

“The sea!” Electra shouted.

Rel spun, mouth dropping open as a dozen ships came up the coast. Bright white sails bore the mark of Vecorvia, the golden Raven of the royal family.

Then the horn sounded again, and the decks, packed full of soldiers, released a hailstorm of arrows. They hit the western flank of the horde, killing and wounding monsters by the score.

Then they fired again, and again, and again. So thick and fast the arrows came that it seemed like a continuous stream.

Emboldened, the militia on the riverbank pushed forward, driving all they could back into the river.

More monsters began to turn, taking the path east, inland, away.

Then a Titan Cobra fell, pierced countless times by pure white shafts, and the horde broke. As one body they turned, fleeing the coast, fleeing the town, fleeing the battlefield.

On the banks of a blood red river, the militia of Lady’s Port stood, battered and bruised, line shattered like the Lightning Mill.

But still they stood.