The Lord Of Stone Tower.
Chapter 7; Lightning and Fire.
[Stone Tower]
The city was soon teeming with activity. The Armies of the Dark Elves trained hard. For once they had more then just the border creatures of the Forgotten Realm to fight against and they wouldn't let down their new Lord. They smartened up even more then they used to every time he passed their training compounds on his daily morning walks.
The hospital was soon up and running, treating the few cuts, burns and wounds of the Dark Elves. One of the differences between the Dark Elves and their Light counterparts was the Dark Elves closeness to their cousins; the Vampires. They shared many traits, including the ability to extremely rapidly heal. So the hospital was only used for the young or old or for serious injuries that couldn't heal naturally.
The Military building was constantly full of activity. Shouting and Singing was heard all through the day. The daily morning wake up call woke most of the city but it didn't take long for anyone not used to their surroundings to get used to it. It was three weeks after the arrival of Albus Dumbledore that the first unexpected thing occurred.
On the last week of August Harry was woken by the General Alarm from the Military Spindle. Louder then the morning call Harry was instantly up and changed with a flick of his wrist. He flew out the door and stood on a nearby platform in the floor.
"Down!" The platform instantly fell from the floor and shot downwards through the lower floors to the third floor where Harry stopped it. The children of the Dark Elves had found these devices in the first week that they were here and loved them. Constantly riding them around the Tower. Harry traversed the third floor till he arrived at a corridor leading out from the central tower to the Military Spindle. He walked down the long corridor to an oak door into the Dark Elves' Control Centre.
"What's the Alarm for?" he addressed Quasir as he walked in.
"There's movement in the trees to the south. We haven't sent scouts yet."
"Get your men onto the wall, don't worry about the scouts. I'll have a look and report back to you, meet me on the South Gate.
"The men are already moving into position. I will meet you there in ten minutes. What are you orders if they attack?"
"It's your army, I leave that up to you, if they are unannounced they are not to enter the outer walls. If they choose to enter without permission then they are our enemies!"
With that, Harry left again and made his way to the closest exit. Harry had built his Tower so that even he couldn't Apparate or use his Power to enter or exit it. Port keys wouldn't work either. But he could use his Power from the grounds although within half a mile from the outer walls the only way in was to walk in or to use the gate for the normal person.
As he exited he changed his clothes to his Mage Fighting gear and sunk into the ground. It didn't take long to find the oncoming possible enemy. But he was surprised at first that they made no sound as they walked along the ground towards the Tower. It didn't take long to work out why they didn't.
With this information he returned to the castle to meet Quasir.
"It seems that your army isn't as useful at the moment Master Poultin. Summon the Practitioners along with Misters' Dumbledore and Longbottom." He address the second part to one of the Masters aids who snapped to the job at a run.
"What do you mean not useful?" The Master asked.
"It's an army of ghosts Master Poultin, your arrows and swords wont do much here. You Practitioners might be a bit more useful. The outer wall is charmed against ghosts. They will find that if they try to go through it they will be unable to do so. And my Towers defence is yet untested against ghosts."
Even as he finished his sentence the practitioners arrived on the wall and a few seconds later Albus and Neville arrived. Harry had been training Neville in what he could and his old friend was increasing in his capabilities at an astonishing rate. They both stood ready having been briefed by the aid on their way.
It was another ten minutes before their enemy was seen. No fewer then seventy ghostly forms appeared on the edge of the forest. Materialising from the darkness of the forest in the early morning light.
A Banner was seen held by one of the ghosts beside the obvious Leader. They all stood in glittering Armour in a single line that spanned the edge of the forest. Their swords held ready.
Harry turned to another of the Masters Aids. "Raise our Banners!"
The Aid turned and signalled to three elves behind them. Three banners were raised. Harry's new Banner; a depiction of a diamond sword clashing against a sword made of green lightning. Behind the two swords was the crest of flames and lightning signalling the crest of the Mages.
The second Banner was that of the Dark Elves; A simple red background with a flaming black sun in the centre. Followed finally by the Lady of the Forgotten Realm; the only one of the three that moved; a spiralling mix of gold, silver and crystal.
The ghostly banner, depicted a crystal and glass sword. Very hard to make out on the background of the trees behind the banner.
Harry gave a few seconds for the ghosts to take in the Towers banners before wandlessly casting a voice enhancement spell.
"I am Stone Lord Harry Potter, what is your reason for trespassing on the Land governed by Stone Tower given to me by the Dark Lady herself?" He called out whilst walking to the very edge of the battlements. He allowed his Mage Aura to lance out around him, a silver and black glow, just clear enough to see.
"We are the protectors of the Dark Moor, you claims you can not prove. You can not defend yourselves against us. We are ghosts, your mortal spell and Elven arrows can not harm us!" The leader called out in response. The ghostly army yelled in unison.
Oh dear Harry thought, he didn't really want to kill half of the Dark Lady's local defenders if he could help it.
'You've been gone almost four weeks Harry, I would have expected these men to have opposed you before now.' The Dark Lady's voice came to his mind.
Turning back to the ghostly leader. "I assure you that my magic and my city magic will harm you, and you are not capable or powerful enough to travel through the walls of my creation."
"Banish yourselves from this land or be slaughtered for claiming allegiance to our land." The leader replied in anger.
'They don't sound too happy,' he pointed out in his mind to the Dark Lady.
'They are no longer allied with me, they destroyed a neighbouring village twenty years ago after allying themselves to Tom Riddle. They went into hiding after the first war ended so I didn't destroy them for it. I give you that honour. Don't leave any of them left.'
Harry grinned at the angry tone to her voice, Harry had once watched her wraith against a clan of Trolls who betrayed her, she had left none of their warriors alive.
'As you wish My Lady.' He turned to the Master beside him. "Have your men take aim and fire on signal!"
The Practitioners would double with the archers and charm the arrows as they flew to kill their ghostly targets. Well banish them to the underworld would be more precise as they were already dead.
He turned to the Ghostly army, "The Dark Lady has ordered your destruction for your betrayal and deeds in the past. You cannot yield. Pay your price!" He lifted his hands above his head as the enemy began to laugh and move forward.
"Open fire after my strike. Lets see what my Tower can do." His arms dropped with speed as his movement activated the Towers Automated attack sequence. Normally it would only attack those that meant harm after they entered the out walls, but at Harry's command it would strike at any target in range. A range which was anywhere that you could see from the top of the tower.
Instantly a single bolt of green lightning struck out from the closest primary crescent at the tip of the Tower. It flew almost instantly and struck the Leader of the ghosts in the chest. The ghost exploded. A scream of anguish stalling the enemies advance for a second before the death of their Leader gave them the anger needed to restart their siege on the walls.
The volleys of the archers started to find their marks and ghosts slowly started to fall, with only six practitioners only six arrows could strike at once. Albus had taught Neville quickly how to cast a mass banishing spell against ghosts to keep them away but neither knew how to kill one. Even so, when the ghosts reached the walls they did find that they couldn't travel through it and started beating it with their own brand of magic, which shook the wall, but it didn't give. More ghosts fell to green lightning as the Tower lanced out, striking even at the ones hidden behind the wall.
Harry himself was calling up black orbs of magic in his palms before striking out at the closest ghosts, sending more and more into oblivion. Most of the ghosts fell to the Tower, which was now striking out with four shocks of green lightning every second. The area was lit by green flashes that woke up the nearby town of Muggles who stared out at the forest as they called the emergency services vaguely thinking it might be fire.
Harry took out almost as many as the archers but as the ghost got closer to the wall it was hard for the archers to take aim and only the fastest of the practitioners could charm the arrows in flight before they hit their targets, around half of the arrows were flying through their targets. After two minutes thirty of the ghost still stood. Harry chose a new strategy.
"Hold Fire!" He called over the strikes of lighting and cries from the dying ghosts.
He raised his hands again above his head and as the last arrow flew from the archers they lightning strikes stopped also. The dwell of crackling lightning gave an eerie lull of sound over the battlefield below.
"Keep them back from the walls!" he called to his two friends and to the practitioners who started casting banishing spells to keep the thirty ghosts away.
His hands clenched together above his head and his own Aura turning a slight silverish green. The Tower began to hum as the lower crescents fired their own lightning at the primary pool recharging it with power. The green pool at the top of Stone Tower expanded out around the crescents and pulsed. All activity stopped in the City as all looked at it, thinking it had malfunctioned.
Harry's hand fell sideways this time and in response a massive wave of green fire blasted out from the Tower to encompass all the land that could be seen from the Tower. As the wave of green fire hit the advancing army it exploded into flames and their cries of pain ended quickly as they were 'killed.'
As Harry stared at the devastation of the ghost army he couldn't help smiling.
"Well that's the defence tested then. Well two of its forms anyway," he spoke to the Master but made sure that Neville and Albus heard as well. "Stand the City down!" He ordered at the aid standing behind him, he ran off to do so.
That night Harry sat with Albus and Neville and they were joined by Draco as they ate dinner and talked of the war with Voldermort. They also joked about what would happen to any army that chose to attack the City.
"I have one more experiment that I wish to try Albus."
"What's that then, more or less powerful than you defences?" he responded with a smile as he brought his mug of chocolate to his lips.
"Hopefully more powerful." Harry spoke next knowing the response. "Ever heard of the legendary Knights?"
He laughed as Albus dropped his mug in shock at the mention of a warrior he had studied and known as the most feared troops of old.
A/N: Chapters in both stories with action in it. Aren't you the lucky ones!
Next chapter might be a bit longer in coming because I have loads of work soon to be due in. I apologise to you all in advance.
Thanks for the reviews.