The Lord of Stone Tower
A/N; Thanks everyone for being patient with me lately. My problems are still there but I feel guilty neglecting my stories so I have worked on some updates and will post a chapter of each of my three stories.
Chapter 15; The Might of Men
Stone Tower
By the time Harry was in the air on Griever small explosions and the rattle of gunfire could be heard from the enemy held ground across the river. Harry smiled as he imagined the carnage that the Knights were causing to the enemy.
His Knights were the force that the Dark Lady had to all intents and purposes given him, he had finally had time to study the Crystal properly about four months after the creation of the City. Knights were always non-magical or sometimes very weak magicians, although the magicians were always very weak Knights also. Neville had trained as much as he could in the idea but as with other Magicians his own Magic forced the older magic out of the system. Those of the Muggles lucky enough to have the Ancient Magic in their veins, magic known as Tetra, were trained in the art. With it they could infiltrate an enemy base.
Harry had only had to use them a few times, it was only recently that he believed that he had enough of the Knights to use them as more then infiltration and assassination. However this time they were being used as a pre-emptive strike. Harry wanted to wipe this enemy out so that he could focus on saving Hogwarts.
As Griever and Alex's bonded, Elina, drew in on the enemy force Harry pondered on why the sudden attack had occurred. This force was the first of its size to strike Stone Tower. He remembered the first clearly in his mind. Two years after his return a force of dwarven mercenaries, paid by the Dark Lord, had attempted to take the City. Harry still didn't know how they knew the position of the City but nothing he could do could stop them from finding him now apart from moving the City and he couldn't do that with its thousands of inhabitants.
There had been over one thousand mercenaries and Harry's own force had been too small to counter it effectively as well as the Dwarven siege weapons that without the new shield technology had been impossible to defend against. The bombardment and attacks had lasted for a week or more. The small skirmishes to find a weak spot in his Walls had always crashed against organised defences but when the enemy artillery had turned on the outer walls rather than the main Tower they had been able to smash a way through it.
Harry hadn't wanted what had happened next and still doubted that he could have stopped it. He had felt the pain of the City around him and couldn't contain it's revenge. The Tower had siphoned Wizarding, Tetra, Elven, Life Magic and even Harry's own Stone Power Magic and combined it with its own pool of Magic. It launched a massive white sphere high into the air, about a mile to be precise before it fell again. The fighting had stopped and everyone had stared at the strange occurrence. The sphere fell two minutes later into the middle of the enemy force with such an explosion that everyone in the City had been blasted down by the shockwave.
Harry had tried to defend against it but it had been impossible to defend against the five types of Magic at the same time. When the City's inhabitants had risen again it was to see a wasteland to the north where the Dwarven Army had once been hidden in the trees. There had been nothing left; every Dwarf had been wiped away as if they never existed. The trees had been reduced to twisted stumps of charred wood and the ground had been burnt away down to the underlying rock. Four years later and it was still there, the remaining magic from the explosion could not be removed and killed anything that stayed on it for more than a couple of hours.
It had become the Militaries final proving ground, but Harry dreaded that the same didn't happen here today.
As the Dragons settled in below himself and Alex, he watched as the Knights dance around there enemies. The chaos below would have almost been comical if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. He watched as a command tent in the centre of the enemy troops blew up into the air as the Tetra Magic warped the area it had been covering. When the tent cleared Harry could just make out the heat waves.
It was probably the work of Lucus as well as a few others. Tetra Magic didn't last long and when let out into the world it was only destructive. Knights could kill with it by what they called 'warping' which completely annihilated anything within the blast radius. Only somebody with as much or more Tetra Magic under their control could be in the blast zone and survive. It was why Lucus, though much younger then many of the Knights, was in command. He was the strongest Knight, out matching every person in the City except for Harry and a select few Dark Elves.
Harry was taken from his current musings as a black fireball engulfed a couple of artillery cannons at the rear of the army. Another of the Knights attacks.
Harry could see as steadily the enemy started to realise that they couldn't attack both the Tower and this army within themselves so they turned upon the insiders. Grenades began to go off, killing more of their own people then anything else.
On the ground within the foot troops was complete chaos, bullets flew through the air more often landing in their own side. The enemy they were fighting was blurs of colour as they darted around the camp, whenever someone thought they saw someone their target would vanished before they could squeeze off any rounds.
Lucus was almost enjoying himself, he knew he was killing Muggles but these were people that had joined the Dark Lord Voldermort. Voldermort had changed in the years, he knew to take over the world he would need the Muggle Armies on his side and this was war so he promised them anything, he paid mercenaries and he forced Muggles to fight for him.
Lucus saw one of his lieutenants hit the ground as a stray bullet lodged in his stomach and changed his course and was at the mans side in a second. He placed his hand at the man's throat and found the pulse to be too faint and irregular to try to save. He avoided looking at the man's face as he felt him die in his arms.
"Surrender!" He heard from behind him and without thinking he blurred almost so fast that it looked like his soul had ripped itself from his body. The man who had shouted died instantly as Lucus' hand drove his nose into his head.
Lucus spared a moment to take in the fighting. His troops were spread out across the force taking chance shots but their target had been more or less wiped out.
He clicked on his radio. "All Troops withdraw!" He spoke commandingly before reaching for a different radio to report to Harry that they were done. Just as he made to leave he noticed a quartet of trucks in front of him. He cocked his head to one side and with a mirthless laugh he threw a Tetra Detonation at one of the middle ones, before leaving the fight.
Back in the air Harry acknowledged the report from Lucus and was about to contact the City but was interrupted by the largest explosion from below him. He watched as tanks, car, trucks and many people went up in the explosion, testament to Lucus parting Detonation which had hit four trucks full of artillery ammunition.
He touched his own radio and spoke. "Tower, lower main shield, Main artillery open fire!"
No sooner had he finished the order there was a mighty crackling of electricity as the shield dispersed their energy and the round, overlapping shields disappeared. He heard a brief wailing of sirens before four small explosions of artillery as his Goliaths fired on their tracks. The shells fired we're twice the size as the largest ones that the enemy had been firing at them as the permanent guns could handle the kick of them. They were also faster and it was only a few seconds before Harry caught the glimpse of the explosions around him. The Goliaths could actually fire fifty miles or more so this two mile gap was easily in their reach, as they could be adjusted to weaken the launching power so there was hypothetically no minimum range like with other types of guns.
As the explosions hit he couldn't help but feel a bit better after avenging the damage to his City. He addressed his troops through his radio again.
"Dragon Riders, intercept any force of more then ten that breaks away."
The Dragons below banked away from their hovering positions and moved to surround the enemy force. As soon as they were there they were needed. Without the Knights hampering the force they had been able to form into attacking platoons even with the artillery destroying its numbers so effectively. Harry watched as the Riders manoeuvred their Dragons to dive. Sometimes with the result of great torrents of fire engulfing the platoons or their sharp claws ripping people up from the ground and dropping them after climbing again.
Harry turned to take in the Golden Dragon beside him and focused on Alex. His eyes were alight with real flames as he tapped into his Infernos abilities. It only took Harry a few seconds to realise what he was doing, every fire on the ground caused by the Knights, Artillery, Riders or even the enemy flared almost another fifty percent, taking many on the ground by surprise as walls of fire burst apart to swamp them.
The fight was over, even as there were enemies remaining, it was a slaughter, but this was war and there was no choice.
Harry now had to focus on Hogwarts before all the people there were killed like the ones on the ground underneath him.
"Adrian, Vale, make ready a force to travel to Hogwarts." He snapped through his radio knowing that they wouldn't take offence from his tone of voice in all of the destruction about them.
It wasn't a clean victory though, as he turned Griever towards the City to prepare himself he heard Drale through the Radio.
"My Lord, Lucus and the CED (City Emergency Department) report seven Knights killed plus one more injured and seventy-eight civilians killed. I'm sorry Harry," the tone took on a sad tone as Drale used his given name, "one of the shells that got through before the shields went up hit a bunker directly and it collapsed. Nobody got out."
Please Vote; It has become obvious that none of my stories have pairing in them and therefore I would like to start a vote. This will only count for 'Catcher' and 'The Lord of Stone Tower' as my last one cannot accommodate one at this time. I am not going to put precedents here, just let me know what you want in your reviews baring in mind that they will not be too detailed if I do have pairings.
Reviews; I wont mention everyone here for obvious reasons but if someone asked something or if there is anything worth mentioning then it will be answered or mention below. Thanks to all of you though for your support. Passages in bold are such for obvious reasons.
Athenakitty; The plot will eventually go on as always and 'voldie' will eventually go down. I think that any mention of a new ministry would be part of a sequel if there is one.
Dragonic; I know there is a large timeframe missing but I decided that going into the details at the time would have made the story to slow and boring, therefore I will be putting in important events as memories at later times. Basically nothing that interesting happened, it was the lead up to a massive war basically with everyone gathering there forces. Anything I don't fill in can be supplemented by my readers imaginations.
Zhuyou; A comment like that really should have something to back it up. As you have stated in your own user area your spelling is less than perfect and I feel obligated to remind you that some people are not perfect, yourself included and criticism like what you have just given me in only down grading. As for; "Bomb used? That's most unlikely." Feel free to explain because personally I see no problem in the use of them in stories!
Stephanie; I doubt this chapter did much to answer many of your questions so I will try now. The timeline part is best explained above (Dragonic), the muggles can see the City as to have muggles residing there Harry would have had to dismantle any wards along those lines and really anything that can be seen can be attacked. As for finding it, it would be rather difficult to hide a City where refugees flock to in there hundreds. I hope that helps.
The Wyrd Sister; Thanks, its nice to have the support.
ShadoweGoddess; I am not one for pairings, but I also couldn't right normal pairings so if I did include it then it would be a slash one and would lack any real detail. The above vote is due to your review however so we shall see.
WhiteWitchDark; Thanks for the idea, I may actually put that in in the next few chapters.
Nippledora Tweaks; You know what I think? And since it's my story I think what I think counts. I think you need to find a different story to read. Also, why the hell did you read this far in the story if you only want canon plots and characters!
Aria-Chan; Thanks for the pointers, I haven't read that series but I will have to look it up at some point. Thanks for the advice though.