Chapter Thirty-Four

The first horns of battle sounded nary two hours after sunrise… starting the royal couple and their self-appointed bodyguard as the three were finishing their breakfast. Food and drink were thus forgotten in their haste to reach the wall.

Devona took her place at the head of the reserve squadron, located in the rear of the lines while Coran and Yuu charged up the stairs to the top of the wall. As the main gates of Rin opened, the main army began to march out beyond the wall, the reserve line remained in place, and Devona ordered the doors shut once the main army had fully departed.

She critically examined the scant hundred reservists behind her, and silently agreed with Coran's estimation. If the main army was overrun… there wouldn't be much these scrawny, ill-trained, and ill-prepared men and women would be able to do to halt the invasion. It would be a rout if the Charr brought anything even remotely close to even numbers through the wall.

She then cast a voiceless entreaty to Balthazar that the weapons Coran had built would truly be up to the task as claimed.

Coran and Yuu reached the top of the wall, and were momentarily speechless by the sight on the horizon. It was a veritable swarm of Charr, the ends of the lines barely visible on both sides, and with rows that still had yet to reach a visible end.

"Gods save us… that's not fifty-thousand." Yuu noted in awe.

"They must have picked up more on their march while our eyes were elsewhere... considerably more." Coran noted; having done some quick estimation himself and reaching the same conclusion as his assassin friend. "But it doesn't matter. Yuu, make sure Grazz is at his post on the third artillery then take your place at the second."

Yuu nodded, and dashed eastward across the top of the wall. Coran waited for her signal that both her and Grazz were in position, then took the speaking horn that was resting in wait for him at his feet. Taking a deep breath, she shouted to the main army below, "Hold your position until I give the charge!"

He then called down the wall top, "Ready all artillery… load incendiary shot with full charges and wait for the mark from your firing leaders."

Finally, the tarps covering the weapons came off officially for the first time. As Yuu had once claimed… they did not look particularly impressive. Nothing more than thick steel tubes in appearance, with one open circular end pointing to the north, a domed south end with a small hole at the top. The hollowed tubes sat on a rotating fixed base, with two prongs on the base extending upward to hook to the tube on each side roughly three-quarters down the north end.

The Shade teams began their work, dropping a black iron ball into the hole on the north end, and pushing it down with a long pole padded on one end while a second Shade poured black powder from a hide bag into the hole with a funnel.

"Yuu, Grazz, wait for my first team to discharge, then fire as able until I call the halt! Do not order a discharge unless you are absolutely certain you have firing calculations in place" Coran ordered. "Remember the rotations, and fire when each team is ready. Discipline is foremost!"

With his orders in place, he dropped the horn then took a telescopic lens where it had been clasped at his belt, extended it to its full length, and toyed with the focus until he could see the Charr army clearly. Once done, he started doing the calculations for distance and timing when they would be within maximum firing range.

"All teams… set vertical angle to forty degrees." Coran said, hearing the clunks of the base prongs as it locked and unlocked into each gradient set within the base. When he heard silence indicating that they had done their task, he then added, "Set lateral angle to one hundred."

This time, the scraping of the base itself turning followed the order, and again silence. Coran smiled maliciously. The Charr would never expect an attack actually able to hit them from more than a mile away. It would be a rude awakening, and perhaps break their ranks even more than what will be killed from the blasts.

The cannons remained silent for three more minutes until Coran was satisfied the first line of Charr were within range. "First team… ready… fire!"

Barradin did not like waiting… and did not fully understand why they were holding their position. Coran was not a warrior... and clearly did not understand that if they waited until the Charr were this close to the wall to charge, then the spell casters would be in range to wreak havoc both on and even inside the wall.

Aiden, Cynn, and Mhenlo appeared to share that same nervous concern. Barradin had been somewhat surprised that Devona was not with them… until Cynn explained that she didn't dare join the front lines while being with child.

Barradin had, of course, been overjoyed by that news on several levels, but a continuation of the royal line was rather moot if they didn't hold back the Charr… and that met that the army had to march out to meet the foe before they were in range of the wall.

As a matter of fact, the Grand Armsmaster was about to defy his king's order and call out a forward march when he heard Coran's voice call for a "fire"... then another sound, far louder and far more frightening.

Barradin had never heard a dragon's roar, but he figured the unnatural bursts of angry explosive sound probably would have been remarkably close. The reverberating cacophony nearly deafened him, and caused him to cringe… almost causing him to miss the result of the firing.

He could barely see the advancing Charr line from his position then it was as if the earth burst upward with flaming fingers that completely engulfed his vision of the horizon. Another unholy roar of sound filled his ears from the point of explosion, and caused the mighty Duke to literally cringe in startled fear. What… had just happened.

But that was only the start of his astonished terror. For when the smoke cleared, it was as if an unseen beast the size of Rin itself had decided to take a bite out of the Charr army, huge clusters of dead and dismembered scattered within the ranks. The panicked sounds starting to flutter through the open battlefield suggested the Charr were as surprised as the allied army to their south.

What sort of magic… was that? The power... power of pure destruction… just one word and one unleashed spell had obliterated almost the entire forward line of the Charr. Another call from Coran, heralded another ear-splitting roar, and another plume of angry earth and fire ripped into the lines.

Then the top of the wall became a near never ending stream of violent sound. Terrified, Barradin found himself instinctively backing away, and it was only the fact that everyone behind him was doing exactly the same that kept him from tripping over someone else.

Nonetheless, he did eventually reach a point where he couldn't back up further, and so he resorted to falling to a kneeling position, covering the top of his eyes with his left arm as the inhuman barrage continued to roar from above. The battlefield was soon filled with dust and smoke, the smell of burning flesh and scorched earth reached his nose… scents that hearkened back the unpleasant memories and horrors of the Searing.

But this… this… was worse. People managed to avoid the falling shards of the Searing, had managed to escape the burning of the lands and homes. There was no escaping the roar… and from what little he could see through the debris, Barradin had no idea how anything, be it man or Charr, could survive the unseen hands pounding and tearing the earth… not to mention anything that happened to be in its way.

He uttered a prayer to Dwayna, hoping for protection from whatever creature of fire and abyss his king had just unleashed on the Charr.

Coran had called for a temporary hold to the barrage, his lower jaw loose. He had thought he had understood the power he was harnessing… he had thought he knew just what he was going to see.

He had been wrong.

The front fifth of the Charr army was… to put it bluntly… not there. And the other four-fifths of the army were understandably frightened and/or deeply startled by that observation. The land in front of the Charr was a pockmarked, blackened mess… somehow even more desolate than it had been before.

But even more disturbing was after all that, the lines started advancing again, marching (if tentatively) into cannon range… into that maelstrom of concentrated death and destruction. It took Coran a minute or so to acknowledge the advance, but by the time he did, he was again completely focused on the business at hand.

"All artillery, reload and be at ready! Firing leaders, adjust calculations according to the advance!" Coran called into his horn then turned to his teams. "All teams, set full charges, and ready for my orders!"

It was short order for Coran to make the necessary adjustments, and for the cycle of teams to again start opening fire on the Charr army. Once back in the zone of battle, Coran found himself glad that his cannons were exceeding his expectations. The Charr were still advancing over the horizon, and they would probably need every last bit of firepower he and his artillery could muster.

Again, the battlefield became a fog of dust, smoke, and rent pieces of flesh. It spoke volumes to the tenacity of the invaders that they walked even halfway willingly into a suicide field, where maybe one of every three Charr made it through the barrage. What could possibly compel them to act with such abandon?

The forward lines began to run, and Coran knew that soon they would break through. He turned to his messenger, and said, "Deliver word to Duke Barradin to begin his charge the instant the cannons go quiet once again."

As the young boy skipped down the steps of the wall, Coran hoped that they will have done enough to win the day.