The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege (6 page)

Steve was unsure if he would be able to physically make it all the way to the castle after hitting his head. The dizziness and nausea were beginning to leave him, but there was an odd feeling of a dull ache in the back of his head that beckoned him to fall asleep.
My only option is to head to the nearest watchtower.

The warriors’ watchtowers were evenly dispersed all around Celestial. Even among the taller buildings of the city, these towers reached at least three times higher towards the sky. Still, they were great lengths shorter than the magnificently high towers of the castle.

There were twelve watchtowers in total. Four of them were located outside the inner wall, rising high from the farmlands. Each one was equally spaced apart and served as a distinct mark for the north, south, east, and west. The south tower was unique in that it rose out of the Darien Bay, and also served as a lighthouse for incoming ships.

From the four outer watchtowers, warriors watched over the workers in the fields to make sure there were no monster attacks from the surrounding wilderness. It wasn’t easy for a monster to get to the civilians before they were spotted. Beyond the outer wall there were miles of empty plains surrounding Celestial. Whether a monster came north from Whitebark Woods, east from Valpyrio Heights, south from the Darien Sea, or east across the Prairie, they would be seen long before they even reached the farmlands. Warriors would blow into their tower’s large warning horn if they spotted even one monster. The long and deep
vaarooom
sound could be heard by anyone in the farmlands. It even reached the ears of civilians in the city. After hearing the alarm, field workers would retreat into the watchtower for safety while warriors would be sent out to deal with the enemy.

The watchtowers not only served as a lookout, but also as an armory where every type of weapon was stored. Even off duty warriors were always on duty. If there was ever a major attack (as it was today), they were required to equip a weapon and armor at the nearest tower and help out if needed. King Zoran commanded that every warrior be assigned a role to play in the defense of the city if there was an attack, despite the fact the city had never been penetrated before.

There were eight towers that stood on the inside of the inner wall (within the city). Warriors from these towers watched over Celestial for any signs of fire or disasters. They also watched the four outer towers for distress signals.

Each tower had five to ten warriors on guard day and night. Every warrior had to spend at least one day, every fortnight, in their assigned tower. It was a boring job, because usually the street patrols took care of any problems in the city, but the warriors made the most of their time in their watchtower. It served as a therapeutic day and allowed each warrior to relax his stress filled mind from the difficulties of his job. If a person couldn’t find a warrior on street patrol, they would always be able to alert the warriors stationed in the nearest watchtower if a crime had been committed or if they saw something dangerous about to occur.

The watchtower Steve was closest to was led by Commander Ostravaski. Steve didn’t know Commander Ostravaski personally, but out of the twelve commanders in charge of each watchtower, he was said to be the strictest. Rookie warriors always dreaded being assigned to his tower. Warriors were not allowed to switch where they were drafted to when they graduated from Warrior Training.

Steve turned and entered into the plaza Commander Ostravaski’s watchtower was in. The tall stone tower loomed over all the buildings surrounding it. Civilians were funneling in through the large set of doors.

Steve was in a plaza called “Big Square.” It was one of four main road plazas in Celestial. The three others were called Oval Plaza, Diamond Plaza, and Little Square Plaza. Out of all four, Big Square was the largest and most heavily trafficked. It was considered an iconic landmark of Celestial.

Through the center of Big Square Plaza ran the Fluorite River. In the night, the water was an amazing sight because the riverbed was full of Fluorite Crystals. Fluorite Crystals were glowing energy crystals that came in every color. They were very common, so they weren’t worth a lot, but they were beautiful to look at. The crystals illuminated the Fluorite River, giving the water a subtle glow and sparkle as it winded all the way to the castle.

The Fluorite River supplied most of Celestial’s freshwater, but it did not reach the entire city. To correct this, when the city was first built, a long aqueduct was created that carried water from the northwestern part of Lake Azure, all the way down to Celestial. The aqueduct was built at a gradual decline (so that the water always flowed downwards), and used conduits to get through the hills of the Evergreen Forest that blocked its path. A city between Lake Azure and Celestial called Almiria was responsible for the treatment and sanitation of the water to make it drinkable, before it continued to flow down the aqueduct. The aqueduct ran diagonally through the Circle City on huge stone pillar arches, starting in the northwest corner before exiting into the Darien Sea from the southeastern corner. If people did not have immediate access to river water, they would be able to obtain their water from the aqueduct.

Ostravaski’s Tower (as it was called by civilians) was one of two watchtowers that the aqueduct ran directly through. The aqueduct was a part of the actual tower. A lot of people had headed to one of these two towers during the siege. If an attack was bad enough, and they thought they might be trapped inside the tower for an extended period of time, they knew the aqueduct would provide an infinite supply of water.

Steve ran towards the warriors’ watchtower which stood only 100 feet away. About halfway to the tower he heard a great sucking in of air above him. He looked up and saw an injured brown dragon shoot an elemental blast out of its mouth. The brown ball of energy crashed into the bottom of the watchtower. The direct impact took out a huge chunk of the stone wall. The brown dragon was brought down within the minute by an onslaught of arrows from warriors in the tower. It had known it was dying and wanted to make one last major attack. The dragon fell down onto the top of the aqueduct, bounced off, and crashed down hard onto the plaza’s stone floor.

Distant screams brought Steve’s attention back to the tower. The entire cylinder fortress above the puncture hole twisted, ripped, and separated from the base. It began falling over like a tall tree that had been chopped down by a lumberjack. It was slow at first, but then the fall seemed to speed up. Warriors patrolling the top of the tower fell far down to the ground, as the floor they were standing on slowly tilted from horizontal to vertical.

The shadow of the falling tower covered Steve. He sprinted across the plaza, trying to avoid being crushed by it. If he would have turned backwards and tried to outrun its height, he would have been dead before even clearing half of the tall tower. As it were, he didn’t even know if he was fast enough to outrun the width as it came down. Behind him he could hear the terrible sound of the crumbling tower with just his left ear. The flat stones underneath his feet began to shake like an earthquake as the sound of destruction got louder and closer.

Steve did not turn around to look. He had enough trouble focusing on what was in front of him because of the dust that had been kicked up from the debris. It caused a dark, dense cloud of gray to spread over the plaza. Then Steve noticed another obstacle.

Ostravaski’s Tower was pulling down the connected aqueduct with it as it fell. Across the entire plaza, the aqueduct columns were being torn from their foundations. Steve was trapped between the falling tower behind him and the collapsing aqueduct in front of him. He couldn’t go back and he couldn’t stop. His only hope was in continuing forward. He sprinted towards the aqueducts and crossed under one of the giant arches. Huge stones crashed down all around him.

Steve kept sprinting forward, dodging and vaulting over the fallen debris and rubble. He felt like one of the parkour entertainers who raced through streets and on the tops of buildings doing acrobatic flips and daring leaps.

Steve glanced back for the briefest of seconds behind him. He had successfully gotten past the trajectory of the fallen warriors’ watchtower. Through the dust he saw its thousands of bricks scattered across the plaza floor. But while looking back, he also saw that the main frame of the aqueduct arch he had just passed under was coming down on top of him in one large piece.

Steve jumped through the air in full sprint and dove down into the Fluorite River. The arch of the aqueduct plunged down into the water after him, just a few feet away. The force of the weight of the crashing stone bricks pushed the river away from it. Steve tumbled along with the huge wave, crashing into burned, dead bodies bobbing up and down as they were all carried along by the river. He was propelled 100 meters, all the way to the other side before hitting the bank.

The drenched warrior threw Brightflame up onto dry land and then used both his hands to pull himself up. He tried to catch his breath, but all he could breathe in was the expanding dust that filled the air from the crumbled debris of the watchtower and aqueduct that had spread across the plaza and over the river.

How many people took shelter in that tower? How many people just died?
The thoughts raced through Steve’s mind as he looked back at the wreckage he was almost a part of.

After a fit of trying to catch his breath and choking on the dust, he stumbled north on the road that ran parallel to the river and led directly to the castle. Steve’s hearing was barely at half capacity and now that the dust stung against his eyes, he felt vulnerable with his lack of main senses. He walked far enough to get out of the reach of the lung clogging dust.

Hearing the castle bells at closer intervals beckoned for his feet to cycle faster. Steve looked up at the insanely large castle not even a half a mile down the road in front of him. It was always a majestic sight to see, especially as he was on the castle’s face side.

He looked behind him to see the wreckage of Commander Ostravaski’s Tower. The ruins started to appear through the settling dust. Also appearing in the dust was a horde of monsters. Some of them were stopping and picking up weapons and armor out of the tower’s rubble, but most were sprinting towards the castle. The two bridges that spanned the river and connected Big Square to the road Steve was on were bottlenecking the monsters, but they were still closing in on Steve faster than he could run.

The castle bells sounded again. They could not have been any more frequent, which meant the castle drawbridges were about to be raised. As soon as the monsters crossed a certain part of the road Steve was on, the drawbridges went up. No exceptions.

Anxiety filled Steve’s mind as he knew it was going to be a race to the castle before it was closed. He was tired from all the running, but he had to resume at full speed for the final half mile. If he didn’t make it to the castle in time, he would have nowhere to go except to turn back to the monsters, where a quick death awaited. Civilians were also running to the castle ahead of him, emerging from side streets and sprinting up the main road. All of them ran for their lives towards the only hope of life they had left, inside the protecting fortress of the castle.

Steve saw a woman ahead of him fall down dead, an arrow lodged in the back of her head. What looked to be her husband turned back for her, but he was shot and killed as well.

An ice blue tipped arrow grazed underneath Steve’s jaw. Four inches higher and it would have been fatal. The flash of another arrow flew past his right side, but he did not hear it make a whizzing sound because of his bad ear. Looking back over his shoulder, Steve saw that a few monsters had equipped bows and arrows and were aiming at him and the civilians. He also saw that some of the monsters were twice as fast as he was at his sprinting speed. Monsters who hadn’t stopped to shoot had already gained half the distance to him.

There is no way I can outrun them. I won’t even make it a quarter mile before they catch up to me.
Steve took a deep breath and looked at the civilians sprinting up the road in front of him.
I’m already dead, so why not buy time for them?

Before Steve could turn around and engage in an already defeated battle, an onslaught of arrows rained down from the castle wall. The thud of the metal tipped arrows slamming into screaming monsters changed Steve’s mind. Archer warriors were prolonging the time Steve had by creating a small window of separation. Steve continued running forward, as a couple of warriors fell in line alongside him from side streets.

A Giant warrior running next to Steve was hit by an arrow. Steve looked back and saw the injured man grasping at the injury, wincing in pain. He had been shot in the calf and could barely walk. Without a second thought, Steve ran back towards the approaching enemies to help the man. When he turned around, he saw a yellow tipped arrow headed right for his head. He quickly dodged his head to the side and felt the breeze of the electrically charged arrow sail by. Steve had always had good instincts, but he knew the move he just made was simply a lucky reflex.

He slid down next to the injured man. He was a warrior from another city because his armor was silver and green, instead of Celestial’s customary silver, red, and blue. The Giant yelled in a deep voice, “No! What are you doing? Save yourself!”

“What?” Steve yelled back. He hadn’t heard the man over his throbbing left ear, his deaf right ear, and the loudness of the castle bells. Being so close to the castle, Steve realized how loud the bells really were. He had forgotten they were made to be heard from outside the city walls. Even if Steve had heard the man’s refusal for help, he wouldn’t have changed his course of action. Steve lifted up the wounded soldier, who must have weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds more than him.