Guild Of Zeroes

Chapter 33

My heart hammered against my ribs and my breath burned in my lungs as we ran. We crashed through a gate at the end of the tunnel and pounded over the courtyard. The grounds were ruined. There might have been beauty here once, but now, there was nothing but scorched earth. Easton castle rose before us, an overlapping web of walls and spires that surrounded a central tower. It was like the real life version of the anxiety wall I pictured inside my mind. Definitely not the thing I needed to see right now.

Mouse skidded to a stop and pointed to the top of the tower. "The reliquary is up there. Just like the library back home."

I slowed to a stop and leaned up against the burnt remains of some kind of wooden building. Who knows what it used to be. Barracks maybe? A grain silo? It didn't matter. Now it was little more than a black pile of sticks.

I took a deep breath and spat a curse at the thought of climbing all of those stairs. "Is that all?" I panted. "Just, what? A half million stairs and who knows how many of Wraith's rotten bastards. Great."

Javelin clapped me on the shoulder. "Best get moving then," she said. "I'll stay here. Hold them off."

I cast a fearful glance to the tunnel behind us. "Jav, no. There's too many of them."

She took up a position at the top of the stairs and drew her sword. "Trust me. I am really fucking hard to kill."

A shadow passed over the courtyard and we looked up to find the six winged dragon of death circling above us.

Quin took me by the hand and led me towards the castle gates. "We should hurry."

"You're sure Javelin will be okay?" I asked.

Quin nodded. "She says she's tough. I believe her."

I swallowed hard and did my best to stomp down the fear roaring through my heart like a wildfire. The dead cried out from the tunnels behind us. The dragon roared. Quin broke into a run and the three of us surged through the shattered remains of the first gate. We didn't have time to look back. I mouthed a silent prayer to any gods that might be listening to keep my friends safe.

The gate led to a narrow strip of open ground in front of the next wall. The second wall was higher than the first and sat on a short hill. The next gate was offset from the first. It was set up to rob invaders of any momentum they might have, stopping them from rushing straight ahead, and forcing them maneuver troops and siege equipment under arrow fire from the walls. The ground was littered with corpses in ancient uniforms and fresher bodies in the uniforms of the city guard. All of them were riddled with arrows and lay like floating pin cushions on a fetid pond and rotten blood. The smell nearly took my breath away and I gagged. Mouse staggered to one side and lost his breakfast.

Quin gave him a hard pat on the back. "Keep moving, Mouse. Pull yourself together."

The wizard wiped his chin with the back of his hand and kept running, pushing hard for the next gate.

The Dragon roared again.

The sea of dead rolled, ranks of corpses stumbling to their feet in a wave.

The three of us stood in a loose spear point formation with Quin and the tip and cut into the masses. Mouse's eyes blazed with power, letting us scry a second into the future. Emerald lightning danced on his staff and coalesced around its head, forming a viridian blade of arcane light. The staff flashed out, staving in ribs and cleaving heads from shoulders. Every strike a death blow.

At the tip of the spear, Quin was whirlwind of steel. Their greatsword flashed out with lethal precision, parrying every strike that came their way and striking down legionaries with every counter strike. They swung with wide, sweeping flourishes, beating us a path through the sea of corpses. Few dared to close with the warrior and those that did met a gruesome end. Quin's heavy blade dented helmets, broke shields, and more than once, hewed a legionnaire in two at the waist. One of the city soldiers stood against the storm of steel, shrugging blows aside with their shield. The soldier slashed at Quin's chest. They let their armour take the blow. Quin's breastplate rang like a bell but there wasn't a damn thing the soldier could do to cut through it. Quin stepped past the soldier's guard and drove the pommel of their sword into the undead's jaw. Bone shattered and the corpse staggered back. Quin seized the opportunity and brought the sword down on the soldier's collar bone, cleaving through their chest and into their heart. It would have been a killing strike on any normal man. The corpse didn't care. Quin wrenched the blade free. The soldier drew it's arm back to thrust at Quin's face. Quin was faster. The greatsword whistled as it cut the air, taking the corpse's arm off at the shoulder, and then circling back to swipe the head from it's body.