Catalyst

Chapter 51: Collection

Nurmengard had been under siege many times. It was designed for them, designed as an impenetrable fortress, an impenetrable tower that the enemies of the greater good would forever be locked within. Although it now only hosted one man, the enchantments and wards which had earned it the envy and ire of Europe remained as strong as ever. No wizard, no matter how strong, could possibly hope to breach its walls.

Looking at the carpet of hard carapace and spiny limbs arrayed before him, Sasha couldn't say he was sure that adage would hold up to the Zerg.

He had heard of these monstrosities, the northern isle's new mess. Last he'd heard, they were isolated in Britain, safely contained by garrisons of witches and wizards. Clearly, the higher-ups hadn't seen the need to keep him in the loop. Sasha couldn't help feeling a tad resentful about that at the moment. He exchanged an anxious glance with the wizards next to him on the fortifications. They looked just as nervous as he felt. They were trained to fight against people, not that. None of them had any idea what to do. But the enemy certainly seemed to.

With a wet squelch some of the more bulbous creatures launched green eggs through the air, and the eggs landed at the edge of Nurmengard's wards. Sasha immediately let a series of explosive spells arc out of his wand, joining the crowd of destructive rays heading towards the sacs. The spells connected in a brilliant explosion of light. By the time it cleared, the eggs were gone, a great deal of them smashed and scattered across the ground. But a set of lumbering monsters were already walking through the blast zone toward the wards. With mangled fists, they repeatedly slammed against the shimmering magical barrier, climbing over each other just to get more space to attack. Sasha sent out more spells. Another wave of destruction slammed into the mass, sending bloody limbs flying through the cold air. Sasha couldn't believe they were still coming, but they were. They just kept hitting and hitting and hitting, acting more like inferi than living creatures. Just then, Sasha caught a glimpse of a face beneath the protruding tentacles.

By Merlin's beard, the zerg had made their own inferi. How many people were done at that ward, how many homes had they broken into, how many people had they done this too? Sasha tried to count as he launched more spells, but after he reached one hundred, he was feeling too sick to try to continue.

Another pers-another inferi, slammed its claw into the barrier to no effect. Sasha managed to snipe it with a well placed reducto before his gaze was caught by movement from farther back. Up until this point, Sasha hadn't seen a single bit of movement from the rest of the zerg forces, who were seemingly content to let their victims do the fighting for them. Now, a group of them with tall rigid bodies, crowned with spikes and a burning pit of liquid, were shifting themselves towards the wards. Sasha had a brief second to wonder what they were doing when arcs of fire shot out of their crowns and arced towards him. He saw the wards flicker into place, anticipating the strikes, before the fire smashed through them in an instant. Sasha was blasted on his rear as the wards collapsed entirely. The bastion had been broken.

In a mad scramble, he lifted himself up and looked out the window. The inferi were leading the charge into the tower gates, triggering every trap. Explosive traps and invisible slashes cut them down en masse, but they just kept walking forward, leaving the traps drained and empty. Sasha's eye was caught by another shift from the zerg forces, lifting themselves up and marching straight forward. Sasha resisted the urge to flee as he saw insectoid legs step uncaringly on the dismembered corpses littering the path. Instead, he ran, falling back to the second position with the rest of the guards. He ran to the cell at the peak of the prison, forming a line with the other guards. Nervously, he stood in front of the barred steel door, holding his wand before him as the echoes of carapace impacting stone raced past his ears.

The first zerg rounded the corner, a squat beetle-like thing with its face pressed into its shell like a turtle. It spat a strong stream of acid at the group, just slowly enough that he managed to put up a shield. The liquid splattered out from it, and Sasha could hear a sizzling noise as the acrid scent of melting rock forced itself into his nostrils. The monster let out another more forceful blast, cracking his shield. The rest of the guards put up their own shields, and the next blast only splattered again, carving small pockets in no man's land. Sasha took the opportunity to launch a blasting curse, and the battle began in earnest. More creatures swarmed in the corridor, again crawling on top of each other in the narrow space. Acid filled the center of the hall, making it all but impossible to move forward, and neither force made any attempt to. What did they hope to accomplish with this? Was it just slaughter for the sake of slaughter, killing for the sake of killing? Sasha couldn't figure it out until the zerg stop firing and burrowed through the floor, vanishing immediately. They could have done that the entire time? Then why hadn't they-