The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Eighty-Eight

Eighty-eight bottles of wine on the wall, eighty-eight bottles of wine, take one down, pass it around and rejoice with me at the magnificent roundness of two eights next to each other.

No seriously, *pats self on back* I am impressed.

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It was the dead of night when the Havenhell vassals and soldiers stood around the strange catapult and stared at the contraption, trying their best to figure it out. Commander Havenhell stood beside Dennis and Fenrir and asked again how they expected the strange catapult to work with the strange design of a corkscrew in the middle. 

"It would be best if we all stepped back, Commander," Dennis said kindly as he ensured everyone stepped back far enough for the contraption to work correctly.

"What about the ammunition for this thing?" asked one of the soldiers as he tried, like many others, to figure the thing out.

"There's only one round for it. The duchess will bring the ammunition out soon."

It was ten minutes later as the chatter continued, men constantly trying to figure out how the catapult would work, that the young woman stepped out in her armour with nothing else. There was an evident lack of ammunition in her hands. They watched as she slowly scaled the steps leading to the area where the payload would be loaded normally. The strange sight of the corkscrew upright pole and lack of bucket for the payload (ammunition) to be placed in only became stranger at the sight of the young woman holding onto a handlebar at the end of the catapult. 

"What exactly are you doing?" the Commander finally asked as he watched her righting herself on the platform.

"Ending the war."

As she said this, she suddenly stomped down on a large paddle, which brought the beastly contraption to life. Her hands clasping the handlebar suddenly ripped forth, sending the young woman airborne as she swung around the beast several times. The sound of her body swinging sounded much like a child whipping a toy around on a string until it was at a speed where it made a whirring sound. She was barely visible while the soldiers were too shocked to do anything. Some had their knees going out from below them when finally the beast released her. The whistling sound that came and slowly faded as she travelled through the night sky seemed to shock them out of their frozen states. 

They were ready to either charge after her or attack the vassals that had set the contraptions up when a bright blaze suddenly blinded them.

"What in the gods is that?!"

"That would be the Duchess. And our ammunition."

(Yes, I made Macey a cannonball. I am as entertained by my brain as you are.)

They watched as a fiery figure streaked across the sky and finally met its mark. They rushed to the raised platform to try and see the result. 

The enemy camp had a streak of fire burn though it. It cut through their camp at a high speed, setting everything ablaze as the streak of flame zig zagged through the entire camp. A loud explosion sounded not long after, any ammunition or explosives they may have had was gone. Another large warehouse they recognised to be the food storage equally set alight with ease.
It took a matter of mere minutes for the camp to be engulfed in flames, the obvious signs of men running for their lives as they tried to put out the fires on them.

The streak of light did not stop there as it swiftly moved at a great speed towards another camp farther into enemy lands. They could barely make out the sights of another camp lit aflame when it moved further in.

"We should go and help her." Someone said.

"We should not leave this to our Lord to do alone." Another concurred. More and more spoke up.