Mechaniker

1.00 The Battle for Delemoor

"Come boy!" a gruff voice pierced Aster's consciousness. His ears were ringing and he felt the blood pulsing in his brain. What had happened?

"Stop lazing about!" The voice chuckled. "We have work to do, yet."

Aster twisted his body to push himself up, but immediately regretted his decision as the pain flooded his entire body.

While curling himself in a ball to fight the pain, he was lifted against his will by Ezrael. "I'll drag ya if I have to Aster. We still have much work to do." Ezrael said while propping him against the last remaining fire-blackened wall of a collapsed townhouse. "You took quite a blow to the head."

Ezrael headed towards the city wall and nodded in approval at Aster as he staggered up and started to follow. They climbed the steps up to the battlement. Aster was so focused on his feet that once he reached the top he stumbled in surprise. Stray rocks were strewn everywhere and the wall was almost rubble. As Aster looked beyond the wall he saw bodies scattered throughout the field of battle. The smell of cooked flesh made him extremely hungry then unbearably sick in quick succession. This was the smell of war, yes, but not just war. This was a war of fire.

Aster looked beyond the wall and saw a vast army and his memory returned like a hammer breaking him out of his daze. This was a battle for his home, Delemoor. The city was besieged for almost a month. Catapults surrounded the castle had ceaselessly rained down showers of huge rocks, bodies and all other kinds of unpleasantness on the city to no avail. Delemoor was strong and they had prepared well. The city had enough food stores to last months. The Gurathi grew tired of waiting. Three days ago they began assaulting the city in earnest with their ground troops.

"What happened?" Aster asked as he grabbed the battlement for support.

"My slow witted student slayed three mighty Gurathi warriors by himself using the fires of Valla, but was felled by loose shingle as he sat against a house to rest." Master Ezrael jabbed, bringing me back the the present. "It was glorious entertainment!" he said as his eyes glowed with laughter.

Aster sighed. As always Ezrael was "burning away the darkness". It was any true burner's mantra according to him. Unfortunately he was more likely to burn Aster with his sharp tongue than to burn away any true darkness.

Today Ezrael's jokes felt forced and unconvincing. Aster looked closely at his master's face. It was ragged and his eyes were bloodshot. He hadn't slept for three days straight and looked ten years older. But what else could they do? The unnatural Gurathi fires, earthquakes and ether residue were not going to take care of themselves. Ezrael was the only one left who could effectively protect the city. He was doing it almost single-handedly.

"Aster, snap out of it." he snapped trying to grab my attention. "You did great kid. That left hand of yours is something else."

Aster slowly gathered his wits and said, "I can't remember too much. We repelled the last attack?"

"Of course, my boy." he snapped, "Put two and two together. We sure ain't unwinding in Vallas eternal hot springs surrounded by meat and ale for miles."

He had a point Aster conceded.

Ezrael soon turned his attention back to the Gurathi camp. He took in the scene of fire and desolation impartially. You could see the calculation in his eyes for once. When he became quiet, the situation was truly dire. He watched the opposing army form up for another attack in orderly columns for the last time. He then eyed the sorry state of the Delemoori defenders and shook his head.

The Gurathi began to slowly march their columns towards the gate. They were well out of archery range but Delemoor had ran out of arrows and large stones days ago. The last of the defenders had abandoned the wall and were huddled behind a barricade of scrap wood and broken wagons where the massive oak gate once stood. Most of them had multiple injuries and were exhausted from days of fighting. Even through Aster's inexperienced eyes he could tell this was going to be a very short and one-sided battle.