The second hive wave and the second charge met. The swords of the men were covered in hive mass. The brute was able to infect everyone in that second charge. Jessica countered with a wall of arrows, killing the brute. Jessica launches a third and fourth charge in different parts of the city. The hive counter, Jessica almost out of options moves the entire army closer. She tells the siege equipment to open fire on the city. "Are you crazy?!" Johnson asks Jessica in surprise. "No, it's strategy. In chess you sacrifice pawns, but this time it's queens versus pawns. We're the pawns." Jessica says. Johnson looks down and understands her. "Winning a losing battle isn't impossible, I trust youm" Johnson says. The siege equipment open fire on the city, burning countless hive units. The hive attacks with a full force of grunts. The grunts are large in number, turning the orange valley into a red and brown wasteland. The siege equipment targets the grunts charging at them. The grunts die easily but almost a quarter reach the siege line. The swordsmen that are defending the equipment quickly kill the grunts. Both sides sit in stalemate. "Your move, hive." Jessica says looking out on the battle. The hive do nothing. Jessica waits. "Will you do anything?" Johnson asks. "You give your opponents time to move, no matter how long it takes. After all, losing battles require patience." Jessica says. "How do you know this?" Johnson asks. "I've been playing chess since I was four, 30 years now. This is just chess with real people. It's scarier." Jessica says. "So you're trying not to move your pawns. But those are meant to be sacrificed." Johnson argues. "A pawn can be your strongest piece when used correctly. This is that time to use it correctly." Jessica retorts. Johnson nods in understanding. "I see where Laura gets her silence, and where Sam gets her loud voice." Jessica says jokingly. Johnson nods and then laughs also. The soldiers eagerly await Jessica's orders. The hive eagerly await her move. Then the hivemind gives up and launches another grunt force, bigger than the last. "Siege equipment open fire!" She orders. The siege equipment open fire, but run out of ammo. "No ammo, ma'am!" She can hear from all directions. "Archers, fire! Swordsmen brace yourselves!" She orders quickly afterwards. The archers fire, not killing nearly as many hive as the catapults. They fire once more, the swordsmen deal with heavy losses but still emerge victorious. "What now? We got no ammo." Johnson says. "We can bring in the old world siege equipment or the second line of siege equipment." Jessica says. "Bring in the old world. I'll show you what we got." Johnson says confidently. Night descends upon the battlefield as soon as the old world siege equipment arrive. "So what now?" Johnson asks. "Now, since we got siege equipment, we're going to slowly lure the hive out." Jessica says. "All siege equipment open fire on the town!" Jessica orders.
"So, how long till we just full on charge?" Tristan asks Julian. "Who knows?" Julian asks jokingly.
YOU ARE READING
The Tales of Zaleth
FantasyEarth, Reston, Zaleth, Salem, and many other planets, were all created by the three creators, they are not gods, and they are long gone, each planet with life has humans, whether they ascend to the starts, stay in the stone age, or get wiped out by...
