“Evacuate the wall!” Stainsberry shouted in the other direction.
Talarius fired at the bergrisi. His Holy Lightning Arrow struck, causing the giant to wince. A very small burn mark appeared on the giant’s arm. “This is going to take a lot of arrows. Blast it again!”
“I will, but I haven’t recharged since returning. I’ve got maybe three or four more strikes before it’s drained,” Stainsberry replied as Talarius fired off another arrow.
The giant was getting to its feet. It suddenly leaped back across the moat and began running away. “I seriously hope it’s not going back to gather momentum!” Talarius shouted.
“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Blue Lightning raced through the air and struck the giant in the back, shoving it forward and off balance.
Suddenly two more two-hundred-foot-tall giants, knights in glowing plate mail (one of whom was very stout) expanded on the battlefield behind the bergrisi. The two knights raced after the giant, squashing Unlife troops beneath their feet.
“By the power of Riven Rock, I smite thee!” the burly knight screamed, swinging a giant hammer at the head of the bergrisi. The hammer struck the giant in the head, releasing a blinding flash of light. Talarius’s visor darkened briefly, protecting his eyes.
The bergrisi reeled left with the impact’s momentum as the second knight attempted to skewer it on his hundred-foot-long glowing sword. Unfortunately, even as he struck the giant shifted, becoming what appeared to be a two-hundred-foot tall stone golem; the knight’s sword screeched painfully along its stone surface.
“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Once more, Blue Lightning arced from Stainsberry’s staff to the bergrisi, this time causing a small explosion of stone as it struck the stone golem.
“I’m going to rive your rock, giant!” the large knight, who Talarius now realized must be Saint Hilda, screamed as she once more smashed the giant, this time in the chest. An explosion of powdered stone rose from the impact site, and the stone golem stumbled back reeling. Far less dexterous in is stone form, it tottered for a moment and then fell over onto several squadrons of ghouls and ghasts.
Talarius shook his head. From this distance he could not hear the screams, but he imagined it was horrible. The size and scope of this battle, along with their resources, had sort of shielded him from the very real horror of battling the Unlife. Yes, these ghouls were foul, infected creatures, but they were mortals; the devastation of the crushed ghouls was thus still stomach turning.
The giant shifted to its flesh form in order to get up. The other giant knight struck at the bergrisi’s exposed elbow, slicing deeply and causing a roar of anger and pain from the giant as it stood.
“Aim for the eyes!” Stainsberry told Talarius.
Talarius nodded. They were at a very long range, but his Holy Lightning Arrows were not subject to the normal laws of gravity and air resistance. He focused with his visor and began releasing a quick volley. Three struck before the giant was able to turn enough to shield his eyes.
The giant took off running away from the wall once more, the two knights in pursuit. The giant edged left, even as the army at the edge of the cleared path began frantically trying to flee the region as the giant drew near them.
Talarius blinked in surprise as a very large zombie dragon suddenly appeared, diving out of the sky to attack Hilda. The dragon was about one-half the size of giant-Hilda, but still quite deadly.
“Crap, here come more!” Stainsberry said as a two-hundred-foot-long serpentine dragon zombie came down and began wrapping itself around the other giant knight.
The dragons, and now a flock of pterosaurs, were viciously attacking the giant knights, allowing the running bergrisi to get further ahead and begin doubling back. The giant was soon charging towards the wall of the citadel again. Unfortunately, the giant undead beasts attacking the two knights were taking all their attention.
“Well, it looks like I’ve found a good use for my last lightning bolt,” Stainsberry said as he took aim at the approaching giant. “I’m going to give it a moment to get closer for a stronger hit.”
Talarius nodded, scanning the battlements to make sure everyone was gone. He stepped back to peer down inside and saw people quickly moving away from the wall. He nodded and drew his bow again, aiming at the giant’s eyes once more, and began a new barrage.
“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Stainsberry shouted, even as the bergrisi shifted into a thundering stone golem charging the wall. The bolt crashed into the stone golem, causing a hail of powdered rock to fall on whatever was left below it, but its momentum did not seem to be affected.
“Brace for impact!” Talarius shouted as loudly as he could, using his helm’s power to magnify his voice. He and Stainsberry moved above the wall.
Talarius glanced back; the outer courtyard for this region was almost clear. People were fleeing through the gate in the inner wall. The battle was about to move inside the outer wall.
KABOOM!!!
The entire citadel rocked as the two-hundred-foot tall stone golem bergrisi crashed into the one-hundred-and-fifty-foot outer wall. A deafening rumble followed as the outer wall began to collapse under the impact.
“This is not good!” Ramses cursed. He and Exador were busy trying to stabilize the interdiction. The destruction of the Tomb Gate had sent multi-spatial ripples through the entire area. That had been the disorienting reality warp accompanying the explosive destruction of the gate.
Those ripples had disrupted the beacons and they were scrambling to restabilize them. However, it was now being complicated by the fact that while Atun was shining brightly on the battlefield, the sea where the beacon ships were sailing was incredibly stormy.
His demons were reporting that the winds were dangerously high and that the sails had been furled and the ships battened down. On top of this, the seas themselves were experiencing huge waves that appeared to be independent of the wind.
Exador shook his head. There could be no question that the avatars of Krinna and Namora were trying to break the interdiction. However, one problem at a time, Exador reminded himself.
“What the…?” Tom shouted as the Citadel behind him shook against his back. There had been a tremendous crashing sound, and now he could hear what sounded like a rock slide in the distance.
Tom had his back against the wall, once more wrestling the frost giant. Targh and his team were currently beset by a huge swarm of flying undead monsters. He had thought they’d made good progress over the night in killing off the large flying zombies, but apparently they’d found reserves.
“That sounded like an outer wall collapsing!” Darg-Krallnom shouted. I’ve heard it many times before. I prefer the sound when I am the one doing the crashing!”
Tom grunted as the frost giant managed to pin him to the ground. Inethya was busy trying to contain the wind giant with the help of Morok Death Stealer. Morok had somehow managed to get his lichtshwert to function in a magical realm. The interesting thing was that it could actually hurt the wind giant in its aerial form.
Morok’s regiment was there as well. Now that the giants were more solidly focused on the wall, the Army of the Night — or at least, the daylight capable part of it — had reengaged in combat. Morok’s squadron was keeping them at bay.
“Lich farts from the depths!” Darg-Krallnom shouted, and Tom glanced his way. The fire giant had just flamed and leaped to the top of the wall.