217 Cracks

"They've closed the airport! Once we get our passengers, we'll have to set course to Fal'Herim!" Izak ordered on board the last Kara-Goth Sky Barge attempting to evacuate refugees from the Bellas colony.

"Fal'Herim? But the Beast Tide is already almost upon us!" Izhan protested.

"Then we'll just have to go up, above the clouds!" Izak barked. "Now, keep an eye down there! The moment they call for help, we're going in!"

But Bellas wasn't calling for help. They were already swarmed, their entire tower formation was already overrun with Wilds, their walls were broken, and just about all their people were barricaded inside their main fortified keep, but the defense towers were still standing, the tower guards were still shooting, and while the town itself was completely trampled, the people appeared to have taken few casualties.

At least, until the first towers started to fall. A Tier 5 Bear swiped it with both claws and left gaping holes in the lower walls that the soldiers inside could see right through. More cracks spread out across the entire area and then the whole tower started to tilt over.

Across the field, a Steel Rhino, another Tier 5, crashed into a whole line of towers, charging through four of them in rapid succession before it ran out of momentum. Two more towers were set aflame by Burning Bulls, and another one was chewed for lunch by a Mammoth Mole.

The defense towers were falling, fast. People were already beginning to panic.

But still, they stubbornly fought on. They refused to call for help.

"We're here! We're right here!" Izhan shouted. "Just say the word! We'll come get you!"

"No!" the archer atop the nearest tower insisted. "We don't need any help! Bellas people refuse to be damsels in distress!"

That was the thing about Bellas. Given their origins, they somehow had also gotten the reputation of the stereotypical damsel in distress and many a Bellas traveler often received teasing on that score whenever they traveled to foreign countries. Over time, the Bellas people increasingly loathed such mockery and on that account were currently willing to reject all offers that even resembled chivalry to the point of death.

Today's battle was just one such case in point.

"Well, let's just grab them! Kidnap them if we have to!" Izhan snorted.

"You want to kidnap them against their will? Force them to live regardless of their choices?" Izak frowned. "I can't approve of that."

"This is a matter of life and death!"

"At what cost? You would deny them their freedom? Their right to choice?" Izak shook his head. "That's just like the slavers who enslaved us! Don't you remember what it was like when we were younger?"

"I do remember! The slavers treated mom and dad and you terribly! They all kept looking at me like I was a piece of meat slowly roasting on a spit, just waiting until I came of age and they took a bite out of me!"

"Ah, but you never felt that bite! You never understood what it was really like under the slavers! Fal'Herim at least had decent laws to prevent underaged slaves from severe work. Had we remained there for just one more year, you wouldn't be saying what you're saying now. The worst jobs you ever had under them was cooking and cleaning. The most you've ever suffered was a light caning. You've never felt a whip, or endured truly back-breaking work. You never knew what it was like to be forced utterly, to have no freedom, no choice in anything. I'd rather die than lose my freedom again!"

"But at least you're alive now!" Izhan barked. "At least you have a chance to be free! The dead don't have any such chance! They won't either, if they're dead! We're doing them a favor! It's for their own good!"

"What right do we have to determine what is good or not good for others?!"

"We're just trying to save their lives! It's only going to be for a short while, just a matter of hours! Once we find someplace safe, they'll be free again, and have many, many years of freedom left to enjoy afterward! Just a few hours of being kidnapped, in exchange for a lifetime of freedom! How can the cost be compared to the benefits?!"

Izak shifted. "Fine! I've got a bad feeling about this, but there's no time! If we're going to do this, we have to do it now!"

They swooped in and kidnapped two archers and a mage on the nearest tower. Simply dropped in from above, whacked them over the head and tossed them on board. They sent the crew down the tower and subdued the entire tower garrison floor by floor. Caught unawares from within while fighting the battle outside, the tower's defenders all ended up lying in a row in the airship cabin's first floor with bumps on their head.

"That's twenty! Next tower!" Izhan cried. "Hurry! Before it's too late!"

It was already too late for more than half the towers. By the time they cleared the first tower, the town was already thoroughly smashed, and their keep was already broken into. The defenders of the town's keep were fighting at the gap where the gate used to be.

"The towers are already done for. Go straight for the keep." Izak said shortly. "We'll save more lives that way."

"We should have taken action earlier, instead of arguing!" Izhan grouched. "We should have…"

BOOM! An explosion took place beneath decks.

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"What happened?" Izak and Izhan both shouted at the same time.

Slowly, the entire airship started to tilt. The engines died. Their forward momentum suddenly slowed a great deal.

Just then, a figure appeared in the entrance of the doorway leading below decks. It was one of the people they'd kidnapped. He did not look happy about their efforts to save his life. In his hands was a fireball, and without further ado, he threw it up into the airship's gas envelope.

BOOM! Another, louder explosion sounded.

"We're going down!"

***

"They're here!" the lookout reported from a small arrowslit in the wall facing south. "Skeletal Serpents, incoming!"

Hissing sounded as the defenders hid quietly. Across all of Kara-Goth, the frontier's men and women stayed still, tried to breathe quieter, wishing they could make their hearts beat softer in case the Wilds somehow heard it…

Which, come to think of it, was entirely likely. Skeletal Serpents might not have much of an eyesight but when it came to hearing, they could challenge bats.

There was a snarl, and then, a THUD as one Serpent slammed into the barrier of Kara's main entrance. The troops stationed there quietly sent a signal.

George saw yellow light appear on the indicator for the main entrance. Almost immediately afterward, four more yellow lights appeared on his desk.

"Both main entrances, Enclave Underground and Kara-02's maintenance entrance." George grimaced.

"We expected as much." Song Chen said quietly. "Do you want to send out the reserves?"

"Not yet. Wait and see a bit more."

BANG! THUD! Snarl!

The sounds of Skeletal Serpents attacking Kara's main entrance increased several fold as more of them began to join the assault on the main entrance.

The indicator for Kara's main entrance on George's desk turned from yellow to orange. The indicator for Goth's main entrance turned orange half a minute later.

"So much for hoping they would just rush past us." George sighed. "Send one squad of reserves to each main entrance."

Three more yellow indicators blinked on, and the Enclave Underground entrance light turned orange.

And then finally, with a crashing sound, the first Skeletal Serpent burst in through Kara's main entrance barriers.

The indicator on George's desk turned red.