Gideon had barely noticed the fire bouncing down the road before the explosion. His ears were still ringing. He didn't know who had rigged the charge until he looked down on their side of the gate and saw Levi Bonifast whooping and cheering at his triumph.
Gideon stood up to the wall again. He was covered in dust and ash from the blast. Nearly everyone on the wall had been bathed in dry earth. Gideon surveyed the damage. Stephen's soldiers returned to their posts only to be cut down as a massive hail of arrows arced from the trees to the wall.
Bodies fell around him. Gideon nocked arrows as fast as he could, firing on everything that moved in the darkness. More giants swarmed out of the darkness with hybrids following. They came down the main road as their archers increased their cover fire.
Two of the giants pulled the smashed portcullis out of the way as the rest heaved smaller ten man battering rams of iron into the door. The King's soldiers swarmed down from the wall with their swords drawn. Gideon drew his swords and ran down the wall toward the main gate. So many bodies lay on the wall. The way had been all but cleared by those abandoning their posts here for lower ground and the fight coming through the gate any moment.
Gideon noticed the King already down from the wall by now. His personal guard were ushering him back toward the palace. The giants burst through the doors, smashing them to the side on their ruined hinges.
Immediately the Anakims surged through the breach and began to cut down men three at a time with great broadswords made for their size. Gideon leaped away from the wall. He landed on the shoulders of one of the giants using his momentum to ram both of his swords through the man's clavicles. The giant lurched, stumbled, and fell.
Gideon leaped into the fray with the other giants as the king's soldiers tried desperately to keep them at bay. Somewhere in the battle he heard Levi Bonifast, but he couldn't be sure where. The streets inside the wall had turned to pure chaos now.
Hybrids and giants swarmed through the streets. Behind them, Gideon saw Wraith Riders charging through on horseback, making their way for the palace in the distance. By now he'd been swept far from where he had entered the battle. It was difficult to tell where Mordred might be among the horsemen and Gideon had no way to reach him now.
He slashed at every enemy he could take on. His twin swords dripped with gore as he found his next victim. The giants weren't so difficult for him. Avoiding their powerful strikes was the real danger. They could knock even a guarded man off his feet with one blow.
Gideon found another Anakim, dodged his strike-the giant's heavy blade smashing into the cobble stone street. In close, Gideon slammed his sword through the giant's ribs, through his right lung and into his heart. He rolled out just as the Anakim faltered and fell over where Gideon had been crouched.
He turned on the next foe, a hybrid, decapitated the beast and went on. Another hybrid jumped him from behind as the other fell. Gideon shot out his foot to the rear, smashed the creature under the chin in the trachea and then whirled with his blade to slice across its belly. As its life spilled out, the priest moved on to the next and the next.
So it went for what seemed like an eternity. There seemed to be no end to the enemy's numbers. Gideon's arms burned and ached with fatigue. How many had he killed so far? He'd lost count after fifty. Already the horses and their riders had passed beyond his hearing. Could they possibly have reached the palace yet?
The king would certainly be Mordred's priority target. Once he had Stephen in custody, the battle would end quickly. The King's army would be ordered to stand down. If Stephen refused to issue the order, he would be killed and Mordred would declare himself King in Wayland even before Stephen's men stopped fighting.
With the King in such danger, Gideon realized he had to get to the palace as quickly as possible. What happened down here wouldn't make any difference anyway. He killed one last hybrid and rushed off through the streets. As each new assailant presented before him, Gideon tore through them and moved on.
He only hoped he could reach the palace in time. The irony of Gideon's actions didn't escape him. The night before he had very nearly assassinated King Stephen. Here he was now trying to save the very man, he'd agreed to kill.
Ethan found that he could not stay in the spiritual realm for more than an instant. On his first and second attempts to realm shift, he had become aware of huge numbers of demons operating on the ethereal plane around him. His shifting made him immediately noticeable to them all-the brightest light in the city.
Instead he managed to jump in and out so that his foes in the physical and spiritual realms remained confused. He disappeared from before a giant Anakim and then immediately, at least as the giant perceived, appeared behind him. Ethan cut him down with a lethal blow to vital organs.
The Anakims may have been huge men, but they still had the same vulnerabilities as normal people. All that mattered was knowing where to hit them and the priests of Shaddai had all been well trained. In fact, as Ethan surveyed the battle unfolding in Evelah's streets, he noticed that it was indeed the priests of Shaddai who faired the best in this melee.
King Stephen had retreated, with the priests from the Nodian Order providing escort, to the palace. He had to be kept safe and Mordred's army had breached the walls quicker than had been expected. Hopefully the priests could get him there safely.
The streets had filled with the bodies of the wounded and the fallen. The metallic odor of blood filled the air in Evelah. It was nauseating.
Ethan heard the thunder of hooves coming down the streets behind him. He turned and shifted out of the physical just in time to escape the sword of one of the riders. He reappeared ten feet off the street before the demons in the area could attack.
Wraith Riders galloped hard down the main thoroughfare, heading for the palace. Ethan was sure Mordred would be among them, but they all looked the same. There was no stopping them at this pace without shifting and there were too many demons around for that.
Ethan suddenly realized why the demons were even present. They didn't seem to be doing much in the way of fighting in this battle and yet they were everywhere among the combatants. Could it be that Mordred, or even Jericho, had figured out a way to keep him from utilizing his power in this fight? Were they all busy looking for him?
A hybrid soldier tried to dispatch him from behind, but Ethan beat him to it. As the creature fell, Ethan ran to intercept the last of the Wraith Riders.
The rider swept down with his broadsword as he approached. But instead of ducking the blow, Ethan leaped over the blade in a split second realm shift that knocked the rider from his saddle. Ethan took his place seizing the reins and goading the black horse on even faster.
Ethan raced through the streets, trying to catch the other riders. A group of Anakims lunged toward him from up ahead, forcing him to change course. The Wraith Riders disappeared around a bend on the main road where a group of buildings were still smoldering from the earlier bombing.
The horse obeyed his commands smoothly and Ethan avoided the giants easily. But now he wasn't sure how he might catch the black riders. He took several side streets in succession and noticed the fighting had largely remained on the main road. Most of Mordred's army was either headed toward the palace or making sure his Wraith Riders got there unhindered.
A winding lane opened up before him. A group of houses lay crushed beneath one of the fallen airships, spilling its debris into the street. Ethan and his mount leaped over some of the wreckage and dodged around the rest, making their way steadily toward the palace now visible in the distance.
RETREAT
Levi and Seth remained among the priests of the Wayland Order as they and King Stephen's soldiers escorted him back to the palace. No sooner had the King and his entourage managed to escape being pinned on the wall than Mordred's giants and hybrids flooded through the breach in the main gate. They were on the run, trying to
