The Battle for Freehold

Once we made sure all the demons in the library were defeated, we made our escape. Opening the door to the outside only revealed the horrific scene attempting to unfold before our eyes. True to what the demon commander had told us, an army of the infernal creatures, readily thousands strong, had surrounded the city on all sides. Dozens of demons riding terrons cast a barrage of fireball spells upon the city from above, trying to break through the holy barrier. The ogres had already formed a defensive perimeter around the city, laying in wait for whatever came next.

“Archers!” one of the ogres shouted. “To the towers! Prepare to fire!”

The library was located on the upper levels of the city. Between us and the city walls was a tangled mess of bridges, overlooks, rooms, and towers.

“We need to meet the ogres on the front lines,” Gihri told us. “With the demons stuck behind the barrier, we can begin the offensive.”

But I saw this tactic from the demons before, and heard about it on two other occasions. My memory took me back to the Battle of Luwas, all those years ago. The demons arranged themselves in a similar pattern: a wall of demons surrounding the city and airborne demons bombarding the city from above, trying to break through the holy barrier we set up. Same tactic, different year. A loud roar rumbled through my memory. Only the decision to meet the Demon Lord prevented us from facing -

The constant shouting back and forth across the city broke me out of the memory. People shuffled about across the city, drawing their battle lines. The war council had gotten separated in the chaos. I was being pushed towards (and later up) the city walls by a company of elves. Reaching the top of the east wall revealed the ogre archers were holding their positions. A few ogres were preparing the rotating catapults mounted on the corners of the city. Despite the constant bombardment from above and the clanging of metal on all sides, the barrier continued to hold.

“Hold fast!” King Edagri shouted.

“What are you doing?” Gihri asked him. “Tell the ogres to launch the arrows already!”

“Eventually, the demons will tire of this, realizing this attack is futile,” the elf king explained his strategy. “Once they retreat, that is when we give the order to strike.”

I eventually made my way through the tangled crowds to find the elf king. It took several minutes, but all I had to do was follow his voice.

“They will not retreat,” I told him.

“Zikatta, what is the meaning of this?” Gihri asked.

“Wait,” Edagri said as he raised a hand to stop his son. “Zikatta, how do you know this?”

“This is the strategy they used at the Battle of Luwas,” I explained to him. “Had I not challenged the Demon Lord to single combat, we would have faced -”

That roar once again echoed across the city, interrupting my explanation. Only this time, the roar was real, rather than just a product of my memories. Everyone else heard it too. Many had never heard anything like it in their lives. My hands trembled at the thought of that thing returning. Most of the ogres trembled in fear as well.

“We need to get away from the walls,” I told as many people as I thought could hear me. “Now.”

King Edagri asked me, “What was that thing?”

“You don't want to find out,” I warned him. How he hadn't seen such a creature before eluded me. “We need to get everyone off the walls now.”

The creature roared once more, even louder this time. The walls of Freehold shook horribly. It was close.

“Get away from the walls!” Edagri shouted, hoping everyone on the east wall could hear him.

But it was too late. Coming up from the Eastern Dorns was an enormous winged creature, gliding rapidly along the shoreline. Though it had terrible tattered wings, most likely the result of many years of battles, it had no issues with flying. Its skin was a charred, disgusting mess of scales and wounds that had not quite healed. Some of the scars looked to me like the product of many rounds of torture.

“Dragon!” I shouted. “Everyone get down!”

By the time it arrived on scene, the dragon's rider had already shouted the command for it to ignite its fiery breath. Climbing down the city walls was enough of a difficult task as it was. We now had to hurry down the walls, hundreds of people all at once because there were only so many stairways. And because the dragon was so massive, it completely eclipsed all of the day's light, plunging the stairways into total darkness. Some opted to run out onto the upper levels of the city instead, which may have been faster, but was also more dangerous.

We only had the time it took for the dragon to charge up its fiery attack to escape. And even that might not have been enough. I had just managed to clear the exit and get onto the city streets when a sudden blast of hot air threw me onto the ground. Needing only a moment to check for any injuries, I looked back to the city walls. The barrier, despite my fears, managed to hold back the dragonfire. But that would only buy us mere moments.

As we all ran into the city's interior, I heard it. The barrier had failed, and the walls were not much longer for this world.

•

By the time I came to, I could hear nothing except a horrible ringing sound. The area I had been standing in was reduced to nothing but rubble. The city was ablaze, and fighting had broken out on the streets. The demons had gotten in.

I tried to scream, “Men! Men!” with all my might, followed by the names of individuals. “Ipas! Giorg! Hilami! Edagri!” But even my most powerful screaming could not break through that obnoxious ringing. Not even what I assumed were the horrified screams of men burning to death could pierce the ringing. I could not even tell which direction was which in all the chaos.

After several minutes, I saw Ipas call out to me, though I could not hear what she said. As I ran over to her, I tried to shout, “Ipas! Where is the menagerie?”

She gave her response and even pointed the way, though I still could not hear her. She could hear me, however. That was good. At least one of us could hear.

We made our way across the city to the western gate near the menagerie, dispatching of any demons we had encountered along the way. Even this part of the city had been heavily damaged by fire. Regardless, most of the animals kept inside were found to be uninjured. The two of us searched up and down the menagerie for the two pegasi, Tedori and Bochi.

We found Bochi first. By now, some of my hearing had begun to return, so when Ipas read out the pegasus release and handling instructions, I was able to understand her well enough. I reached out to Bochi; the first rule of handling a pegasus.

“Who's a good girl?” I asked her, attempting to scratch her neck. “Is it you?” Bochi, however, was much too nervous and would not be handled no matter how gentle we tried to be with her. She much preferred to hide away rather than interact with anyone, not even the other animals.

Tedori was found shortly afterwards. As with Bochi, I introduced myself by reaching out to him and offering neck scratches. He was much more willing to comply with our demands, allowing us to release him from his bonds and even allowing me to climb onto his back like a regular horse.

“Hya!” I shouted, and Tedori flew us out of a large hole in the menagerie ceiling.

Riding a pegasus wasn't much different than riding any other horse. I just needed to not look down while in flight. The plan was simple: take down anything that flies. The pegasus knew war. His ears were perked up and alert. Though I did not know how to command a pegasus in battle, I was aware of its magical capabilities. I tried to give it simple instructions such as “Fire!” and “Lightning!” and it understood well enough to toss its own spells at unsuspecting demons.

Once the demons caught onto my strategy, they responded by hurling fireballs at us. Tedori, however, was much faster and more agile than any beast the demons knew how to ride. None of the spells the demons tried to throw at us worked. Tedori responded in turn by tossing lightning bolts at the terrons, causing them to fall and taking their riders with them.

“Good boy!” I shouted with each successful hit. A little bit of positive reinforcement never hurt anyone.

The demons, however, were persistent. One attack grazed Tedori with a fireball. The pain from the attack caused him to lash out, nearly throwing me off of him in the process. I understood at once why we always equipped horses with saddles and reins. The demons tried to capitalize on the situation by surrounding us and pelting us with fire. Tedori must have seen this coming. I struggled to hang onto him as he spun around, creating a wall of wind that brushed the fire off with ease. Even though the demons had the numbers, Tedori had a considerable skill advantage. He had dispatched every single terron as if he were trained his whole life for the task.

I burst out laughing. “If I had any grass on me, I'd give you some right now,” I told the pegasus. “That was amazing!”

The pegasus snorted at me in response.

But our task was not finished yet. Thousands of demons remained on the ground below fighting against any ogres, elves, and whoever else remained in the city. Now, I was never a commander, nor was I ever any sort of political leader. The chaos that ravaged the streets below needed a leader to sort out. I needed to scout out a good landing spot, preferably one with a group of soldiers I could band together with.

My wish was granted when I spotted a group of a hundred or so ogres and perhaps half a dozen elves struggling against the demon hordes. After using a lightning attack to help them defeat the infernal creatures, I landed the pegasus onto the street. The soldiers stared at me and my temporary steed in awe before immediately asking two very frustrating questions.

“Where are the Stewards?” one of the ogre soldiers asked.

“Where's the King?” added one of the elven warriors.

Really? Not even a thank you in response to having their lives saved? I had to ignore that slight in order to enact my plan.

“I do not know,” I replied before putting on my best impression of Hattu the Red. “With any grace, they are still out there fighting, defending this city.”

“There's too many of them,” another of the ogres complained. “We are out of time, out of options.”

“That's where you're wrong,” I countered. “Those demons took us by surprise, true. But this is home territory for you. That gives you an advantage the enemy cannot understand. This is your city. These are your people that the demons want to kill. If we do not stop them now, that is exactly what will happen. We must fight!”

“But how?” the elf complained once more. “They have the numbers -”

“And we have the streets,” I replied. “I'll be able to assist you from the air. Use their tactics against them. Those are evil, evil people out there. The only way out is to defeat them!”