ROUGH DRAFT: Dungeon Builder's Harem 5, Part 21 (Patreon)

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Chapter Forty-Eight

Hagane gained the west wall with Mrs. Maia, Smerta, and Lei, Siwang's cyclops companion. The animated statue stared out at the battlefield.

A line of catapults fired at the wall were set up before something bigger. Mangonels. The largest of catapults that could throw boulders. Hagane tapped her armblade against her thigh, her body vibrating from the impact.

“Those look bad,” Mrs. Baldwin said.

“Very bad,” said Hagane.

The first of the mangonels fired.

“Get down!” Hagane shouted at the arachne, oozes, yuki-onna, salamanders, oreads, and sirens that manned the wall. “Now!”

A massive boulder arched in the air. It seemed to move so slowly as it tumbled down at them. It grew larger and larger. Hagane ducked low beside Lei. The cyclops blinked her large, blue eye. The artillery stone struck the wall.

The battlements shook. Stone shattered as it crushed the crenelations and rolled over a group of monster girls. Sreaga, Moroz, Dongara, and Dala were all killed in a heartbeat. An arachne, yuki-onna, oread, and a siren.

“We have to take those out,” Smerta growled, the valkyrie standing back up. She held her icy blade in her hand.

“And what do we do about the army!” Mrs. Baldwin demanded, pointing down at the charging force rushing at the wall.

“They have siege ladders,” Hagane said. “They're going to scale the wall.”

“Incoming!” Lei shouted.

Another bolder fired at the wall.

Hagane ducked behind the crenelations wondering what good hiding behind them would do. The boulder slammed into the wall. The entire structure shook from the impact. Stone explode and rained down on the ground below.

“How long can the wall withstand that?” demanded Smerta.

“It's to keep our heads down so the assault force can reach the wall,” Hagane said. “And if they get lucky, they'll breach—”

BOOM!

Another boulder slammed into the wall. Hagane gasped at how much it shook. Dust rose in the air. Hagane forced herself to stand. She peered out at the force. They were getting closer. The catapults hurled their smaller missiles. Rocks the size of watermelons slammed into the wall or arched over to crash into the village.

“Take down the siege ladders!” Hagane cried. “Now why the mangonels are reloading!”

“For Leo!” Mrs. Baldwin cried. “For Leo!”

“FOR LORD LEO!” the monster girls cried.

The arachne scrambled up onto the battlements, risking exposure to the catapults fire. A stone hissed passed Damhanalla's head as she fired spider silk down at the soldiers carrying the siege ladder. She webbed them, tripping them up.

Down the wall, the other three arachne did the same, firing their sticky webbing at the men. They gasped, falling to the ground tripped up by the silk. Several of the ladders faltered, but only for a moment.

The yuki-onna threw daggers of ice. They slammed them down into the enemy soldiers. Their attacks struck armor, bursting into icy mist. Others found flesh, dropping the soldiers. The army came closer and closer.

We don't have a lot of ranged firepower here, realized Hagane. That was a mistake in our deployment.

“GET DOWN!” Smerta cried.

The three mangonels fired.

Three huge boulders hurtled in the air at wall. The arachne scrambled off their posts. The yuki-onnas ducked down. Hagane watched the three boulders falling at them. Her armblade tapped against her thigh.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

She gasped, staggering as the entire wall rippled. Stone ground on stone as the shock waves propagated through the structure. A loud crack rent part of the wall, a section of the teeth-like crenelations on the battlements falling away and crashing to the ground below. They were batting down the wall.

“We can't survive those assault much longer,” Smerta hissed.

“Doesn't matter,” cried Lei. The cyclops pointed her silver warhammer down at the enemy. Matching armor clad her body. Her blonde hair whipped in the wind. “They're on us.”

Siege ladders slapped up as the thousands of soldiers had reached the wall. The enemy surged up the ladders. Men climbing fast. The lead soldiers holding a shield before him. They moved fast, their companions waiting to get on.

Yuki-onna threw their icy daggers. The arachne fired silk. Soldiers with bows down at the wall fired arrows up at the monster girls. Hagane watched the fight, thinking. She noticed the three oozes. An idea formed in her mind.

“Cikata, Cikhala, and Philtara,” she thought, “jump down the ladders!”

The three oozes darted into action. Their gelatinous forms rippled as they reached the nearest ladders. Soldiers were nearing the top as the oozes jumped off. They formed into large balls of slime that struck the lead soldier. Their weight knocked him off. He fell into the men beneath him.

The three oozes cleared the ladders, driving the men down to the ground. It was a command Leo would never give. He hated sacrificing his monster girls, but Hagane was not him. She would hold this wall and do what it took.

The oozes and soldiers landed at the bottom in a clatter. Screams rose as men writhed. The oozes spilled off and formed into their monster girl forms. They lashed out arms as tentacles, strangling soldiers. Philtara threw herself at one, engulfing his head.

Swords and spears hacked and stabbed at the oozes, but they were not easily killed. Their bodies flowed around attacks. Or they threw themselves on the enemy, forcing soldiers to stab each other in an attempt to kill them.

“Good girls,” Smerta said. “Now get those ladders burning.”

The salamanders rushed toward ladders and breathe fire. They engulfed the tops of them in heat. The wood caught. The twin binding the rungs in place failed. Soldiers recoiled from the heat surging down at them. One screamed as he burned and fell.

The two oreads melted in the walls. In moments, holes opened on the ground, swallowing a soldier whole, then closing back up. Hagane smiled at the oreads working their deadly magic. They had to stop this assault.

But there was so many soldiers.

And they had more ladders.

An arrow took Sukkub in the face. The yuki-onna vanished into a burst of mist. Hagane watched the battle. They were so few to stop so many. The enemy was determined, and behind them, the mangonels waited.

*  \ * /  *

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin sent her roots down a ladder. The lead soldier gasped as the dryad's tendrils wrapped about his arm. He tried to draw his sword, but she ripped him off the ladder and sent him falling thirty feet onto the waiting soldiers below.

An arrow flashed past Mrs. Baldwin as her roots rushed at the next soldier. He had his sword out and swung for her tendrils. Pain flared as he cut some, but more wrapped around his neck. With a hard jerk, she broke his vertebrae and sent his limp body crashing into the men behind him.

The arachne fired webbing that tangled men on other siege ladders, binding them in place and stopping the assault. The sirens sang at the men who managed to get near the top. Soldiers swayed to their beautiful music.

Then jumped willingly off the ladders.

To Mrs. Baldwin's horror, she saw rocks hurtling at the wall. The mangonels had fired during the assault. The boulders rushed towards the damaged section where none of the ladders had been placed.

“BRACE!” Mrs. Baldwin cried, pointing.

As a soldier cut at her roots, she gripped the battlements before her.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The three massive boulders slammed into the wall. The structure shook. The cracks worsened. More of the wall crumbled, creating a small ravine in the battlements. A gap only a few feet across, but it was the beginning of the end of the wall.

It was not going to withstand another volley.

“We're in trouble, Hagane!” Mrs Baldwin gasped, pointing at the section of crumbling wall.

“I know,” Hagane said and glanced up in the sky.

*  \ * /  *

Alizee watched the fight at the west wall with horror. Those massive boulders hammered the wall. It was failing as thousands of soldiers gathered for the assault. She had to do something. That was her job. She was Leo's sylph.

“Come on, girls!” Alizee cried to the harpies. “Let's go crush those big, scary boulder throwers!”

The harpies around her screeched, “YES!”

The sylph surged forward, thrusting her arm before her like she was Supergirl, the best superhero on the CW. Alizee's white hair streamed behind her as she soared out over the wall and the chaos below. Ladders burned. The oozes fought amid the soldiers. A whole opened and a man vanished into the earth. She caught catches of beautiful songs over the screams and shouts.

She focused on those three super-big boulder lobbers. She wasn't sure what else to call them. Maybe catapults. She wasn't sure. This wasn't her thing. She didn't watch war movies. She liked romcoms. Or just straight romance movies.

If big boulder lobbers were in a Nicolas Sparks movie, she would know what these things were.

“Archers!” shouted Kaputan.

I threw out the wind before us, knocking back the arrows. We reached the weapons. Alizee sent slashing blades of arrow down there as more arrows surged up into the air. The harpies screeched and dodged back and forth.

They didn't have a ranged attacks.

The crews working the weapons pressed amid the complicated frames of heavy woods that Alizee's attacks hardly damaged. She soared over them with frustration. More arrows surged into the air at them, driving them back.

“We need a plan,” Alizee cried, flying higher, her harpies surging with her. “Something to distract those men. I don't know.”

Hota glanced back at the wall. “We're strong fliers, sis. We can carry another monster girl.”

“Right!” Alizee studied who was on the wall. Salamanders? They could burn the dangerous siege engines.

Their fire set fire to siege ladders that kept slamming up. The enemy army had hundreds of them. They were effective against the enemy's assault. Alizee decided against them. She needed something perfect. Something that would get the crews to stop working.

Soldiers jumped from one ladder for no reason.

“Sires!” gasped Alizee. “Yes, yes, with their beguiling voices. Ooh, they can lure enemies into traps and killed them. Or men into their embrace. Yes, yes, let's grab the sirens and put the hypno-whammy on the enemy.”

“Yes, yes, sis!” screeched Bittaraya.

Alizee surged across the battlefield with her harpies. She dodged through the flights of arrows fired up at them. Her wind blades cut through more as they surged for the walls. She spotted the two sirens, Nimfa and Veszeli, that were still alive.

“I need you, sirens!” Alizee sent to them. “You're voices are just so rocking. You can bamboozle those crews and save the day! I know you can! Woot!”

“We'll make them kill each other!” Nimfa answered with such enthusiasm.

“Grab them, girls,” Alizee cried. “And let's drive for the big W! Let's go!” She clapped her hands as Bittaraya and Hota dived for the wall. Their wings flapped as she swooped over the two harpies. They grabbed them by the upper arms and lifted them into air. “Let's go, harpies! Let's go!”

Alizee felt a rush of excitement through her airy body. The wind around her spun, caressing her naked flesh. She surged over the army, slashing her arms right and left, sending blades of wind out that cut through the archers firing blasts of arrows up into the air.

“Flying through the sky!” she cheered. “On sexy fathered wings! Screeching and clawing! Harpies win the day! Go Harpies!”

She felt so pumped. Her five harpies screeched with her as they soared over the enemy. The crews on the big boulder lobbers were ready to fire again. Alizee couldn't let that happen. She glared at them as they swooped in.

“Archers!” snarled Pihatu.

“Pihatu, Kaputan, and Piyayuru, screen the sirens!” Alizee cried as she dived. “They have to make it!”

Arrows snapped up into the air. A flight of them. Alizee swung her arms, slashing blades of arrows. She cleaved through the arrows, clearing a path for them, but there were so many of the deadly missiles flying around them.

Kaputan screamed and vanished, protecting Hota carrying Nimfa.

Hota and Bittaraya dove for the large boulder lobbers and dropped off their sirens between the weapons. The harpies screeched and slashed their talons at soldiers rushing to attack the sirens. Blood spurted from their talons.

Alizee fired air blades that cut off another soldiers head. Arrows flew up into the air at her harpies flying around the big weapons. Alizee danced around a flight of them and sent her blades slamming into the mass of men who fired at them, ripping through a half-dozen.

The singing began.

A beautiful duet rose amid the violence. It was too wondrous to be found on the dirty battlefield. It didn't fit in with the blood and smoke and screams. Their voices wove a melody that tugged at Alizee's attention.

The soldiers and crew who worked and defended those nasty weapons turned on them. They attacked at the wood, hacking at the structure. They cut at ropes that held it together. Mighty twangs filled the air. Pieces of the weapons sagged.

One collapsed.

“YES!” Alizee cheered, the thrill of victory surging through her.

Other soldiers surged, officers pointing at the men attacking the weapons. The second one collapsed. Then the third. The men attacking the weapons surrounded the sirens. They sung loudly as the fresh forces came in.

Soldier fought soldiers, the sirens' song rising above the clatter of steel and the screams of the dying. Alizee slashed at the air, her blades of compressed wind cutting into the enemy. She killed an officer, his blood spurting.

Harpies dove, ripping spears from the enemy hands and shoved them back into vulnerable body parts. The air resounded with screams and shouts. Alizee fought for the sirens, but there were more soldiers than they could control.

A spear lanced past one of Nimfa's defenders and ripped through the sirens guts. She staggered, her song faltering. Her defenders swayed, coming out of her control. One turned and buried his sword into her breast.

She vanished.

*  \ * /  *

Philtara died.

The oozes had created chaos, but they couldn't avoid every wound. They lost slime as limbs were severed or blades caught their gelatinous flesh. More soldiers were pressing in with fresh ladders. Hagane shook her head.

How many were there.

The arachne webbed how they could. Fire billowed from the mouths of salamanders, setting men and wood on fire. The wall shook. More stones broke from the split. It grew worse even without the mangonels firing.

They had gone silent. The large siege weapons fell apart. The harpies and Alizee soared in the air above them. It was too far for Hagane to make out what was happening on the ground. Were the harpies even still alive?

Haganehad no idea.

A ladder slammed up near Hagane. She looked around. Smerta fought soldiers spilling off another ladder, their blade crashing ineffective into her icy armor. She slashed off heads or left men reeling from spurting wounds.

An arrow stuck Hagane and bounced off her body, leaving just a scratch on her mirrored finished. She readied her armblades as soldiers came up. More arrows swept the battlements as more archers surged to the front.

Nimhe burst into motes, the arachne felled by arrows.

The soldiers climbed higher and higher, the lead one holding a shield over his head. Lei fought nearby. She swung her warhammer and caved in a soldiers head, crushing helmet. Gore spurted from the ruined metal and thunder resounded. Other soldiers reeled from the burst of sound.

The cyclops swung her hammer. Every time it struck, a thunderclap boomed. She threw one soldier over the wall with a crumpled chest. She shattered another's leg. She shattered the ladder with a hard swings, splitting the rungs. Men screamed and fell.

An arrow took Lei in her big, blue eye.

She vanished.

Hagane ground her metal teeth together as the first of her soldier reached the top. She swung her armblade into the shield, knocking it to the side, then stabbed with her other. The soldier gasped at the sight of her.

She buried her armblade into his open mouth, feeling the wet warmth as she buried it his flesh. He gurgled. She ripped her arm out. It came smeared in blood. He didn't vanish after she killed him. He fell to the side and another soldier scrambled after.

He thrust his blade at her. She parried and slashed, cutting into his face and blinding his right eye. She screamed and she buried her other armblade into his throat. Warmth engulfed her arm. A disturbing shudder ran through her.

She did not like this.

She almost felt sick in her guts but she had no innards.

Malvada, one of the salamanders, burst into motes. Arrows raked the walls as Hagane fought the next soldier up the ladder. A missile struck her in the face, bouncing off her cheek. She hardly felt it as she cut off an arm. The soldiers screamed and fell backward, his hand still clutching to the ladder. He crashed into the next soldier. Three more fell.

Dolor rushed up and set fire to Hagane's ladder.

The animated statue looked around. She didn't see Prekrasnyy any longer. An arrow took Belyy in the stomach, the yuki-onna vanishing. The mangonels had gone silent, but the enemy still came. Still brought more ladders.

There was more fighting. More killing.

Another ladder slapped up.

Where do they get them all, rippled through Hagane's thoughts, blood dripping from her armblades.

*  \ * /  *

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin's roots ached. The soldiers had hacked at them as she fought to keep them back.

She pushed with her roots on a ladder, tipping it back. The men on it screamed as she shoved it out farther and farther. Arches fired arrows at her, trying to kill her. One took Engana nearby. The salamander stumbled, the missile buried in her throat.

Then she vanished.

The ladder hits its tipping point and fell into the mass of soldiers, the men holding it falling into the crowd. She wasn't sure how many died. More soldiers with more ladders were rushing the wall. More assaults.

She looked up and down the wall. Smerta stood ready to fight. On the other side of the crack, so did Hagane. The harpies and Alizee soared back for the wall, but the defenders were dwindling and Leo had not replaced their losses.

I don't think the battle is—

An arrow slammed into Mrs. Baldwin's head, cutting off her thoughts. She melted away into the black of the Void.

Chapter Forty-Nine

The battle went badly.

“Get me to Astovin!” I snarled at Kassie and bolted from the Vault.

“But you have to restore monster girls!” she gasped Kassie.

“There are soldiers on the wall! On my dungeon! I can't bring monster girls to life or repair the damage to the gates and walls. I have to do something. I'm not losing this fight! Come on!”

“Right, Lord Leo!”

I rushed to the teleportation hub and cast my spells. Strength of Mountains, Granite Flesh, Revitalize, Static Aura, and Metal Coat. I armored myself from head to toe in steal with that last one. Plate armor. I had strength, my body as hard as rock, and energy like I had drunk a thousand red bulls poured through me.

I was ready for anything.

I grabbed my spear on the way. We reached the teleportation circle. Kassie joined me and cried, “Asud Gu!”

In a heartbeat, I was beneath Astovin. I knew where I had to go. The North Wall. I heard the all clear from the south wall, but the North was suffering horrendous losses. I raced upstairs and burst out of my governmental building, running through the streets.

Smoke rose in all directions. The air resounded with shouts and screams. I could see the north gate. The enemy had breached it. Feya surged down with her hippogriffs as enemy soldiers charged into Astovin itself, the defenders all dead.

They charged at me. A horded of them armed with spears and swords.

I slid to a stop and roared, “Metal missiles fly, let the spikes of Lord Nabu pierce!”

A volley of spikes slammed into the enemy soldiers. It ripped through armor, killing a dozen at the front of them. Real people, not monster girls. They dropped to the ground in spurts of blood. None of them vanished.

I swallowed the horror of what I did.

“Night devours, let the corrosive shadows of Lord Zuen burn!”

Dripping Shadows dripped from above them. The black, corrosive darkness devoured the men engulfed in it. Their screams burst from it for a moment before they cut off. Smoke rose as the darkness melted them.

“Izi Zum!” cried Kassie. A spurt of flame burst from her hand and engulfed four or five soldiers.

From above, the hippogriffs turquoise feathers ripped into the soldiers charging at me. They rushed down the street, racing over their own dead. I gripped my spear, ready to fight them as more words rose from my mind.

“Flames erupt, let the conflagration of Lord Gibil blaze!”

A massive fire erupted in the soldiers. The men inside screamed. Greasy, black smoke burned from the inferno It covered a large swath, burning them all the way back to the wall itself. I gripped my spear, watching the flames dance before me.

“Cholera's burning fever,” breathed Kassie.

I nodded as I watched the horror I had unleashed. Men spilled out, their bodies engulfed in fire. They collapsed on the ground, screaming. My chest grew tighter, my heart screaming in my chest. I stared at the blaze.

The flames went out.

A hundred or more soldiers lay burned before the gates. Those on the other side were not charging forward. They fled. They ran back into the mass of their fellows, pushing and fighting to get away. Those behind them pressed forward.

“One more time,” I whispered. I sucked in a deep breath. “Flames erupt, let the conflagration of Lord Gibil blaze!”

I filled the gate tunnel with fire. It burned up the wall. More screams rose above the crackling of flames. Smoke spilled from the mess. I watched it burn. Kassie grabbed my left hand. I held it as I watched the oranges and reds dance and roil.

A cataclysm writhed before me for one more glorious second then went out.

*  \ * /  *

Lana Fulmine gasped as the fire burst out of the gate tunnel, engulfing the enemy soldiers trying to rush in. A scream of horror rose from those watching the inferno rage. Leo, whispered through Lana's mind as she watched the destruction.

The soldiers screamed and turned. They threw down their weapons and fled. They pushed into the soldiers behind them, reeling from the hungry fire that consumed so many of their brethren. The panicked men knocked over their allies.

It spread. The fear.

The attacking men screamed. Officers struggled to rally their men, waving swords from the rear. Lana sent a blast of lightning at one. He burst into flames. Feya soared over, her wand flicking. Light smote another.

The men screamed and fled from Leo's anger.

From the wroth of dungeon builder.

Black smoke rose in the air. Lana banked from it, sickened by the scent. She watched as the hippogriffs and quetzalcoatls harassed the fleeing soldiers, driving them away from the walls. They picked off the stragglers, giving the rest reason to keep running.

Lana Fulmine stared down at a real battlefield. Those weren't prop dummies or extras. They wouldn't get back up. None of them vanished. The dead lay where they fell. She swallowed at the awfulness of it.

Anger burned in her for the king who led these men here. Who forced Lana and her family to kill them. There had to be a reckoning for this.

Chapter Fifty

“We need help!” Ms. Trueno cried in Garnet's mind.

“On my way,” Garnet said with her three vampires.

She soared over the east wall and spotted Ms. Trueno in a group of hellhounds, satyrs, yeti, and basilisks. Baaghi and Bjorni were with them. Enemy soldiers surrounded the band, pressing in on them from all sides. It was clear they were dying.

The basilisks breathed their petrifying gas, turning soldiers to stone, but others were getting free. As the succubus beat her wings and soared with the vampires in their bat forms, she witnessed monster girls dying.

Seeng, Doodh, and Dychannie hacked down before Garnet could reach them.

The others were fighting.

Ms. Trueno's shouts battered down soldiers. Baaghi and Bjorni tore into the enemy with ferociousness. Yetis ripped with their savage claws. Satyrs gored. Hellhounds ripped at the legs, bringing soldiers down to be killed.

Nina and her phoenixes provided help from the air. Flames slammed down into the soldiers, but they were coming from all directions, scrambling over their dead in a mad frenzy to kill the monster girls.

“Go!” Garnet cried at her vampires.

The three bats tucked wings and dived. They hurtled for the ground and blurred into their naked, human forms. They landed amid the soldiers and attacked. They bit at throats, glutting on the blood they loved so much.

Garnet followed and swung her whip, ripping a spear out of a soldier's hands as he went to stab at Ms. Trueno. “Dark Lord Big Bro!”

*  \ * /  *

Ms. Trueno gasped as the spear ripped out of the soldier's hands before it could ram through her scaled belly. The teacher screamed. Her thunderous roar threw back the man and others. They landed in a heap. The vampires had joined the battle, tearing out throats.

Udel, blood dripping down her face, leaped at another soldier only for a sword to swing and take off her head. She burst into motes. Ms. Trueno hated seeing monster girls die. More and more of them did as they killed soldiers.

Infierna took a spear in the back.

Goloda, one of the yetis, threw herself into a knot of soldiers. She slashed and roared, ripping off arms and tearing off faces. Soldiers screamed as they died. They recoiled from her as she savaged them, their blood bright in her thick, snowy hair.

A soldier stabbed her in the back. Another rammed a spear through her chest. Goloda tore off that man's arm before she vanished, leaving him stumbling in horror before he, too, collapsed. Ms. Trueno roared again, knocking back more of the enemy.

Fire burst before her, consuming a group. Garnet swooped over, her whip tearing weapons from the enemy's hands. They wove through the petrified statues of their comrades to kill them. They could sense the monster girls were weak.

Like sharks, they had gotten a taste of blood.

Panja vanished.

Bjorni roared and ripped into the enemy, the bugbear tearing men in half.

Bakara and Piaro died.

The surviving basilisks breathed, turning more men into stone. Fire burned from above. Palka ripped out another throat with her fangs, the vampire feasting on the blood spurting out. Chaos boiled around Ms. Trueno.

She roared with confidence. She would not back down. Men died. Their corpses piled around them. Something changed within them. They no longer were so bold in their attacks. No longer so risky. They cringed when the phoenixes swept over.

Then they ran.

It took Ms. Trueno a moment to realize that the enemy fled. She stared out at them running away from her group. They had survived. She looked around at her panting monster girls. They were splattered in red, smiles on their lips.

Baaghi roared in triumph.

“Kweh, heh, heh!” chortled from above as Garnet winged over, her red tail swishing behind her.

Ms. Trueno smiled. They had one. Those vampires and that naughty succubus had tipped the scales just enough. Not sure if the battle was over, she motioned her monster girls to get back to the wall. They might be needed somewhere else.

*  \ * /  *

Maya panted even though she didn't breathe.

She just felt exhausted.

Her body rippled as she stared down at the withdrawing enemies. The east wall was secure.

Chapter Fifty-One

Alizee soared over the next assault rushing at the damaged south wall. The crack was growing worse. Masonry tumbled from it. The wall looked unstable, damaged severely by the those big boulder lobbing thingies.

Arrows peppered the walls, forcing the monster girls defending the battlements to duck behind them. Save Hagane. She let the arrows ping off her body as she watched the fresh siege ladders come up.

“Come on!” Alizee cried to her surviving harpies. The sirens had died, but they had done their job. Now the had to defend the wall.

Holes opened in the ground, swallowing soldiers here and there. The oreads at work, but they just killed one or two at a time. It wasn't enough to stop the crush of soldiers. Fresh ladders slapped against the wall and men went up them.

She slashed with her wind blades.

She struck a ladder, cutting off a soldier's arm and slicing through the side of the ladder. It creaked, groaned, then snapped in half. Men above fell into those waiting below. Her harpies swooped on other ladders, grabbing soldiers and pulling them off to drop them on the mass of enemies below.

Makeshift weapons.

Arrows filled the air.

Alizee danced through them with the grace of a cheerleader. She wove a path through the death to swing her arms. Blades of air killed soldiers climbing ladders. Fire burst from the wall, engulfing others. Smerta and Hagane fought, but they were losing defenders.

Hota screeched and vanished, the arrow that killed her falling back to the ground.

A howling whirlwind and a roaring firewhirl hurtled over the wall and into the siege ladders. Paetu and Esclava engulfed the enemy. The djinn through men out from the ladders, hurtling them above the me. The ladders followed. The ifrit left her ladders burning, the men screaming as they fell to the ground engulfed in oranges and reds.

Daleitha followed. Her multitude of rainbow wings flapped as she send blades of light hacking down into the enemy. In moments, all the ladders were cleared from the wall. Alizee whooped so loudly.

“Oh, yeah!” she cheered, putting her fists together and making a circle before her with them as her hips rocked back and forth. “We're fierce! We're hot! We're full of fight! You challenged us, now fear our might!”

“Nice!” Pihatu said as she flashed by Alizee.

*  \ * /  *

Hagane watched the ladders being destroyed. The soldiers at the bottom reeled now as Paetu and Esclava surged down into them. Natural disasters with intelligence. The soldiers screamed as they recoiled.

“Get them!” roared Smerta as she jumped off the wall.

Snezhinka, the last surviving yuki-onna, followed. The three salamanders—Astuta, Dolor, and Horca—followed, using their wings to glide over the enemy and breathe fire on them. The arachne leaped off and fired their webbing. Damhanalla, Gaiste, and Greasai entangled soldiers that still had fight in them.

“Yes!” Hagane cried and leaped off the wall.

Hagane rushed at the enemy. She barreled into them with Smerta. They both swung their weapons, hacking them down. Paetu's whirlwind roared by, throwing dozens of soldiers to their deaths. Esclava's firewhirl carved molten death deep into the enemy soldiers.

They had no heart left to them.

The enemy broke.

*  \ * /  *

“South wall secured,” Hagane reported.

That was all of them.

I felt sick as I stared at the blackened bodies in the north gate tunnel. Kassie still held my hand. She looked pale, a green cast to her eyes. This assault was over, but I had lost a lot of monster girls. Siwang's reinforcements burst out of his dungeon and surged out to take their places on the wall, but he couldn't fix the damage.

And his forces couldn't hold back another assault.

“Let's go,” I called to Kassie and raced back to the central building.

The moment I was in my dungeon, I could feel that there were no intruders. No unwelcomed guests. I rushed down the stairs and to the teleport room. With her shouted words, we shifted into the heart of my dungeon.

I rushed to my Vault, letting my spells vanish from me. The clatter of metal fell away when I dismissed Metal Coat. I darted through the living area and opened my Vault. Souleen perked up at the sight of me.

I grabbed the Void Crystal and surged to the building section. I repaired all three gates and all four walls, especially the south wall. It had almost failed. We were secure, for now. I felt so sick as I sunk into the dead monster girls.

I found Mrs. Maiaand whispered for her.

She spun out of the darkness as my hands fell from the stone. She shuddered as she appeared, her motherly breasts swaying back and forth. I stared at her, the pain welling up inside of me. Something in me broke.

“I don't get it,” I whispered. “I didn't attack them. I never threatened the King of Myreman. Why are they here. Why did so many have to die?”

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