Chapter 217: Cannon Sabotage

The war council started at six in the morning.

Balthazar hadn’t slept. The general stood at the head of the table, his earth-channeling gauntlets still on, his scarred face grey with exhaustion. He looked like a man who was being ground down to nothing and refusing to fall.

"Sit down," Balthazar said. "All of you."

The war room was the same cramped bunker space, with the same glowing map and the same monitors. But the data on the screens had changed. The red dots representing Abyssal forces had multiplied overnight, spreading across the eastern corridor.

Holden stood at the far end of the table, with Cora and Sera flanking him.

Emric, Renna, and Lyra stood at the opposite wall. They had been on the battlements all night, rotating shifts and catching sleep in thirty-minute increments between patrols. Emric’s shield was propped against the wall, its surface covered in new dents. Renna’s eyes were red from lack of sleep. Lyra looked the same as always. Composed. Ready.

Balthazar tapped the map. A cluster of new icons appeared on the eastern approach, two miles from the fortress.

"Reconnaissance flight came back at oh-four-hundred," he said. "The enemy has set up artillery. Not regular cannons. Abyssal siege casters. Rank 3 enchanted ordinance."

He pulled up a satellite image. Maeve had fed it into the system from her station in the Capital, with the data relayed through the national defense grid in real time. The image showed a clearing in the forest, two miles east of the fortress. Six massive structures stood in a row.

They weren’t cannons in the traditional sense. They were organic, grown rather than built. Towering columns of dark, corrupted flesh and iron rose thirty feet into the air, each one pulsing with Rank 3 energy. At the top of each column, a swollen bulb of concentrated dark energy glowed like a diseased moon, building charge with every pulse.

"Abyssal Siege Casters," Balthazar continued. "Six of them. Each one is a Rank 3 weapon platform. They fire concentrated Miasma shells that can corrode through Rank 3 warding in a single hit. If those things reach full charge and fire on the fortress, the walls are gone. The wards are gone. The fortress is gone."

He looked around the room at the tired faces and the soldiers who had been fighting for days without rest.

"I need a strike team. Small and fast. In and out before they can respond. Get to those casters, destroy them, and get back. Standard mission profile says a six-man squad of Rank 3 minimum. I don’t have six Rank 3s to spare."

His eyes settled on Holden.

"I have you."

Holden studied the map, taking in the six siege casters and the terrain between the fortress and the clearing.

"I’ll take Cora and Sera," he said.

Balthazar’s scowl deepened. "Two Rank 2 assassins? Against Rank 3 siege positions?"

"They’re not going in as fighters. They’re decoys."

"Decoys?"

"The casters will have guards. Abyssal Commanders. Rank 3. If I go in alone, they’ll swarm me. If the Twins attack first and make themselves visible, the Commanders will focus on them. While they’re distracted, I destroy the casters. Then I take out the Commanders."

Balthazar stared at him. "You’re putting your people in the line of fire as bait."

"I’m putting my blades where they’ll do the most damage. The Twins are fast enough to avoid Rank 3 strikes. They won’t let themselves get cornered."

Balthazar studied him for a long moment, searching Holden’s face for a crack. For any sign that the plan was nothing more than reckless arrogance.

He found none.

"Fine," Balthazar said. "Your squad. Your plan. Your risk. Go."

He turned back to the map. "You have two hours before those casters reach full charge. After that, the fortress falls."

Holden turned toward the Twins.

"Gear up. Full stealth configuration."

Cora and Sera moved immediately. No hesitation. No questions.

Lyra caught Holden’s arm as he turned to leave.

"Holden."

He looked at her. Her blue eyes searched his face for the same thing Balthazar had been searching for. But she wasn’t looking for arrogance. She was looking for something else. Something she was afraid she wouldn’t find.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

The question was the same one she always asked.

His eyes settled on the girl who had waited by the door and asked him to come back, meaning it with every part of her.

"I will be," he said.

It was the first time he hadn’t said no.

She nodded and let go of his arm.

"Come back," she said.

"Always."

He left the war room.

The rain was lighter today. No-Man’s Land was grey and brown and dead, stretching between the fortress and the eastern tree line in a quilt of mud and craters.

Holden activated the Void Mantle. The three of them vanished from the world.

They moved fast. The Void Mantle hid their presence while their Rank 2 and Rank 3 bodies covered ground at speeds that would have left normal soldiers behind in seconds.

They reached the tree line in twelve minutes. The forest was dark and wet. The canopy blocked what little light the grey sky provided, and the shadows between the trunks were deep and connected, forming a web of dark spaces that Holden’s 10,000x processor mapped automatically. Each shadow became a potential Void-Step target.

He stopped them at the edge of the clearing.

Through the trees, the six siege casters were visible, arranged in a row and pulsing with dark energy. The bulbs at the top of each column were swelling as the energy concentrated, building toward the critical threshold that would allow them to fire.

Between the casters, patrolling the clearing, were the guards.

Abyssal Commanders. Eight of them. Each one stood ten feet tall, armored in iron that had been fused directly into its corrupted body. Their heads were skull-like, with burning red eyes and jaws full of black teeth. Each carried a greatsword, war axe, or halberd, all radiating Rank 3 energy.

Rank 3, 4-Star. All eight.

The 10,000x processor mapped the clearing, tracking the casters’ positions, the Commanders’ patrol routes, the shadows between the trees, and the timing windows.

"Eight Commanders," Holden said. "Rank 3, 4-Star. They’re patrolling in pairs. Two between each set of casters. The patrol cycle is forty seconds per loop. There’s a twelve-second window when the Commanders in each pair have their backs to the casters."

His eyes moved to Cora.

"You and Sera hit the northern pair. Draw their attention. Make noise. Be visible. Make them chase you."

"Understood, Master Voss," Cora said.

"They can’t catch you if you don’t let them corner you. Stay in the open and keep their eyes on you."

"Yes, Master Voss," Sera replied.

"Once the Commanders are focused on you, I’ll destroy the casters and then deal with the Commanders. Total mission time from first contact to final kill: under sixty seconds."

He looked at both of them.

"Questions?"

"No questions," Cora said.

"We’re ready," Sera replied.

"Move."

The Twins ghosted through the trees. They split at the edge of the clearing, Cora going left and Sera going right, flanking the northern patrol pair from two directions.

Holden found a shadow beneath the thick trunk of a tree, twenty meters from the nearest siege caster. He locked onto it and waited.

The Twins struck.

Cora hit the left Commander first. Her sword slammed into its thigh. The blade couldn’t penetrate the iron armor, but the impact sent a bright spark into the air.

CLANG!

The Commander spun, its burning red eyes locking onto Cora as its greatsword came up. It roared, the sound shaking the trees and sending birds fleeing from the canopy.

SKREEEE!

The second Commander in the northern pair turned toward the noise, its war axe already rising.

Sera hit it from behind.

Her sword caught the back of the Commander’s knee, finding the gap in the iron armor where the joint bent. The blade sank two inches into corrupted flesh, spraying dark fluid across the mud.

Shhhk.

The Commander screamed and spun, swinging its axe in a wild backhand. Sera was already gone, dropping beneath the blade before rolling through the mud and coming up five meters away.

"Contact!" Cora shouted. "North! Two Commanders engaged!"

The other six Commanders in the clearing turned. Their patrol routes were forgotten as their eyes found the two small figures in the clearing, the humans who had dared to attack Rank 3 Abyssal Commanders.

All six charged toward the Twins.

Holden’s 10,000x processor tracked the shift. Every Commander’s attention had moved to the northern end of the clearing. The four southern casters were now exposed, with no Commanders between them and the shadows surrounding the clearing.

He stepped.

Shhp.

In an instant, he stood on top of the first siege caster, thirty feet above the ground. The dark energy bulb pulsed beneath his feet, radiating intense heat. The Blood-Amber Ring pulsed, sealing the small burns forming across his feet.

The sword came down without hesitation, driving straight into the bulb.

FWOOM!

White-hot fire exploded inside the bulb as it collided with the concentrated dark energy. The reaction was instant. Cracks raced across the surface before the entire bulb split apart and detonated.

BOOM!

The explosion blew the top off the siege caster. Dark energy and white fire erupted into the sky, punching through the forest canopy.

Shhp.

Holden was already on the second caster, standing on its swelling bulb with his sword raised.

FWOOM!

BOOM!

The second caster died in a burst of fire and dark energy, its top half blowing apart and sending fragments of iron and corrupted flesh raining into the clearing.

Shhp.

Third caster.

FWOOM!

BOOM!

The Commanders heard the explosions and turned. The six that had been charging toward the Twins stopped mid-stride, their red eyes snapping toward the destruction. Their objective, the siege casters they had been stationed to protect, were being destroyed one after another by a figure that appeared and disappeared in flashes of light.

"PROTECT THE CASTERS!" one of them roared.

Too late.

Shhp.

Fourth caster.

FWOOM!

BOOM!

Shhp.

Fifth caster.

FWOOM!

BOOM!

Four down. Two left. The Commanders turned and ran back toward the remaining casters. They were fast, but the clearing was wide, and they still had to cross from one end to the other.

Holden didn’t have to run.

Shhp.

Sixth caster.

FWOOM!

BOOM!

All six siege casters were destroyed. The mission objective was complete.

Forty-three seconds.

Now the Commanders.

Eight of them were running toward the center of the clearing, converging on the spot where the last explosion had gone off. Holden had been standing there only a fraction of a second ago.

He was already gone.

Shhp.

He appeared behind the lead Commander, the one with the greatsword that had roared at Cora. Its back was exposed. The iron armor covering its torso didn’t extend all the way across the spine, leaving a narrow gap where the plates overlapped.

The sword found it.

Shhhk.

The blade severed the spinal cord. The Commander’s body went rigid, its arms locking in place as the greatsword slipped from its frozen fingers. A moment later, the massive creature crashed into the mud.

[Imperial Abyssal Commander (Rank 3, 4-Star) Defeated! x1!]

[+5,000 KP! 2x Booster! +10,000 KP!]

Shhp.

Behind the second Commander, the one carrying the war axe. The same gap. The same strike.

Shhhk.

[Imperial Abyssal Commander (Rank 3, 4-Star) Defeated! x1!]

[+10,000 KP!]

Shhp. Shhhk.

The third went down.

[+10,000 KP!]

Shhp. Shhhk.

The fourth followed.

[+10,000 KP!]

The remaining four Commanders stopped running. They stood in the center of the clearing, surrounded by burning wreckage and the bodies of their fallen companions. Their red eyes darted wildly as their weapons swept through the air, searching for the thing that was killing them.

They couldn’t find it.

Shhp.

The fifth Commander fell.

Shhhk.

[+10,000 KP!]

Shhp.

The sixth went down.

Shhhk.

[+10,000 KP!]

The last two Commanders stood back to back. Their weapons swept through the air in wide, desperate arcs, while their red eyes darted in every direction. They were beginning to understand that something was in the clearing with them, something they couldn’t see, hear, or fight.

Shhp.

Holden appeared behind the seventh.

Shhhk.

[+10,000 KP!]

The last Commander screamed. It swung its halberd in a frantic full-body circle, trying to hit everything and nothing at the same time.

The shadow behind it shifted.

Shhp.

Shhhk.

Clatter.

[Abyssal Commander (Rank 3, 4-Star) Defeated! x8!]

[Total KP Earned: +80,000 KP!]

Eight Commanders lay in the mud, their iron armor crumbling as their bodies dissolved.

Fifty-eight seconds. From first contact to final kill. Under a minute.

Holden stood in the center of the clearing.

His eyes moved toward the northern edge, where Cora and Sera stood.

The Twins were frozen. They stood side by side, their identical faces wearing identical expressions of stunned disbelief.

They had watched the entire engagement. They had seen the Commanders turn toward them after their decoy attack. They had seen the first siege caster explode, then the second, then the third in rapid succession.

Then they had watched the Commanders die. Eight Rank 3, 4-Star Commanders, killed in under thirty seconds by a man who appeared and disappeared like a flicker of light.

Cora’s mouth hung open. Her eyes, usually sharp and controlled, were wide as she stared at Holden.

Sera’s hands trembled slightly. The image of Holden appearing behind a ten-foot-tall Rank 3 Commander and cutting it down before it could even turn had burned itself into her mind. Eight times. One after another. Without being touched.

Holden dismissed his sword and looked at them.

"Mission complete. Six casters destroyed. Eight Commanders eliminated. No friendly casualties."

Cora swallowed. When she finally spoke, her voice was small, almost uncertain. She had just realized that the person they had sworn allegiance to was far more powerful than they had ever imagined.

"Master Voss... how did you—"

"Save your questions for later," he said.

The Twins looked at each other. The look lasted only two seconds, but an entire conversation passed between them without a word. It was a reassessment, a fundamental shift in how they understood the person they had sworn to follow.

The fear in their eyes was real, but it was mixed with something else. Something stronger.

Respect.

"We should return, Master Voss," Cora said. Her voice had steadied.

"The fortress will need confirmation that the casters are destroyed," Sera added.

Holden nodded. He found a shadow, then another, then another.

Shhp. Shhp. Shhp.

He chained back through the forest, the Twins following on foot. They ran through the trees with the desperate speed of people trying to keep up with someone who could simply stop existing in one place and appear in another.

They reached the fortress in nine minutes.

Balthazar was on the wall when they arrived. The general’s scarred face was turned toward the east, watching the sky. A column of dark smoke from the burning casters rose above the tree line, a grey-black plume climbing into the overcast sky.

He looked down at the three figures emerging from No-Man’s Land.

"Mission status?" Balthazar asked.

"Six casters destroyed. Eight Commanders eliminated," Holden said.

Balthazar looked at him, then at the Twins, before glancing toward the smoke rising from the forest.

"Under a minute?"

"Fifty-eight seconds."

Balthazar grunted. The sound carried more weight than a speech. It was the reaction of a Rank 4 general who had just watched a Rank 3, 6-Star teenager complete what should have been a suicide mission in under a minute without taking a scratch.

"Good work," he said. He turned back toward the wall. "All of you."

He didn’t say anything else.

Holden looked at the Twins. They stood beside him, their breathing still ragged, their eyes carrying that same look. The look of people who had just seen what their new master could do and understood, for the first time, exactly what they had sworn themselves to.

"Rest," Holden said. "Both of you. We move again in four hours."

"Yes, Master Voss," Cora said.

"Yes, Master Voss," Sera replied.

They bowed and walked into the fortress.

Holden followed.