Chapter 21: Wretched King.
Chad didn’t wait for the siege weapon to settle before reaching for another ballista.
The giant bolt screamed through the snowstorm like a rocket and vanished into the Eidolon formation. A moment later, several figures were flung into the air as the formation bent around the impact.
A satisfied grin spread across Chad’s face.
For the first time since entering the tower, something was actually going right.
The undead moved around him, dragging fresh ballistas into place while he adjusted the siege weapon for another shot.
"See that?" Chad laughed. "That’s what happens when people stop trying to stab each other and start using common sense... got to hand it to Damien, he knows how to turn things around".
Seris peeked out from behind the goat-headed statue and immediately ducked back down as another volley of arrows flew overhead.
"Don’t get cocky."
"I’m not getting cocky."
His hands moved quickly across the siege weapon as he prepared another shot, but this time. The undead priest didn’t hand him the ballista. Instead, he stood there in a daze.
Chad frowned.
"Oi."
The other undead had stopped moving too. One after another, they lifted their heads and stared into the distance. Toward the snow-covered buildings behind the Eidolon formation.
Chad followed their gaze.
"What are you all looking at?"
The moment the words left his mouth, black mist began leaking from Priesty’s body.
The undead priest trembled, then he dissolved.
The black mist shot across the battlefield like an arrow released from a bow.
Chad’s grin disappeared.
Within moments, every undead standing near the siege weapon had vanished, leaving Chad alone beside the giant construct.
The cold wind suddenly felt a lot louder.
"What the hell..."
...
Damien wasn’t being intentionally cruel, the Eidolon chief gave off a presence that made the world around him tremble. This was the pressure of an awakened standing before a dormant being, the difference was so vast that even breathing felt difficult.
The chief gradually relaxed its grip on the axe.
Yuri’s eyes rolled back.
Her body sank deeper into the snow. Pain shot through every muscle in her body as she desperately tried to resist being crushed into the rooftop.
Fresh blood dripped from the corner of her lips, she gritted her teeth and activated Impulse again.
A faint electric current crawled across the surface of the giant axe and travelled into the chief’s body.
Nothing happened, the creature didn’t even blink.
"Hey ugly... why don’t you take on someone your own size."
Damien’s voice echoed across the rooftop.
His body was hanging against the wall by a single arm. Black blood stained his chin and chest, but he still forced a grin onto his face.
The chief slowly turned.
For the first time since it arrived, its full attention landed on Damien.
A low grunt escaped its throat, then it stepped away from Yuri. Relief flooded through her body so suddenly that she almost fainted on the spot.
Damien’s smile stiffened as the Eidolon chief raised his giant axe, then the next moment, the creature’s lips parted.
"No one is my size."
Damien froze, the creature’s lips moved and the words were rough and distorted, but they were words. For a brief moment, Damien completely forgot the giant axe hanging over his head.
The thing could speak.
Before he could process what that meant, the chief brought the axe down.
The motion was simple and casual, yet the air around the blade twisted violently as it fell, snow exploding outward before the weapon had even reached him.
Damien’s eyes flashed coldly, but at that very moment, a surge of black mist from behind passed through Damien, and a wooden staff materialized.
A violent crack erupted across the rooftop as the staff collided with the axe and stopped it inches from Damien’s face.
The entire building trembled, as massive chunks of snow fell to the ground, the already cold breeze felt colder under the contest of strength.
Damien stared blankly, he knew that staff wasn’t ordinary, but who would have thought it could block such a powerful strike, and without even denting.
"That’s some top quality wood right there".
The next moment, Priesty stepped out from the darkness, his staff locked firmly against the giant axe as he stood between Damien and the Eidolon chief.
The Eidolon chief’s expression finally twisted, it showed an uncanny human display of annoyance and displeasure, then it said indifferently.
"So you turned my priest into an undead".
There was a short period of silence before it smirked.
"So what...".
It side stepped the undead priest and began to study the other undead Eidolons with keen curiosity, Damien didn’t order them to attack, he would very much like to avoid that, at least until he understood his opponent.
The wound on his head had almost closed, now he could feel the bone in his arm attempting to put itself back in place.
"Your companion tried, and woefully failed to protect you, but that act in itself proves that you are their king... you killed my slaves in the dozens, you used vile sorcery to turn my dead against me. Deplorable ... tell me, what are you creatures... and what kingdom are you from".
Damien chuckled lightly, a faint but almost crazed smile surfaced on his face, a mess of deer, ram and other creatures he did not recognise was questioning him interrogatively. Damien never believed in fables and fantasies, but this. This definitely is top of the list in ways men perish.
He spoke with renewed confidence, what was initially terrifying about the Eidolon priest, was the fact that he was more powerful and possibly more wild than the others, but the creature before him showed advanced intelligence.
Damien’s fear had mostly subsided, dealing with creatures of intelligence was his speciality.
"Me... oh no, I don’t have a kingdom, that’s for fancy folk... but I am a king though".
The chief’s nostrils exhaled a steady stream of hot steam, it stopped and gazed into the distance before saying coldly.
"If you really are king, then you are a wretched one".