“Don’t waste your time crying.” The Queen said from her dais. “We have until the day of the departure before the next cull. Only the strongest among us will be chosen and only because we can’t trust the undead filth.
“We need enough mouths to protect ourselves but not enough to exhaust our limited resources before we build our new home. I know that I’m asking much of you, but it’s the same sacrifice my husband just made.
“The same sacrifice I’ll make as soon as a new and more worthy Queen is found for my son.” She closed her eyes, sighing at the idea of leaving Xagra alone and burdened by the responsibility of ensuring the survival of the new colony.
“Here’s my first order as Zelex’s regent: live your lives at their fullest and make the best of what time we have left. I would also like to relieve you from your duty for today, but unfortunately, the undead know of our loss.
“This is the perfect moment to try and-” The sound of the alarm cut her short, quickly followed by a tremor so intense that the chandeliers swung from the ceiling and dust fell off.
“What the heck is going on?” Syrah cursed Glemos’ name under her breath.
The dimensional compressing array blocked both dimensional magic and communication amulets. The only way to communicate long-distance inside Zelex was either by warg or magic flares.
Thanks to their bloodline ability to share anything with the members of their pack, warg could communicate with each other and relay messages even from a considerable distance.
It was the reason they were the only guards for the senate and the backbone of the city guard. Alas, both warg and Hati had been assembled to receive the regent’s speech so the only way of communication left to the guards was colored flares.
The Queen rushed out of the building and took flight to observe the situation from above. Green, red, and violet arcing lights came from the south access of the city, their colors mixing together and painting Zelex like a bloody gangrenous wound.
‘We are invaded and our assailants have collapsed the south tunnel!’ The information spread through the mind link to all the warg and Hati below, yet despite their rigorous discipline they remained frozen in place.
‘Is it really demons?’ A young Hati asked while his heart pounded so hard in his chest that its furious beating was all he could hear.
Violet flares were supposed to be an inside joke between the monster tribes. A relic of their past superstition that their god Glemos had disproved time and time again. Yet they now lighted the city’s sky and more kept being shot by the second.
‘Only one way to find out. Leave an elite unit to protect the senate. Everyone else, with me!’
Seeing their Queen charge to battle and the strong feelings she shared with her pack snapped them out of it. The thought of demons wasn’t so scary anymore. Only protecting their beloved city and tribes mattered.
The only silver lining in that situation was that the cull had yet to happen. There were still thousands of monsters ready to fight who had no qualms about throwing away their lives if it meant securing the future of their people.
‘At least this way their death will have a meaning.’ The Queen ruefully thought while darting above the small buildings and getting around the tall ones. ‘Also, I can use a good fight after a day like this. Spilling blood should do wonders for my mood.’
When she arrived at her destination, her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped to the floor. The south entrance was still secure. The guards had surrounded the narrow passage between the tunnel and the city by the book, making the number of assailants pointless.
Thanks to their rigorous training and the field advantage, a dozen of guards could hold back hundreds of enemies indefinitely. Also, Syrah wasn’t the only one who had noticed the flares and was eager to vent her frustration on the intruders.
Br’ey the orc shaman, Ryla the Fomor, and M’karn the Traughen had reached the south entrance just a few seconds after Syrah. Goblins, ogres, and the other monster tribes that couldn’t fly would take a bit longer to arrive, but the noise of their frenzied marching could already be heard from a distance.
Yet none of it was enough to save the Queen from the despair that filled her heart. Because past behind the city guards who were valiantly repelling the invaders, Syrah could see a silvery radiance that didn’t come from any spell.
She hadn’t seen natural moonlight since the day the previous Queen had sent Syrah to the surface to accelerate her aging, but she still remembered it vividly.
“The secret tunnel is no more! The collapse has turned it into an opening that leads straight to the surface.” She yelled. “If we don’t win this battle and seal the entrance quickly, the position of our haven will be revealed!”
It would have meant rushing with the culling, running away leaving behind most of their possessions, and being at the complete mercy of the Undead Courts for survival. The words of the Queen washed away what was left of the fear of the alleged demons and made the troops’ blood boil.
At least until the moonlight was swallowed by a black tide that flooded the narrow access to Zelex, trampling over the nearest guards. They tried to use water magic to stop it, but the dark liquid wasn’t affected by magic and kept moving forward.
Only when the defenders were pushed back enough did the tide reveal its true nature, comprised of black bodies and white eyes. The creatures had no features, looking like lanky shadows come to life.
While they wrestled with the guards, however, the monsters slowly reverted to their fallen status while the shadows became more defined. Those who wounded a warg would gain a maw filled with white fangs.
Those who fought a Balor would gain wings or more eyes while trolls would face opponents whose mastery over the darkness and light elements grew by the second. Luckily, the effect of the shadows’ touch seemed to be only temporary.
As soon as the reinforcements allowed the guards on the frontlines to disengage and have a moment of rest, the world energy from the mana geyser would fill their bodies and restore their powers.
On the other hand, the invaders retained the characteristics they had stolen and gained more powers by fighting a different monster race.
Syrah nodded to Br’ey and Ryla while calling upon herself the power of one hundred warg. The Fomor spread her golden lightning to the Queen and her troops, doubling its efficacy.
The bloodline ability tripled the warg’s prowess and once they passed it upon Syrah it was tripled again, making it almost as good as Life Maelstrom.
The orc shaman, instead, drew the world energy away from the opening and focused it on the plaza. This way, elemental magic would be sealed for the invaders and boosted for the defenders.
It also served the purpose to isolate the battlefield from the rest of the city and shield the crystal mines from the mana fluctuations that powerful spells might induce.
