A bloody tang hung in the air. The air itself felt sticky and wet. Every breath was cloying, like breathing through a wet rag soaked in blood. The smell, the smell was equally bad. The smell of blood and rot, all wrapped together.

  The last few days of rain had changed the surroundings. Terraforming would be a word for what had happened. The sky, despite the clouds having dispersed remained a bloody red. Even the full moon and the night sky was tainted red.

  Outside the compound, the land was more bog than solid land. The bamboo groves had become twisted and gnarled, the once innocent looking bamboo, now black with pulsing red veins. They swayed, even when there was no wind. Vines covered in thick thorns curled and uncurled, seeking prey.

  The whole world felt more dangerous. A pressure bore down on us, and only the protection afforded us thanks to the land we sat upon kept us from buckling under it. The very earth under us thrummed with energy. The lines Faust had etched into the earth and wall had grown, multiplied until it felt like it covered every surface.

  The land here was tainted as well, but with each thrumming beat, like the beat of a heart, more of the crimson energy was purged from the lines.

  Down below, where the corpse pit lay, I could still sense it. The magic imbedded into the walls thrummed and beat in tune with the ley line under us. The pit, now more of a moat filled with slushing blood. Not quite frozen, not quite liquid. It seemed oddly docile, but I could feel the power just waiting to be unleashed at my command.

  How the blood would alter the final product was a mystery to me, but… I couldn’t wait to find out.

  In the distance, we heard it. A thrum. A beat. Like a drum. Bum, bum, bum, bum. Slow, steady. The bamboo grove shuddered to the beat. Shifting and moving to make way for the coming invaders.

  Our defenses were ready. None of us were exactly idle. Stacks of clips for my rifle were set aside by my feet. My rifle by my side, fully loaded and ready. Diva clutched her microphone. Her eyes set and determination carved into her features.

  Ruth stood, not on the ramparts with us, but on the ground by the main gate. Her bat at her side, her arms crossed, and head lowered. She was wearing her jacket again, and her baseball cap. Her long hair tamed and set into a ponytail.

  Faust was in the tower, controlling the flaming eye, whose power had recharged and if anything, had grown with all the cursed rain. Then there was Terra, making final checks before the siege, touching up what she could before the assault came.

  My soldiers stood on the walls. All save for a single squad, led by the fourth unit captain and his entourage, making for a total of six sword and shield wielding soldiers guarding the gate, along with my oni.

  With every beat of that distant drum, our hearts beat against our chest. Even the ice could do little to keep the growing unease and panic down. My heart slamming against its cage of ice, trying to break free.

  With every beat, that cage would crack. Little fractures that would grow with each attempt. I kept it frozen. I pushed it down. I inhaled, exhaled, remembering to breathe. Yet, the panic did not go down.

  Just when I felt my heart shudder. The ice around my heart ready to collapse, only then did the beat stop. The silence was deafening. Every sound stopped. Every ear perked. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the clearing. I couldn’t look away, but I could hear Diva’s teeth shattering, her knees knocking.

  No, not just that. Even my soldiers seemed to shudder. Their stone bodies vibrated. A mix of fear and growing excitement suffused their being. This was what they were born to do. And thus, they held their ground, no…

  They answered back.

  Altogether, they began their own beat. Stomping their feet. One after another. A loud crack, of stone on wood. Though reinforced, I felt the rampart shake. I did not stop them. No, if anything, I joined in. My rifle butt slammed into the rampart in tune, my oni joined in with their club. Diva moved her feet in time. Even Ruth below tapped her feet.

  The simple act, it pushed back the suffocating fear. Our single act of defiance, like a single burning flame on the darkest of nights. It grew. From a small ember to something greater. Our very bodies vibrated, our every drop of our being cried out, answering the call.

  Then, they answered back.

  A drumbeat, a rapid beat. Out of the grove, they came. I raised my rifle and paused a beat.

  Out of the bamboo grove, they came. Towering monstrosities. Massive animals, animals that had flickering red flames for eyes, whose skulls were fully exposed, whose bodies looked like they had their skin flayed off. Leaving only the muscle below. They bled as they moved. The corrosive blood seeping into the surrounding bog. Empowering them and those that followed.

  Just behind the monstrosities, three in total. A bear, a stag, and a wolf. Just behind those monstrosities, they came. Countless wicker men, driven to frenzy. They rushed at the side of their greaters and wielded makeshift weapons and clubs made out of bone or rock.

  Just behind the frontline, more wielded black bows made up of twined roots. The roots swirled and dug into their arms. The black bow was alive, pulsing, with a bloody red bowstring that looked more like tendon then string. On their back was a quiver, a simple basket filled to the brim with arrows.

  At the far back, they stepped out of the grove. Shamans. Each of them stood at the ready and before them all, with crossed arms, was the leader, the gold rank. His eyes focused on the rampart but slowly drifted from Diva to me. Once our eyes met, he smirked, exposing sharp teeth.

  Ignoring the gold rank, I focused on the task at hand. I aimed for the stag at the center of the formation and pulled the trigger. The bullet sang high, then low, before impacting it in the skull, narrowly missing the eye socket. Bone cracked and frosted over, the wicker beast shuddered, but pressed on, lowering their head to charge.

  I loaded and fired. Focusing on the stag. Aiming for what I could. I fired clean my weapon, the final shot hit the front knee, forcing it to buckle at the final moment. With a shrill cry, like the cry of many disjointed voices coming together, the stag fell.

  The bog, that was the clearing around the castle, did little to stop the stag’s momentum. It slid forward, my voice cracked out.

  “BRACE!” As one, the soldiers braced, Diva hit the ground, clutching the wall. Not a moment later, the stag crashed into the wall with their full momentum. The large antlers made the wall shudder, the etched lines on the walls lit up and pulsed in retaliation.

  After the initial crash, the stag thrashed. Soldiers rushed forward, the towering beast’s body just within reach of spears as it struggled to get back up. Mired in the blood below. I could see it being dragged under. The corrosive bloody slush of the corpse pit slowly dissolved the stag, pulling it under.

  Spears stabbed into its body. The wicker beast cried and screamed, up until it was finally, fully submerged. One was dead, but…

  There were still two more.

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  With our focus on the stag, the bear had barreled into the section of wall adjacent to me. The entire wall shuddered and bucked. The very foundation under us shuddered under the attack.

  The bear had rammed into the wall, one of its paws slipped into the corpse pit, if it could even be called that at this point. The bloody slush corroded and pulled. Seeking to drag the bear in it, but with a snarl and a roar, it reared back. Ripping free its paw, now devoid of flesh. The white bone underneath now visible.

  To the far right… Disconcertingly… the wolf was missing.

  I tried to focus on it, but the bear cried out. Like the stag, its cries sounded like many disjointed voices calling out together in disharmony. Glancing over, I was bowled over by a soldier. A large claw, devoid of flesh swept over the top of the rampart.

  The soldier that had pushed me down was caught up in the attack, the bone claws scoring large wounds along their body and the swipe even pulled them off the rampart into the corpse pit below. Marking the first real casualty.

  I loaded my rifle and raised the muzzle, the iron sight giving me my target. I squeezed the trigger as the bear roared. Its forelegs were planted on the rampart, making it all too easy target. It was close, but… not that close.

  The shot sang, crashed right into its eye socket. An explosion ripped out, cold and frost clung to the wound, the flames in its eye socket flickered out. The wicker beast reeled, a wild swipe swung out, scraping along the top of the rampart.

  I ejected the spent casing, chambered the next round, something whistled by. A javelin, a massive spear of bamboo shot through the base of the bear’s skull. Punching through to the back. The bear reared up on its hind legs, towering over the wall.

  I glanced back to witness my oni grabbing another larger javelin I had set aside for him and with his arm cocked back, he sent another hurtling forward. It smashed into the bears torso, ripping through the ribcage and where its heart would be. The force of the blow pushed the bear back, its back legs carried it just a few steps beyond the corpse pit.

  Clicking my tongue, I focused on what was next. The shamans were moving in force. Those wicker men that approached the bear were swiftly consumed by their vines. Having consumed their hosts, the vines would shift towards the bear, slowly trying to bring it back to life.

  A mental command had my captains send a wave of javelins out to disturb the shamans. The gold rank intercepted each and every javelin with well-timed slashes and cuts of their sword. I timed my own shot with the next volley, nothing changed as the gold rank once again, simply bashed aside the bullet with ease.

  Then came the wave of arrows. We ducked under the parapet. Arrows clattered against the reinforced wood to no avail, few if any found purchase against the stone-like wood. Still, they came down densely. They afforded us no break. Blotting out the sky seemingly with their attacks.

  So many were they, that even my shield-wielding soldiers dared not step up and take the brunt of their blows. Lest they be chipped away.

  We held our ground, we stayed behind the parapet, when hands, fingers specifically reached over the lip. With a thought, a bayonet formed, and the moment the wicker man’s head crossed the threshold, I stabbed.

  For a moment, the arrows stuttered. My soldiers rushed forward, cutting down wave after wave of wicker men as they sought purchase, then the arrows came back. Perforating their own, filling them like pincushions, they fell into the pit below.

  Once more, we hid. Even then, our reaction had been slightly delayed. A number of soldiers were hit, the individual arrows lacked enough force, but a single instant saw them hit with multiple. Leaving small fissures on their otherwise immaculate forms.

  I took a moment to breathe. I tried to look out over the madness for a clue as to what would come next.

  We were pinned. Of that, I knew without a doubt. With all the arrows, I couldn’t get a good view of the courtyard, where my oni and Ruth were, but I could sense through my connection with my oni that nothing untoward was happening.

  The wolf was still missing. We still had not seen the bronze ranks. The arrows continued to fall.

  I began to piece together the information, or try too… The answer was not pleasant. Already, I could hear the bear stirring. Even the wicker men, specifically one that lay next to me, perforated with arrows, their form twitched, the vines writhed, bringing back their host.

  At this rate, we were going to be overrun.

  Apparently, Faust thought so as well. The eye above flickered to life. A beam of concentrated fire strafed the battlefield. A single sweep stopped all the incoming arrows. Almost immediately, I shot up and kicked the reviving wicker man off the parapet and down into the pit below.

  I saw a scorched path, ground glassed, where the laser went. Countless wicker men were killed in an instant. I glanced to the rear and found the shamans missing. As was the gold rank. A chill went down my spine at the thought of a rogue gold rank wandering around.

  I glanced about, Diva looked fine, she was being protected by a captain with sword and shield. Down below… I blinked. The moment I had looked down, I had seen a wolf leap over the opposite wall, right into the courtyard.

  The wolf snarled and bit. My oni kept it busy, even as claws raked at its stone clad body. Leaving gouges in both my oni’s armor and body. Working around my oni, was Ruth. Her bat swung back and forth with dizzying speed. Each strike flowed into the next, beating the wolf back with ever greater force.

  A stirring noise brought me back to another problem, the stirring bear. Its body was mostly reformed. After the eye had fired its load, it had gone inert once more. Having scorched away the archers, the average wicker man had quit the field, fleeing into the grove.

  Yet…

  It still didn’t feel like a win.

  A final, ghastly howl echoed out. Faust, having come down had joined Ruth. The pair easily making quick work of the wolf. My oni was covered in scars and wounds, but they were still alive.

  Readying my weapon, I focused on the bear. Making sure it didn’t revive.

  For a moment, I wondered if the battle had truly ended…

  Then I heard it. A thump, a beat of a drum. Bum, Bum, Bum…

  It picked back up. We took back our positions and yet another wave came.

  It was smaller, but still numerous. A single wicker beast at the forefront. Bodies quickly polluted the clearing between us and the grove. They came at us with insistent waves, not unlike the ebb and flow of the tide.

  We worked through what snacks we had left. Meals became harder to obtain with the constant assaults. It continued throughout the day, up until the tainted moon shone from above.

  Each wave had been small. A single wicker beast leading a contingent of wicker men, both normal and bows. The problem came down to attrition. It wasn’t obvious, not until it grew late, but…

  The shamans were retrieving the dead. Reviving them and bringing them back into the fray. Larger assaults would mask them retrieving their wicker beasts, only for them to come back whole and hearty.

  With night, they stopped the assaults. But even in the dark, I could see them shifting about under the tainted moons light. We took shifts, me and Faust being the only ones even capable of sniping the scavenging wicker men.

  We all slept horribly. Our ears perked and listening for the first sign of danger, even as we shut ourselves inside the tower.

  With morning, they came back as strong as ever.

  Those that fell into the corpse pit didn’t come back, a small mercy. The wolf in the courtyard was long dead, its body however, still polluted our courtyard. We lacked the means to toss it out. Not without opening the main gate.

  With the morning assault, the gold rank appeared again, shamans in tow.

  This continued throughout the day without change. Occasionally, a wicker beast would leap over the wall or make an attempt on the wall. Such had attempts had mixed results. The walls held, but worrying cracks were beginning to form. Not just on the walls, but the foundation itself.

  Terra was doing her best to reinforce it, but whatever magic they had done that had transformed the clearing into a bloody bog and tinted the sky and moon red, was also having an effect on the ground itself.

  Diva was instrumental at times. Her screams occasionally disabling wicker beasts, right before they could capitalize on an opening or wreck the walls further. The only bright side was that those killed by the eye, the bow wielders, had been entirely decimated. Reduced to naught but ash and irrecoverable.

  Few bow users still lived, which made our lives immensely easier, and earned Faust plenty of praise for his smart thinking. It made a world of difference between being forced to take cover and not. Which was why further attempts to leap over the wall rarely worked.

  A few wicker beasts had tried, but most of them were rebuffed, either by Faust or Ruth. Some even by my oni as he intercepted their leap with his stone club. Essentially hitting a home run, sending them back from whence they came.

  A not un-true statement, since Ruth seemed oddly committed to showing the oni how to swing a bat.

  There was a rhythm to the battle. A tenuous balance had been struck and yet…

  We still had yet to see the bronze ranks. The eye was spent, and it was unlikely to be ready before this event ends. Of our hidden aces, all we had left, was the corpse pit. More than once, I was tempted to simply activate it and let them rampage.

  Whenever it felt like they were beginning to push us back, or when I felt the very foundation below our feet shudder and crack. That temptation came back to the fore, only to be pushed back down when they inevitably quit the field.

  In the end, I didn’t. As days passed… I kept the pit in reserve. Even as injuries piled up. Even as my soldiers began to succumb to attrition, dying in service to me… Even when it seemed like we might even be overwhelmed.

  We had only a day or two left now…

  Which meant, the final blow was coming.

  And no matter what, I just knew, we would not only survive but win this event.

  After all, how could we lose, when we put so much into this?