CHAPTER TWELVE: BATTLE FOR VILLA ORE MUNDI

  The gladius couldn’t reach if he stabbed over the top and nobody wished to open the shield line as the voracious bugs bit and snapped at everything. Their two front arms were pulling apart chunks of dead bodies, forcing the meat into the cyclone of teeth. Even as they took the few steps needed to close the distance, they had grown larger, stretching from a foot to three feet and half as wide.

  Spears stabbed down along the line and Cassius winced as he saw the steel points slide free of the hardened carapace, doing no damage to them. The summoned monsters didn’t slow their eating as the ineffective spears bounced off of them.

  “[Thrust]!” Marcus screamed, a hysteric edge to the man’s voice. Red mana burned around the speartips as they plunged down to greater effect. Luminescent yellow blood splattered out and the beasts finally noticed the line of legionnaires. As one they coiled like snakes, bodies tense as a bowstring.

  Cassius [Reinforced] his shield without waiting for the order as the monster exploded toward them. Even braced properly and with mana infusing his shield, the bug’s attack shoved him sliding back. Up and down the line others collapsed, not quick enough to switch skills. Bits of wood and metal went flying as men cried and screamed, having fallen hard to the ground, the monsters atop of them.

  The creatures had no trouble eating the living with the same insatiable hunger. Arms and legs were turned to nothing but stumps in a flash, teeth chewed through armor like it was paper, blood flowed down as hysterical screams filled the area.

  “Break, break, break!” Marcus ordered, taking three steps back. Cassius was too slow, their shields separated as he stared at a legionnaire slack corpse, the white bug now buried into the man’s torso, wiggling as viscera flew out.

  “NULL!” Marcus screamed and it startled Cassius out of the horror of the moment. He cursed as he tried to roll back but the marble had become slick with fresh blood, his foot slipped out from under him. One moment he was upright and retreating, the next he was on his back as the air whooshed out of his lungs, shield atop of his body.

  The sword was still in his hand this time, not having fallen away like it had when he’d been at the granary. Weight settled on the shield, pinning him down. Cassius sword and ran [Reinforce] through the shield just as the bug bit down. His internal reserves were dragged out in a single burst.

  “Cursed gates!” Cassius sword, wiggling backward as he slid his arm free of the straps and kicked back with one foot, using his knee to prop the shield and bug off his torso.

  Wood broke inward as the bugs head shoved its way through, cyclical mouth and razor sharp teeth inches away from his stomach. Cassius swore and twisted his hips, tossing the heavy creature over onto its back even as it ate through the shield in moments.

  Cassius stabbed at it, angling the sword blade up and throwing his weight behind the blow. The bug’s mouth swung toward him and steel knocked teeth free before entering the softer palette of the bug. It froze as yellow blood ran out of the wound and over Cassius’ hand as it slowly tottered over.

  “Null, get up!” Marcus emphasized his words by grabbing his shoulder, hanking him up just as another of the summoned monsters began to snap and grind its mouth where his boot had just been. Marcus stabbed down with a [Thrust] enhanced blow, piercing it between its beady white eyes and killing it.

  “Focus, boy,” Marcus snarled, shoving him behind the reforming line.

  “Too me!” Hostus cried, raising his sword up into the air and twirling it around. The man had turned several of the beasts into segmented pieces at his feet. Cassius stumbled and moved closer to him, off the stairs of the patio as the remnant of the line stepped back, still stabbing at the advancing monsters.

  “Enemy!” Another voice screamed and Cassius turned to look back at the rampart of dead imps to see more of the creature he had fought in the stone room. Two of them climbed over the wall and balanced easily on the piles of corpses. Imps continued to climb up, pressing against the century as the thick red glow of skills slowly faded.

  “We need to rotate!” Hostus yelled to Lucilia who was standing only a foot from Cassius. The centurion looked at the rapidly growing bugs as they left the patio bare of everything aside from the bloodslick, and back toward the wave of imps.

  “[Guardsmen] never can complete their work. LEGIONNAIRES! FIGHTING RETREAT, TWO STEP BACK!” Lucilia’s voice rose into a thunderous roar that shook the very air.

  “Hostus, clear that patio!” Lucilia ordered in the echo of her previous statement. Her attendant burst forth, ran around to the edge of the patio and vaulted the side, six feet straight up like it was nothing.

  “The edges of the building ma’am. We can just break that way,” Cassius said, not thinking as he spoke to the woman.

  “And split the century? No, fighting retreat through the building and hold the doorways,” Lucilia said, her head whipping back and forth as she tried to keep everything in view.

  Cassius watched as the two assassins just stood there for a long moment, watching, before they reached down and pulled up another of their number. It was the same race, even in the moonlight Cassius could see the similarity to them. But while the two powerfully built warriors radiated lethality, the newcomer was thinner, fragile.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  A cape of rustling feathers, each of them white as snow, hung around from their neck. Its chest was bare, skin tight to a cadaverous chest that was painted in blood, symbols similar to what had been on the walls of the granary and the captured citizens.

  “Kill it!” Cassius yelled, swinging his gladius toward the newcomer, but the din of battle nobody heard him even if eyes were locked on the creatures. The mass of imps kept anyone from getting close and the hastae style spears weren’t meant for throwing.

  The smaller creature lifted a hand from the robes, a baton made of twisted bones in its clawed hands. It shook the baton, the rattle of teeth inside of the skull cap loud enough to bear heard over the fight as green-black mana started to gather around the old creature.

  Dread filled Cassius as he stared at the creature as it shook the rattle in its hand, more and more energy building up along it. Cassius turned back away from that monster and toward the growing bugs along the patio. That same sickly black-green mana was slowly beginning to grow off of them, the beast's white eyes turning away from their dwindling feast and toward the imperiled century.

  “Kill them now!” Hostus roared. The attendant matched his words as he lunged across the distance, sword splitting one of the albino creatures like it was a sack of wheat, partially digested chunks of flesh spewed out as its ravenous maw locked open in a screech.

  The line surged forward and Cassius went with them, bereft of his spear and shield, wielding just the short blade in his hand. They fought their way up the stairs, feet slipping and sliding on the slick marble. Another of the beasts rose up, lashing out at the shield line only to be repelled by the mana coated shields. Spears sliced down at it, but the thick carapace repelled any attack not empowered by a skill.

  “Keep pushing!” Marcus cried.

  The line shoved, pushing the monsters back toward the house with sheer weight. Cassius put his shoulder into a man’s back, leaning his weight and falling into step with him, eyes locked on the gap in the shields. Mana was already thin, the fight short but intense had stripped their reserves. It was only a matter of time before one of the bugs bit through the wood and sought flesh.

  Screams erupted from the century behind them and Cassius couldn’t help himself as he turned to look. The thin monster had continued to shake and rattle his baton, his guards silent sentinels next to him. More and more mana built around it, a corona of power that made the air crackle.

  Imps leapt and attacked with wild ferocity, mana coated their bodies as they focused their attacks on key areas rather than the mass overwhelming waves of before. Cassius could see the lines of the shieldwall starting to falter as mana ran out and wood and muscle failed to hold.

  It happened in slow motion. A legionnaire stumbled, hardly more than a step. Clawed hands reached through and grasped the shield, an imp wrestling it to the side as more of the waist tall monsters followed in the new gap. Men screamed as claws and teeth found flesh, ripping thighs and arms. More of the line faltered, the reinforcements a moment too slow to step into place.

  Lucilia was there, her blade wreathed in holy fire as she became a one woman bulwark. Imps died all around her as her gladius slashed and killed with every stroke, her broad form covered the entirety of the gap in the shield line as the second rank of legionnaires came forward.

  The two guardians moved, disappearing from their post in a blur of displaced air. Lucilia met their charge, her burning gladius danced between the two monsters, meeting them both blow for blow. Legionnaires on either side stabbed out, aiming for the tall figures as they battled the centurion.

  Cassius' breath was stuck in his lungs, remembering his own battle with the monster in the stone room. It had been overwhelmingly stronger and faster than he had been, but Centurion Durum stood against them without hesitation. She couldn’t pierce either of their guards, their longer swords and reach keeping her at bay. The first time they hit her armor, Cassius saw the sparks as she quickly [Reinforced] the armor. Mana exploded bright red sparks and the centurion took a halting step back.

  The assassins followed her, keeping tight to her and forcing the breach wider. The line split in half, the two assassins bisected a pair of legionnaires on either side of themselves. A wave of black armored imps followed after them, a sea of claws that began to tear apart the legionnaires too slow to back up.

  “REFORM LINES!” Lucilia screamed without taking her eyes off her opponents. Her sword was beginning to dim, the fire along it faded away as her mana reserves drained. Cassius could feel it coming, the moment it would fall apart. He moved before he realized what he was doing, charging past the scattering legionnaires and toward his commanding officer.

  [Reinforce] ran along his sword as he crossed the distance in a few lunging strides. He intersected the assassin's blow, sparks exploded off Cassius gladius as he covered Lucilia’s weak side. She took advantage of the momentary reprieve, leaned over and sent a flurry of ferocious blows toward the assassin as it suddenly was forced backward.

  An imp leaped out of the swarming horde, but Lucilia’s blade twitched in its path and the beast split in half. Cassius couldn’t see anymore as his opponent bore down upon him, blows raining down like a storm. Mana poured out of him, drained nearly instantly, as he [Reinforced] his armor and sword.

  “Prey!” the beast screamed and Cassius knew it was the same one he had fought in the stone room. Rage filled its strange eyes, a ferocity that sent a shiver of fear through his guts as it redoubled its efforts. Cassius panted, sweat running into his eyes as he was driven back, the legion lines opened wide to allow the creature to drive straight through.

  Every blow sent another reverberation through the blade that numbed his hand further. There was no hope in trying to strike back, he was pushed into a constant flow state of blocking and retreat, but the end was coming as he ran out of room to retreat. The backs of his own line were nearly there and if he ran into them, then the assassin would reap all their lives before anyone could turn.

  Horns blew, loud and brassy. Energy filled Cassius as the sound of metal rang out. A familiar armored figure ran into his peripheral vision, long sword held in high guard as she slammed into the assassin. They traded blows for a brief moment, but Vira’s skill and strength were apparent as the assassin failed to drive her back. She laughed as Cassius struggled to catch his breath, more of the complement of nobles arriving in the backyard, stemming the flow of imps.

  “It appears we arrived just in time!” another of the Agricola said, the man completely covered in shining steel. The battle switched as the heavily armored nobles drove back the horde and Vira and Lucilia held the assassins. Cassius turned to the old, thin creature as it continued to shake its baton, a long face slowly twisting into a smile.