Bab 471: Black and White
Watching the siege engine pull back for another catastrophic lunge, Devrim wished more than anything for a Fate to appear. The ethereal beings might not be able to stop the wolves from being created, but they could certainly stop the battering ram.
But none of the Fates were around just now. So unless something changed, things were going to go sideways very soon.
The next crash caused a crack to appear in the wood of the left gate door. The seal, which had been rewaxed after the fugitives left, was also cracked and flaking from the repeated impacts.
"Do we have anything heavier to shoot at them?" Devrim joined a lieutenant at the guard house above the gate.
The man saluted quickly as he ordered another hail of arrows to descend. Just like all the ones before, they had no effect on the large white monsters.
And the wolves holding their chain leashes and whips were so heavily armored that the arrows had no place to penetrate. They simply bounced away.
"No, Sire. We have nothing more substantial with which to hit them." An arrow came whizzing back over their heads, causing both men to duck. "And some of the wolves have begun to shoot our own arrows back at us," the lieutenant's tone was desperate.
"Then we best stop giving them ammunition, hadn't we?" Devrim put his hand on the lieutenant's shoulder.
The man was clearly trying to do anything he could to stop the beasts and had not stopped to consider the consequences. He nodded slowly as he realized his error.
"Yes Sire." The soldier lowered his head sadly. He motioned for the men around them to lower their weapons. The archers stood at ease.
'How much of our ammunition has the lieutenant wasted?' Devrim was afraid to ask the question aloud. He knew the answer would only be discouraging.
As the Emperor contemplated their next move, the wall shook once again. The battle ram crashed into the gate in a magnificent rain of splinters.
The gate held, but the wood was failing slowly but surely. Hundreds of years of protection from flood and invaders could not hold up to four unearthly beasts and an impossibly large battering ram.
"Sire! There's a wolf with no armor within range! Should we shoot it?" a voice called from further down the battlement.
Risking a shot from the wolves on the ground--though they did not seem to be great shots--Devrim leaned out between the crenellations and viewed who the soldier had seen.
A snow white wolf was running on all fours, hugging the wall to avoid the arrows from above. Black streaks graced both of his ears and met together before running down his muzzle, giving him a ferocious look.
Devrim could see the wolf was on a mission, but what that mission was he could not guess.
"Hold your fire," he ordered, "but stand at the ready."
The soldiers complied. Devrim looked into the distance at Livie. She had stood, and was now looking through a glass similar to one Renat had made him. The lithe leader of the abominations seemed just as interested in the development as the Emperor.
'Is she scheming or...'
The white wolf ignored the furry archers and leapt onto the siege engine just as it was being released. The battering ram shook the wall and nearly rattled the snowy wolf from the wooden structure which held the deadly pendulum.
But the white creature held firm and continued to climb. Reaching the first thick rope of the battering ram's supports, the white wolf slashed at it with his razor sharp claws. The rope was too dense for a single swipe to do the job and so the white monster began to hack at it with its claws like an ax against the trunk of a tree.
Unlike those on the wall, It took a moment for the wolves on the ground to be able to tell what exactly their snowy friend was doing. When they realized the treachery, the archers did not hold back.
One, two, three arrows shot at the top of the siege engine.
"Watch out!" Devrim called to assist the wolf.
The warning was not necessary. Somehow sensing their approach, the muscular white blur scurried behind the upper beam of the of the contraption, shielding himself from the assault.
He continued with sawing at the rope until it was down to the last strand. Rather than finish it off, he jumped to the other end of the structure to start on the opposing rope.
Four cords held the battering ram to the platform allowing it to swing. And soon the front two would be compromised. But not before another forward lunge of the catastrophic log.
The platform shuddered violently as the frayed rope barely held. The gates bowed inward, unable to hold their shape.
Abandoning their archery, two of the wolf abominations began to scale the platform to catch the white rogue.
The first reached the target from the opposing side of the beam and decided to take a flying leap at the snowy creature rather than traverse the log that connected them.
It was a mistake. The white rogue swung his free arm through the air and ducked, pressing all of his strength against the grey wolf's chest. The blow redirected the grey abomination, sending it over his enemy's head and flying past the battering ram toward the ground.
The second abomination was already upon the rogue before the white wolf could regain his footing. The black and white wolves tumbled to the ground in a fit of claws and teeth.
The spinning mass crashed with the black wolf on bottom, cushioning the blow for his white counterpart.
The tenebrous monster lay still below the snowy wolf, his back broken by the fall.
Before the white creature could scale the platform again, the four large behemoths were nearly done pulling back the ram for another strike,
The sound of whips cracked the air as the giants were forced back by their wolfish masters.
The white wolf ran directly at the monsters, distracting them from their task.
Punching the closest wolf, the rogue ripped the leash of one of the large creatures from the hands of his slaver. Then he quickly took the chain and wrapped it tightly around the neck of a second wolf holding a different leash.
Coming to their aid, the pair of task masters ran toward the fight to capture or kill the menace to their plans. Their whips were trained on stopping the white wolf at all costs.
Livie was screaming too, and at her order, a small company of abominations ran from the distant tree line to aid the siege engine and its wielders.
Without proper direction, the giants continued to pull back on the log until it was well over their head. The task masters were too busy with the intruder to notice the problem until it was too late.
The two front ropes could take the strain not longer. The weaker of the two released first followed easily by its twin. Their snapping sealed the siege engine's doom.
No longer supported on the front end, the impossibly large ram crashed into the platform. It was not sturdy like the gate; one hit was all it took to be demolished.
As the platform collapsed in itself, the white giants lumbered back to safety, their empty eyes unable to process what had occurred.
What they did know, however, is that their captors were suddenly within reach of their teeth and claws, and two of them were no longer restrained.
The mindless void in their eyes narrowed as it found a purpose: destroy those who abused them.
With this goal in mind the two freed their brothers from their chains and began to devastate anything that moved around them.
Their strength overwhelmed the abominations, and they quickly began to flee back toward the tree line, abandoning their assault on Oblivion.
Seeing the their comrades running toward them, the company of wolves sent by Livie also turned tail to rejoin the larger group and prepared for an attack.
All of a sudden, Livie had a rebellion on her hands.
Devrim knew it would likely not take long for the overwhelming number of wolves and lizards to subdue the wild bears, but he was grateful that at least for now, their plan had failed.
And it was all due to a single white wolf with black streaks on his ears.
The Emperor searched through the wreckage for any sign of the brave rogue who had saved them.
From the pile of canine bodies, a lone figure emerged, bloody, but alive.
"Lower the rope ladder!" Devrim screamed.
"But Sire!" the lieutenant looked down at the scene hesitantly.
"You heard me! Clear whatever space you need to feel safe, but get the wolf up here and get a healer."
"It could be a trap!" The lieutenant began to argue.
"I'm willing to take the risk. Now hurry before Livie gets her hands on him!" The Emperor frantically searched for a ladder much like the one his daughter had used over a week before.
The white wolf had already begun to pick his way up the wall when the ladder was lowered to his height.
With apprehension, the soldiers waited for the rogue to climb through the crenellations.
The large creature peeked over the battlement with a fierce grin. While the others were quivering in fear, the Emperor was tapping his foot.
"We have been looking for you everywhere! Why didn't you tell us you were alive?" Dervrim narrowed his gaze at the furry creature.
"When I woke up like this this morning, some of the brave citizens of Oblivion chased me over the wall. Rather than fight them, I complied. I've been looking for a way back in ever sense."
Junayd swayed slightly, and the Emperor caught his advisor under one of his hairy arms. The weight of the wolf nearly overwhelmed him.
"I am glad you are alright. Well, as alright as you can be after being...transformed." Devrim's heart felt heavy.
Junayd laughed heartily. "I am better than alright, Your Majesty. I always said I was a one man army. Today I got to prove it!"
The Emperor nodded, "Yes, Junayd. Yes you did." The grey-eyed man, along with the help of another burly soldiers, led the exhausted former general from the battlement.
Pausing, the white wolf suddenly got an idea, "Does this mean I can have a second statue? A man with my charm and charisma should have two statues at least!"
Far too relieved to allow rational thought into the discussion, Devrim sighed. "Yes, Advisor Junayd, whatever you want."
Straitening slightly as he ambled along, Junayd cleared his throat. "Well, since you mentioned it, I have had a few other tokens of appreciation on my mind..."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone