Forged Legacy

Chapter 168 - The Assault (Part 1)

“Sweetie! Stop eating their grass!” Celeste shouted. The bull recoiled, somehow managing to look bashful despite its terrifying mass. Its long tongue lolled out of its mouth, letting chunks of wet lawn tumble onto the street.

“Well, you can finish that!” she groaned. “It’s not like they can put it back.”

“That thing… You named it, sweetie?” Eleanor asked, her body frozen as if moving might make the beast notice her.

“I’m not supposed to name them, but… I do,” Celeste answered. “Now I’m sorry to cut lunch short, but I’m going to have to ask that your boys come with me.”

“Of course,” Cassandra stammered. “Can we have a moment to say goodbye?”

“We’ll be back in a couple hours,” Harvey chuckled. “It’s not like we’re getting deployed overseas.”

“We don’t have any seas here,” Celeste replied. “But you can chat while you strap them into their armor. Cash, you help Harvey.”

The angel dutifully walked over, hands outstretched and waiting for Harvey to produce the first piece. Cassandra did the same for Steve while Eleanor helped Tyler. His brother looked visibly uncomfortable having Eleanor fussing with all the belts and buckles, but she slapped his hand away when he tried to do it himself.

“Have a good morning?” Cash asked while he got to work.

“Definitely an interesting one. Why didn’t you tell me that adding an Imprint to my ink would pull me into a vision?” Harvey asked.

Cash froze and looked up, confused. “A vision?”

“Yeah. I almost anointed myself with the legacy of an undead general. The only reason my weave isn’t in shambles right now is that the bone of his pet dragon tried breaking in instead of just attacking my soul.”

The angel's eyes went wide, dropping the silver armor piece and letting it clatter onto the concrete.

“Cash! Something wrong?” Celeste asked.

“You know him,” Harvey smiled. “Such a klutz!”

She didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, but dropped it when Cash smiled sheepishly and hurried to attach the piece.

“What?” he hissed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You tell me! You’re the one who said I should try it!” Harvey whispered back.

“I’ve never actually done it before! I just know some of our crafters use dead legacies in their strongest creations. Usually, they just affix the tattoo to something without breaking it down first. Nobody ever anoints themselves with someone else’s legacy, but I always thought that was because people want to blaze their own trail. I had no idea breaking one down in your inkwell would suck you into a vision! Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Really! I am,” Harvey replied, urging the angel to calm down when he saw him try to apologize again. “It got a little dicey, but the result was better than anything I could’ve asked for.”

“You didn’t anoint yourself, did you?” Cash pressed.

“Nope. Got some ink on my hands, but didn’t draw any patterns as far as I can tell,” Harvey assured.

Cash let out a huge sigh of relief, shoulders slumping as he got back to tightening some of the clasps around Harvey’s legs. “Good. The ink shouldn’t take hold inside your weave if you didn’t finish the ritual. I don’t even know how you’d know the right patterns anyway, but it sounds like we don’t have to worry about that.”

“I don’t know,” Harvey mused. “It seemed like the legacy knew what needed to be done for it to survive. Luckily, my newest Mark came in clutch and saved me.”

Harvey grinned when that little tidbit got the exact reaction he’d been hoping for.

“You’re kidding? Another one?” Cash asked.

“Yup. My first resonance Mark.”

“Forgefire?”

“How’d you know?” Harvey asked, surprised.

“I mean, it’s part of your Class name,” Cash laughed, finishing up the last piece and jostling Harvey to make sure nothing came loose. “Four aspects already, and you’re still in middle F-Grade!”

“You boys done chatting?” Celeste asked. “We have a war to win.”

“We were just waiting on you,” Harvey retorted. “See you later, Mom! Be a good boy, Max.”

“How are we supposed to get on top of this thing?” Tyler asked, taking a tentative step closer to the 6-legged bull who could topple their house just by breathing too hard. Instead of answering, Celeste grabbed him and casually tossed him 20 feet up to a wooden platform that was jutting over the side of the bull’s back like a plank on a pirate ship. Tyler yelped in surprise as he flew, landing hard and falling to his knees. Harvey worried that the impact would stagger the creature, but it barely seemed to notice, still hungrily eyeing the lawn.

“Your turn,” she continued, grabbing Steve and throwing him up as well. She moved to grab Harvey, but he activated Booster and rocketed himself out of her grasp. Alighting on the plank, he found it surprisingly stable under his feet. The platform gently swayed below him like he was standing on a fishing boat, but the wood didn’t budge at all. Tyler and Steve were already walking towards Adrian, who stood with the rest of his regiment near the bull’s head. Turning back, he saw the angels do something he’d never seen before. With a single mighty flap of their wings, both managed to easily make the jump.

“I’ve been wondering why you guys never fly,” Harvey mused.

“Most of us can’t until we reach D-Grade. Our bodies are too dense to fly without some help,” Cash explained.

“Adrian! Let’s move!” Celeste shouted, confidently striding over to the others. The man pushed two fingers into his mouth and whistled. The platform rumbled as the creature began plodding forward. It moved surprisingly fast for such a massive creature, but Harvey still hoped it could pick up the pace a bit once there were a thousand fireballs headed their way.

“Glad you showed up! We could use a few psychos on this one,” Adrian smiled as Harvey and Cash stumbled over. Neither responded as they gawked at a dozen more bulls parading down the wide streets headed for the gates. Behind them, yesterday’s army of giants, lions, rams, and eagles followed. A few of the massive birds flapped over to rest on the platform beside them. Harvey had never seen a living one this close, and watching them preen their long, golden feathers was almost a spiritual experience. The air was filled with the roars of a hundred lions and the righteous bleats of a thousand rams. The Nephilim, who suddenly looked small compared to their mount, were chatting in a strange language Harvey didn’t understand, despite the System translating for him.

With every step, the army at their backs grew larger, and for once, Harvey thought they might actually have what it takes to win.

“Damn,” Tyler muttered.

“Language!” Steve complained.

Soon, they were out of the gates, trodding over the ruins before stopping just outside the range of the mortarhorns.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Alright, people, get ready! We charge the second the Commander gives the order. Snipers, what do you see?”

A slender female angel leaned up against the balustrade and looked through her scope, slowly sweeping it across the wall of pigs in the distance. “Minotaurs, ma'am."

Harvey perked up, straining to try and see if there really were half-man, half-bull creatures standing behind the grotesque wall of flesh. Artificer’s Eyes could tell him exactly how far away the wall was, but it didn’t provide any sort of zoom, so he couldn’t tell exactly what the large shapes milling about behind the walls were.

“Ok, we expected that,” Celeste muttered, nervously chewing one of her fingernails. “How many?”

“A lot,” the sniper replied.

“That’s not exactly an accurate measurement,” Celeste complained.

“Too many to count. Plenty. A shitload,” the woman rattled on.

“Language! You too? Seriously?” Steve exclaimed.

“They’re just words, man,” the angel replied.

Harvey could feel the tension building as they waited for the signal. All chatter stopped as they stared at the wall their mount had to break. Harvey was happy to see the angels stepping up to ensure their bull cleared a path instead of hanging back and hoping their army of summoned creatures could handle things for them. It meant they were finally taking Hell’s numbers advantage seriously, but it also meant time was running out for them to turn this war around.

For the fourth time, he checked his revolver to make sure his newly conjured Prophet’s Suffering bullets weren’t getting caught on the barrel. They weren’t. He’d shaped the tooth perfectly, and he could feel the power within just waiting to be unleashed. Their first targets were the gluthogs, so he’d loaded all five chambers with his newest creation in hopes that killing a few of them would make it easier for the wall-breakers to burst through. It probably wouldn’t change much since the pigs could barely move as it is, but at least they wouldn’t be alive to bite at the bull's ankles or stab their long tusks into any passing creatures.

“Tyler. Steve. Time to get in position,” Celeste said, beckoning them both forward.

“We’re not staying on the platform?” Tyler asked.

“No, we need you as far forward as possible. The three of us are going to hold onto the horns and do our best to protect Sweetie during the charge.”

“Four of us,” Harvey corrected. “I’m coming with.”

“Suit yourself,” Celeste replied.

Harvey’s stomach lurched as they carefully climbed over the railing onto the beast’s bare neck. The air was slightly cooler standing in the shadow of the massive crystal horns. Harvey clung onto them for dear life, taking a rope from his spatial ring and lashing himself to it before doing the same for Steve, Tyler, and Celeste.

“Wait… aren’t these going to be stabbed inside a gluthog in a few minutes?” Harvey asked.

“Hold on tight,” Celeste shrugged. “Adrian! Go! Go! Go!”

The man whistled, and the bull charged forward. Harvey’s feet slipped, but the rope held him upright as they picked up speed. He hastily tightened the knots before pulling out Rupture and doing his best to aim. He didn’t have to worry about friendly fire as the ones leading the charge, but actually landing a hit, even with a gigantic target, wasn’t going to be easy with all this thrashing. Every step made his teeth clatter, and he had to press his neck hard into the horn to keep himself from getting a concussion.

Heaven charged as one, all sprinting towards the wall even as waves of red and black flames threatened to block out the sun. Tyler’s new bat, with its momentum-based arrays, hummed with barely constrained holy resonance. Steve was using his Imprint-infused Paternal Aegis to block weaker brimfiend attacks while Tyler waited for the first mortarhorn bombardment to come within range. It only took a moment for the glimmering golden barrier to start to dim, but two sentinels standing at the edge of the platform conjured shields of their own to back him up.

Harvey debated adding his own shield with Innovator’s Arsenal, but decided to wait and focus on taking out as many gluthogs as possible. The layered shield battery was angled upward, leaving a narrow window for him to shoot through.

Bang!

Carved bone whistled through the air, sinking deep into the side of the pig they were running towards. Cerulean flames burst from the hole, and its bulbous body began deflating like a beach ball. Like a grape left to bake in the sun, the swine was turning into a fleshy raisin right before their eyes. It wasn’t dead yet, but from the sounds escaping its maw, it probably wanted to be.

“What the,” Celeste stammered, staring at the screaming pig as Harvey shot the one next to it.

“Now!” Tyler shouted. Every barrier winked out just in time for the infernal fireball to connect with Tyler’s bat. A burst of holy light exploded from the arrays covering the bat, utterly overwhelming the infernal resonance within before sending it screaming back over the wall. Without a word, the shields reappeared, intercepting the wave of weaker attacks trailing behind the mortarhorn’s salvo. Harvey knew the sentinels could withstand a few of those explosions, but every one Tyler could return to sender allowed them to endure just a little longer.

“I did it! I did it!” he celebrated. “Two mortarhorns dead!”

“Incoming!” a sentinel shouted. Again, all the barriers disappeared, but this time, Tyler’s bat hadn’t had enough time to fully charge. The arrays still injected holy power into the payload, but instead of fully transforming it, they only managed to destabilize the attack. A swirl of black and gold shot into the air, exploding before it reached the wall. The blast still managed to knock a handful of brimfiends out of the sky, but they were much lower-priority targets.

“Good job!” Harvey shouted over the rumble.

They were holding up well, but the same couldn’t be said for the other bulls. All had started with powerful shields protecting the angels riding their backs, but most had winked out already. Few had someone like Tyler to redirect attacks or Celeste to cut apart any errant fireballs sneaking past their defenses. For most, the best they could do was endure the barrage as best they could.

Far in the distance, Harvey saw a bull completely surrounded by a dome shield that was stronger than any barrier he’d seen before, and he assumed it came from a Captain like Celeste. No lieutenants would put themselves in danger when their death would only add to the deficit of essence provided by the trial to build their armies, so the duty to succeed in this assault rested on the Captain’s shoulders.

For her part, Celeste was a whirlwind of blades that cut down anything that got too close. Her needle-like longsword danced in front of her, sending out waves of essence that bisected anything unlucky enough to get in their way. It reminded him of the blades of blood Gary used, but clearly didn’t come at such a high cost. She’d stopped for a moment when Harvey first used his Prophet’s Suffering rounds, but got right back to slashing when a brimfiend got close enough to land. She fought with the sort of finesse and fine technique that took years of practice and refinement. Something he’d never seen fighting alongside newly-integrated humans or against the more brutish and magelike Ossari.

[Stop staring and start shooting!] Julius urged. Harvey’s eyes snapped forward, and he timed his next shot to fire when the bull was mid-step. Finding the rhythm where the crashing footfalls didn’t knock him off target was difficult, but by the time he needed to reload his gun, he’d mostly figured things out.

The first of the gluthogs finally died, its body reduced to half its original size as the hungry thanefire devoured its insides. Its neighbors were both similarly shrunken, creating gaps their own army could charge through even if the bull didn’t manage to blast open a hole. No matter what happened next, their battalion would make it through, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the bulls.

To their right, the first bull went down. Its head, charred black by countless fireballs, crashed hard into the dirt, carving a shallow trench before its unstoppable momentum snapped its neck and sent it tumbling end over end. At least a dozen creatures got crushed beneath its weight, and three times that many got trampled by the stampede of lions, rams, and Nephilim trying to continue the charge around the lifeless corpse.

“Eyes front! Stay focused!” Celeste shouted when her squad turned to watch the carnage unfold. A mortarhorn blast rocketing into the shield woke them from their stupor, and they released the shields just in time for Tyler to bat a second one away.

Harvey emptied his revolver into 5 more gluthogs before clearing the spent casings and replacing them with Heaven’s Wrath bullets conjured by Echo Forge and infused with his Architect of the Veils End Imprint. They’d burst through the line any moment, and he figured his holy bullets would still be better against the demons not plagued with gluttony. His efforts had cleared the way, letting their mount charge straight through the wall without having to rely on his horns to skewer a few unlucky pigs. Instead, it could save its strength to trample minotaurs with its six muscular legs.

Bracing for impact, Harvey watched as a pig-shaped raisin got punted into a building two blocks down. Beneath them, all hell broke loose. Lions pounced on the black, satanic mortarhorns, ripping them apart even as new balls of infernal fire gathered above the red runes glowing atop their heads. Rams bowled over brimfiends, their golden horns turning bones into shrapnel that ravaged their insides. Eagles swooped down and plucked the closest creature they could find before carrying them high into the air, shredding anything that could catch their fall, and dropping them to splatter all over the asphalt.

Yesterday’s demons were falling left and right, but today’s minotaurs gave just as good as they got. Each was at least 10 feet tall, wielding long, two-headed battleaxes that were cutting creatures in half left and right. Sweetie had one of them pinned underfoot, and Harvey heard its chest collapse with a sickening crunch. It roared in pain, summoning a friend to take a lumberjack swing that buried the axe-head halfway through her bone.

Harvey shot the minotaur over and over again. Explosions of holy flame erupted one after another, but the minotaur just wouldn’t go down. His fifth and final shot bore right through the top of its skull just as the minotaur prepared to finish chopping through Sweetie’s leg. He frantically swung the cylinder out, desperately trying to shake the casings loose so he could reload. Two remained stuck inside the aethersteel, forcing him to yank them out himself.

Through the flames, he saw the minotaur finally fall, golden smoke rising from the new hole in its skull. Its axe clattered to the ground, reminding him to slow down before his frantic attempt at reloading made him drop his own weapon.

Holy shit…