The first indication they had that something was coming was when the ground started to shake.
The birds began to scatter. Most of them took to the air and fled in every direction, getting away from the scene. But the ravens gathered. They began to stalk a certain figure in the distance.
Trees began to fall. A visible column of floral victims trailed all the way from the far horizon. It headed directly toward the Frontier Town known as Fort Spoas.
"What is that…?" Kairos asked.
He stood on Remian's left, while Charlie was on Remian's right. They were atop the rooftop of the Adventurer Guard Tower, behind a fully prepared Ballista with a Steel Stake loaded and ready to fire.
"We'll find out soon. The scouts are almost here." Remian pointed.
There was Carrie, with Candice and Denise on her back. She had gone ahead with them especially to bring these two back quickly. Upon arriving, the twins went straight to Remian to report.
"It's a walking fortress!" Denise said.
"It's a spiked turtle!" Candice told them.
"What…?" Remian blinked at them blankly. "What's coming? How many Wilds, at what Tier?"
The twins exchanged glances, and both of them said simultaneously. "One!"
"One Wild? You lit five columns for one Wild?" Remian blinked.
"Yes."
That walking fortress, and the spiked turtle they referred to, he realized, was one and the same creature. That bad feeling rose up in his guts again. "What Tier is it?"
"Tier 5!" Both of them answered at the same time, in exactly the same voice, in exactly the same tone.
The column was getting nearer. Remian could barely make out the creature causing it; all he could see was a shell full of spikes.
Remian turned to Candice. "Man the ballista. Denise, to the Scorpion."
"I think we can bring in the airship right now. We don't have to wait." Charlie observed. "There's just that one Tier 5, and it has no support, and nothing that can hit an airship at high altitude. I'm going."
"Be careful!" Remian warned. "We have no idea what it's capable of! Don't get too close!"
"Got it." Charlie nodded.
He climbed up a rope ladder leading to the airship waiting for him overhead. Once he was on board, the ladder was retracted and the airship headed for the shell. A cheer went up from the assembled fighters as they saw the airship making a move.
"Be careful, Charlie." Remian muttered, as the airship sped up. "I have a really, really bad feeling."
The airship closed in on the target, then turned and aimed its broadside cannons at the figure. There were multiple cracking sounds in the distance, and then explosions erupted on the front of the shell. The barrage rained down for a straight ten seconds before there was a sudden ripple in the air from the front of the shell, like an expanding wave. It shot up and into the airship hundreds of meters above it, tearing through the wooden hull, breaking the belly of the ship into two, and then puncturing the metal gas tank above. The airship shuddered; the shooting stopped… and then it began to keel over in mid-air, leaking gas, pieces falling from its broken belly.
"Scrap." Remian bit his lip. "Blast it, Charlie, I told you to stay away…"
But to be fair, not even he had suspected that big shell was capable of something like that ripple in the air. Nobody suspected that the lumbering hulk had powers that could strike a target so far away, so high above. What was that? Some sort of sonic attack? What did the Wild do, roar at it?
One roar was enough to sink it. So much for the great technological advances of man. Remian had a good example why all previous attempts at colonizing the Wildlands failed no matter how grand in scale.
And this… this seemed to be it for the current town too.
"Mindy." Remian called to the girl behind him. "Send word to Mandy. Get everyone out of town."
"What? But we haven't even fought yet!" Mindy protested. "I have all my scrolls ready…"
"Go! Evacuate the shop and the inn! Get as many people out of town as you can!" Remian ordered. "We can't stop that Tier 5! Get everyone out! Now!"
Joshu and Xia were visible, running for their lives. Carrie darted forward to give them a lift. Upon arrival, they made their reports.
"It's a giant tortoise with a spiked tail!" Joshu gasped. "Or maybe an elephant with a spiked shell, but no trunk?"
"Bad! Very bad!" Xia summarized much more succinctly.
"Fire Ballista!" Markus' order could be heard all the way from the other Tower.
"Candice!" Remian nodded tightly.
The giant crossbows fired. One after the other, the Legion's Tower and the Adventurers' Tower Ballistae launched spears of pure steel into the far distance.
Did they hit their target? Probably. It was hard to miss a target that large. But there was no indication of damage, the shell-thing didn't even slow down.
There were another pair of cracks. The falling airship still struck out, throwing whatever little firepower it had left still functional at the looming figure. There were a pair of explosions like little sprays of fire on the front of the shell… but that too, made no difference to the approaching hulk. It did not slow down. It did not turn around. It didn't even speed up. It completely ignored everything they threw at it.
Candice had some help from the guys on the roof. The Ballista was reloaded and fired again in short order. A third time. A fourth.
No response. The shell-figure was close enough for Remian to see a head. It was short, relative to the size of the shell, and there were spikes on that head too. It looked like thick, thick leather. It had short stumpy legs, or at least, they looked short and stumpy, but next to them, the fallen airship looked only half the size of the shell. That meant that each of those legs were likely the size of a Guard Tower.
How big were Tier 5 Wilds? Remian had imagined them to be three, maybe four times the size of Carrie, or Buff. But like other Tiers, there were larger Wilds and smaller Wilds within the same Tier. This thing appeared to be one of the bigger ones, even among Tier 5's. It was easily nine times Carrie's size, seven times Buffs, a true Tier 5 Heavy.
"It's a dragon-turtle…" One of the children below shouted, using a figure straight from the fairy tales.
Were they fairy tales, really? Or did such creatures really exist somewhere out there in the Wildlands? Obviously, this one seemed to match such a description.
"Break formation!" Markus' roar sounded across the defense line. "Flank it!"
That was a wise decision, Remian realized. The best way to fight it would be to outmaneuver it, strike from the sides or the back… because they most certainly wouldn't be able to stop it up front.
"Keep firing! Everyone, out of the Tower, now! Skirmish mode! Engage from a safe distance! Do not attack from the front, and whatever you do, DON'T get in its way!" Remian ordered. "Candice, be careful with your shots, don't hit our own people! Carrie! I need a lift!"
The evacuations had only just begun. Remian saw only a trickle of people leaving town. They needed more time, but the Tier 5 Wild was coming in too fast. They may not be able to stop that gigantic thing, but maybe they could slow it down, buy the evacuation a little more time.
Carrie brought Remian in a wide arc, quickly outpacing the other defenders who were making a move to outflank the Tier 5. [What IS this?]
[It is the Spike-Back Lizard of Craggy Falls.] Carrie answered with unease. [He stands independent of any Lord, but was too lazy to establish his own domain. He only wanted to stay in his nice warm waterfall. Why is he even out of the water? I don't understand.]
[Where is the Craggy Falls?] Remian asked. [How many days away?]
[At the speed we were moving the last time? Maybe five.]
In other words, wherever the Beast Waves came from, Deepsilver's lake was only halfway there.
[Any ideas?] Remian asked.
[Hamstring him, then lunge for the throat!] Carrie advised. [But my teeth and claws aren't sharp enough, strong enough, or big enough.]
[I can try that.] Remian decided. [We need to get close quickly, then get away even faster. Our target is the back left leg!]
[Understood! We'll stay away from the head, and the club-tail!] Carrie acknowledged, and charged in at the head of the skirmishers.
"Fire!" Remian threw in as much desperation as he could, but once more all he got from his efforts was that fire-spear. Unwilling to give up, he made up for size with numbers. "Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire!"
No joy. The fire spears barely blackened the skin, and the Spike-Back didn't even seem to notice.
"For crying out loud!" Remian gasped, reeling mentally, emotionally and physically. He threw an angry air-punch at it. "BURN!"
Abruptly, a flood of fire burst out, a veritable river of flame as wide and tall as a house slamming into the rear left leg of the Spike-Back. The Spike-Back roared, flinching. It turned his head shockingly fast toward Carrie who was trying to get away and roared a different Roar directly at her. A Sonic Wave blasted into Carrie at short range.
Everything went white. Remian saw the sky, and the ground chasing each other in circles. He was aware, dimly, of flying through the air.
Who knew? Remian felt regret vaguely as senses failed and the ground came rushing up to meet him face to face. Who knew that the Spike-Back could actually move so fast?
Certainly not him. There was certainly basis for regret, there.
At least he wouldn't feel it when the ground hit… Remian lost his grasp on consciousness before he even hit the ground.