Chapter 33: The Last Bastion

  The southern gate of Vellmont was a warzone. Fire and steel cshed beh a storm of are destru as Captain Anya Bckstark and her squad held the line against an uing tide of horrors. The midday sky was alight with spells as the enemy pressed harder, their numbers seeming endless.

  Anya’s Direwolf mech struck like a vengeful wraith, its twin psma sabers cutting through the grotesque husks of the Iron Revenants. These abominations—undead ogres encased in power armor—moved with a terrifying bination of brute strength and calcuted precision. She danced between their blows, her mech’s reinforced joints allowio pivot mid-air, slig through their pted limbs before they could react.

  “Nissa! Left fnk, now!”

  Nissa’s Direhound mech darted forward, impossibly fast. She was small, but she made up for it with sheer speed and reckless aggression. Twin daggers of trated starfire crackled in her mech’s hands as she tore into the enemy formation, sshing at the exposed joints of the Revenants.

  "I’m on it, Captain!" she chirped, voice light despite the age. She severed an enemy’s leg with a precise cut, then vaulted over the colpsing brute, flipping mid-air and nding on the shoulders of another. With a wild ugh, she plunged both daggers into the creature’s skull before leaping off as it exploded beh her.

  Jerik covered her from above, his Direhound outfitted for rapid assault. His mech was equipped with an arsenal ed onry—starfre pistols, psma javelins, and precision boltcasters. From atop a ruined watchtower, he provided pinpoint cover fire, taking out Embercd battlemages before they could unleash their deadly spells.

  “Four ining from the north!” Jerik warned, loosing a barrage of energy rounds.

  “Make that three!” Brenn roared from below as his Direhound—a t artillery variant—unleashed hell. His mech’s rotary luminite on spat white-hot devastation, ripping apart enemy ranks with uing firepower. The very ground quaked as his shoulder-mounted mortars rained explosives upon the horde.

  “Brody, cover me!” Brenn barked as he reloaded.

  Brody was already moving. His Direhound was a walking armory, carrying munitions and heavy support for the team. As Breed an overheated clip, Brody tossed a fresh one his way. “I got you, big guy!” He switched to his own onry—a reinforced luminite rifle—firing calcuted shots at any enemy foolish enough to get too close.

  The battle was sheer chaos, but they were winning.

  Embercd battlemages hurled waves of fme and shadow, but Anya’s squad adapted. Jerik took out key casters before they could finish their intations. Nissa struck like a phantom, carving through their ranks. Brenn and Brody covered their backs with heavy fire. And Anya—Anya was everywhere, her bdes carving a path through the nightmare.

  They were unstoppable.

  For the first time sihe siege began, hope flickered in Anya’s heart.

  And that was when the first warning kxon bred.

  An unnatural silence fell over the battlefield.

  Then came the heavy, metallic thuds—eaaking the earth tremble beh their feet. The air itself grew colder, thick with the stench of death and ozone.

  Jerik’s breath hitched. “…No. No, no, no.”

  Out of the smoke, a monstrous Iron Revenant stepped forward. But this one was different. Larger. Its armor pulsed with blood-red ruhe iergy within barely tained. In its hands, it gripped a psma give, the on’s unstable energy crag with every movement. Its hollow eyes burned with malice as it set its gaze upon them.

  A Dread Revenant.

  Brenn exhaled sharply. “That’s not fair.”

  The Revenant moved.

  Faster than something that rge should be capable of. Before they could react, it swung its give, and a shockwave of psma tore through the battlefield. Anya barely activated her barriers in time, shielding her squad from the brunt of the bst, but the sheer force sent them all crashing back.

  “Regroup!” she shouted, f her Direwolf back to its feet.

  The Revenant strode forward, its give spinning, carving a path of destru toward them. More Drakeguard mechs f, their movements eerily synized, their pilots little more thaensions of House Drais’ twisted neantic will.

  Anya knew what was ing.

  This wasn’t just another wave. This was the killing blow.

  Anya’s eyes flicked to the battlefield—her team battered but standing, the enemy pressing forward like a storm. A pn crystallized in her mind, reckless and bold. She had no time for hesitation.

  "Jerik, get me a reading on that thing’s ots. Now!"

  Jerik's sensors flickered, sing the Dread Revenant. "Core signature unstable—looks like those runes are keeping its iergy in check. If we overload it—"

  "We blow it to hell," Anya finished. "Brenn, you still got mortars left?"

  "Enough to make a mountain disappear," Brenn grunted.

  "Good. I need you to drive that thing back, keep its focus on you. Nissa, Jerik, we’re going for the runes. Brody, get ready to feed Brenhing we’ve got."

  A sharp whistle came through the s—Vellmont’s city guards, adventurers from Vallorien, and House Thalgrin soldiers still fought ireets, holding back the tide. Among them, Lord Maynus Thalgrin himself waded into battle, his massive warhammer glowing with runiscriptions as he smashed through an Iron Revenant’s helm, g in the ic beast’s skull with a siing ch.

  "Bckstark!" his voice bellowed through the el, gruff and unwavering. "We hold the line here, but we won’t st forever. What’s the pn?"

  Anya switched to the open frequency. "All forces, listen up! We're taking this thing down! Focus fire on anything that gets in our way—buy us time!"

  The response came in a chorus of determined shouts. The battlefield surged with renewed energy.

  Bre loose the first mortar, the explosion sending the Dread Revenant skidding backward. It swung its give, trying to stabilize, but Anya was already moving, her Direwolf ung into the air, twin sabers fshing.

  "Nissa, now!"

  Nissa’s Direhound appeared like a ghost, her daggers slig through the glowing runes along the Revenant’s shoulders. The beast shrieked, stumbling, dark energy spiraling from its wounds.

  Jerik fired a psma javelin straight into its exposed back. The Revenant twisted in agony, but Brenn was waiting.

  "Eat this, you ugly bastard!" Brenn’s rotary on roared, white-hot luminite rounds hammering into the Revenant’s exposed core. Cracks spread along its armor like shattered gss.

  "Brody!" Anya yelled.

  "Sending it!" Brody unched a final payload into Brenn’s on chamber. Brenn grinned, unleashing everything.

  The Dread Revena out a keening wail as its core ruptured, the stored iergy turning in on itself before detonating in a violent burst of crimson fire. The shockwave sent debris flying, but when the dust settled, only wreckage remained.

  Silence hung in the air. Then—

  A roar of victory from the remaining forces.Jerik let out a low whistle. "Well, that was horrifying. Anyone else feel like we just pissed off something worse?"

  "Oh, absolutely," Nissa grinned from behind her helmet. "But hey, we’re still alive. Mostly."

  Brenn exhaled, taking off his helmet and wiping sweat from his brow. "Yeah, yeah, great job, everyone. Now someoell me why I always have to be the one hauling the big-ass oime, I want a pair of fanives like Nissa."

  Nissa snorted. "You? With knives? You’d end up stabbing yourself before the enemy."

  Brody chuckled, patting Brenn’s mech. "You know you love being the walking war crime, big guy."

  "Yeah, yeah," Brenn grumbled. "But one of these days, I swear, I’m getting a desk job."

  "You? Behind a desk?" Jerik scoffed. "You’d break the damn thing just sitting down."

  "Nah, nah," Brody grinned. "He’d spend five minutes pretending to do paperwork before flipping the whole fu’ table and demanding a bigger gun."

  Brenn rolled his eyes. "Screw you guys. I be professional."

  "Professional?" Jerik snorted. "ing from the guy whose search history we had to wipe after we docked in Vallorien? I swear, I’ve seen less cursed shit in neanes."

  "Oh, fuck off!" Brenn barked. "It was oime, and I didn’t know that site had a goddamn membership system!"

  "Dude, it asked for blood verification! What the fuck were you even watg?" Nissa howled.

  Brody nearly fell hing. "I still ’t believe you actually entered your real name."

  "IT AUTO-FILLED!" Brenn groaned, face red.

  Anya wiped a hand down her face. "By the gods, I and soldiers, not a bunch of perverts."

  Jerik shrugged. "’t it be both?"

  Anya shook her head, smirking. "Brenn, if I ever see you behind a desk, I’ll personally bend you over."

  “Don’t you dare. I’ll file a personal pint for sexual harassment to the Lovernarett Fenralis himself!” Brenn snapped back.

  The squad ughed, the tension easing just a fra. But deep down, Anya khey weren’t do. Anya sees Magnus' face from the crowd, looking up at her Direhound mech, his fa expression of relief and approval.

  Anya exhaled, her heart hammering. She activated her s, reag out to Garett.

  "Southern gate secured, Lovernor."