Blood of the first age Chapter 13

 

Chapter 13  The Siege of Ashkara

Ashkara had never fallen. For nearly a thousand years the colossal desert fortress stood unconquered upon the obsidian cliffs of western Baalania, overlooking the burning trade routes leading toward the inner kingdoms of Molochia. Entire armies had shattered against its walls like waves against stone. The fortress was considered impossible to breach.

Which was precisely why Dragun chose it first. The city-fortress rose from the desert like a black mountain. Gigantic walls of volcanic stone towered above the dunes while massive bronze braziers burned endlessly along the battlements, illuminating the fortress against the endless ash storms surrounding it.

Thousands of Baalanian soldiers occupied Ashkara: the Zhurakhim holy warriors and fire priests along with armored siege archers, inferno mages and fanatical desert militias sworn to die before surrender.

Above the fortress gates hung thousands of corpses. Invaders. Traitors. Captured kings.

Some had been left there so long their bones rattled in the wind like decorations. Ashkara was not merely a fortress. It was a warning.

Three nights before the siege began, the sky changed. The desert winds weakened. The temperature dropped unnaturally. And black storm clouds gathered above the fortress for the first time in recorded history.

The defenders noticed immediately. Fear spread quietly through the city. Because storms did not belong in Baalania. Rain itself felt unnatural there. Some priests declared it blasphemy. Others whispered a far older word.

Vampires.

General Ka’zir of the Ashkara garrison stood atop the western battlements watching lightning spread silently across the horizon. Something moved within the storm. At first he mistook the shapes for birds. Then the lightning illuminated them fully.

Ships. Hundreds of them. Not upon water but crossing the desert itself.

The Mourning Fleet had arrived.Using massive iron crawler platforms dragged by  undead beasts and siege engines, Dragun’s armies had transported portions of the gothic war fleet directly inland from the western coast. Cathedral-like ships now crossed the dunes beneath thunderclouds like moving kingdoms of black steel.

The sight shattered morale instantly. Because nothing about the invading army looked natural anymore.Then came the thunder.

A single lightning strike exploded across the cliffs outside Ashkara, illuminating the approaching vampire legions beneath silver light.

Thousands marched through the storm: the vampire knights in black armor and human mercenaries from fallen kingdoms with silver-clad priests along with monstrous war beasts and shadow-covered executioners carrying enormous crimson banners.

At the center rode Dragun himself atop a massive black warhorse armored in silver steel. The storm followed him like a crown. The siege began before dawn.

Baalanian horns roared across Ashkara as inferno cannons opened fire from the battlements. Black flame exploded downward toward the approaching armies while giant siege ballistae launched burning iron bolts through the storm.

The desert itself ignited. Entire dunes erupted into oceans of fire. Yet the vampire armies kept advancing. Slowly. Relentlessly.Unafraid.

“FOR THE BLOOD SOVEREIGN!”

The cry thundered through the storm as the first wave reached the fortress walls.

Gigantic grappling chains launched upward through rain and smoke hooking onto burning battlements while vampire knights began climbing directly into inferno fire.

The defenders stared in horror. No human army would continue advancing through such flames. But these were not ordinary soldiers. The walls became a slaughterhouse.

Baalanian archers unleashed storms of burning arrows downward while fire priests hurled sacred black flame across ladders and siege towers.

Vampires burned alive. And kept climbing. Some scaled the walls using claws and supernatural speed while others leapt impossible heights through the smoke beneath flashes of black lightning.

One knight reached the battlements despite half his armor still burning. He tore through three defenders before finally collapsing dead beneath spear thrusts. Another simply walked through fire to open the western gate from within.

The defenders began panicking. ¨

General Ka’zir rallied his soldiers personally atop the central wall.

“HOLD THE LINE!”

The Baalanian warriors countercharged through the smoke as curved blades clashed against silver vampire steel beneath roaring thunder.

The battle descended into chaos.

Men burned alive. Others vanished beneath swarms of shadow bats descending from the storm clouds above. Inferno mages unleashed rivers of black fire through packed enemy formations while vampire nobles tore through defenders with monstrous speed and blood magic.

And overhead the heavens themselves seemed at war. Then Mordecai entered Ashkara. The gigantic executioner smashed directly through the southern gate after tearing apart its chains with his bare hands. His shadow-covered armor leaked black smoke across the battlefield while terrified defenders scattered before him instinctively.

He moved like a living siege weapon. Every swing shattered bodies and steel alike. Fire engulfed him repeatedly. It did nothing. One inferno priest screamed sacred prayers before launching black flame directly into Mordecai’s face.

The monster walked through it silently.

Then ripped the priest apart before the surrounding soldiers.

Fear spread faster than fire afterward.

Meanwhile Tenji drifted across the battlefield above the walls.

Graceful.

Untouched.

His flowing white robes moved beautifully through ash and lightning while endless shadow crows spiraled around the fortress towers.

Wherever Tenji passed
darkness followed.

Archers suddenly vanished from battlements. Priests disappeared beneath swarms of black wings. And soldiers who looked too long into his glowing silver eyes often froze in terror before dying moments later.

Some defenders began believing an angel of death had descended upon Ashkara itself. At the center of the siege stood Dragun. The Vampire King advanced through fire and thunder beneath a crimson cloak whipping violently in the storm winds. Black lightning illuminated his armor continuously while thousands of bats circled overhead like a living eclipse.

General Ka’zir confronted him personally before the inner cathedral gates.

The Baalanian commander was enormous
scarred, armored in bronze, his blade burning with sacred flame.

“You bring monsters into holy land,” Ka’zir growled.

Dragun’s crimson eyes remained calm.

“You burned children alive.”

Lightning cracked across the sky.

“And call yourselves righteous.”

Then they clashed.

Their duel shook the cathedral courtyard.

Sacred fire exploded against storm-forged steel while thunder roared overhead continuously. Ka’zir’s burning blade carved through stone itself while Dragun moved with supernatural speed through flame and rain. The Baalanian general fought brutally. But Dragun fought like war itself. Cold. Precise. Merciless.

Finally the Vampire King disarmed him beneath a massive lightning strike that shattered the courtyard pillars around them.

Ka’zir fell to one knee breathing heavily. The battle around them slowed.

Waiting. The general spat blood onto the stones.

“Kill me then, monster.”

Dragun stared at him silently for a moment.

Then lowered his sword.

“No.”

The defenders froze.

Even Ka’zir looked confused.

The Vampire King turned toward the burning fortress behind them.

“Tell your Sultan what happened here.”

Thunder rolled across the heavens.

“Tell him the east has arrived.” By sunrise

Ashkara belonged to Vahsravia.

Black smoke rose endlessly from the shattered fortress while vampire banners replaced the sigils of Baalania atop broken battlements.

The first great fortress of Molochia had fallen.

And across the desert kingdoms

fear began spreading for the first time not toward Baalania…

but toward the storm king marching from the east.