Chapter 89 - The Siege (Patreon)

AN: Only one chapter this week. I got sick last week, and couldn't write as much as I wanted.

Enjoy!

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“Siege!” Leona Thorne shouted as a rallying cry.

“SIEGE!” Dragon House responded in thunderous unison.

The entire house was in the Polymorphic room, doing a pep talk/rally after light morning exercise and stretching. 

“This is OUR event!” Leona roared out. “This is OUR victory!”

“For the hoard!” Several of the more enthusiastic members of Dragon House yelled.

“The other houses don’t care!”

There was a roar of approval.

“The other houses don’t train!”

The crowd roared again.

“And the other houses are going to get WRECKED today!” Leona shouted.

Her proclamation was met with wild cheers of approval.

“Alright, pipe down.” Leona said. “Assignments. Mau, Beatrix…” Leona listed off a half-dozen names, most of them students who were somewhat incapacitated. Chris still had his blindfold on, and Beatrix had recently started a critical component of her soulbinding ritual. Which involved holding a hallucinogenic leaf in her mouth for an entire month. She - and everyone else who interacted with her - knew it was working, because she stayed high as a kite.

Felix wondered how any of the third years got anything academic done. Between Chris’s blindfold, Beatrix’s drugs, and the other nonsense he saw the third years doing, it seemed a miracle that they managed to eat breakfast every day, let alone learn.

Then again, the Praetorian’s soulbinds had been really cool, and Felix wanted something like that. He wasn’t sure yet, but all the reading he’d been doing was quite illuminating, and it was never too early to start a list.

Nothing like Alexandria’s notebooks and notebooks of ideas for her own binding. 

“... you six are defending our flag. Everyone else, you’re with me on assault.”

Felix grinned. Yes! He’d been hoping to be on the attack team - that sounded much more fun than being on defense. Especially given who Leona had picked for defense, it sounded like it might be a boring job.

Siege was basically a magical version of capture the flag. Except everyone could use whatever spells and rituals they wanted, and every side had their own fort to defend. The wards were set to be fairly strong for everybody, including Dragon House, which let everyone cast nearly whatever spell they wanted. There were still some banned spells, but they tended to be ‘Illegal to cast in Logres’.

Well. As a starting point.

There were any number of exploits and workarounds that had been banned over the years. Like last year, Dragon House had changed the published date of the event, winning more or less by default when barely anyone showed up to challenge them. In general, shenanigans that stopped wixen from casting spells at wixen, and spells that lingered or were incurable, were out.

The event was a mandatory six-way fight between the houses. Unicorn house wasn’t one of the fighters, but their job was arguably harder and longer. They had to run into the field, grab the downed wixen, haul them off the field, and perform first aid. And the longer-term care. It was excellent field practice for them. Generally, the wards at Camelot - and the fact that it was a school, not a battlefield - kept practice to a minimum. The hospital wing often went empty for weeks, only broken up by the occasional cough or stomach bug. Mundane issues that were resolved in under three minutes, even with the teaching opportunity. Siege gave them a chance to handle ‘real’ injuries, practice triage, and generally experience the chaos of a fight.

It was Dragon House’s philosophy that the battle began before the fight. Alliances, deals, truce, preparation, the whole nine yards. A few members of the other houses also tried similar tactics, but the vast majority of the students shrugged and said ‘so what?’

The people who tried to prepare and get somewhere often found themselves joining Dragon House themselves, where their foresight and effort would actually be appreciated. 

Either way, as a rule of thumb, the other five houses tried to band together to fight Dragon House. ‘Tried to’ being the operative term. They were scattered, not terribly prone to trusting each other, and not really wanting to be there. If they could quickly get hit with a floppy spell, they were painlessly out of the event. Otherwise, they might find themselves on the receiving end of an ‘interesting’ spell.

Vivian made a pained little whine in the back of her throat.

“Do you think, if I asked nicely, she’d let me join the defense team?” Vivian whispered to Felix, who was the de-facto expert on all things Dragon House. The rest of the coven had joined Dragon House after the winter break. The whole ‘walk through fire’ was a start of year ‘look at how badass we are’ - the reality was far simpler. Say they wanted to join, show up to a few practices, generally show interest, and during the next available sorting - start or middle of the year - walk through the de-flamed Dragon House door. It was why the flames were on an easy switch.

“Probably not. Stick with me.” Felix whispered back, as the rest of the house cheered and started to storm out of the Polymorphic room. Vivian promptly clung to Felix’s arm as the five of them got pulled along.

“Hatchlings! Where are you?” Chris called. 

“Over here!” Sora shouted and waved. Chris waded over, wearing an enormous grin and his blindfold. Beatrix was sitting down in a most undignified way, holding her head in her hands.

“Oh boy, you hatchlings are in for a treat!” Chris said. 

“Why are we hatchlings now?” Felix asked.

“Because I said so.” Chris replied.

“I don’t think it’s an actual thing.” Erik stage-whispered.

“Hush you.” Chris said, his grin not wavering. “Now, sadly, I’m wearing this damn blindfold, so I won’t be able to see the looks on your faces when IT happens. We’ve deliberately not told you. Don’t worry! It’s perfectly safe.” He nodded at Erik and the rest, and continued with unusually good cheer. “Good thing you joined us, and go kick some arse!”

“What’s going to happen?” Vivian asked, clutching Felix’s arm harder. He was tempted to shake her off - her grip hurt - but she was part of his coven, and seemed worried. 

Chris’s grin, if anything, grew wider.

“You’ll see!”

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There were no students cheering as they entered the grand arena. There was a small scattering of parents, and some elderly townsfolk from Corwin swung by. Seven hours from anywhere included seven hours from Logres, and the trip was just too much for most people. It was taking place during working hours, and the vast majority of people had far better things to do than watch a school sporting event. Most of Corwin was enjoying the unseasonable heat - the headmaster had changed the weather to a warm spring day, as opposed to the icy grip of winter. With all that said, Felix did manage to spot Old Man Hendriks, who’d sold the rest of his coven uniforms.

After trying to curse them.

Erik, Sora, and Alexandria had come up swinging, and instantly earned the old man’s approval. Vivian had not, and Felix dreaded any future friction.

Everyone was on the dirt field, and a few students, especially the first years, were looking a peculiar shade of green. Six identical forts were arranged in a circle, about 100 meters apart from each other. Each one had four short towers, walls connecting them, and a number of rooms on two levels inside. A bit of a maze, if anyone wanted to try being tricky or setting up traps.

The defense team tried to hustle inside. It was more blind lurching - in Chris’s case, literally - staggering, and an otherwise poor showing.

“Where are all these people during morning PT?” Erik asked Felix.

“You know, that’s a good question.” Felix replied.

“Witches and Wizards. Welcome to Siege! It’s always such a delight to see what magic and tactics all of you will come up with together.” The headmaster announced, his voice booming across the arena. “By this point, you are hopefully familiar with the rules. Without further ado, your 20 minutes of preparation time begins now.”

On the last word, the headmaster waved his staff. An almighty boom rocked the arena, and the sky lit up with rapidly flashing colors, a little bit like a firework going off. Clear barriers snapped up between each fort, preventing any wixen from sneaking around before the event began properly.

Leona clapped her hands together.

“Dragons. Who brought the cards?” She asked.

A number of hands went up.

“Excellent. Break up into groups. Try to be visible.” She said.

“Wait. We’re just going to play cards while everyone else is setting up?” Alexandria whispered in disbelief. The other groups had already broken up, and one coven of seventh years was already drawing a pentagram near the barrier.

Leona strode over to them, and nodded towards the coven in question.

“Some wixen decided to prepare barrage rituals, but otherwise, yes.” She said. “We’re going on the attack. Shuffle up. Think of it as a psychological attack if you need to.”

“What is the plan?” Erik asked.

Leona grinned. There was a lot of that going around.

“For you five? Hold on tight, curse everyone else.” She said.

“That was helpful.” Sora muttered sarcastically under her breath as Leona left.

The five of them started to get into a card game, but far too quickly the headmaster announced five minutes until attacking could begin. Leona summoned everyone.

“Outside the circle, stay outside the circle.” She said, shooing everyone outside of a fairly large circle drawn in dirt. Felix and the rest of his coven left, and Leona briefly paused to talk with a few wixen, before standing in the middle of the circle.

“Everyone out?” She asked rhetorically, then cried out, “For the hoard!” 

“FOR THE HOARD!” The rest of Dragon House roared in unison. Leona’s three-eyed raven sharply cawed, then took off with a flap of its too-many wings.

Then Leona shifted. Her bones cracked and snapped, her mouth elongated, and a tail whipped out as she grew. 

And grew. 

And grew.

Her robes were absorbed into her skin, which turned scaly and green. She fell down onto all fours, and Sora muffled a scream as her head split apart. Spines erupted from her back, and a pair of wings unfurled from her back.

“Bloody hell.” Erik swore as Leona finished her transformation. “A hydra. I didn’t think she had a hydra core.” A number of Dragon House members grinned at their shocked reactions - keeping Leona’s core under wraps to the newbies had been worth it. 

One of the more well known soul bindings was the ‘inner self’ ritual, which would allow the wix to transform into the same animal as their core. The ritual was more common in some families than others. The Morsins - before Bjorn nearly annihilated them all - almost never chose to turn themselves into a White Hart, instead choosing other, more powerful bindings. The Brynwells, which Beatrix was a member of, often did the ritual, allowing themselves to turn into a 30 foot long fire-breathing dragon. It was a major point the noble core snobs constantly brought up to ‘prove’ there was a measurable difference between the different cores.

“Not a hydra! Yamata no Orochi.” Merton corrected.

Felix’s jaw dropped open. 

“Wait, isn’t that Japanese?” Erik asked, with visible confusion written across his face.

“She already has a familiar and is chosen by The Morrigan? How?” Alexandria whispered.

“Leona’s got three cores.” Merton responded. “You’ll have to ask Thorne how she ended up with her core. Now come on! Hop on up.”

Indeed, most of Dragon House was busy climbing onto Leona’s massive back, who had settled down to make it easier for everyone. Felix and his friends found a spot near the back. It was surprisingly easy to climb up, and he mimicked what everyone else was doing. He grabbed a spine with his left hand, held his wand in his right, and generally pointed it out towards where everyone else would be.

None too soon, as the headmaster began the final countdown.

“Three. Two. One. Begin!” He announced. With a wave of his wand, the barriers went down.

Poor Odric Martin went from staring at a barrier, to staring at an enormous hydra bearing down on him.

“Merlin.” He managed to whimper out, before one of the heads blasted him with a jet of purple poison.

The other seven heads were busy. Lightning, poison, and fire all blasted from the various heads, carving a swath of devastation through the students. Screams and cries were rapidly cut off as the wards on Camelot did their job and saved the students.

Nobody was still. Leona charged forward, trampling a few lucky survivors and going through the minor barriers that had been created. The Dragon House members hanging off Leona’s back were shooting spells as fast as they could. Some chose their targets carefully, while others fired wildly into whatever group they could spot.

Felix aimed for a large cluster of Phoenix House students, the red trimming on their robes making them an easy target. He deliberately avoided Hydra House - he didn’t want to accidentally hit Hazel, after all. Felix was still a regenerator, and simply cast as often as he could.

With such a large and tempting target, a half-dozen of the braver students returned fire. After all, there were only around 30 or so students in total in Dragon House, compared to the approximately 110 students in each of the other houses. It shouldn’t be too difficult to eliminate enough of them. 

“Wooo!” Erik whooped in excitement, then cast another spell. “This is great!”

“This is so much fun!!” Sora screamed.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Vivian moaned, clutching the spine with two hands and not casting at all.

“For the hoard!” Alexandria tried to shout, but it came out more like a dying cat trying to whisper. She redoubled her casting efforts, and Felix politely ignored the furious blush that crept up her neck.

Shouting seemed like a waste of effort to Felix, but he had to admit it was exhilarating! A spell ended up so close to him that it passed through his robe, but miraculously missed him and hit Sora instead. She dropped off Leona without a word, and rolled hard in the kicked-up dust and mud. She was quickly lost to view, but Felix did catch a glimmer of the wards.

His fun immediately died.

Was this what a battle was actually like? One moment sitting and chatting with his friends, running around, having fun, and then BOOM! One stray spell, and his friend wasn’t there anymore.

It felt different than Combat Class in some undefined way.

“HOLD ON!” Merton screamed. 

Leona wasn’t the only student with a Soul binding, and a huge lion, one and a half times as large as normal, tried to attack Leona. He was able to plow through her devastating lines of fire, and managed to get a strong swipe in on her chest - nevermind that he looked puny next to her. Thorne tried to crush him by stepping on him, but her claws weren’t able to penetrate his tough skin. The lion got in another swipe before Leona solved the problem.

Using three of her heads, she bit down on the lion’s mane, back, and rear legs, then picked him up. With a single coordinated twirl of her necks, she spun the lion around, before launching him into a large group of students from Thunderbird.

Who didn’t appreciate a mythological lion being thrown into them, and tried to take him down quickly with spells. He didn’t appreciate getting blasted, and Felix’s opponents started fighting each other. Perfect.

Leona Thorne’s hide turned spells, her heads were the equivalent of constantly blasting multiple high-level evocations, and she had enough speed and bulk to go through the forts in question. Felix kept dutifully casting - the fun had stopped when Sora got blasted off - but he was pretty sure Leona could single-handedly take the entire school.

Not that it wasn't a little fun. Sora was fine, he was just letting it get to his head.

It was a slaughter. It was an utter rout. There was a reason Dragon House considered it ‘their event’, no matter how wildly outnumbered they were. They took to the activity like fish to water, like birds to air. It took 17 minutes and 11 seconds for Dragon House to take out the other five forts and snatch their flags, before returning them all to their stand. One by one, the students hopped off Leona, before the commander transformed back into a human. She held her fist over her head, victorious. Her three-eyed raven fluttered back down and landed on her shoulder, blending back into her jet-black hair.

“For the hoard!” She cried out, hoisting Dragon’s banner high.

“FOR THE HOARD!” Felix roared in unison with everyone else.

Winning felt great.

The party afterward was even greater, in spite of Vivian deciding that he was the best seat.