DF222 - Blues From A Gun (Aris) (Patreon)

The battle had started, and Anton wasn’t back yet. From her perch on one of the wall’s watchtowers, she watched the invaders crawl forward. Their raised shields made them look like brightly coloured beetles, surrounding the town in endless numbers.

They were well within her range, but she held off, waiting for the signal. The guard-captain didn’t want them to know what the range of their guns was. He also didn’t want the enemy to notice that her accuracy and range were much greater than those of the regular troops. She was only to shoot when everyone else did, hiding her shots under the cover of the massed volleys that would be fired shortly.

She was supposed to be using this time to identify the leaders, but it was hard. Unlike knights, Tiatian officers didn’t wear anything that stood out from the troops they commanded.

There were so many of them.

Even though Captain Rynmos had ordered Kirido’s entire complement on the wall, the defenders were outnumbered by far. Ten to one? More? Sieges were supposed to be long, drawn-out affairs, but the captain had said it was likely they’d be overrun in the first attack.

Without the guns, it would have been a certainty.

The invaders moved forward, slowly and inexorably. In the lead were soldiers with sword and shield, wall climbers and shock troops. Further back were the archers, waiting to get within range. Rynmos had explained the basic tactics to Aris, and with such a numerical advantage, he had doubted they would try anything fancy.

The melee fighters would go first, moving slowly until the defenders started firing arrows. A few would range ahead, looking for traps and other dangers. Once the arrows started, the fighters would charge forward, hoping to reach the walls before an arrow found them.

The charging soldiers were too dire a threat to be ignored, allowing the archers behind them to close with impunity. With luck, they would be in position just before the charge reached its goal. Their arrows would sweep the walls clean, or at least reduce the number of defenders.

Cleared of defenders, the walls were no obstacle. Bigger cities had higher walls that required ladders or siege engines to conquer, but Kirido was a small town. During the Elitran raid, soldiers had jumped over the battlements to crash down on the defenders. The walls had been built higher this time, but construction had limits. Traits didn’t.

Aris could tell when the invaders were getting close to the invisible line that the captain was waiting for. She selected her target and took a deep breath. When the order came, thunder rippled along the wall as half the soldiers fired. Aris fired along with them.

Her Sure Shot ignored shields—the bullets punched right through. Her target fell, along with about a dozen others. Most of them fell screaming. Only wounded, but even a minor wound tended to put the victim on the ground. Something about the shock of an injury coming out of nowhere. The other invaders were just standing around, unsure of what had happened. One of them seemed to be shouting at the group, so Aris marked him as her next target.

The rank and file only had one round in their rifles. They had to reload, which was why only half the wall had fired. The other half fired now, Aris along with them. The shouty man fell, and it began to dawn on the others that they were under attack.

Aris hoped that they would flee, but Tiatian soldiers were made of sterner stuff. They left their fallen comrades behind and charged.

Slowly at first. The next half-volley crashed into them before they got properly started. They had barely travelled twenty yards before the next one hit. Around Aris, the acrid smell of gunsmoke started to overpower everything else.

But there were too many of them to be stopped that way. They charged forward, screaming with fear and anger and pain, and no matter how many volleys the defenders fired, there were always more invaders to take their place.

Aris fired again and again. Matching her pace to others, she had plenty of time to pick her targets. Based on the amount of experience she was getting, they were at her Tier, but two to four levels lower. It would take a lot of dead Tiatian soldiers to get her to the next level, but Aris thought she could do it.

Her Class nudged at her, suggesting that this wasn’t the best way for her to get experience, but it remained naggingly vague on what she should be doing. What was the job of a Deadeye Harbinger, anyway?

A harbinger was someone—or something—that brought word of some coming event. Kelsey had told her that deadeye just meant someone who was a good shot. So that was how it developed from Gunslinger.

But what word should she bring? Aris thought about it as she kept picking off running invaders. Right now, she’d like to bring word of Anton’s anger. He didn’t show it, but she knew he was angry at the Tiatians coming here and interfering with Zamara’s politics. They were supposed to be the good guys, and they were siding with the False King! They were trying to capture Elara and trying to kill her aunt. All for a bunch of landless nobles, trying to get some land to rule.

The details of noble politics escaped Aris, but she knew that she didn’t like the sound of that. She should express her—and Anton’s—distaste to the leader of this expedition, that arrogant Prince. With bullets.

Some part of Aris knew that was what she should be doing, even as the rest of her remembered that she couldn’t leave her post.

Then the enemy made it to the wall.

There were fewer of them. The thirty or so defenders had killed or injured eight times their number during the charge. But that wasn’t even half of the attackers on this side. At the last minute, the defenders were ordered to affix the long knives that Kelsey called bayonets to the ends of the barrels. Then there was time for one last volley before the attackers stormed the battlements.

Aris had a different option. She slung her rifle over her back—she would never hear the end of it from Kelsey if she lost the thing, especially if a Tiatian picked it up—and drew one of her pistols. Two might be better, but she needed one hand free for reloading.

It’s too bad Kelsey isn’t here to reload for me, she thought. Having an endless supply of fully loaded guns was just too nice.

Most of the Tiatians were wall climbers, but a jumper tried his luck on her section of the wall, launching himself over the battlements. Aris’s pistol swept up, and he fell back with a bullet in his chest, landing on his comrades below.

Aris thought about leaning over and picking them off as they climbed, but it would expose her too much. She hung back instead and picked them off as they reached the top. Sure Shot would hit the head if that were the only available target.

Now, the iron scent of blood and the much worse smell of people’s innards were added to the battlefield. Aris almost gagged at the stench of it. Monsters generally didn’t have fermented food in them when they died. Some did, the ones that had caught a delver earlier, but it was rare. Humans smelled much worse when they died.

Except for zombies. The first monsters she’d ever killed were still the worst-smelling.

All along the wall, soldiers had stopped firing and were stabbing at the invaders climbing up. They had the advantage of height, but they were still outnumbered. Since Aris had momentarily discouraged anyone from trying their luck on her section, she looked to see what she could do elsewhere.

A step to the left, and she had a good angle on an invader who’d grabbed a musket and was trying to pull its owner over the wall. Aris switched to Trick Shot and blew his head apart. Another step, and another victim presented themselves. Trick Shot was a little slower, but it gave better results.

One more step… Aris whirled around instead and picked off two climbers on her own section. They fell, screaming. Only their hands and arms had been exposed, but Aris felt the rush of experience when they died.

There were still so many of them. Aris did what she could, but she needed to pause to reload every six shots. That was more than enough time for a defender to get pushed back or fall.

Aris was reloading when a group of attackers made it all the way to the top. This was the beginning of the end, she’d been warned. They would clear a space for others to climb up, and the small incursion would grow quickly.

Aris drew her second gun. Not for the first time in this fight—she had been alternating between the two as she fought. Kelsey had gone on interminably about the need to let the guns rest as much as she could between firing. Aris had noticed for herself how hot the guns could get.

Now she drew them both at the same time. There were more attackers in that breach than one gun could deal with. One of the defenders got cut down, which gave her a clear line of fire.

Thunder rang out from her outstretched hands, and men died. She dashed forward to exploit the gap. Three, four, five, six. Only two men left. There weren’t any Kiridans in the way now, so she could use Sure Shot, firing as fast as she could pull the trigger.

Her death-dealing hand twitched to the side, aiming her pistol right at the invader’s chest.

Click.

It only took Aris a moment to realise that she’d fired this gun three times before charging in with both guns blazing. It only took a moment more for her to bring her other gun around and plant a bullet in the centre of his chest. Only one left.

But it only took a moment for the one remaining attacker to bring his sword up and crash it down on her.

Aris fell. Not like the others that she’d seen that day. Not with a hole in her chest or head, dead in the instant before they fell. She was struck, she was injured, she was in pain, but she was still alive.

The force of the blow sent her stumbling. She fell, and she tried to roll to her feet like Anton had shown her, but there wasn’t enough room. There were too many bodies. A scream from behind her suggested that she didn’t have to worry, that her comrades had finished off the final attacker.

But she didn’t know that. She had to get up, make it back on her feet…

The world spun, but she was looking around to see it spinning. Her arm was on fire, and she might have dropped her pistol.

Aris staggered to her feet. For the moment, there was a space around her. Her people were holding the enemy back. Wincing at the pain of it, she pulled out another reloader and filled her remaining pistol. Only then did she look for where she dropped her other one. It was on the ground nearby. She holstered her full gun and picked up the fallen one.

Two shots left. She’d use it up before reloading it. Her arm nagged at her. She could use it, but not well. She’d be one gun only for the rest of this fight. She thought about using a healing potion, but dismissed the idea. Better to fight than to face that pain again.

She looked around for a target. To her dismay, they were everywhere. Just from what she could see, two more bridgeheads had been formed. People were shouting, and some of them were shouting at her. They probably wanted her to leave. Anton would be mad if she died. Or hurt, but it was too late for that.

“No,” Aris said firmly. She wasn’t sure who she was speaking to. “I can still fight, we can still push them back.”

Whoever it was didn’t stop her. She rushed forward at the nearest breach.

Two shots, then pass the gun to my bad hand and draw the full gun, she thought. Easy.

The two shots went perfectly, but while she was switching guns, one of the invaders threw an axe at her. She dodged, but it glanced painfully off her good arm.

That’s not fair! They’re not supposed to have ranged weapons! she thought. She leaned against the wall, trying to support herself and bring her gun up. The attackers were winning, though, on the verge of breaking the defensive line. She had to shoot one of them, she had to—

The attackers vanished in a blur of blood and falling limbs. A shining sword cut through them, faster than they could react to. Aris sighed, and let her gun drop to point at the floor.

Anton was back.