[Ouroboros' End]
After his rather short meeting with the captain of the starweaver concluded, Darganth joined the rest of his group in preparing for the upcoming battle. Using one of the towers along the wall as quarters, they spent the next few hours resting and relaxing, even as the entire wall was consumed by activity as the town's guards readied themselves for the fight.
Venrie and Yldra had claimed the only intact room with a large enough window to fly through for themselves, making the easiest entrance for Darganth through their space. Inside this room, the weapon and armor stands had been thrown into a single pile in one of the corners, making space for a large bed of wood and leaves conjured by nature magic. When Darganth arrived in the room, the two women were lying in this bed together with Neandra, who, it seems, had arrived in the five or so minutes Darganth had been on the starweaver.
As he landed in the window and folded his wings in before stepping inside, all three turned toward him. All three greeted him with a smile, with Neandra being the first to speak.
"And, who's it that's spying on us?" She asked while sitting up in the bed, causing the blanket to shift enough to reveal her and Yldra's bare torsos.
"One of Malestos' worshipers. Though the crew isn't even purely mythic ranks, so probably a low-ranking one." Darganth said, similarly skipping the greeting as Neandra had done.
"Lucky for us." Neandra commented.
A moment later, Venrie also sat up. "On a related note, what did the guard officer want that he followed you?" She asked.
"One of their generals wanted to know our stance on how to deal with the aftermath."
"I take it he wasn't happy about the answer he got?" Venrie asked.
"No. But his boss will have to live with the attention this place will get. At least I gave the officer a message to warn him of the fact that it will happen, we'll see what he does with that."
Not caring about this decision beyond acknowledging it with a nod, Venrie lay down when the silence that followed made it apparent that Darganth had no other matter to bring up. Guessing that the same was true for the three of them, he then turned to leave a few moments later.
"Care to join us?" Yldra interrupted as Darganth then turned toward the door.
"Maybe later. I still have a few things to prepare. So have fun, though keep an eye on when we plan to gather tomorrow." Darganth responded.
Receiving a mixture of slightly disappointing acknowledgment for his leaving and confirmation that they were going to be on time, Darganth stepped into the corridor outside the room a few seconds later. Ignoring the room directly opposite the one he had just left as it belonged to Melidra, he turned to the right and the two other rooms that connected to the corridor there. Once again ignoring the one to his left as he walked toward them, with that being Alicia's room, he silently entered the one he and his wives shared.
As he did, his decision not to loudly announce himself was proven correct. Because the first thing he noticed upon entering was the familiar array of leather and fur sleeping bags at the center of the room, with two already being occupied by Allaire and Serania respectively. The next thing he saw was Jennia lazily sitting in one of the small firing holes that dotted the wall facing toward the wilderness. Just when he spotted her, she also noticed his arrival, causing a smile to bloom on her lips. Jumping to her feet, she was just about to greet him when she suddenly paused, her gaze briefly flickering toward Allaire and Serania, followed by her slowly walking toward him.
Receiving Jennia as she practically jumped into his embrace, Darganth greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.
"What took you so long? We've been waiting for you." Jennia said as they pulled apart again.
"I made a spontaneous visit to the starwaever that has been shadowing us." Darganth said quietly, matching her lowered volume to not wake Allaire or Serania. "Turns out, it belonged to one of the three major factions, so I decided to lay the groundwork for our future plans."
Raising an eyebrow, Jennia looked intrigued by this, "Which of them?"
"The goddess." Darganth answered.
"Oh, how did it go?" Jennia asked.
"Alright. The ship's captain wants to watch us tomorrow and will decide based on that." Darganth recounted.
"Then we should really let those two get their sleep. But the room above us is free, should we move this there?" Jennia asked, leaning closer to Darganth.
As had already been the case with Yldra's offer, Darganth regretted that he couldn't take her up on it immediately.
"Give me an hour, I still want to make a few preparations in case we run into unwanted surprises. After that, I'm either all yours or we can go join Yldra, Venrie, and Neandra. They actually made the same offer when I arrived." Darganth said.
Though her face betrayed her disappointment, Jennia nodded in agreement with his proposal. "Alright. Wake me once you're finished. I might be fine without sleep, but an hour of it also won't hurt. Then we can also think about whether we join those three or not."
Giving Jennia a quick kiss on her cheek as she slowly untangled herself from their embrace after those words, Darganth briefly stayed as she walked toward one of the empty sleeping bags. As she then lay down, he then vanished, teleporting two floors up into a room where he wouldn't wake the others easily. With that, he conjured a number of crystal spheres from his spatial storage and set about charging them by drawing in atmospheric mana and imbuing it into them.
Nearly ten hours later, Darganth was awoken by the sound of metal armor rustling and the shouts of officers barking orders at their soldiers. With it, the heavy thumping of siege machines being rolled over the battlements echoed throughout the room, causing a groan to ring out from one of the women he was sharing the bed with. Nonetheless, Yldra soon pushed herself up, briefly sitting on the edge of the bed before rising to her feet.
A few moments later, Darganth did the same. Climbing out of the entanglement of limbs he had woken up in, he then cleaned himself with a mix of water and air magic before first dressing himself with magically conjured cloths and then summoning his armor and other equipment above this layer.
By the time he had finished, Yldra had also started doing the same. Meanwhile, Jennia, Neandra, and Venrie were still at various stages between waking up and rising from bed. However, as more and more horns sounded outside the tower, they soon sped up, causing all five to be awake and fully equipped barely ten minutes later.
Not a moment too late, because when they then teleported onto the top floor of the tower five minutes before the agreed-upon meeting time, the rest of their group already stood assembled there.
"There you are. I was just about to go and wake you up." Allaire said as they arrived.
"We're not yet late." Jennia immediately responded.
"No. But there were already two messengers here asking whether Neandra is ready." Allaire explained.
Hearing this, the woman in question let out a sigh that everyone in their group could empathize with. Her strength had made her the foundation enabling the town's current uprising. But as a result, its leadership felt the need to constantly get her reassurances for everything they do, fearing they might displease her by making a move that wasn't agreed upon and lose her support.
"I'll have one of my troops get the message that you are to one of the generals." Melidra interjected before anyone else could follow up on this. Neandra gave her a thankful smile in response, one that Melidra acknowledged with a small nod as she opened her eyes after briefly strengthening her connection to one of her undead to give this order.
As the two handled this matter, Darganth had stepped toward the stone railing at the edge of the tower and now stood at Allaire's side. Letting his gaze sweep over the scattered smuggler camps that stretched out before the wall, he was disappointed to find the closest camps already abandoned while soldiers of the smuggler group were preparing just beyond these.
Most of these stood in two lines, each somewhere between four to six soldiers deep, with a dense phalanx in front and a slightly looser formation of archers, slingers, and mages behind. Though largely first and second ranks, with most formations having only two or three third ranks as support, they had chosen their positions well and dug in. While the gaps between the individual formations were massive, as it was simply impossible to cover such a massive and largely open area with as few troops as they were, in most cases, the immediate flanks of a formation were covered. This was done either by natural barriers like dense bushes, small patches of forest, and especially steep hills, or artificial ones that ranged from palisades to burning fields.
Thus, their attack would either have to take a long way around these obstacles. Not only would this give the smugglers time to organize their second line of defenses, but the vanguard would at least temporarily be between two enemy positions and vulnerable to a pincer attack. However, for a conventional army, the only alternative would be a frontal attack, something that wouldn't be without significant losses even if supported by a fourth rank. Meanwhile, an attack by a single high-ranking individual was even more risky, with proper coordination by the defenders having the potential of seriously wounding even weaker mythic ranks if the latter acted without support and necessary caution.
Fortunately for the town and its people, this only worked against conventional forces. Below the mythic rank, not all mages could fly both mana efficiently and with enough maneuverability to prevent themselves from being an easy target for archers. That is without mentioning the rarity of those individuals who could extend these capabilities to even small groups of allies.
However, this wasn't the case with large portions of Melidra's forces. The same flying undead that had been instrumental in attacking the wall could easily drop behind the enemy lines and sow chaos, creating an opening through which the rest of the army could then launch their attacks.
Correctly guessing Darganth's line of thought, Melidra answered just as the question of whether her troops were in position formed in Darganth's head. "I've already taken care of it. And the town guard is informed of it. Or at least that I'll open a breach and in which formation I'll do it, don't want to give the smugglers time to prepare in case they have spies among the town's ranks."
"Good." With this, Darganth fell silent again as the agreed-upon time drew close. Around him, the conversation among the rest of their group also died down, with all of them patiently waiting for the signal horn to ring out.
The wait stretched for a few minutes before the deep bellow of a horn broke the silence. With only slight delays, additional horns further along the wall echoed this sound and relayed the signal further, spreading the message of the battle's start over multiple kilometers every few seconds.
Almost immediately after the horns sounded, the siege weapons unleashed the first volley of the battle. With a roar of heavy machinery cutting through the air, catapults and ballistae unleashed flaming projectiles into the sky. Darganth watched as these soared through the emptiness with trails of fire behind them, shooting past the abandoned camps and defensive positions and curved toward some of the more distant enemy positions where they erupted with flames that consumed everything around the point of impact.
Simultaneously, the town's troops below set into motion. Surging forth from the opening at the foot of the towers, cavalry led the charge toward the enemy positions as infantry rapidly moved into formation before following with a slight delay.
While this was happening, Darganth, the rest of his group, and every other mythic rank on their side hardened their gazes and swept the horizon for the enemy mythic ranks.