The lever clicked in Jake's hand. The lever scraped forward and all Cutlery got before it fired was the smallest release of light from within the bolt's rails. Once instance later, molten metal, string, shrapnel, and heated air splattered across everyone near the ballista.
Hellish rain descended upon them. The banners that had hidden their preparations caught flame. Many of them simply tore from their hooks and rushed into the night sky. After that single second had passed the air began to clear.
Cutlery gasped and grasped at her face. Millions of tiny burning bits had been shot into her every pore. They steamed on her skin. Her leather armor had stopped a lot of it
All of her senses were under pressure and ringing. Cutlery couldn't hear anything. With great effort, Cutlery forced her eyes open and looked around. The wooden floorboards were cracked and covered in cooling sparks. For some reason, her focus rattled close than far. All light was bright and hard to see.
A vague sound drilled into the side of her skull. Hands wrapped around her shoulders and the sensation of movement seemed to be felt by someone else. A pulse came from her chest and her vision and hearing quickly started to return.
Laughter came first.
"Didja see that! She worked! Once! She worked once and then died knowing the job was done!" Tool yelled.
"Yup," Jake said. "Run." He added as he looked at the platform. Cutlery followed his gaze. The platform had a huge gaping hole in it.
The bolt had passed through the supports of Haze's stage and then through two of the gold chairs. The bolt had then either exploded or clipped a third gold chair. Haze was standing over one gold, the other two nowhere to be seen. The whole platform was thrown into chaos.
The stage was shattered, two golds had died, and the whole thing was in chaos. Wait that was wrong. Not chaos, battle! The slivers had started their rebellion after the bolt's attack. Slivers darted about in the sky above the stage. The civilians were caught between the tentacles and the sliver's war now.
"We should help!" Cutlery said. Jake let go of her finally and she stood on wobbling legs. The ballista firing had done a number on her. Slowly though, the shock left her system.
"We have to kill Haze now!" Jake yelled over the din of battle. Cutlery looked, and Haze kneeled over the other gold.
"We are doing this for Zurkonia! Just punch a hole in the tentacles for them to escape through!" Cutlery said. Jake sighed and pointed at a street.
"There's no monster in that building by the street, so if we can clear the one on the other side, the people should be able to get out," Jake said. He was right. There was already almost a gap for people to run through. The tentacles were just long enough to block it. Together they ran towards it. Through the windows, Cutlery could see the dark coral rock of the tentacle's body. This time, they would kill it.
-
Cutlery and Jake ran through empty carts and stalls. The people that had occupied them were either dead or rioting in the center of the square. The tentacles reached over the wooden structures towards that same rioting group. Cutlery's theory that the beast hunted heat was still holding up. A few tentacles tried to grab them. The pair of assassins easily lost them in the obstacles.
The building wasn't far from the ballista. The two assassins quickly reached it. They peeked through a shattered window and leaped inside. Within there was a strong stench of flesh. A wave of heat rolled over them as they took in the space. They found marks of blood, bone, and debris. Most furniture had been shattered. What had been a shop was now gone.
Jake motioned towards a set of stairs set in the back. They slowly crept up. The wood creaked, but no response came. Halfway up the steps, Jake stopped. Cutlery waited and listened. She heard the thing she now wished she could forget. The sound of a giant wet hot dog getting shoved in and out of someone's mouth permeated the air.
They both cringed. Now that they had noticed it, it was all they could hear. Cutlery peaked into the upper floor. It was a large open space. The walls had been shattered by a large swiss cheese-looking rock. Slime-covered tentacles undulated through the rock's holes to go out to the square. Outside the tentacles attacked anything they could. They slurped about their wet coral holes loudly inside the building. Cutlery figured this was the worst version of the beast she had run into. At least the old one had been too slow to create this moist cacophony.
"It might not be able to hear us." Cutlery whispered. Jake looked at her with warning eyes then back at the beast's rocky body. No response came from it.
"Alright. We need to somehow get a mammoth poison or explosive inside that rock. It would take too long to cut off every tentacle here." Jake said. He motioned towards one of the larger tentacles. It was a whole foot across at the base. If one of the half-foot thick ones had repelled Cutlery's blade, it could take a full minute just to get that one amputated.
The two of them watched the creature in moist slurping silence until Cutlery perked up. She said,
"Do we have any more bolts?" Jake looked at her and nodded. He walked over to the window and stuck a hand out. He had produced a mirror to shine in the direction of Tool. A few seconds went by and Jake ducked inside the room.
"I got Tool's attention. I was able to signal for an extra bolt. The problem is she can't sneak so I'm gonna go get it from her. You make sure no one else gets in the building and watch my back." Jake said. Cutlery nodded. The two of them split up. Cutlery was excited to see the beast explode.
Cutlery watched Jake sneak out. Tool blasted a few tentacles with an odd metallic crossbow on their way to meet him. A larger one had just wrapped Tool's ankle when Jake arrived and hacked at it. The two exchanged the harpoon and beat hasty retreats.
Cutlery glanced over the rest of the square. While they were doing this, the rebellion was taking place. With the golds out of the picture, things were going relatively well. The rebels outnumbered the loyalists 2-1. The tower being a trauma factory made Cutlery unsurprised this hadn't happened already. Maybe it had, she was only seven.
The first slivers had been dispersed in groups to the edge of the rioting crowd. There they fought away the tentacles and kept who they could alive. It was a losing battle. Cutlery, an assumed fourth sliver, had trouble with them, what could a few groups of firsts do?
The seconds and thirds had overwhelmed the five loyalists in their ranks and were now backing down the fourths. The upper platform was the ninth hell. Fifth slivers were all over. Some were flying and others unleashed huge spells. Their footing was uneven, and nearly half the population was loyalists in the mid to upper slivers.
Flying mages bombarded the platform with spells and arrows. Many collided in the air and exchanged attacks. No one was coordinating either side. Attacks often spread thin over multiple people rather than one foe. The battle would take a long time that way.
Jake arrived back in the building. He cautiously maneuvered the bolt up the stairs. He kept the large bulbous head away from the walls. Now that Cutlery looked at it, she saw why the ballista had to be so intense. The bolt head had to be at least thirty pounds! Cannonballs and greatswords were lighter than that!
Jake managed it. Together they go into position on either side of it. With a glance, Jake got her attention and told her,
"If the tip of the head takes too much force it detonates. I have to arm it first, you do so by twisting the back and front in opposite directions. We need to find a hole in the beast that is sufficiently deep so that we can hurl it in and dive away. We probably won't get much more time than that. The explosion should be directed by the hole and only burn us lightly."
Cutlery nodded. Now that she thought about it, they were just throwing a bomb by hand that had just been fired out of a super siege weapon.
They stepped towards the middle of the room where many of the long tentacles writhed. One tentacle was mostly retracted into the huge coral rock's hole.
Cutlery nodded towards it and Jake saw. Together they took turns jumping over the tentacles and handing off the bolt. One tentacle jerked upward suddenly and almost bumped Cutlery. They waited for a second and got themselves and the bolt next to a large hole.
Three fingers held aloft, Jake kept one hand on the bolt. They swung it once, twice, and on the third time lifted it high and hurled it forward.
