novelraw Chapter 189: Shoot
Chapter 189: Shoot
Wuyi watched the enemy's creatures gather. They were well within bowshot, and Xianyu Ma and his fellows began to pick them off. The two youngest archers carried sheaves of fresh arrows from the second floor, and the older men began to loose.
Wuyi had seen archers in action before, had watched his men practice at the butts, but he'd never watched a dozen professionals at full stretch.
He fussed at Xianyu Ma while the older man felt the breeze and carefully arranged his sheaves in brackets for the purpose set into the wall – little iron buckets.
The two senior men – Xianyu Ma and Kanji – raised their bows, loosed, discussed their aiming points, and watched the fall of their shafts.
"Over," said Kanji. It was a different tone of voice from his usual.
"Over," Xianyu Ma said. "Ready, boys?"
He raised his bow, and every man on the tower raised his in emulation, and they all loosed together. Their arrows rose and rose, and before they had begun to fall the next flight was on its way.
Down on the plain, the distant Duskreavers screamed their defiance, showed their hooked teeth, patted their backsides, and hefted their spears.
There were a thousand of them – more, most likely. In their homespun gray and their leathers and black skin, they looked as if they'd been grown from the earth under their feet.
The first flight of arrows imbued with Qi struck. They all struck together and tore a small hole in the great patchwork of black-gray Duskreavers.
The group of spear-holding Duskreavers moved a step closer. The second flight struck.
And the third.
And the fourth.
The group of Duskreavers started to look like a piece of leather on a shoemaker's bench punched with an awl. And again, and again. The punches only made small holes, but it made a great many of them.
The Duskreavers screamed, their dark faces contorted into masks of rage, and they charged.
"Fast as you can, boys," Xianyu Ma called.
His arms became a blur of motion. He drew and loosed, took a shaft from his bracket, nocked, drew, and loosed so quickly that Wuyi had difficulty sorting his actions.
Hui Lin, the youngest archer, opened a sack and dumped the shafts, points first, into Xianyu Ma's bracket, and ran to load the next archer.
Kanji was grunting with every draw. The sound was so frequent and rhythmic it was obscene.
The Duskreavers had little or no armor, and no shields. As they crossed a li to the breaches in the northern wall, they left a trail of wounded and dead creatures behind them. It was as if the whole group was a wounded animal, bleeding little corpses.
They reached the first breach.
Kanji ran dry of arrows and had to pause to get his own bundle. Hui Lin couldn't keep up. One by one, the bows stopped twanging.
"They're not going anywhere," Xianyu Ma said calmly. "Don't rush. Everyone get their quivers full again. Hui Lin, you get one more load up here and join us on the wall."
Wuyi felt superfluous.
✶ ✶ ✶
Qinujian watched the first charge out of the slits of one of the covered ways halfway up the ridge. Then he ran down the steps to Meiying.
"They're going to need help," he said.
She glared at him.
"We can hit them from down there," he said, pointing to the lower path. "With arrows." He continued. The Qi warriors who battled hand to hand tended to forget the power of the bows.
Meiying paused. "Yes," she said. "Let's go!"
They pounded down the track – over a streambed, down steep steps, around a long curve, and then they were right above the Lower Town. The wall had a fine low parapet, and the Gate Tower was just a hundred paces away and almost at eye level.
Qinujian admired Xianyu Ma's archery for three long breaths. The shooting was continuous now, and the flow of shafts was like a waterfall crashing down on the Duskreavers in the field. The creatures died and died.
It was clear to Qinujian that the Duskreavers were defeated. Archery combat had a ruthless logic of its own. Qinujian was an expert in it.
"Five shafts," he said to the men around him. "Right in the midst of them. Fast as you can." Two of his men had crossbows – not really worth a thing in a fight like this. Oh, well.
"Ready?" he called. Every longbowman had five arrows in the ground, ready to hand, and another on the bow. Yinhai Hu had one on his bow, one in his bow hand, and four in the ground.
Qinujian raised his bow.
The Duskreavers broke.
The new arrows came from behind, plunging down and killing them. In a minute a tenth of their numbers were pinned to the ground, screaming their thin screams.
"Save your shafts," Qinujian said. He had only fifteen more. High above, on the ridge, he could see attendants starting down with bundles of arrows, but it would be ten minutes before those arrows reached them.
He pointed to the town. "Some of them got in," he called to Meiying.
"Are you happy to stay here?" she asked.
Qinujian nodded.
"Remaining warriors – on me." She waved to Qinujian and started for the postern gate.
Yinhai Hu winked at Qinujian as he followed her.
✶ ✶ ✶
Wuyi went to open the tower's lower door himself. He and Qingyu Ni were the only men without bows.
Meiying was outside, with a crowd of armored men. "Town's full of Duskreavers," she said. Her sword was in her hand, and behind her, men were cleaning the dark blood from their blades.
He nodded. "We have to keep the street clear for the raid group," he said.
She nodded. "That's going to suck," she said in a matter-of-fact voice and took her party to move stones and fallen roof tiles.
Wuyi went with them.
As most of the warriors were supposed to save and conserve Qi, they had to do most of the work without wasting any Qi. It was brutal work. As the spring sun rose, it burned, distant and orange, through the smoke-filled air. It was growing warm, and inside Qi armor and a heavy Qi cloak, it was going to be hot for these warriors.
Just bending to lift a stone was hard enough in armor. It took five of the warriors to lift a fallen roof beam.
When a few began to complain, Wuyi pointed out that it was their horses who would come through here in the dark.
They went on, picking up rubble, and pushing obstructions aside.
Wuyi decided to see the effect of doing manual labor without using any Qi. He felt he could do this all day, but he stopped after trying a few times. He had to play the Young Master and leader, not a Qi initiate on duty. After half a day of work, he gave them a break. Most of the initiates in the group collapsed on a low stone wall, and Dong had arrived and handed Wuyi a flask of wine.
Thump-snack.
"Damn it to hell," Wuyi cursed, as the stone slammed into a temple fifty paces distant, blowing a hole through the tile roof and vanishing inside.
Warriors began to stand up, and the Duskreavers attacked.
There were only a dozen of them; desperate, brave, and ferocious.
When the rush was cleared, there was a Qi-armored man at Wuyi's back – Qingyu Ni. Wuyi had not summoned statues because there was no need to; he planned to conserve energy until the last minute.
The flask of water was still unbroken by a miracle. He took a swig, savoured it, and handed the flask to Qingyu Ni.
Qingyu Ni leaned on his sword. "Devil's beasts," he said, shaking his head. "Duskreavers. I've heard of them."
Wuyi just nodded.
"Like killing children," Qingyu Ni said.
The whole sky was a pink-red. Another rock crashed to earth off to their left.
"You really think we can hold?" Qingyu Ni asked.
"Yes," Wuyi nodded. He noticed some of the Qi initiates were injured with some chipped stones. Wuyi wondered if he would have to heal them. It would be better to send them to the pavilion and let the elders or her heal them. The unlimited resource of free healing energy should be used from now instead of his.
She had turned her back on him; this did not mean he was not going to take advantage of this resource to the fullest to the last minute in this war.
"It would be something," Qingyu Ni admitted.
"Yes," Wuyi nodded again.
Dong – unarmored and unarmed – had survived the rush from the Duskreavers. He'd simply run away. Now he was back. "I've got food," he said.
His sack was packed with roast duck, steamed buns, and savory mooncakes, and Meiying's warriors fell on him like scavengers on a carcass. His head was patted a dozen times. He had a bun for himself.
Meiying moved among them. "Drink water," she said, as if they were children and turned to Wuyi. "Think they'll try again?" she asked.
Wuyi shrugged and bobbed his head. "No idea."
He took a deep breath. His armor seemed too small, and he couldn't catch his breath. The smoke in the air was burning the inside of his lungs.
It was a very small working, an insidious thing. He saw it as soon as he made the effort.
The poison in air was thicker. The air was full of poison from the start; they knew it and no mortal would have survived. But it had minimal effect on Qi warriors until now.