Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 191: Demonic Dusha

Wuyi turned to Xianyu Ma. "Get the stone throwers." Xianyu Ma grinned.

By the time the ballista was reloaded, the first assault was already in retreat. Baijian's warriors had wreaked havoc, and the great bark shields for demonics had failed to protect against the archer's shafts as much as the Duskreavers had hoped.

Wuyi gathered a raid group under Yun Ming in the courtyard. "Baijian's going to be hard-pressed," he said to Yun Ming. "A dozen warriors on horseback will make short work of their next assault."

Yun Ming nodded. "Yes, Young Master," he said. "I will follow your command."

Wuyi noted that Xueqin Yang was in his armor and mounted. He pressed the man's hand. "Good to see you about," he said.

"Good to be here," Xueqin Yang said. "Although, it seems to me another day abed—" He laughed. "I'd be strong enough to swim a mountain or climb a river."

The enemy stone thrower released.

Wuyi wasn't the only man who ran to the walls to watch the fall of the shot.

Xianyu Ma's first round landed out of sight beyond the enemy's stone thrower.

Wuyi watched the next assault. It was half-hearted. The Duskreavers stayed away from the worst of the archery by bunching up in front of the central breach, and very few of them went forward all the way to the Qi warriors.

Then one of the enemy's stone throwers released.

The rock fell like a lightning bolt into the breach, crushing warriors and swamplings alike.

"Damn," Wuyi said. "I should have expected that."

A creature gave a long, bone-chilling cry – like a trumpet, but louder and more hideous – and Duskreavers crept from houses and cellars in the Lower Town. They had crept in during the night or made it past the archers in the first assaults, and now they struck the rear of Baijian's line.

A great armored troll-like demonic being called Demonic Dusha sprinted from behind the stone thrower platform and pointed its antlered head at the breaches in the curtain wall. It was a formidable and terrifying creature, towering over most men with its massive, muscular frame. This being exuded an aura of menace and power.

Its body was covered in thick, overlapping plates of natural armor, resembling a dark, mottled carapace that offered both protection and intimidation.

The Duskreavers got out of its way.

Another rock plunged from the heavens to strike in the central breach. The stone seemed to explode as it hit, spraying attackers and defenders alike with lethal stone chips.

The men on the walls watched the men in the breach like spectators at a joust.

One of Qi adepts died when the stone smashed just beside him.

Another Qi warrior fell, stunned, and a Duskreaver got its dagger in his eye slit.

Quanbo died trying to get his back to the wall, swinging his sword in wide arcs. He stumbled when a stone hit his back, and was on his knees; in a heartbeat, a wave of the little monsters was on him. He crushed one with his left fist, swung his sword one-handed through another pair, and then two were hauling his head back.

"Release the raid group," Wuyi ordered.

Xianyu Ma loosed the ballista. The arrow flew high and vanished into the forest of upright arms atop the enemy's mound.

Wood chips flew, visible even from the fortress.

A half-loaded stone thrower in the enemy's battery was loosed by a panicked swampling and his loader was caught in the casting net and flung a hundred paces to fall wetly to earth.

Yun Ming galloped down the road from the fortress followed by a dozen Qi warriors. They flew down the switchbacks, and Demonic Dusha raced for the breach, and a swarm of Duskreavers pushed the defenders of the breach into a knot.

"Damn," Wuyi said.

He wanted to support the group from the chamber but was not certain if he could cast power at this distance. Nevertheless, he had to try.

✶ ✶ ✶

Baijian was a pebble in a crumbling sand castle. He threw back his masked head and bellowed. The Duskreavers quailed.

He was one man army. He killed them. His sword was everywhere, and he was faster than they, taller, longer, stronger. They went where he wasn't, but the other warriors knew what Baijian was like, and they stuck to him like glue. Xueqin Yang stood at his shoulder, advancing when Baijian advanced, retiring when the big man spun away. He had a short spear, and he used it sparingly.

He let Baijian kill the Duskreavers. He only killed those who could threaten Baijian.

They began to retreat off the breach. They couldn't hold it – too many of the warriors were down. Xueqin Yang saw movement above him on the ridge.

"Raid group," he called. Baijian was frozen.

"Demonic Dusha coming," he said. "Xueqin, clear what's behind us and open a lane to the tower."

Xueqin Yang didn't need to be urged. He tapped a few initiates and three other warriors on the back as he passed them. "On me!" he called.

A Duskreaver appeared in his range of vision – paused, surprised, perhaps to find men in the town, and not on the wall, and died with Xueqin Yang's short spear in its forehead.

"Jia!" he called. "Get to the tower. Tell Qinujian and Yinhai Hu to cover us."

Jia had excellent armor, lighter and better than any of the others. Besides, he was the youngest. He nodded.

The great Demonic Dusha ran through the Duskreavers. At the base of the rubble-strewn slope up into the breach, it paused, glaring around like some eyeless worm seeking daylight or warmth – or human blood. Then it picked its way to the top of the breach, clearly unwilling to move quickly in the bad footing.

When it reached the top it paused again, caught sight of the warriors and threw back its head and roared its challenge, its grotesque mouth, back-hooked fangs, and black gullet on display as it sounded its challenge.

The sound rang through the woods and echoed off the ridge and the walls of the fortress high above. Pavilion Mistress heard it at her prayers, and Liwei heard it in the Healing Hall. Luding heard it and clenched a bony fist. Wuyi didn't hear it at all. He was preparing to work.

Baijian stood his ground, threw back his head, and roared back.

The sound crashed back and forth – from the fortress walls to the woods, and back.

They charged each other.

A stride from contact, Baijian side-stepped – the monster hesitated, and Baijian's sword swept through. The Demonic Dusha's antlers caught him and slammed him to the ground.

The Demonic Dusha's momentum carried it a dozen steps, and it turned.

Baijian got a leg under him. He put the point into the ground and used his great sword as a lever to get to his feet.

The Demonic Dusha completed its turn and put its armored head down. Baijian laughed.

Qinujian leaned out over the tower wall. The Demonic Dusha turned, and he let it turn, reasoning that its back couldn't be as well-armored as its front. He raised a chisel point above the wall, leaned into his draw, and loosed.

The arrow struck with a sound like a butcher's blade into a leg of mutton. The Demonic Dusha stumbled. The arrow had struck from behind, between its shoulder blades, and sunk in all the way to the fletchings. The Demonic Dusha gave a moan and raised its head. Baijian stepped forward. The monster flinched and then punched for Baijian's throat with both stone-shod hands.

Baijian cut. Struck, and was struck to earth in turn.

Qingyu Ni leaped over Baijian's body to face the Demonic Dusha in his place. "Go!" he roared at the rest of the warriors. "Run!" But Xueqin Yang came and joined him, and Xuanli Ye too. The Demonic Dusha eyed them, pawed at the earth once, twice, and then slumped slowly to it and lay still.

"Son of a demonic," Xuanli Ye said. He stepped forward and slammed his hammer into the thing's head.

"Get Baijian!" Xueqin Yang called. The Duskreavers had the breach, and the Demonic Dusha's death didn't seem to make any difference to them. They all got a hand on him. He weighed as much as a war horse, or so they swore later.

And then they ran for the tower, the Duskreavers hard on their heels. The archers shot right into them, Qinujian and Yinhai Hu assuming that their armor would hold. Mostly, it did.

The Duskreavers fell back – flooding the Lower Town, but letting the men have a path to the tower – and the postern opened. Yinhai Hu loosed a shaft right down the line of warriors and then drew his weapon and rattan shield, flinging his bow through the door behind him. He stepped out, and the warriors carried Baijian past him.

There was a brief flood of Duskreavers. They were all armored in scale and carrying round shields – warriors. Yinhai Hu's sword and sheath swept up, bound as if they were one weapon – his sheath slammed into the face of one Duskreaver's shield, and then, in the same tempo, his sword beheaded another.

In the same flow, he swept his sword back into guard, fell back a step, and parried not one but two spear thrusts with a single sweep of his blade. He stepped in, passed his sheath under the spear-wielding Duskreavers' arms, wrapped them, slammed his pommel into the Duskreaver's unarmored face, and used his advantage to throw the lighter creature into his group.

Stepped back again, and the postern crashed shut.