The redoubt they had built for the defenses was intensely shaking, standing against the pounding tide of monsters. Multiple of them scratched against the logs, tearing out chunks of it. At the sa ti, the trenches around them were flooded with the endless clatter of skeletal limbs as the soldiers around and inside the redoubt were smashing their bodies apart. Wherever one looked, they could only see chaos, an infinite horde of differently sized monsters and people fighting to hold the line, standing on the top of those who had already fallen.
At the center of this particular redoubt stood the Khan, fully armored, wielding his gauntlets.
As the 99th Son of the God of War, he wasn't going to sit sothing like this out, so he planted his boots in the blood-soaked mud of the rampart, repelling the waves of creatures trying to climb in and silencing the artillery pieces constantly firing inside. On his left hand, the gauntlet was burning in a bright, crimson fire, and where he swept it, the beasts were vaporized, turned to ash, while the flas simply passed over his soldiers, not singeing even a strand of hair on their heads. In complete opposition to that, on his right hand, the artifact shimred in blue, releasing a burst of cold air that turned the bones of the creatures into brittle ice, causing them to break apart.
This was the true power of the Gauntlets of Toobu, the supposed artifacts of the God of War. And, in that mont, they lived up to the legends. The source of thɪs content is noᴠelfire
When the first wave of skeletons vaulted the walls of the redoubt, the present, elite Khulmani soldiers raised shields, spears, and curved sabers, piercing and halting the jumpers. Then, their Khan appeared on the walls, balancing on its edge as he swept his burning hand across the rampart, a firestorm breaking out and killing the beasts. More than that, the fire nded the pierced tal shields, reforging them like a portable blacksmith, while he shouted, louder than the cacophony of the raging battle.
"FOR GLORY!"
“FOR KHULMAN!” his n bellowed back, their voices filled with similar zeal, that of the Avalonian troops as they burst out to push back against the tide.
The subsequent surge of monsters just then had crashed into them. As an answer, he drove his right gauntlet forward and in an instant, ice had erupted from the ground in multiple, sharp spikes, impaling dozens of the monsters through their chest cavity. The frost had consud them in seconds, snuffing out the glowing runes and turning them into snowflakes, blown away in the wind. Yet, these things had no thought, and because of it, they had no fear, not even on an instinctive level. As he was pushing against them, another one lunged from the side, wanting to stab through him with its clawed hands, but the Khan caught its strike with his flaming claw, seized the bones in his molten talons, and burnt the creature into nothingness without looking.
Wherever he went, he was a whirlwind, leaving trails of steam behind him that swirled about him like a storm cloud, cleaning the trenches around his redoubt. Of course, he wasn't alone as his personal troops, the best of the Khulmani soldiers, clung to him like a cape, finishing off any creature that may have escaped the wrath of the Son whose bloodline ca from the God of War himself.
At one point, as the Khan was cutting a line towards an overrun part of the trenches, a Sarian standard-bearer cried out as three skeletal beasts pinned him, claws penetrating his legs. Before they could gut him, though, a blast of frost swept them away, sealing the injuries on him, preventing him from bleeding out.
“Bring him out here!” the Khan thundered. “You will live another day to fight!”
Just then, Gethian troops appeared, pulling out injured soldiers from every part of the ongoing battle, anywhere where there was a chance for a brief respite... But everyone knew there were more who couldn't be reached right at the front where the Avalonians were still holding... As the battle went on, more and more spilled over their shoulders, hitting the regular troops and their second defensive lines... Right where the Khan was rampaging.
It was like that everywhere he went... Despite believing in dying with honor, he also valued giving them a chance to have it... So wherever the Khan struck, and the enemy was pushed back enough to save those who were still alive, no matter where they were from, he would do it.
Through this conquest, he was finally arriving at another almost overrun redoubt. It took only a minute for the Khan to stand at its center, promptly cleansed from the bone monsters for the mont. He was breathing hard, steam rising from his shoulders where fire and frost t in a crackling opposition. Half of the regular Avalonian troops here were already dismbered... Yet, those who were still alive had already begun operating the artillery again, ignoring their injuries, and keeping the fire up on the faraway Guardian, even though they couldn't see the effect of their actions.
"This will not end until that thing dies..." He muttered knowingly, as he raised his claws, ready to face the monsters that soon would reach this point again...
And then it happened.
It was a sound, but one that was not heard, but felt by him, as it thrumd through the Gauntlets, coming from them and not from anything else. There was a resonance, one that he hadn't felt before. It was deep... as if he was hearing the heartbeat of the earth. Just by its appearance, the Khan staggered, his chest tightening, his gauntlets suddenly feeling way too heavy. They were... resisting his control... Why?! Then... The claws glowed brighter, then brighter still, until the light was nothing but a blinding beam, searing his vision.
“What—?” he began, but the words died on his lips as they were... gone.
The gauntlets pulsed only once, then, in the span of a blink of an eye, they vanished from his hands. All the fire and frost he had until that point were snuffed out like candles in a storm, leaving only the smoke and the bare flesh of his hands behind. They were scarred and trembling, but no longer powered by the blessings of a God...
For the first ti in decades, Tula-Khan Rhanak looked down at his hands… and felt fear... What... happened?
...
....
......
The skeletal giant towered over them, even though Lancelot and Jila were sitting in their chs. It was almost forty ters of nothing but bones, stitched together by the Guardian’s magic and will, emanating from its glowing runes like an aura of death. Its every step made the earth shake, and against it, even the chs seed small. Yet, unwilling to accept the facts, four of them stood shoulder to shoulder, determined to stop it. Its breath attacks had already made the pylons back at the other bank of the river shake, and if not stopped, the thing may very well kill the supporting mages back there and shatter the barrier.
Being the closest to it, when the order ca to stop it from firing again, Lancelot led the charge, his machine's sword swinging, aiming at the glowing rune at its left leg. It was an agreed-upon tactic to try to disable at least one side, sohow topple the beast, and then swarm it and bring it down. Beside him, Jila’s ch raised its fists, trying to grab onto the creature's leg, holding it still for him, her breathing harsh in his ear as she muttered a curse and forced her fear to turn into pure anger.
A hit... leaving behind a splinter... but it was not enough, and with a shake of its leg, it repelled both of them.
But not the third ch... the Hamrfall thundered forward as the two were pushed away. It was piloted by Knight Darian, its massive warhamr forged from a giant bone, cracking with lightning. With a roar of servos from his machine, it jumped, turning the weight of the ch to zero, just to reverse it at the right mont as the weapon ca down across the giant’s knee, right where Lancelot's sword left a groove on it. As a result, the bone finally cracked, the rune suddenly flaring and releasing a puff of magically infused air... and then the monster staggered, toppling half a step... but still remaining upright.
“Strike now!” Darian bellowed, his ch hanging on, raising the hamr again, holding onto the creature, bringing it down again, only for it to splinter on the second blow, its fragnts flying everywhere. Yet he didn't stop, he swung a third ti anyway, jabbing with the ruined haft into the cracks, doing his best to make the bone snap completely... anything that may work.
Those seconds he bought were used by the fourth mber of their group. It was a lean, hook-limbed ch that ran around the creature’s flank, chain-blades whirling in its arms as it lashed out. It was the Widow, piloted by Arthea, that shot chains from its cannons, that wrapped around the giant’s limb, the hooks on them biting deep into bone, and lifted the ch up as he joined the Hamrfall, cutting into the cracks with her chain-blades.
“FALL YOU BASTARD!” she shrieked, her machine straining as she forced it to operate at its maximum output.
Finally, it all snapped apart, and with a loud crunch. The behemoth's leg was not only severed, but the creature itself began falling over as they were still hanging from its thigh. With a weird howl, its jaws opened wide, one of its arms swinging as it fell, swatting at the two chs clinging to its crumbling body... then, with another arm, it stopped itself... sowhat. The recoil of the slap snapped Arthea’s chains and multiple of her servos, smashing her to the ground. Before she could recover, the monster’s claw descended on her. In the next mont, the Widow was split from shoulder to hip in a single, brutal sweep, cockpit and pilot severed just the sa...
“Arthea!” Darian's voice cracked across the comms, but the beast wasn’t finished.
It turned on the Hamrfall next. Being sent crashing down into the ground just the sa, he braced himself, arms crossed to block the incoming strike. For one breath, it looked as though he might hold... but then the giant picked him up and bit down on his machine like he was a snack. Its jaws clamped down over the ch’s torso, shearing through armor and its core alike. Even being half-toppled, it wasn't giving up fighting, and it tore the Hamrfall apart into two screaming halves, munching on its upper torso, leaving no chance for Dorian.
“Fuck!” Lancelot roared, hacking at the massive beast that was now, although injured, just as dangerous. He was jumping, landing on top of it, driving his sword deeper into the beast’s skull, aiming for the glowing runes while it was still chewing on the Hamrfall. “Jila! Keep moving! We need more chs!”
But the monster was already shifting, light pooling in its bones, like weird veins. There were still too many active runes... Lancelot could feel and see that... And then, it clawed at him, slapping the ch off its head as Lancelot landed on the ground, the impact shaking him inside the cockpit of his machine. Through the Imaginary feed, even in his fuzzy and concussed state, Lancelot saw the runes along the beast's spine blaze to life, power building into a single devastating spell aid squarely at him. He wrenched at his controls, trying to move his limbs, but it seed his ch was too damaged to move... He was trapped, helpless before the gathering spell that was now not aid at the barrier... but directly at him.
“LANCY!” he heard the scream... and he wanted to tell her to stay back.
However, Jila had already hurled her ch forward, using the anti-gravity spell to make her jump high and shoulder-tackling the creature's skull, causing the breath attack to miss. When the spell hit the ground, it clawed a gorge multiple ters wide and who knows how long, throwing earth and rocks everywhere it went. But... It wasn't done. With a snap of its head, the behemoth struck back, and as a result, sparks erupted from Jila's machine. Her cockpit shook, but she wasn't going to let herself be thrown down, driving her arms into the empty eyesockets, holding on with all her might.
She wasn't going to let go... She won't let it hurt her Lancelot!
Then she felt sothing...
She couldn't tell if she was seeing things or not... but her ch’s arms glowed red, then blue. The next mont, flas curled around her left gauntlet, and as far as she could tell, frost was spilling out from the right. She couldn't tell what was happening... but she wasn't questioning it anymore.
With a cry that was more beast than human, Jila drove her transford claws into the giant, trying to rip its head off. Obeying her wishes, fire ripped through its bones, turning all the runes into a molten slag at once. Then, the ice began spreading along its spine, freezing the bone solid before shattering it in a thunderous crack. By then, Jila was coming down, clawing and smashing apart the ribcage as she fell, dismantling the beast like it was a crumbling tower made out of matchsticks.
By the ti she landed close to Lancelot... with one arm of his machine burning, the other smoking from the cold it was producing, the behemoth was truly dead. The montary silence was broken only by Jila’s ragged breathing coming through Lancelot's radio.
“…Jila… what did you just do?”
"Lancy!" She turned, not even answering, hurrying towards his machine, ignoring the fact that the Gauntlets of War had chosen their first Daughter, ever in Khulmani history.
In reality, they had chosen their owner for the first ti since the death of their original owner, the one who received it as a reward...
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