Jane, Warrior of Decura Chapter 4

The Scalekin Charge

The charging horde of scalekin were rapidly approaching fort Lukos' wall. The only scalekin not rushing up the hill was the largest one with the spiked red spine, who continued chant his people's primitive battle chant while swinging his stone axe in the air. In the center of the mass of scalekin was several dozen of the beasts carrying a thick tree, easily over thirty feet in length and crudely carved into a battering ram.

“Aim for the ones carrying that ram!” one of the guards shouted as he and his comrades prepared to loose their arrows.

As the fort's defenders remained still and awaited the scalekin horde to get within range of their crossbows, Nate gave Jane a wink before pulling a second arrow from his quiver, aiming them both at once.

Jane responded with a smile, silently promising to herself that she wasn't going to let any harm come to the man she loved. She looked out at the approaching army of monsters and cracked her knuckles. “A few months ago, this would have terrified me” she thought before images of the giant crow and colossal snake she'd previously fought flashed in her mind. “But I've faced a lot worse than this before.” Hazel's sinister grin appeared in Jane's mind, blue flames erupting from her eyes. “Much worse.”

“Loose!” one of the guards shouted, causing the defenders to unleash a barrage into the front of the scalekin army. Instantly, twenty scalekin carrying the ram toppled over, their corpses riddled with crossbow bolts. Several more scalekin instantly replaced them however and the siege equipment resumed its course.

Not wanting to be outdone in front of Jane, Nate loosed both arrows at once. Scoring two direct hits on a scalekin's chest, killing it instantly. Satisfied with himself, Nate gave Jane a confident smirk.

“Now isn't the time to be showing off!” William growled while reloading his crossbow. “Don't waste your arrows like that! One is enough if you're accurate!”

After silently and mockingly parroting William's words, Nate pulled another arrow from his quiver.

Despite being under constant crossbow fire, the scalekin horde didn't slow down. Even when dozens of them would fall to the defenders projectiles, many more of the yellow scaled beasts would just pour out of the woods to replace them. Within minutes, scalekin and their ram were at the fort's sturdy gate.

No eager to allow the scalekin to knock their gate down, the fort's defenders maintained a constant volley on the scalekin surrounding the ram, killing several by the second. This did nothing to deter the beasts and they began pounding on the gate with their ram. The scalekin not working the ram assisted in the gate's destruction by hitting it with their stone axes and maces, to little effect. Any scalekin unable to reach the gate simply joined in on the battle chant the largest of their brethren was roaring.

“Damn it” Grunted one of the guards while reloading his crossbow as fast as he could. “If only we'd had enough time to set up the boulders again.”

“No such luck” another guard grumbled after firing a bolt into the endless stream of scalekin. “We haven't had time to collect more since the last attack. The gate should be able to hold them off though. It hasn't fallen for years now.”

William took one look at the gate and came to a very different conclusion. It was clear the gate had suffered through multiple attacks in the past week alone. It was in such disrepair William could already see the gate beginning to give way. He quickly discarded his crossbow and readied his two-handed maul. “I'm headed to the gate” he said before heading toward the stairs.

“Hold up Will!” Jane called out before following her friend. “I'm coming too!”

After darting down the stairway, William and Jane found twenty more soldiers, armed with spears and shields, forming up in front of the short tunnel that lead gate. “I hope that holds” one of them muttered after being startled by a loud thud caused by the ram.

“Don't count on it” William growled as he and Jane positioned themselves in front of the soldiers. “I get the feeling that gate's not going to last another minute.” As the soldiers readied themselves for what could be their last stand, William sighed and looked at Jane with sad eyes. “I apologize miss Jane. It was my idea to come here and now we're all in grave danger.”

Jane smiled back at her friend. “Don't worry about it Will” she said. “We'll make it through this and then we're going to save Patti.” Jane's expression roared confidence. “I promise.”

On the other side of the gate, the corpses of the scalekin began to pile up. Despite being forced to stand on a mound made from their deceased brethren, the undeterred beasts continued to smash the gate with their ram.

Eventually, with one final thunderous crash, the ram punctured the fort's thick wooden gate. Acting fast, the scalekin closest to the opening began to tear it open with their sharp claws and crude weapons. Within seconds, the scalekin tore the gate to shreds and the defenders on the battlements could only watch as one of the monsters squeezed through the gap and rushed into the fort.

The snarling beast took one look at the meager number of defenders at the other end of the tunnel and grinned, his primitive mind trying to decide which one he should cut down first. One of the defenders, an unarmed and very tall human female, seemed the easiest target and the scalekin lunged toward her. The beast's reward for picking what he thought would be a quick kill, a swift punch to the face from the woman's black gauntlets. The force of the blow was so strong the large reptilian was sent soaring back down the tunnel and slammed into the damaged gate.

“Holy...” one of the soldiers muttered, completely baffled at the sight of a scalekin being slain by a single punch from a human. “That was amazing...”

“I did say earlier that I can hit things really, really hard” Jane said while blushing a little and rubbing the back of her head.

“Don't relax yet miss Jane” William growled as he watched what was left of the gate be torn apart.

With the gate now gone, the scalekin dropped their ram and rushed inside, the pile of bolts riddled corpses toppling in with them. William let out a booming roar and swung his maul forward, striking the closest scalekin in the head and knocking it to the ground. meanwhile Jane used a strong arcing kick to send another scalekin crashing into a stack of crates.

No wanting to let these two newcomers show them up, the defenders raised their shields just as the scalekin crashed into their line of spears.

After witnessing Jane uppercut one of them so hard that he was sent flying a hundred feet into the air, the scalekin seemed hesitant to engage in close quarters with the impossibly strong human. However their lust for battle soon won out over their reluctance and three scalekin rushed Jane at once.

Before they could reach their target, two of the scalekin were slain when arrows pierced the back of their heads. The third scalekin ignored his fallen brethren and swung his club at Jane, only for the tall girl to effortlessly catch in with a single hand. The reptilian beast tried to pull his weapon free from Jane's grasp, but it wouldn't budge an inch, no matter how hard he tried.

“Thanks Nate!” Jane called out, causing the reyn to give her a thumbs up from atop the battlements. After cracking her neck, Jane gave the scalekin a good backhand, sending it tumbling into two more who were trying to charge her.

Nearby, William used his weapon's impressive reach to strike any scalekin that got close enough. He'd already struck down ten, each with no more than a single hit from his mighty maul.

Thanks to Jane's strength and William's impressive skill in battle, the scalekin's charge had lost all of its momentum. The beasts now seemed afraid to get near either and opted to snarl and hiss at them from afar. Wanting to capitalize on the scalekin's hesitation, the fort's defenders tightened their ranks and begun to march forward, keeping their wall of spears up.

As the defenders pushed the scalekin back toward the gate, Jane and William moved to block the tunnel. Thanks to the passageway's narrow width, no more than two scalekin could attack the pair at a time and when they would try, the beasts would be felled by either William's huge maul or Jane's powerful fists.

Meanwhile, atop the battlements, the defenders continued to fire volley after volley of crossbow bolts into the scalekin horde. Their morale was boosted due to the stream of scalekin charging out of the forest finally ceasing. Not only that, but it seemed the scalekin were now backing away from the gate instead of charging toward it.

The red spined scalekin standing at the back of his army watched his forces shameful display and let out a loud roar before beginning to make his way up the hill.

Jane and William continued to force their way through the tunnel, eventually making it to the gate and the pile of dead scalekin that surrounded it. The corpses reeked something fierce but Jane endured it as she and William forced the last of the scalekin back through the gate. However, the instant Jane stepped outside the tunnel, ten scalekin rushed right for her.

William was about to tell Jane to retreat back into the tunnel, but quickly stopped himself when he realized what she was planning. Before the beasts could reach her, Jane grabbed the discarded battering ram and used it like a bat to swat the approaching enemies away and send them soaring back into the valley's forest. More scalekin quickly charged for her, only to join their airborne brethren.

Seeing this, the red spined scalekin ceased his march and watched this human woman somehow be able to wield a huge battering ram like it was nothing. Understanding that the tide of the battle had turned, the red spined scalekin let out another chant, this one sounding more like he was trying to cough up a hairball then order a charge.

The remaining scalekin heard the chant and immediately retreated back into the forest. The red spined scalekin did the same, but stopped at the tree line and let out a single cry.

Atop the fort's battlements, one of the soldiers let out a relieved sigh. “Have they had enough for the day?” he asked.

“I think you might be right” another one said. “Unless of course they brought a-” The soldier's sentence was suddenly cut off by a deep and booming room that echoed from within the now shaking tall trees. “Unless they have an Obliteron...”

“That didn't sound good” Jane said.

“Maybe we should get back inside the fort miss Jane” William suggested.

Suddenly, a huge monster, almost fifty feet tall, burst out of the forest, several dead scalekin were hanging from it's huge fang filled maw. To Jane, the creature looked like an over-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex except with many large bone spikes protruding from it's back, a single bulbous eye on its armored head and a mane made up of several dozen slimy tentacles. It let out a tremendous roar while slamming the ground with the large club at the end of it's tail. “Well that's like something right out of a nightmare” Jane muttered in a deadpan tone.

“You two get in the fort!” one of the guards shouted from within the gateway tunnel. “That's an Obliteron! It'll smash this wall down in seconds if we can't kill it before it reaches us!”

Jane took a deep breath. “Will! Get in the fort now!” she shouted.

“But miss Jane” was all William was able to say before Jane raised her voice.

“Right now Will!” she yelled while watching the horrid monster stampede toward her. “That way, I don't have to worry about you getting in the way.” A reluctant William made his way inside the fort, giving Jane a final proud nod before disappearing into the gateway's tunnel.

Meanwhile atop the battlements, Nate aimed an arrow at the approaching beast. He had no desire to stand idle on the sidelines while the woman he loved risked her life.

With the Obliteron mere seconds away from attacking her, Jane slammed her fists together and used her power to quickly grow as tall as she could, her body stopping at roughly forty feet. Unfortunately, the Obliteron seemed unfazed by its opponent's sudden size change and lunged forward. Jane quickly darted to the side to avoid the beast's monstrous jaws. However before she could launch her own counterattack, the Obliteron swung it's club tail right for her head, forcing Jane to block it with her arm.

After silently thanking Patti for making her such sturdy gauntlets, Jane threw a punch with her free hand toward the Obliteron's head. The monster dropped its head just enough to avoid the fist before swinging its club tail at Jane's head again. Like before, Jane blocked the attack before she and the Obliteron jumped back from each other.

The soldiers on fort Lukos' battlements tried to assist Jane with a volley of bolts from their crossbows. Unfortunately, all the projectiles could do was bounce harmlessly off the beast's hide.

“You're a tough one” Jane grunted while she and the Obliteron circled each other.

“What is she?” one of the baffled soldiers asked William, who had just reached the top of the wall. “Some kind of human and giant monster?”

“She's not a monster!” Nate snapped, causing William to nod in agreement. “She's Jane Lim, the most amazing girl I know. Now are we going to help her? Or are we going to stand here with our jaws touching the floor?”

“They're moving out of range” one of the soldiers said. “Our crossbow can't reach that far.”

Nate quickly realized the same was true for his bow and darted toward the stairway to the ground.

As the pair of extra large combatants circling brought them closer to the tree line, the Obliteron let out a thunderous roar, hoping to intimidate Jane into backing down. However it seemed the only thing about that roar that intimidated Jane was the beast's foul breath. Hoping to give the monster a taste of it's own medicine, Jane raised her hands and roared back. Not wanting to be outdone, the Obliteron let out another roar the second Jane finished hers, only for the giant girl to respond with yet another roar.

Much to the dismay of both the ears of the fort's defenders and the red spined scalekin, this continued for an entire minute. Tired of it's opponent's lack of respect, the Obliteron summoned all it's fury and unleashed an eardrum destroying bellow while repeatably slamming it's club tail into the ground.

Knowing she couldn't top such a powerful cry, Jane instead simply shrugged before crossing her eyes, sticking out her tongue and wiggling her fingers from atop her head.

Now angrier than ever, the Obliteron rushed forward, trying to tear into Jane's flesh with it's razor sharp teeth. Fortunately, it seemed Jane was too fast for the monster and continued to evade every bite.

Nearby, the red spined scalekin was beginning to doubt his beast could best the enormous human in combat. He needed a new plan. Destroying the fortress was out of the question so long as this giant was here defending it. Suddenly, the scalekin's mouth twisted into a sharp toothed grin as an idea form in his head. If he could slay the giant, he'd gain an incredible amount of respect from the other scalekin. Maybe even enough to gather another army to finally take this fort. The red spined scalekin quickly surveyed his surroundings, eventually spotting something that may seal the giant's fate.

After avoiding yet another of the Obliteron's bites, Jane came up with the perfect plan. When the monster yet again tried to sink it's teeth into her, Jane simply raised her arm, allowing the Obliteron to bite down on her nigh invulnerable gauntlets. Immediately, many of the monster's fangs either gained several cracks or flat out broke in two.

“Thank you Patti” Jane thought as the Obliteron reeled back from the pain. After waiting until the monster looked at her with its single bulbous eye, Jane slammed her fists together. Understanding the message completely, the cowering Obliteron scurried back into the forest as fast as it could. “Well thank god that's over” Jane thought as she lost sight of the monster. “Now, to sort out that Bruno guy.”

However, before Jane could turn back toward the fort, a boulder, roughly a forth the size of her head, came flying seemingly out of nowhere and struck her right temple.

As a stunned Jane toppled onto her back, the red spined scalekin let out a victorious cry before quickly climbing on top of the giant girl's face. A huge grin appeared on the scalekin's face as he raised his stone axe high, preparing to drive it right between Jane's eyes.

Suddenly, an arrow pierced the scalekin's shoulder, causing the beast to nearly fall from Jane's face. Enraged that somebody dared to interrupt it's greatest achievement, the scalekin looked up and spotted Nate sprinting down the hill at top speed while drawing another arrow from his quiver.

“Get away from my Jane!” he roared before loosing another arrow.

The scalekin quickly knocked the arrow aside with his axe and raised it once again. Unfortunately for the beast, Nate's attack had distracted him just long enough for Jane to recover and he was forced to leap to the ground to avoid being crushed by the giant girl's huge hand.

With the enormous girl now back up and the fact that both is army and his Obliteron having abandoned him, the red spined scalekin turned and fled into the forest. However, right before he disappeared past the tree line, the scalekin turned back and pointed at the reyn who had ruined his chance at glory. After giving Nate a single loud snarl, the scalekin snapped a single word in its native tongue.

“Chooka!”

After watching the red spined scalekin flee, Jane looked down at her savior and gave the top of his head a gentle rub with her finger. “Thank you Nate” she said while rubbing her sore temple.

“You're welcome Jane” Nate replied with a puffed out chest. “What would you do without me?”

Jane smiled and carefully picked Nate up. “Let's head back” she said after putting the reyn on her shoulder. “I want to have words with that general.”

TO BE CONTINUED....