The eleven war beasts spread across the battlefield like a plague.

  Jonah tracked their distribution with cold precision. Two of the largest, scarred veterans of previous campaigns based on the old wounds crisscrossing their armored hides, charged directly toward his section. Three veered toward Derek's western position. Three more angled toward Garrett's junction. The remaining three bore down on Chen Wei's southern line.

  The ground trembled with their approach.

  "Brace for impact! Multiple breaches incoming!"

  The first beast hit section seven, the already-weakened point from the earlier assault. Metal screamed as reinforced supports buckled under the impact. The wall didn't break, but it flexed inward, creating a gap that goblins immediately tried to exploit.

  Men and women surged to prevent them from taking advantage of the gap.

  The second beast, the larger of the two, aimed at his position and slammed into a platform support beam. The elevated archer position shuddered and tilted, and three defenders tumbled from their perches. One landed with a sick crunch that reverberated in the area, leg bending at an angle that made Jonah's stomach clench. The other two scrambled for cover as goblins swarmed toward the fallen.

  "Medical runners! Section seven! Platform three collapse!"

  Across the line, similar chaos erupted. Derek's section absorbed three simultaneous impacts, the walls holding but the defenders thrown into disarray. Garrett's junction fared better, the natural terrain features providing additional bracing, but even there the war beasts were tearing at supports with claws that shredded metal like paper.

  Chen Wei's section broke first.

  They had been at the precipice of collapse for some time. The southern line had faced the lightest pressure during the fodder waves due to fewer defenders and fewer fortifications, the assumption being that the main assault would come from the north and east. That assumption proved catastrophic when three war beasts hit the thinner walls simultaneously.

  The center beast punched through entirely.

  Jonah watched it happen in the span of three heartbeats. Impact and collapse. The wall section crumpled inward, and the war beast charged through the gap with a roar that shook dust from every structure within fifty meters. Defenders scattered before it; those too slow to move were caught beneath massive paws or torn apart by jaws that could bite through steel.

  "Sarah! Southern breach! Take a team and contain that beast before it reaches the medical station!"

  The Skirmisher was already moving, grabbing fighters as she went. Five, six, seven people falling into formation behind her as she sprinted toward the rampaging creature.

  That's one problem. Now the other ten.

  "Oil reserves! Every container we have left except for the retreat stash! Target the beasts at the wall bases!"

  Defenders scrambled to comply. Containers tilted, sending streams of motor oil and lighter fluid cascading down toward the war beasts still hammering at the fortifications. The liquid splashed across armored hides, pooled around massive feet, soaked into the corpse piles that had accumulated during the fodder waves.

  "Fire!"

  Torches followed. The world ignited for the second time.

  War beasts screamed as flames engulfed them. The fire wasn't enough to kill the creatures outright, their armored hides too thick, their bulk too massive for the flames to penetrate to vitals. But it hurt them and made them angrier. It made them thrash and flail, damaging more goblins than fortifications.

  "Mages! Concentrated fire on the burning beasts! Hit them while they're distracted!"

  Miranda's fire bolts streaked down from her platform, striking a beast that had been clawing at section seven's supports. The creature's oil-soaked fur caught properly, the magical fire spreading faster than natural flame. It bellowed and retreated, leaving the wall damaged but intact.

  Other mages followed her lead. Mana bolts, fire attacks, even a few ice spells that created thermal shock against flame-heated armor. The war beasts took damage, real damage, their advance stalling as they dealt with the combined assault.

  But the shamans had been waiting for exactly this moment.

  Green light flared across the goblin rear. This was coordinated and planned from the beginning. Multiple circles activating simultaneously while humanity's magical assets were focused on the war beasts.

  The reason the warboss had sent the war beasts and their handlers in alone instead of with the rest of the army.

  "Shaman activity! Multiple circles casting!"

  The first spell completed before anyone could respond. A wave of sickly fog rolled across the northern line, thicker and more potent than the curse magic from previous waves.

  This was terror.

  Pure, magical fear that bypassed rational thought and struck directly at the mind and soul.

  Defenders caught in the fog froze. Weapons dropped from nerveless fingers. Eyes went wide with panic that had nothing to do with the actual threats around them. Some screamed. Others simply stopped, paralyzed by manufactured horror.

  The war beasts suddenly seemed ten times more terrifying.

  Jonah cursed under his breath. "It's not real! Push through it! The fear is magical!"

  Stolen novel; please report.

  But knowing something was magical didn't make it easier to resist. Fighters who'd held steady through hours of combat crumbled under the spell's influence. Gaps opened in the line as people fled their positions, running from threats that existed only in their enchanted minds.

  The second shaman circle completed its casting.

  Acid mist descended on the wall foundations. Targeting the structures themselves. The scavenged metal that held the fortifications together began to hiss and bubble. Support beams weakened. Joints that had held through war beast impacts started to fail.

  Section seven collapsed entirely.

  The wall section that had absorbed so much punishment finally gave way, metal and debris sliding into a ramp that goblins could climb without even needing the corpse piles. The war beast that had been burning at its base lurched through the gap, flames still licking across its hide but rage overriding any instinct for self-preservation.

  "Breach! Northern section! Fall back to secondary positions!"

  The third shaman circle's spell hit the war beasts themselves.

  Red light washed over the massive creatures and sinking into their flesh.

  Jonah felt the change immediately.

  The beasts that had been thrashing in pain and confusion suddenly steadied. Their eyes blazed with renewed fury. Their movements became faster, more aggressive, the drugs that had been driving them amplified by magical enhancement.

  Empowerment magic. They're boosting the beasts while we're trying to kill them.

  The enhanced war beasts hit the walls with redoubled force. Section after section buckled under impacts that would have been devastating even without magical amplification. Defenders who'd been holding positions suddenly found themselves facing creatures that moved faster and hit harder than anything they'd encountered.

  "We need suppression on those circles! They're tearing us apart!"

  But the mages were committed to the war beasts. Pulling them off meant letting the creatures rampage unchecked. Keeping them focused meant letting the shamans cast freely. An impossible choice with no good options.

  Miranda made the choice for everyone.

  "Over here! Everyone who can cast, with me!"

  Jonah's head snapped toward the fire mage's position. She'd gathered three other casters on her platform, their hands already glowing with gathered mana. They weren't preparing individual attacks, but linking together. Connecting their power the same way the shaman circles did.

  "Miranda! Don't—"

  Jonah shouted too late.

  The improvised circle completed its formation. Four human mages, none of them trained for coordinated casting, none of them understanding the risks, channeling their combined power into a single devastating attack.

  Fire erupted from the linked casters in a dozen beams, each one dwarfing anything Miranda had produced individually. The attacks scythed across the goblin rear, cutting through three shaman circles in rapid succession. Robed figures dissolved under the concentrated assault. The terror fog began to dissipate. The acid mist stopped spreading. The empowerment magic flickered and failed.

  The beams continued for three seconds, then four, then five.

  Then the casters collapsed.

  None of them know how to stop a mana circle! Shit!

  All four of them dropped simultaneously, bodies going limp, mana signatures flickering dangerously. One of them started convulsing, magical energy discharging randomly from his skin in sparks that scorched the platform beneath him.

  "Medical priority! Get those mages to Rebecca immediately!"

  Jonah watched runners drag the unconscious casters toward the medical station. His jaw clenched with frustration and grudging respect.

  Mana circles. The technique requires synchronized mana channels, shared pathway architecture. Without proper training, the backlash burns through your internal system like fire through dry wood.

  They're lucky to be alive. Any mistake, any slight deviation in their synchronization, and they would have turned to ash from the inside out.

  The technique worked for the shaman circles because goblins had been using it for generations. They trained their casters specifically for coordinated magic, developing shared pathway patterns from childhood. It made them individually pretty weak, but as a group, they were strong.

  Humans had no such tradition.

  The four mages had improvised something that took other races decades to master.

  They'd paid for it with damage that might never fully heal.

  Fuck! I can't lose good potential like Miranda so soon! We haven't crossed the first full event yet.

  But the shaman circles were broken. The magical pressure on his defenders dropped dramatically. The war beasts, no longer enhanced, began to falter under the continued assault.

  One problem solved. Now the other dozens.

  "Jackson! Garrett's section! They need lightning support!"

  The electrical user appeared at the edge of Jonah's vision, already crackling with barely contained power. "Finally letting me off the leash?"

  "Strict targeting zones only. You arc into our people, I'll kill you myself."

  "Garrett's section. Goblin clusters. No friendlies. Got it." Jackson's grin was manic. He launched himself toward the struggling junction, lightning already building between his palms.

  Jonah tracked the battle across multiple fronts. The northern breach was contained, barely, defenders forming a secondary line behind the collapsed section. The war beasts were dying, one by one, as concentrated fire and oil flames overwhelmed even their massive constitutions.

  But Derek's section was failing.

  The three war beasts that had hit the western line had broken through. Not completely, not a full breach like Chen Wei's section, but enough. The creatures were inside the defensive perimeter now, rampaging through positions that had been designed to hold against goblin infantry, not armored monsters.

  "Martinez! Western section! David! Eastern Section! They need anchors!"

  The two veterans moved without hesitation. Martinez's spear work was exactly what Derek's people needed. Someone to steady the line. Someone to show them that the beasts could be fought.

  Jonah watched them go, tracking Derek's remaining fighters as they repositioned. The assassination team was still in place. Still waiting. Still watching for an opportunity.

  Can't deal with that now. The army needs me.

  A horn sounded from the goblin rear.

  The Warboss was shouting new orders, its massive voice carrying across the battlefield despite the chaos of combat. Jonah didn't understand the guttural language, but he understood the response. A portion of the goblin army that had been held in reserve suddenly surged forward.

  Not toward the northern breach. Not toward the struggling western section.

  Toward Chen Wei's collapsed wall and the gap where Sarah was fighting to contain the war beast that had broken through. Thousands of goblins, fresh and eager, pouring toward a breach that couldn't be held against that kind of numbers.

  Falling back was the only option, or they would die and the rest of them would get flanked. This was a moment he could not mess up because it was the linchpin of defeat or victory.

  The Warboss was committing the majority of its forces here except for the elite hobgoblin regiments.

  "Line B! Everyone fall back to Line B!"

  The order went out across the entire defensive perimeter. Runners sprinting to each section, horns sounding the retreat signal that they'd practiced during the preparation hours.

  "Concentrated ranged fire! Cover the withdrawal! Every mage, every archer, everything we have! Buy time!"

  Mana bolts and arrows rained down on the approaching goblin mass. Fire attacks scorched the leading ranks. Jackson's lightning arced through clusters of enemies, the electrical discharge jumping from target to target in branching patterns of death.

  It wasn't enough to stop the advance, but it slowed it just enough.

  Behind the ranged barrage, defenders began a controlled retreat. Section by section, group by group, falling back through predetermined routes toward the secondary defensive line.

  "Use the retreat oil cache! Deploy but don't ignite! Leave them for when we need them!"

  Teams dumped remaining oil reserves across the ground between Line A and Line B. The liquid spread in dark pools, invisible traps waiting to be activated.

  Jonah descended from his command platform, joining the retreat.

  Derek's people followed, maintaining their positions around him from a distance.

  Still haven't moved. They're waiting for a better opportunity.

  BenGruesome | jonathan swinson | Tanner Andrew | Barry Zimmerman | KDR | Libertatemprimum | Inter Choi | Dec | Anthony | vdv9 | david weng | Don | Aaron V. | SleepyTreeSnail Marcia McGinley | Jack Gibbs | Jay Smith ~~