Leaping over the low railing dividing two adjacent rooftops, Chekta landed with her feet firmly planted on the flat cast stone. In a single smooth motion, she drew an arrow from her quiver and placed it onto her string before pulling it back and releasing the shaft into the street on her left with a thrum.

  The archer could faintly hear a goblin's scream of pain a moment later, and she liked to think it was her shot landing, but Chekta would have to live without knowing as she had already turned to keep moving up the street. She quickly traced the path she would take over the next couple of buildings with her eyes, then focused most of her attention on the fog-filled street below, filled with shadowy forms engaged in mortal combat.

  Chekta's footfalls, and those of the other women moving with her, thumped against the rooftop, joining the constant muffled booming of the drums pulsing over the city. It was like she could feel the sound beating against her back, rippling over her skin in a tickling wave, trying to whisper into her mind. The encroaching fear urged her to keep moving and never stop running, as only death would await her if she stayed in the city.

  With a flex of her will and snort of annoyance, the mental casting lost the small tendril it had wormed into her mind. The dispersal of the subtle casting was like stretching a sore limb, but even as she drove it away for the moment, she could feel it settling back onto her thoughts, weighing her down like a wet blanket.

  Stopping at the edge of the building, Chekta took a moment to restock her supply of arrows from a stash and ensured her squad did the same through their union. As she waited for them to finish, she wasn't idle. She stood at the front of the shop and released a steady stream of arrows into the street where the goblins should be massed.

  The legionaries fighting in the mist-shrouded road were attempting to perform a controlled withdrawal, but they were having trouble. Sure, the goblins were putting constant pressure on the lines, but they were manageable.

  It was the dozens of tall figures that appeared out of nowhere a handful of minutes ago that started tearing through the legionaries without warning. No matter how much the humans struggled, they were simply no match for the overwhelming power of what had to be knights, making their positions untenable. And they didn't just appear along the main boulevard either, as dozens of pulse messages about them were rippling through the night sky, reporting breaches in the defensive lines.

  The dark elves' — as that was all they could be — upper bodies were covered with black glistening metal, which comprised a breastplate and small interwoven metal rings underneath. They even had swords made of the weird metal, which were easy to lose track of in the darkness of night.

  Part of the problem was how long the Letairry swords were, which was over twice as long as a legionary's gladius. And it didn't help that the spearmen in the back lines of the human formation could never seem to land a solid hit on the dark elves. The few times she had seen a legionary's spear hit them, it was on the metal chest plate and deflected to the side.

  It wasn't just the legionaries struggling to hurt them. Any time Checkta and the other archers released a volley of arrows at the dark elves, the shafts were all knocked out of the air before they made it within arm's reach. The weird thing was that whoever was focused on blocking the attacks didn't bother to block a single arrow aimed at the goblins standing next to the dark elves.

  Which probably said a lot about their society. If I could get a hold of some of their writings and spend some time studying the subject, I bet I could find some fascinating material. Good for a paper or two. No! Now isn't the time; gotta focus.

  Returning to shooting her bow, she clicked her tongue in annoyance as her shot at a dark elf was deflected. The mist between them was blown away as if on cue, and Chekta saw the elf turn and sneer at her. She couldn't hear him, but she was able to see his lips under his dark helms move and could guess what he was saying.

  Rolling her eyes at the dark elf, she went back to her target practice on the goblins. The first handful of times it happened, it did send a shiver down her spine, if she was honest. The sudden deflection of her arrow, the mist being pushed away by what had to be psy, and the turning of the head with a contempt-filled dismissive look… It was eerie.

  Then, she experienced nearly the same exact sequence of events a dozen times. It was getting old at this point.

  Now, it was only mildly irritating, as any trepidation had been long lost. An irritation that was only made worse as Chekta liked the style of their helms. The black glistening metal was wrapped around their head, curving to a point on the back of the skull and hugging the cheeks just below the jaw. The front had what was close to a 'Y' for the eyes and mouth, so long as you made the upper section flatter and made the points look more like a long, pointy leaf shape instead of a square.

  No matter how attractive they looked, any appreciation Chekta felt was overshadowed by the simmering loathing she had developed for them in the short time since they first appeared. In fact, now that she thought about it, their looks only made the malicious glee radiating off them worse from the contrast.

  It seemed, for no other reason than it was entertaining for them, judging by their ringing laughs and jovial voices, the dark elves would dismember and desecrate the bodies of dead legionaries. They would clear out a portion of the fog before slicing into the bodies with their swords, severing limbs with a single slash. Then, they would point at the different outraged faces and shouts of fury from the legionaries watching them helplessly thirty feet away.

  After their little displays of cruelty, they would swagger up to the battle line to probe, and more often than not, a legionary or two would begin stepping out of the formation to confront them. Whether the unlucky humans were stopped by their shield mates hauling them back or had their shields knocked to the side before finding a long blade of a dark elf in their neck was up to the reaction times of the legionaries. And they failed more often than not.

  The most Chekta and the other archers on the rooftops could do against the dark elves was put an arrow into the legionary they had taunted before they could be cut down. For obvious reasons, that was not an option. So the archers had the choice to chip away at an endless hoard or what seemed to be endless amounts of psy and willpower. Which was why her squad had been given other orders.

  Picking off a few more goblins, Chekta turned and grabbed the handful of arrows Lopmun was offering to replace the ones she had just used. Chekta offered her friend a reassuring smile as she stepped past, even going so far as to lift the back of her left forearm. The other woman lifted her own bow arm to tap it against Chekta's, forming two 'Xs' when they touched.

  Shoving the arrows into her quiver, Chekta quickly crossed the building but not before throwing a glance over her shoulder at the other archer squads of the Prime Cohort. The other women were still solely focused on raining arrows onto the street a couple of buildings back, stemming the rush of the goblins.

  As she stepped onto a long plank of wood meant to cross one of the few side streets connected to the southern side of the main thoroughfare, Chekta put the other archers out of her mind. Looking along the section of the main boulevard that ran east through the Second Ring, she briefly inspected the oddly still road. It was like the street was waiting for the raging conflict rushing forward to sweep over the area to arrive. Anticipating it even.

  Shaking off the stray thoughts, Chekta moved at a fast jog, leading her squad along the rooftops, only slowing when they had to skirt along a roof that had been partially collapsed for material to build a barricade. They quickly ran over multiple dozens of buildings before finally crossing over another intersecting side street and turning to move down it.

  They were now hundreds of yards from where they started, and they had traveled it in minutes with little effort. Chekta couldn't stop a smug smile from coming onto her face. This was why women made up the majority of archers in the legion.

  Sure, their arms were weaker, so they couldn't draw a fifty-pound bow continuously throughout a battle with their arm and chest strength alone, but that was what psy was for. There was no real difference between the average psy reserves when comparing men and women, though men tended to develop their control to a higher degree. Not that it mattered overly much, as psy control was only really relevant once you reached the power levels of a knight, as before that point, it had harsh diminishing returns.

  For the basic application of psy, which was all an archer needed to be considered competent, women with strong psy pools were better than men, in Chekta's opinion. An average psy pool is an average psy pool, meaning training and willpower would determine how valuable the psy was. So, if you are using it to lighten a body to move faster and jump higher, a smaller, lighter frame would have the advantage.

  There was still the argument that when one's psy ran out, the men could still fire the bow when the women couldn't. But that was assuming they still had arrows, which they probably wouldn't at that point in a battle.

  As for those who brought up how archers could fight on the front lines, they obviously never bothered to look up historical accounts of battles. By the time archers had to fight hand-to-hand, the battle was already nearly lost, meaning the camp tenders would already be engaged in a last stand. Simply put, it meant most of the men were already dead, so it was up to the women to decide their own fate and if they would live or die, making the point of women fighting a moot argument.

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  This was all a long-winded way to say women with average or better psy pools made more suitable archers than men, as they could maneuver and reposition better. However, she had to admit that finding a woman willing to face death head-on was more challenging than finding a man. But that all didn't really matter, as she was just distracting herself from the destruction all around as she ran, and it was time to stop.

  Stopping on a roof a few hundred feet down the side street, Chekta leaned forward slowly to peek over the railing at the vicious fighting happening below. To her sides, her girls lined up in the middle of the building and knocked arrows to their strings before waiting for her signal. Taking a moment to look up and down the line of archers to visually ensure they were ready, Chekta sent the order into the union, "Advance and fire at will."

  As one, the fifteen women stepped forward up to the lip of the railing before drawing and releasing their shafts. The thrum of strings was the herald of death for the goblins as a clump of them collapsed. As for the desperate century of legionaries, they released a harried, relieved cheer at the sight of reinforcements, small in number as they might have been.

  Amid the heightened cheers and screams echoing out of the street, the archers released a few more volleys, further cutting down the goblins and providing the legionaries the opportunity to reform their line and retreat down the street in good order. Satisfied with what they had done, Chekta was about to order the squad to reposition back up the street when a flicker of motion caught her eye.

  Glancing across the misty street to an alley, Chekta felt a frown wrinkle her face before her heart leaped into her throat, preventing her from speaking. Though she couldn't voice her words, it didn't stop her from screaming into the mental network as she dropped to her stomach, "Bolt throwers! Get down!"

  Even though her order spread as fast as thought through their linked psy, it still came too late. While the women were throwing themselves to the ground for cover, two of them were hit by bolt throwers and thrown off their feet, while a few more were mentally shaken after feeling the wind of the bolt's passage.

  Forcing the loss of those in her squad to the back of her mind, as one was already dead and the other was dying, Chekta crawled back to the waist-tall wall. Inching forward and trying to not make any fast movements, she moved her head until she was looking through one of the drain holes on the roof, watching the momentum of the battle begin to shift in favor of the goblins again.

  It might have been mere seconds after their arrows stopped, but the legionaries were already hard-pressed to maintain their cohesion without the help of a blockade or the archers. Their lines were holding for now, but as she watched, multiple legionaries in the formation collapsed with screams as their shields shattered into a spray of splinters. And there wasn't much of a need to guess what was happening on her part, either.

  Chakta had heard a briefing on the bolt-throwing weapon the day before, which was really more of a passing offhand remark from her centurion. Nobody, including Chekta, was putting much stock into the story.

  That was until she first saw it shoot a bolt through multiple men when the Second Ring's outer wall fell a few hours ago. They had lost a lot of legionaries adjusting to that little surprise and the chaos that followed.

  Since then, the burgeoning fear that awoke inside her was only reinforced as she saw multiple archer squads all but ripped apart by the weapon. It was not something she would ever take lightly again. Though, preferably, she would never have to face it at all… but that wasn't looking like much of an option right now.

  "We can't stay here long!" Lopnum said, anxiety filling her mental voice. "We're gonna get surrounded!"

  "We have to stay," Chekta stated, her voice filled with grim certainty. "The century will be overrun if we don't, and then the whole Prime Cohort could be trapped and cut down. Staying is our duty." As she sent the words out, her mind sounded numb to her, like she was detached from everything that was happening.

  "Fuck duty and fuck you!" Screamed Samathra, "I'm not dying for those fucking men!" Not hesitation after making her decision, the woman dropped her weapon, disconnected from the union, and started scuttling away, rising to a crouch as she ran.

  Samathra didn't make it to the railing before Chekta's bow thrummed, and an arrow sprouted from her back and burst out of her chest. She staggered and then crawled to the edge of the building. It wasn't until her hand landed on the stone railing that another arrow sprouted out of her side as she collapsed to bleed out.

  The shock in the union was broken by Chekta's cold hiss, "Men are dying by the hundreds — maybe thousands — all over this city every hour to defend it. Why shouldn't women be willing to die by the dozens? We will fight, and should fate demand it, we will die. Is that understood?"

  "Yes, Guard Commander." Her squad answered, shock radiating off them.

  "Good." Using a psy strand, Chekta used it to pull out and knocked another arrow on the string as she readied herself to stand. "Now, on my mark, rise and fire. Call out and focus your shots on any bolt throwers you see." Sucking in a deep breath to steady her slightly shaking hands, the guard commander ordered her squad, "Now!"

  Chekta was the first to stand up and turn, her eyes seeking out her target as her bow rushed to get into position. Her eyes landed on the alley, and a vicious smile twisted her lips as she saw a dark patch in the mist. Pulling back her string for a full draw using as much of her psy as her arm, her arrow leapt from the string, striking the form.

  Not giving any more thought to her shot, Chekta fired a second and then a third arrow into the massed goblins, relieving the pressure on the legionaries. While that was her goal, most of her focus was on searching the sides of the street for the goblins with their weird sideways bow contraptions.

  Sadly, as it turned out, the best way for them to find the blasted things was to wait for them to fire and trace back the shot's trajectory. A strategy that had the massive downside of costing her one of her girls every time it worked.

  First, it was Hilopku, as the left side of her neck was ripped open. And then Ulkreta, who was shot in the chest and drowned in her blood. Vilkaft and Merkary were hit at nearly the same moment, their hearts pierced through.

  For every one of them, the archers turned as one and released a volley at the one who fired, making them as close to a porcupine as possible. And yet, there always seemed to be another popping up.

  It wasn't until Lopnum was miraculously wounded, taking a bolt into her upper chest after it deflected off the railing, that she figured out what was going on. The shots at them were progressively growing less accurate. Which meant… Another goblin was simply picking up the weapon before loading and firing it.

  They might not have been practiced with the device, but they were still a threat. And Chekta's entire squad would run out of arrows before they downed all the goblins. They wouldn't win such a fight, but they didn't half to.

  The legionaries were able to make it to their next barricade and had some time to regain their composure, and she and her archers had taken out the skilled marksmen. Meaning… they needed to get the fuck out of here.

  "Grab the wounded and…" Chekta trailed off as she turned, taking in her and the surrounding houses. Some goblins had already climbed up the sides and crouched on the railing, hesitant to move to cut them off for now, but where there were a few of the creatures, dozens more would follow soon enough.

  "What do we do, Guard Commander," Asked Muloktre quietly.

  "We move forward and fight." Chekta stated, “Grab— No!" Before anyone could stop her, Lopnum had pulled out her knife and drove it into her chest.

  "Leave me! I'll just get you all killed… Go!" Lopnum mentally shouted before disconnecting herself from the union to spare them living through her death.

  "Let's move! Fire as we go!" Chekta ordered numbly as her heart broke. Whipping her body around as much to look away from her friend as to get moving, she stepped forward. Drawing an arrow with her psy and placing it into her hand on the string, she paused a half second to draw the arrow back and release it before she leaped forward again with a psy-assisted leap.

  Within a couple seconds, the creatures crouched on the edge of the building had arrow shafts planted into their chests, and the way was clear. Then Chekta's heart sank as it seemed like three goblins, for every one they had just killed, pulled themselves onto the rooftop simultaneously.

  "Keep moving!" Chekta ordered as she sprinted north, "Only shoot the ones charging us!" After leaping over the two adjacent buildings' dividing wall, she fired off another shot at the goblins on this structure as her eyes swept the corners, "We got th— Ancestors preserve us, scatter!"

  Coming out of her forward roll, the squad leader was just coming to a crouch as she felt the bolt thrower hit two of her girls with a single shot. She put an arrow into his eye as thanks, but the damage was already done. Okay, I can still get us out of this… I just have to…

  Chekta felt Gorgenna mentally scream for help as a goblin landed on her back, but before anyone could react, the goblin sank its teeth into the side of Gorgenna's neck. The spike of pain and emotion Gorgenna felt flowed into the union and momentarily overwhelmed Chekta's mental defenses. It was like Chekta was the one being attacked, and it was almost like the goblin's teeth were digging into her own neck, tearing out her flesh.

  While Chekta wrestled with the mental flood, Hetlona dropped her bow to pull her gladius and kill the goblin attacking Gorgenna before Chekta could tell her to leave the other woman and run. In the seconds Hetlona spent wrestling the goblin off the legionary, Gorgenna passed out as she was moments away from death, and the duo became surrounded.

  Whipping around, Chekta backed up while firing off a series of quick shots to help Hetlona, but in the end, she failed. There were too many goblins charging the woman, and they all but ignored the arrows as they drove her to the ground with a scream of terror that abruptly cut off.

  "Fuck!" Chekta screamed in raw despair as she reached for another arrow, finding nothing to grab onto.

  Feeling something bump her leg, Chekta dropped her bow to draw her gladius before whirling around, only to find she was at the edge of the building. She looked down into the mist-shrouded street and saw the legionaries retreating off the barricade they had just manned, but it didn't matter.

  Behind them were squads of archers taking up position on the buildings lining the main boulevard, meaning the Prime Cohort wasn't far behind on the street. They had done it. They had bought enough time.

  They had done their duty, and yet she felt so hollow in that moment.

  Chekta and all those she commanded would die up here. The last two in her union told her that much as they stood with their swords drawn, defending her back. There was nothing they could do to prevent it.

  Slamming her drawn sword over her heart and raising it parallel to the ground over her head in a salute, Chekta proclaimed, "Long live the Republic!"

  On the street below, she saw the legionaries start to reciprocate the gesture back to her, but she didn't get to see them finish. A bolt fired from the goblins behind her had plowed through her chest, and the world was growing black and distant as she fell.