The Hedge Wizard

The demon citadel loomed ominously in the distance—a sprawling city built into the rugged mountainside. Two days they had been before the enemy stronghold, but they had yet to begin their attack. While the mountain prevented an assault from the rear, a round, flesh-coloured wall protected the front. There was no gate, instead, the wall would reshape to allow passage, before closing once again. How such magic worked, Hump had no idea, but its purpose was clear. There was no entry into this place without permission.

Unlike the winding cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses common in Alveron, the buildings visible beyond the wall resembled a nightmarish hive. They were densely packed, climbing the mountain in tiers, each layer more imposing than the last. The outer buildings were colossal, more akin to a barrack than homes, undoubtedly designed to accommodate countless demons.

As Hump’s eye wandered deeper into the city, the landscape changed. Towering blocks became lavish palaces, embellished in gold and clearly the abodes of powerful demons. At the very rear of the citadel stood the grand keep, towering over the rest of the city like a menacing giant. It backed onto the mountain itself, while its three other sides were surrounded in walls that formed a square. At its centre, a tower pierced the sky like a black needle. Even to the naked eye, the sky darkened around it like a black cloud, as dungeon essence was siphoned into the tower from the surroundings.

In there, they would find the dungeon core and whatever demonic lord protected this grotesque world.

Hump let out a long breath. “It’s a little daunting, isn’t it?”

“I’d expect that from a demon castle,” Celaine said.

“Good point.” Hump smiled.

“It’s not so bad,” Bud said. “Once we’re through the walls, we just need to fight our way past the horde of demons inside. They are nothing before the might of the gods.”

Hump gave the knight a look, raising an eyebrow as he tried to figure out if his friend was joking. Bud stared stoically ahead, his eyes gleaming with the excitement of a fanatic.

Yeah… he’s not kidding.

Emilia said what they were all thinking. “You are absolutely insane, Robert!”

Bud seemed taken aback as he looked at her. “What?”

Stabbing a finger toward the citadel, Emilia snapped, “Look at those catapults on the ramparts! Even if the walls are breached, it will be a relentless bombardment.”

“Not to mention the siege magic they will inevitably possess,” Dylan added. “Mark my words, this will be no straightforward assault.” He kicked the ground bitterly. “We’re going to be stuck in this hellish place for a while longer.”

Hump snorted. Dylan had seemed sick of the dungeon from the moment they had entered, and his mood had only soured since. Away from the natural world, and surrounded by the oily essence of the dungeon, it was no surprise to Hump. This was not a place for humans to stay for long. But Marcela had already informed them that any ideas of a speedy assault of the citadel had been cast aside. The defences were too entrenched, the enemy numbers too great. A frontal attack would be suicide. Instead, the army would be forced into a painstakingly slow advance, hindered further by the formidable magical barrier that shielded the walls.

To break it, they would need the siege works of Alveron’s engineers. Hump turned back to watch as the battalion they were instructed to guard worked, alongside Marcela’s party and another led by a woman called Isolde. A Chosen of Loften known as Rowen was in command of this battalion of engineers, and was one of six lead engineers in charge of developing the siege weapons that would bring the wall down. Clad in heavy plate, and with a warhammer at his hip, the broad man looked more ready for a fight than building anything, but from the progress so far it was clear he was an expert in his craft.

A large area had been cleared on the outskirts of the demonic forest where the engineers now worked. Four trebuchets were already complete. Crafted from the lumber of demonic trees and etched with runes of Loften to enhance them with magic, the instruments of war towered as tall as a house.

A hundred engineers were at work in the area to create more, while many times that number of soldiers worked in the forest to fell trees and harvest the wood necessary for such creations.

Up ahead, beyond the army encampment, fortifications were beginning to take form, crafted by squads of earth wielders to counter any attempts by the demons to sally out and attack the army. There, others were at work creating the ammunition for the trebuchets, forming piles of giant stones enhanced with the runes and essence of siege magic—spells that required a large group working in tandem to manifest.

“Another attack is on the way,” Celaine said. “The wall has opened.”

Hump squinted at the distant wall as a gap opened up, the stone of the wall shifting like a lake parted by magic. In the past two days, dozens of demon parties had left the citadel beneath veils and crept into the Alveronian ranks—assassins and saboteurs whose only objective was to weaken the army and slow down progress on the siege weapons.

Disaster had struck on the first day when an entire battalion of engineers had been taken by surprise on the other side of the encampment. Half their number had been wiped out, and their supplies had been burned. Since then, parties like Hump’s had been assigned to the defence of the engineers—they had been assigned alongside Marcela’s party and another led by a woman called Isolde, all of them under Overseer Oswald’s command. As of yet, no demons had made it past Celaine’s watchful eyes to Rowen’s battalion.

“Can you tell where they’re heading yet?” Hump asked.

“No, but their numbers are great,” Celaine said. “Likely more than the previous attacks. We should be ready for a fight.”

“Prepare the troops,” Hump told Bud, referring to the Blackthorne company.

As the knight left, Hump raised his staff, gathering his essence into the focus. “Explosive Flare.”

A burst of fire and light erupted, shooting into the sky where it exploded with a great boom overhead. The Tier 1 spell had been made accessible for all wizards in leadership positions like himself and made for a simple way to alert the rest of the army of an attack.

With it, Nisha tilted back her head at Hump’s side and unleashed a fiery roar.

***

Nishari alerted Hump to someone approaching their tent. Hump looked up from his spellbook as Bud entered, severity on his face.

“The barrier is cracked,” Bud said. “General Korteg is preparing the Trivor and Undrahil regiments as we speak. If all goes to plan, we will assault the citadel today. We’ve been ordered to protect the trebuchets from retaliatory attacks.”

Hump rose from his seat and attached the Book of Infinite Pages to his hip, rushing outside with Bud. The constant boom of stone striking the barrier was something he had become used to over the past week. Seven days, the bombardment had been sustained, and now finally, their efforts bore fruit.

A fissure spread through the air over the citadel—a jagged, gaping wound that stretched from the ground and climbed higher than the tallest buildings. Pale red light from the barrier seeped out in thick streaks, casting an eerie glow over the citadel. The wall itself had crumbled in places, leaving a selection of breaches for the army to choose from.

Hump took his position amongst the trebuchets commanded by Rowen and his engineers. Their great arms swept forward, powered by a counterweight that launched a rain of enhanced boulders upon the citadel walls. Focusing on a single spot, they had managed to pierce the barrier in places and reduce part of the once formidable wall into a pile of rubble and smoke.

The Trivor and Undrahil regiments formed ranks before the citadel, their weapons ready, awaiting the command to advance. Fifteen hundred soldiers stood prepared for the breach, a hundred Chosen amidst their ranks, of which the leaders were of the sixth circle. Behind them, the rest of Alveron’s army waited in reserve, watching with bated breath.

Down amongst the regiments, Wizard Hitherman of the First Order held his staff aloft. Surrounding him, other wizards channelled their essence into a grand siege magic formation that he commanded. Essence gathered and his chant resonated in the air. The essence gathered into a spear of light before the wizard, blinding in its radiance.

“Celestial Spear.” With the final command, the spear exploded from the tip of his staff, hurtling toward the walls. The barrier shattered with a thunderous boom, fragments of essence filling the air like the entire sky had suddenly filled with stars. The spell crashed into the red stone of the breach, sending chunks flying into the city beyond. The cries of demons reached them even from within the walls. What remained of the breach came tumbling down, creating a ramp of red rubble. From the distance, it almost looked like blood.

The barrier was broken.

“Everyone be ready,” Hump commanded, gathering his essence. Even from this distance, he understood the devastating potential of demonic magic. The demons had previously lowered their barrier to launch magical bombardment, successfully destroying several trebuchets and killing hundreds.

A horn sounded in the distance, then a chorus of horns echoed through the two regiments before the walls. Drums beat, and the men began their march. Along the ranks, blessings erupted, and the shrines of the gods shone brilliantly, enhancing the regiments with divine power.

Demons appeared on the walls, unleashing a torrent of magic upon the advancing troops and trebuchets. The essence in the air grew so thick that Hump could barely sense his own. He knew only devastation would follow. Raising his Shield, he saw Dylan and Bud prepare their defensive blessings too, while Len had erected a barrier to the left.

The world transformed into a living nightmare as magic unlike any Hump had experienced erupted from both sides. Siege spells, combining the power of tens, if not hundreds, rained down upon the regiments, indiscriminate in its destruction. Storm winds surged, hurling rocks through men and demons alike.

A massive stone blasted straight through the trebuchet to Hump’s right. Men went flying, and the scattered fragments turned to deadly shrapnel. Screams of agony erupted from the ranks. Hump’s own Shield held, but the force of the attack knocked him back. He fell to his knees, clutching his staff for support.

Around him, the engineers and earth wielders prepared the next volley, Rowen barking orders all the while, fearless in the face of such attacks.

Ahead of the regiments, Wizard Hitherman’s magic prevailed. Together with the other wizards, they erected a concentrated cloud of essence, radiant with white light. The magical storm of power deflected the enemy attacks, and what it couldn’t repel broke against the divine blessings within. All the while, the two regiments advanced toward the breach in tight formations, a wall of shields at the front.

Soon, they neared the breach, cheers and roars erupting through the ranks.

Hump watched the small shapes of demons moving on the smoking walls and towers on either side of the breach. They formed a thick line within the walls, but the Chosen led the charge into the breach fearlessly. Above, the demons bombarded them from the walls as Chosen and practitioners worked together to resist such attacks, forming grand barriers that combined the powers of dozens of wizards at once, while others retaliated with their own formidable spells.

As the soldiers of Alveron poured in, climbing up the ramp of rubble, the demons slowly retreated, forced back by the tide of Chosen. Their distant forms fell from the walls and were cleaved through by the Chosen. At this distance, it all happened so slowly. Rather than individuals engaged in battle, Hump saw two tides fighting against each other. They ebbed and flowed as one, but the army of Alveron was winning. Agonised cries and screams accompanied the battle, yet this far off, Hump could not distinguish them from the din of combat.

“Can you make anything strange out with your Spirit Sight,” Celaine asked from nearby. “The wall seems to be moving, but I can’t tell why.”

Hump activated Spirit Sight without question. Essence surged through the walls in greater concentrations than before, pouring toward the breach from both sides. The wall stirred on either side of the breach, undulating like a wave, coming alive with horrifying motion. Red essence pulsed within, and the wall began to repair itself.

No. This was no simple repair, Hump realised. The wall was healing.

The red stone suddenly looked far more like flesh. Teeth formed in the breach, the ground and damaged walls coming together like a mouth and swallowing those within the breach whole. Their screams echoed with a strange, eerie magic. Even as the wall fully reformed, the sound persisted, turning into gurgled cries, reverberating through the air as they were consumed by whatever foul force had awakened.

The army of Alveron fell silent, a collective gasp of horror rippling through the ranks.

The entire wall seemed to bulge and shift. Eyes and mouths opened where before there had been bricks. Arms sprouted across its surface, writhing and grasping, as if the dungeon had stitched together thousands of demons into a single horrific entity.

The sight sent shivers down Hump’s spine as a realisation dawned on him: the breach had been a trap. The demons had lured the army of Alveron into a deadly snare.

The members of the regiment that had not been caught in the breach were in full retreat, fleeing with no regard for each other, overwhelmed by fear. Many escaped, but Hump could already see that they had lost hundreds.

It was clear now that the demon citadel held a dreadful secret defence, one that had eluded all expectations. The wall was no mere barrier—it was a living entity; a monstrous amalgamation of demons.

And it had just feasted on some of Alveron’s most powerful Chosen.