Souls That Burn - Pero Tovar (The Great Wall)

-Four-

Upon reaching the top of the wall, they found every branch of the armed forces preparing for the oncoming attack. 

Guards in black armour with spears backed them up until they were forced to sit, their backs against the wall's edge.

There were guards dressed in armour of various colours: blue, black, red, yellow, purple. Each colour appeared to be associated with a different part of the army. 

"The black armour are the foot soldiers," Pero devised. 

"And the red are the archers," said William.

"And the blue are all women," cried Constanza. All women being led by the woman who had spoken to and confronted them back in the hall. 

"Look at this army," breathed William. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

"No," she said. 

"Incredible." Even Pero had to admit.

There was a rush as everyone prepared around them, grabbing what they needed and taking their places. Then, suddenly, stillness and silence. 

"They look nervous," Pero observed. "It's a big wall to be so nervous."

A beat longer of silence, then, they heard it:

The shrieking.

And the thundering, like horses hooves, but it must have been an army of them...

Only it wasn't hundreds of horses approaching the Wall, but thousands of scaled green creatures, like the one they had killed, only hundreds upon hundreds more. 

The Wall's army burst into action firing arrows and catapults. 

The creatures were not being held back, and persisted, making for the Wall, fast approaching. As they began to reach the base of it, the women's branch of the army, spears in hand, leapt off of the side of the Wall, attached with cables, leaping downwards and spearing any creature that made it too close.

However, many of the cable rings that held them came back up from the jump bloody and empty. 

Constanza's stomach lurched - from the sight and from the horrid smell of the creatures - and muttered a soft prayer to any of the gods who were listening. 

"William, over there - why isn't he tied up?" Pero nodded to a man in long red and black robes standing off to the side. The thing that struck them most about him was the fact that he was not Asian like the others, but European like them. 

"There's our escape."

The creatures had not only reached the Wall now, but were climbing up the sides, their sharp claws finding purchase in the stones and heaving themselves upward. If it was this bad with them approaching, if they managed to make it over the Wall, there would be a bloodbath. 

And it seemed that they were managing to  make it over.

"We need to move," cried William. "We move or we die!"

"Agreed!"

The young soldier who had been tasked with keeping them prisoner now appeared conflicted.

"Go!" William urged him. "Go and fight!"

He cast one last glance at them before charging into the battle, armed with his shield and spear. 

"Hey, you! Cut us loose!" William called to the other European man, who rushed over, picking up a dropped blade and cutting them loose with shaking hands.