Fiction:Tenet/History/20

=scenes from the war, i=

-- the xanidactae crossbowmen hold firm in their guard tower, launching bolt after bolt into their tenet besiegers. even their mightiest warriors will fall should a bolt transfix their eye.

--they have to strip the bodies of armor and weapons, then dump them in mass graves and burn them. the tenet must be denied everything; to them, every unburied corpse is a trove of steel and flesh.

-- a pack of charging tenet berserkers warp as they run. muscles ripple. flesh tears and flows into new shapes. by the time they hit the xanidactae lines they are not like avorn at all, but monstrous things with keratin armor and many-jointed limbs and long tails tipped with spines

-- the castle was built on a cliff specifically so that it would be impenetrable to any conventional army. the tenet are anything but. their great drums beat, and with every beat the earth trembles, and soon the very face of the cliff comes sliding down in a wave of boulders and rubble, dragging the castle to pieces with it.

-- the fleshcrafters herd their charges forward, misshapen masses of teeth and claws and eyes, puppeted by magic. these will be used as shock troops, sent screaming into the xanidactae lines so that the real warriors might be conserved for the true assault.

-- the organ guns roar, again and again. each shot rips through the fleeing tenet army, scattering warriors and limbs and viscera. the xanidactae general motions to his cavalry before the cannons have even stopped speaking: the enemy must not escape.

-- iron meets spell-forged bronze as the tenet horde crashes against the shieldwall. the xanidactae men-at-arms struggle against the brute strength of their enemies, stabbing again and again into the mass.

-- the bronze-armored heavy infantry kneel, leveling their staves at the onrushing xanidactae cataphracts. thunder roars, and bolts of lightning sear through the air -- some fall short, but most hit their mark, blasting knights off of their saddles, setting their screaming mounts alight.

-- it's now common practice for xanidactae soldiers to have a way to kill themselves hidden covertly on their person. everyone agrees: you're better off dead than a captive of the enemy.

-- the chariot's wheels are bladed. it carries three crew: a handler to control the steeds, a warrior to wield the thunder-spear, and a magus to cast the shield that protects them.

-- they learned in the last battle how swiftly tenet skirmishers can outflank them, destroying their artillery without warning. siege engineers will never match tenet warriors hand-to-hand, but now their fire sprayers make sure they never need to.