A single whistle blared over the rarely used comm system and all my soldiers went rigid. They were ready. It was time to move out. My four men and I took the lead, while the rest of the Omegaborn followed. We made our way through the tunnels, breaking off at designated points to spread out our forces in a spear point formation.
It was the middle of the night and pure, raw adrenaline powered my every movement.
As soon as we emerged from underground, we moved as stealthily as we could, but it soon became clear the city was focused elsewhere. They weren’t guarding the streets. Instead, the guards on top of the city walls looked outward. They were focused on the wilds and not us. Even glancing back at the omega sanctuary, I could see that most of the guards, if not all of them had been called away and likely posted along Tharia’s walls instead.
I could feel the tension in the air. Even the dirt beneath me trembled.
Then I heard the city alarm begin to blare loudly. The beta army was being called forth.
My men and I made our way up onto a mostly abandoned section of the wall. I looked out of the dome and then I understood why the city felt the way it did.
The alpha horde was waiting outside the walls. I stared out, quickly realizing that there were more than just alphas. There were tens of thousands of people, a number big enough to at least stand a chance against the beta army. They were standing outside the walls quietly, in complete formation. They stood, line after line of men fully prepared to storm the city of Tharia. The sheer number that joined together with the alphas must mean that betas and omegas were fighting in their ranks too, but that wasn’t all.
A large pack of men rode in on horses to the right. The animals were ready, clearly hardened in the light of battle and ready to ride forth at any cost. The men whooped and hollered, waving pairs of curved swords in the direction of the city walls. They looked more than fierce. They looked dangerous.
Above in the sky were giant white and black birds. I recognized them only from my studies of texts from the wilds. They were albatrosses. Men rode on their backs, with bows and arrows in their fists ready to fight. The screams of the giant birds were chilling.
But there was more.
Red glows hummed in the trees, indications of giant beasts I’d yet to ever lay eyes upon, let alone read about. They breathed fire into the air from amongst the trees and the very ground beneath my feet rumbled with their ire. I froze for a long moment, trying to see what it was and the only clue I could observe was a single pair of red glowing eyes watching me from the edges of the trees. Then when I focused even closer on that single point, the large beast flared briefly with fire and then altogether disappeared. Giant horns like a bull remained emblazoned in my mind and I shivered with fear.
Drums sounded from somewhere deep within the trees, calling forth the troops. One beat after the next drove forth one group of men and then another. Some rode in on horses. Others on wild dogs and wild cats as large as cows. The sounds of their anger echoed all around me. The effect of their feral nature was terrifying.
Another drumbeat sounded and yet another group of men emerged from the forest. It was no wonder the city had gone silent. They hadn’t seen anything like this in hundreds of years. They weren’t ready for something like this.
I turned back toward the city, watching as beta men and women lined the streets, gathering in formation. Trained soldiers in massive numbers fumbled back and forth, preparing to fight against the savage people of the wilds. The beta army was more structured, more defined but despite their numbers and extensive training, they looked like they were afraid. My eyes scanned over them all, assessing my enemy for weak points and then I turned toward their forces along the wall.
I watched carefully and then I saw him. Philip Savile. Tharia’s city leader. My upper lip rolled and I growled quietly in his direction.
It had been a long time since I had laid eyes upon him, but he still looked the same. He had wiry brown hair that lay in thick curls. His face was young, stern even but aged with the power of his own hatred. He was tall, thin, and carried the typical body type of a beta male. I glared in his direction, narrowing my eyes as I observed him.
I wanted to shoot him then and there, but it wasn’t the right time yet. The omegas still had to get into position and wait for the alpha horde to signal and enact the first phase of our plan. I had to wait for the opportune moment.
With reluctance, I turned away from him, looking for the waves of the small blue flags my Omegaborn would signal with once they were in position. After a few long and very tense minutes, I saw one and then another until I saw all four waving in the windows of abandoned buildings near our position. Steam powered up all around us, indicating that the beta army was preparing some of their own weaponry, but we were ready. Damiyen had been prepared and had questioned many of his allies. He knew what resources the city had at their disposal.
But the beta army didn’t attack the alpha horde. Not yet anyway. They were protected by the massive walls and the dome. Maybe they thought that we didn’t have any way to break into the city, that they’d wait out the alpha horde in a siege of a sort, except we knew better. Tharia was self-contained. There wasn’t a single resource that we couldn’t grow or create within the city walls. In the case of a siege, Tharia would always win. No matter what enemy had set up outside the city walls, Tharia could withstand them, even us. The invading army would ultimately run out of resources first, but the alpha horde and we, the Omegaborn didn’t intend to win that way.
We had other plans up our sleeves.
I lifted my chin, gritting my teeth as I waited. The sky overhead had just begun to lighten with the rising sun. It would be time, very soon.
The sound of a bullet cracked loudly outside the dome. A sign that our plan was coming to fruition.
I turned my head to look outside the dome. A single man in thick fire-retardant armor surged forward, running for the wall with a brightly lit torch. He ran straight for the place of weakness that both Ethan and Damiyen had decided upon, one of the larger drainage pipes that we’d previously utilized to smuggle people in and out of the city, the very one Ellie had escaped out of a few days ago. Just yesterday, Damiyen had ordered his special crates moved there by a very small, very surefooted convoy of his own hand-picked beta allies. They’d deposited the crates in one of the wider drainage pipes leading out of the city, spreading them out in a specific pattern in order to incite the most damage.
He’d told me what they were then.
Every single crate was jammed full of liquid fire, a dangerous explosive that was produced in the times of old. Damiyen had enough of his own connections to not only research the long-forgotten recipe, but to start manufacturing enough of it to give us a chance in winning the battle against Tharia and defeating both the beta army and Philip Savile.
The man raced forward, almost in slow motion and I could feel a collective sense of panic take over those also watching from the beta forces. There was no time for the city gates to open and attack the solitary man. No way to open the dome and shoot him down. There was nothing they could do but watch as he ran for the walls.
I cocked my head to the side, studying the man as he carried the torch. He appeared strong, but somewhat frail. His eyes were red and slightly sickly. My eyes raced from him to the wall and back again, but then a strange feeling washed over me.
This man was going to sacrifice himself for the sake of us all.
He ran forward, each foot pounding into the dirt and then he dove straight into the drainage pipe. For a long moment, everything was silent.
Then the ground came alive beneath our boots. The walls shook, swaying back and forth enough to throw me off balance and then a massive explosion of fire tore through the wall not far from where we stood. The blazing heat smacked into my face first, followed by the shaking of the crumbling wall at our feet. My men quickly gathered me and forced me down the stairs and back to the streets, all while the crates under the walls continued to explode.