The sudden opening of the gate and our surprise attack completely caught the changelings by surprise. They had not considered the possibility of a counterattack so when it opened they were paralyzed with shock. As we charged at those at the front gate they all died instantly, while the others that were a few feet away ran back to gain some distance to regroup and pull out their weapons. Now with all of us in position, it was easy pickings taking care of them with out combined force of around 100, we were able to easily secure the immediate area. But things were about to get a lot tougher due to our noise, dozens of changelings had been alerted and were running at us. Thinking for a moment we all silently decided, if these bugs had come for a fight, we were going to give them one. Getting into attack positions, I look for a moment at my family Merlin,Monica,Willy,Jay. We all looked at each other with us all giving a silent nod, ready for the fight.
I would describe what happened after as a dance, a dance that was perfectly choreographed, a dance of iron and blood. As we fought I started thinking on why they were losing and we were winning. While these warriors of Chicago fought with there hearts and those hearts being full of love, love for their homes, their families, their lost. These changelings on the other hand had none of that, there hearts were empty and cold, I guess they never felt love or care, never had a warm embrace. To them there only purpose in their life, to fight and die for a queen that couldn’t give two shits about them. And me? I think I fight for so many things my family, what I lost, the fear that others could get hurt or suffer. I knew one thing was for certain though, if I survive and head back to Motor I’m am done with this way of life, no more violence.
Once that last changeling fell I nearly dropped Excalibur as I felt so exhausted. Looking over the bodies it was a sea of black and beige, but even still we lost over 16 warriors. Forcing myself to continue, we went through the rest of the city going street to street but the middle section of the city was pretty empty with only a few stragglers. But once we got to the lower levels we finally saw the rest of the changeling force. It was around the same size of the force at the inner wall and were prepared for us so raising our weapons we headed in for the attack. When fighting the changelings at the inner wall things we a lot closer together making us only a few feet apart. but on the lower level things were a lot more spread out with us all fighting in individually. dodging the changeling infront of me I could feel my strength go down as I got more and more tired, finally using all my might I striked them through the left front leg and the chest causing them to die. I only had a few seconds to breath though, as I saw something that would make my heart sink.
Merlin was fighting off a changeling when I saw another changeling come up behind him, approaching with a dagger aimed at his neck. As I ran the changeling had already raised that dagger and begun to bring it down, I didn’t have enough time to swing Excalibur so in an act of desperation I kicked something at him. It was something on the ground and I didn’t have a chance to see it, but I did feel it though my right hoove was burnt. Now looking in Merlins direction I saw the scene infront of me. The object I hit was a piece of burning wood and it did hit the changeling, causing them to drop the dagger saving Merlin but what happened next was… Interesting the changeling let out a deep agonizing scream as the flames consumed him but not just that, it seemed like his whole body started melting with him now looking like a black and beige blob with organs and bits of skeleton poking out. Was this their… weakness? The entire battle had also stopped by then as both changelings and the Chicago guard looked at the corpse in silent horror than from the crowd a Chicago guard spoke.
“BUWNIES AM THEIW WEAKNESS, GWAB PIECES OF BUWNED WOOD KIWW THEM!”
Immediately there was a dash to grab any pieces of wood from the burned buildings and as the wood started being chucked at the changelings I got a glimpse of their commander looking in pure horror, than after a few seconds he was finally able to get himself to speak those forbidden words.
“RETREAT!”
The Changelings were now all running away heading to the gate out of the city, and as we threw pieces of wood at them we missed most of them but still hitting a few. Once they were all gone we had won the battle and discovered something that had single handily turned the tide. We headed back to the castle to inform everyone that the changelings were gone and they could head back to their homes, it was sad though as a good portion of the population had nothing to go back to. In the morning we spent a few hours burying the dead and looking out for changelings, once the dead were buried I looked to see just how many graves there were it seemed endless. In the afternoon most of the time was spent preparing wagons for us to head back to Swab and inform Chicago leadership of the victory and discovery. And some help repairing the outer wall and making it stronger. Finally as me and my family went up into a wagon, we waved goodbye to Sipp and the Chicago guard as we left The Garden heading back to Swab. As we passed the gates I had a feeling of what was going to happen next after I told them, we would soon take the fight to the Hive itself. Fin
Thank you for reading my story! Holy shit 50 parts… This project has been such a unique honor for me and that knowing soon it will be wrapping up, I know I will never have an experience making something like this for the first time ever again. And of course Constructive criticism is always appreciated, and may you have a good day!