A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

For the past month those alternate channels had been partially blocked off and the sides of the dams had been raised to accommodate the extra build up in water. The sound of the horns would soon be reaching those gathered at the dams. The already intentionally weakened walls of the original dams would collapse as the remaining key stones were pulled free and the force of the onrushing water would do the rest. Within an hour two carefully sequenced tidal waves would rush back down their old river courses picking up debris as they went and smash into the city of Kingdom Pass and the wall beyond it.

Everyone was gone on our side except for the retinue of warriors from Thunder Ridge and my own friends from the arena. We sat astride our mounts on the higher ground at the head of the pass. The flood waters would pass to either side of us into the city beyond. The enemy's pressed advancement into the city had stopped as the field commanders had finally realized that something was amiss with their bulrush and pick up the pieces later strategy.

The many thousands of troops still on our side of the wall that hadn't been consumed in the fire of the city were pressed into the deeper channeled sides of the pass to either side of the city. There was no fire there and it was still possible to breathe as they were on a lower level than the rest of the city. They could not retreat back over the wall because the heat off the fire was to intense against the wall for them to pass by, so they remained huddled in the corners of the city desperately emptying the gate tunnels of the debris that had been stacked tight into them. The drama played on and I watched a once proud city burn to the ground.

It was a sight that I would never forget, as the fires consuming the city were now backlit against the darkness of the night. They had to almost be through the debris in the tunnels by now surely. Perhaps our plan of full destruction would not be carried out to the fullest in this last stage of the cities' death throws.

I heard the cracks and booms of the onrushing water then and I almost regretted, as I had with the fire, what would befall the invaders next, but the water was an unstoppable force, even if I had wanted to renege on the plan now.

The turbulent water plumes swept by our position on either side, one of the sides being slightly ahead of the other. Both turbulent forces of nature were at least thirty feet high and carried a pay load of debris with them. There was a welcome coolness to the air as they passed, which was a relief from the cast off heat of the burning city. The onrushing tidal waters smashed through the obstructions barring its way and swept into the gathered ranks of the hysterically crying enemy, pulling some of them along in the strong current of water, even as it pulverized many of them where they stood. Those swept along sank beneath the water, as they were dragged down by their heavy armor.