“We don’t have enough time,” Gunnar said irritably, watching the Red Cloaks come nearer.

“They’ll be at that gate for awhile before they realize they need to climb,” Kid Killer said. “Seeing as the lock is melted in place.”

“Really? How?” Gunnar asked.

Kid Killer and Rorak heaved the cannon back from the embrasure.

Kid Killer huffed. “Magic, obviously. You’re not the only one who can do fire magic. How do you think that damn pub went up so quick?”

Gunnar shook his head. “Well, I was feeling pretty good about my Dragon’s Breath skills. But good work!”

He helped Rorak heft the barrel of gunpowder up to the mouth of the cannon.

“Hold on,” Kid Killer said. “We gotta clean it, first.”

“Clean it?” asked Rorak.

“The kid grabbed a pole with a corkscrew of iron wire at the end and shoved it down, pulling out a bit of rag with it.

“Hand me that sponge!”

Gunnar glanced around with confusion.

“The mop-looking thing,” Kid Killer said.

Gunnar hastily grabbed a small mop and bucket propped against the wall. The mop turned out to have some sort of fleece at the end, and Kid Killer shoved that down.

There was a clamor outside as the guards angrily shook the gate.

“What the hell is going on up there?” one of them shouted.

The Beta Squad glanced at one another, unsure what to do.

“Buy us some time,” Gunnar muttered to the ratkin.

Sauvage nodded, then hopped up onto the windowsill and waved down at the guards. “Sorry, gents! We’re having a bit of a hold up!”

“Wha… who in the bloody Va-Jay-Jay are you?”

Sauvage chuckled. “Ah yes, so sorry, I forgot to mention I’m the new proprietor.”

“The new pro… where are our comrades?”

“Oh, I’m afraid they’re quite indisposed at the moment.”

“Indisposed?”

“For all moments, actually,” Sauvage clarified.

“They’re dead, sir,” said one of the other guards.

“I know that,” said the other, who seemed to be the leader.

Gunnar and Rorak poured in the gunpowder until Kid Killer told them to stop. Then, the kid stuffed some rags into the muzzle and shoved them down the barrel with a long rammer.

Rorak heaved a cannonball up to the muzzle, and Kid Killer rammed that down too.

“Let them have it!” shouted a voice below.

Shots pinged off the sides of the tower, and Sauvage hopped down from the windowsill with a huff. “Well, that was close. I hope that was enough time.”

“We ready?” Gunnar asked, heart pounding as more shots pinged off the walls.

Kid Killer nodded, popping a long fuse stick through a hole in the top.

They shoved the cannon forward with a loud groan of wooden wheels. More shots fired, and Gunnar felt the heat on his face as one bullet flew through the embrasure and ricocheted off the tower wall behind them.

Kid Killer aimed the cannon out toward the courtyard.

“Fire!”

Gunnar cast Dragon’s Breath, and a small flame ignited at the end of the fuse.

The force of the explosion made the entire tower shake. Gunnar’s vision went blurry. His ears felt as though a needle had been stabbed through them, but even so, he could still hear the shrieks of the soldiers at the gate.

[You have defeated Red Cloak - Level 14 with an assist from Sauvage, Kid Killer, and Rorak. Here’s 5 XP!]

[You have defeated Red Cloak - Level 12 with an assist from Sauvage, Kid Killer, and Rorak. Here’s 3 XP!]

[You have defeated Red Cloak - Level 12 with an assist from Sauvage, Kid Killer, and Rorak. Here’s 3 XP!]

As the smoke cleared, the timer reached zero.

Out the window to their left, Gunnar could just make out the sails of several ships passing through the dark harbor in a line.

Another timer appeared.

[4:59 — You’ve taken Guard Tower Five. Hold it until Black Heart and his crew pass out of range.]

Gunnar looked over the edge of the window. The gate was a wreck of twisted iron bars. One of the Red Cloaks had been impaled and hung a foot off the ground suspended by a shard of iron through the gut. But there were still at least half a dozen regrouping beyond the blast.

“Shit,” Gunnar muttered. “Thought that’d take more out in the explosion.”

“Cannonballs don’t actually explode,” Kid Killer corrected.

“There’s plenty of firepower up here,” Rorak said gesturing to some of the Red Cloak flintlock weapons. “We can hold them off.”

“Screw that,” Gunnar said. “I don’t wanna get pinned down up here. A few will probably make it across the courtyard and then we’re stuck. I don’t wanna lose any of you guys in the middle of this mission for no good reason.” He hefted the barrel of gunpowder over his shoulder and strode over to the top of the stairs. “I say we let ’em come and let ’em have it.”

Kid Killer grinned maniacally and grabbed several lengths of fuse from a sack beside the cannon.

“And where exactly do we go for this triumphant blast?” Rorak asked.

Sauvage pointed to the window on the far side. “Hope you can climb, my friend.”

There was a loud cry from below as the soldiers charged across the courtyard. Sauvage and Rorak let off a few shots as Gunnar and Kid Killer fixed a long fuse to the barrel.

“How long you think this’ll burn?” Gunnar asked.

The kid shrugged. “Thirty seconds?”

Gunnar handed him one more fuse.

A few more shots rang out, and Rorak yelled, “They’ve reached the entrance.”

“Light it!” Gunnar said.

Kid Killer formed a small flame with his own basic fire spell, and the fuse hissed and began to burn.

“Let’s go!” Gunnar ordered.

Sauvage was already out the window. Kid Killer followed. But Rorak hesitated.

“You gotta go for it!” Gunnar hollered in his ear.

Rorak gritted his teeth, glancing nervously at the harrowing drop before him. But he nodded, and began to climb down, nearly slipping on his first move from the window.

“Don’t you dare fall on me!” Sauvage shouted a few feet below.

Rorak managed to regain a firm grip, took a deep breath, and continued.

Gunnar took one last glance back, and his heart raced.

The fuse had gone out halfway across the room.

Guards clamored up the stairs shouting about the impending retribution for their fallen comrades.

Gunnar cast Dragon’s Breath, and the fuse ignited once more.

Just as the first Red Cloak appeared.

The man’s eyes went wide, and he reached for the barrel of gunpowder. Gunnar let his Shooting Star fly, nailing the man in the skull. But not before he dislodged the fuse entirely.

Another Red Cloak appeared and fired a pistol. The shot glanced off Gunnar’s shoulder with blaring pain, but only a small amount of damage.

Gunnar matched blows with his blunderbuss, and the staircase flashed with emerald light and crimson blood.

Gunnar let off one more round, more as a warning shot than anything and leapt up to the windowsill and dropped out of sight, casting Dragon’s Breath once more as bullets flew over his head.

For the briefest of moments, he sensed a slight pulse of heat. And then—

He wasn’t sure if it was an effect of his magic, or simply the magnitude of the blast. But he felt the explosion in the core of his being. In his very Soul.

A Soul trapped in hell.

The tower lit up like a firework, a tidal wave of heat and flames rushing all over. Gunnar dropped below the window as flames plumed outward. The whole building trembled, and Gunnar feared the stones he clung to would give way. It was all he could do to maintain his grip as flames seared his entire body.

But the trembling was over in a moment, and then, it was just heat.

Gunnar had never been so hot. It felt as though his skin was peeling right off his bones as he desperately held onto the scalding stones.

[You have sustained severe damage, triggering the Third Degree Burn effect. Health will deplete at a rate of 2 per second until your wounds are fully healed.]

The flames abated after a few seconds, concentrating on the wooden beams of the roof instead.

Gunnar cast Basic Word of Healing and kept a slow and steady heal going, just enough to manage a few moves with aching, blistering hands. But the damage was all over his body, and though his hands improved, he could not get rid of the burn effect.

His Health steadily declined.

Once he made it down a few more feet, the stones grew cool again, and the moves got a little easier.

The burning guards’ shrieks filled the night for a few seconds before fading altogether.

A flurry of notifications came all at once, signaling that all the remaining Red Cloaks had been defeated. Once again, the experience was shared between the four of them, amounting to about 20 XP each.

When Gunnar was about ten feet from the ground, he let go. His knees buckled at the impact, and he crumpled onto the ground, his Health hovering around 15%.

His Mana was completely depleted, and he guessed his healing spell had faded halfway up the wall.

The timer was down to 1:47.

Not that anyone was going to make any use of that tower again anytime soon.