The sound of bullets smashing into brick walls you are standing next to is a very easy thing to notice. There's a smack and then a bang from not too far off, in our case there were a lot of smacks and a lot of bangs. I couldn't help but feel sitting in a building with a bunch of Maritus's followers probably wasn't the wisest tactical decision, it seemed to be holding back the rifle bullets good enough, but what of artillery? Or with the amount of fire being directed at the building, bigger harder bullets?
"Maristus I realize you and yours are having a blast, but what about when they shell the building with their artillery? Or you know set it on fire or something?" It was a valid statement, seeing Maristus smile as he worked the lever on his rifle and made the area below the tenement a wall of death. Other followers were doing the same, their return fire was definately killing more Ronerawth military than any of the followers were suffering casulties. In fact I hadn't seen any of the Followers go down.
"Of course, we shall be Martyrs to the great cause of war, other temples shall hear of our brave sacrifice and murder the Ronerawths in response. You will have started a revolution!"
"A revolution in which I'm dead Maristus! Martyrdom is not my thing!" I tried to shout over the gunfire, but I don't think he heard me, "What was all that about you needing me to stage a coup because of my knowledge?"
"Pacification, just needed you here until the bullets hit, I don't think you'd run now." He smiled, I wanted to kill him but figured the Ronerawths would do the trick. "Besides I don't think they'll use artillery on their own city." The explosion that ripped a hole in the roof and thudded against the building said differently.
"You were saying?" The roof was now on fire, and other explosions started tearing the building to shreds. I had to get out of there, Maristus may have been willing to die for his cause, but I did not live a hundred years to die in some dumb rebellion. I didn't really get much of a choice in my exit, one of the shells hit behind me as I was trying to see if I could leap from the third floor area and cascading to the ground I went, the fire god must have been watching after me in her cruel heart because my fall was broken by the corpses of Ronerawths former military members, it still hurt on my ribs like no pain should feel, but I was alive. If I wanted to stay that way I had to get on the move, I had landed in a back courtyard near an alleyway, more artillery was coming, but because of the loudness of the gunfire and explosions I couldn't tell from which direction. I just trusted to my sense of direction and fear of getting caught in an explosion and ran. It actually worked out fairly well now that I remember it, I was making a good headway out of the city and feeling pretty good about myself until I ran smack dab into the Ronerawth artillery that had been pounding where I was. It was shortly out of the city with a line of soldiers manning large cannons, they were shoving in the explosive powder and then the projectile after it. I could see from the stacks of both and the dozens of cannons they were intendending on leveling the entire city if they had to.
At first no one did anything different they kept on loading their guns and firing off, and then the soldiers manning them looked at me and a cry went up. I didn't exactly have a lot of time to come up with a plan, if I ran back in they might just shell me, if I tried to run past them same thing. I did notice the powder was stacked pretty neatly as were the cannons next to it. I guess they hadn't anticipated fire magic. With a wave of my hand the entire world ignited, the sound was deafening, in fact I lost my hearing for what seemed like hours, but at most had been minutes. What had been a wall of cannons in front of me became an explosion of sight and screams. I was lost, deaf, partially blinded from the explosion and wandering towards it instead of away (couldn't go back to the city, army was all over it). Somehow in my haze I caught the reins of a loose horse and the beast in its fear took off (I bet it too was blinded by the explosion I had caused). In case you were wondering, being half dragged by a horse running in fear? Yeah it hurts a lot with wounded ribs. I finally got the beast to slow down near a grove of trees. From where I was I could see the city was burning, the outside was burning, smoke was everywhere (thankfully wind was blowing it away from me). The revolution was on, and I was thankfully out of it, or so I thought. Tomorrow I shall speak more my revolutionary experience. Till then know that you are never really free, ever, especially when what you are fighting is not what you expect.
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