The Selkies. Many wonder how a people so graceful and fair came from Turannia. The Dobhar and the Wulver are so bestial and savage, so how is it that the Selkies grew among them? Why is there such a disparity between them?

The answer is that there is not.

Make no mistake, the Selkies may have pretty faces, but they are no less savage and cruel than their neighbors. Few remember what it was like when the Empire first came to Turannia. When Selkie warriors would appear out of the rain and gut unsuspecting Legionaries without warning. When a hundred soldiers would vanish without a trace. When countless officers were lured away by pleasant smiles, and never seen again.

But it goes beyond that. The Selkies are not merely bloodthirsty humans.

They are beasts, no less than the Dobhar or the Wulver. Possibly worse.

Anyone who thinks the Selkies are some kind of poor human offshoot that the Legion protects from the monsters has never seen a Selkie in the water. In fact, it took the Legion itself years before they connected the monsters pulling sailors into the deep with the friendly and beautiful race they encountered on the land.

The monsters that hunted the Dobhar with their bare fangs. That sank ships and tore the throats out of sinking Imperials. That pulled fully grown Wulver into lakes and rivers and drowned them.

Make no mistake, the only difference between the Selkies and the other tribes of Turannia is that they happened to live closer to the Empire. If anything, the Selkies are the most dangerous of the three to us.

A Dobhar or a Wulver may hunt you, but a Selkie will make you offer yourself up on a silver platter.

So the next time you feel good about that Selkie girl winking at you, remember the monstrous beast lurking behind those eyes. Those are not the eyes of a flirtatious woman overcome by your manliness. Those are the eyes of a predator evaluating its prey.

-Legate Sestia Agelasta of the Turannia Comitatenses, attempting to reduce the incidence of Legion officers being honey-trapped by Selkies.

Bolts continued to fly as the Dobhar approached the walls. The crossbows were something of an Imperial specialty. With enchanted strings that amplified any force applied to them, the weapons could deal greater damage than one might expect. A perfect weapon for Exploratores or limitanei that couldn't invest as many boons into ranged combat. And with the stockpile of enchanted bolts in Castra Turannia, even a shot from a limitanei could pierce a Dobhar’s hide.

It was, of course, hard for the limitanei to aim during the rainy night and they lacked the skills that might make the difference. But with the sheer size of the Dobhar force below, it hardly mattered. It would be harder for the Imperials to miss.

And as the Dobhar approached the walls, Magister Tiberius shouted at one of the centurions next to him. The man nodded and shouted at the provincial mage next to himself. The mage held up a staff tipped with a mana core, which began to flash bright green.

Up on the top of the Legion keep, Dux Canus nodded as he saw the flashing green light.

“All weapons, attack at will!”

Limitanei grunted and dropped metal spheres into catapults. Mana cores built into the machine began to glow, lighting up magic circles engraved on both the catapult and the spheres themselves.

A soldier pulled the lever.

The catapult launched, its force enchantments applying extra velocity to the projectile.

And the spheres burst into flames the moment they cleared the catapult.

Burning shots soared across the sky, easily clearing the entire city. They crashed into the Dobhar and continued rolling across the ground, flames surging out from the spheres as they struck the ground.

Wind-enchanted ballistae opened fire as well, accelerating bolts across the sky. Once they had traveled a certain distance, the bolts turned and dropped straight into the ground. Then lightning surged from them, leaving smoking Dobhar on the ground all around.

But the Dobhar kept coming, and soon were in range of the walls themselves. They hurled their harpoons up towards the soldiers on top. The limitanei held up their shields, but they did not all stand steady or carry Legion-standard gear, so a handful of the harpoons found purchase. Limitanei cried out as the Dobhar pulled them off the walls and into the waiting hordes.

The Dobhar also began to form magic circles, forming the rain into spheres and spikes and launching them at the legionnaires.

But the Selkies interspersed along the walls spun magic circles of their own. The rain formed into shields wherever Dobhar spells flew. The Selkies were always better at magic than the Dobhar, so few attacks made it through.

As both the Dobhar and Selkies were resistant to the water attribute, the Selkie mages focused on defending the Imperial soldiers, and the Dobhar soon gave up the assault.

Instead the Dobhar’s mages grouped together, and formed the water into mighty spirals that climbed up the walls. The Dobhar jumped into the stream and swam right up to the top. The limitanei held up their shields and angled their spears as the Dobhar pounced on them. Dozens of spears stabbed into one Dobar, but another would leap on the limitanei beyond, knocking them off the walls with bone axes and their powerful tails.

The Selkie mages turned to offense. They formed huge spheres of water, propelling them at incredible speeds. The spheres crashed into the spiraling water jets and broke them apart. Dobhar cried as they fell from the sky.

And then a glowing harpoon shot from beyond the walls, stabbing straight into a Selkie mage. She let out a cry as she was pulled from the walls.

Estrith and the elite Dobhar made their move, hurling their spears with far greater power and accuracy. The Selkie mages abandoned their assault and the Dobhar continued to scale the walls.

But the Legion never intended to hold the outer walls in the first place.The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Fall back!”

Magister Tiberius shouted down the line. The limitanei turned in quick order, quickly rushing down the stairs of the walls. The Selkie mages formed the rain into floating rivers which carried them away.

Soon the Dobhar had control of the walls, and the limitanei were running through the city streets.

And Magister Tiberius slipped into one of the guard houses on the side. He placed his hand on a magic circle engraved there and channeled his mana…

And then the tops of the city walls exploded into flames.

Magister Tiberius may not have had many Exploratores left…but he still had a province's worth of Exploratores supplies. So they had spread fire potions across the walls before the battle, just waiting to be ignited.

With that, he ran down the city streets. The Dobhar could not pursue the limitanei until the fires died down.

Of course, fire potions don’t last forever and the Dobhar’s water magic could put them out as well, so the Dobhar soon had control of the outer walls. It wasn’t long before the city gates were opened and the Dobhar rushed in en-masse.

Only to be greeted with another volley of crossbow bolts.

The limitanei barricaded the main street. Crossbowmen stood side by side with spearmen on top of the newly built wooden walls, shooting down the street at the approaching Dobhar. The Dobhar charged forward and tried to scale the barricade, the limitanei warding them off with their spears.

Estrith nodded to some of the elite Dobhar, who began charging down the street. Crossbow bolts flew towards him but the lightly enchanted bolts made little impact on the high level elites.

And then they heard a horn blow.

Elite Selkie archers rose from their hiding places on the rooftops and took aim at the Dobhar charging down the streets.

The elite Dobhar were bombarded from all sides by the powerful arrows of Selkie land hunters, meant for tackling beasts like the mighty Ursanus.

The Dobhar elites cried out and fell to the ground.

And then Selkie horns continued to blow all across the city.

Dobhar trying to flank through alleyways found themselves surrounded by dense fog. Selkie Mist Warriors ran silently through the fog and rain filled with their own mana, feeling rather than seeing their opponents’ locations.

Bone spears and Imperial steel cut through the blinded Dobhar.

In another place, the Dobhar managed to break through one of the barricades. But a group of Selkie mages formed a massive sphere of water just behind it, as the limitanei ran past them.

A group of unarmed Selkies jumped into the sphere and then the mages sent it hurtling forward.

The Dobhar broke the barricade only to be washed away by a tide of water.

And in that tide, seals larger than an adult human rushed through the streets, tearing through Dobhar fur with mana-infused fangs. The Selkie water hunters surrounded their seal bodies with water magic, propelling themselves into living torpedoes that tore Dobhar to shreds.

In the sea, the Dobhar might have used their agility to evade the bigger Selkies.

In the narrow streets of the city, the Dobhar had nowhere to escape.

Estrith grit her teeth.

“Those bloody seals!”

She stepped forward and shouted and the Dobhar pulled back to the city walls.

The Empire had struck the first blow.

King Uscfrea watched from outside the city walls. He frowned as fire and lightning rained from the sky.

It was one thing to know that the Empire had formidable defenses.

It was another to watch burning metal boulders crashing through his people.

He heaved a sigh and shook his head.

“My King, look out!”

Just then one of the boulders started to approach. It looked as though it would land near King Uscfrea.

No, it would land right on top of him!

King Uscfrea lifted his axe, and swung it down.

The flames around the metal sphere died down as they touched the axe.

And then two halves of a metal sphere crashed to either side of him.

He stood above their remains, completely unharmed. He turned to the stunned Dobhar around him.

“Go, take a message to Estrith.”

All across the city, the Dobhar fell back, Selkies hounding their flanks. Even now harpoons shot out from foggy alleys, pulling Dobhar to their deaths, and waves of water filled with monstrous seals continued to flow up and down the streets, hunting down the stragglers.

The Dobhar attempted to counterattack, only for Selkie arrows to rain from the rooftops, driving them back.

And of course, the Imperial dogs continued to pepper them with crossbow bolts and artillery.

Estrith gripped her spear tight.

The Dobhar were mighty…but a city on the land was the domain of the Empire and the Selkies. The Dobhar were out of their element and it showed.

It was then that a messenger ran up to her.

“Message from the King!”

Estrith frowned. She was failing, and their people were suffering. She could only imagine what the King would say…

“Stand firm, and remember your training.”

Estrith’s eyes shot open.

And then...she nodded.

This battle had only begun. The King had not given up on her yet.

She turned and shouted at the troops under her command, arranging them into tens and hundreds and thousands, as the King had forced them to practice. And once they had gotten into position, she sent them forward. The Dobhar marched into the streets once again…

The Selkie archers continued to snipe from the rooftops, the dark and the rain no barrier to their sharp eyes. They picked off the Dobhar one by one, aiming for the biggest and strongest among their foes.

But then, there was a change.

They heard rhythmic marching.

They turned and their eyes widened.

A hundred Dobhar marched towards the building, standing in a square. The Selkies began to bombard them but they hardly made a dent in the numbers by the time the Dobhar arrived.

A Dobhar shouted.

And then a volley of a hundred harpoons bombarded the roof, all at once.

The Selkies began to dodge, but some of them were caught. These Dobhar were lower level than them, so the harpoons didn’t cut particularly deep.

But there were a great many harpoons, so each Selkie struck was hit more than once.

And each of the harpoons had a rope attached to it.

Ten Dobhar pulled on each rope. The Selkies screamed as they were pulled from the roof.

The remaining archers jumped across the rooftops, falling back out of range of the Dobhar block. They continued to pick the Dobhar off but now they had to keep their distance.

And so the Dobhar marched on…

The Selkie Mist Warriors ran through the side alleys. Another group of Dobhar was moving to flank one of the barricades. The Selkies wrapped themselves in rain and fog once more and ran forward.

And then they slammed to a halt.

Something was resisting their mana.

The Selkies pulled but the enemy's mana was greater.

The water in the mist and the rain condensed and pulled together into a huge sphere in the air overhead, blocking any additional rain.

The Selkies’ eyes widened.

A group of Dobhar shamans stood at the end of the alley, chanting with magic circles in front of them.

And a group of Dobhar warriors stood in front of them, lobbing their harpoons.

The Selkie Mist Warriors were caught out in the open.

A tidal wave rushed down the street, the seal-form Selkies rushing within it. They swooped down towards another force of Dobhar.

But then, a dozen Dobhar began to chant, and a counter wave formed in the street. The Dobhar couldn’t match the mystic might of the Selkie mages directly, but they didn’t need to. They managed to counteract the flow of the Selkies' wave, slowing it down.

The rest of the Dobhar formed up, swimming side by side in the water.

They held their harpoons forward as one, forming a wall of spears.

The Selkies continued forward, but they were now moving much slower than before.

And each Selkie ran into several Dobhar.

Seals roared as multiple harpoons stabbed into each one. They rushed forward, knocking Dobhar aside and tearing at them with their fangs, but the Dobhar held firm. They formed circles around each Selkie, stabbing at them from all directions.

The limitanei continued to hold the barricades, firing their crossbows as quickly as they could. But with the Selkies on the retreat, no one was restraining the elite Dobhar any longer.

So the elites ran down the streets towards each barrier. The limitanei bombarded them with bolts but there was a limit to what mass-produced weapons could do when not backed by perks and skills. The bolts bounced off the tough fur of the Dobhar elites.

And then the Dobhar fell upon them.

Fangs and spears and axes cut through the limitanei. Homemade shields and thick clothes stood no chance against the champions of the deep, spears shattered on the famed Dobhar fur. And with the lines broken, the regular Dobhar streamed through the gaps, eager to tear at the foes peppering them from afar.

Within a few minutes, the limitanei were in full retreat, Dobhar running them down on all fours.

And so the battle moved deeper into the city…