The Last Praetorian Read Online Free PDF

last!” he called, spurring his mount through the bristling Achaean shieldwall at the end of the square.
    BOOM!
    The gate burst open . The behemoth lunged forward through the shriven doors, followed by a herd of armored beasts, scores of shambling mountain trolls, two headed ogres and plodding giants. The lines of men, Achaeans though they were, looked to be a small, insignificant obstacle. The monsters rushed into the city, sprinting towards the shield wall, mad with desire for slaughter, thinking the battle already over. Two hundred yards they ran, crossing the city square to the threshold of the Appian Way, making the streets shake beneath their feet.
    Tarion let them come to within fifty yards of his Achaeans.
    “Ranks kneel! Artillery, commence to fire!”
    As one, the Achaeans knelt to the cobblestone street. Behind them, the massed scorpions and ballistae hurled hundreds of bolts and spears at the enemy. They whistled past Tarion, whose mount stood stock still, the stallion’s muscles never twitching, calmly awaiting his master’s command. The heavy groaning of catapults followed and scores of huge stones whooshed overhead.
    Bolts and spears skewered the monsters, sending them shivering to their knees, breaking the charge of the monsters behind them. The catapult stones bounded down the pavement, bowling over monsters, cutting swathes and gaps in their ranks, hurling them back against their comrades.
    As the artillery crews reloaded, wizards and witches let loose bolts of fire and livid lightning. Showers of flaming stones fell from the sky. Then down upon the enemy wheeled the noblest of dragons, silver drakes and gold, copper ladies of serpentine wrath. They lay fire, acid and ice on the twitching, shrieking monsters.
    “Reload and fire at will!”
    Another volley followed and then another. Dozens of monsters fell, but ahead of them still lumbered the behemoth. Skewered by a dozen man-sized javelins, it still lurched toward the Achaean line. Bolts of livid blue lightning sizzled on its hide. Three more javelins and a dozen scorpion bolts pierced it, but still it came. Then a catapult stone struck it full in the chest. The beast stumbled and fell in a monstrous heap right before the Achaeans.
    The main avenue of Roma became a bloated, boiling field of burned flesh, torn armor and splintered bone. The massive corpses lay tangled in heaps, blocking the gate and avenue as effectively as had the steel doors, making the entrance to the city impassable. Some few escaped the artillery barrage, but scorpions from the gate towers dropped them like stones.
    His first wave blunted, King Johaan was not willing to allow the defense a respite. His giants used grappling hooks and chains to pull the dead clear of the gate. As a way opened, thousands upon thousands of goblins, hobgoblins and ogres boiled through holes and cracks in the fleshy barrier, climbing over the slain like angry ants. They flooded the square, dropping under a howling arrow storm, but resolutely gathering into growing mobs. Finally, the giants cleared enough bodies for a concerted push.
    Companies of ogres with pikes led the charge, followed by hobgoblins bearing axes and vermin goblins wielding short spears and scimitars. They advanced at a loping run, gibbering and wailing, throwing order and caution to the winds. Full upon the Achaean shieldwall they charged. The hoplites rose with a shout, brandishing their spears from behind their great shields. They crouched, ten ranks of two hundred men, and waited for the charging monsters. The sable and iron wave hit the shieldwall like a great angry swarm hitting a stone—it stopped. The line of spearman held and the soldiers of the Destructor bunched up in a black, roiling mass.
    Tarion let the avenue fill to bursting.
    “Flanks, hurl pilum and advance,” he ordered calmly. His adjutant blew two blasts on his golden horn. Other trumpeters echoed the call from either side of the square. From the side streets,