by Marcus Sloss
Captain Snomer was General Snomer now. He got his mammoths. When I visited him he said thanks and then added I guess. He was overwhelmed as soldiers looking for action flooded his small settlement. His operation of a few hundred had gone to hundreds of thousands. The Iceshore village bloomed into a steamy city that was an outlier on the tundra. Hence the promotion, and he was complaining of being outranked. Not anymore. I never thought I would like a small city on ice until I was in Iceshore. All the lava rocks and balls were strategically placed. The empire had devoted a lot of resources there and it showed. What was still lacking was impressive results, and not from General Snomer failing. It simply was a process. So far there was one adult icraw that was captured. That thing gave me nightmares seeing it up close. It sold for a hundred thousand souls though so there was that. When I departed from Iceshore I was impressed and confident that Iceshore would start generating soon enough.
Ruby slid up to my side and planted a kiss on my cheek. She fell back as Amber approached. My Empress leaned into me and held my hand while we watched from our perch. My love life had been a whirlwind. After lunch every day there was a dessert. My favorite kind of lunchy goodness… Duchess sex. It seemed the same five were rotating to get pregnant. Which was what Amber decreed. How they worked it out was beyond me. My bed consisted of a queen wife on rotation. Each wife had a night that they worked out. Since I had eight queen wives someone had to share. The two that made room for Emily were Pipi, and Velia. The last six nights had been peaceful, I felt whored out a bit. There was a team effort hard at work trying to see if Yvette, Emily, and Nautica would swell with a child. After I would finish our sex the wive whos night it was would swap out for snuggle and a chat session. Out of the Queens who already bore me a child – Bella tried to get back on my penis and when she complained, we decided more time was needed before trying for another baby.
King Aves and the majority of the griffins had returned home from the front. A large war boar feast was held in their honor. We even got to eat some mighty creature of the deep. A large whale shark the wopax had harvested. The griffins flew it to Fernlan proudly. We ate that in an open fire in the western fields where everyone and anyone was invited. It was a great time and a worthy victory celebration. That night reminded me of the feasts of the tiny village of Fernlan. Where the community came together to rejoice. Ooney Bay sent a few positive reports of potential integration ideas and executions. Livina was starting to develop under the new elvath care. The dvaren were harassing me nonstop about getting a foothold in the Saquin Mountains. They wanted to march themselves over. When I explained I would do it and to give me time – the stubborn ale drinkers muttered curses but did not openly defy me. Humanity was trading more than ever before with the help of our new shamans. It was incredible what an empire can do with an excess of mages that can create portals. Cities to the north were being reclaimed and immigrated to. Exira was our first city to really see people reclaiming the desert seaside.
All in all, things were improving. I enjoyed the last six days immensely. We even had the foresight to prepare for this potential disaster I was watching. Today was not my idea of a good time. There were so many humans with such a nasty wafting odor that I had to plug my nose. We established a plan to deal with the stench. We merely needed to get the people to the right point in our predetermined stations for in processing. We built a six foot wall and snaked it across the western fields all the way to where we killed the trolls that first time with the war boar. It meandered far and wide so we could get everyone inside it before we began their integration. We did the rough math and found where the forty million would stop, then added another half a mile.
The idea was we would have the human slaves march into Vin along our guided route while contained. They would be eventually hit a tunnel once the line stopped entering and the portal closed. In the tunnel, they would strip naked preferred. If not, we were not going to force them to remove their clothing. They would then get soaked by a heated rain shower. There was soap at the front of the water so there was no way around it. If you went in the tunnel you were getting soapy water from pearl blue magic. Then you would get rinsed with clean water further down the line. The water was warm from lava balls. When it was time to dry off the air mages had created heated wind a half mile long so everyone could space out and dry off. Following that there were bins with a simple long unisex poncho in three sizes – child, small, and extra large. It was only a basic thick covering to help fight the cold. Once they were clean and covered they moved on. At the end of the tunnel were wooden bowls and spoons with mystery meat soup. It was strips of Horde meat… Surprise! You guessed correct. The spoons and bowls were earth mage crafted and were an item meant to be kept forever.
The walkway was narrow after this point as there were only fifty stew pots with hundreds of citizens working each. The sick were healed which we knew would cause further delays. I understood it would take time for the end group to reach the showers as the flow would clump. When the line slowed we were handing bowls with spoons at the back of the line. There were lava balls in the midst to warm the people who were waiting in the rear. We had built enough housing to the north for a hundred million people with our gains from the battles around the planetary portal. As the people at the front made it to the housing section they had to walk by millions of homes before they were settled. I knew a lot would scoff and ask for a home at the easiest convenience, but we needed to stress the people at the rear were not as fortunate. When a family arrived at the new home, or single person at their apartment they were handed a few things. The first was a thick blanket. One ticket for a set of clothes at one of thousands of seamstress shops. A nice fluffy duck feather pillow and finally a list of what not to do. It was really simple. Do not steal, do not fight, do not touch someone without permission, and do not be an asshole. It actually included that last bit. The thing that made me laugh the most was. At the bottom, I added. Failure to comply with these rules and you will disintegrate. All hail the Vin Empire and Emperor Gryff. Others did not find it as humorous.
I watched this for an hour, and then two. I wanted to be close by in case there was a major foul up in the chain. As the first people were assigned homes I breathed a sigh of relief. It would take time for them to fully integrate. I was certain there would be a very long list of wants, needs, and desires. I was starting to get a sense of that from Livina. I had wives for that though, and shamans to help them achieve their goals.
I told Amber goodbye and walked over to my assembled troops. They were excited. Today we were going to strike a small orc settlement on the southern edge of the Saquin Mountains. The report from the flyover was ten thousand orcs supported by a few thousand goblins. It was an easy griffin target for cleansing by fire. I had them save it for us to use as practice. We would not always be a cavalry unit. It happened to be what I wanted to work on first.
Colonel Prixal waited with the reigns of my bull elk. I called him Santa for awesome obvious reasons. No one else got the reference or understood my joy at adding red battle paint to his nose. I thought it was epic though. Santa was the largest of the male elk we had. I hopped off the ground and settled myself in his saddle.
“Are the troops ready?” I asked and the grim dvaren nodded. Masochism at its finest. I returned his stern faced nod with a wide smile.
I trotted Santa over to my eleventh skirmish unit. It consisted of Siliq for portals, my harem guard, the elvath on the giant squirrels or rels, and a dozen heavy armored dvaren. We were a flanking and harassing team. With only sixty of us, we were half the size of the other companies.
The entire formation had been briefed this morning when the humans from Parxa arrived and stalled the engagement. We were ready to start the engagement. Siliq had gleaned the location from the scout on griffin back and ensured me earlier everything was good to go.
I looked over the determined faces of my team. The impatience of standing around for hours were gone. Final combat checks were being cond
ucted. I had a long dvaren made spear I used as a lance. My hips held crossbows. My shield was on my back and my sword in my belt. I snapped my face cover down.
“Siliq open the portal to this enemy settlement. Our unit is going in third. Let the heavy cavalry ride the orcs down.” I ordered my shaman. I then raised my voice to address the thousand plus mounted troops. “I do not need more orc slaves. The wargs and goblins are prime capture targets. Sixth and seventh companies are going to handle that detail. First and second will hit the center third go left fourth go right and from there, go where you see you can help the battle the most. They will not be expecting our sudden attack so utilize the element of surprise.”
There was no rousing speech or need to build up a determination in these troops. They were ready and thirsted for the blood of our enemies as much as I did. Siliq opened a wide portal that allowed enough room for twenty mounts in at the same time. Colonel Prixal led from the front of first company. A banner dvaren tilted his pike at a forty five degree angle and the charge was sounded. The thundering from the hooves of the elk tearing at the ground was loud. I watched as into the breach they went.
I spurred Santa between second and third company with my unit following me. Second company vanished row by row until it was our turn. When they disappeared we went from a trot to a run exactly as we had practiced a hundred times.
∞∞∞
I veered Santa to the right knowing the company behind me would be charging left. I spurned the elk forward with speed. Off to my left, I watched the battle unfold in the settlement. The barricades of wooden spikes had been flamed to ash as the dvaren crashed into the orcs. There was no battle formation to halt the heavy cavalry’s advance. A few orcs fought back while others raced to go get weapons. I had to focus in front of me as we ran into a cluster of wargs with orcs trying to get into the settlement.
Arrows whistled by me to slam into the riders only. Orcs tumbled from mounts in death. I grinned under my helmet as Santa increased his tempo with blood lust. The bull lowered his horns and I lowered my spear. We smashed into the side of the mounted enemy as they desperately tried to turn their formation. I skewered the orc with ease and dropped the spear. Santa stabbed the rider’s warg and then yanked his head up with his mighty neck muscles. The warg was dead before the massive damage was ripped across its body. I unsheathed my short sword and executed an orc with a cross thrust. Santa never slowed and we dove deep into the lines. I saw a frightened orc on my left trying to spur his mount to flee. A jab to his back ended his life. An axe cleaved for my exposed side which Santa saw and reacted to by pivoting. We were growing as a team. His maneuver let me parry the swipe and counter with a thrust to the neck.
A fireball raced our way from an orc watchtower. Victoria hastily erected a shield and it deflected the spell. What I saw next was something I hope to tell my children when they can comprehend it. The rels with elvath on their backs scurried up the watchtower. The shaman tried to keep them out with a shield that they burst with sheer pressure. The first rel to the shaman swatted him hundreds of feet away. Of course, I watched him scream on his way to his death. The rels jumped from the tower, opened the mini wings under their arms and smashed into the back lines of the wargs. Those animals were amazing.
I heard forth company on our heels. “Divert!” I ordered and earth mages walled the foe off from us. We peeled out of the combat and into the dense trees to the right. Once we disengaged, the wall crumbled and the fourth company hit the disoriented wargs with a full charge. That was the last of their spirit. The slaughter was in full swing as the defenses across the settlement folded. If they had a white flag I was certain it would have risen.
“We are going to do an outer perimeter sweep and see what we catch,” I bellowed to my unit and we worked our way through the forest toward the mountain outside the settlement. We stumbled upon a few goblins ferrying water from a stream that were quickly bound and secured by the elvath. They tossed the new slaves onto the back of their rels. Once that was done we continued our sweep.
The noise from the fighting had ceased as we reached the base of the mountain. The trees were more sporadic and the large rocks more common as the slope inclined. I saw a few caverns with fresh dirt outside them and slowed for a closer inspection. I looked for a trail to the settlement and did not see one. This may be a goblin or ogre nest. I wanted to train more on dismounted formations before cave diving. I directed us back down the hill before we got tangled into a drawn out fight away from our forces. A few fleeing orcs were shot down as they randomly ran our direction. The bodies were tossed on the back of the elks. More mystery meat to add to the stews later. I had a strict no waste policy unless it had to be avoided.
I trotted Santa into the settlement from the north. I saw dead Horde covering the ground. Mostly orcs with a few shamans, wargs, and goblins. The bodies were being piled in a few locations. A civilian team would come to remove these once we had a solid defense set. I remembered posting that job, body removal and extraction expert. Involves portals, blood, and heavy lifting. I chuckled at that as I watched sixth company herding wargs into a holding pen the orcs normally kept them in.
“An easy win Emperor Gryff,” Janice said as she trotted a female elk my way. “We are forcing the wargs into the pens. I spelled the water to put them to sleep. Then they will be muzzled and given to Roz to take to market. Seventh company is rounding up the goblins. Where would you like them, my lord?”
“Keep them here for now…” I sent out the slave contract and the goblins accepted. We had killed the chieftain who had slave rights. This allowed them to be claimed again. Which I did. “I am going to have them sort all the items to deliver to smithies. Then when the dvaren and Donnie get over here to start mining I will give them these goblins. If they cannot use them, then we will send them to the factory. I really want to visit that place.”
Janice chuckled. “Yes, a few of my water mage friends found employment there. They love it. Unlimited yeti hearts and they are a key component to the operation.” Janice said with a smile. “I am sure they will eventually bore of the mundane work. For now, they feel important. Blue mages rule…”
I saw Cora flash a smile at this declaration.
“Cora find me the Colonel and Lady Jia please,” I ordered. The water mage leader darted off on her sleek elk to find the others. She was fitting in nicely. Of the water mages, Tess had been trying to conceive. Cora was a talented mage and I was working on her insecurities. It did not take long for her to retrieve my other leaders.
“Nice rout this one. It was a bit too easy, there was no resistance really. You hit the only juicy target and you managed a flank.” Colonel Prixal grumbled.
“Well… Do you want to cleanse a few ogre caverns up the hill? I saw two.”
“We are up for it,” Lady Jai said dismounting.
“If it is an ogre nest then there should not be more than a few dozen. How many were you wanted to attempt to clear it with?” Prixal asked.
“When I cleared a goblin cave we simply rushed in and adjusted the fight as we went. It will be much harder for me to utilize my aura efficiently in confined spaces. It would probably be wise to establish a shield wall and then use range attacks while giving up ground.” I said while scratching my beard. I was due for a shave. Pipi was up and about now. I would need to schedule some…
“You with us Emperor?” Ruby said with a nudge. She was getting used to my occasional zone outs. The woman tried to be at my side at all times.
“Yup… Thinking with my dick. Battle does that to me.” I said as Jai rolled her eyes and Prixal shrugged. “Well, I wanted to practice ground tactics first… We are here though. You take companies eight and nine. I will take ten with my unit. That way those in the back get some action. We will gauge how we did and how we can improve after. TENTH COMPANY UP THAT HILL!”
I steered Santa up the hill with my unit in tow. I reached into the saddlebag on the back of my mount. There were four sections of a pole brok
en down. I screwed them together to make a solid stick. I unfurled my flag and attached it to the tip of the pole with two clips. I nudged Santa over to Ruby’s mount and planted my flag in a slot behind her saddle. This would let the tenth know where I was in the crowd.
“Don’t waste your pole on the mount… Stick it in me. I promise to grip it so tightly you won't want me to let go.” Ruby said.
This was standard for her and it achieved little reaction besides a few smirks. She was probably trying to get my attention to get filled with my post battle seed. We moved through the dense forest until we came into the opening mountain terrain. It was easy to find the ogre dig outs. They were a few thousand feet apart and the cavern entrances were maybe large enough for a small griffin. No air support today though. I dismounted and tied Santa to a tree at the edge of the clearing. My unit joined me on the ground. The tenth was not far behind. They assigned half a platoon to guard our mounts.
I had Maise build me a small platform so I could address everyone assembled. “We go in slow and steady. Shield wall up front with mages right behind them. Earth mages, if it looks like we are going to be overrun I want a solid wall to slow the enemy. It may not stop an ogre for long and I am okay with that. The plan needs to stay simple. Pikes up front with shields. Then ranged archers and mages. In this case, healers and water mages will be in the far back of the line. If we come to an opening, which we probably will, then we will fan out as we deal damage. Tenth place your five best pike dvaren upfront with your archers and mages behind them. I will be right behind you with my own custom formation.”