Battleborne

by Dave Willmarth

  Twenty minutes later, the last of the greys was dead. The Darkholm dwarves had contained them in a section of tunnel about thirty yards long, and the bodies were piled high. Dwarves from both companies began to advance through the corpses, recovering their wounded and dead, and making sure any wounded greys became dead. Behind them, a second rank began looting the corpses.

  Max stepped forward through the now seated and resting ranks and kicked one of the grey bodies, allowing Red’s adjustment to loot them all, just in case there was some specialized item just for him. He knew from his games that ‘players’ often received quest items or loot fit specifically for their class that npcs just didn’t get. Being at the front, he heard one of the dwarves report to the captain.

  “We lost eleven, five dead and six too badly hurt to continue. Another nineteen are bein’ healed and will fight on. Estimate eighty dead greys. Unknown number o’ cowards up above that retreated before even jumpin’ down.”

  Rockbreaker nodded and picked his way through the corpses to meet the second company’s captain. Max followed, poking a few corpses with his bow to make sure they weren’t faking, recovering his arrows anytime he spotted one still intact. One grey flinched when he poked it, so he stomped on its head, which split open like a melon.

  The other company had fared slightly better, having been more prepared as they charged forward. In total, of the two hundred fighters in the combined force, ten were killed, and nine were being sent back with missing limbs or other injuries too severe to heal in the field. Each captain detailed ten dwarves to escort and help carry the wounded to the rear, and bring back replacements.

  One fight, and they were already effectively down a fifth of their strength. Max took comfort in the fact that though they were down nearly forty fighters, they’d killed twice that many greys.

  The company reformed once the wounded and their escort, along with the bodies of the fallen, had departed. The dwarves were very practical in their transport of the dead, depositing them into a storage device rather than detailing a dwarf or two to carry each one.

  Rockbreaker waved a hand, and his first company moved forward, the second company waiting a minute or so before following.

  Max checked his status as he once again tried to walk quietly behind his company. He’d picked up several thousand points of experience from the fight, but not quite enough to level up. Red spoke from his shoulder. “You’ve leveled up Confuse again, and your Archery skill is now level three. Your loot summary is ready whenever you want to view it. I’m going to go recharge for a while.”

  Max was confused. Red had only been with him a few hours. He whispered, “Are you okay?”

  She nodded glumly, looking back over her own shoulder. “This is all just a little… much.”

  “Okay, thanks Red. For all you’re doing. Get some rest.” Max understood. The battle had been horribly brutal, the screams of the wounded and dying, blood and body parts splattered everywhere. The sobs of wounded allies as they endured the pain of their wounds until the healers could get to them.

  As they walked, Max examined his bow. The weapon was amazing at range, but with the greys dropping so close behind him, he’d had to abandon it quickly. After staring at the weapon for a bit, he reached a decision. The next time they stopped, he was going to make a change.

  Three hours later his company reached a mid-sized cavern. The dwarf-made tunnel ended there, and a natural tunnel continued on at the other side of the open space. The scouts returned to report that the tunnel ahead was clear for at least a mile. Rockbreaker called a halt. “Four hours! Double sentries! Eat n sleep while ye can!”

  Max took a seat with his back against a boulder, and took a drink from his canteen. A moment later a dwarf handed him a sandwich that consisted of a thick slice of ham, cheese, and some kind of leafy vegetable. When he took a bite and swallowed, he received a buff of +2 to Endurance and +2 to Health Regeneration that would last twenty four hours.

  Dalia came to sit next to him, along with a couple of the other healers. “I saw ye healin’ some o’ the worst ones back there. Thank ye. For a time there near the end, we were hard pressed, low on mana and barely keepin’ up.”

  “Happy to help. Just wish I’d seen and been able to help the ones we lost.”

  “Aye, we all feel the same.” Dalia took a bite of her sandwich.

  When they were done eating, most of the dwarves lay down where they were and did their best to sleep. They had no idea what lay in front of them, or when they’d get a chance to sleep again.

  Max, with his high Endurance, didn’t need as much rest. Instead he pulled a file from his inventory and began to work on his steel bow. First one end, then the other. By the time the captain called a wakeup, both tips of the bow were tapered to a reasonably sharp point. Max could now use the bow to do some stabbing or slashing damage to enemies who got close while he was shooting arrows. It wouldn’t help in a fight with dozens of enemies charging him like the one earlier, but against one or two, it might be a devastating surprise.

  Their next fight came as they followed the natural tunnel downward. They were passing a cross-tunnel that the scouts had gone to investigate, when the sound of clashing steel and shouting echoed out of the right branch, which sloped upward into the darkness. A moment later, Rockbreaker cursed. “We just lost a pair o’ scouts.”

  Seconds later as the company formed up to face the tunnel and advance, a rumbling sound began to build. Max strained both his ears and eyes, trying to see what was coming. The moment he realized what it was, he shouted, “Clear the tunnel! Move! Move aside!”

  Trusting his judgement, the dwarves began to clear left and right. But they were so tightly packed that it was slow going. A huge round boulder came crashing down the tunnel, bouncing off the floor and walls as it picked up speed. When it bowled across the main tunnel the dwarves were in, three of them were unable to move quickly enough, and got caught in its path. Several others got clipped on shoulders or hips as it blew past, then bounced off the opposite corner, hitting several more dwarves.

  Max jumped toward it, his own dwarven shield now in his hands. When it threatened another bounce that would take it into half of the company, he slammed himself into it, stopping its momentum even as his left arm shattered, his shoulder dislocated, and several ribs were either broken or bruised. Even troll bones have their limits. Ignoring the pain, he pressed the boulder, which stood about five feet high, against the tunnel wall, stopping its momentum completely.

  Immediately several dwarves moved to take it from him as he fell backward, the pain threatening to make him pass out. They held the boulder until the wounded and dead had been cleared, then rolled it into the side tunnel to their left.

  The others formed up again, this time in a wedge, facing the tunnel where the boulder had come from. A battle cry and the sound of stomping feet preceded a charge by a group of grey dwarves following along in the boulder’s wake.

  Max felt heals hit him, and then the excruciating pain of his bones knitting back together, his shoulder popping back in place. Selecting the first grey he spotted, he cast Drain to heal himself so that the healers could focus on their front line.

  Grunting in pain, Max cast Confuse on the lead greys, causing them to slow and look around, which in turn created a roadblock for the greys behind. They were pushed forward out of sheer momentum, and a mass of greys tumbled to the tunnel floor in front of the Darkholm dwarves, who proceeded to slaughter them.

  Getting to his feet, Max tried to draw his bow, but the left arm wasn’t healed enough to keep it straight. He focused on his drain spell, keeping the channeling going until the dwarf he’d picked expired. Trying again, Max was able to draw the bow completely, but his left arm wobbled a bit. Pointing the arrow into the mass near the center of the greys, he didn’t try to aim, just loosed the arrow. Since the tunnel sloped upward, he had clear shots well above the heads of his allies. His first arrow blasted through the leg of one grey and into the gut of one
of those who’d been knocked over.

  Gritting his teeth, Max cast Drain again on the grey with the wounded leg, hoping it would bleed out and give him a bonus. He’d yet to receive one from this spell. Nocking another arrow, he began to fire one after another into the mass of enemies, his slowly steadying left arm finally allowing him to aim. He tried to hit them high and knock them back to foul the advance of the ones behind.

  When the grey he was draining was killed, he switched and cast Confuse again, allowing his dwarves to breathe for a moment, then advance and kill the helpless greys.

  The second company arrived, and their captain quickly assessed the situation. He sent his fighters further down the main tunnel and into the left side branch where the boulder sat, to guard against any sneak attacks. His healers joined with Rockbreaker’s in keeping the front line dwarves healed, and prepared a detail of his fresher fighters to switch out with the tanks.

  With plenty of healers to handle the dozen or so dwarves along the front line, Max went back to firing his arrows. Each one struck a head or chest, knocking down a grey if not outright killing it.

  The battle was over in less than ten minutes this time, but the news wasn’t good. They’d killed fifty greys, but lost more than twenty of their own. Five had been killed outright by the boulder, and two more had limbs crushed beyond saving. Ten dwarves had died in the brutal melee at the tunnel junction, and three had lost a hand, a leg at the knee, and both eyes to enemy weapons. Again, the captains were forced to detail healthy dwarves to escort their wounded and dead to the rear. With just five wounded to escort, they reduced the detail from twenty to ten, and sent them on their way.

  Their starting force of two hundred was now down to one hundred thirty one, plus the two captains and Max. Even worse, one of the dead crushed by the stone had been a healer.

  The stalwart dwarves took a few minutes to rest, cleaning themselves as best they could, taking a drink and some food. Then the captains ordered them to form up and continue. The scouts reported no more greys down either of the side tunnels, and they were about to continue down the main tunnel they’d been following, when Max had an idea. He spoke quietly to the two captains, who both nodded their agreement and began giving orders.

  Max moved to the front and waited while the boulder was rolled over next to him. Taking his belt knife, he slashed his arm and began to rub it over the stone’s surface, smearing his blood around. When the wound healed, he did it again, having the dwarves roll it forward slightly to give him access to more surface area. When he had healed again, at least enough that the blood stopped flowing, he nodded to the dwarves. They gave it a shove, and one of them cast a fire spell at the slowly moving boulder. It immediately burst into flame, Max’s troll blood acting as fuel, and the tunnel lit up ahead of them as gravity sent the juggernaut faster and faster down the tunnel. The dwarves jogged after it, many of them grinning at the use of the greys own weapon against them, with a twist. It wasn’t long before the boulder was out of sight in the slightly curved tunnel, but they could still hear the echoes of it rumbling down the tunnel.

  A minute later, the rumbling sound was accompanied by screams, and the dwarves cheered. They picked up their pace, knowing that the massive stone would likely have set off any traps ahead. When they rounded a slight bend in the tunnel, they found a trail of crushed and broken grey dwarf corpses. With no side tunnel to escape into, they had tried to outrun the burning boulder, or squeeze themselves against a wall to let it pass.

  Neither strategy had worked.

  As near as they could tell, twenty of the greys lay smashed and broken along the stretch of tunnel. There were places where the stone had smashed against either side wall of the tunnel on its way past, but it was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, it had resumed its downward path after crushing the enemy. Max tried listening for it, but it was either too far away, or had come to a halt somewhere ahead.

  The dead were looted, and scouts advanced, followed a minute or so later by Rockbreaker’s company, and a minute later by the second. Ten minutes into their jog, Max leveled up, as did several of the other dwarves. Rockbreaker slowed them to a march since it was clear there were enemies ahead.

  It was nearly half an hour later that they caught up to their scouts, who where casually leaning against the tunnel wall, waiting for them. When the captain asked for a report, they both grinned. “The rock kept rollin.” was all one of them said before pointing down the tunnel. They both walked with the captain as he advanced.

  The tunnel ahead was liberally splattered with black, sticky blood and body parts that Max clearly identified as insectoid. Spider legs, mandibles, burst thorax sacs, the boulder had crushed and smeared dozens of the creatures.

  “Rock spiders.” Dalia informed Max. “Tough bastards, hard to kill. Gotta stab them in the joints between their natural chitin armor. Or… you know, crush them to bits with a big fiery rock.”

  Max touched a mostly intact leg that was stuck to the wall nearby, receiving loot but not looking at it. The dwarves went through and looted as well, some of them quickly snatching up three-foot sections of spider legs with a grin. As the second company caught up, Rockbreaker’s fighters continued forward.

  Two hours later, they emerged into a wide cavern, where about a hundred yards ahead of them their friendly neighborhood boulder sat still against a giant mushroom. Between them and it lay a trail of smaller mushrooms crushed by the stone.

  In fact, the floor of the cavern was a whole forest of mushrooms growing four to six feet in height. The dwarves murmured about mushroom steaks and gravy, while Max stood still and looked beyond the fungi. On the other side of the huge open space, built right into the opposite wall of the cavern, was a city.

  “I think we’re here.” Max told the captain.

  Chapter 13

  Max was awakened the next morning by Dalia nudging him with her foot. The familiar sounds of a soldier’s camp were the first thing he was aware of. The crackling of fires, sizzling of breakfast in frying pans, the quiet grumbling of soldiers who’d slept rough and knew they might not survive the day.

  Now on his feet, Max once again looked across the mushroom forest on the cavern floor toward their objective. The grey dwarves knew they were coming, and had closed their gates. Armored bodies lined the top of the wall, and every fifty feet or so sat a large cauldron over a fire. The captain had told him the evening before that the cauldrons held hot oil for pouring onto the heads of any dwarves who tried to scale the wall.

  One by one the groups going down each of the three tunnels had arrived in the cavern. They’d set up camp while the engineers began to assemble their siege engines. Max had watched, and even helped a bit once he understood what they were doing. He’d worked with two dwarves on assembling a large ballistae, which was basically a giant crossbow that fired five-foot long heavy bolts with wickedly barbed iron heads. While doing the work at the direction of the dwarves, he had picked up the Engineering skill, and leveled it once. He’d also leveled up the Woodcrafting skill when one of the heavy dowels used to secure two of the weapon’s parts broke, and he quickly fashioned a replacement by sacrificing his crude wooden club. First he whittled it down to a rough size with his axe, then with his belt knife, and finally used his metal file to smooth it out enough to fit in the hole. Not the best tools for the job, but he managed.

  When they finished the assembly, the dwarves gave him the honor of test firing the weapon. He loaded one of the ten-pound projectiles into the slot, aimed at one of the giant mushrooms directly in front of them, and pulled the trigger. The ballistae rocked backward slightly against the blocks that were placed behind its wheels, and the bolt shot forward. It blasted through the mushroom stalk, which was about two feet thick, then buried itself into another one several feet beyond. Both mushrooms fell over like freshly cut trees, and the two dwarves began harvesting the meat of the fungus for the cookfires.

  While Max had slept, reinforcements arrived, and even a few of their woun
ded had returned to them. The dwarf with the ruined eyes had been healed, as had one who’d lost several fingers. Their company and the one that had followed them through the fighting were both back to full strength, and Max’s elven ears picked up mention of the other clans arriving in the city above, their troops already on the way down to help with the siege.

  Not seeing Red anywhere, Max accompanied Dalia to the nearest cookfire for breakfast. It was disappointingly simple, a bowl of some kind of oatmeal with honey with a spice similar to cinnamon sprinkled on top. When Max swallowed his first bite, he got a buff of +2 to both Constitution and Strength for twelve hours. “I really need to learn to cook more.” He mentioned to Dalia between mouthfuls. “The bonuses from food are pretty great.”

  “It be a combination of ingredients and skill.” She licked her spoon clean then set it into the empty bowl. “Takes years of practice to reach the level of our army’s cooks, but it can’t hurt to start practicing.”

  The captain came and grabbed a bowl of his own, then sat next to Dalia. Max let him take several mouthfuls in peace before asking. “Do we attack today?”

  “Unlikely.” The captain paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “We’re waitin’ on the other clans, and their generals will want some input in the plannin’. And another day gives the kobolds a chance to arm their warriors and move in to block any retreat out the grey cowards’ back doors.”

  “You mind if I do a little recon?” Max volunteered, since he had nothing better to do, and he disliked sitting around. “It was sort of my specialty once upon a time.”

  “Ye have the stealth skill, like our scouts?”

  Max felt his cheeks redden. “No. I’m just very good at staying out of sight, and observing from a distance.” He thought about it for a moment. “In fact, if I get close enough, any objection to me picking off a few of the greys on the wall? See how they react?”