Questions, a ton. That was the whole briefing on strategy? I supposed that was good enough for during the battle, they wanted the undying to adjust and do what we had to, to avoid a breach or foothold on the walls.
“How many parties of undying on the walls?”
Dane shrugged, “Right now there’s enough for two on each wall, each shift, but there may be more coming. Most if not all of the undying from the Western Kingdom has come east to do battle, but many of them are at the two elven cities in the forest right now.”
Huh. There were about ten thousand undying on this island from what I knew, five percent of that chose to advance and level, while the rest got normal jobs in the cities. So, the numbers fighting would be about five hundred, so about a hundred parties, give or take a few based on party sizes. Only sixteen parties at this fort, assume the same number at the northern fort, and that left almost seventy parties skipping this first part of the war. Why?
“What’s going on here? Are there retreat plans if we’re overwhelmed?”
Dane frowned, “We expect the enemy to surround the walls, escape won’t be simple. This fort and the other is designed to bleed the enemy. The officers will be evacuated via the ships when the time comes, if we have time. If not, we volunteered for this duty, on the off chance we can end this war before our forest is damaged. The undying will have to come up with their own escape, or they can join in the next phase of the war when they resurrect.”
Well, that explained why there was only one dwarven and human officer. I was also pretty sure we could escape easily enough, with the flying spells.
I looked at Anlyth, “What haven’t you told us. What’s with the collars, all these men volunteered for a suicide mission?”
The humans, dwarves, and elves in the armor and collars walking around all had that resigned look on their face, which made a lot more sense now than it did when we walked in. They were all dead men and women, unless by some miracle we held back the horde here. I doubted it. We’d be outnumbered by far more than ten to one, even if the horde split and half attacked here while the other half attacked the northern fort.
Anlyth grunted, while Dane’s eyes widened.
Lyre said, “They are already dead.”
Gwen tilted her head, “Can you explain that?”
Lyre said reluctantly, “They are murderers and rapists, men and women who have broken the law and have been sentenced to death. They are also volunteers. Instead of being hanged, or beheaded, they have chosen to fight for a chance at life, even if that chance is extremely slim. If they manage to survive the battle they will be pardoned and set free. The collars… ensure they will not betray us in battle. This plan has been a long time in the making, for the last twenty years we’ve been building this group between the three kingdoms. Once the officers retreat, they will have a slim chance to make their own escape.”
Oh. Holy crap. They’d also be fighting very hard, to survive. I imagined if they ran early, before the officers pulled out, the collars would stop them. It was grim kind of thing, I wasn’t sure if it was brilliant, or horrifying. Maybe both. Still, if they’d earned death, and took this option, they’d volunteered. Still, who wouldn’t volunteer when the only other options were a stout rope or a sharp axe with no chance at life.
Lara shivered, “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Anlyth shrugged uncomfortably, “I don’t think we’ll have trouble when the time for retreat comes, and they have earned their fate. It… isn’t a pleasant thing.”
I glanced around. None of us were particularly comfortable with it, but it was war, and it wasn’t for us to decide anyway. The more we could kill outside the elven forest the better, even if we couldn’t stop them there. Morally ambiguous at best, but it was a fight for survival against the evil races. Still, where should the line be drawn? It was also a wakeup call, this wasn’t a game, and wouldn’t be one sided. A lot of people were going to die. It was hard to dismiss it, and say they weren’t real and just computer-generated people. Especially when I was so close to Anlyth, Lyre, Wynn, Rylla, and Annabelle. It was just impossible to not see them as real people.
Dane waved at one of the barracks buildings, “The undying have those barracks, the mess hall is open anytime. I need to get back.”
We all nodded, and he turned and headed back to the command building.
Steve blew out a breath, “It’s going to be a long fight.”
I nodded, “We need to cast at our regen rate, no going for the quick kill unless it’s desperate and to prevent a foothold. Even then… we need to be careful.”
Steven nodded, “Let’s eat, and get some rest. It’s been a long day.”
That sounded like a plan…
Chapter Seven
The food was adequate, although I wondered how much of that was because of the grim atmosphere. The idea of using the condemned as a first line of defense bothered me, and of course morale was low.
I could see why.
Colonel Faelyn would feel free to spend all their lives, and at a guess he would accept sixty to seventy percent losses before he even thought about pulling out. By then the idea of escaping would be virtually impossible for those incapable of flight. That was no way to run a battle. Yes, they were all convicted felons, the walking dead, but it still bothered me.
I didn’t think I was the only one, we were all silent during dinner, and even Anlyth and Lyre had been avoiding our gazes since we found out, as if they were ashamed. It was also a clue that all wasn’t well in the three kingdoms in my opinion. Maybe the three races did get along unlike in the Southern Kingdom, but that didn’t make them all sweetness and light, a false impression I’d gotten from the warm welcome of the elves, and the honor of those I’d fought alongside already. Really, in hindsight it was kind of naïve to think anything like that in the first place.
We were still eating when a loud clap of thunder reached our ears, followed by two screaming voices. I wasn’t positive, but one of them sounded like Dane, while the other one was female. It was hard to make out what they were saying, yelling all over each other and in anger.
We all exchanged a quick alarmed glance, and then jumped to our feet and headed for the exit. A few other parties also headed toward the door, looks of curiosity and alarm on their faces. The convicted however didn’t get up, though a few betrayed embers of curiosity by looking toward the door.
The evening sky was clear, not a cloud in sight, which told me the thunder was magical in nature, somehow. Dane looked exasperated at the woman screaming at him right up in his face. If it wasn’t for the look of anguish on her face it might have been funny. She was petite and athletic in stature, about a foot shorter than he was at five foot two, with curly golden blonde hair and brown eyes. She wore leather armor and had a bow and quiver over her shoulder. She might be attractive, but with the scowl on her face, and puffy eyes, it was impossible to tell in that moment.
My party and several others just watched the spectacle for a moment, not sure if we should interrupt because we weren’t sure what it was about. It was easier to make out the words, and hers were peppered with words like cowards, bastards, and even uglier terms filled with four letter words. It was made clear shortly that this wasn’t a lover’s spat, though I still had no idea what was going on.
I whistled shrilly, which amazingly got them both to shut up.
“What’s going on?”
Dane gave me a pained look, but he didn’t answer.
The woman answered in angry contempt, while glaring up at Dane.
“My party was assigned a tribe of hobgoblins, there were just under sixty of them. We took out maybe a third, when we were set upon by a large number of dark elves from behind. They seemed to appear from nowhere out of the cliff face. We fought, but we were highly outnumbered, and they were within our defenses. I died, the other five in my party were captured. Darkness sphere, they were overwhelmed by curses.”
She continued in a voice burning with sarcastic contempt.<
br />
“According to the brave and valiant Faelyn, there will be no rescue mission. They can’t afford to risk their scouts in a hairbrained rescue attempt. His words, not mine. According to Dane here, there is about a hundred dark elves travelling with the remaining forty hobgoblins. Apparently, the dark elves must have been late arrivals from one of their underground cities.”
Damn, talk about bad timing.
She turned to look at us, and for a moment was surprised to see just how big her audience had grown.
Dane said in a reasonable voice, “It’s too dangerous. We need everyone here, and your friends will be fine once they are killed.”
The woman spat, “Coward, they’re being tortured.”
I frowned.
“How close are they to the main host?”
Dane said, “About a half day’s travel now, as of an hour ago they were setting up camp. There’s only two other enemy groups that will take longer, and they’ll get there later tomorrow afternoon.”
Right, which puts them at the fort the next night.
Gwen caught my eye, and she nodded subtly. I looked to the rest of the party and could read their faces plainly enough. It was insane to try and mount a rescue, I also knew they wanted to do it.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Cassie,” she said shortly.
I nodded, “Come with us, we’ll take a look.”
Dane shook his head, “It’s suicide, you can’t overpower a hundred dark elves. They’ll also have traps set, assuming we’ll send rescue.”
Yeah, kill a hundred dark elves and forty hobgoblins, probably not, but that wasn’t the objective. It was a rescue mission. Worst case, we could kill the captured undying from the air to free them from the torture, and they’d be back by tomorrow night the latest, in plenty of time to fight in the battle we expected would happen in about forty-eight hours. That was a last resort though, there had to be a way to sneak them out.
Cassie frowned, “You’re serious? It’s at least twenty miles away. We need their ships.”
I grinned, “Got it covered, let’s go.”
I turned to Anlyth and Lyre, “He has a point, this could be a death trap.”
Lyre shook her head, and glared at Dane, “We’re going.”
Honestly, it was kind of a relief, proof that I hadn’t misjudged my friends and allies. Just the command structure up top seemed to be all kinds of screwed up in the northern kingdoms.
I took the time to introduce everyone once we’d left the fort, it was about a half an hour walk back to the glade where we had our ship, so there was certainly time. Cassie was blunt with her speech, though not in a rude way. Outspoken, without apology, although I supposed rude would fit the bill for those she lost all respect for, like Dane and Faelyn. Point was, she didn’t hold us in contempt, and it showed. She wasn’t arrogant, just brutally honest about her perceptions. She was also in the upper levels of apprentice with the bow, Light sphere, and Air sphere.
It would take longer than a few minutes to get to know her of course, I wasn’t sure if she was all bluff and bluster, or just supremely confident in herself. Probably somewhere in the middle, all things being equal. It was just a first impression, for all I knew it was just the anger driving her.
We were still walking, while I outlined the beginnings of a plan. Or at least, a pre-plan, we couldn’t plan until we saw exactly what we were up against and how their camp was set up.
“Alright, we’ll do a flyover while shrouded, then pull out long enough to plan a distraction and rescue. If we can be reasonably sure of success, we’ll sneak in and pull them out. If not, plan B is to take them out with the ship’s weapons from on high, and then run like hell before they fire back. Rescue is the preferred objective, but if forced to, we’ll have to settle for freeing them through death to stop their torture.”
I wondered if we’d get the killer flag for that. Would our good intentions matter, or would we be labeled as murderers until our next death?
I looked over to Cassie, “Are you okay with that?”
Cassie replied, “Anything to stop them being tortured. I’d have probably objected yesterday, but death isn’t so bad for us, kind of peaceful. Ship weapons? How do you even have a ship?”
Gwen smirked, “It was his idea, and his design. The elves copied ours.”
Cassie nodded, “Thank you, I didn’t think anyone would help us. Is there enough room on the ship for eleven people?”
I shrugged, “It seats eight comfortably, and there is a decently sized empty cabin in the back for supplies that will sit two on the floor, if not comfortably. It’ll be tight, there might be some lap sitting, but we’ll fit. As far as weapons, it will fire some pretty powerful fire blasts through a grand enchantment. More than enough to kill them in one shot, if they’re unprotected.”
The grand enchantment was made of four journeyman level gems that could hold six hundred mana each, twenty-four hundred mana total. They each regened to full over three minutes, and at journeyman level it did three times damage. So, if I focused all of that into one shot, it would cause a maximum of seven thousand two hundred fire damage.
In a normal battle, it would be stupid to use it all at once, but for a mercy killing, and maybe taking a bunch of the enemy with them so we could escape fast, it worked. The explosive radius was the same as it was for my area of effect fire spells, fifty feet maximum, and it lost ten percent effectiveness for every five feet away from the center.
As powerful as the ship was offensively, it was fairly weak defensively. It wouldn’t take much to damage it, so I’d prefer not to get into any drawn-out fights while flying it. It was our transportation, not really a war ship, and we had to protect it.
Still, I hoped that would be unnecessary, I wanted to rescue them, not kill them so they could escape torture and respawn.
Chapter Eight
Night had fallen by the time we got back to the glade, identified where we needed to go on the map, and boarded the ship. The sky was clear, so we were able to go high enough to be almost impossible to spot, yet still see the ground. We’d cloak before we made it to the right area, it wouldn’t take long to go the twenty miles, but I wasn’t going to fly too fast in the dark, even with my night vision.
Cassie grumbled, “Bullshit,” and then grimaced.
“What is?”
Cassie scowled, “This world is messed up. It’s not all bad, I enjoy parts of it, but…” She paused for a minute, then continued, “There’s a lot of speculation among us undying that this world was created because we were all losing our minds. Life was too easy, we needed challenges, and growth.”
I nodded, “We came to a similar conclusion.”
More than that, over the last couple of weeks I’d decided what I’d been doing in the old world was almost as unhealthy as what the constant partyers were doing. The human spirit needed many things, all in moderation. Even education and furthering understanding wasn’t enough, I’d just been losing my mind slower than the others because of it. There was also nothing wrong with relaxation, partying, and celebration, in fact that kind of thing was quite important, but in moderation. I’d figured that out taking time to relax with Gwen and the rest of the party, my friends, after finishing our last major quest and reaching journeyman levels.
She frowned, “And I get that, for the food and drink, hunting, and fighting for survival. But this kind of crap doesn’t fit at all. Death is bad enough, but how is torture by evil races supposed to keep us sane, people tend to lose their minds under torture, PTSD and all that kind of stuff. It… doesn’t fit the purpose. That has to mean we’re missing something, or… Gaia is batshit crazy.”
I snickered.
“Yet, here we are fighting.”
Cassie snorted, “We don’t have a choice. The other ninety five percent of us have their heads buried in the sand. If we don’t fight, grow, and meet this challenge, we’ll be enslaved and tortured when the evil races overwhelm the humans, elves, and d
warves anyway. Besides, I’d make a horrible employee,” she grinned, “Too stubborn.”
That was actually a good explanation of what I’d felt that first day, when I’d rescued Gwen. Want to fight or not, I didn’t feel I really had a choice, and didn’t want her to be tortured. I wondered if I’d have felt differently at all, if I’d woken up safely in a town where another path was available. I liked to think not, and despite the danger I enjoyed the challenge and quick growth of the path I’d chosen.
“What do you think it is, is she crazy, or is there another purpose?”
Cassie frowned, “Not sure.”
The world was oddly peaceful at two thousand feet up in the air, and we moved into the mountains. Gwen and Lara had no trouble swapping back and forth to keep us cloaked as we scouted out the enemy. The hundred dark elves and forty hobgoblins were camped in the middle of a deep valley filled with not much more growing around them than wild grass a couple of feet high.
From what we could tell, they were camped side by side, with the four captives tied with chains and staked to the ground in between, to a common pole. They also had guards posted and watching for enemies. Worse, they were looking up often, since they knew we had flyers now. I wasn’t sure how they were keeping the captives from fighting, maybe they were wearing cursed enchantments to keep their stamina and mana drained. Manacles of some kind, instead of an actual cage. The good news was no one was torturing them in the moment, though they were guarded by four dark elves.
I also had no idea how to rescue them, the four prisoners were in the middle, between their camps, and I was fairly sure attacking them all would be suicide. I’d been hoping they’d be on the edge of camp, not in the middle and surrounded.
“Skills?”
Cassie replied, “Air, Light, and bow.”
I nodded, “Anyone got an idea on how we can pull off a rescue?”
Anlyth said, “We’re cloaked, can you fly lower, so we can feel the enchantments?”
Island Kingdoms' War Page 4