I nodded at Bob. “Begin.”
The general motioned to a group of seven Ogres with catapults mounted on their backs. The Ogres moved forward, crouched, and let fly. Seven bowling ball-sized rocks sailed toward the town. Five hit the walls and bounced off harmlessly, but two hit the front gate, leaving two visible dents in the tough material.
“Again!”
With the help of several hobs, the Ogres reloaded and let loose another volley. Lirian stood next to me. As we both watched impassively, the flung boulders repeatedly hit the gate, slowly battering it down.
Bob approached me. “I believe the gates are sufficiently weakened, Chief.”
We knew the small catapult would take too long to completely reduce the gate’s durability. It was built to withstand such attacks, and the defenders could continually reinforce it from the inside. But we didn’t need it destroyed. That was what Ogres were for. “Proceed.”
Bob turned away from me. “Spearhead platoon, move! Tank squad one, provide cover. The rest of you – fall behind.”
Like a well-oiled machine, the army started moving forward. A squad of normal Ogres mixed with Ogre Mages led the charge, while our highest-level tanks surrounded them, protecting their flanks with raised shields.
As soon as the force entered the kill zone, the arrows started to descend. Hundreds and hundreds of arrows landed every second. A good chunk of them splintered against raised shields, but many more found the tall Ogres’ unprotected upper half. The brutes’ hardened skin, coupled with the thick oxsaurian leather they wore, made their armor rating incredibly high for their level. The arrows that found their mark didn’t penetrate deep, but they did inflict some damage, and it was slowly mounting.
The army moved on, with singular hobgoblins falling every few steps as more and more arrows passed through our defenses. Goblin healers scurried between the taller soldiers’ legs, repeatedly casting heals. Despite that, halfway through the kill zone, the first Ogre succumbed to his wounds and fell.
“Hold steady!” Bob’s voice boomed. “Prepare for my mark!”
The rain of arrows nearly blotted out the night sky as my advancing army got into range of the farthest bowmen. More hobs fell every second, along with the occasional Ogre.
The army reached 50 meters from the battered gate, our target point.
“NOW!” the general bellowed.
With a deafening roar, the tightly packed Ogres at the front dispersed, revealing 12 Ogre Mages that held a gigantic tree log. The mages let out a war cry and made a wild dash toward the gate, ignoring the many arrows that penetrated their tough skin. Flames sprang to life around the brutes’ bodies, flowing through their hands to the log, coating the massive fallen tree with a sheet of billowing fire.
With a deafening crash, the burning tree impacted the damaged gate, blowing a hole straight through.
The main bulk of dispersed Ogres were easy pickings for the town snipers, and more of them fell, but those remaining picked up boulders, throwing them at the archers, while the hob scouts – partially protected by the tanks – returned fire.
The combined barrage of thrown rocks and arrows brought down several defenders, but they were well-entrenched. In a ranged contest, the enemy had far more advantages than we did. It didn’t matter. My forces were exacting a toll on the enemy, and despite the heavy cost, everything was going according to plan.
Standing outside the ranged combat, Lirian, Kuzai, and I watched the raging battle impassively. Despite my aversion to the twisted dwarf, there was something common to all three of us, and it required us to stay together outside the battle, ready for the next stage of the plan.
The Ogre Mages yanked the burning log out of the gate. As one, blue shields of force rose around their bulky bodies, fortifying them against the arrows. Unlike me, the junior mages couldn’t move while the shields were active, and now they were stationary. Ignoring the rest of the arrows, the Ogres swung again, slamming the multi-ton log against the gate. A tremendous boom shook the ground, opening another giant hole in the barrier.
More and more of my soldiers fell, over a hundred in the few moments since the battle started.
BOOM!
The weakened gate groaned, and one hinge was torn away from its socket.
More hobs fell and I had to tighten my fists to remain steady and reminded myself it was all part of the plan.
BOOM!
One side of the gate was ripped off its hinges, flying into the town and squashing several of the defenders who were desperately trying to reinforce it from the other side.
The enemy mages joined the battle, hurling lightning and fire at my troops through the open gate.
An Ogre Mage’s shield failed as his mana bottomed out, then dozens of arrows hit him at once, making him topple. But the other Ogres held, a couple of them even shooting draining mana rays at the enemy spellcaster to replenish their pools before they struck again.
BOOM!
The mages kept slamming the impromptu battering ram as their fellow soldiers fell all around them.
BOOM!
With the fifth and final slam, the gate burst open completely. The Ogre Mages bellowed a roar of triumph and led the charge into the breach.
Rows of trained and armored guards welcomed them on the other side.
Just like the raid we’d made on the Infernal Goblins, the scenario played out in reverse. The Ogres burst through the opening two at a time to be met with the town’s best defenders who cut them down before they could amass in numbers.
Hobs and normal Ogres swarmed in behind them, but the opening was too narrow to rush in and overwhelm the enemy with numbers. All the while, the rain of arrows never slowed down.
Over 300 soldiers lay dead, and more were dying by the score.
My entire army amassed together outside the broken gates, pushing and squeezing to get into melee, bottlenecking themselves.
But still, I held my ground.
Then Rhyno made it through. With a bellowing roar, the tier 2 Ogre boss charged through and crashed into the enemy line. He bellowed again, activating his Terrible Roar ability: “I BE THE CHAMPION!”
The defenders stumbled for a fraction of a second, but that was all it took. With a sweeping attack, Rhyno’s oversized weapon crushed three of them while his other hand grabbed a struggling guardsman and hurled him at a group of soldiers. The gladiator’s skin oozed blood and darkness as his dark blessings and Bek’s continued healing fought to keep him alive under the constant barrage. But the brute had served his purpose. My army was now able to slip into the town and engage the defenders quicker than they could take us out.
A flash of light told me Ragnar had just joined the fight, probably using his scepter’s power to incinerate dozens of my soldiers. I scowled, feeling the feral goblin in me surfacing. “Keep it up, dwarf. Your time will come soon.”
It had cost us the lives of a third of our warriors to breach the town, and the enemy still had the advantage of levels and entrenched position, but we’d accomplished what was needed.
I noticed the archers who had been spread across the farther walls moving in, rushing to reinforce the defenders at the front.
This was the moment we’d been waiting for.
I turned to my two companions. “It’s our turn.”
The two nodded at me, and for once, Kuzai refrained from making an insulting remark. Then all three of us teleported away.
***
“They breached the walls!” The shaken recruit was ashen-faced. His hands trembled, barely keeping the arrow nocked on his bow.
A command rang out over the frightened drafted civilians. “Everyone, to the front! We have to reinforce the guards – they’re fighting for their lives!”
“Come on!” a wrinkled elderly lady shouted. Energy crackled along her fingers as she looked over the frightened youngsters. “Are you going to let our soldiers fight alone?”
“But Marry …” the shaken recruit began.
The drafte
d grocer/magic-dabbler shook her head. “No buts. The future of our town is at stake! And I’ll be damned if I hand it over to a bunch of monsters!” A light flashed from the direction of the gate. “Look! Even the traveler is fighting on our side.”
Bolstered by the elderly woman’s words, the armed civilians started moving, tightening their grasp on their bows. They might have not been soldiers, but they would fight for their homes.
***
I appeared out of the darkness next to a makeshift altar of bones. This was Attack Base Beta. A flimsy wooden hut stood a few meters away. Together, the two structures were the bare minimum needed to erect a war camp.
I could feel Nihilator’s influence spill out of the rudimentary shrine, flowing out of the camp over the river, reaching the town walls before it was stopped by their wards. The zone of influence was small, but it was enough for me to teleport into, ignoring the range limitation my spell had outside of it.
This war camp, along with the other two we’d erected, was next to the river at the blind spot created by the catapults we’d destroyed for this very purpose. It was as close as we could build it to the walls, outside the range of the enemy’s bows.
Kuzai and Lirian had likewise teleported to the other camps. As a fellow priest, the demented dwarf could teleport directly to a zone of influence, and Lirian, with her heightened instincts, had covered the distance with a rapid chain of shorter-range teleports.
I brought up the Settlement Interface and accessed the resurrection section. Over 500 soldiers appeared on the list, more than a third of my army.
I grinned in satisfaction. This was how we were going to win, not with overwhelming force, but with strategy and logistics.
I closed my eyes and began resurrecting my fallen troops, burning through over 60,000 energy points in the process.
Dozens, then hundreds of figures shimmered into existence all around me, and I knew the same was true for the other two war camps.
Over half of my army was still fighting to gain a foothold inside the city, and in their despair to stop us the enemy had moved all their forces to the front. Their back walls were unguarded. There was still a river between us and the walls, but we had a way around it.
I put my hand on the shrine, feeling Nihilator’s unholy power infusing my muscles, filling me with power.
Then I called the darkness.
From farther away, I could sense Lirian and Kuzai doing the same.
A huge mass of blackness flowed in from all sides, amassing in front of the river. I concentrated harder, pouring in more mana, drawing power from the shrine to enhance it to new heights. The darkness continued building up then surged forward, bridging over the river and reaching up toward the walls. If there were any spellcasters or a single catapult still in range, one attack was all it would take to collapse the magic. But that was the whole point of our mad frontal suicide attack – that, and to give us plenty of fresh bodies to instantly flank the town.
With a final push of my will, I forced the shadows to condense, forming into a semi-tangible bridge. “Go!” I commanded.
The resurrected soldiers didn’t need to be told twice. They rushed forward to the makeshift bridge of darkness, crossing over the rushing river and onto the unguarded walls.
I could sense the presence of the two other bridges, pulsing with dark energy, on the other side of the town.
The battle was fully joined now.
***
I waited the few minutes it took my soldiers to scurry up the shadow bridge and over the town’s walls, then I ran up after them. Without the shrine to bolster my magic, the bridge began to crumble under me, I teleported to the end of the bridge, just outside the wards, and finally stepped onto the top of the wall.
Novenguard lay before me. Most of the buildings were a single story or two, and the streets were straight and orderly. The sounds of fighting and flashes of magic coming from the heavy battle at the town’s entrance lit up the night.
The resurrected soldiers were moving silently unopposed, descending the stairs into the street. Here and there, a slower armed civilian ran into them. The poor recruits had no chance against my higher-level soldiers, and their cries of alarm quickly transformed into death rattles.
Running along the walls, I called for the shadows to mask my presence. The darkness flowed unwillingly, almost resisting my call, but it did come.
I soon made it to the part of the walls overseeing the open battle. Dozens of Ogres and hundreds of hobs were lying dead next to the gates, but the rest of the survivors had almost made it into the city. The besieged weren’t faring much better; nearly a quarter of them were dead or dying, and a fierce battle was taking place along the stairs as my hobs tried to storm the walls and bring the battle to the archers.
I growled when I saw Ragnar in the thick of it. The asshole was covered in the blood of my troops, hacking with his axe, raising his scepter and gleefully incinerating multiple soldiers. The scepter was charging even faster than it had before. Coupled with the sluggishness of my darkness, I had no doubt that Novenguard was Ragnar’s zone of influence. This was his domain, and we were the intruders.
Despite the ferocity of my soldiers, the defenders were well entrenched and gaining the upper hand. In my estimation, they would finish wiping out the primary assault force within a few minutes. We could never have won with a simple frontal assault.
I grinned as the first of the resurrected soldiers poured into the open, emerging from alleys, attacking the defenders from behind. Ogres grabbed at the weaker archers, snapping them in half, while tanks and melee fighters bashed the armored guards, making them lose their balance, and forcing them to face enemies from multiple directions. Kobold assassins appeared between the gaps, using the taller fighters as cover, slitting necks and severing tendons, bringing down whole groups at a time. The AWC’s Flanking Position bonus was paying dividends now as my soldiers hacked the defenders apart from all sides.
I allowed myself a vicious smile. The plan was working.
Then my eyes locked onto the hated dwarf. Ragnar was an army of one, and his level kept ticking up as he claimed my troops’ lives. His entire armor was now glowing, the light damaging the nearby troops. He once again raised his scepter, sending a light burst that disintegrated another squad of soldiers. The dark warriors parted, revealing two figures that moved in to face him: Bob and Kuzai.
“You will suffer a painful death, servant of light,” the demented dwarf hissed, both his fists glowing with unholy darkness.
My general didn’t speak. He merely moved forward to engage. Vines erupted behind his back, hurtling toward the Agent of Light.
I was momentarily distracted from the clash of bosses when Lirian entered the battlefield. My daughter took in the entire skirmish with a single glance and moved to engage. She teleported repeatedly, always appearing behind enemies as they were about to deliver a killing blow, cutting off limbs, or throwing them back with magic.
I growled as a magic bolt nearly hit her, but somehow my daughter anticipated the attack and teleported out of harm’s way. My eyes found the daring caster – an elderly woman surrounded by a squad of rookies. My rage demanded a personal touch, so I teleported into the group. With Mana Infusion bolstering my muscles, I stabbed the hated woman with my staff and the pointed end came out of her back, her eyes bulging in shock when she saw me.
“Marry, no!” one of her escorts shouted before I froze him. A localized direball, even weakened, was enough to transform the lower-level recruits into a storm of shredded flesh. My dagger came flying into my hand, and I plunged it into the heart of the mage woman. She gaped at me as life left her and darkness started consuming her body.
I looked up, searching for Lirian, but the wily goblinette was no longer around. Everywhere I looked, the tides of battle were changing. My soldiers were storming into the enemy ranks, ganging up on them, occasionally tossing grenades … gaining the upper hand. Kobold assassins attacked from small gaps. The surviving
Ogres, along with one ecstatic golem, were flinging enemy warriors left and right. It was glorious chaos.
Several of the player-led squads made it on top of the walls, and they engaged the bowmen head-on. As I watched, one of the squad’s soldiers got hit with an arrow to the head. Instead of falling down dead, his entire squad lurched, gashes appearing on their forehead. The struck hob pulled out the arrow, and liquid darkness oozed from the wounds, patching them up.
I looked in the indicated direction to find the battle of the bosses had been decided. Kuzai was lying face down, oozing dark blood from his many wounds. My breath caught in my throat when I saw Bob.
The general had Ragnar’s lower torso completely wrapped in vines and immobilized, but instead of that working to his advantage, the hated player had flipped it around. The two bosses had left their mark on him, but despite his injuries, Ragnar was still standing. Worse, the glowing light emanating from his body seemed to paralyze Bob, and his scepter was raised high, poised to bash in the general’s head.
Then the dwarf looked up and his eyes met mine. Instead of delivering the killing blow, he pressed his scepter to the general’s temple and smirked at me. “Tell you what, boy – I reckon you got a thing for this puppet, so I’m gonna make this kill special. Watch.”
The tip of his scepter glowed brighter than ever before. Bob’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened in a muted scream. Instead of sound, light gushed out of his mouth, eyes, and ears. His entire skeletal structure became visible as the light consumed his very soul.
“Bob, noooo!” I shouted. I shouldn’t have been so terrified – death was nothing to my followers – but I was. Something told me this death was different.
The holy light was too powerful for me to teleport in, so I started running, calling my magic and destroying everyone in my way. An Ogre Mage beat me to it. He barreled into the grinning dwarf who was standing over the body of my friend. The Ogre punched with a hell-flame covered fist, pulverizing the heavily wounded traveler and sending him for a respawn. Ragnar was dead, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before he returned.
Life Reset: Human Resource (New Era Online Book 4) Page 46