by Dean Henegar
“Uh-oh, that’s not good,” Quimby said, gesturing up toward the swarms of bats circling the column. So far, the bats had stayed out of the fight; Ty figured Zipp had been reluctant to use them in the close confines of the forest. Out here in the rolling hills, they were much more of a threat. Thankfully, it was a threat his troops were prepared for. As the charge of the centaurs slammed home, a second line of dwarves crested the hill, crossbows aimed at the giant bats heading toward the centaurs.
The centaur charge ripped through the lurker line. While there were only forty centaurs in this group, they all were deadly accurate with their long lances. Once through the mass of lurkers, many of whom didn’t know which foe to attack, the centaurs stowed their spears and drew long blades before charging back through the confused and depleted lurker force. During the second charge, the bats arrived. The dwarven line of pathfinders at the top of the hill had dropped over thirty of the bats, but the large creatures numbered in the hundreds, the swirl of flapping monsters growing as more and more streamed into the battle from other areas of the column.
Heavily armored, the centaurs normally would be more than a match for the giant bats, but sheer numbers allowed claws and teeth to get through the unarmored portions of Ty’s allies. The centaurs’ momentum bogged down as they fought off bats and the remaining lurkers. Each swing of their huge blades killed a bat or lurker, but their wounds were multiplying as enemy attacks began to slip through gaps in their armor.
Ty didn’t think the centaur force was going to make it. Also, the dwarves were forced to scatter to save some of their numbers as many of the lurkers picked what they thought would be the easier targets. Unable to outrun the faster lurkers, a section of dwarves formed a hasty defensive line, drawing melee weapons to meet the charge of their enemy and buy time for their kin to escape. Without shields, the pathfinders were unable to defend against the lurkers’ powerful claws and snapping jaws. The dwarves were overrun, taking a handful of attackers with them.
The sacrifice of a small group of dwarves bought the others some time to retreat. Ty estimated that most of his dwarves were going to make it and tried to see if his friend Rollox was among the survivors. One by one, the centaurs were dragged down. They had fought well, and mounds of dead bats, interspersed with the occasional lurker, were piled around them. Despite the losses, they had delayed the enemy column, and it would take some time for it to get moving again. Ty watched the various monsters as they were distracted by the fresh kills, refusing to continue until they had a chance to eat their fill.
“Hold steady, men. We still have a job to do,” Ty said to the line of scouts forced to watch their allies be consumed by the enemy. “Get me some counts on enemy losses before the bodies are all eaten.” The attackers didn’t discriminate whether the flesh came from friend or foe, and the bodies of all the dead were being stripped down at a rapid pace. Each of Ty’s scouts was tasked with a separate type of enemy. Later, they would compare the tallies and average out an estimate of the enemy losses.
After nearly two hours, the column continued moving. Ty and his troops had to wait as the seemingly endless blocks of enemy forces passed them by. Their target was at the end of the enemy column, where those unable to keep pace were strung out for miles and in no way organized to defend against his next strike. He considered calling off the attack as the swarming bats resumed their lazy circles over the column, but he decided it was worth the risk; his side of the road had a bit more tree cover than the side the dwarves had attacked from. His centaurs for this fight carried the last of the mercenary band’s arrows.
As the last organized blocks drew past, the dregs of the imp’s army lay vulnerable. From the sparse tree cover on the hills behind him, fifty centaurs armed with their powerful bows trotted out. They nearly made it to the roadway when cries of alarm began to sound from the rear formations. It was too late for the stragglers. Waves of arrows streaked in, dropping dozens with each volley. Here at the back of the column, the human conscripts gathered, unable to keep pace with the more powerful and better-conditioned forces.
Ty knew the conscripts were shaky; their morale bar never seemed to rise above half, and it was now dropping by the second as they absorbed casualties. Overhead, the swarm of bats reacted, gathering up before flapping their way toward the centaurs. Half of his centaurs changed targets and easily hit the tightly packed mass of bats. The other half continued to punish the poorly armed conscripts.
“Open fire. Even numbers and Quimby on the bats. The rest of us on the conscripts,” Ty ordered, standing to fire his crossbow at the enemy force. He had just over forty scouts, all of whom were decent shots with their crossbows. Sadly, only Ty possessed the superior dwarven double crossbow, so their overall rate of fire was less than that of the dwarven pathfinders. Still, they were able to add to the chaos and further thin the approaching bats, all of whom seemed fixated on the centaurs. After their second volley, the morale bar of the conscripts reached zero and they broke. Poorly armed, the former laborers and merchants couldn’t be expected to hold together for long under fire.
“Fall back!” Ty shouted. Their work was done, and the few casualties they could inflict if they stayed in the fight longer would be more than offset by the risk of being overwhelmed by the faster enemy forces, many of which had begun to head their way. Ty and the humans ran as fast as they could toward the nearby tree-covered hill, Quimby occasionally stopping to fire a few shots at any enemy that made it into bow range. The centaurs turned and ran back before the bats could reach them. After a few steps, the speed of the centaurs allowed them to pull away from the bat swarm. Like Quimby, a few centaurs would occasionally stop and shoot to inflict even more losses on the enemy air threat.
Ty and his men, along with the halfling ranger, made it back to the dubious safety of the tree-covered hill. So far, a single block of troggs was pursuing them. The fairly slow creatures should be easy for them to outpace. Weaving their way through the trap-strewn underbrush, Ty moved them down the backside of the hill to put as much distance between them and the enemy forces as he could. He figured that the enemy wouldn’t push forces too far out from the main column to pursue them, lest they risk delaying the slow-moving column even further.
“What do we do now, Ty?” Quimby asked as the small force halted just inside the tree line on the backside of the hill. In the open field in front of them, a herd of black unicorns charged past, heading toward the retreating centaurs.
“Must be those deathicorns we caught a glimpse of here and there. It looks like they’re heading out to try and cut off the centaurs. I have the best stealth skill, so I’ll see if I can get through to warn the centaurs. Quimby, lead the rest of the men back to the camp,” Ty ordered.
“You know, Yendys is totally going to try and catch one of those evil unicorn things for a pet,” Quimby said.
“You’re right. Best if we kill them all before they make it to Hayden’s Knoll or we’ll get roped into some adventure to find a deathicorn for her,” Ty replied.
Quimby and the scouts moved away at a fast pace. The black unicorns were too focused on the centaurs in the distance to notice the small band of scouts heading away from the road. Keeping to the edge of the forest, Ty saw the first of the centaurs come into view. They were supposed to rendezvous here with the humans and then head toward their next night’s camp together. Sadly, it looked like the centaurs were cut off and there was nothing Ty could do to help.
Still being closely pursued by the swarm of bats, the centaurs reacted with skill and decisive action. Slinging their bows, they drew their oversized swords and increased their pace, heading directly toward the approaching deathicorns. The deathicorns lowered their heads, horns dripping with some foul substance Ty didn’t want to get anywhere close to. With a crash that Ty could feel through his boots, the two sides met. Centaurs were impaled on deathicorn horns. Their combined weight often tripped the evil beasts, breaking bones and shearing skin from their bodies as the momentum dragge
d them across the rocky soil.
Many centaurs were able to avoid their attackers and responded with swings of their greatswords. Other horns were deflected by the centaurs’ heavy armor, and return blows inflicted horrible wounds on the deathicorns. The surviving centaurs ran past the last of the deathicorns, who were trying to wheel around to continue their pursuit.
Ty counted eighteen survivors of the fifty centaurs that had started the fight. While the deathicorns were faster than the centaurs, they had little hope of running them down as the centaurs switched back from blade to bow. The oversized arrows drove deep into deathicorn bodies as two or three centaurs paused every few steps to fire back at their pursuers. After taking another dozen casualties from the centaurs’ arrows, the invaders broke off their pursuit. Ty was able to slip away after the last of the enemy returned to the column. As he made his way back to camp, he was intercepted by Nergui and a pair of his centaur warriors.
“In accordance with our contract, the Devlin Horde is withdrawing from the field of battle. We have experienced nearly fifty percent casualties and will fight no further in this war,” Nergui stated.
“Very well. I wish you luck, Nergui, and I hope we always find ourselves on the same side of a battle,” Ty replied, frustrated that their losses had been so high this day.
“May it be so,” Nergui replied. With a slight nod, the leader of the centaurs rode off to join his surviving force, and all of them headed south toward the transition point. The fight today had been far too costly for what they accomplished. The imp was getting better at coordinating his strange array of forces, using the right combination of speed and power to offset Ty’s continued attacks. Once in camp, he performed a headcount.
Special Detachment Forces:
Devlin Horde: withdrawn.
Legion Scouts: 40/45.
Shield Brothers: 200/200.
Azure Blades: 200/200.
Dwarven Pathfinders: 36/50.
Quimby, Bhurke, and Rollox joined him at the campfire. He needed to decide on their next move. They had taken too many losses, and with the Devlin Horde pulling out, he had lost the cavalry advantage. Without cavalry support, his troops couldn’t hope to engage the enemy column without being overrun. He had hoped to keep harassing the column, but it looked like it was time to go to phase two of his plan.
“We took a thrashing today, but we gave much better than we got. The enemy made almost no progress, which means we bought an entire day for the ogres and the Stonefinder dwarves to make their way to safety. We’re not done yet, though; we need to buy more time and kill more of the enemy. From today’s tally, the enemy lost 70 lurkers, 150 conscripts, 150 giant bats, and 40 or more deathicorns. The imp has gotten his act together, and without the centaurs’ support, we should move to our next line of defense. The Shield Brothers and Azure Blades have been in the ruins of old Hayden’s Knoll the entire time we’ve been out in the field and are preparing a nice reception for Zipp and his troops when they arrive.
“Zipp has to take the ruins or risk our forces sitting on top of his supply chain. It would also cost him too many forces to try and just bottle us up in town, so he’ll have to engage us in the ruined city as well as defeat the garrison force nearby. We’ll grind his forces down in the rubble and stall the entire advance,” Ty said.
“We paid a bloody price today,” Rollox started, his expression grim, “but we gladly paid it to see our families safely behind the walls of Hayden’s Knoll. We’ll get back to start digging in at the crossroads, but what about the enemy column? Are we just going to let them traipse their way down the road with nary a fight?”
“Don’t worry, Rollox. I’m going to stay behind with five scouts and do what I can to slow them down. Let’s get to it at first light, everyone,” Ty ordered. Zipp had outmaneuvered him a bit in this fight, and Ty intended to return the favor at the crossroads.
Chapter 24
A trip from Holdfast to the crossroads would normally take two days, perhaps three for a larger, slower force. Ty and his force had delayed the enemy for five days. The imp had to send forces forward to search for and clear traps. Frustrated—which was exactly the result Ty had wanted—the imp finally just sent a swarm of the slow-moving conscripts to the head of the column to act as human trap detectors. The conscripts had taken a beating, their morale only held together by the threat of being consumed by the imp’s more monstrous forces.
It hadn’t gone all their way, and Ty did lose three of the five scouts he had brought with him. The bats continued to screen the advance, making it hard for them to move close to the column without being spotted. They had done well, but Ty was ready for more. After he and the pair of surviving scouts returned to the crossroads, he gathered up the leaders of his force, including Rollox, Bhurke, Aristides, Quimby, and the NCO in charge of the garrison. They met back at the small garrison fort.
“Alright, the enemy will be here in the morning, and I intend to use the ruins to make them bleed. Where are we on the preparations? Let’s start with Aristides,” Ty ordered. They ended up hosting the meeting in the courtyard of the fort since everyone wouldn’t fit in the garrison’s small office. Normally, he would worry about operational security, but with only NPC soldiers about, Ty was confident they would be good.
“The town was a simple design: a single main road running north to south with the structures scattered around it. While the north gate was destroyed, the rest of the walls only needed some bracing to make them functional. We’ve set a makeshift barricade over the northern gateway, which will hopefully draw the enemy toward that weak point. My force will make a stand on the main road just past the barricade, and we’ll grind up any enemy force they send through,” Aristides reported.
“My boys will have that tunnel ready before the enemy arrives,” Rollox advised.
“What tunnel?” Ty asked.
“Why, the one under the ruins of the inn. You didn’t expect everyone to hole up in the ruins without an escape path, did you? That would be suicide. The clan sent us a team of miners to see that the tunnel is done right. As of this moment, they’re fifty yards south o’ the garrison and hope to clear another hundred yards by morning,” Rollox informed him.
Ty hadn’t thought of that; his NPC troops and especially the mercenaries wouldn’t want to hold the ruins if it were a suicide mission.
Ty and Quimby both planned to make their stand here; they would have to log out and return to the real world before too long and wouldn’t be back again until after things were resolved. By staying put, they could hopefully cover the retreat of the NPCs as well as bleed the enemy some more. He felt a bit guilty that he couldn’t stay longer, but Raytak would understand that he had some outside obligations to deal with.
“That’s good news. How many can we push through the tunnel when the time comes?” Ty asked.
“Not very many. It’ll be single file on the way out. We needed to make the tunnel stretch a good distance from the battlefield, and that took precedence over comfort,” Rollox answered.
He was right: having a wide tunnel pop up only twenty yards from town would place the escaping troops right in the middle of any enemy army surrounding the place.
“My forces are ready as well. We’ll support the Shield Brothers as they hold the line,” Bhurke advised. The Azure Blades weren’t well suited to open-field combat, but in the confines of the city, their varied weapons and individual fighting styles could be used more effectively.
“My boys can fire on the enemy until they reach the walls. Then we’ll be leaving ta join the rest o’ the clan in Hayden’s Knoll,” Rollox reported when it was his turn.
“All of our patrols have been called in and the garrison is at full strength. If the enemy tries to force the southern gate of the city, we’ll make sure they pay a bloody price,” the NPC in charge of the garrison added. The garrison’s pair of scorpions were repositioned to where they could cover the southern gate of the city. No doubt the enemy would try to force the gate at som
e point or even try to climb over the walls to get at the forces inside. When they tried, the garrison’s javelins and scorpion bolts would bleed them.
“Excellent,” Ty said. “My scouts will man the walls of the city with the dwarves. When the enemy makes the move to push in, we’ll fall back into the ruins themselves and snipe or engage in melee as is needed. Time’s running out. The enemy could be here at first light if they push it. We want them here. This is the best defensive position between the enemy and Hayden’s Knoll.” Truth be told, Ty was rather looking forward to some axe-swinging.
The night passed uneventfully, though several lookouts reported the sounds of bats flapping about just outside the light of their watchfires. Zipp would know they had gone to ground here in the ruins; it was only a question of what the imp would do to dig them out. Ty felt a bit of relief when the sun began to peek over the horizon. He had been worried that the enemy would attack at night, when the underground creatures held an advantage. The first light of dawn revealed the massive army of the Zisilerpicazant clan closing in.
Giant bats, their numbers depleted in earlier battles, hovered above the approaching force. The skittering death spiders and the surviving deathicorns created a screen to defend against a cavalry force Ty no longer had. He stood on the northern wall, along with a score of scouts and pathfinders. The remainder of his ranged troops were scattered along the other walls, ready to provide cover when the attackers inevitably began to encircle the ruins and nearby fort.
He had expected the enemy force to encircle the walls. Instead, the imp showed his impatience by hurling the first blocks of troops directly at the northern wall. In the lead were his human mine detectors, the conscripts. Ty felt sorry for them—almost. They weren’t cut out for combat, and using them in a hasty assault was essentially murder. Behind the conscripts were a block of five hundred troggs. Ty hadn’t been too impressed with them on the road, but in the confines of the city, the creatures’ prodigious strength just might make them more effective.