“Hold, who is this that approaches my position!?” the figure on the wall shouted.
I was close enough to make out that it was an elf addressing us. Instead of stopping, I moved forward. We were outside of javelin range but well within bow range of our potential foes; I wanted to even the odds if things turned south. Pretending not to hear his call, I moved forward.
“Halt, we have no wish to fight those whom may not be enemies, but we will be forced to fire if you continue,” the elf warned. We were now just inside of long range for a javelin throw, so I halted the column and called back.
“You’re blocking passage on an Imperium roadway. State your business here or clear out now,” I shouted back.
“We would like to come and talk. Will you grant us safe passage to approach?” the elf asked.
“Yes, approach with no more than three and we will stay our blades,” I answered, not wanting to stand this far apart while we shouted at each other. The elf nodded and said something to others behind the wall. With an impressive display of agility, another two elves heaved themselves atop the wall. The flag holder joining them, they hopped down on the road and made their way toward the platoon.
Chapter 10
As the three elves approached, I could see the one in the middle was female and likely in charge of the group. She walked with authority, and the others looked to her as they stopped twenty feet from our line.
“Welcome, human. I am Nharia of the Ikbose and wish only for peace with our neighbors from the Imperium. What brings the soldiers of the emperor so far into these wild lands?” the elf asked. Information on the elves in front of us populated.
Nharia, Ikbose War Leader, Level 13 Elite.
Ikbose Warriors, Level 12 (2).
Strangely enough, the system gave no more than the most basic of information. Usually upon a first encounter with a faction or new type of creature, I was given some background. The lack of information made me even more wary than normal.
The AI wouldn’t hold back information unless it had a reason, and that reason was likely bad news for us. In addition, these foes looked like they were a level higher than my troops and very well equipped, unlike previous foes we had faced. I really didn’t have an idea of how much more powerful a level 12 was over a level 11, and I hoped we weren’t about to find out.
“Greetings, Nharia. I am Captain Raytak, commander of the Imperium’s forces in Hayden’s Knoll. I will ask again why you have blocked our road,” I said in a stern voice, stepping forward to meet the elves. To match those opposite us, a pair of my soldiers from the first rank flanked me to either side.
“This”—Nharia gestured toward the blockade—“is here to help secure the area against evil creatures that seek to destroy us all. The Goreaxe ogres are on the rampage, killing and consuming all they catch. My people merely are here to warn travelers and keep the roads safe from the beasts. Everyone knows ogres are evil and cruel. We do what we can but could use your help.”
I didn’t trust this elf. From what Yendys had told me earlier, these elves were not the happy forest friends most games portrayed them as.
“We’ll deal with the ogres . . . if they prove a threat. For now, you need to clear this road and let my troops pass,” I ordered. Nharia’s face flashed a look of anger before she recovered her composure.
“My dear Raytak, we are the Ikbose. We have lived and ruled these lands from a time before the Imperium existed. Rest assured we will rule them long after you are gone. Help us deal with the ogre threat to us all. At least we can agree on that, can we not? After all, you wouldn’t want to get on our bad side,” Nharia said in a veiled threat. This was going nowhere fast. I was less convinced the ogres were the true threat here.
“If the ogres turn out to be a threat to us, then we will deal with them. Have you perhaps tried to negotiate a peace between your people and—”
“Ruhhhhh . . .”
A voice boomed from behind the stone wall. The agony in that distant scream was almost too much to bear. As suddenly as it rose, it cut off with a gurgle. I looked toward Nharia as a smile crossed her face.
“Ooops. I guess our new friend wasn’t quite dead yet, after all. A brigand we caught last night. So many of those running around these days, aren’t there? So careless of me. I apologize for the interruption. At least now you’ll get to see how we handle brigands that come to steal the lands of the Ikbose.” With a wave of her hand, two posts were hoisted behind the barricade. Impaled up the posts were my two missing soldiers.
“Ambush!” the soldier next to me yelled as he brought up his shield and drew his sword. I did the same. Nharia pulled one of her warriors in front of her and used him for cover, then produced a small throwing knife that she had concealed in her palm and flung it at me. The blade flew past my shield and thudded into my neck. A wave of nausea filled me for a second as system prompts flashed. My hand flew to the wound, I was terrified I would find a severed artery spurting blood as the pain of the dagger burned deep.
You have been hit by a Steel Throwing Knife. You have been poisoned with Fleshrot poison, −10% to attack and defense. Ongoing effects are a loss of 10 health per second for the next 30 seconds.
Poison Resisted. Your bond with Tessel, the foul spore dryad, has activated, negating the poison effect.
I waved the prompts away as I drew my sword and activated Goon Squad to give us some cover. The soldier next to me crumpled even as the squad of seven inmates appeared around us and attacked the nearest elves. Forty feet off the north side of the road, the ambush the soldier had spotted revealed itself as a score of elves stood and loosed a second volley of arrows at me and the remaining soldier. I activated Honor Guard, hoping to buy enough time to make it back to our lines, which even now were pushing toward the barricade.
“No! Kill him first!” Nharia screamed at her warriors who were attacking the four elite guards that had appeared. Thankfully, the system forced all opponents targeting me to attack them first. As she ran toward the safety of the barricade, Nharia used some sort of short-range teleport ability to cut the distance in half. The two warriors with her stayed to fight, wielding longswords and carrying wicked-looking daggers held in their offhand.
I ran with my remaining soldier, making it back to our lines. Turning back, I saw my honor guards were down to two but had killed one of the elves. The archers from the ambush would be the bigger threat and we needed to focus them down first.
“Third platoon! Ready javelins!” I ordered, pointing toward the archers who were just in range. The platoon launched, and over forty javelins sailed toward the archers, who did nothing to defend themselves as they focused entirely on the flagging elite guards. The last of my summoned guardians fell. The elves turned to target my platoon even as the first volley of javelins landed among them, half of them hitting their mark. The damage dealt was moderate, the level 12 opponents having decently sized health pools.
My own health was down to seventy percent after I took several arrow hits as well as the knife to the throat before the honor guard had activated. I crouched behind my shield as an even larger swarm of javelins fell upon the elves.
The rest of bravo company had arrived and was now in range. The elves broke, leaving behind half their number on the field, killed by the javelin volleys. The remaining elves were all wounded to some degree, moving slowly as they finally made their way to the safety of the barricade. Sergeant Brooks ran up to me as bravo company formed into our standard combat formation of four platoons in front with one in reserve.
“Sir, what are your orders?” Brooks asked.
I looked at our foes, coming up with a plan on the fly.
“We’ll leave bravo here, just outside of bowshot. Take alpha and Ignominia. Surround that roadblock. We’ll let Corporal Tavers have his fun tearing it down with his siege engines. The remaining platoon will provide a guard for the siege engines and form the legion reserve. Sprinkle the scouts around to look for any enemy reinforcements. Let’s make
them regret taking our boys,” I ordered, furious that my soldiers had been captured and murdered.
The legion moved into position, each platoon forming up and taking its spot to surround the roadblock, all of us just out of bowshot range. Before our circle closed, Nharia and a dozen elf warriors leapt over the stone wall and ran through the rapidly closing gap. I was surprised the rest of the elves stayed where they were; a sizeable force remained behind and was now trapped.
“Runner!” I ordered and a reserve platoon private arrived next to me. “Have Sergeant Wrend send his scouts to follow the elves. Make sure they don’t engage the elves. Just follow and make sure no surprises are coming. Read it back to me, Private,” I ordered. I didn’t know if the game even allowed for orders to be misinterpreted or confused in transit. Since my forces were growing and communication via messengers was going to increase, I had covered all my bases. The private confirmed my orders and ran off to tell Wrend. The Ignominia soldiers were on the far side of the blockade, and it took a few minutes before I saw the scouts break off to follow their quarry.
Hammering began from behind me as Tavers’s engineers put together the catapults. Unlike the scorpions, these had to travel in pieces, but the engineers were well-practiced and efficient at building them quickly. The two siege engines would be ready soon, but the scorpions were ready now.
The four scorpion teams had spread themselves out around the roadblock. Tavers waved a signal flag and all four fired. Elves that had been standing atop the wall and watching our activity jumped back behind the cover of the stones. The four bolts missed the elves, but at least that would keep their heads down.
Angry voices and shouting broke out behind the catapults. I turned and saw Tavers shouting at Harbox; the dwarf shouted back, gesturing wildly with a rune in his hand. With a sigh, I hustled back to the rapidly assembling catapults and into the middle of an argument.
“You’ll not insult my crews or my engines, dwarf! We broke the back of the Gul Dorg and racked up more kills than any of your clan did that day,” Tavers hollered.
“Ye bleeding dolt! Only takes one misfire to kill yer whole crew. I want ta kills me some elves but not kill yer men in the process,” Harbox replied.
“Lock it up, you two!” I shouted. To their credit, both stood, fuming at each other, but were quiet.
“Now, what’s going on here that I find two of my supposed ‘leaders’ arguing with each other instead of concentrating on defeating our enemy?” Both started to shout again. “Wait! One at a time. You first, Harbox,” I ordered.
“Well, Raytak, sir, I was just tryin’ ta let this lunkhead know how it would be easy ta breach that rickety wall the elves are hidin’ behind if he would let me use a rune to empower his weapon. I merely mentioned that he needed to be sure the weapon fired or the whole crew would be killed in the process,” Harbox said, glaring at Tavers the whole time.
“Tavers, your turn,” I said.
“This newcomer dwarf insinuated my engines wouldn’t fire! How dare he! We’ve proven ourselves over and over in battle. Just like a dwarf to insult the craftsmanship of the Imperium,” Tavers whined. I thought about it for a minute. Tavers was overreacting, I was sure, but no doubt Harbox was egging him on.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I know your machines will fire, Tavers. I’m confident enough that I will be the one to fire the first shots. Harbox, your runesmiths are respected the world over for their skills, but we have only fought beside your kind once before. We need to work together. No, strike that—you two will work together to defeat our enemies. If either of you decides you cannot, let me know and I’ll send you packing,” I ordered. Both looked at each other for a moment before nodding. They were still angry but under control at this point.
“Now, Tavers, make sure the catapults are aimed correctly. I know if I try to aim them, I’ll never hit the targets,” I said, frustrated at my poor ranged skills in-game. “Harbox, what did you have in mind with your rune?”
“Sir, this here beautiful forgefire rune can be used ta infuse the ammunition of the catapult. When the shot from the catapult hits, the rune will activate and . . . boom!” Harbox said, a crazed look in his eye. It was the same look I had seen from combat engineers in the real world when they received the order to blow stuff up.
Tavers’s crews finished putting together the catapults, and Tavers himself was doublechecking them as well as sighting them at the wall in front of us.
“Both batteries are ready in all aspects, sir. Fire at your leisure,” Tavers said professionally. Having him work even briefly on the machines had settled the man down. His temper was something new to me . . . Perhaps that explained why he wasn’t a sergeant yet.
I waved the crews back and walked up with Harbox, who chanted something briefly before the rune in his hand flared in activation. He gently placed the rune on the large stone selected as ammunition for this shot. The stone glowed as the rune was absorbed, the rune’s symbol now flashing on the surface of the shot.
“Fire now, sir! It will go off in another ten seconds if it doesn’t hit something first!” Harbox said nervously.
“You might have mentioned that before you used the rune, Harbox,” I chided while pulling the lever to release the weapon.
The stone shot was easy to follow, as it left a visible glow from the rune pulsing on it. Tavers and his crew had done their job well; the rock smashed into the stones of the barricade, crashing easily through the makeshift barrier. Elves scurried about behind the gap in the wall, fleeing the explosion.
Whoommp!
With a blast of flame, the forgefire rune exploded. The small gap where the stone had crashed through blew outward, scattering smaller rocks and parts of elves. The gap was now wider than a man.
“Ha, I take back everything I said, Harbox. That shot was a beauty!” Tavers exclaimed.
“Aye, and you seem ta know yer stuff, human. She went right where you wanted it to. No mean feat for a first round, I can tell ya,” Harbox replied. “Ya think, sir, I might get ta fire the next one?” Harbox asked me. I stood back and swept my arm exaggeratedly toward the catapult. Giggling like a schoolgirl, Harbox cast his rune and pulled the lever to fire.
This shot was good but not quite as accurate as the first. The round landed ten feet from the first as planned, but it missed the wall, crashing onto the ground inside the barricade. The second explosion erupted inside the barricade, resulting in more screaming elves. The wall bulged and several rocks dislodged, but no collapse happened on this round.
Harbox waved over for another runesmith to join him, not wanting to expend all the forgefire runes that he had prepared for the day.
“Harbox, why don’t we have two of your runesmiths prepare all forgefire runes for tomorrow, maybe only one or two of the other runes for support just in case. These two can shadow Tavers and help empower our siege engines. I assume they can also be used to enhance the scorpions,” I suggested. Harbox looked over to Tavers, and the pair nodded slightly.
“I’ll make it happen, sir,” Harbox said as the other dwarf moved up to the catapults, which were now being reloaded and sighted by their crews. The two, who were at each other’s throat’s minutes ago, now conspired on the best way to inflict mayhem on our enemy. The catapults continued to batter the western wall of the roadblock, using standard shot to conserve the runes. I was in no hurry and happy to let the catapults fire for as long as possible.
Attacking the elves in their fortified position without siege engines would have been costly. Our men were resistant to ranged fire, but these elves seemed to be better fighters than what we had encountered before. No reason to take excess casualties in what was only a small skirmish. I had no idea how large an army the elves had or if we would also soon be fighting ogres. I needed every swinging sword before this campaign was complete.
“Sir, scout reporting in,” one of the soldiers in the reserve platoon said as he pointed to a scout rushing toward my position.
“Gathe
r the nco’s, soldier, and have them meet me here,” I said, sending the private off to gather the leadership of my legion. The scout made it to me before the sergeants arrived. I had him catch his breath and drink some water before the others got there, not wanting the panting scout to have to tell his story twice. Once all were gathered, he gave his report.
“Sir, we shadowed the elves that fled the barricade. They headed southwest at a run and we had trouble keeping pace. They were so fast. A couple of miles from here, they stopped, and we could hear a battle in the distance. We moved up quietly and observed what looked like a larger force of elves and humans battling the ogres. The ogres were holed up in a cave and the elves had them bottled up. There were dozens of bodies of ogres and nearly a hundred bodies of humans and elves scattered about. Must have been quite the fight.
“The elf leader that fled from here ran up to one of the other elves, and after a chat, they started gathering their forces. They are marching back here in force. I don’t have an accurate count yet, but there were hundreds of them. We figured it was more important at this point to warn the legion than get an accurate count right away. They’ll be here within thirty minutes, sir. The other scouts will shadow the approaching army and give an accurate count once they are able,” the scout said.
“Good report, scout. Rest for a moment, then rejoin the other scouts. Sergeant Brooks, your recommendations?” I asked.
“There aren’t many of the elves left in the roadblock since the artillery began pounding them, but I don’t want them to sally from their defenses while we’re focused on another battle. I’m assuming we’re going to engage the approaching force,” Brooks advised.
“We need to consider the ogres as well, sir. Helping out their forces could open them up to talking,” Wrend added. I thought for a moment. The first thing would be to eliminate the roadblock, casualties or not. The second would be getting the legion in formation to repel the attack from the army that was coming. Thirty minutes was not a lot of time, and we still didn’t know the numbers we were facing.
Limitless Lands Book 4: Opposition (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 11