Gryff Boxset

by Sloss, Marcus

  I spent the next five minutes chopping and slicing the orcs who pressured our box formation. A few would blare a challenge at me, they were trying to combat the enemy champion for glory. I never gave them the chance. There was no time for duels right now. The enemy chieftain knew that too. He never cried out or warned me he was coming. I was pushing the last flank of the dvaren lines when he barreled into my back. I tumbled forward and rolled myself with a spin.

  I sped myself back to standing to find him overhead chopping at me. A flicker of fear shifted through me. If I were not an empowered demigod I would have been dead. I burst into a dive away from him to give us space. I barreled into another orc. We tumbled and I felt a hard impact jab into my back. The chieftain had stabbed me while I recovered again. My armor held most of the damage. I clenched my jaw to get through the pain and raised a crossbow to fire a bolt into his chest. Finally, I had space.

  He staggered for only a second as he roared a challenge. I heard the dvaren drums arrive and the formation shifted. A thirty foot wall protected our backline suddenly. For the first time in the fight, the enemy leader shifted his eyes off me at the sudden transformation of the battlefield. That was the wrong thing to do. I swung my greataxe with enough force that I chopped him in half. The upper part of his body went flying rapidly into our portal back to Fernlan. Ha! That would tell them what an active landing zone meant. I continued my swing to clear more space around me. With the death of the chieftain, it normally meant rout or another orc stepped up. In this case, there was a clear hesitation by the orcs. Yet no fleeing or new chieftain stepped forward.

  The dvaren formation extended in size as the back troops pushed to expand the three sides. An eruption of clay revealed a second eastern wall raised up from the ground. With only two fronts to manage and fling arrows towards, the massacre of the orcs started. A drummer arrived to manage the tempo of the battle for our side.

  A long beat would then be followed by five quick drum smacks. The front lines would open and fire mages would step forward. Fire erupted from our lines and engulfed the orcs. The carnage was severe as we continued forward. I ran back into our formation and requested archer towers be constructed in five key locations. The moment the first one was assembled from the ground up I bounded to the top.

  I observed the battlefield intently taking my time to absorb the situation. The orcs stationed here were in retreat. There were tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of Horde around the master portal. They spanned every direction. To our south were trolls, to our east were goblins, to our north were more orcs, and to our immediate west were a few ogres with shamans. There was a semblance of rationality to the segregation as a central colossal road split the landscape. It ran from the portal to the west. This discovery had me confused for a moment. My first thought was all these troops were here to fight me. That Temi or another cyclops had dictated a big push south. Instead, they were all moving west.

  I scratched at my scruff from the fifty foot tower. My troops continued to pour out. The dvaren were now too thin to hold a line as we were spread so far. Earth mages closed gaps as the orcs were pushed back. Without a leader to guide them, I watched the loose organization turn into a rout.

  “Hold and secure our gains. Hold and secure our gain!” I bellowed from my perch. I went back to studying the assembled Horde as the orcs spilled into adjacent fields. What was west? Then it hit me. Nagolands. They must have found the Nagolands. Whatever was there was worth more than the Vartin Tundra. Or maybe a new war front had opened up and the gods demanded the full surrender of the planet. I watched as the last of the elvath, mages, and cavalry exited the portal.

  Queen Yvette scurried up the side of the tower to join me on the platform. “Well, that was interesting. I bowed down at least fifty orcs. My blood is still pumping in my ears…” Yvette said as she observed the assembled Horde partitioned out all around us. She gulped at the sight. “You can beat all this? Are you crazy Gryff? There must be a hundred million troops here waiting for orders. How would you ever?”

  She was paused before she could complete her questions. An army of trolls to our south were given marching orders to move our way. The morning sun revealed the endless archers preparing to volley on us.

  “Shields up! Volley Incoming!” As one, the millions of trolls fired toward our rising defenses. I saw air mages ready shields around our troops. The rain of arrows smashed into the invisible barrier erected around our area. The next volley that arced our way was less coordinated as the trolls were given an open fire order in a futile attempt to break our shield. Unlike our foes, we were combined to be an effective fighting force. I watched as a few thousand horses neighed to get to the trolls. The commanders on the field held them at bay.

  After the third volley streamed toward us I realized we were fine. It would take ballista and catapults to smash our air shields. The arrows, even when fired in the millions lacked the right amount of mass. I grinned proudly at the shields holding. A new portal opened in our growing foothold. A few troops spun in worry until the dvaren war songs belted out. The first troops through were the drummers and horn blowers. Now we pierced the early morning with a thunderous drum beat that was an intense increase from before. The Horde knew that sound, they feared that sound.

  Our lines split to allow the shield walls through as the dvaren pushed to the front.

  Nate joined us up the ladder. He was huffing and puffing. I was surprised when I saw Donnie follow up behind him.

  “My Emperor. The armies of humanity need a portal to get here.” Nate said. I, of course, knew this. I simply lacked another portal master. Once the nine hundred thousand entered from Uhara then I could send Virtue around to the major collection points. “By the four gods! They are marching west…”

  Donnie picked up on it first. “Nagolands… I wonder what is over there.”

  “Something worth a hundred million troops. If we didn’t have the griffins, it will take years to clear this many Horde out. Let alone progress to the portal.” Yvette said as she pointed north.

  The western road was two or three miles north. A few miles beyond that was the largest portal I had ever seen. It was so monstrous that it dominated the horizon. Instead of the dark black that all personal portals had, this one sparkled yellow with electric discharge. Even from five miles south of it, only one word described its size behemoth. Millions could have marched through it side by side. It rose thousands of feet into the air and was miles wide. I sighed while I gave it a long look.

  The trolls still rained arrows into our shield ineffectively. “I wonder how many arrows they carry with them. I bet they run out soon.” Yvette noted.

  “Archers… thinking like archers. Too bad the trolls are merely food. As our lines thicken and defenses solidify I should run them down when they are out of ammo. Probably carve thirty percent to death before the others flee in full retreat.” I said watching over the field. I was tempted to get down, find a mount, and charge in. Instead, this is where I needed to be, observing and reacting to the enemy.

  A few minutes went by as more and more battle hardened dvaren joined our ranks. The ballista and siege engines were being rolled in now. The earth mages created elevated platforms for them as they went to set defensive lines. The process was tedious and sluggish. The portal exodus slowed significantly. While I was watching the siege engines roll to their emplacements I noticed the trolls had run out of projectiles.

  I was about to order the southern flank of my troops to cleanse the trolls when I saw a dozen blimps low on the horizon. They were shallow in the air, almost touching the treetops. I noticed what they were as they increased their speed and grew in size.

  “Enjoy the show.” King Aves said.

  A dozen griffins had arrived with the trolls now out of arrows. It would have hardly mattered. The enemy had consolidated to fire into our shields. The griffins webbed out as they gave each other space and then the death started. Golem blood was flamed from paws
along the lines of the trolls. The griffins cackled in laughter as the enemy tried to flee. The destruction was thorough and awesome. The only place the trolls could flee to was our solid dvaren formation. They never reached our defensive lines as the fire was too much. The griffins poured out the flames with abandon as the enemy was burned to the last. Our southern flank was now cleared.

  “That was awesome,” Nate said as we watched in awe.

  King Aves approached and circled around our tower clearing those on the ground. He pushed them back and they got the idea. Sure enough a few moments later we were surrounded by a new structure that matched the height of the watchtower we observed from. King Aves continued to cast earth magic as he connected our tower to the larger platform. The views from our joined towers were expansive besides where a south facing wall was erected to draw on. I saw Lirkon with his blue tips fly to the wall and begin to draw a map for us to utilize up here. The griffins landed and the lookout building shook with their weight.

  King Aves and I bowed to each other. Ever since we meet Lily we regarded each other as equals and exchanged greetings in the same manner. It was then I noticed he flew with an elvath on his back. She had black hair with dark eyes. Her outfit was much the same as a human griffin rider. The more I studied the design I realized that is exactly what it is was.

  “Greetings Gryff. I am Barice, I will be King Aves' voice for this journey. He wishes to inform you that the lands south, west, and north swarm with the Horde. There is hardly any free space besides to the east. He also wants you to know what draws so many of the Horde here. Elvath…”

  She let the word hang. At first, I thought she was referring to herself or to some of her companions. Then it struck both Yvette and I like a kick to the chest. How, where, when, why… So many questions raced through my mind. Only one answer settled into my stomach…

  “The Nagolands are home to lost elvath. Seven hells.” I said. I was trying really hard to remember what Lily had said that first time in Dais. Everyone was talking at once though so I went to the side. Donnie noticed this and I waved him over. “I need General Halsad up here. He is the only commander not with us at the moment.”

  I knew that Lily was focused on the portal being closed above all else. We never really needed to know much more than that. We would have found the Nagolands on our own after we solved the first problem. I wanted more information. I went back to the chatting group.

  “How do we know they are not our elvath, simply captured?” I asked King Aves.

  “They have cages of males. It seems they have been exporting wagon loads already. We did not get here in time to stop them all from being removed. King Aves believes the first returning ships are just departing again. He summarized this because some of the ships scouted to the west have marks of battle. While fresh ships are still being built, those scarred vessels were still in the bay. There are two major problems he saw when he flew high around the master portal.” Barice said as General Halsad joined us. He was nervous around the fifty five foot long griffin. And for good reason. King Aves was an intimidating monster. “The first issue is Warg’s ogre champion Raxrune is here. We know it is him as he is ten feet taller than every other ogre. As is Maurta’s troll champion that stands as tall as a young ogre. She lobbed some spears at us even as high as we were. We were able to dodge because of the range, but in close, she will be deadly.”

  I thought about this revelation. It left us in a predicament because it meant a tougher fight ahead. And we were getting short on vole blood which might be what is required to kill a champion. I was forming a plan when I was interrupted. There was more to disclose.

  “The portal itself is guarded by dvaren with ballista in the tens of thousands. It is as if they knew we would be coming eventually and our arrival would bring griffins. They cannot hit us if we soar in the heavens. If we fly down low then we are prime targets. If we lob fireballs from high the shaman shields will protect them until we burst their shields and drain their aura. We are confident we can siege the portal defenses from up high. When Lord Nova arrives we can break the shields and burn the dvaren in a few hours.” Barice said with a pause as she spoke for King Aves. “These tens of millions of Horde that are waiting to sail west are exposed. That portal is not. It is a decent counter to our abilities. I know how we can win… The problem is none of them spare the defending dvaren.”

  I paced the clay floor from up high. There was a lot to think about. I decided to survey our immediate surroundings while I pondered on how to best fix this issue. I went to the portal and noticed the rest of our siege engines were here. Now support dvaren were coming from the portal. Cooking fires were quickly being lit and the dead orcs were being flayed for meals. Gruesome work and the smell hit my nose in its delicious aroma. Yum. Orc flesh.

  Nate approached my side and we looked over the paused battlefield. The enemy was giving us lots of clearance. It would be hours if not half a day until two thousand griffins arrived. We needed answers more than troops.

  “Nate I am going to Virtue to ask some questions before he starts hopping around human cities bringing in my cavalry. Let the others focus on our defenses and thinking of strategies to present me.” I said and Nate slammed a fist over his heart.

  I found the ladder cutout in the floor from the old structure and worked my way to the ground. I exited the buildout that King Aves created and hopped through the large portal to Uhara.

  ∞∞∞

  The shaman was not hard to find. He was beside the portal talking with Urshoe. They were discussing Iceshore’s upgrades and how it was progressing. They stopped talking when I arrived.

  “Glad you are both here. I have a question. Three problems really. First, there are two champions at the portal. Second, there are dvaren slaves guarding it. Third, if I destroy this portal can Maurta not simply create a new portal on Nagoland. Gravin made it seem that if we broke this one, the Horde was locked off Vin. Oh, Nagoland has a lost civilization elvath.” I asked. I expected a bit of a reaction, and I was rewarded. The portal wobbled from Virtues shock.

  I hoped some poor dvarette didn’t just end up in a sun or void of space.

  “Elvath! You are certain?” Urshoe asked and I nodded. “If that is the case the seven themselves will be on that portal… I might be able to help with the dvaren. There are rules and sub rules and then variances. You can offer to buy out a slave army’s contract, which would be rejected by an opposing demigod. You can wager duel the champions, maybe. In this case, if you win you can get them to swap sides. I doubt the other demigods will accept though. I know little of Maurta’s champion. If not buy outright you can barter. Gryff, I need you to know something though. The dvaren are not the elvath. They breed quickly and survive anywhere by burrowing into the planets. They are not rare. I know that does not help a lot. It is the truth though. Virtue can help you more than I can maybe.”

  Virtue saw the last dvarette leave Uhara to enter our base camp and he closed the portal. He sighed and leaned on his staff. “I will have to wait for tomorrow or you can use Roz to move the human cavalry. Those dvaren were a lot, a few hundred thousand dvarettes went to aid the armies. A few moments ago Urshoe mentioned she had ferried a lot of supplies in and out of Iceshore. She is done for the day too. We can recharge our aura from the elvath, but we will pass out eventually. The body can only handle so much.”

  I nodded at this. The old shaman looked exhausted. I needed to catch up Roz. Hopefully, she was helping ensure Vin was an overproducing planet. She did have Addilyn and Nautica with her so they should be doing well. Also, I forgot to see what mounted animals she found. I pulled my pen out of my bag and my paper to make a note. When I never asked a question to Virtue he continued talking.

  “When Maurta locks onto a planet it is a spell. That spell gives him options. He can then choose between those options to open his locked portal. He sends a goblin in, and the goblin comes back. Then he sends a shaman or a cyclops. At this stage, the portal
is still a small opening. No larger than an ogre, it is this size on purpose. If the intelligent being decides they should continue to hop around the planet they can. A few things are needed. A complete destruction of the portal and its base is required. That will sever the lock to the opening. A simple portal the size of an ogre and it is only a team of orcs to demolish the old portal. He severs the connection, searches the universe again, finds the same planet and then opens a new portal somewhere else on its surface. If they have indeed found a new elvath source after all these years… On Vin of all worlds… They would never risk losing the location of the planet. Even if Maurta could easily find it again, there is the chance the four can hide it, or something goes wrong. So they will not willingly break that portal to complete destruction. It would be too risky with too many potential downsides. If they sent stupid orcs to do the job, they may leave some of it intact and be separated forever from Vin. Then there is the fact that elvath are ruthless determined killers. They have an established portal now. Many portals were lost in the early days against the elvath. In all my years, never has a big portal been destroyed and a fresh one erected. While it is allowed in the rules, it is never done. You will need to partially break that portal and jam Maurta’s attempts to ever reconnect to Vin. Gryff there are many options. The griffins are the primary ones… I hate to tell you this Gryff. I really do… Sacrifice the dvaren. There is little other choice.”