by Pirateaba
The Antinium broke through the stone walls, but the city was built on an ancient dungeon. We have barricaded ourselves within and the Workers have yet to tunnel through the enchantments…
They are relentless. With each hour more Soldiers attack our positions. We have set up killing corridors and are using what few [Mages] we have while our warriors rotate. Everyone, Drake and Gnoll and the few Humans with us are fighting.
I have sent our one Courier out, in hopes that she may reach someone who will bring word to General Sserys. Please tell him we are still alive, and not to send reinforcements. The enemy is too well-entrenched here. All of us know our lives are lost, but we will keep fighting and divert as many Antinium against us as possible.
We will hold this place so long as a single one of us draws breath. I beg only one thing of those who would follow: avenge us. Scourge our enemy from these walls and reap a hundred bodies for the fallen.
We are here. We will fight until our last.”
At first, many believed Shivertail’s message to be a trap set by the Antinium. But records indicated that Geir had indeed been built over a dungeon of considerable size and magical strength. That there were still survivors shocked those in command, and Sserys immediately began exploring options to support the beleaguered survivors of Geir.
Written recollections suggests that as many as three hundred assorted [Soldiers], [Guardsmen] and civilians with assorted classes escaped into the dungeon, due in no small way to Zel Shivertail’s quick thinking. The Soldiers prioritized fighting those with combat classes, allowing a large number of civilians to take cover during the attack.
Perhaps the Antinium believed that the survivors would be easy to rout, and indeed, they might have been were it not for the explosive leveling that occurred as the desperate people fought an increasingly deadly defensive battle against the Antinium Soldiers, who found themselves unable to advance down the narrow corridors which equalized the numerical superiority enjoyed by the Soldiers.
This, combined with the magically impenetrable walls, gave the survivors of Geir a fighting chance. Their situation was no less dire, but they were able to resist being overwhelmed on the first day, and the next. And as the fighting continued, a miracle occurred.
Forced to fight with their tails to the wall against impossible odds, the defenders of Geir leveled up almost daily and gained unusual classes such as [Stalwart], [Defender], and [Lineholder] among the warriors, and [Survivor], [Fighter], and [Protector] among the civilians. A few even gained rare classes like [Slaughterer], [Blood Berserker], and so on.
This explosive growth is widely known and accounted for by [Tacticians] of Drake, Human, and occasionally, Gnoll species when laying siege to well-fortified positions, but the Antinium were clearly unprepared for this eventuality. They hurled more and more of their Soldiers into the battle until eventually, the dead grew to be so numerous that the defenders were able to construct impromptu barricades out of the slaughtered Antinium.
For over a month, Zel Shivertail led his increasingly high-level defenders against the Antinium, until the day they managed to push out of the dungeons and retake the keep.
This had been the moment Sserys had been waiting for. He personally led a mounted group of elite soldiers to the rescue, driving a spear into Geir while two armies held back the Antinium long enough to retrieve the survivors.
The daring success of Sserys’s actions and the retrieval of over forty Drakes and Gnolls with levels over 30 was hailed as a heroic victory throughout the continent. As the leader of the defenders of Geir, Zel Shivertail was awarded multiple accolades, not least for his own achievement in the face of dire odds. From a Level 15 [Lieutenant], Shivertail grew to become a Level 39 [General] after his battles, one of the most incredible growths ever recorded in known history.
Shivertail was immediately given a command of his own; he assembled an army around the survivors of Geir and led his soldiers on to several notable victories, not least of which was the second defense of Shivering Falls and his retaking of Geir later on in the war.
His defensive abilities—born out of that deadly siege—allowed his army to fight off far larger forces than his own and even push back the Antinium at a number of key battles. Shivertail became hailed as ‘Tidebreaker’, in reference to the Black Tide’s failure to overwhelm his army time and time again.
More important than his prowess as a general was the fact that at last a group of people had survived one of the deadly Antinium assaults. Geir’s story became a rallying cry and brought new confidence and hope to the citizens desperate for any good news.
Sserys is known to have been especially heartened by this event, and began to rely on Shivertail as one of his most trusted generals. He wrote in one entry in his private diary:
“…talked with him at length. I still cannot believe young Shivertail managed to do what he did with so few numbers. But I have seen his willpower and daring on the battlefield and have every expectation that he will rise to the occasion as this damnable war goes on..
It has taken some doing, but at last I have commissioned some armor fit for him. Yet he refused my gift, claiming it would be better suited to someone of a lesser level. He has also forgone any magical weapons, as his Skills allow him to fight with his claws with far more efficiency than even experienced warriors.
I must confess, I admire his humility, but I cannot lose such a valuable young [General]. He is an icon among the soldiers, and he gives me hope we may win this war yet…”
Sserys’s cautious optimism would soon be rewarded, for the Antinium chose that moment to launch their most daring offensive yet. They diverted every active army not engaged north, towards Liscor, one of only two gateways to the northern Human territory, in hopes of cutting off any possibility of reinforcements and encircling Sserys’s forces.
This attack on General Sserys’ own home would normally have provoked an overwhelming response from the Liscorian Army and the General himself, but countless Antinium armies were sent to slow the massive force Sserys attempted to bring to his home city’s rescue.
Liscor found itself under attack by a huge Antinium army, but uniquely, did not immediately fall to the Antinium onslaught. Like the Walled Cities, Liscor possessed above-average magical defenses upon its walls which allowed it to repel the Antinium host countless times. Yet the Antinium filled the region around Liscor, with so many bodies present that it seemed as if the ground really was water to the hopeless Liscorian citizens.
Sserys, desperate to save Liscor, pushed ahead with his armies, fighting countless desperate battles to find himself at the southern entrance to Liscor. But there his progress halted. The Black Tide met him with overwhelming numbers and encircled his back, cutting off any hope of retreat. Suddenly, it was Sserys who was trapped as both his army and Liscor were surrounded by the Antinium forces.
No other Drake commanders were close enough to come to Sserys’ aid, and Zel Shivertail, commanding the bulk of the Drake forces, was fighting back a huge push from the Antinium front and could spare no armies to break the siege.
The Drake armies were forced back and cut off, and Liscor teetered on the verge of collapse as the Antinium continued their relentless siege. It would be no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Drakes hinged on retreating with Sserys’ army mostly intact. Without it, the Antinium would be able to completely overwhelm the stretched Drake armies already.
But the Antinium had no intention of allowing Sserys to retreat. They launched an all-out assault and Sserys made his stand against one of the mountains.
—-
The hour was just past dawn, and the Drakes had endured yet another massive assault that had seen tens of thousands of Antinium Soldiers charging their defensive lines without regard to their own casualties.
Sserys was preparing to rally his troops for a final charge. He had been pushed back six times, but he considered his army’s only chance for survival was to push to the gates of Liscor. There they might be
able to hold out long enough for Zel Shivertail to muster a force to come to their aid, but the Antinium had formed a literal wall of bodies that continually replenished itself.
As Sserys prepared to give the order, he heard a horn call in the air. He relates the moment in his personal diary:
“…and in the midst of my despair, I heard it. A battle horn, a call to arms. Not from my camp or the endless Antinium horde, but beyond, to the north. That is when I saw the Humans. They swept down the pass, an army as great as any that ever marched north against us. [Knights] and [Adventurers] riding on warhorses, ranks of [Soldiers], and countless mages raining fire and death on the Antinium from behind.
It was glorious. And in that moment, I saw a young woman at their head, raising a sword. And I knew this battle could be won, and ordered the charge. Not towards Liscor, but into the center of the Antinium army.
For Liscor I would die. But that was not this day. And we broke the Black Tide between us, Drakes, Gnolls, and Humans all striving together for glorious victory.”
The arrival of the Human forces at Liscor was an complete surprise to both Sserys and the Antinium Queens. The long history of enmity between the indigenous Drake and Gnoll populations and the Humans, beginning when the first Humans landed on the continent from Terraria, meant that even while they fought against the Antinium, the Drakes were more concerned that a Human army might attack their forces than that they might come to their aid.
Too, the fractious Human city-states to the north were just as divided as their Drake counterparts. Unless a Drake army was marching north, the Humans refused to work together. That such a massive army – of over a hundred and sixty thousand Humans – had arrived in Issiysil’s darkest hour can be accredited to one person: Lady Magnolia.
The young Reinhart had not spent the many months during which the Antinium Wars had raged silent. Although her initial warnings had fallen on deaf ears, the scion of the Reinhart house slowly gathered influence and support, seizing the power among her family in a swift and bloodless coup and using her power to force or persuade cities to lend arms towards a relief army.
The Antinium’s growing threat alarmed many prominent Humans, and with the full might of the Reinharts behind the effort, a Human army was formed and sent south just in time to break the siege of Liscor.
It is unclear how much the young Magnolia Reinhart invested into the war effort, but every Gold-rank and Named adventurer in the North was offered exorbitant sums to act as vanguards and special units, and elite warriors from each city were sent to fight with heavy investments of both supplies and arms, indicating that this was no token force. The Humans meant to throw the Antinium back into the sea, starting with Liscor.
The Human attack occurred under the guise of mass-concealment spells that nearly drained all the mages in the force. However, their surprise attack was so devastating that countless thousands of Antinium died in the first moment as the army dropped its enchantments and charged into their unguarded rear.
While Human and Drake tactics share many similarities, there is a marked difference in army composition. Humans heavily favor mounted assaults with armored cavalry as opposed to Drake armies which usually have small mounted regiments. Additionally, Human armies favor a mass-attack with mages before launching their first assault.
Thus, the Antinium found themselves hammered repeatedly by countless spells before the bewildered Workers and Soldiers observed a stream of heavy cavalry charging into them. At the same time, Sserys launched a devastating attack of his own, and the Antinium lines began to break as the army struggled to fight on both sides and hold off an attack from Liscor as the defenders began to sortie.
The siege of Liscor broke as the Black Tide found itself hammered from two fronts. The armies of General Sserys blockaded the southern exit while Lady Magnolia’s Human armies rampaged through the lines of the Antinium, blasting apart their ranks with magic to great effect while armored cavalry mounted continuous charges to break the advancing Soldiers.
Numerous Human [Lords] and lesser nobility were present at the battle leading their respective commands, but unusually, Lady Magnolia Reinhart was spotted on the field herself, inspiring troops from behind her house’s personal, elite, guard. While the Lady Reinhart did not participate in any of the fighting, her presence on the battlefield was a significant break with typical aristocratic behavior in the nobility.
The battle around Liscor raged for several more hours, but the balance of power inevitably shifted towards the Drakes and Humans. The Antinium retreated in chaos, leaving countless dead and both armies to celebrate.
Whatever initial misgivings the Drakes might have had about Human aid was set aside in the face of their timely arrival. Magnolia Reinhart was again instrumental in acting as a buffer between both forces and deciding on a course of action as both sides’ commanders debated how to press their advantage.
The end result of the battle for Liscor was a huge blow to the Antinium forces and a new ally in the form of the Human coalition army, which would go on to secure numerous victories against the Antinium. However, Lady Magnolia Reinhart would return north after the battle, having lost her taste for war in that first battle. This came as a relief to many of her personal aides and those affiliated with the Reinhart house, but also to General Sserys as well.
“I sought out the young lady Reinhart after the speeches and celebrations were finished. I wanted to thank her personally, but to my surprise, I found her wandering amidst the fallen. Many Humans gave their lives, and I saw her staring at their bodies for a long time among the Antinium.
I believe she wept, and vomited, although I only rejoined her later. All I know is that while she accorded me with every courtesy and behaved to the utmost standards of her Class, her face was pale and she seemed unsteady on her feet. I did not take much of her time, and spoke with her later, after she had recovered herself.
I must confess, while I take little pleasure in the discomfort of young Reinhart, I am relieved to see her thus. Had she half the cunning, bravery, and skill on the battlefield as she did in the realm of politics, I fear we would be soon be in greater danger from the Humans than the Antinium.”
Despite Sserys’s fears, Magnolia Reinhart was still instrumental during the rest of the Antinium War, if not as a warrior or commander, then as a diplomat. She convinced wavering allies to commit to aiding embattled armies and campaigned ceaselessly to maintain the pressure on the Antinium.
It seemed the war was won, or so the [Messengers] and [Runners] shouted from every rooftop. Both Drakes and Humans had allied, and even the Gnoll Tribes had sent a smaller force of their own to push the Antinium back. This coalition of forces – dubbed the Southern Alliance – joined together to push back the Antinium time and time again in resounding victories. The sieges on two more Walled Cities were broken, and the Antinium lines were pushed back until their Hives were in striking range.
However, this was not the end of the Antinium Wars, merely a lull in the fighting. The Queens had indeed withdrawn their forces, but not to retreat. Instead, they launched a second massive offensive as the three joint armies drew closer to their position, deploying their secret weapon in the war: the Prognugators.
Perhaps the so-called Prognugator class had not yet been ‘born’ in the Antinium Hives, or their movement to the front lines signified the desperation of the Antinium Queens. However, as the Drake, Human, and Gnoll forces approached the hive, they found themselves suddenly under attack by overwhelming Antinium numbers, acting in even greater and more deadly concert than before.
Suddenly, the Antinium armies were using advanced tactics and strategy not seen before during the war. While the Antinium had always employed basic strategies and formations, now they launched sneak attacks, flanked weak targets actively, and laid traps and feinted, much like any force led by a competent commander.
And yet, the Antinium had no visible commanders on the front lines, no observable [General] which archers or mages could
aim for. It was only after a decisive battle in which an Antinium vanguard broke through Human lines and slaughtered the [General] in command did witnesses report seeing an Antinium who looked like a Worker, yet wielded swords and fought like a warrior with classes.
This was the first sighting of the elusive Prognugators, one of the sub-commanders of the Antinium. They appeared to be ordinary Workers or normal Antinium until they displayed their unique abilities on the field. These included strong fighting capabilities – at least on the level of a Silver-rank adventurer – and keen strategic insight. They would pretend to be ordinary Antinium while they secretly led the armies, only to reveal their true nature when in danger or at key moments.
Once Sserys and the Human commanders learned of these Prognugators, ever effort was made to hunt them down and destroy them. But despite several reported kills of the Prognugators, it seemed they were immortal.
In one battle, a spear-wielding Antinium would be slain by arrow, but only a week later he would reappear, fighting with the same vigor as before, completely unharmed. It was as if the Prognugators were endless, and the bewildered soldiers began to fear these immortal Antinium as unkillable nightmares.
However, the Prognugators could die. Reliable accounts, including one by Sserys himself, describe the [General] and others killing the Prognugators in single-combat, only to see them appear again, apparently weakened. While it was not clear from afar, Sserys reports that after he slew a Prognugator who fought with dual swords and daggers the first time in a close match, the Antinium was noticeably weaker the second time they dueled, and actively avoided Sserys in the third battle they met in.
It seemed that whatever claim to immortality the Prognugators had, it was not infinite. Repeated deaths led to a final ‘death’ as it were, and their ranks eventually thinned as they were repeatedly sought and destroyed.
