“You, take half your reavers and plug up the gate, the other half to the breach in the wall!” Sokala ordered to the humans, keeping the executioners in reserve. Her own forces would cover the wall to prevent any soldiers from scaling it and continuing to fire as the soldiers inevitably bunched up at the breach and gate.
Reavers swarmed from where they had been cowering behind the wall and formed up in front of the fallen gates. The other reavers inside the barracks also ran out, positioning themselves around the breach in the wall. The wall breach was less of a threat. The seven-foot-tall stone half of the wall was untouched. No easy obstacle to scale while wearing armor. As the first of the Imperium soldiers marched through the gates, it was time for her new allies to prove their worth.
Chapter 16
Her position in the remaining tower gave Sokala a good view of the coming fight. The first block of Imperium soldiers had closed to within twenty feet of the fallen gate, a few of the reavers going wild and charging the soldiers. The soldiers acted with deadly skill, which shocked Sokala; the Ikbose were expecting human soldiers to be poor fighters. Sokala watched one soldier block a reaver’s blow on his shield as the soldier next to him thrust into the unsuspecting reaver, dropping him.
A half dozen overzealous reavers were cut down without a single Imperium soldier falling. Ten feet from the reavers, the soldiers in the rear rank lowered shields and threw their javelins. The move was unexpected, yet several of her archers were able to exploit the lowered shields, landing a few deadly shots into the Imperium formation.
The javelins landed among the bunched-up reavers with devastating effect. The reavers barely had time to raise their small shields up to fend off the onslaught; often, the shields failed to block the falling missiles. When a shield did stop a shot, the javelin would penetrate the shield and bend, forcing the reaver to toss away his now unusable shield.
Half the reavers were down when the Imperium soldiers reached the gateway. The soldiers killed with brutal efficiency, working together to take down the disorganized reavers. Seeing the gateway was falling, Sokala waved forward the executioners, pointing to where she wanted them. With a nod, the executioners began to walk calmly toward the failing defense.
With complex hand motion, she signaled half of the archers on the wall. The archers slung their bows and drew melee weapons. These would be her reserve force; weakening the walls wasn’t too much of a concern, as the soldiers seemed to be focused on the breaches. She counted thirty-seven elves that had answered her summons, the dual-wielding warriors gathering at the base of her tower as they waited for orders.
The fallen section of wall also began to falter. The reavers there had also taken horrendous losses from the javelins of the Imperium soldiers. Using a tactic that she didn’t expect, the approaching soldiers stopped at the base of the wall in pairs, holding a shield between them, creating a stepping-off point for the men behind. One shield was held low, at waist height, and the other just over the heads of the soldiers supporting them. The remaining soldiers walked up and over the wall with no more difficulty than if they were going up a steep staircase.
The archers perched on the walls over the breach now had their chance to shine. Sokala laughed as soldiers leapt up to the breached wall, only to fall with several arrow shafts sticking from them, their shields too unwieldy to use effectively while they jumped up the improvised stairway.
“Murder them all!” she shouted, elated that the initial attack seemed doomed to fail. Back at the gateway breach, the painweaver was casting a steady stream of spells, dropping soldiers left and right to squirm in the throes of such beautiful pain. The remaining reavers and newly arrived executioners wasted no time in hacking the fallen soldiers to pieces.
The straight disciplined ranks of Imperium soldiers began to falter.
The painweaver’s frantic casting would soon deplete even his robust mana pool. More blades would be needed at the gate once the painweaver’s casting faltered. Keeping twenty Ikbose warriors in reserve, the rest ran to join the slaughter at the gate. At the last minute, Sokala ducked as another barrage from the siege engines flew past. She didn’t know what they expected to accomplish, as the shots were way too high to hit her forces.
Quickly, she turned to view their point of impact. Four faintly glowing scorpion bolts had embedded themselves into the ground in front of the barracks as the two catapult stones, also faintly glowing, struck the wall of the barracks before rolling down to the dirt.
Sokala braced herself for an explosion . . . but none occurred. Instead, she watched as the dirt and stones around the fallen shot formed themselves into a humanoid shape before attacking the closest of her troops they could find. Sokala stood on the tower, so stunned it took her a moment before she ordered the rest of her reserve to fight the earth elementals that had somehow been summoned by the siege engines.
Even as her reserves began to surround the elementals, another volley of shots landed and another half dozen elementals formed, joining in the attack on her reserves. The elementals were resistant to the weapons of the elves; steel blades bent and dagger tips were blunted as they struck the summoned creatures.
A new trouble reared its head at the wall breach. A half dozen men suddenly appeared on the wall and around the breach. The ones on the wall immediately attacked the archers while the ones in the breach attacked the closest foe. These men were clothed in tattered rags with the remains of chains around their wrist. They looked like escaped prisoners. How had they magically appeared?
The archers on the wall struggled to draw weapons as the prisoners engaged the nearest foe with improvised knives. Despite their improvised appearance, the blades slammed easily through the light armor the elves wore. Another eight of the strange prisoners now appeared on the wall to the left of the wall breach, attacking the archers firing from that side as well.
Without the archer fire, the soldiers scaling the wall were able to assault the breach unimpeded. The trickle of soldiers facing the reavers there became a flood as the pressure and losses the archers had inflicted was countered. The soldiers at the wall breach fought hard, gaining room to form into a line. Once they were in formation, the fight at the breach turned against her, the Imperium laying waste to her forces at a rate of three to one. The breach needed help, but so did her reserves that were battling the elementals.
Reaching a decision, Sokala slid down the tower ladder and approached the fight at the wall breach. She could kill humans easily but didn’t want to try and tangle with the summoned monsters of stone and dirt. Waving down all but a few of her warriors from the wall, Sokala directed half to fight the elementals and the rest to follow her. She reached the dwindling line of reavers holding back the soldiers and stepped up once the man in front of her was cut down. No need to put herself at risk to save the disposable human.
She sent a mental spike of pain into the head of the soldier in front of her and came in for the kill. The soldier dropped his sword and shield, raising his hands to his head in a futile attempt to stop the pain now surging through him. A quick thrust with the sword through the soldier’s middle wasn’t enough to put him down. Her dagger skittered off the steel plates of his armor, failing to penetrate.
Before she could strike a second time, pain lanced through her side; the soldier next to her victim had thrust his sword into her waist. With machine-like efficiency, the soldier behind her victim stepped into the gap and began to attack her as well. She activated an ability, and Flurry of Blades rained strikes down upon any foe within reach. Her strikes killed one soldier and wounded two others, but more again stepped into the line to replace the fallen. Was there any end to them?
Sokala stepped back to allow another elf to take her place as she viewed the battlefield. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed the other elves she had summoned from the walls were joining in the fight. The prisoners on the wall were gone, but so were most of her archers. Only three still fired down into the flood of soldiers.
T
he elementals were under control, the reinforcements from the walls giving her forces the numbers needed to put them down. The cost was horrendous, though; the bodies of too many of her warriors were strewn about the summoned creatures. As she watched, another warrior was slammed to pulp by a stone elemental’s fist, even as the other elves brought down the attacker.
The gate breach still held, the painweaver holding out for the nonce, but he must have been nearing the end of even his impressive mana reserves. Her attention was snapped back to the fight in front of her as the elf she had been relieved by fell to a soldier. This soldier was different from the others; he wore the insignia of an officer and carried himself with confidence.
With a glance, the officer read the fight and pointed his finger at the painweaver. She expected some soldiers to try and break out from the lines to attack him, but instead, a tattoo around the officer’s wrist glowed briefly. Next to the painweaver, a horrifying wolf created from plants and flesh appeared. Vines shot forth from the wolf and embedded themselves into the painweaver.
The painweaver screamed as the wolf convulsed and pumped a corrosive liquid into her tutor. The pain had to be intense to cause such a powerful painweaver to call out. A second later, a second wolf joined the first and also attacked her mentor. At that point, the line in front of her broke. The last of the reavers fell, and her elves were too few to hold back the soldiers.
Determined to sell her life dearly, Sokala charged the human leader, blades ready to strike as she sent a burst of pain directly into his mind. The human shook his head briefly and turned to face Sokala, not affected in the least by her pain-based magic. The officer raised his hand again and a stream of acidic sap hit her in the chest.
As a budding painweaver, Sokala could withstand large amounts of pain without faltering. She took pride in her abilities; they had earned her this post and her rank, after all.
They weren’t enough.
Not even her skills could stop the agony of her very flesh melting from her bones. As Sokala fell to the ground in a sizzling heap, she watched the victorious human soldiers begin to cut down the remnants of her forces . . . The Ikbose had failed—she had failed—and now she was damned.
***
I watched as the elf leader died to the last blast from Tessel’s Promise. The breach was secured, but hard fighting was continuing at the shattered gates. Without the caster, the humans there were doomed, but they were still fearsome and deadly opponents. He watched as one broke off from the fight and swung his huge axe at one of the corrupted wolves. The wolf was nearly cut in two from the blow, the executioner’s second swing finishing the job. The executioner’s axes swung with unnatural speed, the blades easily cleaving through the armor of my men.
A pair of executioners fell to a javelin volley launched by some of my soldiers taking the wall, leaving only a handful still swinging away at my men. One of the remaining executioners grabbed a soldier’s shield, ripping it from his arm and ignoring the gladius strikes from the soldiers next to his intended victim. The red glow from its closed helm brightened as it swung the huge axe one-handed into the soldier who had lost his shield. The axe clove through the steel of the soldier’s helm and split his head in two. The executioner finally fell to the sword thrusts of the dead soldier’s comrades as I made my way out of the wall breach and headed toward the remaining executioners.
“Hold up, sir. Can’t have you doing anything foolish now, can we? That’s my job, Raytak. My boys got this,” Wrend said as he held me back. His men were now streaming through the breach and heading toward the executioners, all thoughts of formation cast aside. It was a brutal prison brawl as the men from Ignominia swarmed the remaining axe-wielding foes. The executioners managed to kill a pair but were swept under by the tide of furious ex-prisoners.
The men had the rest of the battle well in hand now that the leader and her spellcaster were down. Wrend and the rest of Ignominia helped bring down the rest of the holdouts. In a matter of minutes, the transition point was ours, and some very welcome system messages and rewards flashed into view.
Quest Updated: Unite the Zone. You have defeated the fortified garrison at the Eastern Transition Point and have secured it for the Imperium. Defeat your remaining foes to unite Hayden’s Knoll under Imperium rule.
Reward: 1500 experience gained. You have recovered 355 gold and 1000 resources from the battlefield.
Congratulations! You have reached level 12. Open your character sheet to review new/updated information.
Hidden Bonus Objective Completed: You have gained control of all 3 transition points for the zone of Hayden’s Knoll.
Reward: 1 bonus level gained! You have received 500 gold and 500 resources.
Magic Item Received (2).
Rare magic Item Received.
In my inventory I found two scrolls and a small box, all of which were unidentified. I’d have to get them identified in Hayden’s Knoll once we made it back. The loot monster in me wanted to see about hiring a wizard to join the legion just so I could identify stuff immediately.
The area around the transition point began to change. The wall reformed without damage and now had a decidedly Imperium vibe to it. Small Imperium flags hung from the tops of the walls, and each of the buildings inside the defenses had a more structured and purpose-built appearance. Dark and foreboding was replaced with utilitarian cleanliness. While I watched the transformation, new notifications appeared in my interface.
Eastern Transition Point: This critical location is defended by a garrison of the Imperium. The defensive forces will spawn at the closest garrison (Holdfast) and make their way at best possible speed to their assigned location (Eastern Transition Point).
Eastern Transition Point Garrison:
Regulars: 1 platoon
Advanced Soldiers: 1 section
Additional forces: 2 scorpions and their crews.
The new garrison forces would be welcome, but I had hoped they would spawn inside the transition point and not have to walk from Holdfast. At least they were a tad bit stronger than the ones I had received for the northern transition point. Perhaps the larger number was due to the route being more traveled. It made sense, as the northern transition point was inoperable until the bridge was rebuilt. Having wall fortifications already in place would also be a big help in defending this point. I had a concern about the walls and hoped the AI would answer it through one of my npc’s.
“Sergeant Brooks, should we see about setting up some defenses facing internally in case an enemy army decides to use the transition point?” I asked.
“Sir, it doesn’t work that way during a time of war. The enemy would have to succeed in an assault on our defenses before they could use the portal directly,” Brooks replied as a system guide populated, giving information on transition points during times of war. The information was limited, but I had a feeling I would be finding out soon enough how everything worked in a war between zones.
Assaulting an Enemy Transition Point.
During times of war, transition points into a zone must be captured by a transition assault. When a hostile army tries to use the selected point, it will choose up to a maximum of 25% of its forces to participate in the attack. Once the forces to be sent are selected by the attacker, they will be transported to a random area approximately 1 mile from the transition point.
Should the assault force be defeated, it may attempt a second assault after a 24-hour lockout period. The second assault can utilize up to 50% of the attacking army’s forces. Should the second assault fail, the attackers can attack with their entire force once an additional 48-hour lockout has passed.
I would mess around with my character sheet later, needing to first assign a defensive force to watch the place until the new garrison arrived. The transition point needed to hold until I could return with the full might of the legion. Once the entire legion was gathered, we could begin our final assault on the Ikbose. I called for the nco’s to join me in the new barracks as the re
st of the soldiers policed up the battlefield.
“We’ve done it, men. After a hard fight, the last transition point in the zone is ours. Well done, everyone. Now we need to move the legion back to Hayden’s Knoll to regroup and resupply, but we also need to leave a force here to help the garrison defend the point. Any thoughts on the amount of forces to leave behind?” I asked.
“This seems like a job fit for Ignominia, sir. We stand ready to hold the transition point against all foes,” Wrend offered. It was the offer I was hoping for and expecting. His detachment seemed custom-made for these types of detached duties. Wrend had also grown into his position as leader of the unit, shedding some but not all of his abrasive demeanor from our prison days.
Also, Wrend just liked to hit things. I could respect that.
“I agree if nobody else has any objections. This could be a tough place to hold with just your unit. You’ll be on your own until the garrison arrives, and even then, you will have fewer defenders than the elves did. If the elves return in force . . .” I said, leaving the conclusion hanging.
“If they return in force, we’ll kill them and leave the scraps for the rest of the legion to gobble up once you get here. I know this is a dangerous task, Raytak, but leave it to my boys to hold the line here. We won’t fail you,” Wrend offered.
“Do you want me to detach any other forces to assist Sergeant Wrend?” Brooks asked. I thought the first sergeant looked a bit concerned for Wrend.
“If Wrend really thinks he needs them, I will. The problem I have in leaving too much back here is that we risk diluting our force and having the enemy defeat us in detail. I would rather gather all our might into one force before we attack,” I answered. Detaching another platoon or a full company would only leave us vulnerable while traveling.
Limitless Lands Book 4: Opposition (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 16
