Chapter 46: Battle for the Twin Cities, Part 2
At the east end of the river segment separating the Union army to the north from the Twin Cities defense forces to the south, Vulp and a knight she recently met were leading a group of soldiers into battle against a mob of enemy soldiers. The enemies weren’t even all from the same unit; their organization became scrambled as they progressed south through the city. Still Vulp’s side was currently outnumbered in this area.
Vulp was stronger than the average recruit, but definitely weaker than knights and some of the veteran guardsman. She also had very little experience commanding others, other than her time spent participating in a party of adventurers. Her recently-earned reputation was fueling the group’s morale, but that wouldn’t hold up against a hopeless situation. The knight barked out orders and then led the charge.
Sword met shield, and the occasional fireball or other spell plowed into a cluster of soldiers. An enemy soldier seemed to recognize Vulp as he closed in on her. Another solder tried to obstruct the Union swordsman’s approach but got blown away by a horizontal sword strike, showing this man was powerful.
Vulp faced him down valiantly, despite her smaller reach and frame. Unable to land the first strike, she received a heavy slash with her shield. Despite her effort to dissipate the energy, her shield broke, abrading her arm as well. Rufus’s earlier effort to help her find the perfect shield for adventuring had backfired. Monsters and humans attacked differently. If she survived this, she’d need to replace her shield with one more appropriate for her current duties.
The man smirked and winded up for a second swing.
Knowing she’d struggle to receive this guy’s slash with her own sword, Vulp leaped backwards at the last moment to dodge the attack.
As if expecting this, the man merely feinted as he stepped forward, closing the distance due to his longer stride.
Vulp wouldn’t have time to dodge before the next slash came. Realizing this, she switched to a two-handed grip and parried the attack. Vulp succeeded in keeping the enemy’s blade away from her body, but found herself blown away from the impact as she landed on her back.
While the dominating man stomped forward, another ally of Vulp’s charged him and got blown away. He raised his sword.
Vulp timed her recovery so she would flip her legs backwards over her head just as the sword plunged into the ground. Although her maneuver succeeded, with her landing on her feet, the stubborn guy had simply feinted again as he stepped forward, shrinking the gap to nothing. She didn’t even have time to take up a defensive stance again as he swung at her for real.
Unflinching, she saw the sword descend on her, only it passed in front of her rather than plunging into her head or shoulders. As the tip contacted the ground with a clack, the entire sword fell from the man’s hand. His blank expression didn’t reveal what had happened, but the sword tip emerging from the center of his neck was more telling. As if reacting to Vulp’s realization, the man collapsed to his knees and then fell forward, dead.
Strangely, the owner of that bloody sword was dressed like a Union soldier. He tossed a shield at Vulp’s feet and then yanked his sword out of the corpse.
“…Your arm is already healed.”
Vulp looked down at her bloody sleeve. It still looked gross, but her regeneration ability had already closed up the torn skin. She turned back to soldier. “Thanks,” she said, as she quietly mouthed the word “DM” as well.
The solder turned around and plunged into his allied Union forces, swinging his sword wildly and causing chaos. “We’ve been betrayed!" he yelled, likely to reduce morale. Eventually, other Union soldiers reacted to the unexpected situation and cut the man down, but the flow of battle was already disturbed.
One at a time, random foot soldiers would suddenly switch from attacking Twin Cities defenders to slashing Union soldiers. Although word was spreading of this strange phenomenon and responses were becoming swifter, the lack of an explanation seemed to be spreading fear and discontent all throughout the ranks of the Union, at least in this area.
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At the skirmish west of Vulp’s position, soldiers engaged just a few moments later than they had to their east. Numbers here were closer to even, thanks to the uniform spread of Twin Cities soldiers along the front. Still, even if they won this battle, the number of casualties on both sides would be tremendous. It would be a hollow victory, and the surrounding conflicts would still need to be decided.
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After a couple of minutes where the battle proceeded evenly, fireballs rained down on the Union army from the nearest rooftops. A few soldiers ran off to climb those buildings and cut down whichever mages were attacking them, but when they reached the roofs they found nobody there. Despite this, fireballs continued to assault the army, decimating them and destroying their focus.
“It’s a tentacle!” a man shouted down from the roof, confusing the heck out of his surviving comrades. Once the tentacles were discovered, they changed tactics. Instead of launching magical attacks from the cover of nearby roofs, they simply spawned right next to groups of soldiers and blasted them with fireballs and the like. Occasionally, a soldier would approach one of the tentacles from an unexpected direction, intent on cutting it down. The tentacle would react one of two ways. Either it would suddenly disappear, only to spawn somewhere else on the battlefield, or it would counterattack with a powerful tentacle smash to the face. If the soldier was unlucky.
As the meddling continued, the Twin Cities’ advantage became more and more prevalent until they were able to entirely push back the Union soldiers in this area. As total defeat became inevitable, the losers began to retreat, further cementing a one-sided outcome.
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Bandit jumped from rooftop to rooftop, noting the locations of Union soldiers and where they were going. She’d noticed that a portion of the army was engaging the defenders along the river, a portion were guarding each gate, and a small number were wandering around the northern districts or up to mischief.
If she saw any soldiers harassing the citizens, she’d stop momentarily to unload her one-handed crossbows into their flank, poison and all. After that, she’d climb back up and continue her mission coordinating the Guild’s secret efforts.
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Lupy had joined Anne as they ran around instructing the locals on what to do and more importantly what not to do as enemy soldiers moved around the city. The goal was to maintain an illusion of docility and compliance all the while preparing to resist at the first opportunity.
Their journey brought them to the edge of the city near the west gate. A Union division had just forced away the defenders and seized control of the gate themselves, although they hadn’t bothered to open it yet. Lupy and Anne were close enough to the gate to spy on the Union’s actions, but far enough away not to draw anyone’s attention.
That lasted until a small group of soldiers broke off from their unit and jogged along the wall to the nearest structure. Lupy and Anne hid and watched from a friendly nearby shop while the employees hid in the backroom.
“What’s that?” Lupy asked Anne, gesturing towards the structure the soldiers were approaching.
“That’s an armory for supporting the gate, although it seems to have been abandoned by the city guard along with the gate.”
As they spoke, the soldiers cautiously entered and disappeared into the structure.
“Shouldn’t we stop them from stealing our army’s gear?”
“Lupy, I’d love to, but we’re somewhat outnumbered. I mean, you’re free to try if you truly think you’ll come out on top, but I’m not sure how strong those soldiers are…”
“I want to try.”
Anne looked back and forth down the street to make sure no other enemies were approaching. “All right… Just run away at the first sign that things aren’t working out for you. If you do need to run, don’t lead them here.
Lupy received a few suggestions about how to trick the soldiers, such as to pretend she was lost, ask the soldiers where adventurers are supposed to go to avoid getting involved, or announce she was kidnapped from the Union. Any of those stories had the potential to make the enemy hesitate, at least.
She nodded to Anne and tottered over to the armory in a feigned display of weakness and timidity. Anne saw her disappear into the structure.
For a few moments Anne couldn’t hear anything. Then, suddenly, the sound of combat resounded through the area. It seemed that Lupy had begun her attack on the invading soldiers. Anne could have sworn that there was too much noise for just one fighter and her opponents to produce, but she had no visibility of the battle. She did hear some yells and screams, but they were clearly from men rather than a young girl.
After a minute or two of fighting, the noise quieted down. Lupy emerged from the structure with some fresh blood splashed on her armor, but she herself didn’t seem to have any serious injuries. Strangely, Anne heard more death screams from the structure, even as Lupy walked toward her.
“W—Was someone else in there?”
“No.” Lupy didn’t elaborate, and Anne decided to pretend she hadn’t heard anything, for her own sanity.
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DM turned his attention from skirmish to skirmish, lending aid to the Twin Cities and weakening the Union. Eventually, even the disorganized Union soldiers were able to tell the lines were collapsing around them and they retreated back north.
Had the soldiers near the east or west ends of the theater ran to the nearest city gate, they could have joined up with their allies and pushed back or alternately escaped from the city through the gate. However, the soldiers were not told what to do in their current situation and the plan did not involve seizing gates from the inside to use as escape paths. The soldiers had no idea such an attractive option was available to them, so most just retreated north, trying to find their way to the northern gate through the confusing city streets.
Even if they were retreating due to unfavorable battle conditions, the Union soldiers still likely outnumbered the city's defenders. So long as they joined together near the northern gate again, they’d be able to reorganize and push back, or at least that’s what most of the fleeing soldiers were thinking. Barring any unexpected situations during their retreat, they were still in this fight.