The tension mounted even further than it had been the past two days, as the distance between the two armies drew nearer. Xander could feel it in the air like a static charge, and he found his arm hair rising as goosebumps appeared on his skin. Some unknown line was crossed by the Dardian army, and suddenly the call for the first company in the column, consisting mostly of mounted forces, was given to charge and they horses began to break into a gallop as the cavalry began to draw weapons and lances. Another order was called out from the rear, and Xander could hear that it was Lord Vard’s voice, even as far away as the man was near the center of the formation. He knew not whether it was a skill that was increasing the volume of the man’s voice or some kind of enchantment, but the effect was undeniable.
“CHARGE!” Rang out over the army, and as one they broke into a run, the final stretch of their weeks long journey nearing. The horsemen, already ahead of the army from their early start, continued to put distance between them and their allies as they moved further ahead of the army, and skills began flying between the two forces. Those amongst the cavalry with ranged skills, especially their mercenary auxiliaries, focused their skills on the front lines of spear and pikemen arrayed against the cavalry charge, rending large gaps in the line as more Thraskians moved men up to fill the gaps. The Thraskian army answered the charge with arrows and skills of their own as defensive skills flared up on both sides, bouncing arrows away and absorbing skills or deflecting them off course.
The sound of metal on metal as the first line of cavalry met the forces of Thrask was thunderous. The continued pushing forward as deep as they could as their compatriots behind filled the gaps created behind them. Eventually, the sheer density of bodies slowed their momentum and they were forced to begin fighting hand to hand from horseback instead of trampling over soldiers. Xander saw many of the horses begin to be taken down as they slowed or stopped. Some riders were crushed or trapped underneath their horses, slain before they could free themselves. Others continued to fight on dismounted, holding the gap as long as they could for the footmen to arrive and continue applying pressure.
Before the Thraskians could reorient themselves and begin to move men from the flanks to encircle the first company of mounted soldiers, the second company of footmen arrived, filling the gap and beginning to widen it, relieving the pressure on the horsemen. The momentum of the Dardian push began to be regained, and they pushed forward again, drawing closer to the forces that had been left to face the Southern gate.
Xander turned to his teammates, as their time to enter the fray was nearing. “Stay safe in there,” he said. “I’m expecting every single one of you to make it through to the city. I’ll be doing my best to support you from the air.” Not waiting for a reply, he swept up into the sky, drawing forth his rifle and searching for suitable targets. There were many, archers and ranged skill users quickly beginning to fire into the centrally massed group of Dardian soldiers. As the second company entered the fray, Xander could see that his teammates, Freyja included, were on one edge of the formation, already carving their way through the Thraskian forces, and focusing on the enemy skill users with larger, flashier skills. Taking aim, Xander began to down the skill users that were throwing, casting, and shooting a variety of skills ranging from fireballs and ice storms to arrows that became a rain of snake and ripples that turned the earth to quicksand in portions of the field. One by one, men and women began to fall, large holes torn into their chests and torsos.
By this point, the pressure and movement of the Dardian forces had forced the soldiers tasked with watching the gate to turn and face their new enemy or risk being taken from behind. Seeing that the majority of the most impactful ranged skill users had been taken out by himself as well as the other mercenary teams who were joining the fray, some of whom remained near the edges of the fight, solely firing skills at archers and skill users, Xander decided that the best way for him to help break through would be to begin dropping grenades on the as yet unengaged forces that the Dardians still needed to punch through. As he swooped lower over the enemy army, he began to become the target of skills and arrows, as he did his best to dodge them. Arrows bounced off his armor, robbed of their momentum and unable to pierce his armor, while he focused more on dodging the skills he could see racing towards him.
As he cleared the front of the Dardian forces, he began manifesting his grenades into his hands, dropping them into the enemy below him, detonating them as they fell to the ground. He flew in a straight line towards the Southern gate, dropping his line of grenades, and as they fell and detonated, secondary explosions from [Explosive Effect] rippled outwards from his original explosion, shredding yet more Thraskians. Xander’s efforts opened a small corridor in the Thraskian army, and his allies below quickly took advantage of it, pushing through to the end of the encirclement. As more and more Dardian bodies entered the fray, they began pushing outwards, widening the wedge they’d driven into the forces arrayed against them.
Whoever was watching from the city must have been gathering their forces for just such a moment, because as soon as the Thraskian line was breached, the gates began to open, ushering forth a wave of fresh cavalry, sallying forth from the safety of the city and rushing to meet the other side of the Thraskian army and widen the gap from their end. As Xander was no longer confronted with specific high value targets he could snipe from the air, and he risked killing his own allies with his grenades, he looked about to locate his teammates.
Finding them after a few agonizing moments, he dropped lower, folding his wings before opening them again nearer to the ground to slow his descent. Ten feet above the fighting, he stowed his rifle in his inventory, folded his wings, and deployed his automaton backpack. The spider-like legs of pack absorbed the shock of the landing for him, one of them skewering a Thraskian soldier as he fell, throwing him slightly off balance. Lowering himself to his own two feet, he raised the spider legs, allowing the skewered man to slide off the leg, and deployed the claw and shield arms as well, ordering the who apparatus to defend him as he moved through the throng to his teammates.
“We’ve punched through,” He yelled at them over the din of battle. It was hard to be heard over the yells, screams, and clanging of steel on steel. “We need to widen the corridor for the wagons!”
His companions acknowledged him with various nods or shouted confirmations, and, together with the soldiers around them, they began a more concerted push to widen their portion of the gap. Xander found himself fighting side by side with Gabrelle, the young woman holder her own against the enemy soldiers now that she had her own combat class. Xander decided that he should really make her a shield, as we caught her dodge a near hit from the corner of his eye. Her mace struck out against the attacker, the mace bursting into flames and searing the man’s skin as it impacted against the side of his head, dropping him to the ground. Xander’s automaton limbs were in constant motion, blocking nearby attacks and lashing out at any nearby enemy soldiers as he laid about him with his mace, breaking bones with every strike and eating through enemy armor even with a glancing strike.
Slowly, open space began to form between the to edges of the corridor that Dardin’s forces had created, and more was being made each moment. Seeing their time approaching, the wagons, still protected by the last two companies, began a slow roll towards the army, still out of range of arrows and skills. Xander found himself confronted with a hulking man, head and shoulders taller than he was wielding a huge shield and a longsword in his main hand. The man clearly had multiple defensive skills, as Xander was not able to make more than a small dent in his shield, despite the massive impact of his runed mace. The larger man was similarly unable to penetrate Xander’s defenses, his blows deflected by Xander’s own shield, as well as by his automaton arms. The one that did manage to bypass his defenses glanced harmlessly off his armor. Xander did see that his elemental corrosion array was beginning to take effect though, the shield beginning to smoke where he’d managed to land strikes upon it. He redoubled his efforts, going for a greater quantity of blows with less wind up against the shield, until nearly the entire thing was beginning to smoke as it slowly began to fall apart on the man, who released it with an angry yell.
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As the enemy soldier shifted his grip to a two-handed hold on his sword, Xander activated [Reactive Armor] again, having used it many times during the fight already, and cast [Brand] upon his foe. The big man staggered slightly, taken by surprise at the searing pain that had burned his chest. If he’d been able to see it under the armor, he would see that a large rune had been branded onto his torso. Xander could already feel the energy flowing from the ability into him, invigorating him. He allowed the man’s next strike to go through, as [Reactive Armor] took effect again, blowing the strike off course. Xander too advantage of the brief moment of disruption to swing a heavy blow at the man’s knee, buckling his stance slightly for a moment, but more importantly, beginning the process of corroding the man’s armored shell. He was repaid by a counterattack, the man having swept his disrupted blade into another attack, catching Xander on the shoulder and staggering him despite the impact being reduced by his runes. This man as strong as he was tough.
He quickly staggered to his feet, raising his shield against the next strike, and then casting [Reactive Armor] again to ward of the next when it came. Xander, however, had an idea, and didn’t allow the next blow to strike his armor. Instead, he swung his mace at the sword that was speeding towards him from the side. His mace impacted with it, and Xander’s suspicion that whatever skills were bolstering his enemy’s defenses would not be as effective on his weapon, since it wasn’t armor. The sword snapped, and the corrosion array that had transferred its effect quickly began to turn the rest of the blade into a smoking heap of sludge. Unarmed, his opponent fell quickly, falling to a flurry of blows. Gabrelle, having dispatched to foe nearest to her stepped in to join Xander in felling the man, and together they hammered him to the ground before Xander’s runes finally melted the armor open, revealing the softer flesh underneath the armored carapace of the knight. The man, who was prone at this point, was dispatched by a mace strike to his spine, which shattered it and spread the corrosive acid array to his skin, though he was already dead before it took effect.
The gap was now wide enough for a single wagon to fit through, and the caravan increased its speed, now fending off the arrows and skills directed towards it with the help of the ninth and tenth companies and their mercenary contingent. They quickly reached the gap and began to move into it single file, making their way to the city. As the first wagon made its way through the entirety of the gap, riddled with arrows, but still whole, a cheer went up from the Dardians, who redoubled their efforts. Soon the gap was wide enough for two wagons to move through, though that seemed to be the maximum that they could push against the enemy forces.
As the wagons trundled through the gap created for them as fast as they possibly could, Xander and his team bunched up into a tighter formation, sticking together as best they could in the chaos of battle. Now, they just had to hold the line for the last wagons to make their way through, and they could begin moving with the rest of the forces to the city.
“There, that’s the last wagon!” Atrax called out, pointing to a wagon nearby. Xander realized that it wasn’t followed by another wagon only once Atrax had pointed it out to them.
“Let’s move with it,” Graffus called out. “We don’t want to end up encircled out here. Doesn’t matter how much more skilled or higher leveled we are compared to them, they’d pull us down with sheer numbers!”
The team moved to cover the rear of the last wagon, as the corridor began to close, soldiers slowly flowing out of it as the final wagon passed and making their way towards the city. Many found themselves isolated from their allies as they tried to leave, the Thraskian forces pressing into the areas that had been left empty by the Dardians and were cut down. Xander counted himself fortunate that they had decided to stick close to the final wagon, avoiding such a fate themselves.
What followed next was even more brutal than the operation to punch through the Thraskian siege force. Now that they were all the way through, they were forced to fight a slow rearwards retreat as they backed up toward the city inch by inch. They couldn’t allow their forces to fall into disarray now, or the Thraskians would be able to make it through them and to the wagons, cutting them off before they could make it through the gates into the safety of the city.
Many more soldiers fell in this rearward action, as the Thraskians were finally able to bring their numbers fully to bear, pressing down on the front of Dardian line in an attempt to break them. It was only when they reached the range of the siege weaponry on the city walls that the soldiers of Thrask were forced to concede, as huge ballista bolts and hurled rocks began to fall among their forces, flung from the city wall. The Dardian soldiers quickly disengaged and made their way into Ilbek, where they were greeted with cheers and fanfare from the defending soldiers as the gate was rebarred and the portcullis dropped once again, sealing the city from the outside once more.
Lord Vard made his presence known by loudly asking, “Who is in charge of the city? Is Lord Etras still in command?”
A man on horseback, unarmored but wearing fine clothes, further in the crowd, shouted, “Vard! By the gods am I happy to see you! I’m still alive here, no thanks to those bastards outside.”
“Ahh, Etras, glad to see you’re still in one piece. Come, we have much to discuss, let us get the supplies stowed and the walls fully manned again, then we shall discuss amongst ourselves how to move forward.”
“By all means, Lord Vard,” Etras said, more formally, “You’re the savior of the day, after all.”
The two nobles clearly had some prior history, and began amicably chatting as if they weren’t in a besieged city following a pitched battle.
Xander turned to his teammates and said, “Guess we should find Uril and figure out where we’re staying.”
“Aye, that sounds like a fine idea. I could use a rest,” Graffus replied.
It took several tries, but one of the soldiers they asked had seen captain Uril recently, pointing the direction in which he’d been seen. Making their way through the milling crowd of soldiers, they eventually spotted Uril, who was in conference with several of his lieutenants. As they drew closer, Uril noticed them and smiled.
“Ah, my mercenary friends! I’m glad to see that you made it. You did good work out there, I hope you know. And Xander, I saw what you did, flying over the Thraskians and opening the last of the corridor! I’ll put putting in a recommendation for a medal for that, once things calm down, you can be sure of it.”
“Ah, thank you, captain Uril,” Xander said awkwardly.
“Now tell me, what brings you to me?” Uril asked.
“Just wondering where we’re going to be staying so we can set up and hopefully get some rest in,” Frazay asked.
Uril nodded understandingly. “Mm, well we haven’t been told anything about that yet, but I do happen to know that most of the buildings are empty right now. With Ilbek being so close to the border, most of the citizenry fled soon after war was officially declared. There’re a few stubborn hold outs, but for the most part everything is abandoned. So just find yourself an empty in and make yourselves comfortable. Just let me know which one once you find it so I can send a runner to you if needed.”
The mercenaries didn’t need to be told twice, and set off to find a suitable inn. They found a nice looking one not far off and made their way inside. It was indeed empty, and they noticed that had, disappointingly, been cleared out of its stocks of alcohol already. They set up their things in the rooms of their choosing, and Atrax volunteered to be the one that would relay the inn of their choice to Uril.
Settling in and finally able to truly relax for the first time in two weeks, Xander laid out on the bed, allowing his armor to fade into his inventory. As he was finally drifting into what promised to be an absolutely amazing nap, he had a sudden, profound thought, as one does when they are about to sleep. Only this one was very relevant, and very important to him. How was he going to feed Freyja now?
The supplies that had been brought with the caravan likely did not include much, if any, raw meat. Xander himself only had a small amount in his inventory, enough to feed her light meals for the next couple of days. He kicked himself mentally for not considering this issue. With an enemy army surrounding the city, how was he supposed to go out and get fresh meat? Wait, he thought. I have wings… I can fly over the encircling forces and maybe hunt for food to feed Freyja. He could make himself another rune powered freezer so that his kills could be kept fresher longer, and he wouldn’t need to go out every day. He really hoped that his wings had enough power to lift him and a deer. He resolved to tell Uril of his need the next time he saw him. Maybe he could soften the ask by also offering to bring in fresh meat for the city on occasion.
Mind set on his task, Xander began to wander the inn, grabbing any metal implement he could find. Pots, pans, and pewter mugs all were formed into sheets of metal that he melded together to create another hinge lidded box. It was a mishmash of materials, giving it a somewhat patchwork look, but he didn’t care much about that. He just cared that it would hold the frost runes that he began to carve on the inside of the box, quickly filling the empty space within with frigid air. Satisfied with his solution to the problem at hand, he made his way back to the room he had claimed and managed to return to his nap.