At long last, we reunited with Tolly. He was happy to see that we had gathered a sizable force to take on the Devil King with. But the question remained, how would he and King Ardu fair together?
The two of them quietly approached each other. They remained silent for a moment before the tension finally broke.
“Ardu! You old dog!”
“Tolly McClatchy! From the clan of the McClatchy’s! Why I haven’t seen you since the Battle of Rune Gulch.”
“Oh ho! What were ye, king for two weeks at that time? They still let you lead them?” he joked, as the two shook hands and hugged it out. It was amazing. Letting bygones be bygones was a very simple thing in this world. Ironic considering how brutal it could be otherwise.
Tolly turned his attention to me and said, “Well, Eric. I see you’ve got yer army. Did you manage to enchant the arrow?”
I produced it for him and he was in awe of the shine of its golden glow. Then I said, “I did. And I have more than that. In those cases over there are special weapons from another world that I think could make all the difference against those black knights.”
“Wonderful mah boy! You’ll get yer chance. I’ve spent the last week evading them. After I left you in Vale, I made my way here to set down this entrypoint for the water spell. Then I made the long arduous trip to the frontlines of the Devil King’s assault. When I finally found a good place to hide an army, I connected to this point. But I’d been giving them the run around so long,
I wasn’t sure I’d make it back here in time.”
“Well, you’re here now. Allow me to introduce you to our other friends. Then I’d like to give the troops a demonstration of our firepower. I think I have a plan.”
* * *
After making the rounds introducing everyone, we decided that Wraith should show how the rifles worked since he had the most experience with them. He found a large array of boulders to test it on and spoke loudly enough for everyone gathered to hear.
“Alright. Listen up everyone. This is a plasma rifle. It’s powered by the sun. Once it runs out of juice, it needs time to regenerate. So if you’re using it at night, be cautious. It works like so…”
He turned, took aim at a boulder and started firing. He didn’t stop until the gun ran out of power. The sun was just about to set so he wanted to make sure he could demonstrate it in one go so that it had time to recharge. The boulder was reduced to one third of its original size and you could hear gasps from the onlooking crowd.
“Now,” he continued, “only have twenty of them, so we need to make sure the right people get a hold of them.”
Hands from volunteers in each camp went up.
I stepped forward and interjected, “Uh, let me handle that Wraith. I have a plan of how we best use them. Everyone! I’ve faced the Black Knights before and I know their tactics. They know how seemingly invincible they are and they like to use flanking maneuvers on their enemies. I know Arduwan and some of you other barbarians remember the encounter as well. What I need though is for ten of the tallest barbarians and ten of the shortest dwarves to step forward.”
Looks of confusion abound but little by little my request was fulfilled. Apollo, who stood by the cases, began passing out a rifle to each of the volunteers. Wraith stood by showing each of them proper trigger discipline. Once they were properly acquainted with the weapons, I had them stand in an attack position. The barbarians stood in a row with their rifles aimed towards the biggest stack of boulders in the area. Below their line of fire, the shortest of the dwarves stood aiming their own rifles in the same direction. On my mark, all twenty of them opened fire.
*PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*
They relentlessly fired until I stopped them. A pile of knee high rocks remained where the huge boulders once sat. Everyone was clearly impressed.
“Now!” I shouted, “Captain Christoph, I’ll need you and your Vale knights to defend the rear of the Plasma Squad. If the black knights use their flanking tactic, the rear will be vulnerable. Do you think you’re tough enough to hold them off until the squad readjusts their line of fire?”
“We’ll keep them safe, Sir Noble.”
“Good. As for everyone else. King Ardu, you’ll be leading the rest of the barbarians as an infantry force to attack the inevitably scattering black knights. Together they’re tough, but on their own, I have a feeling they can be easily overwhelmed by brute force. I want all of you mercenaries to provide support for the barbarians since you are the most experienced among us. Tolly, are you okay being in charge of them?”
“It’d be my pleasure.”
“Excellent. Arduwan, Wraith you two are with me. We’ll oversee the campaign and amend as needed. But once we get a chance to attack Beast Master, we’re breaking away from the main group.”
Beast Master, if you don’t remember, was allegedly Shagrath’s top General. Not much was known about him except that he led the black knights. We’d wanna take him down quickly given the opportunity.
“What about the rest of us, Sir Noble?” asked the leader of the dwarf force. There were still fifty three dwarf warriors when you subtracted the ten I recruited for the Plasma Squad.
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“I want four of you to come with my group and act as messengers to the various leaders of the other divisions. The rest of you will act as scouts and support for the barbarian and mercenary groups. Understood?”
“Yes, sir!”
A thousand hours of Age of Empires was starting to pay off.
“Okay,” I noted, “it’s getting dark. Should we tuck in for the night?”
“Ahem,” interrupted Tolly, “If you don’t mind, Sir Noble, but I believe we should take advantage of the army’s morale being high and move against the black knights immediately. If you’re worried about the sunlight affecting yer plasma rifles, you needn’t be. The location on the other side of the water tunnel I created is in a different time zone. We’ll still have more than three hours of daylight once we pass through.”
That’s right! I’d forgotten how far we had traveled before we reached the frontline in the other timeline. That was more than a year ago, so I had supposed they would’ve advanced by now. However, Shagrath was eager to take me out back in that reality. In this one, he probably wasn’t as ambitious about reaching this continent. Still, his forces sounded like they would be approaching the dwarf kingdom soon, so Tolly was probably right about using time to our advantage. At least if we failed, we’d soften them up good for the dwarves to fight back.
“Alright. Unless there are any objections from the command team, we shall move out. What say ye?”
“Aye!” replied Ardu.
“Aye!” Captain Christoph reciprocated.
Tolly, Captain Tye, and the dwarf leader acknowledged with a nod as well.
* * *
Apollo and Frederick were no good to us as fighters, so Wraith had them return to his merchant's trading post and await our return. They bid us goodluck and farewell.
Afterwards, one by one, each member of our army stepped into the puddle of water that magically transported us across the world to the frontlines of the Devil King’s conquest of the neighboring continent. Tolly and my team went in first to survey everything. It was broad daylight, but up ahead you could see the brooding clouds that marked the location of the black knights.
We sent the scouts ahead to get the fix on the location of a black knight platoon. What better way to test to see if the rifles would actually work than to confront a force similar to the one that wiped my group out in the alternate timeline.
The barbarians and mercenaries with their dwarf support units spread out and moved forward behind the expeditionary attack group. They’d be needed to pick off the broken ranks of the black knights once we made contact.
Our group stayed behind the Plasma Squad, following the Vale knights. We knew the black knights couldn’t pull a flanking maneuver during the first entanglement since we weren’t under the dark clouds yet.
A dwarf scout came galloping towards us, warning that a unit of black knights was on the march in this direction. I called out to the Plasma Squad and ordered them to be ready. They filed into their rows and readied their rifles. There were trees around and several big rock formations. We wouldn’t have much reaction time once the knights were visible.
After a few moments in quiet waiting, we began to hear the march of metal boots. The dark clouds formed above us and I felt a few rain drops. It was eerily similar to my last encounter with them, though in a different location.
“Steady. Steady.” I quietly ordered.
Suddenly, from around the bend, a dozen of the black knights in formation appeared. They were tall, dark, silent and faceless behind those masks, just as I remembered.
“Open fire!!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*
*PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*
Laser fire ripped across the landscape in unison and didn’t stop until the juice had run completely out of the rifles. I hadn’t ordered such a thing but I suspect it was out of fear and anticipation that the Plasma Squad fired in such a way.
Upon impact, the plasma shots dissolved the armor right off of the black knights. Every hit disintegrated about three inches worth of armor upon contact. The flurry of blasts reduced all twelve knights to about 75% exposure. Underneath, we saw what they were. They were blackened, soulless genetic beings, created no doubt by Shagrath’s alchemists. All but three of them were completely obliterated by the plasma volley. The remaining were badly damaged, but still made no noise as they attempted to crawl away.
Up above, the storm clouds were evaporating a bit, meaning we had cleared most of them in the area. Captain Christoph signaled half of his men to cautiously approach the fleeing black knights and finish them off with melee weapons. It was a successful experiment. We suffered zero losses.
But moments later, the sound of marching boots was heard again. This time faster and more numerous. I shouted for everyone to return to their positions and ordered two dwarf messengers to send word to Tolly and Ardu about the victory but also warn them of a greater battle ahead.
Within minutes of recalibrating, the hills came alive with about three dozen black knights, all in formations. Thankfully, the plasma rifles had nearly recharged fully due to the sun still being up and the clouds parted. I ordered another volley on the nearest group.
*PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*
It broke their ranks. Not only did the group we struck scatter, but half of them fell and the other two groups split off into the woods as well. We sustained fire on them as they attempted to take cover. The Vale Knights armed with bows provided additional support. The arrows never penetrated armor but it helped to cause pandemonium for the otherwise calm and collected stoic enemy we faced.
About a minute into the clash, I could hear the sounds of barbarians and mercenaries' battle cries echoing from within the woods for miles around in both directions we had spread ourselves. It sounded like it was working. If five barbarians could surround a single black knight during the chaos, they could surely overpower them despite their armor and superhuman abilities. The chant of spells could also be heard from the various magic using mercenaries in our army. Tolly’s spells were no doubt among them.
As the clouds began dissipating, we knew the current flashpoint was drawing to a close in our favor. Above the treeline, to the northeast of us, I noticed a ridge that overlooked the landscape in the direction Tolly had said Beast Master’s forces were located. I signaled for Arduwan and Wraith to follow me up there so we could survey the battlefield.
“Captain Christoph, I’m leaving you in charge of the Plasma Squad. You know how it works now. Send a dwarf messenger to me if anything changes.” “Understood!”
* * *
The three of us dismounted our steeds at the top of the ridge and down below in the forest we could see the divided forces of the black knights being overwhelmed and pulverized. Further ahead, we saw the darkest source of the storm clouds. That must’ve been where Beast Master’s camp was. I ordered several scouting parties to move ahead and plot our best course of action. The sun would be setting soon, so it’d be best for us to save our firepower until just before dawn. Tonight, we’d celebrate though.