Today is the day. We get the rest of Wayne’s and Lance's troops through the portal and then the rest of my army comes through as well. My heart is beating twice the speed it normally does. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m nervous or excited if I’m being honest. Today we will set up the surprise attack against the enemy. One of the scouts I sent to check the position of the army comes running up to me out of breath.
“The enemy... They are already near the swamp… Their general has made them force march up to this point.”
Shit… This is the worst case scenario here. I planned for this but it means they have an extremely good general leading them. I would have done the same thing if I was leading the other army. Your army would come to a stop at the swamp anyways so exhausting them wouldn't be a big deal. Doing so you could make a more defensible position there and the people traveling through the swamp would have a defensive position to fallback to if they were ambushed.
That means they most likely plan to clear a path and make certain that an ambush isn’t going to happen… If the general was worse they would march their army through the swamp without doing so… Chances are they will not be taking their siege weapons through first and the initial ambush will only kill a few scouting parties at most.
Also a less tactical leader wouldn’t have thought that the war had started already. Most likely the spies know about the castle but only Wayne’s men would know about the surprise attack. I heavily doubt that any of his men are spies but crazier things have happened. The initial strike could be the deciding factor int his war… If we can’t destroy a good portion of their mana cannons and ballistas then we’ll have a lot of casualties defending the castle and the wall blocking the path.
It should still be fine. I’ve made sure that most of the rocks and trees near the castle have been cut down so they wont be able to use them to build a shoddy base. Using the wood from the swamp would be a mistake too as it would be weaker than normal and wouldn't provide much protection. The transportation of building materials to build a pseudo base to challenge our castle would be foolish for them to do as well. They would have to sacrifice bringing food or other supplies so even if they can transport the siege weapons safely across the swamp they will have a hard time defending them.
We should still pull ahead here if we do everything right we can stall this war out until they can’t afford to fight it. As long as we can stall them in the swamp it is the same as the castle. The more time they waste having the fortification and not pushing through then the more time they’ve wasted holding a point and not attacking the castle.
The initial fight with Wayne assaulting their scouts will make the perfect distraction for my mercenaries to surprise attack them. I decide to split my army into three groups. Two groups will attack them from each side of the swamps while the last group will be Zergnar’s air support that will focus on the cannons.
My men are strong. From what my scouts have reported, my mercenaries are three to four times stronger than either of the normal troops but the size difference is the biggest problem. Enough ants can kill an elephant. It’s truly scary how little a difference our army would make if both armies were to fight each other with everything they had. We need to pick our battles very carefully and never over commit to a single battle or we will be wiped out.
I plan on making extremely tactical strikes like the one today and taking more of a defensive role with my army. I’m starting to get nervous again… Everything should go in our favor but something just feels off… They have arrived earlier than expected and we haven’t had nearly enough time to get comfortable with the surprise attack today.
I’m hoping it’s just before battle jitters but I have a gut feeling that something bad is going to happen… This is the same feeling I was getting when we made our first attack against the pirates. Another one of my scouts comes running up now.
“We need to hurry. The bulk of the army is trying to push their way through the swamp now.”
WHAT!? This is amazing! If the general is stupid enough to get ambushed in the swamp then this should be a much easier situation then I hoped for. I yell out.
“Everyone, prepare for battle. You’ve already been told what to do but I’ll go over it once more. Those with me and Gobber will be attacking from both sides of the army just on the side end of the swamp. This will draw their attention away from the center where Zergnar and his aerial troops will be trying to destroy as many siege weapons as possible.”
This is a sort of last minute speech to help everyone get in the mood for what we’re about to do. It also helps me relieve some of the bad feelings I’m having. We all start using the teleport scrolls I’ve set up. Dozens of scrolls set up beforehand with a single person watching them at each location so an army can appear out of nowhere. We’re a few miles away from the army currently. My arm starts to shake… What is this? I hear a familiar voice creep into my mind.
“Getting jittery over this!? Really? Let me take over for you if you’re this uncomfortable.”
I almost chuckle when Wrath talks to me. I wouldn’t let him go wild on a tactical mission like this. It scares me a little but he chuckles in my place.
“It’s funny how predictable you are. You try to play this hero type but you’re just a coward. This war isn’t going to go how you want it too… We both know that I could solve the problem if I took over. So why act superior like this? If you give me power right now you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache.”
“I wont ever give you control during fights like this. You’re too much of a liability and we both know that.”
“Do you know why I don’t try to take control off of you anymore? I know you’re going to just give it to me when things get too tough for you to handle. I don’t want you to have any excuse for what’s about to happen. It’ll be all your fault and then you’ll give me control willingly.”
I push that thought to the back of my mind. He is clearly trying to get under my skin. I take in a deep breath and calm down. He’s just trying to spook me. We’re too prepared for this. No matter what they do we’ll come out ahead... If we don’t then I’ll figure something else out. We’re getting close to the army now. Just over the hill will be what I assume to be the weakest part of the army being made up of primarily villagers who have been forced into the army.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
We push over a hill and a chill runs down my spine. I expect to see underprepared men not even paying any attention but we come out to a defensive bunkers made with sand bags with fully armored men and mana cannons aiming in our direction. How!? The men in my army were the only ones who knew of the plan. Did the general predict our plan? Before I can think of the answer I hear cannons firing. SHIT!
Zergnar’s point of view
Where are they? I don’t see any cannons anywhere. The only thing I see are troops and boxes of supplies. Kite said that is the only thing we’re supposed to be looking for right now is the siege weapons. One of my men signal for me with a hand gesture. He’s the one with the communication slime. He yells but with the wind I can still barely hear him.
“Both the ground troops are under attack by mana cannons! We wont be able to help both unless we split!”
“NO! WE’LL HELP GOBBER! KITE WILL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT! TELL KITE WE’RE HEADED TO HELP GOBBER!”
Gobber’s point of view
“FALL BACK! GET OUT OF RANGE OF THOSE CANNONS!”
Shit! Fucking shit! I can’t believe this. The army had enough time to set this up? How is that even possible? They just got here today. It doesn’t make any sense, we're faster than anyone else and it would have taken us half a day to set-up a defense like this. I can’t think right now. I grab one of the men moving too slowly and fling him into a hole one of the elementalists made. I yell out again.
“Green! Can you do something to keep these cannons off us so we can get into range!”
“No! There are too many! If we try to move we’ll be shot apart before we can make it halfway.”
Shit! SHIT! We’re forced to sit on our hands until Zergnar can show up.
Leaf’s point of view
He just called! This is the worst thing that could have happened. I yell out.
“Put another mana canister in! We need 100% power to get there!”
One of the kobolds yells out.
“We don’t know if the dragon can handle it!”
As he yells that I here a piece of metal start to bend. No you don’t! I conjure familiar in the form of a metal clamp on the outside of the dragon and keep it together. I'm going off just the sound of where it's coming from and if I'm off even in the slightest the metal will break and we might go tumbling to the ground. I know it’s not meant to be flown this way but if we don’t hurry...
“Shut up! If it starts to break apart I’ll handle it! Just keep the canisters coming!”
Wayne’s point of view
My men have been hiding, waiting to ambush these men but even though reports have come that they have made it to the swamp we still haven’t seen them yet. Was it misinformation? If they were trying to pass the swamp we’d have at least seen scouts by now. Before we see them we here the sound of something. It sounds like someone pouring out an entire bag of sugar onto a table is the best way to describe it. No like hundreds of people pouring out sugar. One minute later and through the trees we can finally see why it was taking them so long.
Hundreds if not thousands of men are pouring sand into the swamp to make it more passable. WHAT!? Doing that will completely destroy the entire reason for attacking them. It would make the area safe for their troops and siege weapons to pass over. Fuck! We’ll have to attack now. My second in command pinches my leg pointing in that direction when i go to give the order…
Shit, they have a full set of troops coming in behind them, the small amount of troops here wont be able to do anything. We’d be completely wiped out here without making a dent in the enemy numbers. I signal for my men to retreat. This mission was a bust.
Kite’s point of view
That’s the second cannon bunker I’ve taken out by myself so far. Me being able to fly in dragon form helps but the moment I finish off the cannons hundreds of arrows fly in my direction. I’ve taken 10% of my health so far from just not being able to dodge everything. This is the little I can do until reinforcements make it here.
The black dragon was still at the castle so it’ll take awhile for it to get here. I hadn’t planned on showing our trump card this early but if we don’t then they’ll just steamroll over the castle with these cannons and invade once our forces are depleted. The troops are scared by my appearance. It makes sense to be, I do look like a dr-. BOOM!
I’m cleaning out my third mana cannon bunker and everything explodes. They’re firing on their own men! Shit! I’m under half health now. It killed everyone else here. Another volley of arrows flies at me. I put up a wind wall and most bounce off and fling different directions. Some are fired from the sides though and make it through, two hit me in my right shoulder. My troops can’t just sit back and watch anymore.
I spam heal on myself and get back to 70% health before I see another barrage of cannon fire at my location. I jump into the air and turn back into a dragon, some arrows fly into me but I don’t care. I need to keep taking out these cannon bunkers or my men will be annihilated. They're out of range to hear me yell for them to hold their ground...
I’m just glad I’m so durable now. My armor also helps but my face took a big hit from a piece of shrapnel. I can feel my nose bleed and taste it as it runs down my mouth. No, I need to fall back, if they fire at my men they will be annihilated. I fall back just as a wave of cannon fire hits. I manage to shoot the one flying directly at us with a flame breath attack but still get hit by some shrapnel. I start to raise wind wall and control earth to make a trench just as the rest of the wave hits… It isn’t enough.
The ones that were aimed at the back end of our group instead of the front hit without any impediment. Shit! I can hear the screams of my men. Some of have lost their limbs. One holds his eyes and a few lay still on the ground not moving. NO! Why did this happen!? We should have been prepared in case they had these defenses up already. I yell out now.
“FALL BACK! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”
One of the men yells now.
"We're ready to fight!"
I grab him by his leath coat and fling him the other direction before yelling out to retreat again. Another wave is fired and I can only stop three while almost a dozen fly past me again. Only one strikes a a heavily populated area of men retreating. The rest were aimed at the newly formed trenches which absorb most of the blast.
One gnoll is ripped in half by the direct explosion. One of my men grabs his upper half while another grabs his lower half. I grit my teeth, fuck! FUCK! If Lance was… If Lance was still with us! If Leon wasn’t such a liability! If Nargzar, Epieoth and Nami didn’t leave! If Shikki and Brick didn’t die! This wouldn’t have happened!
No… I can’t blame anyone but myself… I should have prepared more… I should have told them to hold their ground… I feel the same feeling I had when I lost control before. No, that was a pure rage at the enemy… I’m mad at myself. How can I be such a failure. If… If I’d just have listened to Wrath then this might not have happened. No, he’d have gone wild like before. I hear a voice scream in my head.
“ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!? DO YOU THINK I LIKE YOU PUTTING EVERYONE’S LIVES ON THE LINE!? NO! I’D HAVE FUCKING KILLED THEM ALL MYSELF! That’s the thing with strategy Kite! It can only get you so far when everyone else around you is that weak! I won’t die, we both know that. I’m too unkillable! Can you say that for that soldier who just got ripped in half? You’re a fool for putting hope in all these people! Stop throwing their lives away and give me control!”
Leaf’s point of view
“Leaf! We got another support beam about to break!”
I rush over and tighten another magical clamp onto the spot I hear the beam creaking. I hear some of the kobolds whisper behind me.
“We can’t keep this up, she’s doing fine now but she’s going to throw our lives away if the dragon breaks apart.”
The one he whispered to whispers back.
“I don’t know how she’s keeping it together but even a single tiny mistake and the ship will break apart.”
I yell out.
“Who said that!?”
I stare in the direction of the whispers. None of the kobolds in that direction make eye contact with me. A kobold on the other side signals to me.
“We got another creaking sound over here.”
I rush over to fix that one… For a moment it dawns on me how dangerous what I’m doing is but the rest of my head is filled with concern of us making it there to help. Please let us make it there in time.