The Human force had been delayed.
Despite first learning about the invading Mantis army five days ago, it had been a confused and messy report that was carried from animal to animal–to [Druid] to [Ranger]–until the word eventually reached the Finns in Dormata.
Within hours the responding force was underway.
Of course that was when news arrived of the true number of invaders; and they had to pause once more for a larger muster.
When first learning of the invader’s location they had assumed this was a standard, if slightly larger, foraging-party that had gotten greedy.
By the time they learned differently they had to halt and reassess. An attack of this size was not usually aimed anywhere but a settlement of some sort, whether a border fort or a mining town–sapient invaders usually had a goal in mind.
By the time they had things figured out, the Human response had lost almost a full day, and despite planning to set a fast pace the next morning, they still needed to arrive fully prepared for a fight to the death against an entrenched foe.
The Finn leadership learned more of what to expect on arrival once the scouts started telling of a vast ritual pattern being built.
The now far larger Human force was soon marching, and these Finns knew their business. The damned Mantis would not know what hit them.
These bastard insects had not dared anything like this for decades and it was apparently past time to remind them why.
This was the purpose of the capital after all, responding to any invading forces that could not be dealt with locally.
All the marching Finn’s blood was practically boiling the whole way over to the valley.
Humans were notoriously bad targets of war, not just for having poor lands, the other reason was them being known to have quite the vengeful streak.
And even the smarter invaders who accounted for that and brought enough force to defeat the primary defense would soon be faced with a different threat.
Human young who had their parents killed were not to be underestimated. No other System on Ross was so lopsided as to provide a first level Class with ten distinct Skills.
It was especially devastating in the form of Casters, who it seemed were always provided a [Domain] of some sort.
That made it so the usual methods of dominating the environment–to then slay the lower levels in numbers–were nearly useless. Someone always survived and leveled–leading to eventual disaster.
Meaning if you staged an attack you also needed to be ready for the retaliation to be swift, and often from a new generation with Classes matched to your own forces’ make up. It was costly to deal with, even if you had started things out with a string of victories.
These dynamics were what ensured you were at best left with a pyrrhic victory once your own forces had been worn down after years of war.
But if anybody was to ignore all of that it would be a Mantis with a quota.
As the Finns made their final approach a number of [Strategist] Skills were deployed to have every warrior-Class and Caster in the army surging into the final beat, striking with the sun at their backs, right into the maw of the beast.
Livia and her [Guild] saw it all go down that day, from the other side of the valley.
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Redd knew what would happen, and they needed to get further away and hide.
Whichever side won there was going to be devastation, and if the Mantis leadership was broken then the Ant deserters could spread all over the place.
None of the [Guild] had yet to spot a single other Human, but the activity at the palisade gate was enough to realise what must have happened. Nearly the whole army was milling about on that side, tens of thousands of warriors doing everything in their power to protect the pattern behind them.
What Livia and her people saw, once they got back up to the wooded lower heights and the battle was fully underway–was a chaotic, milling frenzy of Skill-powered combat.
The ants were all spread out along their barrier, but it had already been broken in places by Spells and Skills that could tear through wooden fortifications just as easily as exoskeletons.
From the far distance it all looked like a swirl of colours and tiny people moving like football player’s on a pitch as seen from the top bleachers.
Only the towering Mantis were easily distinguishable.
Luckily they had Sten to provide commentary as he was standing high up in a tree where he could see much more detail with his [Unnatural Senses].
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“They are doing well, from what I see ants are getting killed almost exclusively,”
The situation was more than tense, it felt like everything came down to this while the building stress of the past days paled in comparison. It really is worse like this, on the outside watching, we can’t do a thing to help.
Livia was deeply bothered, but Redd’s voice helped her focus and keep her cool. “That is good, but not a sure sign of victory,” Despite looking up at Sten in the tree, Redd could actually reach his ankle. “Have you seen any Mantis go down? As long as they remain to empower their select warriors they can keep throwing ants at the problem until the ritual completes.”
It took a few minutes for Sten to respond. “One before, two now but maybe more, I can’t be sure. They don’t seem to be engaging, are you sure they will be as vital in this battle?”
How the Mantis fought was not simply forcing a horde of ants forward to look to decapitate anything in front of them. No, of course the Mantis also served as shock troops, but that was only for the pivotal moments.
What they did in the meantime was how Redd had lost his leg. They carried enchanted items which seemed to enable the strange connection they had to their troops, and that same item also had the power to make an ant warrior fight thrice as hard and with increased strength and speed for a short and fiery duration.
Basically lending the Mantis’ power, to both the enemy's devastation and the ant's own, since the Spell was cheap but imperfect, and the ant warrior’s body not built to handle such strength.
Redd had nearly had his leg decapitated more than once in his day, but the day when he finally lost it… It was due to trying to save Birgir’s kids that day in Salcret.
As had happened before, he got his long leg caught again, rather than accept the snip he had jammed his leg up and kicked it all the way down the damned Ants throat.
That was when the Mantis had empowered it to end his leg’s long career despite all his levels. A clumsy slip, but he had not been able to let his leg escape backwards without shoving his partner of the moment into the same fate as himself.
As Redd explained all this about how a Mantis army of this size fought, Sten was taught better what to watch for. “I see it, they are taking a slow but steady toll even among the higher levels,”
Even Livia and the rest could see the occasional shower of red spurting up when two warrior ants caught someone and both pulled on the same target.
But the ant flanks were nearly collapsing. The Finns had concentrated their Casters to the sides and the Mantis could not use their warriors to reach them, not in the face of all that magic being unleashed.
The majority seemed to be a ranged kind of [Druid] who cast everything from clearly empowered branches–thrown like javelins–to green orbs of energy that sprouted huge thorns on the ground wherever they missed their targets. The ones they did hit collapsed in a bleeding heap.
Sten made the guess that those victims had the giant thorns grown on the inside.
But there were all kinds, including what seemed like bands of adventurers. Flames, lightning and even dark skulls flew at the thousands of warrior ants, cutting them down and devastating the charging lines in a predictable but also tiring succession.
A pivotal moment seemed to come when out of nowhere the bark-skinned boars from earlier came charging from the side through the forest, but this time they had riders carrying small red banners.
They were the first to reach the pattern, and the violet flames that had been steadily building towards the centre. The third and final phase to complete the ritual still remained, but now the flames were rudely interrupted and forced to go the long way around when they reached the sections that the squealing ruffians had managed to mess up so badly.
The Mantis response was immediate however. Thirty of them launched into action and caught the shock cavalry out in the open.
The rambunctious lot was forced off but not without suffering several devastating losses. You could see rows of the brown swine and their riders who had been bisected on the spot.
The boars were fast, but the Mantis were dogged. Even as they reached the forest line they kept killing, but the Humans saw the opening to take out some officers. The Casters who had won through on their flank used Spells and Skills to reach the melee, devastating the thirty Mantis in an extended combat that the supporting ant warriors had been late to catch up to.
But the Mantis were not done. Fifty more had snuck up on the busy combat using another enchanted item to cloak their approach. There seemed to be no end to the magic tricks these invaders had been afforded to complete their mission.
The ambush succeeded and the Human forces suffered a heavy toll. Despite winning the flank earlier–the middle was a stalemate and the victory had been turned to a loss.
The second phase of the ritual completed to the gut wrenching trepidation of every Human watching, and the darkness of midnight descended.