The elemental brawler

Chapter 8: To break a siege

Part 1

Like an unstoppable wave, the human centuria was coming. The few goblins that noticed their coming quick enough, tried to assemble to fight back the assailing force but they were too few, not equipped and trying to stop an avalanche. To have had a chance at succeeding in this fight, they would have needed twice the fighters with the proper gear and discipline. The sheer momentum of 128 charging soldiers made the flashing sword blades superfluous. These goblins were tumbled aside then trampled to death by the 16 row of this creature solely created to kill, an organised and disciplined centuria.

While launched at great speed, using in full their advantage, the human squad killed at least fifty goblins with ridiculous ease. They were motivated, they were drilled, they were sure of their justice. Nothing could stop them until all the goblins died. On the goblin side, the few hobgoblins present, acting as officers, tried to rally their troops but without a sufficient result to oppose a real defense to these invaders.

In fact, their try to rally goblins to fight back immediately, turned to be a blessing for the humans. Their enemies were coming at them by groups of 10, 30 or 50 and were easy to destroy with the help of momentum. A strategist would pull back and rally away from the immediate fight to gather a force strong enough, then go and mount an adequate defense. At least that’s what Cilerius was thinking as he saw the goblins being slaughtered one little group after another.

‘But if goblins of this level were capables of such feat, inexperienced players would have a hard time on this “tutorial” part of the game. I guess their commanding officers will be a lot better in the latter levels.’

As a result of these accumulated advantages, the momentum, the equipment, the training and discipline, the the lack of the same in the goblin forces, the battle shortly resulted in a complete victory. It was even made easier as Cilerius carefully sniped the commanding officers with his various spells or weakened the largest groups with his shamanics curses. He couldn’t kill any goblin on his own given how fast everything was happening and that he wasn’t powerful enough to one-shoot them, but dealt damages to many and so, received lots of xp increase notice.

Of course, his men witnessed the efficiency of his actions and were impressed. So he gained even more trust from them. Be clear when you explain a strategy, make it successful, be helpful on the whole and claim victory. No soldiers could mistrust a commander after that.

After the charge, no goblin was left standing, but in the pit, basically a four meter deep hole in the ground with steep walls and the paddock, a corral 20 meter diameter wide with wood fences. There, some monsters still remained, excited by the fight and the smells of blood, death and humans. In the pit, there were 3 cave trolls remaining. Those weren’t a problem for now as they couldn’t climb the pit walls without help. They could be left for the moment and dealt with after a more pressing threat was resolved.

The paddock was made of logs and never designed to stop for long furious demi-ogres. They were domesticated by goblins and calm enough as long they were feed, but they hate humans.. Even if they were mostly used as drudges by the goblins, an enraged demi-ogre is nothing to underestimate. Let alone thirteen of them ready to kill those who had killed their masters. You can think of it as the loyalty of the stomach.

Demi-ogres are mass of bones, muscles and fat with an enduring skin. Their stupidity make them easy to deal with by other humanoïdes but their visceral hate of humans make them an absolute threat until they’re dead. Even without without weapons, their fists and their teeths are dangerous enough. For a creature that large, logs become handy clubs. There are numerous ways to deal with them but most of them rely on heavy infantry, fortifications, traps or swarming them with cannon fodder. The first three weren’t available for Cilerius at the moment and he wasn’t even about to rely on the fourth possibility, given the losses that would mean. Loss in reputation with the different city factions, loss of the future occasions to gain xp after they were done with those and even, loss of the time he invested to nurture such an efficient troup.

As usual, Cilerius had to rely on something else, his creativity and fast thinking.

"lines 1 to 12, hold the fence and make lot of noise. Lure those beast to gather them in one place. The rest, go and assemble wood, lots of wood. Tear down the barracks if needed. Quickly. Those holding the fence will appreciate it."

"Yes, chief!"

Soon, three out every four men braced themselves against the wooden fence to hold it against the furious pushes of the demi-ogres inside.

The soldier's shouts were deemed useless as them being here was sufficient to lure all the beasts right on the other side of the paddock wall.

As the other quarter of his men were gathering wood, Cilerius quietly walked along the fence to not attract the beasts attention. He couldn't do anything about his scent, but his sneaking skill came in handy.

He found a suitable spot and climbed the fence to take a look beyond. The 13 demi-ogres were there, 20 meters away, all trying to tear down the obstacle that prevented them from killing those hateful humans.

Cilerius checked the advancement of the wood collect and, as it was progressing well, decided to act now, to lessen the burden of his other men who were holding the full strength of the enraged demi-ogres.

In a low tone, to not attract the monster's attention and targeting the whole area where they were standing and more , he chanted:

"Earth awakens and demands its due: Mineral Needles!”

He was used of the effects of this spell and that he expected. More efficient than a root spell, dealing damages and not dispelling due to ulterior damages, that was so far, at least in Cilerius opinion, the best way to immobilize an opponent from which you didn’t have to fear ranged damages.

From his experience, only by enduring horrible pain to remove the multiples stones pikes impaling them, a monster could get free. Of course, beasts like demi-ogre were perfectly capable to achieve that, but Cilerius had a counter ready. He just had to cast this same spell many time to impale the monsters from opposing directions and negate any of their attempts to free themselves.

Even incapacitated like that, those beasts were dangerous and too resistant for Cilerius to just kill them using his spells. He could do it, but that would take too long.

In the same situation, a real wizard would rejoice and train his spells, meditating then casting again, but Cilerius had a schedule and he couldn’t just take a whole afternoon to kill them.

Even with the help of his soldiers, it would take too long. They were guards, not used to bows and those availables were goblins bows with poor performance.

In this condition, Cilerius had thought of an alternate that should prove efficient, even if at the cost of the total obliteration of the mobs and their possessions. Since those were demi-ogres with worse equipment than even the goblins, that didn’t matter.

After one more look toward the monsters to check if their restraints were holding and, the use of his spirits to curse them, he climbed down the fence and returned to the place where his soldiers were bracing against the wall.

“It’s okay now, you can stop holding the fence, they’re somehow immobilized. Take some of the wood your colleagues have gathered and put it against the fence until it reach two third of its height. After that, set yourself as a chain to transport the rest of it beyond the fence.”

“Beyond the fence? But chief, that will be easy game for the demi-ogres to kill us if we get on the other side.”

Their fear was understandable. No sane man would go in the lion cage.

“Have you so little faith in me? Fear not. Once you see what’s the situation on the other side, you will understand.”

After listening to that, a soldier more courageous, or crazier than the other, moved on the side a little then climbed on the wall. His comrade expected him to either jump suddenly or be pulled on the other side. Instead, he was sitting, one leg on each side, wide-eyed and let a whistle through his lips.

“It’s okay guys, the way they’re right now, if we climb over the fence from where I am, we don’t risk anything.”

More soldiers climbed and at the view of the situation, climbed down inside the paddock and set the chain their commander had asked for. They didn’t understand how Cilerius obtained this result but were glad nonetheless.

A little moment after, the stack of wood was completed on the outside and wood was accumulating inside. Cilerius did tell them to stack the wood around the beasts but he didn’t have to explain. They now understood how they would kill the demi-ogres. What they were building was a pyre all around the beasts, at most one meter away of their reach. They couldn’t take the risk of giving them something to serve as projectile.

One more time, Cilerius cursed the monsters and then, with a fireball, ignited the pyre. The day was sunny and hot. The wood was dry. All good reasons for the pyre to get ablaze quickly.

The rest is just a matter of time and wood supplying. With hellish fire on all the sides, the beasts were like in a oven and passed quickly. The flaming wood of the fence falling down on them was the last nail in their coffin.

!Ding! You have been part of the demi-ogres slaughter.

You gain much experience.

Level up.

You have earned the title: Member of the Hell Squad

Fame +100

Fire resist +5

Fire affinity +20

All activities with fire, including spells or skills, are now easier for you.

Given the damages of this hellish fire, only bones will remain after the fire pass. Others loots have burned.

This fight had been successfully concluded and even with the many participants, the experience reward had been enough for Cilerius to level up.

‘Hmmmm, so this method exists to get element affinity. There may be a way to exploit that.’

His men were all looking at each others with grins. There was the pride of having killed dangerous beasts. That's a story worth many free drinks in any tavern.

The battle of the camp was almost concluded. Only the cave trolls trapped in their pit remained. The same method could be used but Cilerius had another trick to test. Also, trolls Trolls are too precious and too rarely encountered to simply burn them. Their blood was a delicacy for alchemy. Their skin made an excellent leather. A certain part was even bought at high price by npc’s. Something about the testicles being a cure for impotence.Cilerius checked his bag to see if he had enough material and then smiled.

“Everyone, I’ll show you another method to kill beasts. This one can only work when they’re trapped in a pit like now. You will see, it’s interesting. As we played with fire before, we will play with another element now. I bet you will like it.”

At their interrogative gaze, he lead them toward the camp sawmill. There, a watermill was using the stream to action the saws inside. For Cilerius, that meant something else.

“We will form two teams. One to create a wood duct that will get the water from the dam to the second part of our scheme. 10 peoples will be enough to make that. The other, take the pickaxes and the shovels we can see everywhere around and, begin to carve a ditch from here to the pit.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Will we drown them, commander?”

“Oh, I've got something even better planned. Now, get to work.”

To show is better than simply telling. He took a shovel and headed toward the place he had marked as the start of the ditch. There, he realised something and added toward the men that were about the dig.

“I will make this easier. No need for pickaxe, just all take shovels.”

Now, his men were dumbfounded.

Looking at the place where he planned to dig, he then chanted a spell:

"From Earth to mud, sand to stone and vice versa: Alteration of Soil!”

On a strip of soil 1 meter large, 3 meters long and 30 centimeter deep, the rocks were changed in sand.

“Ok, begin to remove all the sand in this part while I soften the ground further.”

!Ding! By using an ingenious method, you gain more respect from the soldier: intimacy +20.

‘It would have been a waste in time and effort to just dig the ground. And like that, I even train my earth spell too.’

“Once all the sand is removed, don’t dig deeper.”

“Yes, chief!”

He altered the soil all the way to the pit and got back to where his men were digging and began to work too. Given the softened soil and their number, they finished quickly. Less than an hour later, they were done, even before the first team had completed the wood duct.

‘Ok, I’d better make sure this ditch is as water-tight as possible. Don't want this to take forever after all.’

Cilerius then targeted the same strip of ground as before but just a little larger and deeper and, chanted his spell, not once but twice for each part. Doing so, the ground was first altered into sand then into rock.

‘That way, it will be as we had carved the channel in one block of stone.’

That was when the first team announced the completion of their own work.

“Ok, you see, we needed a duct to get more water to come in our chanel. If we just had digged the channel from the water stream, as the ground is level, few would have come. With the duct, water come with momentum directly from the dam and in the channel with only one way to go.”

He said that to his soldiers as an explanation of the additional work they had to do.

“Now, put it in place and be ready to see trolls their first bath in many years. Also, be ready to stop the water when I say it.”

“Yes, chief!”

The duct was put in place and soon, water wasn’t powering the mill’s wheel anymore, but flowing into the ditch they all had dig and then, 300 meters further, in the troll’s pit.

Trolls don’t like water. That’s a common knowledge. But now, the soldiers had the proof of that. The pit was slowly filled with water and the troll’s shriek increased with the water level.

Trolls don’t like water and, and therefore avoid it as much as possible. As a result, they never have an opportunity to learn how to swim. So the trolls were now standing or jumping, helpless to do anything else to keep their heads out of the water.

But that alone wasn’t enough. Cilerius had already stated that he would do something else than just drown them. As soon as the water reached chin level on the trolls, he ordered for the water to be stopped. A specialised class like the enchanter could use this moment to try and charm this beast to use them as own minions, but that wasn’t one of Cilerius talents.

“Now, I’ll show you how to cool their ardors.”

That being said, Cilerius began to chant a new spell:

"Cold grabs my prey: Glacial Palm!”

At his intermediate level, and glacial bolt was forming in his hand. He thrown it into the water and chanted anew. After a few repetitions of this spell, the water surface was now covered with many blocks of ice. Cooling this amount of water was an immense task, but Cilerius knew that the reward was worth it. He was targeting all around the pit, cooling the water the most evently he could while not giving the trolls, an ice platform to climb on.

The soldiers were now understanding what their commander had in mind and were grinning while exchanging jokes about troll popsicles. As ice blocks were now covering almost the full surface of water, it was now time for the final touch.Cilerius concentrated and cast the up to now biggest ice bolt he had and, targeted the immediate surrounding of a troll. For what he had in mind, he had to not hit the troll head itself but froze the whole area around. And that’s what happened. It’s head and arms out, the troll was now imprisoned in a block of ice. That way, the troll was left alive but totally incapacitated. Cilerius repeated the same action with the other trolls then, began to fill the water space between them with ice too.

Now, he could climb down in the pit and walk on the ice. He added a final touch by casting a few more ice bolts, especially on the surroundings of the troll to insure their immobility. By throwing water and casting the ice spell immediately after, he could also encase all but their wrists in ice. Now, everything was ready for his main goal.

The trolls have a huge regenerative capacity that make them formidable foes. But for Cilerius that meant something else. If he slowly enough drained them of their blood, it would regen and he could get more. From his bag, he pulled the bottles he had once used to collect grease or resin and, placing them under the troll’s wrist with funnel to collect all the blood, he sliced a suitble vein at their wrist and contemplated his work.

Now the truly difficult part, subtly misleading his soldiers.

“And now, let’s go loot the camp. Take care to not pick useless heavy items as we still have to fight later. Everyone take what he can, but no disputes. Try to get useful things for you. Cut their ears, the city officials are offering a reward for each pair.”

“Of course chief! We already know. We have cut those in the mine before.”

The victors get the spoils of battle, that’s a general rule of war. Cilerius already had marked a barrack that wasn’t an armory. He had lead the soldiers toward valuable loot but had done so to keep them away from the best loot of all. While his men were distracted by their looting, he went straight to a small but closely guarded shed.

By the time he reached it, he could see that all his men were totally concerned with only the content of the armories and trading items among themselves, armor for weapon, weapon for armor, depending what one had found and was seeking. Given that, nobody noticed Cilerius as he entered the warehouse.

He was now inside and could see he had guessed right. This is where the mine product was stored before being send wherever it had to or processed in the smithy. There were many huge bags, some open, containing titan fossilized bones, either as powder or as block. On a table, there were many little bags filled with red stones that weren’t rubies but bloodstones. There was a lot more than Cilerius could take in his bag or even carry. But a lot less than you could expect from a so huge mine.

‘They probably send the product somewhere else. Now, how do I deal with what’s here?’

The value of these gems and ores was only in their rarity. If even a single soldier filled their bags with this, the price would crash and a mining rush would start. In addition, he would lose his hold on the old blacksmith, if the NPC could simply buy his coveted ore in the market.

So obviously the best course of action would be to hide the gems and ores.

Quick thinking was a talent JB mastered IRL. He couldn’t carry everything, he had to hide it here, in the warehouse. He had the solution.

Luckily he had the perfect spell for this "Alteration of the Soil". He had to work fast. The soldiers wouldn’t stay occupied with looting forever. There were 23 big bags and 13 little to hide. As he was shoveling, he could see some information windows pop-up:

!Ding! The constant practice of shovelling increase your mining skill; +3%

!Ding! Due to the heavy work, your strength, stamina and patience raise; Strength +1, stamina +1, patience +5.

That was the result of the accumulated work.

In mere minutes, the trench was ready. He pulled the big bags and throw them in the pit. He then added the little bags. Then, he used the tables where the little bags had been stored, broke their legs and covered his spoil. He had of course pocketed some of it for immediate use with the old blacksmith. It was obvious that that much wouldn’t be enough to hide the bags, but it was only the first step. He then filled the remaining height of the pit with sand until the ground was even, then chanted his spell another time to return the soil to its original status. Since there was still sand in the shed and the soldiers had seen him use his power to alter the soil, he guessed that some men, less dumb than the others, would wonder if there was something here that their commander could have hidden. So, to complete the camouflage, Cilerius filled a few empty bags with sand, as well as a few buckets, some standing others reversed and, after a quick look outside to see if there was anyone around, exited the warehouse with a bucket that he let just on the door side.

‘Hehe. Now, that’s a magnificent sand storage we have here. If one of the soldiers see through my camouflage, he deserves his share.’

Done with his little deception, he headed toward the barracks, picking some weapons on his way and walked toward his little army. They saw him coming and were all smiling. Their impression was that they had been lucky and seeing their commander coming back with some weapons in hands but nothing really valuable, they all thought they had the more valuable loot.

“Found anything worth the search, commander?” Asked a soldier, visibly looking for a hint of happiness in his reaction.

“Nothing extravagant. Some blades, some armors, but Goblin equipment is crap! I

guess I'll have to melt it down and sell it for scrap.”

“Sorry for you. We weren’t that lucky either.” The soldier answer was made with a forced sorry face, as to show their worry for their commander, but without much success, since Cilerius knew perfectly well that every man here had just tripled his monthly pay. It didn’t bother Cilerius at all, since he knew the truth on the luck of everyone, but still appreciated the efforts made by his men. That was a testimony of the intimacy he had gained with them.

“Ok, one last look in the camp to see if something worthy escaped our first search, then we head to war. The city is waiting on us.”

Leting the soldiers search, he headed toward the troll’s pit where he picked the bottles now filled with troll blood and exchanged them for empty ones, after refreshing the cut on their wrists. He did drain his mana casting as many more ice bolts as he could to ensure the ice would last as long as possible, stored some empty bottles near the ones already collecting, then joined his men who were waiting. Their last search had concluded without much luck obviously, since he couldn’t see the faces of anyone who would have won the lottery jackpot.

“Braves! We have completed with success two thirds of our plan. Its time to carve your glory in in the memory of your fellow citizens. Let’s head toward the city. Let’s go to make goblin’s blood flow. Let’s go to war!” Harangued Cilerius.

“Yehhhhh!”

“To war!”

“The goblins will pay for their boldness!”

“Hartburg is immortal. No disgusting goblin will smear our city with its foul presence!”

Cilerius was now mastering the art of leading soldier and, it was show in numerical value, as, as a testimony of it:

!Ding! Appropriate leading of your men is acknowledged. Leadership +3.