The forces of the Thrall-King came in the night, Elarma was sleeping when it happened but the alarm bells woke her with a start. She along with the remainder of her team had been sleeping near the wooden walls of Hor for just such an event and she knew her duty. If the enemy unleashed those spore clouds she was the one best suited to counter them, she had spent the days after the expedition ritually preparing for just such an assault, and all she needed to do was to be outside and activate it.
She stepped out into chaos. Screams, shouts, roars, and the sounds of battle filled the air and the darkness of night combined with the barest illumination from the torches cast the entire town in an eerie atmosphere. Her job was simple so she left Crabs and Mariam to go with the remainder of the defenders. All she had to do was get to the top of the Sparkling Hen, the most reputable of the local inns and the tallest building in Hor.
It was close to the battlements which was the second reason that Elarma and her team had elected to stay where they had. It was close enough that Elarma could easily get there and the team could go and be useful fighting by the fortifications rather than rush across town.
Elarma elected to not waste a moment of time as she used the power of the winds to make her jump rapidly up to a neighboring house and then up to the very top of the inn. From this vantage point she could see the entire battle and it did not look good. The insect monsters and the puppets of the Thrall-King were already scaling the pallisade and taking the fight to the militia. Birds and other flying threats were disrupting formations or chasing scared civilians by dive-bombing them. And yet no spore clouds had appeared yet.
"Why hasn't it unleashed the spores?"
She shook her head and didn't continue the questioning, she had a job to do and sat down to meditate. The rituals she had done on the roof made the process easy, all she had to do was communicate with the wind and cold and ask them to come. To do what she had done with a simple spell but far more powerfully. And as she worked she could sense the primordial power of the wind build up around her and smashing birds from the sky and blowing through every street and area of town. This should keep any spore cloud or insect swarm from forming up, the power of the wind would disperse them.
While the magic coursed through her she could feel the magic of the wards against insects working overtime all over the town, the strangely flavored magic seemed to be fighting against more than just the numbers of insects. But she didn't have time to consider it as the exhilaration of the wind began to consume her mind.
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Michel woke up along with the rest of his family, to be fair he had barely slept due to the constant nightmares he faced and the agitation of the argument that he had been in earlier that night. He knew before his consciousness could settle and he could focus on the sound of the alarm.
"IT IS HERE! THE SOVEREIGN IS HERE!"
He practically screamed as he threw himself out of bed and glanced about in the little home he and his family shared. The youngest children started crying due to the sound of the bells and the scream he had helped wake them up with. At that moment he did not allow himself to care or think about that, all that could exist was the certainty that doom had come for his town and his family.
But he was still able to act and act he did. First, he ran out to the storage room where all of his gear along with the food were safeguarded, he shouldered his way through the door and grabbed all of his most important equipment. In the haste of the moment, he did not notice the movement in the sacks of food, nor the strange coating that clung to the wall. All that he focused on was the gear.
Then he was out and back with his family who was up and looking at him with terror and questions in their eyes. Michel looked at his wife, his oldest son Abel, and the two young twins who were only 5 summers old. He made his decision quickly as he threw a spear to Abel and then looked to his wife.
"Malina keep the children quiet and prepare if we have to escape. Abel, you are the man of the house while I am out, you are going to hold those beasts at bay and that is all I want to hear about it."
Michel did not give any of them time to reply as he stormed out into the streets of Hor and he was practically knocked off his feet by the powerful wind that rushed through the entire town. His family in the meantime began doing as he had ordered and none of them noticed the flying termites and ants who made their way out into the storm. Only to promptly either be blown apart or sent flying out into the night. Their job had been done after all and it was a job that was repeating itself all over town.
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Heraclius had been there on the battlements in a moment right as the alarm began, he had an instinct for these things and he had felt that an attack would come that night. The enemy had not disappointed him, first, it had been diving birds to keep his men distracted while the hordes of the Thrall-King ran up the road and hills to Hor.
They attacked both like a horde of monsters and as a proper army. Large bulls and even a Forest Wyvern had been used to pull large trees up to the area. While the insectile soldiers had crawled up the battlements of the wooden wall or just jumped up, these forces worked to pull the trees into place.
Archers did the best they could to dry and sabotage their efforts, but the enemy owned the sky and was more than willing to have birds function as living shields against arrows. Heraclius on his end was leading the militia in a proper spear and shield formation against the monsters assailing them on the wall. His mace sang as it struck the chitin of the beasts and he roared.
"Keep it together men! We can hold them back!"
Hope came with the wind as the magic of the Adventurer that had been amplified over several days started sending birds tumbling down from the sky and cleared the air. The enemy had been able to see their scheme through, however, as they had placed the downed trees against the wall forming a strange ramp up to fight them. It was plausible to do so with the short "wall" that surrounded Hor, it would not have been possible to do so against his fortress.
The puppets were next up as they began surging up onto the ramparts and the battle intensified as infected animals, monsters, and humans began clashing with the defenders.
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Crabs had tried to fight with the rest of the defenders but his style relied on room and mobility. Staying on the ramparts just didn't fit so he had retreated back to try and find a better spot to work. It had been while doing that, that he spotted the strange figure that easily jumped onto the wall and then down to the street. The defenders had barely been able to act before it had cut through them and landed on the ground.
It was notable because it carried a blade and that made Crabs very interested. So he jumped down and darted through an alley to intercept the figure as it ran down one of the side streets. When Crabs appeared it did not hesitate as it rushed forward and swung its sword down at him with an overhand swing. Crabs could only barely swing his hip-bone buckler in to deflect the blow from the longsword and when he tried to score a hit to the shoulder of the being, it managed to rapidly parry his lighting quick strike with its sword.
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They broke off after that first exchange with gave Crabs the split seconds needed to evaluate his opponent. It was taller than most humans and significantly more built, dark clothing covered most of it which seem to have been made out of interwoven grass. A pretty common longsword was held in its right hand, and strange chitinous growths could be seen from underneath the clothes. What truly drew his attention were its legs, they were long and powerful looking but with off-putting knees that made them look similar to the hind legs of a wolf.
With those observations made Crabs went in for the attack again with a rapid series of thrusts towards the center of the foe. It quickly backstopped out of his range and used the superior range of his sword to cut towards his neck. The speed of its blade was astounding and Crabs had to smack his buckler into the blade to send it over his head. Almost as quickly as Crabs could think the being then jumped and kicked him in the chest, with such power that it sent him sprawling to his back. While in the air it flipped backward and landed on its legs without as much as a wobble.
Instinct took over and he managed to roll out of the way of the downstroke that was meant to kill him. He spun and lunged forward to stab his foe again as the adrenaline let him ignore the pain, but it almost contemptuously parried his blow and went out of range again. Crabs shakily got to his feet and breathed heavily as the pain after being kicked began to make itself known.
He had learned much from their brief clashes and his conclusion was simple. This opponent was far stronger and faster than any human had any right to be. It was a decent swordsman but compensated for its mediocre skills with superhuman attributes. It was good, but Crabs was much much better. Yet his body could not compare to it and he gritted his teeth. This duel was going to be very difficult.
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Mariam shattered the skull of a sheep with her fist after having tackled it of a downed defender. She then rolled out of the way as a large paw smashed down where she had been. A horrific abomination labored its way through the throng of soldiers, it looked like something that might have been a briar bear at some point but was now just a horrific pile of pustules and warped flesh. It reeked and fell on her again, all she could do was grab its paws and try to wrestle with the enormous bear.
Her fellow defenders realized what she was doing and took the time to stab into the beast with their various assortment of spears, pitchforks, sharpened sticks, and knives until it collapsed. The defenders knew that the thralls of the enemy could regenerate so they had quickly learned to ensure that they were dead before continuing to the next foe.
With the brief respite, she was given Mariam took the time to observe the rest of the chaos. Several fires had popped up downhill from the wall and around it as desperate defenders had hurled torches and bowls of fish oil at the enemy. Michel along with several volunteers from town had come to fight with the militia and she saw him stagger back as his group was separated by some kind of enormous two-legged abomination.
She noticed that once it entered the field then the thralls began to fight with more gusto, ferocity, and skill as they began to tear through the beleaguered defenders. Mariam was about to rush in to help when she spotted the wyvern gingerly climbing up the improvised ramp. A forest wyvern would not only cause devastation on the wall but also easily shatter the morale of the untrained militia.
It was not a choice really, what she did was mere instinct plus the knowledge that it was what she had bred and trained for. To lay her life down to save others even if it was just for a stolen moment. As the wyvern placed its first claw down on the wall, Mariam shouted out a primal roar and rushed towards it.
The creature paid her no heed as it opened its maw to unleash devastation on the cowering defenders when she jumped up and tackled the side of its neck. She wrapped her arms around it and used her weight to push it off balance and the two of them fell off the side of the ramp and down to the grassy plain that had been littered with corpses and blood splatter.
She was no match for it and it took it only a moment to toss her off and then pounce over to attempt to finish her off. As it opened its maw she jumped up and grabbed around it while actively thinking about everything that could make her angry. Like Listig...or the horrible fates that could come for the town if they didn't win. Her muscles screamed as it tried to shake her off and she felt rather than saw the rocks and bowls of cool fish oil hit the back of her foe. Soon enough the world became fire as she struggled against it before it threw her aside with a mighty shake.
Mariam flew through the air and hit the ground deep and began to roll downhill while watching the flaming wyvern stepping away from the ramp and move towards the so far unaccosted gates.
Damn, well she had tried to stop it at least.
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Michel had joined the other men and women who fought on the wall and he had accounted well for himself. His experience with beasts had come well in hand as they had faced off against the enemy that seemingly felt no fear nor any pain. As they had fought he had been separated from most of the people he knew, and he stood with some volunteers along with the Adventurers known as the Light Tamers.
They took a quick break before they were going to rejoin the rest of the fighting when suddenly the thralls around them seem to spring more into life as they rushed into the resting group. Michel had to desperately stab with his short spear as a large hound tried to bite him before he could get another look at the situation.
A monstrous being was lumbering towards him and for a moment he didn't understand what he was looking at. It just seemed like a two-legged mass of bulging flesh and mushrooms, that was until he saw the face of the being. She was bloated and her skin was unnaturally glistening, but he recognized Gunnvor all the same. Something had made her grow three times her size and merged her body with more fungi than he knew was possible to find, but he still recognized her. There was no humanity in her eyes as they looked down at him and his group, and yet he could not lift his spear to strike her.
It cluttered to the ground as he began to step backward and the next thing he saw was how one of the Adventurers tried to strike at the monster only for his blade to get stuck in its side. "Gunnvor" then grabbed the man by the throat and swung him out over the wall before casually snapping his neck like a twig and dropping him to the ground. The eeriest part of all was how it had done it without any sound as it simply continued to lumber forward while the terrified defenders broke before it.
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Yorich knew that good men, women, and others were dying in battle out there. He did not let it throw him off as he worked, his Acolytes watched worriedly as he prepared the ritual. 48 terrified animals filled the temple, but none of them could do anything as the power of Old Yoss compelled obedience from livestock.
Why the ritual required exactly 12 cattle, 12 pigs, 12 sheep, and 12 chickens was beyond his comprehension, but it was not his duty to think, only to work. And this labour required much of him, but it would all be worth it. Dawn would still come to Hor, he was going to make sure of it.