The fight was on, and the humans were a bit slow to notice that the halflings were sneaking up on them. Their surprise cost them workers as the halfling warriors charged out, impaling human workers on their spears as the rest tried to make it to the protection of the walls. While the human warriors seemed well equipped with chainmail, wooden shields, and longswords, their workers only had farm tools to fight with. A scythe or pitchfork was a poor option against halfling warriors with long spears.
Despite their diminutive size, the halflings fought like crazed badgers. The spears they wielded negated any reach advantages the humans and my orcs would have normally had over them, but their armor wasn’t quite as formidable. They wore some kind of woven leather that was reinforced with bronze studs. As they cut through the nearby farmers, I tried to get a count of the total number of forces in play.
Human warriors lined the walls of the village, and there were at least thirty of them in sight. One in five of the human warriors held crossbows that they were putting to good use. The halflings numbered somewhere between forty and fifty, but it was hard to keep track of them as they sprinted around or tried to hide in the tall wheat fields. With those numbers, the halflings had no chance at victory, and I figured they were just here for a hit and run strike.
Something big moved out of the forest, and my thoughts of this just being a simple raid were shattered as a huge, armored ogre moved out of the nearby trees and walked toward the front gate of the human village. The ogre was covered in oversized chainmail, with human-sized shields tacked on to give the monster more protection. A giant bronze hammer was held in the ogre’s hands, and he seemed eager to put it to work.
The monster was at least twelve feet tall and seemed to shrug off the few crossbow bolts heading its way. Another dozen halflings charged from the forest to support the ogre and his assault. This ogre must have been the reward that had been waiting at the center of the valley.
“This is our chance. Top and Top, take your warriors out and attack. The Top at the former elf village will head to and engage the halfling village, and the Top here at the orc village will move to attack the humans,” I ordered. This was it; the enemy had given me an opening to finish this in one swoop, and I wasn’t going to pass it up. I pulled almost all the workers to join the fight, sending them along for the attack.
Only enough workers to man two of the farms remained behind, one at each village. When we started taking casualties, I’d need at least a couple of farms still operating to regenerate workers. Even if I failed, my opponents would be in the same boat with their forces depleted down to almost nothing, so the risk of an immediate counterattack was slim to none.
Each Top led their prospective forces. The one from the elf village had the same number of warriors as the other group, but fewer workers since most of my structures were over at the main orc village. Still, over 50 orc warriors, and a score of armed workers was a formidable force in this little war of mine. I hit each group with Forced March to speed up their attack. They should hit their targets at around the same time.
While I waited for my attacking armies to arrive, I turned my attention back to the human village to see how the fight there was progressing. My concern was that if the halflings broke off their attack and returned to their village, my forces moving there to attack wouldn’t be enough. I might have to counter my orders and send the troops in that attack force back. It didn’t look like that was going to be a problem, the small halflings and their giant ogre ally were still pressing the attack.
The main gate to the human village was down, and the ogre, supported by halfling warriors, pushed against a wall of human warriors and farm workers who tried to stop them. An alarm bell rang out at the human command post, and I was a bit shocked to see the workers instantly change before my eyes. Instead of farmers in peasant robes, armed with scythes and pitchforks, the workers now wore leather armor and held shortswords and small wooden shields.
The summoned being in charge of the human village must have had an ability similar to my To Arms ability, which improved the workers when the village was under assault. Despite the upgrade to the defenders, casualties were mounting. The halflings were also falling, but the ogre seemed to be unstoppable. As the halfling attack pushed past the gate and into the village itself, I lost my view of most of the action. Unfortunately, I couldn’t issue orders to the warrior I had scouting the place, he would stay there until Top arrived to add him to the attack.
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While my view was obstructed, I was able to at least monitor the progress of the halfling attack by the position of the ogre, who was taller than the walls of the human village. His progress was slow and steady, the bronze hammer occasionally glinting in the sun as he lifted it to strike. Once or twice, I could see human bodies fly into the air after the hammer fell. Most turned to mana vapor as they flew, making for quite the show.
As the attack neared the command post, the ogre finally fell, and my view of the action was cut off. There were no explosions or flashy magic, so the summoned being in charge of the human village must have been some kind of melee class that was able to deal with an ogre. The sounds of battle began to taper off and as my forces reached the village, and suddenly, the walls collapsed into dust. It was just like when my troops killed the summoned being at the elf village, everything was scrubbed clean and the halfling leader would have to start from scratch.
With Top and his troops on the outskirts of the human village, I got a good look at what had survived the fight. There were around thirty halfling warriors left, though many of them bore injuries, and all of them looked a little worse for wear. From the human forces, the halflings had only seven or eight human workers to join their forces as allies. All of the halfling warriors and their new human allies just stood there as my army approached.
I didn’t see anything resembling a commander among the surviving halfling forces, so their responses might be slowed until another commander could be produced back at the halfling village. My orcs were pumped for the fight, chanting, and shouting as they closed in. Top kept them in order, making sure that everyone stayed close enough to get the buff that Top provided to the troops.
I hit the force attacking the remnants at the human village with Rub Some Dirt on It, giving them a bit of healing to sustain them in the fight. Back at the halfling village, the other attack was also slamming home. Unlike the human and elf villages, the halflings didn’t have farms outside their village walls. They were fungus growers if their faction’s name was accurate, which probably meant some cave or something like that was used for their farms.
The workers lined the walls of the village, and the summoned being controlling them must have used their version of To Arms. Villagers suddenly had slings in addition to short spears as their new weapons. Sling stones began to pepper my attacking forces, and I also hit them with Rub some Dirt on It to help them weather the barrage. The wall here was low, and the Top commanding these forces did the same as the first one, and just clambered over it with little trouble.
Once atop the wall, my orc warriors were making short work of the halfling villagers. The only problem was that there were a whole lot of halflings. I watched as a flurry of arrows slammed into Top, the orc commander grunted once and fell. His death seemed to enrage the other orcs who pressed the attack, clambering over the wall and tearing into the workers defending the place.
Behind the line of defenders stood the summoned being that controlled the halflings. It was a species I’d only seen a few times, one of the strange, serpent-like people. This one’s head was hooded like a cobra, and he held a wicked looking bow in his hands. Each time the summoned being fired, the arrow split into three identical ones, easily enough to slay an orc warrior with each shot.
You have gained control of the human village. No structures are present, and there are no resources stockpiled.
The system prompt told me that the attack on the human village was over. A quick check on that front revealed that the Top there still had over thirty warriors and nearly forty workers in the fight. I hit him with Forced March and ordered him to take his troops to support the other attack, which was faltering under the deadly archery of my opponent.
Back at the halfling village, my forces had eliminated all the workers, and only the summoned being remained. He didn’t come out unscathed, and several wounds seeped blood through his scaly skin. All the troops that had attacked the village were down, but it was just a matter of time before my opponent fell. It didn’t appear that there were any living workers, so he had nobody to man the farms. Without the farms in operation, no replacements for his losses would respawn.
The serpent-like foe seemed to know this and prepared to make his last stand. Top eventually arrived, and the serpent went to work, shooting down attackers as they closed in. To his credit, the summoned being managed to take down half of my force before they surrounded him in melee and hacked the foe to death.
Congratulations, you have completed this stage of the challenge. Proceed along the highlighted path to reach the next, and final stage of the challenge. You are currently ranked 93/1000.
The system prompt lit up a small hatchway in the ground near my command post. It was odd that it hadn’t been there before, but that didn’t stop me from moving forward. There was a timed component to this challenge, and it didn’t make sense to delay. If I was going to place as high as I could in the rankings, I needed to push on.