“We’ll slow them down, don’t you worry. Just make sure you light a fire under the army and get them ready for what’s coming,” Saul said to the cavalry scouts.
The battered riders passed through a gap in the barricade the villagers had made for just this type of situation. Once the last scout was through, they closed the gap and reinforced that section of the barricade. As the riders passed by me, I waved them over.
“I may be able to help a bit with your wounds. Can I get you all to gather as close to each other as you can get?” I asked, glad for a chance to try out my new Health Bloom spell. The riders looked a bit skeptical but did as I asked.
Pushing mana into the spell, I could see a green aura appear around the area I’d targeted. At first, I was worried that nothing was happening, but one of the riders assured me that he could feel the pain of his wounds lessen. After a second casting, my mana was almost drained, and I’d need time for it to recharge.
“I hope that helped,” I told them after the second spell expired.
“It did indeed, mage, I thank you for your efforts. It may not have healed us completely, but it’ll make the long journey ahead of us much less of a challenge,” the leader of the riders said. It appeared the spell had also helped the horses, several of which had minor wounds from the fighting they’d been involved in.
“That was well done, Rico, how long will it take you to regenerate your mana? That spell could come in handy during the fight,” Saul asked. I tried to get a feel for the amount of ambient mana in the area, it seemed about average, which meant I could regenerate a point every minute or so.
“It’ll take a while, but I do have some mana potions if we need them,” I offered.
The potions were cheap and while they wouldn’t refill my mana, one might allow me to cast another spell or two. I also had a few mana tabs stashed, but I’d save those for emergencies as they were more costly, and unlike the potions, I could use them back home. At least the potions and tablets were on different cooldowns, which helped given how bad the diminishing returns on them were.
We waited in the dark, the bulk of the defenders taking the opportunity to sit and rest while a few of us kept watch. Saul said there were still two of our scouts out there, villagers with skills in tracking and ambush who were supposed to give us warning when the enemy arrived. Given how big the army coming toward us was supposed to be, I suspected we might hear them long before we spotted them.
Minutes passed and even with casting Empower Minion on all of my summoned minions, I was back up to full mana before one of the scouts appeared. He expertly negotiated the spike filled trench and climbed the barricade where Saul asked him about the other scout. The man just shook his head no and looked down as he moved to join the thin line of defenders. The scout was the last of our people out there, so we readied ourselves for the coming attack.
The sound of armor and weapons rattling in the dark was joined by grunted orders from the enemy leaders that were dispersed throughout their army. After only a moment’s silence, battle shouts from our foes began to sound in the dark valley. The noise spread from what sounded like a few dozen voices, to hundreds, then to a volume that I had only experienced before during stadium filled rock concerts.
“Light the watchfires,” Saul ordered. At either end of the barricade, torches were used to ignite oil-soaked ropes that burned quickly into the dark. One by one, large fires began to ignite on the hillside where the watchfires had been pre-positioned. The valley before us lit up in a dim, orange glow from the fires.
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Standing there, a bit stunned by the sudden brightness, was the horde of enemies. They were tightly packed in the valley, some even pushed up the treacherous hillsides as they went. Once they realized the fires weren’t some weapon or trap, the leaders of the horde began to shout orders to their men. Their language was a harsh, guttural thing that I wasn’t close enough to understand.
Eventually, the Linguistic Adaptation Interface would kick in and translate the language for me, but I was in no rush. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they were saying, it was an order to charge, and the entire mass did so as one. I raised my magic missile wand, determined to take down as many as I could once they entered melee range.
Looking over to Saul, I could see a bloodthirsty grin on his face as he waved again to the defenders at the ends of the barricade. The defenders reached down had grabbed ahold of thick ropes that had been buried just beneath the soil. Half of our defenders grabbed onto each and pulled as hard as they could. I ordered my minions to help and joined in myself when it looked like they were struggling.
Memories of playing tug o war on the school grounds popped into my head as the ropes slowly were pulled back. I could feel something pop though the ropes as whatever was causing them to bind up gave way. Out on the hillside, the battle cries of the enemy gave way to shouts of fear that drowned out the commands of the enemy leaders.
From just above the bonfires on each of the hillsides, dozens of hidden casks of oil were toppled over by the ropes. The oil ignited as it lazily streamed down the hillside, leaving a blazing trail in its path. It was moving so slowly that I feared the enemy would have more than enough time to get out of the way before the flames reached the valley.
I didn’t need to fear, for in their panic, the horde pushed this way and that, each man pushing aside his ally to get out of the kill zone before the flames arrived. Fights broke out and several of the enemy were cut down in their crazed fear. A few of what must have been officers also met a gruesome fate at the weapons of their warriors when they tried to intervene and restore order.
“That’s what you do to these barbarians, throw something unexpected at them and wait for the chaos to erupt,” Saul said with a chuckle as all the rope pullers moved back into position behind the barricade. To my surprise, the flames looked like they wouldn’t make it all the way down to the valley. The volume of oil from even a dozen barrels wasn’t enough to do more than put on a show.
It felt a bit anticlimactic, and the enemy ceased their struggles and turned to attack once more. Just when I thought things were over, the flames finally hit their true target, an even larger collection of barrels hidden just a few dozen feet from the valley floor. A fresh flood of flames poured out from the hidden barrels, and this time, they didn’t have nearly as far to go before they found the panicked enemy force.
Terrible screams of pain were heard as the flames poured down among the leading attackers. I gave silent thanks that the wind wasn’t blowing in our direction as scores of enemy warriors were burned to a crisp. The chaos lasted for a good fifteen minutes, but without much fuel to sustain them, the flames eventually exhausted themselves and went out.
Instead of immediately attacking, the horde pulled back from the valley. I expected Saul to send a scout to shadow them, but he just watched along with the rest of us as the enemy retreated. None of the others seemed surprised, and Saul noticed my look of confusion.
“You haven’t fought reavers before. Do you want to know what happens next?” Saul asked.
“Of course, why are they leaving? The casualties they just took were miniscule compared to the size of their army,” I asked.
“You’re right, and while the reavers might be crazy, they’re also cunning. They had hoped for a quick victory and had likely scouted our defenses and knew we were few in number. A quick rush by their better-quality troops and they figured they’d be through us and on the way to the village. Instead, we bloodied their nose and now they realize this might be a tougher nut to crack than they thought.
“I figure they’ll either send one of their lesser tribes, or some of the mercenaries they hired to lead the next attack. No use wasting quality troops on fixed defenses full of traps,” Saul advised.
“Do we have more traps ready to go?” I asked, hopeful of seeing a repeat of the burning hillside.
“No, other than our final play, we’re left with just our steel and grit to face off against them,” Saul said, gesturing toward the final rope that was supposed to bring down part of the hillside. It was our last resort, something to cover our retreat. Before we could do that, we needed to bloody the foe a bit more, and that meant it was time to go toe to toe against them.