A villager stumbled back from the barricade, creating a gap in our line. The villager collapsed to his knees holding a rent in his chainmail armor where blood poured free. I cast Health Bloom in that area before sending the hound to help plug the gap in the line.

The healing spell activated and the flow of blood from the villager’s wound slowed but didn’t stop when the five second duration of the spell was complete. Elsewhere along the barricade, I could see the elderly defenders were starting to succumb to exhaustion.

“Saul, have your people fall back, I’ll cover the retreat!” I shouted as I reached into the linked belt to pull out the pair of dire rat figurines. They were my weakest creatures, but I didn’t need quality to hold back the enemy here, I needed quantity. One after the other the rats appeared even as calls to retreat sounded down the line. With practiced efficiency, the retired legionnaires began to withdraw.

First, every other defender backed away, including any that were wounded. Several gnolls and a few ambitious kobolds tried to take advantage and began to climb over the barricade. The hound, and my new pair of rats leaped up and latched onto the offenders, causing more chaos on the line.

At another command from Saul, the rest of the defenders pulled back, leaving three more of their fallen behind. It was just my summoned creatures and the archers holding things now. Enemies swarmed over the barricade and with a final volley, the archers turned and retreated. I grabbed onto the rope at my feet and heaved.

I expected a difficult time, like we’d had with the barrels of oil earlier, but this time, the rope just met slight resistance before it stopped moving and a rumble at the peak of the rightmost hill was heard. Wasting no time, I ordered my surviving minions to fight as long as I could while I ran hot on the heels of the archers.

After every ten or so steps, the archers turned and fired another volley, slowing down the flood of enemies that were even now swarming over my defenders. The rumbling grew louder as several huge boulders began to bounce down the mountain, finally drawing the attention of the bloodthirsty enemy.

The avalanche began closest to the barricade, Saul having designed it to push the enemy back into the valley where they wouldn’t be able to pursue the retreating defenders. A boulder smashed into the barricade, shattering it and pulping Rupert and one of the dire rats. Along with my minions, a pair of gnolls and a kobold were also crushed. A second hit took out Grulnok and the trio of gnolls he was facing off against.

With half the hillside coming down on them, the gnolls finally broke and retreated back into the valley, their kobold allies hot on their heels. It was the worst thing they could have done. Several of the stones had been positioned to bounce into the valley, crushing handfuls of enemies at a time as they packed themselves tightly into the narrow confines of the valley.

A few enemies tried to fight their way past the barricade, but most, along with my summoned minions, were quickly buried under the falling rocks. About a dozen made it over and past the danger zone, but they were confused, usure if they wanted to continue the pursuit or try to retreat. The archers stopped and began to pepper the remaining kobolds and gnolls with arrows.

One after another the confused enemy fell, but a few tried to make a half-hearted attempt to close into melee distance. Most had dropped their shields and weapons as they made their frantic escape over the barricade, and they fell quickly to the accurate fire of the archers. With no further enemies in view, the archers turned and followed me toward the forest.

“Syl, are you hurt?” Saul asked as one of the women stopped and turned back to face the barricade that was still visible in the flickering light of the remaining watchfires.

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“No, take this, I’m going to make my stand here,” she said, passing over all but a handful of her arrows to another of the archers.

“We need you back at the village wall,” Saul argued.

“My husband is back there, and I’d rather make my stand where I can still see him,” Syl said, tears cutting trails through the dirt and soot on her face as she stared at the tangled mass of bodies and boulders strewn about the wreckage of the barricade.

“I understand, may we meet in better times and walk the eternal fields as warriors once more,” Saul said, placing his hand on her shoulder for a moment before waving the rest of us on.

I expected Saul to argue with her, try and get her to follow, but he and the others seemed content to let the woman named Syl sacrifice her life in a last stand out here by herself. He didn’t offer any further explanation and I didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask. As we neared the tree line, I could see that Hamish was there to greet us.

“Well done, everyone, we’ve bought our people some time,” Hamish said, looking over the survivors. I could sense him doing the math in his head, counting how many we’d lost in the fight for the barricade.

“Where do you need me now?” I asked.

“Are all your summoned creatures gone?” Saul asked.

“Yes, but they’ll be ready to summon again in an hour or so,” I explained.

“Good, but I don’t know if the enemy will give us that long to wait. Saul, leave me a few of your troops to help in the forest. Pull the rest back to help defend the town wall. Rico, go with Saul and assist in any way you can,” Hamish ordered.

Saul gave Hamish a salute, a fist clasped to his chest, and then picked out a few of the most able bodied of our surviving force to join Hamish. I went with Saul and six others as we made our way along the safe path through the forest. A villager from Hamish’s team was there to make sure we didn’t stray into any of the traps they’d liberally sprinkled through the area.

“How long do you think Hamish will hold for?” I asked Saul as we walked. The villagers that had fought at the barricade were exhausted and there was no need to hurry them along.

“There’s no way to tell for sure, it depends on how the reavers in charge will react. The mercenaries have done their bit, forcing us to trigger our traps and defenses, maybe they’ll push out with some of the reaver tribes to try and catch us as we retreat. I’m not sure if they even suspect there’s a second defensive line inside the forest,” Saul explained.

“With the troops we gave him, does Hamish have a large enough force to hold back the enemy for a while?” I asked.

“He had over a score of troops to start with, and by adding our reinforcements, he’s got more than we started with at the barricade. His plan is to sting them and keep the enemy off balance. They’re going to defend themselves from up in the treetops and there’s plenty of hidden lines strung up between the trees to help them escape,” Saul explained.

I had my doubts about how many would escape if the enemy flooded the small forest with troops. Despite my doubts, Saul and Hamish had predicted the enemy response perfectly so far. Saul also explained there were still just over thirty defenders back at the village, but even with our force added to the total, it seemed a paltry number to hold back an army.

Our pace was slowed further as many of the survivors were sporting wounds of various types. None were severe, but even a minor slash or sprain was amplified by the age of the people enduring them. If they were going to have a chance to make it back to the wall and rest up for the enemy’s next appearance, they needed some help.

“Hold up, Saul, let’s gather together everyone so I can cast a healing spell,” I ordered. Saul agreed, he had lost part of his left ear and was walking with a limp after exchanging blows with kobolds and gnolls. My Health Bloom covered the group and as its magic worked, I could see the strain of pain ease in many of the faces.

“I can do a second cast, but after that, my mana will need to recharge for a while,” I explained. Casting the second spell almost bottomed out my remaining mana, and I could feel the pain of an empty mana pool start to take hold. It would regenerate before long, but I could endure a bit of pain if it helped these people.

“Let’s get moving,” Saul said as I finished, and we kept up a slow but steady pace toward the village. We were a rather pitiful sight, and I couldn’t help thinking of how many we were up against.

“Do we have a chance to stop them, our numbers are so few,” I said, voicing my fears. Saul stopped me and looked me in the eye as he responded.

“There never was a chance of survival, Rico, we all knew that when we decided to stay behind. Our goal isn’t to think about survival, it’s to buy every moment we can for our loved ones to make their escape,” Saul explained.

I looked at those around me. They were weary, many of them battered and hurt, but there was steel in their spines. None would turn and run, and every one of them would stand and fight to the last breath to give their fellow villagers a chance at life.