Nine
Nick flipped his poleaxe from a right to left swing, brought it back over his head, then swung it down after flipping it over. Letting the hammer head slam down into the heavy-knights helmeted head.
There was an ugly crunch and his head seemed to get shoved down into his shoulders. His arms did an odd motion and then his legs straightened. He stood up straight and then fell backward against those pushing up behind him.
Adding to the pile of dead and creating an ever larger pile up of bodies that neither side could really manage very well.
Looking around and taking advantage of the moment while everyone in front of him was busy dealing with the very dead knight, Nick saw that there were problems.
Many problems.
There were more breaches in the wall, Nick had no idea how they were caused, but there were sections of the wall that’d collapsed.
Atop of the walls, there were places that the enemy had actually gotten troops up there. By using ladders and taking losses, they’d forced at least two points where they took the wall.
There didn’t seem to be as many gryphons above and if anything, they seemed to be scattered. Most of them seeming to be moving about in disarray and unsure of where to attack or how to maintain their formation.
This felt like the point to call for the retreat, but his Marshal hadn’t done it.
Mostly this feeling was chalked up to the fact that if more breaches occurred, or more places on the wall were taken, it’d be significantly harder to pull out of the current front line.
I feel like I should call the retreat.
Not waiting for Lucian to respond, Nick sucked in a breath and then called out.
“Forces of Dolphen! Fall back to the next defensive lines!” Nick shouted at his maximum volume. “To the next defensive line!”
Even as he called it out, green magical flares went up all around him.
Marshal Ferish had sent quite a few people in who would pass the word it seemed once the call went out. The man was far more competent than Nick probably would’ve been and he was thankful for his competency.
Pulling Glorious to the side, Nick activated Dragon’s Might, sucked in a full lungful of air, and then utilized Breathe Fire. Letting loose with a full output of flame directly into the enemy ranks.
They didn’t have shields up that were forward facing since they had to push forward. Most of their shields had all been upward to protect against indirect fire, spells, arrows, and the Dragons.
Nick’s attack tore through them the high heat immediately scorching everyone that was caught in the blast. Because the fire itself wasn’t so much of the weapon as the heat that came with it.
One could ‘block the flames’ with a shield or armor, but the heat would catch them anyways. Having seen it up close and personal, Nick knew that an armored knight might be able to block much of the ‘fire’ and die to the extreme heat.
His violet flame always gave him problems himself just due to the heat it was pushing out. If the act of breathing the fire didn’t also push some of the air with it, he was sure he’d have been barbecued just as quickly as his foes.
Working his head from the left then right Nick tried to wash everything down in flames and fire. He wanted to give everyone a chance to escape as the enemy struggled to breathe in the sudden recreation of the surface of the sun given to them personally.
Nick snapped his mouth shut, pulled on Glorious’ reins, and got moving. He didn’t let the gryphon waddle along the ground but instead pulled up on it, getting it to leap upward, then glide forward. Moving fast and low over the heads of his own soldiers.
Going higher would invite enemies to take pot shots at him when he went beyond the protective shielding of his army’s casters. He noted that the royal guard fell in around him and above him as he went. Sara and Harlowe were also there.
It looked like the entirety of his guard was here, but he couldn’t be sure.
He did note that Delaney was missing and that left him a bit nervous.
She was a strange woman, one that acted as if she were truly damaged in the mind, but he actually enjoyed her company in a way. She had a way of seeing things that he didn’t, from a point of view often shared by Dolphen itself.
Turning in the saddle he looked around briefly.
Jessie kissed him when his head turned to look backward and he couldn’t help but grin at her and continue to look around.
Then he spotted Delaney. She was at the furthest back of their group. She was moving sedately, looking backward, and clearly performing the rearguard function. Most likely just in case some of the enemy gryphons decided to swoop down on them and intercept them.
Looking ahead, Nick could see the next defensive lines ahead of them. It was a significant distance, but it also wasn’t terrible. The army as a whole had been briefed on how to hold till the moment of retreat and how to go about moving out of the original position.
Spells, charms, and potions had been prepared for the retreat.
Despite their best efforts, they failed to hold the first border wall.
The enemy had broken through.
Forcing himself to not grind his teeth, Nick focused on the path ahead. There was no point in dwelling on what’d already failed.
***
The final elements of his army reached the secondary wall and the gates boomed shut. Bars were thrown across them, spells reinforced, and everyone went to their next positions.
Hopefully to rest for a time before the enemy pressed again.
Angelique and Lucian had hammered away at the enemy forces up until roughly ten minutes ago.
Lucian was forcibly unsummoned and Angelique went to take a breather. Settling down near the supply camp where more than a few assistants to the quartermaster went about tending to the big Air Dragon and her needs.
Staring out at the flat no man’s land between the two defensive locations, Nick wished his people had been able to trap it as deeply as they had the first path through. With this being the escape corridor, they couldn’t narrow it too much or his own troops would’ve been forcibly slowed and those at the rear put at risk.
If they got any time at all to put traps in tonight they would be, however. As many traps as they could risk without enemy patrols catching them.
There’d been some talk about putting in dormant traps that the forces could move over, but Nick hadn’t wanted to take the risk of sabotage.
“Where’s Marshal Ferish?” Nick asked after turning toward his command tent. He saw there were more than a few people there, but none of the Dukes, generals, or the Marshal.
“He’s been sent to the field hospital,” answered one of the messengers.
“I beg your pardon?” Nick asked in surprise. “I wasn’t informed he was injured. I need an update immediately it sounds like. Who can give me that? Where’s the rest of the command structure?”
“The command was attacked directly by a top-promotion assassin,” answered the very same messenger. “The bodyguards solved it immediately, but a low-class assassin threw-threw a magical bomb at the Marshal. Just a low-class bomb.
“It took his right arm from the elbow down. Count Distis was knocked unconscious and hasn’t been able to be roused. Many of the Dukes were also mentally incapacitated.
“Most of the generals were in the field and will likely be making their way here but the-the majority of the upper command structure was taken out of action. No deaths, thankfully, but completely-completely… unable to perform their duties.”
Fuck.
With a nod of his head at that, Nick went to the center of the command tent’s area and looked around.
“Fine. Get me all the information you can from where-ever you can. Get me whoever is up and moving from the command structure that’s taking the places of the original command structure. They all had deputies of course. I can’t imagine they were incapacitated as well,” ordered Nick. “Have everything routed here. Everything.
“Someone get the scouts out to watch and report back on what the enemy is doing. They’re allowed to use the gryphons I purchased for their unit if they think it’ll get better information.
“I also want to know where the enemy gryphon formation went.
“Lastly, I need casualty reports if possible. Have someone get a headcount up and running for those who are at station or in position. We’ll assume those who aren’t, are wounded, incapacitated, or dead.”
All the runners shot off in multiple directions. It was clear they were going to get the orders sent out as best as they could. All Nick could do was wait right here for now and try to gather up the information and situation as it came in.
Leaning over the blank table in front of him, Nick grit his teeth, then blew out a very slow breath.
“I will send my personal guards to assist!” chirped a bright voice from beside him.
Looking to his left he found Lorelai directly beside him, with Jessie a step beyond her. The two Dark Elves were both staring at him. The former dressed in her ‘look at me Dragon King!’ outfit and the latter in her armor. It had blood splattered across it and Nick noted that Jessie had a bandage wrapped around her left thigh.
“They’ve been paying attention to where everything is and can easily act as information gatherers,” Lorelai finished with a bob of her pretty head.
“Thank you,” Nick murmured and meant it. He needed skilled hands right now and if she was offering, he wasn’t about to turn them away.
“We’ll assist of course as well,” offered the Wretin envoy coming in at a quick pace. They looked almost out of breath and they glanced to Sara and then back to Nick.
He didn’t miss the glance. If anything Sara had reached out to the Wretin and told them everything that was going on.
“We’ve also brought in a force of three hundred of our top-promotion medical staff to assist with recovery efforts. We can’t afford to send our fighting force, but our medical corps is at this time unneededed at home. They’re arriving even as we speak.
“We had dispatched the request to send them a while back, but we hadn’t heard from our government back about the request until this morning.”
I don’t believe that for a moment. They were likely already in country and being held until they were asked to assist, or had the opportunity to assist.
Everywhere I look, people are looking to wedge debts into my life. Debts and IOUs. Not that I blame them.
Do I even need to wonder if the Dwarves, Gnomes, or Werewolves are going to do the same?
“Most certainly, Sire. This is a good lesson in statehood. You will need to do the same if they ever end up suffering a similar situation,” Lucian advised him. “Though I expect the Werewolves will offer their assistance at a later time, as the full moon is in two days. That is when they will attempt to assist. I would assume a night-raid of some sort.
“I’m unsure how the short-ones will attempt to curry favors in this dark day, but I’m sure they will.”
I’m sure they will.
“My thanks to Wretin, I will not forget Consort Mysils’ countryman,” Nick stated and meant it. “It seems my consorts are the ones I should look to for my closest friends.”
“Indeed,” rumbled a strong and firm voice as the Werewolf envoy turned the corner. “You should indeed look to your consorts. The Werewolf clan isn’t at our full strength for another two days, but we will work to collect the wounded tonight.”
Nick nodded his head at that and looked to the bare table in front of him.
“My Lord Dragon King, a map for you,” Delaney reported and put down a battle-map that was very similar to the one the Marshal had often looked at. “I’ve entered all the last known positions from my memory and updated them based on what I was able to see, and question from others, while you held the breach.”
As Nick looked at the map, he did indeed see many notations across it in very light charcoal. It wasn’t very deeply written and could be wiped away with some mild effort as fresh numbers came in.
Much of what Delaney wrote in were question marks, but he had a general idea of where everything was if her numbers held true across the board.
He was looking at roughly a loss of twelve-percent of his forces if it held to what she’d written down.
Marshal ferish hadn’t given him exact numbers, but it was very close to a hundred-thousand last he remembered, though he could be remembering it wrong.
The estimated missing right now was near eleven-thousand but that could shift as true numbers came in.
“It was ninety-thousand, Sire. You’ve lost somewhere between twelve and thirteen percent of your forces,” Lucian estimated. “Depending on the original numbers in detail and losses in detail.”
That’s a wretched loss of manpower.
“Enemy losses look upwards of a hundred-thousand but… that’s very… early and out of date as to when you called the retreat,” stated the Wretin envoy. “And yes, I had people listening in to the Marshal and reports when the attack happened. The reports coming in were pretty standard and match what’s on the map so far that I see.”
“A hundred thousand,” whispered Nick. If that was a rough estimate but was likely higher, then he truly believed the enemy wouldn’t be attacking again today. If they lost that many they were going to have a hard time convincing their soldiers to rush across the brand-new open field just to storm another wall.
Looking to the Wretin envoy, Nick stared at him.
“You’re certain?” asked Nick in a whisper.
“The Marshal had a similar response to that number,” the envoy confessed. “Or so I’m told. He was also rather upset that you took to combat by the way. Most aggrieved.”
Nodding his head, Nick looked to the map.
The line of defense they were on now was at least twice as long as the original, but it was just as defensible as the previous wall was. It wouldn’t be as easy to cause mass casualties given the area leading up to it was much greater, but it was still fairly enclosed and narrow.
“Alright,” Nick mumbled, shook his head, and sighed. “Let’s get everyone wound down. I’m going to assume the enemy isn’t attacking. There’s no way they could reasonably attack again after taking that bad of a beating.
“Though… was that land-force losses? Or did it include the gryphons as well? Did they say?”
“I … don’t know, your majesty,” said the Wretin envoy with a grimace.
Gramps?
“We cleared about half of the gryphon forces between myself and Angelique,” Lucian mused, sounding thoughtful. “Though from what I saw of the wall, I would not include those losses in the assumptive number that was given to the marshal.”
“Grandfather thinks half the gryphons were lost between himself and Angelique’s attacks,” Nick offered, looking at his impromptu war council. “He wouldn’t think that they would be included in the losses though.”
“Why?” Sara asked curiously. “Did he say why he wouldn’t them? I wish Lord Lucian were here so we could talk to him directly.”
There was a rumbling chuckled inside Nick’s head as Lucian clearly found that funny.
“Because while I wasn’t able to get a good idea of how many dead were in the assault,” Lucian began. “I could easily see it was a carpet of bodies. Mounds of them in some spaces as they enemy was forced to clear corpses just to be able to push up. The gryphons would’ve only numbered ten-thousand at most.”
“He just doesn’t think the numbers add up right,” paraphrased Nick and clicked his tongue. “While the soldiers are catching their breath, winding down, and patching up, let’s see if we can’t be disgusting. Because that’s a lot of bodies.
“If there’s even a fraction of that hundred-thousand that’s dead, that whole area is going to need to be shifted or moved. If they move beyond the wall we left behind, and into the fields in front of it, we should be keeping them busy. Get them to squirrel back into that… wall of corpses.
“Use the gryphons, pair them with top promotion magic users, and let’s give them a taste of their own medicine. Keep them back and pushed in. Start laying traps as deeply as you can with whoever you can scrounge up as well.”
It was a simple thing.
The longer he could keep them all stuck in the wall or at the wall, with all those bodies, then the more likely it was that they’d start catching diseases.
That their army would get sick.
Because corpses were disgusting and nasty things.
The human body quickly became a morass of rotten things in no time at all when left out to the environment. Starting with shitting itself.
The enemy was going to have a literal graveyard to deal with even as they tried to tend to their people.
A stupid idea popped into Nick’s head and he grinned with one side of his mouth.
Gramps, think Dolphen would spot me a summon so you can take me into hostile territory tonight?
I suddenly feel like I should add to their misery.
“I’m sure it could be persuaded, Sire,” Lucian admitted. “I would consider offering it that you’ll take Delaney to bed tonight in return for a summon. It’s been pushing her toward you quite aggressively but she is the one to push the brakes. If you were to take the initiative, Dolphen would get what it wants.”
Quest!
Descendent Summoning!: TAKE DELANEY TO BED TONIGHT AND SUMMON A DESCENDENT.
Rewards Granted: YOUR ANCESTOR WILL BE SUMMONED.
There was a faint rumble attached to the Quest that appeared before Nick.
It seemed Dolphen had approved and was eager.
“Well, Sire… it would seem you’ll get your late-night mission you wanted,” Lucian drawled. “You’ll need to take Lorelai to task and then Delaney. Then we can move forward with your plan.”
“Delaney,” Nick started and turned to look at the wide-eyed red-head. She clearly had gotten a new quest. “I have a mission for you to take on with me tonight. Lucian will help us with part of it.”
“I see,” whispered the beautiful woman, then nodded her head. “I serve.”