Valkyrie's Shadow

Stone and Blood: Act 4, Chapter 6

Stone and Blood: Act 4, Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“What’s she doing here?”

“Dunno,” Velgath shrugged. “Sightseeing.”

Sightseeing? We’re about to fight a war here!

Uldun curled his lip at the sheer ludicrousness of the Human. Even now, she was examining the corner of a nearby building as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Under a canopy formed out of Death Knight shields with a bug at her side and a bird on her head. The histories portrayed Human culture as the peak of decadence and depravity, and it seemed that they weren’t far from the truth.

“Sir,” an officer offered him a salute as he came forward, “landings have begun in the designated area.”

“Did we make a convincing withdrawal?” Uldun asked.

“The enemy appears to be invested,” the officer answered. “Their air-dropped troops have created a loose cordon and now they’re teleporting their teleporters. Scouts estimate that they’ve cycled through several hundred already.”

He clicked his tongue in vexation. The Gazers that they were fighting weren’t some random hive that one might find anywhere in the Middle Realms.

The problem with fighting non-Humanoid races – Heteromorphs and Monsters especially – was not merely the fact that they tended to be vastly superior to everything else in a physical sense, but also the fact that they could develop a wide range of racial Skills and Spell-like Abilities which could make them distinctly different from others of the same kind.

Teleportation was a Fifth-tier spell, but it was unlikely that the Gazer hive had hundreds of Fifth-tier casters. Instead, they probably had a branch of Gazers that specialised in the rapid deployment of troops, developing Teleportation as a Spell-like Ability. This, in turn, made it necessary to consider what else the hive had at its disposal and what they already had without any of that was annoying enough.

“Is that Teleportation replacing an eye power or is it something else?” Uldun asked.

“It looks like an eye power,” the officer answered. “The transporters zap themselves and vanish once they familiarise themselves with the landing zone. Reinforcements pop up one at a time.”

Great.

If it was an eye power, then it would be something they could do almost nonstop. However, it was unlike regular Teleportation, which could transport groups of people. The nature of the Realms Below also limited its usefulness, but it was a powerful tool in areas with large, unobstructed spaces like the chasms that divided the principalities of Khazanar.

“What are they using to secure their landing zone?”

“They’re saturating the area with Goblins, mostly. It’s taking some time for them to approach the new perimeter.”

That was a good sign, at least. If they were being so cautious without meeting resistance, their advance would grind to a halt once they did.

After several days of absolute vigilance against their enemy’s reconnaissance efforts, the second that Uldun’s battalion covered was instructed to feign combat fatigue and supply issues to lure the Gazer forces to focus on an area of the Dark Dwarves’ choice. An encirclement of the incursion area had been drawn, one of many concentric defensive lines meant to contain the growing invasion force in the designated battle area.

By all appearances, it would be a massive death trap for the invading forces, but they hadn’t figured out the full capabilities of those forces yet.

“There any way for us to bring the Death Knights into play without scaring our enemies all the way back to their insertion point?”

“I don’t think so, sir. The best plan still seems to be the one that our rentals came up with.”

As expected of the Undead, a cold, no-nonsense proposal had been made by the Elder Lich ‘sergeants’ as a containment strategy. The operational perimeter was divided into blocks where their enemy would be cordoned off and reprocessed into Zombies and Wights once suitable numbers filled the area. Uldun questioned whether they were capable of such precise manoeuvring on foreign territory, but the strategy had apparently been enacted elsewhere and they were confident that they could pull it off.

At this stage of the battle, he couldn’t imagine any catastrophic failures – it was Death Knights fighting untrained battle fodder, after all – so he approved of the proposal. Clan Felhammer had lost nearly all of its battle thralls and padding it with expendable Undead was better than nothing.

“Are we having any problems funnelling the Gazer forces in the right direction?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” the officer replied. “We have companies of Deepwardens nipping at their flanks, so the Gazers should be focused on defending against our ‘attempts’ to retake their foothold and exploiting their breakthrough.”

Gazers – at least the big ones – were highly intelligent and suspicious, so it wouldn’t be until the real fighting started that Uldun would gain some sense of what they were up to. This was especially the case in the opening moves of a battle where expendable forces were being deployed. Battle fodder could be sent to their deaths for no specific reason other than to confuse the enemy and fill their Commanders’ heads with useless information.

“Block A2 is nearing ideal density,” the Elder Lich sergeant in his escort said.

“Are our forces in position?” Uldun asked.

“They are,” the Elder Lich answered. “However, we are uncertain if they will remain concealed for long.”

“Let’s get over there and see what happens, then. Stand by for my order to proceed. Deepingstone, are your observers in place?”

“Aye, they are.”

The Dwarf that responded was not Lord Daergor Deepingstone, but a veteran Deepwarden named Kydin, one of the Dwarf Lord’s nieces serving as an officer in Uldun’s battalion. Fortunately, she didn’t share the more obnoxious physical and behavioural characteristics of her uncle.

One of the nearby grey robes cast flight magic on them and they went from their rooftop command platform to a building with a decent vantage over Block A2. Along the way, he eyed the wall of explosions in the air that stretched all along the borders of Felhammer. The intensity of the defensive barrage seemed to have lessened somewhat, which was a good thing considering their limited supplies of ammunition. Even after seizing everything that the council had brought with them, they couldn’t keep it up for much more than a few days.

They alighted on a ten-storey tall slave dormitory near the centre of the designated block. Unlike the defence of Felhammer against the council, the darklamps lining the streets were left active to help spot their flying foes. Groups of Goblins advanced cautiously, stopping every so often to examine rubbish bins and check locked doors.

Stone clubs, slings and loincloths, eh? I guess they’ll be receiving an upgrade once the Undead get to them.

It was a satisfying notion. Enemy fodder with next to worthless combat potential could be turned into much stronger Wights, which were then turned against their former masters.

“Let’s begin,” Uldun said.

In the street across from their vantage, a Goblin walked up and checked a closed door. To the Goblin’s surprise, the door opened. The other Goblins nearby came forward curiously. Then, a Dwarf jumped out of the darkness, bowling over the first Goblin. High-pitched Goblin screeches rose into the air as more Dwarves flooded out of the buildings, clawing and biting at any Goblin that they could reach.

Uldun peered down at the Wights. Their armour wasn’t the black steel plate of Khazanar. Instead, they were adorned in suits of dull grey scale. They had supposedly been picked up by the first batch of Elder Liches on their way through the ruined Hill Dwarf country under the Abelion Hills.

“Ah,” Velgath said, “they broke.”

He wasn’t sure if there was any resistance in the first place. Most of the Goblins had thrown their clubs at the nearest Wight and ran straight in the opposite direction.

“I don’t know what you expected,” Uldun said. “Not that running will help them any.”

The panicked Goblins stampeded up the street and into a line of Death Knights blocking off the next intersection. With thousands of their fellows behind them, the Goblins in the front were helplessly pushed forward. Dark blood quickly formed a stream in the gutter as the invaders were skewered by glowing black blades two and three at a time.

By the time the crowd’s momentum finally reversed, half of them were Zombies chasing them along. The chase didn’t last very long as a wall of Wights trapped the Goblins in the street, leaving them to choose between becoming a Zombie or a Wight.

Not bad…

Uldun nodded at the results. He and his officers barely had to do anything. Then a frown formed behind his beard as a sniff sounded from nearby.

“Hey, Velgath,” he said. “Your Human’s crying.”

“She’s not my Human,” his sister replied.

“You’re supposed to attend to her, yeah?”

Velgath flounced off with a disgusted sound. Uldun furrowed his brow. He couldn’t recall her ‘flouncing’ off before. The Human was probably a bad influence. Hopefully, Velgath wouldn’t start dressing like a Shrieker and crying every time a stupid Goblin died.

“Have you decided how you wish to deploy the newly-acquired assets?” The Elder Lich asked.

“We’ll go with the original plan for now,” Uldun said. “Pull the new Undead back and position the Wraiths on the fallback line. Let’s see how long we can play this game for.”

It was too early to say what the Gazers would do, but, since they were opening the war by using expendable troops, Clan Felhammer might be able to string the conflict along for several days. In that time, they would be able to process hundreds of thousands, if not millions of the Gazers’ forces into Undead.

Shortly after the sounds of slaughter abided, the Deepwardens stationed to observe the battle came over to deliver their reports.

“That was an absolute slaughter,” one of them said. “It was harder to track down and kill the ones beyond the fringes of the cordon than anything else.”

“How many got away?” Uldun asked.

“I don’t think we can give you a number, sir,” the Deepwarden answered. “If they’re anything like our battle thralls, fleeing a battle will result in harsh punishment so they won’t report in to avoid that. We’ve sent a few people to see what happens.”

The Gazers likely had some sense that Undead were being employed in the battle, but not the scale. Only the Elder Liches were being used in aerial defence and it was mostly through flying summons to provide improved detection and interception of incoming scouts.

“Was there any sense of organisation beyond clumping together for safety?”

“Nothing beyond being sent in our direction. If there are any Gazer Directors present, they’re way in the back.”

“How well have you been able to suppress their scouts?”

“A few blocks out, sir,” Kydin told him. “Since things went so nicely here, should I call for more scout companies?”

“Do it,” Uldun nodded. “We’ll repeat this along the front a few more times before pulling back. From now on, report back to me the moment you see signs of a Commander taking to the field.”

The Deepwardens dispersed. As things stood, the Gazers were fighting blind, playing a numbers game against their foes. Anyone doing so wouldn’t expect immediate results. Letting them realise slow gains would keep them committed to their strategy. Things wouldn’t change until they were convinced that it was time to commit more valuable forces or if a Commander came over to see what was going on for themselves.

“This one has a question,” the Elder Lich sergeant said.

“What?”

“The current order of battle is similar to that of the previous conflict. What is the rationale behind it?”

“Is an Elder Lich really asking me that?”

Elder Liches were well known for employing armies of weak Undead against those who would invade their lairs. It was arguably more effective than using the living, as the Undead did not tire or waver and often came with special qualities that lent well to wearing down the living.

“Our studies thus far indicate that it is an unsustainable practice for the living,” the Elder Lich replied.

“It can be a situational strategy,” Uldun admitted, “but the powers of the Realms Below invariably arrive at that situation. Life is plentiful and cheap, and there’s always more of it. Keeping things manageable has always been a necessity down here and constantly culling the surrounding populations is a part of that. Using one part of the population to obliterate the other is one of the most efficient ways to do so.”

He still couldn’t believe that certain principalities had grown so lax in their territorial vigilance that an army of millions had grown under them in a handful of decades. The holdfast faction always tended to turn their gazes inward, but keeping problematic populations on the frontier in check should have been common sense. They were serious enough when it came to preparing for the incoming invasion, so perhaps there was something that everyone had missed.

“Can the same be assumed of our opponents?” The Elder Lich asked.

“Gazers are highly intelligent,” Uldun answered, “but they’re also ego-driven. If we put on a convincing show that feeds their sense of superiority, they won’t give the loss of war assets a second thought. Or even a first thought. They’ll assume that everything is going according to plan against an inferior enemy.”

“Surely they should eventually realise that reality is not falling in line with their expectations?”

“They will,” Uldun replied, “and that’ll be the funniest part. Gazers are so full of themselves that they can’t accept an ‘inferior race’ besting them. Therefore, they’ll rationalise that we’re working for a rival Gazer hive that they were previously unaware of.”

The Elder Lich stared at him for a good long moment before returning to its duties. He couldn’t blame it for its sceptical reaction.

After watching three more battles play out in different tactical blocks and noting no changes, Uldun returned to his command post to organise an irregular, but steady withdrawal to their fallback line. Kydin reported to him not long after he had relocated to the new position.

“Everything seems to be going smoothly, sir,” she said. “Scouts near the landing zone report that enemy reinforcements are coming in at an increased rate. At the same time, we’re getting fewer probing attacks along the chasm…or at least the light show is slowing down.”

“Then that means we should expect increased enemy reconnaissance here,” Uldun stroked his beard in thought. “Have those additional scout companies arrived yet?”

“They have, sir. They’re in the process of deploying around the perimeter now. If all that garbage that’s been flying at us for the past few days is headed in our direction, though, it’s not going to be enough.”

“Has a runner been sent to General Khorax with this information? Actually, send one from us anyway with a request for everything he can spare. This first bit is going to be rough until we adjust for it.”

Kydin turned and spoke to two runners on standby, who leapt along the rooftops to deliver their message. Uldun examined their surroundings, his gaze stopping when it fell upon their Human guest.

“Relocate to the floor below,” he told his officers. “Velgath, can that Human survive up here?”

His sister looked at the Human, who only returned a blank look. Uldun sighed and scratched his head.

“You should get below too, just in case,” he told her. “Well, never mind them not recognising you as a ‘noncombatant’, the Gazers may just abduct you on sight.”

“Abduct me?” the Human looked up worriedly, “Why?”

“Gazers enjoy visually stimulating things,” Uldun replied. “Your appearance will have them swarming around you in no time. It would help immensely if you covered that outfit of yours.”

The Human fished out a dark grey mantle from her magical container, throwing it over her shoulders before descending to the top floor of their building. Uldun and his staff joined her at the row of windows facing the front lines.

“How long will the fighting last?” The Human asked.

“Until we completely deplete their forces, ideally,” Uldun answered. “Realistically, they’ll notice something isn’t right after a few days.”

“But each battle just now killed over ten thousand people,” the Human’s voice trembled. “If this goes on for days…”

“We’ll kill millions. That’s the point. I hear that the Realms Above are pretty sparsely populated, so you’re probably not accustomed to those sorts of numbers being thrown around. This is normal here, however.”

“Is there no peaceful solution?”

“Peace was never an option,” Uldun told her. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re the defenders here and our opponents are possibly the most egocentric race in existence. Every Gazer believes that their race exists to stand above all others, and each Gazer believes that they themselves are the perfect embodiment of their race. The only thing that keeps them from turning on one another is a strict hierarchy determined by raw power and insidious cunning. I promise you that they’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before and you cannot have anything like an amicable relationship with them.”

The Human’s Elder Lich adjutant looked up from its clipboard.

“On a note unrelated to diplomacy,” it said, “focusing the conflict in this area should result in the generation of a negative energy zone. Is that not undesirable for your government?”

“We’re doing it here because it’s better than having it everywhere. Honestly, it can’t be considered undesirable. There are plenty of uses for negative energy zones. We can use them as training grounds or just have them act as a place that generates troops for you Elder Liches to dominate.”

“In the case that intelligent Undead manifest, how will they be handled?”

Uldun glanced at the other Undead nearby. They were supposedly summons, though how that could be possible was beyond him. Would summoned Undead even care about the fate of other Undead? As far as his knowledge of summons went, they shouldn’t. A summoned being showed absolutely no empathy or remorse even if they were ordered to kill one of their own kind.

“Normally,” Uldun said, “we’d destroy them before they could sneak off and build up a power base somewhere. Why do you ask?”

“The Sorcerous Kingdom would be interested in acquiring them as research subjects,” the Elder Lich replied.

“Or offer them citizenship,” the Human added quickly.

She cries over Goblins, thinks of negotiating with Gazers and wants to welcome the Undead even when other Undead don’t.

The woman was truly insane. Were all Humans like that?

“I’m just an army officer,” Uldun said. “You’ll have to speak with the prince about something like that.”

“Block B3 and B7 are reaching ideal density,” the Elder Lich sergeant told them.

“Go ahead and do your thing,” Uldun replied. “Have the other Commanders changed anything about their deployment of Undead forces?”

“Aside from adjusting their positioning to match the changes in the battlefield, no.”

It didn’t seem like he would have much to do until the Gazers showed up. Felhammer’s defensive arrangements were rather straightforward. In addition to the Dwarven anti-air defences and patrols, the Elder Liches were stationed around the principality and instructed to use groups of summons – Wraiths, for the most part – to maximise their air coverage and thus Clan Felhammer’s awareness of the developing situation. The powerful leased Undead forces were kept out of sight with the goal of having their enemies believe that the summons were simply those of Dwarf Clerics rather than Elder Liches.

The Gazers would eventually realise what they were up against more than just Dwarves and that would probably happen not long after their Watchers – a lesser type of Gazer employed as scouts – were sent swarming over to support the advance of their slave armies. Even then, they probably wouldn’t understand the full extent of what was going on for a while after that.

This was thinking on a tactically and strategically conventional level, of course. Just as the Gazers had few clues about what they were fighting, the same applied to Clan Felhammer. There were bound to be more than a few nasty surprises in store.

“The enemy forces in Block B3 have been processed,” the Elder Lich sergeant informed him. “Newly acquired assets are being deployed to the second fallback line.”

“What about B7?”

“Block B7 is at eighty-five per cent completion.”

“Has the composition of their forces changed any?”

“No notable differences have been observed.”

Are things going too smoothly? No, it takes a long time to change anything in a battle of this scale. I should probably give things a poke, just in case.

“Turn the Wights heading for Block C3 around,” Uldun said. “We’re going to send them at Block A3 instead. Deepingstone, have your scout companies observe the enemy’s reaction. Also, use the chaos to take a look at their forces deeper in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How should the Wights be deployed?” The Elder Lich asked.

“There are no particular goals other than to bait out a reaction and potentially reveal enemy Commanders, so keep them going for as long as possible. That ‘Wight Ball’ thing you mentioned before should do.”

“Understood.”

The buildings in the area that they were fighting in were shallow due to the presence of a farm beneath them. They could only fall back a few more times before the terrain below them changed, meaning that the bulk of their defence would consist of a bloody back and forth in front of that area.

“We have consolidated the newly-acquired wights in Block B3,” the Elder Lich informed him.

“Alright,” Uldun nodded, “let’s see how much damage they can do.”

A minute or so later, the telltale sound of panicking Goblins drifted through the windows. Uldun crossed his arms and leaned against a wall as he waited for the reports to start coming in.

“No notable resistance has been encountered,” the Elder Lich said. “Deployed Wight strength has increased by five per cent.”

The screeches drifted further away.

“Deployed Wight strength has increased by fifteen per cent. Block B2, B5 and B9 have reached an ideal density.”

“Go ahead and clean them up. What happened with B3?”

“Processing in Block B3 is now complete. Deployed Wight strength in Block A3 has increased by thirty per cent.”

Uldun uncrossed his arms and straightened from the wall.

“Are those compounding percentages?”

“The figures are relative to the original deployed strength,” the Elder Lich replied. “Deployed Wight strength has increased by fifty per cent.”

“Maybe we should stop…” Velgath said.

“Pull half of those Wights back to Block C3,” Uldun ordered.

The tactic was far more effective than he had anticipated, though it should have been expected against an untrained Goblin mob.

“Deployed Wight strength has increased by sixty per cent.”

“How far have they advanced?” Uldun asked.

“The offensive is halfway up the main thoroughfare in Block A3. We appear to have struck a logistical artery.”

And now we’re gushing Wights…

“Pull the remaining forces in Block A3 to Block B3. We’ll have them hold that position against the next enemy advance.”

Long after he issued his order, the sounds of battle continued. Uldun looked over at the Elder Lich sergeant.

“Did the enemy counterattack?”

“No. All dominated forces have withdrawn as ordered. We believe that the activity stems from rogue Wights.”

“Rogue Wights?”

“Indeed. A small number of dominated Wights was destroyed in the advance and their spawn are roaming free. Our Elder Liches are not in range to gain control over them, though the numbers are now too great to control with the available Elder Liches in the area.”

Uh oh.

Uldun turned to address the runners at the back of the room.

“Send word to the Commanders maintaining the flanks of the perimeter,” he told them. “Let them know we have a runaway Wight situation.”

“How are we to determine enemy from ally?” One of the runners asked.

“We don’t,” Uldun replied. “Assume that any Wight that comes within a hundred metres of the perimeter is an enemy and destroy them.”

The runners voiced their affirmatives before leaving the room. Uldun turned back around to frown out of the window as the distant sounds of battle continued to increase in intensity.

“Looks like we’ll have to wait for this fire to burn itself out,” he muttered.