Valkyrie's Shadow

Stone and Blood: Act 4, Chapter 7

Stone and Blood: Act 4, Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Two days later, the fighting continued to rage on. Inside his temporary-turned-somewhat-permanent command post, Uldun wondered how much longer it would take for the Gazers to reconsider their approach.

They're probably more offended than frustrated.

“Are Commanders even needed at this point?” He grumbled.

The officers nearby only grunted wordlessly in response. One of them yawned widely.

Aside from the scout companies, there was nothing for anyone to do. Even the Elder Liches stood idly by. What began as an experimental attack with some Wights had turned into a full-blown war of its own.

Their enemy spent the last two days not fighting Clan Felhammer, but the loose Wights running all over the containment area. The expected swarm of Watchers similarly stopped well before Clan Felhammer’s lines to attack the Undead.

Watchers were uniquely ill-suited to fighting the Wights. The small Gazers had four eye stalks, each possessing a different power. One produced a fear effect, another dazed their target, while the other two produced a Ray of Frost and a minor telekinetic effect similar to Mage Hand. As Undead, Wights were immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, meaning that they were immune to being feared or dazed. They were also immune to cold damage, making the Watchers’ primary form of ranged attack useless. The final power didn’t cause any damage and was only able to influence unattended objects weighing under two kilograms.

As a result, the Watchers had to fight in melee using bite attacks, which resulted in hilariously catastrophic losses. Physically speaking, they weren’t much stronger than the Goblins that came before them so the Wights overwhelmed them as well. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how one looked at it – Wights could only turn Humanoids or Demihumans, so there weren’t any Watcher Wights flying around.

Clan Felhammer had also destroyed more Undead than they had Gazer forces, as the newly leased Elder Liches had long reached their domination limit from picking up loose Wights within the first few hours of the Battle. Unlike the Gazer forces, they had no problems dealing with the Wights attacking the perimeter and suffered next to no casualties.

Between the attrition that they suffered and replenishment from the battle fodder being thrown at them, the ‘Wight forces’ plateaued around a hundred thousand by the middle of the first day and stayed fairly constant since then. For the most part, they acted like a chaotic, albeit more suicidal than usual, Goblin mob. This in turn made it seem like Clan Felhammer was just using their battle thralls against the Gazers’ slaves, and the Gazers refused to back down out of a sense of stubborn pride.

The millions of deaths that he had predicted for the battle were indeed happening, though they weren’t adding to the strength of Clan Felhammer’s forces as planned. It was simply a fire that the Gazers kept throwing fuel at. Even the Death Knights seemed to be looking on in disgust.

In hindsight, it was an obvious outcome. If one had tireless, single-minded soldiers with the combat potential of a middling battle thrall that turned what it killed into more of itself, feeding it an endless stream of worthless battle fodder very quickly resulted in an obnoxious self-propagating army.

“We’ve brought lunch.”

A sickeningly-sweet voice issued from the entrance of the room, accompanied by an equally disgusting smile as the Human woman walked in. Behind her, a pair of Death Knights brought in a couple of crates of bread.

Well, aren’t you a bright ray of sunshine? I hope you realise that Dark Dwarves are dayblind.

It was the fourth such delivery over the last two days. Once it was evident that Clan Felhammer wouldn’t be doing all that much fighting, the Human wandered off to ‘observe the front’. By dinnertime, her activities had transformed into delivering provisions and goodwill to Clan Felhammer’s troops. Clan Felhammer’s troops took the food and shrugged off the goodwill.

His sister continued to ‘attend’ to the Human, looking thoroughly miserable in the process. At least she wasn’t being forced to wear a dress yet.

“How is everyone doing?” The Human asked.

No one replied. Eventually, the Human’s expectant gaze settled on Uldun.

“Nothing’s changed aside from the death count,” he told her.

The Human continued smiling, though he was certain that her enthusiasm had been knocked down a peg or two by his statement.

“Since there’s been no change for over a day,” Velgath said, “the citadel’s enacting a few of their own.”

“Yeah?” Turned away from his window, “What’s that?”

“The Thrallherds want to get back to work, so The Refinery’s active again. They’re processing the slaves captured from our fight with the council.”

“Will that go so smoothly?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem with former battle thralls,” Velgath said. “They’re still figuring out what to do with the captured Dwarves.”

“The answer should be obvious,” Uldun snorted. “Slit their throats and feed them to the slaves.”

Velgath came over to join him at the window. Past her shoulder, Uldun could see the Human handing out bricks of bread with the same stupid smile on her face.

“They already settled on that part,” Velgath said. “It’s just the order of things they’re debating over.”

“What’s there to debate?” Uldun asked.

“Well, most of the Lords want them all butchered as soon as possible to prevent complications and free up logistics.”

“That makes sense,” Uldun said. “What’s the opposing stance?”

“A few of the lords suggested that they only kill the men.”

“That makes sense, too.”

“There wouldn’t be a debate if it didn’t.”

He had a feeling that the second proposal would win out. They had to repopulate the realm, after all. Killing off the men and using the captive women as breeders was ultimately more pragmatic than disposing of all of their newly acquired assets.

“Who championed that argument?” Uldun asked.

“Father did,” Velgath answered. “Speaking of which, did you know that he tried to get that Oeligar for you?”

“Oeligar…oh, you mean the Gloomgranite General?”

“Yeah.”

“How did that go?”

“It didn’t. She refused, so she died.”

“I figured,” Uldun said. “Too much pride, that one. She rose too far, too fast.”

Over the past decade, Oeligar Gloomgranite had gained a fair bit of fame and became known throughout the realm as one of Khazanar’s top Commanders, if not the top Commander.

“With how powerful the Undead forces are,” Uldun said, “he should have tried to capture her anyway. She would have made a fine addition to Clan Felhammer even if she was unwilling to cooperate.”

“Maybe,” Velgath replied in dubious tones. “Someone as resourceful as her could probably cause all sorts of problems even as a captive.”

He was sure that was the case, but Oeligar would have probably changed her tune once she realised that the rest of Khazanar was doomed. That aside, Dwarf women always incorporated smoothly into their new clans once they started having children.

“The citadel have anything else in the works?”

“Hardar’s just about clear,” Velgath replied. “New council reinforcements stopped showing up some time yesterday.”

“Did they receive a recall order or did the Gazers hit them from behind?”

“Too soon to tell,” Velgath replied. “Either way, we’ll have an army going on the offensive through there if only to make sure those passages are secured.”

“What about us?”

“It’s not as if you have a bridge that you can cross,” Velgath shrugged. “The forces defending Felhammer are probably stuck where they are until the forces attacking through Hardar find out which principality those passages lead to and secure a port there.”

The door to the room opened again and Kydin walked in.

“The Gazers are losing,” she said.

Uldun snorted.

“You mean the Gazers’ slaves?”

“Yeah,” Kydin said. “Do Gazers get eye strain? We’ve lost count of how many troops they’ve teleported across the chasm.”

“Have they brought in anything new?”

“Three Directors. I watched one of them eat a few Watchers the moment it arrived.”

“Finally,” Uldun said. “What did they bring with them?”

“A half-dozen Standards and a cohort of stronger slaves. Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs…I even saw some Dark Dwarves in the mix.”

“No greater Gazers?”

“Not that I saw,” Kydin replied.

It seemed that the Gazers thought they still had everything under control. He supposed that they did, from their point of view. The three Directors, six Standards and their escort were more than enough to deal with their Wight problem.

“Did you assign anyone to keep an eye on them?”

“From a distance. We won’t get to hear their mad ramblings, unfortunately.”

“I’m sure we’ll hear plenty of that when we start stabbing them.”

He couldn’t wait to go on the offensive. After the siege of Felhammer, he had more than his fill of slow attrition battles. He wasn’t even fighting in the current one.

As they waited for reports from the front, a dozen Elder Liches joined them at the command post.

“What are you lot doing here?” Uldun frowned.

“We are here under orders from the citadel,” one of them replied. “Prince Felhammer has instructed us to conduct a probing attack against Grimmantle at your discretion.”

“What sort of reaction is he looking for?” Uldun asked.

“A ‘defensive’ one,” the Elder Lich answered.

Were the Gazers already running out of battle fodder to throw at them? He supposed that was what the Elder Liches were there to find out. If the Gazers ceased their offensive the moment the Elder Liches attacked Grimmantle, there was a good chance that their forces were depleted to the point that they were feeling vulnerable.

But first, we should get rid of those reinforcements…

“That’s an ambitious look you have there, brother.”

“How large do you think this Gazer hive is?”

“Pretty damn big,” his sister replied, “considering the army that the council threw at us.”

“We have the opportunity to take out three Directors and six Standards on our terms,” Uldun said. “It’s better than sending the Elder Liches over right away and having the Gazers retreat.”

“You’re the Commander,” she shrugged. “I’m just here to help spread food and happiness.”

Uldun stroked his beard thoughtfully as he examined the streets below. He was confident that he could see the Gazers destroyed, but pulling things off cleanly was another question. He called together his officers and the nearby Elder Lich sergeants.

“The Gazers have teleported in their first real force,” he told them. “Three Directors and six Standards, plus ‘elite’ slaves. It shouldn’t take them long to get through the loose Wights. We’ll be preparing a welcome for them at the intersection below us.”

“How do we get them here without turning into piles of dust?” One of his officers asked.

“We’ll have to blend our dominated Wights in with the uncontrolled ones and have the Gazers clear their way up to us,” Uldun answered. “While they do that, have the Death Knights collect as many cargo bins and doors as they can and scatter them around the intersection. Deepingstone, find the Death Warriors some sniping positions in the buildings nearby, Get your free Deepwardens up there, too.”

“What is the reasoning behind these precautions?” An Elder Lich sergeant asked.

“Long-range Gazer eye powers are all ray attacks,” Uldun answered. “You don’t want to be caught out in the open against one. Also, your forces will probably be useless at close ranges unless they can somehow get behind their target. Our melee infantry will merely serve as a distraction while the ranged attackers take them down. This is assuming that they are what we think they are, of course.”

One of the Elder Liches from the citadel raised a bony hand.

“Are we participating in this venture?”

“Not unless I call for it,” Uldun told it. “You’re supposed to be using your mana for something else.”

The Undead and his officers dispersed to carry out his orders. Without anyone else to smile at, the Human came over to smile at him.

“I hope you don’t mind me watching the battle from here,” she said.

“Since you’re supposedly invincible,” Uldun replied, “you can go wherever you want.”

“I’m not invincible…”

Is that something you’re supposed to tell other people?

The fact that she was impervious to attacks of all sorts – from poison to crossbow bolts to the heart – had made the rounds, serving to reinforce the rumours surrounding her. Those rumours, in turn, served as a deterrent against additional assassination attempts by whatever was left of the council’s infiltrators in Hardar.

“In that case,” Uldun said, “you can go wherever you want, but you do so at your own risk.”

“For the sake of my sanity,” Velgath grumbled, “let’s just stay put.”

In response, the Human pulled a whole damn desk out of her bag and set out two chairs. She produced some sketchy-looking food and offered some to Velgath, who looked even more miserable than before.

A few minutes later, Kydin came down the stairs from the rooftop.

“The Gazers are on the move, sir,” she said.

“How are they deploying?” Uldun asked.

“They’re still teleporting in reinforcements. Everything’s mostly going as it has for the last couple of days except for the fact that they have those heavy hitters with them now.”

Well, it’s not as if it was a bad strategy in the first place.

As he understood it, using amassed battle fodder was commonly accepted as the optimal opening battle strategy for any civilised society. There was little point in investing too much in low-rung soldiers whose main purpose was to deplete the resources of the opposing side. The Gazers took this to the extreme as they didn’t even care about battlefield coordination – they just pushed their slaves in the general direction of their enemies.

“Which way are they headed?”

“Clearing the areas closest to their landing zone, for now,” Kydin said. “The Gazers should see our Wights coming. Not long after they arrived the Directors had the Watchers stop trying to stop the loose Wights. They’re arranged in a reconnaissance array over the area now.”

“Can we disrupt it?”

“We tried,” Kydin replied. “After losing one or two hundred of the things, the Directors had them observe from a higher altitude. Leaving the streetlamps on is working against us in this case.”

Uldun briefly pondered using summoned Wraiths to get the job done, but he ultimately decided against it. For the time being, he wanted the Gazers to advance with confidence.

“Will their scouts notice the ambush being set up?” He asked.

“They won’t see the Undead in the buildings,” Kydin answered, “but they’ll notice the ones in the streets if they do something that makes them stand out too much. My suggestion would be to keep the Death Knights in the shadows of the alleys until we’re ready to trap the Gazers. The Wights can stay out there since that’s what the Gazers are expecting.”

He nodded at the Elder Lich sergeant that had remained at the command post for communications purposes. The Undead mage raised a hand to its skull.

“Corrections to our positioning have been issued,” it said a few seconds later, “but it is unknown whether our forces have been detected.”

“Noticing that something’s off is a far cry from knowing what exactly it is,” Kydin said. “Death Knights don’t look too different from Wights when you’re looking down from high above. We just needed to move them before the Gazers’ main force wanted a closer look at what’s ahead of them.”

Several more scouts came in over the next hour, reporting the methodical advance of the Directors and their escort. As expected, the hundred thousand or so loose Wights scattered within the perimeter were absolutely no match for them.

“Contact the other defence Commanders in the area,” Uldun said. “If the Directors get within two blocks of the perimeter, our forces need to back off. We need those things to latch onto our Wights.”

“What will you do if the Gazers break through the wrong side of the perimeter?” Velgath asked.

“Swear a lot,” Uldun answered. “Our only choice would be to chase after them.”

Most of the leased Undead forces in the area had been consolidated to conduct their ambush. The other Commanders could probably still slow the Gazers down to the point that they wouldn’t get far before the Undead caught up to them, but it would still be a mess.

“Back away from the windows,” a Deepwarden called. “They’re nearly here.”

Uldun retreated further into the room, as did everyone else aside from the Deepwarden sentries who remained concealed at their posts. Though their enemy was close, he could barely detect the clash of battle.

“Do you have dominated forces down there?” Uldun asked the Elder Lich sergeant.

“Yes.”

“How far from the intersection are they?”

“Their slave vanguard is roughly one hundred metres distant, coming directly up the street from Block B4.”

So close I could see them if we could look down out of the windows.

Of course, they would see him too and that would be the end of him.

“How are they conducting their offence?” He asked.

“Their slaves appear to be doing most of the work,” the Elder Lich answered. “They are destroying the Wights one group at a time.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t send them all at once,” Uldun said.

“Our forces have been in situations where the emulation of disorganised behaviour was required. We deemed that the current strategy warranted similar behaviour.”

If the Undead weren’t on their side, the Elder Lich’s statement would have been a cause for grave concern. Uldun wondered how far removed these Undead were from their regular counterparts in terms of their behaviour and thinking.

“Eighty metres from the intersection,” one of the Deepwardens said in a low voice. “There are upwards of five thousand slaves with them. I’ve never seen a few of those races before.”

“What about their individual combat strength?”

“It’s too far to tell directly, but they’re swatting Wights aside like vermin.”

“Can you see their masters yet?”

“They’re just coming into view,” the Deepwarden replied. “Hemispherical formation at the rear of the slaves with a tight shell of Watchers covering them. They’ll be on to any ambush as soon as it starts.”

Uldun envisioned the intersection below. With the Gazer formation as it was, he would have to let the bulk of their forces pass before springing his trap.

No, that’s far too risky.All those slaves have to do is poke their heads into the nearest alley.

It was a miracle that they hadn’t already. That, or the Elder Liches were pulling off some sort of tactical wizardry with their diversionary assets.

“We’re going to have to alter the plan a bit,” Uldun said. “Pull the Death Knights further into the alleys and draw those slaves in with Wights. Start getting to work trimming down the Gazer forces, but leave the Undead inside the buildings on standby.”

“Understood.”

He winced slightly as a set of unearthly howls rose from the darkness between the buildings nearby. Guttural cries issued in response and the din of battle rose sharply in volume.

“What are the Gazers doing?” He asked.

“The Directors stopped about forty metres from the intersection,” a Deepwarden answered. “I can’t hear what they’re saying, but more slaves are rushing forward.”

“Move to seal off the street behind them. The–”

A Watcher floated down to window level. Two of its eyestalks turned to look at them.

“Take that thing out!”

The nearest Deepwarden levelled his arbalest and buried a quarrel in the Watcher’s body through its central eye. The tan-fleshed aberration wobbled in the air for a second before dropping out of sight. At the same time, a beam of light lanced up from the street and struck the Deepwarden. The Deepwarden snarled as his flesh was transmuted into stone, leaving him as a lifelike Dwarf statue staring out of the window.

“Start working on those Directors,” Uldun ordered. “Use whatever you can to keep them distracted.”

Three more Watchers floated down to look into the windows. The Deepwardens around the room took several steps deeper into the room before dispatching the flying scouts. Their position was good as revealed, but, hopefully, it also meant that the Gazers were focused on them instead of the Undead sent against them.

“Twenty per cent of the enemy forces have been destroyed,” the Elder Lich sergeant said. “Progress can no longer be made without advancing from the alleys.”

“Have the Directors been cut off?”

“As well as can be managed,” the Elder Lich replied. The number of available obstacles is diminishing rapidly.”

“Press the attack from our side,” Uldun said. “There’s no need for this deception any longer.”

He waited for the sounds of battle to drift away from the window before crawling over.

“Are they paying any attention to our position anymore?” Uldun asked.

“I don’t think so,” Kydin replied. “Most of them are facing away towards the Undead behind them. They’re recalling their slaves to cover their asses, as well.”

Uldun cautiously poked his head above the bottom edge of the window. Just past the intersection, the Gazer formation had tightened up to defend against the oncoming Undead. Rays of light seared through the darkness in nearly every direction as the invaders suddenly found themselves beset on all sides by far more than they had bargained for.

“The Death Warriors are having trouble landing ranged attacks against their targets,” the Elder Lich said.

“It’s the Directors,” Uldun said. “Their central eye produces a deflection field. There’s no easy way to crack open their defences.”

As he spoke, a quarrel from one of the buildings above the intersection bounced off of the hemispherical shield covering a Director. While the Director’s central eye focused on defence, its ten eyestalks continued moving around, attacking every potential threat around it.

“We need more pressure,” Uldun said. “Use every Wight we have at our disposal.”

Pale green figures emerged from the buildings, swarming out of the windows and the doors. The Director’s escort held them at bay, but the momentum of so many bodies still crowded them into an ever-tightening space. One of the Troll slaves bumped into a Standard, who responded by biting the troll in half and hurling it a dozen metres away using its mouth.

A bead of flame streaked down from one of the windows, blossoming into a Fireball that burnt a hole into the Gazer’s slave formation. A dozen Watchers were destroyed as well, butthe Standards and Directors exposed to the blast showed no signs of damage on their stony hides.

Several more Fireballs streaked in from the same direction. This time, however, they simply winked out of existence before reaching their target.

“Attacking them from the front with spells is bound to fail,” Uldun told the Elder Lich sergeant. “You have to coordinate attacks from both sides at once.”

A few seconds later, a pair of Fireballs did just that, blasting open another hole in the slave formation. More pairs of Fireballs came streaking in and the Gazers tightened their formation again for better coverage. This did not, however, save the slave escort from quickly being stripped away. Watchers flew in from above to fill the gaps in the Directors’ defences.

“Kydin,” Uldun called out. “The scouts should be free to act now. Get them on those Gazers!”

“On it,” she said.

Steel quarrels hailed down on the Directors and their escort. The Martial Art-imbued attacks punched through the Gazer’s defences and buried themselves in the floating orbs by the dozen. Rays of light continued to lance out from the eyes of the beleaguered Gazers, but the haphazard attacks only served to illustrate their growing desperation.

Still, the attacks were undoubtedly lethal. A brilliant green light from one of the Standards struck a Death Knight who had lost the last bit of its cover, turning it into a pile of dust.

Suddenly, one of them collapsed onto the street, leaking green viscera. Felhammer’s defenders wasted no time exploiting the opening and the other eight Gazers swiftly joined the first.

Uldun let out a quiet breath into the eerie silence that followed. He rose to his full height and made his way down to the street to survey the aftermath. If this single battle was a mere taste of what awaited them in the rest of Khazanar, a hard war lay ahead of them – even with the leased Undead.