Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 5, Chapter 13

Winter's Crown: Act 5, Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“How do you think we’re doing for mana?” Qrs asked Rhag as the lines started their slow retreat.

“We’ve been conservative this entire time,” Rhag replied. “Given the weak nature of our adversaries, it’s more efficient to keep a group of warriors swinging over an extended period of time.”

“Did you hear what that huntress said just now?”

“No, I was busy tending to the wounded in the front.”

“Then…what would you do about a Fiend that’s roughly halfway between you and me in power? A warrior-type.”

Rhag looked over at him with a frown.

“In that case,” she said, “it’d be best to leave it to you while I support. We should have warriors that can survive blows from something of that power with Martial Arts, as well.”

“And what if there’s a dozen of them?”

“What?”

The High Druid’s hissing reply was sharp enough to turn heads in their direction.

“That was the huntress’ report,” Qrs told her. “A dozen new Fiends I’ve never seen before, armed with giant mauls. She said they had wings, but I’m not sure if they’re able to fly – they were taking their sweet time walking this way, at any rate.”

“So this is the reason you called for the camp to mobilize.”

“It’s the only other thing that she mentioned,” Qrs nodded. “If her report is accurate…we can’t take multiple attacks like this.”

“I agree,” Rhag said. “Even delaying one would require dozens of warriors, depending on what these new Fiends are capable of. The orders just now were your answer for this threat?”

“I was hoping you could improve on it,” Qrs said. “I believe that our warriors have gained the strength and coordination to withstand these Fiends for a time, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to reach everyone before we start losing too many.”

“Reinforcement magic will help with things up a bit,” Rhag said. “There aren’t nearly enough mystics to get it on everyone, though. The best I can probably do is improve your capabilities so you can deal with them faster, while the others try to keep as many alive as possible while they attempt to tie up these powerful enemies.”

Qrs nodded, though what she described was nothing new. Druidic enhancements would result in a substantial increase to his fighting strength and would help the others, but it was not enough to make up for the deficit in raw power that they would have against a dozen of these powerful Fiends. Though their warriors did learn how to defend themselves, Qrs and his people were more suited to offence.

“How about damaging spells?” Qrs asked, “Or perhaps some way to debilitate them…”

“It would be unreliable, at best,” Rhag answered. “Without knowing what these Fiends are weak or immune to in advance, we’d be wasting time and mana trying to figure out what works. There’s also the matter of our difference in strength – they will be highly resistant in general. This fight will be a champion’s burden.”

He nodded grimly. Qrs had hoped for more, but that was what it ultimately came to. The strong were needed to fight the strong, and even what would be considered strong warriors in a more regular situation could only serve as a temporary distraction against these powerful Fiends. A crucial distraction where they would trade their lives for the survival of their people.

Somewhere in the north of the line, a single horn sounded. Warriors slowed their steps, looking all about warily.

“Hold on,” Rhag said, “let me get these enchantments on you.”

Qrs’ gaze joined that of the others as he felt the enhancing spells fill his body with power. While they had signals for incoming enemies, there were no hunters in the field for advance warning. Wherever these enemies were, they had to be fairly close. He continued to peer outward, into the night beyond the range of his Darkvision.

Rhag completed her final enchantment, and a layer of tough, bark-like skin coated Qrs’ hide.

“Geh, this one always makes me want to scratch.”

“Oh shut up,” Rhag said. “Those spells took half of my mana – you had better make good use of them.”

More horns sounded, all along the line. Qrs still couldn’t see anything.

“Coming in from above!” A hunter nearby called out, “Four, looks like?”

Four? Not twelve? Qrs strained his vision, looking for any sign of the incoming Fiends in the night. A blotch made its way across the stars overhead.

?They’re here! Spread out, don’t let them land and smash a bunch of you at once! Team up and try to hold out – juggle them between you with Defensive Arts!?

Warriors and hunters milled about, heeding his command.

“Wait, that’s not one comi–”

The first Fiend slammed into the ground, crushing a pair of warriors underfoot. Two others landed in rapid succession to either side, and they started sweeping the defenders aside two and three at a time. Rather than four attackers, it was four groups of three, their fellows concealed by following behind one another in the darkness of night.

I guess if we can gang up against them, they can do the same to us…

Qrs and Rhag ducked as a warrior flew over their heads. Qrs silently activated a Martial Art, searching for weaknesses in the nearest Fiend. Their plan required Qrs to go from Fiend to Fiend quickly, relying on raw brutality to overwhelm his marks. This suited him just fine – it was exactly his style, and their tactics revolved around it.

“?Greater Ability Boost?.”

He shot forward, closing the twenty-metre distance in a breath. Angling his war club as he came in, his entire body rotated as he struck. The mass of glistening black metal clove through the air with a low whoosh.

“?Skullshatter?!”

The weapon connected with the Fiend’s right knee, tearing through to the other side.

“? Flow Acceleration?.”

Using the martial art to abruptly reverse his direction, he twisted around with a powerful backhanded strike.

“?Grand Power Strike?!”

The club connected with the goat-skull head of the three-metre tall Fiend as it stumbled on its remaining leg, jerking it roughly to the side. Bone splintered, spraying fragments and gore over the gravel. Qrs eyed the creature as it twitched on the ground, the flickering blue flame of its remaining good eye glaring balefully in his direction.

“How was that Skullshatter?” It coughed.

Is this thing seriously asking that now?

Warriors all around the fallen Fiend set upon it, hacking and bashing away. Qrs calmly observed them as he recovered from the sudden strain of using the series of advanced Martial arts in rapid succession. The warriors looked no more than a group of children, beating the Fiend ineffectually with sticks.

Damage Reduction…then the difference in strength…these Fiends are nastier than I thought.

Though he was able to overwhelm its defences, the others had great difficulty scoring more than minimal injuries, even when employing Martial Arts. At least it showed no sign of having regeneration. Leaving the downed and crippled Fiend to be finished off by the other defenders, he dashed off towards the next.

The defenders surrounding it had not weathered the beginning of the clash well, and dozens of warriors were strewn all over the ground. The Fiend’s massive maul lashed out at a fresh warrior who had stepped up with a shout of challenge, but the powerful attack was solidly countered by a Defensive Art. The warrior backed away after taking the hit without apparent injury, and the Fiend pursued – only to be stabbed in the knee with a spear from behind. A snarl of annoyance filled the air as it abruptly turned away and brought its weapon to bear, and was stopped by a fresh warrior with another Defensive Art.

It appeared that they had quickly recovered from the shock of the first minute. Qrs took advantage of the distraction, rotating his body into another Skullshatter that slammed into the Fiend’s hip. Rather than an attack that was specifically meant for an opponent’s head, Skullshatter was a strike that dealt overwhelming concussive force. It destroyed bone and organs alike, severing limbs and crushing the natural bone plating that some other races had. Humans of the wall were turned into paste inside their gleaming metal armour.

He took the time to break the Fiend’s arms before turning around to look for the last of the trio that had landed in front of him. It had made its way a short distance in the opposite direction; the first group to challenge it was insufficient to hold it back. Qrs set off, trotting towards the awaiting battle.

“How long do I have left these enchantments?” He asked Rhag, who was following alongside him.

“It’s barely been three minutes,” Rhag replied. “You have at least another twenty minutes on the shortest ones.”

With a nod, his pace picked up, accelerating into a run towards the final Fiend of the set. It had finally been held up by a group capable of taking turns harassing it.

“Puny little piggies!” It bellowed at them, “Are these pitiful pinpricks all you can pro–glprohagk!”

Qrs leapt up from behind, abruptly ending its sentence with a downward strike to its head. Was it normal for Fiends to use such grandiose tones in the midst of battle? Maybe it was – they revelled in fear and despair, after all.

The scaled Fiend staggered forward, and the warriors around it backed away as one. Qrs allowed it no time to recover, taking out its left leg and driving it to the ground. As he worked on crippling his opponent enough for the other warriors to finish it off, Rhag shouted at him from the side.

“Qrs! There’s something happening at the ford!”

His head snapped eastwards, ears swivelling forward. The villagers were scattering and screams filtered over the air from the river.

“Any idea what it is?”

Qrs continued to smash the scaled Fiend on the ground. He had a feeling it would be something that couldn’t wait, so he tried to finish off his opponent as quickly as he could without expending himself.

“I can’t see any details from here,” Rhag said, “but if the villagers are breaking, it’s at least causing problems for the escorts.”

Were the scaled Fiends that fell upon the line a distraction for a flanking attack on their villagers? No, they were strong enough on their own to demolish everything in their path if not for the defenders. They had made the proper preparations, but they were being overwhelmed. Qrs stepped off of the disintegrating Fiend – it was a summon, somehow – to address the nearby defenders.

“You lot,” he said, “patch yourselves up and get to the river. Stay together – we don’t know what’s going on out there.”

They nodded and the mystics in the group started tending to their wounds. He cast his voice to repeat his instructions to the other groups he had freed up along the line, and they moved in accordance with his commands. Qrs looked over to the ford again but was still unable to discern what was going on.

“We need to free up more warriors,” Rhag said. “Whatever it is, it’s affecting a lot of people at once.”

Qrs nodded. Rather than going personally, it would be more efficient to send many to deal with what appeared to be a widespread problem. Aside from that, he couldn’t just leave the line and the thousands of remaining defenders to their fate. He looked up and down the groups still holding their positions.

The north had two sets of Fiends, while the south had one. None appeared to have been felled, but they were continuing to be harried by the stalwart defenders. With things as they were, however, any breakout would potentially collapse the line. He headed south, deciding to relieve them first.

“Nine minutes,” Rhag warned him.

He charged off. They needed to resolve their end of things before the enchantments wore away. He clashed with the first scaled Fiend, who was, unfortunately, facing towards him as he came in. His strike was parried by the giant maul, and Qrs danced back from the expected counterblow. The ground shuddered from the impact, which rippled out and forced the surrounding defenders back.

Did it just use some special attack? No: it was probably just how strong it was. Miraculously – or perhaps terrifyingly – these Fiends were all summoned. For the time being, it offered him a clear path to victory.

In all his years, he had never encountered a summoned being capable of Martial Arts. Almost all of them had specific traits, and while some had spells, skills and abilities, they were limited in the odd, unnatural way that summons were. Summoned creatures often possessed substantial physical might or advantageous traits, but this shortfall – in addition to their lack of combat experience – made them easier to deal with than they appeared when everything was factored in.

Qrs stepped in again, striking down at the maul half-buried in the gravel.

“?Sundering Blow?!”

His war club slammed into the haft of the maul, just below the head of the weapon. The report travelled back up the handle of his weapon and through his arms, but he felt something give on the other end.

“? Flow Acceleration?.”

“? Sundering Blow?!”

The second sundering attack connected before the Fiend could finish withdrawing its weapon from the ground. The haft shattered, leaving it with the splintered handle of its weapon. It stared down at its broken maul, and Qrs came forward again. The remaining piece of the shattered haft flew out towards him, and he swatted it out of the air. His action was enough to create an opening, however, and the scaled Fiend lunged forward, claws stretched forth.

“?Crippling Throw?.”

A metre-long javelin came out of the darkness with the cool voice of the hunter who had thrown it. The projectile barely penetrated the Fiend’s scales, but it was enough. It staggered as its leg seized up, and Qrs brought his war club down on its head.

That’s right. He thought, You may have come down like you had some sort of plan, but, in the end, you’re still stupid summons.

Without their summoner present to command them, the Fiends that had been sent against their defences resorted to simple, often predictable behaviours to carry out their broader instructions. The only things that they had going for them were their special traits and raw power. Against a group of opponents capable of withstanding their attacks, methods could be devised to deal with them. Against an opponent of similar strength, they were significantly easier to handle than a real combatant.

“Recover and get to the ford,” he instructed the warriors nearby, “something is going on out there – stick with your groups.”

Qrs rushed forward with Rhag, moving to dispatch the remaining two Fiends in the south. His enchantments wore away as he faced off against the last Fiend, but the Fiend had been worn down quite a bit by the time he got to it. He repeated his orders to the remaining defenders in the area, then looked out towards the river.

“We’ve sent hundreds of warriors to help out already,” Qrs frowned. “It still looks like whatever is going on is still causing chaos out there.”

“Do you want to head over to the ford?” Rhag asked, “It might be worse than it looks if it’s been going on for this long. Our warriors on this end were wearing down these Fiends by the time we got here – they may be able to settle things themselves.”

He thought about the question for a moment, glancing between the northern line and the river.

“Let’s get closer to the defenders in the north, first,” he answered. “If they look like they’re doing alright, we can head over to the ford.”

They made their way back up with hurried steps, covering the kilometre or so back to the former centre of the defensive line. What greeted them did not look promising.

“Don’t rush off,” Rhag told him, “I need to refresh your enchantments.”

Qrs bit his lip as Rhag started casting spells, gazing over the bodies strewn across the field. Based on what he had seen in the southern portion of the line, he thought they could hold out…but something had clearly gone wrong. Nearby, there was a large group of warriors and hunters still keeping the closest Fiend occupied, but, beyond them, two had joined and were making their way further north.

“Done,” Rhag said. “Go.”

“Mana?”

“I have some left for a few heals,” she replied, “but we haven’t needed any for you yet. I’ll come along, just in case.”

The first Fiend was in much the same condition as the one from the south end. Despite wanting to charge off after the two mauling their way through the line, he stopped to speak to the remaining warriors.

“What the hell happened on this side?”

“I don’t know,” Dol replied. “Sometime after you started going south, the one closest to us broke through the defenders and started pushing its way north.”

“So they didn’t team up to do all that?”

“No,” the chief shook his head, “it’s more like one eventually caught up with the other, and they’ve become too difficult to hold back.”

“I’ll do something about it,” Qrs said. “Something’s causing chaos at the river. Get your people sorted out and head over to see what you can do.”

“Got it, Chief.”

They parted ways, and Qrs could only grit his teeth as he ran past the corpses of hundreds of brave defenders. From the glances he stole over them, they did not look any less seasoned than the others. There was no sign of any additional Fiends appearing to attack them, nor was there any sign of magic being employed from afar. Was it just bad luck? Or was the Fiend placed at this position stronger than the others?

By the time they caught up with the rampaging scaled Fiends, they had joined a third. Like Dol had mentioned, they looked as if they had simply come together like the debris from an avalanche. Each Fiend appeared to be fighting independently, but they were so close together that it was impossible for the defenders to stop their massed assault. Qrs picked out the Fiend that looked like it was having the easiest time getting through the defending warriors, determined to stop their ruinous momentum.

“?Greater Ability Boost?.”

“?Skullshatter?!”

He took off the first scaled Fiend’s arm at the shoulder as it was finishing a powerful swing. The severed arm flew off with the weight of its weapon, and the Fiend turned to take a savage swing at Qrs with its remaining arm.

This one acts like a summon, too…

It looked like it was the strongest one – was it just bad luck that things had turned out this way? Glancing at the other two as he dodged back, Qrs decided that they were completely identical in appearance and strength. As he came to his conclusion, however, the others simultaneously turned their attention to him.

“?Invulnerable Fortress?!”

Qrs caught one attack on his raised war club; the other on his side. Fortunately, the Defensive Art didn’t care what you blocked with. Both Fiends staggered from the recoil of their blows, and he ducked under the recovery of the Fiend he had parried.

“?Whirlwind Assault?!”

He felt two solid hits, while the third clipped the one-armed Fiend who was coming in to take another swing at him. He followed through with his attack, ruining its left leg before pivoting to face the two scaled Fiends he had left behind. He blocked the maul of one, but the other came around to attack him from his left side.

They’re getting smarter? What’s going on?

They all appeared to behave like summons when he arrived, yet now they were demonstrating some basic tactics. Did their summoner arrive to issue specific commands to them? He couldn’t see beyond the two hulking figures, and he couldn’t afford to divert his attention to ask.

The scaled Fiend that was flanking him roared in annoyance at something, turning its attention away. Qrs took advantage of the distraction to land a decisive blow on the Fiend before him, but he was suddenly jostled to the rear when he stepped forward. The scaled Fiend in front punched out with the haft of its weapon, catching Qrs in the forehead. He recoiled from the stunning blow, falling back awkwardly.

Only then did he notice that the second Fiend had turned its attention back to him. It was too fast to have dealt with whatever had drawn its attention – the movement had been a feint. Qrs rolled away, narrowly avoiding the maul that smashed down into the earth where he once lay.

“?Invulnerable Fortress?!”

The clawed foot of the second Fiend came down on his midriff, and it raised its maul over its head. The attacks of the other warriors appeared to do nothing to divert its attention. Qrs raised his weapon to parry the blow, but the first Fiend came in and stomped on his arm. He steeled himself, trying to time the next incoming strike for his Defensive Arts. Several blows would be manageable, but repeated attacks would eventually wear him down.

A javelin embedded itself into the second Fiend’s arm, and another pierced its wrist. Two more followed, and the Fiend dropped its maul. He felt the weight pressing down on his stomach shift.

“? Greater Ability Boost?!”

Qrs grabbed the leg on his torso and heaved. The Fiend lost its balance and stumbled backwards, wings flapping awkwardly. Qrs rolled away and back up onto his feet, belatedly realizing that the first Fiend was no longer stepping on his arm. He raised his guard and pivoted to face the attack that must surely be coming, and an unexpected sight greeted him.

The heads of two dozen javelins were jutting out of the first Fiend’s torso, dripping with black blood. It collapsed onto its knees and started to disintegrate, its summoned life snuffed out. He pivoted again to face his second opponent but was met with a similar sight. Qrs leaned over to retrieve his weapon, staring down at the ground where the scaled Fiends once stood. While the bodies had disappeared, the javelins that had killed them remained scattered over the gravel.

His eyes ran along the length of the deadly projectiles; over the fletching on one end. They weren’t javelins at all – they were javelin-sized arrows. He picked one up, examining the dark feathers of a giant mountain eagle on the end. At the end of the line, he saw the remaining two Fiends fall to the unseen attackers from the north.

The telltale yips of countless Gnolls rose from the thick brush. Qrs closed his eyes, breathing a sigh of relief.