Captain Darkwisker P.O.V.
I hear the high pitch whistle, most would ignore it as simply being the wind moving through the branches, but the rhythmic pulse lets
know how to command the squad to advance. A quick few hand signals have my people ready to engage. I’m only leading twenty people, this portion of the army is only a little over two hundred of us but with all of us above level one hundred and ten they can’t let us just go where we please.
“I hope it’s another dwarf contingent.” My head snaps sending an accusing frown towards the whisper of one of my people, silence is paramount at this point. No matter how much I agree with his hopes.
My real hope for this battle however is that we’re not the ones targeted first. We’re way too deep behind enemy lines for any portion of their army not to be covered by a champion. The whole fight between us will just be a ga for who forces the enemy champion to show first.
TWANG!
I barely hear the snap of the string and already I am jumping into a roll. “Arrows!” No point in trying to keep our presence hidden, whatever archer just took that shot clearly knows where we are. If we get out of here alive I will have that idiot’s tail skinned as punishnt.
“Arrows!” The call was echoed by my team, clearly we would be the focus point where the fight kicks off. We needed to get into a defensive formation quickly.
My order and my people’s reaction wasn’t in ti to dodge but it did an the arrow took the fox in the shoulder instead of the throat. I’m not worried about that as much as I am by what I saw the arrow do.
Arrows that move mid flight are pretty common at this level of combat but this spell was different. The arrow not only changed its path to avoid obstacles but it even changed its target. The drop into a roll should have been enough to dodge but the arrow changed its target at the end. I will need to report that but I don’t have ti to figure out why it did so now.
Too many people rely on magic more than their own bodies. Without having to waste my points into my ntal Stats it ans I have a much stronger body, after all the dungeon boosts are enough for my ntal stats to be kept high enough that they won’t leave
at a disadvantage.
My arm moves by itself before I even realize an attack is coming, my mind only catching up once I feel the impact of blade on blade and I stare a rabbit beastkin in the face. I can’t help but thank my Rare Skill [Instinctive Reaction], it lets
get away with my lower than usual ntal Stats spend and I can put the extra points into Perception.
Traitorous bastards, the lot of them. The beastkin of the republic should have thrown their lot in with us when the war started. An attack from the inside would have brought the Republic to its knees and with three nations worth of dungeons we would have grown to be unstoppable.
The rabbit and I quickly jump away from one another. The assassin knows he failed his ambush but this is where both forces will converge for the fight, I can’t take the ti to attack him or I’ll be a sitting duck. A parting dagger toss is enough to cut halfway through one of his tall sensitive ears, hopefully the adrenaline pumping through his body makes him ignore the damage and lets the poison do its work.
I can’t focus on the retreating enemy, he wasn’t the only assassin to try and strike and I can see one of my people is already dead and another has a nasty cut running all the way down her arm.
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“Out of the kill zone!” The Uncommon Skill [Commanding Order] should cut through the noise of the battle roaring around us as I quickly move and grab my injured comrade before starting to move towards the rest of our forces. The fallen body is ignored by all, if we get a chance he’ll be given a proper burial after the battle.
The next minutes are brutal as spells land all around us, the lush vegetation that covered everything is being turned into a swamp as the land is destroyed around us. I ignore all of it, the major’s voice is the only thing I keep an ear out for as the commander of this entire force.
By the ti we make it out of the kill zone I’ve lost two more people and five others are wounded. By now I know the enemy is almost matching us in numbers, they seem to have one hundred and seventy, how unlucky could we get. Much as the new king might want to push our superiority through our higher Stats as the elites we aren’t on the right side of the battle.
He’s right that our stats are just as high or even slightly higher than our opponents despite them being at least five levels higher on average. The issue is our Skills aren’t equal. The reason we have so many elites is that we all got the chance to delve so much and stack that many bonuses. The enemy might not have our stats or our youth but they have experience and Skills developed.
The worst part however is that we lack any true talents. Anyone talented enough was good enough to push themselves to the low end of champion level. It’s why our champions had such a powerful impact at the start of the war, the surprise in the number we could field even if three quarters of them were barely worth being called champion let us take out a lot of the enemies and then use them being out of commission to push straight in with the invasion force.
My head instinctively turns towards one elven caster as I feel the Mana he is channeling. Yet my body doesn’t move, even my Skill knows there is nothing I can do to dodge or survive the spell he is casting at .
The spell never cos however and a combination of relief and sha fill
as I watch champion Redfang join the battle. Clearly we were losing, so much so that our champion was forced to show his hand, whatever champion these Republic elites have backing them will get the jump on him.
“Redfang!” Damn it, I bite my tongue to stop myself from yelling the curse as I see who the enemy champion is. Champion Firebeard is one of the two champions to escape unhard from our initial attack. “And here I was hoping to get a crack of those little whimps you lot call champions!”
The dwarf’s opening move exploded from the ground. The man was known for how he combined his Fire and Earth magic to cause targeted explosions from beneath his targets feet. For a hybrid like Redfang being ambushed by a mage for the start of the fight like this ans his chances to win are low.
Both of the elite armies back away yet remain ready. Now that the champions have taken the field our fate is no longer in our hands. We must simply remain ready in case the fight is close. If both champions push each other too far the fight will start once more with both sides looking to save their own wounded champion and kill the other. Until then however, getting too close will an certain death.
Spell after spell I can see the bloodred armor of Redfang get scorched black before it starts crumbling away. He is losing. What’s worse is that he hasn’t managed to close the distance to Firebeard. If he doesn’t injure or exhaust the dwarf we’re all dead.
BOOOOOMMM!
A nasty explosion happens right under Redfang’s feet, that he is alive seems impossible to
let alone only suffering from so burns on his feet and a rockspike through his left arm. There is a reason why our more seasoned champions look down a little at their newest recruits and Redfang is proving he deserves the recognition.
The ice arrow that shatters against Firebeard’s barrier in the next mont takes
by surprise but not as much as champion Whitefeather appearing next to the dwarf breaking through the remains of the barrier before landing a deep cut on the dwarfs shoulder as another explosion forces them apart.
“I thought you were hoping to fight so of our fresh at!” Redfang taunted the mage even as our champions all moved together. That we had three champions backing us was shocking to
and while I didn’t know who launched the frost arrow I would surely express my thanks once the battle was over. “We were hoping one of you lot would show up. Your death will bring your precious Republic one step closer to ruin.”
I watched with glee as Firebeard was pushed back, no more snappy quotes as Redfang and Whitefeather pressured him and our third champion was taking care of their defenses. Less than ten seconds later and they had already landed three more hits on Firebeard. Even with the potion the dwarf downed the amount of poison they had to be using would still have an effect on him.
My fist clenched on instinct and raised itself in victory. My Skill apparently read the dwarf’s knee giving in on him before it even happened, the loss of balance threw him off and Redfang and Whitefeather both moved in for the kill.
RRRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH
A wave of stillness accompanied a sound I’d never heard before coming from the heavens. It was only through an effort of will that I could barely force my eyes to turn upwards in search of the source of the sound when I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There had been a rumor working its way through the ranks that a dragon had been seen in Gryndor but I thought it was all exaggeration. The building sized black and red winged lizard diving from above towards Firebeard, Redfang and Whitefeather sent an icy cold shiver down my back. The terror almost as frightening as the one caused by seeing that a human ard for combat was riding its neck.
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