Completed Barbarism

[Zael Castomir]

"This was just the first wave..." the Guard Lieutenant repeated the scout's report, his voice hollow with horror. Strewn all about him, Zael, the other Initiates and the surviving few Guardsmen were corpses and corpses of goblins. One could walk for fifty paces in any direction and not touch the ground once. The periphery of the small northern town of Vel Janix had been a killing field, where a single, unprepared unit of Guardsmen, the local militia, and (by the grace of timing and fortune by so happening to be in the area) some Initiates of the Academy had held the line.

The mounted scout nodded grimly. "Yes, sir. The ogres are coming." The goblins, slaves to the ogres, had merely been reconnaissance in force.

Zael, whose normal and usual excitement for fights had been drowned by sheer exhaustion, who was splattered in goblin's blood from head to toe, brought a hand to his forehead and staggered back a step, his armored foot crunching a bone. "Fuck...how long?"

"Two hours," said the scout, his face pulled long with worry. "Maybe three. Four at best."

A great and ravenous migration of Steppe Ogres had crossed the Allirian Strait far to the north and had swept like a tide of destruction down through Liadain, pillaging and ravaging everything they had come across and moving on before proper resistance could be organized in Oban, in Elbion, among the scattered peoples of the Savannah. And now, the Republic having disregarded warnings, it was here. And Vel Janix was the first Anirian town it would strike.

And it was going to fall.

The only question was how long it was going to stand.

 

[Edric]

The sickening sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone rang out as Edric wrenched his sword free from one of the minuscule green corpses scattered around them. Clean steel was coated with a slick of brackish blood, dripping over Edric's hand as he turned and listened to the scout.

He did not appear half as exhausted as any of the others. In fact, if it weren't for the tears in his clothes, the blood splattered on his face, and the matted mess of his hair one might have guessed that Edric had just gotten to the fight.

The evidence however was piled around them.

A few goblins cut, necks snapped, or even bludgeoned, but most of those who lay dead around Edric were a withered husk. Corpses that appeared as though they had been dead for centuries, not the mere minutes that their end had truly come.

Exhaustion did not come to him in the form it did to the others.

Yet throughout the fight another problem had presented itself. There had been so many, and so much killing that it had been hard to pick out friend from foe. More than once he had taken precious vitality from a Guardsmen or one of his peers, and more than once he'd found himself in a panic to return it.

But as the fight had continued, as the battle raged...that panic had dulled.

Edric's heart sank as he heard the scouts words, his lips thinning as he crouched down. Blade dropping onto the ground and filthy hands dragging through his hair to keep it from his face. "Fuck me."

He cursed, taking slow, deep breaths.

Two hours. He had to pull himself in two hours. That was all he had, then worse would come.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair was an absolute mess. His clothes felt weighted with the wet blood that dyed most of his visage. His rapier and dagger were slick with goblin ichor. The crunch underneath his feet was disgusting, hazardous, and more than a little satisfying.

The fight had started off relatively organized but had quickly devolved into a blur of unadulterated violence. The initiates had done most of the work, but that was what they were here for.

He was breathing heavily, but relying on runes and potions to keep him up and ready. He made his way over to the others and tried to put a smile on his face.

"Well, fuck us. Didn't think there would be a round two."

They were way too outnumbered to take this next fight as carelessly as had been the first. They would need some preparations to be done.

"I was thinking about trying to put down some runic traps...some explosive maybe fire for you, Zael. I have plenty of supplies here." He looked around at all the blood. Blood was always a good rune substance. Harnessing the recently deceased lifeforce into magical energy.

Zael Castomir Edric

 

[Henk]

Breath struggled to fill Henk's lungs. The battle that had just abated has been ridiculously taxing, both physically and mentally. Alone, goblins weren't a serious threat, but in the massive numbers they'd just been pitted against they were as deadly as any manner of beast they had ever fought. Henk's own bloodied hands slid down his face, leaving streaks of crimson.

He'd known this would be a disaster the moment he was assigned to it, but a mission was a mission. Still, so much death, so much violence. The only reason he was so willing to go through with it at all was the knowledge of what these creatures would do if left unopposed. Slaying them was the lesser of two evils.

He hadn't come out unscathed; The coat he wore so often was more or less tatters hanging from his body, and small wounds littered his flesh, stinging like tiny insect stings every time he drew breath. Edric had nearly gone mad, and for a moment Henk wondered if they would have to fight him as well.

"Excellent thinking, Alistair. I can try and make some illusions that will confuse them, perhaps manipulate them into springing those traps." Ogres weren't particularly known for their intellect. Henk took a staggering step towards Edric, before wincing and looking back at Alistair. "Would you happen to have a spare pick-me-up, Krixus? I hate to ask, but... one of them got me pretty good."

Zael Castomir Alistair Krixus Edric

 

[Samantha Black]

Vel Janix wasn't a large town comparatively speaking, so it had come as no surprise that it was immediately overwhelmed when the goblins first attacked. Ralene hadn't been there for the first wave - she'd been on mission in another larger city to the south, Vel Bria. Though her work there of ousting an underground criminal group had been very important, it wasn't quite so important as the security and defense of the northern boarders of the Vel Anirian territories.

When Captain Holstag arrived on the scene within Vel Bria to collect Ralene within his retinue, she had only just apprehended the ringleader of the criminals. It wasn't a welcome interruption to her work - she didn't like leaving loose ends, but orders were orders and her orders were to leave promptly for the front.

The thunder of hoofbeats and clatter of armor heralded the company's arrival through the main road of Vel Janix. Billowing pillars of smoke stacked the northern horizon where flames ate away at piles of goblin corpses - the stench from which could be smelled nearly a doze miles out. Captain Holstag brought with him nearly 100 fresh troops and one very bemused Dreadlord Initiate. Ralene joined him for the briefing with the attending General and was pleased to hear that while she'd missed the carnage of the first wave, another was on its way.

"Fucking hell," she remarked as she closed in on the group of her fellow Initiates fully armored with her helmet casually clutched under her left arm, "looks like I missed all the fun. You lot look like shit."

 

[Zael Castomir]

"I'm not letting them eat me alive."

And the Guard Lieutenant, overcome with despair, took his sword and turned it on himself, driving it through the perforation already present in his breastplate. The slick sound of metal piercing through flesh, wet muscle, his heart, and the Lieutenant toppled over dead.

Zael grimaced, the mounted scout looked horrified, some of the Guardsmen cursed, one of the local militiamen shrieked his vexation aloud. Not even the arrival of Captain Holstag and a full company of fresh fighting troops had been enough to persuade the Lieutenant from taking his own life.

"Looks like you're in charge now, Captain," Zael said, taking in Holstag's rank. The fact that Zael of all people properly addressed the Captain underscored the severity of the task before them, and no one was more aware of that than Zael himself.

Fuck.

He'd spotted Ralene from among the new unit of Guardsmen, given her just a nod of acknowledgement when she spoke, so now she was here too. Edric was here, so was Alistair and Henk—all they were missing was Noel and Zael'd have the blandest collection of personalities assembled here in Vel Janix. Wooden Plank Brigade out in full force and not one joke or even a whiff of a sense of humor to be found among the lot of them. Yeah, before the fight with the goblins had started, Zael had talked enough shit about it to have garnered the usual dirty looks from his oh-so-serious comrades. Alistair, love ya buddy, but try to remember that the sun exists or you're gonna end up like Tinker. Henk, love ya buddy, but would it kill ya to raise your voice and show some passion every now and then?

But now? Now that they were staring down a horde of bloodthirsty ogres, and all they had were this new company of Guardsmen unit, the scraps of the old Guardsmen unit, maybe a few dozen poorly armed militiamen of Vel Janix, and that was it?

Now he was glad to have the Wooden Plank Brigade with him. Because each and every one of them could fight like fucking hell. And that was what mattered.

Alistair and Henk were discussing traps, and because said traps were runes Zael figured Ralene would probably join them. So (after a nod to Alistair, fire was always nice) he went over to Edric and punched him in the arm to get his attention. Man looked high on death (or life? Whatever. Where was their resident drug expert when you needed her?).

"Let's go tell the women and children to get the fuck out of here. None of that 'this is our home' bullshit from them. Not this time." The men? They needed to grab whatever farming tools and hand-me-down spears they had available.

Because the longer they all held here in Vel Janix, the better the chance that those women and those children would live to see the next Winter Solstice.

Edric Alistair Krixus Henk Ralene

 

[Edric]

Edric stared at the Guard Lieutenant, the sword sticking from his breast plate as he crumpled to the ground. A frown pulled at his lips as he peered down at the corpse, and he couldn't help but remember a word Kristen had spat at him just a few weeks before; Coward.

The Initiates head slowly tilted to the side, lips thin.

Then suddenly a strike landed against his arm. His head turned to see Zael standing there, the usually boisterous bravado having fallen away. There was an almost stern expression on his face, one that Edric had never seen the other Initiate wear before.

After a few moments Edric nodded. "Right."

He said in agreement, hefting his sword and flickering it back into the sheath.

There would undoubtedly be a struggle, there had been last time too, but this was different. Vel Janix was going to fall, and anyone left behind would either fight or be used as fodder. There was no question about it. Not now.

As Zael and Edric headed towards the town they passed Ralene. Edric reached up, batting at her armored shoulder with his fist as they moved by her. "Plenty of time to join us in the mire yet."

He commented, not stopping as he and Zael continued.

"When we get back we all need to have a conversation." Edric remarked to her, motioning towards the others. The Guard wouldn't be enough. He knew that. They all knew that after seeing what the Lieutenant had done. "Mention it to Al and Henk, yeah?"

The Initiate called as he and Zael entered Vel Janix proper.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair watch the Lieutenant kill himself and could only shake his head. There was always a chance as long as you were living. Why throw away that chance? In the end, the weak just run.

He turned to Henk with a smile, which showed white teeth that contrasted against the dark red of the blood that he was covered in.

"I like that idea. I can put out my runes with your illusions in mind. We could make this next wave run through a gauntlet of magical traps before they even got a chance to attack us."

He looked back from his own thoughts in surprise as he looked over Henk.

"Oh, yeah. Give me one second." He dug around in his bag before pulling out another one of his stamina potions. Normally, he would not give these away so freely since he did not have many, but for his fellow initiates they were worth it. A rested dreadlord even an initiate was well worth the price of his concoctions.

He spotted Ralene coming in the distance and waved her over.

"Ral's coming. With us three here, we can probably set up something pretty nasty."

Edric Zael Castomir Henk Ralene

 

[Henk]

Henk caught the bottle and quickly brought it to his lips, choking down the bitter, thick potion with only a little wince. The disgusting flavor was worth it; the concoction had barely settled in his stomach before he began to feel his aches subside, his breathing even, and his wounds numb. That Alistair... he certainly lived up to his reputation.

"Excellent. I'll work on a bottleneck, see if I can force them to come in single file. It'll be a lot more manageable that way." As long as something didn't go terribly wrong again, which was always a danger with their luck.

Certainly, the fact that even their allies were offing themselves from madness was a sign that they were in over their head. They usually were, but this did seem... excessive.

Henk turned back to Edric, but Zael was already checking up on him. Good, if they lost Edric, whether it be to madness or death, their chance of victory sharply dropped. Instead, he turned his attention to Ralene.

Who, quite frankly, he'd never been happier to see.

"Ralene, you'll be happy to know that the party is only just beginning. We have ogres on the way, can't say how many." If there were as many as there had been Goblins though... It didn't look good. Still, the bloodied Henk smiled at Ralene, reaching out and nudging her arm. "We were hoping to save them for you though, since you're still fresh and all."

Henk turns his head towards Alistair. "Let's get to work then, they could show up at any moment, and If we're talking Ogre's, I want to be ready."

Ralene Edric Zael Castomir Alistair Krixus

 

[Samantha Black]

A nod to Zael as he stepped by with Ed.

A glance and loft of a brow at Edric and his words.

She caught the gesture of Al as she approached and shifted her weight onto her heels as she trudged through the muck and litter of battle to get to him and Henk.

"Ral's coming. With us three here, we can probably set up something pretty nasty."

"Ralene, you'll be happy to know that the party is only just beginning. We have ogres on the way, can't say how many." If there were as many as there had been Goblins though... It didn't look good. Still, the bloodied Henk smiled at Ralene, reaching out and nudging her arm. "We were hoping to save them for you though, since you're still fresh and all. Let's get to work then, they could show up at any moment, and If we're talking Ogre's, I want to be ready."

With a rueful smirk and a keen blue gaze, Ralene gave Henk a once-over, "I got the brief at Comms from the General. He's pulling back his remaining troops to the town and evacuating the wounded with the women and children. Captain Holstag's in command of the front now and we have a little less than 100 fresh soldiers with his battalion."

For her it was natural to work under the command of the Military - she'd been working missions with the Anirian guard's Special Command Unit under Holstag for years now. Despite that, Ral knew that footsoldiers--even those of the SCU--would be no match for full-bore orgres. This would be a last stand to try and slow the beasts and allow the civilians time to make it further into Anirian territory and safety.

"Whatever plan you've got brewing," her gaze shifted to Alistair, "we need to run it by the Captain."

 

[Zael Castomir]

All of the women, children, and old men were still holed up in Vel Janix's largest building, the Town Hall. It had been hastily barricaded, so it took a couple minutes of removing the blockages on the inside to get the Hall's front doors to open.

Eyes immediately fell upon Zael and Edric as they entered. Big, terrified eyes that dared to hope. The fact that the Initiates had shown up was itself good news, but their fear remained for their husbands, their fathers, their sons and their brothers. Who would be among the dead?

They weren't ready for what Zael and Edric had come to actually tell them. Not that the battle was over, but only that it had just begun, and that they all needed to leave. Now. Take whatever meager supplies you could get your hands on in the next five to ten minutes, grab any pack animals you could, and head south. Zael did most of the talking, because, hell, that's what you did when you were with Edric. He was one of those types, the "less is more" type when it came to talking. Which was a more charitable way of saying he couldn't hold a conversation for shit. Zael didn't know if Edric and Tinker had ever been assigned together on a mission, but fucking Kress, he had no clue how in the hell that would work out.

So Zael got the honors of delivering the majority of the bad news, the worst nightmare for these people, and catching all of stunned, pallid looks back. There was dead silence save for a few crying babies in the Hall, and Zael, hearing them, felt a bit sick to his stomach.

The women and the old men all came to accept that their town was doomed, that most of the men of Vel Janix were doomed to defend it as long as they could, and silently nodded and wept and shuffled about with the stiffness of shock.

All except one.

Her name was Joan. She was Edric and Zael's age—would've been in the Academy herself had she been born with magic. And where the rest of the gathered in the Town Hall were in states of shock or horror, Joan was furious.

She had stomped forward from the crowd, her mother clutching at her sleeve and begging for peace, and stood before Zael and Edric.

"You're asking us to leave!? To leave our entire LIVES behind!?"

Zael kept his expression hard set. "We're not askin."

Joan's mother, pleading, tugging desperately on her daughter's sleeve. "Leave them be! You heard them, we have to go!" She, too, held a swaddled baby in her arm, and he too was crying, and Zael, unlike the queasiness before, had the ugly thought of just wanting that baby to shut up and immediately felt guilty for having it.

Joan stamped her foot, and pointed to the ground. "THIS IS OUR HOME! THIS IS EVERYTHING WE HAVE!"

"Not everythin," Zael said, lightly shaking his head. And he was acutely aware of how all the others in the Town Hall were nervously eyeing the confrontation now.

Accusatory glances between Zael and Edric from Joan. "You're Dreadlords, aren't you!? This is all you do, isn't it? If you can't save our home, then what good are you!? WHAT GOOD ARE YOU!?"

Edric Henk Alistair Krixus Ralene

 

[Edric]

Any other day.

Any other circumstance.

Edric might have had a flicker of sympathy. Might have felt a shred of sympathy. But he had spent the morning in a mire of slaughter. Had spent half his day conducting an orchestra of massacre. He was short on empathy, utterly empty of understanding.

The farmer stepped to him and Zael. Her mouth twisting with spittle, her words lashing out like a whip. She shouted, her voice booming through the Town Hall as she hurled accusation of their failures.

A flash of rage erupted over his features. Lips thinning. Hand shooting upwards like a viper. Anger and rage intermingled as his fingers caught upon the front of her blouse. The sound of half torn cloth echoed out as Edric wrenched Joan from her feet and shoved her against the wall. "Do you know what fuck I spent my morning doing?"

He demanded, his voice cold iron.

"I killed. I slaughtered. I murdered." A stillness settled over those within the hall. "I defended your little shit heel city. Kept you alive."

Small gasps seemed to echo, but Edric heard none of them. "Now I'm going to do the fucking same, and you're going to leave."

Edric said bitterly.

"Otherwise you'll take up a fucking pitchfork and join me on the line." His fingers unfurled, and Joan dropped to the floor. Her body shaking with a reviling sob. "That goes for all of you!"

He shouted. Tired of the inescapable excuses of worthless mouths. "Pick up a weapon, or get the fuck out."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair nodded along with complete understanding as he listened to the two converse, but his gaze had moved off into the distance to look at the area where the ogres would be coming from.

"Yes, of course. We will need to speak with him to get a better understanding of the land and how he plans to put out his soldiers...As for the plan, I'm going to cook these fuckers."

Fire runes were relatively simple and could be manipulated easily. Alistair could add enhancements or trigger mechanisms with little time wasted. Ralene was here too, now. Together they could litter this place with catastrophic runes.

There was one thing you never wanted to give a rune mage—time to prepare.

"Henk can whip up some illusions to ensure that they wander into the rune field. This way we ca seriously hurt their numbers before they even get near us."

He finally pulled his gaze away from the field to look at Henk and Ral to see what they thought of his plan. Ralene would have some changes or outright complaints, she always did.

"Even then, I don't think that will be enough. Any other ideas?"

Ralene Henk

 

[Henk]

Henk had to resist the urge to spit at those odds. 100 soldiers and Holstag? It wasn't near enough, certainly not to ensure the safety of evacuees. This was going to end in far too much slaughter for his liking, and all because the Anirian Guard once again underestimated the opposition. "You know as well as I do what's about to happen, Ralene. Those men will barely slow them down, and they'll probably all be killed. Why don't they just..."

The Initiate bit his tongue. He was already in trouble at the Academy for openly questioning the Guard's methods earlier this month. Henk was never shy about his feelings towards the military, but now wasn't the time, and he reeled himself in. "I can make it seem to the Ogres as though the only path to us is through whatever traps we place. The only problem with that is that I'll need to be covered. If I have to move from my spot, the illusions will dissolve after a few minutes."

Henk wasn't an illusion mage; He merely created simple tricks through the creative bending of light. That required him to constantly focus and readjust said light to maintain the optical mirage. Alistair didn't seem confident in the damage it could do to the Ogres ahead of time, but Henk disagreed. Wiping some blood from his lip, his pale gaze settled on the ravaged entrance to their little patch of hell. "I think it may be more effective than you think, Alistair. Even if the runes don't kill them, if we can bottleneck them at the entrance, we can give them everything we have one at a time, without having to worry about attacks from our off sides."

Hearing the shouts from Zael and Edric's efforts to convince the civvies to flee, Henk turned his head. They were wasting time standing around and talking about it. Enough had died here today, and he was going to do everything in his power to ensure the rest of the people here survived. "Hate to keep asking for favors, Alistair, but I'll let you handle the Captain." He flashed an apologetic smile at his classmate, before nodding to Ralene one final time. "And Ralene... Edric was pretty shaken up after that last fight. Might be worth talking to him while you have some time. I'd do it myself but... I think you get along a little bit better with him than I do."

His hands gripped at the coverings on his arms, already loosened to allow him to channel his light, and unfastened them completely. The long sleeves were discarded as the bare-armed Henk set off for the gates without hesitation.

Ralene Alistair Krixus Zael Castomir Edric

 

[Samantha Black]

Surveying the landscape of the previous battle's detritus, Ralene listened in to the boys while they hashed out their plan. Having joined at the second inning, she hadn't the knowledge of the fight so far to know best where to level out their strategy. Unfortunate, given her knowledge on the matter, but Ral felt confident that Al and Henk could formulate something well enough and Holstag could round it out with his own decades of experience.

A mild grimace implanted onto her expression, Ral's hand flexed within the scaled armor greaves, "The Captain won't set his men up for failure," she offered to Henk, "but they all signed up for glory, honor, and death. Don't take that away from them."

The general plan to bottleneck ogres via illusions, steering them through a gauntlet of rune traps just might work. But that plan hinged quite strongly one one thing: Henk being able to hold out long enough to keep the illusions going. No one knew what numbers to expect in the second wave, but even if it was one ogre for every dozen goblins ... that was a whole lot of ogre to account for.

They needed a fallback. She narrowed her eyes in thought, giving Henk a look at the mention of speaking to Ed and grunting in response. Why was that always her job? Had no one else figured out how to work with the guy yet? He was a Simple Man, it wasn't that hard to figure out, "Don't go far, eh?" she called after Henk's receding form, "We need to reconvene when Ed and Zee get back!"

An irritated sigh passed from her lungs as she looked to Al and began moving with him back to Comm where they would speak to the Captain. Talking Ed down from his manic rage could wait, he wasn't even back yet. "So... we need to set up rune traps leading up and through the gateway. Henk needs someone to cover him. We need bait to lure the ogres through the traps, and someone to cover the bait. We need teams along the barrier for the ogres that get through, and we need more rune traps back along the front line to greet them."

 

[Zael Castomir]

Joan's mother shrieked in fear, in utter agony for her daughter when she was wrenched from her grasp and slammed against the wall. She tried to step forward and intervene—

—but Zael roughly grabbed her by the shoulder and held her back. He glanced to her, no grins or smirks or mirthful smiles from the Initiate who (in his honest opinion) wore them best. He just gave her a stolid, adamant look.

And shook his head once. No.

Edric was handling Joan. And while the Academy might have sternly stressed individualism, relying only on yourself and your own power, Zael only followed that to the degree he saw it. Because you don't leave your buddy hanging. Not in a situation like this. Didn't matter what Zael thought, you don't leave your buddy hanging.

The crowd inside the Hall was shaken by the explosive violence, the shouts. But better to be shaken and alive than dead and whatever else. Zael drove the point home, "You heard him. Either you are gone from this town, you are holdin a weapon in your hands. Now move it!"

They didn't need any further prompts. Joan had been the sole exception, it seemed, maybe except for some of the old men who lamented their advanced age and creaking bones, and they quickly began to file out of the Hall. Even Joan, still with an expression contorted with rage and sorrow, fell in with her mother and filtered into the departing crowd. The bottleneck at the door wouldn't last but for a few minutes.

Zael stood by Edric as he waited for the bottleneck to dissipate. His hands on his hips briefly, before he took off a gauntlet and wiped some goblin's blood from his face with the heel of a hand.

Despite the hopeful looks of the children, the beseeching eyes of the mothers, the crying of the babies, Zael had to speak the truth out loud to somebody.

"I ain't dyin here, Edric." He let out a huff of exhausted air. "So I hope these motherfuckers can run fast."

There was only so much time they'd be able to buy for the fleeing villagers.

Edric Henk Alistair Krixus Ralene

 

[Edric]

Edric stood watching the crowd.

Some of them looked at him in anger, others in fear, and still others as though he were little more than a rabid dog. The expression he held on his face was listless, uninterested. These people were the reason they were here, the reason that good men were about to die.

Had already died.

He reminded himself with a frown, his eyes flickering towards Zael.

It wasn't often that the other boy lost the glee in his voice. Always, as long as Edric had known him, the boastful Initiate maintained a near constant optimism. Mostly for anything pertaining to himself, but now? Now it seemed the sharp edge had been dulled.

For some reason that made Edric feel more uneasy than the coming tide of Ogres. "Don't worry."

He told Zael, clapping a hand on his shoulder and shoving him out the door.

"We'll find you a better grave than this shit-hole." His voice was loud enough that some of the refugees heard, but Edric was past caring. In less than a few hours they'd be in the midst of a massacre. What did their opinions matter in the face of that.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair nodded along with her additions, completely in agreement. Ral always knew how to better improve his ideas.

"Alright, so I'll handle the cover for Henk. I want to be far back so I can keep an eye on the whole battlefield...As for bait, I think it needs to be Zael. He can handle the explosive runes if he has to go through some. As for the runes on the front line, can you handle those while I set up the explosions and the fire?"

One rune mage setting up defense was good but stretched thin. With Ralene there, the amount of work they could cover would increase. Hell, they might even have time to add in some extra tricks.

"Can the Captain spare any of his people for the border teams? Otherwise, we are going to be stretched thin."

Edric and Zael might have more to add when they all met up, but Alistair was most interested in the feedback from Holstag. His experience with less magical means of defense would add to their plan in a way that Alistair or Ralene might not be considering.

Henk Ralene Zael Castomir Edric

 

[Henk]

There was preparation that Henk needed to do, certainly, but it had also been an excuse to take a moment for himself. Waving back to Ralene, he nodded. "I'll be back before lunch." He didn't intend to go very far anyways, only to the gate where the goblins had been cascading in a few moments earlier.

A grimace sat on his face as he stepped over piles of bloody flesh. Had those two seen how bad he was shaking right now? Henk certainly hoped not. For a moment there, he wasn't sure that he would make it through. There were very few things that Henk feared when it came to missions, but no matter how hard they tried to beat it into his head, Henk feared death.

There was far too much that he still wanted to do before he could afford to lose his life. Too many thing he hadn't felt, and words he hadn't said to the people who needed to hear them. So Ralene and the others didn't need to worry about him holding out; Henk would put do what was necessary for as long as it took for them to survive.

Using his tattered coat to wipe the blood form his face, the Initiate took a deep breath. This plan counted on him. He couldn't afford to make mistakes because he was still in shock.

The gate wasn't terribly wide, but a few Ogres could probably squeeze in with a little smashing. And Ogres were rather proficient at smashing. Extending his arms forward, he tried to measure how much light he would need to put something together that would force them into a line. The sun was still bright, so quantity wasn't an issue. Quality, however, would require him to find a good vantage point.

"See? Was only a few minutes." He returned to Ralene and Alistair, much more composed and with the blood wiped from his face. "Do either of you know how I can get up in that lookout tower west of the gate? The door is solid, and locked tight. I believe that's the best spot for me, plus it'll be hard for the ogres to reach me if they do figure out what I'm doing."

Ralene Alistair Krixus Zael Castomir Edric

 

[Samantha Black]

"Alright, so I'll handle the cover for Henk. I want to be far back so I can keep an eye on the whole battlefield...As for bait, I think it needs to be Zael. He can handle the explosive runes if he has to go through some. As for the runes on the front line, can you handle those while I set up the explosions and the fire?"

One rune mage setting up defense was good but stretched thin. With Ralene there, the amount of work they could cover would increase. Hell, they might even have time to add in some extra tricks.

"Can the Captain spare any of his people for the border teams? Otherwise, we are going to be stretched thin."

"I can handle the front line, as for the Captain...we'll find out," Ralene confirmed as they made their way to the forward operations tent where Captain Holstag presently pored over the battle field map with his Lieutenants. When they stepped inside Holstag looked up and gave the pair a narrow-eyed nod.

"Black, what's the status of your teammates?"

"Reaper and Scorch are assisting the General with clearing the town of civilians," she moved forward to the map table and surveyed the present break-down of defenses and soldiers. It didn't look good.

"Flare will create an illusory route for approaching targets through a corridor here where Sigil will place several runic traps that will incapacitate targets as they approach. I will place more traps here along the face of the barriers and maintain position for any targets that get through. Scorch will position here as bait for the targets," Ral placed markers for each of the Initiates as she listed them off, "Sigil will cover Flare-"

Right on schedule, Henk entered the tent.

"See? Was only a few minutes." He returned to Ralene and Alistair, much more composed and with the blood wiped from his face. "Do either of you know how I can get up in that lookout tower west of the gate? The door is solid, and locked tight. I believe that's the best spot for me, plus it'll be hard for the ogres to reach me if they do figure out what I'm doing."

Holstag gave the Initiate a once over then glanced to Ral and gave her a nod.

"We can get you access," Holstag answered Henk, "but best get going soon. The entire field surrounding the tower is littered. It'll take some time to get through it."

"Sigil," Ral placed two new markers on the map at the location of the tower before looking at Alistair, "you'll position here with Flare once you've laid your traps. You can provide additional cover to the front line from there after the traps are depleted."

Holstag leaned in over the map, broad fists planted on the edges, "My men will be positioned along the barrier line. Archers will flank from the walls of the gate at either side. And Reaper?"

"We need to position him forward of our troops," Ralene said, "the more distance we can get for him, the better for the rest of us."

 

[Zael Castomir]

That perked Zael right up, that clap of a hand down onto his shoulder and the shove out the door. Damn was it good! He went jogging for the first couple of steps before he could slow himself down. That little bit of friendly physicality, that rough-housing, cleared the oppressive gray pall cast over them all here in Vel Janix—if only for a brief moment

One of his signature grins, absent from his face ever since the mass goblin attack, came back as they walked.

"Yeah. We could die together, get tossed into the same grave, cuddle in the whatever-the-fuck comes next, both of our hips broken and our faces havin been smashed in by gigantic green titties."

Zael's tongue peeked out of the corner of his mouth for a second. "Word gets around, man." And he shot a playful jab into Edric's sizeable arm. "Fuckin sucks that I missed that one."

That little spark didn't last long. Especially not with seeing the women and the children (especially the children, those little boys, sons who were asking their mothers "What happened to Pa? Is Pa okay?", fuck, goddamn it) hurriedly gathering what meager supplies they could carry and rushing south and out of town. Zael wasn't going to martyr himself here, but for one of the few times in his life he was worried. Worried sick, even if he hid it well. He was worried that five of the Academy's most powerful Initiates and one unit of Guardsmen wouldn't be enough to buy these people the time they needed.

(then what good are you!? WHAT GOOD ARE YOU!?)

Zael grimaced, feeling shrunken and inadequate in the face of Joan's withering words. For all his hard-earned strength, what good was it if he couldn't make a difference? But the grimace was there and gone, fading quickly. Time to stow all of that bullshit and just focus. Find the good in the bad. Turn all these negative thoughts around and body-slam the positive out of them. That's what he did. That's how he survived in the Academy. It wasn't what happened to you, it was how you reacted to it. What? You gonna let a little adversity destroy you?

When they reached Captain Holstag's tent, he was feeling better. Even a little juiced up thanks to Edric. Hey, he was already ready for a fight, but he could always be made more ready for a fight, and Edric hit the spot.

They came to the tent right when Ralene had said something about flare traps and the Captain talked about someone named Reaper, whom Ral wanted far forward. She and Henk and Alistair and the good Captain himself were all gathered in here.

Zael stood by the tent's opening flaps, arms crossed, one thumb jerked back. "All the non-fighters are headin out. Wasn't much fuss." He let out a contented breath and smiled thinly. "Just us now, gents."

Edric Henk Alistair Krixus Ralene

 

[Edric]

Edric cringed internally at the mention of the Orc who'd all but left him as a whimpering corpse. It wasn't the memory that made him flinch, no, it was rather the lack thereof.

He could remember meeting Maui, could remember being pressed betwixt the expanse of her most lovely blossom. Beyond that though? Beyond that the night was a complete and utter mystery. The hangover the day after had been so bad that he'd actually forgotten that he could have healed it in seconds. A fact which had only been pointed out to him after the others had found him curled up under the table.

Shaking his head, Edric made his way through the thrum of refugees.

Mind suddenly trapped in a cascade of other thoughts.

His face remained impassive as they threaded their way past. Eyes never catching the anger lingering in some of their faces, the hateful looks, the scorn, even the despair. It washed over Edric as though he might have been at a market day. His mind was elsewhere, drawn away to the past and the future by Zael's jest. A hidden meaning in it for the other Initiate.

He wondered if this time would actually be it. If he would burn himself out. If he would take and take and kill until his body simply couldn't handle it anymore.

Or worse.

Would he simply keep going?

His head seemed to flinch up as he realized they were suddenly standing inside of a tent. Ralene and the Captain there, talking about someone named 'Reaper'. He frowned at Ralene's answer, and then even his simple mind was able to put two and two together. "Put me up on this copse of trees, on the hill."

He remarked with a jab of his finger at the map.

"I'll cut into them from the rear. Pull the attention of their rear." It was an insanely dangerous position to take, but it would always put him furthest away from the soldiers, and more important his fellow initiates.

It was a good plan, from what he could tell, but then again he was no military genius. After a few moments for everyone to absorb the plan, Edric gestured towards the other Initiates. "Captain, I'd like a moment alone with the others before we set to work. If that's alright."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Sigil...

Alistair felt like he had definitely been given the lamest nickname of the bunch. The others got names like Reaper, Flare, and Scorch...He was probably being greedy. Besides, that issue was literally the least important problem they...he had.

His focus turned back to the battle map and nodded in agreement with Ralene's placement of him on the tower. He could look out on the whole battlefield...If he was careful with his magic, he might even be able to reach the corners of the field.

The arrival of Zael and Edric meant that all the dreadlords had gathered. Before the Captain or Ralene continued, Edric offered up his own strategic ideas that Alistair agreed with.

They needed to avoid Ed accidentally sucking them dry. Besides, from that hill, Al might be able to offer a small sliver of help if something went wrong...probably.

If they did their job right, the Orc's would be too busy focusing on them to send reinforcements to deal with Edric. He looked over to Henk.

"At some point, the illusions and traps will become redundant. What's the plan after that?"

Ralene Edric Zael Castomir Henk

 

[Samantha Black]

"Put me up on this copse of trees, on the hill."

Ralene recognized the look slowly pooling over Holstag's face. The look he got when one of his men suggested something particularly foolhardy. It was a mixture of deep, ponderous concern. She'd never really pinned whether it was concern for the livelihood of the one suggesting the foolhardy plan, or the stupidity in the act of suggesting it. Could really go either way, she supposed, depending on how much clout they had.

She caught his gaze and gave the Captain a short and decisive shake of her head. Holstag wasn't aware of the extent of Edric's powers and she knew he was wondering if there was any better alternative. No, there wasn't.

With a sigh the Captain relented and placed a new marker on the map for Edric's position, "Very well. But don't expect any backup to reach you in time if things go poorly on your side."

That was Edric's sacrifice to make if it came to it.

"Dismissed," Holstag nodded to Edric at his request, "we begin moving into position in twenty. Black, I want an update on the trap positions once they're laid out."

"Yes, Captain," Ral replied before turning to the other Initiates and motioning for them to head out of the tent. Edric had apparently been garnering a reputation for his leadership abilities and pep talks - she wondered if they were about to get one of them.

 

[Henk]

Henk didn't like Holstag. Loathed would be a more appropriate term. He did, however, respect the Captain's wisdom when it came to combat situations. There were few more prepared for the task of getting his men through this battle than he, not that Henk would say that to his face.

That desire to have everybody possible survive is likely why Holstag hesitated when Edric made the request to be placed in no man's land. If it were anybody but Ed it would have been a suicidal notion, but the power running through Edric's veins offered him an advantage that none of the others had. Ogres were full of life, after all, big and fat as they were. Their march towards the gate might as well be a walking one-pass buffet to Ed.

Alistair would be paired with Henk. Fine, he was more than happy for any help he could get, but that did mean planning carefully to keep him from significant harm. Krixus knew how to handle himself though, he'd be no burden. To his question, Henk merely shrugged. "We assess where we're at in terms of opposition and improvise. I've a few tricks left up my sleeve, as I'm sure do you." There was a bit of a silence, and the blue eyed Initiate took that to mean that wasn't enough.

"Okay, if things are still looking rough when the illusion and traps are said and done, or they find me out, I can use my invisibility trick to sneak past them and surprise them from behind." Henk called it 'invisibility', but it was really more similar to what a chameleon does to blend in with his environment, except with extensive use of bent and reflected light, making him incredibly hard to spot. There was one caveat to the technique, however. "Of course, I have to be naked for that to work so I won't have any gear or protection if it comes to that."

The plan was set, and they were all dismissed. Henk couldn't be certain, but he could have sworn there was doubt in the Captain's voice. Well, he wouldn't blame him. Even Henk wasn't certain of their success, but they'd done all they could.

And now Edric seemed to have words for all of them. Henk wasn't sure if he should appreciate that or dread it.

Edric Ralene Alistair Krixus Zael Castomir