"FALL BACK! BACK TO THE GATES! BACK TO THE GATES!" The human soldier towered over his dwarven comrades, his voice strong and clear despite the chaos and noise of the battle. "BACK TO THE GATES! NOW! MOVE IT!"
"RETREAT!" others screamed. "RETREAT TO THE GATES!"
The dark landscape lit up as a pair of fireballs slammed into the lines, throwing flaming dwarves in every direction. He spun and put his pike through the head of an orc, and pushed through into another one. They were everywhere, but the men were holding. Good Adbar dwarves, well trained and skilled in the art of war. But against such numbers...
"BACK TO THE GATES! NOW!" The shadow shell above made it nearly impossible to see. Most of the light came from the fires that burned all around the battlefield, consuming plant, dwarf, and man alike. Another of the mounted Argent Legion men went down, torn to the ground by a huge crowd of orcs. He turned again and ran backwards toward the citadel. "BACK TO THE GATES!"
Darkness became darker still, and he paled. Not again. It was only a moment before a squad of thirty black-armored men burst out of the shadow, followed by three black skinned men with glowing eyes and magic on their fingertips. The soldiers were enhanced with spells, nearly untouchable by weapons and able to move so fast they seemed a blur. Screams of dying dwarves and chanting in unfamiliar tongues filled the air, and the magic came pouring into the lines. The ground itself shook from the fury of explosions, balls of fire, tempests of lightning that forked and arced through the dwarves, meteors from the sky and black tendrils from below.
He'd had enough of it.
He knocked another Argent Legion rider off his mount and leaped on it, turning to charge back through the fast retreating dwarven line. He managed to get his pike back out of the orc as he rode past, and he brought it up like a lance, charging for the nearest arcanist. The mage turned towards him, his brightly glowing blue eyes showing no emotion, and raised a black hand.
He let out a scream, then his horse collapsed below him. He whirled over its head and stopped in mid-air, dropping his pike in the process. The magic turned him over to face the arcanist. The Shade smirked. "You have spirit, human."
The commander spat at the arcanist. The Shade ignored him and continued, "But, only a fool would have tried something like that. Do you really think us so stupid and unaware as to not notice you?" He shook his head and broke into a grin, white teeth practically glowing against the black skin. "Goodbye, anyway."
He raised his outstretched hand toward the floating man and curled his fingers back, speaking quickly in his language. The commander gritted his teeth, and finally screamed as long red tendrils seemed to flow from his body like smoke, wrapping around the Shade's fingers and up his arm. His scream turned to a gurgle and blood poured from his skin, and the arcanist dropped the corpse to the ground. The Shadovar soldiers returned to the arcanists, their armor splattered in dwarven blood, and they vanished again into the shadow.
---
Another row of defenses down. More soldiers dead. King Harbromm paced in his chambers, his fingers rubbing the hilt of his axe. He wanted to be out there with them, but his advisors had talked him out of it. They said they needed him. What he needed was to fight his enemy.
His axe came out in a flash as he noticed a cloud of shadow in the corner of the room. Two brightly glowing platinum eyes appeared in the darkness, and a wide, white smile. "Greetings, King Harbromm. You can put that down, it will serve no purpose here. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead."
Harbromm snorted and waved his axe. "Come o'er here an' see what I do with this ye damn coward."
"Your predecessors were far more diplomatic. I met two of them... I was friends with one, in fact." Telamont tapped his chin and pointed at Harbromm. "Your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, I believe. It has been some time. I must admit a bit of fondness for you and your people."
Harbromm glared. "By all the hells you do."
"It is the truth. That is why I am here." Telamont stepped foward out of the shadows a bit, though the cloud of darkness around him still hid most of his form. "I would be honored to again be allies with the children of Delzoun, but we have a bit of a difficulty. You see, you have been part of occupying what is rightly our land. So, I give you a choice." He picked up Harbromm's drink and sniffed it. "Foul. I give you this. You can either surrender to our forces, or I will destroy this citadel and kill every single living being inside, personally if I have to."
"If'n ye think I'm surrenderin' to ye--"
"Do not answer now. I will give you... two tenday to decide. Until then, please do not make any more trips outside your walls. I do not want to have to defeat you again... I know how fragile dwarven pride is." Telamont bowed and vanished again into the shadow a moment before King Harbromm's axe whirled through the air and embedded itself in the wall behind.
In Adbar Fields
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Grand Fromage
- Goon Spy
- Posts: 1838
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:04 am
- Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Im sure we will have this minor incursion wrapped up by dinner time
<GF|sleep> I'm just glad that now when I get diabetes from drinking the sweet, sweet tears of republicans I can go to a doctor ;o
<spiderjones> Actually every sink except the kitchen one is horribly clogged and shoots out blood and sometimes excrement
<spiderjones> Actually every sink except the kitchen one is horribly clogged and shoots out blood and sometimes excrement
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Grand Fromage
- Goon Spy
- Posts: 1838
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:04 am
- Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China