52 An Inspection

Oakwood town was a medium sized town that was located on the border between the Kingdom of Dawn and the lands controlled by Hermes. Even compared to the other border towns, it was on the outskirts. It laid on the edge of civilization, located near where the lands of the Kingdom of Dawn, the church, and the uninhabited regions met. Beyond the town were the areas no humans lived. The town had been quite affected by recent advancements. The food grown in the area was from Golden Twos so food was generally more plentiful. The main export of the town was wood, make from oak trees which is what gave the town its name. The wood was processed at the sawmill. The sawmill was powered by a steam engine which spun around a large saw which cut the wood. In the past, the people had to cut the wood by hand but now they could cut wood much faster.

Located in the town was a small military garrison. The town, being on the border with another nation, had housed soldiers. In times past, they were there to guard against the Kingdom of Dawn and even though they expected no threat from the kingdom, there was still a small contingent of soldiers there consisting of around ten riflemen along with around a hundred soldiers still armed with cold weapons. The riflemen had been a recent addition. It would have been inefficient to guard the town entirely with riflemen and there were still many soldiers trained back before the advent of guns. So, it was deemed better to leave them there to supplement the garrison force. The garrison force was also used to enforce security and riflemen were not ideal for such a task.

Today, archbishop Soli Daal arrived at Oakwood town to perform a military inspection. He had been sent around to many cities and towns and this was just one more stop. Although tensions between the Kingdom of Dawn and the church were not high and this was a location far from the frontlines against the demons, it would not do to for the guards to become complacent. Thus, Soli Daal had been sent to make sure everyone was performing their tasks.

Soli Daal was once part of the Verdict army before he became an archbishop. After he had left, the army had undergone massive changes and reorganization. He could hardly even recognize the army of today as being anything even close to related to the church's original armies. Still, he was well versed in discipline and he would make sure the soldiers kept in line and didn't slack off.

The town appeared decently defended. There were wooden walls around the town. It was not meant to survive a siege, only to buy a bit of time. The walls were well maintained and there were several watchtowers, usually manned by a pair of riflemen. The barracks was in decent shape and there did not appear to be significant hygiene issues. There had been new policies developed toward proper sanitation in order to reduce the chances of a disease outbreak since disease was often the largest killer in a preindustrial army.

Next, archbishop Daal looked over the patrol schedules and made sure that they were reasonable. He also talked with some of the soldiers to get an idea about the place. He knew that what he was seeing was probably better than how it normally was, but that was to be expected. He didn't see signs of hasty cleanups which was good news.

The soldiers did drills biweekly to make sure that their skills remained well polished. It would not do for the guards to become lazy and complacent. The soldiers all appeared to be in a fine state and their equipment was well maintained. Overall, there did not appear to be any significant problems with how the garrison was run. The archbishop was satisfied with their performance. It was good to know that the soldiers were still prepared, even if it was unlikely any threats would appear.

The archbishop finished the tour of the town. As he went to have one last talk with the garrison commander, the alarm was raised. There was an attack! Soli Daal's mind raced. Who could it be? Surely the Kingdom of Dawn was not stupid enough to attack them.

As he got to the source of the alarm the nature of the threat became clear. His face paled as he saw the scene in front of him. There was a horde of demons surrounding the town. It seemed that there were thousands of them. There was no way out. There were not enough defenders for them to hold off such a threat.

Soli Daal quickly retreated from the wall as he quickly began thinking about his next actions. The demons had begun advancing and soon they had broken through the walls. The defenders tried their hardest to hold back the tide of demons. The riflemen put up a good showing, downing dozens of demons with their shots. However, there were simply too many of them and one by one, the soldiers fell.

Soli Daal knew he wasn't going to make it out alive. However, they needed to get word out to Hermes to let them know what was coming. He ordered the men in his retinue to abandon him and to run as fast as they could to try to warn the others. He watched as they ran off. However, the demons had the town completely encircled and their numbers were so vast that one would practically have to wade through a horde of demons to get out. Daal prayed but before his eyes, he saw the men he sent out fall and die to the horde of demons.

The demons were advancing to the center of the town, where the last remaining people had holed up. It was a futile struggle as they would soon fall as well. The archbishop stood alone. The last thing he saw was the claws of a demon.