Battle of Thindarohm

Despite the solid stone walls shaking from the impact of the monsters, it held firm. Men and dwarves standing firm in their resolve to keep the mass of green from getting past them.

The first wave was just a seemingly unending horde of goblins. They swarmed against the walls like the undead from a particularly bad zombie movie. Climbing over each other in a bloodlust to kill us.

Of course, since the gate was in the center of the walls, the fiercest place to be fighting was right next to the emperor. He took out a clump of goblins with a single swing of his sword, and the rest of his guard was not far behind in the fight.

"For the forge fires!" I shouted as I cleaved a goblin's skull in two with my ax.

"For the ancestors!" Bekhi cried as she dual wielded an ax and a hammer. Swiftly turning into a spinning tornado of death and destruction.

"For cookies!" Was Gerde's battle cry, but she was hanging back for now as a spell caster. Bekhi and I had told her that she was tasked to keep Jenise safe, but we just didn't want her on the front lines this time.

"For freedom." Delimira's rallying cry came on the heels of a dozen fireballs that she casually threw at the goblins. She planned on moving to the front when her magic went down to fifty percent. There was no chance that she'd leave her weapons sheathed through this battle.

Thwip. BOOM! Thwip. Boom. Thwip. BOOM. "For Sherwood Forest!" Miyata was excitedly firing off her explosive rounds in between our heads, but somehow she managed to not kill any of us and hit every one of her targets. Whether that was due to skill, or her celestial gift, I was unsure. Maybe I could experiment later to find out how powerful her gift actually was.

"Ah screw it." My eyes were drawn to Tatsuki as he shouted in frustration. He seemed to judge his sword completely useless and stuck it in the ground. (Side note, never do this unless you want to damage your weapon and make whoever made it for you furious.) He then took a judo stance and started taking out the goblins with his bare hands. His armor prevented their claws and fangs from causing him any harm as his muscular arms tossed the monsters onto the swinging blades of the Imperial Guard.

"Hymladda, god of combat, hear my prayers and grant us your eternal strength. Give my allies some portion of your powers so that they may prevail on the battlefield. Burning Intensity!" Jenise cast a buffing spell on us and the Imperial Guard. She was not very confident in her attack magic, so she had volunteered to be in the supporting role in this fight. Although as a student of Bekhi, she could fight if she needed to.

For the first thirty seconds of the fight, I tried counting how many goblins I killed, intending on bragging about it over beers later, but there were just too many. Every swing of my ax could kill two goblins, and there would still be a third trying to kill me. Fortunately for us, the goblins in this world are even smaller than dwarves, dumber than a rock, and built like a house of matchsticks. So they were easy to kill, and not too much of a threat except with their numbers.

We fought against the tide of green goblins for over an hour. We held our own and more against them, but before I could jinx it by saying something like, "This is too easy." The next wave of attackers broke upon the walls.

This wave of assailants was still primarily made up of goblins, but there were also thousands of orcs randomly mixed in. These monsters were around four to five feet tall, with severe underbite and long fangs. Their skin was dark green and scarred all over from their constant infighting. What made the orcs more of a threat than the goblins though, was their intelligence. They were just barely smart enough to wield weapons, and use them they did. From stone clubs, to crude hammered iron, to dwarven weapons that they had stolen from corpses, they stormed the walls with primitive fury.

"Sheesh! How many of these green meanies are there?" Miyata whined as she shot an especially large orc between the eyes. "I'm starting to get hungry for lunch."

"There are still thousands left, hero Miyata. Graagh!" The emperor took a mighty swing that cleared the area immediately around him of monsters. "Refill your quiver, Miyata, and drink your potions, men. The next wave is about to break."

The Imperial Guard took advantage of the fleeting pause to sip from glass vials that I found out later were elven magic rejuvenation potions. They had been purchased from Issanore at great cost, and were only to be used in emergencies. Since we were now a couple hours into a battle, with no end in sight, this was definitely an emergency.

After the guards were rejuvenated, the emperor took a quick break to drink his own elf potions. I mentally kicked myself for not paying attention to the elf potion books when I was there, maybe I could've made some for myself and my party. As it is, everyone in the Yankee party was starting to get worn out. Turns out I didn't need to worry though, Delimira and Jenise had a fair number of potions in their packs.

"Hey, where's Takamori?" Tatsuki asked as he flung a goblin like a bowling ball and knocked a dozen other goblins off the walls. "Wasn't he supposed to be fighting with us?"

Glancing around, we realized that Takamori was nowhere to be seen. Thinking back, he had disappeared sometime between arriving at the walls, and the emperor's speech.

"That *&@# cowardly wazzock!" Bekhi swore as she bisected a goblin with her hammer, while beheading an orc with her ax at the same time. "When I get my hands on him, he's dead! I don't care how much legendary armor he's got on. He's $%^# dead! Kvalinn! I hope you have some legendary armor busting weapons ready for me."

"I'll take a legendary armor busting weapon too, Kvalinn." The emperor growled. His sword slicing and dicing an orc that had nailed bits and pieces of dwarven armor to itself. "Takamori has lost his last chance to live as a hero in my lands. If I find him, the best he can hope for is exile."

The swift and furious blows that the emperor was delivering left right and center as he spoke made me doubt that Takamori would get something so easy as exile. This was a medieval culture, and I didn't doubt that the emperor had more than a few torture devices and dungeons beneath his castle.

"Your majesty!" An exhausted messenger ran up to our group. "The left flank is on the verge of giving way. They have been attacked by several unknown monsters." He then described arachne and lamia, which I had no idea existed in this world.

The emperor's response was to send half the Imperial Guard to reinforce the left flank. He then sent messengers to check on the status of the right flank. They soon returned with relieving news.

"The left flank remains secure. But they have needed to shift their positions somewhat to give the dwarves from Einangrad space to use their weapons."

Glancing over to the right, it was pretty clear what portion of the walls were occupied by the dwarves from home. There was the occasional booming sound as some of my experimental runes exploded. Goblins, orcs, and even the occasional ogre went flying as they were hit by a hammer engraved with the Rune of Impact, or a Rune of Strength. Back when I was a kid though, my runes had a cost to using them. So the dwarves using them were likely being jarred to pieces by the vibrational feedback from the weapons, if they didn't already have broken bones.

"Botvid's bilge, just how many weapons did my dad bring?" Bekhi asked as her ax cleared a bloody swath through a group of goblins. "And just how many did you make, Kvalinn?"

"Too many." I replied as I blocked an orc club with my shield. The pressure was taken off my arm when the monster fell to the side with an arrow between its eyes. Nodding a thanks to Miyata, I continued fighting.

"You made all those weapons for the Einangrad dwarves, Kvalinn?" The emperor asked. "They seem to be more destructive than the ones you made for me and my guards."

"They're more destructive, but also less stable. If I made something like one of those weapons for your majesty, then it possibly could have exploded in your hands. Or killed all your Imperial Guards."

"Hrmm. Well we can't have something like that interrupting a battle this fun. It would spoil the mood." The emperor grumbled a bit as he gave an envious side glance to the unstable weapons that were constantly producing various booms and weird noises. I was definitely not envious of the dwarves handling those experimental weapons, and I sent a lot of mental apologies for making those failures of experimental weapons.

After defeating another wave of goblins, orcs, and ogres, the emperor turned to me. "Take a moment to rest, Yankee's. My instincts are telling me that the toughest part of the fight is soon to come."

Bekhi and I fell back to where Gerde and the rest of the party were still flinging spells. There were numerous empty potion bottles discarded all around them, and they were starting to show signs of magic exhaustion.

"Well done everyone." I said after we had all taken time to eat a quick bite and drink some water. "Delimira and Gerde, you're joining us in the front line. Jenise, no more potions for you. If you drink any more, then you could die from overusing your magic. So when your magic runs out, just draw your sword and defend Miyata from any monsters that get past us."

"But what if one of you is wounded?" Jenise asked in concern. She had healed Bekhi and me a couple times each by now, but they were minor injuries.

"Only use healing magic if it's life threatening." I responded. "Everyone ready? Let's get back to killing monsters!"