The Lives of Velnin chapter 23
A Pair of Aces
The sky was dark with enemy arrows, an endless torrent falling into the space between us and our wall, cutting off our retreat. In front of us slim columns of the Black Legion battered at our line of spearmen, their front fighting shield and spear and their rear carefully aiming with crossbows into the gaps between our shields and the chinks in our armor, thinning our line crossbow bolt by crossbow bolt.
Behind them, horsemen armed with looped ropes charged through the narrow pass, aiming to fill the gaps between the columns of the Black Legion. Behind the horsemen, whipped on from behind, charged an endless mass of turban-wearing soldiers armed small shield, spear, dagger, and bow. Our archers, already spent from firing at the Black Legion, could hardly do more than thin this endless mass before it crashed into us. Soon, our line of spearmen would be crushed under a wave of horse and soldier. Outnumbering us hundreds to one, the Dark Empire had decided to smash our defensive line by sheer brute force. It was time to play our aces.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22
At the wall, Canmar raised a red flag, signalling our artificers. From the wall of the pass, our arrow flamer began firing at the masses of dead bodies that had accumulated in the pass, lighting them up with magitech fire. In between these burning pyres, the horses continued their charge, panicked but well-ridden. Behind them the rush of men continued.
Now the horsemen reached the rear of the columns of the Black Legion as Canmar raised a blue flag. Suddenly the pass roared with the rush of air as our windmaker fired. Caught by the winds, the arrows of the Dark Empire turned around.
Suddenly, a huge mass of arrows pierced the charging horses and men behind them. Their archers, armed with extremely long bows, continued firing for some seconds as the arrows returned to them. Huge numbers of the enemy fell to their own arrows, and the horses suddenly went berserk under the onslaught. They crashed back and forth, throwing their riders, trampling the soldiers of the Black Legion underfoot.
Half the turbaned men continued their charge as the arrows flew into their faces. Half turned and ran. Some fell and were trampled underfoot by their fellows, unable to tell who had fallen to an arrow and who had simply been knocked down in the confusion.
Now my men surged forward as the soldiers of the Black Legion began marching backwards through the chaos. From the wall our archers continued to fire, peppering the chaotic mass of the men and horses of the enemy while our line surged forth shield and spear, pushing their front line back, panicking their horses further and compressing the wild crowd before us. It was a rout. It was a melee. It was an endless mass of enemies who could not help but injure each other as we continued to push back their mass and those fleeing battle collided with the charging men whipped forward.
Soon the enemy was in full retreat. As we passed the half-bowshot point from the wall, the enemies thinned out, and the charge ceased. We began to march backwards, picking up some gear from the fallen as we went. Our windmaker had ceased firing, but the archers of the enemy had not begun shooting us, now leery of our magitech, not knowing it could not fire again for a while, given the limited mana available in the winds of the pass. We returned to our wall, gave our injured to our healers to tend with their magic, and rested. The battlefield before our wall lay empty of living enemies and filled with their trampled dead, as the forces of the Dark Empire had retreated out of bowshot.
The Dark Empire sent no more troops that day. The sun set. We prayed for victory, and rested for the next day's battle.
The enemy attacked at dawn. No more did they make large moves, trying to smash us in one blow with their numbers. Now, the Black Legion simply marched forward over the endless corpses of men and horses, a line of wild-looking men walking behind under cover of their large shields. Again we met them at the quarter-bowshot mark. Again we fought the Black Legion shield and spear to shield and spear, but this time they did not fight for long. Once more they formed up into columns, and now the men they escorted fought us: wild men painted half white and half red, fighting us with club and spear as the soldiers of the Black Legion supported them with well-aimed crossbow shots from behind. Against disciplined men armed shield, spear, and sword, they did not fare well, though we took more injuries from crossbow bolts. As their escorted troops fell, the Black Legion once more marched out of bowshot as our archers peppered them with arrows.
Again and again throughout the day it was the same story. The Black Legion would march different troops of the Dark Empire's armies to us. We would fight them, take some injuries, and return to the wall as the enemy retreated back out of bowshot. Those injured but living were mended by the magic of our healers. We rotated our frontline with fresh troops, and we held. We fought men armed shield, spear, dagger, and club. We fought men armed with long daggers and powerful bows wearing caps, and some wearing turbans. We fought men in metal helmets with reinforced cloth armor, swinging clubs and stabbing with spear and dagger. We fought men with battle axes and short bows. No matter who was sent to us, we held, pushed them back, and took few casualties, often more from crossbow bolts than the men who went toe-to-toe with us. I wondered what Soraina, the Dark Empress, thought of her troop's performance, and what punishments would be undergone by her cowed generals.
Finally, the sun set. Exhausted from a day of endless battle but exhilarated with our continued success, we ate, prayed, and rested for the next day.
It was night when we learned of our impending defeat. Someone had told the Dark Empress of a route around our wall, a narrow trail to the other side of the pass. Through this, after the sun had set, a large group of soldiers from the Dark Empire now marched, and had been spotted by our scouts in the hills. Soon into the next day, we would be surrounded.
Book 1 now out on Amazon! The Lives of Velnin: THE BLACK CITADEL collects Chapters 1-14 of the story so far.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZPF7QN2 (paperback)
https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0DZJ7R5VH (or if you want to give Royal Road some money and have them pick your region automatically. I did post the story there, after all.)
I would be extremely grateful for any Amazon reviews you could muster. Amazon review link: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B0DZJ7R5VH
Forewarned is forearmed!