with the basic spell of fire.
He could also already see the next group of attackers, the ogres, and following them,
more jotnar. All he can do now is to try to conceal his attacks as though coming from
Scarburg. He was mindful of the second host following the one now attacking. But he
was hopeful that he had reduced the numbers enough to enable Scarburg to resist this
first attack. As a bonus, a lot of mages have already been eliminated and the mantlets
available to the enemy also have been greatly reduced. He trusted that Scarburg’s
archers will make the most of the opportunity.
The fourth volley arrived. Tyler followed the same tactic but with a third trio of fireballs for good measure, hoping it won’t be noticed in the confusion. He gambled that any
observing dokkalfr will see it as projectiles from a late catapult. But with the gory
bedlam before him, he doubted any of them would have the time to watch and
observe. Most of the fireballs now centered around ice giants, trolls, and mages. He
deemed them as the most dangerous elements of the group in front of him. Again, the
detonating fireballs wreaked havoc among the dokkalfr. Even if focused on the giants,
trolls, and mages, the resulting explosions decimated nearby formations. The deadly
red and yellow blossoms again sent body parts flying in all directions with pieces of
weapons and armor acting like shrapnel. The bloody and chaotic scene before him
started to have an abstract quality to it. Mostly red in color.
But Tyler could only see what was in front of him. He couldn’t assess the progress of
the enemies attacking Scarburg. Even though bloodied, the first ranks of
the dokkalfr had already joined the attack and were beyond his sight. But he assessed
the casualties he inflicted to be around twenty percent of the enemy host, primarily due
to the packed formations being attacked by him at a closer distance than the catapults.
With many of them wounded and with less protection from arrows, he doubted that
they would be able to breach the walls after passing through the lethal gauntlet of the
obstacle field. Even the dokkalfr formations were in disarray, each company, or what’s left of it, rushing to the attack in no discernible order. Then the ogres arrived.
From what he had observed, the ogres were a sturdy foe though vulnerable to his
lightning strikes. But he couldn’t use that spell now as it would attract attention to his
sniping. He hoped his gifts of fire would do as well. But the ogre leader gave him a
present. As they reached the area in front of Tyler, they stopped and began to dress
their ranks. The group collecting stragglers and organizing themselves before pushing
forward.
Either the ogre leader is stupidly emulating human and dokkalfr formations or confident
enough of withstanding the catapult bombardment with few losses, he mused while
waiting for the next volley to arrive.
When it hit, he again followed the same tactic but avoided the third fireball barrage to
avoid detection. Instead, he focused on increasing the explosive force of the detonating
balls of fire. The blasts again rocked the field, adding to the increasing din arising from the attackers and the defenders of Scarburg.
His bombardment did inflict casualties but not as many as with the dokkalfr. Many of
those who fell down when the blasts started were able to get up. Shit! Must be too
dumb to die, he cursed. He misjudged the contributing effect of shrapnel on the
smaller dokkalfr compared to the ogres.
The bright side of the situation was that many fascines were burning and the wooden
planks some ogres carried were broken or left on the ground. After that volley, the
ogres joined the assault. He couldn’t cast yet as the volley from Scarburg hasn’t been
fired. But he didn’t give them much chance of breaching the walls. Spears and halberds
will keep them at bay. If the total attacking force can be reduced to three to two
thousand by the time they reach the walls, there was no way they could take them
when defended by two thousand men.
The final group of attackers, made up of jotnar, started rushing forward even before
entering the killing zone of the catapults. Which he thought was a good idea on the part
of the jotnar commander. But he still continued with his bombardment under cover of
the catapult’s fire. But this time, he reverted back to the five grenade-sized fiery
explosions in two volleys, considering that the running jotnar were in a scattered
formation. He didn’t reduce their numbers as much as he wanted to. It was difficult to
target them as many were of the beast kind. He figured the defenders could take care
of them. He was more interested now in the wagons carrying fascines and wicker
mantlets as well as the catapults following them. But they were so slow in reaching his
range. Yet he knew destroying them was a must.
Then suddenly, Habrok was at his side.
“My lord, Jorund reports enemies coming through the destroyed forest area. He estimates them at another two hundred. Mixed force. Jotnar, dokkalfr, and giants. With
mages and lots of archers too.”
Now the shit really has hit the fan! Those ogres finally got to report back. Funny, I was
hoping they would never stop running. Well, no rest for the wicked as they say.
He quickly crept backward out of the tarp. Crouching, the two went to the closest
lookout point. Tyler could see the enemy streaming through the destroyed forest. They
have not yet reached the area edging the staked clearing. But the bulk was already
moving towards it and a sizable number was straggling.
The two bowmen have not yet fired any volleys, waiting for his order though some
enemy had already reached the extreme range of the bows. Good, he thought as he
wanted to see first how the enemy would try to take the position below them. In a few
moments, the enemy archers let loose their arrows, directing them towards the low cliff
and its barricades. He observed that the archers were spread out among the attackers,
letting loose at their will. Then fire blasts started erupting in the cliff area together with ice spells which sent out sharp shards upon exploding. Even
