20demayo Chapter 421: Chapter XLI: Opening Clashes (Part 2/2)
Chapter 421: Chapter XLI: Opening Clashes (Part 2/2)
chapter 421: chapter xli: opening clashes (part 2/2)
(reyvin's pov)
scorch lands on my extended hand and a series of images blasts into my mind "whoever is leading the central detachment seems smarter than we expected." scouting with the dreaded bird man was something i was starting to do consciously instead of just scrying about, got my sight blocked too many times to trust it implicitly.
"how so?" legate furius asks, his eyes slowly trailing the kragenmoor phalanx which was only now, a good ten minutes after the clash, beginning to reform.
good speed all things considered.
scorch chirps his boredom and unsummons himself "they sent messengers to the other group, i suspect they will try and unite before investigating our position."
"not ideal." the imperial hums "but not a dealbreaker either."
"quite." i nod "i will have the redoran troops begin harassing them with automatons, that ought to fuck with their morale."
the legate gives me a look "constant barrage of bolts?"
i nod with a far too cheerful smirk.
he shivers slightly "poor fuckers."
once more i summon scorch, who glares at me ineffectively for a moment before launching himself southwards, all the while complaining about lazy ass elves and their familiar abuse. i naturally tuned him out instantly and turned to face the approaching almeril "casualties?" "fifty six confirmed dead with about three hundred injured." he lists off immediately "the rest should be able to march in five more minutes."
"much better than i expected, if you will excuse the morbidity." i snort lightly.
the redoran veteran just shrugs "i am as surprised as you are, our advantages were too great and the enemy was unprepared."
"best not to rely on such luck too often." i nod along and quickly inform him of our tactical state "leave the first three lines here to rest and have them loot the bodies and burn the rest, might as well get the fully fresh ones some experience."
he considers briefly before nodding "probably wise."
"oh and leave the priest here." i add "he can heal the wounded well enough on his own."
"he might protest." redoran points out, more out of obligation than actual care.
i just give him a long look at that.
he nods and walks back to the formation.
"now the waiting begins." i mutter with slight annoyance.
(general pov)
"keep yourselves together egg brothers!" a squad leader among the argonians hissed desperately as bolts came flying by the dozen each second "shields forward and drag the wounded to the shaman!"
not many of them had died but minutes upon minutes of constant crossbow bolts were starting to wear on their morale.
the squad leader saw a glint of metal in the distance and recognized one of the supposed contraptions the dunmer now used, seeing the opportunity he called "i see them there in the shrub! with me brothers, avenge the fallen!"
a series of hisses and roars came in response and they charged forward, ignoring the overall commander's orders to keep back. they were too far to hear her by now anyway.
-
war mage dreloth of the redoran, an unusual sentence but not a unique one, saw the animals begin to charge after his automatons and immediately commanded them to withdraw, still letting out a rhythmic barrage of bolts so as to keep the fire constant even as they skittered between the hardened mushroom shrub of resdayn.
now that their formation was broken, the lizards began taking actual casualties. bereft of cover and a proper shieldwall, they were swiftly lead out of the shrub and into an opening surrounded by mushroom trees on all sides.
the redoran warriors pounced on them without a second's hesitation, slaughtering all three hundred animals in less than a minute with no quarter being given.
"how is our bolt stock?" dreloth asked his fellow mage.
the young woman looked at the crate beside her for a moment before answering "should last us for another raid."
"and the battle stock?"
she nodded "taken into account."
"very well." he failed to keep his eagerness back "have the animonculi restocked and replace
any soul gems, we shouldn't give the beasts too much breathing space."
the young woman scowled "any second they spend breathing is too long."
on that, they could agree.
-
the claw leader of the central detachment, and overall leader of the road sally scowled terribly as she saw the bolts begin flying again. at least she managed to stop the idiots from charging after them again but it was a close thing.
"breathe, iritsza." the voice of the shaman shook her out of her stupor.
she kept back a scathing retort and sighed instead "we are being whittled down here, and it happening by my choice."
the shaman, assyra, nodded "and yet you know the choice to be the right one."
she frowned "we should not even be here to begin with."
once more, assyra nods her assent "the great warchief orders as he wills."
"you are not very helpful you know that, right?" iritsza quips and raises her shield, stopping a jagged bolt in its tracks.
her shaman friend just smirks at her.
but just as she thought of running to save her, she felt herself being shoved back slightly,
assyra's pleading gaze telling her to run as quickly as she could. with great hesitation, she nodded and turned away, almost immediately hearing a loud crunch and a squelch but refusing to slow down as she began running away.
she felt a new hatred burning in her heart, not for the dunmer, but for the fools who wished to
reignite yet another needless war for their bruised egos.
(reyvin's pov)
'wow that was dumb of her.' i blink as i feel the self sacrificing idiot get crushed in my
telekinetic grip 'why the fuck would you waste your attention while you are actively having
your limbs broken?'
shaking my head at the wasted chance of capturing a shaman for some magical research, i felt anondor approach me and lightly tap my shoulder.
i gave him a questioning glance he could feel through my crown and he simply pointed at the
approaching legion cavalry, legate furius looking not quite furious but at least a bit irritated as he rode up to me "we couldn't chase all of them down, sir."
"oh?" i raise an eyebrow.
"the argonians." he scowls "they managed to breed some massive swamp lizard and are
using it as a mount, the horses won't go anywhere near the things. and to make things even
worse the damn things and their riders are armored in steel plate." "interesting." i mutter "well, our goals have been accomplished anyway. we best get back to kragenmoor before the newbies start pissing themselves from the smell."
the veterans around us share in a bout of chuckles but soon get to work, loot was loot and no
soldier would ever ignore it. especially since i told them i would not be taking my leader's share of it. idly i notice a literal limbless nugget of an imperial woman surrounded by a bunch of argonian corpses and lift her up telekinetically 'fucking madwoman was still alive' i whistle internally as i begin stabilizing her 'and she is glaring at me.'
minthara would definitely like her.
(general pov)
she skittered soundlessly through the lightless night, her many legs giving her perfect
leverage to move across the rocky terrain and avoid being noticed at once. just as mother
intended!
the lord of all spiders had finally called for her! nearly a cycle after improving her so
drastically so that she may serve more ably! mother's gaze was on her, she knew it and would not fail in her task!
that she got a delectable meal out of it was just a nice little bonus of course. a noise drew her many-eyed attention as she barely felt one of the succulent little lizards shrouded in shadow step atop one of the uncountable webs she wove.
the shadowscale, one rather worried about his apprentice's recent failure to report back, stepped through the rocky outcroppings overlooking kragenmoor, a pair of powerful scrolls of illusion and anti-scrying hanging off his hip as he prepared to infiltrate the enemy city.
the warchief was against this course of actions but unlike what most would think, shadowscales care for their own.
and yet even as he prepared himself he felt his instincts scream at him in warning, immediately throwing himself to the side only to see... absolutely nothing.
but while he could not see anything he could smell it... 'poison, skyrim spider variant, greatly enhanced? potential migration and adaptation or purposefully warbred?' these thoughts raced through his mind as he clambered up a large dried out mushroom in less than a second.
and straight into his doom.
even his honed reflexes failed to react as he came face to face with a downright gargantuan
frostbite spider.
a frostbite spider seemingly made of orichalcum...
he did not even get to scream as he was grabbed with numerous pincers, his limbs freezing as
immensely potent paralitic entered his bloodstream.
-
would the fear musk of the lizard make the meat better or worse? she wondered idly as she
spun her cocoon. eating simply for the sake of survival was something the lord of all spiders
considered a sad thing, and so she taught herself to truly partake of her meals for the first
time.
so long as she did her duty first, of course.
new tastes and experiences or not, nimhe would feast well tonight.
the house too shall feast well
upon a mighty tribute of stone!
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