[Center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/230630/dbab70c9b1cdcc2c03d8d06889f71821.png[/img][/center]

The shield wall held tight in a fierce clash against the orc and goblins.  Shields against orc swords and goblin daggers was a dangerous dance.  The whirlwind of impact on the shields was tiring and fatiguing the arms and legs of The Bats.  This was not good as the legs of Barrackers soldiers were crumbling underneath the shield, he did not know how much his shield wall could take, and that was when things got way more complicated.

“Barracker!  The wall is going to break soon, we need the front rank to refresh again”  Warren shouted among war cries of the enemy.  Barracker looked back and saw his men and women were panting away.  Before he could give the signal, spheres of darkness began popping up on the walls and then disappearing and reappearing.  Barracker wondered what dreadful development had caused this.  He dropped his tower shield to stand against the battlements and glanced at Warren, giving his second in command a signed signal with his free hand.  Warren returned a reassuring nod and so the Paladin broke away from the shield wall to investigate where the source of the dark-spheres was coming from.

Another glimmer of hope came forth when some of the soldiers' weapons illuminated with a faint glow, which Barracker was unaware of as his vision was suddenly engulfed by the darkness. Warren cried out with a war cry, he knew that the mages on the support platforms gave him and some of the others a small boost of damage to their spears.  This gave more sting to their stabs at the enemy.

Barracker was unable to see and walked along the edge of the wall, feeling along the stone battlements.  He could hear noises coming from below and that's when he felt it. [Color=Green][i] A ladder.[/i][/color]   He was blind to what happened next but reacted as swift and quick as his body allowed.  A machete plunged into his arm.  As soon as this happened, Barracker responded with a powerful lunging kick which pushed the ladder off the wall.

He walked out of the pitch black towards his comrades, holding the machete’s handle.  Screams from tribesmen rang out as the ladder slowly tipped away from the wall and then came crashing down. The vampire withdrew the weapon from his arm and flung it blindly to his side and killed a goblin.

[Color=Green]“Ladders!”[/color]   Some of The Bats reacted startled by this and the blood dripping down Barracker’s arm.  The notion of seeing their captain hurt might have hurt morale of the troops in other circumstances, but this had a different response.  A surge of angry roars, kickstarted by Warren and the Bats followed suit. 

“Let’s make sure that these bastards remember our faces, the ones who sent them to Hades.  Regroup.”  Warren shouted and used his spear to puncture and inflict wounds onto the orcs.  

Morale was still high but for how long, Barracker knew it would not hold once more pressure came down onto his block and the first proper casualty came.  He craftily jumped up onto the battlements and attacked the flank of the crowd of orcs and goblins that were pushing against the shield wall.  A flanking attack of sorts.  Evil humans, elves and dwarves swarmed in, refreshing the attackers with new energy and leaving The Bats taken back by the crazy amount of endless waves.

Barracker attention was filled with enemies popping off the siege tower and the ladders.  He fought on the battlements, all around him.   His speed increased without his tower shield and he constantly rotated to fight on all sides.  The shield wall was being pushed back and the enemy was making way, gaining more room to squeeze more troops onto the wall. The shield wall was going to break, and now the soldiers from the first rank and the second rank switched with the third and fourth ranks of soldiers.  This was to conserve energy and give the previous soldiers time to rest.  

Barracker was surrounded, he had fallen away from his shield wall, fighting the enemy everywhere, elves, humans, orcs, goblins.  Then he spotted something very bad.  Trolls and a battering ram, just to make things worse had reached the gate. [Color=Green]“Wulrick!”[/color]   he bellowed as hard his lungs would shout. Wulrick the captain of The Bulls glanced over, [Color=Green]“The gate!”[/color]   Wulrick looked.  Barracker shouted again.  [Color=Green]“We need cover to get down there!”[/color]  Wulrick nodded.

The hard part was retreating his soldiers carefully. Gradually pulling out, their space was filled with Wulrick’s block, The Bull’s.  That’s when some of The Bats received fatal injuries, losing the shield walls strength as well as their lives.  Retreating and keeping the wall strong while doing so was always one of the trickier parts and something they didn’t get to practice much in the short days up to the battle.  [Color=Green]“Hades damn my enemies”.[/color]  He said quietly underneath his breath.

They finally were out of danger and rushed down the stairs to form up the shield wall again at the North Gate.