Jay009

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

It was a tactical battle between not over reaching and leaving a gap in the shield wall but to find their target, positioned with such a height advantage difference. To stray too far from their friends would leave them surrounded by these scaly beasts and that would result in certain death.

The ferocious lizard towered over the top of the troops in close proximity, the monster’s head luring over them. The eye contact must have been terrifying and what was more was when it snapped towards a fellow comrade and chewed a chunk of bone mixed with flesh, removing half the soldier's neck from his body before it flung the meat away. As one body hurled away in mid air like a ragdoll, Warren watched as the row became frantic with their attacks, fear misplacing their spears. One lizard stepped onto a soldier, the massive green monstrosity drove its weight upon their shield, crushing them under its clawed foot.

Warren shouted out words of encouragement, reminding the soldiers how well they have fought up to this point. He told them that their enemies will not take their lives without paying in blood. Some grew in heart to listen to his words. The best of them did not need encouragement, but it still bolstered their own spirit and resolve, pushing them to fight on. But some of the new recruits and young ones seemed to succumb to fear and a rare few even stayed behind their shields, dropping their spears all together and cowering. This was why Barracker had always known to protect his weaker members in the center of the formation.

Barracker had fought his way into the thick of the enemy and unintentionally separated himself from his group, out of desperation to draw as many of these green monstrosities onto himself, all in a bid to lessen the burden on his group. This now meant that he was unaware of what was happening behind himself hoping it would not descend into tragedy without him there but he had confidence that they had Warren. Warren was not just a soldier but a capable seasoned Paladin who had always shown promise in the school of Paladin’s Respite. Anyone could put their trust into the man, to follow as their leader.

The Dire Stags charged in an abundance of power, joining the fight and relighting the fire of the defender’s energy and boosting morale with their presence. It was a blessing and the next thing needed to push the battle into their advantage.

Barracker was surrounded by scales, teeth and halberds. This was not anything new for the former monster hunter. In the midst of battle, he shuffled his feet, twirling his body in a dance to avoid the halberd's strikes and snapping jaws. In an explosive display, he shield-bashed a lizard in the snout, rocking the monster's brain at the same time as knocking the vampire away and into jumping, crushing kick off that knocked a second lizard over. Bouncing like a pinball, he pushed off that kick and up into the air before bringing his weight into a sweeping down-slash upon the neck of another third lizard. This constant movement kept him as safe as his tower shield did.

Barracker slid underneath a bite of another giant lizard, slicing the stomach open along and popping back onto his feet. Before the lizard came crashing down, Barracker was met with a halberd strike towards the back of his head. As Barracker turned around, the strike just came into view and the Paladin shield-parried with such force, it sent the halberd flying away into another rider. Barracker skewered the weaponless rider, then used the leverage to drag the enemy off their mount and flung him into another rider, knocking them, toppling off.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Jay009 those were good, and more than bearly so!

@Zapdos

Very much appreciate it friend, loving the plant idea used to defeat Zacharius. I wondered what was sending Adam to hospital all that time.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

He's a grizzled veteran

(just came to mind now lmao)

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Adam was an absolute animal in that fight!

(thats as much as i can think of lmao)

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The clash from the battering ram caused cracks in the wood of the gate to splinter and come loose from the hinges. The gate was coming down after a few more attempts. The Bats did not have much time to recuperate before the next serious attack took place. Barracker raised a hand up. “Ready yourselves. Take a short time out to focus on getting your breath back.” Barracker walked towards the gate and took a long look through to the danger and an eyeful of what sort of enemies were beyond the gate. His face dropped a little. Thank the gods they cannot see my expression right now, the Paladin thought about his troops. His unit could not see what he was seeing, on the other side of the gate, but soon they would. For the first time, doubt filled his mind. Would he and his unit be able to step up to the occasion? This was going to test the mind, body and spirit of his women and men. The Bats had incurred only a handful of serious casualties so far. The shield wall formation had done its work. But even the strongest and most experienced spear unit would likely be crippled here.

The battering ram’s next hit smashed a giant hole in the gate and everyone in Barracker’s block were looking clearly at the giant stone gargoyle dragon's head staring down upon them. Barracker was the only one with his back to the gate as he moved around his unit, making adjustments to each rank. Their shape. Their posture.

“You, back a step… You, dip further down on that knee. A low centre of gravity will give you the edge you need. The very ground will be your defense. Drive the bottom of your shields and the butts of your spears into the cracks between the pavestones. Remember to stay low.”

He kept tending to his men, even as the dragon-head of the battering ram backed up out of view and out of the hole in the gate. Men and women in the block started glowing again, different shimmers on their weapons, on their shields as many enchantments were blessed upon The Bats. Casted magical barriers,like a semi invisible wall, popped up in front of them. The Dire Stags were ready to aid the Bats once the charge was over, they stood around the corner from the gate.

Once the final ram hit, it outright flung the gates open. The trolls looked fierce enough, but they ignored the defenders and occupied the battering ram, wheeling it back and out of view, into the fog outside. Barracker took his place, front and centre, in front of the shield wall and drove the tip of his sword into a gap in the pavestones, to free his hand so he could cast his own barriers. He did not cast the barriers in front of himself as one would expect. Instead his barriers appeared on either side of him, making the vampire a one-man front rank to the shield wall. Hopefully all this magic would increase their survivability enough that they could take this titanic charge.

Barracker muttered the incantation for his transmutation spell, “Stoneskin,” as the final piece of magic to complete the preparations.

Warren, out of view of Barracker, had to place his arm around his fellow comrade next to him, to calm their nerves and solidify their resolve. Things were on a knife edge right now, if even one man broke and ran, it would probably cause a full rout. The silence screamed volumes. The waiting was unbearable.

Barracker looked straight ahead. He could hear it. First the horns, then the rumbling beyond the fog. It was as if a horde of giants were zoning in on Valhiem’s position. He could hear the footsteps, then the monstrous hisses growing louder and then louder. I hope this is enough.

Hades protect us.

Lizard cavalry, they looked like small wingless dragons that stood at a whopping ten feet tall, trodding on two legs, with a muscular physique. Their heads used as battering rams and the riders wielding halberds out of reach for the bats to touch them. These were the elite cavalry.

As soon as the impact happened, the contact made the vampire’s shield-arm feel crushed under the weight from the scaly beasts. His feet were ripping up concrete bricks from the path, heels sinking into the ground as if it was mud, such was the force impacting him. Due to the vampiric strength and resistance of his stone skin form, he was just about able to withstand the pressure, but he was sent skidding back towards the Bats. Magical barriers started to shatter immediately as riders barreled their way through easily. Barracker kept sliding backward and was about to reach the first rank when it happened… the familiar feeling he felt when outside the Temple of Hades, when their Leader James had used his blessing on him and the rest of Second Chance. His endurance peaked, his strength accelerated and he was able to stop himself sliding back.

For the whole unit of spears and shields, the crash of the cavalry charge was like an explosion. Some were crushed down upon and were ran over. Some were sent flying twenty feet. Some were impaled on the long halberds of the lizard riders. But most survived and managed to do damage back, tripping some lizards over and sending their riders flying. Some lizards ran onto the spears of The Bats.

As the lizard cavalry charge slowed down to a stop, The Bats rose to their feet and began stabbing up at the beasts and their riders.

A fierce battle began, with the Dire Stags block running in for support.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

To everyone, absolute great posts from start to now. Really enjoying everyone's situation and reading them all is well fun.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

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. A ladder. 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.

“Ladders!” 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. “Wulrick!” he bellowed as hard his lungs would shout. Wulrick the captain of The Bulls glanced over, “The gate!” Wulrick looked. Barracker shouted again. “We need cover to get down there!” 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. “Hades damn my enemies”. 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.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker watched as units of archers and mages contributed in taking down the battering ram. Cheers flooded the air as the mental pressure on the left side flank was relieved for now. The gate would remain sealed shut against the enemy. One of the siege towers had come to a halt, before collapsing into ruin. It was hard to notice why but Barracker put it down to the magical assault team of Mages.

“Bats, The Quinity is smiling down upon us!” Among the singing and cheers, the blocks of fighters were hit with a wave of excitement, an eagerness to give it their all. Siege towers were closing in on the wall, “Keep that spirit, this is where it all counts”.

Just before the siege tower met the wall, Barracker said a prayer for his friends.

May the Quinity protect my friends and thank you all for putting your lives on the line for Valhiem and Mytheria. I shall never forget this and will never abandon you all getting back home again.

Thud.

The siege tower gates crashed on the wall. Barracker rapped his tower shield with his claymore. With morale high, he initiated his block to shuffle forward a few steps and to start the attack first. He wanted to minimise the space in which the enemy had footing to fight on and also maximise the space in which his block could retreat back too. If overwhelmed this would allow the Bats to find their footing and gather themselves to fight back and push the opponent onto their backfoot, aiming to squeeze them off the wall. “Bats forward… Keep the line.”

Goblins came rushing at the shield wall, crashing bodies into the shields, their skulls bouncing off the shields with ease due to the weight and size advantage of the Bats, but it did disrupt the shield wall's solidness. This was leaving small but visible gaps, small enough to be grabbed through by stronger opponents. “Bats, Shield bash together, on my command… Now!... Now!”

Even through all the hissing noises and snarling, the Bats were focused and adjusted to the orders shouted, but then that's when the real problem arrived next. Orc warriors in full plated armour. “Brace for impact”.

As the orcs in full metal armour charged towards the wall, they brought the full force of all their weight crashing down on the defence, dual wielding jagged two handed swords in a flurry of blows hammering at the shield wall. The shield wall stayed surprisingly strong, but was crumbling lower and lower in height, The Bats struggling to stay on their feet, upright. The second line had to bring their shields high as roofs to protect the front line from the tal, monstrous enemy. As soon as more orcs pushed forward toward the weak points of the shield wall, Barracker knew it was getting a bit on the dangerous side that the wall would crumble.

“First line shield bash and break. Second line, get ready.”

The first line bashed as hard as they could, stabbed through the gaps created with intention, then as soon as the enemy fell back an inch, the front line split and broke away. A space was created for the second line to move in, replacing the front to bring fresh strength to the shield wall. Barracker stayed at the front, keeping an eye on his block as well as the enemy. “Very good Bats.”

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

What is that noise, his mind wandered for a moment. His body was too late to react, and then he realised it was the alarm. “No… Not now,” he told himself, but he knew deep down inside that there would have never been a good time for the battle to start. There would have always been more they could have done to prepare for the siege.

He donned his equipment and armed himself with his tower shield and claymore. He rushed out towards the tavern door and ran towards the chaos near the NorthEast section.

A whole swarm of ghouls, running and toppling over roofs and knocking over garbage bins and chairs, stands crashing to the floor. Hissing filled the surrounding space. They were everywhere. As he closed in on the enemy, a ghoul jumped onto his back from a crossing alleyway, marking the first combat of the day. The magelight brightened up the streets, making it visually as if daylight struck from the sun.

Barracker felt for a grip of an arm of the ghoul and swung the ghoul full pelt towards another ghoul attacking a party member of Silver Arrow from his rear. It was the tiefling, Gordon Watson, Silver Arrow’s archer. As they slayed the ghouls that they both were occupied with, they exchanged a nod and then set off in opposite directions both covering different areas of fighting in the streets.

Barracker’s goal was to get to his men and start the shield wall.

As Barracker got to the NorthGate, he was met by his second in command of ‘The Bats,’ Warren Burns. “Fuck, finally, lets get this started.” A loud confidence from Warren bolstered The Bats.

“Indeed, we shall ready ourselves,” he replied and everyone ran up the stairs to take position on the wall. Once they were in a tight formation, Barracker began shouting loud for everyone to hear. “Stick to the fundamentals and play your part.” The Bats switched into shield wall stance. Barracker stood, filling in the very end, right position of the shield wall, a position he could give tactical instructions from and as well get stuck into the action, making sure of the strength and health of the wall also. He gave Warren the same position on the second row and then bashed the hilt of his claymore against his shield. “I have faith in you all! Your training has come a long way, now for the real test. Keep in mind your loved ones! Keep in mind your neighbours! Keep in mind your priest, your councilmen and shopkeepers! This makes us strong, we are not forgotten in all this. We are the wall between them and this horde!”

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Hi everyone, I had a good time, I hope everyone did too. I'm back and ready to write. I will be on tomorrow to catch up on all the posts xenon