Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

26th of Ymiden 717

A blistering desert that stretches for hundreds of miles around Nashaki, with very little relief from the baking heat.
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

26th of Ymiden, 717, Early Morning
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The sun had risen over the Hotlands, and it's light glinted off spearheads, armor, and shields as the forces of Nashaki and The Eternal Empire arranged to do battle once more. The Imperials had made it to the very entrance of the Northern Reaches Fortress and had begun their siege. They had weakened the barriers at the entrance with the help of several independent contractors among the nomads and such that had been willing to strike at Nashaki for a variety of reasons, whether that be plunder, revenge, or a chance to endear themselves to the Imperials.

The force that would be storming the gates was a combination of Imperial forces and these independent contractors, including the leader of one of the stronger forces that had previously fought against the Empire as mercenaries. Apparently, he hadn't much appreciated Nashaki refusing to hold up their end of the contract, and the Empire had been willing to hire his forces for this battle, at a fixed fee plus their word that the Rhakrii Raiders would not be targeted for aiding Nashaki at the Claypan.

Nashaki also had a few independent contractors on their side in this battle, but they were mostly singular mercenaries and other the odd volunteer, whether they had willingly volunteered or not. These were spread out among the main forces, and those on the upper level had been equipped with bows if they had lacked them. The commander of the fort had already set up their two defensive cauldrons and filled them with glass that he was now heating to its melting point.

Horns sounded from the Imperials and their vanguard stormed forward. The battle had begun.

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Table of Contents for the Map

Red Square: Brayden
Black Square: Eddrick
Blue Squares: Defensive Cauldrons

The squares only mark the starting points. In your posts, please be clear where you're moving towards. There's no limit on how far you can move, be keep in mind that there are enemy forces around. Injury and possible death are a risk here, so don't put yourself at unnecessary risk.

Nashaki Forces

100 Infantry Soldiers, spread out to guard the stairs to the upper level and the entrances to the fort itself.
200 Infantry Archers, positioned along the upper levels of the fort and the bridges.
100 Cavalry Soldiers, near the entrance to the fort.
100 Cavalry Archers, gathered around the fort itself.


Imperial Forces
All Imperial Forces start near the gates
500 Infantry Soldiers
200 Heavy Cavalry
50 Scouts
5 Tower Agents

Rhakrii Forcess

Edd, let me know what your brought in your post, but keep it reasonable. Remember, you might be able to capture your fort for yourself if you're clever enough and are willing to risk the Empires wrath.

Advantages

Positional Advantage: Nashaki
Numerical Advantage: Imperials
Morale Advantage: N/A
Training Advantage: Imperials
Familiarity Advantage: Nashaki

Immortals, Archmages, or Grand Monsters Present

None

I will post again on the 9th. You have limited control over allied forces. Should you wish to defect to the other side, make it clear in your post.
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Brayden
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

That is the last time I go chasing some tart into the desert for a bunch of slavers Brayden thought gloomily as he sheathed his cutlass and rested his shield against the walkway before organize his arrows. The events that brought him as far as the Northern Reaches Fortress had certainly been eventful, gruelling and had left him with sand in places he’d rather not talk about. Arriving in the fortress, he had been unaware of recently military movements and found himself hired, charged with defending the fortress to his last breath.

Though hired was slightly inaccurate, he was out of food, water and in possession of an exhausted horse that desperately needed respite, and all the resources had recently at least been tightly controlled by the garrison commander here. He did not relish essentially being pressed into service for a city he cared little for, not that the thought of an unchecked Eternal Empire roaming and roving around the desert gave him a warm fuzzy feeling inside. But on the morn of the imminent battle, he stepped up along with the rest of them as the fierce sun indiscriminately bared down on them all.

His fingers blindly fumbled about, struggling to notch the arrow in a bow he seldom used yet he would not have chosen to be anywhere else except the walkways, above the inevitable ground fighting that would soon fill the fortress. He looked and felt out of place among uniformed, disciplined Nashaki soldiers, himself donned in his incomplete leather armour that he doubted would offer any noticeable protection against a thundering calvary charge or whistling volley of arrows.

“I’m just gonna go ahead and claim all the corpse loot now” He muttered jokingly, his nerves getting the better of him. Thud. Thud. Thud. The gate began to splinter and crack, struck by a multitude of axes that Brayden very much hoped would stay behind the gate. “You can’t just claim all the loot” A voice behind or next to him stated, Brayden didn’t very care where he stood. Thud. Thud. Thud. The symphony of metal striking again as the gated began to crack under the strain. “I just did” Brayden replied, his eyes never wavering from the gate as his spied flashes of metal amongst the gaps beginning to form. Thud. Thud. Th-

Suddenly the axes stopped their assault and a horn rang loud and clear, in Brayden’s head at least, reverberating deep within his chest as his pounding heart struggled to be heard. “Archers, ready!” A voice rang out, followed the sound of a hundred arrows being drawn and notched, Brayden himself didn’t even own a quiver, most of his arrows were bundled at his feet. He picked one up, clenching in between his teeth in preparation. “Aim!” The commanding voice rang out again, Brayden raised his short bow, the string digging into his fingers as he pulled back the string. An archer would find Brayden’s abilities lacking, his arms shook, his aim was awful and his stance was all wrong but he would be one more target, one more human shield at least.

A sea of steel erupted from the ruins of the gate, the vanguard of Eternal Empire’s forces charged forward amongst the sound of galloping hoofs and clanking metal as an indiscernible roar erupted from soldiers on both sides. Brayden released the arrow, not caring if the order had been barked or not. The arrow veered off as it shot from the walkways, though it managed to head in the general direction at least but Brayden could only grimace as the bowstring scrapped against his forearm, he was a very underfunded mercenary to say the least.

This better be worth it Brayden thought, his mood darkening as his eyes wandered across the battleground in infancy.
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Eddrick Brodon
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

The unspoken code word was "meat shield". Eddrick had no illusions about the Imperials doing him the "honor" of placing him in the vanguard of the invading forces. He and his Rahkriis would be well-spent, expendable bodies, in the eyes of his temporary Imperial commanders. There was no part of an attacking force that suffered a greater percentage of casualties than the very first ones in.

It was likely that the military liaison, with whom the warchief had met to discuss their "partnership", had designs upon his Night Glow Spyglass. As always, Eddrick didn't blame him, but he'd be damned if he'd go bumbling into the most withering archery fire that most battles had to offer, just to conveniently die and free it up as loot. Nor did he intend to divide his loyal subordinates into two ranks on both sides of the battle. There were only thirty of them, not even the equal of the scout contingent the Imperials had at their disposal. But they knew each other's talents and reliability, and that was more important than mere numbers.

Eddrick had taken the opportunity to give a fairly long-distance overview of the fortress as the means of providing the demonstration of his Night Glow Spyglass the liaison had required. In return, The Empire had offered the Rahkriis free claim on what loot they reached first, amnesty for their initially opposing stance at the Claypan, but best of all, autonomy in the future, when the Empire ruled the Hotlands; something Eddrick now strongly believed would come to pass.

Naturally, there were many details that could not be discerned at the distance from which they'd had to spy out the fortress in the darkness of the previous night. But the Rahkrii leader had seen enough to convince him to keep to the left of the fortress' interior once the initial incursion began. It looked to him to have fewer high points opposing it, from which enemy archers could defend, than the right side. And once his own men secured a position to ascend the cliff walls, high ground of their own would be available.

In the event that the Nay-shocks, as he had taken to calling them, already had archers on those heights, there were a half-dozen pokos, with bowmen riders, waiting for the signal to come over the hill and take them from behind. Eddrick had a relay of signal archers, each one prepared to send the relayed signal further down the line to where these poko waited. Mostly it was just a matter of sending this signal around the base of the heights to let the poko riders know whether they were going to be securing unmanned heights or attacking enemy troops on the hill.

But all of this was beside the immediate strategy when the gates were broken and the Imperial forces moved in. Nashaki archers immediately peppered the invaders with arrows and the Rahkrii forces hoisted fallen bodies as meat shields before them as they made their way along the front inner wall to the left. Their progress was slowed, burdened as they were with these "shields". But the protection this dead flesh provided was worth it.

Before they ever got to where they'd be addressing the possibility of archers on the heights, they first needed to deal with those inside the buildings directly before them. The bodies they dragged in with them gave them the equivalent of sandbags to crouch behind as they fired back at enemy archers, who were primarily settled on the rooftops and raised walkways.

It depended largely on how many archers were targeting them specifically. If there were not many, they'd make a rush for the cliffs where the wall itself would provide a good step up to climbing the hill. If archery fire concentrated too much on them, they would charge the building before them, cutting off the archers' line-of-sight and probably giving them a good idea of whether they could go straight through the windows themselves, or if they needed to run around to where they hoped would be a ground-level doorway. At that point they would also know what sort of signal to send to the poko riders.
Last edited by Eddrick Brodon on Sat Jun 24, 2017 2:21 am, edited 2 times in total. word count: 713
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

The Rahkrii weren't alone in the Vanguard, they were accompanied on both sides by Imperial Legionnaires. However, when the Imperials charged into the fortress, it wasn't the infantry that led the charge. Instead, the Empire sent their cavalry in first, using them to push back the Nashaki cavalry. While the heavier Imperial horses weren't as effective in the terrain as the Nashaki camels, they were able to use the tight confines of the fort to their advantage and were pushing back the Nashaki cavalry.

The drive from the Imperial Cavalry was backed by the Scouts firing on the Nashaki archers, and then the Infantry was sent into the fortress. The mixture of Rhakrii infantry and Imperial Legionnaires were able to push up to the walls of the forward buildings, but they had an issue. The majority of the archer fire from the forts was aimed at the infantry, while the cavalry archers focused on the Imperial Heavy Cavalry. The heavier armor of the Imperial forces was showing it's advantages, however, and slowly, more and more archer fire was focused on the Imperials rather than the lighter Rhakrii forces. After all, the latter were just bandits to Nashaki's eyes.

There was, however, a problem. The cliff where the entrances of the fort were located was still protected by Nashaki infantry. The quickest way to secure Imperial control of the outside of the fortress would be to make it up to those cliffs. One of the Imperials grouped with the Rhakrii turned to face Eddrick. "I don't suppose you have some way to help us take those cliffs, Captain?" she said, using the unofficial rank they had given him.
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Brayden
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

If there was rhyme or reason behind a battlefield, Brayden’s untrained eye failed to see it. To him it was nothing more than a two-sided tavern brawl, with a line of blood and bodies diving the two ever more chaotic forces. He watched as the two cavalries collided, as horse and camel alike were sent smacking into the ground while their riders were cut into ribbons of flesh, metal and leather. The stench of blood and death began to rise to walkways, flooding their nostrils with the heat of burning sun with it, and Brayden would fail to see what for till and if he got paid.

He contained to loose arrows into the masses. Slow and ungainly his shots were but he didn’t find it hard within the pack fortress to direct his arrows towards the enemy, whether they hit and had any impact was another matter entirely. The only distraction provide to be the never ending volleys from the Empire’s Scouts that whistled passed him, some felts like they were a mere hairs breadth away from slicing him open. Next to him, an archer was less lucky as one embedded itself in his next, blood erupted from the wound and Brayden felt the warm, metallic taste on his lips as the spray of crimson splattered against the right side of his face. The archer crumpled, screaming and weeping, before being subtlely pushed from the walkway by Brayden, crushing a legionnaire in the fracas below.

Perhaps because he seemed to place little value on his ‘comrade’ lives, or because he was blatantly a useless archer, he found a rough hand his shoulder and a voice bellowing into his ear to be heard above the clashing metal “They want you on the cauldron soldier! Now!”

Brayden didn’t have a problem with this order, happily letting another archer take his place as he chucked his bow to the ground with little care before picking up his familiar shield and strapping it to his forearm. Useless bit of wood thought unkindly as he kicked it from under his feet, contently leaving the arrow to any archer that needed him and proceeded to make his way back to the cauldron, ducking and weaving through the ranks of archers as he kept his head low, eager to avoid the Empire’s arrows.

There the huge cauldron sat, mounted and ready to be emptied. He could feel the heat radiated from the blackened steel belly. The fire that heated did not go wanting for fuel as coal was constantly shovelled and feed into it, on a hot day like this, these men were drenched in glistening sweat, stained black from the powder and fumes. “On my orders, you two tip it over the edge” An officer order as Brayden and another soldier stood either side, his eyes watering from the plume of smoke that rose from below as his hands grew hot as he clasped the steel handle.

“Wait for it”
The officer ordered as Brayden watch the Nashaki infantry get pushed back by sword and shield, further back along the path between the western cliffs and the building where the defensive cauldron sat. “Wait for it” He repeated as Brayden saw arrows, shot from the walkways and cliffs temporarily halt the oncoming tide but it only a brief respite as they continued to push forward, carving their way through the battlefield. “Wait for it!” He reaffirmed as he saw Brayden was eager to tip the cauldron with the front line directly below the molten contents. Instead the officer waited till some had made their way even further down the path, to try a cut them off with the glass and spare any Nashaki forces as even a splash could do great harm.

“Now!” He screamed. Brayden pulled his entire body to the ground, the weight of the two men dragging the cauldron over, slowly at first till the molten glass moved with them, eager to escape its container, to drench the forces below.
Last edited by Brayden on Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 674
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

"Timing is everything, Centurion." Eddrick grinned back, already pulling a red-feathered arrow from his quiver. He hoped he had recognized the emblem on the uniform of the Imperial positioned with him correctly as he pulled the bowstring back to an extreme and let the arrow fly on a trajectory intended for distance beyond the battle zone. "Now, other than doing what we can to provide some help, but not bring too much focus on our hidden position...we wait."

By 'hidden position', he had not truly intended to suggest that his squad was invisible or any such thing. The enemy knew well that they were there. But the building now served as concealment, and their moderate support fire was not making them the target of any great priority by the Nay-shocks. They had managed to fire in and kill the soldiers that were inside the building without losing more than a few of their own, but the bars on the windows were undoubtedly the primary reason the defenders did not worry too much about manning the interior.

The Rahkriis had no way to get inside, so the defenders did not deem it important. Getting inside would have been a very useful thing to accomplish, as they could flat-out see the stairway inside, leading to the walkway elevation. But Eddrick had never expected to gain that access. For now, it was stacking the dead meat-shields up at the corners of the building so they could snatch a few timely ambush volleys on those enemy archers that were just about to capitalize on some exposed Imperial position.

The whole purpose was to give the Nay-shocks the idea that they were going to be a stationary element in this fight. And for several bits, they were. They maintained their holds on their bows at the first signs of dust clouds rising from over the crest of the defended heights. The moment the defenders on the heights turned around to face incoming pokos, Eddrick waved the signal to charge the cliff face.

Three of the pokos branched toward the defenders, turning on their sides to form the carapace-shield-wall the Imperials had grown to appreciate at the Battle of the Claypans. A good dozen total archers that had ridden in with them now jumped behind this "wall" and sent several volleys of arrows to pin and slow the defenders down for the few bits it would take for the other three pokos to do their part. These other three branched directly to the point on the wall above where Eddrick's men now waited, returning arrows in any direction from which they came under attack.

These pokos also had archer support to help them out, but their main purpose was quickly established as the actual pilot of each poko pulled coiled ropes from the packs attached to their carapaces and threw them down, two for each animal. Each rope was secured to flanges on the creature's shells, and had four stirrup-loops tied into their lengths at ten-foot intervals. This was a tactic the raiders practiced frequently at their cliff stronghold to be sure of being able to maintain hold and balance while the pokos now backed up to pull the men straight up the cliff face in mere ticks.

With six total ropes, each holding four men, it would only take two drops to bring every man of this Rahkrii squad to the cliff top. Eddrick, of course was more than willing to let the imperials make use of this if they chose, and would offer cover fire on those Nay-shock archers, now below them, that were opposing this effort. With Imperial soldiers hitching these same rides up, the invaders would gain an ever-increasing presence on the heights to clear out the Nashaki infantry and gain an unopposed field of fire on the enemy below.
Last edited by Eddrick Brodon on Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:03 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 652
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

The placement of the first cauldron used was, whether by accident or design, a thing of tactical brilliance. The molten glass pooled between the fortress and the cliff wall, and the heat of the desert sun meant that it wasn't going to be cooling any time soon. The result was too fold. Not only were a fair chunk of Imperial infantry, as well as a few Rhakrii that had gotten too eager, burned alive, but the resultant mess proved an impenetrable barrier between Imperial forces and the western staircase.

However, Eddrick's own gambit paid off. With the Raider cavalry and their rope ladders, they were able to acquire a position on the cliff walls, negating the height advantage of the Nashaki archery. Centurion Gardise, who had grinned when Eddrick recognized her, was the first of the Imperials up the ropes after the Rhakrii's, but she had a squad up after her in short order. Taking stock of the situation using the position their height granted them, she grinned widely at Eddrick.

"Nice work, captain. I had my concerns, but hiring you and your raiders has paid dividends." she said, as her forces took position between the raiders and the defenders on the cliff. "But with all due respect, this part is something my forces excel at." she said, grinning fiercely as she turned to the Legionnaires and drew in a deep breath. "LEGIONNAIRES. WALL OF THORNS FORMATION. FORWARD...MARCH!" she barked, her commands heeded instantly.

The Wall of Thorns, it transpired, meant the front ranks took held their shields in front of them, while the second rank poked their spears in between the shield, a combination of both offense and defense. It had been useless while Nashaki held the high ground, but now that issue was elimnated. On the side of the formation, Legionnaires held their shields up to prevent Nashaki from simply firing directly into the formation.

With Imperials now on the cliffs, Nashaki attention on the left side turned towards firing arrows at the Rhakrii Raiders and their accompanying Imperial unit. With this release of pressure, infantry and cavalry still on the ground began to push the Nashaki forces back. Nashaki moral, while not breaking, was waning, and more than a few archers were heard wondering it might be easier to let the Imperials take the exterior, while fighting them off from the interior.
 ! Message from: Basilisk
Nashaki morale is dropping. If Imperial/Rhakrii forces aren't either removed from the cliffs or cut off from reinforcements, Nashaki forces run a high risk of routing and abandoning the exterior of the fortress.
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Brayden
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

The screams were blood curdling, filled with desperation and bargain, men howling for their lives or for the pain to stop. Brayden wanted to look away but he couldn’t. The fiery molten glass was indiscriminate it what it set alight. Leather, hair, skin and flesh. Only the bones would be left as Brayden watched the men turn a fiery, angry red before their skin started to peel off their flesh, only bone and steel would remain, and not unscathed. Soldiers on both sides leapt back, fear ran rife in their eyes and found a home in their hearts. The poor troops who escaped a horrific death but found themselves on the wrong side of an impregnable molten barrier were quickly meeting their ends, outnumbered in this small area by infantry or by bow, and they meet their end quickly.

But this encounter was not the battle, and as Brayden heaved the cauldron back up too rest, he saw on the cliffs the encroaching Imperial forces, shields locked with fangs of spears, forcing their way into the fortress. Arrows shifted their focus, from the ensuing chaos in the bowels of the battle to the ring that the cliffs forward around Brayden as a wave of Imperial coloured amongst the midst of the calavary began to surge forward, gaining ground.

“What do we do sir? Do we have orders from the commander?” A voice asked of the officer, far to obedient to belong to Brayden.
“We could let them take the cliffs, fight them off from the interior. We hold the walkways, their cavalry can’t reach us here” The officer reasoned, it was a fair tactic and not one without merit but Brayden refused to accept such a suggest as a handful of archers muttered in agreement with this idea.
“No!” He stated darkly and dramatically, though no-one paid him any attention. He held no rank, he had the appearance of a man who had no right being in charge and his manner was one of absolute self-service, not an ideal blend for him to be listened to. Brayden did not want to even contemplate begging caged in by the Empire’s forces, should this battle truly and utterly turn against them with no hope of victory than he refused to have his escape cut off by the shield’s and spear’s of the Legionnaires.

He looked at the cliffs, they were sturdy and strong, the Nashaki had picked a prime position to carve their garrison into, even if they had not taken the wise course and maintained a strong presence here. Still, Brayden’s mind wandered and he had to asked.
“Could we create a landslide? Block them off?” He demanded of the officer.
“How? We have no trebuchets, no ballistas, no catapults. We have nothing to even hope to create enough force” He replied, bleakly, becoming more and more committed to his idea.
“Well then what do we bloody have?!” Brayden spat, his face turning into one of panic.

He wasn’t soldier, he wasn’t a tactician, he wasn’t a leader. He was a bloody mercenary, impressed into a battle he had the only thing invested in. His own life. Which just so happened to be the most precious thing to this man. He was a mercenary, and if there was even a shred of true honour on the field of battle between any and all people, then he did not possess that. He did not fight fair. What do we have? He asked himself as he eyed the blackened cauldron that still radiated fierce heat.

A thousand things could go wrong with the idea that leapt into his mind. But it was all he had, he would not meekly surrender his control of his fate to an idea ring of steel and defensive attrition. “I need your gloves” He barked at the men still fueling the cauldron for the next batch of molten glass, regardless of whether it would be melted in time. They only surrender their thick leather gloves at the tip of Brayden’s cutlass. “And I need your helmet” He stated bluntly, yanking the steel cap from the officer, ignoring his protests.

“Have your archers ready” He ordered, as he peered over the rim of the cauldron and eyed the remainder of the molten glass that bubbled away at the bottom. It seemed like a thimbleful compared to the size of the cauldron, yet enough remained. Maybe. A thousand things. He could be ignored, he could find a sword in his back for disrespecting an officer, or find himself just pushed into the cauldron and left to burn. His gloved dipped into the cauldron, scrapping up the residue into the steel helmet. A thousand things. The steel could be sub-standard and metal right down, its could leak and spill down onto his forearms and sear the flesh from his bone. He pulled back and aimed at the cliffs opposite. A thousand things. He might miss, the gap might be too far, his hand might slip and the contents pour onto his face. His hands sweated profusely as he held what seemed to be an inferno in his hands, the thick leather doing its best as the steel readily heated up to a lethal temperature.

He didn’t need to spray to hit them all. He just needed a big enough hole in the shield wall, enough of a shock for bow and arrow to tear it apart and for it to never reform. He would not meekly surrender his fate.

He arched back and hurled the helmet and its molten contents with all the force he could muster.

It was in the gods’ hands now. The irony was lost on him.
To Basilisk - I am happy to face whatever consequences you deem worthy of this... Let's say bold action by Brayden.
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Eddrick Brodon
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

For a moment, strategy, location, danger and fear were forgotten, as horror took their place. The erupting flames of all-too-slowly incinerated flesh, immolated in the bubbling flow of molten glass, waved with arms of men shrieking in agony as their bodies melted. The knowledge that these were men underneath their flaring cloaks of flame nearly made Eddrick double over and retch.

In truth, the only thing that allowed him to retain some presence of mind was the need to put them out of their misery as quickly as he could. These were his men, who had counted on his leadership to provide the best chance of successfully taking part in this raid. Return from such burns was a lifelong ordeal of peeled skin, infections and dissolved muscle tissue. There was a good chance that even if the trauma could be overcome, their brains were likely to be greatly reduced in capability from being roasted within the helms that were already starting to glow from the heat.

No, leadership took a different form now, a grim but necessary form as Eddrick turned his bow on these men. It was beyond irony that he felt more anguish now over an arrow that failed to lethally strike one of his friends than over any missed shot ever fired at an enemy. His Imperial liaison raged beside him as he took up the cause for those of his own men as well.

Eddrick did not even realize that he was crying as he lowered his bow in time with the last form wilting into the flames. The tears were not all grief and horror though. As he blinked away the distortion, a different effect replaced the swirling vision of teary eyes. The entire field of battle turned a shade of red and a curious focused hum drowned out the prominence of nearby sounds.

Rage consumed him. He raised the bow with a scream, firing off his remaining arrows with reckless abandon. Only a slim recognition of the situation gave him consciousness of the logic of expending his ranged ammunition before launching himself into the hand-to-hand carnage that was the only thing that could assuage his fury.

He took no real note of accuracy, knowing only that it was all Nashaki forces where he was sending them. Some were fired over low walls and sand bags, some on the raised walkways, some into windows, dark and light. He did, however, take note of the fact that a brave few of the burned men had managed to drag themselves, and a measure of the white hot glass, close enough to set the wooden walkway supports ablaze.

Eddrick grimly saluted their courage, not caring whether there had actually been any conscious thought on their part to provide some goal with their deaths, or if it simply been instinctive drive to get away from the glass, and sheer luck that they'd coincidentally gained something strategic to set fire to. He knew how he would remember it.

The ball was already swirling on the chain as Eddrick roared into the melee. Something had broken the uniformity of the Wall of Thorns, and Eddrick leaped along with the inertia of his spiked ball as it slammed into a Nashaki helm as it tried to wedge its way into the gap that had formed. The smell of burned flesh was already so heavy in the air that he did not notice that it now came from a few of those around him as well.

Pushing the tip of one spear down to the ground, he parked his foot atop it as he swung the chain to entangle several others, giving the slightest of openings to his fellow invaders to back him up as ranks closed upon each other in merciless blood rage.
word count: 636
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Basilisk Snek
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Battle: Northern Reaches Fortress Exterior

 ! Message from: Basilisk
Sorry for the delay. I hadn't actually realized that this had been posted to.
Brayden's gambit paid off and the molten metal broke the sides of the Imperial formation, giving the Nashaki defenders a chance to start pushing them back. However, the Nashaki counter-attack soon faltered in face of the rage of the Rhakrii commander. Not helping things was that Centurion Gardise was only moments behind him, slowed by her heavier armor. The two commanders fought hard and bought the time the formation needed to recover. Once the formation was back in place, it flowed around the two commanders and began pushing the weaker Nashaki infantry back.

On the base of the exterior, things had gotten even worse. The combined efforts of the Imperial Cavalry and the Scouts had forced the Nashaki cavalry against the wall. Robbed of their superior maneuverability, their weaker weapons and armor proved to be their downfall as the area basically turned into a meat grinder. As an additional problem, several of the burning raiders and legionnaires had crawled to the wooden supports of one of the bridges, this one connecting the bottom left building to the rest of the fort.

The bridge had caught aflame, cutting that building off from any reinforcements or rescue. Pulling away from the formation so she could see the rest of the battle, Gardise noticed the condition of this building. A few shouted orders later and the Imperials were steering well clear of the now isolated building. Another set of shouted orders and the cavalry was now taking surrenders at the meat grinder.

The Nashaki commander looked at the situation and shook his head, declaring the abandonment of the exterior, as well as the building that had been cut off from the rest of the fort. The Nashaki forces that could retreated inside, but the entirety of the cavalry was either dead or had surrendered. The infantry was now stationed firmly at the two entrances, archers remained on the buildings and bridges.
 ! Message from: Basilisk
Going to continue the battle in this thread instead of splitting it up like I originally planned. Brayden, Nashaki soldiers would be more willing to listen to you now. Eddrick, you have similar influence over the Imperial infantry. The cavalry and the scouts, not so much. Nashaki morale is low, but holding steady now.
word count: 393
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