War: In the Valley of Peace

Chapter 3: Rescue

Chapter 3: Rescue

The Caravan

The minstrel sets himself as if to meet the ant's charge but at the last possible second he leaps to the side sweeping the ants front leg. He hits the ground and rolls, but his heavy armor slows him down, and by the time he rises to feet he has just enough time to dodge another attack as the ant quickly turns and charges him again. He rises to his feet a second time and sees that the ant seems to be quite a bit slower and unsteady. It seems to be having more than a bit of trouble dealing with its missing leg, but there seems to be more it than that, but he can't quite place it. In any case it gives him time to look around quickly. It is then that he spots the newcomers and calls across the battlefield, "By Gaea, dwarves! I hope you brought axes guys! Swords don't seem to work too well."

The greeting is well meant, but the dwarves are much too far away to hear him. His words don't go unnoticed, but it seems only the ants, the mage and the white-haired guard are close enough to hear him over the din of battle.

As much as the white-haired guard would like to ignore the annoying minstrel and leave him to his just desserts, the ant attacking him is the only decent target. He aims, muttering something about 'a world with one less minstrel' and waits as the minstrel dodges the ant a second time. Once the minstrel is clear he fires and the arrow slams into the creatures' middle causing the creature to pause as it steadies itself with its missing leg. However it seems to be taking a bit longer than necessary to handle the blow considering it still has five good legs.

As the minstrel watches, the white-haired guard fires again. The arrow thuds into the ants' head piercing the shell and partially coming out the other side. The ant slowly falls over, its legs twitching frantically for a long time before falling still.
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Most of the newcomers, the dwarves and the human, look up into the sky looking for the flying creature, which seems to enjoy hiding in the light of the sun.

One of the dwarves doesn’t bother to look up as he charges the ants with a wild battle cry. His little legs pumping hard he quickly reaches the battle and with a mighty (for a dwarf) leap, he brings his war hammer into play. With a loud snap the ant’s shell shatters under the blow.

The ant stumbles, sensing victory or at least hope and the two guards attack with renewed vigor.

Hoping to keep it from getting away with its prize, the human ranger lifts his bow aiming at the only ant retreating with the body of a guard. He yells to his dwarven companions, "Take the ones that are still attacking. I've got the one with the guard." He then releases the bow string and watches as the arrow ignites and flies towards its target, hoping that he can do what he says that he can.

The burning arrow streaks toward the ant, but he is too late as the arrow slams into the dirt of the ant hill and the ant disappears into it.

The other two dwarves soon join the battle; one armed with a footman’s pick the other with a mace. The ant, now surrounded, is quickly torn apart. But it fights to the bitter end, scoring numerous hits on its opponents.

However, the ants' companion is a bit luckier as it breaks through the guards defenses and overbears the guard. Once the guard is down its pincers quickly crush its head. While a victory nonetheless, however, it is a costly one as it has taken quite a bit of damage. Luckily for it reinforcements have arrived as the two ants to its south have made short work of the defending guards leaving behind them a mass of torn leather flesh and metal. Apparently one guard got in a lucky shot before he was disemboweled as one of the ants is missing an antennae.
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The amber haired elf pauses for a moment and looks up into the sky for the creature. But the only thing he can see is the sun, the sky and a few clouds. All looks normal, but he knows something is there because something is missing. There is not a single bird in the sky, even in the distance the sky is clear

The mage locks his eyes on the ant that charges at him threatening to either crush him under its feet or tear the defenseless mage to ribbons. The mage smiles as he speaks a rune that seems to be rushed so fast, that it is over almost before it begins. With a grand gesture he holds his hands spread out in front of him and small bolts of electricity begin to dance around his hands and arms. The ant charges him and quickly encloses him in its pincer snatching the mage up off the ground and carrying him a few feet away. The mage arms flail for several moments as he cries out in pain his smile gone. After a moment it returns and he looks at the creature that is crushing his ribs and plants both of his hands firmly on its head. Lightning plays along the entire shell of the creature and it convulses as the high voltage fries its insides. The mage screams as the pincer convulse once again nearly crushing him.

This scream brings the amber haired elf back down to earth. He draws an arrow and moves to get a better position. As the ant stands momentarily stunned the mage slip through pincers as it convulses open and falls onto the ground badly hurt.

The amber haired elf lefts a thundering arrow fly and it blasts through the center of the ant, going in one side and out the other before crashing into the grasses in the distance. The ant weaves unsteadily for a moment then fall over. It legs moving weakly for a few moments before falling still.
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At the front of the caravan, one guard defends himself fairly well, despite wanting desperately to retreat, against one the ant. Then another ant joins the fray and he soon finds himself in deep trouble. As a pincer crushes his arm he screams in pain. The ant suddenly stiffens in shock a moment later as another guard appears at his side and thrusts his sword straight into the creatures eye. It lets the first guard go, but the damage is done as the first ant uses the opening created by his companion to kill the injured guard.

The rough looking guard gets up slowly. Angry with himself, he realizes that his blow was not efficient enough to stop the ant in its course. He decides to insure that none of the ants are going to charge him again. With great deliberation he slowly pulls his sword from the body of the dead ant and turns to retreat toward the nearest carriage with a vague plan forming in his mind. He finds with some surprise that the first two carriages are gone! He looks around and spots them heading south taking the merchant and the driver with them! He quickly realizes that in the chaos of the last few seconds the entire situation has changed dramatically. He looks around the battlefield trying to understand what is going on. He mutters to himself, "Too many people for a simple bunch of ants!"

A moment later, he would wish that ants were the only things he had to deal with. With a loud roar the creatures come swooping out of the sky and land with a ground-shaking thud.

At seven feet at the shoulder the creatures are intimidating to say the least. They look over the battlefield with twin black eyes, set in what looks to be a giant shield of bone and scale. Between the eyes runs a barbed ridge of bone that splits the shield top to bottom.

They move on four legs and their bodies are roughly 15ft in length. They seem to be covered in scale armor from head to toe. But even through the armor, it is easy to see their powerful muscles ripple. Their tails extend another seven feet and end in a spiked ball.

One of them spreads its leathery wings and showing its enormous wingspan.

Oddly enough they don’t attack.

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Top

Allied Soldiers

However, the sound of battle quickly pulls him from his speculation as he remembers that there is a more immediate danger before him. A quick glance at the situation tells him that there is an open path between himself and the nearest ant. Knowing that he is doomed if an ant decides he would make a good snack, he decides to head towards the nearest batch of archers for some protection.

The archers notice that the ants directly behind and to the left of them are disabled and no longer a threat now that they are tangled up in the magical webs. One archer has what he thinks is a brilliant idea. He drops his bow and pulls out a torch and some flint and steel. He quickly begins to try to light the torch. Meanwhile one of his companions tries to get the ant corpse off of one of their downed comrades, before he realizes that it won't make any difference to the poor soul. He hangs his head in sorrow when the truth finally hits him.
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With their flank free because of the ants entanglement, one group of soldiers moves aggressively north trying to help out the fire priest before he gets himself killed.

Feldemann reaches his position near the archers and begins yet another rune. Once again that deep powerful voice rings out across the battlefield. "Darik ma venes sulpharious, Sigorum va kariis sulpharious," his voice suddenly rises in pitch and becomes a hiss that seems to burn through the ears, "Bethel zer zariis, sulpharious zer... sulpharious zer zariis...BAO TZE!"

A sizzling glob of green jelly appears before him, dripping an unknown substance that smokes as it hits the ground.
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The archer gets his torch lit and tosses it on the webs. The webs ignite in an instant and burn up quickly. Suddenly the ants are free, horribly burnt, but free.

Unfortunately one of the pike men was too close to the webs and the fire flash that destroyed the webs, singed his backside. His instincts kicked in and he jumps forward away from the fire. Unfortunately he jumped forward into the waiting pincers of the ant he was fighting.

His death was not in vain though, as the ant wasted precious time crushing the life out of his body, his companion finishes off the creature with an overhead blow that seperates the ants head from the body. He checks on his downed companion for signs of life. Finding none he stiffens his resolve and not letting himself grieve even for a single moment he turns to help the fire priest.

Feldemaan sends his left arm out wide, pointing to the west of the battle. The globular substance responds by flying out west, but ir quickly changes it's course as Feldemaan cuts his arm back sharply to point at the closest ant.

The globe slams into the creatures ants face and it suddenly goes berserk as it shakes and turns around. Now quite sure what to do it thrashes around helplessly trying to remove the acid that is burning his face and eyes. The other two ants watch it unable to do anything as the archer picks up his bow and retreats to the east while they were distracted. There is the sound of sizzling as the as the ants shell slowly dissolves, finally it stops jittering and collapses. Its head crumbles in upon itself as the acid-like substance eats its way through the ants head.

With that threat gone, Feldemaan notices another ant immediately north of the one down. He pauses as he realizes how many offensive spells he has left. He again looks skyward and finds himself uncomfortable with the idea of not having any more offensive spells with those unknown creatures flying around.
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Pyros spins and dodges attacking first one ant then another doing only a little damage with each attack. He quickly sees the ants are boxing him in and he laughs welcoming it. When he can dodge no more he says, "Enerius watch as I your faithful servant show these pitiful ones that its not nice to play with fire! Aha ha ha ha ha!" He clashes his swords together and they flames leap up high. He begins to spin in place moving is swords up and down quickly creating a near wall of fire around him.

One of the ants charges through and closes its pincers on where Pyros head should be. Unfortunately for the unlucky ant it loses its legs in the deal and catches on fire. The flames seem to hungrily attempt to devour the ant. The ant retreats and rolls over extinguishing the flame. Another attacks where his legs should be and loses its antennae, again being set on fire.

The last two ants attack at the same time as the smaller one goes low the larger one goes high, but one of the two never gets its attack off.

The ant aiming low suddenly has a rider as Zraxin leaps up on its back and plunges first one, then the second of his swords into the cracks where the creatures' shell meets. The ant tries to buck him off but he holds on with one sword wedged in and using the other sword to plunge into the creature without mercy. It is not long before the creature drops and Zraxin leaps off without any injury.

Pyros dodges the last ants attack, but he is tripped up as he spins too close to one of its legs and falls. The ant turns to him, its pincers working quickly as it realizes it finally has him in a vunerable position. As the ant closes the tiny gap between it and Pyros, he lifts up one of his swords and its flames hungrily reach for the ant. A moment later the ant bursts into flames. The ant retreats and rolls over as the flames consume it.
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The soldier with the mace looks at his companion, worriedly, "There is another one coming out from the south and nearly everyone is dead! We’ve got to get out of here."

Ulqik is starting to get a little worried himself as he has lost most of his men due to their panic and ineptude. And now he is under attack from three different places at once! Only his superior strenth, speed, and skill keep him from joining the other dead.

"Get out of here man! I’ll take care of these." That warning costs Ulqik as just barely pulls his hand out of the greedy grasp of an ants pincers. The damage is small but the little scrapes are starting to add up to some heavy damage, but nothing life threatening. The ants, however, are in much worse shape than he. Even as he speaks one drops from one too many swords blows to the head.
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Bouyed by the prospect of possibly surviving and maybe even winning this battle, Voreas and the two soldiers fight with renewed vigor.

The elvin woman, he saw coming earlier moves in out-flanking the ant and begins attacking it from behind and with a combined three person assault the ant is quickly destroyed. Voreas turns his attention to the other ant only to find it moving away with the dead body of another soldier.

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Top

Red Feather Company

"Don't spread yourselves too thin!", Stamm shouts over the din of battle. "Keep together!" Swinging his flaming sword, he presses his attack against the ants.

Through the chaos of the fight, the man hears the neighing of a horse from somewhere to one side. He risks a cautious glance in the direction of the sound and is surprised to see another group closing on the battle. His spirit lifts as the newcomers join the fray, aiding his soldiers.

"Fight on, men!", Stamm shouts, "Perhaps we will have the day, yet!"

Seeing one group of soldiers becoming increasingly isolated from the main unit he shouts, "Keep together!"

The group of soldiers at the East End of the battle sees the reinforcements appear and follow orders, returning to the battle instead of retreating. Unfortunately no one told the ants they were about to lose the numbers advantage and kept the ants keep on attacking full force. Within moments there is only an archer and two soldiers left in the group. Both ants are still alive, but one is severely injured. But even with its injuries it doesn’t stop it attack as it charges the one soldier left in the group and bowls him over even as his soldiers sword pierces its eye killing it.

The archer and soldier decide that now would be a good time to run and they flee the battle with the ant in hot pursuit.

Out of the corner of his eye, Stamm notices a young woman who wasn't there before. She seems to be fighting an ant and having an easy time dealing with the creature, but she does not appear to notice the ant charging up behind her.

"Behind you!" he shouts. Not sure if the lady heard his warning, Stamm attempts to push his way between the two ants nearest him. But the ants have other ideas. On some level they sense an opening as his attention is drawn elsewhere and they press the attack forcing to pay attention to his own survival as he move back a step. His companions arm is caught in the pincers and in a panic the man gathers his strength in his legs and pulls back with all of his might trying to rip his arm from the creatures graps. The ant is of a similar idea and also pulls on the arm. After a moment the soldier steps back, unfortunately he has lost and arm and his balance. He stumbles and falls on his back. The ant moves forward and he screams as the ant finishes him off.

But the ant does not get to carry off its prize as two arrows piece its shell. It turns to meet this new attack and charges the nearest archer, who turns and flees. The ant begins to chase him down, but doesn’t get very far as a third arrow slams into it and suddenly its world is turned upside down. As its senses begin to fail, it stumbles. The archer, it was chasing, however continues running.

The ant near senseless ant stumbles into the crossfire of two archers and they punish it mercilessly, until it drops. When it finally drops it looks more like a giant porcupine than an ant.

The shadow of the flying beast crosses over the battlefield. Intent on the immediate threat of the attacking ant, but ever mindful of his surroundings, Stamm presses his attack on his six-legged foe. "Whatever that is", he muses to himself, "I hope it likes ants more'n people..."
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The second group of soldiers is having remarkable success as they triple team one ant. But they are so wrapped up in that success that they don’t notice that one of their own nearby is quickly being overwhelmed by a determined charge from another ant.
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Forge’s hooves flash again and the ant’s shell cracks and with another attack he brings both hooves down on the ant’s head crushing it utterly.

Stamm finally gets in a clean shot and his flaming sword enters the maw of the creature and come out the back of its head and the creatures head almost seems to almost explode. But as it twitches through its death throws, Stamm gets caught in the pincers. Fortunately the damage is minor at best as the pincers lack the strength behind them to do any serious damage.

With these two ants down he frees himself from the dead ants grasp and looks to see that Forge is undamaged. Then he charges over the dead bodies heading toward the woman he saw earlier.
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Two of the newcomers to the battlefield, Tristan and Pheras are talking amongst themselves trying to determine where is the best place to enter the battle.

Tristan points to the south, "Look down there! The soldiers and archers seem to have those ants stopped for now. Pheras, if we attack from behind, we will have those ants boxed in!!!"

Pheras looks around, "Sindel is in trouble, we must help her."

Tristan grabs him and says, "Pheras wait! Look over there. It seems we weren't the only ones to come lend a hand." He points to the southeast where three other strangers have joined the soldiers in fighting the ants. With their coming a tense situation turns into victory as they begin routing the ants.

Pheras looks in their direction nods and then wordlessly heads off to help out Sindel.

Tristan looks due south again. Not noticing that Pheras has gone he says, "What do you want to do? Should we rout the ants? With the soldiers and those, new people. Or go help Sindel and then cover that hole."

Tristan looks up in the sky again, wondering what was that creature had passed over earlier and he silently hopes it is either here to help, or a least not after them. He sees the two creatures who seem much lower in the sky as they seem to be descending. What little detail he can make out, they are unlike any he has seen before head north. As he watches them he notices that something seems to be going on in the direction that the creatures are heading. There is smoke and several bright flashes coming from that direction.

"Pheras, What do you think?" Tristan turns to his compaion, at which point he notices that Pheras has charged off to help Sindel. A hand on his shoulder turns him around where he spots an archer, "Thank you for your help from before, but we need more help this way." Tristan seeing that Sindel and Pheras have things under control heads south to help out.

Sindel fights grimly, even when it’s plainly obvious the ant is out matched. Never taking her inevitable victory for granted, she methodically removes all the legs on one side and then plunges her sword into the creatures abdomen until it stop moving. She pauses for a second and notices Pheras running up to her. Behind him she sees Tristan talking to himself and shakes her head. Suddenly she hears a clicking sound behind her and just barely dodges the ants lunge as it attacks.

Pheras attacks the ant with a vengeance, drawing its attention away from Sindel. His attacks while not overly damaging are still effective. Sindel regains her feet grimly and begins the dismemberment of the creature that tried to have her for lunch.

Tristan and the archer rush to the aid of a soldier forced to fight an ant alone. Unfortunately they are too late, but as the ant secures its prize it leaves itself open as Tristan gets several free shots at the creature before it can turn around.

Concentrating on the creatures joints the young warrior quickly injures the ant. With the supporting fire of the archer, the ant is quickly killed.

Tristan turns around to see that the three soldiers near him had defeated another ant, but one poor soldier didn't make it.
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On the other side of the field, Stash moves from one attack form to another like water flowing through a stream. His sword slashes here and there just barely keeping ahead of the ant.

Gwydeon, Gedai and two soldiers are concentrating their attacks upon one of the ants and confusing it completely. After taking heavy damage it charges through the soldier to the south knocking him roughly down and continuing on. Unfortunately there is an archer in the way. The archer fires point blank range and the arrow pierces the shell of the ant and upsetting it even more. The ant continues its charges catching the archer as it tries to flee and tearing him to shreds.

Gedai charges up behind it and levels a slash that bounces off its shell. This gives the soldier that was knocked down time to get back up. The ant turns quickly knocking Gedai down.

The soldiers attack, one foolishly charging into the creatures pincers to be crushed. But his sacrifice is not in vain as his sword pierces the creatures shell and the creatures finally falls silent.

Gwydeon turns his attention to helping out Stash. A wide slash cuts one of the creatures' legs out from under it. This forces the ant to turn and deal with him. A foolish move as this gives Stash the opportunity to deliver a similar attack on the other side.

Not knowing which to attack first it decides on the one in front of it.

The ant lunges at Gwydeon catching him in his pincers squeezing him. Protected by his armor Gywdeon thrusts his sword into an available eye and the creature shudders, giving the elf another squeeze before the ant collapses. Stash and Gedai, help Gwydeon out of the creatures pincers and he rises to his feet battered and bruised.

Stamm charges to the help the lady battling against the ants. But by the time he gets anywhere near, help had already arrived and together her and her rescuer had already dismantled the ant.

Stamm can't help but admire the woman's prowess in battle. As he gets closer he finds that isn't the only thing he can't help but admire.

As he nears Sindel and Pheras he calls out, "Well, met, m'lady! Come to join our picnic, have you?"

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