Chapter 80

  By the time we joined Riaret’s soldiers in their run for the edge of the crater, the Second Wave — soldiers and civilians alike — were way ahead of us, almost at the end of the two kilometres long Path cutting through the Wilds, almost at the garrison the crafters from Garoshek had erected there to serve as a rear-guard stronghold. Reinos’ two battalions were going to be the last ones to join us there — they were still in the process of a fighting withdrawal some distance behind us, leaving the now empty and burning Camp Colosseum to our foes. And with a bit of luck, spells and tons of flameslime, that garrison would be enough to keep the minotaur masses from chasing Riaret’s and Reinos’ armies so they could leave Orroth behind and go for our next campaign objective without being harassed.

  ‘Arrgh!’ Riaret groaned as she tried her best to walk fast between two of her own soldiers propping her up between them. ‘I don’t need you here, I can walk just fine,’ she grumbled at them, then she stumbled and almost fell, just to prove how empty her bravado was.

  To her credit, she hadn’t let my rifle go for a second — she had really taken a liking to my precious. And to the two soldiers’ credit, they took their jobs seriously, holding her upright and dragging her along.

  ‘No, general. Lord’s orders,’ one of them said to her, and that was the end of the discussion.

  Good old fashioned military discipline — there was something wondrous about seeing demons embracing it to the point they’d just say “no” to their feared general because of higher orders from none other than me. Riaret, under the gaze of hundreds of her soldiers who were marching with us, just shook her head and gave up, letting her helpers do their jobs. I was walking next to them, my SAC dented all over, including my helmet I was holding in my hands instead of my rifle, and she craned her neck to look at me.

  ‘What are you grinning for? This doesn’t feel like victory,’ she said to me with as much unhappiness as she could cram into her voice.

  Was I grinning? Sure, I was happy with the outcome so far: I was alive, Riaret was alive, and we had managed to get everyone through Camp Colosseum. What wasn’t to like? Then again, from her perspective, we had just got our asses kicked, and she had lost two captains — one dead, one half-dead — not to mention her bonded weapon.

  ‘I’m not grinning,’ I said. ‘And it doesn’t feel like victory because it isn’t. Not yet. It’s the completion of phase two of the plan, and we’re one step closer to achieving the objective. And I won’t lie I am happy about it. Now, onto phase three.’

  ‘How undemonic,’ she complained. ‘We should have at least killed that mage general.’

  ‘Come on, we’ve been through this before,’ I groaned. ‘You can win a battle and still lose the war, Riaret.’

  ‘But that general is dangerous, and …’ she began to protest, but I cut her short.

  ‘All in good time, general. For now, we need to complete this part of the plan, alright? And you need to recover.’

  ‘Oh, I will recover,’ she said, sounding very confident all of a sudden. Then her voice shifted to a dangerously low and dark tone. ‘And I haven’t forgotten your transgression, Hyde,’ she said, glaring at me as if I was public enemy number one.

  ‘I’m sorry, are you talking about saving your life, or managing to get your army out of Orroth in one piece?’ I inquired, raising my eyebrows while leaning forward to look at her properly.

  ‘No. You called me Riri,’ she stated.

  ‘Okay. And?’

  ‘No-one dares to call me Riri.’

  ‘Hey, I am the ruling demon lord of the Fourth Ring; that’s got to count for something around here, right?’

  The general let out a long sigh filled with exasperation. Luckily, she didn’t seem to have the energy — neither mental nor physical — to keep the argument up.

  ‘Fine. That way of thinking is at least somewhat demonic,’ she said.

  ‘Good stuff, Riri.’

  And she groaned again.

  ***

  We fell behind the rest of the column due to Riaret unable to keep up even with two soldiers supporting her. As her mask of “the tough and awesome general” was slipping, it was evident her injuries were way more serious than I had thought or she had wanted to admit. I was already preparing the IFD software to scan her entire body the moment we arrived in the rear-guard garrison — I wished I could have done it here and now and scram a few, well-placed Hades Heals into her, but with Reinos’ two battalions behind us still fighting while trying to disengage the pursuing minotaurs, we simply couldn’t stop. On the bright side, I could see the garrison coming into view — our soldiers were already trudging through a series of trenches and disappearing behind the berms in their hundreds.

  It was my first time seeing it; the crafters and civilians of Garoshek had done a good job copying the minotaur camp design. The fortified garrison, right in the middle of the Path, covering the entire width of it — some seventy-ish metres — was indeed what I had envisioned: a heavily defended obstacle the enemy wouldn’t be able to pass without catastrophic losses. And to that end, a few improvements and additions had been added, ones not originally found in minotaur camps. For starters, instead of a single, long trench, Reinos had them dig three of them, one after another, each wider than the original Third Ring design. And to make it even harder for the enemy to cross, I had ordered the ditches to be filled with all the flameslime the former Garoshek Residents had managed to bring with them or produced here on site from the wildlife around. And if I could believe Reinos — which I could — three, slightly smaller and modified catapults were hiding in the garrison, right behind the berm, ready to lob incendiary munitions — also known as “big flameslime jars” — at the enemy even before they could reach the first of the trenches. Phase three was looking promising.

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  Right until I reached the first of the trenches, and it had no flameslime in it.

  ‘Reinos, why isn’t there any flameslime in the trenches?’ I inquired immediately, hoping I wasn’t distracting him from directing his fighting withdrawal.

  [They have filled them up, Lord. They tell me the ground soaked it all up. It will still burn, though.]

  He replied.

  ‘Okay. Let’s hope,’ I said, sighing. ‘Everyone will be behind the berm in less than a minute. How are things on your end?’

  [The minotaur army is not giving up. They’re just … endless. We’re managing to keep them at a distance, at least here on the Path. My mages are exhausted, but we’re only six, maybe seven minutes behind you. Lots of the minoturs are going through the Wilds on both sides. I have several squads hunting them, and it’s face to face fighting in there. The wildlife is hindering them as much as us.]

  ‘Losses?’

  [Losses are … acceptable. For now.]

  ‘Good work, keep it up, general!’ I told him as I left the third trench behind and began to climb the berm — more like a five metres tall wall of compressed earth with a sharp incline, reinforced with wooden logs cut from the lava-trees of the Wilds.

  It wasn’t too much of a problem for me, but Riaret and her two helpers struggled a bit before they reached the top and descended on the other side, and half a minute later all of Riaret’s soldiers were through. Now we just had to wait for Reinos and his guys, then face the onslaught of the enemy. With all the defensive emplacements plus our mages lined up on the berms and firing their spells at them, I imagined the minotaurs would have a tough time getting into the garrison, even if they managed to get through the fiery hell of catapult salvos and flameslime-soaked trenches. I hoped that the high-level — and now half-soul — minotaur general wasn’t going to be among them; he could definitely throw a wrench in my carefully planned gears. Well, we’d have to cross that bridge if and when we came to it.

  The other side of the berm, the garrison proper, was as simple and barren as expected from a temporary base: a few tents here and there, large stacks of arrows for the archers behind the wall, and a bit further in, the three catapults along with their civilian crews, waiting to unleash hell on the enemy. Nice.

  The garrison was completely open on the opposite end to allow our two armies as well as the thousands of civilians to leave quickly — some of whom already had, gathering further down at the other end of the Path, where the Wilds stopped and the great, barren plains of the Fourth Ring began, ready to move out and march to our next objective, the Gate to the Third. Yep, this garrison would be able to hold the enemy and give a good headstart to our armies.

  [We’re arriving in a couple of minutes, the enemy masses right on our heels.]

  Reinos reported.

  The catapult crews began to work, loading jars onto the cups at the end of the catapult arms, while three civilians rushed up the berm, probably to serve as spotters. On second thought, they must have been Reinos’ soldiers, and captains at that — that’s how they knew it was time to get ready. Reinos had indeed taken his work seriously and was well prepared.

  I left Riaret with her soldiers and climbed back up the berm to join the hundred or so mages who were already there, so I could have a look at the approaching forces too. They were coming; I could see a column of Reinos’ warriors running for the garrison, at least 1500 of them, maybe more, and behind them, still almost a kilometre away, the bright flashes of fire spells confirmed that him and his mages were indeed the ones doing the bulk of the work. But that was going to change very soon.

  I was in two minds about staying on the berm and assisting with the defence with my own spells, perhaps even my sentry turret. But I couldn’t just leave Riaret. She was in dire need of medical attention, and when push came to shove, I trusted Reinos and the way he’d had the garrison set up — they’d hold for some time, even without me.

  Reinos’ warriors arrived in a minute, running through the trenches and climbing the berm, then, once on the other side, they turned around to form a line in front of the numerous archers, weapons in hands, ready to face the enemy.

  As Reinos and his mages approached, withdrawing slowly, firing their spells constantly to keep the onslaught of minotaurs at a safe distance from themselves — perhaps about twenty metres — the spotters judged it to be the time, and the catapult crews finally sprang into action. It was close; I watched the first three flameslime jars fly and land right in that gap between our forces and the enemy. To my surprise, the smaller catapults were much quicker to reload than those of the 1st Orroth Artillery Regiment, and while half of the crews were reloading, the others were adjusting aim and angle. Then, the second salvo was away, and as the projectiles shattered, the front lines of the enemy army ground to a halt as the Fourth Ring special napalm splattered all over them. The crews had begun to prepare for the third salvo even before the second had hit, and at the same time the line of archers — at least two hundred of them, both from Reinos’ and Riaret’s armies — were also getting ready to unleash their gifts on the enemy. They must have got the word from the spotters, because from behind the berm they couldn’t have seen a thing.

  Just … wow! Hitting moving targets with catapults? Spotters coordinating with the archers, too? I had told Reinos my rough ideas about garrison defence, but the guy had really taken it to the next level. I was sure the crafters had a lot of input too — they seemed to be a lot more creative and open minded than soldier type demons — but this whole setup was way more impressive than I had expected. I had, for good reason, thought that demons were too simplistic in their ways — this whole “charge the enemy head on and let the highest-level ones win” attitude was ubiquitous, but I supposed a little push from a stray human had changed that somewhat. One thing I knew for sure though: the third and last phase of Operation Snowball in Hell was in good hands.

  I climbed down the berm, leaving the soldiers to do their jobs, and rushed over to the tent where the soldiers had taken their injured general. It was time to get Riaret back onto her feet. And to get my rifle back.