Kibble continued his aerial antics, swooping, releasing his bolts of annoyance and then soaring out of reach. He had been striking different scorpiods each time, ensuring that they were paying him attention. While also attempting to approach the gnolls that stood aligned to the wall. The scorpoids chittered and hissed angrily, interspersed by screeches of anger. Their eyes followed Kibbles' movement.
'Careful, we are nearing the line,' SJ thought, seeing several gnolls beginning to move as the scorpoids were drawn nearer. A gnoll wearing what could only be described as a kaftan-style ensemble shouted angrily as several of the gnolls edged backwards.
SJ noted the gnoll, who must be one of their leaders. One of the scorpoids that Kibble had just hit hissed angrily, turning and snapping its pincers. Other scorpoids skittered from its wild movements as it turned, resting its gaze on the gnoll line. Without hesitation, it moved towards them. The reaction of the nearest gnolls was one of mild panic as they ran at them. Several were pushing each other out of the way to get some distance. The chief stood his ground, pulling a glowing jewel from his pocket. He focused on the scorpoid, and SJ noticed him speaking. She couldn't hear what he said, but a pulse of light suddenly erupted around the scorpoid as it crashed headfirst into an unseen barrier.
It staggered, dazed from the sudden change in momentum, its legs giving out under it. Beneath it, a circle had appeared, similar to the one SJ had seen previously when they were corralled. The attention the scorpoid had drawn to the gnolls didn't go unnoticed by the others, who, as one, turned towards their fallen brethren. Although the scorpoids were content attacking each other, if the mood took them, they took offence at someone striking out at them.
The chief didn't move, his hand raised, holding the jewel high as the circle surrounding the scorpoid he had stopped flicked out of existence, to be replaced by a larger circle that captured more of the scorpoids. It wasn't large enough to stop them all, due to how interspersed they had become, a result of Kibbles' antics. Several gnolls turned and fled as a scorpoid neared.
The gnoll chief barked, making them pause their flight, and for the closest to the scorpoid, it was the worst mistake he could have made. The scorpoid pounced, launching its chitinous body from the ground and landing on the gnoll's back. It screamed as the scorpoid stood over it, its pincer opening and coming down around its throat.
SJ didn't see the final blow, but the pandemonium it caused was just what they had been seeking. Some of the gnolls stood their ground, others fled. Those who stood their ground were those wearing the remnants of scorpoid armour. Many didn't, and SJ noticed another gnoll who stood out wearing a bone chain around its neck. It barked at the first chief, angry, and then mayhem ensued.
Gnoll fought gnoll. It was clear from the sights of what occurred that there were two different clans intermixed in this group—those who knew the scorpoids and those who didn't. SJ almost whooped in elation at the sight as swords and bone-tipped spears flashed between them. Both clans were tearing into each other. It was obvious that there was no love lost between them.
The original beetle handling gnolls didn't react. Just watching from where they were still positioned. The only changes had been that the beetle that had lost its sledge had been reattached, although the boulders it had contained were still scattered from the torrent of water that had smashed into their line. The injured beetle still lay where it had fallen, its legs mangled and broken beneath it.
'Let's head back,' SJ thought.
Kibbles growled and banked, rising higher and aiming back towards the wall. SJ was so proud of her companion and what he had achieved; her heart swelled with pride at his actions.
The noise from the ensuing chaos initially hid the sound, and as they distanced themselves from the pandemonium, it reached SJ's ears. Her vision picked out a movement further back behind the gnolls. It was the sound of a wind instrument, not a horn but something howling and unearthly, like that of a helicopter's rotors and their thrum created at a distance. It was then that she saw them. A few hundred feet behind the gnolls, hidden previously by the undulating ground of the plain, the monstrous beings appeared.
'What on Amathera are those?' SJ thought.
"Desert Stalkers," Dave replied, his voice shaky.
The lizards were giant, and on the back of each rode two or three draconians, one on each, whirling a wooden plinth on a line above their heads. They numbered almost fifty as they charged across the open ground towards the gnolls. They reminded SJ of bearded dragons, with their spines, spiked faces, and frills that were clearly visible even at a distance. Their skin was mottled, with yellow and ochre mixed pigments, giving them almost perfect camouflage for their usual desert home.
'When did they move a force this size into the valley without being seen?' SJ thought.
"No idea, but we have a serious problem now. Those beasts are unstoppable. There is little they can't scale, and the walls will provide no defence. They would need to be several times taller to even slow them down."
SJ's heart sank at the news. After what they had just achieved, providing the guards with a pause in the onslaught of the scorpiods could now be lost with this new threat.
As SJ reached the wall, Kibble lowered and landed down below near Ballentine and the guard. The guards were relaxed but hadn't left their positions, their shields still held across the gate's entrance, even if loosely.
"We have a problem," SJ shouted as she grew, her voice changing octaves as she did.
Ballentine had watched her land and walked toward her, as Kibble flew onto her shoulder and landed. SJ stroked her wyvern's head lovingly as she explained to Ballentine what she had seen.
"In all of Amathera," Ballentine spat.
They hurried to the wall, where the archers and Gary stood gawping at the charging beasts. The lizards moved swiftly, their bodies shifting in a sweeping pattern, their tails swishing violently, creating clouds of dust and debris behind them as they approached. As they neared the gnolls, they didn't slow down, crashing into their ranks as a wave of terror and power. Jaws snapped open and closed. Tongues flicking as they bit at beings as they tore through the scattered ranks. SJ watched one lizard flip a gnoll up into the air as it ran, tilting its head and hearing the distant scream as it fell into its mouth before it closed.
Fear gripped them all. Even Ballentine, with his stoic and commanding nature, appeared to be buckled from the impending beasts rampaging towards them.
"We can't battle those," Jay shouted, above the din.
The words cut through Ballentine's open-mouthed stare, and he looked around at the guards, the archers on the wall and the brave beings who had stood as a stalwart line of defence against the scorpoids.
SJ watched his shoulders slump. His great axe almost fell from his grip. It seemed like an age, but it must have only been seconds before he again stood upright, his stoicism returning, even if SJ believed it an act, and he turned to shout his orders.
"Retreat," he bellowed.
The looks on those around were one of confusion.
"I said retreat," Ballentine reiterated, his voice snapping many from their befuddled trances. "Move back up into the forest. Beasts that large won't easily navigate through the tight tracks. And I want the fastest here to head back and meet the others on the route. We need to change our tactics."
Almost in unison, the beings reacted. The archers hurried down from the wall, Gary and Jay following them. SJ remained standing by Ballentine, who didn't move. The guards on the gate turned, dropping their shields into their inventories, lightening their load as they started to run back towards the path. Cristy followed, dropping to all fours, before tearing ahead. It was apparent she was heading back to inform the others by the speed at which she moved.
One of the injured guards, who had received a scorpoid sting, struggled to his feet. Although he had been given an antidote and had healed, his movement was still sluggish and painful. Jay saw him, and upon reaching the base of the wall, ran towards him. Without even saying a word, he grabbed the man and lifted him, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of flour, as if he weighed nothing.
"Ballentine. We need to go now," SJ said.
Ballentine turned and looked at SJ, his expression taciturn and morose.
SJ glanced past Ballentine; the lizards were closing quickly; they were a little over three hundred feet from the walls now. It was nothing for a beast the size they were. The thrum of the wooden instruments filled the air, and battle cries reached the parapet from the charging draconian force.
"I have lived a long life," Ballentine said, looking at SJ and smiling weakly.
"What do you mean? You're not dead yet. Now get moving," SJ snapped at him.
"I can't run like the others. I am much older than you probably realise. I have fought many battles and campaigns over my time. From a lowly foot soldier to an emperor's colonel. I moved to Killic to retire, and since I've been here, I've seen enough bloodshed and loss to match my time in battle prior. I may seem able, but my body is aged. I ache from the exertion already, and I know I would struggle to reach the valley's top, and I don't want to hold anyone up."
"But you were so spritely, the power and force of your strikes on the scorpoid."
"Skills, SJ. Just skills and years of experience. It doesn't combat fatigue and age. It eventually catches us all, and my time is now. I will remain and fight as they come and hopefully take one down before I fall, but I can't retreat. I never have and never will turn from a fight."
"This is stupid and just selfish. You are throwing your life away over a stupid ideology."
"Stupid it may be, but it's the one I have lived by for nearly half a millennium."
The thought of Ballentine potentially being nearly five hundred years old didn't sit well with SJ. From what she knew of dwarves, they lived until they were usually in their four hundreds, which meant that Ballentine was indeed an ancient dwarf. He didn't look his age. His skin was taut, his hair sprouted no grey, and his beard was as pristine and plaited neatly as ever, beads adorning its tails.
"Please, Ballentine. Run with me," SJ pleaded.
"SJ, you are a child still, and as you age, you will see that what the world offers is not always what it seems. Take care of those in Killic and tell Lorna she may have my office. The special stuff is below a false bottom in the bottom drawer." With that, Ballentine turned away from SJ and faced the approaching horde, lifting his great axe so it rested across his waist.
"Ballentine," SJ called.
He didn't respond. His face was one of stone as he slowly raised his great axe in one hand and let out an unearthly battle cry. If the mountains could have trembled, they would have, the sound that erupted from the dwarf's small stature. It drew the attention of the closest of those charging at the wall. Three riders were turning their mounts to head for him. Ballentine's resolve was unchecked as the beasts closed the gap.
"PLEASE," SJ screamed. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
Again, Ballentine didn't turn or look at her but spoke one final time. "Bring peace to Amathera SJ; now go."
The nearest lizard was under a hundred feet from the wall. Its movement was swift and unhampered by the ground. As it drew nearer, SJ removed Kibble from her shoulder and shrank. She jumped onto his back, and as they lifted from the wall, the lizard tilted, its body rising like a drawbridge as it maintained its pace towards the wall, running on its hind legs. As SJ rose on Kibbles' back, she saw it leap upwards, using its forward momentum, strength in its rear limbs and tail as propulsion as it sailed through the air.
In the instant it jumped, Ballentine reacted. His great axe began its path as it cleaved the air. The lizard's jaws opened as though it were going to swallow Ballentine whole. Ballentine released a cry only gods would understand as a purple haze erupted around his great axe, meeting the charging lizard head-on. The axe struck the side of the lizard's head, just above its lower jaw, with the power and force behind it, and whatever else Ballentine had called on, steering into its thick, armoured skin. Razor-sharp teeth shattered from the impact, the head of the beast snapping to the right, its body twisting as it did. The three riders on its back, not expecting the sudden shift in direction, were thrown from the mount. Their saddles may keep them seated when they ran on two legs, but not from the side. They screamed in unison as the lizard crashed with its body into Ballentine.
SJ watched as her tears fell. Ballentine was thrown like a ragdoll, his five-foot frame hurtling over the lip of the wall, and he sailed through the air, crashing into the side of the newly constructed hunter's lodge. His body fell like a stone to the ground as the lizard also crashed into the building. The freshly placed stonework was not designed to withstand the beast's momentum, as the wall gave way and collapsed down onto where Ballentine now lay. In that last fleeting moment, SJ was sure she had seen a smile on the dwarf's face.
SJ screamed, her pent-up anger and emotion boiling over, and Kibble joined her, emitting a cry of pain and suffering at the loss. The profound words of Ballentine struck her to her very core. 'Bring peace to Amathera.' What could the old fool possibly know about her?
She sobbed as she watched the lizards. They scaled the wall with ease, jumping up and onto it before dropping onto the far side. Their broad heads and bodies swishing, looking for targets as they did.
Ballentine's cry to retreat was the only thing that had saved any of the defenders as SJ watched them scrambling up the valley wall. Cristy had already reached the top and was disappearing out of sight. The lizards swarmed forward, several of the draconians dropping from the mounts as they searched the buildings behind the wall.
SJ knew they would find no one. The only bonus was that so few were even present, which was due to the festival and the pause in work while the celebration was taking place. That now, though, seemed frivolous and unnecessary. The town was in peril. These beasts were unthinkable; their prowess and speed, never mind their ferocity, were not something the town was ready for. SJ circled high above on Kibble. A couple of draconians looked up, but none of them attempted anything, knowing they were too high.
SJ watched her breath catching in her chest as the first of the lizards reached the base of the track to the plateau. The open area by the river, where the path started, may allow them some freedom to move, but she could see from the sheer size of these beasts and their width, with their splayed legs and low profile, that they would indeed struggle to navigate through the thick, twisting trunks of the forest. The path that wound by the lake may allow four beings to walk at times, but most of it was much narrower. She could only hope that the natural defence that it offered would be enough to allow the town to prepare.
Prepare to do what, though she did not know. Yes, they had guards and fighters, mages, clerics, druids, and all other classes, but none were a match for the lizards, never mind the draconians who rode them. She identified everything below her, allowing her vision to sweep wide. It wasn't as though she was hiding. They knew she was there, and she would gather as much intelligence on them as she could. There were only two of them in Killic with the power of flight. Only SJ and Fran. No others could take to the skies, to get out of this force's path, if it broke through.
Killic may have had a population of nearly five thousand, and at this moment, with the festival, it was probably over that, but most were not fighters; most were low-level characters, not pushing for growth. They were just traders or workers, with families, trying to carve a peaceful existence in what was becoming a more fraught and intimidating world that SJ now lived in.
SJ felt the unease of the influx of information as her display triggered, with readings sweeping in from those below. She didn't look at it yet, instead looking out towards the gnolls and triggering it again. After the second pulse of information subsided from her group capture, she leaned forward on Kibble, whispering into his ear. SJ looked down at where Ballentine had fallen, and the shaft of his great axe was visible amongst the rubble. Tears fell from her eyes as she spoke.
"Let's go help our friends."
Kibble turned, not needing any further words, and sped towards the plateau.
