But the victory was not to last. From the walls sounded an alarm - more voidspawn! An army the likes of which the world had never seen, their black carapaces glittering in the sun, patriarchs and overlords standing high above the trees. The army stretched back as far as the eye could see in all directions.
And leading the army was a colossal patriarch, hundreds of feet tall, with a carapace that absorbed all light and eyes that glowed like fire.
"FLAME," the patriarch boomed, "SEND OUT ANIMARYTAK TO FACE ME IN COMBAT, LEADER VERSUS LEADER. IF HE WINS, I WILL MAKE YOUR END SWIFT! IF HE REFUSES, I WILL CRUSH THIS FORTRESS TO DUST!
Flame, having arrived at the surface by now, shouted back. The patriarch did not hear because he was miles away. The army marched closer.
Dwarves readied their weapons for battle. The crossbowdwarves retreated - bolts were useless against a foe that could break both legs and keep walking. The first wave came, all thralls, who clogged what traps were left before dying against the dwarves' blades. The second wave came, a mix of soldiers and more thralls, which died too. More and more voidspawn came, in an endless flood, dying and dying. The dwarves were bogged down amid the corpses and knee-high blood. Dwarves died and rose, but some were turned before dying and did not rise again. The dwarves were slowly pushed back into the fort.
The dwarves had the advantage inside the fort - the voidspawn had to stop and unclog the tunnel of corpses every so often. During one such break, Anima spoke to the rest of the dwarves. He had to shout over the noise of the voidspawn screaming rage though the wall of voidspawn bodies and the carapace crunch of the voidspawn eating their own dead.
The dwarves were exhausted. They had been fighting for days with no rest, food or drink. Their bodies regenerated after each death, but not their morale. The dwarves were all in various stages of rot from the voidspawns’ poison. As they stood waiting, one dwarf finally gave into the rot and collapsed, dead. She quickly stood back up, revived and fully regenerated.
"IF THIS KEEPS UP, WE'LL BE OVERWHELMED. WE'VE BARELY MADE A DENT AND WE'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR HOURS. THERE ISN'T ANYONE HERE WHO HASN'T DIED AT LEAST THREE TIMES, EVEN ME. SO LET'S TRY SOMETHING ELSE. LET'S OPEN UP AN OLD ENTRANCE AND TAKE A FEW DWARVES TO GO KILL THE HUGE GUY."
There was a general murmur of assent.
"OKAY, I'M GOING TO GO MYSELF OBVIOUSLY, I WANT NCOMMANDER, MICROBLIGHTED, THE MAD FOOL, PROSNORKULUS, AND SABER. WE'RE GOING TO GO OUT THE OLD BLOCKED-OFF DRAWBRIDGE ENTRANCE, THE CINNABAR AND RUTILE ONE. BALTHARAAZ, SANDIEGO, MR.STRANGE, GROMBARDRIM, SCALIPER, DERM, TRYRAR, YOU GUYS IN THE BACK, HOLD DOWN THE FORT WHILE WE GO. I'M GONNA SNAG A CIVILAN ON THE WAY THERE TO TAKE DOWN THE WALL. WE'LL TRY TO DO THIS SNEAKY UP UNTIL WE GET FOUND AND THEN WE MAKE A DEAD RUN FOR THE BIG GUY. LET'S GO!"
Anima and his crew filtered out of the crowd of militiadwarves and into the fortress proper. The first civilian he saw was none other than Baelor, carrying a pot of booze to the sober militia. Anima told him to drop it and come with him. With a miner, they could make their own exit. The group ascended to the soil layer and Baelor began digging. After a short while, the tunnel broke out behind the massive patriarch.
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Topic: Murdermachines - Return of the VoidGod (Deathgate II) (Read 827569 times)