It's on.Besmar the miner was the closest to the ambushing goblins, who sprung out of the sand dunes and let loose with a flurry of arrows.
Acting on pure reflex Besmar knocked the approaching arrow straight out of the air with his pick-axe, turned and charged down the mountain, sliding down rapidly then ran off towards the east. The goblins never had a chance to catch him.
The dwarves of Battletrials who were not combat-trained started rushing into the fortress. Those at the front door had it easy as did those who were still at the arena construction site. However those caught in-between had to try and rush back as quickly as possible.
Kivish sounded the alert for all non-combat dwarves to stay within the fortress. Jester hurried to put on his armour and weapons but was so far away from the entrances that he wouldn't reach combat for some time.
The gladiators remained at the main entrance, hurrying dwarves inside while directing the mechanics to hurriedly put up additional cage traps inside the entrance. The plan was to lure the goblins into the main entrance and capture as many as possible in their traps, killing the rest.
At least that was the plan. Nix however had other ideas. He was going to play hero and try to shepard those still trapped outside.
TokimiDwarfy tried to stop him from rushing out but with a parting kiss and an evil grin he rushed out of the main gates, sliding down the hill towards the retreating dwarves.
The goblins, disappointed they couldn't kill Besmar, turned their attention towards a new target: The Massive Helm's caravan.
They let loose with a hail of arrows before moving in for the kill. The outpost liaison did not stand a chance.
With the guards in disarray the goblins ran after the retreating Battletrials dwarves, catching up to one of the Engravers. One of the goblin spearmen lunched forward with his spear, the tip plunging into the dwarf's midsection. A roar of pain and a spurt of blood followed.
One of the caravan guards, wits regained, caught up to the goblin horde and charged into the fray.
The speardwarf expertly blocked the blood-soaked spear of a goblin speardwarf and struck back, stabbing her steel spear directly into the thigh muscle of her attacker.
Roaring in pain the goblin struck out with his hand. The dwarf dodged but did not notice the nearby boulder, barrelling straight into it and dazing herself. She recovered quickly, rolled to her feet and struck out with her spear, slicing it clean through the left arm of the goblin. The goblin groaned in pain, staggering back, allowing the speardwarf to plunge her weapon directly into the goblin's head.
Battletrials - 1 Goblins - 1Two goblins tried to sneak in through the front gates. As they approached the gates they fell foul of Battletrial's system of cage traps.
Their ends would come in the arena.
Battletrials - 3 Goblins - 1Nix the Axedwarf was in trouble, surrounded by multiple goblins as he tried to shield fleeing civilians. Trying to avoid direct combat he kept feinting with his battle axe, keeping the goblins at bay until the last dwarf made it into the arena construction site.
With civilians saved and his hero status achieved, he charged forward, axe held high.
Despite his relative inexperience in combat and having lacked time to fetch any armour, he managed to keep the goblins at bay, managing to land a blow on one. This goblin however was wearing a breastplate so the attack merely bounced off.
This goblin was far too experienced though, dodging to the side and lunging forward with her spear. Without any breastplate to protect his torso the spear sank into his midsection. When it withdrew it nicked his stomach which caused Nix to retch. He barely felt the shaft of the goblin's spear smash into his arm as he felt nothing but nausea.
Nix fell to his knees and vomited just as the goblin struck so instead of the spear finding Nix's skull it instead found his hand. Nix roared in pain but this caused a fountain of vomit to spray all over the bewildered goblin. The goblin cried out in confusion, trying frantically to wipe the vomit from its eyes, only for it to be replaced by a veritable waterfall as Nix decided the only chance he had was to drown the goblin.
The goblin, still trying to clear its vision, never saw the dog coming. One of Battletrials' hunting dogs had come racing down the hill to Nix's aid, leaping forward and sinking its teeth into the goblin.
Despite the goblin crippling its front paw the dog forced them both over the edge of the mountain, sending them both tumbling down the slope. Nix, vowing to love dogs until the end of his days, seized on his chance to escape and ran for the arena construction area, vomit trailing after him.
The goblin, enraged at its lost dwarven kill, did not show the hunting dog any mercy.
Battletrials - 3 Goblins - 1 Dogs - -1As the goblin spearman finished off the hunting dog the main bulk of the invaders made their way towards the main fortress gates, where civilians were still struggling to make it inside the mountain.
Hatchy at the main gates saw that this was going to be way too close. Up until now besides Nix the gladiators had remained inside the mountain, content to let the cage traps sort the invaders out. However the civilians were just too slow.
The gladiators, some of them still recruits, may need to enter combat to save the civilians.
Where the hell is Jester... she thought. She wanted desperately to go and get her armour but without Jester leading the gladiators they may walk right into a slaughter. If they waited, they may lose civilians.
She decided she could wait no longer. She turned around to the gladiators from both teams standing behind her.
"Alright," she exclaimed, drawing her sword. "Time to be heroes!"
Roaring mightily, the dwarves charged out of the main gates, weapons drawn, to face the onrushing horde.
As the gladiators charged into combat, one of the rangers, having smartly gained a vantage point on top of the mountain, started firing bolts into the crowd of goblins to give them something else to think about.
The gladiators reached the goblins, charging straight into their lines with unbridled enthusiasm. Hatchy went straight for the lasher, hoping to gain its exotic weapon for herself.
Lalasa, with the same mix of terror and excitement that can only come from being a fresh-faced recruit, ran head-long into one of the goblin spearmen. They traded blows, neither gaining the upper hand. With each blow she blocked Lalasa gained confidence, a smile slowly spreading across her face as she started to force the spearman to concede ground. The lasher tried to attack both Hatchy and Lalasa at the same time with overhead swings, but Lalasa had managed to block its blows too.
Hatchy, fighting next to her, saw the lasher cock its arm back.
Horizontal swing!"DUCK!" she screamed, and dropped to her knees, avoiding the long tendril of copper as it sliced through the air.
Lalasa, all her attention focused on the goblin in front of her, didn't hear Hatchy's warning. Her head took the full brunt of the lash.
Battletrials - 3 Goblins - 2 Dogs - -1Lalasa fell to the ground. Hatchy cried out in anguish and renewed her attacks against the lasher. She managed to connect with her short sword, slicing through the right arm of the goblin as she sought to press her advantage.
A spearman, seeing its lasher comrade struggling to deal with Hatchy's attacks rushed forward to help. Hatchy saw this, turned and slashed her sword across the spearman's arm. She followed up with a vicious swing which broke the right hand of the spearman. Grinning evilly she then lunged forward with her sword, stabbing the spearman in the foot. The spearman fell to the ground in agony.
Just a few feet away the second caravan guard, Zan, had managed to join the fight. Bereft of her spear she decided to just pummel one of the goblin spearmen with her fists.
Her attacks were somewhat effective.
Made this one into a spoiler due to length
Mebzuth, one of Hatchy's gladiators was also in the thick of things. However his inexperience proved too much and he started to fall under the heavy blows of his opponent.
Hatchy saw that one of her charges was suffering severe wounds and rushed over to try and help. One of the goblin bowmen who was hanging back off the main engagement saw this, and shot one of his arrows at Hatchy.
The arrow struck Hatchy in the chest. She cried out in pain as the arrow plowed into her lung, becoming lodged in her body. As she gasped for air a second arrow hit her in the upper left arm, also lodging firmly into her.
She stood there, struggling to breath, trying to force her body to move towards the main gates but all she could do was gasp and watch the bowman draw reload its bow.
Her apprentice ShadowHammer appeared behind her. He drew his short sword as he looked Hatchy in the eye, an enraged look on his face.
"Get out of here boss lady," he yelled, pushing her towards the main doors. She turned around, still gasping for breath and watched as ShadowHammer ran forward, into the thick of the goblins, vengeance on his mind.
Rise of ShadowHammerShadowHammer roared and charged forward, sword in hand as he reached the bowman who shot Hatchy.
Raising his sword, he proceeded to completely mutilate the Bowman. With limbs and appendages flying, the Bowman could only scream in pain and horror as ShadowHammer dissected her.
ShadowHammer ended the life of the first bowman, slicing off her head.
Made this one into a spoiler due to length
He turned and ran towards the next bowman, proceeding to do the exact same thing. The bowman bled out as ShadowHammer used both his crossbow and short sword to destroy the bowman.
Made this one into a spoiler due to length
The other bowmen and the lasher turned as one to engage the rampant ShadowHammer. Multiple arrows flew at the dwarf who blocked them with almost effortless ease. The lasher flung out its copper weapon over and over with the same result.
ShadowHammer reached another Bowman. This fight was a lot less spectacular.
The lasher finally managed to land some blows on ShadowHammer. They were merely glancing ones but they hurt nonetheless, causing massive bruises to swell up on ShadowHammer's leg and hand.
ShadowHammer grunted in pain, rushing towards the lasher and stabbing the lasher clean through the lower left leg, causing blood to spray. The lasher, roaring in rage renewed its attack but ShadowHammer targeted the extremities, causing multiple body parts to fly off the goblin.
The lasher, being reduced to a shattered mess, turned and did its best to flee. The other goblins upon seeing this did the same.
The invaders were retreating! ShadowHammer had almost single-handedly caused a rout.
====
Big one!
That was close. For some reason my burrow did nothing to dissuade the dwarves from going outside.
Sorry Lalasa... you didn't have a very illustrious career
But ShadowHammer... damn.
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Topic: Battletrials - Wayward Warriors (Community) (Read 27920 times)