Goldenhold
Chapter 19: Bypass By Bridge
Only a few of the humans remained at the gorge, fighting to the death. Although the dwarves had lowered their numbers, it was still a massive force on the other side. So Zeon made the smart decision to simply bypass his foes. The dwarves were up for one hell of a surprise, even if they knew that he was leaving.
He hoped they would lower the bridge across the gorge but he knew they wouldn’t- only a seriously incompetent commander would give up their defenses in the name of ‘honor’ and ‘glory’. However, after the business at the gate where he just opened it up he wasn’t certain that his opponent was anywhere near competent.
In fact, he was certain that the captain of the guard was somewhere between downright stupid and mentally retarded. He had known that the position was handed down from father to son, and not based off merit like his own senate, or his generals.
It was a dumb system, but it had managed to keep Goldenhold alive and prospering for over the past ten millennia or more. How it did, Zeon had to ponder. Perhaps it was just sheer dumb luck?
Either way, Zeon was through with his pondering by the time they returned to the Lake of Fire. He said, “You see those bridges?” Zandria and Kyle both nodded together. “You have those grappling hooks, correct?” Zandria nodded. Zeon sat down with them and explained his plan........
Three hours later the humans were sending a portion of their army to help at the gorge in any way possible. They brought the ballistas, catapults, and the wagons from the merchants for cover. The main force was going to be a distraction.
The other portion was heading across the bridges above the halls and raiding the barracks in silence, pillaging for the hell of it. Kyle barked at them after a few minutes to get heading to the inside, and they charged quickly towards the inside of Goldenhold.
A pair of dwarves were waiting there, writing down on sheets of paper. Kyle guessed they were lookouts, about to tell the captain about Zeon’s return to the gorge. They were quickly stopped by fast and efficient application of war maul to face. Their bodies were thrown over the edge of the bridge to make sure that none of the invaders tripped over them, and they continued forward once they heard the crunch of bone being crushed.
Apparently one of the smarter dwarves had decided to raise a gate along that passage, which would cause a delay. Kyle had no clue that behind that gate was a staircase that lead to the Zykor’s spots along with the office Karakzon was in, along with the flooding chamber below. Kyle bashed the door with all his might, his gigantic war maul swinging down, but it barely budged.
The knight yelled, “Help me!” And after a few moments other soldiers with hammers walked up, bashing the door along with him. None of they were as strong as Kyle, but they did help speed the process up. Sweat poured down his face as he bashed and slammed it in.
On the other side, he heard screams of terror as dwarves scrambled to barricade it quickly. They had to wait for Karakzon’s orders to do anything important, such as calling on a retreat from the gorge, or letting the dragon go.
This only made Kyle and his men swing harder, since he knew that meant they were doing some real damage.
______________________________________________________________________
Amud Ikled had just finished storming the bunkers with only thirty thousand losses. However, he grimaced as he saw the dwarvern heavy infantry in full steel armor, ready to dish loses left and right into the Challenge's lines. That did not stop the commander from slicing one of his own troops to get the rest to charge forward though, like a tidal wave against a sea wall, the goblin knew that eventually they would break or tire.
Amud Ikled smiled as he saw both sides troops rip each other apart, limbs flying off in every direction, organs and guts spilling out of the wounded. He knew that he was giving Armok his fill of blood, and prayed that he was enjoying the show. He was a slave to Armok, entertaining him with displays of gore and combat, giving him the drink of ichor as it spilled onto the silver ground, sparkling with the light of the canal.
However, after an hour of trying to take down the heavy infantry and over a thousand bodies had piled up, he was getting bored. “Ok! Bring in those damn trolls! Smite their lines!” The dwarves suddenly had an expression of shock as they saw twenty of those armed and armored elite pour down the hallway, raising clubs and hammers and smashing them down into the heavy infantry.
Another hour of fighting went by when finally the dwarves infantry died, and the gate was closed behind them. The marksdwarves were moved into battlements surrounding the chamber Amud was in however, firing into his army as they hammered into the strong gate.
Suddenly, two trolls ran up with barrels strapped onto their backs. He knew what it contained even if the dwarves didn’t- it held the volatile and explosive compound of greek fire. They ran to the front of the gate, pulled out a torch, and set the barrel on fire. Goblins and trolls tried to rush away from the explosion, but they did not make it. The gate was broken, and the invader’s limbs flew everywhere with trails of blood following them.