Beers and Beards-Chapter 74Book 4, : The Battle Begins

As soon as the army was gone, the refugees began to pour into the camp.

They were a solid mix of pregnant women, children, and a few elderly, but not many. Any able-bodied elders had been mixed in with the rest of the warriors, or had remained in their camps, unwilling or unable to even consider moving away. The beastfolk children looked fairly similar to the adults, with a few caveats. Their sharp adult teeth hadn’t come in yet, so they mostly had more omnivorous style canines, they had big floppy ears, and their horns were more like short nubs. While adult beastfolk looked like a cross between a jaguar and an elk, with some human features thrown in, the children looked more like feral hairy humans with ridiculous rubber joke-shop ears and devil horns.

The children all shied away from our squad of kitted out warriors, though a few looked like they wanted to come and check us out before their worried parents whisked them away. One little girl ducked her mom and ran up to grabbed the hem of my jacket.

“Please. Help my daddy come home,” she begged, with wide golden eyes. Her tiny hands tugged at her ears and her nose trembled.

I… didn’t know what to say, but I bent down to talk on her eye level and patted her on the head. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe. And if I can help your daddy, I will. Promise. Stay with your mom, okay?”

She nodded seriously, like only a child can, as her harried looking mother pulled her back into the seething mass of people.

So… many… refugees. Enough that there was literally no way I was going to be able to evacuate them all through the door to Cascadia. It would take hours.

Captain Conrad must have felt my worry, as he spoke up. “Are you worried we’ll take over your hotel? Don’t be. Most will stay with their families and hope for a miracle to occur after their capture. Perhaps a revelation from the Gods, or a rebellion from the Western common folk – after all, there’s about a 20% chance that they’ll be the slaves after reincarnation.”

I worried all the same. I looked back at where that little girl had disappeared into the crowd.

Was I doing enough?

Could I do more? I had a [Deific Intervention] in my back pocket. Would it be enough to change the course of the war? Would it even matter in the long run if the Kingdoms just sent more slavers?

As I sat there chewing on my nails and worrying, Conrad’s Commstone sputtered to life, and Mystic Isen’s voice came through.

“Hello, Captain Conrad? We’ve spotted the main contingent of the enemy forces. It seems that they’re pushing straight through, just as we assumed.”

“Excellent!” Conrad hissed. “That’s some good news.”

“But there’s much more of them than we thought. They must’ve been using illusions to hide their full numbers. And we’ve spotted a few gryphon riders. You may get company.”

Conrad swore. “Damn! Do you think they know about the [Shamans]?”

I could feel Isen’s malicious grin through the commstone as he hissed, “I don’t think so. Not with the formation they’re using. They have to see us in the army, but they must think we’re bluffing. We’re going to come down on them like a winter rainstorm. ”

Conrad sighed with relief as the commstone went quiet.

“Sooo?” I asked.

Conrad both looked worried, but hopeful. “They’re probably trying to spread out and envelop our smaller army while their outriders and gryphons come here and try to take hostages. That would work well normally, but it’s suicide against a melded army. By spreading themselves thin, they take longer to react, and they’re weaker to a concentrated assault. But our army can turn on a dime and strike like a hammer in an instant. Their best bet would be to group together and overwhelm us with force. But they’re here for slaves, so they’re being gentle.” Conrad snarled the last. “They’ll pay for that.”

So… good news? Maybe? “And the gryphon riders?”

Conrad frowned, his canines jutting from his spotted lips. He scratched at the base of his horns, which flaked. “Those will be an issue. They’ll probably come scouting overhead and try some snatches and to sow some terror. There’s a good chance that each [Monster Tamer] will have a mage to support them. How’s your range? We have a few people with powerful anti-air spells, but the enemy will probably be Specialized in protecting against that. We may have to wait until they come lower and then hit them by surprise.”

“My range isn’t great,” I admitted, then pointed at Aishablue. “She can hit anywhere light can.”

Aishablue nodded. “Yes. I am able to hit flying creatures. But not with anything truly damaging. I may be able to blind them.”

“Range is probably our biggest weakness,” Starshine admitted, shrugging.

“Every bit helps. I’ll put your team on intercepting what spells you can, then.” Conrad said, then turned and began giving orders to the rest of the squad.

I tossed a [Flash of Insight] at the problem, and immediately had a revelation!

Balin looked at me with narrowed, suspicious eyes. “Why’re you grinnin’?”

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“Because I do have anti-air abilities. They’re just… non-traditional.”

“Oh?”

“Schist might get mad, though.”

“Well he’s not here, so he can shuvit.”

I thought back to those begging golden eyes. “Aye. And I promised.”

—

The gryphons flew in high over the hills. At least a kilometer up. We were a big enough camp that we’d be visible from just about any height, and it put them way outside anything we could attack with.

There were a total of twenty of them. It was hard for me to see them at this range, even with my high Perception, but one of our squadmates was a [Seeker] and he was able to point them all out. Some of the refugees tried taking potshots with crossbows, but were quickly shouted down by their fellows – a miss could be deadly, but not for the enemy.

Having pinpointed the defenders – that would be us – five of the gryphons took to peppering our position with high-velocity boulders summoned by their mages, while the others circled down towards the panicking civilians. We worked hard to protect our long-range mages and our two archers, but it was a constant battle. Aishablue managed to nail one gryphon with a flash of light right in its eyes, and it ran screeching off into the distance to cheers from our squadmates.

As the gryphons circled closer I was able to properly make them out, and they really did look like the stereotypical fantasy gryphon, though with a few differences. Their bodies were the tawny colour of lions throughout, and while they did have the hooked beak and front talons of birds of prey, they didn’t actually have any feathers. The ‘tufts’ on the sides of their heads were more akin to cat ears, and their wings were more like a bat's than a bird's. They were bigger than any lion I’d ever seen at the Vancouver or Calgary zoos, closer in size to a rhino than any big cat. Each carried two people in a tiered saddle – a [Monster Tamer] and a mage. They were dressed in a mishmash of eclectic gear, much like adventurers, and not what I would’ve expected from an army.

“I wonder how something that big stays aloft?” I muttered, watching the five big cats swoop down towards the refugees in a graceful arc.

“Some Netherborn force at work.” Balin said, shrugging. “Same as gravity or magnets.”

“I think the one on the right is the leader,” Flowerpott said, peering through a pair of binoculars.

We all stared at him. “You have binoculars!?” Starshine demanded angrily.

“They’re my new binoculars. And do you know how hard they were to get just right? It’s not like they’re adjustable anyways, so your fat hairy dwarf faces would be too big to use them.”

I ignored the bickering, zeroing in on the aforementioned ‘leader’ instead. At this range my high Perception was showing its fruit – it felt like having better than 20/20 vision – and I was able to make out what looked like a green uniform on the mage riding the raised back seat of the gryphon.

“I think he’s right. I don’t recognize the uniform though. It’s green, with a beret and black boots,” I muttered to Conrad. Then ducked as a meteor burst overhead in a shower of pebbles. Balin held his shield up and intercepted most of it, though I was still peppered with a few painful fragments. I flinched, but managed to avoid diving ignominiously for cover.

“Valtaria,” Conrad spat. “Bastards. It would be them. They’re among the worst of the worst; their royalty is cruel and pride themselves in their ‘pure royal genes’. They swear that they’ve only ever reincarnated as ‘royal souls’. Idiots.”

“Is it go time?” I asked, pulling out another commstone and passing it to Balin. He held it up to my mouth and prepared to activate it while I held my wand at the ready.

Conrad’s teeth pulled back into a sharp smile. “Do it. ON MY COMMAND!” He roared, and our squad stood stock at attention. “PREPARE TO FIRE!”

All the mages – including myself – began writing sigils in the air as quickly as we could. Mana spun through the air in intricate signs, and then solidified. A deadly tapestry that hung in deadly promise.

Conrad waited for a beat, just as the gryphons began to swoop at the refugees. “Fire!”

I launched my fireball in a blazing stream at the nearest gryphon, and spoke into the Commstone at the same time. “Hit the one on the far south, nearest that big green tent with the red squiggles on it.”

Our spells sped out over the encampment as crackling jets of fire, jagged bolts of electricity, and scything blades of wind. Nothing that could continue onwards as a dumb projectile and strike anybody in the camp, but still deadly for anything in their direct path. The fourteen attacking gryphons adjusted course, banking up into the air and avoiding most of our attack, but two spells still struck home. One was blocked by a giant of a [Monster Tamer] holding a tower shield, but the other scored a direct hit.

One of the gryphons screeched in pain, its left wing scorched black from a lightning strike. It wobbled as it tried to right itself, clearly barely able to stay aloft, then banked right and flapped to try and gain altitude. There was a flurry of motion on its back, and then it turned and headed slowly up and away from the battle.

One more down!

The remaining gryphons continued their attack run, and the five mages far above us launched a fresh volley of meteors. “SHIELDS!” Conrad called desperately. There followed a peal of shattering explosions, and Balin activated one of his Abilities, covering us with a golden dome, but all I had eyes for was the lead gryphon.

Which is why I saw it, when a blur of black and gold launched out of one of the tents and rocketed into the sky.

I pumped my fist in jubilation as Queen Henbeetta slew the gryphon in a single swipe of her vicious horn. As its body fell from the sky in seeming slow motion, she neatly snatched the two riders from the air and held them aloft in her upper hands. I couldn’t feel it from this distance, but she must have activated her [Royal Authority] as waves of refugees turned to face her and began to genuflect and all the nearby gryphons fell from the sky. It was like watching an organized cheer at a hockey game, as the crowd collapsed to their knees in a wave, bowing their heads in a most un-beastfolk fashion.

A stillness suddenly fell over the battle as thousands of upturned faces stared at the enormous queen of Hive. She gracefully floated there in the noon-day sun, the sunlight reflecting off her chitin, looking like some terrifying goddess of war. Even the more distant gryphons stopped attacking, shocked and horrified by the sudden violence.

Henbeetta’s buzzing voice came out of the Commstone. “I have completed the task as requested. I desire another of those ciders in recompense. Oho, I recognize this uniform. You are one of those insolent ones.”

There was some terrified jabbering that we couldn’t follow over the commstone, followed by a *thwack*, and then Henbeetta’s voice came back through. “What shall I do with them?”

“The others are leaving!” Conrad shouted, pointing as the remaining gryphons fled back over the hills. Our squad cheered and ran and began to raise me into the air in jubilant celebration, Adrian at the lead.

At which point I had enough time to tell Henbeetta, “Bring ‘em here!” before I punched the first person to try and lift me square in the jaw. “I’m not drunk enough ‘fer tossin’ ya bastards!!!”