I stood atop the makeshift walls of humanity's defenses, soaked in sweat despite the snow on the ground. The dent in my chest plate rubbed against my side, reminding me that I should have visited the smith's yesterday before bed. Too late now, the final battle is already upon us.
Looking beyond the walls, I can see the great mass of our enemies arrayed before us. It's still hard to believe the Orcs would willingly fight side by side with the Elves, or that the pacifistic Bunnies would partake in war. I can see the hulking masses of Golems stalking the field, Harpies flitting around their heads, while below them, Trolls and Giants build machines of war. Howling splits the air, signaling the arrival of the Demi-humans, confirming my suspicions. All of our enemies are here. All have joined forces to wipe us out.
"It doesn't look good out there", a voice to my side says, "Even taking them on one on one would be difficult. How are we going to win this?" My second-in-command stands beside me, a hard look on his face.
I glance behind us, taking in the bustling courtyard below, our army frantically making last minute preparations. Everywhere you look, faces are set in grim, determined lines.
"Simple," I tell James, looking back over the ramparts towards the enemy, "We give them hell, and show them that Humans aren't so easily subdued." I pat his shoulder and turn towards the stairs. "They won't be attacking for the next few hours. Let's go help prepare as we can." He nods and follows me down the stairs.
We help the others prepare for the coming onslaught, repairing holes in the walls, deepening our moat, sharpening staves and carrying rocks to the battlements. The other contestant faces are grim, showing nothing but determination and grit. As the sun falls, those that practiced in the cooking simulation before we landed brought us nutritional hard tack, practically hard biscuits that need to be soaked in water before eating. A filling meal that can keep our energy up for the coming fight.
When night full falls, the sliver of moon hanging in the sky finds the Human contestants silently standing along the walls and arrayed on the ground behind them. James and I stand on the highest battlements, in the very center of our line looking out towards our enemies. As we watched, we could see them start to get into formation, the Harpies taking to the skies in droves, while the Elves formed neat orderly lines. Finally, with a roar that could shake the ground, the enemy charged at us. Orcs streamed forward, organization and discipline a concept they never grasped, with Trolls and Giants interspaced throughout their ranks. Elves followed, charging in formation at a graceful run, while Harpies screamed towards us. Golems slowly walked forward, accidentally crushing their allies underfoot with every ponderous step while bolts and stones were flung from their siege machines.
Our own siege machines went to work, angles already calculated to intercept the enemies own stones, coated in fire to help illuminate airborne threats, hitting the enemies stones in midair to keep our walls from falling. The Orcs charged forward recklessly, entering our defensive perimeter without realizing we've had our plains riddled with traps since we first stepped off of the spaceship. Pitfalls began opening under some of their feet, sending them to die several feet below, impaled on brutally sharpened stakes. We weren't able to celebrate our success for long, since the Harpies had entered our range as well, hellbent on creating havoc. James gave the command for our archers to fire at will, arrows now flying through the darkened sky, only illuminated by our flaming stones and the Golems inner fire. The Elves had reached our defensive perimeter, splitting their formations to navigate the pitfall traps, showing they had Demi-humans amongst their ranks, an interesting surprise I wasn't expecting.
The Orcs had by now reached our moat, attempting to jump at our embankment, only to be met with spears, pushing them down into the water, turning it green with their viscous blood. The giants reached our moat first, stepping onto the soft sand of our embankment with a barely extended stride, breaching our first layer of defense. They were met with our heavy infantry and another group of archers, arrows peppering their face as our infantry hacked and bashed away at their legs with warhammers and claymores, eventually pushing the toppling Giants back over into the moat to drown. Unfortunately, the Giants large size gave the Orcs a bridge to jump onto, bypassing the moat entirely to swarm our embankment.
"Give the signal to retreat", I told James, "We've accomplished what we needed to, bring our men back behind the wall to continue the fight." He nodded and gave the orders, our men now streaming back towards our walls, the heavy infantry conducting a fighting retreat while archers poured arrows from above, giving our fighters the space they needed to break contact and retreat into the walls.
As I stood on the battlements watching the chaos below, I thought back onto how this all started....
Chapter 1 End.