War Progression Story Presto - All Was Lost, But That The Heavens Fought! (part 4)

Spoiler: Ambiance

Outside of the City of Merkars’arh, it seemed as if the Regalian Force, despite being outnumbered by the Kathar Host, was holding strong. The left and right flanks held strong, the Viduggla and Howlester Armies holding strong, the Kathar inward toward the central column in a pincer maneuver, as Ardige Viduggla’s tactician had suspected. Notwithstanding however, the right flank, despite being held together by Ardige Viduggla, had a significant task compared to the Howlester side in repelling the golems which targeted the Viduggla, dei Termini and Harhold forces rather than the Highlander flank, specifically to steer clear of artillery which would undoubtedly blow the stone golems to smithereens. Now it was down to Harhold to do his part in holding the Regalian defense strong. Atop his mount, he observed his Tenpennies being slaughtered in droves attempting to maintain the status quo. “Orders, General?” his Field Officers inquired, frantic as the screams of multitudes of Pro-Regalians, Men and Women alike, fell upon the bloody battlefield.


Nothing came from the Harhold’s lips. He merely sat atop the horse, watching the bloodshed. Maybe something clicked in his mind, or perhaps the smell of blood and the dragons overhead had finally been the turning point for the Duke of Vlissinghelm. “Just kill them all,” he uttered. “I don’t give a fuck, kill them all.” This order, simple and vague was it was, provided no merit to those who sought an answer from their general. The Harhold levies stationed on the field began to fall group by group, meeting their fates at the hands of the savage Kathar soldiers. Joseph Soryn and Serna Ashwood took to fending off who they could; Joseph Soryn fought quite a few Kathar, but while he was occupied with them, Serna was whacked across the face by a sword pommel, bruising her cheek, and cut by the same blade. Strangely enough, Benedict Yates-Varley was one of the most prominent soldiers in the mix, not for his combat prowess, but his inexplicable ability to avoid death. He hurried around in an uncertain pace, slowing to a walk when a Kathar chased down a soldier at his left, and danced aside when two polearm fighters stabbed each other to death at his right. Unbeknownst to him, a heftier Kathar began to single him out, with Stigandr Bahrus and Julian Keymorne lunging to save him. Stigandr unfortunately caught the Kathar’s attention and was stabbed in the shoulder and cut across the chest, but Julian managed to get the Kathar off Stigandr before certain death. While Freya Kayser hurried in, trying to get Stigandr off the field, she too was barreled into by Regalians and Kathar charging each other, thus being trampled and left with a badly twisted ankle. Both badly wounded were then carefully ushered away out of the combat. The seconds rolled by and there was no upheaval that came from the Harhold forces, but rather Rote’s interjection amidst the chaos. Thea Rote stormed in and gathered leadership over two regiments, and from it bolstered the commands to hold the line. This steeling urged the rest of the men who remained standing to hold firm--with enough success for assistance to be called for. The call for further help was sent to the General dei Termini, and it was swift on the march. Hengest Harhold, witnessing Thea Rote take hold of his regiments, felt a cold touch to his neck and turned his horse around, retreating to the command tent and out of the battle.


Field General dei Termini, upon notification from envoys of Harhold’s army, immediately set in motion its plan to fill the gap, as was to plan. Up until now, Field General Deo dei Termini had provided crossbow and archer fire upon the Kathar lines from behind the Viduggla and Harhold armies, but upon failure of Field General Hengest Harhold to hold his army, let alone his line, dei Termini had the perfect opportunity to intercede. Noting an opening in the retreating Harhold force which would allow the dei Termini Pavisas to charge right into the thick of the fighting, he screamed out his orders. “Pavisas! Affix Bayonets! Charge!” The Pavisa Knights, under the leadership of Arquinius dei Termini and Camilla dei Revello, hastened toward the Shenath fighters, narrowly avoiding diving attacks by the harpies which were now hovering overhead like vultures, picking off stragglers from both the Harhold and dei Termini armies, lifting them into the air, then dropping them to their deaths from above. Camilla was able to close the opening in the Regalian defence partially, though was forced to fall back after one of the harpies caught her right arm with its talons, slicing into her skin just deep enough to make holding a pavisa crossbow too painful. She fell back to Jocelyn von Duerr who set about tending to the wound alongside Gwenfrewi Marth, who incidentally had the alchemy potions on hand to prevent the injury from being contaminated with an infection from the beast’s claw. With Camilla gone, the onus fell on Arquinius dei Termini to fill the gap alone. He rendezvoused with Thea Rote and both set about plugging the breach as best as possible by rallying Tenpenny and Pavisa alike alongside them to push back. Arquinius performed elegantly with his crossbow, even managing against all odds to shoot a harpy through the eye and out of the air with a bolt, despite the weapon’s slow aim speed.


Swooping in alongside Thea and Arquinius arrived William Arnyn with a considerable number of Tenpenny Infantry at his back. The Arnyn Field Commander lifted his sword and ordered Sta’erris He’Aderus, Zelphar Heikalyn and Elduin Heledi to support his defensive maneuver. Sta’erris swung his broadsword wildly into the Kathar ranks, killing some but missing others by a mile. The attacks which did come close to hitting anyone of significance were deflected and repelled. Zelphar Heikalyn lifted their longbow in the meantime, firing arrow after arrow into the body of yet another harpy that loomed overhead, causing it to plumet out of the sky and into the Kathar forces below. Avaineiral Rilynnlues joined Zelphar in the initiative, firing off arrows in arcs and swift releases, but was striking only every other Kathar he aimed for. Elduin Heledi wormed their way into the havoc in such a way that, somehow, they managed to avoid most of the crossfire and combat. They dropped wherever they could to relocate and patch up whomever they could, and this sheer ability to tread back and forth on the field without so much as earning a single terrible wound, fend off those who neared, and healed the injured was a profound instance for those who witnessed it. William Arnyn engaged in a fight with a Silver Tear Paladin as the rest of the Regalians ensued in their own respective fights. Blade to blade, Arnyn and the Paladin confronted each other with swift exchanges of sword fighting. Both fighters moved with a strange sense of grace, hardly injuring the other until Arnyn gained the upper hand by a single move, and stabbed his sword clean through a gap in the Paladin’s armor and through the neck.


Despite the line being held, the Regalian force, at least on the right flank, was being pushed further and further back toward the river. Forced into a rut, Field General dei Termini did the unthinkable. Clambering to a nearby rock, he stood atop it, much akin to how the Imperial Marshal had once done to rouse his troops in the Songaskian wars and gave a rousing speech. The resolve of his words boosted the morale of his soldiers, whom pressed on, at least up until the dei Termini General was plucked from the rock by a Void Harpy which utilised the opportunity to remove Field General Deo dei Termini from the fight, despite efforts from his bodyguard Fathiyaa Nasir to intervene. Even Elias, the dei Termini personal attendant could only watch on in horror as the harpy took its meal off behind the Regalian line. If not for the quick and decisive actions of his Pavisas, Deo dei Termini would have filled the belly of that very same Void Harpy. His Pavisas took aim at the creature, taking caution not to hit their General, before firing and peppering the creature with enough crossbow bolts to kill a small whale. The General subsequently plummeted into the river, breaking his right arm and shoulder on the river bank, but surviving to tell the tale. His medic, Cyrillian Aredeth rushed to his aid and immediately sent for Deo to be transported back to the Command Tent for personal medical assistance. In his and Harhold’s absence, the right flank was almost entirely under the command of Field Commanders, who, despite being skilled, could not hold the line for extended periods of time without oversight. Inevitably, the Regalian hold began to collapse and the Kathar pushed forward and advanced between the Viduggla and dei Termini columns, forcing Viduggla to make a tactical retreat partially into the jungle while the remainder of the Harhold and dei Termini host attempted pull back westward for assistance from von Drachenburg and Typhonus.


Inside the city, the carnage between the guards and defenders and the presumed Witchblood skeletons raised hell across the city. Garth and his garrison shambled from street to street, finding corpses of soldiers torn to pieces and bones shambling about. The fight at the square did not fare much better, and was about to get a whole lot worse. Even though Rikkira had cleared the square of any defenders and Witchblood, she continued to cast more ancient Dragon magics into the wind, singing in high Wyrmtongue to the world itself. Her magic calls carried as far as Regalia, heard by the Isldar in their bones for those who could hear as she spoke words of hate against those that had stolen her crown and her birthright, words of agony at the death of her kin, and the betrayal she deemed to be her plight to exact vengeance upon. All Witchbloods, famous and unknown in the army on the battlefield, then suddenly jolted to a halt.


Leufred du Briërust was one of the first to draw his blade, his eyes emblazoned with a brighter green fire as he was no longer aware of his own identity and himself, drawing his weapon on his fellow soldiers, and stabbing a Typhonus tenpenny levy immediately in the neck in front of him. All across the battlefield, Witchbloods turned on the Regalians, members of their own army, the flashes of green used just moments before to fight the magical means of the Kathar, now turned on the mundane soldiers in the purple and gold. Leufred cut down another soldier before the regiment commander finally figured out what was going on, the soldiers breaking formation and forming a wall around Leufred who rapidly switched between weapons with his Phantasma powers to try and break free, yet with a calculated and cold expression on his face like he was merely a marionette while someone else pulled the strings. He fought off a couple of brave soldiers who tried to restrain him, before he was overpowered and knocked to the ground. All the while he was carried off to be caged at the base camp, his face remained devoid of expression or response, even as he was bleeding from his leg and arm from the earlier struggle.


Malyrra Hállëvandëia meanwhile suffered a similar fate as Leufred, going catatonic in her face, but wielding her Witchblood abilities and her weapon and shield on other Regalian soldiers. Unlike Leufred du Briërust however, she was restrained much faster, and dragged off the field while other Witchblood around her were also turning on their allies. Furthermore, Regalian men who were cut down on the battlefield momentarily revived with green-lit eyes, turning away from the Kathar who had just slain them and attacking the Regalians, turning former fallen comrade on former ally and causing a serious panic to build in the frontlines where the carnage was at its peak. The Imperial spoke against the Dread Dragon’s spell, trying to use his own Wyrmtongue in the wind, but it was merely like a whisper against the ancient terrible power of Rikkira, vague words of hope and calmness that were entirely ignored and barely understood by the Isldar. In a last ditch to stop the spell, the Imperial turned back into Dragon form albeit limping, which the Dread Dragon quickly responded to in kind, and before long, the two took to the skies again, the Imperial Dragon chasing the Dread Dragon higher and higher as flashes of green emitted from the battlefield.


Rikkira was eventually caught up by the Imperial Dragon who while flying turned to look at the battlefield below, emboldened by desperation for the suffering of the soldiers below and utter powerlessness to stop her catastrophic spell. The Imperial Dragon clawed at Rikkira’s wings, causing one to tear, while his own physical power started waning. She fell from the sky first, he quickly following after, diving into the right flank where Deo dei Termini’s soldiers had just moved up to join the fray. A few unlucky soldiers did not get out of the way of Rikkira who couldn't care less for them, while the Imperial Dragon changed to humanoid form just before hitting the ground to minimize the impact on the soldiers around him, albeit just crashing into the trampled earth and mud and remaining motionless.


Nallia Qulo’ena was lucky enough to not be crushed by the Dread Dragon falling to the ground, just bare feet away from the impact, but unlucky enough to just be frozen in a sitting position while she was tending to a wounded soldier with her alchemy, in front of the Dragon when it opened its eyes. As the Dragon’s head raised from the mud, the dirt drooping off her maw, she spoke in Wyrmtongue to Nallia, calling her a pitiful creature following the dogma of a dead fool, immediately followed by her tail slashing at Nallia, tossing her several feet off the ground and backwards, breaking both an arm and a leg on the impact before she had to be carried off the battlefield by a medical staffer.


Amaria Silevon and Wistaeri Vixaris immediately jumped on the offensive against the Dread Dragon, Amaria calling upon her Nature Magic, vines and brambles sprouting from the ground and her arms in an attempt to restrain the Dragon to prevent it from moving to attack. These brambles and vines latched around the Dragon, attacking like ropes onto her spikes and horns, pulling her to the ground if only for a moment while Wistaeri shot her with her Longbow. For a moment it appeared like they were able to pin her down while Lau’rella quickly rushed to the Imperial Dragon who was still in human form, face forward in the dirt, rushing to wake him with strong smelling salts, and quickly patching him up with quick fixers.


The sorcery spell however fared much the same as Mae Draylas had, being turned against the original caster as Wistaeri was suddenly attacked by her own vines and brambles that instead of restraining the Dragon, now turned on her. She was fully enveloped in plant growth, dragging her to the ground and encasing her like a cocoon, just as Akasha dei Castello reached the scene, and immediately started using her anti-magic abilities to dissolve the vines holding down Amaria and attacking Wistaeri, having a tug-of-war with her Longbow. Rikkira seemed unfazed by the events around her, switching to a humanoid form, this time without scales, and cleaning herself of the dirt and mud in a single gesture. Akasha was able to single-handedly secure Amaria and Wistaeri, while also escorting Lau’rella back to safety as Rikkira turned back to the Imperial Dragon, who had meanwhile stood back up again, covered in bandages.


She spoke in Wyrm-tongue to him once more, though this time only to those understanding Wyrm-tongue and present on the battlefield could hear: “Why must you fight? Do you not see the pointlessness of all these beings? Do you not see the pointlessness of all this fighting? Do you not see the pointlessness of this all?” The Imperial however afforded her no response, and immediately went back to fighting stance, charging at the Dread Dragon and engaging her in a hand to hand fight, being pummeled shortly after by this far more ancient creature that did not even seem to care about the fight anymore, her attitude to it all only betrayed by her words. It seemed though that the Dread Dragon was fighting more than just the Imperial Dragon. All across the battlefield, cries of Regalian agony and Kathar pleasure alike resounded, and her Dragon spells had done their work of horror. She wasn’t just chipping away at the Imperial Dragon, she was chipping away at the resolve of Regalia itself.​