The sun had already been up for a few hours when Akira was woken up to replace the orc captain commanding the north wall. He was only able to get four hours of sleep, but it was much better than nothing at all.
Yawning, he walked over to a large fire where a pot of soup was simmering. A few orcs were gathered near the fire while eating a late breakfast.
Akira grabbed his wooden bowl from his bag and ladled a moderate portion of the mystery soup into his bowl, and then walked over to the orcs that were talking while eating.
“Ah! It’s you the werewolf! How are you this fine cold morning?” asked Murb who had noticed Akira first.
“I’m good. Since I wasn’t woken up earlier I’m guessing the goblins haven’t attacked yet?” asked Akira.
“Yeah, they are a weird bunch of creatures. They give everyone in the demon race a bad name due to their stupidity and lack of honor,” said Murb.
There were snorts and grunts of agreements from the other orcs nearby who were messily eating their soups.
“Why would they even think of attacking?”
“I don’t know why but it was a stupid decision for them to have attacked us for no apparent reason. There was no drought this year so the crops should be enough to last winter. It may just be that they have a new king that wants to show his power. Whatever the reason it was a stupid idea to attack us. Once the warrior chief arrives with the main army there will be little chance of them winning and the will either be wiped out or pushed back like every war before.”
Akira finished eating and walked to the north wall to take command of the defenders and start his watch. He spent the rest of the morning watching the Goblin camp from atop the wall looking for any sign of an attack.
When Akira left to eat a quick lunch the goblins had still not moved one inch closer to the fort. He was beginning to believe that they were too frightened to attack because of the defeats they had suffered the last two days.
When he finished eating a bowl of mystery soup #2 he was about to head back to the north wall when he heard Varbu calling his name.
“Great news Akira, I just received a reply from the main army. They will be here sometime tomorrow. Its sooner then I had hoped. They should get here around the time the main goblin army arrives. We won’t have to hold out for much longer,” said Varbu with a smile.
Dooooruuu!
The sound of the war-horn was a familiar sound but it still caused a sense of excitement and anticipation, since it meant the enemy was preparing for an attack.
Both Akira and Varbu rushed off to their designated spot to take command of the disordered Orcs who had been resting and were now running to the walls and the gate sleep gone from their eyes.
Akira walked up the stone steps and stepped onto the top of the north wall he hurriedly walked over to the Orc officer that had been covering for him while he ate lunch.
“What are they up to?” asked Akira while looking towards the goblin camp.
“It looks like this time is the real deal. They’re gathering their full force this time. It will be harder to stop them from getting through,” said Murb.
“We’ll just have to do what we can. Make sure everyone has enough arrows,” said Akira he picked up a spare bow and grabbed a few dozen arrows.
The Goblins took a long time to mobilize their forces. Akira watched as the goblin riders helped goblin archers up onto the boars back to sit behind them. It looked like they planned to make the archers mobile thus harder to kill.
The rest of the large attacking force was on foot. With a shout from the vanguard commander, the goblins rushed forward.
The goblin riders ran ahead of the slower foot soldiers and let the archers shoot burning arrows towards the wooden stakes to try and start them burning.
Out of all the archers shooting only twelve arrows were able to hit the sharp logs and only three managed to start a fire. But that was enough as the fire leaped to a few of the nearby logs on either of its sides. The fire stopped spreading after a few logs.
Akira watched as one of the goblin archers made a horrible mistake while he was shooting fire arrows. While he was lighting an arrow on fire he accidentally caused the fire to start burning the goblin’s armor in front of him the fire roared to life engulfing the goblin, the boar and then the archer he had made the mistake.
The fire burned brightly while cooking them all. The smell of roasted pork mixed with the smell of burning goblins could be smelled on the wind that was blowing through the pass.
“Archers, ballista, shoot as many as you can. We have to hold them back!” shouted Akira.
Loud thunks were heard as the ballistas sent their bolts flying towards the approaching enemy.
The twangs of the bows shooting their arrows followed after as the orcs that were crammed onto the wall shot their bows.
The bolts flew through the air and pieced many Goblins before they lost momentum and stopped.
The arrows rained down onto the fast approaching goblins killing and wounding many of them.
Akira joined the orc archers shooting arrow after arrow he couldn’t tell if he hit anything.
But the goblins still kept charging forward no matter how many were killed in front or next to them.
The boar riders reached the spots where the sharpened logs were burning and started to uses axes on the weakened logs.
“Shoot the goblins with the Axes,” ordered Akira also trying to shoot at the goblins attacking the wall but missing miserably.
As soon as one of the goblins attacking the log was killed another would pick up the ax and mindlessly attack the wall.
There was really no tactics to the goblins attack they were just trying to use their numbers to overwhelm the orcs defenses.
A war horn from the east wall sounded out a few tunes. Akira turned to the messenger next to him who could understand what it meant.
“Commander Varbu is taking some warriors outside to stop the goblins that may breakthrough,” said the messenger quickly.
“Go now ask Varbu if he needs me to help him,” ordered Akira.
The orc messenger ran off to the east wall while the sound of gates could be heard as they were slowly opened.
A minute later the messenger was back breathing hard from running.
“Commander Varbu said that you are an ambassador so you should not be sent to the front lines. He also said….” said the messenger pausing and looking away in embarrassment not wanting to say the last bit of what Varbu had said.
“What?” asked forcing the orc messenger to speak.
“He said he saw you shooting arrows and said you suck at it, so you should just focus on commanding so no accident of you shooting him or any of the other orcs happen,” said the messenger not looking at Akira in the face.
“I’ve been trying to get better since I was young the damn arrows just won’t go where I want them to,” said Akira the messenger did not respond.
The war cries could be heard as the forts gates were fully opened. It was only a few moments before Akira saw Varbu and the orc warriors rushing forward towards the Goblins that had just managed to hack their way through two of the burning logs and were roughly pushing each other through the small opening in the wall.
Akira summoned Nox who leaped out of his shadow and stood next to him.
“Go help Varbu and keep him alive,” said Akira pointing at the goblins squeezing through the wall.
“So bossy you’re lucky I like fighting,” said Nox before jumping off the wall and landing on the ground skillfully.
“Archers, Support Varbu, Ballistas be on the lookout for any goblins that are giving orders be sure to take care of them,” ordered Akira.
Varbu’s force of two hundred Orc warriors reached the opening in the palisade and clashed with the goblins that had managed to get through.
With Varbu and the orcs under his command surrounding the small force of goblins that trickled through the goblins were unable to get a better foothold.
With the goblins forward momentum stopped by Varbu a few of the goblins behind still tried to push forward trying to push the Orcs out of the way.
It was no use they could not use their numbers due to the choke point in the palisade.
“Giiii Giiii Gii Giiii Giiiii(Make another hole in the wall!),” ordered the vanguard commander.
Akira watched as the large Goblin army split into two groups one that was still trying to push through the opened hole while the other started to hack at a new section in the defenses away from the first hole.
“Shoot the goblins trying to break through,” shouted Akira.
He knew with the crazy determination the goblins were showing that they could only slow them down until Varbu could send a group of orcs to defend the new hole in the wall.
The goblins were receiving massive damage to their forces due to the forts arrows and ballistas and the orcs led by Varbu.
Varbu reorganized his warriors and sent half of them under command of a trusted officer to move to the section of the palisade the goblins were attacking and stop their advance.
They were able to get there just in time to block the path of the goblins, causing the goblins to screech in anger at being blocked again.
“Gi gi gi gi! (Bad words that can not be described),” shouted the vanguard leader while shaking his fist at Varbu. The goblin commander was then hit in the shoulder by an arrow knocking him off his feet multiple goblin warriors surrounded him and dragged him back to safety.
The battle wore on for the rest of the day with the goblins trying multiple times to rush the openings but failing each time.
As the time for dinner was approaching the attacking goblins decided to give up and retreated back to their camp with only 2/3’s of the forces they had had in the morning.
Varbu and his warriors stood guard at the gaps in the defenses for some time while the fort’s engineers came forward and nailed some wooden boards to the logs at the gaps creating a weak fence.
The wounded orcs were helped back to the fort where they would receive treatment, and the dead were carried back on stretchers to receive a warriors burial.
The few warriors not guarding the two gaps in the palisades were ordered to gather the arrows they could find to replenish the ones they had shot most of what they found were the crappy arrows made by the Goblins.
Dooooruuuu!
“What is it now?” Varbu asked himself, “Grom, you have the command, for now, I’ll go see what the problem is.”
“I shall defend this spot with honor!” replied Grom with an Orc salute.
Varbu ran towards the gates of the fort which were opened to let the wounded to enter and the dead to be carried inside.
When he arrived on top of the north wall and stood next to Akira before he could he ask what was wrong Akira spoke.
“Look,” was all Akira said while pointing to a place far behind the goblins camp.
Varbu groaned after staring at the spot Akira was pointing at.
He could see in the fading light a large force of goblins headed this way.
The main goblin army had arrived before the orc army.
***
Akira, Murb, and Varbu sat in the main office of the fort discussing today’s battle and what would most likely happen tomorrow.
“So far it looks like the goblins will not attack tonight but just to be sure we will have to be vigilant. We can not afford to make a mistake now. With their numbers far outnumbering us, we will have no way to hold them off forever. All we have to do is hope that they don’t attack before the Orc army is able to arrive,” said Varbu.
“How many warriors were killed today defending the gaps in the defenses?” asked Akira.
“Somewhere around 30 killed and 20 wounded, it is a severe blow to our already low number of warriors. It could have been worse bit Nox your companion helped a lot. What about the both of you?” asked Varbu.
“None were killed or wounded under my command,” said Murb.
“Only ten archers received wounds from arrows shot by the goblins no deaths. They really suck at shooting them,” said Akira.
Varbu laughed since he knew Akira was just as bad as the goblins with the bow.
“Akira and Murb you both will continue to command the fort walls. Be on alert tonight just in case they try a night attack. I’ll head back out and command the forces protecting the openings in the palisade. Akira you have first watch. Murb you’ll have it next,” ordered Varbu.
“Understood,” both Akira and Murb said at the same time.
***
Akira’s eyes were getting tired even while he was walking around half asleep on top of the wall the cold air biting at his exposed skin.
A long yawn escaped his mouth as he looked up into the dark sky only lit by the stars and a sliver of the moon.
Falling white specs caught his eye. After a short time, one of the white speck fell onto his hand.
Cold.
It was snowing. The first snow of the mountains winter had started to fall lightly blanketing everything in a cold white layer.
‘The snow sure comes early here. It’s nearly two months before the snow normally starts in Beorin.’ thought Akira as he watched the snow falling down from the sky.
A sound of in the distance brought Akira back to full alert. It was the sound of a large group of warriors marching.
Alarmed Akira swept his gaze over the Goblins main camp that had grown six times as much as it had been earlier today. There was no movement that he could see.
Akira was puzzled but listened to the sound again as it was getting slightly louder allowing him to figure out where it was coming from.
Turning around he looked to the opposite side of the Gnakad pass. To see hundreds of torches off in the distance.
As they drew closer Akira was relieved to see who they were.
It was that main orc army with Tornok leading them from the front.
