The Foolhardies 159 Climb To Conquer

My legs ached in protest as I pushed them onward an uncomfortable heat spreading out from my knees to the muscles in my thighs.

"Dean, slow down!" Luca warned. "Or they'll notice the sand you're kicking up."

It wasn't easy running up a steep sand dune while doing our best not to get noticed by the defenders on the oasis above. In fact, those of us who managed to speed up had to leave those who couldn't behind.

That meant the entirety of Ashley's squad wouldn't be there when the fighting started. It was a shame as I was really hoping a s.h.i.+eld wall would make things less harrowing than the last time Luca and I tried this kind of stunt.

Edo and Shanks pulled ahead of the rest of us with Pike and Enna close on their heels. That meant us slowpoke humans were dead last in the race up the sand dune's southwestern slope.

I glanced to my right. A little ways above me and far to the right of us, a group of riders were climbing up the south-eastern slope. There were climbing parallel to Edo and Shanks.

I counted twenty riders with Al Sheridan at the front.

"Hey, Luca," I don't think we have to worry about the enemy not noticing us anymore," I said wryly.

Luca was climbing the sand dune a little ahead of me now. He followed my line of sight and noticeably groaned when he saw the sand being kicked up by the swiftharts' hooves.

"So much for a surprise attack," Luca grumbled. "I didn't think there'd be another crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d who would think up reckless plans as you do."

"Don't compare me to him," I huffed as we continued our climb. "We haven't been noticed yet, have we?"

"What's your point?" Luca asked.

"Maybe we can use them to our advantage," I reasoned.

A plan was forming inside my head at the same time as the enemy defenders above were taking notice of Al's riders.

"Edo!" I called.

Edo glanced over his shoulder at me. I pointed left. Then up. He got the picture.

My half-ogre team member veered to the left, leading our group up the side of the slope and as far from Al's riders as we could manage in the short time it took for the defenders to sound the alarm.

Shouts and yells of "Enemies on the southern slope!" reached our ears, but a quick glance up told me that my ploy was successful and that the enemies were focused only on Al's team.

It was very sloppy defensive tactics if you asked me. If I'd been in charge of these defenders, I'd have lookouts at intervals around all four corners of the oasis. Luckily, whoever was in charge hadn't played a dozen strategy games like I have.

My breath was slowly turning ragged as my lungs were beginning to protest at our fast pace. Still, I pushed myself onward because I didn't want my guys. .h.i.tting the enemy's defenses without me to lead them.

Our mad dash to the left removed us from the enemy's line of sight in the nick of time, and my last glimpse of the southeast slope was of arrows hailing down on Al Sheridan's riders.

But, instead of backing away, the swifthart riders increased their pace, abandoning subtlety in favor of reaching the summit.

I thought it was a good idea. The faster they climbed, the less the archers above could fire at them.

My team and I were now past the halfway point of the sand dune further west than where we started. It was here, on a bit of incline that leveled out like a ledge, where I ordered everyone to gather around me.

I glanced down below me. Although they managed to get out of the enemy's line of sight, Ashley's squad was far below us now. We couldn't expect them to arrive on time to support us. Not if we were going to beat Al Sheridan's group to the top.

"Enna and Pike keep watch of the slope above us…" I ordered right before I took a deep breath of cold night air. "You see something moving up there, you dispatch it with an arrow…"

I took in another gulp of air before I laid out the plan to the members present.

Edo and Shanks will tank the front," I said as I drew a circle on the sand and pointed to its southwest edge. "Your job will be to clear out any barriers they'd set up there and then keep the attention of their defenders."

I drew a line that led from that dot on the southwest edge diagonally toward the front of the oasis.

"I only got a brief glimpse of the top… most of it was obscured by the mana pool's weirdness," I admitted. "But I did see the commander here."

My finger pressed down on the sand near the north edge of the circle.

"He's surrounded by guards. Kobolds. Elves. A salamander or two… but we can take them." I pointed at myself and then at Luca. "You and I will handle that."

My eyes turned toward Varda who looked the most winded out of all of us.

"I've got a job for you," I said.

"Distractions," she huffed.

I pointed to the western slice of the circle and grinned at Varda.

"Mana pools only exist inside a fairy fort… So what's the most common feature of a fairy fort regardless of its terrain?" I asked.

Varda's face lit up with sudden realization, and for a moment she'd forgotten her fatigue. "Circle stones!"

I nodded right before raising two fingers from my left hand. "It's about time your golems made an appearance and I want them causing as much chaos as possible."

Varda rubbed her hands together like an evil villain relis.h.i.+ng the moment. "Roger, Commander."

"What about us, Commander?" Pike asked.

 "You'll make sure Varda gets to where she needs to go then I want you and Enna to support Edo and Shanks," I instructed.

I watched Pike turn to Luca with a worried look, and he rea.s.sured her with a smile I rarely see him give anyone else. I had to roll my eyes at them.  

"Luca and I can handle whatever comes our way," I reasoned. "Otherwise, the last few months of training with Azuma would have been worthless…"

"I hope not…" Luca said with a shake of his head. "Or he'll crank up the training even more…"

It was one of the few times my brother and I agreed on anything. Azuma's training was h.e.l.lish enough as is. We certainly didn't want him getting even more extreme.

"Seven of us against a hundred or more soldiers, huh," Shanks whistled. "I don't like those odds, boss."

Edo snorted. "Nothing new here… Dean's strategies always have us up against a much larger number than ourselves."

"Yup," Varda nodded in agreement. "It's our Commander's trademark tactic."

"Death by a thousand cut," Luca added.

"Shut up, guys," I frowned. Then I pointed to our immediate right where the sounds of battle were beginning to intensify. "It won't be seven against a hundred or two, Shanks. Not for long anyway."

I glanced down one final time and raised a fist toward Ashley's direction. It was the sign we agreed on that signaled the attack was imminent.

Ashley raised her own fist back toward me to say she understood. Then she glanced over her shoulder at the loose gathering of s.h.i.+eld soldiers below her, and I could almost hear her telling them to pick up the pace or in Ashley's words, it would probably be more like, "Move it or lose it!"

I turned my attention back on my team and eyed each of them before I gave the order to move out.

We continued on our way up a little less subtly than before in a two-line formation that allowed us to climb in pairs, all except for Varda who stayed at the rear. It was a scramble to the top now to claim the head of a two-thousand-man commander.

I half expected the enemy to notice us and sound the alarm, but our luck seemed to have held long enough for Edo—his glaive raised and poised to swing at unlucky fairy heads—to clear the summit and step into the oasis.

Shanks was close behind Edo, a black powder grenade in each hand.

And although Luca and I hadn't reached the top yet, from the lack of yelling at Edo and Shanks' presence, I a.s.sumed that the enemy hadn't discovered them yet, or more likely, that Edo had already killed the defenders within his reach. I would find out a few seconds later after Luca and I had finally climbed up to the oasis, that it was the latter.

Four bodies dyed the sands of the oasis red with blood while the smell of death lingered in the air.

I drew my falchion while my eyes took in the sight of a wall of s.h.i.+elds faced off against Edo.

The enemies had noticed him now, and they were smart enough to know not to approach him head-on. Sadly, they didn't account for the grenades in Shanks' hands.

I saw several faces look up as the first canister sailed over their heads. And then, with a satisfying boom and an ensuing explosion kicking up a truckload of sand into the air, the s.h.i.+eld wall that would have troubled Edo was no more.

"Foolhardies!" I yelled.

I charged only to find myself stumbling as I heard a different kind of war cry directly east of us.

"Hawks to me!" Al Sheridan yelled as he and his swifthart finally arrived at the edge of the oasis.

His glaive's shadowblade edge cut a path against the gathered enemies who seemed just as surprised as me at his arrival.

"Not again... he's too early," I hissed. Panicking, I glanced behind me. "Luca, let's go!"

Then, without waiting for my brother's response, I raised my falchion high and renewed my charge into the fray.