The Foolhardies 187 Playing With Fire

I saw the vanguard of their column shudder to a halt just short of being parallel to our sand dune, and I had an inkling as to what might have caused the disturbance among them.

Zooming out as far as Fool's Insight would allow, I just barely managed to see the middle of their line that was at this moment being attacked by a group of soldiers who'd lain in wait to ambush them.

There were maybe fifty of them, which shouldn't have made such a big impact against a column that numbered thousands, but the way they made use of the desert terrain of firs and sinkholes to their advantage was brilliant.

Al must have been leading them directly; otherwise, their meager squad would have been wiped out already. Instead, they'd managed to hara.s.s the enemy enough to keep them in place. And they did it in a way that made it look like there were way more of them than there actually were.

I couldn't see Point Alpha even from my high vantage point as it was still a distance away from our location, but I was almost certain that the other half of Al's hundred men were already planting the paper soldiers that would become the base for the arcane illusion of a small army conquering Point Alpha's oasis.

Honestly, if a large enemy force managed to conquer the oasis closest to my army's eastern flank, I'd be worried enough to turn back and reclaim it first.

This was exactly what we hoped would happen as it would give our own army time to take the center of the battlefield.

And if the northern team of led by Dain and Verania was following the plan, they'd be in a similar position as us by now.

Of course, this was in no way a perfect plan. For one, keeping the enemy within this area of the battlefield meant we would try to hold off a force that was roughly a hundred times the size we had.

At the moment, that meant two hundred and fifty from our southern units were up against twenty thousand Dominion soldiers from their eastern flank.

Hopefully, more of my soldiers would arrive before we were overwhelmed and had to abandon our positions because I planned to hold Point Bravo for an entire day at least.

Since Al's position was much closer to the enemy's line, their job was only to hara.s.s the enemy long enough for us to set up our defenses. In that regard, they'd done an excellent job so far.

Movement on the northern slope of Point Bravo forced me to zoom back to my oasis.

"Yo, Azuma… the enemy's noticed us now," I reported.

"All of them or just the soon-to-be-dead men climbing our north slope?" Azuma yelled back from his position on the northern edge of our oasis.

"Just them for now… Al's confusing the rest of our enemies… it won't last long, though," I answered.

"So… how do you want to do this?" Azuma asked.

I released Fool's Insight and blinked until my vision went back to normal. Then I strolled over to where Azuma was leaning behind a thick wooden board.

It was basically a wall of wooden planks that reached past my head with horizontal murder holes placed at intervals for use of our ranged weapons.

"How far down have you set up the barricades?" I asked.

"About halfway up the slope… we've got them positioned so that a large group of soldiers would have to separate into much smaller groups in order to get past them," Azuma explained.

"Like a maze," I realized.

"Nothing so fancy," Azuma chuckled. "But it'll get the job done in making it difficult to climb… We're lucky the northern slope is so steep and the footing is s.h.i.+t…"

"Don't let them reach the first barricade… they might break it before it becomes useful," I reasoned.

"I've got men behind that first barricade… they're armed with those fire spears you and Zarz cooked up," Azuma pointed through the murder hole between us and down to where a line of Immortals were crouched down behind barricades whose wooden spikes were pointed toward the enemy. "They're ready to fire on your command."

Fire spears, that's what we called the flame-spitting lances Zarz created with my input. He'd discovered a way to make black powder ignite in a linear path by combining it with a liquid slime that was also flammable. Basically, we'd made flame throwers that had a longer range than the original thing back on Mudgard.

"I guess you don't need me yet, Commander," Donar Firemonger spoke from right behind me.

Funny he should say that as he was the muse who inspired this particular project. After all, I envisioned the fire spears after seeing how devastating Donar's Flame Arrow Spell was.

"Hang back, for now, Donar," I ordered. "You'll get your turn to blaze brightly soon."

"That's all I ask," Donar agreed happily.

After the pyromaniac walked away, I gave the order for the fire spears use in combat once the enemy was within range.

"The fire spears are pretty flashy… we'll get noticed quickly by more enemies if we use them," Azuma reminded me.

"They'll notice us anyway once their people start dying on the slope… Might as well do it now while Al's group still has them paralyzed," I reasoned.

We waited for the enemy to come within range, and when they did, that's when the fireworks began. It was also when the screaming started.

The screams of dying fairies reached my ears at the same time as the smell of burning meat wafted up to us from the middle of the northern slope.

I watched the fire burst out of the tips of those bronze spears like a dragon unleas.h.i.+ng its breath of fire. It must have been extremely hot as even their s.h.i.+elds melted at the touch of the flames.

"Geez, I'm definitely going to have nightmares of this moment…" I sighed.

I joked about it but I was honestly telling the truth. But nightmares came after sleep. For now, I would have to settle with the guilt I often felt at the death of others, especially for the ones I caused.

"Better them than us," Azuma added.

Of the hundred enemy soldiers climbing up the sand dune, perhaps a fourth of them had just died. This quick and deadly attack was enough to instill fear in their hearts, stopping them in their tracks. Luckily, they didn't know that fire spears took some time to reload.

"Let's finish them with arrows now," I said with zero enthusiasm for the task at hand.

"Aim!" Azuma called.

At his word, and the archers positioned to either side of us aimed their arrows at our enemies through the murder holes of our wooden walls.

"Fire!" Azuma ordered.

Twenty to thirty arrows sailed down to the enemy below, ensuring more death rattles would reach my ears.

At this point, the enemy had found the courage to press on, but they'd dallied long enough that our fire spears were ready to blast them a second time, and blast them we did.

Afterward, we launched another volley of arrows at the enemy, turning them into b.l.o.o.d.y pincus.h.i.+ons.

By that point, more than half of them were dead with only the stragglers remaining far below. They really weren't prepared for us.

"Don't let them escape, Azuma," I ordered. "Precision shots… leave none alive to report our position to the enemy."

"Not like they don't know we're here already," Azuma reminded me, but he did what I asked anyway.

Pretty soon, we'd wiped out the hundred-man unit that had climbed up the northern slope with zero casualties on our side. Like I said, they really weren't prepared for us, and I guessed their commander had died right at the beginning.

Still, it wasn't all good. Our little display attracted the notice of the army northwest of our oasis, and at this point, Al's forces had already withdrawn back to Point Alpha.

This meant two things. Most of the enemy's long column had doubled back with the intent of reclaiming the oasis Al's group had claimed — all except for the vanguard which was now making its way southeast to us. They'd be here very soon, and from the looks of it, we were going up against at least a thousand soldiers.

"Looks like Al's distraction worked…" I reported. "That should buy us a few more hours before ten thousand soldiers come cras.h.i.+ng down on us…"

Azuma raised an eyebrow at me. "This plan is really reckless, Dean… even for you."

"It was the fastest way for Garm's army to gain the advantage in the battle," I reasoned. "And if it works…"

"You'll get the glory and clear one of Darah's conditions for you to keep your thousand-man command," Azuma noted.

"We can do this, Azuma… I have faith in our ability to hold back the tide for at least a day," I said with as much conviction as I'd hoped.

"Commander!" someone called.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that one of our lookouts on the southern slope was running toward us and he seemed excited.

"The gliders… have returned… with reinforcements… sir!" he said breathlessly as he came to a stop a foot away from slamming into the barricades. "It's Thom's unit."

"Hear that, Azuma?" We're going to be fine," I chuckled.

When would I ever learn not to tempt fate for no sooner had I said that when the horns of war began to resound below us.

The midday sun was high in the sky when a thousand enemy soldiers began their climb up to us.