"This one as well?" Sift pointed at Crystal. That got Crystal's attention.
"No, Crystal must be protected. Those goblins attacking humans are the ones trying to kill me."
"You are safe here. The primary line of defense is holding. What [******] do you desire for the humans the goblins give aid to?"
"Only this goblin here aids our humans." Jebidiah looked intently at the horde ranged against his soldiers. "I see no humans on their side."
"[******] [******] still active in the area. There is a group of humans [******] [******] due [******] from here, heading [******]."
"We'll deal with that as we need to." The lizard was wearily watching them, even though it lacked human features, the apprehension was easy to see.
Mila spoke up then. "Sift, which way the other humans?"
Sift pointed toward the direction the ghouls had come from. "[******] [******] meters in that direction"
Mila smirked, "Helpful. I'll be back." She turned invisible and Jebidiah watched her gray form climb back over the wall the ghouls had come from.
"Sift, what can you tell me about Kelek?" Crystal asked, taking a break for her taxed magical abilities.
While Crystal dealt with the lack of communication with Sift, Jebidiah moved back toward the front of the keep to get an idea of how the battle was progressing. He debated charging into the line so Sift would join the effort but Yantzee's admonishment about distracting the troop's line of battle won out. He was concerned that Foreman had not returned with the Captain, or at the least a message from the Captain. He lacked information about basic things, where was the Captain, where was the other platoon, what trouble was Mila going to run into, how many goblins were they engaging, were their provisions and supplies protected or destroyed. If they lost their supplies, winning the battle might only mean dying of thirst later.
He discarded the idea of moving out to find more information, the people who he needed that information from should come to his location. Moving would only add to the confusion when they did not find him where he was supposed to be. His level of frustration kept building. The bards described battles as grand, heroic affairs where generals led their troops exactly where they needed to be, when they needed to be there, swinging their swords to cleave the enemy leader and save the day. This battle lacked any resemblance to any story he had read or heard. Jebidiah felt as useful as a whitewashed window pane in a sandstorm.
He spotted Yantzee and the rest of the First on the front line, engaged fully with the goblins. There was a certain amount of grace with which they dispatched the enemy before them. Where the armswomen relied heavily on their shield and used spears to stab, the First relied on their sabers and shortswords to slash through the enemy, only bringing the shields into play when required. The armswomen's shields were larger, medium to large sized shields, that they would brace before them and, when a goblin tried to breach her defense, she would shove hard, using the shield as a battering ram to force the goblin back just enough to bring her spear into play. The First's swordplay looked more like a fluid dance, graceful movements where momentum from one attack would carry to the next in a continuous flow.
Their movements were almost mesmerizing, distracting Jebidiah enough that he missed the first magic missile that slammed into the front of his left shoulder. "Mother fucker!" He yelled through the pain as he turned his body to move with the force of the impact, hoping he would stay standing. He twisted enough to maintain his balance, keeping his body in the perfect position to catch the second magic missile on the back of the same shoulder. He had not braced for that second impact and found himself on the ground, face down, yelling in pain and frustration.
Sift's reaction was immediate as she started her movement the same time the first missile struck. She bolted past Jebidiah and leapt in the air to clear both sides of the combatants on the battle line, moving in a graceful arc that lifted her feet nearly twice the height of the tallest human on the line, landing a full fifteen feet behind the goblins just in time to impact a bolt of lightning racing toward Jebidiah, setting off it's discharge early. The blast of electricity knocked Sift back into the nearest goblins, the now manifested bolt of electricity followed, throwing goblins and Bh'orel guard left and right but stopped short of where Jebidiah lay in pain. Sift's triggering the discharge early was the only thing that saved Jebidiah's life.
Crystal and Stern ran up to help Jebidiah regain his feet, anger that bordered on blind rage roiled inside him as he staggered toward the broken line. There was at least ten feet of cleared space, previously occupied by combatants who were now either laying dead or thrown to the sides, groaning or, more often than not, screaming in pain. He saw a large goblin, easily the largest he had encountered thus far, with two more naked female goblins in front of him, bedecked in feather headdresses and bones tied to strings everywhere about their bodies. The two began waving their hands drawing red threads to them as they cast their next spells.
Jebidiah concentrated on increasing his focus even more, to slow his surroundings as much as he could. Even so he knew he would not be able to fully handle both incoming spells at the same time as fast as they hurtled toward him. The first he did not catch but instead shunted to the side, like an unarmed combat move he had witnessed where the defender uses the attackers momentum against them. The red blob of the spell moved off to his left and up into the air as he shoved his left hand against it. The second he caught with his right hand and swung it around, in an arc behind him, away from the attacking mages, continuing the arc until he let loose the spell back in the direction of his attackers. He was deprived seeing the looks of surprise when their fireball he had just thrown back at them exploded, completely obscuring them and knocking them to the ground.
Anger still driving him, Jebidiah drew his sword and charged toward the impact site. One of the females was either knocked out or dead, the other struggled to move, unable to put out the flames consuming her hair. The large goblin was regaining his feet, on his knees with one hand on the ground before him and the other instinctively raised, waving useless in the air before him. He was likely trying to find something solid to grab for leverage to raise his bulk but could not see anything was there. His position stopped him from raising his head. Jebidiah used the speed of his rush to back his first slice and cut the raised arm off, a clean cut a few inches above the elbow. The goblin bellowed in pain and fell forward again, dark blood spurting in a spray from the stump of his arm. Without hesitation Jebidiah brought his sword down twice on the back of the goblin's neck, fully decapitating it on the second swing. He reached down and grabbed the hair, lifting it into the air while planting a foot upon the downed goblin's back. He used his cantrip to amplify his voice and roared his challenge.
His primal yell of rage drowned out the other cries around him, drawing all nearby eyes to him. In front of him was Stern, who had followed his charge, lifting one of the female goblin mages into the air. The goblins who saw the severed head cried in anger and fear. When Stern smashed the broken, burnt form he held over his head into the struggling female goblin crawling by his feet, the goblin forces finally broke. They withdrew so fast it left the defenders in a daze. The goblins melted away like rushing water, leaving the battle with yelps and cries and their dead, wounded, and abandoned weapons their parting gift. When they passed goblins further away it became a complete route, Jebidiah's troops had won.
His rage now diminished, Jebidiah threw the head to the side and looked for the struggling female mage Stern had pommeled. Crystal had joined as well and was examining the mages and let out a cry of wonder. "This one lives." She began to tie the captive as Jebidiah numbly went to see how Sift was doing.
He found Sift lying on her back, limbs akimbo, but she looked fully intact and unhurt otherwise. A stray thought found it amusing he was so easily referring to Sift as a 'her'. Tapping her forehead brought no response, so he attempted to wrap on her torso. Nothing. Moving her limbs proved fruitless, her form was solid as, well, solid metal. She was too heavy to lift so he left her and went back to Crystal and Stern.
"I'll take her from here, love." Jebidiah bent down to pick up the goblin and throw her over his shoulder. In hindsight it was not a brilliant move, the goblin was about as unclean as they came and her cunt, situated next to his head as her waist was bent over his shoulder, was rank enough to draw tears. He mused about using her nether region to wake the unconscious. He carried the captive back to his original position, where the rest of his group and all their guards now waited, watching his approach.
"Normally I would offer some form of reprimand for doing exactly what I asked you not to do, " Yantzee started, "but that was well played. You took out whatever chieftain that was, even though he was strong enough to band this many tribes together. We had only spotted two of their shamans, you made quick work of the others. That is what salvaged what victory we have. It came at a high cost though."
"How bad is it?" Jebidiah asked, afraid of the answer. He dropped the goblin he carried to the ground and noticed that the lizard was gone.
"Most of the 1001st are effectively gone, we know of twelve dead so far and we have at least eight dead from the other two platons including Lt Heller's Staff Sergeant and guide. None of the 1001st we have found are unwounded and two are still missing. Captain Gentry and Gunny Henderson are wounded, Supply Sergeant Kong is dead as well. Two of the supply carts he was defending were destroyed. Humble has the Company in hand. We'll know more as the recovery effort finishes."
"So we got our ass kicked. What did you say, twenty dead here, two from the last attack, two missing here and one from before, twenty five killed out of how many did we bring, 120 total? If the ratios hold, we probably have close to 50% casualties with the wounded? Close to a third casualty rate in leadership? Hell, I'm wounded and nearly died out there." His voice continued to rise as his rant lengthened. "This was a fucking disaster, Hiro."
Dana tried to sooth his rising anger. "We made it through being hit by the Divine knows how many goblins and a random gaggle of ghouls thrown in for fun, Jeb. It wasn't a disaster."
"It was Dana, I was as useful as a limp dick in a brothel. I had no idea what was happening past what I could see, while gridlocked in indecision. I still don't know what the fuck is out there! Why the fuck isn't Mila back from checking out the humans working with the goblins? We find a fucking living weapon of the Ancients and I probably got it fucking killed! And where the ever loving fuck is Kelek at?"
His rage had become so volatile that those brave enough to be in the immediate vicinity physically flinched. The fear that came flooding into the bond was like a hard open handed slap to the face. It was fear of him and at a level of fear that wasn't present during the worst of the battle. His anger collapsed and he deflated with a feeble apology. "Please forgive my outburst."
