NOVEL NEXT 66
I land near Lak’s encampment west of Laurelorn. Most settlements here are yet to be resettled after we raided them a month ago. So much has changed since then and this time, we are not here to run away. From the flows of the winds of magic, it would seem that she has planted the waystones correctly. The magic now flows southeast to Dorn’s waystone and his waystone divert the winds of magic northeast. All that’s left is Kal’s waystone to divert the winds back north or it will just flow to Nordland before going south again.
Entering the encampment, I was quite surprised by how much vegetation there was. These places should be just barren marshes, so it seems like the Eonir really does teach Lak’s and her shamans life magic. I also saw some new lesser daemons of mine. So she still breeds them too. Good. Supply and numbers are self sufficient here.
“Mother, what brings you here?” Lak, exits her tent, a familiar scent of sex wafts briefly
“This is for your ear. It should allow you to speak with Druig and Dorn, and Kal after I deliver his.” I explain
She immediately pierce her ear as I look around. Some basic fortifications are already made and there’s some totems that I taught her to make. Those are arrayed around the waystones as the redirected winds of magic power them. Most are buffs, not as strong as the ones back in my Herdstone but useful enough. A 10% increase to most stats is good enough as I have no plan to permanently settle here.
“There’s less beastmen that you bring, where are they?” I ask after noticing that, less Eonir too.
“The Eonir kept pestering me about saving a small border town near here. So I let them guide a party I had to take to the town. Or take as many survivors as they can. The town can be a good place to attack deeper if the blight can be cleansed and if not I can find uses for the survivors.” Lak explains eloquently. With better vocabulary too. Her time with the Eonir looks like it is well spent.
“Good work, I will warn the group through the earring if the Bretonnian Knights start moving. Then you are to cooperate with Druig and kill them. Dorn will only give minimal help as he has another job to do.” I give her head pats before leaving and go east to Kal’s group.
Circling through the south as I still felt danger going deeper to Laurelorn. It was until I passed Dorn’s base that the shadow divers alerted me that the Bretonnian knights had set out from Marienburg.
“Lak, Druig, Dorn. Get ready the Bretonnian Knights set out again from the west. Target the Grail Knights first, the ones with the most ornate armor and maybe some magical power. Answer if you can hear.” I use the earring to alert them. And three yes answers back immediately. So the earring is proven to work for now. Druig and Lak should be able to deal with them and Kal is the one isolated from support.
—
The Bretonnian knights ride eastward. Their last attempt to fulfill their quest and oath or fail and return with no damsel saved. The barren marshes to their north and the accursed Drakwald forest at their south. They rode alert as with the warning to Marienburg and Middenheim, this road should be abandoned. Only the desperate or the accursed now use this path at least until Middenheim or Nordland launch a campaign to help the Eonirs. Highly unlikely as the Winter Solstice is coming soon.
They watch Drakwald in alert of new ambushes that they discount any attack from the north. Long and thick tree trunks rolled down as they rode past a hill to their north. The Grail Knights split the trunk apart with their might and sword before it can touch their horse. The questing knights behind them did not have such blessing. Many have their horses crushed by the trunk, a few jump away from their horses and a few manage to command their horses to jump up the rolling trunks.
Immediately beastmen ambush them from their back from Drakwald, attempting to dismount any knight still on top of their horses while minotaurs charge down from the hill. These are the beastmen that have harassed them all the time in their hunt for the golden ones and saving Lady Leslie. Khazrak the One Eye’s warherd.
“For the Lady!” The Grail Knights shout their warcry and immediately split into two groups. One to deal with the minotaur and one group to their back. As they charge however, their horses fall one by one by seemingly nothing. The Grail Knights are unharmed but they find their horses have one or two of its hooves missing. A faint glimpse of a golden spine before it delve back to the shadows is all they get.
Regardless of their horse or not, the Bretonnian knight swiftly reorganized. As the Grail Knight move north and to the back of their formation, more and more Ungors ambush party attack them from the south across their line. These Ungors swiftly cut down as they practically fight naked and with faulty weaponry and are less powerful than their Beastgor brethren. The Grail Knights’ cut down the beastmen at their back line and those in the north slowly killing the minotaurs one by one.
Khazrak’s beastmen too have learned that the questing knights are easier prey than the Grails. Weighed and thick rope nets drenched in sticky substance thrown to groups of questing knights that form small groups to fight the ambush. The rope slows them down and tangles itself to the ungor corpses at their feet. The many beastmen at their back line and the minotaur to the north is just a distraction for the Grail Knights so that they can target the main bulk of their forces which is the questing knights.
A lone Grail Knight moves to help defend the tangled questing knights from the main ambush party of beastgors. The beastmen roar but flinches back as the Grail Knight roars louder. He defends the questing knights as they cut the nets slowing them down and the Grail Knights finishing off the distractions.
As the last of the minotaurs are defeated, the Grail Knights turn back to help the rest of the party. They felt something light struck them on their back but saw that there’s no more beastmen coming from the marshes. They decide to ignore and move. Only to have a stone hammer, thrice the size of a man, crush one of the Grail Knight by its sheer weight. They could only watch incredulously as the stone hammer then flew back to Laurelorn.