Chapter 30
Signs of thirty
The brothers of the claw awoke and prepared for the battle ahead. K'Lyrn took a few minutes to play that they would slow the undead enough that the battle group lead by Freeman would reach their goal. This group had done very well for itself it had destroyed five hundred of the undead horde only losing three. In the previous days they had lost seven others and had dispatched hundreds of undead.
To completely destroy this undead force would require each claw brother to destroy over twenty five of the undead. K'Lyrn did not think that was possible. Not only was that a huge number of undead. The claw brothers had not been able to eat properly in a week. The undead army grew while the brothers of the claw shrank and starved.
The claw brothers stared to look for the undead. It was nearly noon and they wanted to engage the enemy as soon as possible. They wanted to fight the undead as far south as possible. The undead were surprisingly close. The horde had nearly covered the entire distance to the claw brothers while they had slept. The claw brothers looked for anything they could hurl at the enemy and found nothing. They would have to approach the undead forces again. They knew that the undead themselves could be used as missile weapons.
They set up and waited for the undead to come to them. They wanted the advantage of location over the much more numerous undead. The undead came on. Masses of them. When the time was right the claw brothers leaped forward grabbed undead form the front ranks and started to toss them high into the air. Arcing them over the undead army that followed the front line. The undead had learned of this tactic however. From the ranks of the undead came flying bodies of their own the first one to land missed all the brothers of the claw. As did the second. The third glanced off one of the claw brothers. But the damage done was huge.
More of the undead falling from the sky into the brothers of the claw hit the ground than hit the brothers but those that did hit made an impressive impact. The brothers moved apart form each other to make themselves harder to hit in groups.
The undead were near to engulfing the brothers of the claw. One of the injured claw brothers gestured to his companions. K'Lyrn knew what he wanted but could not believe it would work. Two of the claw brothers picked up there injured comrade. They took three running steps and launched the injured claw brother high into the air. The unjured brother screamed as he was launched into the air.
The sound of his impact was deafening. K'Lyrn did not think it was enough to justify killing the claw brother. Then he heard the bellows of the claw brother as he smashed the undead from where he had landed. The rest of the claw brothers started to retreat from the undead. K'Lyrn could see the undead being flung around by the claw brother who had sacrificed himself to buy escape for the rest of the brothers of the claw.
Looking at the battlefield, the damage was impressive. The brothers had lost five members but the undead had suffered massive losses again. The lone claw brother was still tearing at the undead around him. The undead did not seem to mind as they slowly over came the massive creature and brought him down.
So the brothers of the claw had lost six. The undead had lost another two hundred. Looked at the claw brothers with him K'Lyrn figured the loss of the claw brothers was bigger than that of the undead.
The claw brothers ran for a long while, longer than K'Lyrn would have liked but they stopped and allowed him to tend their wounds. One of the claw brothers had woulds that could not be healed. They all knew what that meant. The other claw brothers all joined in a circle they made an end to their infected comrade. Theis was a terrible loss a loss that could have been prevented if K'Lyrn had gotten to the wound sooner. The wound was too far gone before K'Lyrn had cleaned it. At least the claw brothers would be able to eat today.
K'Lyrn retreated aways to allow the brothers to feast on their own fallen brother. The meal was all to short and the brothers of the claw were ready to move again. They set up to see of they could take the undead by surprise. They managed to ambush a scout group for the undead and destroy it before the undead were able to mount a counter attack. They caught another group unaware and destroyed it as well.
It was nearly dark when they again encountered the main undead army. The undead arrayed themselves in groups large enough to threaten the remaining claw brothers and close enough to each other that the claw brothers could not isolate any single group.
The brothers of the claw tested the undead several times moving forward to test their response. Each time they moved forward the undead responded by facing the charge and moving reserve groups to either side of the claw brothers intended target. The claw brothers were able to take a handful on undead as they test the undead lines but the losses were negligible to the main undead host.
The undead also tried to counter attack throwing undead towards the claw brothers formation. The undead fell far sort of the claw brothers and those undead that were not destroyed by the fall were quickly dispatched by the brothers of the claw.
This stalemate lasted for hours. The claw brothers finally got a lucky break. The undead had to stop moving and pass through a narrow valley. The brothers of the claw struck at the undead as they passed through the valley, hitting the undead while they could not flank the much smaller force. The advantage of the territory did not last long though. The claw brothers abandoned the attack when enough of the undead had pressed through the valley to surround and kill two more of their number. K'Lyrn kept up his work of healing his forces. But was tiring thye would have to rest soon if K'Lyrn was to maintain his healing powers.
K'Lyrn also knew that they were not slowing the undead horde enough. The horde did not need to destroy the claw brothers they only needed to keep moving north fast enough to stop Freeman and his men.
The brothers of the claw knew this as well. They move forward to a point that the undead army would reach fairly quickly and set up for the final confrontation. K'Lyrn would not need his healing powers here. The brothers of the claw knew thay would not survive the final battle but hoped to slow the undead enough to make the sacrifice worth while.
The sound of the advancing undead was thundering in the ears of K'Lyrn as the c;aw brothers prepared for the battle. The sound of a thousand feet stomping the cadence told of the coming of the claw brothers doom.
K'Lyrn went to each claw brother and again used his spells on them. This time he did not heal them but used another power. The massive arms of the creatures all but glowed with power.
K'Lyrn was completely exhausted when the first of the undead appeared less than one hundred paces form the brothers of the claw. He knew that this was the last battle he would see with the undead. With the last of his energy he reached into the earth for more power. He sank to his knees with the strain. From deep within the earth a fell power came. K'Lyrn knew that the emergence of this power would kill him but he was only thinking of how many undead this would destroy.
A massive hand shout out of the ground in front of the undead. Followed by a second. A creature slowly pulled itself free of the earth. It was perhaps fifteen paces tall and nearly the same width. It was composed entirely of the earth. Stone and root clung to its basically man shaped form. It raised a fist and alammed it down into the nearest undead.
The undead was completely shattered. It broken form hung from the bottom of the elementals arm where it was embedded into the earth that formed the creature. Again the elemental struck it cut a swath of destruction through the undead. Smashing the creatures where the stood.
K'Lyrn hear raced as he lead the elemental into the undead. He could hear his heart beating faster and faster and the magic that had called forth the earthen creature consumed him. The creatures attacks grew weaker as the undead swarmed over it tearing and the rocks, roots and earth that it was composed off.
K'Lyrn knew he did not have much time. His vision blurred and his nose was bleeding. The earth elemental made one final attack then fell to the ground and became inanimate once more. K'Lyrn had no way of knowing but he hoped he had inflicted considerable damage on the undead. He hoped that it would mean that the brothes of the claw had a chance of slowing or even stopping the undead here.
The last thing K'Lyrn saw was the massive claw brothers charging down the hill to meet the undead.
The brothers of the claw awoke and prepared for the battle ahead. K'Lyrn took a few minutes to play that they would slow the undead enough that the battle group lead by Freeman would reach their goal. This group had done very well for itself it had destroyed five hundred of the undead horde only losing three. In the previous days they had lost seven others and had dispatched hundreds of undead.
To completely destroy this undead force would require each claw brother to destroy over twenty five of the undead. K'Lyrn did not think that was possible. Not only was that a huge number of undead. The claw brothers had not been able to eat properly in a week. The undead army grew while the brothers of the claw shrank and starved.
The claw brothers stared to look for the undead. It was nearly noon and they wanted to engage the enemy as soon as possible. They wanted to fight the undead as far south as possible. The undead were surprisingly close. The horde had nearly covered the entire distance to the claw brothers while they had slept. The claw brothers looked for anything they could hurl at the enemy and found nothing. They would have to approach the undead forces again. They knew that the undead themselves could be used as missile weapons.
They set up and waited for the undead to come to them. They wanted the advantage of location over the much more numerous undead. The undead came on. Masses of them. When the time was right the claw brothers leaped forward grabbed undead form the front ranks and started to toss them high into the air. Arcing them over the undead army that followed the front line. The undead had learned of this tactic however. From the ranks of the undead came flying bodies of their own the first one to land missed all the brothers of the claw. As did the second. The third glanced off one of the claw brothers. But the damage done was huge.
More of the undead falling from the sky into the brothers of the claw hit the ground than hit the brothers but those that did hit made an impressive impact. The brothers moved apart form each other to make themselves harder to hit in groups.
The undead were near to engulfing the brothers of the claw. One of the injured claw brothers gestured to his companions. K'Lyrn knew what he wanted but could not believe it would work. Two of the claw brothers picked up there injured comrade. They took three running steps and launched the injured claw brother high into the air. The unjured brother screamed as he was launched into the air.
The sound of his impact was deafening. K'Lyrn did not think it was enough to justify killing the claw brother. Then he heard the bellows of the claw brother as he smashed the undead from where he had landed. The rest of the claw brothers started to retreat from the undead. K'Lyrn could see the undead being flung around by the claw brother who had sacrificed himself to buy escape for the rest of the brothers of the claw.
Looking at the battlefield, the damage was impressive. The brothers had lost five members but the undead had suffered massive losses again. The lone claw brother was still tearing at the undead around him. The undead did not seem to mind as they slowly over came the massive creature and brought him down.
So the brothers of the claw had lost six. The undead had lost another two hundred. Looked at the claw brothers with him K'Lyrn figured the loss of the claw brothers was bigger than that of the undead.
The claw brothers ran for a long while, longer than K'Lyrn would have liked but they stopped and allowed him to tend their wounds. One of the claw brothers had woulds that could not be healed. They all knew what that meant. The other claw brothers all joined in a circle they made an end to their infected comrade. Theis was a terrible loss a loss that could have been prevented if K'Lyrn had gotten to the wound sooner. The wound was too far gone before K'Lyrn had cleaned it. At least the claw brothers would be able to eat today.
K'Lyrn retreated aways to allow the brothers to feast on their own fallen brother. The meal was all to short and the brothers of the claw were ready to move again. They set up to see of they could take the undead by surprise. They managed to ambush a scout group for the undead and destroy it before the undead were able to mount a counter attack. They caught another group unaware and destroyed it as well.
It was nearly dark when they again encountered the main undead army. The undead arrayed themselves in groups large enough to threaten the remaining claw brothers and close enough to each other that the claw brothers could not isolate any single group.
The brothers of the claw tested the undead several times moving forward to test their response. Each time they moved forward the undead responded by facing the charge and moving reserve groups to either side of the claw brothers intended target. The claw brothers were able to take a handful on undead as they test the undead lines but the losses were negligible to the main undead host.
The undead also tried to counter attack throwing undead towards the claw brothers formation. The undead fell far sort of the claw brothers and those undead that were not destroyed by the fall were quickly dispatched by the brothers of the claw.
This stalemate lasted for hours. The claw brothers finally got a lucky break. The undead had to stop moving and pass through a narrow valley. The brothers of the claw struck at the undead as they passed through the valley, hitting the undead while they could not flank the much smaller force. The advantage of the territory did not last long though. The claw brothers abandoned the attack when enough of the undead had pressed through the valley to surround and kill two more of their number. K'Lyrn kept up his work of healing his forces. But was tiring thye would have to rest soon if K'Lyrn was to maintain his healing powers.
K'Lyrn also knew that they were not slowing the undead horde enough. The horde did not need to destroy the claw brothers they only needed to keep moving north fast enough to stop Freeman and his men.
The brothers of the claw knew this as well. They move forward to a point that the undead army would reach fairly quickly and set up for the final confrontation. K'Lyrn would not need his healing powers here. The brothers of the claw knew thay would not survive the final battle but hoped to slow the undead enough to make the sacrifice worth while.
The sound of the advancing undead was thundering in the ears of K'Lyrn as the c;aw brothers prepared for the battle. The sound of a thousand feet stomping the cadence told of the coming of the claw brothers doom.
K'Lyrn went to each claw brother and again used his spells on them. This time he did not heal them but used another power. The massive arms of the creatures all but glowed with power.
K'Lyrn was completely exhausted when the first of the undead appeared less than one hundred paces form the brothers of the claw. He knew that this was the last battle he would see with the undead. With the last of his energy he reached into the earth for more power. He sank to his knees with the strain. From deep within the earth a fell power came. K'Lyrn knew that the emergence of this power would kill him but he was only thinking of how many undead this would destroy.
A massive hand shout out of the ground in front of the undead. Followed by a second. A creature slowly pulled itself free of the earth. It was perhaps fifteen paces tall and nearly the same width. It was composed entirely of the earth. Stone and root clung to its basically man shaped form. It raised a fist and alammed it down into the nearest undead.
The undead was completely shattered. It broken form hung from the bottom of the elementals arm where it was embedded into the earth that formed the creature. Again the elemental struck it cut a swath of destruction through the undead. Smashing the creatures where the stood.
K'Lyrn hear raced as he lead the elemental into the undead. He could hear his heart beating faster and faster and the magic that had called forth the earthen creature consumed him. The creatures attacks grew weaker as the undead swarmed over it tearing and the rocks, roots and earth that it was composed off.
K'Lyrn knew he did not have much time. His vision blurred and his nose was bleeding. The earth elemental made one final attack then fell to the ground and became inanimate once more. K'Lyrn had no way of knowing but he hoped he had inflicted considerable damage on the undead. He hoped that it would mean that the brothes of the claw had a chance of slowing or even stopping the undead here.
The last thing K'Lyrn saw was the massive claw brothers charging down the hill to meet the undead.
posted by shaneknysh at 16:55
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