Even Gods Must Fall - Christian Warren Freed Page 0,131
ordered them back into the fray.
THIRTY-THREE
Glory Reclaimed
Catapults continued to drop rounds into the Goblin defenses. Rolnir ordered the batteries pulled forward to cover the infantry attack, hoping to relieve some of the pressure hammering into his army. With the attack all but stalled, he needed to find a way through the first trench line. All he needed was a foothold. The Wolfsreik general watched through his looking glass as the battle developed.
Anger and frustration clashed, their effects displayed by his bulging veins on his temples. His cheeks were red, flustered. His eyes were raw from lack of sleep and the natural irritation of so much smoke. He desperately wished for Piper Joach. The second in command was the voice of reason in the army and provided constant, sage advice. Advice Rolnir needed now. The attack was floundering, threatening to fail entirely. He needed to find a way to break through and turn the tide.
“Runner! Tell General Vajna to attack now,” he ordered.
The young soldier dashed off without bothering to salute. Rolnir forgave the sudden lack of discipline and turned his focus on the Goblin towers. Each was packed with at least a score of crossbowmen who continued to slaughter his infantry. Rolnir had been in foul situations before but nothing quite so fierce. The siege of Rogscroft paled in comparison to trying to break through the Goblin defense. Of course there the Goblins under Grugnak did most of the dirty work, leaving the Wolfsreik to mop up.
He cheered as one of the towers exploded. The catapult round continued on to crash into the Goblin infantry. Unfortunately it was only one out of at least twenty. The Goblin held the advantage as long as those towers remained operational. Rolnir’s joy turned to sorrow as what remained of the first unit to attack limped away from the battle. They were naught but tattered remnants of a once proud unit. Many dragged or carried wounded with them. It had been a very long time since any unit of the Wolfsreik was so thoroughly ravaged. Rendered combat ineffective in less than an hour, they wouldn’t be able to return to the fight unless there was no other way.
“This is madness,” Aurec said from his side.
Rolnir’s scowl remained hidden by the looking glass. “The Goblins were much better prepared than we assumed. I admit to never having encountered them in such a manner.”
“It’s going to take more than what we’ve got to break those lines,” the king said.
“This is war, Aurec. None of us are strangers to it. Have patience. Our assault is in support of the main effort,” Rolnir reminded. “The Dwarves will take the brunt of the fight.”
He didn’t bother stating the obvious: that only Bahr’s mission was of importance. All else was mere secondary consideration. Rolnir held on to hope, that fragile string growing increasingly thinner as the battle continued. He wished he’d had the foresight to send runners over with the Dwarves but was forced to rely on a tenuous string of communication that meant delays in coordinating attack efforts.
The sign Thord assured he wouldn’t miss nearly blew him off his feet. Never before had he imagined such magnitude of power in weapons. Rising flames and smoke columns almost made him recant his position of being a warrior. No army on Malweir should be given this sort of power. The scope of warfare had changed forever. He hoped the Goblins were understanding that by the hundreds.
“Look, a breach!” Aurec nearly shouted.
It wasn’t much but they clearly spotted soldiers funneling into first trench. Rolnir felt some of the tension weighing him down lift. His faith in his soldiers remained unchanged, but doubts of their ability to break the Goblins arose. He had come into Delranan expecting to find Harnin and a band of reservists holding the line, not an impossible army of Goblins in numbers unheard of.
Rolnir silently urged his infantry on. They needed to smash the lines and secure an area wide enough to allow the rest of the army in. Once accomplished, the Wolfsreik would be able to crush the enemy from the inside. Silver and grey-armored soldiers began assaulting the nearest towers. Goblins and Men fell from the fortifications. First one, then another tower fell. Fresh infantry battalions, composed of Rogscroft and Wolfsreik soldiers, headed for the breach. Rolnir spied the diminutive brown-skinned Pell Darga ranging the lines in packs of hunters. They killed at random and were beyond ruthless.
Cuul Ol stood at their sides, watching his hunters go