Part 169: Zyla: Update 9

Siege 148, First Wave, Continued

 THEY  have come.

A human spearman immediately broke ranks and tried to run for it, but the spawn were already up the ramps to the main level.



He charges headlong into oblivion.



"Those that seek death, will get their wish," lectured tehsid to the assembled troops. None of the dwarven troops moved an inch, not wanting to give up their massive tactical advantage. On the sides of the last bridge into Syrupleaf are huge, upright spikes, ready to skewer any and all that fall from the sides of the bridge.

Calaros, tehsid, pumpinglemma, darkhorse, Nice Aaron stand ready at the front lines to meet the spawn's first wave.

The caravan's archer lets loose with a volley that seriously injures the targeted spawn.



The foolish caravan guards charge the spawn.



Phrederick decides that maybe now isn't the best time...



Frustrated at the obvious slaughter that these humans will endure, tehsid angrily orders a charge of the champions, with the new recruits held in reserve. "Mind the sides!" he shouts.

Niceaaron charges forward to rescue the imperiled humans as the rest of the champions set about their grim task.



Rumors within the fortress speculated that some of the troops were receiving extra training in forbidden styles of combat. It appears one of these soldiers is fighting like a legendary dwarf of old. Pumpinglemma bashes the spawn's right leg out with a waterskin in his hand.



From his blindside, two spawn charge Niceaaron and tackle him. The three tumble off the side of the bridge, along with a human spearman pushed off the other side.



Niceaaron needs to thank Amok for his tremendous luck as he manages to dodge the upright spikes placed on the sides. As he scrambles to recover from the fall he looks over to notice one of the spawn stunned and the other impaled on a sharpened obsidian spear jutting out of the ground.

The spawn goes berserk only to be silenced almost immediately.





Niceaaron takes a few moments to let the wretched beast suffer and then neatly destroys it with his axe and turns aggresively swinging laying into the other.

A pikeman in the caravan scores a kill of his own as the remainder of the human caravan rushes to make the safety of syrupleaf.



Screams echo from the halls... "HIT THE LEVER."
tehsid shouts "belay that order, men. THIS WAVE IS MERELY FODDER. We mustn't play our trump card yet."

Niceaaron slices the other spawn's right side off with a massive swing of his axe. He swung with such force it would take him several seconds to pull it out of the ground as the cloven spawn flopped to the ground.



Exercising the training that they have prepared so far, the wrestling squad charges and ties up the spawn in a system of holds, leaving it vulnerable for tehsid's horrible wrath. The spawn in question gets its claws pulled off by the pure power of tehsid's blow which sends him flying with a satisfying thud against the door into the fortress, spawn chunks spraying everywhere.





The wrestling team takes the hint and immediately sets out as a team to grapple the next spawn.

tehsid simply grabs one of the spawn's claws and pulls it right off as the creature reels in shock over the pure power of this dwarf. The wrestling team descends upon a spawn and yet again places it in position. Again tehsid's strike propels the demonspawn into the air and with a wet, and gristly squish, shatters against the front wall of the fortress, next to its brother.



The rest of the warriors on that platform find an eerie silence cast over them as they all stop attacking and simply stand back and watch tehsid's rage.

Tehsid takes a swing at the closest spawn to him, and a single blow propels the spawn as if it were shot out of a cannon into another spawn, launching them both hundreds of feet backwards.

Again, and again, his fury sends the spawn into orbit...





The corpse finally lands below, with a sound not unlike a ripe melon thrown against a wall, terrifying the spearman that fell with NiceAaron scrambling for safety...or is he running towards something far more terrible?



The first wave has ended in complete and terrible losses for the spawn. The champions of Syrupleaf begin to withdraw to prepare for the next wave...