"…Thank the Gods we have the Lonely Mountain Force at least," Blackwell muttered. With how dangerously the battle had already started off, without Karstly's men, and his achievement in securing the Lonely Mountain, he could hardly see a path to victory anymore.
Nevertheless, he knew well enough how long he had to survive before he could take advantage of those men, and so despite how alarming the situation had become, and how impossible it seemed to defend, he began to move his pieces on the Battle board of his mind, and he shouted his orders to match them, managing to stall the enemy for just long enough that they were able to survive the first hour of battle. And then the second. And then the third. Until, impossibly, they got through the first day.
