Chris gets to the village and immediately rushes over to Thor the blacksmith. "Thor, my friend. We have a crisis on our hands!"
Thor turns around and gives Chris a look of surprise, then his expression turns serious, "Welcome back friend. What is the problem?"
"We have been warned by the Goddess that there will be an attack on the village. Amelia is evacuating the priests as we speak. We will make our stand here in the village. I see that the wooden walls are finished and that you have even constructed a watchtower. This certainly gives me some hope, but we still need to do our very best to prepare. I have a feeling that this attack will be far worse than the last one.", Chris answers while still trying to regain his breath from running his fastest.
Thor looks worried, but quickly answers. "We must gather all the villagers. Luckily I have also filled the armory with weapons and armor. We will be able to arm many with decent equipment and having seen you in combat, I assume you will have a plan for us."
Just a short while later, all the villagers are gathered in the center of the village. Chris speaks with a voice booming with authority. "I have grave news. We are about to face an attack. I do not have much information, but the Goddess has warned us."
The villagers gasp at Chris' sudden revelation of this crisis. Things must be really bad if the goddess herself has warned us.
"I want every able-bodied person to report to Thor for equipment. I will gather with the village elders to form a plan of defense as soon as Amelia arrives along with the people from the temple.", Chris continues.
People started lining up outside of the armory, reporting to Thor. Thor assessed each person and determined suitable equipment. There were swords, spears, bows, shields, and different types of armor available. Eventually, Thor had armed, ten swordsmen with heavy armor and shields, twenty spearmen with medium armor, and twenty archers with light armor. In total a force of fifty soldiers, or rather militia. They also had their four guards, two armed with swords and shields, and two with spears. Thor would also participate, this time he had prepared a set of medium armor and a two-handed hammer.
Amelia showed up just as Thor was arming the last archers. She brought five priests, fifteen initiates, and six servants. The priests and initiates were capable of wielding more or less holy magic and would support the soldiers with holy orbs, holy shields, and healing.
Chris was happy to see them, especially Amelia. "Welcome everyone. We don't know when the enemy will come, so it is best that we gather the elders to discuss our defensive plans immediately."
Chris, Thor, the eldest guard, five village elders, and one of the priests gather to discuss the plan of defense. Amelia would have joined too, but she is still tired from her heavy channeling at the tomb.
Chris starts to describe his plan, "I want there to always be two archers up in the watchtower. We need to be alerted as soon as there is any sign of the enemy.
The new wooden wall only has one entrance and that is where we will focus our strength, but we can't rule out the possibility of the enemy breaking through the wall at some other point. We need to be prepared for this. Therefore the watchtower archers' main task throughout the battle will be to provide us with information.
Me, Thor, and the guards will form a special unit that will help where we are needed based on the watchtower information.
Initially, we should have our spearmen assembled at the entrance with the swordsmen behind them, and the priests and initiates should be at the back. The archers' position will depend on the enemy, if the enemy has some sort of cavalry or fast troops, they will stand behind the spearmen and swordsmen. If the enemy doesn't, then they will go out to pick off the enemy as they approach and move back when necessary.
We don't know how long we have until the battle, but I would prioritize new defenses in the following order: create spike barriers for the entrance, reinforce the wooden walls with iron studs to damage enemy weapons attacking it, hide spike traps in the fields outside and lastly add a layer of wooden spikes to the walls that would further hinder attackers.
I also want one of the priests to use the teleportation circle in the woods to go to Harborton and ask them for help. Lady Amelia will give you the necessary instructions, other than that, our Lady will need to rest and should not be disturbed even during the battle unless absolutely necessary. She will come out and join us if and when she is ready. Any input or objections?"
The eldest guard says, "Good plan my Lord, but if you are in a special unit, who will lead the main unit at the entrance?"
"Good question, I think it would be best if you don't join the special unit and instead lead the main unit. Would you agree to be the main unit commander?"
The eldest guard is honored and quickly answers, "I will do my best!".
The meeting is adjourned and everyone goes to prepare.
The day went by quietly and they managed to create spike barriers for the entrance, but then just a few hours before dark.
"The watchtower bell is ringing! The enemy is here!", the villagers shout.
Chris runs over to the watchtower, "What do you see?".
"My Lord, hundreds of imps are approaching.", one of the archers responds quickly.
Chris shouts to the main unit commander, "I will take the archers with me and go out to thin the approaching army of imps."
The commander nods with a serious. "Everyone prepare, the enemy will soon be upon us."
Chris runs out to face the incoming horde of imps. The archers are not far behind. The archers start firing and imps are falling left and right. Chris knows that the imps aren't too strong and the hail of arrows has given him an idea. He conjures a large mass of energy, but instead of forming an orb, he splits it into a dozen energy arrows. He then raises them up into the air and sends them off. The arrows do their job and multiple imps fall with just one attack. "I still have a lot to try out with this energy crafting. I should take this opportunity to experiment.", Chris says to himself.
The imps are closing in and the archers are already starting to back away. Chris channels again, this time he forms the energy into one hundred bullets and sends them off with a strong force. The entire first row of imps is immediately annihilated by Chris' bullet rain.
War drums are heard in the distance and twelve imp commanders come running from a distance and there are still around a hundred regular imps to deal with. However, with Chris' seemingly infinite mana and the potential of the energy crafting, he isn't deterred. He channels again and sends forth another bullet rain. Most imps fall and the rest start to run away.
The twelve imp commanders are coming into range. Chris conjures three large javelins and throws them, using his magic not his hands, at the imp commander in the lead. The imp commander is impaled and stops in his tracks. Chris is very pleased with himself and starts to feel like this battle will be over quickly.
Yet again, war drums are heard in the distance and two large demon fireballs soar through the skies and crash down inside the village. "This is not good, the others will be in danger and I am still busy with the frontal assault.", Chris thinks to himself. He sends forth another volley of javelins and takes out another imp commander, then he rushes back to the village.
The commander of the main unit comes to meet him. "The special unit and the swordsmen went to take care of the demons coming out from the demon fireballs, but they will probably need assistance. You should go and help them. We will hold off the frontal assault until you come back."
Chris runs into the village, he finds several imps along the way and quickly slashes them with his longsword. "No time to waste!", he thinks to himself.
Then he finds the special unit facing an imp commander on one side and the swordsmen facing another on the other side. They are all struggling to not get hit and aren't able to inflict any significant damage. Chris conjures four energy javelins and sends two of them at each of the imp commanders. The imp commanders are impaled and die on the spot.
Everyone cheers, but then the war drums are heard again. Chris looks up at the watchtower and they are pointing to the walls at the South of the village. "You should reinforce the village entrance. I will check on the walls to the South.", Chris shouts to the special unit and swordsmen.
Chris gets to the South walls and can hear the sound of an army trying to chop and claw their way in. He feels stressed by the fact that he doesn't know how the defense at the entrance is holding up.
Chris decides to conjure a huge fireball and blast through the walls in order to get to the enemy. He conjures a huge fireball and sends it forth toward the walls. The walls are blown away with great force. On the other side, he finds an army of skeletons, armed with old weapons. It seems that he managed to take out a large portion of their army along with the walls.
Just as Chris sends forth another, but smaller, fireball it is struck by a dark orb. He looks out and spots a Lich leading the skeleton army. The skeletons are starting to pour in through the hole in the walls. Chris conjures another huge fireball and sends it forth. It is aimed at the Lich in the back, but it should also take out plenty of skeletons along its way. Lots of skeletons are burned by the fireball, but the Lich sends out an icy shockwave and the fireball explodes against a wall of ice.
"There aren't many skeletons left, but the Lich is a far greater threat than an army of skeletons. Especially since it can summon skeletons to its side.", Chris thought to himself.
The Lich sends forth a dark orb that widens the gap in the wall. Oddly enough, the skeletons are now just standing there in the gap. Then, Chris realizes that they are covering the Lich which seems to be channeling a massive amount of energy.
Chris quickly thinks of a way to stop the Lich. He takes some time and begins to conjure five large javelins, but then the skeletons charge at him. He has only managed to conjure three javelins so far. He puts them down and conjures three small fireballs instead and sends them to stop the charging skeletons.
Fortunately, the Lich hasn't finished channeling yet, Chris quickly conjures two more javelins and sends all five of them toward the Lich with great force. The Lich manages to dodge the first and the second, but not the three last. It is pinned to the ground and its channeling has been interrupted.
Chris quickly conjures a fairly large fireball and chucks it at the Lich. The Lich counters it with a dark orb, only to notice that Chris had sent another just after it. The second fireball connects and the Lich is destroyed. The few remaining skeletons crumble with their master.
"Finally!", Chris shouts and starts running to the battle at the entrance. He is worried for the others and is really hoping that they have managed to hold their ground.
Chris arrives at the village entrance and sighs in relief. Only two imp commanders remain and the villagers are fighting valiantly. The priests are also doing a good job supporting them and the special unit is reinforcing the line whenever it is broken, which it is at times, but not for long. When a villager is knocked back by an imp commander, there are plenty more ready to fill in and whenever there isn't someone from the special unit shows up.
Chris conjures a javelin and sends it flying at the nearest imp commander. It is impaled and then quickly finished off by the others. He does the same to the last imp commander and the villagers cheer loudly.
There is not an enemy left in sight. "Victory is ours!", the main unit commanders proclaims.
Then, just as everyone has felt the wonderful relief of having survived against multiple waves of enemies. They hear the sound of the war drums yet again.
Far in the distance, they see large creatures running toward the at great speed. At first, they can't see what creatures are approaching them. Only that they are big and fast.
A few seconds later, a priest screams in horror, "Werebears!". Werebears are demonic creatures that aren't actually too similar to bears. They are like big, hairy men. More like Gorillas actually, but taller, red, and extremely savage.
The villagers are terrified, but Chris steps out and points toward the spike barriers. "Archers, line up behind the spike barriers. Fire when you are sure to hit, then fall back. Spearmen, hold the line. Swordsmen, help the spearmen. Priests, please pray for the goddess' blessing of strength and endurance. Special unit, help wherever you are needed. I will go out and try to slow them down."
Chris runs out in front of the spike barriers, the werebears are still a minute away from him. He starts conjuring a large number of caltrops and begins covering the ground in them. Then he conjures a large fireball and sends it at the werebear in the lead. The werebear uses its strong arms to shield itself and survives the attack. Chris runs back to the archers. "They are tough, focus your aim on the three in the front."
Chris is counting the werebears, "Three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-three. There are twenty-three of these horrendous creatures." He starts to feel the panic rise up inside. He hasn't felt like this since the wolf.