The force was making a forced march. Pagras had no city walls to speak of, so the help was urgently required. Unfortunately, bad news just kept coming as the General and captain would soon learn it. One of the scouts came with the updated report on what to expect. To say they were shocked was an understatement. "Ogres?!" General yelled so loud the entire force heard him. "Damn it! Captain, ride out across the whole of formation and inform them of this." "Yes, Milord." Captain Clancy took the horse he was riding, a present from the Southport's mayor, and rode up and down of the convoy, informing others of what was waiting for them.
The significance of the reveal would come later on battlefield. Normally, the frontline was formed out of closed ranks to ensure the best combat effectiveness. Unfortunately, between their huge size and their wide swing with a club, ogres were basically antithesis to close ranks. So the General chose to inform everyone ahead of time to ensure that the command of breaking up the formation would work.
Despite doing their best to reach the township on time, there was no time to chose the battlefield. After uniting with the Pagras militia, they made their stand just outside the township, next to the Linebeck fishery. The frontline was made on the ground next to the crossroad that led into the city, with footmen in the middle and the militia covering the flanks. The skirmish line and the dwarves barely managed to set up on time when the enemy approached.
The battle initially went according to the plan. The experience against goblins, orcs and wulves was by now good enough that the numbers posed no threat. The Pagras militia, which was positioned on the left, sensed that and started extending their line in belief that it would lead to easier victory. Unfortunately, it was there that the goblinoids finally unveiled their surprise.
Just as the enemy seemed to start faltering, many started noticing that something was wrong. Wounded suddenly lost their wounds and regained their strength. It took minutes for the officers to finally realize just what was happening. What they had mistaken for oddly dressed orcs were in fact their shamans and they were the ones doing the healing. General realized the major problem of that as the Pagras militia started faltering. And then the worst possible thing happened.
The ogres, along with the rest of the attackers, finally reached the battlefield. To everyone's dismay, the initial report of a single ogre was seriously wrong. In fact, there were 3 of them, one of which was already bearing down on the weakened left wing. Ogres might have been very slow, but the orcs delayed the militia's response long enough for the ogre to start attacking the result was immediate with the militiamen flying off like ragdolls.
General had no choice but to order an attack immediately, lest he be forced to deal with both ogres and shamans at the same time. Meanwhile, the Pagras militia was in dire straits, dealing with everything that the enemy threw at them, that it took a miracle for them to be saved from a disaster.
Captain Clancy rushed to their aid. But rather than attacking the orcs, he just threw a bottle at the ogre and the result was immediate. The ogre started becoming an ice sculpture as the ice covered him whole. That trick wouldn't hold him for long, but just as he nearly broke out of it, a shell from the bombard struck its frozen head, splattering the chunk to the frightened militia below and then its body fell. Thankfully, the rest of the force reacted on time. The other two ogres ended up being cooked by the Rain of Fire spell.
In the end, the battlefield after the battle was a mess. Just on the monster side there were 224 goblins, 70 orcs of which 12 were shamans, 32 wulves and 3 ogres. In addition to that, there were 39 dead on the human side, most of which were from the Pagras militia. It was a victory, but it came at a great cost and also essentially confirmed that there was a war ahead of them. These numbers were never recorded for lone bands of monsters. To pretend these were isolated cases was akin to burying their heads into sand.
While the citizens and the force took care of the dead and the monsters, General stood next to the dwarven bombard, thinking about everything has happened so far. He also took a careful look at the weapon that has been saving the lives of his men. The siege bombard was a slow moving artillery designed like a mortar. However, unlike a standard mortar, the bombard had a mechanical system for targeting, which caused a design change. A two-tiered bronze design was used for shock absorption and to avoid the targeting system falling apart.
Then he turned to the scene behind him. The fishing pond belonging to the Linebeck fishery. Famous enough for even the General to know about it, it seemed like an idyllic place. Said to be provided with the water from the underground source connected to the Santaruz River, the clear water provided the illusion of peace. And yet, by just turning around, you could see just how terrible the situation was with the images of bombed out battlefield and monster corpses burning. General knew it was the time to react.
His first action was to return to the township and use his authority for the upcoming war. Using his status as the Royal General, he had conscripted the leftovers of the Pagras militia, assigning them to the Southport Militia Company and essentially promoting Clancy to his second-in-command. In addition, he ordered that the Company be properly outfitted and chose to wait until supplies for this from Southport and Pagras would come.
As the 6th Battalion was already properly outfitted, his next objective was to inspect the mages. While they had gained a lot of fighting experience, they still lacked proper teaching to act as army mages. That was something that General could only arrange at a later date. At the very least, they already showed signs of improvement, being able to use Arcane Shatter and Scorched Earth enchantments. The former was used to break apart armour like on orcs while the latter was used with Rain of Fire, leaving charred earth behind that could kill someone if stepped on it.
Realizing there was little he could do with the archers he then focused on the bombard crew. He was glad to hear from Agate about the praise of his crew. "Yes, it melts my heart to see just how well have they adjusted to their role. They already made modifications to the bombard and the ammo. So we have a bigger range and a bigger boom."
General smiled, but still felt the need to ask. "About those modifications..."
Agate assured him. "Do not worry about the modifications. They are well within safety range. This is just to have us keep with the times."
General knew exactly what he implied. As much as the current siege bombard had assisted them, it was also the older model assigned to newer dwarven crews for training. It would have been easy to replace them once more experienced crews with improved bombards were available. So it was now General that assured Agate. "Don't worry. Just like with the Militia Company, I have no plans to side-line nor replace you. I owe you for that Ogre shot."
"Thank you. Glad to hear that. Although-"
"Yes, yes. I won't just rely on you. More crews will be hired and they shall be placed under your command, Lieutenant." Dwarf's eyes gleamed at his new title as General continued. "Yes, at the current moment it's just a brevet rank. But don't worry. I will push for the commission if anyone tries to hinder it."
The dwarf gave him a bear hug, making some bone crunches. After the General recovered, he then realized there was someone he should visit. "I do wonder how did Clancy pull that off. Do you have any idea?"
Agate shook his head. "No. He told us to focus on it, but I have no idea how did he do that in the first place."
"Alright, I will ask him. Besides, you 2 do have something you should prepare for." Agate was quite glad to hear that, knowing on what exactly the General meant.
Meanwhile, General did wonder if captain Clancy would reveal the source of the ice potion. His doubts were immediately alleviated as Clancy went wholeheartedly into the explanation. "That was Frozotov, a special concoction made by Felineas. I told you he would be worth it."
"And did you hide this to unveil at the right time or were you in the rush to intercept that ogre?"
"The latter. Felineas rushed to make that alchemical cocktail on time."
"I see. Was there any reason on why it recovered so fast?"
"Of course. The cocktail is meant to only hold the enemy in place for a short time, not kill them outright."
"I understand. Alright then. I place you in charge of the recovered crystals. He better keep providing." Clancy nodded and then went to inform Felineas.
While the force waited for further orders, the reorganization and the training continued in the following days. There was one special thing that the General made it mandatory, that being the classes on tactics and monsters. After what the Pagras militia did in the last battle, he knew that this would have to become mandatory. And so, on the first mandatory lesson for the force, everyone, regardless of rank and experience, was present. In hindsight, this also ended up being the last one in which everyone could be present as the force would only go larger in the battles to come.
The lesson that time was led by Agate being conducted in the township's warehouse and he opened up with the big elephant in the room. "After the recent battle, it has been made clear that the assumption about the enemy remaining unchanged for the rest of this war was completely wrong. Now I can't say that we won't have battles with as bad or worse casualties, but I'll be damned before I allow my lessons to be in vain. So I promise to do my best in imparting the knowledge to everyone, both now and in the future. Now, let us start."
He picked up a drawing of orc shaman and placed on the wall. "Orc shamans. Now these boys and girls have caused us a lot of trouble in the last battle and it isn't hard to see why. On surface, these are nothing special, replacing the armour orcs usually use in favour of elaborate tribal costumes and staves instead of cleavers. Unfortunately, while they are weaker in attacking, that sure as hell ain't their purpose. No, as the militia found out, it's healing their own friends."
The entire classroom was silent as Agate continued speaking. "It is highly recommended to try and hunt them out if possible. Either with getting them into melee or by peppering them with arrows from a distance. Yes?" He realized one of bandaged militiamen raised his hand so he had let him speak.
"About the melee part. Now I did manage to get one of them in a fight with me. The trouble was, even when I was that close to him, the shaman still used a heal and removed all of his wounds."
"Oh." Agate realized the implications of his words. "I understand. That means our best bet is to get them killed quickly, either with a good strike or from range. And we especially want them separate from these." He took down the shaman drawing and placed the ogre one. There was a clear outpour of anger at the sight.
Agate continued. "Yes, these big nasty things. I think we all share anger against them after what they just pulled and no one will deny when I call them huge. Still, we gotta discuss about them. Ugly as the lunch you puked out and just as smelly, these have been quite a pain to deal with. Thankfully, they aren't as fast as other stuff, so they will take their time arriving at the battlefield. Another good thing is that they are so big, they never wear armour so feel free to shoot at them at your leisure."
One of the militiamen asked. "Anything we can do about them or are we just going to pray we can deal with them before they wreck us?"
Agate sighed. "When ordered to go into loose formation, do it without a question. We don't have a bugler, so try to obey the orders as it is given. Unfortunately, at the present time, without risking friendly fire, there is little else we could do." The mood remained down for the rest of the class. It was clear this ad hoc force wasn't enough to deal with everything.