But therein lay our chance.
At present, I was huddled in the riverside headquarters tent with Konrad, Keralt, Sérignan, and Lysa.
“The enemy was foolish enough to split up its forces. This means we can try to take them out one by one,” I said.
“They launched an invasion to stop us from crossing the Phros ourselves, and to do that, they spread their troops quite thin. That means that each individual point is only lightly defended. By contrast, our forces are consolidated here, so we can pick them apart. I think that’s our only chance of winning.”
In this operation to invade via the Phros, Nyrnal had only concentrated their lindwyrms when they initially crossed, then spread them out to expand the size of their front. This meant we didn’t have to deal with a hundred lindwyrms at once, which was good news, to say the least.
“Let’s start by hitting the units at the edges of their formation, since those are less likely to receive support,” I said. “We’ll have the Worker Swarms build walls as well. After that, when the lindwyrms charge the walls, we’ll use Carrion Cannons and Toxic Swarms to weaken them with poison. This should allow the mercenaries, Sérignan, Lysa, and the Swarms to take them out. Honestly, I’m not sure if we can even win this battle. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
I looked around everyone present. They all nodded. Apparently, they had my trust.
“What will the Adventurers’ Guild do?” I asked Keralt.
“We’d like to help the mercenaries and serve as scouts,” she replied. “If my assumptions are correct, the enemy might just retreat.”
They might indeed. It was a strange conclusion, given they’d brought a hundred lindwyrms to the fold, but there was a method to her madness.
“All right, everyone. Let us begin. The operation will commence as soon as the Worker Swarms finish building their walls. Take them out carefully, one by one. Don’t go overboard, though. We’re in this for the long haul. Every person we lose will impact our chances.”
“You got it. As you wish, Yer Majesty,” Konrad said with a hearty grin.
With that, our counteroffensive was ready to launch. Would we be the victors in this battle...?
♱
“The first one got caught up in our walls! Our ranged units are hitting it now!”
Thirty minutes after our attack began, the first lindwyrm was drawn to the walls. It tried to bust through, but the Carrion Cannons and Toxic Swarms poisoned it, wearing down its defense.
“Sérignan, take it out!” I ordered.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
At my order, Sérignan jumped over the walls and lunged at the lindwyrm. Those creatures were so massive, they made Sérignan look like a child by comparison. Despite their size difference, she challenged her opponent with an iron will.
“Haaah!”
Swinging her black, corrupted holy sword, Sérignan tore through the lindwyrm’s sturdy scales and slashed its flesh. The lindwyrm howled in agony and twisted its body in an attempt to shake her off.
“Your resistance is futile, serpent!”
Sérignan spewed a thread from her tail, slowing down the lindwyrm’s movements. It choked the lindwyrm, trapping it in place and exposing it to more of the Toxic Swarms’ stingers. She struck it with blow after blow the whole time.
“Groooar!”
The lindwyrm roared and thrashed its head violently, smashing Sérignan into the ground. For a second, I went pale, fearing that might have killed her, but I could still feel her will in the collective consciousness.
“Sérignan! Tch! Lysa, cover for her!”
“Right, Your Majesty!”
As the lindwyrm moved in to stomp on Sérignan with its powerful legs, Lysa shot at it with her bow. Her bolt pierced one of the lindwyrm’s eyes, prompting it to scream and shake its head in agony.
“Keep it up, Lysa!” I called out and then looked over at Sérignan. “Can you still fight, Sérignan?!”
“I can keep going!” Sérignan replied, rising to her feet.
She then fired her threads again, binding the reptilian’s legs and yanking the lindwyrm off-balance. It wasn’t enough to defeat the creature, however. If we could at least get it to completely topple over, we could deal some major damage!
“It’s our turn, boys!”
That was when Konrad appeared with his mercenaries. They scaled the walls and hurried over to Sérignan’s side.
“Come on, men, pull!”
Konrad and his men grabbed Sérignan’s thread and began pulling it with all their strength, attempting to drag the lindwyrm into falling over. Sérignan alone wasn’t strong enough to completely tow the giant lizard’s weight, but perhaps their combined efforts would topple it! I narrowed my eyes, desperately hoping.
“It’s falling over!”
They’d done it! By pulling on Sérignan’s thread, they were able to bring the monster down to the ground. I could feel the rumble of its heavy form hitting the ground from afar. The lindwyrm let out a dull howl, its giant body jerking around on the soil.
“Now!” I ordered.
“Now’s the time!” Sérignan’s voice intersected with mine as she bolted toward the prone reptilian.
The lindwyrm kicked its feet in an attempt to resist, but Sérignan jumped over it and thrust her black blade into its flank. Blood spurted out, staining Sérignan’s pale armor crimson.
“Keep going, Sérignan!”
She desperately swung at it time and time and time again, hellbent on tearing apart the monster several times her size.
“Lysa! Keep covering for her! Don’t stop shooting, but make sure you don’t hit Sérignan!”
“Understood! I’ll kill this thing, no matter what!”
Lysa kept shooting arrows laced with a paralyzing poison to stop it from moving. And it seemed the poison was starting to kick in, because its movements were becoming sluggish.
“Groooaaar!”
Even as it endured the poison, the lindwyrm howled and tried to get back to its feet, swinging its tail to sweep away the attackers swarming it, including Sérignan. Her body went flying, but she spun in midair and held up her longsword without breaking her stance.
“Are you okay?!” I asked her.
“I am fine! I can still do this! We’re almost done!”
Right, just a little more. Just a bit more and it would die! Between the Toxic Swarms’ venom, the Carrion Cannons’ decay, Lysa’s paralyzing poison, and Sérignan’s persistent attacks, it should keel over at any second now. We’d be in trouble if it didn’t... This was just the first one!
“Haaaah!”
Sérignan stabbed her blade into the lindwyrm’s throat and shoved it as deep as she could.
“Grrrgh...”
With that final, faint gurgling sound, the lindwyrm stopped moving.
“Great! Good work, everyone. That’s one down. There’s still a lot of them left, but we can beat them!”
“Understood, Your Majesty!” Sérignan replied.
Could she really do it, though? Beating just one of them took this much effort, and there were still ninety-nine of them left. Regardless, we had no other choice. If we let the Empire through, Khalkha would be in trouble, as would every city along the way.
“Konrad! The second one’s trying to break through! Can you help?!”
“Sure can! Leave it to me!”
I was already using the Ripper Swarms to scout ahead, and the second lindwyrm was attacking the walls. The walls were built on an angle, and he was breaking through them one by one.
“Get the second one! We’ll be in trouble if you don’t hurry!”
Hurry up, hurry up! We don’t have time!
The lindwyrm army was closing in on us, and we only defeated one so far. Considering what was to come, we’d have to defeat at least seventy of them if we wanted to quash the invasion. In other words, we had sixty-nine more of those lizards to go.
Their invading army was absurdly large. But we still had to defeat them. I’d promised the Swarm victory, after all!
♱