[I think you’ve been infected with a neurotoxin.] Page informed me. I raised an eyebrow, it picked the most interesting times to tell me these things.

“We’ve corresponded with the garrison within the castle, and they’ve been coordinating with us, which means we have a finalized plan now.” Azarint addressed the group from his position up a slope. He began painting the broad strokes.

[That numbness you felt last time was because of it. Can you try swinging your arm hard a little bit?] Page said, its voice urgent. I raised an eyebrow, and tried it, keeping an ear on the conversation, however difficult it was with Page’s voice in my head.

I blinked, my arm had swung, but the acceleration... It’s too slow. I thought to myself, and I found myself frowning. How long will it take for it to heal? There was a small pause for a moment, as Page seemed to process something almost akin to shock.

[It’ll only take an hour or so to fully restructure the nerves.] It replied. [But there’s a more important implication here. Can’t you see it?] Page asked, pausing for a moment before ploughing on. [They have a neurotoxin potent enough to cause so much damage even with the nanomachines at work. I’m still on the fence as to whether you’d die from botulin or tetanus, but your nanomachines are not trivial things. What happens if the other gnolls have it?]

I blinked. I hadn’t thought of that… What the hell is wrong with me? I thought. I doubt It’s something the common grunts had, if they did I would have come across it sooner. Page agreed with me, it was likely something for the general’s bodyguards, and perhaps the generals themselves as well.

I hesitated as I thought this, did I interrupt now, during his explanation of a plan he’d just finalized? I decided against it, listening through the rest of the explanation as I did so, somewhat lost now thanks to the thought train I’d just disembarked.

I quickly went to find him as conversation began to erupt among the audience, gearing themselves for war. He heard me approach as he entered his tent, and turned to me, head cocked inquisitively. I explained as quickly as I could, omitting the details about nanomachines, and Page.

He listened quietly, sitting across me within the tent. Now that I thought about it I hadn’t set one up, but I guess it really didn’t matter much. We had an hour or so until we set out, under the helm, I restrained my train of thoughts with some difficulty.

“I see, considering that Frejr didn’t get it, even though she fought the same enemies, you believe it’s a venom instead of a poison.” He said to himself, thinking. “So the assault on any generals would have to be made with plate armoured combatants.” His fingers interlocked before him, leaning his elbows against the table. “I’ll see what I can do, but you should know that we don’t have a lot of combatants with full plate.” I nodded, but it was better than nothing at least.

“I’ll get some volunteer groups together, and perhaps set up a few contingencies. It’s not possible for me to pass this along to the garrison within Torven.” He said, his eyes closing for a moment. “Thank you for the information, you should prepare, we will need everyone’s strength for the next phase.” He stood to leave, and I followed suit, flexing my arm when I knew he wasn’t looking.

Some strength had definitely returned to it, enough to fight somewhat properly. I returned to where Numen, Qent, Lapi and Frejr were. While they maintained their weapons and checked their armour I drew my sword, we’d left the gnoll blades behind a while ago. I gave it a few practice swings, and winced, my swings were a little wide. I shifted my grip, trying to get more control, and swung again. Not much change. Dammit.

“Your blows are off target, what happened?” Frejr’s voice came from my left shoulder. I closed my eyes, invisible beneath the helm itself. This’ll be fun. I explained the neurotoxin, and how long I’d be out of commission. No point in lying about it, she’s already noticed my blunders. She seemed to consider for a moment. “Tell me honestly, do you believe you can fight in your condition?”

I clicked my tongue, considering the idea. “Yes, I can. It won’t take long for me to reach full functionality, and the early stage if I recall is going to be a ‘surprise’.” I said, vaguely recollecting something along those lines, I wonder if I ought to refresh with Numen later, or perhaps one of the other irregulars. A lack of preparation and understanding would doom me.

Frejr didn’t contest the matter, simply turning back to sit and deal with her gear. Huh. I thought, and walked over to Numen, who gave me a withering glance as I inquired about the plan, though my defence softened the blow, somewhat. He quickly ran through it, though he skipped over the parts I wasn’t really involved in, since he had his own preparations to make.

We were split into two groups, the group I was involved in would be one of the initial groups to surprise our opponents, it was comprised of light shock troops. We would charge in, inflict as many casualties as we could and fade away before their mages got their act together. Unlike the fight I’d been involved in we didn’t have the luxury of constantly whittling down mage numbers to nothingness and instilling terror among them from our targeted harassment.

I settled down, polishing my sword and ensuring that there were no nicks nor any warping on the edges. Meticulous maintenance of a sword blade was a battlefield constant. Unlike the pieces that are created in the modern era the alloys used in these metals more prone to corrosion, though perhaps they also held an edge for longer. I finished it quickly, silently thanking my captain for the his tutelage.

We assembled soon after, split into groups, Frejr and Qent separated from Numen and I. Numen was at the back of our group of twenty-four. I was one of those at the front, leading alongside Ponc, with Leethe close behind me. We moved with what could be generously called stealth through the forest, a few of the other scouts and rogues having taken the initiative to secure our point of entry.

We waited, a few signals passed between our groups, to ensure we were all in place. Then we began our charge, I guided my blade with my left hand, piercing it into the gnoll’s neck. I didn’t engage the shield, for the next ten minutes at least it would be more prudent for me to help control my sword with the currently free hand.

My sword glided quickly between foes, as we pushed into our opponents. The horn sounded, and we began to retreat, I stepped sideways to intercept one of the chasing fighters. He swung his mace, and I deflected it with my bracer, wincing at the pain as it struck my arm. Another raised their arm, and my blade intercepted his wrist, keeping him from bringing it down as my dagger found his throat. Good, my control was back, better late than never I guess.

We held the line for a moment, allowing the bulk of the group to disappear, and retreated. As I turned to run I saw several of our own on the ground. I cursed, but didn’t stop for them, I couldn’t do anything for them now. I nearly tripped as one tried to grab me, pushing myself back up as I continued to run. Several screams came from behind me, though a few of the fallen had chosen to make their final stand as well, adding the pained howls of gnolls instead of their own.

The garrison had made note of our distraction, our opponents had roughly two seconds to blanch at the sound of thundering hooves. The cavalry struck from the side, originally hidden by a hill rise off the distance of the gnolls themselves. Bypassing the defensive stakes laid down by the army, they ploughed through the ranks. A small distraction followed by a bigger one. Though if they thought that was the final surprise they were in for a nasty followup.

The infantry marched from the gates, breaking into an orderly rush as they left the gates, a few archers laid down arrows onto the infantry, but it was haphazard and disorderly. As our second group formed up and began to assault them though, a rallying cry came from the gnolls, and somehow, order reasserted itself. From my perch on the trees, I saw their formations lock together.

This wasn’t a good development. We had cornered a total of two hundred, but they needed to die quickly so we could have a breather before the other two hundred rallied. Is this part of the plan? I thought, somewhat distraught. I willed myself to focus, the next part of our plan was to wreck havoc among the second group. For that, we’d need to use the mages that had been resting here.

Below, the mages had already begun to rally, I saw flames spread out as gusts of wind pushed soldiers away from the lines. Several flashes indicated lightning, in the magical plane it was a resplendent maelstrom of swirling colours. I stopped Delving, the lights hurting my head instead of my eyes. Page had occasionally speculated that I wasn’t really shifting sight when I did so.

“It’s time, let’s go!” Leethe shouted, taking point, she was a scout, mostly involved in the assassination of the gnolls that had been watching where we were. She directed our actions without dissent from the group, though not fit for leading from the front. The point man for the activity was a spearman, whose name I hadn’t had time to learn.

Several mages joined our ranks, and we hastened our movement, the cacophony of combat easily masking our advance upon the unit from the side. The mages acted quickly, lobbing several balls of flame amongst the front lines, we braced ourselves, me hiding behind my shield as an explosion sounded, and I went through the flames, engaging them. I shuddered as a chill fell across the group, though I coped better than the gnolls, who were disoriented enough for me to quickly cut them down.

The armour is very bloody useful. I thought, as the others joined me, a token force stayed back, defending the mages as a magical battle began to erupt over us. A second group of cavalry, thirty strong, slightly larger than the first, disoriented them with a charge opposite to where we were. Several more fell as they turned to view the commotion.

I stepped to the right, taking the place of one of the fallen, I snarled, I’d caught a few direct blows to my person, most of them were using maces, clubs and warhammers. They’d been prepared for an armoured battle, I coughed for a moment, unsure if I’d just expelled blood. I stepped forward to intercept a blow before it began. Our group was unused to this kind of combat. A swordsman sidestepped a blow, and I snarled, pulling the one between us aside before the mace could strike them instead. A word of thanks was whispered, and they returned to the fray. What’s my situation?

[You are still at peak.] Page replied. [You’ll be in much pain over the next few days thanks to bruising, but you’re not suffering any ill effects, no sign of the poison thus far.]

Occasionally I Delved into the magic plane, tracing the flow of magic and directing those nearby away from the gouts flames and bullets of water. Lightning travelled too fast, when I noticed it, I could only watch. Ironically those with metal linking across their bodies were least affected, the electricity simply grounding out from the chainmail to their greaves. We need backup.