“Crossbows!” Lev shouted, followed by a hail of fire towards the creatures. The stunned deer men crouched and covered their vitals. The arrows bounced off their horns and tough hides, as they let out a low growl and slowly stood up whilst still shielding themselves.

Lev anticipated the creatures to charge at them once the first volley had hit them, but to his surprise, they remained stationary. Some of them shuffled to the backside of the group, whilst the one in the center stood up. Lev noticed two smaller creatures behind the giant that had thrown a spear at them.

They’re shielding the weak.

“Fast! Shoot another volley!”, Lev ordered.

The crossbow men were fumbling with their crossbows, but before they could aim at the group, they felt magical energy building up inside the creatures’ snouts.

Lev looked at the front row of giants. The smaller ones had closed their eyes and retreated even further away from the front row. One of the front row giants let out a deafening roar as its snout illuminated even brighter.

“I can’t take this anymore!”, one of the goblinoids whispered to himself. He looked towards Lev and made eye contact.

“We need to get out of here Sir! We’ll never survive this!” The goblinoid fell to the ground and screamed in agony as now more creatures’ started roaring. More and more goblinoids started falling to the ground as the sound intensified. Some begged the Gods to save their lives, others clutched their ears and fled the scene.

Lev felt the ringing in his ears intensifying yet again, before coming to a sudden stop. He got up and gazed towards the group of behemoths. The creatures were nowhere to be seen.

Dammit, they must’ve fled deeper into the forest.

But before Lev could order his men to retreat and regroup, the approaching giants’ footsteps rang through the battlefield as they charged towards the first row of soldiers.

The shaman and bogeys of the first row quickly took a battle stance and prepared to defend their position for as long as they could. The other goblinoids could only marvel at the time it took for their bogey compatriots to recover. The darg and goblins followed in the bogey’s pursuit and readied their weapons.

Lev raised his glaive at the approaching deer men. “Soldiers, break formation! Shamans, burn them alive!”

The shaman raised their foci and aimed it towards the first wave of giants. Magical energy built up, orbs orbiting their foci before quickly being discharged at the enemy.

A beam of energy struck one of the deer men, it let out a sickening screech and fell to the ground. It desperately crossed its arms together before regaining its bearing and focussing its attention at the shamans.

“Look out for that one, he’s getting pissed,” one of the shamans jokingly said. The wounded creature’s eyes turned crimson red as it leapt towards the shaman, flying over the wall of dark and goblinoids protecting them.

Once the other creatures had reached the goblinoids, they started chopping away at them. Bone and flesh separated as the creatures’ fury was enacted upon the soldiers.

Another beam of light penetrated one of the assaulting deer men and immobilized it. The red glow in its eyes quickly faded away. The remaining two creatures briefly slowed down, mourning their fallen comrade before returning their attention to the battlefield.

Of the remaining two deer men, one was unarmed while the other wielded a giant club. The unarmed deer man lowered its head and charged deeper into the formation and smashed its weight against the soldiers. It quickly breached the first wall protecting the shaman. Its horns blocked and entangled most of the spears thrown at it.

Four soldiers were thrown in the air, their bodies crumpled into a mess.

The other deer man raised its club high and with a whistling sound it slammed onto an unprepared soldier who couldn’t move out of the way in time. His bones crushed under the club’s weight.

A batch of soldiers charged at the creature, tens of spears stabbed into its hide but to little effect. The creature turned around, and raised its bloody club from the fallen soldier’s remains.

The soldiers tried to disperse, but the creature wouldn’t let them get away. With a savage grin on its face, it smashed its club on the fleeing soldiers, killing them instantly. It let out a sickening squelch before lifting its club again, gazing at the mess of mangled bodies below it. It wasn’t satisfied yet, and looked at the remaining row of soldiers for its next victim.

But before it could attack again, a spear penetrated its right eye. The creature shrieked in pain. With its right eye covered, it searched for the spear’s owner. The blood partially blinded its vision, making it miss a passing bogey until it stabbed its ankles.

“I think you’ve killed enough of my men.” Volker snarled, digging his blade into its other ankle, forcing it to fall on a wall of spears.

Most of the spears pierced the creature’s chest as it tried standing up again.

“Stab it now that it has its guard down!”, Volker ordered before he and a few of the dekastarted mercilessly stabbing at its neck. After their barrage of thrusts, it closed its eyes. The red hue subsided below its eyelids as it gurgled on its blood, drawing its final breath.

Volker looked behind him and saw the remaining creature swinging its club at the shaman line.

“This isn’t over yet, let’s get back in formation!”

Seeing its partner dead on the ground and pierced by spears, the creature’s rage surged. It swung its axe up high above the remaining shamans.

“Disperse!”, Lev shouted as he leapt towards the creature. The creature tried defending itself with the club, but found that he couldn’t move his left arm. It looked around frantically and soon saw its club on the ground. Next to it, its left hand was still clutched around it.

Blood gushed out of the wound’s opening. It moaned and tried to pick up the club with its right hand. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, the soldiers charged at the distressed creature, piercing it with their spears.

Lev jumped towards its remaining arm and his glaive’s cold steel separated it.

The creature fell to its knees, its eyes staring straight in front of it. It saw a wooden contraption aiming at it, but before it could jump away, a burning sensation poured through its chest.

With a javelin now piercing its heart, it fell to the ground, joining the others of its kind.

Lev looked at the creature’s corpse, inspecting its equipment and features.

Looks like we’ll need more ballistas and fire support.