The soldiers and adventurers slowly started to wake up, a grim look was seen on all. They knew that today was judgement day. The lower level soldiers and those that were inexperienced trembled slightly, for those that were high leveled and this was their maiden battle they were even worse off. Some of them were muttering and Jace even spotted a few who were already softly crying. Some soldiers puked out their nerves, the veterans were going around consoling those they could. Adventurers were pale-faced and regretted their decision to join. Jace rolled his shoulders and looked over at his own guys.

Florian was pale but had a determined look in his eyes. Gerald was nervous and wringing his hands, he kept wiping his hands on his trousers. Qyra was sitting on Weira’s lap and let Weira hold her. Weira was whispering something in her ears and was trying to calm the young girl down. Plip was fingering his bow but looked otherwise calm. Hirki was simply sharpening her sword with a small smile on her face, obviously looking forward to the battle.

Jace pondered on what to say, he was never one for speeches and in the end he took a deep breath and looked over them.

“Trust my training, trust each other. Stay alive.” He looked each of them in the eyes, “Those will be my last orders to you.”

He looked around and saw that the other forces were getting up and were ready to move. “Let’s go. We have a war to fight.”

He saw some hesitant movement from them as he turned around. Eventually they became more sure in their actions as they moved on habit. They packed up and prepared their packs. Most of the heavier camping equipment, such as cooking utensils would be left here along with the tents. It would only be unnecessary weight when in combat, since they were expecting drawn out combat they got rid of everything that wasn’t needed for combat. Excluding what little rations they had left, those were split amongst the warriors for the small periods of rest during the fighting.

Jace joined the elite knights in the second rank, Weira and the rest of her team joined the closest group of adventurers, just behind the elves. Jace rolled his shoulders and adjusted his armour a little. Elle walked up next to him with a small smile, “How are your rookies taking it?”

Jace smirked, “Considering the state we are in pretty well, none of them were puking or crying so I will count that as a win.”

“How old is the youngest?” She asked.

Jace frowned and then sighed deeply, “He’s barely fifteen. The other girl is barely sixteen. They never should have come on the expedition. As well trained as they are now they are but kids.”

Elle shrugged with a sad look on her face, “These things happen. No one knew what would happen before hand, the plan originally was to have the rookies gain some experience before we sent em back or made them part of the supply line.”

Jace chuckled softly, “And boy were we wrong about that, now the rookies are in the most danger.”

Edgard grunted, “We’ll just have to do our best to keep em alive, can’t do much more than that. They fight or they die, they will have to learn the hard way.”

Jace nodded, “If they survive they will make for some really scary veterans.”

Edgard nodded, then muttered barely audible. “IF they survive.”

The veterans who were listening in on the conversation quieted down, each of them knew of the stakes. The knights checked each others equipment one last time before they started marching. Few people talked during the march, their attention focused on the tunnel ahead. Hands near their weapons, if they weren’t in their hands already. Any moment now they could run into the enemy, scouts had been sent out but not as far ahead as before, if they ran into any opposition they would barely have a few seconds before the enemy followed.

And hour passed in quiet march, then another hour. Soon a few of the scouts came back but not in any particular hurry, there was a humongous open cavern ahead. It could easily fit the entire army, Jace frowned and put a hand on the hilt of his sword. He looked over at Elle who nodded, Gerald grunted and put a hand on his own weapon. Jace let loose a deep breath, he was sure that the dravu would attack once they entered the open cavern. It would allow them to make full use of their superior numbers, even if it gave their mages room to use their magic.

If the dravu wanted to fight instead of string them along, then this would be the spot to do it. Jace knew it, the veterans knew it and the marshal knew it. The army tightened up their formation. Mages were put into the middle of the square, regardless of their affiliation. Heavier forces on the outside, with the lighter armoured warriors between them and the mages. Jace was once again near the front of the line, he moved forward with the rest of the knights and they entered the cavern. It was a massive chamber, easily five kilometers in diameter. The army rushed to the middle and set up their defences, the earth mages started to get to work when one of them suddenly shouted in panic.

“We can’t reach the earth! Something is blocking our magic, it’s hard to control the stone!”

Warriors cursed and everyone drew their weapons. There would be no stone magic created walls for them today. Suddenly a thrum of sound spread throughout the cavern, a dull vibration felt through the stone.

“We have incoming!” One of the scouts shouted as he shot out of a tunnel in full sprint, moving much faster than any human should be able to.

The warriors readied their shields, suddenly out of the other three tunnels, including the one they just left. Other scouts sprinted out and yelled warnings about incoming enemy forces. The warriors cursed and focused on their weapons, one of the dwarven officers smashed his shield and yelled. “Düz Thrüz!”

The other dwarven warriors screamed the two words at the top of their lungs. They made it a chant, everyone started to pick it up, even those like Jace who had no idea what the words meant. Jace knew what the dwarven officer was planning, make people shout as one. It was a boost for moral and kept their minds of the waiting process. The heavy thrum increased as the dravu drew near. Then Jace saw it, the horde.

They spilled out of the tunnels in piles, clawing over each other as they rushed forward like a tidal wave. The dwarven warriors which formed the outer ranks of the squares lined up as the officers screamed a command. They locked shields with each other well crafted enchantments linked up and created a magical barrier that was used as a focal point for the mages to create a dome. Preventing the dravu from rushing over the frontline and hitting the more vulnerable warriors.

The horde of dravu screeched as they tore through the earth in their charge towards the army, their black chitinous shells shimmering in the reflected light from the mage lights. Jace readied himself and sent his bloodshields out towards the dwarves, other defensive spells joined his, causing the dwarves to glimmer under a layer of protective spells, then the horde hit, crashing into the protective dome with enough force to cause the dwarven warriors to twitch, despite the enchantment.

Mages started throwing spells liberally into the horde, there was no need to aim, they couldn’t miss even if they wanted to. The dravu started climbing over each other and kept pushing higher and higher unto the dome. An officer was screaming to his group of earth mages, desperately trying to raise a platform so they wouldn’t be overrun. Jace kept his eyes on the horde and sent forth spears of blood to attack the dravu, blood rained down on the army, Jace used all of it to his advantage, other watermages utilised the water in the blood to turn them into weapons of their own.

Jace felt the earth beneath his feet start to rumble as the earth mages used everything they had to lift the army on a platform, the other mages started focusing those on top of the dome and blasting them back down to the floor as the platform slowly raised. Jace breathed a sigh of relief as he started to be able to see the ceiling again. He glanced behind him briefly, looking over at Carmine that was curled around Weira and her team. Qyra and Weira were throwing spells into the horde, while Plip was saving his arrows.

A brief respite was all they were granted by the raising of the platform before the horde started clawing their way up, in the distance Jace saw the stronger and larger dravu starting to show up, his arms were throwing spears but his mind was focusing on the battle around him and their odds. They were fucked, he realised bluntly. They were at a disadvantage, despite the commanders best efforts the soldiers were tired, hungry even. The near endless amount of dravu thrown at them did not help matters, it was only a matter of time till the barrier broke and casualties started piling up. He glanced around as the geomancers started conjuring up defensive emplacements, walls and towers of improvised and magically hardened stone.

The dwarves kept their shields locked as they were raised higher and stood on the walls, their apparent calm soothing the frayed nerves of the greener warriors. Mages were rushing around and placing wards, glyphs and enchantments wherever they could to solidify the defenses. A screech shook Jace out of his thoughts as he glanced towards the caves, the dravu the size of a small hill had started appearing, the lumbering behemoths an unwelcome sight indeed.

Sudden panicked screaming behind him worried him as he quickly turned around, the mages who were in charge of the platform started rushing around with pale faces. Even from this far away Jace could see how panicked they were, he listened closely. One of the mages screamed to the others, “Something’s tearing apart our magic! THE PLATFORM! Keep pushing! IF WE FAIL WE ALL DIE!”

Jace felt the stone he stood on shift, the next moment he nearly lost his balance as the stone beneath his right foot disappeared. He quickly regained his balance and then froze. “Fuck…”

The platform tower that the mages had put together exploded, sending the troops flying in all directions. The mages with the fastest reflexes reached out to those around them and shielded them from the blast. Despite their best efforts all the groups were sent in a different direction, Jace barely managed to erect a bloody dome around those around him when he felt himself being blasted through the air. He almost lost control when he was suddenly jerked into another direction mid-air. He saw nothing but crimson as he pulled the people around him closer and made the blood denser. He felt them crash into the ground and after giving those with him a moment to get their bearings, he dropped the dome. The scene around him almost sent him into a cursing frenzy.

They were surrounded and the monsters were closing in, he took in everything around him. In a brief moment he assessed his situation, he’d been able to grab around fourty with his dome. Other than Elle and Edgard he knew none of them, he’d barely been able to reach four of the dwarves. He could feel that Carmine was still alive. Which probably meant Weira and the others were fine. Then his instinct took over. “Mages and lights in the middle! Heavies on the outside. MOVE OR DIE!”

The well trained soldiers moved quickly, and got into a somewhat circular formation, they were lucky and had managed to nab one of the healers, the other was some kind of fire oriented mage. He had eight elves in his group, four dwarves, twenty-four knights and one group of adventurers. Who seemed to be magic based, both the healer and the fire mage were with them. The other three were heavies, Jace looked at those heavies and told them to protect their mages. He formed the rest into a quick square, two elves pointed at each side and a dwarf in every corner. The knights formed a line six on every side, he kept himself in the middle and focused on using his blood.

The dravu had nearly reached them, Jace took a deep breath and called out to the troops. “Steady. We will survive this, keep your calm.” And then the waves of monsters were upon them.